Peacefrog

REST IN PEACE May 12,1944-January 8,2008
(US ARMY 1965-1969)
See my recent myspace blog post for the announcement
or click Click here to leave condolences, tributes, or light a virtual candle at the memorial site
My father is done with his suffering in the system, which went on for over 35 years. But after seeing so many other veterans being treated so badly and hearing their stories, I can't let this issue rest until some changes are made for them. In his honor and memory, I try to spread awareness and bring change so that more veterans will not suffer and die, like my father did.
Please support the troops and veterans and take a moment to sign the petitions I have below.
Thanks for stopping by my MYSPACE- you can read my 'Stop the War- War Never Ends Poem' or my latest Poem 'Lady Liberty Cries' here. I also have many resources here about veteran's rights, petitions to sign to improve care for veterans, and where to find useful advocacy organizations and resources for veterans and their families.
Many thanks to twilightsaura.com for this myspace banner which expresses more than I can in poetry and words.
Click here visit Twilightsaura for myspace banners, web graphics, and website design Support independent artists!
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE IAVA PETITION FOR BETTER HEALTH CARE FOR VETERANS
Please take a moment to do this for me- a daughter of a Vietnam veteran who saw the neglect, disrespect and failing medical and mental health-care that our country gives to veterans who served. By signing the petition you will be supporting the work of IAVA- they are taking actions to demand that returning troops will not live with the suffering and sadness that so many Vietnam veterans and their families have lived with for years.
The medical care we give our soldiers is appalling, and for those with mental illness it is even worse. Most of the staff I met are not trained to take care of soldiers with war related trauma issues (ptsd or mental health issues) which is inexcusable and makes the veterans symptoms even worse. Suicide and homeless rates for veterans is skyrocketing.

I have witnessed neglect, veterans treated with no human dignity, verbal abuse, total lack of respect to veterans in the very places they go to for help. I've seen men die while waiting for medical or psychological care.
I saw so many things occur that would anger and break the hearts of many. I hear the slogan "support the troops" or see a ribbon on a car and it makes me angry, as I have not witnessed real support for injured or disabled veterans or their families.
I met so many amazing and strong veterans who were also failed by the system, while I was fighting for my own father's rights and medical care.
My father died in a system that failed him- he knew that I would go an fighting and advocating for soldiers/ veterans care and rights and helping veterans and their families connect with services and advocates that can help to empower them and bring them healing.
My father suffered in the system since 1969 and then when he was only 59 years old he was denied his 'right to life' and medical care- despite my begging the courts and the VA to give him this medical care. I will never forget seeing him be put to slow death like this by the very country he 'served'. Nor will I ever forget all the veterans I saw suffering in the system.
So many veteran's are suffering, being denied care, and forgotten. Please sign some of the petitions I have links to here it only takes a moment of your time!,

Read my "Stop The War- War Never Ends" poem below and do what you can to stop the war and to bring healing and health care to forgotten veterans.
The hospital my father died at is now being monitored by a task force initiated by a Senator from his state. Read the article here.
Another article about this issue is here. This shows that if enough people care, speak up for veterans, take action, sign petitions and contact their officials that we can help soldiers and veterans get the quality care the deserve!
Veterans and soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan War are still suffering in the same system that my father suffered and died in.
Here are 3 easy ways to help take action to improve the lives of veterans:
You can show that you support the troops and veterans, right from your computer- it takes only a minute!

Email congress to Support the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act It is easy to use the sample email letters here, or even add your own comments, type in your zip code and send this to your elected officials to show that you support our troops and veterans.
Click here to sign the IAVA petition demanding that President Bush sign the NEW GI BILL Sign it show that you support the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (S. 22 and H.R. 5740), and urge him to sign it into law immediately.
Click here to sign STANDUP4VETS online petitions for veterans

Let your elected official know you care about veterans!
Just take a moment to mention that you care about this and request that as your elected officials they will vote and work for: Veterans rights, better mental health care,improving health care for veterans, and to take action to reduce suicide and homeless rates of veterans, and pass the GI Bill! You can also tell them that you stand behind the missions of the IAVA and Standup4Vets.
It only takes a moment of your time, yet these action you can take now, will really help to improve the lives of soldiers and veterans. After all they sacrifice to serve our country, we need to show them that we do stand behind them - support our troops and veterans.
Other bills: The Disabled American Veterans - are asking for signatures to Support "The Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act"
I also care greatly about the TBI BILL. Tell President Bush to sign the Traumatic Brain Injury Bill. Congress passed “The Reauthorization of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act (TBI)” now the president needs to sign it! email me with any other bills or petitions and I will add them!

Please sign petitions to let your elected officials know that you care about the returning soldiers and all veterans and help to demand better care for them.- Thank you.
Click on banner to visit my friends at DOVV- Daughters of Vietnam Veterans
This poemsforpeace Myspace is new, I will be adding some more poems soon, add me as a friend, or email if you have a website or an announcement I will add to myspace, my STOP THE WAR squidoo lens, and my blogs.
Check out my myspace for good organizations, people, and music.
You can read my STOP THE WAR- WAR NEVER END poem below
or at PoetsAgainstTheWar.org
Vietnam Veteran & Biological Father Asks:
"When Will They Bring The Troops Home"
"Soldier's Daughter- War Never Ends" Poem.
In the war that never ends, he sits in his room.
For years his mind would pretend that he hadn't lost it all,
freedom, love, dignity.
Left with wounds so deep they never mend.
Maybe a wiser man to lose your mind,
when the visions that flicker on and on,
show a world gone so wrong.
He knows many are blind.
She cries in the night, that awakes her from sleep
haunted by voices, that scatter and seep in hallow asylum walls,
that echo in administration's war calls.
He was called to fight, he was the young, the strong, the fated pawn.
The warrior marches on,
with stories of combat undergone, memories of precious lives that fell.
Images of hell that tangle and twist in his mind,
and stories so buried he can never tell.
With his battle's scars, he dwells in fear,
in places so dark, who can he tell?
When no one seems to want to hear.
Traded a young man's dreams and wishes for death, partitions,
flag draped coffins, and ammunitions.
Close as breath a memory seems, his fear never softens.
Alone in his room he stares and stares
as the television blares,
he tells his daughter he's had a bad day,
but not to worry as it's been that way for years.
She feels her tears.
He says,"the news declares more troops died today"
He asks her "if anyone cares?" What can she say?
They all told him in Nam "you won't remember the wounded, the dead"
Yet, he remembers their faces and pain as he recites them by name,
with stories of how they each reached their end.
Lost for time in a battlefield haze that lives in his head.
Where his mind returns again and again to honor those slain.
Until he asks her again, "How much longer until we bring the troops home?"
He sees them all die again and again,
and prays for the ones who make it back home.
Home does not change, everything in their head.
He knows many will roam on a hard road to tread,
The meds, buried friends, hospital beds, a soldier, a vet alone.
In a system he knows well, too many will dwell.
They seal his fate and say he lost his mind,
as they lock away the soldier who knows.
It seems his thoughts become clear, when he has his daughter near.
His soldier's wisdom to find in prose.
He knows what he sees is so wrong,
He asks her to write a peace song,
War scenes on flicker on and on.
Though he has come home decades ago, he lives in war that never ends.
He wonders were it all went wrong, lost years,
and how many will come home to sing his sad song,
of a war that lasts far too long.
Copyright© 2006 Kristin Lee...peacefrogpoet
Click Here To Read My Latest Poem "Lady Liberty Cries" Published at WHYAREWEINIRAQ.COM This poem tells part of the story of many veterans I met and witnessed their suffering in the system. My poems are all true stories, I hope that when you read them you will want to do your part to help soldiers and veterans. I have made it easy for you to click on the links to help soldiers and veterans, your help means a lot to me and to all soldiers,veterans, and their families!
Click here to visit STANDUP4VETS.ORG
OR
click here to sign STANDUP4VETS online petitions for veterans
"Stand Up For Veterans is an advocacy campaign of the Disabled American Veterans. Its purpose is to generate greater public awareness and support for strengthening federal policies that provide health care assistance to disabled veterans injured in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those from prior eras and conflicts." There are awareness campaigns, resources and online petitions at standup5vets.org.
Visit My Peace Poet site For Stop the Iraq War poems, places to submit your own poems, poetry links, resources on veteran's care issues, books, and links to help veterans and their families, & more of my bio.
I have featured hand hand-picked poems, soldiers poems and music, anti-war articles, links, and resources: peace poetry, info on veterans issues, the peace movement & anti-war activism to bring the troops home. You can also find resources about issues that many veterans and their families face and support services available.
In addition, you will find how to submit your own peace poem to websites, music links with free music to listen to and share, activism merchandise, Iraq war news headlines, and a Plexo link section where you can vote for your favorite link &/or add your favorite links.
Visit For More Anti-War Poems, Music,& Info
Watch the video to see portraits of Fallen Soldiers made by artist Kaziah Hancock paints portraits of fallen soldiers and gives them to their next of kin. hero paintings.com
Ben Harper's Happy Everafter In Your Eyes
My dad, my hero, my guardian angel
the church bells are ringing and the children are singing,
as the angels come to take to you to rest
with your fallen honorable brothers from long ago.
Light and peace forevermore.
Some Of Our Story: I am an adoptee, a long lost daughter of a disabled Vietnam Veteran whom I finally was able to find & reunite with.... a mother, an artist, a poet.
My biological father was in the Vietnam War when I was born. The poem featured was written in reaction to my many conversations with and in honor of him and all veterans and their families who live with this legacy of war.
I always wondered who my biological father was, how he was, and when I was as young as 4 years old, I can remember seeing convoys of Army trucks drive by on the highway and I had an eerie sense or knowing that my biological father was a soldier. I remember the Vietnam Veteran's held a large protest in my town and many were arrested that night, I remember this as if I was watching a movie of it right now. It was held on the Battle Green in Lexington Massachusetts- where the first shot from the Revolutionary War was fired.
I was only about 4, but somehow it seemed so significant. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War held this protest with John Kerry, at the time I did not know who was there, but I did now they were soldiers and other people who wanted to stop the war on my town Green protesting the war.
Here is a link with the history, interviews, and photos of the Vietnam War protest on the Lexington Green 1971 There is also a DVD for sale of all the documents and history of this event available at the link.
Thinking about it now it seems so odd to being so moved by this protest and eerily aware of what the protest, as if somehow I knew that the Vietnam War would be something that would impact my entire life. There was an ominous feeling even at that young age.

The next thing I remember about the WAR was the call to my house when my family got the call that my uncle's nephew had just killed himself due to the war. I saw at a young age the COST of WAR as his mother had to bury her son.
As a teenager I was pretty sure my bio-dad had died in Vietnam. I even had poster of the National Cemetery on my wall. My adopted family had been given no information about him.
When I met my birth-mother I was 27, I remember, at first not wanting to ask her about my bio-dad, as in some ways I did not want to hear that my feelings and thoughts about him being in Vietnam I had since I young were true. I did not want to hear that he was a soldier in Vietnam, as to hear that would mean that my feelings that he had died at war may also come true. But the first day I met my bio-mom she told me about him, though I never asked. She told me he was a soldier and was also concerned that within 4 days of hearing about her pregnancy with me they shipped him overseas, and she always wondered what happened to him overseas, or if he had died, as she had never heard from him again.
(she did not know until I found him that when he returned from overseas, after a stay at Walter Reed, in a post war trauma haze he came to Boston looking for her, and he found he she had moved a few towns away and was married. He never knew what became of me, though this thought worried him until we were finally able to meet.)
She offered to do whatever she could to help me to reunite with him. I also met her father who was a World War 2 Veteran, and her brother who is Vietnam Veteran and they also offered me support. I finally was able met my bio-dad 3 1/2 years ago. The first day I met him he also spoke of my birth mom and was concerned about her well-being, just as she had been about him. I could right pages about our first reunion and the 2 1/2 years we had before he got physically ill and was denied medical care, but the nightmare of the last year is, unfortunately, overshadowing most of those memories right now.
Although it took me more 10 years of trying to find & contact him we finally did reunite. The privacy laws that are supposed to protect, made for a lot of red-tape to find my bio-Dad who had been in the VA hospital system for over 35 years and actually prevented us from even knowing each other for over 10 years! Nobody would tell me where he was in what hospital etc.. even though I told them I was his daughter.
Last year he became physically ill, most of this myspace is about that part of our story. I had made this myspace and written my 'Stop The War Poem' long before he became so ill. I then used this myspace to share what was happening during the past year. Whenever you see a section called 'news' that was written while we were going through our battle with the VA and the Court for his right to life and medical care.
Read the latest news in my myspace blog: he is now critically ill, I have tried to fight for his medical care, psychiatric care, and legal rights in OHIO courts and the Federal VA System...the state court of Ohio declares despite my + DNA test that proves he is my father "you are a stranger to this man, he is not your father as his name is not your birth certificate!".
They will give me NO RIGHTS TO HELP HIM GET MEDICAL CARE despite the facts that he is being neglected and abused by the state appointed guardian, the courts, and the VA. He is left to die with no medical treatments and no psychiatric services. He is a veteran with service related disability and he has been so failed by the system, just as many veterans are also failed everyday.
This man, MY FATHER, never got to be there to sign my birth certificate as he was in the service... and in Vietnam in 1967 when I was born and disabled ever since...hidden away in the VA system for over 35 years! The VA and State Courts let him die even though that was not his wishes or mine! Under 'their law' he is not my father, so I asked if they would protect him as me speaking on behalf of the life of another 'human being'-whether he was my father or not was not the point. The point is that he was not being cared for and was being left to die and nobody would do anything to help him. They just kept saying, "you are not his daughter" as if that is what this was about! It was insane. They would ignore my verbal testimonies and letters, and do nothing to help him.
I ask was it his fault he was not there to sign my birth certificate in 1967? When he was at war when I was born? and by the time he came back from overseas I was given up for adoption and he was never able to find me due to his war related disability.
So the crazy thing I think we should all ask is who is insane or disabled in this story? The system is insane and disabled in it's ability to treat veterans with any respect, dignity, or quality of care. Everyday countless stories like ours, are being lived by soldiers, veterans, and families as they suffer in this system.
My father is done with his suffering in the system, which went on for over 35 years. But after seeing so many others being treated so badly and hearing their stories I can't let this issue rest until some changes are made for them. In his honor and memory, I try to spread awareness and bring change so that more will not suffer and die, like my father did.
I can't believe it really.... I fight for 10 years with the VA to find him, we reunite, and then the system denies our rights as father and daughter(even though our DNA is matched at 99.9953) and they let him die with no medical care against my wishes and his own requests for help of which I made very clear to the Veterans Administration and in testimony in the state courts.
More of the story(which was originally posted here during our struggle) News November 2007: He has survived since Sept 17th with only 10% heart functioning, 15% kidney functioning without any medical care or treatment for these conditions-The VA and the Ohio Courts will not grant my petitions for life sustaining medical care for my own father! see my blog for more of this story
Please keep your thoughts and prayers coming cause they are working MIRACLES he is alive and kicking and even though they are no giving him medical care and this is like watching a murder-he is staying alive- He said,"hope and pray for the best" and that is what I'm asking you all to join me in doing, PEACE
They will not let him come to be near his daughter and grandson and get medical care here. They see me as nuisance because I care and 'try' to fight and advocate for his legal rights and care. Doctors have said there is treatment that would save his life and he is denied this due to his "mental illness, no quality of life, and his agitation symptoms" which are all due to service related ptsd". They think it is ok to let people die because they have war related disability, mental illness or get agitated due to ptsd! They said these things to me more than once.
They had the nerve to actually say this to me! Look at the photos- does this look like a man who should be left to die? Who are 'they' to judge "quality of life" for someone and deny them care that could save their lives,or base their decisions to not treat someone because they have a disability? This was the care provided to him by the country he served and it is what young soldiers coming home will get for care.

Update News: This is only some of the story of the insane system and nightmare we have lived with, the rest will fill the pages of book. So much of what I saw is not just wrong, unfair, unkind, inhumane, and unjust.... it is illegal and this is how we, if don't speak up and demand better care, are allowing our soldiers and and veterans to be treated like this everyday.
I contacted some high profile politicians during this time, and only two took the time to get back to me or showed any concern for my father as a person or as a US Veteran. Someone who is on TV everyday touting their concern for people, saying how they listen to people, and sharing stories about meeting people and helping people, is one of the people who did not even take the time to have her office get back to me, with advice or where to turn for help for my father, a disabled veteran.
You will not hear many of the veteran's stories, as they are locked away far from view, but take it from me it is happening everyday and we should all be outraged and make sure that the politician we elect 'walk their talk' when it comes to veterans issues and war.

I hope that we will bring the troops home soon, so that more veterans will not have to endure the heartbreak and suffering that so many Vietnam Veterans and their families live with everyday. Veteran's deserve legal rights, help for mental illness and homelessness, good medical care, and to be treated with dignity and respect.
We Can Work Together To Help Stop The War-Stop The Injuries, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, And Lack Of Proper Care For Veterans.