Consider America from 1985 to 2000. You wouldn't say nothing happened in those 15 years but America was a fairly calm place to be most of the time.
Now consider the period that came next. It began with a presidential election so riddled with such uncertainties that the effort to confirm the result dragged on for days and went to the Supreme Court.
We're not used to that kind of thing but it was just the beginning. The year 2001 brought terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, an unprecedented disruption of American domestic peace, and the rise of the concept Homeland Security. More recently, the shootings of school children and school officials in Newtown and exactly one year ago, the bombings in Boston reminded us that life is a smooth pane of glass just waiting to shatter.
We explore how we've changed.
What do you think? Comment below, email Colin@wnpr.org, or tweet @wnprcolin.
GUESTS:
- John Woodall is a Board Certified Psychiatrist, and the Founder & Director of The Unity Project, a resilience learning system that was developed to promote resilient strengths in youth
- Allison Holman is an associate professor of Nursing Science at University of California- Irvine
- Brian Michael Jenkins is a senior adviser to the president of the RAND Corporation, and author of numerous books, reports, and articles on terrorism-related topics, including most recently, When Armies Divide: The Security of Nuclear Arsenals During Revolts, Coups, and Civil Wars
We deeply regret cancelling Brian Michael Jenkins.
