Jan 13, 2009

Out of curiousity, I googled the percentage of troops that are coming back from our current War on Terror and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Out of the 6,201 troops surveyed, a portion from Iraq and a portion from Afghanistan, the studies revealed on average one out of every eight soldiers returning suffered from PTSD. The article I read was from MSNBC.com and had some other interesting information with similar statistics from the Vietnam and Persian Gulf Wars.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5334479/

This summer I watched an MTV special titled, "Kanye West Homecoming Special" in which a few U.S. citizens whom had each served in Iraq thought they were being interviewed for a MTV News segment when Kanye West enters their house and sits down and has a conversation with the soldiers. Each one of the people selected suffered from severe PTSD. The neat thing was that they all followed hip hop closely and were so used to listening to what Kanye sang to them, that they felt so amazed to have one of their musical idols enthrawled in the stories they were giving to him. On top of that before Kanye West left their homes he did something very special for each one of these veterans. As they all had trouble holding jobs, let alone even being out in public at times, Kanye offered financial help specific to each of the different situations. For example, Kanye paid the mortgage for one man's house for at least a year (I Cannnot remember if it was longer) and promised another couple that their child's tuition would be fully paid for when their child reaches the age and attends college.
----Now I know this was unfortunately only a few of the brave U.S. citizens that have served in the war and suffer from traumatic issues, but it is wonderful that MTV and Kanye West collaborated for this event. As a business major myself I can be cynical and look at this as a means to boost Kanye's public image, but that notion was removed from my mind after observing the genuine interaction and amazement from Kanye as he sat and just shot the shit with these veterens. It makes me proud to be an American, and more importantly proud to be a living, breathing person. Deep down no matter what the circumstances traumatic events occur all the time and it is so powerful to see people helping other people through their hard times. It dosn't always just have to be financially, as an emotional crutch can be 100x more powerful. It almost seems ludicrous to say, and maybe I am just an optimist, but if we all take a step back and resolve issues intelligently and diplomatically- why isn't world peace attainable?


I am not sure what triggered the rant I just went off on but hopefully it makes sense because I don't want to edit it...I want to reread it next time I post a blog and see how my thoughts came out tonight.

As for now, lets just thank Mr. West:

http://www.mtv.com/shared/promoimages/bands/w/west_kanye/veterans_chicago_072108/281x211.jpg