Duty to Speak

The folks in the images appearing with this essay hold the traumas of racism, immigration, natural disaster and genocide. I show these faces because they reflect experiences of trauma so many of us Americans contain, directly or intergenerationally. I point to these images also to reflect on the ongoing fact that Donald Trump and his supporters' aggressive words, policies and actions against these already vulnerable people — against what is vulnerable in us all — has been traumatizing or re traumatizing for far too many.

This is unacceptable.

To consider more specifically who holds the burdens of trauma, I reference Harvard University trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, who said in his 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score:

Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that one in five Americans was sexually molested as a child; one in four was beaten by a parent to the point of a mark being left on their body; and one in three couples engages in physical violence. A quarter of us grew up with alcoholic relatives, and one out of eight witnessed their mother being beaten or hit.

If we add to these statistics the many Americans who experience — personally or intergenerationally — the traumas of racism, slavery, immigration, war, natural disaster, sexual violence and genocide, we start to understand on another level how Donald Trump is traumatogenic. As an alleged perpetrator of sexual assault who underscores his lack of concern about the heavy responsibilities of his role by neglecting history, highlighting divisions, bullying critics and making impulsive decisions, it makes sense that he would, as President of the United States, traumatize us all.

As you read, please imagine the patients I hold in my mind as I write: they are the fifteen or so survivors of trauma I have sat with in the last two years. They are women and men. Six of them come from different countries. They are of all classes, races, religions and ethnicities. Their degrees range fro