Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Obama urged to reverse policy on no condolence letters for suicides

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Latest Breaking News Donate to DU
 
Viva_La_Revolution Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 09:25 PM
Original message
Obama urged to reverse policy on no condolence letters for suicides
Source: cnn

A bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current "insensitive" policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide.

A letter signed by 11 senators -- 10 Democrats and one Republican -- and sent Wednesday urges the president to "take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence" to families of troops who killed themselves.

The policy, which goes back several presidents, has been the subject of protest by military families. CNN first reported in 2009 about the family of Spc. Chancellor Keesling, who killed himself while serving in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/26/president.suicides.letters/index.html?iref=allsearch
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
mdmc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 09:32 PM
Response to Original message
1. lots more letters to write sadly
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
virgogal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 09:35 PM
Response to Original message
2. I wan't aware of this dreadful policy. How very sad.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Stinky The Clown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 09:55 PM
Response to Original message
3. What a horrible, insensitive policy.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Commie Pinko Dirtbag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 09:58 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Delete
Edited on Thu May-26-11 09:59 PM by Commie Pinko Dirtbag
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 09:58 PM
Response to Original message
4. "... every 36 hours a service member kills himself or herself ..."
That adds up to a lot of letters. If the Oval Office is gonna do more than just send out signed form letters, then (adding in the research time for personalizing the letters) there gonna be at least a couple of hours of White House staff time per letter -- another ten hours a week dumped on some low-level staff member

An anti-suicide initiative might make more sense
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 10:01 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. If the White House has to put out those ten hours
it is more likely to look into an anti-suicide initiative.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 10:04 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Yes, I think that's probably accurate
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
haele Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-11 12:57 AM
Response to Reply #4
11. I use a DoD network at my work - on the home page, there is now a suicide hotline banner
Since about two days ago.
This home page is the "welcome aboard" site that basically has the "what new upgrades and pushes in the Network are now screwing up your computer" some quickie online training and portals to various DoD information systems sites, how to contact the trouble desk when IE or any of the resident programs on your workstation don't work, your credentials on your CAC went kerbluie and nuked your profile, or you can't access your e-mail.
This was a very odd banner to put on that particular site, most people don't use it as the home page after they get settled in on their network workstation, and only go there as a last ditch effort to try to figure out what the contractors running the network just did that now prevent you from accessing, oh, your timecard site or the repository where all your project data is being kept.
My experience and rather wry sense of humor leads me to feel that dealing with that particular privatized Network is almost enough to push anyone under stress and a deadline over the edge, so this was their attempt to suggest they're being responsive to their customers needs.

Haele
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-11 01:02 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. Thanks. That's interesting. And

"dealing with that particular privatized Network is almost enough to push anyone under stress and a deadline over the edge, so this was their attempt to suggest they're being responsive to their customers needs"

:rofl:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
boppers Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-11 01:54 AM
Response to Reply #11
13. They're using IE?
Yeah. That's enough to warrant a banner.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Bucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 10:00 PM
Response to Original message
6. I'm just waiting to see which Fox News commentator first says this will encourage suicides.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
defendandprotect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 10:10 PM
Response to Original message
9. Yikes!! Of course this should be reversed !!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-26-11 10:47 PM
Response to Original message
10. wtf kind of policy is that??!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Control-Z Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-11 05:57 PM
Response to Original message
14. "which goes back several presidents"
Really? They couldn't figure out or say which president started this?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Mon May 13th 2024, 12:21 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Latest Breaking News Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC