Veterans Unspoken Trauma From Silence To Strength

That's literal. That's not metaphorical. And this is where we've been. And nobody even considered this stuff because we didn't have a way to communicate prior to when that photograph was taken. Carl's done a fantastic job. Gallant Few does a fantastic job. Other entities out there, organizations do a fantastic job. We still haven't made enough bridges There's still a little bit too much ego, not enough ethos. We got to get that squared away. And it starts right here. It starts right here with what you say and what you do and when and where you're willing to collaborate with others, other groups. We must coalesce. We must continue to coalesce because only through numbers do we have any strength. Social capital equals political influence. You heard that, right? Social capital equals political influence. Now when I say politics, I'm not just talking about Capitol Hill. I'm talking about political influence over society, how a society acts, how it behaves. And nowadays, we're getting old. Look at us, guys. A little bit of gray, a little bit of hunched over, a little bit of a panza from my Hispanic friends. This happens. So what is our job now? We are the elders of a community. And you have the responsibility of an elder in a community. That's more than a mentor. That's more than a father. That's your father's father. How did I get involved in all this whole thing? Why did I join the military? Very, very simple. One, I want to give credit and love to my grandfather, Grandpa Jack. He served in World War II. He was the longest held prisoner of war in World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7th. He was captured on Guam on December 8th. And he spent the whole war in captivity. And I spent my life hearing from another room about how that's what Grandpa Jack did. And then I asked a question about it one day. What's that prisoner of war thing? Don't talk about it. Don't talk about it. Don't bring it up for Grandpa Jack. We don't talk about it. My dad's a Vietnam veteran. Hey dad, bring up a Vietnam question. I don't want to talk about it. When that photograph was taken, we were stuck between the I don't want to talk about it and I'm going to blow my fucking head off if I don't talk about it. And our identity could not be sorted out. Now it is. We have things called the Spartan Pledge. We have IGY-6. We have... How many 22 organizations are we created our own lingo and lexicon within the United States? Like 15, 22 something organizations pop up every day. I'd really like to see them collaborate a little bit more. We did that. This community did that. The people you know did that. Because that's what mattered and we do what matters and nothing else. But it did not happen fast. What is the next trick? What is the next thing that we do and where do we do it? Well, first of all, we need to continue to coalesce. But we are the leadership community of our country. In World War II, they call it the greatest generation. I have a caveat to that. Every generation of war fighters and whatever generation they fight is the greatest of that generation. Give yourselves a round of applause. Here's what I've learned since that photograph was taken. We talked about this a lot today. I see the same theme.