In the winter of 1992-93, I was a senior at Ramstein American High School, located on the premises of Ramstein Air Force Base and a short drive from the German town of Landstuhl. I was also the president of RAHS' chapter of the National Honor Society.
Like many NHS chapters, we chose a service project to give back to our community. Our project that winter was to remodel the Family Waiting Room for the Intensive Care Unit at what was at the time known as Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center (LARMC). It has since dropped the "Army" from its title.
At the time, Landstuhl was lesser known than its cousin to the north, the Wiesbaden military hospital. For any who may remember, the US hostages taken during the Iranian Revolution were flown to and treated at Wiesbaden following their release in 1981. Partly as a result of not being well-known (and also because the Army is just generally bad at facilities upkeep, a truth brought home by the appalling conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital), several facilities within LARMC were in disrepair.
The project came out of a tour of Landstuhl the NHS took as it was considering potential service projects. During our tour, I noticed family members sleeping in a waiting room for the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I also noticed that the room in which they slept was enclosed by stained walls covered in peeling paint, and filled with furniture that was broken and/or stained and so small and uncomfortable as to make sleeping (or even sitting for long periods of time) deeply uncomfortable, if not impossible. The room and its furniture clearly had not been updated in decades.
I was appalled, and so were my classmates. We could not imagine that family members sitting vigil, awaiting word of the fate of a loved one fighting for his or her life, were forced to endure such awfulness in an already terrible situation.
Back at RAHS, we made a quick decision to make the renovation of that Family Waiting Room our Winter/Spring Service Project.
Over several snowy days in December 1992/January 1993, we raised money for funding, scraped and painted walls, scrapped the old furniture, and hunted down and purchased new sofas and recliners that would make sleeping and/or sitting much more palatable. When we were done, that Family Waiting Room looked like new. I was prouder then of that service project than of any individual academic or athletic achievement.
For many years, the memory of that service project has been one of my most fond memories. As Landstuhl has received frequent mention in the press as the primary treatment facility for veterans wounded grievously in Afghanistan and Iraq, I have recalled my experience at Landstuhl, glad that we may have made families a little more comfortable -- and I have wondered whether that facility, getting much more use now than then, is in need of another renovation.
Then, in the last week, I've been sickened by the use of Landstuhl and its wounded residents as a political football by the McCain campaign. Whatever you think of the wisdom of the move (I think he should have gone), Barack Obama and his campaign made a good-faith effort to avoid politicizing the facility by not going when he and his campaign perceived that the trip to visit wounded soldiers at Landstuhl might be politicized.
Now, John McCain, in a dishonest, disingenuous ad, and with words used during campaign stops, is using Landstuhl and its wounded veterans for shallow, temporary political advantage. It is deeply inappropriate and it makes me nauseous.
It shocks me that a military veteran and former POW, who knows and understands intimately the sacrifices endured by wounded veterans, would think for one moment of using them as part of a political ploy. His willingness to do so, and in fact his campaign's insistence on continuing to doing so in the face of evidence contradicting his charge (see linked article above), is craven. It demonstrates that he values the short-term political value of pasting his opponent with a tag of "military-hating liberal" more than he does the concept of honoring the sacrifice of wounded veterans by keeping them off the political playing field. In so doing, he has proven that he is unfit for the highest office in the land.
He has clearly lost himself in his desperation to be president. It's sickening, and it's sad. And though I was considering it, I will no longer consider voting for John McCain. He has sullied my memories, sullied his campaign, and sullied himself with this disgusting gambit. He should be ashamed of himself. I pray only that the American public sees this shameful ploy for what it is and, if he continues it, rejects it soundly in November. Pathetic.
5 comments:
I am surprised to learn that you attended high school in Germany. Is this a recent development?
So this is the blogging equivalent of Chapin laying down palms for Obama.
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the war-horses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
—Zechariah 9:9-10
Two things:
1. At the very least, Chapin could've posted that stuff on his own damn blog.
2. For some reason, when I read that bible verse, I do so (silently, of course) in a Samuel L. Jacksonish voice.
This is NOT the laying down of palms for Obama. In fact, I barely mention Obama during the entire entry. This is much more about my extreme disappointment with the McCain campaign.
The McCain campaign builds its claim for the presidency largely around McCain's status as a veteran and war hero. It has in fact been the kernel around which he has built his entire political career.
I find it shameful that a man who claims to be on the side of the troops, to support the troops, to be ONE OF the troops, could not see beyond his own shallow, short-term needs.
He could not bring himself to do what he should have done. And here is what he should have done.
When his senior campaign advisors came to him with the idea of using Landstuhl to smear Obama, McCain should have replied, "You know what, boys? We're not going to touch this one, and here's why. The wounded soldiers, sailors, and airmen who have served their country and been wounded grievously enough to land at that hospital don't deserve for "Landstuhl" to become a byword for a stupid, false, contrived controversy in a political campaign. Neither do the thousands of people who have previously passed through Landstuhl's doors either as patients or concerned family members -- or the doctors, nurses, and volunteers who have served them. No, we have plenty of other opportunities to call attention to the failings of our opponent. So out of respect for my fellow wounded veterans, we're not going to touch this one."
That would have been McCain the Warrior. McCain the Veteran. McCain the POW. McCain the Maverick. Instead, it was just McCain the Lost. In my opinion, this episode and many others over the past few months demonstrate that he has lost himself and lost his way. He tried to be himself in 2000, and he lost. He remains deeply embittered by that loss and is determined to do and say anything to win this time. In my opinion, when a candidate loses himself and can't find his way back to being himself, it's the signal that the candidate is no longer worthy of election -- or at least no longer worthy of my vote.
So, politically, McCain's attack didn't work. This week, however, Obama floated a trial balloon about billing private insurance for war wounds, thus proving McCain correct in estimating Obama's regard for veterans and the rightful responsibility of the government to take care of wounded service men who have paid nearly the highest price.
Do you still think that Obama "made a good-faith effort to avoid politicizing the facility?"
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