“You Could Be So Much More Relevant”

Yesterday I wrote what I hoped was a funny little fantasy about how I had in essence made Johnny Depp who he is today by turning down offers of roles and kicking them over to him. I felt much better after writing it.  You see, most of my time and emotional energy is spent trying to figure out how to do something good for the world and trying not to just dissolve into a huge pool of depression over the reality of how they really are.  Americans continue to vote against their best interest, we’re involved in an imperial takeover of the world while disguising it as a myriad of other things, I actually have to listen to people debate over whether I should have equal rights and whether or not the queers who are actually willing to give their lives in service to the imperial takeover of the world should have to do so while lying about who they really are.  For helping teach kids to read, I make $10.50/hour.  To do what he does, Jamie Dimon makes $40 Million.  I work my ass off trying to keep this house clean and support Adam as best I can in hopes that he will someday make it through medical school and we can have a little bit more comfortable life.  I have PTSD and I’m wickedly depressed about half the time.  When I wrote the blog about Johnny Depp I just wanted to take a few minutes to forget all the troubles of the world and give myself and hopefully some of my readers a chuckle.

I got one comment on the blog:  “you could be so much more relevant”

“YOU COULD BE  SO MUCH MORE RELEVANT!?”  Well excuse the fuck out of me Miss Bitch for taking a goddamn minute off of trying to save the fucking universe to take a breath and try not to feel so horrible.  Excuse me for not regurgitating the same horrible bullshit that bathes the “news” channels and blogosphere.  Please do forgive me for not writing about something that you deem “relevant.”  Actually, it wasn’t my writing that she said wasn’t relevant, it was ME.  So one more time you (insert misogynistic pejorative here), please do excuse me for being me, trying to survive this hellish existence with a little humor.  I’m afraid I’ve been committing that crime for quite a few years now.  It’s kept the gun out of my mouth so far.  I’m so sorry you were offended at my “irrelevance.”  Might I suggest you switch over to Glenn Beck or Amy Goodman depending on you taste?  I’m sure they would never offer anything so drool as my pitiful offering of yesterday.

You want something relevant?  As of today American has spent over $1.096 Trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan. 5773 American servicemembers have lost their lives in those two occupations and that doesn’t count the thousands who’ve committed suicide since they came home. The numbers of innocent Iraqi and Afghan citizens we’ve killed can only be estimated but conservative numbers are in the hundreds of thousands. Between 20% to 50% of all servicemembers deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan have suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This means between 350,000 to 900,000 Iraq and Afganistan servicemembers have suffered or are suffering from PTSD. Half of the servicemembers with a probable diagnosis of  PTSD or major depression have sought help from a health professional, but most have not received minimally adequate treatment.Nearly 20% of servicemembers are taking some kind of psychiatric drug. Among servicemembers currently experiencing combat, 12% in Iraq and 17% in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping meds. Yet, the military has no way of tracking specific servicemembers prescription drug use in combat. A third of soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq say they can’t see a mental health professional when they need to. The Department of Defense cannot establish that servicemembers are mentally fit to deploy or ensure that it can accurately assess mental health conditions when they return. Even when a servicemember is deemed ineligible for deployment by a military mental health professional, a commanding officer can waive this determination and force the servicemember to deploy with severe trauma. 7. 15% of women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced sexual assault or harassment. 20% of the women using the VA services have reported Military Sexual Trauma (MST). Post-deployment costs to taxpayers resulting from PTSD and major depression range from $4 to $6.2 billion, depending on the cost of the more than 2,100 servicemembers’ lives lost to suicide. By 2008, nearly one third of servicemembers had served 2 tours to Iraq or Afganistan, while one tenth had served 3 tours.  Today over 11,000 had served 6 tours. Each tour greatly increases a servicemember’s chances of PTSD. Almost 30% of troops on their third deployment suffer from serious mental-health problems. Suicide rates among active-duty troops, are twice as high as that of the civilian population, and veterans with PTSD are 6 times more likely to attempt suicide and as of yesterday, the Obama administration has been doing its best to revive “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” trying to pass the buck to congress saying “Congress made the law, congress has to repeal it” as if there was no such thing as a balance of powers in our form of government and it has never been the burden of the courts to step in when the other two branches support unconstitutional laws!  As of today, more than 14,000 American servicemembers have been discharged under this asinine, inane and archaic policy. And during the time it took you to read this blog, someone in America was raped.

Relevant enough for you?