Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Deployment ain't funny
This from Military Families Speak Out for Peace.
Below is an article that appeared this morning in USA Today -- titled "Pentagon to families: Go ahead, laugh" -- about a Pentagon training program for National Guard families. It was sent to us by a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War -- an outraged Massachusetts National Guard soldier recently returned from Iraq, whose wife and two children are long-time members of MFSO. The article says that the Pentagon thinks the appropriate response of National Guard families to the stress of the war in Iraq is to walk like penguins, waddling and flapping our hands like fins --and tells about the Pentagon's training program to help families learn to do this.
If you would like to write a response to this article in the form of a Letter to the Editor, you can email it to: editor@usatoday.com or fax it to 703-854-2053. USA Today states that Letters to the Editor have a greater chance of being printed if they are 250 words or less. If you do send a letter, please email a copy to Military Families Speak Out at mfso@mfso.org Thank you.
We believe that "When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe" (a direct quote from the article below) -- we need to come together -- in our communities and across the country -- support each other through all we are going through, and raise the demand louder and stronger than ever: "Bring 'em home now, and take care of them when they get here!"
In Peace and Solidarity, and not laughing here,
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson
for Military Families Speak Out
www.mfso.org
www.bringthemhomenow.org
Pentagon to families: Go ahead, laugh
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY January 13, 2006
When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe, the Pentagon has a suggestion for military families: Learn how to laugh.
With help from the Pentagon's chief laughter instructor, families of National Guard members are learning to walk like a penguin, laugh like a lion and blurt "ha, ha, hee, hee and ho, ho."
No joke.
"I laugh every chance I get," says the instructor, retired Army colonel James "Scotty" Scott. "That's why I'm blessed to be at the Pentagon, where we definitely need a lot of laughter in our lives."
Scott, 57, is certified as a laughter training specialist by the Ohio-based World Laughter Tour, a group that promotes mirth as medicine. It touts scientific research that suggests chuckling can boost the body's immune system and decrease stress hormones.
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, says the Pentagon is committed to the program and values Scott's skills. "We sent him to the training," she says.
The laughter program was Scott's idea. It costs the military virtually nothing, because Scott already travels to states as a director of military family support policy.
KEEPING THEM IN STITCHES
Ways military families are being taught to laugh:
Penguin exercise: Waddle and flap hands as though they're fins.
Lion laugh: Open eyes and mouth wide while repeating "ha ha's."
Repeat "ho, ho, ha, ha, ha," while clapping on each sound.
He has taught National Guard family group leaders in Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Idaho, and will do so in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, he says. Another laughter trainer is working with folks in North Carolina.
"We believe our program prevents hardening of the attitudes," says Scott, in one of his wordplay aphorisms that beg for a rimshot. The founder and chief executive of the World Laughter Tour is psychologist Steve Wilson, who calls himself "Cheerman of the Bored."
"The guiding principle is to laugh for no reason. And that's one of the reasons it works so well for military families," Scott says. "There's a lot they have to be stressed over, a lot of worries, a lot of concerns."
As foolish as students might feel, Scott says he's lost only one participant: a Marine sergeant major who, Scott says, fled the room with a bad case of the giggles.
Mary Frances Booth, the wife of a retired soldier, took the class last year and is an ardent devotee.
She and her two daughters — Meaghan, 10 and Sarah, 8 — were sobbing after Booth dropped her husband at the Boise airport Sunday; he was headed for Afghanistan for work as a civilian contractor, she says. Then Booth called for one of the laughing drills.
"They rolled their eyes at me and thought, 'Mom's on her laughing thing again,' " Booth says. "(But) it made it a little bit better."
Below is an article that appeared this morning in USA Today -- titled "Pentagon to families: Go ahead, laugh" -- about a Pentagon training program for National Guard families. It was sent to us by a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War -- an outraged Massachusetts National Guard soldier recently returned from Iraq, whose wife and two children are long-time members of MFSO. The article says that the Pentagon thinks the appropriate response of National Guard families to the stress of the war in Iraq is to walk like penguins, waddling and flapping our hands like fins --and tells about the Pentagon's training program to help families learn to do this.
If you would like to write a response to this article in the form of a Letter to the Editor, you can email it to: editor@usatoday.com or fax it to 703-854-2053. USA Today states that Letters to the Editor have a greater chance of being printed if they are 250 words or less. If you do send a letter, please email a copy to Military Families Speak Out at mfso@mfso.org Thank you.
We believe that "When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe" (a direct quote from the article below) -- we need to come together -- in our communities and across the country -- support each other through all we are going through, and raise the demand louder and stronger than ever: "Bring 'em home now, and take care of them when they get here!"
In Peace and Solidarity, and not laughing here,
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson
for Military Families Speak Out
www.mfso.org
www.bringthemhomenow.org
Pentagon to families: Go ahead, laugh
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY January 13, 2006
When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe, the Pentagon has a suggestion for military families: Learn how to laugh.
With help from the Pentagon's chief laughter instructor, families of National Guard members are learning to walk like a penguin, laugh like a lion and blurt "ha, ha, hee, hee and ho, ho."
No joke.
"I laugh every chance I get," says the instructor, retired Army colonel James "Scotty" Scott. "That's why I'm blessed to be at the Pentagon, where we definitely need a lot of laughter in our lives."
Scott, 57, is certified as a laughter training specialist by the Ohio-based World Laughter Tour, a group that promotes mirth as medicine. It touts scientific research that suggests chuckling can boost the body's immune system and decrease stress hormones.
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, says the Pentagon is committed to the program and values Scott's skills. "We sent him to the training," she says.
The laughter program was Scott's idea. It costs the military virtually nothing, because Scott already travels to states as a director of military family support policy.
KEEPING THEM IN STITCHES
Ways military families are being taught to laugh:
Penguin exercise: Waddle and flap hands as though they're fins.
Lion laugh: Open eyes and mouth wide while repeating "ha ha's."
Repeat "ho, ho, ha, ha, ha," while clapping on each sound.
He has taught National Guard family group leaders in Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Idaho, and will do so in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, he says. Another laughter trainer is working with folks in North Carolina.
"We believe our program prevents hardening of the attitudes," says Scott, in one of his wordplay aphorisms that beg for a rimshot. The founder and chief executive of the World Laughter Tour is psychologist Steve Wilson, who calls himself "Cheerman of the Bored."
"The guiding principle is to laugh for no reason. And that's one of the reasons it works so well for military families," Scott says. "There's a lot they have to be stressed over, a lot of worries, a lot of concerns."
As foolish as students might feel, Scott says he's lost only one participant: a Marine sergeant major who, Scott says, fled the room with a bad case of the giggles.
Mary Frances Booth, the wife of a retired soldier, took the class last year and is an ardent devotee.
She and her two daughters — Meaghan, 10 and Sarah, 8 — were sobbing after Booth dropped her husband at the Boise airport Sunday; he was headed for Afghanistan for work as a civilian contractor, she says. Then Booth called for one of the laughing drills.
"They rolled their eyes at me and thought, 'Mom's on her laughing thing again,' " Booth says. "(But) it made it a little bit better."
