A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Bullying Based on a Cuban Folktale
by Dawn Pisturino
A long time ago, Sun and Moon lived in a deep, dark cave on an island in the Caribbean Sea.
Sun could not bear to live in such claustrophobic quarters. Day and night he paced the floor, grumbling and complaining, until one morning he said to Moon: “Sister, this cave is too small, and our light is too bright. It’s blinding both of us! You’re smaller and weaker than I am. You must leave and find a new home.”
“Me!” Moon retorted, stamping her tiny silver feet. “This cave belongs to both of us. Since you’re so unhappy, you move out!”
Sun said no more. He paced back and forth, wringing his hands until they were raw. Glimpsing his reflection in the mirror he shrieked, “Look what you’ve done to me! My face is breaking out with sunspots!”
“What do I care,” Moon responded. “I’m not leaving, and that’s final.”
Enraged, Sun loomed over Moon, his face growing redder and hotter until bright orange flames shot from his fingers and toes and the ends of his hair.
“Stop it, Sun!” Moon cried, shielding her face with her arms. “You’re scorching me with your hot flares!”
Moon waxed and waned with terror, moaning in pain, until Sun grabbed her silver locks and threw her out of the cave. “And never come back again!” he roared.
Leaning against a banana tree, Moon wept until her full, shiny face shrank to a thin silver crescent.
Air, grieved by Moon’s distress, wrapped the pale, weak maiden in her arms and carried her into the sky above. “You’ll be safe here,” she reassured Moon. “The stars won’t mind sharing a little space with you.”
But Moon, ashamed of her scorched face, hid behind a passing cloud.
The stars welcomed Moon and tried to make friends with her. Gradually, Moon’s scorched face healed, and she peered out from behind the cloud. She revealed more and more of her radiant face until it lit up the sky with soft, silvery light.
Sun burned with jealousy when he heard about his sister’s spacious new home. “I’ll show her!” he fumed; and leaped into the air.
Blanching with fear, Moon shielded her face from Sun’s blazing wrath and raced across the sky until she disappeared from view.
Sun proudly took her place, filling the sky with so much brilliant fire the stars covered their eyes and ran away.
One evening, feeling bereft, Sun left the sky to search the cave where he and Moon had once lived together. As he approached the entrance, Moon suddenly appeared. Overcome by remorse, Sun pleaded with her to return with him to the sky. “There’s plenty of room for both of us,” he said.
But Moon could not forget her brother’s bad behavior. “I hate you!” she shouted. “You’re nothing but a big bully! I could never live with you again!” And so saying, she leaped into the air, leaving Sun standing all alone at the mouth of the cave.
Dawn Pisturino
2012; March 22, 2022
Copyright 2012-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Abstract Attachment disorders arise when children experience prolonged and persistent abuse and neglect. They are unable to form attachments and respond to the world with anger, defiance, and aggression. They resist authority figures and defy social rules. Without early intervention, these children are at high risk for delinquency, criminality, and the commission of violent crimes.
Attachment Disorder and Crime Criminologists recognize that antisocial behaviors, which are more common in males, can lead to an increase in criminality and violent crime (Siegel, 2012). Much of their research has been based on John Bowlby’s attachment theory. Psychoanalyst John Bowlby studied Lorenz’s research on imprinting. He concluded that “children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive” (McLeod, 2007). Failure to make secure attachments can lead to “affectionless psychopathy” later in life (McLeod, 2007). “Attachment is an enduring affective bond characterized by a tendency to seek and maintain proximity to a specific person, particularly when under stress” (Levy, 2000). This bond is created between mother and child during the nine months of pregnancy and the first two years of life (Levy, 2000). The mother-child bond is unique and forms through social releasers — behaviors that ensure a reciprocal response between mother and child (McLeod, 2007). Smiling, eye contact, holding, rocking, touching, and feeding are cues which create a “mutual regulatory system” (Levy, 2000). When the mother-child bond fails to develop, infants can suffer from severe colic and feeding difficulties, fail to gain weight and reach important developmental milestones, remain detached and unresponsive, refuse to be comforted, and respond too readily to strangers (Attachment Disorders, 2014). Children need a “secure base” to learn trust and reciprocity, qualities which lay the foundation for all future relationships (Levy, 2000). They must be able to explore their environment without fear and anxiety so they can attain full cognitive and social development (Levy, 2000). A strong, secure attachment between mother (or other primary caregiver) and child helps the child to learn self-regulation (self-management of impulses and emotions) (Levy, 2000). The child has the opportunity to form a strong self-identity, competence, and self-worth and to create balance between dependence on the mother and his own autonomy (Levy, 2000). A secure base allows the child to learn empathy and compassion and to develop a conscience (Levy, 2000). A well-established core belief system helps the child to evaluate himself, his caregiver, and the world around him (Levy, 2000). He learns resourcefulness and the resilience to cope with stress and adverse events (Levy, 2000). Even adopted infants can “develop healthy attachment relationships” in the first year of life if raised in a safe and secure environment by a caregiver who is consistently responsive to their needs (Reebye, 2007). Children with Down Syndrome tend to develop attachments later, during the 12-24 month period (Reebye, 2007). Secure attachment allows children to develop positive patterns of cognition, behavior, and interaction which help them to survive successfully within the family and society at large (Levy, 2000). They internalize altruism, empathy, compassion, kindness, and morality, qualities which lead to proper social behavior and social cohesion. They learn to view themselves, the caregiver, life, and the world as essentially good, safe, and worthwhile. Children who do not develop secure attachments experience just the opposite. They learn to view themselves, the caregiver, life, and the world as hostile, dangerous, and worthless (Levy, 2000). By age four, these children exhibit symptoms of chronic aggression — “rage, bullying, defiance, and controlling interactions with others” (Levy, 2000). These are the children who overwhelm the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and carry diagnoses of conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Children with severe attachment disorder typically engage in cruelty to animals, bed-wetting, fire-setting, pathological lying, and self-gratification at the expense of others. They are predatory and vindictive, controlling and manipulative. They lack empathy, remorse, and a moral conscience. They are unable to form close relationships with others because they never experienced it themselves. Adults with these traits are often labeled psychopaths and may become serial killers and mass murderers (Levy, 2000). The motivations for their crimes are manipulation, dominance, and control. They feel powerless and inferior, committing horrific crimes against others as a way to release their frustrations and hostilities (Levy, 2000). But why do some children fail to develop a secure attachment to their mother or other primary caregiver? Researchers have determined several common factors — “abuse and neglect, single-parent homes, stressed caregivers, parents with criminal records” (Levy, 2000). Other factors include parental mental illness, substance abuse, and a history of maltreatment. Within the family, persistent conflict and violence lead to childhood anxiety, fear, and insecurity. Children learn that violence is an acceptable way of dealing with life (Levy, 2000). Poverty, living in an unstable community rife with violence, access to weapons, and graphic depictions of violence on TV and in the movies desensitizes children. They learn to “express feelings, solve problems, boost self-image, and attain power” through aggression and violence (Levy, 2000).
Prenatal drug and alcohol abuse, maternal stress, birth complications, prematurity, nutritional deprivation, and genetics can lead to inherited personality traits and brain damage that interfere with learning, attention spans, and impulse control. Compound this with a firmly-established attachment disorder, and a child is likely to be difficult to control, impulsive, hyperactive, defiant, aggressive, indifferent to learning, and angry (Levy, 2000). Children who are maltreated are often found in foster care, kinship care, adoptive care, and orphanages (Chaffin, 2006). This includes children adopted from other countries. They grow up in unstable environments, without the consistent affection and nurturing required to develop secure attachments (Chaffin, 2006). They may grow up with suppressed anger that causes them to “seek control, resist authority, engage in power struggles and antisocial behavior” (Chaffin, 2006). They become self-centered, resist close attachments, and eventually fall into delinquency and criminality (Chaffin, 2006). Teenagers still need a “secure base” as they wrestle with independence versus security (Mathew, 1995). If a teenager has developed a secure attachment to his mother or other primary caregiver, he will weather the storms of adolescence with more resilience and adaptive abilities to cope with stress and change. A strong, loving family environment teaches teenagers social competence and self-confidence. Adolescents who grow up in unstable, inconsistent homes torn apart by conflict and violence develop “psychopathology resulting from the inability to function competently in social situations” (Mathew, 1995). “Delinquency, addiction, and depression” grow out of “inadequate problem-solving” (Mathew, 1995). The teenager suffering from attachment disorder is incapable of interpreting and responding to social cues in appropriate ways (Mathew, 1995). They view the world as a hostile place, attribute hostile intentions to other people, and respond aggressively.
Decades of research have found clear links between early childhood abuse and neglect, attachment disorder, and delinquency and violence later in life. It is not surprising, then, that children under age twelve have committed some of the cruelest crimes or that adolescent males are three times more likely to commit violent crimes than their female counterparts (Levy, 2000). Method
Process Research was conducted online through EBSCO and Google Scholar using the keywords “attachment disorder,” “John Bowlby,” and “attachment disorder and crime.” Results Attachment theory has been around for a long time. It has been studied and expanded on by others. A lot of research is available concerning attachment theory, maternal deprivation hypothesis, reactive attachment disorder (RAD), disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED), secure base distortion, rage theory, disordered attachment, disorganized attachment, disoriented attachment, and insecure attachment. These are all variations on the same theme — early childhood abuse and neglect lead ultimately to emotional detachment, dysfunction, anger, defiance, and aggression. Discussion Traditional psychotherapeutic tools are ineffective on children suffering from attachment disorder because these children are unable to trust others and form the therapeutic bond necessary to engage in treatment (Levy, 2000). Without early intervention, however, these children are at high risk for risky behaviors, criminality, and incarceration.
Several treatment modalities have been developed to help children overcome their attachment difficulties. Most focus on learning how to trust and feel secure. One of the more controversial, Holding Nurturing Process (HNP), involves forcibly holding the child and maintaining eye contact, which is supposed to promote secure attachment and self-regulation (Chaffin, 2006). HNP has been associated with the death of several children, however, and criminal charges have been filed against some attachment therapists and parents (Chaffin, 2006). The most effective attachment therapies allow the child to gradually build up trust with a committed therapist who then works with the child to re-program patterns of negative thinking and behaving (Levy, 2000). Therapy is based on the individual needs of the child and involves family, school, and community. The child learns positive coping skills that help him to function successfully within the family and society. Parents and other primary caregivers can undergo Corrective Attachment Therapy in order to enhance their parenting skills and learn specific tools for dealing with a difficult child (Levy, 2000). Parent and child must go through therapy simultaneously so that they both learn mutual caring and respect; open up to feelings of affection; set up limits, rules, and boundaries; share empathy and compassion; and learn how to be in tune with one another (Levy, 2000). If high risk families can be identified early in the process, families can be enrolled in special programs and children can receive the treatment they need to overcome the damage already done.
References
Attachment disorders. (2014, January). American Academy of Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry. Retrieved from
http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_youth/Facts_ For_Families/FFF-Guide/Attachment-Disorders-085.aspx. Chaffin, M., Hanson, R., Saunders, B., Nichols, T., Barnett, D., Zeanah, C., Berliner, L., . . . Miller-Perrin, C. (2006). Report of the apsac task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems. Child Maltreatment, 11(1), 76-89. doi: 10.1177/1077559505283699. Levy, Terry M. & Orlans, M. (2000). Attachment disorder as an antecedent to violence and antisocial patterns in children. In Levy, Terry M., Editor, Handbook of attachment inter- ventions (pp. 1-26). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Mathew, S., Rutemiller, L., Sheldon-Keller, A., Sheras, P., Canterbury, R. (1995). Attachment
and social problem solving in juvenile delinquents (Report No. 143). Washington, D.C.: Educational Resources Information Center. McLeod, S. (2007). Bowlby’s attachment theory. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html. Reebye, P. & Kope, T. (2007). Attachment disorders. BC Medical Journal, 49(4), 189-193. Siegel, Larry J. (2012). Criminology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
(The references did not all format correctly.)
Dawn Pisturino, RN
Mohave Community College
Criminology 225 November 29, 2016
Copyright 2016-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
After World War II, Hollywood struggled to re-define itself. Box office revenues stagnated, and Hollywood needed new markets to keep going. The teenage market was an obvious choice.
Post-war prosperity in the 1950s made it possible for the middle-class to own houses, cars, and the latest work-saving appliances on a widespread scale. After the fear and deprivation of the war years, Americans wanted to enjoy their new-found prosperity. Television invaded American homes, bringing new entertainment and exposure to the latest products. The consumer economy had begun.
Teenagers had unprecedented pocket money and leisure time. While their parents climbed the social ladder and hung out with friends at the country club, teenagers necked in the back seats of cars and danced to the latest rock and roll tunes. Hollywood targeted teens to become the new movie-going generation (Lewis, 250, 255).
The upbeat world of the 1950s cringed under the shadow of nuclear war and an increasingly aggressive Soviet Union. Beatniks mourned the impending death of humanity in coffee houses and cafes. The McCarthy years dragged on, and the fear of Communism ran rampant throughout the country. At the same time, a new kind of socially-conscious movie was being made to highlight problems in American society (Lewis, 228). Juvenile delinquency became a hot topic.
Nicholas Ray’s 1955 movie, Rebel Without a Cause, explores the alienation and delinquency of “upper-middle-class white suburban teenagers” (Lewis, 253). The movie was filmed using Cinemascope widescreen technology and Warnercolor. Starring James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood, this tense melodrama was meant to serve as a wake-up call to parents: take care of your children, or they will go down the wrong path (Lewis, 253).
When the movie opens, it is Easter in Los Angeles, California, 1955. Jim Stark (James Dean) is lying on the pavement, drunk, playing with a mechanical monkey. It is a poignant scene that shows a lost character who is torn between childhood and adulthood.
Jim Stark is hauled off to jail and becomes aware of John/Plato (Sal Mineo) and Judy (Natalie Wood). The three troubled teens are required to speak to the juvenile officer, who tries to understand them.
Judy cries about her father, who pushed her away when she reached puberty, and complains that she feels unloved by him. She craves his attention, runs out of the house, and wanders around alone after dark when they get into a conflict over wearing make-up and grown up clothes. Judy is trying to grow up, but growing up means losing closeness with her father (fear of incest). She cannot understand why he is pushing her away because nobody has talked to her about it. Her anger and despair lead her to hang out with the tough high school gang, The Wheels, and the gang’s leader, Buzz.
John/Plato is an abandoned and neglected rich boy whose black maid is paid to raise him. It is his birthday, and he is angry because his parents are divorced, his father is not involved in his life, and his mother stays away on vacation. He has been picked up for shooting some puppies, a deviant behavior that is considered nowadays to be a precursor for sociopathic/psychopathic serial killers (Siegel, 353). Although his black maid appears to sincerely care for him, calling him “her boy,” she is powerless to help him. John/Plato appears to be emotionally unstable, starved for love, rejected by his peers, vulnerable and gullible, and physically and emotionally immature.
While waiting to see the juvenile officer, Jim Stark annoys the other police officers by wailing like a police siren, making obnoxious comments, and exhibiting a negative, sarcastic attitude. In one scene, a deep-focus camera shot captures the three troubled teens through windows: Judy sitting in the office with the juvenile officer; John/Plato waiting in the office next door; and Jim sitting on a chair in the background. The viewer understands that these three troubled teens will eventually get together, connected by their common suffering and antisocial behavior.
Jim’s mother and father show up at the police station wearing a mink coat and a tuxedo. They have been at a party at the country club. Jim’s father laughs and minimizes his son’s drinking. After all, the family has just moved to Los Angeles, and Jim has not made any friends yet. The parents bicker, blaming one another; and Jim’s father says to him, “Don’t I buy you everything you want?” Jim covers his ears and cries at his parents, “You’re tearing me apart!”
Jim loses control, punches the juvenile officer, and bangs on the desk. He is in danger of going to juvenile hall. His parents admit that they have been moving frequently because of Jim’s behavior in order to protect him and their own reputations. It becomes clear that Jim’s father is weak and cowardly. His mother is a nag.
On the first day of school, Jim is bullied for being the new kid. He tries to befriend Judy, but she smokes cigarettes and hangs out with the tough crowd. John/Plato looks up to Jim and tags along behind him, calling him “my best friend.” During the field trip at the Griffith Observatory, the teens are exposed to a presentation about the universe and a nihilistic commentary about the insignificance of earth and human beings. Jim and John/Plato can both identify with this.
Jim gets into a knife fight with Buzz, the leader of The Wheels. At the end of the fight, they agree to compete in a “chickie run.” Jim doesn’t know what this is, but he agrees to do it as a matter of honor. When he consults his father, his father cannot give him any worthwhile advice. Later that night, Buzz is killed when his jacket gets caught on the door, and he is unable to escape from the car. His car goes over a cliff, and all the members of the gang take off. Jim confesses to his parents what happened. His mother wants to move. His father tells him to keep quiet.
Jim wants to do the right thing and confess to the police. The police ignore him and tell him to go home. Gang members think he has squealed and go after him. A live chicken is hung up over the door of Jim’s house, scaring his parents. Jim and Judy hide out in an abandoned mansion. Parallel to this, the gang attacks John/Plato, and his black maid chases them off. In his mother’s room, he finds a child support check from his father, gets angry, grabs his mother’s gun, and takes off for the abandoned mansion.
At the mansion, the three teens pretend that they are a nuclear family, bemoan the presence of troublesome children (they should be drowned), and isolate themselves from reality. After John/Plato falls asleep, Judy and Jim go off by themselves. The gang shows up, and John/Plato goes nuts when he finds out that Jim and Judy have left him alone. He shoots one of the gang members. The police show up. John/Plato runs off to the nearby Griffith Observatory, and he shoots at the police. Jim and Judy get into the Observatory, take the bullets out of the gun, and escort John/Plato out of the Observatory. John/Plato does not realize the gun is empty and points it at the police. The police shoot and kill him.
At the end, Jim breaks down and cries “Help me!” His father finds renewed strength and courage and promises to be there for him, no matter what happens. Jim’s mother finds new respect for her husband. The family is saved.
The importance of a strong family and good communication are highlighted throughout the movie. No matter how much wealth a family has, wealth cannot give a child what it needs to be happy, secure, and well-grounded. Parents are responsible for raising good citizens who contribute to society. Nicholas Ray sent this message loud and clear when he made Rebel Without a Cause.
Dawn Pisturino
Thomas Edison State University
February 13, 2018
Copyright 2018-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Works Cited
Lewis, Jon. American Cinema: A History. New York: Norton, 2008.
Ray, Nicholas, Dir. Rebel Without a Cause. Perf. James Dean. Warner Bros., 1955.
Siegel, Larry J. Criminology. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2012.
Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
COVID-19 put the whole world into a panic. There’s been a lot of verbal abuse, finger pointing, bullying, outright lying, extreme government overreach, hysteria, hypochondria, anxiety, hostility, and fear to last a lifetime. Everybody’s life has been upset in one way or another, with no end in sight. We’ve seen people at their worst.
The question is: if the pandemic ended tomorrow, how would we heal the broken relationships, reverse the mistrust that people feel, overcome the lies, forgive the hurtful words and accusations, and unite as a people? The damage has already been done. People turned on each other like rabid dogs. Some people are still expressing their hatred; their desire to hurt others; their need to segregate; their willingness to kill others who don’t comply with their demands.
The long-term social effects of COVID-19 — and the inept and malicious way in which it has been handled — is a mountain we still have to climb. Will you trust your doctor again? Your teacher? Government bureaucracy? The CDC? DHHS? NIH? The president? Congress? Facebook? Twitter? Big Pharma? Corporate America? The twisted media? The unions? Your interfering ex-friends? Your spying neighbors? Your stressed-out boss? Divisive family members? Attention-seeking celebrities? Will you ever trust ANYONE again?
Will you ever feel safe again? Feel healthy again? Or will you live in fear of the next germ that shows up to affect our lives? Will you still douse yourself in hand sanitizer and wash your hands 10 times a day? Will you still stay 6 feet away from everybody, thereby preventing new relationships into your life? Will you keep popping the tranquilizers, sipping the booze, smoking the weed to alleviate your anxiety? Will you suffer from permanent social anxiety and fear as a result of your experience with the pandemic?
What about the children? Will they be able to trust our authority figures again? Their teachers? Their parents? Their pediatricians? Will they have long-term anxiety and lung problems from wearing masks all day? From social isolation? Inadequate learning? Have they lost valuable social and language skills that would have contributed to their success in life?
And who’s addressing these issues? And does anybody really care?
Dawn Pisturino, RN
January 31, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Anybody who was alive, breathing, conscious, and living in California during the 1960s remembers Mario Savio and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Savio’s energy and passionate speeches helped to bring the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam war protests to college campuses all across America. He was a fierce champion of both FREE SPEECH and DEBATE. Plaques dedicated to his memory still grace the University of California, Berkeley campus.
He is best known for his speech called “The Bodies on the Gears” and his explicit description of the federal government as violent, intolerant, overbearing, over-reaching, authoritarian, paternalistic, and out of control. He believed that speaking out and refusing to comply with unreasonable government demands was a legitimate form of protest. The interesting thing is that, despite Berkeley’s loving remembrance of Savio and the Free Speech Movement, UC Berkeley does not currently practice what Savio preached. Berkeley may still have the appearance of an enlightened, left-wing, politically active college campus, but the administration has squelched lectures and debates sponsored by political moderates and conservatives under the guise of “security concerns” and appears to have no interest in providing a forum for free speech for ALL AMERICANS and ALL POINTS OF VIEW. In the same vein, Antifa memberships and violence have flourished with the support of intolerant, closed-minded teachers and students alike.
Savio and the Free Speech Movement were not about violence and censorship. They were about speaking up, carrying on healthy debates, discussing the issues, and solving social justice issues through reasonable and intelligent channels. All young people, who have the energy, optimism, and idealism, have the option to engage in social activism without the use of violence and bullying. But it takes a certain amount of critical thinking skills, common sense, self-confidence, and mental agility to debate your opponent, listen to his or her views, and offer a rational and intelligent response. It requires patience and a thoughtful formulation of your personal ideas. The American educational system in the 1960s still taught those skills. I cannot say the same thing for our current educational institutions.
Dawn Pisturino
January 8, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
“Censorship — The Assassination of an Idea.” ~Bookmans Entertainment Exchange~
What’s in the raging flame of banned books burning? Knowledge, truth, learning, courage, freedom, yearning. ~Terri Guillemets~
Banned Books Week will be held from September 18 – 24, 2022. But censorship is an everyday concern, especially for writers, poets, artists, journalists, and other creative people. We’re seeing too much of it right now in the current political climate.
We’ve seen authors mobbed on Amazon and other sites and deliberately given poor ratings simply because the content of a book did not conform to the narrative of the people mobbing the book. This is using censorship and harassment (bullying) to create a politically correct environment where creativity is essentially dead. Show me one writer/artist worth his salt who is politically correct! Only sell-outs conform to the mob.
(Berlin book burning, 1933)
The Nazis confiscated and burned any book that they deemed “un-German.” What does that even mean? No more French porn? No Italian cookbooks? No English poetry? Who decided what was “un-German?” And it wasn’t just books that were condemned. Music, architecture, inventions, paintings, sculptures, and even dress fashions had to conform to a certain German aesthetic. Who wants to live like that? Who wants the government deciding what you can eat, read, think, create?
The Bolsheviks did the same thing after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Anything reminiscent of the previous regime was confiscated, suppressed, burned, destroyed, and labeled “too bourgeois.” The great Russian composer, Rachmaninoff, emigrated to America because his music was condemned by the Communist authorities. The great Russian writer, Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago, was censored and suppressed. If his novel had not been smuggled out of Russia, a great piece of literature would have been lost to the world. Doctor Zhivago describes this shameful period in world history.
Chairman Mao did the same thing in China. The Chinese Communist Party is STILL suppressing free speech and writers who speak out against oppression. The CCP STILL controls access to information and the content of that information. American companies like Twitter and Facebook help the CCP censor and control information in China. That’s how they are allowed to do business there.
In the United States, the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment GUARANTEE every American citizen the right of free speech and peaceable assembly to express that free speech. Free speech makes some people uncomfortable. It causes some people to feel threatened. It makes some people close their minds to new ideas. It opens the minds of others. It is divisive, combative, uniting, liberating, threatening, and compromising — all at the same time. Free speech is the basis of CREATIVITY. Free speech is the foundation of FREEDOM. Taking it one step further, FREEDOM is the bedrock on which FREE SPEECH and CREATIVITY stand. If we lose our freedom and submit to totalitarianism, we may as well start looking for another universe to inhabit, because the freedom to CREATE and EXPRESS OURSELVES will be as extinct as the dinosaurs.
(NOTE: violence is not an expression of free speech and is NOT protected by the U.S. Constitution. Devolving into burning, looting, shooting, destroying private and public property, tearing down statues, committing assault and battery, killing police, and threatening people, is just criminal behavior committed by people who have no respect for law and order. These people belong in jail. Furthermore, there is a big difference between exercising free speech and engaging in a two-way debate and just being rude, ill-mannered, and stupid. There was a time when our society valued good manners and intelligent debate.)
(NOTE: Some famous writers banned or partially banned in Nazi Germany: Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, C.S. Lewis, Jack London, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, and Oscar Wilde.)
Thank you for stopping by!
Dawn Pisturino
January 7, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
As a registered nurse, I took an oath to treat all of my patients equally, regardless of race, color, nationality, religion, sex, or anything else. So, it appalls me when I read stories about doctors, nurses, and even whole hospitals refusing to treat unvaccinated patients. THAT’S POLITICS – NOT HEALTHCARE. If you work in healthcare, you take all the necessary precautions, and you get in there and treat the patient, regardless of your personal feelings. Otherwise, you deserve to lose your license to practice.
In 2008, America had become color-blind enough to elect the first black President, Barack Obama. My husband and I both voted for him and were proud to do so at that time. And yet, here we are, thirteen years later, backsliding as a society into judging people by their superficial appearance and using race, prejudice, and bias to judge and condemn other people. It’s become a real epidemic, and frankly, I’m sick of it, because – once again – this is POLITICS, PROFILING, and BULLYING – something people claim to abhor.
When I was a registered nurse fresh out of school, the housekeeper on our hospital unit refused to clean the room of an AIDS patient. She was afraid, and the hospital sent her home. I volunteered to clean the room since I had established a positive rapport with the patient. I donned the appropriate gear and cleaned the room. While I was in there, she and I conversed, and she revealed how isolated and alienated she felt from other people. I took care of her many times after that incident. And I’m glad I did, because she died a few years later. She was only in her late thirties when she passed away. She was annoying in so many ways! She was demanding and obnoxious! And she had very poor hygiene. She came into the hospital with lice more than once. But she was suffering both physically and emotionally. She was human. I learned a valuable lesson about courage and acceptance. And I never got HIV/AIDS or lice from my interactions with her.
One morning, when I was starting my shift on an inpatient psychiatric unit, two Native American clients came up to me and started complaining about the nightshift nurse. They claimed she was rude to them and, therefore, must be a white supremacist racist who hated natives. Now, I knew this RN very well. I empathized with them because, yes, she could be very rude and abrasive to anybody. But racist? I smiled and informed them that she was a card-carrying member of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. In fact, she is a direct descendant of Sequoyah, the Cherokee who created the first Cherokee language syllabary. The response I got was, “Well, THAT tribe will let anybody in!” However, they both looked very foolish and never mentioned it again. I informed the RN that patients had complained about her being rude, and that was the end of it.
Another morning, it was very early, and the only client awake and in the dayroom was a black man from Africa. He was ranting and raving about how racist the staff were and how victimized he felt. I got sick of hearing about it because I knew it wasn’t true. We had a very diverse team of workers who were black (some from Africa), Hispanic, Native American, white, gay, etc. I had never witnessed any incidences of racism or overheard any racist remarks made by staff on the unit. We all took pride in working as a team to treat our patients fairly, equally, empathetically, and compassionately. I slammed my fist down on the table, which shocked both my co-worker and the client, and said, “Bullshit!” He stopped ranting and raving, and then we talked about what was really bothering him. He was Muslim and needed a place to say his prayers. So I got him blankets and towels and whatever else he needed, and he went into a private place and said his prayers. He never talked about racism again, he participated in the program, and he was discharged a few days later. It may sound rough, but getting past the racism barrier helped this gentleman get the help he needed. I have never lied to my patients and never will. And sometimes the truth, no matter how raw, is what turns people around and sets them free from the demons they are fighting
The counselors on our inpatient psychiatric unit did not like talking to psychotic patients because they saw no value in it. However, I disagreed and always made a point of talking to them, if for no other reason than to establish some kind of rapport. One client was so manic, she was completely psychotic. She would crawl around on the floor, imitating different animals, eat with her hands, and refuse to talk to anybody. This had been going on for a while, without any improvement. One day, when I came on shift, she was in the quiet room talking to herself, dancing, jumping up and down, and basically “bouncing off the walls.” I sat in there for twenty minutes listening to her, asking her questions, and listening for that “thread of truth” that often came through when psychotics babbled on. It became clear to me as I listened to her that she just wanted to be normal and to be treated like everybody else. When I began talking to her about this, she nodded her head and suddenly stopped what she was doing. She calmed down. After that, she stopped all of her bizarre behaviors, took her medications, and quickly got well enough to go home. Why? Because somebody took the time to listen to her and look past her bizarre behavior.
As a registered nurse, especially as a psychiatric nurse, I have seen people at their worst and their ugliest. I have been called names, threatened, and ignored. I have never let that stop me from helping someone, if I could help them. And it has been the difficult ones, the ones who make you want to tear your hair out, who have been the most rewarding, — because they are the people who truly need the help.
Dawn Pisturino, RN
November 6, 2021
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