Reclaiming Remembrance: 'I thought it was a white event'
BBC
Alpha Ceasay
November 12, 2017
"I think it reduces hate between communities and helps community cohesion. If soldiers of different faiths could fight side by side 100 years ago, why can't we get on as community groups now?" Dr. Ifran Malik
Remembrance serves as a way to honour those who gave their lives for Britain in conflict, including during the two World Wars, but do all those who fought get the recognition they deserve?
Muslim soldiers offering prayers during World War One
It was a conversation with a patient researching the Commonwealth contribution to World War One that sparked Dr Irfan Malik's interest in finding out about his ancestors.
"Before I knew how much the Indians had contributed, growing up I thought it was very much a white war," he said.
"We weren't taught about the Indians in school."
It's a sentiment researchers at think tank British Future regularly come across in their efforts to highlight Muslims' participation in World War One and Two.
Some 1.3 million Indian soldiers who fought in the WW1, of whom 400,000 were Muslim. In World War Two, about 2.5 million Indian soldiers took part, including 600,000 Muslims.
If you are having a bad time, take a look at his face, then read all he's gone through. You want some inspiration? You want some hope that life can change if our outlook does? Here it is!
Afghan war veteran who lost all his limbs learns to live with new arms THE FREE LANCE–STAR By KRISTIN DAVIS November 12, 2017
He was a quadruple amputee, one of five from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it wasn’t long before a team of doctors visited Walter Reed to talk to him about an arm transplant—attaching the arms of a dying person onto what remained of his.
Peter Cihelka The Free Lance Star
After the 16-hour surgery, after the nerve blockers dented pain so torturous he nearly asked the doctors to undo all that he’d pinned his hopes on, John Peck looked down at his hands and wondered about the man they’d come from.
A tiny white scar, narrow as a hair’s breadth, ran like a dash across his right wrist. He turned them over. No calluses on the palms or fingers. The man who’d given him what a bomb blast took away had not played guitar or gardened or labored with his hands.
Peck lay in a hospital bed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, 500 miles from his home in Spotsylvania County where the wait for a double-arm transplant had dragged on for more than two years.
In the weeks after he was approved for the surgery in 2014 and placed on a waiting list, Peck’s cellphone had become like a limb itself, never leaving his side. But weeks turned to months and soon a year had passed with no call. As a second year approached, he no longer clung to it in the same way.
Sometimes, he even wheeled himself outside without it. read more here
This Veteran Lost 2 Limbs in Afghanistan. Now He's an Award-Winning Bodybuilder Men's Health Stacey Leasca November 11, 2017
“I had a couple of bad days being in the hospital because I'd worked so hard to get into Special Forces, and that’s what I wanted to do, and that was ripped away from me.” Jared Bullock
Photograph courtesy of Jared Bullock
While Bullock’s fitness has always been a key part of his life, he now has a new, more focused approach. That’s thanks in part to the help of Home Depot and the Gary Sinise Foundation, which built a home gym for Bullock and packed it with equipment he can use and adapt for his new body.
Jared Bullock isn’t the kind of guy you’d want to compete against in, well, anything. The rugged-looking redhead from Illinois will beat you without question at every event, every time, because he simply doesn’t understand the concept of failure.
Bullock, who joined the military after 9/11, served two tours in Iraq before beginning training for Special Forces. On Oct. 13, 2013, he received a Green Beret and was deployed to Afghanistan on an A-team.
Now, Bullock’s sharing what he’s learned. Each year he works with amputee children at a summer camp, showing them techniques they can use to stay healthy and to ensure they don’t gain asymmetrical strength, which can hurt them in the long run. read more here
6 Women Veterans Recall Their Military Service: 'It Was Just The Thing To Do'
NPR
Isabel Dobrin
Jennifer Kerrigan
November 11, 2017
"I went home that night, and my mom had life insurance policies for all the kids ... and I told her I needed the number for my life insurance policy, and she said 'What in the world do you need that for?' and I said, 'I joined the Navy today,' and she flipped. But it was the best thing I did, joining the Navy." Helen Sadowski, US Navy
There are more than 21 million military veterans in the country, according to a 2016 report from the Department of Veterans Affairs. About 2 million of those are women.
In commemoration of Veterans Day, NPR spoke with six women veterans living at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., to find out what their service means to them.
What We Left Out of Veterans Days Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos November 12, 2017 Yesterday was Veterans Day, but for us, we knew that they are a veteran everyday of the year. As for us, we're fighting the battles after they fight for the country...and each other. They get parades, we get mood swings. They get pins, we get canceled plans. They get coins, we get pay the bill 24-7. They get thanked for their service, we get to witness what that service did to them and wonder what we can do to ever make it up to them. I wasn't planning on writing this early this morning. I was listening to an Oldies countdown when Donna Summer's "Heaven Knows" came on. I thought about watching the Orlando Veterans Day parade for the first time on TV, instead of being at it or in it. My back isn't doing very well right now, so I opted to take it easy. It was also a choice made out of heartache. The theme of this year's parade was PTSD. For the 13 years I've lived in Florida, it has been one rejection after another. It didn't seem to matter much that I had invested over three decades in working on healing it. No one wants to hear from the old lady. They only want the younger ones. The worst thing is, they don't want to help the older veterans, even though 65% of the veterans committing suicide, are from my generation. Yes, men and women just like the one I fell in love with so long ago. When we met I was young, like the generation everyone talks about helping. Back then I didn't have the luxury of easy answers in the palm of my hand. We didn't deal in what was easy for anyone. We dealt with what was working. We wanted to know how to save our families the painful choice of walking away. I don't know about you, but once I understood what PTSD was, there was no way in hell I was about to let a man like him leave with that depth of love inside of him. While you may be thinking it isn't the way you thought it would be, maybe you should be thinking about the way it could be. I can assure you, it can all be so much better.
Take whatever you think you know from social media and all the folks running about the country screaming about a number that has been proven false, and forget about all of it. Safe bet it has done you absolutely no good at all. Pretty much, it seems to be doing more harm than helping any of our veterans stay here. Read the percentages from the VA suicide report. The numbers are wrong but it shows the percentage of the veterans they do know about.
Try something new, like investing the time to learn about what will help the ones we love. You won't regret it, especially when it is just the two of you to live still standing by their side.
Down inside (down inside)
Don't get caught with foolish pride
(Don't get caught with foolish pride)
Blow the other things aside (things aside)
It's only you and me
(You and me, you and)
Believe in us (believe in us)
We were always meant to be
(Always meant to be)
Me for you and you for me (you for me)
Till eternity ('til eternity)
Donna Summer
If you really love him/her, then learn what is harming them. If you really know how rare their love is, then fight the stuff that is trying to turn them into someone you don't want to be around. Remind them why you loved them and that you know, under all the pain they try to hide, they are still in there.
Stop wanting things to be better and do the work to make it good.
