Veterans Day

by: Rosi Efthim

Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 11:28:15 AM EST

This is Scott Olsen. Marine. Iraq War veteran. Shot in the head by a police projectile in a raid of Occupy Oakland, California authorized by the city's mayor.

The raid, chaotic and harsh, was almost immediately televised via live stream to Occupy cities around the world, and later seen on commercial television. I posted the video below. The mayor authorized the crackdown, in which Marine Olsen was injured, and then she left town. She denies her men used rubber bullets or flashbang grenades. But his injury is consistent with a head injury caused by a projectile known less lethal bullets, which are used by police in riot guns used to disperse crowds.

Olsen has had brain surgery. He can move, and he can write, but he still cannot speak. He was wearing a Veterans for Peace shirt when the insult came to his brain on the streets of Oakland. Veterans for Peace.

There is something wrong here.

I started off writing a post about how it's easier and more emotionally satisfying to wave the flag on exactly two days a year - Veterans Day and Memorial Day - and think of vets for about 12 minutes and be done. I mean no disrespect to local observances of those events; I attend my local events every year, and my town's events mean a great deal to their organizers and to me. But the diary I started off writing was about how we don't listen to vets enough. My best day in Washington D.C. is going to the WWII memorial, scouting around for really old guys, and asking them questions. Ditto, the Vietnam Memorial there, and some of my best conversations have started off having to listen, again, to why Jane Fonda's a commie. If you can get past that, it is an enriching and illuminating conversation to listen to men and women tell you about their lives, and experiences. So different from those of us who never signed up, never got drafted.

There isn't any better use for my tax dollars than to provide every advantage and leg up for people who helped build the country we now know. And that means paying quicker attention to medical needs specific to the wars we've sent them to - Agent Orange and its destruction to the bodies of Vietnam vets. Loneliness in WWII and Korea vets whose friends are gone. Head injuries, mental stress, and suicide risk for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

But we're not listening hard enough to our Scott Olsens, either. Or to people like Marine Sergeant Shamar who confronted NYPD officers at Occupy Wall Street, and now is calling for former Marines to don civilian uniform and join the Occupy protests as OccupyMARINES

Bill Orr just wrote about the gathering that will bring together Occupy Wall Street participants with those at Occupy Trenton, vets and peace activists. It's where Scott Olsen would be today if he was well. He'd be wearing that Veterans for Peace shirt.

Peace.