"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day or teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime" is what we're talking about. We need to take care of the basic needs while we teach them to live.
Learning, healing process
By JOSH STILTS / Reformer staff
Monday March 21, 2011
BRATTLEBORO -- As the film ended and the credits rolled, the audience rose and erupted in applause. The adoration didn’t cease until Sgt. Robynn Murray and Academy Award-Nominated filmmaker Sara Nesson had made it to the front of the New England Youth Theatre and were standing there for a full 30 seconds.
"It took tremendous guts to be on the front lines, but it also took an equal amount to expose yourself like this," one woman said. "You should be honored."
As part of the 20th anniversary Women’s Film Festival, Nesson and her film "Poster Girl," the story of Murray’s struggle to adapt to civilian life and post-traumatic stress disorder, was shown to a packed house with a question-and-answer session, Sunday.
"I’m so grateful you got through this and I’m so sorry we sent you over there," an audience member said. "(This film) is a challenge to us to stop these wars and stop sending people over there to be traumatized."
On her first tour, Murray served her country proudly, operating a machine gun atop military vehicles during convoys as part of the 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion unit serving in Iraq. She was gone for two years and said she suffered panic attacks that didn’t stop when she returned in 2005.
"How could someone go to Iraq and not come back without post-traumatic stress disorder?" one man asked Murray after the film. She explained that often soldiers don’t talk about what’s ailing them, especially as they’re about to return home, because the military may deem it necessary that they receive treatment before being released.
Before the film was screened, Nesson and Murray toured the Uniformed Service Program, which helps emergency service workers who suffer from PTSD, at the Brattleboro Retreat.
read more here
Learning, healing process
I want to thank Robynn Murray for her courage, creativity and voice. I just watched the film Poster Girl - which I know was created quite a while ago. I'm very grateful that through Robynn's strength, honesty and courage a non military person could get a better understanding of our military, the horrid aspects of war and what it is like to suffer from pstd. I thank you very much for your service and pray for you and all the folks you were in combat against and with - for your serenity, recovery and for the blessing that you are. I hope you are continuing to be a helpful voice and artist! Thank you -Carol
ReplyDelete