THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS A WAR ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

I would like to thank Angela and Megan for their thoughtful comments.  Certainly the empathic failure demonstrated by all acts of domestic violence have enormous social and political consequences. It is hard to imagine sensitivity to a neighbor or community member if one is unable to respond empathically to our own family members. I remember the recent case of a female drug addict who allowed many men to have sex with her 12 year old daughter to obtain money.  There are so many things wrong with this situation one does not even know where to begin. The fear, anxiety, and degradation of the young person when imagined is almost too much to bear. This type of humiliation leads to anger/revenge and/or hopelessness and despair, with sometimes both states existing concurrently in the same person.  As Angela suggests this is our most common form of terrorism that we must do battle against.

Any suggestions on how to prevent all forms of interpersonal terrorism ?

Thank you
Richard

Comments

[David Hazen]

Your use of the words healing and recovery has attracted me to share with you my perspective on violence dependency as a public health epidemic. I have a blog post you may wish to read at http://davidhazen.wordpress.com/

There is a proposal now in Congress (HR 808) to establish a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence, which would have the long-range effect of transforming our culture of violence into a culture of non-violence. Best practices of violence prevention would be researched and disseminated to families, communities, the media, schools, gangs, police, politicians, and the military. There are 70 cosponsors to this bill and others, including the President-elect, who are listening with interest. I have great hopes for this bill. See http://www.thepeacealliance.org/ for more info.

[Jaliya]

Hello, Richard ... I have just become aware of your work and the book you've written. Blessings on you for who you choose to be!

Your question, "...how to prevent all forms of inter-personal terrorism?" might be the most important relational question of our time. I wish there was a simple answer; I've been grappling with it for years.

I have come to wonder if shock and trauma are the norm for simply being alive. It may be that everyone experiences trauma to some degree, beginning with birth -- which is a massively stressful event for the neonate ...

If some degree of trauma is "normal" or inevitable -- then we all need to broaden our thinking, and certainly our innate sense of compassion, which can be all but destroyed by certain forms of injury ...

My own trauma history began with a six-weeks-premature birth in 1959 (I'm 49 now). I have come to wonder how much healing is possible for severe trauma experienced in infancy ... especially if later traumas are constant, as they were for me until I was about twelve.

In response to your question, though ... the one make-or-break factor, it seems, is at least one deeply loving bond that has reached the core of a person at some time in his/her life ... I have read, three times (so far!), *A General Theory of Love,* written by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon -- all MDs in psychiatric practice. The book is both a rigorously scientific and an elegantly poetic examination of the biology of love ... It's got me to revising Descartes' famous maxim to "I love, therefore I am." -- Better yet: "We love, therefore we are."

I thank you for the work you are doing, and will begin reading your book ...

Jaliya

[angela]

Dear Richard,
It's Angela again! (I have no email address for you).
My cancer patients' Association (www.attive.org) would like to invite you for a round table meeting in Milan, around June or September. The subject will be: how to cope with fear. You would be their special guest, and a journalist would interview you about your book as well. Could you let me know if you are interested and what kind of fee would be appropriate?
Please, contact me on my private email.
macaltieri@gmail.com
Thanks and best wishes! Angela