I think I was under the impression that Friday shows were supposed to be on the lighter side. That did not prove to be the case this week, as this was all about women and the military -- specifically former military service members who are homeless after leaving the military, and current service members who are in danger of losing their children as a result of deployment.
In other words, a real bummer of an episode. And though I took roughly the same amount of notes I take for a normal episode, the longer I look at them, the less certain I am that I can do anything other than write a recap, which I don't want to do.
The military aspect aside, it is difficult for me to really get into the issue of homelessness, because I feel like I am constantly on the verge of being in that position in my own life. I've never experienced anything like this, but it is, I guess, one of the perils of deciding to start your life over, even though you have no money and no job prospects. Maybe you haven't heard, but this economy sucks. Big-time. I went from spending six years only working if I felt like I wanted to, and not because it was necessary, to being desperate to find any source of income at all so that I can support my family. So, watching women going through the same thing, and then having to write about it, is a little too much for me.
Ah, see, now we've gotten too personal for the intent of this blog.
So, a quick recap: Alicia and Mickiela are both homeless after years of service in the military. There aren't a lot of resources for the roughly 6,500 female veterans who live on the streets. Alicia in particular finds it hard to ask for help, largely due to her pride, but also because, as she says, "it's hard to say you're drowning when your mouth is full of water."
Major Tammy Duckworth lost her legs when an RPG hit her Blackhawk helicopter. Now she's the assistant secretary of veteran affairs, and she seems committed to fixing the problems these women (and many others, including men, of course) are facing. She said that Obama wants to end homelessness among veterans within five years.
One in three women who serve in the military are sexually assaulted or raped. 90% don't report it. To me, that seems like maybe a bigger deal than the homelessness, but it's glossed over in this episode. It would be hard to press the military to do much about it anyway, considering the actual training and mentality of the military is a huge part of the problem. Give a bunch of teenagers guns, then tell them they're men and that they have the ability -- no, the responsibility -- to protect their country by mowing down a bunch of Arabs, and it's not hard to see why these guys might get a little amped up, and even might start believing that they're allowed to take anything they want from anybody.
Simplistic? Sure. But so is the idea of telling every soldier/airman/Marine that going to Iraq and/or Afghanistan is somehow fulfilling the obligation to protect freedom and liberty within our own borders.
Finally, Margaret and Jasmen are two mothers currently serving in Afghanistan. Margaret is in the midst of a custody battle for her three children, which she has to fight from thousands of miles away. Jasmen is going through a divorce while in Afghanistan. The military seems to have no real ability to protect these women from losing their children when they are deployed, and so deployment becomes even more of a punishment than it already was. One woman, Eva, fought for three years to get her daughter back, and eventually helped to pass legislation that protects military parents from having to go through what she faced after serving her country. So far, 36 states have adopted legislation to that effect.
Monday: A 16-year-old boy who killed his molester is getting out of jail just to do Oprah.
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