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Sep. 13th, 2001
Seren, I think you might appreciate this.
Sep. 13th, 2001 02:29 pmFrom a brochure I just got here at work, about how to cope with the tragedy:
"Experts tell us that even very young children know about what is happening from what they pick up on television. They want to talk about it with adults they trust. Not every child will react in the same way. Some children will be sad and fascinated. Some may not want to talk at all. No matter how frightened some children may be, it is even more frightening for them to think that nobody cares enough to listen and share the experience with them.
"Listen to the children, explore their feelings and help them feel secure and good about themselves in these difficult times."
"Experts tell us that even very young children know about what is happening from what they pick up on television. They want to talk about it with adults they trust. Not every child will react in the same way. Some children will be sad and fascinated. Some may not want to talk at all. No matter how frightened some children may be, it is even more frightening for them to think that nobody cares enough to listen and share the experience with them.
"Listen to the children, explore their feelings and help them feel secure and good about themselves in these difficult times."
the fixation on "blame"
Sep. 13th, 2001 06:59 pmWhat is it with people? Why do they have to blame? Why do they feel a need to find the person responsible for things that happen?
And the part that angers me is that people equate finding the reasons behind an occurrence with affixing blame.
I've seen it over and over, and as expected it has reappeared.
You say something like, "we need to keep this from happening again. America's policies are wrong and maybe if we change them, attacks like this will be less likely." and immediately someone jumps on you and screams that, "this isn't our fault! You're a godless commie pig and you should be shot for insinuating that anyone besides those ragheads did this." Or at best, "You damn liberals don't understand anything about personal responsibility. Bin Laden did this. Not us. We didn't hijack any planes. Next you'll say it is his parent's fault for not raising him right."
But they're missing the point. We don't need to affix blame. We only need to do our part to make sure the mistakes don't happen again.
And the part that angers me is that people equate finding the reasons behind an occurrence with affixing blame.
I've seen it over and over, and as expected it has reappeared.
You say something like, "we need to keep this from happening again. America's policies are wrong and maybe if we change them, attacks like this will be less likely." and immediately someone jumps on you and screams that, "this isn't our fault! You're a godless commie pig and you should be shot for insinuating that anyone besides those ragheads did this." Or at best, "You damn liberals don't understand anything about personal responsibility. Bin Laden did this. Not us. We didn't hijack any planes. Next you'll say it is his parent's fault for not raising him right."
But they're missing the point. We don't need to affix blame. We only need to do our part to make sure the mistakes don't happen again.
I took a magazine camping with me last weekend (Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures), on the off chance I would get bored at some point. I didn't read it, and it has been sitting on my kitchen table all week. Tonight, as I was eating, I started reading. I found something that was very apropos of today's events.
...a man named Deganawidah, "the Peacemaker". He was born into what is now called the Huron Tribe in the American Northeast some time between the 11th and 16th centuries.
The tribes of the region were then locked in a vicious cycle of war and blood revenge. Deganawidah longed to bring peace to his people. Through meditation and dreams he arrived at three simple but profound realizations:
- Violence makes people crazy. When people are brutalized, they become either fearful and withdrawn, or angy and aggressive.
- Violence breeds more violence. Attempts at revenge only make matters worse.
- True peace comes only with social equity. A peace founded on forcibly maintained dominace eventually breeds more violence. Peace can only be maintained indefinitely if everyone has a share in decision making.
Deganawidah eventually succeeded in persuading surrounding tribes of the truth of these simple propositions. The result was the Iroquois confederacy, whose democratic decision-making procedures and principles of federated governance brought peace to the realm.