What may be driving our veterans to suicide could be our every day activities

I have often sat up many nights wondering why so many good men and women are taking their own lives after enduring so many traumas, drama, pain and suffering.  After they may have seen their best friend die right in front of them or held them in their arms as they took their last breath.  Whether it had to pick up pieces of brethren, hoping that by some miracle a Navy Corpsman/woman or some doctor can put them back together and make them whole like they were just minutes before.  Whether their dreams and nightmares are any similar to mine and make me not wish to sleep for the fear of dreaming.  I often wonder if I am personally doing enough to help my fellow brothers and sisters and why a country who says they so love their troops are not doing more.  I wonder these things and other things but the answer seems to come back to one solid clue.  We are losing the good souls not only because of the things I just mentioned but other things that no one wishes to admit to.  We know we are losing the good souls because they are not the ones who take the life of another American or visitor but only their own lives.  We know we are losing the good souls because the bad ones seem undaunted, unopposed and free to rule.  We know, but we still stay inactive, waiting on someone else to solve the problem so that they can be wrong instead of us or fail instead of us.  What is it that we are really afraid?  Is it succeeding or failing or maybe it is admitting that we are not doing enough and all past attempts was only a half measure.  A way to make us feel better about ourselves because to be frankly honest, we are all so very disgusted with who we are as a people but most importantly as an individual.

Well time to stand up and look ourselves more deeply than we have ever seen ourselves before.  Much of the reason we are losing good souls is about what has already been written above but a larger part of this entire scene is also those things we refuse to admit to, take responsibility for and will deny until we can no longer do so.  It’s similar to Jesus telling one of his disciples that before the rooster crows that same dedicated disciple would deny him.  This is what we seem to be doing right now, saying to anyone who will listen that we would never leave any fallen brother or sister behind as we step over their heads, on their hands and across their backs to escape any responsibility for anything. 

What is that may be driving our veterans to suicide more than what we spoke of prior, consider this, after believing that we are keeping our shores safe and protecting every single, breathing citizen of this nation safe and free, we return home after a successful mission and this is what we see.  We see a country that they love being ripped apart by its very citizens and we do not know what to do about it.  We see people running around claiming that they are patriots while destroy the very fabric of the nation that birthed, housed and protect them.  Their claims of loyalty and patriotism being of the highest order when any fool can see that only real and true definition of patriotism was and is defined by those we were and are still willing to sacrifice their very lives for it.  We see the ultimate sacrifice all of those that we watched die appearing pointless now and we see a few wearing that uniform those heroes wore disgracing it by fighting against those we were sworn to protect.  We see the division growing and over very minimal things like race, religion, west-side, east-side, wealth, power and money.  As if any of this stuff truly matters more than what we know this nation truly stands for. 

We, the few, who fight with less than nothing more than a desire to protect this nation and its citizens.  We, the few who rushes toward the sound of danger so that those that we protect don’t have to.  We do this not for fame or fortune but it is actually who we are.  We do this and after we return all that we are met with is seeing these same citizens treating this nation as its own private piggy bank and the citizens like a roll of toilet paper.  We see this and wonder, why we had to endure all that we did if the enemy that we were led to believe was on another continent when the real enemy was right here in our homes, towns, cities and backyard.  How do we as veteran protect this great country from itself?