Twenty-two. Everyday. This is the number of veterans we lose a day to suicide. I don’t have the solution- I just wish people knew the problem. We are currently engaged in the longest war in American history. Every morning I wake up and send up a prayer that people are safe, families are made whole and our veterans are seen- truly seen. When was the last time you thought about the war? Saw a news story about Afghanistan?
Less than 1% of the population has served in our all volunteer military. Less than half that number have been forward deployed to a combat zone. That number is too small to raise the same level of outrage that we did about Justin Beiber standing on the Indian Head in Chicago- or Kim & Kanye naming their kid something predictably stupid. I think that veterans struggle because they come home to invisibility. It is just my opinion- Start the conversation, LISTEN to their story. Don’t try to fix- try to see.