To the Editor:
Each year, when I taught at MVRHS, Tom Bennett would bring a group of Vietnam veterans he was counseling into our U.S. History classrooms. We wanted our students, as well as teachers, to see and hear up close and personal the impacts of war on those who serve. We heard directly from Island veterans about their experiences that were as real as if they happened yesterday.
As a teacher, I would listen to their stories again and again, through a full day of classes. By the end of the day, I was overwhelmed with emotion for these men, who had served in Vietnam and were around the same age as the students sitting in front of them. They were and are truly patriots, and I was humbled by their allowing us to hear their stories.
After completing their service, soldiers need to live with what they saw, what they did, and what they still feel right down to their bones. Many seek help to do this, and especially need the guiding hand of counselors such as Tom Bennett, who listen and hear them, and redirect them again and again, just to survive and face another day. We civilians have no idea of what these kids went through, and the least we can do is to offer them professional counseling as given through the Readjustment Counseling program that has done just that for more than 40 years.
A virtual program or counseling by general department staff can’t even begin to serve this population. Why should they who served us not be served by us, no matter the cost?
I apologize to our Island veterans, for our government ending such an important program. I appreciate each one of you veterans who bravely told your story to the students. Thank you for your service, and perhaps if enough of us say “No” to the ending of this program, it will be reinstated fully; but we have to speak out loudly, to serve you as you have served us.
Marge Harris
Oak Bluffs
Thank you Marge Harris.
I remember veterans visiting the venerable Mrs. Harris’ class in the 1980s and it humanizing and bringing the history of Vietnam home to us.
Thank you Mrs. Harris. As one of my favorite teachers you continue to bring meaningful attention to things that actually matter. Making the choice to serve in the military is one of the most valiant, honorable things a person can do, no matter the reason to serve. Especially in war time when your decision could cost you your life, sanity, everything. The men and women who come home from war will typically not seek out therapy unless its readily available and particularly easy to attend. Living on an island, limits the ability to seek care elsewhere and many will simply not, due to the increased travel, money and difficulty of making a “a day of it” to simply seek mental health care that should be an automatic for veterans. I am a veteran myself, and can speak to the inherent difficulty of seeking out care for many reasons, availability should not be one of those reasons. Thank you again Mrs Harris for bringing awareness to this incredibly important issue. We cannot leave a single man/woman behind because we cant afford it, we can.