Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Notes from Gun Violence Teach-Out

The University of Michigan is hosting a free "Preventing Gun Violence in America Teach-Out" through coursera. The Teach-Out has multiple expects who discuss the complexities of this issue from different angles. I would recommend this Teach-Out. (It is pretty quick and can be covered in an hour or two) 

My personal responses to some of the discussion questions raised are posted below. Consider what your own responses might be.

At the end, we were asked if we had any questions. I am putting my answer to this first because I think it helps provide context to my answers overall.

How do we increase funding for this research? How can we make this type of research more "sellable" ie newsworthy? How can we change the conversations around topics such as gun violence and suicide when there is deeply ingrained pushback to the discussion in society?

Do guns play a role in your life? Is there anything you wish people with different perspectives than you understood relating to guns? What changes do you want to see in your community related to gun violence? Are you hopeful or concerned about how these changes will come about?

I live in Chicago so my relationship with Guns is that they are harmful. No one I know uses Guns for hunting etc and I struggle to balance the idea that people feel they need guns when guns appear to me to be equal to death and pain and sorrow. In my experience guns are only used in mass shootings, in the military, by cops killing unarmed individuals (typically unarmed people of color) or in other violence. As items which kill I struggle with the pushback, many have to what feels like to me sensible gun laws.

Though media and a lot of our conversations center on mass shootings or assumptions about mental health, this Teach-Out highlighted how gun violence plays out interpersonally or through self-harm and that very, very few incidents of gun violence come from a person with mental health diagnoses. If this is a new understanding for you, how does it impact your thoughts on gun violence? If you were already aware, how can we start shifting our conversations?

I was already aware that gun violence was rarely instigated by a person with a mental health challenge. But it was not until recently that I started to think about the role that guns play in suicide (oddly I learned this from a candidate who released an envolved platform around mental health and suicide because they are part of populations which have had a higher tendency towards death by suicide).

I wonder if we frame our discussions about guns more around suicide prevention if certain suggestions could be seen as protecting gun owners and gun owner families themselves which I would imagine would feel less "threating" towards peoples way of life.

Like childproof caps on medicine, people complain, and for some populations like the elderly it can be a real pain but most people understand why we have childproof caps and don't see it as someone keeping medicine away from them. Or using a gun example seeing a waiting period as a way to check if you are in an acute mental health crisis not keeping you from guns.

You’ve heard experts compare gun violence and other public health issues that should be studied and prevented, like the introduction of seat belts or drivers’ license rules to react to car crashes. Have you thought about gun violence this way before? What kind of different feelings or thoughts come to you when you think about gun violence with this public health frame?

I think a Public Health frame is useful when looking at issues around Guns. There has been a general sense that Gun Violence is something we can't actually look at or study which means the conversations come up only during heated moments (when there is a mass shooting or a police officer shoots a civilian). These are no good moments to try to have complex conversations about complicated issues. We need to do more research on Guns and Gun usage.

Gun-Violence is a complex issue which is often only spoken about during heated moments of crisis. We have to be willing to have these conversations at other times. We also need to fund the research which could help us deal with this issue. Not funding this research is not making anyone safer. 

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

What Can I Do? A List Of 33 Actions

This past weekend we faced more tragedies in the form of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Collectively there are so many struggles in so many contexts it feels overwhelming. What can we do? This meme created by Amanda Michelle shows there are many ways to fight for social justice.


Here is a list of actions you can do right now. Some are individual work and some are community work. Note you do what you need to do knowing your own gifts and resources. This is a starting off point there are millions of other things you can do too.

Self-reflection*

  1. Spend an extended time reflecting/journaling on your own prejudices. We all have prejudices name them to yourself, sit with them, don't judge them.
  2. Examine where your prejudices are rooted (In a lack of exposure? In what your family or community says or does? In something, you feel you are missing and see as others taking away from you?)
  3. Examine the prejudices of your own family/community (Again we all have prejudices name them to yourself, sit with them, don't judge them.)
  4. Examine where your communities' prejudices are rooted (In a lack of exposure? In a feeling of being attacked? In the idea that things are good and the community and the communities' individuals don't have any prejudices)
  5. Reflect on how prejudices are supporting you (why they are working for you so you keep them) and how prejudices are harming you (Why do you want to create change)

Learning*
  1. Read books by authors with backgrounds unlike yours (If you are just beginning I might suggest reading kids books because they often ease you into a particular culture or identity)
  2. Watching/Hosting documentaries exploring issues/cultures you are not familiar and having conversations
  3. Reading blogs of individuals from cultures you are not familiar
  4. Inviting someone out for a cup of tea to discuss their experiences
  5. Respectfully going to another religion or culture's events. (Maybe a street festival, Maybe a worship service you don't know much about (The key is to be respectful most faith traditions are welcoming will list expectations for visitors such as dress etc), Maybe going to an interfaith event)
Community Organizing:
  1. Join a local, regional, or national community organizing organization
  2. Have conversations/ one on ones with your neighbors/co-workers about what they value
  3. Go to an organizations community organizing training/anti-racism training ....
  4. Complete a power analysis around one issue you care about (One example: https://justassociates.org/sites/justassociates.org/files/toolsforanalyzingpower.pdf
  5. Think of an interesting and peaceful way to raise support around your community for something you value (Such as a guerilla theater, a postcard campaign, picketing, writing an op-ed ....)
Involvement in politics:
  1. Know All your representatives on the national, statewide, and local level
  2. Look up what different positions in government actually do
  3. Research what laws and rules are being debated on your local level right now.
  4. Support a candidate by donating or by canvassing
  5. Run for office yourself
Other:
  1. Sign a petition/Share a petition/Start a petition
  2. Donate school supplies/Health and wellness items/Books/Clothing
  3. Volunteer your time the most vulnerable
  4. Write a letter/op-ed/poem/story/speech 
  5. Find a new way to talk about an issue:  https://www.facebook.com/jim.poe.98/posts/10156632733008107
  6. Donate culturally sensitive materials to programs working with youth
  7. Go to a justice summit/community meeting/teach-in
  8. Determine what a food pantry/battered women's shelter/group working with immigrants or refugees really needs to be donated and donate it or get others to donate it.
  9. Help non-profits using your skills through programs such as https://www.catchafire.org
  10. Support local businesses both formal (Restaurants, Bookstores) and informal (Kid-run businesses/part-time side hustles/community fundraisers)
  11. Encourage someone else to continue to fight for justice
  12. Talk about what you are doing, so others can be inspired
  13. Take Care of Yourself
* (While Self-Reflection and Learning are needed actions we must move beyond, or move forward with into other action. If this is where you are, start here but if you have been doing work in these areas for a while make sure you are moving on to other work)