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My father was a medic in Vietnam and I was born with severe birth defects due to his exposure to the chemical "Agent Orange" (something else the government tried to cover up after the war). I have a half brother that was born with a deformed foot and my sister was born upside down, but I suffered the most severe effects. My father also suffered from PTSD, most of which I didn't find out until after I grew up and my mother decided to tell me years later.
My parents divorced when I was six, this I remember, what I didn't know was that this was largely due to his PTSD. My mother told me stories of how she had found him sitting naked in the bath tub threatening to cut his dick off, or how he would disappear for days at a time and when he was finally found, he wouldn't remember who he was, or of the time he threatened my mother and sister with a knife while waving the bible in the air, all while I was asleep in the next room (my sister actually remembers this). My father was a brilliant man, he could draw, I remember watching him at the kitchen table drawing a picture of Jesus and thinking at the time "I could never do that". He loved motorcycles, he would take me and my sister for rides on his and he even converted an old Honda to a Harley on his own. He was an intellectual, he studied psycology under the author of the book "I'm OK, Your OK", and worked with mental health patients after the war.
He also had his quirks that I saw. He would get angry at little things, break our toys for apparently no reason, threw the dog against the fence and it bled out it's ear, all of which I'm sure was due to his PTSD. I am not telling you this to evoke sympathy for me or my family, I am telling you this because for too long the government has gotten to aviod taking responsibility for the messes they make. I don't want any child to have to go through the same things I had to go through, no four year old should have to see her father threatening her and her mother with a knife.
This administration learned nothing from Vietnam, not surprising since none of them served over there, as a result, they have recreated the same problems Vietnam did. We must not let this destructive cycle continue into another generation. We must not let any more brilliant minds be destroyed by a war based on a lie and callous politicians whose only concern is their own "legacy".
