With the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the reports of all of the dead, I just have not been able to focus on my work. Right now, it just doesn't seem that important. I've been impressed by the reports of the heroism and the efforts of teams to help those immediately affected by this nightmare. Psychologists, social workers, and all types of volunteers from all over of the United States have taken up posts to do anything that is needed on ground zero. Some friends of my son dropped classes at law school and drove to New York to help. It's been difficult for me to sit in my office and concentrate.
I'm a crybaby, and I cry when someone is hurt emotionally or physically. I seem to understand and almost feel other people's pain and agony. My mind begins to imagine the trauma that the person must have felt those last moments, and thoughts that they may have had before dying. I've been thinking of all of those children who have been left orphaned. I've thought about the workers who speak other languages in these buildings and how their families will receive the comfort they'll need from bilingual counselors. I wonder if this is normal, but I assume it's because I'm a mother and like most mothers we worry about our own children and those of others. I guess it's who I am and how I respond to others and my own pain.
When I've traveled in the past, I always called my loved ones and said goodbye before leaving. I suppose because I wanted them to know that I was thinking of them and that I wanted them to remember that I loved them. I was orphaned at 14 years of age, so I don't take life for granted. I really hope that no one takes each day given for granted.
I've also wondered how children will remember this and whether they understand the enormity of this one event, especially our bilingual children who are language impaired. I heard a 6 year-old telling her mother that a plane crashed into Albuquerque, and that Disneyland and Disney World were closed. Another child told me that she gave her lunch money to the Red Cross because there were a lot of people whose money just flew out of their wallets. One child was upset because his soccer game was canceled and said so what if people died today. How do you explain this to children? Do we even try? Do we leave this to parents? How do we deal with our own pain and sorrow? How do we help children in our care to understand and deal with the videos of the planes crashing into the two buildings and helping them to understand that it was real and not a movie?
We are now at war and there is a new vocabulary that is being used in the media that unmistakably reflects a new era in our nation's history. Terrorism, retaliation, hijack, versus patriotism, heroism, and united. We really have not had to talk about these things in therapy, or even worry about how to say these terms in Spanish. But these are new terms that are said so frequently and are so meaningful for our nation at this time. Will you have discussions with your parents about the events that have occurred in the past week? I'm sure that they also will have questions about the future and what this means for them. Do parents understand that our economy will likely be affected and that the military will be built up which may mean that their sons may be called to military duty? During the Vietnam War, some European American families sent their sons to Canada and some Latin American families left the U.S. because they didn't want their sons to enlist.
So much will be happening in the next few months and our Hispanic families need to understand and know clearly what is happening. In large metropolitan areas there are Spanish radio and television programs and newspapers, but so many Latino families are also in rural areas of the country where there might be one Spanish radio station for a few hours on the weekend.
Our responsibility is to be informed and how this is going to impact our schools, the education of children, programs that may be eliminated, and whether there will be profiling of different ethnic groups in your area. That one really scares me. I apologize for my rambling this month. But I'm still hurting and will probably hurt from this along time. I hope that all is well with you. And to all of my friends in the Great State of New York and Washington, D.C., my prayers are with you daily.
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