Violence—random,
sudden, illogical, and lethal—has become a fact of life. Years of social and
economic injustice have resulted in large numbers of people who are frustrated
and without hope for the future, people to whom bravado is everything, and
anything that seems the slightest bit threatening—a put-down, a disagreement, a
dirty look—demands immediate retaliation.
As I write these words, this kind of violence almost seems old school to
me.
I’m
not quite sure when my consciousness shifted about the kind of violence we now
all face. I wonder if it was during the six year period beginning in December
1993 when the Long Island Railroad massacre occurred, followed by the Oklahoma
City bombing in April 1995 and then Columbine school shooting in April 1999.
The targets: public transportation, a federal building and a public school.
I
think it was during that period of time when it started to sink in that something
dramatically different was happening that was more than a fluke. I remember
thinking, in one of my more morbid moments, that all Americans were secretly
entered into a daily national lottery that wouldn’t result in fortunes gained
from pooled funds, but instead in body counts delivered at the hands of
deranged strangers.
And
now, as two additional decades have unfolded, churches, synagogues, concert
halls, nightclubs, workplaces and more have been added to the pantheons of mass
murder.
This
past Election Day, during our annual staff development day, I participated in an
Active Shooter Preparedness Training at
North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center. It was presented by police officer
Ken Murray and paramedic Rich Husch from Nassau County Police Department
Homeland Security division. The training was engaging and informative.
Before
1993 I don’t believe I could have imagined participating in such a workshop.
Today it is essential for workplaces, schools and houses of worship.
In
a staff development day just few years earlier, the theme was mindfulness. Mindfulness, originally a Buddhist concept founded centuries
ago, refers to a practice of paying attention and staying in the present,
moment-by-moment, to feelings, thoughts, bodily sensations, and surrounding
environment without being judgmental. Mindfulness is often taught as a
meditative approach to calming or soothing oneself.
After
the active shooter preparedness training I thought about the commonalities and
contrasts of the two, both of which emphasize paying attention to the
environment, one to luxuriate in the richness of what might otherwise pass one
by and the other to be hypervigilant to threats and escape routes.
Mindfulness
is taught for the benefits of stress reduction, improved focus and reduced
emotional reactivity. Active shooter preparedness is taught so that, In the
midst of chaos, anyone can play an integral role in mitigating the impacts of a
potentially deadly incident.
On
reflection, I’m struck by the emotional flexibility required to absorb both
into one’s consciousness, requiring fluidity and many-sidedness. Robert J. Lifton is an American psychiatrist
and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and
effects of wars and political violence.
In
a review of Lifton’s book, The Protean
Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation, the reviewer sums up the
concept of the protean self by stating that “life is not a straight line.
Instead, it is, and ought to be, experienced as a collage.”
The
sad reality today is that the collage is becoming overcrowded by images of
carnage that more sensible gun regulation can go a long way to changing.
Published in theislandnow.com: https://theislandnow.com/opinions-100/kids-first-preparedness-mindfulness-and-the-protean-self/
Andrew
Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance
Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from
birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
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