{"id":362477,"date":"2018-05-23T19:35:38","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/in-otherwords-may-23-2018\/"},"modified":"2018-05-23T19:35:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:35:38","slug":"in-otherwords-may-23-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/in-otherwords-may-23-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"In OtherWords: May 23, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\">\n<p>This week in OtherWords, we&#8217;ve got a suite of veterans-themed pieces in time for Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq war vet Kevin Basl pushes back against the idea that it&#8217;s disrespectful to veterans to question U.S. wars. That&#8217;s what politicians want you to think, he argues. And Saurav Sarkar explains the concept of moral injury\u00a0\u2014 the trauma that can result from doing things one regrets\u00a0<em>\u2014<\/em> and argues that if American soldiers have to feel it, the public should too.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, medical student Mark Luskus reports on some studies showing that VA care is the best care veterans can get, pushing back against calls to privatize veteran health care.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Jim Hightower tells the story of Smedley Butler, the retired general who famously argued that &#8220;war is a racket&#8221; \u2014\u00a0and less famously foiled a coup attempt by Wall Street millionaires against FDR.<\/p>\n<p>Also this week, Sarah Anderson reports on some shocking new numbers showing the disparity between what CEOs and their employees make, and shows how that&#8217;s bad for business. Jill Richardson says it&#8217;s time for a more humane immigration debate. And Khalil Bendib imagines God sending back all those &#8220;thoughts and prayers&#8221; that follow mass shootings.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in a moving personal piece, Razan Azzarkani reflects on what it&#8217;s like <em>\u2014 <\/em>as a Palestinian American\u00a0<em>\u2014\u00a0<\/em>to watch the U.S. government support Israel&#8217;s mass shooting of Palestinian protesters in Gaza.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35106\" style=\"width: 598px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-35106\" src=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Thoughts-and-Prayers-600x457.jpg\" alt=\"school-shooting-guns-gun-control-thoughts-prayers-nra\" width=\"588\" height=\"448\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khalil Bendib \/ OtherWords.org<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/questioning-war-is-a-civic-duty-why-do-so-few-do-it\/\">Questioning War is a Civic Duty. Why Do So Few Do It?<\/a><\/strong> \/ Kevin Basl<br \/>\n<em>Politicians and businesses want you to think questioning war disrespects veterans like me. They&#8217;re wrong.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/big-pay-gaps-are-bad-for-business\/\">Big Pay Gaps Are Bad for Business<\/a><\/strong> \/ Sarah Anderson<br \/>\n<em>Payday lenders extort poor and rural Americans. One solution? Your friendly neighborhood post office.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/dont-privatize-veterans-health-care\/\">Don\u2019t Privatize Veterans\u2019 Health Care<\/a><\/strong> \/ Mark Luskus<br \/>\n<em>Despite bad headlines, VA medical centers produce better health outcomes than for-profit facilities \u2014 and for less.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/americas-treatment-of-palestinians-has-grown-horrendously-cruel\/\">America\u2019s Treatment of Palestinians Has Grown Horrendously Cruel<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/ Razan Azzarkani<br \/>\n<em>No words can describe the anger and anguish I feel as a Palestinian in America watching this unfold.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/war-and-moral-injury\/\">War and Moral Injury<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\/ Saurav Sarkar<br \/>\n<em>Veterans often wrestle with the things they&#8217;ve done in war. When will ordinary Americans do the same?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/our-immigration-debate-needs-a-lot-more-humanity\/\"><strong>Our Immigration Debate Needs a Lot More Humanity<\/strong><\/a> \/ Jill Richardson<br \/>\n<em>We should be able to debate immigration policy without calling people &#8220;animals&#8221; or disparaging the poor.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/the-retired-general-who-stopped-a-wall-street-coup\/\"><strong>The Retired General Who Stopped a Wall Street Coup<\/strong><\/a> \/ Jim Hightower<br \/>\n<em>General Smedley Butler blew the whistle on a millionaire-led effort to oust FDR and the New Deal.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/thoughts-and-prayers-denied\/\">Thoughts and Prayers: Denied<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\/ Khalil Bendib<br \/>\n<em>Maybe humans can try curbing gun violence themselves for a change.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\"><\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/in-otherwords-may-23-2018\/\">In OtherWords: May 23, 2018<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\">OtherWords<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted from <a href=\"https:\/\/otherwords.org\/in-otherwords-may-23-2018\/\">Other Words<\/a> by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week in OtherWords, we&#8217;ve got a suite of veterans-themed pieces in time for Memorial Day weekend. Iraq war vet Kevin Basl pushes back against the idea that it&#8217;s disrespectful to veterans to question U.S. wars. That&#8217;s what politicians want you to think, he argues. And Saurav Sarkar explains the concept of moral injury\u00a0\u2014 the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2523,"featured_media":362478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-362477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}