On Monday, 10/3/16, Donald Trump said during an interview at the Retired American Warriors PAC in Virginia, “When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it. They see horror stories, they see events you couldn’t see in a movie, nobody would believe it, and we need a mental health help and medical [help] and it’s one of the things that I think is least addressed.”
You may have seen this quote all over the internet and on TV, but most likely you only see parts of it used to show Mr. Trump in a bad light. I find it amazing how easily the media can manipulate us into feeling or perceiving things in just the way that they want us to.
After the interview Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said,
“Mr. Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country. He has always respected the service and sacrifice of our military men and women—proposing reforms to Veteran Affairs to adequately address the various issues veterans face when they return home,”
I do not think that he is calling soldiers with PTSD weak, I think he’s just really raw and uncensored when it comes to public speaking and because he’s not as eloquent of a speaker as our current president we find it easy to get offended and misconstrue his words. I’m just saying that I don’t think he intentionally said anything to offend anyone, especially not the veterans he was speaking to. I think he said something to get a message across and that message is, “Veterans aren’t getting all the help they need.”
I see all over facebook that people I am friends with are getting sad and upset about this. I have to ask, how does saying veterans need more help make people sad and angry?
I think the major issue lies somewhere in the fact that no one really pays attention to what is really being said. It seems like everyone is quick to eat up whatever the media says, even when it’s taken out of context, and then adopt these feelings as their own.
When are we going to realize that the media doesn’t care about truth…the media doesn’t care who it helps or hurts, THE MEDIA CARES ABOUT RATINGS. Ratings = $$$ That’s it.
You might think to yourself, well I’ll get off the mass media and look to smaller things for my news, online journals, blogs, whatever…What you don’t realize there is that the same thing is going on most of the time. People are looking to get more hits, because more hits = more $$$. Again, many don’t care what they write, or who they might hurt, they’ll just go with the flow of what’s popular.
Before you get upset or angry about either candidate, I would like to ask everyone to first put their feelings in their pockets for a while, and put on blinders to the media. Look directly at the transcripts or watch the actual speech or event if it’s televised, take everything in, evaluate, then come to your own conclusion.
Please don’t get me wrong. It can be very helpful to read what other’s have written and listen to their thoughts and opinions, but at the end of the day you want to be sure that the things you believe and the way you feel are your own beliefs and your own feelings – not someone else’s.
Don’t be a sheep!
Make up your own mind.  Here is a link to the part of the interview in question: Donald Trump Says Soldiers With PTSD Aren’t Strong Enough