PTSD home opposed for fear of ‘deranged’ vets

[unhappycamper]

Nadia McCaffrey, president of the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation, sits in front of a proposed housing site for PTSD-scarred veterans in Guerneville, Calif., on March 13. McCaffrey's dream is to house veterans scarred by post-traumatic stress disorder there in order to ease their returns from combat zones, but area residents have opposed the project.


PTSD home opposed for fear of ‘deranged’ vets
By Scott Lindlaw - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 24, 2008 6:20:34 EDT

GUERNEVILLE, Calif. — Merry Lane, a cul-de-sac shaded by redwoods in Sonoma County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey’s dream is to set up a group home there for veterans plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder.

But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only object to the brand-new structure itself, which looks like a four-story apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that deranged veterans will move in.

At a community meeting in December, “one person was concerned that even firecrackers would set these people off,” said Andrew Eckers, 54, who lives across the street.

McCaffrey, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she has tried to reassure the neighbors, but “they are afraid of it because they don’t want to understand it.”

Projects similar to McCaffrey’s have cropped up in other communities across the country, with some also raising concerns from neighbors, in part because of the many news accounts of traumatized veterans committing suicide or murder.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_ptsdhome_032308/

[leftofcool]

1. NIMBY

Not in my back yard

[CarbonDate]

2. Support our troops!

Fuck the veterans! And get off my lawn.

[leftofcool]

3. These are probably the same people

who have those plastic yellow magnets on their cars pretending to support the troops.

[pleah]

4. I guess these people, like so many others, think if you deny there is a problem,

it will go away. How very sad.