Trauma and the Human Condition

“None so blind as those who will not see.”
Matthew Henry, (1662-1714)

Hundreds of Alaska Air Lines flight attendants are reportedly suffering from mysterious rashes, itchy skin lesions and hair falling out. The cause is believed to be their new 100 percent polyester uniforms. The problem with this reasoning is that these uniforms were issued in 2011 and Alaskan wild life suffering from these same symptoms do not wear uniforms. Polar bears, walruses , otters and seals are losing their fur and strange lesions have been found on many of these mammals. As far as I know, only Glen Canady of Before it’s News has been willing to speculate that these flight attendants and the northern wild life are suffering from early signs of radiation poisoning coming over in the jet stream and ocean currents from the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (“Are Alaskan Airlines Flight Attendants Getting Sick From Fukushima, http://beforeitsnews.com /5/14/2012 ).

And then ,we also have the mysterious deaths of some 900 dolphins and thousands of sea birds along the Peruvian coast on up to the border of Ecuador. Dolphins suffered from multiple skin lesions and maritime birds were thought to have starved because they could neither swim nor fly. Reasons given for this wildlife debacle range from climate change, dragnet fishing to oil shore drilling ,acoustic effects of undersea sonar activities and as yet unidentified viral mutations. Renowned Biologist Guillermo Boigorrea from the University of Trujillo said that scientists were also analyzing the sea water. “ It’s unbelievable that that the Oceanic Institute has still not given a reason for the massive death of pelicans and dolphins. I believe that we are trying to protect certain interests”. The Peruvian health ministry has urged the public to stay away from the beaches near Lima and along the northern coast until the cause of the die off is known.(news.yahoo.com /5/14/2012 ) This news was soon followed by reports of 2000 coastal birds found dead along the coast of central Chile. Officials there put the blame on fishermen’s nets and environmentalists suspect oil exploration activity.

While any or all of these explanations may have merit, no one has considered the possibility that the common factor in airline attendants illnesses from the polar north on down to Peru and Chile has anything to do with radiation. This is especially interesting given the high levels of radiation found both in Japanese seaweed and the kelp forest all along the coast of California. ( Michael Collins, www.enviroreporter.com ). The fact is that that massive quantities of radioactive materials and contaminated water from the spent fuel pools continue to flow into the Humboldt Current, familiar to the Japanese as Kuroshio. Also known as the Black Stream, the Kuroshio/Humboldt is the driving force for the north Pacific current. This relatively narrow and rapidly moving band of water is conveying a concentration of radioactive poisons around the North Pacific, across the Bering Strait to southern Alaska, Canada and down the West Coasts of the United States and Mexico. When this contaminated North Pacific Current arrives along the continental shelf, it divides. One stream veers northward along the coasts of Alaska and Canada and breeding grounds of seals, sea otters, and walruses ( and the flight paths of Alaska Airline crews). The other stream turns south and becomes the California Current and this in turn divides again into the Equatorial Pacific, moving from Mexico to the Philippines where it rejoins the Humboldt and the Peruvian heading south along the coast of South America. Mega-scale hydrodynamics reveal that the Fukushima nuclear disaster is in the process of contaminating most of the vital fisheries of the Pacific. (Yoichi Shimatsu. “The Death of the Pacific Ocean”, www.rense.com, December 2011 ).

Why a reluctance to connect the dots that lead toward radiation as a potential and ongoing threat in all of these so called mysterious air and sea events ? From a psychological perspective denial can be understood as a protective defense mechanism when there are insufficient resources needed in order to face an overwhelming reality. While denial can be protective, heads in the sand can also lead to disaster. As always, there are also issues of power and greed. It is the nature of governments and industries to withhold information in order “to avoid panic”, but also to place profit and social control above public health and safety. If the truth about ongoing, massive , radioactive contamination of the entire Pacific Ocean were to be widely acknowledged, this would have a devastating effect on fishing industries, tourism and air travel which would soon reverberate throughout the economic food chain. And, there will always be those who just do not want to know, but like gravity, radioactive contamination in air, food and water, increasingly dangerous to all living things is here whether you believe in it or not.

“Fukushima’s nuclear disaster is a nightmare. Ghostly releases of radioactivity haunt the Japanese countryside. Lives, once safe, are now beset by an ineffable scourge promising vile illness and death.
(Paul Zimmerman, A Primer in the Art of Deception)

Known and unknown perils of radiation continue to increase throughout the Japanese archipelago. An elevated, leaking, seriously wobbling spent fuel pool above Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4, tilts and teeters on the verge of collapse within a highly active seismic zone adjacent to the ocean. Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen warns of a “ Chernobyl on Steroids” if this spent fuel pool ignites into a potentially unending radiological fire. In a recent interview with Pat Thurston, the usually temperate Gundersen addressed the situation at severely damaged reactor four. He cautions that if this spent fuel pool should go dry or collapses, the result would unleash radiation equivalent to 800 nuclear bombs. In this case, he advises those who wish to survive to immediately relocate south of the equator. (http://enenews.com ,05/04/2012). Given the real possibility of this extinction level event, Tokyo and other densely populated areas may need to be suddenly and permanently evacuated, as was the case with the Chernobyl meltdown disaster in the former USSR. This unfortunate information raises the question of how and where to re-locate over forty million people. In my January 2012 blog I reported that the Japanese government/industrial complex plans to build a new Japan Town in Southern India designed to accommodate 50,000 upscale residents. This Japanese- only facility is intended for the still healthy elite and elderly; infirm and radioactive hibakusha (outcasts) are not included in this design. Therefore, some other plan is urgently needed for millions of others who may need to leave with some hope of surviving further contamination. Apparently, there are talks ongoing with both Russia and China as to possible strategies for massive relocations.

Discussions with Russian officials are reported to be focusing on disputed Kuril Islands located in their Oblast region. Located approximately 810 miles northeast from Hokkaido Japan, these 56 islands stretch all the way out to Kamchatka; separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific. Soviet Forces captured the Kurils from Imperial Japan during the final days of World War II. And now, the current Japanese government argues that their return is critical given that their people are in desperate need of a place for massive resettlement. There are also reports that Japan is considering an offer by China to relocate tens of millions of Japanese people to their mainland Chinese uninhabited “Ghost Cities” constructed and abandoned for unknown reasons. Satellite images reveal sprawling cities built in remote parts of China. Architecturally complex public buildings, plazas and other open spaces are mostly unused and some estimate the number of empty homes at 64 million.

If this Japanese diaspora should become a reality, it would become the largest human migration since the 1930’s when Stalin’s forced deportations sent tens of millions to re-settle Russia’s remote far eastern regions. (Jerry Mazza, “Russia stunned after Japanese reveal plan to evacuate 40 million people”, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/5751).

While this current crisis may seem to be Japan’s problem, it could also happen here. At present we have 31 GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors within our United States; exactly the same models that GE/TEPCO constructed in Fukushima. For more specific information see: (Brad Jacobson, “The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time Bomb”, http://www.alternet.org, May 4, 2012).Why has the public not heard more about this ongoing and potentially increasingly lethal disaster? GE is heavily invested in nuclear power industries and weapon production and also partnered with Tepco. GE also owns and controls most on our mainstream media outlets…and with those facts in mind, it is not so difficult to connect the dots.

The real battle in the world today is not among civilizations or cultures but among the different evolutionary futures that are possible for us and our species right now…

( C. Otto Scharmer, Theory U: Leading From the Future as it Emerges )

Every once in a while I Google myself to see what information is available on the web about my books ,blogs, conference presentations, seminars about trauma, and social and global trauma in particular. These internet searchs sometimes produce some unexpected results. In The Netherlands for example, I am referred to as “ The Grand Old Dame of Social Trauma Work” ( I hope this sounds better in Dutch). And just recently I came up with an item on a Norwegian web site, that Peter Levine and I wrote as part of a series of columns we did for The Redstone Review when we were living in Colorado: (http:www.hellinger.no/index.php?site=default/717/754/757 ) Our monthly column was entitled “ Contemporary Issues and Their Effects of Social Trauma” and from that collection “Asteroid Threat” appeared on the Norwegian site. This piece was written before 9/11 and after Chernobyl but the true extent of that nuclear disaster was not yet established. At that time, as we approached the millennium, there was some media attention devoted to a growing awareness of our planet’s vulnerability to the consequences of a comet or asteroid collision. While these outer space objects are still a threat, a more immediate source for an extinction level event is now present in the triple meltdowns and ongoing radiation emitted from six damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Complex. Now in 2012, threats falling from the sky have more to do with radiation in the Jetstream than asteroids or comet collisions. Nevertheless, in re-reading this decade- old column I realized that my views concerning any number of massive global trauma events have remained somewhat consistent. In response to the question: How to orient toward the possibility of an extinction level event, I would again offer the following:

“Violence and destruction are integral to the nature of the Universe, present at every level of existence, elemental, geological, organic and human. For those of us who have encountered the violent side of human nature, it seems important to develop a perspective on the forces of change that are larger than good and evil or ‘us and them’. While we humans do seem to have some control over our lives, we can also seem to be powerless beings subject to an unfamiliar order….

While the majority of global trauma is taking place on a scale vastly beyond human awareness, we can still find some reassurance in the notion that the forces of life seem to be more than equal to the forces of destruction. Those whose lives have included encounters with forces of darkness and destruction may find some solace in compassion for what might be called ‘impermanence’ as well as compassion for all passing things. Realizing that we exist in a difficult time of perceivable loss and gain has the potential to open our imagination, beyond this moment ,to travel to the realms of a much larger story.

( Anngwyn St. Just and Peter Levine, 1999)

BRITISH FALKLANDS vs ARGENTINE MALVINAS

Now that increasing tensions are once again surrounding these islands we find an all too familiar, post-war story in journalist Tom Clifford’s “ Suicides Outpace Combat Deaths, and Benefits Access a Struggle for Veterans of Falklands/Malvinas War.” (http://truth-out.org/4/14/2012). I have some vague memories of this distant war which began on April 2, 1982 as it was briefly covered in the USA . Our decidedly pro- Anglo coverage took the tone of a comic opera conflict with photo ops of handsome, warrior Prince Andrew flying a search and rescue helicopter over the South Atlantic. His nephew, handsome warrior Prince William is currently in the Falklands on a similar assignment, although there are no overt combat operations at this time. And, there is still some hope of peaceful resolution. Until I began working with combat trauma in Argentina and also the UK, I was unaware of the seriousness of this tragic event for soldiers and their families, for both sides of this brutal exchange.

Conflict over the sovereignty of the Falkland/Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Isles , as British Protectorates, began with an Argentine invasion force under orders from their military dictatorship known as the Junta. These soldiers were mostly young, untrained conscripts who were initially proud to be called upon to serve a patriotic cause. Most believed that they would only represent a kind of occupation force and then this conflict would be sorted out by some diplomatic process. Many had never ventured beyond their remote and rural farms, towns and villages and some had never seen snow. As they landed upon ice cold island shores, it became immediately apparent that they were totally unprepared. Dressed in sandals and other inadequate clothing, the conscripts would be soon freezing in the trenches, grappling with sub-standard equipment that they had no idea how to use. After much bloodshed, the humiliated Argentines surrendered to well trained British forces on June 14, 1982.

Although this war was short, it continues to kill veterans from both countries. In Argentina I learned that 649 soldiers died in active service and at least 400 traumatized others took their own lives. Accurate statistics are difficult to come by since many of these suicides were covered up as accidents or illness due to religious condemnation and social shame associated with these acts. Entire communities have lost nearly all of their young men to this conflict. Veterans and their families call this “a forgotten war” since few want to remember this painful episode. On the British side, 255 soldiers died on active duty while a startling 264 veterans have taken their own lives. While survival guilt may have been a major factor, as is the case with many post-war suicides, another form of guilt may have contributed to these deaths. During a visit to the UK I had the opportunity to speak with veterans of the Falkland’s War who expressed little satisfaction in their victory. As professional soldiers they were expecting “a real fight”. Many of their Argentine opponents turned out to be ill equipped farm boys, and “ instead of a fight, there was a massacre” and many British troops were ashamed of the slaughter.

This British victory was a political boost for Margaret Thatcher’s conservative party. The dictatorship of the military Junta was subsequently removed from power and Argentina returned to a democratic government in 1983. One might wonder why two great nations would continue to risk further trauma and bloodshed over ownership of these remote windblown islands . Argentina claims that they are battling some last vestiges of colonialism and the British insist that they are defending the citizens of their protectorate. While both may be true, it is also a fact that this region of the South Atlantic is very rich in natural gas and oil.

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain,
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow…
— T.S. Eliot, The Burial of the Dead

This month marks the 26th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power station in Ukraine when it was still part of the former USSR. Until Fukushima, this was the worst industrial accident in history. And the danger is far from over. The hastily constructed concrete sarcophagus designed to entomb the damaged reactor is seriously deteriorating and radiation continues to leak into the surrounding environment. Speaking in 2000, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned, “Chernobyl is a word we would all like to erase from memory. But more than 7 million of our fellow human beings do not have the luxury of forgetting. They are still suffering every day…Their exact numbers will never be known.” (AP 2000). Explosions from Chernobyl’s reactor unit number 4 released a series of radionuclides high into our atmosphere, containing 400 times more radiation than the bombing of Hiroshima. During the last days of spring and beginning of summer these potentially lethal plumes fell over hundreds of millions of the unaware. Silent, odorless, invisible radiation drifted over 40% of Europe, and Scandinavia, as well as territories in Asia including Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Emirates, China, North Africa and North America.

The immediate and most concentrated fallout fell upon Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus. An unusually intense round of forest fires in the course of the following summer served to further spread these dangerously hot particles. Early attempts to ascertain and evaluate consequences to human health and the environment were made especially difficult due to Soviet cover-ups and an overall policy of secrecy. In April of 2011 journalist John Vidal published an account of his visit to the still highly contaminated areas of Ukraine and Belarus. As a result he challenged any of the pundits now downplaying the risks of radiation to talk to the doctors, scientists, mothers, children and villagers who have been left with the consequences of a major nuclear accident:

“It was grim. We went from hospital to hospital and from one contaminated village to another. We found deformed and genetically mutated babies in the wards, pitifully sick children in the homes, adolescents with stunted growth and dwarf torsos, fetuses without thighs or fingers and villagers who told us that every member of their family was sick…20 years after the accident and one still sees many unusual clusters of people with rare bone cancers…Villagers testified that the “Chernobyl Necklace” (thyroid cancer) was so common as to have become unremarkable. (“Nuclear’s Green Cheerleaders Forget Chernobyl at our Peril”,Guardian.co.uk, April 1, 2011).”

Having visited Russia and worked in a trauma clinic there after Chernobyl, I have also seen these horrors. And, I would second John Vidal’s challenge to any who carelessly promote those smooth, corporate controlled media lies of “safe, clean, nuclear energy”. How many glib proponents of “nuclear safety” are willing to confront reality in documentaries such as “Children of Chernobyl “widely available on Youtube.com ?

While radiation is especially dangerous to the unborn and the young, other long term effects have been noted in the form of accelerated aging, decline in mental function, immune suppression, gastro-intestinal disorders, type two diabetes, ocular changes, auditory disorders, endocrine diseases, reproductive cancers, diseases of the blood forming organs and circulatory system. Mental health specialists in contaminated areas of Ukraine Belarus and Russia report an all-pervasive sense of depression and “victim mentality” in these populations. We are fortunate that the largest and most complete collection of data concerning negative consequences of the Chernobyl accident on the health of people and the environment is now available on line: Alexey V.Yablokov, et.al : www.strahlentelev.de/yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf.

Anyone willing to read the results of Yabokov’s definitive study will see that nuclear power plants carry exactly the same, if not greater, risks to all living things as nuclear weapons. Given the nature of the nuclear power industry and its close ties to the military (nuclear weapons), media and academia, so- called free societies must consider the necessity for independent monitoring of radiation in our air, food and water and the results made freely available to the public. Activists have also recommended independent monitoring of the health of all children born and living within a 50 mile radius of any nuclear facility.

Public access to information about the dangers of radiation and options for minimizing exposure is especially important now in the wake of the March 11, 2011Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Chernobyl occurred in a land locked, relatively isolated region and only one reactor burned for just 10 days. Fukushima, however, happened along the coast of a densely populated country. In the Daiichi reactor complex six reactors were severely damaged, three in total meltdown. All six nuclear facilities have been leaking and spewing deadly radioactive particles into the air, food and water of our entire Northern Hemisphere, for over a year with no end in sight. Mainstream media outlets are silent and target populations in North America and elsewhere remain, for the most part, unaware.

The use of direct force is such a poor solution to any problem; it is generally applied by small children and great nations. (David Friedman)

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire with guns and bombs in their Littleton, Colorado high school cafeteria during peak lunch hour. Moving on into the library, they killed 12 students, a teacher and wounded 23 others before the homicidal pair turned their weapons back on themselves.

At that time, I was living in a nearby community and began what was to become a decade long inquiry into the many facets of this tragedy. I later published it in A Question of Balance: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Resolving Trauma, in a chapter entitled “War in Colorado” and another as “Aftermath”. One of the facts that drew my immediate attention was that according to their diaries, the Neo-Nazi teens described their homicidal plans as a “military operation” and their focus was on bombs more than guns. Their original plan was to initiate a mass scale bombing to blow up the school and then blow up rescue workers as they arrived on the scene. In addition to military assault rifles, their homemade arsenal included more than 48 carbon dioxide bombs, 27 pipe bombs, 11 one and a half gallon propane containers, seven incendiary devices with 40 plus gallons of flammable liquid, hand grenades and two duffle bag bombs with 20 pound petroleum tanks. Only after their homemade bombs failed to detonate did they resort to guns.

As of 2012 the community of Littleton has not healed and for some people, many important questions remain unanswered. Further events and more revelations about the killers and their families continue to shift the focus in a still evolving collage of social trauma with deep roots in unresolved wars, racism, terrorism, and genocide. Added to that are gun control laws, psychiatric medications and media disinformation and hype. In a tragedy that involves this much complexity the cause is neither obvious nor linear.

Nevertheless, it could be said that, in one sense at least, Eric and Dylan’s “military operation” has succeeded in fostering the safety and security measures leading to the militarization of our schools.

Public schools are coming to resemble military and prison facilities with an increasing presence of security apparatus, check points, metal detectors, mobile surveillance cameras, chain link fences, police on campus, surprise and even strip searches for students. We can now expect naked body scanners as part of the prom night experience and more and more elementary and pre-school school students handcuffed, taken away in police cars and charged with “felony offences”. If you think that I’m exaggerating take some time to read the daily news or better still, check the policies of your local school district.

On this one year anniversary of the six reactors damaged at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, three of which are in ongoing meltdown, the crisis has not resolved. Early on, physics Professor Michio Kaku warned, “Meltdown is forever”. As the entire biosphere is being contaminated with radioactive isotopes in the air, food and water, information crucial to public health has been withheld, distorted and minimized by corporate controlled international media outlets. Their reasons are all some variation of “we don’t want to create panic” and therefore the most accurate and useful information has been taken up by alternative media and the blogosphere. From Japan one finds valuable postings at http://fukushima-diary.com and http://ex-skf.blogspot.com, and here in the USA www.rense.com has provided ongoing, in- depth coverage including frequent interviews with Japanese environmental reporter Yoichi Shimatsu and Michael Collins of www.enviroreporter.com.

We are learning more on a daily basis and the news is not good. With various half-lives the following are some of the radioactive components of the venomous vapors spewing forth from Fukushima:

Iodine 131 (8 days)
Cesium 137 (30 years)
Strontium 90 (29 years)
Plutonium 239 (24,000 years)
Uranium 235 (700 million years)

And it gets worse. A January 27, 2012 U.C. Davis report, “Uranyl peroxide enhanced nuclear fuel corrosion in seawater” spells out a heretofore unseen danger:

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident brought together compromised irradiated fuel and large amounts of seawater in a high radiation field. Based on newly acquired thermochemical data for a series of uranyl peroxide compounds containing charge-balancing alkali cations, here we show that nanoscale cage clusters containing as many as 60 uranyl ions, bonded through peroxide and hydroxide bridges, are likely to form in fuel and being thermodynamically stable and kinesthetically persistent in the absence of peroxide, they can potentially transport over long distances.

This report was a joint project of U.C. Davis, Sandia National Laboratories Department of Civil engineering and Geological Sciences, The University of Notre Dame and its Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and published in January 23, 2012 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science ,journal.

These nanoscale cage clusters of Buckminsterfullerenes are also known as “bucky balls” due their spherical shape with multiple flat sides similar to the trademark geodesic domes designed by inventor and futurist, Buckminster Fuller. Radioactive bucky balls were formed as seawater was poured over the molten cores of the damaged reactors, turning water into peroxide – creating bucky ball broth which can exist independent of peroxide. Although uranium is heavier than water, uranyl filled, fused-ring bucky balls are lighter and more mobile in water. Thus they are able to quickly transport Fukushima contaminated ocean water all along the Pacific Rim and infuse the marine food chain. These hot particles are virtually indestructible, radiate and are potentially carcinogenic if inhaled. Ocean borne bucky balls are also transported through the winds, sea spray and mists which can be carried as far as 300 km inland. The discovery of these silent killing bucky balls carries dire implications for the 44 nations of the Pacific Rim. At present, the US Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are not testing for Fukushima melt-down radiation (www.enviroreporter.com/2012/beta-watch).

When I lived in California, the Big Sur coast was a favorite destination for rest and renewal. These nature oriented restorative visits always included some time at Nepenthe, a family owned restaurant and café established in 1949. Indoors or out this is a lovely place where one can contemplate the spectacular coastline along and above this stretch of the Pacific. Their outdoor terrace features an open fire pit and driftwood sculpture of a phoenix rising from a circular bed of red-orange torch lilies. Nepenthe, derived from the Greek (ne=no +penthes= grief) is the name of a mythical drug of forgetfulness believed to have originated in Egypt. As the story goes, the wife of mythical King Thonis gave this potion to Helen, daughter of Jove to induce forgetfulness and surcease from sorrow. Homer mentions this amnesiac in The Odyssey and it appears again in Poe’s, The Raven:

“Quaff oh quaff this kind Nepenthe, and forget the lost Lenore”.

Grief is a normal human response to loss and usually resolves over time. When it doesn’t, the loss often involves unresolved trauma, as well. Forgetfulness is not the solution. This view, however, is not shared by pharmaceutical and other companies actively pursuing the development of amnesiac drugs or other mind control techniques for the treatment of trauma. Any such protocol only serves to perpetuate the mechanistic and outdated Cartesian illusion that human beings are biological machines in need of fixing. The fallacy here is that erasing painful memories will heal trauma because trauma is only in the mind or located in some specific area of the brain. While this is partially true, it is also true that trauma is a psycho-somatic experience. The body remembers. For more about this reality see Peter Levine’s books, tapes and web site www.traumahealing.com and neurologist and psychiatrist Robert Scaer’s The Body Bears the Burden.

Amnesiac treatments would set up a situation where the body remembers something that the mind does not and this can create panic attacks and other serious disturbances. The downside of memory erasure as a solution to emotional problems was recently given a light hearted treatment in the zany romantic comedy The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Nevertheless, ethical problems involved with any such procedure are very serious indeed. Among those wary of memory altering drugs we find The President’s Council on Bioethics, an advisory group of physicians and scholars formed in 2001. In their report, the council expressed concern that dampening painful memories, or erasing them altogether might disconnect a person from the reality of their true selves. More about this viewpoint is available in Scott LaFee’s “Blanks for the Memories” (www.cognitiveliberty.org/02/11/2012).

Among the major consequences of trauma are dissociation and a profound sense of alienation. These “broken connections” represent a fragmentation within the self, in relation to others and the larger environmental matrix supportive of human life. Memory erasure by chemical or other means risks further fragmentation in an already fragmented psyche. This atomistic, seriously disconnected, view of human suffering has little to offer a suffering soul’s need for re-connection and wholeness. From my perspective, the essential goal of trauma work is to find ways to expand to include and then become larger than whatever has happened to us. It has been my experience that trauma is not something that can be “fixed” or that one can really “get over”. Overwhelming life experiences are integral to who we are and who we will become. In the natural world, for example, one can read the life of a tree according to the pattern within the rings or find a map in the shell of an oyster which tells the story of its life and relation to the sea. I believe that we are rather like tree rings and shell patterns in that what happens in our lives leaves a permanent record. Therefore, the goal of systemically oriented trauma work is not to erase or cure. If one thinks in terms of resolving rather than eliminating trauma, then there is a possibility of bringing the human organism, in all of its dimensions, back into some state of relative balance and resiliency.

Just in time for International Women’s Day, American radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh set off a firestorm of protest in response to his latest’s misogynistic rant against “feminazis” The fact Limbaugh is a controversial buffoon is not really news, but this time he may have gone too far…much too far. After Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke was denied an opportunity to testify before an all male Republican congressional committee convened to discuss whether contraception should be included in women’s health care coverage, she received an invitation from the Democrats. Ms. Fluke’s testimony included the reality that these expensive medications are valuable and necessary for many reasons including the treatment of gynecological disorders such as ovarian cysts, and endometriosis. Mr.Limbaugh promptly responded by slandering her a prostitute and a slut who would accept government money to have sex. He railed on that since this makes Sandra a prostitute, therefore in return, she should repay the taxpayer by posting her sex videos on line so that we can all watch. If that wasn’t toxic enough he characterized this sincere young woman as a greedy nymphomaniac who parents should be ashamed. There was quite a bit more of this vile rhetoric which has gone viral on the internet along with familiar anecdotes of the much married, childless, radio host’s obesity, prescription drug addiction , fondness for Viagra and 54 million dollar a year salary.

While there have been calls to remove Rush Limbaugh from the airwaves, this will not solve the problem. From a systemic perspective, Limbaugh is not the problem, but rather the symptom of a problem which is larger than one media personality. Consider the reality that his top rated “angry white guy” show boasts tens of millions of listeners who apparently share and support his blatantly misogynistic values. He has complained of the presence of “lard-ass women in politics” and boasts a belief that “women are basically cats that can walk.” (Sady Doyle,http://inthesetimes.com/04/08/2012). The overblown Limbaugh serves as an ongoing spokesman for the Christian right wing sexual fundamentalists who equate contraception with promiscuity. These mostly Republican folks are drawn to punitive absolutes and promote faith based abstinence programs as the solution to unwanted pregnancy. While Limbaugh’s initial response to the outrage provoked by this sexist rant was to find it all “absolutely hilarious”, his tune soon changed as commercial sponsors began leaving in droves. He then scrambled to issue a half-hearted, fingers crossed, apology in hopes of staving off some of the financial backlash.

One long time sponsor has made it clear that they are sticking with Rush; our American military. His programs are broadcast world-wide over taxpayer supported Armed Forces Network owned and operated by the Department of Defense. It seems that they share similar values given that over 30% of women in our military report sexual assaults by commanding officers and fellow service members. Many of these assaults remain unreported for reasons that are not difficult to imagine. VoteVets, a coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, have released a letter from female veterans requesting that the Armed Forces Network drop Limbaugh’s show from its programming. In part, the letter reads:

Our entire military depends on troops respecting each other – women and men. There simply can be no place on military airwaves of sentiments that would undermine that respect. When many of our female troops use birth control,for Limbaugh to say that they are “sluts” and “prostitutes” is beyond the pale. It isn’t just disrespectful to our women serving our country, but it’s language that goes against everything that makes our military work. Again, we swore to uphold our Constitution, including the freedom of speech, and would not take that away from anyone – even Limbaugh. But that does not mean the AFN should broadcast him. In fact, it shouldn’t.

Pentagon spokesman George Little responded with a statement that the military network will continue to air Rush Limbaugh and is “unaware of any plans to review that decision”. (Faiz Shakir , http://thinkprogress.org/2012/03/05).

February is also my birthday month which arrives this year on the cusp of the seventh decade of a long and eventful life. I found a poem for the occasion which resonates on many levels:

ABC

I’ll never find out now

What A thought of me.

If B.ever forgave me in the end.

Why C. pretended everything was fine.

What part D. played in E’s silence.

What F. had been expecting, if anything.

Why G. forgot when she knew perfectly well.

What H. had to hide.

If my being around

meant anything

to J. and K. and the rest of the alphabet.

This was written by Polish poet Wislawa Szmborska ( 1923-2012) who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. She died in her home in Krakow at the age of eighty-eight. An anthology of her work has been translated into English by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh as View With a Grain of Sand. ABC was first published in a December issue of The New Yorker in 2004. The poem caught the attention of Dana Stevens (“The Poem Above My Desk”, www.slate.com,2012/02/03) who was drawn to the poem’s simplicity and complexity with the play of alphabet letters as a wistful meditation on the infinite and unresolved stories within each of our lives. Upon hearing of the poet’s passing, Katha Pollitt wrote “ …Szymborska’s signature quality is the way she puts tragedy and comedy, the unique and the banal, the big and the little, the remembering and the forgetting right next to each other and shows us that this is what life is:

After every war

someone has to tidy up.

Things won’t pick

themselves up, after all.

Someone has to shove

the rubble to the roadsides

so the carts loaded with corpses

can get by.

( “The End and the Beginning)

Szymborska’s most serious themes of history and its many horrors, passage of time, love and loss often co-exist with a wry ironic twist. She lived through appalling occupations by the Nazis and then decades of Soviet Stalinist communism. After a short “socialist realist” phase of her youth, she withdrew any interest in grand political schemes in favor of irony, wit and the individual. For Szymborska, it is the one who matters, transient, blind, foolish – plaything of chance – still also urgent , insistent and full of its own meaning –alive. (Katha Pollitt: www.thenation.com).