Victim…
\nHostage\u2026 <\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s harm.
\nSuffering.
\nA lessening or deficit.
\nGrief, a grievance.
\nDuration and latency.
\nMaybe a victim outlook, or mentality, or habit.
\nIt\u2019s certain that I am scattered and out of regulation, a mess….
\n\n\n\n
When some of us veterans go to the VA to get fixed
\nwe find we are in a game we haven’t seen before,
\nwe certainly don\u2019t hold the deck.
\nWe see empathy from some.
\nOverall we sense a protocol with illegible gates.
\nDiagnosis driven by categories of eligibility.
\nAn intermediary has us sign a very spooky Power of Attorney.
\nWe sense some sort of fraud,
\nthat we won’t or don’t deserve the dinner being served in the other room…
\nThe hasty offer of psychoactive meds.
\nAn offer of financial compensation, which is such a strange thought\u2014
\ndo they want to buy our misery?
\nAn interview by Comp and Pension social and medical people.
\nSome people do not like us.
\nSome are ominous.
\nAt my second Comp and Pension interview a nearly ancient psychiatrist
\nwarned me about the spiritual and moral trauma to combat veterans,
\nbut especially to those in special operations teams.
\nHe himself looked frightened.
\nI later discovered he was a good person, compassionate.<\/p>\n
So, what about the thousands of brothers and sisters they interviewed and judged?
\nHow do we hold our lives in this jumbled blast of energy? <\/p>\n
Is there an opposite to victimhood?
\nHaving agency, confidence…service to others…sentience….prayers of praise?
\nCan victimhood or stuck-hood become a fraud?
\nHow do victims become not-victims, become un-scorched? <\/p>\n
The quarry we pursue is cunning and powerful.
\nIt is near
\nIt is hunting us. <\/p>\n
The smaller circle…..<\/p>\n
A Dunbar Number (roughly 150 people)
\nsuggests that we can have direct personal connections and accountability
\nwith a fairly small number.
\nWith larger numbers,
\nproxies, agents, and superiors enter the picture,
\nthey bring classic principal-agent problems of truth telling,
\nself-dealing,
\ndeception.
\nbetrayal…
\ntreachery<\/p>\n
Some of us know we must be illegible.
\nThe public just wants us re-entered, re-integrated.
\nThe public does not want to know what we know.<\/p>\n
Such as
\nif we did just defensive warfare
\nwe\u2019d have some honor,
\nwouldn’t be such pariahs,
\nbut no,
\nwe do expeditionary warfare.
\nWhat General Sherman did to the Georgia in the Civil War,
\nwe do to little countries.
\nWe ruin them.<\/p>\n
So how do we forgive ourselves?<\/p>\n
The angel of mercy
\nvisits me
\nand is paying the ransom.<\/p>\n
Mike Rivard
\nMinneapolis
\nNovember 25, 2019<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Victim… Hostage\u2026 There’s harm. Suffering. A lessening or deficit. Grief, a grievance. Duration and latency. Maybe a victim outlook, or mentality, or habit. It\u2019s certain that I am scattered and out of regulation, a mess…. When some of us veterans go to the VA to get fixed we find we are in a game we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[22,11,30],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-honoring-veterans","tag-aspirations","tag-challenges","tag-veterans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}