As I read Sunday’s Washington Post there was an article that caught my eye: The War Inside.

(For the one page version click http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061600866_pf.html)

This story is about the men we have sent to fight for us, to risk their lives, in many, many cases to return missing arms, legs, eyes, disfigured for the remainder of their lives, and even to return dead in a flag draped coffin we are not allowed to see.

These men have returned with severe mental challenges.

And, as this story documents, the system can’t even keep their records straight.

Ignore the military big shots who think that real men don’t have mental problems.

Ignore the bureaucrats who want to control costs by denying diagnosis.

The system you and I spend billions for can’t even keep their records straight.

This story is part of a series the Washington Post is doing.

As I read it I realize that things are this way, in part, because of me. Because I didn’t help hard enough to elect other people. Because I didn’t write and call often enough those we did elect. I can blame the government, but I elect the government.

This story is a story of the embarrassingly shameful way you and I are treating these men.

How did I let this happen?

It seems that we do not like people to sit.

We dislike it so much, that we work over and over and over to be sure that people do not sit.

See this collection of photos.

I am strongly opposed to the conflict (”war”) in Iraq and what I believe to be the politics of deception that took us there.

But that said, for me, opposing the fight and supporting the troops are not opposites. For me they are parallel, synchronous thoughts and feelings.

There is a video on YouTube which was put together by Lizzie Palmer (with some help).

Lizzie is 15 years old. She uses the YouTube handle of FlutieCutie.

Here is some info about Lizzie
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=FlutieCutie

She has made many “tribute” videos about the military.

This particular one, uploaded more than six months ago (12.Nov.2006) is experiencing lots of internet fame. In part because of it’s appearances on conservative blogs and lists, it has now been viewed more than 6.6 Million times.

But it isn’t just on conservative blogs and lists. Like I said, I oppose the war.

Frequently, the young remind us of what we knew when we were young … and what we fail to remember in the hub-ub of adultness.

I recommend you get a box of tissues.

Large version
http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

Smaller screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0

There is a story in the news today that will be completely new for most people. It is not totally new to me … I have tracked it for about two years.

If you go to http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hmemb.asp you will see a list of the religious emblems that the Department of Veterans Affairs has approved for headstones.

Many different emblems are permitted. These include a generic Christian cross, most of the individual Christian denominations, Hebrew, Buddhist, Native American, Bahai, Muslim, Hindu, Konko-Kyo Faith, Sufism, Tenrikyo, Seicho-No-Ie, Eckankar, and even Humanism and Athiesm.

Today, at number 37, after a request that was made about 10 years ago, and a lawsuit that has dragged on for almost 2 years, the symbol of the Wicca religion was finally added.

In the meantime, adding 6 other symbols took a few weeks each.

The New York Times reports

There are 1,800 Wiccans in the armed forces, according to a Pentagon survey cited in the suit, and Wiccans have their faith mentioned in official handbooks for military chaplains and noted on their dog tags.

So, why did it take so long?

I’m not sure. But the appearance is that someone who had strong influence over the VA worked to prevent it.

I’m not sure who that was, but the New York Times also reports

In reviewing 30,000 pages of documents from Veterans Affairs, Americans United said, it found e-mail and memorandums referring to negative comments President Bush made about Wicca in an interview with “Good Morning America” in 1999, when he was governor of Texas. The interview had to do with a controversy at the time about Wiccan soldiers’ being allowed to worship at Fort Hood, Tex.

“I don’t think witchcraft is a religion,” Mr. Bush said at the time, according to a transcript.

Humanists? Yes. Athiests? Yes. Wiccans? No.

That “no” is finally a “yes”.

My first encounter with environmental study was in 1971. In that summer, and again in the summer of 1972, I was privileged to participate in the Clear Creek Basin Water Quality Study. I had just graduated from Clear Creek High School. That summer, for 8 weeks, we collected water samples in Clear Lake and Clear Creek, the mixed water estuary across from the Johnson Space Center (then the Manned Spacecraft Center) south of Houston.

We showed the impact of the tides on the salinity of the lake and creek. And our temperature measurements showed the impact of the cooling water discharge of the Houston Lighting and Power (HL&P) Webster power plant on the lake, elevating the temperature and, for example, potentially encouraging elevated levels of algae growth, sediment and water pollution.

Our groups received Presidential citations both years for this work. And I felt proud about it then, and, looking back, still do.

That said, I’m not sure it made much difference. I learned a lot about pollution, and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and laboratory techniques for measuring pollution.

But in real terms, I don’t think our studies had any impact.

The power plant is gone now. It became part of Texas Genco, a subsidiary of Centerpoint Energy, and was recently demolished to make way for a 330 acre subdivision.

Clear Lake is still not even close to clear.

And some thirty-six (36) years later, we continue to pollute the soil, water and air, destroy the rain forest, threaten entire species and heat the planet.