The Broken Soldier

“On Dec 9, 2007 3:05 PM, Brian wrote:
Jimison,

I don’t give such advice lightly - to tell a good friend to leave his own country. But I came to that conclusion some time ago because I could see you were never going to get treatment. You can build a dozen websites and have a 100 Uncle Carls (referring to Senator Carl Levin) on your side, but the red tape and the attendant retarded thinking that goes with it are too much to overcome.

In light of what you have told me recently - which is sadly consistent with everything else you’ve told me in the past - I am coming to that conclusion again, that you have to leave. What takes top priority is your health, because your goals and dreams depend on it. The house, yes, even your country take a back seat to your health. You are luckier than most in that you have an option - most are stuck.

No country is perfect. Canada sucks too for many reasons. We don’t have any civil rights here because the government can suspend any of them at a drop of a hat using the “notwithstanding clause” Canada is no heaven, you know that. But it may be all you’ve got left. I’ll buy you a Tim’s coffee, a donut and a tuque (your citizenship kit) if you decide to make the move.”

My best friend Brian wrote me the above email today. The advice to which he speaks is in regard to emigrating to Canada. My wife is a Canadian and English citizen. If we leave I, as her spouse, could get medical care almost immediately.

For the first time in my life I am considering it. I hope those of you reading this fully grasp what this means. A man who has served his country twice in two separate branches of the military, who loved his country more than his own desires and goals - loved it enough to put both on hold to serve again, with Old Glory tattooed on his forearm, and who proudly displayed on his home the largest flag on the street is forced to make this decision. Why? Because his government and his comrades in arms can’t keep their promises or do the right thing by one of their own. And it would seem the majority of this country’s citizens lack the strength of their supposed convictions to bother themselves to write a letter to their congressman, their local media outlets, or anything else more time or energy consuming than putting an ‘I support our troops’ bumper sticker on their car. Pathetic. The way this country is treating its injured service members, myself included, is truly shameful. And what’s more shameful is that the citizens and government of a foreign country, who morally and legally owe me nothing, will act to do right when my own countrymen and government cannot.