Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 31, 2011

BD, take the check. You don’t have to deposit it.

War-buddy relationships. There’s something mystically wonderful about them. I’ve never served in the military, having been granted a 4-D classification (I was a seminary student), but now I admire the guys who served in Nam. I disagreed with the mission, but not with the guys who served our country out of their own conscientious convictions. War is still hell, though.

a buck a day, Ok, that’s a start!

Better than free-loading..

At least he’s making the effort.

Given what little we know about Ray’s true situation it might in-deed be all he can scrape up or just what makes sense to him in he current mental situaltion. Hopefully, BD will think back on all that Ray has done for him and just take the check and let Ray keep his pride. BD has been through some of this himself.

B.D. is probably calculating that if he accepts Ray’s check, he’ll be guaranteeing him a rental contract for $365 a year. (At least that’s how a good capitalist would think. Who’s the capitalist here, Ray or B.D.? Capitalists always feel more comfortable with contracts than with unspecified obligations.)

Valuable insight, palin drome: Capitalists always feel more comfortable with contracts than with unspecified obligations. Is that why those who have the least are so often the most generous with others?

Let Ray keep his dignity. One day BD will pull that check from his desk drawer and it will be worth alot more.

20 years down the road, when PTSD continues to make Ray incapable of making a living or managing his disability pay, continuing dependence upon family, strangers & friends may not be so patiently tolerated.

I agree with the psittacid.

Did a grateful nation discharge a decorated vet with PTSD and no pension? ANd then the grateful nation will give him a 5% discount on everday items and call it square.

THE MILITARY MESSES UP THE SOLDIERS AND LEAVES IT UP TO CHARITY TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. One yesterday was here crying he and his family poisned by the ground water at FORT BRAGG i BELIEVE. He wanted to sue but I don’t think he will ever get a cent.

^Jack: “Chronic” conditions may be “controlled” with medication, but that does NOT mean they are cured! My son was kept on active duty (limited) for two years because the military was trying to screw him out of the disability retirement he earned and was owed, trying to get him to take that “medical discharge” instead that would have been a short term payment for the life long disability he faces. Surgeries (three so far) haven’t corrected the problem, and another two projected as needed will offer only partial pain relief, with major consequences for mobility. That the military will proclaim anything shy of amputation (and they’ve tried to list that too) as a “temporary” disability is yet another means of shafting the veterans.

Sorry, but Ray is demonstrating a higher ethical standard than the “powers that be” in the military have for the decade we’ve been in Afghanistan, and the TWO decades we’ve now been in Iraq. The VA DOES seem to be trying to play “catch up” and treat vets fairly, and the Obama administration has moved to improve this. The “prior he should not me named” did NOT!

Looking back on what I was paid in ‘Nam, it’s pretty much a joke, not much more than Ray’s offering for rent. Today’s troops are paid what seems quite a bit more, but there’s been a tad bit of inflation since 1967, so maybe it isn’t so great after all.

Chances are that Ray’s estranged wife still handles the finances. Reconciling with her may go long way in the healing process. Where would BD be without Boopsie?

You only get a pension if you retire. If he got discharged with a med disability depending on the % of loss that should be compensated for.

Right, but tcapitalism isn’t about to disappear like some bad Marxist dream. Look at India’s solution, in today’s NYT:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/opinion/keller-beyond-occupy.html?_r=1&hp

BD, Make sure Ray doesn’t join any OWS demonstrations.

It’s very important for Ray’s self esteem that he be allowed to make the gesture. He wants to be seen as paying his way, not freeloading.

Ray looks like if he has lost some weight.