Obama must reverse policy on no condolence letters for suicides – UPDATED
Chancellor Keesling coming home from Iraq
A bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current “insensitive” policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide.
A letter signed by 11 senators — 10 Democrats and one Republican — urges the president to “take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence” to families of troops who killed themselves.
The policy, which goes back several presidents, has been the subject of protest by military families. CNN first reported in 2009 about the family of Spc. Chancellor Keesling, who killed himself while serving in Iraq.
The family set up a wall to pay tribute to Keesling in their Indiana home. Along with his uniform and the flag from his burial service, a space was left for the expected condolence letter from the commander in chief. It never arrived.
Upset when they learned a suicide did not merit a letter from the president, Keesling’s father, Gregg, wrote to the president and the Army chief of staff requesting the policy be changed.
At the time, a White House spokesman said the administration was reviewing the “inherited” policy.
Keesling has argued that his son’s suicide was a result of what he was exposed to during war and deserves to be considered caused by battle. The letter never arrived.
The letter to the president this week seeks again to reverse the policy. The senators note that the Pentagon has worked hard to try to eliminate the stigma of mental health injuries and to lower the suicide rate…
“Unfortunately, perpetuating a policy that denies condolence letters to families of service members who die by suicide only serves to reinforce this stigma by overshadowing the contributions of an individual’s life with the unfortunate nature of his or her death,” the letter says. “It is simply unacceptable for the United States to be sending the message to these families that somehow their loved ones’ sacrifices are less important.”
It doesn’t seem to matter if our leader in the White House is a compassionate conservative or a compassionate liberal – there hasn’t been anyone in that office with common sense or compassion enough to care about the families of someone whose death took place while toiling for this nation as a member of the American military.
Last time I experienced the death by suicide of someone I worked with it was defined by a construction job – and the dude who walked away from life was the foreman. We had in fact discussed the broader concept of suicide and when someone might feel it an appropriate alternative to carrying on. The point remains that – after his death – there wasn’t a worker on that job who didn’t participate in some manner of condolences to friends and family for their loss.
It takes some kind of barbaric reasoning to inflict further loss upon those who were close to someone who felt they needed to take their life.
UPDATE: We won that one. Obama changed administration policy, today – 6 July 2011.
President Obama wants to keep our budget under control on military. Why are we pushing our military past the bredaking point? Too many tours combat for individual military members is a factor in suicide rate. People are not machines. Doing 3 tours of duty means, they can do 5 tours of combat duty? Don’t they see the obvious? Stress of combat is a factor in suicide. Increase the military staffing to reduce the need for endless combat tours of duty. Better yet, why do we need to stay in combat forever, in regions of the world that have a history of endless war and conflict.? Get home, and help heal the stressed and wounded military. We have done more than needed. I want a President who will bring our troops home.
hoboduke
May 28, 2011 at 7:07 am