@Friday 10/24: Robin Williams and Veteran Suicide

This post is not about slamming Veterans.  Nor is about slamming Robin Williams.

Instead, it is a call to Our VA - the one that Veterans should have - to help tell our story so that others me see us the way they saw Robin Williams.

1. Veterans aren't in everyone's house for X years.

2. Veterans don't make us laugh or smile or feel.  

Veterans make us scared. Scared of what we do to people.  

3. Robin Williams played many roles that a lot of us identified with 

4. Robin Williams didn't make Rape Jokes and act like an immature ass.

Okay, so most of his characters acted like an immature ass.  But when out of character, Robin Williams was out helping people.  His characters - whether the childish Peter Pan, or the silly DJ in Good Morning Vietnam, or ??? - weren't who he was in real life.

In real life - he was helping people.  Story of one actor he helped that never got to say thank you. Story of helping soldiers.

There is a subset - a very small but frighteningly vocal subset - of young Veterans who are doing harm to the image and reputation of the rest of us.  It is the ones that are described in this post.  They describe female soldiers as wooks, threaten rape publicly, and otherwise flaunt their "I'm-a-badass-that-shot-people-in-war-and-don't-give-a-flying-fuck" attitude.

Here's the problem.  Every time one of these ass-clowns posts publicly, 10 civilians rebrand Veterans as out of control teenagers that carry guns and seek out woman to rape. 

That hurts the Veterans getting jobs. That hurths the Veterans with mental health problems. That hurts the Veterans who are fighting to get their claims granted.

The older generations of Veterans need to find a way to bring these young punks into step.   Gone are the days where you could have a sit-down with them - most of them hide on Social Media and don't spend time around other Veterans. 

So isolate them - every time you see a social media post from a punk troop that promotes violence or rape or tarnishes the image of the Veteran, mark it as spam. Redirect them to this post. 

Common Denominator - nobody is telling our Veteran's Story.  The VA should be doing this. Rather than spending its time Branding Veterans as "Oscar the Grouch", it should be out telling the story of the struggles we face.  The things we accomplish.  Turn every Veteran into Robin Williams.