Today's chat with Jeff Werner, producer and director, Suzi spotlights the plight of Veterans struggling with PTSD upon their return to civilian life. "Those Who Serve" Jeff's evocative film, serves as the backdrop for a critical exploration of the legal system's interaction with these battle-scarred warriors. Through stories of Marine veterans and their families, we dissect the pressing need for legal reforms and the societal support crucial for their reintegration.
Closing on a note that resonates with our collective conscience, we address the importance of communal support for our Veterans. We envision a future where transition programs mirror the rigor of military training and where the art of storytelling in film becomes a vessel for change.
Music credit to Kalvin Love for the podcast’s theme song “Bee Your Best Self”
Tune into our CHW Streaming Radio and the full lineup at cominghomewell.com
Download on Apple Play and Google Play
Online-Therapy.com ~ Life Changing Therapy Click here for a 20% discount on your first month.
Contact Suzi at suzigma@gmail.com or (818) 470-2013 and share your story.
suzilandolphi.com
vetsandplayers.org
wildhorserescue.org
Thank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!
Today's chat with Jeff Werner, producer and director, Suzi spotlights the plight of Veterans struggling with PTSD upon their return to civilian life. "Those Who Serve" Jeff's evocative film, serves as the backdrop for a critical exploration of the legal system's interaction with these battle-scarred warriors. Through stories of Marine veterans and their families, we dissect the pressing need for legal reforms and the societal support crucial for their reintegration.
Closing on a note that resonates with our collective conscience, we address the importance of communal support for our Veterans. We envision a future where transition programs mirror the rigor of military training and where the art of storytelling in film becomes a vessel for change.
Music credit to Kalvin Love for the podcast’s theme song “Bee Your Best Self”
Tune into our CHW Streaming Radio and the full lineup at cominghomewell.com
Download on Apple Play and Google Play
Online-Therapy.com ~ Life Changing Therapy Click here for a 20% discount on your first month.
Contact Suzi at suzigma@gmail.com or (818) 470-2013 and share your story.
suzilandolphi.com
vetsandplayers.org
wildhorserescue.org
Thank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!
Not our fort. It's never our fault.
Speaker 2:You don't think we're all of them. Have you looked in the mirror? Because I have every day. I know I'm old.
Speaker 1:It's, but we're not the ones who are fault, it's the. It's the zoom technicians that are fault. We're fine.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, that is the best you know. This is called be crazy. Well, I've already started the recording and so everybody I'm meet Jeff Warner and he's really crazy. Well, let me tell you that I've talked to him before and the fact that you just blame the zoom technicians will be lucky if they don't like, just kick us off while we're trying to do this because you did that. No, it's because we're old and it's all new technology does, although I have to say something you make film, so you are, and you're photographer and you do the sound, so you are pretty technical.
Speaker 1:Yes and no, but I to a certain level, and then you know it's a little bit of the Peter principle I don't want to go above the level that I can achieve. So I try to stay within my box and I'll go out of it, and not creatively but in terms of technically. So I have found that very often because there's so much technology that we're dealing with that, for instance, talking about sending a link to somebody, I will very often send the link to somebody and the link will be the link from a previous zoom that I for some reason picked up. But you know what I mean. But it's just because I'm a little bit overly involved in stuff and so it's not necessarily age, it may also be just trying to juggle too many things at one time.
Speaker 2:Who taught you that?
Speaker 1:Who taught you that you had to juggle a whole bunch of I don't add mom, that's kind of, that's kind of no, I think that's kind of like, you know, when you're directing a film or you're involved in any kind of creative thing, you know, you're kind of like I used to compare it to. I used to be a school teacher. I used to compare being on the set to being in the classroom, because you have all these students, quote, unquote, that you have to handle and could control and get as much as you can out of them, and so it's almost sort of like a school teacher and the school teacher is constantly, you know, juggling behavior and context and material and facts, and so I think it comes with the territory.
Speaker 2:What grade did you teach?
Speaker 1:I taught fourth and fifth grade actually had a very interesting kind of situation where I taught a fourth grade class and they inaugurated this is back in New York and they inaugurated a program where the teacher in the class moved up to fifth grade together. So I had the kids kids for two years straight, which I think is a for me at least, it was very, very positive because I got to. You know, very often you work with a kid and there are all these other coeducators in their lives, whether it be society or parents or whatever and very often you don't really get a chance to impart everything you want to in those nine months or 10 months of school and so by going on to the next year, you actually had a continuation, that kind of continuum, and you're able to. You knew that Melvin's problem was that he thought he wasn't good at math, but he really was good at math. So when he appeared in September you knew that already. You didn't have to learn that and you could start right away where you're left off in June. So what?
Speaker 2:year was this? How old were you? What year were this or how old were you when you did this?
Speaker 1:This was. I was in out of college, so I was, you know, probably 24, 25.
Speaker 2:And when did you get into making films? Get out of education and into this.
Speaker 1:I've stayed in the education. For a while I came down to Los Angeles to get into film. I'm gonna say three, four years later.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so you've been here for a while.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you know, I've been here for a while, I've, I've, I've been around for a while, I've been working on film for a while, I would say one of my first jobs was doing the doing television spots for the exorcist, the original exorcist. So that goes, that goes back a ways.
Speaker 2:I can't believe. You just said that I remember reading the book, closing the page, putting it down. Go well, there's one book they'll never make a film out of. Why was I wrong? But I remember saying that you know, after reading some of those things that happened in that bedroom, I was like now fail to make a film out of that. So I want to tell everybody that, because we have a lot of veteran listeners and a lot of people who are from veteran families, married into veteran families, you did something quite remarkable, quite wonderful, and I've seen the film. I always love it when people interview people that are books. I never believe they read the book. I believe they read the excerpts and they go oh you know. Or or their assistant put you know little post it notes in the pages, right, but I watched that whole film.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much, I appreciate that You're welcome, and I told you how not only moved I was, I really appreciated even the technical part of it I the sound, the editing, how you filmed it, and you pretty much did almost all of it on your own. So I do want to tell you how grateful I am, and it just came out on Netflix. So here's what I'd like to do.
Speaker 1:It's on Amazon Prime.
Speaker 2:Amazon Prime. That's it. That's it. Sorry, sorry, sorry, and that's where I saw it Amazon Prime, actually. So I want you to tell everybody the name. I want to make sure we get in as much as we can about the film, and I did tell you the other day I want you to do a sequel. That was my whole point, to get you on to do this.
Speaker 2:You do this and so please share with everybody, because it's out now, it's available for them to see and it's absolutely imperative that they get to have all that information. So tell us about your film.
Speaker 1:Well, the film is called those who Served. It follows the stories of three Marine veterans who return after combat with combat trauma and PTSD and who wind up after a while in civilian life committing crimes. And they wind up in the criminal justice system. And the film explores this nexus of the veteran with a psychological issue, running afoul of the law and committing crimes against the very same communities they risked their lives to protect. And it's really a film that sort of studies these, like a courtroom drama that studies three cases pretty much in depth in terms of their defense and the prosecution, their families and how their families are affected, and it gives you a sense of what might be questions we could start asking regarding this field of veterans in our criminal justice system. There is currently a. The film is kind of timely because there is currently a commission called the Veterans Justice Commission, headed up by Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel, ex-secretary of Defense, ex-cia officer, and they are going around various state legislatures and in Congress trying to look at the laws that might be altered to mitigate some of the sentencing and also address some of the initial problems when veterans re-enter into society. And so which is something that didn't exist when I first started this film.
Speaker 1:I started this film now almost 10 years ago with the first case of a young, highly decorated Marine.
Speaker 1:I had been in Laura Bush's detail, had been in Secretary Hillary Clinton's detail, and when you are asked to be one of those details and to work at some of the embassies that he worked at, you are kind of the creme de la creme in the Marine Corps.
Speaker 1:And he had a severe ERPTSD episode and started a hallucinating feeling that his family was being attacked and went upstairs in his apartment building and killed a neighbor and part of his defense was that the PTSD was active and that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. And that was a unique, rarely tried way of holding a defense for a murder case. And there are two other cases as well One dealing with somebody who returned, who was a missionary to start with and spent his youth as a missionary going around the world with his church and wound up joining the Marines at a couple of tours, maybe three or four, and came back with severe PTSD, could not go on buses, could not the typical kind of thing, reacted to loud noises and whatnot and had horrible night tremors and couldn't sleep and wound up self-medicating himself and then going on to dealing.
Speaker 1:So there are these various different cases and if one is interested in this meeting of the mental health of veterans and the criminal justice system and how we might massage it so that it's a little bit more understanding and at least more informed about the veteran and the re-entry of veterans For the jurors, future jurors and for future DAs and future judges. I hope the film will start a conversation about that, a discussion. And it's available. It's called those who Serve. It's available without commercials on Amazon Prime. If you go to the Amazon Prime online, you can rent it without being a member of Amazon Prime TV and it's also available on Tubi, which is with commercials, but it's free to you on Tubi with commercials, and it's also involved in something called Stash, which is a YouTube channel, also free but with commercials.
Speaker 2:So those who serve meaning a double message are serving us and then having to serve time.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:So I again can't thank you enough for what you're doing, and you talked about changing the criminal justice system. I was interested, and I think the reason why people put us together too is because of changing actually changing the military, the VA and the mental health system.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's part of it as well. I think the case is made in the film that it's not just the criminal justice system that has to take a look at that, but the military itself has to take a look at that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sent you some information. We had this wonderful conversation.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I saw that.
Speaker 2:I have this conversation with people, so when we look at these, there's another young man who also committed murder of his best friend. I'm not gonna say how it ends because it's really unbelievable. You're gonna watch the whole film. It is like a drama, and so I'm not gonna say what happens to all three of them.
Speaker 2:I think also, too, this idea, you know, pts actually is a fairly new diagnosis and we've had all kinds of effects from what we would say from war, the effects of war and all the way back. For as long as we know. It's just different. In some cultures warriors actually got prepared to go to war, which we do now. We get that. The big difference is they got prepared when they came home. There was more indigenous tribes. Some of the Greek and Roman warriors had ceremony that they could do to actually help them with the effects of leaving what happened where what happened, and then being able to come back and be in a family. We have none of that. We have programs where you can go and, you know, get your resume spruced up before you leave the military, but there isn't any real transition program that I'd say, is that effective, either in the military or in the military. And so then what happens when they come out? It's actually left up to some of us who would work at VSOs to help try to create something that would help with the transition. And I'm the clinical director of one called Merging Vets and Players, where we put combat veterans together with retired professional athletes and on a weekly basis weekly they get to meet and talk about their transition and their issues, and I had peer support and then I had the other clinical support.
Speaker 2:What struck me when I started to work with combat veterans was when they started to tell me about their deployments. There was lots of horrific things that I heard. Sometimes the horror was that another combat veteran hurt the one of their buddies, one of their unit members. So it wasn't always that the enemy was clear about what was going on. But besides that, I kept hearing I'd go back tomorrow. I even got a sense of the first young man in your film that if he had had an opportunity to stay in.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes young women get out of the military because they wanna start a family, and there's this choice Now. Remember the first choice they made was to go into the military, actually before they started a family. That seems to be more common and I would hear these horrible stories and I would see these injuries, even physical injuries, and they'd say I'd go back tomorrow. And I'm confused. Now we're saying that this horrible situation on the battlefield, which was horrific, caused all of this mental stress, and yet they're telling me that go back tomorrow. So I shared with you that and then when they come back, let me just go do that. So now they get hurt, they have to go back home and they're going back home, maybe to a civilian life. That wasn't so wonderful.
Speaker 2:Going into the military at 17 years old might be a reason that you're leaving a home, not necessarily just going in to serve your country, but to actually leave a more dangerous situation. I sent you some research that we did and it was this idea that 25 to 35 percent of all veterans go into the military with PTS from their childhood. Therefore, they go in and they actually those PTS symptoms actually help them. I know that sounds weird, but if you're on a battlefield, you should be hypervigilant, not so much in Walmart although maybe now, maybe now you should be in Walmart but this idea of having no tolerance for mistakes, being ready at a moment, not sleeping well because you could get bombed at any time. Those are superpowers. When you're in the battlefield they're not. When you come home.
Speaker 2:They also found purpose. I mean, even in your film you could see the pride of those young men about what they did and how they served, how grateful they were. That's my dog with three legs and no teeth, anyway. This idea that they lost that value as well when they come home. I think those are the things too I said to you. I wanted to have you do a sequel. I think when people see the film, jeff, they'll realize how important the sequel is, that you have come into something Talk to me about. Since you've done the film. Now it's being presented. What have you learned yourself about what you think we could do better all around? Now that you lived with these men practically, you followed them, their spouses, if they had one, their parents. What would tell us more about what you believe that we could do better for them? Then I'll share mine.
Speaker 1:Well, you've touched on it, obviously, that the research you sent to me I saw is actually already a decade old. The idea that that has not been incorporated in any intake of young men who come in, young women who come into the military astounding that that has not been incorporated in any real way. I think it's three pronged from what I've sensed or what I've learned. Again, I've pretty much been focused on and interviewed people that we're dealing with, this meeting place of veterans who have returned, who have had issues. Some of them have self-medicated, some of them not, but wind up running afoul of the law. The people I've talked to have been addressing that community, that issue. That's what I know a little bit about. I'm hoping that the veterans and the civilians who watch the film will come away with not only the sense of having seen some moving and compelling stories, but also with a desire to, whenever possible, either as jurors or as voters, vote their mind, that they've seen what might be able to be done or what might be changed. The first thing that I've thought about and been talked to people about is, upon reentry, the six-week boot camp that you go through to learn how to be a soldier should be repeated, I believe, on return, and there should be at least a six-week decompressing where you can learn to be a civilian Again.
Speaker 1:Civilian life, as everybody knows, is so different from that of the military.
Speaker 1:Part of that reentry has got to be trying to at least set up things, like you've done with a lot of your work, of building a community, of giving people a community of brothers and sisters or like-minded people where you are not missing as much the brotherhood and camaraderie that you had when you were serving, because I think that's a big thing that people lose, because the family that they have at home never really replaces the family that they had in the military.
Speaker 1:So being able to try to give somebody a period of time to relearn the skills of being in society and being socialized, basically, and then, if by chance there is a situation where a veteran then winds up having broken a law and been arrested and been incarcerated, that we have a much better way of knowing who's being incarcerated and how many of those people who are incarcerated are veterans.
Speaker 1:And being able to.
Speaker 1:We do have now in some jails and in some prisons they do have modules that are made up of veterans so that the veterans can serve their time with other veterans, which has worked out quite well in many cases, and in fact that film went down near San Diego and you see it briefly in the film where everybody in that block is a veteran who served and there's a lot of not only camaraderie but self or interteaching teaching some veterans, older veterans helping younger veterans and vice versa, and I think they found that creating that kind of community within an incarcerated facility has worked quite well.
Speaker 1:So the second part would be once they are in identifying them and trying to help them with the issues that they had that are particular perhaps to their lives and their experience over the time that they were serving, and then the final would be that once somebody is being adjudicated and is in court, that there may be new legislation to come up with for sentencing so that the sentencing might reflect the service of the offender and the circumstances of the offender, and those mitigating circumstances could mean a great deal to somebody who does have to serve time for their crime but is given a consideration because of their service to the country.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to go even a step further. I loved what you just said and to me that's somewhat of the back end. I think we need the front end and the back end. So that idea of the six weeks it's actually 13 weeks for Marines, for boot camp, For me I know that when they fill out many of them, when they fill out the application to go into the military, the idea of telling the truth is scary because if you probably said everything on there, you might not be accepted.
Speaker 2:So there's not a lot of opportunity if you really want to get in, to tell the truth. So I would say that even from the moment you want to go into the military, there's this sense that I better not tell the truth, I better not share everything that's happened to me. And so once you're accepted into the Marines or the military, to me, if you don't do education on child neglect, child abuse, what happened to you as a child and how that hurt you and helped you. I mean there is some trauma that actually gives you these wonderful kind of superpowers. We call it post-traumatic growth. It's a real thing, it really is. At the same time, if it's not addressed and you don't know that you have these, that you don't have these kinds of things. Oh my God, I always love doing this into my home. Stop stop you that. I love doing Zoom's in my home. So when you don't understand what happened to you and it lays weight inside of you this is my story, this is most people's story After the military, even during the military, because some of those crimes are committed in the military as well, from military person to military person seems to me that it would be really smart if we talked about what happened to you before you went into the military, how you need to watch out for the effects of child abuse that might have you drink too much, that might have this, that might have happened, and we start to give them wellness practices and mental health practices.
Speaker 2:At that moment, At that moment, it seems to me that that would be really smart. I love your idea of when you come out, you have to go through it again. Now, remember, you're going back to a family, maybe even a father, who abused you. How are you going to manage that?
Speaker 1:The other part of it is that when you're about to be released, the last thing you want to do is do another six weeks. You're ready to go home, you're ready to get back to your life, and so it's going to be hard, because you can't do it voluntarily. I don't think, because I think most guys would say come out of here.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's as hard as being deployed. So I would say right, they're used to doing hard things. So I'm not afraid of us saying to them listen, there is a six week, like you know. You're getting out on this date, we're going to back plan, backwards plan, which they taught me, and you're going to start this date. So you're still getting out, the same date we said and those six weeks before that is, this is what's going to happen. So I'm not afraid of that, because that bit of prevention, that bit of understanding, is better than going to jail for six years.
Speaker 2:And I want to say something with you've lived for 17 years in the civilian life and you were in the military for four. You've been a civilian before. It just wasn't a great experience, which is why you went in at 17 for many of them. So we're sending back them, back to something they didn't really enjoy or had troubles with the beginning. So now we expect that to all of a sudden be okay, that they're going to go back into civilian life, all right. So that's at best, malpractice and not understanding what we're talking about and why people are getting so upset when they come back here. It's because it was upsetting when they were here before. That's why that 25 to 35% is so important.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of young men and women that came into the military already suffering from certain things that happened to them. Thank goodness, they found value, they found camaraderie, they found purpose, and then when they're set back home, that's what they lose. They lose all of that. And I think you also said something very important they finally had a family, they finally had a group of people not all of them. There are some times that it was pretty dangerous in the military with some of your brothers and sisters, but for the most part there was that, and I think that's very, very important. One of your guys had what we would call not a PTSD episode. He had an actual psychotic episode that when you believe you're somewhere where you're not, when you're hearing things and being back somewhere, that's actually losing touch with reality. A PTSD episode would be oh my God, I'm hearing that bang and it's bringing me back to the battlefield. He thought he was on the battlefield.
Speaker 1:I think we should also point out which we're doing the film several times that obviously the overwhelming majority of veterans return home and go on to leave productive and positive lives, even many with PTSD. So this is for anybody listening to this who is not familiar with it. They should know, and we try to stress the idea, that the vast majority of veterans return home and go on to leave very productive lives.
Speaker 2:Well, I think also, too, what that begs and thank you for that is then when somebody is having a difficult time with society because it's difficult to be in a civilian world, it's not necessarily PTSD. There's some real issues that you have to deal with the people who don't follow through with what they say, don't do their job, care about things other than what's really important. That's not necessarily PTS. That's from the childhood. That's that idea that my parents or my family didn't do what was right and didn't help. So if I'm, all of a sudden, the kid had to take care of all the kids. So that's also, I think. So my fear is is you're absolutely right. It will think every time a veteran gets upset with something, it's PTS as opposed to there's some real concerns about how we as community members help and deal with one another.
Speaker 2:Also think it's interesting that if you were in for four years, even five years or 10 years how much that takes over your experience in the 17 years that you had your most basic training. I call it your first basic training. So I think too, we can see how important the military is, because four years can in many ways take over and overshadow the 17 years that you were in a civilian life. So it's not like you don't know civilian life, you just didn't want to be in it, or that the military worked better. You were a teacher. Could you go back to being a teacher now?
Speaker 1:Sure. Okay, so that's what I thought about it many times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I was saying.
Speaker 1:The other thing we should mention, or that I came to realize during the film, was the enormous stigma attached, and we obviously in this society have an enormous stigma attached to any mental health issue.
Speaker 1:So in the justice system, in the criminal justice system, you're dealing with jurors who very often don't understand the first thing about mental health and, on the veteran side, this stigma that is perpetuated by other veterans and by other people in the military as well as people in civilian life. That stigma is something that we have to start addressing, I think, as a community, and let it be known that there should not Now, obviously, if you're trying to apply for a job that involves certain things where your issues might get in the way of that job, that's something separate than what is. It sort of a prejudice that people might have about the idea that there may be a mental health issue. And so I noticed from all three of the guys that are featured in the film that was one of the hardest things for them to do was to acknowledge and identify the fact that they were actually having issues, that they were actually having problems.
Speaker 1:And so that's something, and that stigma enables you to lie to yourself and to lie to others. Your fear of people pointing you out.
Speaker 2:Well, that's also true. I mean, when you think about what I said to you earlier is they'll lie to get in. So if they have an issue, they won't put it on their application, they'll lie when they're in there in order to stay the downrange or in the military. So if there's an issue, so it is such a desperate need to make sure that I get to do the things that I want to do and serve the way that I serve and be there. You're right.
Speaker 2:We don't make it easy for people who serve that that would be first responders or anybody else in that kind of way to make it easy to say I need help, that I deserve. It is how I teach the veterans I work with. You deserve help, you deserve it. And if you'll help somebody else on the battlefield or you'll help somebody else anytime in the service, why are you denying the opportunity for others to serve you and to help you? And you might actually be better after you are able to admit that, oh, you know what, I need some help and therefore you get it, and then you actually become a better, better military person, or you actually become a better in all areas of your life.
Speaker 2:You're a mother, you know, family member. So I think you're right that we're not honoring the fact that you're an educator. People know that if you educate yourself and you learn more things, there's a good chance you can do math better. You can, you know. I mean you can manage your money, but you can do lots of things and read a book better. Yet with mental health, we don't believe that. We don't say well, gee, if I knew more about how my childhood affected me, or if I knew more about anxiety and depression, of which I struggle with, I'm going to be a better person when I know about it and how I can mitigate, take those symptoms and mitigate them.
Speaker 1:Right and, as in any kind of social, societal issue or societal problem, there are tentacles to that problem and those tentacles reach out, and we have shown the film to the wives and to the mothers and to the children of these veterans, and they need help. They need and I haven't been surprised since the film has been released and is available, I'm getting on our Facebook page and elsewhere, all sorts of comments and questions and confessions from wives of veterans, from sisters of veterans, from brothers of veterans, talking about how difficult it is for them trying to deal with their loved one who is in trouble and who is in pain, and so that's another aspect of it. In terms of, like any kind of societal problem, it's very complex and very far reaching, but we have to remember that there are members of the families connected to these veterans who are also in need of help very often.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things we do at Merging Vets and Players is we have like we said, we're peer to peer support. I am the second line of support. Anybody that wants any gets all free. All my work is free as a mental health coach and therapist, and that's true for their families too. So we literally I spend a lot of time talking to veterans, family members as well, because they also deserve that support.
Speaker 2:I think what's interesting for me is, since we know that a high percentage struggle not only with the effects of the battlefield that's pretty obvious and that's also a double-edged sword, because they're also proud of some of the things that they did in terms of how they served and what they did this idea that the VA does not ask them about what happened before the military, that they don't treat the veteran as a holistic being that had experiences before the military, during the military and after the military. So I think that we've got to ask strongly that when you help somebody with mental health issues, you have to take the entire context of that human being into consideration. And the second thing that we now know is that much of what we can do to help someone heal comes through the body, not just through the mind. So the other thing you do is you don't treat just someone's thoughts and feelings, but you treat their entire body, their entire being. And medication isn't always the way to help. It can mitigate a symptom, but it doesn't necessarily heal anything at that point.
Speaker 2:My grandson had leukemia and I can tell you honestly he had it twice because he comes from a family of overachievers. So he had to do it twice and we joked with him all the time that the chemo helped and baseball helped. The baseball probably helped more. So when he was bald and thrown up in the trash can, we knew that that was part of his healing. That was part of him being able to get stronger and to help get his body back into working with itself and not hurting itself. So there's that as well.
Speaker 2:Is that the way we treat people and literally treat them is very much through handing out a medication and no follow-up about whether or not you're doing the breath work, whether or not you're doing the therapy, whether or not you're doing the yoga, whether or not you're playing baseball with your friends or on a softball team, whether or not you're going hiking. All those things that we know help that central nervous system to calm down PTS symptoms are central nervous systems. That's the central nervous system that is out of whack because it's been assaulted for too long and it's on a perpetual on. The dimmer switch is broken. So I think that that's important to know that the way we treat this is not very helpful either.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's not very effective. Well, anything else you wanna tell us about your film or? I love that we know where we can get it. Anything else that I can say?
Speaker 1:Well, we've been talking on fairly deep and profound level about policy and mental health and whatnot. The film itself is, like I said, kind of three courtroom dramas. They're kind of three true crime stories really. So it's not. The film is not a document. It is a documentary, but it's not a document. It's really a motion picture. It's a film.
Speaker 1:It tells three stories that are dramatic and emotional, and so it's not a lot of lawyers and doctors talking to you and telling you about the issue, it's really actually three, we hope riveting and compelling stories, and the ultimate I mean the one thing I guess I would like to leave with anybody would be in the film we talk about Nemo Rosidio Leave no man Behind, which is a sacred saying from the military, and so the film hopes that we will again, even though in many instances crimes have been committed, that just because the crime was committed, we will not leave that person behind, that we will try to adjust our thinking and our laws to help that soldier, that Marine, that sailor, that Air Force men, whoever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate. Well, thank you so much, I so appreciate everybody.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so say the title again.
Speaker 1:Those who Serve.
Speaker 2:Those who Serve. Yes.
Speaker 1:Those who Serve on Amazon Prime, on Tubi, on Stash, and if you go on Facebook and Instagram, if you watch it and you want to talk about it or discuss it or have questions or problems, please feel free to comment, let us know and we'll get back to you.
Speaker 2:So, jeff, I want to tell you what a lot of the wonderful young men and women I work with. I'll say to you you're not too bad for a civilian. So that's my problem and I get, and I say thank you so much, because civilians irritate me too, and I am one.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for all the work you do, Suzy.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, bless you Talk about it, take care. Beat Crazy Well and you just met another crazy well person for sure, making movies and telling stories that need to be told and deserve to be told. And remember our theme song is Be your Best Self. So do that, do that, I will do that.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much. You're welcome, take care, take care, bye-bye.
Speaker 2:So our mission in person is looking at this story and we use that same money to help encourage others to join the job in the course of this series.