The Seven Habits of Personal, Family, and Community Resilience

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Below is something I have written, not sure where it will end up, probably as part of another printable flyer.

Robert Waldrop Printable flyers for distribution during y2k disruptions (before the disruption works too!) Opus Justitiae Pax! Malum ex quocumque defectu!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE SEVEN HABITS OF PERSONAL, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE Resilience is the ability to successfully meet and surmount challenges, obstacles, and problems.

by Robert Waldrop 1. Prudence, preparation, and planning

Since ancient times we've been telling each other and our children stories and proverbs about how important it is to watch for dangers and take precautions. Look before you leap, watch where you're going, a stitch in time saves nine, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, hindsight is always 20/20 -- it's foresight you have to work on, these are just a few of the ways that we teach the cultural and personal importance of watching out for yourself and others that you are responsible for. This is an important habit because while the world is full of blessings and opportunities, it is also a risky and hazardous place. The point of "watching out" is to avoid trouble, and sometimes that requires making preparations. The regular practice of prudence and preparedness helps a family or community successfully surmount challenges. 2. Creativity and adaptability

Sometimes problems that seem very big need to be viewed from a different angle of observation. We get enclosed in boxes that limit our ability to see an entire picture. A rapidly changing world means we have to get out of our boxes in order to see enough of the picture that we can authentically respond. Sometimes we need to see the possibilities of new relationships, new connections, new uses for old systems or machines or resources, or new ways of using those systems to do new things. We are an adaptable race, and the ability to creatively meet changing situations, especially if the change is negative, is a positive indicator of community and family resilience. If systems are breaking down, we must discover new and better systems that are not so brittle and vulnerable.

3. Pro-activity

Either you will act on this situation or it will act on you. A decision to do nothing about this is a decision to make the situation worse. It won't get better by itself. A flat tire is a flat tire, it has to be changed. Standing there and wishing it were otherwise, or denying that the tire is flat, gets you nowhere. Positive action in support of safety and security is evidence of resilience in a family and a community.

4. Solidarity and cooperation When the going gets rough, nobody gets thrown to the wolves. This is a basic principle of a human civilization of life and love; we ignore it to our peril. Our first concern is naturally for those who are closest to us, but that can't be the extent of our involvement. Our families are only as secure as our communities. Studies of past disasters show clearly the importance of cooperation in successfully meeting and surmount a challenge. The more solidarity and cooperation that is evident in a society, the more resilient it is when faced with big problems.

5. Responsibility

Our system works in part because most people willingly assume responsibility and carry out their duties. It's an important aspect of life, our civilization would be impossible without it. Your social responsibilities include making a best effort to ensure that you have done your part to prepare for disaster and disruptions of normal life. The more people that assume responsibility and carry out their duties in life, the more resilient is the community. In a time of disaster, everybody must accept responsibility for maintaining community values, order, health, and safety.

6. Awareness of environment

It's easy to get into the routine of life, and go through the motions practically oblivious to what everybody else is up to. We trust our environment because we know it really well and generally have a handle on its risks. But Y2K may bring disruptions of that normality. To cope with changing circumstances, we must practice our ability to observe, understand, and generally be aware of our environment.

7. Holistic methodology

We live in an age of specialization, but Y2K is a reminder that there are some things that everybody should know how to do. Crisis and challenge call us to expand our horizons, to look for solutions in unusual places and people. We understand that nobody is an island, we are all connected. We can't cope with Y2K in isolation with other issues. If there are stresses and strains in a society or family, disruptions due to Y2K can make those situations worse, sometimes a lot worse. Thus, we must bring all that we have and are to the table in the search for solutions, including our spirituality, our values, our relationships.

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), July 29, 1999

Answers

Thanks, Robert. Although personal survival is a plus, we want to think at what cost we are striving to survive. There is too much talk about shooting our neighbors. Let's not do that. Although times might be grim, let's try to retain some civility. People in previous times have been willing to die for ideals. Let's live for ideals. Y2K is not a test from God, or punishment, in my opinion, but an opportunity to develop greater inner strength. Best to everyone.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), July 29, 1999.

Robert- In theory- this is great. In reality- there are a whole lot ofpeople out there who don't feel any alegience to their neighbors or community- survival at any cost if their way. How to reconcile the two groups is interesting- my way of thinking is not about shooting my neighbors if they ask for help- any more than i would expect that my neighbors would wish to shoot me if I needed help. However- what about strangers intent on doing harm? How does that fit in? Perhaps a strong community would be capable of dealing wit difficult outsiders?? I don't know- we have moved so far, at leat in the U.S.- from an emphasis on community- to every man for himself- can we get it back when we need it?

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), August 01, 1999.

The reason we have a reasonably safe life is that most people voluntarily obey the law (the important ones anyway). Those fundamentals pre-date the United States of America. In fact, the founding document of our political community talks of rights as inalienable, that is, intrinsic to the status of "human being". We all come attached with them, whether we or anybody else want them.

I have lived in poor neighborhoods for much of my adult life. Recently, I lived 18 months in an urban neighborhood of Kansas City. In November 1998, 4 houses were burned on my block by arson and a policeman was wounded due to a gang war. We heard gunfire several times a week. The night before Thanksgiving, the house next door to me burned due to a slumlords indifference to repairing faulty electric wiring. 15 people lived in that 1 bedroom house, 5 adults and 10 kids, sitting on the sidewalk the night before Thanksgiving. If I sat on my porch and wanted a date, I could have my choice of several, at varying prices. Stolen and gutted cars were regularly ditched in the vacant lot on the other side of my next door neighbor. There were a lot of door to door salesmen in the neighborhood, one day it would be really cheap televisions, the next cigarrettes (especially after the price went up), and the day after that, some kind of "rocks". Why anybody would want to buy rocks is beyond me, but he was selling them, seemed to think we would really like them. I had to threaten to call the police to get rid of him.

I got involved with the neighborhood association, and found out that there were neighborhoods around there where the police wouldn't answer a 911 call. It took me 30 days of calling city hall to get a water main fixed, it was running a creek down the middle of the street. Some of the merchants in the area were crooked as the day is long. There was a convenience store that sold liquor on Hardesty that overcharged food stamp customers and split the difference with them. The plasma center was one of the most popular businesses, and you could borrow money at check cashing centers for 651% per annum interest. However, each time I called the police, they did show up, and the fire department did a brisk business.

The point is, I and the five other people, 6 cats and 1 dog who lived at that address went about our lives as though nothing was happening. I never locked my car. (But then, it just clocked over the 300,000 mile mark, and it looks it.) I figured if they wanted the car or something in the car, they would get it whether I locked it or not, and if I locked it, besides losing the car i would also have to clean up the broken glass. Part of our regular routine is that somebody was always home at the house, so we never had a problem with breakins. We lived in what many people would think is a nightmare, and we did just fine, and did not live in fear. Three of the people in the house grew up in the neighborhood (2 adults & their kid), and they have their own stories to tell.

Most of the people on the street were law-abiding. My personal guestimate is that perhaps 10% of the street was involved in pretty heavy illegal and dangerous activity, but my next door neighbor on the other side of the burned house was a fireman, and there was an elderly man who went about the neighborhood feeding the stray cats and dogs.

Personally, I think that that neighborhood is going to do fine, in part because it is in Kansas City, a major terminus for grain, and there are literally millions of bushels of grains and farm products stored on the edge of the neighborhood.

I have a story about y2k in that neighborhood on the web at old ways, new ways .

Perhaps the "7 habits" are not only good advice, but also something to judge the resilience of our community by. How many people take responsibility? And etc.

In a crisis, people look for guidance, and part of a resilient community is the willingness of people to think about this and be ready to step forward and do what needs to be done.

Robert Waldrop Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House Oklahoma City



-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 01, 1999.


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