Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (On Bru McCoy, Mount Vernon ISD and more ...)
- Thread starter Ketchum
- Start date
Why are fake hate crimes on the rise and how much of these fake ones go undetected?
From USA today:
Doing research for a book, Hate Crime Hoax, I was able to easily put together a data set of 409 confirmed hate hoaxes. An overlapping but substantially different list of 348 hoaxes exists at fakehatecrimes.org, and researcher Laird Wilcox put together another list of at least 300 in his still-contemporary book Crying Wolf.
To put these numbers in context, a little over 7,000 hate crimes were reported by the FBI in 2017 and perhaps 8-10% of these are widely reported enough to catch the eye of a national researcher.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...ired-cut-video-chicago-fox-column/2950146002/
From USA today:
Doing research for a book, Hate Crime Hoax, I was able to easily put together a data set of 409 confirmed hate hoaxes. An overlapping but substantially different list of 348 hoaxes exists at fakehatecrimes.org, and researcher Laird Wilcox put together another list of at least 300 in his still-contemporary book Crying Wolf.
To put these numbers in context, a little over 7,000 hate crimes were reported by the FBI in 2017 and perhaps 8-10% of these are widely reported enough to catch the eye of a national researcher.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...ired-cut-video-chicago-fox-column/2950146002/
Of course you’ve never looked into it, you just accept the narrative being pushed. You don’t research methodology of studies when you come across them? How may fake hate crimes pushed by the MSM is it going to take for you to question the narrative?
You completely misread my post because I challenged Ketch to identify a single other time where he expressed outrage at a politician’s treatment of women and he couldn’t do it. You have no idea what I think about Trump and you can’t find a post on this entire website where I’ve ever defended his treatment of women. But of course instead you resort to weak ad hominem attacks. Maybe you’re a young, but for olds here, we’ve seen the most egregious mistreatment of women by certain politicians of a particular political stripe excused and swept under the rug for decades because those politicians held a particular point of view. So yeah, it makes it more than a little suspect when the outrage meter suddenly goes from zero to sixty in the last two+ years.
How about let’s get back to some good ole Lincoln and Grant posts/threads?
I find the 1800s more enjoyable.Stellar idea.
My dad frequently said he was “born a century too late.” He loved Westerns so I think he thought there was more moral clarity in the 19th Century, but when we got older I told him I thought that was just his wishful thinking.
I'd love to observe it but heck no on living. I'm way too soft. I'd give anything to see some of those battles from a safe space.
No political statement here. But I think that was a decent shot at the Top 10 Country list.
Seems like an impossible task to do well and then if you got it right, you could circle America for the rest of your life to see if one person agreed with you.
Funny but Garth Brooks didn't come up in my mind. However Hank Williams competition Lefty Frizell did. If Merle wasn't in it (Momma Tried) he should have been. Wouldn't have argued with a George and Tammy song (I don't wanna play house / Golden Ring / We're gonna hold on).
In summary, good job on your list Ketch.
Seems like an impossible task to do well and then if you got it right, you could circle America for the rest of your life to see if one person agreed with you.
Funny but Garth Brooks didn't come up in my mind. However Hank Williams competition Lefty Frizell did. If Merle wasn't in it (Momma Tried) he should have been. Wouldn't have argued with a George and Tammy song (I don't wanna play house / Golden Ring / We're gonna hold on).
In summary, good job on your list Ketch.
You took the public photos and specifically called for action against that man. That isn’t public service. That is basically sociopolitical vigilantism.
Briles is a POS but it doesn’t excuse you calling for his head and trying to deny him a workplace. Should they have hired him? No. Is it our business to interfere with their community? No. Your opinion isn’t more important than the decision makers in that community. You should have stopped at opinion. You lost me at “whatever it takes”. I get your disgust. It’s on Mount Vernon’s watch now as they can’t say they were not informed in their decision.
You are losing it and need to check yourself (on a lot of things). Enablers? Did you call all of us who just want you to stay on message and not take gratuitous sideswipes to broadbrush paint a bunch of people unfairly. I am with you on the Mt. Vernon hiring debacle (for lack of a better word) (but I also wouldn't go on a profanity laced rant on the twitter). You are the one throwing out non-sequitirs in your rant that distracts from your message and is disrespectful of good people that otherwise agree with you. If you called me an enabler to my face, I would grab the blue drink right out of your hand and let you wear it.
Wow......talk about pathetic......... Why don't you tweet Ole Miss again. Talk about being racist.
Yup. I am shocked that for the first time in almost 15 years I am questioning my subscription to OBs.
The overbearing and holier than thou social commentary that has become more and more pervasive has made it harder and harder to stomach,
What makes the current climate even more dysfunctional, is the fact that I am almost certain Ketch views any loss of subs due to people sick of his social soapbox routine as an overwhelmingly positive and good thing.
If you are tired of it or have a dissenting voice and choose to leave, I would bet Ketch welcomes the weeding out of such morally devolved individuals.
Now he moved it because it can't take the heat.......typical.
He stirs up the pot with about 100 posts in 2 hours or so.....to which he immediately refuses to acknowledge and ignores anyone with a legitimate counter-point or question.
He then goes on to validate himself as the OB content king. What a stud!
@Ketchum is a SJW. @Ketchum is a hypocrite. @Ketchum is full of righteous indignation. @Ketchum is a borderline narcissist.
In reality, are you even the least bit surprised?
I feel the need to clarify something that has really been bothering me in this thread. Who created the term "fake news"?
You guessed it, Frank Stallone!
You guessed it, Frank Stallone!
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Speaking of enablers....
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/15/1797...nterview-bill-clinton-sexual-misconduct-metoo
When you supported Hillary, was that not supporting an enabler of a "goddamn abuser of women"?
And the Lieutenant Governor
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-poli...ralph-northam-virginia-sex-assault-allegation
Guess they only believe accusers when its a Republican
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-poli...ralph-northam-virginia-sex-assault-allegation
Guess they only believe accusers when its a Republican
She was not only an enabler, but she also tried to quiet and discredit the accusers of sexual assault and rape. She thanked Juanita Broderick for staying quiet about Bill raping her.
I'm guessing most libs are so delusional, they don't even see the hypocrisy.
I really think libs convinced themselves there would be a treasure trove of evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians, and when that all came crumbling down and it became clear that the whole thing was a false narrative pushed by the libs themselves, they became even more delusional than they already were.
Also I'm pretty sure Trump is telling the voters of Alabama not to vote for Roy Moore as he believes him to be unelectable.
I have quite a few issues with how Trump conducts himself but the narrative that he is some type of evil monster is preposterous. Ironically, a lot of Conservatives thought he was way too moderate. I think had the Democrats worked with him, they could have gotten a lot done that Conservative Republicans would not have been happy with.
Here is IMO the truth re: GK & Hillary ... He does not know her cause if he did he would wash out the end of his poision pen !!! Her narcissism is substantially greater than his x 10, I mean GK is a piker !!! She does not like or need anyone, especially other women, with exception of the name her husband gave her & of course money ...
I once for voted for Bill when he was running against Senator Dole ... Just thought he was a better manager in the oval office and that Bob was great patriot who would and did serve his country in a much more productive fashion on the floor of the US Senate ...
Hardcore Dems and their anti captalist colleagues are chock full of hate!!! Hate for Trump and for anyone or anything who would vote against Hillary ... I did not vote for the 45th President because of anything that a foreign power might have done I voted for him because I thought he would be a better CEO !!! So far I am pleased with my vote as much as I was displeased with my end game vote for Bill...
This is what no one on the left wishes to talk about and when you bring it up they get a large amount of hate brewing ... I will suffer for this, probably a fate similar to the "whiteknight" ...
Trumps election is putting money in their leftist pockets, but the threat to their anti captialist social agenda resides in the SCOTUS ... Abortion !!!!!!!!!!!!! How many years has it been since Roe vs. Henry Wade was established as the law of the land ...
Well then however many times the calendar years changed you can number the heartbeats of approximately 60 Plus Million Souls flushed down a drain, trash or sewer ...
But it's the law!!! Ok I will give you that but go and read the responses given in a European Court Room 70 plus years ago ... But it was our law !!!!
No matter how or when you kill someone it is still death ...
In addition saying G.D. when your angry is a refection of a very small minded person ...
Why don’t you go ahead and point out a better option that we had in 2016?
95% of Trump supporters know he is very flawed. Also, a lot of Trump supporters did not have Trump as their first choice in the RNC primaries, but Trump won and most of them ended up voting for what they thought of as “the lesser of two evils”. Newsflash- ALL politicians are dirty. Politics have been like that since the beginning of time.
That doesn’t make Trump right, or better or worse than any of them. I know you think Trump is Hitler but there are a LOT of more damaging politicians than Trump, and until someone can send America a squeaky-clean politician, unfortunately we’re gonna have to figure out which politician is “less worse” than the other politicians.
You should know this, but politics all around the world is about power and money. Your Democrat leaders do not care about “oppressed” people, or minority groups, or women, or children, or immigrants, or solving climate change, or solving wealth inequality, or whatever else you think they may truly believe.
It’s all about power and money. Again, I wish it wasn’t that way, most people wish it wasn’t that way, but in 2016 it was Trump or Hillary.
On top of that, Trump gets bashed 24 hours a day by both the Left AND the Right. Go look at any right-leaning media outlet, they criticize Trump every day.
Left-leaning media outlets, left-leaning academia, and the entire entertainment industry protects and defends the DNC, the Obamas, the Clintons, Ralph Northern, Eric Holder, Bernie, the Kennedys, Loretta Lynch, Joe Biden and his son, Ilhan Omar, Elizabeth Warren, Robert Menendez, Al Franken, Keith Ellison, Justin Fairfax, Mark Herring, John Edwards, etc nonstop. And that’s just dirty Democrat politicians I came up with off the top of my head and just in the past few years.
Politics are dirty and disgusting and believe it or not, us conservatives aren’t the monsters you may think we are, and we wish it was cleaner as well, but when both sides are dirty as hell, guess what? You vote for their policies.
The left like to point at Trump's overall approval rating as proof that he's not doing a good job, despite it being roughly what Obama's was at the same point in their time in office. Could you imagine what it would be if the MSM, daily talk shows, Hollywood, and Late Night treated Trump with half the reverence they gave Obama?
Yep, they protect their side at all costs, so many people like Geoff don’t even know how awful his own side is, because all of their news outlets don’t report on corruption on both sides.
Glass house, throwing stones at no one in particular while you haven’t had a squeaky clean history. Are we all complicit in enabling you because you made an insensitive tweet towards the state of Mississippi and we still subscribe? By your standards, yes but I think that’s ridiculous.
Full disclosure, I didn’t vote in 16, I refused to vote for the worst candidates in each parties history. If everyone who voted republican is an enabler because of the prior actions of the candidate, you’re an enabler just the same. You just don’t see it. You voted for Hillary correct? She’s not just a supporter and enabler of an abuser, she’s a goddamn abuser of women as well. “Well she isn’t who is in office”, “Well it was so long ago”, it still happened and you still voted for her. Therefore you are a hypocrite but you can’t admit as much, can you? Under criteria set forth by you, whoever voted for Hillary or Trump is an enabler. So what are you? It can’t only be one side who can be guilty of “enabling”.
You completely ignore that sentiment while purposely injecting politics then demonizing anyone with not even a different viewpoint(I’d say 95% of people agree with you) but concerns on how/why you would feel the need to present certain pieces of information and the analogy that I would hope your daughter would never actually hear come from your mouth.
Just to be clear so you can’t deflect or spin this into me somehow “caping”, no where in this thread or anywhere else have I or will I condone actions of people who abuse women or anyone else. I’m criticizing you and your means of presenting some points the argument along with how you interact with all of us. Which has lead to this thread going off the rails and you declaring the majority of this board shitty people(not directly but it’s pretty clear what your message is) for voting for Trump and labeling them “enablers” or telling them to leave the thread because they don’t see it exactly as you do. It’s completely disrespectful, dishonest and a bully/shame tactic that is uncalled for and quite frankly, it’s pathetic. How an owner of a site can knowingly act this way towards his paid subscribers and think it ok is beyond me. In this thread you’ve been equivalent to Trump on Twitter. If we’re not 100% on the same page as you in every way, we’re the bad people.
On top of that, in the same article you admit to bashing a man, inciting hate towards him, then posting a picture of his family BEFORE trying to reach out to him first and getting any context from himself or the MV side. Just wow. Everyone does wrong and are guilty for their actions but you. I’m not expecting anything more than a snarky put down or a gif but it needed to be said. You are not better than anyone else ITT just because we pay your salary to track down high school kids and write game recaps. Good grief.
I'll be honest when I confess at the beginning of this week's column that I don't have the slightest clue (full stop?) what to think about what's happening or not happening with Texas freshman wide receiver Bru McCoy.
All I know is that I was having a good time at a cookout on Sunday when the scuttlebutt made its way to Orangebloods, which means I picked a hell of a time to be social with other people
Where we find ourselves is such a unique situation that it's hard to completely wrap your head around how we could possibly be in the situation in the first place. It's like we're watching 1999s Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts, a rom-com about a woman that keeps getting engaged and ghosting guys at the wedding alter, while wondering why anyone would volunteer to propose to Roberts' character Maggie after personally watching her break the heart of her FOURTH fiance.
FOURTH!
That brings us back to McCoy, who might very soon warrant being nicknamed the "Transfer King," if there's actually anything to this idea that he might transfer to USC and away from Texas just five months after he transferred to Texas and away from USC. From my perspective, the most curious thing about the last 24 hours is that no one from the McCoy side of things released a statement via social media screaming, "#FakeNews."
You know who else didn't post a #FakeNews statement? All of McCoy's teammates in Austin.
The silence felt deafening.
Despite my urge to create metaphors with Julie Roberts movies, the reality is that we might just be dealing with a young man that is struggling to make major life decisions that come with real-world consequences. If this kid is dealing with high-level stress, anxiety and regret, what matters most is that he takes care of himself. Forget about football if all of this is causing him true mental duress.
I suppose there's a fine line sometimes between enabling a teenager who is building a pattern of running from accountability and a teenager that has made a few poor choices and is dangerously haunted by it all, but I lean towards erring on the side of compassion. With McCoy in California at the moment and seemingly pondering his future, I'm mindful of a phrase I've reminded myself in times of heartbreak.
"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be."
This is where Texas is. Bru McCoy needs to make a decision for himself and he needs to stick by it. If it brings him back to Austin, my guess is that he would be a Longhorn for the rest of his life. It he decides he wants to return to USC, it just means it wasn't meant to be for Tom Herman and his staff.
Let's just hope that whatever happens in this critical moment in his life, he has the ability to discover some conviction along the way because part of the process of going from a boy to a man is the realization than a man's word has to mean something.
Right now, McCoy's word is seemingly on the verge of meaning nothing.
No. 2 - We're not the people we think we are ...
In the aftermath of this weekend's Friday news-dump announcing the hire of Art Briles by Mount Vernon as its new head high school football coach, my mood changed from blood-red anger on Friday and Saturday to a little bit of despondence by Sunday.
As I sat down to try and process my thoughts on what had transpired, I found myself wondering about the world around my five-year-old daughter Haven. Full transparency - I wasn't sure that I wanted kids for a large portion of my life because I thought there were already too many people living on the planet and, if I'm truly keeping it real, I wanted to avoid situations like these. Of course, as soon as you have kids, you tend to go all-in on them in ways that you're never prepared for before they arrive. It's a different kind of torment that exists after you've introduced children into this world without the ability to have their lives forever safely navigated.
Understand that this isn't a story about a man needing a daughter to discover the dangers that exist for women in a world that only pretends to place importance of their safety and general well-being.
My mom was abused as a child. I've dated too many women to count that were either abused or sexually assaulted. My first love as a young man once had a panic attack while we were making out, as she went into a scared state because the moment had triggered memories of her being raped. Friends ... family ... neighbors ... you name it, it's all there in front of us in the great wide open.
Believe me, I don't have to be told.
Take a look at this photo.
This was posted on social media last August from Dr. Jason McCulloch, the superintendent of the Mount Vernon ISD. It's from the "new teacher" luncheon for the school district. By my count, there are 15 women in that picture.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in every five women in this country has been sexually assaulted. Now you might be the kind of person that would rather quibble over how that number was created than to actually take measures to soak in the overall message, but the truth of the matter is that somewhere in that photo is likely at least one woman who has been sexually assaulted. Maybe two. Maybe three. Maybe four. Maybe (pick a number).
Somewhere in that room is a woman (or women) who lives every day of her life trying to manage a potentially devastating set of emotions, fears and trauma.
Today, that woman (or women) will arrive at work knowing that her public high school will dismiss the importance of her well-being in the name of football. ****ing football.
Make no mistake, McCulloch and the rest of the Mount Vernon school board knew exactly what they were doing in releasing their press release late on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, as if they stole it right out of the Baylor University playbook. They just hired a man largely responsible for the ugliest sexual assault scandal in the history of college to serve as a coach and some sort of a moral compass FOR FREAKING HIGH SCHOOL KIDS!
Seriously, what are we doing?
Who are we?
I don't know what to tell Haven, but I have some time to figure it out, although not too much time. I suppose the best thing I can do is not pretend that the world is anything but aloof to her general well-being.
Tell her that the world talks a good game, but it might just grab her by the ...
Tell her that if it happens, please know I will believe her and support her no matter what.
Tell her that if it happens, justice rarely gets delivered.
Tell her that if it happens, let's hope there's never a connection to anything football-related that comes with it.
Speaking of pictures, this is Dr. Jason McCulloch's profile photo on Twitter.
Presumably, those are his two daughters. I wonder if he ever stays up at night wondering about the world he's brought them into.
Apparently not.
No. 3 - We cannot stop banging our pots ...
The decision-makers at Mount Vernon are counting on us not caring enough about this four days after it was announced.
They are counting on us to get distracted or bored.
They are counting on us not to care that much about the fact that it just hired a monster of men to roam its classroom halls.
We can't let that happen.
Call. Email. Whatever it takes.
No. 4 - Random Texas baseball thought ...
It's amazing how little one cares about the Big 12 baseball tournament when the team you cover/follow/cheer for doesn't qualify for it.
I say this with a serious face ... I have no idea what happened. I don't know who won it. I don't know who lost in the championship game. I don't know if it got rained out.
No. 5 - Texas softball ...
It's funny, there got to be a time in game three of its Super Regional battle against No. 8 Alabama when things seemed pretty bleak for the Texas softball team.
The Longhorns had a dropped fly ball that extended the third inning and the Tide followed it up with a three-run homer and then another home run to make it 6-1. Freshman pitcher Shealyn O'Leary wasn't really to blame for what had occurred in the third inning, as four of the runs that were scored against her were unearned, but after the second home run, the look on her face spoke of a young woman that was slightly shattered. While she held it together, the cameras captured her angst well.
At that one moment, you knew the Longhorns were probably facing too tall of a mountain to climb.
Yet, at the same as I was thinking this was likely the end of the season, I knew that this Texas team wouldn't quit and that before seven innings of play were over, it would leave its guts spilled out all over the field in an effort to get back into the game ... which is exactly what it did.
Scrapping and clawing the entire time, Texas managed to get the game back to 8-5 in the seventh inning and had the tying run at the plate when the comeback fell just short. Considering we're in the infancy of Mike White's tenure at Texas, the moment felt like a call to the future when days like this will serve as the motivation needed to climb the tallest mountains and not just matchups to get into the College World Series.
In my mind, this was like the end of the original Bad News Bears when the Yankees ended up winning the league, but the Bears came away defiant in the belief that they'd kick the Yankees' ass the following season.
That's where my head is with this team. They'll be back.
"Just wait ‘til next year!"
No. 6 – BUY or SELL …
BUY or SELL: You’d be shocked if Texas doesn’t win a national championship by 2030?
(Sell) Winning national titles is hard. Very few programs pull it off because it requires a certain amount of luck and good fortune. Look at Oklahoma. They've been knocking on the door with some of the greatest quarterbacks in college football history and they haven't even played in the title game for the last decade-plus.
BUY or SELL: There's some part of you that sees the schedule, a third-year QB, and thinks, "This team could actually make the playoff and play for a national title in 2019 if the cards fall right."?
(Sell) There are just too many questions right now. Texas' talent is so young that I believe it is a year away from being that kind of team.
BUY or SELL: David Pierce and staff have the coaching skills and roster talent for a turnaround in 2020?
(Buy) I suppose it comes down to what you think registers as a turnaround, but when you're last, there's nowhere to go but up.
BUY or SELL: This off-season has the biggest turnover of starting personnel in your OB history?
(Sell) I'll still point to 2006 when the Longhorns were trying to replace a guy named Vince Young, in addition to an NFL-level left tackle in Jonathan Scott, the best tight end in the history of the school in David Thomas, an all-American defensive tackle in Rodrigue Wright, a Thorpe Award winner in Michael Huff and another cornerback in Cedric Griffin that was among the best in the country. That's a lot of bad mothers that left the line-up and the 2018 Longhorns lose only one first-team all-conference player on offense (Andrew Beck… as a fullback) and two on defense (Kris Boyd/Charles Omenihu), soooooo ...
BUY or SELL: With new young blood at specialty positions - Texas returns a punt or kickoff for a TD this year?
(Buy) It has to happen, right?
BUY or SELL: Parker Braun makes first team all-conference? We have at least one first team all-conference D lineman?
(Sell) Braun is going to make it, but I don't see any defensive linemen on the roster I'd make that claim about.
BUY or SELL: Jordan Spieth has won his last major tournament?
(Sell) I'm not mentally there yet.
BUY or SELL: Sixers make the Eastern Conference finals next year?
(Sell) It's pretty tough to make that projection without knowing what the roster and the rest of the league look like.
BUY or SELL: The Milwaukee Bucks had a great season but the playoffs showed they are not quite ready to take the next step?
(Buy) Clearly.
No. 7 - Is this Kawhi's Moment?
Look, I know Spurs fans don't want to think about this, but with Kevin Durant possibly out of this entire series, the match-up between Golden State and Toronto feels weirdly competitive with Kawhi Leonard assuming the role of best player on the planet (at this very second).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking against the Warriors, with or without KD, but what Leonard is doing in these playoffs is putting together a playoff run for all-time. He just looks like a guy that can't be stopped and it's hard not to think about game one of the 2017 series between the Spurs and Warriors when thinking of what a team led by Leonard might be capable of.
With one Finals MVP under his belt, Leonard is playing for his own legacy in these Finals, much the same way Steph Curry is. One of these two players will emerge into a newfound territory by finishing off this season with a Finals MVP and a ring.
Like I said ... I'm picking the Warriors, but damnit, I have a ton of apprehension at this point in not siding with whatever team Kawhi plays on because that dude has the glow.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
... Rest in peace, Bill Buckner. If there's a heaven, here's hoping you scoop up that ball and make the final out every time.
... Rest in peace, Bart Starr. If there's a heaven, here's hoping you get stopped on that quarterback sneak against the Cowboys every time.
... Donovan McNabb is a Hall of Famer in my book.
... Giannis Antetokounmpo will learn from his team's setback in the playoffs this week, just like almost every other player in the history of the sport not named Magic Johnson has. Giannis has work to do on his game when he's in the playoffs, but he's such a force that he'll almost certainly be back in this spot and he'll be better for it.
... I don't care if Bru McCoy, Jake Smith and Sam Ehlinger put their names in the portal on Saturday, I am not to be bothered during the Champion's League Final. I might fling myself off a bridge if things don't go well for my Reds.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 All-Time Country songs ...
As was discussed a week ago, Sirius XM came out with its list of the Top 10 country songs of all-time and it was an absolute mess (thanks to Brian Davis of the Statesman for the photo).
With such a disaster in front of us, I thought I would make my own Top 10 list.
10. You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles (1963)
9. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain - Willie Nelson (1975)
8. Stand By Your Man - Tammy Wynette (1968)
7. Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash (1957)
6. Amarillo By Morning - George Strait (1983)
5. I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash (1956)
4. Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks (1990)
3. Crazy - Patsy Cline (1961)
2. He Stopped Loving her Today - George Jones (1980)
1. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams Sr. (1949)
No. 10 – And Finally ...
In honoring all of those that we've lost in our nation's history on Memorial Day, I found myself haunted by this article, which details what we ask our men and women to sacrifice when they serve for our nation. It's well worth a read and a reminder that nothing in this world comes without a cost.
From the article:
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there are approximately 20 million veterans in the U.S., and fewer than half receive VA benefits or services. The department says suicide rates among veterans are rising, and in 2016, the suicide rate was 1.5 times greater than for non-veteran adults. A VA report last year found more 6,000 veterans have died by suicide each year from 2008 to 2016.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
Veterans in need of help can access the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 800-273-8255 or through this website: http://https//www.veteranscrisisline.net
Well done on the Top 10!
