Searching for balance amid all the chaos

This has been a year of extremes.  Perhaps its seeming that way is partly due to the mercurial behavior at the top of our nation’s government by President Donald J. Trump. It could be it actually is our president’s chaotic approach to leadership that makes events and cultural trends seem more extreme compared to other times. 

There certainly, however, have been natural and manmade catastrophes, affecting many Americans. That is not just perception. Three Category-4 hurricanes, Harvey, Irma and Maria, slammed Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. These areas, especially Houston and Puerto Rico, are still recovering, and they may never be the same as before these powerful storms. The wildfires on the West Coast have ravaged areas that have never before been as affected, taking the life of one firefighter just last week, with 43 fatalities to date.  California Gov. Jerry Brown has called the situation a new normal, which could happen every year or few years, due to climate change.

And the mass shootings that occurred in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas, are among the manmade disasters that are only part of the story of gun-related deaths and injuries: Go to www.massshootingtracker.org to see data going back to 2013 on mass shootings in the United States. This website defines a mass shooting as “a single outburst of violence in which four or more people are shot.” According to its statistics as of Dec. 15, 2017, there were up to that date 410 mass shootings in the U.S. during this year, 1922 since Jan. 1, 2013, and it had been two days since the last mass shooting. 

Every year for the past five at this time of year such statistics come to the foreground of our national consciousness, especially in Connecticut, due to the Dec. 14 anniversary of the mass shooting in Newtown, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. There are annual remembrances that honor the children and adults who died that day, making it clear that the human spirit is resilient. The strength of the families and loved ones of the victims comes through in their ability to keep their memories alive. They also strive to help others and make a difference in the awareness of gun violence and school safety, through initiatives like speaking engagements sponsored by the nonprofit Safe and Sound, founded by two mothers, Alissa Parker and Michele Gay, who lost daughters that day. 

Parker, her husband, Robbie, and their two daughters were profiled in a moving piece in the Hartford Courant on Dec. 14. Also in that issue was a listing of funds and foundations founded in the wake of the shooting. If you haven’t seen it, go to www.courant.com to donate and learn about the way people cope with such tragedy. There should be a path to the kind of gun legislation that the vast majority of Americans support and that could actually make a difference to the frequency of this kind of horrific event.

Speaking of courage, many women have found a good measure of it to come forward and name harassers and abusers who have changed their lives and turned them into survivors. It should be that men who are unaware of the harassing nature of their behavior will now adjust their treatment of women in their spheres.

Let’s hope that next year finds some moderation in the human condition, but that won’t happen, especially with the manmade extremes, without active effort on the part of all who believe in its value.