Graham's gratitude

Graham's gratitude

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Graham, Bob 1936-

Veterans--Vietnam

An article about Florida Gov. Bob Graham's speech at the dedication of the Vietnam memorial and how Graham ignored the last wishes of David Livingston Funchess, a veteran convicted to the electric chair.

Florida Flambeau

HIST 298, University of Mary Washington

1983-04-23

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1 JPG

300 DPI

English

Florida, United States

The Florida Flambeau is published by the Florida Flambeau Foundation, Inc., an independent, non-profit corporation which is solely responsible for the contents of the paper. Florida Flambeau Foundation, Inc., Newsroom, 505 S. Woodward Avenue, phone 681-6695; Mailing address, P.O. Box 20287, Tallahassee, Florida, 32316. Eileen M. Drennen.............Editor Moni Basu..........Editor Designate Joe Pankowski, Jr....Sports Editor Rodney Campbell..Ast. Sports Ed. J.L. Branch..............Arts Editor B.G. Dilworth...Asst. Arts Editor Deborah Thomas..............Photo Editor Staff: Kathy Armistead, Pete Butler, John Dixon, G. Alan Fineout, Linda Hall, Ted Hardin, Steve Johnson, John Lowndes, Jack McCarthy, Mia Lucas, Mike Odgen, Bill Otersen, D.K. Roberts, Jeffrey Romance, Barrington Salmon, Mark Stevens, Mark Sullivan, Maria Telli, Don Watz, Nancy Wonder, Linda Young

Words can come back to haunt you. Listen to Gov. Bob Graham at the dedication of the Viet Nam War Memorial in Nov. 11, 1985. He mourns the 386,000 Floridians who gave their lives in service to their country during the Viet Nam War, and recognizes how the experience "marked" the lives of those who didn't lose their lives there: "Today we take a giant step in the healing process. . . We say to all who served, welcome home—and we express our heart-felt gratitude for your bravery and spirit of sacrifice. . . We who live in freedom salute you, as we commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Your actions speak more eloquently than our words, even a decade or more later...Many have fought to overcome the physical as well as the spiritual effects of that conflict. The contributions the Viet Nam veterans are making today is powerful testimony to their character, and to their talent." Listen to Graham defending his decision to ignore the last wish of an ex-Marine—one of those Florida veterans he's so proud of. The vet is the first ever to face the electric chair in America, and is compelling evidence of how the war and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder turned him into a broken heroin addict, sending him ever downward, until he kills two people in a Jacksonville bar and winds up on Death Row. Listen to Graham tell the man, as he told us at the dedication ceremony last year, that time has opened the eyes of the American public to the ultimate sacrifice he and all veterans made for us, and how anxious we are to try and pay them back: Sure, PTSD is a problem—but he had his chance at raising the issue before the court already, and there is no reason to bring it up again. But, David Livingston Funchess' claims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were never heard by the jury that convicted him of murder. His friends and family from Jacksonville, who saw him come back from the war a stranger, were never given the opportunity to tell the court what they knew. No one cared then; no one cares now. Least of all the man who claimed to honor this veteran, but turned a deaf ear to his last request on this earth.

Newspaper

Stewart, James

Dickinson, Terra