The July 5th submission pile-up of "Fireworks & Combat Trauma Politiku" --written by military vets with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-- in response to my July 4th Shout Out-- made me feel like a US Postal Service employee on December 26th. Craig Newmark's and Lily Casura's superbly written posts had already done an exceptional job of explaining Politiku and PTSD to a large group of readers.
Despite --and perhaps because of this-- I pushed for anonymity. Nothing to mess up a job prospect than a Google search connecting an applicant's name to a widely misunderstood medical condition like PTSD, right?
All anonymous politiku contributors were verified as combat vets with PTSD, by the way. What really made the difference was the fact that Lily had been working with many of these vets through her site Healing Combat Trauma and they trusted her. One of these vets, Angela Peacock, is a former U.S. Army sergeant and Iraq war vet with PTSD, was even comfortable having her name attached.
Although I had no direct contact with Angela during the writing process, Lily informed me that she is a remarkable spokesperson on the topic of female military vets dealing with PTSD. In honor of her willingness to shed some light on this dark and murky issue, Angela is the featured author of the post.
I am posting in hopes that Angela as well as the anonymous vets who have contributed Politiku and every vet in the country now dealing with PTSD, will get access to the resources needed to support their efforts towards recovery.
Angela Woytus-Peacock Politiku
fire lights up the sky/ like old memories burning/ frazz-le-ing my nerves
red white and boom pow/ I can smell watermelon/ old smoke wafting by
staring in silence/ fires are burning inside me/ time to run and hide.
Angela Woytus-Peacock is a former U.S. Army sergeant and Iraq war vet with PTSD.
Anonymous Fireworks & Combat Trauma Politiku
No Fi - Er - Works, No !/ Got P - T - S - D, Need Help !/ Stop War, Fix V - A !
Anonymous Fireworks & Combat Trauma Politiku
some one call the cops/ poor neighborhood kids don't know / they will find out soon