2 motorcycle convoys are headed for Ottawa. One worries it will be mistaken for the other
CBC News
Avanthika Anand
Posted: Aug 05, 2023
The Rolling Barrage motorcycle rally, pictured in St. John's, N.L. where it kicked off this year's event on Aug 1. (Submitted by Scott Casey)
As two motorcycle convoys descend on Ottawa, the organizer behind one rally worries it may be mistaken for the other.
On and off for the last seven years, the Rolling Barrage cross-country motorcycle ride has come to the National Capital Region to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among military veterans.
This year, the ride's organizer Scott Casey said he's worried another motorcycle convoy might distract from his campaign.
The Rolling Barrage is expected to pull into Ottawa on Wednesday. When it does, Casey is concerned his riders may be mistaken for the Rolling Thunder motorcycle convoy, a group whose origin can be traced back to the self-described "Freedom Convoy" that occupied downtown Ottawa in the winter of 2022.
Rolling Thunder arrived in Ottawa Saturday, just days before Casey and his group.
"I honestly don't know what their mission is," Casey said. "Whatever they have planned... that serves absolutely no purpose to us whatsoever."
Upon returning from that tour, one of Casey's close colleagues died by suicide. That tragedy became the catalyst for starting The Rolling Barrage PTSD Foundation in 2016.
One year later, Casey launched the namesake ride, "for combat veterans and first responders, [to] specifically create peer support right across the country for those people and their families."
"PTSD and operational stress injury is essentially a moral injury. It can be treated, and it's a matter of finding the right piece of the puzzle that works for you," Casey said. "It's just a different injury. So it was important for me to be able to raise awareness [around] that." read more here
What the hell is going on, or more to the point, why is it still going on? How many groups need to begin because of yet one more suicide that didn't need to happen? How many more need to "raise awareness" about #PTSD before they themselves become aware of what works instead of what they want to do based on abysmal limited knowledge of what works?
Yes, they understand the suffering especially if they suffer from PTSD. Yes, they know that it helps to stop isolating and be around people again. What they haven't become aware of is the simple fact that veterans and all those hit by PTSD because of their jobs need to learn the most important lessons of all.
The first one is millions of survivors join the PTSD club no one wants to belong to every year from surviving as a civilian and most of the time, all it takes is one time to do it. How many times do they face trauma on their jobs? Once they learn how prevalent PTSD is, they begin to understand that no amount of training can turn them into machines able to withstand what PTSD does. No matter how much training they are given, how brave, dedicated and tough they are, they are just human after all.
The second one is that they may not be cured but they can heal and more often than not, they can become a better person than they ever imagined when they do heal. Why? Because they turn around and help others heal too and that spreads a lot faster than bad news.
How about all these groups decide it is time to spread something veterans can find hope in instead of reminding them about how others took their own lives because they didn't find hope to help them stay alive one more day?
ENOUGH OF THE BS THAT DOES NOT WORK! Raise awareness THEY CAN HEAL PTSD!
Of all the things I would want people to share, it would not be about "suicide awareness" because I find it repulsive. Raising awareness that veterans are killing themselves, only spreads the heartache, reminding them of all the others who gave up. Not that any of these groups has the slightest clue what the true number is, or any of the data, or any of the facts that does save lives. What makes it worse is, they have no problem stealing something that belongs to someone else!
Today I found one of my images used to promote We Are the 22 on facebook. I did a post back in 2013. It was the oldest one I could find.
This is the link to the post I did back in 2013! I've been doing this work since 1982! I had to look them up online and discovered how much publicity they are getting. They are making money, which I never cared about in all these years. You would think they could afford to come up with things on their own or at least respect my work enough to ask if they could use it.
I am so tired of this happening!
UPDATE
I was just on their Facebook page where they have used this many times and found even more!
They used this slogan over and over again!
here is the link to my post from 2016, and yes, I messed up typing the date but have the Google Search result below.
They actually used this one when the post I did was attacking all the groups doing suicide awareness!
Sky Attack Comics sums up suicide awareness stunts perfectly
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 26, 2020
The evidence is in! Stunts to "raise awareness" veterans are killing themselves spreads pain...not healing! I have grown weary of fighting these people who spent more time raising money and getting fame, instead of actually learning anything to change the outcome.
This morning a cartoon gave me back hope that people are paying attention! Sky Attack Comics produced it! It shows a veteran getting ready to do 22 pushups but his phone rings. On the other end is another veteran he served with, reaching out to him for help with a gun in his hand. He was too busy getting ready to do what he wanted to do. PERFECTION!
If you hate it when I rant...you won't like this one! My anger is directed toward all the people out there participating in spreading the lie that 22 veterans a day commit suicide. If you are one of them, doing your pushups, thinking that you are helping, you are not. You may feel good about doing it, but the only people you are helping are the ones collecting the money you raise for them!
I have been fighting that ear worm since the report came out and it is time for more people to do whatever it takes to stop this bullshit! The known cases have gone up since suicide awareness started. It has only made them aware of other veterans giving up when they need to be made aware that their lives can be a hell of a lot better than they are aware of!
YORK, Maine — The York Police Department has entered a challenge to complete 22 push-ups for 22 days to bring awareness to veteran and law enforcement suicides.
An estimated 22 veterans die by suicide each day, according to a 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. That has given rise to a national movement to bring awareness to veteran suicide and those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
York residents are encouraged to film themselves and participate in the push-up challenge using the hashtag #22yorkmaine on social media, according to the department’s Facebook page
Good motives do not replace good results. If the did then you would not be seeing an increase in suicides among law enforcement, but none of you are doing pushups for your own house!
Police Officer Suicide Facts
At least 228 police officers died by suicide in 2019, Blue H.E.L.P. says. That's more than were killed in the line of duty. USA Today
I have a list of names on this site because they were not just numbers. Officers doing pushups for a fictitious number of veterans committing suicide does not make sense when their own numbers have been going up. How many more officers have to take their own lives in the parking lots of Police stations before you guys wake up?
What will it take for you to grasp the fact that if you #BreakTheSilence about your own pain, you will help them? What if instead of hearing how many others have committed suicide, you turned it around and told them #TakeBackYourLife so that they would want to fight to heal instead of not trusting you to listen to them? They trust you with their lives on the job but they cannot trust you with their pain? WTF?
Any idea of the fact that the people who started all this push up bullshit just decided one day to "do something" about it without finding out what needed to be done? MY GOD! I did the first report on veterans committing suicide back in 2007!
I admire police officers because there are many times you have saved my life! I survived traumatic events that could have killed me 10 times and most of the time, you guys saved me. It breaks my heart to see so many of you take your own lives because of the jobs you have but when there is still this massive failure going on when it comes to saving the people you risk your lives with, there is no excuse. It is even more infuriating to see all of you participating in this stunt that has been a failure and spreads pain.
If you really want to make a difference, learn some facts and then support the groups doing what they can to actually PREVENT SUICIDES!
When veterans decide to take their own lives, there is a much bigger problem this country has, than most are aware off. There was a time when it was necessary to put all the reports together so that people would do something about it. That time arrived on Wounded Times in 2007. Why isn't the press on suicide watch was viewed over 9,000 times.
I discovered the reports searching for them to do a video on suicides. Before that, it was a topic in the Veterans' Community, but we spoke about it too quietly. Many of us lost parents, as well as other family members, but we thought it was something to be ashamed of, instead of something that needed to be shouted so that everyone could hear us.
Putting together the report and the video, ripped me apart because I knew what that pain felt like. My husband's nephew, also a Vietnam veteran, took his own life. I also know what it is like when they hear there is an alternative to taking your own life with #TakeBackYourLife.
The time to invest in awareness efforts came soon afterwards, when the American people stood up and demanded the government take action. Since then, billions have been spent on some things that are worth every dime. Unfortunately, even more has been spent by the government that are far from worthy of the loss of one single veteran's life. In the process, we managed to also ignore the families, like mine, left behind to deal with unanswerable questions.
How we arrived here is no mystery. Some just decided they had to do something but did not take it seriously enough to know what they were talking about.
CATHOLICS leading the battle against veteran suicide have welcomed the appointment of an independent commissioner to investigate deaths and make recommendations on metal health and wellbeing.
Deacon Gary Stone, the man known as the Veteran’s padre, “hopes and prays” a new government initiative will combat veteran suicide, and benefit the wider community.
“Every suicide seriously impacts families and friends who also need support,” Deacon Stone (pictured), who heads the Veterans Care Association and is a former infantry officer, said.
“For every completed suicide there are 10 others (and their associated families and friends) struggling with suicidal ideation and self-harm.”
What do we see all over social media? Talk about a number attached to veterans committing suicide. We see members of the military, veterans groups, police officers, firefighters and regular citizens, dropping down to do 22 pushups. We see them running, walking and all kinds of other stunts to raise money while claiming they are raising awareness that veterans are killing themselves.
What is the point of all this? Did anyone of them think that their peers are also among those committing suicide and it is not just veterans?
The CDC released a report last year stating, "After a stable period from 2000 to 2007, suicide rates for
persons aged 10–24 increased from 2007 to 2017..."
In another report from the CDC, "Suicide is a large and growing public health problem. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. It was responsible for more than 47,000 deaths in 2017, resulting in about one death every 11 minutes. Every year, many more people think about or attempt suicide than die by suicide. In 2017, 10.6 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan, and 1.4 million attempted suicide."
Tens of thousands of groups have been doing it for over a decade and the trend is growing. What causes most advocates to cringe, aside from the obvious, is there seems to no end to the flood of people making money off this, and no end to the heartache of veterans doing it.
The groups usually use names they think will attract the most attention.
"That number, if we talk about it out of context, it's questionable," Keith Jennings, Iraq combat veteran and clinical psychologist, says. He acts as chief science adviser for a North Carolina-based group called StopSoldierSuicide.org.
There is a problem with the name itself. Stop "Soldier" Suicide, used in context, would mean that they are trying to stop soldiers from committing suicide, not all of the services, and certainly not talking about veterans.
At the time NPR produced this article, the DOD report shows clearly that the following statement is also wrong.
So Smolenski and a team, in a study released this year, dug deeper. They found that vets who had served during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars commit suicide at a rate of about one a day — not 22.
The average of suicides within the military has been 500 a year since 2012. (Add in Active Components with Reserve totals.) Is that what the "team" looked at?
It would make sense however, aside from that, had they really "dug deeper" they would have discovered how many were not included in any of the reports from the DOD or the VA.
If you read Wounded Times, you have seen all the data and links. It is up to them to go and find them, but much like years ago, I offered to help them change the outcome, they were not interested in facts.
22Kill has been studied since they started. "In 2012, the Veterans’ Administration (VA) released a Suicide Data Report that found an average of 22 veterans die by suicide everyday. The 22KILL initiative started in 2013, at first just as a social media movement to raise awareness, and later became an official 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in July of 2015." But had they spent enough time to even read the report? If they had, they would have noticed the number was an average from limited data collected from just 21 states. They would have seen that the majority of veterans in the report, were over the age of 50.
Had they invested time and energy to discover what had been done before the topic struck them?
While the conclusion is, much like this from Task and Purpose,"Likewise, awareness doesn’t do much. You can know a problem exists. That doesn’t mean you are any closer to solving the problem. There are a lot of diseases and societal issues with different color ribbons and special days for awareness, but not a lot of solutions. Veterans dying by suicide has been all over the news since the Department of Veterans Affairs scandal broke in April 2014."
Wounded Times has been covering veteran suicides since 2007, right after it started...and lost money every year since the work of changing the outcome matters a hell of a lot more than anything else. Before the move from Florida to New Hampshire, average page views were over 1,000 a day. Right now, after trying to rebuild from a two month break, it is about 600 a day.
As you can see, over 4 million since August of 2007.
Stop Soldier Suicides says, since they started they served 1,000+ has managed to take in over $3 million in 2018, but they are hardly the largest group.
So where exactly is your money going? Find something that will actually make a difference, like taking the time to know about the topic before you share the stunt. Make sure that what you read, is actually the truth, instead of words that stick in your brain. Until we start using words that change the outcome, we will keep contributing to it.
If you have a group that has been raising awareness, it is time to change the subject and earn the money by helping them stay alive!
Group says they are raising awareness...but not why they are not doing it for free?
When you read what this ad on Facebook says, to "raise more awareness for the 22 veterans who take their lives." When you think about it, raising suicide awareness is actually dead language!
It also turns out they are using the money to "deliver" memorial plaques after it happened to a grieving family after someone they loved took their own life BECAUSE THEY DID NOT BECOME AWARE THEY COULD HEAL!
Are they raising awareness it is happening? Why? Has anyone asked them? What is the point of doing frickin pushups?
Too bad they do not know how many times it actually happened today...or any other day!
What is worse in all of this, is it got worse for our troops and veterans since all this suicide awareness started!
The "number" remained an average of 500 a year, even though the number of those serving went down!
2012
The total number of military personnel is over 3.6 million strong, including DoD Active Duty military personnel (1,388,028); DHS’s Active Duty Coast Guard members (41,849); DoD Ready Reserve and DHS Coast Guard Reserve members (1,086,447); members of the Retired Reserve (212,314) and Standby Reserve (16,327); and DoD appropriated and non appropriated fund civilian personnel (907,121). DoD’s Active Duty and DHS’s Coast Guard Active Duty members comprise the largest portion of the military force (39.2%), followed by Ready Reserve members (29.7%) and DoD civilian personnel (24.8%).
2018
U.S. military force numbers, by service branch and reserve component 2018
Published by Erin Duffin, Nov 12, 2019
The U.S. Army had the highest number of active duty personnel in 2018, with 471,990 troops. In the same year, the Coast Guard had the fewest number of active duty members, with 41,132.
Active and reserve U.S. military force personnel numbers by service branch and reserve component in 2018
For known veteran suicides, look at the percentages going up.
This is the last respectable report before the VA started to "adjust" how our veterans are counted.
So, now that you are more aware of how this stuff does not help those who are thinking about suicide, being reminded of more who gave up on themselves, do you think you may want to start supporting people raising healing awareness instead?
How can anyone care about something they do not know?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 17, 2019
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
― Albert Einstein
I no longer cry when someone tells me to give up. I actually feel sorry for the person who will not listen. They believe they are right because they heard something someone else told them. OK, then if they were willing to listen to someone telling them a lie, why are they not willing to listen to someone telling them the truth? It must be easier to admit they did not know anything, than admitting they were lied to, believed it and then spread the lie out to more people.
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Isaac Asimov
It happened again! I was contacted by yet another person who said they were raising awareness about veterans committing suicide. It was easy to figure out the person knew nothing about my work or what I knew. He just found me online and wanted to take advantage of someone who may be willing to give him free publicity.
I asked him, "What is the point of telling veterans they are killing themselves?" He responded with, "How can anyone care about something they do not know is happening?" I replied with, "Apparently it happens all the time since you know nothing about what you are raising awareness of."
What can be expected when the news media still supports the notion that talking about what they hear is the truth? In this case, NBC News in Nevada came out with this mind blower!
This anchor says "In Nevada 20 veterans a day are committing suicide, believe it or not." He must have read that on Facebook somewhere!
So we end up with the wrong information getting all the publicity while the truth, that could set them free from misery, is something they never hear. PTSD is a wound and survivors can heal, but someone has to tell them it is possible!
Here is the chart that was mentioned in this video.
And this chart shows how the percentage of suicides went up while people were out there spreading the lie of how many made the choice to die instead of learning how to heal!
They need to hear messages that will empower them to seek healing, #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife
"Veterans who have survived the battlefield and return home continue to die by suicide at nearly twice the rate of people who have never served."
That is according to a report on Rocket City. The problem with that, much like the rest of the "report" is that claim is false. The truth is, what is known about veterans killing themselves, depends on which state they live in.
According to the most recent VA National Suicide Data Report, the veteran suicide rate in the U.S. increased nearly 26% between 2005 and 2016. Pennsylvania’s veteran suicide rate is 31.1 per 100,000, marginally above the national rate of 30.1. The national total suicide rate is 17.5 per 100,000. (Post Gazette)
The report was about yet another "round table" to discuss veterans killing themselves. It is doubtful the conversation involved the history of efforts made, list of things that failed, anymore than it involved what works.
Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention Program Acting Director Dr. Matt Miller said a lot to the reporter, including this.
“We are uniquely collaborating with the community to develop local community-based suicide prevention plans.” Miller also said the VA’s “Be There Campaign” which raises awareness about veteran suicides and encourages everyday people to support veterans. “We are doing a lot with veteran suicide.”
Seriously? What did he think was being done before this? When the results were actually better and BTW lower in the civilian rate of suicide as well, that proved help works but hype hurts. We found more benefits standing side by side with someone, than we did pulling a stunt. We found lives changed when we did not allow ourselves to seek our own fame, but earned the trust of those who turned to us for help. We offered a glimpse of hope and the path to get there by what we proved in our own lives. Happier days are possible and, yes, even miracles happen. Instead of publicizing what will return hope to those who need it the most, too many are hoping that no one notices talk is cheap for them, but rakes in millions in donations every year. For what? Repeating a number as if it was a fact? Reminding veterans they are killing themselves? Ask them who they are trying to raise awareness to and you will hear them claim their targets are veterans. Problem with that is, they already know how to die but do not know how to stay alive. We have First Responders committing suicide at higher rates, and most of them were also veterans. People learn when they are made aware of something. Some thought the world was flat until they were made aware that no one fell off the side. People thought that all illnesses were by the judgement of God for some sin committed instead of what biology does, until they learned otherwise. It is time for people to become wise enough to learn what is needed and that is to change the conversation from veterans taking their own lives into how they can take back their lives! Time to become aware of possibilities or we are doomed to extend the probability of more choosing death because they are not aware of the power they do still have. It is astonishingly stupid to see people drop down to do 22 pushups when their own peers are deciding to die. The same peers they trust with their lives on the job, cannot be trusted with what those jobs are doing to them? Seriously? But this is what we get when no one is talking about what is needed and proven to work. Next they say the targets are civilians, but again, they are also committing suicide in higher numbers. Given the fact that only an oblivious idiot would ignore the fact the people who risk their lives to save lives, taking their own lives, takes self-worth away.
What they are doing "a lot of" is not working, so basically, they are doing a lot of repeating what failed instead of obtaining some basic knowledge of what was learned over the last 40 years.
There is a challenge we face everyday and it is about "22 veterans committing suicide." It is not the kind of battle you may think it is. It is the battle to get them to shut the hell up and start doing what will make a difference for our veterans!
I kept thinking that one day people will pay enough attention to all of this that they will actually do something to change what is going on. Years later, I am still waiting for that day when none of this is acceptable to anyone. We keep reading about all the stunts talking about veterans committing suicide, but no stunts to prove to the that anyone really cares. The publicity seekers and fundraisers are poor babies! They suffer doing their 22 pushups, as if that would stop a veteran from not wanting to live one more day. We have all the BS coming out of Washington about how important veterans are, and with another election coming up, we're hearing a lot more of it piled onto all the other crap we heard before. Nothing changes for the better because people do not pay enough attention to ever consider how we got here. If you want to know, then you need to know what was done back in the the 70's, especially if you were not even born back then. We didn't have reporters telling our stories, or stunts getting mass attention on social media. We didn't have social media or even computers in our homes. Forget cell phones because we were still using phone booths and looking up numbers in phone books! Yet for our generation, we knew what worked and we stuck with it until some yahoo decided that we did not know anything, if we suffered at all, which, apparently, they ignored until it happened to them. "Staffing at Vet Centers lagging" was the headline on April 20, 2007 reported by Greg Zoroya for USA Today. Zoroya reported that in 2006, 21,681 veterans visited these centers just from Afghanistan and Iraq wars. According to the VA at the time those numbers went from 8,965 in 2004, to 13,307 in 2005 all the way up to that number. There were a lot of numbers in this report. Among them was the fact that veterans from all wars were using these centers because of outreach efforts. In 2004 it was 125,737, but by 2006 it was 228,612. According to the VA, the number of veterans using the Vet Centers jumped. "298,576 Veterans, active duty service members (including Guard and Reservists) and their families received readjustment counseling at VA’s 300 Vet Centers, totaling more than 1.9 million visits in Fiscal Year 2018."
That shows how important these centers were way back then and still are. Veteran Centers are more welcoming than the VA facilities. Most veterans do not know the centers are part of the VA and find it easier to walk in looking for support. Back then, we knew what worked because we lived with the reality of all of it. Strange how so many people are talking about the heartbreaking outcomes for far too many families, but too few are talking about what needs to be done. This was and still is, peer support on steroids. They also helped families, like mine. It was the Vet Center in Boston encouraging my husband to seek help dealing with PTSD at the VA way back in the early 90's and offered support to me as well. While the VA, and almost everyone else, understood the value of having these centers, apparently the Bush Administration did not. As with most administrations, they have to rely on advisers clewing them in. Like most Presidents, they were ill advised, much like is happening now.
"Last year, the White House proposed cutting $47 million from the $3.3 billion budget for veterans readjustment benefits. Two congressional committees agreed, but the Republican-controlled Congress didn't pass a final spending bill."
The thing is, back then what worked, did not cost as much as what has failed ever since.
"The Vet Centers are small, storefront operations with a staff of four to five people each. The centers were created in 1979 to help Vietnam War veterans readjust to society. Services included combat stress counseling, marriage therapy, job assistance and medical referrals."
But the VA went above all that to create Mobile Vet Centers and a Vet Call Center.
Vet Center Call Center
1-877-WAR VETS (1.877.927.8387) is an around the clock confidential call center where combat Veterans and their families can call to talk about their military experience or any other issue they are facing in their readjustment to civilian life. The staff is comprised of combat Veterans from several eras as well as family members of combat Veterans. The service is free for combat Veterans and their families so they may find resources they need at their nearest Vet Center.
Now we have higher rates of suicides within the military and in the veteran community. We have families falling apart and being left out of all the "new groups" screaming about suicides while ignoring the fact the majority of the veterans killing themselves. They survived all these years without being made aware they were killing themselves, but now have become the majority of those ending their pain by ending their lives instead of doing whatever it took to heal their lives.
Maybe these celebrities will think of a way to change the conversation to something that may actually help them fight for themselves instead of reminding them how many they think lost their battle today...but I doubt it.
Everyday the reports are written. "This one" is doing this stunt to make people aware veterans are committing suicide. "That one" claims the number to be 22, another one says it is 20, and someone else says, "one is too many."
"This one" takes a walk. "That one" runs, another one does "22 push ups" instead of doing the work to lead the way on how they can want to live. Then, we have charity after charity, holding events like this one.
"The tournament, it's in memory of Patrick Werne who was a local Veteran," Kyle Jean, Section 1776 operations manager said. "He was battling with his PTSD. He lost the battle last year in early July so this fishing tournament is in memory of him and to raise awareness for the 22 Veterans a day that commit suicide." WWMT News
What are they raising awareness of? That veterans are killing themselves? Without mentioning that the number currently used was changed years ago?
They did not seem to even understand how many more are missing from the report, or the fact that all the talk about suicides, did not prevent the suicide of the veteran they are now having events for. This has been going on for over a decade! Awareness events like that did nothing to come close to what veterans have been doing in VA parking lots.
"Nearly 30 veterans have taken their own lives on VA medical campuses in the last two years, a figure that has prompted lawmakers to request more monitoring of parking lots and public areas for signs of individuals in distress." Military Times
"The VA National Suicide Data Report for 2005 to 2016, which came out in September 2018, highlights an alarming rise in suicides among veterans age 18 to 34 — 45 per 100,000 veterans. Younger veterans have the highest rate of suicide among veterans, but those 55 and older still represent the largest number of suicides." NPR
"If airman suicides continue at their current pace, this year’s deaths by suicide in the service would far eclipse last year’s. In 2018, 60 active duty airmen, 17 Air National Guard and three Air Force reservists died by suicide for a total of 80 airmen, according to the Defense Suicide Prevention Office." Stars and Stripes
While over 47,000 American's committed suicide, it shows the lack of growth on the prevention side for civilians to stay alive. We also need to consider that 1.3 million attempted suicide. If suicide awareness worked, don't you think the civilian numbers would have gone down? The simple fact is, the rate of veterans committing suicide, is even higher. Female veterans committing suicide are 250% times higher than civilian women, just as there are more military males than civilians unaware that suicide is not their only way out of the misery they live with. When there are more first responders committing suicide than ever before, added into all of this, we keep missing the most important factor of all. Every single one of them lived for the sake of others. None of them found a way to live for themselves. They lived, but we let them die.
This story is BS!
While it is true that the number of veterans committing suicide is under reported, it is not true that it is "22 a day" along with a lot of other BS that has been spawned from veterans left to suffer and families left not knowing why it happened.
Veteran Suicide Higher than Reported – Help is Available Communal News Dana Matthews August 12, 2019
Every day, 22 veterans take their own lives. That's a suicide every 65 minutes.
If a veteran intentionally crashes a car or dies of a drug overdose and leaves no note, that death may not be counted as suicide. A survey by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America showed that 30% of service members have considered taking their own life. The suicide rate among service members is an epidemic. Leon Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense agreed six years ago. Unfortunately, data regarding the veteran suicide rate is incomplete. For example, veterans who commit “suicide by cop” are not included in the tally. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made an appeal for more uniform reporting of suicide data. read it here
Just starting with the "22 a day" a few years behind the latest study by the VA made me feel like I was in the Twilight Zone. Apparently the "author" decided that the rest of the reasons the numbers are wrong do not matter...or did not bother to research enough to discover what was missed. Then when you factor in that all the awareness being raised about a lie obscures the fact that none of it is giving veterans hope back...oh well, the list goes on and so do the body counts. YEP BS post of the day!
Wounded Times Kathie Costos May 26, 2019 Tomorrow is Memorial Day. There are graves that will be visited, ceremonies held to honor lives lost after military service by some citizens, while others are just enjoying the day off from work.
Repulsive when you think about it, but that is the problem. Too many did not think enough about their lives. They did not think about the fact that these men and women, were willing to risk their lives for the sake of others, but we were all too willing to not think about what they needed. We were too busy feeling good spending a couple of hours enjoying ourselves at a suicide awareness event, having fun because veterans are committing suicide. This is for one of those events last year. Notice "come out and enjoy festivities" and this part really gets my blood boiling, "have a great time while raising awareness to the tragic epidemic of 22 suicides per day due to PTSD and lost hope."
This other part sums it all up. "No requirement to carry anything..."
Just goes to show you that what the average citizen thinks is helping, is actually hurting them. You cannot restore hope with stunts intended to give people a good time because someone read a headline! These are some of the lives lost since last Memorial Day.
The veteran, who was identified as Michael Douglas, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at about 4 p.m. Wednesday in the emergency department parking lot of the Eisenhower VA Medical Center, according to a statement issued by Joseph Burks, public affairs officer for VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System.
Hours after being discharged from a mental health treatment facility, 38-year-old disabled veteran Lee Cole hiked into a wilderness area in southwest Colorado Springs with a backpack and the cellphone on which he planned to record his final message.
A Veterans Affairs employee died Tuesday morning inside an administrative office at Topeka’s Colmery O’Neil VA Medical Center. Joe Burks, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, said the employee died of an apparent suicide.
On Dec. 10, retired Marine Col. Jim Turner put on his dress uniform and medals and drove to the Bay Pines Department of Veterans Affairs complex. He got out of his truck, sat down on top of his military records and took his own life with a rifle.
Brieux Dash...on March 14, the 33-year-old hanged himself, according to the VA and the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner. He left behind his wife of 13 years and three children.
Georgia VA hospitals
28-year-old Gary Pressley is now searching for answers after he took his own life in the parking lot of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center
The second occurred Saturday outside the main entrance to the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur on Clairmont Road.
And in Austin
McLennan County Veteran’s Service Officer Steve Hernandez said the veteran was a patient who had been enrolled in the Phoenix program at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Medical Center in Temple and was discharged, but somehow his case was transferred to the Austin facility. And in Cleveland Randy Stidham, died by apparent suicide. It happened after the 59-year-old held officers in a daylong stand off at his Adrian home. Police say Stidham fired shots from inside the house and even took aim at law enforcement.
Greg Holeman Holeman, an Army veteran who served as a mechanic, fatally shot himself inside his pickup truck on the night of February 25, a Platte County Sheriff's Office lieutenant told KETV NewsWatch 7. The 48-year-old was parked outside of the Columbus Community Hospital's emergency department.
And the not so public suicides
JARED JOHNS, A 24-YEAR-OLD ARMY VETERAN WHO SERVED IN AFGHANISTAN, KILLED HIMSELF ON SEPT. 11, THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY THAT CALLED HIM TO SERVE.
Michael Wargo's battle was long and extremely well hidden.He spent 10 months in Afghanistan, then eight years battling PTSD, then four and a half hours explaining his life-altering decision in a video his parents received when it was too late to change anything.
FORT MYERS, Fla. - This month, Air Force senior leaders issued a memo, calling for a culture change in that military branch. They were concerned after 11 airmen and Air Force civilians committed suicide in just the first four weeks of 2019.
SAN ANSELMO (CBS SF) — A man is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being in a tense standoff with crisis negotiators and police at a San Anselmo home that forced an entire neighborhood to evacuate
Krysten Mischelle Gonzalez sat in an Oklahoma County jail cell while public defenders searched for an inpatient mental health treatment facility that would agree to accept her, the county's chief public defender says.
Gonzalez, 29, was found unresponsive in her cell about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
If you are a veteran and think you do not matter because of the stunts you see, think again, because you do matter to a lot more people doing the work and willing to help you carry whatever load you have, and show you how to be able to help someone else down the road. You do matter! It is time for you to #BreakTheSilence and stand up to all this nonsense! Too many veterans cannot find the help you need, when you need it. It is time to stop spreading these stunts on social media. Invest the time you take for their sake and spend it on your own sake to find the help you need. It is time to #TakeBackYourLife and live a better life! Oh, sorry with all the suicide awareness they have been spreading, they forgot to tell you that part too! You can heal!
