"Work-place Violence"?! A Government Cop-out is More Accurate

November 5, 2009

Where were you on that day? I distinctly remember wearing my navy blue nursing scrubs, the pocket embroidered with my nursing school's logo, my white tennis shoes. I was assisting a patient to sit-up in bed when a breaking news announcement on the patient's television buzzed in the background. I turned my head to see headlines about a shooting at Fort Hood. There has been an attack on soldiers preparing to deploy, the newscaster said.

You know how during a climatic scene of a movie the world slows down, you can hear your heart beat and you lose your peripheral vision? That's how that moment felt. Two names flashed into my head: Bergmeier and Burnett.

I gracefully excused myself from the patient's room and retreated to the breakroom, my squeaking shoes echoing off the walls and shiny linoleum. A fellow student found me propped up against the lockers, furiously texting everyone and anyone who might know about the two soldiers from my unit that were at Fort Hood preparing to deploy to Iraq. She tried to comfort me, insisting that it's a large Army and my friends were probably fine, probably at a different location all together.

I nodded half-heartedly, dropped the phone into my pocket and returned to the patient's room. I mindlessly fluffed pillows and checked IV lines, all the while having my ears tuned into the reports as they became available. My patient did not mind my obvious distracted demeanor as he was incredibly focused on the television as well. He called it a terrorist attack. I swallowed and nodded as initial death tolls and suspected injured ran across the scrolling banners.

Terrorist Attack.
13 dead. 32 injured.

That day, before all the details and investigations were known, we knew in our guts that it was an act of terrorism. My extra sense also told me that the soldiers from my unit were there.
While not close to either Bergmeier or Burnett, it was hard for me to comprehend how someone I played poker with or spent drunken nights at the local karaoke club with a few months ago could be victims of terrorists attacks.

Bergmeier was not physically harmed during the incident. In fact, he carried on with the mission he set out to do and finished a tour in Iraq. He could've stayed home, but didn't. He is a HERO.

Burnett was shot three times and has been trying to physically and mentally recover for 3+ years. Burnett fought back against the terrorist. He is a HERO--I can only hope that if I ever encounter the same situation that I can be just as brave.

These men were expecting to encounter danger in Iraq, not at home while doing routine paperwork, not by an officer in the same uniform with weapons of war.
BUT:
Our government has refused to recognize it as an act of terrorism. They call it "work-place violence" and our soldiers have not been compensated for wearing their uniforms that day and coming under fire for being soldiers. I follow SPC Burnett on Facebook. The whole time he was being treated for his injuries, he was also being treated as a no-good bum unworthy of respect while being compensated very little for his war injuries.

It is appalling, disgusting and abhorrent that the government, the Army, the powers-that-be are still dicking around three years later. It was so obvious on the day Hassan became infamous that he is a religious extremist, a terrorist, a traitor and a murderer. Why hasn't UCMJ been swift in trying and convicting him? Why hasn't he been served the death penalty yet? Why is he still alive? WHY IS HE STILL BEING PAID???

Can we please let go of being politically correct? Stop worrying about offending a particular religion? Of being afraid that yes, terrorism really does exist? Can we say it together? "TERRORISM EXISTS, FORT HOOD WAS TERRORISM."

I am embarrassed once again to call myself a freedom-loving, patriotic American while these shenanigans exist. My heart goes out to SPC Burnett and all the other injured and killed soldiers, to their families and loved ones. I apologize for my role as a citizen.

In the meantime, I want to solicit the knowledge of the masses. Who do I write my strongly worded letter to in order to correct this injustice? Who's contact information should I share with others so they can add pressure to the situation, too? How do we fix this?