Do I complain about hating Mondays, or do I sulk over my cup of coffee and and growl about too much blood in my caffeine stream?
I suspect my mood would be greatly improved this morning if I had a few needed things (answers, say), and if I hadn’t read this utterly depressing Washington Post article about neglected soldiers at Walter Reed. This is our top military medical facility? Covered in black mold, ceilings you can see through, soldiers “lost”, three different computer record systems that don’t work together, and telling people who have crushed skulls and amputated limbs that they didn’t serve in Iraq?
While I am gratified that the article mentions, several times, that the common American civilian is working their tail off to make sure our Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are not treated in the same manner our Vietnam veterans were, I am absolutely appalled at the conditions at Walter Reed. Normally in medical stories like this, I’ll gravitate to the ethical abuses contained within – but I can’t get past my general horror and revulsion to move towards the academic.
To say this is nauseating doesn’t begin to capture my initial reaction, or the sustained reaction of frustration, anger, and the desperate wish that there was something I could do.
Someone has to stand up and make this right, make this better – but who’s going to, when the government denies there’s an issue, and a reporter has to go undercover for four months to see the truth of the situation?