Archive for October, 2009
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October 30, 2009The Forgotten
October 30, 2009JENKINS: At the moment, I’m really rather thirsty. (pause) I don’t suppose…
(LEWIS smiles and reaches into his trench coat, pulling out a bottle of whiskey. He places it in front of JENKINS. JENKINS looks overjoyed.)
JENKINS: Lewis, you are a gentleman, and a scholar sir. In fact I would go so far as to say, you are a thoroughly decent chap. ( pg. 7-8 “The Ghosts May Laugh”) full play
Above, is a quote from a script I’m currently reading called, “The Ghosts May Laugh.” The plot involves a few men all involved in World War I. Jenkins, one of the men is obviously a heavy drinker as continuously throughout the script, he is taking swigs from a bottle of whiskey. Most people would say that it’s common for a soldier to drink, and some may even go as far to say that it’s ok. Drinking among fellow soldiers can be a common event to in a way, get yourself away from the war, or forget about it for a period of time. But nowadays, there’s a lot of support given to soldiers while they’re fighting and when they return home to steer them away from developing bad habits in ways of coping with the experience of war. But, others are sometimes forgotten. People who might not be fighting on the front, but experiencing their own war in their hearts. These people are the children of those fighting. The rates are getting higher and higher for children of military moms and dads to develop substance abuse problems, and something needs to be done about it. This is a problem I don’t think enough people are recognizing, because a lot of the emphasis is put on the soldiers specifically. But, we can’t forget those other family members who are also very negatively affected by the war as well. Kimberly Hefling from the Associated Press stated in her article, “Anti-drug Campaign Targets Military Families”, that,
A key risk factor for children in military families is that teens are more likely to experiment with alcohol or drugs during times of transition — and many military children have experienced multiple transitions as their parents mobilized for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan on top of ordinary military re-locations, which happens on average every three years.
Steve Pasierb, the president of the New York-based partnership for Drug-Free America, also described how every time an adolescent has to move, it’s a new transition that is introduced thus creating another time when a child can fall into substance abuse.
So what can you do? As a parent, communication is key. If you can’t talk to your kids or vice versa, you’re gonna have problems. A women, Amy Garcia, had to leave her 14 year-old son at home for a time while she went to help her wounded husband heal enough to come back home. While away, Jim (her son) seemed very happy and ok, she said. Come to find out, he had developed an addiction while she was away and is currently in a 12-step program and on his way to getting healthy again.
The point is, we can’t forget about the children, the wives, the husbands or the parents of soldiers fighting for our country. Even though they aren’t the ones fighting in the war, each and every one of them has their own battle to fight every day while their loved one is away.
“Ant-drug Campaign Targets Military Families”
Kimberly Hefling– The associate press
Full Article
Can you hear me now?
October 29, 2009Currently I’m reading a memoir titled “Survival In Auschwitz”, by a man named Primo Levi. He was an Italian Jew captured and sent to Auschwitz during World War II. As most would be, he is extremely confused about the whole situation and struggles to find a reason why this is happening to him. He dreams of being home and spending time with his family, which one may think would be an escape for him, a chance to remember what life used to be like. But for Primo, this is not the case. His dreams are as follows:
“It is an intense pleasure, physical, inexpressible, to be at home, among friendly people, and to have so many things recount. But I cannot help noticing that my listeners do not follow me. In fact, they are completely indifferent. They speak confusedly of other things among themselves, as if I was not there. My sister looks at me, gets up and goes away without a word.”(pg. 42)
I’m a firm believer in dreams having major symbolism and that they help you to see what you’re actually thinking if you’ve maybe been pushing something away. I saw this as Primo feeling like no one is going to hear his story, or if they do, they aren’t going to believe the horrific things he’s going to tell them. I know the Holocaust is a fact, and I still have a hard time believing some of the things that went down in these camps. I started looking through my google reader to find something, anything about soldiers or people involved in the war speaking about how they enjoy the fact that they can share their story through blogs and came up empty handed, until I came across a post entitled, “Worlds Oldest Known Military Blogger…” A man by the name of Solomon Fein, is a World War II veteran, and has a very lengthy blog full of war stories. I was immediately intrigued, clicked the link and found this:
“I am stationed in Ghent, Belgium.
It’s May 1945.
Hurray!
The War is over!
It’s August,1945!
We get leave to go to Paris.”(full post)
I found a ton of different posts, all leading up to D-Day. Posts full of first hand accounts by Solomon Fein. I know, we have milblogging now so we’re able to see soldiers accounts straight from the source all the time. But I have never come across a blog from a World War II veteran. I started to think, what if we had milblogging during WWII? Would the concentration camps gone as far as they did? Would the war have gone on for as long as it did? I don’t believe it would have. But maybe. Looking back to the early 1940′s, some Americans might have looked at a milblog from someone fighting over in Europe, and not believed a word they said about the awful treatment happening to the Jews. Although blogging probably wouldn’t have been accessible to prisoners of a concentration camp, if it was available after release, Levi, and others would have been able to share their stories immediately to the whole world, and in mass. Countless accounts all having the same gruesome details would have definitely caught people’s attention.
Yes, we are hearing their stories now. But does it really matter?
Solomon Fein’s Blog
Guilt Ridden
October 20, 2009I just finished reading the graphic novel, “Maus,” By :Art Spiegelman. This novel tells the story of Art’s father, Vladek and how he survived the holocaust, and Auschwitz specifically. Through countless interview type conversations with his father, Art is able to tell the whole story from when Vladek was a young man to his death. After trying to cope with Vladek’s death, Art goes to visit his psychiatrist who starts to discuss with Art why he might be feeling so upset. After realizing that he can only remember arguing with his father, rather than looking up to him, Art’s psychiatrist, Pavel, suggests this:
“Maybe your father needed to show that he was always right — that he could always SURVIVE– because he felt GUILTY about surviving.”
This comment made me start to think about myself and recent situations with our country. This feeling of guilt after losing a loved one, or friend is a fairly common issue and actually quite serious. I came across an article from the New York Times that explained this issue very well for me. In the article, “After a Death, the Pain that Doesn’t Go Away“, a Dr. Shear, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, explains just how serious this can be and has been for numerous people around the country. The name for this extreme form of grieving can be called, complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder. Being affected with this disorder can cause a person’s life to be put on hold, for many years even. Some might not be able to leave the house, go to work, or even celebrate birthdays, in the belief that because their late loved one cannot celebrate their birthday, why should they? This disorder has become so prevalent in our society over the past few years that it’s one of the few disorders being considered to be added to the DSM-V, the American Psychiatric Association’s handbook for diagnosing mental disorders, come 2012. This is crazy to me because in doing so, this would be a disorder that someone can be evaluated for and required to be given services through the state in which they leave. Just like someone could be diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, someone could be diagnosed with, and given treatment for Prolonged Grief Disorder.
In trying to figure out a way to connect this to current issues, I thought about how many people could be affected by this in terms of 9/11 or the Iraq war going on right now. Those people who called in to work on September 11th and weren’t killed in the attack. To think about what must go through their heads when thinking about this. The constant question of Why? Why not me? Why was I spared?
I also started to think of a personal connection to this disorder. After losing my Mom when I was 16, there was a constant question of Why? Why did this happen to me? Why couldn’t have been one of my friend’s mom’s who to me, wasn’t as good of a mom as mine. All of these questions, constantly running through my head. I could have easily fallen into this path of grieving so enormously that I didn’t go to school, I didn’t socialize with me friends, and didn’t want to do anything that would remind me of my mom. But for me, this just wasn’t an option. I was lucky to have amazingly supportive friends, and a wonderful family that pulled me through and helped keep me strong. I believe that having that amazing support system is why I made it through as well as I did. From my experience with grief, I definitely agree that Prolonged Grief Disorder is a real disorder that can be helped with treatment, if anything just support. If someone loses a loved one and has no one to talk to, or no one forcing them to talk about the loss and deal with it, then there is no guarantee that this person is going to make it through. Vladek shows clear signs of Prolonged Grief Disorder, probably not only affected by surviving Auschwitz but from the suicide of his wife as well. It is my belief that if this was a recognized disorder back in the 1940′s that survivors of WWII and the concentration camps would have had a higher rate or recovery. This disorder needs to be added to the DSM-V so that people can start getting the help that they need.
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October 9, 2009Almost one hundred years ago, Vera Brittain wrote to her lover Roland,
“This is grand, but still it isn’t enough for this world, whatever it may be like ‘when we’re beyond the sun.’ The earthly and obvious part of me longs to see and touch you and realize you as tangible.” (pg. 174)
For Vera and Roland, letters, or “snail mail” was the only way for them to communicate with each other. days, weeks, months might go by before someone got a letter back. And this was the same story for all the other girlfriends, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons, who had family fighting in the war. During World War I, this was the only choice anyone had to stay in touch with their soldiers. But, today, that is not the case. Not only do we have e-mail, which can be sent and received in a matter of seconds, but we have skype, iChat, facebook, twitter and blogging. You would think that these would all be wonderful advances in our ways of communicating, being able to see your loved one, face to face can make such a difference versus seeing their words down on a piece of paper. But to some, these advances aren’t all that great. There’s a valid argument for both sides, I think at least. In a recent article by Federal Computer Week, Ali Manouchehri, a chief executive officer for MetroStar systems stated,
“Adversaries with poor intent can target federal workers by knowing their routine through following them through a social media outlet.”
Privacy would be a popular concern among government and military officials. You don’t want a soldier spilling information over a nationally read Twitter update. But does this mean we have to eliminate a soldiers use of any of these tools altogether? The defense department doesn’t think so. Although some services have banned these types of sites, they say they’re going to allow it for their soldiers and families to communicate. Personally, I think soldiers have the right to use what ever kind of communication they see fit, and, if they feel like writing something that might not be “okay” by their officials, so be it. It’s probably something people need to hear anyways.
Federal Computer Week Article
Defense to allow troops, family members to use social network sites
