The Biological Effects Of Traumatic Events
May 8, 2010
We often think of PTSD as a psychological disorder — one that causes great suffering to people who have experienced traumatic events. Now, the lead author of a new study argues that those traumatic events may actually cause changes in the victim on a molecular level. Host Guy Raz speaks with Dr. Sandro Galea of Columbia University about the study.
GUY RAZ, host:
We usually think of PTSD as a psychological disorder, one that can tear apart the lives of combat veterans and other people who've experienced traumatic events. But a new study suggests that those traumatic events may actually change people on a molecular level, and it could be those molecular changes that lead to the symptoms of PTSD.
Sandro Galea is the senior author of the study. He's also the chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Welcome to the program.
Dr. SANDRO GALEA (Chairman, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University): Thank you for having me on.
RAZ: Your study sort of seems to suggest a completely new biological framework for PTSD, something that we've long sort of associated with a psychological condition. Describe how it works now, how you think it works.
Dr. GALEA: What we are thinking is that trauma that somebody experiences results in molecular changes around the DNA that result in changes in what genes are expressed and not expressed. So what our study showed is that people who experience traumatic events are more likely to have these molecular epigenetic changes, which may explain in part why particular genes then are expressed or not expressed and result in symptoms of the psychological disorder.
RAZ: You describe epigenetic changes. Briefly, can you explain what that means?
Dr. GALEA: The term epigenetic changes refers to particular molecules that stick to particular parts of the DNA. So they're not genetic changes, they're not changes in the gene encoding that we all have within us but they are changes around the DNA.
So an example would be that one of the cardinal symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is hypervigilance, being very jumpy, constantly on guard. And we found that some of the genes that we know are responsible for vigilance for jumpiness are among the genes that have these epigenetic changes associated with the traumatic event experience.
read more here
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126637629
Sunday, May 9, 2010
A Rutherford Marine's Pacific war and PTSD
One more story of why so many are seeking help for the first time.
A Rutherford Marine's Pacific war
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Last updated: Sunday May 9, 2010, 10:43 AM
BY VIRGINIA ROHAN
The Record
STAFF WRITER
A few months ago, Charlie Garabedian finally got a diagnosis that explained his restless nights and troublesome ruminations on past horrors — post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I don't sleep well. I never slept well. And I relive this too much now," Garabedian says of his combat experiences.
Although we now hear much about PTSD plaguing those who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, Garabedian's haunting memories are from a war that ended 65 years ago.
A proud member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment, 4th Marine Division, the 86-year-old Rutherford veteran fought in four of the deadliest Pacific battles of World War II — including Iwo Jima, depicted last Sunday in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific," which has shown viewers the same kind of unspeakable atrocities that Garabedian describes.
"My best friend, Stapleton, got killed on Saipan the fourth morning," says Garabedian, whose physique and voice suggest a man 20 years younger. "I was on the ground with the machine gun. I was gonna fire up on this hill against a bunch of snipers. He let out a groan. He fell on top of me, and he's dead. I'll never forget that as long as I live.
Pfc. Garabedian, far left, second row, of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiemtn, 4th Marine Division, in July 1944. "If I was ever gonna crack, I would have cracked then."
Garabedian — a former Rutherford police captain whose awards include the Bronze Star Medal (with Combat "V") for valor, the Combat Action Ribbon and New Jersey's Distinguished Service Medal — has been watching "The Pacific." He was put off by Part 3, which showed the 1st Marine Division's leave in Melbourne after intense fighting on Guadalcanal.
read more here
A Rutherford Marine Pacific war
Name, rank and service but not politics
Name, rank and service but not politics
by
Chaplain Kathie
There are many lessons I've learned over the years. One of them is that the older I got, the smarter my Mom got. Amazing how that usually happens as we enter into our 20's. I miss her especially on Mother's Day. She was humble and wise, caring about others and was deeply loved by everyone she knew. No matter what store we would go to, she would always know someone there like a celebrity. Many times she was told she should to into politics because how many people she knew, above all, cared about. She was also a disabled veteran's wife.
For all the lessons I learned from her, the one in my brain this morning is that when it comes to the men and women serving this country, this one country, there is their name, their rank, what service they served in, but political affiliation is reduced to how they vote. It doesn't matter to them when they are trying to stay alive, trying to keep their buddies alive and stop the people they were sent to fight. It doesn't matter when a Democrat saves the life of a Republican or a Republican saves an Independent. All that matters is they are Americans, serving side by side and serving under the same flag. They fight for each other, for family and do what the leaders of this nation sent them to do. This is carried on when they come home and no matter what party someone belongs to the only thing that matters is they are among the few knowing what it costs to be able to freely choose who leads this nation.
I see this everyday. Men and women putting what really matters ahead of politics because they know how we got to the point where we all have the right to decide on our own.
When you think throughout the years 42 million men and women are responsible for defending this country, there can be little doubt why it is we forget them. We remember Presidents and some of us are able to name all of them in order. President Obama is the 44th President. We know Washington was the first, Lincoln as the 16th. Franklin Delano Roosevelt our 32nd President during the worst times of the Great Depression and war, this handicap President stricken by Polio is regarded as one of our finest. So few men serving as President, some elected more than once and others not surviving their first term. They end up in countless books about their lives but few students know how few men and women are responsible for our ability to vote and determine the future of this nation.
Once a year we manage to remember the fallen, even if it is for just a few moments watching the news on Memorial Day. Some will go to the grave sites and visit relatives resting there. Some will go to parades sitting on sidewalks eating ice cream, waving flags as veterans pass by. Others will enjoy the day off with parties kicking off the start of summer never really thinking about what the day really means.
There are thousands heading to Washington DC and Arlington National Cemetery. They are the kind of people you judge too harshly as they come up behind your car with the revving engines of their motorcycles and leather vests. They come together from every part of this one nation, from big cities and tiny towns no one every heard of making the pilgrimage to honor the dead. Last year thousands of them carried the patch of Nam Knights. The Nam Knights are not just Vietnam veterans or veterans of military service but many are police officers and they know the price of our freedom more than anyone else.
We went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and then to the Law Enforcement Memorial. Each year these people manage to keep giving more and more of themselves to each other and to their communities. Not many know them, know anything about their lives or the fact they would still lay down their lives for the sake of this one nation.
We are bound together as one nation because of the few who dared risk their lives to provide it, yet when we put politics above all else, insult the patriotism of someone with a different opinion, we dishonor all of them accordingly. Political connections didn't matter to any of them as they fought our battles. They come home and then they have to hear a politician slandering a politician from the other side, hear their voices at political gatherings saying someone else is unpatriotic because they disagree and fueling hatred for the sake of their own power and positions. They never stop to think the 17 million combat veterans hearing their voices were willing to die for each other no matter what political view they held. They paid the price for the right to say whatever is said but no one thinks of them having to hear it, walking away feeling as if they have just been attacked by someone who never knew what it was like to put this nation first.
What does warm their heart is what is being done in cities and towns across this nation for their sake.
These are just a few of the types of stories that matter to them.
Fundraiser held for fallen Marine WAVY-TV
We can listen to both sides on the illegal immigrant issue and try to make the argument as simple as possible but then we read a story like this and understand, when it comes to the few willing to die in service to this nation, the issue is not as simple as we want it to be.
We can try to count the fallen connected to combat, but then we do not always really know, especially when it comes to suicides of our veterans. 18 a day commit suicide but they are not counted in the war's final tally of the ultimate price paid. These deaths are known by the families, just as we do not count the numbers of the men and women passing away everyday from illnesses created to wage war more "successfully" like Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium.
We don't seem to manage to really understand what Memorial Day is for or what they died for.
My Mom never thought much about politics but voted in every election. She said she voted for the person and not the party attached to their name just as her husband, my Dad, served next to men and women without putting party above being an American. The next time you think about putting politics above all else, remember there was someone on the other side willing to lay down their lives for your right to have your own views protected and they defended that right with their lives. I really wish we could all be more like them and willing to put this one nation ahead of anything else.
On this Memorial Day, remember them and what they valued more than anything else.
Military deaths Los Angeles Times
by
Chaplain Kathie
There are many lessons I've learned over the years. One of them is that the older I got, the smarter my Mom got. Amazing how that usually happens as we enter into our 20's. I miss her especially on Mother's Day. She was humble and wise, caring about others and was deeply loved by everyone she knew. No matter what store we would go to, she would always know someone there like a celebrity. Many times she was told she should to into politics because how many people she knew, above all, cared about. She was also a disabled veteran's wife.
For all the lessons I learned from her, the one in my brain this morning is that when it comes to the men and women serving this country, this one country, there is their name, their rank, what service they served in, but political affiliation is reduced to how they vote. It doesn't matter to them when they are trying to stay alive, trying to keep their buddies alive and stop the people they were sent to fight. It doesn't matter when a Democrat saves the life of a Republican or a Republican saves an Independent. All that matters is they are Americans, serving side by side and serving under the same flag. They fight for each other, for family and do what the leaders of this nation sent them to do. This is carried on when they come home and no matter what party someone belongs to the only thing that matters is they are among the few knowing what it costs to be able to freely choose who leads this nation.
I see this everyday. Men and women putting what really matters ahead of politics because they know how we got to the point where we all have the right to decide on our own.
America's Wars Total
Military service during war
41,891,368
Battle deaths
651,030
Other deaths in service (theater)
308,800
Other deaths in service (nontheater)
230,279
Nonmortal woundings
1,431,290
Living war veterans
17,456,0004
Living veterans
23,442,000
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html
When you think throughout the years 42 million men and women are responsible for defending this country, there can be little doubt why it is we forget them. We remember Presidents and some of us are able to name all of them in order. President Obama is the 44th President. We know Washington was the first, Lincoln as the 16th. Franklin Delano Roosevelt our 32nd President during the worst times of the Great Depression and war, this handicap President stricken by Polio is regarded as one of our finest. So few men serving as President, some elected more than once and others not surviving their first term. They end up in countless books about their lives but few students know how few men and women are responsible for our ability to vote and determine the future of this nation.
Once a year we manage to remember the fallen, even if it is for just a few moments watching the news on Memorial Day. Some will go to the grave sites and visit relatives resting there. Some will go to parades sitting on sidewalks eating ice cream, waving flags as veterans pass by. Others will enjoy the day off with parties kicking off the start of summer never really thinking about what the day really means.
There are thousands heading to Washington DC and Arlington National Cemetery. They are the kind of people you judge too harshly as they come up behind your car with the revving engines of their motorcycles and leather vests. They come together from every part of this one nation, from big cities and tiny towns no one every heard of making the pilgrimage to honor the dead. Last year thousands of them carried the patch of Nam Knights. The Nam Knights are not just Vietnam veterans or veterans of military service but many are police officers and they know the price of our freedom more than anyone else.
We went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and then to the Law Enforcement Memorial. Each year these people manage to keep giving more and more of themselves to each other and to their communities. Not many know them, know anything about their lives or the fact they would still lay down their lives for the sake of this one nation.
We are bound together as one nation because of the few who dared risk their lives to provide it, yet when we put politics above all else, insult the patriotism of someone with a different opinion, we dishonor all of them accordingly. Political connections didn't matter to any of them as they fought our battles. They come home and then they have to hear a politician slandering a politician from the other side, hear their voices at political gatherings saying someone else is unpatriotic because they disagree and fueling hatred for the sake of their own power and positions. They never stop to think the 17 million combat veterans hearing their voices were willing to die for each other no matter what political view they held. They paid the price for the right to say whatever is said but no one thinks of them having to hear it, walking away feeling as if they have just been attacked by someone who never knew what it was like to put this nation first.
What does warm their heart is what is being done in cities and towns across this nation for their sake.
These are just a few of the types of stories that matter to them.
Fundraiser held for fallen Marine WAVY-TV
Quad Citians come together for wounded Marine WQAD
We can listen to both sides on the illegal immigrant issue and try to make the argument as simple as possible but then we read a story like this and understand, when it comes to the few willing to die in service to this nation, the issue is not as simple as we want it to be.
Army veteran, an illegal immigrant, wants citizenship
Five days before illegal immigrant Ekaterine Bautista, who served six years in the U.S. military, planned to become a U.S. citizen under a decades-old law, her swearing-in ceremony was canceled after it was learned she served in the military under a false identity.
By Anna Gorman
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Five days before Ekaterine Bautista planned to become a U.S. citizen, she got a call from the federal government: Her swearing-in ceremony had been canceled pending further investigation.
Bautista was devastated. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, she had served six years in the U.S. military — including a 13-month tour in Iraq — and was eligible to apply for naturalization under a decades-old law.
read more here
Army veteran an illegal immigrant wants citizenship
We can try to count the fallen connected to combat, but then we do not always really know, especially when it comes to suicides of our veterans. 18 a day commit suicide but they are not counted in the war's final tally of the ultimate price paid. These deaths are known by the families, just as we do not count the numbers of the men and women passing away everyday from illnesses created to wage war more "successfully" like Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium.
We don't seem to manage to really understand what Memorial Day is for or what they died for.
My Mom never thought much about politics but voted in every election. She said she voted for the person and not the party attached to their name just as her husband, my Dad, served next to men and women without putting party above being an American. The next time you think about putting politics above all else, remember there was someone on the other side willing to lay down their lives for your right to have your own views protected and they defended that right with their lives. I really wish we could all be more like them and willing to put this one nation ahead of anything else.
On this Memorial Day, remember them and what they valued more than anything else.
Military deaths Los Angeles Times
A Soldier's Story: Cpl. Nick Edinger
A Soldier's Story
Nothing's going to slow Cpl. Nick Edinger down, not even losing his foot in Afghanistan
By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune
When Army Cpl. Nickolas "Nick" Edinger looks down at where his left foot used to be, the 2005 Crater High School graduate doesn't give it much thought.
"I am not going to let this slow me down at all," stresses Edinger, 22, of Central Point, in a telephone interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
"If I let the fact a bomb took away my foot beat me in any way, shape or form, then that is letting the guy who put that bomb there beat me," he adds. "And I'm not going to let that happen. Never. I've got a life to live."
Yet the son of Scott and Liz Edinger of Central Point realizes he is exceedingly lucky. He knows full well the powerful improvised explosive device he stepped on early in the afternoon of March 30 in a remote village in southern Afghanistan easily could have taken the life he intends to live.
"Hey, I'm real fortunate," he says. "There are people here missing a piece of every limb. There is a kid who has half of both thighs, missing one arm at the elbow and the other at the wrist. He is figuring out how to make it.
"You got someone like that, well, who am I to say my problems are big?"
Edinger joined the Army two years ago next month to earn GI Bill benefits for college. He planned to pursue a medical career after completing his hitch. Before donning a military uniform, he worked for two years at Rogue Valley Medical Center, helping move patients in the emergency room as well as the critical care unit, an experience that would help him keep his cool March 30.
A member of Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., the corporal was deployed to Afghanistan last September as part of an effort to take the fight to the Taliban strongholds in remote areas of that country.
read more here
A Soldiers Story
Nothing's going to slow Cpl. Nick Edinger down, not even losing his foot in Afghanistan
By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune
When Army Cpl. Nickolas "Nick" Edinger looks down at where his left foot used to be, the 2005 Crater High School graduate doesn't give it much thought.
"I am not going to let this slow me down at all," stresses Edinger, 22, of Central Point, in a telephone interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
"If I let the fact a bomb took away my foot beat me in any way, shape or form, then that is letting the guy who put that bomb there beat me," he adds. "And I'm not going to let that happen. Never. I've got a life to live."
Yet the son of Scott and Liz Edinger of Central Point realizes he is exceedingly lucky. He knows full well the powerful improvised explosive device he stepped on early in the afternoon of March 30 in a remote village in southern Afghanistan easily could have taken the life he intends to live.
"Hey, I'm real fortunate," he says. "There are people here missing a piece of every limb. There is a kid who has half of both thighs, missing one arm at the elbow and the other at the wrist. He is figuring out how to make it.
"You got someone like that, well, who am I to say my problems are big?"
Edinger joined the Army two years ago next month to earn GI Bill benefits for college. He planned to pursue a medical career after completing his hitch. Before donning a military uniform, he worked for two years at Rogue Valley Medical Center, helping move patients in the emergency room as well as the critical care unit, an experience that would help him keep his cool March 30.
A member of Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., the corporal was deployed to Afghanistan last September as part of an effort to take the fight to the Taliban strongholds in remote areas of that country.
read more here
A Soldiers Story
Saturday, May 8, 2010
27 months for phony SEAL, phony PTSD
This is what is supposed to happen when a person decides they will take what others have earned. This is what's supposed to happen but because of the rare occasion when someone pulls something like this, the real combat veterans, the real wounded, end up paying the price.
They pay it with delays in having their claims honored when they have done nothing wrong.
When you think of the millions of men and women doing their duty, serving with honor and most of the time true humbleness and humility, having to come home and then face such delays in honoring their wounds, reading something like this hurts them deeply. A fraud can get what they not only paid the price for but they can't manage to get the same when they are telling the truth.
So few so evil to take what is not their's will never, ever justify what we are seeing with real combat veterans carrying real wounds.
They pay it with delays in having their claims honored when they have done nothing wrong.
When you think of the millions of men and women doing their duty, serving with honor and most of the time true humbleness and humility, having to come home and then face such delays in honoring their wounds, reading something like this hurts them deeply. A fraud can get what they not only paid the price for but they can't manage to get the same when they are telling the truth.
So few so evil to take what is not their's will never, ever justify what we are seeing with real combat veterans carrying real wounds.
27 months for phony SEAL, phony PTSD
By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 8, 2010 8:57:21 EDT
A phony SEAL whose bogus post-traumatic stress disorder defrauded the government of more than $280,000 over seven years was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Federal Judge Michael McCuskey spent nearly 45 minutes chastising Robert Warren, saying he would have gladly added more time but was constrained by the law’s limits.
Warren was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, one count of making false statements and one count of Social Security fraud. He admitted to fraudulently receiving $166,116 in veterans’ benefits and $114,045 in Social Security benefits.
For years, Warren had purported to be a combat-decorated SEAL. Navy records show otherwise. Warren was a sailor from Feb. 21, 1984, to March 23, 1988. He never was a SEAL. He never saw combat.Warren told VA officials in 2002 he hadn’t worked in four years and couldn’t work around people or in public. He submitted forged statements in support of his claim, court records show. Warren was awarded a 100 percent service-connected disability and granted the same through Social Security two years later. But Warren has owned and operated a local tavern and recorded more than 400 hours as a volunteer firefighter since being awarded the disability rating in 2002.
go here for more
Friday, May 7, 2010
ROGERS: Are meds covering up PTSD crisis
ROGERS: Are meds covering up PTSD crisis?
By RICK ROGERS - For the North County Times Posted: May 7, 2010 12:00 am
It's been a dance of convenience between the military and post-traumatic stress disorder over the years. I remember a particularly nifty two-step by U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Joseph Dunford five years ago while he was assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division. Dunford is now the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander and a three-star general.
It was March 2005, and the Department of Veterans Affairs had just released an analysis of nearly 50,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the report found that up to 17 percent had been diagnosed with major depression, anxiety or PTSD. It concluded that Marines and soldiers were nearly four times more likely to report PTSD than sailors and airmen. The findings paralleled findings in Vietnam War veterans.
Yet Dunford held a press conference to declare that none of these numbers even remotely resembled Camp Pendleton's situation. A scant 3 percent of his Marines needed mental health care, he said, attributing the tiny number to the superior counseling his Marines received before going to fight in places like Ramadi, Najaf and Fallujah.
Why was Dunford so sure of this? Because his troops had told him so: Three percent had self-identified in their post-deployment questionnaire.
I don't recall the general appreciating a question suggesting that, just maybe, 1st Marine Division troops weren't self-diagnosing because they wanted to go home on leave and didn't want to appear weak.
About a year later, official tenor on the subject changed. Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, who retired last year as the Marine Corps Installations West commander, told me then that constant combat deployments were indeed eroding Marines and their families, though he didn't spell out how.
Combat stress, Lehnert said, was endemic to combat, and only a psychopath could return from war unchanged by the experience.
Amen, brother.
So the Marine Corps culturally embraced "combat stress," but not PTSD. The former was a normal reaction of an honorable warrior to the horrors of war.
go here for more
Are meds covering up PTSD crisis
By RICK ROGERS - For the North County Times Posted: May 7, 2010 12:00 am
It's been a dance of convenience between the military and post-traumatic stress disorder over the years. I remember a particularly nifty two-step by U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Joseph Dunford five years ago while he was assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division. Dunford is now the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander and a three-star general.
It was March 2005, and the Department of Veterans Affairs had just released an analysis of nearly 50,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the report found that up to 17 percent had been diagnosed with major depression, anxiety or PTSD. It concluded that Marines and soldiers were nearly four times more likely to report PTSD than sailors and airmen. The findings paralleled findings in Vietnam War veterans.
Yet Dunford held a press conference to declare that none of these numbers even remotely resembled Camp Pendleton's situation. A scant 3 percent of his Marines needed mental health care, he said, attributing the tiny number to the superior counseling his Marines received before going to fight in places like Ramadi, Najaf and Fallujah.
Why was Dunford so sure of this? Because his troops had told him so: Three percent had self-identified in their post-deployment questionnaire.
I don't recall the general appreciating a question suggesting that, just maybe, 1st Marine Division troops weren't self-diagnosing because they wanted to go home on leave and didn't want to appear weak.
About a year later, official tenor on the subject changed. Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, who retired last year as the Marine Corps Installations West commander, told me then that constant combat deployments were indeed eroding Marines and their families, though he didn't spell out how.
Combat stress, Lehnert said, was endemic to combat, and only a psychopath could return from war unchanged by the experience.
Amen, brother.
So the Marine Corps culturally embraced "combat stress," but not PTSD. The former was a normal reaction of an honorable warrior to the horrors of war.
go here for more
Are meds covering up PTSD crisis
Westboro hate church plans protest of U. S. Marine funeral
It doesn't seem to matter to Westboro if a serviceman or woman was gay or not. It doesn't seem to matter if they were married or not, had children or not, had people grieving for them or anything else other than proving they enjoy the ability to publicly hate the troops. A right they would not have had it not been for generations of other Americans paying the price for that right.
While it is true there is free speech in this country and even this kind of hate speech is protected, it is also coming with forcing the families to listen to them. When someone prints something hateful, we do not have to read it. When someone stands in the middle of the street screaming how much they hate someone, no one is forced to be there and can walk away. Yet when a family is in the process of burying a family member, especially in a publicized military funeral, they are forced to have to hear this hatred. They cannot decide to go some place else. They cannot decide it isn't worth burying their family member if they have to hear or read signs of hatred. They have to be there. Westboro people do not have to be there at all. They can thank God all they want for IED's and for the troops being killed but the rest of us wonder which God they are thanking.
There is a lot of talk about the free speech rights of this group but there is too little talk about what the rights of the families of the fallen are. What about their right to grieve without being attacked by a group trespassing on their own rights?
While it is true there is free speech in this country and even this kind of hate speech is protected, it is also coming with forcing the families to listen to them. When someone prints something hateful, we do not have to read it. When someone stands in the middle of the street screaming how much they hate someone, no one is forced to be there and can walk away. Yet when a family is in the process of burying a family member, especially in a publicized military funeral, they are forced to have to hear this hatred. They cannot decide to go some place else. They cannot decide it isn't worth burying their family member if they have to hear or read signs of hatred. They have to be there. Westboro people do not have to be there at all. They can thank God all they want for IED's and for the troops being killed but the rest of us wonder which God they are thanking.
There is a lot of talk about the free speech rights of this group but there is too little talk about what the rights of the families of the fallen are. What about their right to grieve without being attacked by a group trespassing on their own rights?
Hate church plans protest of U. S. Marine funeral
May 6, 2:49 PM
Birmingham Gay Community Examiner
Joe Openshaw
Lance Corporal Thomas E. Rivers, Jr., was killed due to enemy action while serving as a U. S. Marine in Afghanistan on April 28, 2010. His funeral is planned for Friday, May 7, 2010 near Birmingham, AL.
Westboro Baptist Church has announced a protest at the funeral of Lance Corporal Thomas E. Rivers.
Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, is best known as a hate group and uses anti-gay rhetoric in an attempt to gain publicity for themselves.
Equality Alabama has issued a statement in response to Westboro Baptist's planned protest.
go here for more
Hate church plans protest of U. S. Marine funeral
2 dead after Redstone Arsenal explosion
2 dead after explosion at Ala. Army post
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 20:36:37 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Two contract workers died after being injured in an explosion while removing a propellant from rockets at an arsenal where the Army conducts missile and weapons research.
The public affairs office at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville said the two died Wednesday night after being flown to the burn unit at a hospital in Birmingham.
read more here
2 dead after explosion at Ala. Army post
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 20:36:37 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Two contract workers died after being injured in an explosion while removing a propellant from rockets at an arsenal where the Army conducts missile and weapons research.
The public affairs office at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville said the two died Wednesday night after being flown to the burn unit at a hospital in Birmingham.
read more here
2 dead after explosion at Ala. Army post
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 14:19:52 EDT
As Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., introduced former first lady Rosalynn Carter and her new book about mental health care, he predicted the people who will do the most to improve mental health care and reduce the stigma of getting that care across the nation: veterans.
At the Library of Congress Wednesday, Kennedy spoke of the “signature injuries” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury — and how veterans talking about and combating stigma for those injuries could normalize mental health issues throughout the country.
As combat veterans grow increasingly comfortable with seeking care, civilians may, too, he said.
“It’s not about an issue,” he said. “It’s about personally wanting to help the people we love.”
Carter was in Washington, D.C., to promote her book, “Within Our Reach,” about the basics of mental health care and how communities could better serve the 25 percent of U.S. adults who deal with anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders and other such issues every year.
read more here
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 14:19:52 EDT
As Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., introduced former first lady Rosalynn Carter and her new book about mental health care, he predicted the people who will do the most to improve mental health care and reduce the stigma of getting that care across the nation: veterans.
At the Library of Congress Wednesday, Kennedy spoke of the “signature injuries” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury — and how veterans talking about and combating stigma for those injuries could normalize mental health issues throughout the country.
As combat veterans grow increasingly comfortable with seeking care, civilians may, too, he said.
“It’s not about an issue,” he said. “It’s about personally wanting to help the people we love.”
Carter was in Washington, D.C., to promote her book, “Within Our Reach,” about the basics of mental health care and how communities could better serve the 25 percent of U.S. adults who deal with anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders and other such issues every year.
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Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
VA to limit surgeries at some hospitals
Maybe it would have been great had the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon been for the troops we sent but aren't able to take care of when they come home! This is like bad news day for Veterans but most of the nation doesn't even have a clue what's happening to them. And no, you can't blame President Obama for all of it. This has been going on for years but no one seemed to care and now that it's still getting worse, most still don't even know.
VA to limit surgeries at some hospitals
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 16:15:33 EDT
In a move that could force some veterans to travel farther for surgery or have their operations at nonveterans hospitals, VA officials are imposing a new grading system on its 112 in-patient treatment facilities that will rank their abilities to do complex, intermediate or standard procedures.
Beginning May 11, no elective surgery will be done at a VA medical center that exceeds the rating, said Dr. William Gunner, the VA’s director of surgery.
Emergency surgery still could be done if required, he said.
The facilities immediately affected will be the medical centers in Alexandria, La.; Beckley, W.Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Illiana, Ill.; and Spokane, Wash., all of which received the lowest ranking and have been performing surgeries now judged to be beyond their capabilities.
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VA to limit surgeries at some hospitals
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