Gold star families be damned – using veterans and their families as props – Ep 5.0
Memes are as prevalent today as tear-off apartment flyers and peg message boards once were before the Internet existed. As veterans, we find that our community has a lot of memes created around it, many not even made by veterans in the first place. Wounded veterans, families of grieving servicemembers, and even invoking the memory of a deceased veteran to score political points (Pat Tillman, Chief Owens’ widow at the State of the Union, and Mrs. Wilson receiving a fucked up POTUS condolence call are all prime examples) are not beneath many politicians in this country. And the sad reality is that memes are free speech, but that doesn’t excuse the pain caused by meme creators wanting to appropriate the pain of both being in and surviving the military.
So for a community that’s constantly told that it actually protects our rights, including free speech, what is a veteran to do when his or her story / photo / video and so on are appropriated for what really amount to propaganda? Here’s our take on it.
01:00 – Recent veteran medical marijuana news – VA’s change in marijuana policy and AZ doc left in the lurch with her medical marijuana study for veterans with PTSD
5:00 – The death of Mr. Vance Perry, disabled veteran who died of hypothermia after leaving a VA facility
11:35 – Trump admin national security posture changes toward China and Russia
35:15 – Marco Chavez finally comes home to the US after being deported for a crime he denied ever committing.
40:20 – Use of servicemembers, veterans, and their families as political props.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/01/09/576577596/va-clears-the-air-on-doctors-talking-to-veterans-about-marijuana-use
https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/health/2017/06/08/arizona-marijuana-doctor-johns-hopkins-university-veterans-administration/378212001/
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-marco-chavez-20171221-story.htmlhttp://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Family-shares-concerns-after-fathers-death-467971303.html
http://www.11alive.com/mobile/article/news/local/army-veteran-freezes-to-death-after-being-released-from-va-hospital/504901459
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/01/07/learn-his-name-first-trumps-tweet-politicizing-military-widows-touched-a-nerve/?utm_term=.78d8fe4b9a45
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trolls-scammers-and-verified-facebook-pages-made-this-combat-wounded-vet-an-anti-kneeling-meme-his-real-story-is-much-better?utm_content=tp-facebook&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
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