Scott's Wrist, A Turning Point

As I blogged about earlier, I have found a lot of statistics regarding veteran suicides. But nothing I had found thus far was as stunning and moving as the following photo and story behind it. (Thanks to Mr. Bolos for emailing this along!)

A picture of Scott's wrist days after he attempted to commit suicide
with a kitchen knife during an argument with his girlfriend. 

The photographs are of Brian Scott Ostrom, a 27 year old who had served four years in the Marine Corps and came home with severe PTSD. I had had my doubts about how substantial my thesis and how big of a phenomenon veteran suicides actually are. After all, most veterans don't commit suicide.

The wall that Scott punched through in anger.

A distressed Scott, argues with
his girlfriend of the phone

Seeing these photographs substantiated my claims for me. In my head, I was thinking, "See, this is happening. I'm not making something out of nothing." These photographs freed me of my doubts. I couldn't get these images or Scott's story out of my head. No longer was my topic of military suicides only a statistic to me. It was Scott: someone who has attempted suicide, attempted to get treatment, and attempted to re-intregate back into society. I'll conclude with this: I'm sorry that this picture is graphic and morbid. For me, this photograph (and the whole set) was the source that made me care about my topic. 

The photos were taken by Craig F. Walker, who works for the Denver Post.

Click here to see all 18 photos.

Frederick Douglass and Covey, One More Time

It was in my reading of Karl Marlantes' What it is Like to Go to War,  a title I have mentioned many times on my blog over the last couple of months, that I found myself thinking of Frederick Douglass. For me this was odd, because at the time, The Life and Narrative of Frederick Douglass was a book I found particularly bland. It wasn't until our extensive study of the Covey fight that I began to foster more of an interest in LNFD.

At this point, deep into my junior theme research and surely stressed out, I had all but forgotten about Douglass. But then I read the following line and I was back in first semester, studying slavery.

"Fighting on television lasts long enough to entertain people.

 Fighting in bars doesn't have the same purpose" (Marlantes 14). 

This immediately reminded me of our discussion about the length of the fight between Douglass and Covey. Douglass had, in more editions that one, described the fight saying that "two hours has elapsed" before Covey gave up. As a class, we all questioned whether or not this was supposed to be taken as an exaggeration or if Douglass and Covey had actually fought for two hours. Graham mentioned that a six minute wrestling match left him exhausted, so he doubted that this was realistic. We concluded that while Douglass might not have been trying to lie, he was most likely exaggerating to make a point, to emphasize the fight.

Marlantes brings up a similar thing here. Fights, on television go on and on because that's how people are entertained. But a real fight, like a bar-fight as Marlantes states, those fights are quick and painful. The audience wants a drawn out drama filled fight. And Douglass probably knew that. While his fight with Covey was probably longer than a bar-fight, he knew that a longer fight would be better for his audience. Douglass and Marlantes, 155 years apart, bring up the same phenomenon. We love fights. We love the drawn out drama. No one cares about a little punch, it has to be more than that. 

My Search for Statistics, Not Anecdotes

Sgt. Jacob Blaylock

         My research on the topic of veteran suicides during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has provided me with a lot of statistics. Everyone loves statistics but at some point, there is only so much one can do with them. Sure, this stat- "Of the more than 30,000 suicides in this country each year, fully 20 percent of them are acts by veterans"-is staggering. But what exactly does that mean? How can that be put in context? 

         It wasn't until I found a six-page article chronicling the life and suicide of Sgt. Jacob Blaylock, that I realized how important personal anecdotes are in my research. His story, from when he began his service, to the close deaths of two of his comrades six days before he was scheduled to come home, to the psychological problems he faces upon returning home, up until his suicide in 2007, provide me more information and context than many statistics can. I realized that I need to include more evidence than that of the logos type. Logos, according to about.com, is "persuasion by demonstration of logical proof." But having diverse sources also means having diverse evidence: Ethos and Pathos. While ethos and pathos mean nothing without logos as the backbone, these types of evidence are just as important. 

For some reason, though, we are attracted to statistics. I think I can speak for a lot of fellow students in saying that we crave statistics for our paper. Maybe it's because citing statistics is easier than anecdotes. Maybe it's because we think those statistics speak for themselves. But, as we have learned this year, no evidence speaks for itself. No statistic can speak for itself without context. 

Why do you think we crave statistics so much? In what ways are personal anecdotes more useful than statistics? 

White Noise, Media, and Our Soldiers

As you have seen in so many of my posts this year, and particularly in the last two posts, I have a huge interest (and junior research paper) in the topic of the military, but specifically in the battles that troops fight at home upon returning from war. As I was glancing through White Noise, this particular passage stuck out at me (DeLillo 92).

"Where's the media?" she said. 

"There is no media in Iron City." 

"They went through all that for nothing?"  

This passage is referring back to the incident that is described to Jack about the plane that almost went down but didn't. Apparently, no media was there to cover the story, therefore making it less important and less of a miracle. 

via this link

Now, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq carried on for eleven (and counting) and eight years respectively, the media coverage of the wars has also lessened. It's no longer always on the front page. It's as if, like in Iron City, there is no media there. But what does this mean? It means that the troubles and conflicts our troops go through go untold in America. It means that soldiers fight for their country and get little support upon returning. It means that the pride of serving your country barely leaves your platoon and family. It means that since the media doesn't cover the daily personal battles going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, those things almost cease to exist to the general American population. It's almost as if that same question from White Noise needs to be asked: 

"They went through all that for nothing?"  

These aren't our grandparents' wars

          I found this advertisement in my research on suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. For some reason, in stuck in my mind. To me, this idea of the disconnect between civilians and the military is one of the reasons why the suicide rates for combat veterans rose as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars continued on. I know the print is small- it states, 

"99% of American have seen combat on TV. 1% of Americans have seen combat in Iraq or Afghanistan." 

          Most present day Americans have less of a connection with the military than Americans did during WWI, II, and Vietnam. In a Tampa Bay Times article I found via LexisNexis, the author cites a Pew poll that found that during the 1980s, at least 40% of 18-year-olds had a military parent. In the 1990s, that number had dropped to 18%. Now, it states, "almost 70% of military-age American no longer have any direct ties to the military." This all links back to the isolation, separation, and uselessness that some veterans feel once they return home from combat. People don't understand their story. Not every man their age has served or has a brother who has served. Their is no longer a shared experience of war that was their during our previous wars.  But how can this be fixed? A draft? Shorter wars?