An invitation to my PR colleagues, classmates and friends

Hi, everyone –
Thanks so much for your interest in this issue of school shootings.
When there was a shooting at Reynolds High School just six miles from my home here in Gresham, and when neighbors and people I do business with had children and grandchildren who were affected by it, then – as is human nature – I realized the whole issue had hit home and it was time to act.
But initially, I felt overwhelmed. Was the issue gun control? Irresponsible parents? Mental illness? Why were so many shooters young white males? What was happening to these kids to make them go off the rails? For a few months, analysis paralysis set in.
But this fall, I did something I traditionally do in teaching Public Relations Principles: I showed the class an Edward Bernays video where he describes his “Torches of Freedom” campaign – the one where he convinced women to smoke. A lot of people thought he had evil intent in that campaign. He did not; he was marketing using a very sound principle of figuring out what the underlying values were that needed to be addressed to expand the market for cigarettes for his client (many decades before the research about cigarettes came out). You all know the story: being the nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays went one step further. He consulted with a psychiatrist to find out what being able to smoke really meant to women, and discovered that it really meant women hated being told by men what they could and could not do. The issue wasn’t really cigarettes; the issue for women was male domination.
Suddenly I began to see school shootings in a different light. The guns used are more a symptom of an underlying problem, I thought; and there are lots and lots of organizations working on gun control. Mental illness is certainly a problem for some of these young men, and yet there are also people and organizations working to make treatment more accessible to families. If we were to wade into issues that already polarize us – politics, religion, gun control – it was unlikely we’d make much headway.
So I looked for our underlying, shared values, and the problem started to become clear. Here’s the process I went through:
1. We all have different religious beliefs, different political beliefs and different attitudes about gun control, so no matter how much I – or any of us – want to fight a battle on those grounds, we won’t make any headway. Those are the “cigarettes” of the Bernays campaign; they seem like the real concerns, but I’m not sure they are. Some of those things are distractions, some are symptoms.
2. My assumptions are that we do, however, have certain critical values that we share. We want our children and grandchildren to be safe, to be healthy, and to be happy. I think that’s a pretty safe assumption, whether we’re Democrat or Republican; gun owners or not; hawks or doves; Christian, Jewish, Atheist, Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim; black, white, or a mix of several races; male or female. I think people the world over care about their children and want them safe.
3. It seems to me that – to use the Bernays metaphor – we need to get beyond the cigarettes as symbols. We have a preponderance of young white men inflicting violence in schools. Some of them are mentally ill; some do not seem to be, but want instant answers or escapes from the situations they are facing. To me, it boils down to two major issues: the way we bring up boys and young men in this society, and the pressures they face from bullying, rejection, and other issues they aren’t prepared to handle at a young age; and the treatment (or lack thereof) of young people who are mentally ill.

Having brought up both a son and a daughter, and now finding myself as a grandparent to mostly grandsons, I have always thought that raising a son is much more difficult. This is just my personal opinion, keep in mind: but I have seen that as boys start to go through adolescence, they face incredible pressures from all quarters to begin hiding who they are, to begin suppressing their feelings and attitudes, to toughen up — all in the interest of becoming real “men.” The internal isolation they face is astounding, and rarely recognized. We don’t show them a defined path to adulthood; we pressure them into it, and it’s an insidious pressure we don’t always see or consciously apply. But it’s every bit as damaging as the pressure on young girls and women to be thin and beautiful and sexy.

If I had to live such a lie I’d go off the rails, too. If I were ever told, as my middle grandson was told about six years ago, that if I ever wanted to know why people didn’t like me, I should just look in the mirror – I’d want to give up, too. Or I might want to take revenge.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We also have an overwhelming problem of mental illness in our society. I didn’t realize how many among us are mentally ill in one way or another until I started to teach. By no means are all those struggling with some form of mental illness struggling with something really severe; much can be handled, and handled well. By no means are all those who struggle with mental illness violent. But some are, and some have shown signs long in advance that they might cause trouble down the road; yet their families have been unable to find help for them.

4. There have been books written, organizations formed, concerned people taking action. We certainly don’t want to duplicate efforts or pretend that we have all the answers.
5. But as PR pros, we know how to publicize, and we know how to work with public opinion; we have the skills to help change public values.
6. It seems to me that, as a group, we could each search around in our own communities (if we haven’t already) and find programs that are working on each of these levels: giving young boys and adolescent boys a path to the future; and working with the mentally ill before they’ve had a chance to turn violent.
7. As a group, we could publicize and support these efforts all around the country, emphasizing the fact that we DO have some shared values and concerns in this society, and that there ARE people who care and who are trying to work on these things. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are people all over trying to tackle all these issues and more.
8. The more I think about it, the larger the vision becomes. We could have an open-source web site, where we show those programs that are working, and encourage other communities to emulate them – something that we can each contribute to as time allows (contributions limited to those of us who are on board with this idea and who work in public relations), and as we find programs that are working. For example, there’s a program in Northeast Portland – which is the center of gang violence here in the Portland metro area – called Self-Enhancement, Inc. http://www.selfenhancement.org I found out about it a few years ago through a student who volunteered there, and was immediately impressed.

We can promote not just the organizations, but the values involved of helping at-risk kids rise up, overcome, and move forward; and the values of having whole communities involved, knowing it truly does take a village to raise a child. We can work on public opinion, so that we don’t all feel helpless, cynical, and in despair in the face of the next shooting.
9. And…. To take it one step further – I can see us becoming a PR Council, the same way we have an Ad Council. The Ad Council does a great job creating ads that address various problems in our society. What about if we helped to create and support various public relations campaigns for those efforts we find out there that are working with young men and boys, working to help parents understand more about raising sons, and working to help families get the mental illness help they need when they need it, instead of after a tragedy or an act of violence? What about if we even set up a system of rewards and/or recognition for those programs that are making such a difference on these two issues?

I know this is too big a vision for all of us to adopt immediately. But given our strengths in publicity and working with public opinion, could finding these organizations in our communities be a way to start? We are spread all across the country; could there not be a very public web site that, instead of talking constantly about the problems, talks about people working on the solutions? That avoids the polarizing discussions? That simply holds out hope, and suggestions for a way forward?
I may sound naïve, but I’m disturbed that the news of each school shooting focuses more on new locks for school doors, putting armed guards in schools or arming teachers (I will NEVER carry a gun onto my university campus, guaranteed), or trying to get our uncounted millions of guns off the streets. This article by a Columbine parent beautifully points out the fallacies in all of those so-called solutions: http://www.denverpost.com/brown/ci_24782866/how-do-we-stop-next-school-shooting
It’s a much more difficult job to reach way down deep and figure out what is happening to these young men and boys before they become violent – and/or before mental illness takes over. That’s the tough job. But there are people tackling it – and we need to shine a light on them, ensure that these kids are seen as real human beings in need of help and support and sometimes in need of medical intervention; and try to strengthen our values of working together in our communities.
I know. Long, hard slog. Necessary slog.
What do you all think about the web site idea? I don’t even want to open it up to public comments, because those online comments devolve too readily into polarizing, negative discussions that do no one any good. It’s much more difficult to build something than to tear down something, but I’m all for helping those who are building through the use of our good communications skills.
Thanks for listening. Any and all feedback greatly appreciated.
Kathy
Kathy@adscripts.com
(I screen my phone calls heavily, but if you leave a message at 406-531-0355 I’ll definitely get back to you.)