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This page is devoted to the
writings of Dr. Todd A. Huffman, M.D.
Pediatrician
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Dr. Huffman |
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By
Todd A. Huffman, M.D.
At long last, we have reached the end of the day.
The world had never known a day so splendid as we
have lived. So bright was our day, so radiant with
the tireless energy of youthful idealism that so
few noticed the inevitable advance of twilight.
Today, as the glory of the day gave way to the
darkness of a moonless night, the dogs of war
began their barking. Sadly, they are our dogs; we
raised them; they cannot now be leashed or
quieted.
Let them bark! If only that we may remain awake --
sentries for a new and better day. Watch first
that our fatigue not lead into anger -- anger will
not shine through this darkness. Only the light
that each of us must become can do that.
Stay awake! It is our greatest act of defiance.
Though we may be tired, and tomorrow may seem a
long way off, on this night sleep will not bring
the morning sooner.
Do not mourn over the night that "they" have
brought. After all, there is no they -- only us.
Always hurrying, we lost track of time, and track
of ourselves. Thus set the sun on our day.
And if there is to be a new and better day, it
begins with and belongs to our children. Hope
rests in their hearts and minds, gaining strength
the longer we stand guard against hatred and
ignorance through this night.
What was can never be again. So be the change. Our
children are looking up to us -- be the light that
illuminates the path they take through the scary
darkness.
At long last, we will then reach the beginning of
the day.
Preparing
Our Children For War
As our country prepares to launch
its first pre-emptive war, parents must be prepared
to handle the emotional needs of their children
during what will undoubtedly be a difficult time for
our nation.
At best, a war in Iraq will be
brief, with little collateral damage, and few
American casualties. At worst, it will be a
protracted campaign, with many innocent lives lost
and many American sons and daughters returning in
caskets to a television audience. It is quite
possible there will even be retaliatory attacks here
at home, launched by terrorists still sleeping
within our midst. Days worse than September 11th may
lie ahead.
September 11th reminded
pediatricians, teachers, and child mental health
professionals that children are the most vulnerable
segment of our population when news of tragedy
arrives. Many American children, not just those in
and around New York and Washington, D.C.,
experienced and may be continuing to experience
strong emotional reactions to the terrorist attacks.
Early studies are revealing increases in insomnia,
separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, and
symptoms of depression in American children.
The loss of life on September
11th was unbearable. Of a more direct impact on our
children was that they witnessed with us the
repeated images of airplanes crashing into buildings
and great skyscrapers falling into dust. Our
technological ability to bring news instantaneously
to everyone has advanced faster than our ability to
decide when to restrain it. Yet what most impacted
our children were the reactions of their parents:
our agitation, our sadness, and our anger.
In times of national crisis,
parents have the extraordinarily difficult task of
balancing their own emotional responses with the
need to continue working, buying the groceries,
making the meals, and paying the bills. Given the
complexity of our daily lives, there is little
mental room remaining for the additional task of
dealing with the emotional needs of our children.
Children, who see everything in the world in the
context of how it relates to them, are left to fend
for themselves emotionally.
Parents often underestimate
children's awareness of the world around them. Many
children, especially those aged seven and older,
understand enough to know that for them, in a time
of crisis, the world has become a scarier place.
Indeed, as an elementary school student during the
Vietnam War, I remember watching the nightly news
with Walter Cronkite and worrying if my family would
be the next victims of a napalm attack.
If and when this new war begins,
children must know that they have complete freedom
to ask questions. Some children will want to, and
some will not. Be sure that the child has a daily,
or even weekly, opportunity to ask about what is
happening, and be prepared to talk as long as the
child needs without rushing them.
Realize that children do not need
for adults to know all of the answers; instead, what
they need is for someone to listen to all of their
questions. "I don't know" is an acceptable answer.
It lessens the child's anxiety to glimpse their
parent who is also a little scared, a little unsure.
Should your child become anxious
or fearful, teach them that bravery is not the
absence of fear, rather it is the living of every
day in spite of it. Put in a child's terms, bravery
is doing what you're afraid to do.
Parents might consider talking to
the anxious child about a plan that includes things
to do in case of a terrorist attack, such as where
to go for help and safe places to seek. The approach
may be similar to how parents and teachers prepare
children for other potential threats, such as fire
or approach by a stranger. Reassure them that the
chance of a threatening situation occurring is
almost impossible. The goal in developing this plan
should be to help the anxious child feel potentially
in control, thereby lessening their anxiety.
Present information to children
simply and honestly, in terms appropriate for their
developmental level. Children will understand and
react to things differently than adolescents, who
will understand and react to things differently than
adults. Take care not to discuss your own fears and
anxieties around your children, unless they ask you
to do so. Take care not to be boastful when
discussing the course of the war in front of
children.
We must remain solemn, and
mindful that children will, in large part, model
their reactions and emotional responses on those of
their parents. Children must not perceive war as
glorifying, rather as something so awful that it
must only occur as a last resort.
What Is
Best For Our Children?
As war begins, there are many good people who will
withdraw into indifference, taking with them false
comfort in having been members of the coalition of
the unwilling. They'll hang up their ideals, put
away their enthusiasm, and close the lid on their
indignation.
However, it is not enough just to have been
opposed to this war. This is only the beginning.
While we cannot undo what has been done - the
ships have sailed - we must now take steps to
assure that from this day forward war will never
again be "one of our finest traditions".
If nations have a lifetime, America is in its
adolescence. Like a typical teenager, we are a
nation obsessed with money and possessions,
celebrities and sports. Our national friends and
enemies change as often as when we were in middle
school. We care more about what's in and who's out
than about improving our education and developing
our goals. Quite frankly, we'd rather be watching
television or playing video games, drinking or
doing drugs.
Thankfully, not all teenagers are typical, and not
all Americans behave as adolescents. To all those
who object both to this war and to our present
arrested development, I propose that we unite
behind a single purpose: To see our nation mature
into adulthood. At this tipping point in our
history, it is imperative if we are to advance as
a society.
The advance to maturity will begin when our nation
views social, economic, and political issues
almost solely from the perspective of what is best
for our children. Begging forgiveness, I
take an enormous liberty in modifying the wisdom
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by a single word:
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a
thing-oriented society to a children-oriented
society".
This radical philosophical shift in our national
way of thinking must be accompanied by an equally
radical restructuring of how we search for
solutions: We must address not the consequences of
problems, but the problems themselves.
A homeless boy living with his family in abandoned
warehouses dies from lead poisoning. Physicians,
politicians, and the public cry out for universal
lead screening. Why does no one cry out for
universal guarantees of safe housing, secure food
sources, and unrestricted access to health care
for all children?
In this the most economically developed country in
the world, millions of children are uninsured and
receive little or no preventive medical or dental
care. This is to say nothing of the millions more
undocumented children in our midst.
Our infant mortality rate ranks an abysmal 28th
internationally. An astounding one-fourth of
American three year-olds have not received
complete immunizations. Millions of our children
are suffering mental and physical malnutrition
resulting from chronic hunger and chronic neglect
and abuse. In these difficult economic times, the
numbers are growing.
Making children our focal point can tie together
the many fragmented and divergent interest groups
into a common bind. On issues as wide-ranging as
the environment, education, energy policy, and
foreign affairs, every decision can be framed with
the simple question: What is best for our
children?
Like a typical teenager, our nation often behaves
as if invincible, and able to live forever. With
maturity, however, comes the realization that we
live forever through our children, and our
children's children. With maturity even childless
adults often understand that their immortality
rests upon making the world a better place for
generations to follow.
With maturity, our society will come to realize
that what is best for our children are greater
opportunities for a better life. Children are
one-fourth of our population, and all of our
future. Every child we're leaving behind is, in
the final sense, one more wasted opportunity to
improve that future.
The Intersection of Restoration and Decline
America now stands at the
intersection of restoration and decline, and the
choice before us in the 2004 presidential election
is which street we wish to cross. The enormity of
our decision cannot be overlooked.
The signs of decline are easy to
see. Though we are a nation still generous at heart,
we've become distracted in mind by celebrities and
sports, wealth and possessions. For many, reality
television and home video games have insidiously
replaced living.
Our malady of mindlessness is
further diagnosed by the fact that a majority of
American adults polled admit to not having read a
book in their adult life. The prophecy of Ray
Bradbury's Farenheit 451 is being
fulfilled: we are, in essence, burning our books by
simply not reading them.
Hope for our restoration lies in
rescuing our indignation from many years of
indifference and indulgence. We must then withdraw
our time from the banks of Hollywood and Sony, and
reinvest it towards active citizenship.
We must find time to read and
learn about local and national issues. There are
ongoing crises which demand everyone's immediate
attention: our ballooning state and federal
deficits, our crumbling schools and infrastructure,
our shortage of quality child care, our growing
population of uninsured, our increasingly neglected
elderly and disabled, and our inequality in
educational opportunities. Just to name a few.
We must find time to become
inspectors, seeking out and destroying our own
weapons of mass destruction: hunger and disease,
poverty and joblessness, homelessness and
hopelessness. Our search must be constant, our
dedication complete, and our deadline infinite.
We must find time to contact our
newspapers, and our state and congressional
representatives. All of our congressmen and
congresswomen are up for reelection in 2004, as well
as one-third of our senators. They must learn of our
newfound passion to rebuild America and restore it
to the standards intended by our founding fathers.
We must insist upon restoring the world's faith in
America, as well as our faith in ourselves.
Finally, we must find time to
acquaint ourselves with those who've chosen to
contend for the presidency. It is not too early; the
2004 presidential campaign is underway even as our
nation has been led to the doorstep of war. We
forget so easily; we must remember the poor choices
given to us in the 2000 presidential election, and
work now to assure at least one better choice next
time. There is just too much at stake.
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