End trauma and war violence

To the Editor:

When I was in 3rd grade, I vividly remember a poster that my teacher in suburban Chicago had of a young Israeli boy embracing a young Palestinian boy in friendship.

Decades of failed international policy have harmed all of us. War is never the answer and both the USA and Israel have not learned that lesson (be it in Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Korea).

The USA and Israel were both formed by the racist dispossession of indigenous peoples from their land. Our countries, armed with conventional and nuclear weapons, continue genocide and war crimes toward indigenous peoples. The only way out is to stop the violence, stop the trauma — such as an immediate Gaza ceasefire with sufficient (not an insulting few truckloads) humanitarian aid for indigenous populations.

Reactionary, racist settler colonialism, reservations/occupation, and violent attacks on children, families, elders, civilians only entrench more rage, grief, violence, and trauma. The world has failed to keep us safe. Right-wing apartheid policies, dehumanizing speech, and attacks on dissent backed by neoconservatives, all too many “liberals,” and capitalist politicians in the USA and Israel threatens all of us.

The erosion of democracy, free speech, and dissent in both countries is real. I teach school and mental health counseling at Lehman College. My students and our class discussions give me hope that we can stop the mistakes with mass movements for peace, justice, and anti-oppression as world-wide protests against failed war and violence policies gain steam via social media and in spite of corporate media refusals to cover them.

Our students and alums come from major world faith communities and nonreligious beliefs. We have colleagues, students, and alums who are Israeli, Palestinian, Yemeni, Iranian, Arab, as well as Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, European, and mixed-race persons. Our work is to heal from racist war trauma and  retraumatization and prevent more violence.

The U.S. spends way too much on punishment — police, prisons, and endless war that decimate people of color at home and abroad. None of these are effective solutions. They enrich wealthy White war and prison profiteers and kill civilians of color. We must end a culture of racist punishment with restorative justice, truth and reconciliation, diplomacy, land back, and democracy for all. We must redirect our city, state, and national funding to public schools and colleges, community mental health, ending student and medical debt, affordable housing, food security, free public health care, and battling the climate crisis.

History demands no less.

Stuart Chen-Hayes, Ph.D.
Professor, Counselor Education: School and Clinical Mental Health Counseling CUNY Lehman College