Veterans and Suicide

This article by the Chicago Tribune tells the story of the harsh realities of war and how those who put their lives on the line are still feeling the impact of war even when they return home.

The article does a wonderful job of acknowledging the mental illness issue associated with suicide deaths. It doesn’t simply focus on the devastation of suicide, but rather sheds light on the emotional and mental wounds that leave soldiers hurting after the fact.

The language and word-smithing in the article overall were impressive. Throughout the whole article, the author used “killed themself” most often, and only slipped up one time by using the terminology “committed suicide.”

While I very much enjoyed the colorful and emotionally-strung narrative of this piece, I couldn’t help but call into question some of the information they included and they way they reported it. There is certainly a hint of bias that can be detected in the beginning of the piece when the author called into question the rationality behind sending young warriors into combat. I understand the purpose in doing so – to illustrate the pain that comes from losing someone to war – but it rubbed me the wrong way. But I digress.

The author also included details as to how a solider who had returned home from war killed himself. “He killed himself with a single gunshot.” A short and simple, yet powerful statement. It’s not graphic or aggressive, but it certainly implies that the one shot struck him somewhere on his body that was immediately fatal and gory.

What really caught my attention, though, was the notion that, “some wounds will not heal. The pain is too irreversible.” I immediately thought of how dangerously suggestive this one sentence is. Of course, the article was about shedding light on the devastation of war and combat on the mental and emotional stability of those directly involved in it. However, I think this piece could have achieved the same goal of causing emotion and educating the masses in the absence of this sentence. What about the other soldiers out there that read this piece? The ones that are struggling to fight the demons of war from eating them alive? To me, this sentence screams, “You won’t get through this. You can’t get through this” to those struggling with mental illness and thoughts of suicide, regardless of their specific circumstances and situations. Overall it was a wonderful piece, but I can’t ignore the ignorance behind including this statement.