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Here on #MarchForOurLives day I'd like to mention the forgotten victims, the ones who *don't* die. A brief thread.
2. We know the numbers of dead - well, most of us do. My memory is damaged, and the numbers escape me. But - 17 at #MSDStrong . So many at Pulse, so many at Las Vegas, so many here, so many there. The dead ones.
3. But little attention gets paid to those who are shot but live. "So many dead, so many wounded."
The wounded Never. Get. Well. Never.
They get better, but they don't get well.
The wounded Never. Get. Well. Never.
They get better, but they don't get well.
4. If you don't believe me ask Gabby Giffords.
5. Gabby is nearly the only mass shooting wounded survivor whose name is widely known. She was shot through the brain. That she survived may be a miracle, but it's not unheard of.
6. James Brady, Ronny Ray-gun's press secretary, was shot through the brain too. He survived.
I propose that the forever wounded are as great a loss to society, their families, and themselves as the dead, and they need to be counted. Noticed. Discussed.
I propose that the forever wounded are as great a loss to society, their families, and themselves as the dead, and they need to be counted. Noticed. Discussed.
7. A friend of mine was shot in the wristwatch in Vietnam. The bullet carried fragments of itself and his watch into his arm, where it traveled up through the muscles and exited through his armpit.
8. They had to open his arm from the wrist to the pit to get most of the pieces out.
He's a tough guy. He said, "It ain't bad. It works OK."
OK, but - not right. Never right.
He's a tough guy. He said, "It ain't bad. It works OK."
OK, but - not right. Never right.
9. This was a war wound. For a guy who went through numerous firefights he didn't come out too bad. We had about an 80% "killed or wounded" ratio. 8 out of 10 of us brought home Purple Hearts. War seriously bad for the health.
10. Leaving aside philosophical discussions about the justification for war, I propose that going to school, to work, to a mall or a movie, is not supposed to carry the same risks as going to combat.
11. Steve Scalise may still be a swaggering tough guy who brags that his wounding is the Price of Freedom, but I will guarantee this: he will never outlive the pain. And he'll get damn tired of it.
12. But he, literally, asked for it. He is a member of a party that tells its base that they have the right to shoot at their government if it annoys them.
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13. We talk about the 30,000 people a year who die in the endless hail of bullets, AND WE SHOULD.
But there are literally hundreds of thousands more whose lives are forever changed, worsened, by the same horrible government policy.
Hundreds.
Of.
Thousands.
But there are literally hundreds of thousands more whose lives are forever changed, worsened, by the same horrible government policy.
Hundreds.
Of.
Thousands.
14. They spend their lives in wheelchairs. They spend their lives in pain. Their sparkling intellects are stolen from them and they spend their lives struggling to form a sentence.
15. However bad the death toll is - and it's horrible - the total toll in human misery is thousands of times greater.
Even standing for the dead leaves out more victims than it honors.
This has got to stop. No more.
--jeff out.
Even standing for the dead leaves out more victims than it honors.
This has got to stop. No more.
--jeff out.
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