By Maggie Shartel When everything got really bad, Mom thought it would help. I was, of course, hesitant since I didn’t really have a decent track record with anything beyond, say, Tylenol. But Mom decided that we would try it together. She, at 62, and I, at 35, would have some cannabis together in an […]
The Red Badge Project
Posts by 'The Red Badge Project'
By Aaron Patrick I can’t sleep unless I drink myself unconscious. It seems I can’t do much of anything without a drink. They say alcohol is an anesthetic, but I’m not drinking to numb any pain. I’m drinking because I can’t feel anything at all. I’ve cauterized my feelings. It’s been like this since I came […]
By Skip Nichols Six black body bags lay in a row, splattered with the red mud that stained everything on top of the small hill south of the DMZ in Vietnam. Fred Cleary whistled while Bobby Erl Baker remained silent as they struggled to pick up the bodies, Marines killed at nearby Con Thien during […]
By Reg Doty After two tours partaking in the great “Asian vacation” I was looking forward to starting my life over as an expatriate in a place far away from the insanity that hijacked my dreams and left my spirit weary—a place where I might find my way to moral redemption. Fate intervened, though. I met […]
By L.J. In the late 90’s I bought a ragged old 1987 Toyota pickup truck to drive around base and get me in to town. This was when I was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave desert. At one time this base was considered a remote location, and the military gave personnel living […]
By J. Brad Wilke As a non-combat veteran of the U.S. Army, I’ve never had the need to use cannabis to alleviate or minimize the effects of PTSD. My cannabis use has always been purely recreational and didn’t begin until well after I transitioned out of the service. My military experience was more Robert Altman’s […]
By Sam Arrington “This doesn’t kill kids. It kills adults, but not kids.” Early on a doctor had told him that. Now he just repeated it whenever the silence took him to some place he didn’t want to be. A small girl was sleeping on the bed in front of him. Her frame was overwhelmed […]
