Another shooting and another round of whys, though they seem
to be quieter now. We’re exhausted trying to figure it out. What can we do?
The ACLU sued the government in the 1970s to stop mentally
ill and homeless from being institutionalized. The state-run mental hospitals,
of which several had questionable practices, soon closed.
We have millions of all types of weapons out there. To the
extreme, if we had a Gestapo force retrieve all the guns from all the homes in
the country, would that solve this?
The entertainment industry has filled our airways, screens,
and games with horrific, graphic violence while we just sit by.
The feelings of anxiety and powerlessness across the society
produces outbursts of violence from those who are unstable, mentally ill and/or
angry.
I’ve thought and written about this a few times since Sandy
Hook, always coming to the conclusion that we have to look at ourselves. It is
our society that is triggering these individuals.
I’ve come up with an acronym to give us a plan that we all
can institute. REACH
Respond. Instead
of waiting for our politicians, our police and law makers to do something, we
need to have a response. We need to dig deep into the histories of these
troubled individuals and their families to see what the source of the action
was. We need to respond when individuals show signs of instability, high levels
of anger, withdrawal or a sudden change in behavior.
Engage. Listen to
these troubled souls. Get a feel for where they are coming from if you are
working with someone or they are in your circle of acquaintances that is
showing signs of distress. Engage with them, talk to them, offer kindness and
friendship.
Action. Get
involved in your local community’s plans for preventing such tragic occurrences.
Study up on signs of mental health problems, arrange study groups with your
friends and co-workers to problem solve for your community’s safety. If you are
in the wellness profession go out and teach. Teach teenagers to meditate.
Lobby for sensible gun laws. Do something.
Communicate. Go to
your city meetings, write letters, communicate ideas to your representatives
locally and nationally. Get the entertainment industry to take this seriously,
and create safer, more wholesome games and stories for our impressionable youth.
Brain storm and come up with out of the box solutions that no one has thought
of yet.
Help. Find out
how to help our law enforcement, civil servants, teachers, health care
providers, counselors, school boards, service clubs, etc. If you are a business
owner, how can your business help?
If just 1% of us focuses on solving this, we would have an army
of over 3 million helpers working to increase the wellbeing of our population.
