There is no forgetting.
Half a decade ago my alleged representative in Congress was among those who defeated a measure that would have extended health benefits to guard members and their families. It wasn't the first time she had voted against healthcare for our military while touting her yellow ribbon 'support the troops.' Later that same day she accompanied Bush on a visit to Walter Reed Hospital.
Not long after that day we had a rally in the park directly across the street from her office. Congress was on break, she was in town, she knew we would be there because we had invited her to join us. We thought it might be a good thing for her to meet our speakers, some Iraq war veterans. She found something 'official' that suddenly required her attention in a city that wasn't even in her district, not that we were at all surprised by her absence.
One of the young veterans spoke of helping to zip closed the bags that held the remains of six of the guys he'd gone through training with. He apologized for crying. He said he hadn't yet been able to get help for the PTSD, that he was only able to sleep an hour or two each night. He asked for our help. At the end of the rally I sought him out, put my arms around him and cried with him.
Two weeks later his picture was on the front page of the newspaper. He'd shot and killed his estranged wife. He will occupy for the rest of his life the prison cell that more rightly belongs to George W. Bush.
There is no forgetting.
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