Post Traumatic Stress or Personality Disorder????

Did you all know or are you aware that the administration and the military are screwing the soldiers in the middle east war just like they screwed the soldiers in Viet Nam?

To discharge any of our soldiers with a medical problem, specifically Post Traumatic Stress, they would have to pay for the soldiers' treatment. To avoid paying any money for this condition, they are discharging thousands of our men and women with a finding of Personality Disorder, a less than honorable discharge and no need to pay for their medical treatment. These soldiers have to pay for their own treatment and most of them cannot.

The administration (Bush) keeps sending our soldiers into battle, using them up, and then throwing them out without any hope for help when they become damaged because of what they experienced. Even those that can somehow qualify for medical "care" by the VA do not receive the best care. Here in the Phoenix area, the VA hospital has been cited more than once for providing substandard care to the vets. I don't doubt it's happening in many of the VA facilities. That's because our government is not providing the VA with what they need to provide quality care.

So, what has Bush been doing with those HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS that he's spent since he started this war against the better judgment of the UN? Why wasn't/isn't there enough to care for our damaged vets...vets who went to Bush's war at his command? Where do you think all that money went? How can anyone spend that much money in just such a short period of time? Scientists estimate there are more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. What Bush spent on his war is the equivalent of more than TWO BILLION DOLLARS for each of those stars. Look up at the stars on a clear night and try to comprehend just how much money that is! And the administration cannot and will not use any of it on so many of our vets who really need and deserve the medical care.

Why does anyone still support Bush and his administration? And he's getting away with it. He won't even have to resolve the problems he created. He's leaving office (and we'll all be providing him with the best medical care for himself and his wife for the rest of their lives) and he's leaving the entire mess he created for the next man to clean up. He won't be held accountable for all the damage he's done. He's getting away clean.

And I place some of the blame for his actions and the results of his actions on the people who voted for him and supported him and still support him. Where the hell do they have their heads? Up some dark hole in the lower part of their anatomy where Bush is?

I just had to get this off my chest. It really pisses me off that there's only a little bit of this on the daily news. They spend a lot more time on the ones who come back healthy or physically injured (call them heroes) but the ones with injuries in their mental health are ignored and thrown aside to fend for themselves. When they even deign to mention these vets, the media just glosses over it quickly and get on to the next story...inane superficial stories such as the latest chapter in Britney Spears' life or the Super Bowl. Why aren't they digging deeper into the stories of these unfortunate vets who believed their country and their president would look out for them?

Is this due to administrative policy? I believe so. Bush is arrogant and ambitious. He makes boasts and promises he doesn't keep. He lies. And the American people buy it, accept it, and do nothing about it. Didn't they try to cover up the truth of the death of pro football player Pat Tillman? Then it leaked out that he was killed by "friendly" fire. Or what about the prisoner abuse and torture policy at Abu Ghraib? The administration covers up any stories that would reflect badly on them. Reminiscent of the administration during Viet Nam.

We allow our president to send hundreds of thousands of our young people to war even when there is no viable reason for a war and then to desert them when they need help the most. How many vets were destroyed and swept aside and glossed over and forgotten by the presidency both in Viet Nam and in Iraq and Afghanistan and who knows where else?

Why aren't the American people angry about this? Why aren't the families of our soldiers angry? Why aren't they demanding that Bush and his military own up to their responsibilities and help all of our soldiers at any cost? Why aren't the Commanding Officers, the Generals and other senior officers standing up for their troops? I can only surmise that we no longer have leaders in the military who care about the soldiers and are maybe planning a political career for themselves by being Yes Men for Bush and his cronies.
The war in Iraq is not benefiting the US. It won't matter who runs Iraq when the US and Allies leave. Iraq will just revert to the kind of government they've always had. And all of our dead and injured will have died and suffered for no reason other than to get Bush his 2nd term in office. He has no compassion, no tact, no foresight, and no common sense. He just bulldozes his way through with his white house powers. He's an egomaniac to the extreme. He created a humongous mess in Iraq, then couldn't figure out a way to get out of there with honor, without looking like an ass. So for years, he continues to send more of our young people there, wasting their lives and so much money that could be better used on real world problems such as climate change and the genocide in Darfur. When all the killing and cruelty they see in Bush's war damages their mental health, Bush throws them out without fanfare or a second thought, without compassion and without appreciation for what our soldiers lost. He withholds funds to provide them with the mental health care they deserve and earned. Just ONE BILLION of the SIX HUNDRED FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS that he's spent on his useless war would have been a small price to pay for our vets' service at his behest.

Between an immoral Clinton and numbnuts Bush, I've lost all respect for our presidency and the people who elected each of them TWICE!!!

What is Heaven?

Do you believe in god? Do you believe in heaven? What do you picture in your mind's eye when you see yourself or your loved ones in heaven after they've died? Are you or they running around in white robes with a horde of other people in white robes? Are you and they cavorting around basking in the glow of god's love? Does everyone have wings or are wings reserved for the "special ones?" What do you see beyond that? Are there relationships in heaven? Or is there no need for relationships between people? Do people eat? Is everyone loving and happy and peaceful? Is there no fighting for anything because no one needs anything and everyone loves everyone else? What would that be like, do you suppose? Would that make you happy? Would you like to live that way for all eternity? What would there be to look forward to? More of the same? What does "being with god" really mean? What would it be like?

Maybe heaven is literal. Such as when we look up into the heavens and see all those stars and galaxies and other "heavenly" bodies. It looks peaceful...but it isn't. It's like here on Earth. Look around you. Seems pretty peaceful, doesn't it? Then you watch the evening news...rampant with war and crime stories going on all around the world every day every moment. Then take another look around you...there is conflict everywhere with everyone...those little flashes of irritation, aggravation, impatience, frustration, even anger at times. That's life. That's how it is in our own little world, in our neighborhood, in our state, in our country, on our world. And that's how it is throughout the cosmos.

This is my idea of what heaven is...

Everything in the entire known and unknown universe is made of the same material. This material is made up of many different elements. Each form in the universe consists of different combinations of these elements. All the elements continually reacts with all the other elements they encounter. Elements break down, each has its own lifespan depending on its makeup. After it breaks down, it never disappears. Never. Instead, it mixes and combines with other elements to create new forms. If you can't imagine this, think of all the modern things we've "invented." Plastics, for instance. We used the elements that are available and we mixed them with other elements and we have plastic. It consists of all the same elements but in different combinations. We take cotton balls and silkworms and we make fabric. All of our modern inventions is exactly what's going on throughout the universe...only on a much smaller scale.

I believe that when our current physical body dies, its elements combines with the Earth's elements. For the next hundreds or thousands of years, we will become rocks or sand or water but we will still be a part of the planet. Then in millions or billions of years from now when the Earth itself reaches the end of its lifespan, we will become a part of another form. Maybe it will be as part of the next star or comet or be the seed of another conscious lifeform on another new world. Then for the next millions or billions of years, that's what we'll be.

We will literally become a part of the heavens. We do live on forever. We are in "heaven." We will never be bored. We will continue to Be, continue to evolve. There is no boundary to what we can be or will be. That is all left to chance...to what other elements are present at the time our current elements are ready to be reformed. We may not be reformed into a conscious form but we will be reformed. We will always exist. Nothing in the universe really dies. Nothing disappears into nothingness. The universe wastes nothing.

I believe that this is what awaits us. Evolution for us is to finally become, in actuality, a part of the Bigger Picture. And it doesn't matter whether or not we're good or evil in this tiny and very temporary part of our existence. That's of no consequence in the larger scheme of existence. But it IS important to our current existence. So each of us should just learn to appreciate that during this portion of our existence we are actually conscious of being. And we should make it as nice as we can for all the people in our lives including those we don't know but who also live in our world. We should not waste any of our short existence making life miserable for anyone else. What would be the point? Break everyone down to their base elements and we're all made of the same stuff and that includes plants and animals and rocks and water and anything else you can think of. The only difference is in our appearance. All rocks look different, similar but different.

So, in this sense, life never ends. We will return to heaven...literally. I believe that Carl Sagan was and is right. We ARE the stuff of stars. We ARE related to everything we see and don't see. We ARE a part of everything.

This is my religion. This is what my intelligence and my logic tells me. This is what makes sense. To believe in anything supernatural doesn't make sense. To be supernatural means to be outside and apart from the universe. For me, that cannot be unless there is another, larger universe existing on an even more unbelievable timescale. That would mean there are universes within universes unto infinity. But then, that wouldn't be bad either. It's a heck of a lot better than the idea of heaven and hell which is such a shortsighted and limited way of looking at life. The idea that we either go to hell and burn in agony forever or go to heaven and frolic aimlessly with silly smiles on our faces forever is not very appealing to me. I rather look forward to becoming a part of the Bigger Picture, a part of the beautiful heavens I see whenever I look up into the night skies. I LIKE being a part of all that...now and forever.

Which future would you prefer?