Wrightsville, YORK COUNTY - -
Ron Zaleski is walking across the country to collect signatures to make post traumatic stress counseling necessary for all military members. Through his thousands of steps, he hopes to collect one million signatures and then deliver them to the President of the United States.
We met up with Zaleski on the Wrightsville bridge. By 10AM, he had been walking for almost four hours. He had already collected dozens of signatures from people in both Lancaster and York counties Tuesday morning. Other people keep him going just by stopping and talking with him. "It's the hardest when a woman pulls her car over," he says. "She'll sit there, and she's crying. And then she comes up and tells me that her child made it through war but then came home to commit suicide."
That is exactly what Zaleski is trying to prevent. He wears a large sign that reads "18 Veterans A Day Commit Suicide." He says making it necessary for all returning military troops to undergo some sort of PTSD counseling could bring that number down.
His girlfriend, Valeria Moran, drives the ten to twelve miles Zaleski walks each day. Then they stay overnight in their camper. "Every day, every ten miles, someone tells him they've lost someone this way. If someone was dying from the flu that often, it would be an epidemic. I am definitely impacted by it."
Besides the sign, one other things sticks out when you see Zaleski on the side of the road. All those miles he has walked? He's done it barefoot. "At first I did it as a memorial for my friends who had died and suffered while I was in the Marines. Now I do it to honor those that have consecrated this ground with their blood."
Zaleski has a website http://www.thelongwalkhome.org You can find and sign his petition there.
We met up with Zaleski on the Wrightsville bridge. By 10AM, he had been walking for almost four hours. He had already collected dozens of signatures from people in both Lancaster and York counties Tuesday morning. Other people keep him going just by stopping and talking with him. "It's the hardest when a woman pulls her car over," he says. "She'll sit there, and she's crying. And then she comes up and tells me that her child made it through war but then came home to commit suicide."
That is exactly what Zaleski is trying to prevent. He wears a large sign that reads "18 Veterans A Day Commit Suicide." He says making it necessary for all returning military troops to undergo some sort of PTSD counseling could bring that number down.
His girlfriend, Valeria Moran, drives the ten to twelve miles Zaleski walks each day. Then they stay overnight in their camper. "Every day, every ten miles, someone tells him they've lost someone this way. If someone was dying from the flu that often, it would be an epidemic. I am definitely impacted by it."
Besides the sign, one other things sticks out when you see Zaleski on the side of the road. All those miles he has walked? He's done it barefoot. "At first I did it as a memorial for my friends who had died and suffered while I was in the Marines. Now I do it to honor those that have consecrated this ground with their blood."
Zaleski has a website http://www.thelongwalkhome.org You can find and sign his petition there.
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