As we know there was yet another threat of violence at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington D.C. It seems from preliminary investigations the targets were our current U.S. administration officials. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. Yet we watched hundreds of individuals at that event have a number of trauma responses that will impact them for the rest of their lives.
We saw individuals in shock, emotionally bereft, withdrawn, in high alert and disillusioned about how something like this could happen at such an event and in America. The unexpected nature of such a threat is in and of itself traumatizing because of the sense of helplessness and feeling trapped. I’m quite sure those in attendance will experience a variety of emotions and responses that will be extremely impactful for days, weeks and years to come.
These types of events can create a heightened climate of fear and polarization. It appears that we have a new normal of political violence. The rhetoric and media surrounding these events can serve to potentially motivate further divide and political extremism. All of this causes a culture of fear which is now mandated to increase our security measures. That alone changes the nature of public events which can cause insecurity about unpredictable public violence. Any public event can become suspect for these types of tragedies.
Psychologically, the graphic coverage of an event like this also creates heightened stress and traumatic reactions in the public. It may intensify our sense of political divide and can leave us feeling very impotent to make changes that will prevent the violence that is so prominent in our culture. Yet we did see many individuals who want to unite to prevent this type of incident so that it never happens again.
As I consider what we can do about this problem, I know one thing that is important for all of us is to teach our youth and adults how to resolve their conflicts and even their sense of injustice through peaceful means. It involves healthy conflict resolution skills, effective personal brain regulation and new options for navigating political divides. We must not lose our capacity to work towards peaceful resolutions. We need to see more modeling of that in our homes, our community and our country from our leadership.
We also need to learn how to cope with our traumatic events and adversities. Often, we find those who have become extremely violent have had a great deal of trauma in their lives and have learned to cope with that trauma in extreme ways. If we are going to create a non-violent country, we need to start in each family and community by modelling self-control, emotional health, collaborative problem solving, active listening, resonant communication and positive outcomes for difficult situations. It is hard work to be peacemakers, yet we must pursue those strategies if we are going to bring an end to these tragic violent events. It needs to be a commitment that will lead to proactive steps to do all we can to encourage non-violent means to deal with our cultural and political problems.
Gerry Vassar
President/CEO
