Friday, January 30, 2015

Understanding the True Cost of War - 100 Faces

Theodore Roosevelt, “A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.” 1903

Portraits of war veterans show true cost of war
January 29, 2015 - It's pretty easy to miss the non-descript building on Chicago's North Side. But one floor up is the home of the National Veterans Art Museum and the 100 Faces of War Experience on display.

These are portraits of the men and women who went to war -- a cross section of the daring, devoted and even disfigured who heard the call. Each painting is accompanied by a personal statement which is meant to make you linger.

"If we want people to understand the true cost of war, it's on us to tell those stories," said Elizabeth O'Herrin.

O'Herrin was once Sergeant O'Herrin who assembled bombs for F16s in the Persian Gulf and Iraq. She says she's had trouble talking about her experiences but that writing was therapeutic.

"I felt that it came from the heart," O'Herrin told me.

She wrote that she's proud of her service but added this: "That doesn't change the fact that I contributed - however indirectly - to human beings vanishing from the earth in a moment of sheer agony." read more>>>

“We are dealing with veterans, not procedures—with their problems, not ours.” —General Omar Bradley, First Administrator of the Veterans Administration


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