{"id":92709,"date":"2015-05-27T00:47:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T07:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=92709"},"modified":"2015-05-26T13:14:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T20:14:40","slug":"a-parable-of-two-sons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/05\/a-parable-of-two-sons.html","title":{"rendered":"A Parable of Two Sons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here is a classy Memorial Day story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

During the surge in Iraq in 2008, Nathan Witmer led an Army scout platoon in a thicket of villages rife with insurgents and roadside bombs. What he really wants to do is direct.<\/p>\n

Or maybe write \u2014 or produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything with movies was always the dream,\u201d said Mr. Witmer, who left active duty in 2010.<\/p>\n

Like many troops leaving the military, he was steered instead toward jobs in government agencies that offered preferential hiring or with big corporations that recruited veterans, and he assumed his hope of working in show business would remain only that.<\/p>\n

But after selling medical equipment for two years, he had the chance to join a five-week industry boot camp designed to bring young veterans into the television business. To his surprise, it was run by one of the Iraq war\u2019s fiercest critics, Jon Stewart, the longtime host of Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cThe Daily Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually inspirational,\u201d said Mr. Witmer, who went on to work at Fox News and then found a job as a \u201cDaily Show\u201d associate field segment producer. \u201cWe hear \u2018Thank you for your service\u2019 all the time, but here was concrete action, people working to really make a difference. And it changed lives. I\u2019m proof of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe Daily Show\u201d developed the program over the last three years without publicizing it, but now, because Mr. Stewart is preparing to leave the show, he has taken it into the open, urging other shows to develop their own programs to bring more veterans into the industry.<\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cThis is ready to franchise. Please steal our idea,\u201d Mr. Stewart said in an interview at his Manhattan studio recently. \u201cIt isn\u2019t charity. To be good in this business you have to bring in different voices from different places, and we have this wealth of experience that just wasn\u2019t being tapped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veterans are less likely to struggle to find work after war \u2014 their unemployment rate has been lower than the comparable civilian rate for years \u2014 but few land in the entertainment industry, according to the industry group Veterans in Film and Television.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

120 veterans commit suicide every week. (17 a day)<\/span>
\u2022 1000 veterans attempt suicide in the VA each month.<\/span>
\u2022 About 20 percent of the U.S. population committing suicide is our Veterans.<\/span>
\u2022 Veterans who fought in Iraq, Afghanistan and other terrorism-related conflicts were four times more likely to commit suicide (18 to 24 age group)<\/span>
\u2022 33 percent of our nation\u2019s homeless population consists of veterans (about 200,000 veterans)<\/span>
\u2022 A higher percentage of post-Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffered from PTSD than from any other previous war because of \u201cstop loss\u201d (an involuntary extension of service in the military), multiple tours, and greater prevalence of brain injuries<\/span>

http:\/\/theveteranssupport.org\/statistics<\/a><\/p>\n

There was once a man who had two sons. \u00a0To the elder, he said, \u201cGo and help the troops in their struggle.\u201d \u00a0So the elder son got five draft deferments, put on a flag lapel pin, sought high office, ordered men into battle in an unjust war, stayed home, got rich, sent their jobs overseas, cut their benefits, said \u201cThank you for your service\u201d, and drove past them in his limo as they sat homeless and begging on his way to Halliburton stockholder meetings.<\/p>\n

To the younger son, the man said, \u201cGo and help the troops in their struggle.\u201d \u00a0So the younger son went out, protested sending good men into a futile and unjust war, chronicled the lies and selfishness of the older brother, demanded the troops receive the care his selfish older brother denied soldiers returning from the war, and created a way for soldiers coming back from the war to find work, support their families, afford\u00a0the medical treatment they needed for their PTSD, express their creativity and live happily ever after.<\/p>\n

Which of the two sons did his father\u2019s will?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a classy Memorial Day story: During the surge in Iraq in 2008, Nathan Witmer led an Army scout platoon in a thicket of villages rife with insurgents and roadside bombs. What he really wants to do is direct. Or maybe write \u2014 or produce. \u201cAnything with movies was always the dream,\u201d said Mr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,20],"class_list":["post-92709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-war-without-end-amen","tag-works-of-mercy"],"yoast_head":"\nA Parable of Two Sons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here is a classy Memorial Day story: During the surge in Iraq in 2008, Nathan Witmer led an Army scout platoon in a thicket of villages rife with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/05\/a-parable-of-two-sons.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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