I have been forgotten

[The Straight Story]

(I wrote this for our homeless vets)

I have wandered the streets, looking for a meal or a smoke. Perchance to dream a bottle of wine or some beer.

Someplace to sleep where I won't freeze.

Those who pass me each day cannot see my illness. I am not in a wheelchair or on crutches. I am not blind, maimed, or anything else which would be evident to them.

I look to them like they feel. Healthy, and fine. But I am not.

Mentally ill. Hooked on drugs like their kids are hooked on phonics. Chemically dependent as they are on oil and their comforts.

And I just want to get through another day.

Jobless, and I can't find one in my condition, I am looked at as lazy or a freak. The only help to be found is the little time of joy I can feel from a bottle.

I fought for our country, and saw things that shocked me so deeply I cannot function in normal ways anymore. While their kids were nestled in their beds, I was killing people daily, bombing and shooting. And seeing the dead kids and families. And it haunts me to no end.

So I find myself here, in a bottle, taking away the pain the only way I can. And you mock me as I sit dirty on the streets looking for a few bucks.

One day I was called a hero by those on the right, they thanked me for doing the job they would not do. They were the arm chair warriors, and I was the one they used for their war.

And now I am the one they call weak. Lazy. A bum. A drunk.

And while I risked my life and my family for their little game, they won't even toss me a quarter to get through my own war.

I am a homeless veteran. And my problems are ignored, but when I was needed for their war I was given a gun, ammo, and sent to do their dirty work. And when I face my own war, I am given nothing but a scowl and mocking.

You may claim people spit on vets returning from war, but you have spit on us every day since we got back and not lifted a hand to help us. You and your hate radio friends who see us as nothing more than lazy - well, we were not as lazy as you, we went to war and fought there - all the while you sat here cheering on the hate and death.

I was forgotten the day I got back and was not killing for you.

And you call me the bum.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Very powerful

kicked and recommended.

[blm]

9. Agree - the power is very REAL. You should circulate this to news organizations.

.

[Bluzmann57]

2. Great post!

How true it is. True and unfortunate. K and R.

[annabanana]

3. America's treatment of the men is shameful.

The gross profits that private corporations are making off the ruin of these forgotten soldiers is unforgivable.

[Megahurtz]

4. So Sad.

:cry: This problem alone is grounds for impeachment.

[Subdivisions]

5. Great post

[Straight Shooter]

6. Looking at the homeless through eyes of love.

Through Eyes of Love

On the corner of 5th and Main
The wino makes his home
He's been stepped on, he's been laughed at
And he's been left alone
Today he turned his face to me
To see if someone cared
Oh, it would make the angels weep
To read what's written there

Look at me through eyes of love
My heart heard him say
Give me shelter from the storm
Please don't turn away
If not for the grace of God
You would walk in my shoes
Look at me through eyes of love
See what I've been through.

=========

The first verse of a song I wrote several years ago, to remind myself to show compassion to others. You understand so well, Straight Story, that the deepest scars remain hidden, that the greatest fight a warrior wages is against the injustice of a society which sent him to a vainglorious war.

[blm]

21. This deserves another kick.

Can't help it.

[JeffR]

7. Brilliantly done, TSS

brilliant

[The Straight Story]

8. Thanks friend, and I LOVE that graphic in your sig

Scary, looks like something from a horror movie :)

[JeffR]

11. Thanks. As you mentioned to me before

the Saddam/Bush pic was a little past its prime since the one had the other killed.x(

[The Straight Story]

12. BTW - I snagged that image :)

Hope to use it on my web page when I get it fully functional (working on one for work so no time for my personal one). Did you create it??

[JeffR]

13. Yep

Feel free.

[The Straight Story]

14. You are the man

You need a gallery of your work!

I used to do some good adobe work back in the day....

[JeffR]

16. Thanks. It's addictive, isn't it?

And a hellacious way to waste hour after hour!

[The Straight Story]

17. When I met my wife

We lived in a garage behind someone's house in Tehachapi. We spent hours a night using adobe to colorize old civil war photos and make new creations. Been hooked ever since, and that was 8 years ago.

[JeffR]

18. You should post some civil war pics if you still have them

I'm still using version 5.5. I understand the CS versions are even more amazing. Someday...

[madokie]

10. It's so sad that this is true

[blm]

15. Kicking to keep REALITY on the front page.

.

[The Straight Story]

19. Thanks for the kick my friend

Always welcomed. Damned sad how our country is at times.

[blm]

20. And sad that your amazing post has slipped under the radar.

kick

[shance]

22. "When I was needed for their war, I was given a gun"

I hope you'll send this out for publication to newspapers.

So much of what you write makes people think below the surface.

Heart breakingly true and an act of true recognition to those who were asked to give everything and have gotten nothing in return.

Thank you again Straight for making me think about something I don't consider nearly enough until it's usually in my face.

[Rose Siding]

23. That reminds me of Roosevelt's sentiments in The Forgotten Man

snip>
It is said that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo because he forgot his infantry--he staked too much upon the more spectacular but less substantial cavalry. The present administration in Washington provides a close parallel. It has either forgotten or it does not want to remember the infantry of our economic army.

These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1932c.htm

[Alamom]

24. Very true and so sad....kick n/t

[omega minimo]

25. Not all of us are oblivious like that.

[The Straight Story]

26. It twas aimed at the rw mostly :)

DU'ers are a whole better breed ;)