The New York Times today covers the story of Sam Ross. He's a townie from Fayette County, Pa, about thirty miles from where I grew up. He went to the Iraq in the Army, lost his vision, one leg and the hearing in one ear when some unexploded ordnance detonated, and was sent home in a coma. After his recovery, he obviously suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and slowly descended into drugs, alcohol and depression until he snapped and tried to burn down one of the trashy homes he lived in when he was a kid. He had a raw deal from birth, stuck amid what people might consider trailer trash. Our military convinces people to join up as a way to lift themselves out of this kind of situation. When they get blown apart, the Army doesn't do anything but drop them right back in with a lump sum payout and a date at an obviously overwhelmed and under-equipped VA hospital. What happened to Sam Ross was predictable, preventable and dead wrong.

Today, he sits in jail, charged with attempted murder and arson from the rage-driven attack on the trailer-home he lived in as a child and when he returned from Iraq. Read his story.