Guest columnist Therese Hart: We need a plan of continuous improvement
The Daily Herald Editorial Board regularly seeks opinions and reflections on issues we expect to comment on from a Sounding Board formed as a diverse group of independent suburban voices. In the aftermath of the July 4 shootings in Highland Park, we have struggled to find words to respond to unspeakable crimes with the depth and range of ideas such a tragedy demands. So we decided to hold our own voice for a day and instead turn over the editorial space directly to individuals on the Sounding Board. We asked members who felt comfortable doing so to provide in a few sentences their reactions to the mass shooting and offer their ideas about solutions. This is one essay from that project.
We are a nation in crisis and have been for quite some time. Most Americans can stipulate to at least that much being universally true, no matter where they land along the political spectrum.
The issue itself is often presented to the public at large as twofold: On the one hand, that America has a gun problem and on the other, that America has health issues. But we must remember that it does not have to be one or the other. Both can be true at the same time, the same way that each of us can hold two opposing thoughts in our minds at the same time.
Many Americans might also agree that we need to seriously address and create solutions to our health care problems, ones that address both physical and mental well-being. To borrow a phrase from higher education, we need to implement a plan of continuous improvement, one that can be changed and adapted as needed.
We used to be very good at that in America: please see the Declaration of Independence, or the U.S. Constitution. Those two documents have some truly great stuff in there. They are not perfect; but neither are we. And they were designed to change. They had both durability and adaptability built into them. I know we can do that again. If we try. And we must try.
It might also be agreed upon that a fair amount of people in the U.S. are doing well by the world's metrics of what is considered "successful." And yet, we are not well. Although we have so much, we still have so little of what we actually need the most. Like proper mental and physical health care.
And as a result, people fall into despair. Most of us regular folks in America have no idea what to do if we are in a mental health crisis. Or we are so deep into our own individual crisis that we can barely ask for the help that we so desperately need.
It seems simple on the surface of things, but asking for help, when we really need it, makes us very vulnerable. And, even worse, when people we reach out to do not answer those cries for help in a meaningful and useful way, without prejudice or judgment, it might lead down a path that ends with the person not trying to ask for help again; or perhaps their thoughts turn instead toward anger, or even revenge of some kind.
That might be the basis for many of humanity's darkest moments these days. Whatever way a person wants to phrase it (bandwidth spent, nerves frazzled, glass half-empty), COVID and its aftermath have showed us, without a doubt, that most of us really need more healthy interactions and more positive long-term relationships in our lives.
And most of us need help. Right about ... umm ... let me see here ... yep ... yesterday, please!
• Therese Hart, of Crystal Lake, is humanities professor and department chair at Harper College in Palatine