As usual, I was listening to the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC while driving home from school today. Among the many topics covered relating to Veteran's Day, the segment "Backstory: The History of PTSD" with directors/producers John Alpert and Matt O'Neil really stuck with me. You may know Alpert and O'Neil from their HBO film "Baghdad ER" - they're back with a new film, "Wartorn 1861-2010" which premiers on HBO tonight. The film chronicles and discusses the history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, more commonly known as PTSD - given how suicide rates among service members is still (horribly) on the rise, this film could not have come at a more critical time.
You may find a link to the broadcast of the interview by clicking here.
I urge you to watch this film and to also please educate yourself about PTSD and what you might be able to do to help a veteran in need.
In gratitude. Mahalo.
Showing posts with label Veterans Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Veterans Day. Show all posts
11 November 2010
11 November 2009
Today is Veteran’s Day
In honor of our Veterans I am urging you to please take a few minutes out of your day to contact Senator Tom Coburn (R – OK).
There is an important and major bill regarding Veteran’s Benefits (S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009) that Sen. Coburn has placed on hold. The longer this bill goes un-passed the more our Veterans will suffer.
Here are several key things this bill will do:
•S. 1963 will allow VA to recruit and retain nurses, home health aides, and specialty care providers.
•S. 1963 also contains measures that would improve the efficiency of health care delivery to veterans, including a number of pilot programs designed to help VA find new and innovative ways to deliver better, faster, and more comprehensive treatment.
•S. 1963 would expand eligibility and authority for the Vet Centers to provide needed services, and would commission a comprehensive study on suicides among veterans so that we can improve efforts to prevent such tragedies.
•S. 1963 would also provide support for homeless veterans through a proposed series of innovative pilot programs. These programs are designed to significantly improve VA outreach to these veterans, in order to help them access the benefits and services provided by VA.
To read more about this comprehensive bill, click here and here.
Suicide rates are WAY UP, particularly among service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is awful, awful, AWFUL! We can NOT abandon the very people we have asked to serve three and four tours of duty in these war zones. OUR TROOPS NEED OUR SUPPORT.
Senator Coburn MUST be asked – “Do you support our troops?” If he says yes – then you MUST ask “Why then, are you blocking this important legislation S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009?”
You may contact Senator Coburn in the following places:
Washington D.C.:
Phone: 202-224-5754
Fax: 202-224-6008
Tulsa:
Phone: 918-581-7651
Fax: 918-581-7195
Oklahoma City:
Phone: 405-231-4941
Fax: 405-231-5051
Now more than ever our Veterans need us. PLEASE, let's do them this little favor and really show our support. Phone or fax Senator Coburn and help get this bill passed.
Thank you.
There is an important and major bill regarding Veteran’s Benefits (S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009) that Sen. Coburn has placed on hold. The longer this bill goes un-passed the more our Veterans will suffer.
Here are several key things this bill will do:
•S. 1963 will allow VA to recruit and retain nurses, home health aides, and specialty care providers.
•S. 1963 also contains measures that would improve the efficiency of health care delivery to veterans, including a number of pilot programs designed to help VA find new and innovative ways to deliver better, faster, and more comprehensive treatment.
•S. 1963 would expand eligibility and authority for the Vet Centers to provide needed services, and would commission a comprehensive study on suicides among veterans so that we can improve efforts to prevent such tragedies.
•S. 1963 would also provide support for homeless veterans through a proposed series of innovative pilot programs. These programs are designed to significantly improve VA outreach to these veterans, in order to help them access the benefits and services provided by VA.
To read more about this comprehensive bill, click here and here.
Suicide rates are WAY UP, particularly among service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is awful, awful, AWFUL! We can NOT abandon the very people we have asked to serve three and four tours of duty in these war zones. OUR TROOPS NEED OUR SUPPORT.
Senator Coburn MUST be asked – “Do you support our troops?” If he says yes – then you MUST ask “Why then, are you blocking this important legislation S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009?”
You may contact Senator Coburn in the following places:
Washington D.C.:
Phone: 202-224-5754
Fax: 202-224-6008
Tulsa:
Phone: 918-581-7651
Fax: 918-581-7195
Oklahoma City:
Phone: 405-231-4941
Fax: 405-231-5051
Now more than ever our Veterans need us. PLEASE, let's do them this little favor and really show our support. Phone or fax Senator Coburn and help get this bill passed.
Thank you.
11 November 2008
Our veterans deserve more
We should consider our Veterans at least once every day. Even if it's to merely read a headline about Iraq or Afghanistan and send a thought out their way. Today being Veteran's Day, it kind of reminds me Valentine's Day for the military.
What I mean by this is - once a year on a specific day we are rather expected to show love and affection for a significant other or partner - there is a lot of pressure and should be something done out of free will and generosity on ANY day rather than forced at a specific time.
I kind of consider Veteran's Day in the same manner.
So please send a kind thought out to universe in honor of our Veterans, if only for this one day.
Bob Geiger has more...
What I mean by this is - once a year on a specific day we are rather expected to show love and affection for a significant other or partner - there is a lot of pressure and should be something done out of free will and generosity on ANY day rather than forced at a specific time.
I kind of consider Veteran's Day in the same manner.
So please send a kind thought out to universe in honor of our Veterans, if only for this one day.
Bob Geiger has more...
14 November 2007
It was just Veteran's Day...
As I was driving home Tuesday night from the bus and listening to the news on my local CBS AM radio station, I caught the tail-end of a story they were simulcasting from the CBS Evening (TV) News. It was about the suicide rate among Iraq "War" Veterans and the information CBS News uncovered is astounding.
("CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information. And what it revealed was stunning. In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.)
I know this subject is kind of a bummer; However it gives me pause to think about the soldiers and Marines who managed to make it out of Iraq alive only to come home and kill themselves because of the inadequate support offered by the Veterans Administration, our government and the current administration who SWEARS they "Support the Troops"
It is clearly NOT okay that our returning troops don't get the care and support they so desprerately need and the information gets swept under the rug. This should be headline news!! EVERYONE should know about this!
That's why I'd like you (all three of my readers) to PLEASE go (I'm seriously begging here) read this story from CBS News and tell as many people as you know who will listen about this awful, awful thing. Ideally, the more people that know, the less the government can cover up what they're NOT doing for our armed forces.
And, if you happen to be a vet reading this, please check out Vets 4 Vets. It was started in 2005 "by a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam" FOR other Veterans as a means of support. Who better to talk about your experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan with than your fellow troops?
If you claim to support the troops, this is something you CANNOT turn your back on.
Namaste
("CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information. And what it revealed was stunning. In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.)
I know this subject is kind of a bummer; However it gives me pause to think about the soldiers and Marines who managed to make it out of Iraq alive only to come home and kill themselves because of the inadequate support offered by the Veterans Administration, our government and the current administration who SWEARS they "Support the Troops"
It is clearly NOT okay that our returning troops don't get the care and support they so desprerately need and the information gets swept under the rug. This should be headline news!! EVERYONE should know about this!
That's why I'd like you (all three of my readers) to PLEASE go (I'm seriously begging here) read this story from CBS News and tell as many people as you know who will listen about this awful, awful thing. Ideally, the more people that know, the less the government can cover up what they're NOT doing for our armed forces.
And, if you happen to be a vet reading this, please check out Vets 4 Vets. It was started in 2005 "by a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam" FOR other Veterans as a means of support. Who better to talk about your experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan with than your fellow troops?
If you claim to support the troops, this is something you CANNOT turn your back on.
Namaste
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
