Is Lakewood Safe Enough For Recovery?
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:19 am
Here are some excerpts from the book “Trauma and Recovery” by Judith M.D. which is partly about the aftermath of political terror that may apply to Lakewood’s latest political nightmare:
1. It is easier to side with the perpetrators because all they ask is that the witnesses look the other way and do nothing.
2. The perpetrators appeal to the universal desire to see, hear and speak no evil.
3. The activists ask the bystanders to share the burden and take up the cause. They demand action and remembering what caused the crisis.
4. In order to escape accountability, the perpetrators do everything in their power to promoting forgetting.
5. Secrecy and silence by the perpetrators are the first line of defense.
6. If the perpetrators cannot silence the opposition they try to make sure nobody listens---so they make up elaborate rationalizations for their actions.
7. The perpetrators claim the activists lie and that the evil never happened and it's time to move on.
“To hold the traumatic reality in consciousness requires social context to protect the victims and join the witnesses in common alliance.”
For there to be recovery, the following must happen:
1. Establish safety, i.e. a safe place.
2. Reconstruct the trauma—talk about what happened.
3. Restore the connection between the survivors and their community.
In Lakewood, the executive and legislative leaders continue to do everything they can to maintain secrecy and silence, accuse the activists of lying, deny the wrongdoing never happened, create elaborate rationalizations and say it’s time to move on.
So, I ask, is Lakewood politically safe enough from the perpetrators for recovery to take place?
1. It is easier to side with the perpetrators because all they ask is that the witnesses look the other way and do nothing.
2. The perpetrators appeal to the universal desire to see, hear and speak no evil.
3. The activists ask the bystanders to share the burden and take up the cause. They demand action and remembering what caused the crisis.
4. In order to escape accountability, the perpetrators do everything in their power to promoting forgetting.
5. Secrecy and silence by the perpetrators are the first line of defense.
6. If the perpetrators cannot silence the opposition they try to make sure nobody listens---so they make up elaborate rationalizations for their actions.
7. The perpetrators claim the activists lie and that the evil never happened and it's time to move on.
“To hold the traumatic reality in consciousness requires social context to protect the victims and join the witnesses in common alliance.”
For there to be recovery, the following must happen:
1. Establish safety, i.e. a safe place.
2. Reconstruct the trauma—talk about what happened.
3. Restore the connection between the survivors and their community.
In Lakewood, the executive and legislative leaders continue to do everything they can to maintain secrecy and silence, accuse the activists of lying, deny the wrongdoing never happened, create elaborate rationalizations and say it’s time to move on.
So, I ask, is Lakewood politically safe enough from the perpetrators for recovery to take place?
