Lives at Risk, Lives Lost

Rehtaeh Parsons

When I was a child, if things got to much to deal with out in the world of school etc., I knew I could get a break from it at home.  Home was a place of refuge - a place that gave you a break from the strain and stress of living among your peers.  It wasn't a place where your enemies could invade.  Those days are gone now for most kids.  In some cases, the digital world has enhanced their lives.  In others, it has not!  This is about the enemy that can storm the gates without you knowing. 

Veteran Suicides

We ask them to do unthinkable things in defense of others who in large part don't want their help. We train them to fight, to kill, to defend, but, not, how to cope.  A veteran suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is more likely to be discharged than treated.  
What are we, as a country, thinking; to put so much on their shoulders and then abandon them as so much spent chattel? 
We've had 4 suicides of veterans here in Canada in the past week and by all accounts there are 18 a day in the US.  So, our American neighbours are no better at managing the repatriation of our damaged members than we are - not surprising.  
There's no glory in treating the after affects of our carnage.  The highway of heroes presents with people of all stripes when a soldier is killed in battle and is repatriated. But, not so much our damaged brothers, sisters, children or parents when they somehow manage to make through atrocities we can only imagine.  What do we do for those who have been beaten, broken and forever damaged, either in body or mind from being witness to unspeakable horrors?
We should be demanding our troops get all the support they need upon return.  
Not only that, they should be receiving the same kind of pension packages that elected politicians award themselves. We owe them more than other civil servants - they risk more, they suffer more and they do it to ensure our way of life is not compromised.  And, they do not choose to go where they go, it's just follow orders.  
Let's get real - our veterans need at least as much consideration as their political bosses.   
And then, once we have taken care of all those who saw more than they should ever have to in this lifetime and suffered unspeakable mental anguish; let's go back to being the peacekeepers.  It's more difficult, it's more lasting and it's not going to put our troops in mental peril as they are now!