SECTION 22

1. People around her think she needs a break, needs to rest, to take care of herself. “I know I’m not responsible for all these people,” Brannan says. “But at the same time, nobody else is, either.” With a half million disability cases stuck in a VA backlog, and an estimated 25 percent of Iraq/Afghanistan troops with PTSD not seeking treatment, her logic isn’t entirely off. So she takes on the case of a family from Wisconsin who paid rent today, but has literally no money left. If they make an appointment at the VA and can’t get in for several weeks, how do they eat, they want to know, in the meantime? And the vet in New Jersey who didn’t register for his VA benefits inside the five-year window. His life didn’t fall apart until six years after his service, so when he walked into a VA emergency room asking for help to not kill himself, he was turned away until he could clear the requisite mountain of paperwork. And the vet who got fired from his job for being unstable and is now homeless, like 13,000 other vets under 30, who now lives with his wife and teenager in his car.

This is a factual / numerical claim because it mentioned the 25 percent of troops with PTSD seeking treatment and the 13,000 vets under 30 living with their wife and teenager in his car and talks about how veterans are not receiving needed treatment or help.

2. “In a perfect world, everyone would know and understand what my family is going through,” Brannan says. She’s convinced Caleb not to leave her, convinced him that she still wants to be married to him. Not for the first, and she doubts for the last, time. “We can reach a deeper love,” she says. “When you share this sort of thing with a person, and you make it through it, it’s a deeper love, really.”

This is an ethical/moral claim because it is saying that when you share a certain love with someone you make it through.

3. “They will hang in there until the last dog is dead,” Danna told me of military spouses. She saw her husband through peripheral neuropathy, PTSD, prison, Agent Orange-linked disease, saw her son suffer living with a ball of anxiety and succumbing to drugs, and she doesn’t regret one day.

This is an Evaluative Claim it describes the how the views Danna and what she saw that Danna had suffered through. I think it can also be a comparative claim because she is comparing what Danna went through compared to her situation.

4. “If you love somebody, you stick with them,” she says, and there it is, naive, and beautiful, and impractically pure.

This is an ethical/moral claim because it says, “If you love somebody, you stick with them,” which indicates it is based on an emotional feeling.

5. “The whole point of FOV is trying to give people hope,” Brannan says. “Give people the tools to not give up.” So when she finds some, she still takes to her blog and spreads it as wide as she can.

This is an Illustrative claim. It speaks about the intention behind FOV and emphasizes its role in providing hope for people. The speaker, Brannan, mentions the importance of supporting others,

6. “Two nights ago,” she writes in one post, “I was doing my normal nightly running around like crazy to get laundry and school bags and lunches ready for the next day, when the hubby found me in the laundry room. To the sound of the running washing machine, the ‘thump, thump, thump’ of tennis shoes in the dryer, and the not so romantic smell of the kitty litter box, he held me for a moment and rocked me back and forth…and we danced. It lasted maybe 30 seconds…a brief moment in the middle of a chaotic day and a difficult week…but a brief moment that I’ve stored in my heart. A light in the darkness.”

This is an ethical/ illustrative claim because It shares a personal story that illustrates a moment of connection and joy amidst chaos, emphasizing the importance of small, meaningful experiences. It illustrates the memory in order for the reader to picture the moment. This type of claim often serves to evoke emotion and provide insight into human experiences, highlighting the importance of finding light in difficult times.