Article Excerpt: Reflections on War
by Gary Bachman, MSSW, LSCSW
(Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from the Summer 2009 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER. Read the full article at:
http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/General/Reflections_on_War/
Eleven years ago, in my first semester as an “adjunct” university faculty, I was invited to participate in a workshop for new classroom instructors. In our second session, one of the new faculty, a Ph.D. student, requested guidance on how to deal with a challenging student in her practice class. Asked to describe the student, she offered, “He’s a Vietnam Veteran type.” I, embracing all the calm and control I could muster, calmly asked for further clarification.
“Oh, you know, baby killer, murderer, rapist. Scary like.” Inside my chest, something fragile cracked. But I let it pass. The mentor nodded, and a discussion of classroom dynamics ensued. Reaching out to our mentor a couple of days later, I was offered assurance, “I’m sure she didn’t mean anything.” And, “Besides, the student is a veteran.” On reflection, it occurred to me that my characterizing someone as a “homo type” or “street prostitute type” would not have been so comfortably tolerated in this otherwise liberal university setting.
“There’s somethin’ happenin’ here. What it is, ain’t exactly clear...”
As a child, like many boys of my generation, I was fascinated with tales of war and the reenactment of slaughter on the grandest of scale. In the seventh grade, I purchased a book with a red cover emblazoned with a white circle and black swastika. Written by Miklos Nyiszli, the title was simple enough: Auschwitz. I don’t need to relate the story as we’ve all heard it. (But were we all listening?) Its telling at this time in my young life changed this life. That single book was a seed for what has become my life’s passion, as well as my professional practice. How could anyone have known at the time? Mrs. Hagen, my favorite teacher, might have had some inkling. She was remarkable about such stuff. But certainly no one else suspected. Sadly, frighteningly, what I recognized in that book and the thousands of others that have followed was that in each of us is the potential for unfathomable intolerance and cruelty. Right along with the capacity for as-yet-realized compassion, understanding, growth, and peace. It is indeed about the choices we make—choices molded by the obstacles as well as advantages encountered along the way.
“I’m gonna lay down that sword and shield, down by the riverside...”
Peculiarly, I am still fascinated by the words of warriors and those who chronicle their deeds. And I will, in spite of the song we sang in church this past Sunday, continue to study those words with vigor. As the sword and shield rust to nothingness in the mud, I know that there are plenty more where they came from.
Just a year before my discovering the story of Auschwitz, my father had died in a veteran’s hospital. As an adult, I have wondered what he thought of my unbridled enthusiasm for war. A third generation cattleman, his uniform was that of a Stetson hat, Hyer’s boots, and a tooled leather ranger belt with silver and gold buckle from old Mexico. I never imagined him in that plain seaman’s uniform he wore in the picture on my grandmother’s nightstand. And I never heard his stories of New Guinea, Guam, Iwo Jima, Ie Shima, or Okinawa. My father was no warrior, as he told no stories to fill my impressionable mind. In the war, he was just a “hospital corpsman.” And everyone knows that hospitals are safe. Perhaps his silence spoke volumes that I didn’t understand. Certainly, his frequent acts of kindness and compassion for friends and strangers alike spoke volumes that I would only come to recognize in their later absence.
James Bradley, the son of another navy corpsman, wrote a book titled Flags of Our Fathers. He tells of uncovering the story that his father had refused to give voice to. But the son did give voice to that truthful and terrifying story with words of horror, pain, grief, loss, hate, and finally rebirth and hope. It is a painful accounting of the ignorance and fear and hate that drove young men to mercilessly slaughter one another a half century ago. Honorable Japanese men and idealistic American men, boys really. Not unlike us still today, driven to do the unimaginable through a limited understanding of a diverse world that is subject to manipulation and exploitation by political and religious ideologists. In a world full of fear, hate, intolerance and ignorance, where poverty and disease beg for a culprit, rigid ideology and efficient weaponry offer the invisible a recognizable image, and the unheard a loud resounding voice.
“When Johnny comes marching home again...”
The current volume and distribution of personnel returning from overseas duty, back into their families, civilian employment and expectations, in rural as well as urban environments, virtually demands that all social workers must be prepared to recognize and professionally respond to emerging needs. This preparation must include baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral level students, generalists and clinical alike. Complicating this response is the practice of the uniformed services and the VA system to employ, with few exceptions, only clinicians with the MSW or similar advanced “clinical” training. Similarly, student internships through the VA are largely restricted to master’s level students in clinical tracks. All of this is in spite of the established reality that much of the burden of our current “global war” is being leveled on the backs of men and women, reservists and national guard, from largely rural communities. Beyond the VA system, it will often be baccalaureate prepared social workers who are typically employed in the variety of direct service/case management roles in the area of community mental health, homelessness, child protection, domestic violence, foster care, public schools, acute care hospitals, physical rehabilitation/skilled nursing facilities, and nonprofit as well as state social welfare services, that will most often be stepping into the gap to confront this surge.
“We gotta get outa this place...”
Similarly, although the past eight years have been marked by a decline in the number of individuals and families seeking shelter in the United States as refugees, we are just beginning to experience the increasing volume of refugee “resettlements” expected to occur in coming years. What have these families suffered? The U.S. is just one nation confronting war and terrorism, and American educated social workers will be confronting such issues across the globe and at home. In many such presentations, these new neighbors will have been exposed to the same or greater threats as our returning troops, and they will in many ways be dealing with similar challenges compounded by language or cultural differences. Generalist social workers, prepared to recognize those similarities as well as the unique differences, and thus respond appropriately, will be in great and valued demand.
Read the rest of this article at:
http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/General/Reflections_on_War/
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Latino teens happier, healthier if families embrace biculturalism
Over the years, research has shown that Latino youth face numerous risk factors when integrating into American culture, including increased rates of alcohol and substance use and higher rates of dropping out of school.
But a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows adolescents who actively embrace their native culture – and whose parents become more involved in U.S. culture – stand a greater chance of avoiding these risks and developing healthier behaviors overall.
The findings are from a longitudinal study by the UNC-based Latino Acculturation and Health Project, which is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and directed by Paul Smokowski, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UNC School of Social Work. Researchers interviewed 281 Latino youths and parents in North Carolina and Arizona, asking questions about a wide range of measures of lifestyle and mental health. Participants answered according to how much they agreed with each question (for example, from “not at all” to “very much”), resulting in scores on a scale for each measure.
“We found teens who maintain strong ties to their Latino cultures perform better academically and adjust more easily socially,” Smokowski said. “When we repeated the survey a year later, for every 1-point increase in involvement in their Latino cultures, we saw a 13 percent rise in self-esteem and a 12 to 13 percent decrease in hopelessness, social problems, and aggressive behavior.
“Also, the study showed parents who develop a strong bicultural perspective have teen children who are less likely to feel anxiety and face fewer social problems,” he said. “For every increase in a parent’s involvement in United States culture, we saw a 15 to 18 percent decrease in adolescent social problems, aggression, and anxiety one year later. Parents who were more involved in U.S. culture were in a better position to proactively help their adolescents with peer relations, forming friendships, and staying engaged in school. This decreases the chances of social problems arising.”
“Such results suggest that Latino youth and their parents benefit from biculturalism,” Smokowski said.
The findings are presented as part of a series of articles featured next month in a special issue of The Journal of Primary Prevention, a collaborative initiative between UNC and the CDC. The special issue presents the latest research on how cultural adaptation influences Latino youth behaviors – including involvement in violence, smoking, and substance use, as well as overall emotional well-being – and offers suggestions for primary prevention programs that support minority families.
“Bicultural adolescents tend to do better in school, report higher self esteem, and experience less anxiety, depression, and aggression,” said study co-author Martica Bacallao, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, whose work is also featured in the special issue. “It is interesting that, in order to obtain these benefits of biculturalism, adolescents and parents often need to do the opposite of what their natural tendencies tell them. Parents who are strongly tied to their native cultures must reach out to learn skills in the new culture. Adolescents who quickly soak up new cultural behaviors should slow down and cultivate the richness in their native cultures.”
Along with Smokowski and Bacallao, Rachel L. Buchanan, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at Salisbury University in Maryland, was a co-author of the study, titled “Acculturation and Adjustment in Latino Adolescents: How Cultural Risk Factors and Assets Influence Multiple Domains of Adolescent Mental Health.”
To learn more about the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, go to: http://www.unc.edu/~smokowsk/Main_Page.html
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