For 90 seconds on April 28th, communications dropped between air traffic controllers and the planes and pilots they were monitoring at Newark airport.
Quoted sources in this article accurately describe the situation as “traumatic,” and note that “multiple controllers [took] trauma leave” following the incident. 90 seconds is all it took to experience the loss of control that could threaten the lives of thousands of people, and the stress of that relatively short amount of time can have specific and significant consequences on those involved.
Of course, these are not the only traumatic 90 seconds being reported on in the U.S. news over these past months. Videos have abounded in which individuals, assumedly ICE officials (though often without producing a badge or warrant), have kidnapped our neighbors under the guise of “national security,” including leaving a child on the street while his parent was arrested.
Every day we learn about the continued targeting of trans individuals, children and adults. Many of these individuals now live in states where their life-saving care has been restricted or even criminalized, as documented in a recent Human Rights Watch release (as reported by S. Baum at Erin in the Morning).
We are witnessing trauma. And that is also traumatizing.
The American Psychological Association notes that “[i]mmediately after [a traumatic] event, shock and denial are typical.”
We as a country and community are certainly experiencing and witnessing both shock and denial.
The challenging truth is that with trauma, including traumatic events experienced directly as well as observed trauma, can come the feeling of helplessness: a profound awareness of the lack of power we have in a particular moment to stop our neighbor from being kidnapped, or the lack of control we have to communicate with pilots approaching an airport. Control and power are stripped away in those moments and we are faced with the reality that we, as individuals, cannot always prevent horrific things from happening in the world and to each other. We may know this intellectually, but in moments of experiencing or witnessing trauma, our bodies experience it as well.
If you, like us at TREC DC, are outraged by the horrors happening, we invite you to find a time to take a pause and acknowledge the impact experiencing and/or witnessing trauma can have on one’s body. We might ask ourselves what we need, be it rest, moments of joy with others, writing or calling our elected officials, or writing a blog post like this one. We ask you to note that our bodies are responding exactly how they were built to respond to trauma and helplessness. In that acknowledgment, we can invite compassion for ourselves, and, we hope, for each other.
As Sara Delaney notes in her TED Talk, “community is the antidote to despair.” We encourage everyone to reach out to your community. There are indeed a number of wonderful mutual aid and other community organizations in the DC area and beyond doing the daily work of supporting and caring for each other as neighbors. As we at TREC DC also look to find ways to support our community, please let us know what ideas and needs you have for community support during these times. We look forward to sharing opportunities to continue to join together to support, advocate, and resist.
