Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 17, 2008
Transcript:
B.D.: So what's next for you, Toggle? Any plans? Toggle: Oh, yes... plans! Want my old metal band... back... back together... and get deal... record! B.D: Um... but aren't you the vocalist? Toggle: Yes. Mom says I ... I can still scream! Woman: At night, honey. That's the PTSD. Toggle: Metal IS PTSD!
attyush almost 16 years ago
Toggle’s band might sell more than the latest GNR. Best Buy can make up some of their losses if they go with Toggle.
cacolley7811 almost 16 years ago
PTSD–Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Not something that you can put a band-aid on. The good thing about Iraq is that all the technology is keeping the guys alive. One of the many bad things is that there will be so many injured and maimed that the level of treatment will be sub-basement!!
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
Perhaps it could be cathartic.
HUMPHRIES almost 16 years ago
… not an easy road to travel.
prasrinivara almost 16 years ago
cacolley and wndrwrthg: toggle has it right; PTSD makes him and his band more effective.
JonD17 almost 16 years ago
“metal is PTSD” you got that right young brother! I still dream of ……. ahhh, I have talked with WWII vets who never had any channel to work thru their fears, nightmare experiences and drug and alcohol addiction. Thank God for a slowly rising conciousnes, tho much too slowly rising!
cleokaya almost 16 years ago
To bad the military brass still are so reluctant to accept PTSD is as wide spread as it is.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
I’m telling you now if a guy like Toggle was doing vocals for a metal band it’d be awesome, and I don’t like metal. A guy with his history and his problems, pouring out his soul, I’d buy it. You have to truly live and often suffer to be good. Toggle has been there and done that. I would love to hear what he has to say.
EmmaLee518 almost 16 years ago
PTSD- Post-Traumatic Stress DISORDER, not syndrome.
cacolley7811 almost 16 years ago
Thanks emmalee, I’m not always that coherent at 1:30am. The soldiers in Iraq are facing the same problems that they did in Viet Nam. The combatants don’t wear uniforms, they’re (most of them) fighting for their homeland and their way of life. Obama isn’t Superman, and I don’t expect a miracle worker to suddenly appear, but I have a lot more hopes with a Democratic president.
bmnot almost 16 years ago
Toggle may be the worst Doonesbury character and this thread the most tedious
CrabbyLioness almost 16 years ago
Speaking as someone who has PTSD, Toggle’s aced it.
m_ortal almost 16 years ago
Doonesbury’s strength is that it is topical. It has more reality than many so-called “reality” shows.
NoFearPup almost 16 years ago
What does Trudy know about war?
k_sera almost 16 years ago
Toggle has free verse nailed. Set it to music, it could work.
NoFearPup almost 16 years ago
(Sniff,sniff) I promise as a Lib… to do EVERYTHING in my power…(knuckles turn white) to get that , that …BUSH! For doing this to you (whimper) …Toggle, because I can do that now that you have stood up in the gap for me and kept the world safe from chaos.
cacolley7811 almost 16 years ago
Nofur, I guess Mr. Trudeau knows as much as Bush..nada, nothing, zip, zero, zilch. But he seems to understand the vets coming back.
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
nofearpup, Dear child, exactly what is your trip? Your attempts at hurling invective fall far short of the mark. Is you life so lacking that you feel the need to lash out at those whom you deem better than youself? Relax, go for a walk and look for mushrooms, you may enjoy yourself.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
You don’t have to be in war to understand it. I don’t have to drive a nail through my hand to know I wont like it. Stephen Crane, author of “The Red Badge of Courage”, a widely respected novel on the agonies of (the Civil) war, was born after the war ended. It did not stop him from having sympathy, empathy and understanding for those who have been there and done that.
There are many soldiers out there in Iraq today who despise Trudeau’s politics but respect him because of how he represents them.
NoFearPup almost 16 years ago
Can we please stick to relevant issues CACO & Warty? Yes, Dypak no experience is necessary or I would have to keep my mouth shut. And i see that many vets from Vietnam enjoy this comic, but I wonder if he speaks half as convincingly for the post-modern generation? From that premise I can boil Trudeau’s main gist here down to another near miss on reality for the lib-set Trudeau represents.
kiddork almost 16 years ago
And here I thought metal was just crap.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
NoFearPup, I know what you mean about keeping your mouth shut. I was in the Army for almost 25 years but retired in 2003, before we went to Iraq. So sometimes I don’t feel like I have the right to talk along these lines. But I do know many modern era soldiers who support Trudeau. You know he had to talk to dozens of them to do research for this strip. He got so much of it right.
wuming almost 16 years ago
There are plenty of people who HAVE been in war and seem not to understand it. Airmen seem to dominate this group. When you see a pro-war vet, chances are they were doing their fighting with a control stick in their hand. I like video games so I can see where they are coming from to a point, I just have not made the jump from killing imaginary space-aliens to killing invisible people thousands of feet below me.