Elmo Takes on War Wounds

"Brought to you by the letters PTSD..."
On most PBS stations tonight at 8pm, the special program Coming Home: Military Families Cope with Change will air, featuring Elmo, Queen Latifah and John Mayer. You can learn more and watch a preview here. The site also provides other resources for parents.

I remember reading about this months ago, but this is really pretty cool, even by Muppet/Children's Television Workshop standards (Dave Letterman's production company is also involved). In the preview video, the injuries shown are physical, but the website does cover how to talk with a child about "invisible injuries," and two of the families depicted apparently deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and related issues. I'll be interested to see the program, which runs under 30 minutes. But I dare ya to watch the preview video without a twinge.

(I'd rather not mention it in this post, but it's the reality - the Republican numberless budget of last week predictably used classics from the Reagan and Gingrich playbooks - urging that the National Endowment for the Arts be eliminated and that PBS be de-funded. I don't care if none of it will succeed, or whether the attacks are cynical or sincere. They just shouldn't happen, and the Overton window is badly askew. I'm really, really sick of such attacks, and wish the people who actually do some good could be properly, generously funded and otherwise left alone. Regardless, here's to Elmo and the gang for doing something very worthwhile.)

(Cross-posted at Blue Herald)