I spent a little while this afternoon talking to some veterans who are running a charity for disabled veterans. It was interesting, I've know for a while that returning veterans are getting a really raw deal, but we talked about it in more detail. The suicide rate among veterans has gotten to be way too high and very few people want to talk about it. There are a lot of factors involved, but I think one of them is our current society where if someone is having a rough time, the only response is "too bad" instead of "Is there anything I can do to help?". I expect quite a number of them were just ground up by the uncaring system where no one ever bothered to connect with them as human beings.
Yeah, what can I do? I can make a point of treating them as humans and make a real effort to listen to them.
