When we fail to protect people from predators
At the end of the day, if we can’t keep the separated spouse of a person under investigation for sexually assaulting and grooming an underage girl safe, what chance do most victims have?
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Live Music is my Therapy
That was a direct quote from me last weekend as we attended JazzFest in New Orleans.
I’m not saying that simply going to concerts is a replacement for therapy. Let’s make that clear up front.
What I was referring to was the healing power not only of music but also of the shared experience with a crowd of similarly minded people.
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It’s still not safe to be honest
The question isn’t about sharing or not sharing, it’s about why we, as a society, tolerate the haters. Why, in a stadium full of tens of thousands of fans, did he have to take that on by himself? How many people heard someone tell a fellow human being to kill themselves and laughed?
How many people heard it or read about it and decided against asking for help? How many of them will we lose?
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Maybe it is All About Just Showing up and Being Friendly
Maybe they’ve stumbled onto the simplest life hack there is for loneliness – become a regular somewhere. Exist in a space where people expect you to be and then be friendly while you’re there.
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Where are Kids Supposed to Connect?
If we consider what has changed for kids over the last couple of decades, the issues are similar. Kids don’t wander around our communities on their own anymore. We’ve decided that was too dangerous. Outside organized sports, there aren’t many places where teens can socialize offline.
Naturally, in a world where they no longer had access to peers outside of school, they turned to the internet. Phones and social media were the fallback for connecting. Now, however, many find that the option has been taken away as well.
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Quote about stigma at two levels
The world is not, has never been, and will never be fair. Suggesting that anyone deserved illness or abuse because bad things happen to bad people is naïve. It’s a childish lie we coddle ourselves with, with no basis in reality. Survivors deserve better support than that.
