I wrung my hands throughout the piece, but the authors predicted my and countless others' feelings of helplessness. They wisely included a sidebar on the last page, aptly entitled, "HOW YOU CAN HELP." (The following info is also in a box on the web version of the article linked in the previous paragraph.) Here's the skinny:
HOW YOU CAN HELP
These charities were highly rated by multiple philanthropy watchdog groups:
- Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (fallenheroesfund.org): Built a topnotch rehab facility at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas that opened this year. Similar projects on the horizon.
- Fisher House Foundation (fisherhouse.org): Constructs housing spaces at medical facilities so injured vets can be with their families while they heal.
- Armed Services YMCA (asymca.org): Gives vets YMCA access, where they can do physical rehab. Offers paying YMCA jobs to help vets get reacclimated.
No matter your politics, surely you can find somehow to help those who are suffering pointlessly.
4 comments:
Saw something on the news last night about a wounded vet who rehabbed at Walter Reed... which of course is being closed. Thanks for the links!
Thank you so much got posting this.
Christa, it is shameful what some of the patients there have to endure. I didn't know WR was being closed, though. The whole thing? Yikes!
Cecilie, I know this is close to your heart. ((HUGS)) You are welcome.
I SAW A CITIZEN THROW UP
I saw a citizen throw up
His hands and with disgust
Feebly declare: "What can I do?
The world is so unjust."
Quoth he: "This unjust war as waged
In my name is a sin,
But I can hardly influence
That fear to lose my skin;
Besides I am so much in debt,
You´d understand it too:
They would retaliate, and so
There´s nothing I can do.
I am a lowly peon, with
No power in the slightest,
So passive I but wait and hope,
My finances the tightest."
So he went on about how he,
A solitary person,
Could hardly act, "while all of us
But watch the matters worsen.
What one might do, I fear," he said,
"Would not have an effect,
Save we, so many as aligned
In umbrage, wills collect.
Together, if we all uprose
So we might influence,
But singly, it is difficult,
So nothing dare commence."
I said: "It is not what you do
Though it be large or small
In its effect--what matters is
You do something at all."
Post a Comment