Update:
The 22Kill website counter shows almost 10 million push-ups to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention.
Here are Chris Evans and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson assisted (or hindered ) by their dogs doing their 22 push-ups. Have you done yours yet?
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Original Post:
In a 2013 Veterans Day article honoring our veterans but also lamenting some of the problems besetting them, I wrote about one of those “problems”:
And not so for the nearly 1,000 veterans who attempt to take their own lives every month — more than three attempts every 90 minutes.
Tragically, 22 veterans succeed in doing just that, taking their own lives, every day — that is one veteran committing suicide every 65 minutes, on average, according to a recent study from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A little less than 18 months later, in February 2015, President Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act (SAV), a bill aimed at reducing military and veteran suicides and improving their access to quality mental health care.
The bill was named after Clay Hunt, a decorated Marine veteran who, upon his return from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, struggled with post-traumatic stress. Two years after his discharge and after repeated setbacks in his medical care, Hunt took his own life and became one of those included in that tragic “22” statistic.
During the signing ceremony, President Obama recalled the bravery and the suffering of Clay and thanked the Hunt family for — through their unimaginable loss and grief — making it their mission to spare other families the pain they endured.
“So they shared Clay’s story far and wide…And they reached out to members of Congress. And they lobbied and they testified and made personal appeals. And thanks to their tireless efforts — and we are particularly grateful to Clay’s family, being able to transform grief into action — today, I will sign the Clay Hunt SAV Act into law,” Obama said.
Speaking to our veterans, the President said:
We’ve got to also act. We can’t just talk. So we’re ready to help you begin the next chapter of your lives. And if you are hurting, know this: You are not forgotten. You are not alone. You are never alone. We are here for you. America is here for you. All of us. And we will not stop doing everything in our power to get you the care and support you need to stay strong and keep serving this country we love.
Another 18 months have passed since those words were spoken, since that bill was signed.
Earlier this month, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released its findings “from the nation’s most comprehensive analysis of Veteran suicide rates in the United States.”
In this analysis, the VA examined more than 55 million Veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014 from every state in the nation and, if there can be such a thing as a silver lining in what is a tragedy of immense proportions, the VA finds:
Compared to the data from the 2012 report, which estimated the number of Veteran deaths by suicide to be 22 per day, the current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 Veterans a day died from suicide.
The hope of every American has to be that in the next “comprehensive analysis” that number will be lower, much lower.
In order to help raise awareness of the veterans’ suicides plight, a nonprofit organization called “22Kill” has launched a social media campaign, similar to the very successful ALS Ice Bucket Challenge of a couple of years ago.
Named the 22 Push-Up Challenge (#22PushupChallenge), 22Kill wants to reach the goal of 22 million pushups and is asking people to submit videos of their pushups, whether one or 100.
The general idea of the challenge is to do 22 pushups a day for 22 days in honor of the 22 veterans who, according to a previous analysis, commit suicide every day.
I am not conversant with “hashtags,” instagrams and the like, so I’ll let MilitaryTimes.com explain:
The challenge does not require people to do a certain number of push-ups in videos that they upload. Those who are looking to participate can do only a handful or do hundreds, all of which will be accepted by 22Kill as contribution to the goal of 22 million push-ups.
There is also no single way on how to do the push-ups, as they can be done the regular way, assisted with people on their knees, inclined against a wall or on a desk, or even air push-ups for those physically incapable of doing the activity.
The only requirement for the push-ups on video to be counted toward 22Kill’s goal is to begin the recording by stating the person’s name and an organization that he or she may be representing, followed by the answer to the question “Why are you pushing or who are you pushing for?”
The video should then be uploaded on 22Kill’s Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or Twitter accounts, with the hashtags “#Xpushups for #22KILL,” with X being the number of push-ups done in the video.
Upon posting with the proper hashtags, 22Kill’s system will pick up the number of push-ups done and add the number to its counter. Currently, the counter is under maintenance so it is not showing the accurate number, though the last count was already at nearly 4.8 million push-ups.
Of course, the number 22 is related to the 2012 statistic. Whether it is 20 or hopefully even lower now, it is the awareness of such a dreadful tragedy that matters.
Show your biceps and, more important, your support for our veterans by doing a few push-ups.
Here is an example (Take a special look at the man way in the back — those kind of push-ups not required):
Click for more information on the 22 Pushup Challenge and 22Kill.
At the 22Kill website one can also make donations for mental health programs for veterans and find out how one can become a “Veteran’s Advocate
Edited lead image: DoD — June was National PTSD Awareness Month and June 17 was National PTSD Awareness Day — but it should be every day.
