Before I left for Alaska I was given a book to read by Ed Tick the author of War and the Soul. I was going to work with Native Alaskans who were dealing with the epidemic of alcohol and suicide. The title of the book Ed gave me is The Way of the Human Beings by Harold Napoleon. What a gift this was. Having read the book I was able to understand what the Native Alaskans are dealing with. Harold writes about the “Great death” which was as series of epidemic brought by the white man during the nineteen hundreds. Harold uses the experience of the Vietnam veteran who came home with PTSD as a parallel to what happened to the Native Alaskans. Natives were left on the fringes of society jus tas the Vietnam veterans were. Natives were traumatized by the loss of so many people and are still struggling to recover the profound loss of elders. Just as the Vietnam vets with PTSD have often choose addiction, and suicide, so did the Native Alaskans.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in PTSD, in either population.
Larry
2 comments:
Larry, like you, I also served as a Marine in Vietnam. I went to Nam a young, happy, Christian man; and, 15 months later, an aged, angry, confused individual returned. Somewhere in the killing fields of Vietnam, I lost a part of me forever.
Loyde,
The part that many of us have lost in those killing fields is our soul. I want to believe that the soul is the most resilient of all our parts, I want to believe that one can find their soul again. Ed Tick's Book War and the Soul has helped me to understand this. Thank you for telling the truth.
Larry
Post a Comment