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'You Saved My Life' . . . A Reason to Keep Reporting
After six years of war in Iraq, it is easy to get exhausted and depressed -- to think that all your repeated exposures to the trauma of war are for nothing, that you are screwing yourself up for next to no money for no reason -- then something happens that suddenly gives all your work meaning, that gives you the strength to continue.
Such an experience happened Tuesday night, when one of the veterans I've covered hugged me and told me I saved his life.
Two years ago, got a call from James Eggemeyer, a homeless Iraq war veteran on Florida's Atlantic Coast. Eggemeyer had back and shoulder injuries from his service in the Army as well as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but he had been waiting for months for his VA disability check. While he was waiting on the VA, James lost his home. He lost contact with his son. He had to start sleeping out of his truck. Because he was popping so many pain pills, he crashed his truck. He was in the downward spiral that has become all too familiar to for our Iraq war veterans -- one that all too often ends in suicide...
I covered Eggemeyer's story, writing about it for Inter Press News Service on Pacifica Radio, and in my book The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans.
Apparently, someone who read the story called Democratic US Senator Ben Nelson of Florida, who was so irate about the disgrace of a homeless Iraq war veteran in Stuart, Florida that he personally called both the Veteran Service Officer who was helping Eggemeyer and the VA itself, demanding his claim be settled. Shortly thereafter, James received a 100 percent disability rating from the VA and a retroactive benefits check giving him money back to the date when he first made his claim.
On Tuesday, I met James for the first time since my story ran. He is living on the outside of Atlanta now, and I was town on my book tour doing a speaking gig at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
James told me he is now stable, living in a small home he can afford with his modest disability check. More importantly, he told me, his monthly disability check has caused his depression and the symptoms of his PTSD to ease because he now can sleep safely at night. He has been able to buy back the prized possessions he was forced to pawn. He has reconnected with his son, and while he is still not as whole he was before he went to Iraq he is stable, on the road to both physical and mental recovery.
When I met James before my speaking engagement at the Carter Center, he hugged me and told me my coverage literally saved his life. And he said the same to me in his truck on our way to grab coffee after my talk, and again when we said goodbye to each other.
Back at my hotel room Tuesday night, I began to cry -- though I couldn't figure out exactly why -- I think the tears were partially tears of joy in recognition of the power of journalism to change and even save lives. But behind the tears was another feeling too, one that's more complicated. Why does it take a news story and a US Senator to get a wounded veteran the support he needs to step back from homelessness and suicide?
I also know that while one life has been saved, there are so many more.
- Posted in
10 Comments so far
Show AllThat it takes a news story and a call from a Senator to get a man what he earned is beyond shame. How many others are hidden in the shadows?
Thousands, at least.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Unfortunately I believe you are right. I pray Gen. Shenseki is the man he appears to be.
To damn many!
It greatly saddens me to think of the many vets that could be saved by just a little showing of concern and empathy. My uncle(Korean vet)killed himself in large part because of the inability to get help from the VA. My wife's grandfather was wounded in WW1 in the foot. When he was getting treatment at the VA hospital near Chicago, he was told that the VA started a new policy of denying treatment for any wound that they thought might be self inflicted. He went home and did the only thing that he could do to not be a undue burden on his young wife and two young kids. He hanged himself in his basement. There are reportedly twice as many of my fellow Viet Nam vets who have committed suicide than are on the Wall. I have been around some Iraq vets who have attempted suicide and some who do what could be labeled as life threatening acts. After getting help from other vets, they appear to be getting their life back. So many are calling out for help, but are not getting it. Worse, many are being forgotten and treated as they are not worth anything. I am reminded of Billy Joel's lyrics in his song Christmas in Fallujah.
"It's Christmas in Fallujah
And no one gives a damn
I'm fading from your memory
So I'm just as good as dead"
Great posting. Absolutely great comment.
How blatant and utterly amoral that this outrage is repeated every day in a country based upon self-righteous claims of Justice For All. A government that blithely ignores the broken bodies and minds of our honorable service members who have given far more than their full measure of devotion, while sparing no effort to suck more patriotic youth into the maw of the ravenous war machine, will ultimately fall (fail) like all soulless Empires.
Great, sad, enraging article. Keep up the pressure!
We are all trash to the neocon elite.
These reporters are risking their lives, doing THEIR jobs.
We need to do OUR jobs, learning how to be effective in organizing and doing it in every congressional district. Specifically, for starters:
1. Are we targeting someone who actually makes the decision? Who is the person with the power to decide? (Hint, it's not the guy driving by in a car on the street, and not the police, and not the media.)
2. Are we prepared to force them to communicate with us? ...
3. Are we actually asking the person to do something specific? ...
4. Is it a winnable step? It doesn’t have to have a greater than 50% chance of being won, just a reasonable chance, suggests Roger Fisher in his books. ...
5. Have we thoroughly prepared for this? .... Fisher’s book, Getting Ready to Negotiate: The Getting To Yes Workbook has a full packet of additional worksheets, including one right up front for assessing where you should start. ... Fisher "Beyond Machiavelli"
6. Do we know what to do after they “say no?” I find that the approach of wanting to be heard is sometimes followed by quitting after they say no. ... Ury "Getting Past No"
7. Are we monitoring and documenting their responses and using them as teaching tools? ...
8. Are we running our own meetings with them? ... Trapp, "Basics of Organizing"
9. Are we giving our members the chance to “be there” during negotiations? ...
10. Are we using methods that have been proven, that can win victory steps? ...