G. Frink's

This balladeer sings post-traumatic stress disorder and the associated politics with undeniable clarity:

Having heard the well-sung and ultimately gentle ballad, please listen to the crystal clear Congressional testimony of a Vietnam veteran's widow.

Her words inspired the music.

I believe that if you give them heed, you will understand why:

As Penny Coleman explains, PTSD is an injury, not a defect.

It is an injury in response to which we commonly fail to meet the standards of ordinary ethics and commonplace honor.

Warriors come home from war with that injury, while others among us are injured here at home, sometimes even at the hands of profoundly abusive domestic caregivers (like my mother and father).

What most thus injured have in common is the sweeping neglect of those around them, complicated by a generalized prejudice against the injured.

She goes on to explain that the neither PTSD nor the negligent reponse to it is new:

Our collective neglect to provide appropriate care, and frequent willingness to excuse ourselves from caring when caring becomes difficult, does not cleanse the hands of anyone who walks either path.

That stain on the hands of the negligent is the blood of those they neglected -- often the blood of those who loved and trusted them.

That stain is commonplace and by the very values we claim to espouse, an indictment.