Progressive Minds

I just love this administration's commitment and support of the troops. (NOT!)

The Washington Post tells the story of Sgt. David Thomas, an amputee.  He wanted to attend an event where George W. Bush would be awarding citizenship to one of Thomas' fellow amputees.  Thomas was asked by a case worker at Walter Reed what he would be wearing to the event (held in the summertime).  After he responded that he would be wearing shorts, he was lectured that he should wear pants instead, since the amputees such as himself would be seated in the front row. Ultimately, he was disinvited from the event. 

In others words, according to the movers and shakers at Walter Reed, heaven forbid that George W. Bush and the media should see a military amputee IN SHORTS.  What, we can talk about the war?  But we don't want the Commander-in-Chief who sent Sgt. Thomas into combat, or the media, to see the evidence of his service?  (His missing leg).

From the Washington Post:

Perks and stardom do not come to every amputee. Sgt. David Thomas, a gunner with the Tennessee National Guard, spent his first three months at Walter Reed with no decent clothes; medics in Samarra had cut off his uniform. Heavily drugged, missing one leg and suffering from traumatic brain injury, David, 42, was finally told by a physical therapist to go to the Red Cross office, where he was given a T-shirt and sweat pants. He was awarded a Purple Heart but had no underwear.

David tangled with Walter Reed's image machine when he wanted to attend a ceremony for a fellow amputee, a Mexican national who was being granted U.S. citizenship by President Bush. A case worker quizzed him about what he would wear. It was summer, so David said shorts. The case manager said the media would be there and shorts were not advisable because the amputees would be seated in the front row.

" 'Are you telling me that I can't go to the ceremony 'cause I'm an amputee?' " David recalled asking. "She said, 'No, I'm saying you need to wear pants.' "

David told the case worker, "I'm not ashamed of what I did, and y'all shouldn't be neither." When the guest list came out for the ceremony, his name was not on it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801335_5.html