Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?

Hot on the heels of our 36-hit shooting spree a few weekends ago, the Tribune has decided now would be a good time to resume its occasional features on “chronic diseases and their impact on urban communities.” Interesting choice for a chronic disease this time around… Endemic violence.

That’s an interesting label for it, but the article makes a very convincing case for taking it more seriously as a medical concern.  The sociological, economic, and political ramification of violence are such obvious categories that, if nothing else, this can help us look at the effect of violence on communities as every bit as dangerous as any kind of bacterial or viral disease–and in some ways, a cause for much more concern.

[Research shows] exposure to violence is linked to childhood depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, learning problems, sleep difficulties, poor academic performance and a host of other problems. Persistent fear, scientists say, can cause neurophysiological changes in a child’s brain that can impair physiological, behavioral, cognitive and social functioning.

This may seem self-evident from the comfort of a cushy chair behind a computer, but this is something that goes far deeper than just violence begetting violence and the usual trauma.  Neuroscience has made incredible strides in the past decade and those brain changes are real, they can be followed and charted and are very hard to correct.  Our habits will form us, and our environments will inform our habits.

Researchers are also finding that parental perception of danger is sometimes greater than the actual danger in an area and they could be overcompensating to keep their children inside.  There are serious ripples that could become destructive tidal waves later on if kids are forced into anti-social positions because of unsafe neighborhoods.  It is important to recognize that:

“Social learning is fostered by play and exploration,” he said. “When those types of activities are constricted, a child’s future is also constricted.”
I live

play is the primary means by which children learn to regulate their emotions and behavior, said Dr. Stuart Brown, a psychiatrist and president of the National Institute for Play.

It’s very difficult to read things like this and keep in mind my own students and the gang territories they cross on their odyssey to school.  It’s no wonder that so many of them stay around the small outside plaza after school when most students are bolting to get home as soon as possible.  Where else can they hang out, where else could they play?

The facts, the figures, the statistics, the quotes, the experts, it’s all abstract, no matter how we look at it, and we can always pity it without worrying about changing it.  Please, volunteer your year or two in college, enjoy your spring break building houses.  Every hand is needed, even if a minute is all you have to give, but we can’t rest on idealism, a variable number that one can change on a whim with minimal value.

The words of reality will always be the common denominator:

De’Jour said he tries to cope with his fears by avoiding crowds and staying close to home. He fondly recalls his more carefree life.

“I was happy,” he said.

Guess What Else Is Made In China?

Irony?  Or, like, that thing we call irony that really just means “funny coincidence”?

How to Fight Wars

It is frustrating that it seems we need to re-learn old lessons with every conflict we find ourselves engaged in, but at least it seems that we finally learn them. Here is a great example of how a Marine general has turned an Iraqi prison around with the real application of soft-power that is going to win a protracted war.

Few strategists would disagree, but most politicians and citizens are blissfully ignorant to the fact that the nature of war has completely changed. The purpose of the American Armed Forces isn’t so much tearing down as it is building and protecting–and this is a jarring difference from expectations. Were we a misguided Soviet army or vengeful fascists, we would have already accomplished our goals by flattening everything in sight. These are short-term and easy to affect with the modern tools of destruction.

However, whatever errant and deceitful path led us here, it is in the long-term interest of our nation (and the world, but whatever) to have a moderate, stable Iraq. This means, first above everything, that insurgents must be convinced that that they should put down their weapons, and a facility like Bucca works to accomplish this. Instead of torture, humiliation, and degradation–all practices that will lead to the hardening of resistance and the depletion of our morale–Bucca is making efforts to rehabilitate enemies and turn them, if not to friends, at least ambivalent towards violence. Allowing families to visit often is a fantastic move on General Stone’s part, reminding the combatants what they were fighting for in the first place, and showing them that there is a better way to ensure their safety.

I can hear the clamor of accusations already mobilizing against the prison’s policies of having

no maximum period for holding them. They are freed only when it has been determined by a review board they are no longer a security risk. Some have been locked up for more than three years.

Undoubtedly, I would like to see some kind of charge raised against every person imprisoned, superficial as they may be, so that inmates can be presented with a cause to their imprisonment, but in the meantime it seems to me that expediency can take precedence of bureaucracy.

Another note: the word “re-education” smacks of every depraved oppressor from the Nazis, to the Soviets, the North Vietnamese, and the Khmer Rouges, but before propaganda tries to connect these disparate dots, I’d like to see the military release a comprehensive overview of what, and how, re-education is being applied. I necessarily trust an moderate imam because other Muslim countries have employed a similar teaching style.

A lack of communication between political and military leaders and the citizens they serve has doomed missions in the past. Press coverage is good, but this is the kind of stuff that the President and the President-to-be needs to highlight and emphasize. This looks like an excellent counterinsurgency model that is finally being employed to a great effect. Hopefully this is a lesson we won’t need to learn again.

Of course, one hopes the military can find more eloquent speakers. Sometimes generals have a bit of a one track mind…

“Each detainee represents the possibility of being a moderate missile, if you will, fired into a community to spread a degree of moderacy and that’s the way we view it,” he says.

“If we have half of them hitting their target, it makes a huge difference.”