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| 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.
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| The wall that Scott punched through in anger. |
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| 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.
I like how this post isn't just discussing what your topic is about Leah. It's interesting, and real and reminds me that this isn't just a school essay or a paper about a piece of fiction. We're researching real debates that involved real people. This is kind of sidenote, but if saw this post, and then read your paper, I would believe your paper more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Bridget said about how this is not just a paper, it's a real life horrible phenomenon. When I see such terrible stories, it makes me think about why this veteran is struggling so much; what caused his PTSD? If we can look further into the root of the issue and then examine whether or not it's worth this pain (my guess is that it's usually if not always not worth it), then we can gain insight into the validity of our war-related decisions.
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