Wheelchair Basketball and the Costs of War
I recently had the opportunity to travel to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to photograph some veterans playing wheelchair basketball. I met some men who sacrificed body and limb to be in Iraq, only to step on a homemade explosive device and just like that, both legs and part of their left hand is gone. They were going through a kind of therapy, playing sports, trying to regain some semblance of “normal” into their lives. Prosthetics have come a long way, and in no way are these men incapable of getting around and leading relatively normal lives. Nor are they, as evidenced by what I had seen, unable to enjoy themselves, albeit differently than before, by playing sports like wheelchair basketball. But there is no way to spend three hours in a gym with a dozen amputees without calling into question the whole of it. I understand the broader goals of making a better world for those less fortunate than ourselves. But I wonder if future generations will ever figure out how to resol
