Don’t Let the Bad Guys Win!

While reading the paper today, I didn’t skip over the crime and devastation stories like I usually do. I asked myself the “why” questions about the news here in Denver:

• Kenia Monge, the 19 year old who had been missing for over 5 months, and was found dead.
• The teens who attacked four people down town
• The man charged 39 times with rape
• The lobbyist who vandalized his ex-wife’s house

But even if we look beyond the really dramatic “front page news” kinds of crimes, we find families and workplaces in which people behave badly. They may be arrogant or mean or unkind. They are overly critical or punitive toward children. Or perhaps they roll right over people, failing to respect the wisdom and knowledge and skills of other people around them, thinking they are “gods” merely because of an educational degree or position. Or perhaps they simply fail to include in discussions those who have something valuable to contribute, those who could improve patient care, improve the profit margin, or create a better widget.

Those of us in the mental health fields, in our attempts to find explanations for criminal or other difficult behavior often point to the problematic or even horrific upbringings these people may have had. And then, we often follow that with a statement such as, “unless people want help, we are unable to assist them in moving beyond their familial beginnings or beyond societal tragedies.”

But I wonder if the real question ought to be, “What are the rest of us doing to create a better society?” I was reading some material by the American Nursing Association that advocates creating healthy working environments, and discovered a profession that advocates authenticity, appreciation and valuing of others, competency, collaboration, and effective decision making and communication skills. I also recently received a number of emails with moving videos related to 9/11. And in each of these, people are caring, committed to going the extra mile, knowing they had to do something to help, and not letting any excuses get in the way of doing what was necessary, reaching out to people in need, saving people’s lives, even at the expense of their own.

So, perhaps the better question ought to be: What do we need to do to get ourselves up off the couch, out from in front of the TV or video or computer or Iphone, out of complacency and habit, and into the world doing something positive, something to counteract the bad, something to prove that the bad will not be allowed to take over the world. How can we get to know the people who live next door or across the hall? How can we know them well enough to reach out to them when they are in need? How can we insist that our children (and we ourselves) choose what’s optimal instead of the minimum necessary to get by? How can we choose love and kindness and involvement and doing the best job possible, instead of passivity? What will that take?

Seems to me that instead of complaining about the “bad” we need to be the “good.” We need to create a tidal wave of justice and hope that it overwhelms what’s not right or what destroys hope. And we need to do it now! There will always be need. But we are feeling it particularly now. I challenge you to make a call today, go the extra mile, use a little TV time today to get out of the house and be a positive force in the world.

ANA healthy working environments:http://www.aacn.org/wd/hwe/content/hwehome.pcms?menu=community
9/11 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg&feature=player_embedded
9/11 video: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/ftgu.html