During the hurricane, a female veteran  was traveling away from the coast with her young children. She stopped in a motel and the next morning at breakfast, because a child dropped a bit of food and spilled some maple syrup, she was screamed at, called “poor white trash” and told to leave. Her facebook friends were outraged and the incident went viral.

After several conversations I had with the local hotel manager, the folks there the next day, and  finally, the top of the food chain, the head of PR for the corporation that owns the hotel chain, I reached someone who got it. He agreed with me that the incident was, essentially, a hate crime against a woman. Many of the female veterans in our groups were triggered by the event and the unfolding of the story. I want to post my final thoughts about it here.

• They say no one can understand MST but those who have experienced it,and that is true. They say no one can understand the invisible injuries like PTSD except those who have it, and that is true. They  say no one can understand being treated as a less than equal person unless they have experienced discrimination, and that is true. BUT, that is only true to the extent that we can never understand, fully, what another person has experienced. BUT we sure as hell can dedicate our lives to helping each other understand each other better and make it unacceptable and illegal to discriminate and abuse power. No BUTs about that.

Here’s to the power of our network!!

Love, Patty