always tryin to hold the black man(or woman) down!
Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson, the African American woman who was held
prisoner of war in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, was looking forward to
a
quiet discharge from the Army in a few days. Battle scarred and
weary,
she has said not a word as her fellow POW comrade in arms Jessica
Lynch cashes in with book and movie deals and a
celebrity status in the media.
But it is the Army that is forcing Johnson to break her peace. A
few
days ago, military brass informed her that she would receive a 30
percent disability benefit for her injuries. Lynch, who is White,
was
discharged in August and will receive an 80 percent disability
benefit.
The difference amounts to $600 or $700 a month in payments, and that
is causing Johnson and her family to speak out. They are so troubled
by what they see as a "double standard," that they have enlisted
Rev.
Jesse Jackson to help make their case to the news media.
Jackson, who plans to plead Johnson's cause with the White House,
the
Pentagon and members of Congress, says the payment smacks a double
standard and racism.
"Here's a case of two women, same [unit], same war; everything about
their service commitment and their risk is equal. . . . Yet there's
an
enormous contrast between how the military has handled these two
cases," Jackson told The Washington Post.
Johnson's father, Claude Johnson, himself an Army veteran, says that
while neither he nor his family begrudge Lynch her celebrity or
disability payments, he believes that his daughter should get her
due,
and it is more than a 30 percent disability benefit.
For its part, the Army, in denying charges of double standard, said
Friday that claims are awarded to soldiers according to their
injuries.
Johnson, 30, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was held captive
for 22 days, when her unit stumbled into an ambush in southern Iraq
last March. Eleven soldiers were killed, and six, including Lynch
and
Johnson, were taken prisoners. Johnson was shot in both legs and is
still traumatized by her war experience. In addition to walking with
a
limp, she suffers from bouts of depression.
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Sig heil
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