Mmm, crow–yum.

A fellow Marine called me to the carpet about my last blog entry. Specifically, she confronted me–professionally and privately–about several assertions I made about the effectiveness of the #22KILL campaign in accomplishing its goal of raising awareness about veteran suicide. More than that, though, she pointed out that I’d denigrated a group that was trying to do its best to address a problem in order to promote my own work.

Ouch. That stung. Mostly because it was true and I hadn’t thought about it that way.

Truth is, addressing veteran suicide is a daunting task that requires passionate people to dedicate their efforts across a wide spectrum of actions. While it would be great if all these efforts were nationally coordinated for maximum effectiveness we simply aren’t there yet. Instead of accepting the paralysis of waiting for a perfect solution, groups like #22KILL choose to forge ahead individually and make their impact where they can.

To that end, videos of regular folks and celebrities alike dropping down to do pushups flooded the internet and caused many people to ask themselves “Why is The Rock doing pushups?” Then they learn the disturbing statistic that over twenty veterans take their lives every day. Whether they do anything with that knowledge is up to them but at least they’re aware of the problem.

We all know nothing gets fixed if people don’t know it needs fixing–and that’s what #22KILL set out to accomplish. Since then, by the way, they’ve branched out significantly and now offer a comprehensive list of programs to combat veteran suicide. Take a look here: https://www.22kill.com

So, no. Doing pushups doesn’t solve veteran suicide. To that end, my books won’t, either. But taken together with the efforts of thousands of other people who work tirelessly to address this difficult issue, they can all play a role.

I was wrong for directing friendly-fire at #22KILL and hope the men and women who’ve dedicated their time and energy in this group accept my apology.

In closing, I’ll do better to –in the words of the Marine who contacted me to share her comments— “… use passion constructively together for the greater benefit of all.”

And no, crow doesn’t taste good–but it’s better than staying wrong.