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As I am listening, I become increasingly disturbed by the turn of the conversation.

In regard to the wanted apology from Mr. Bratcher:

My mother was diagnosed with several mental health challenges around her sexual assault experience when she was young, one of them being PTSD. She has a very hard time communicating, taking another person's point of view, and is very protective of herself. Growing up it was difficult to live with her as she was very abusive. When I become of age I decided that I was never going to speak to her again until she was able to say she was sorry. Now at the age of 30, I have yet to receive my apology. Over the years I have realized that I am never going to receive it. I have been waiting for something she is never going to be able to extend to me. If we are only waiting for apologies and not experiencing compassion, we will never move on. My mother is not at fault for the things she experienced. I know that is not choosing to be mentally unstable. I know that if she could be heallthy, she would.

Second, I have never been a soldier in a war and could not possibly ever know what that feels like. But what I can say is that it behooves us to try and understand, to recogniz that the men and women sent on behalf of our country are experiencing life changing tragedies of the physical and spiritual kind. While it is awful a man was killed as a result of a soldier with PTSD, we must look at what the military can do, we must hold them accountable...ie lesson the amount of repeated tours our soldiers are doing, required mental health services, and get out of these wars! We must also look at what we can do as a society to better support those who suffer from war related mental health challenges. Whether of not we agree with the two wars, we have to care about those individuals who are giving up there lives, sometimes permanently in the event of a death, in the name of our country.

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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