Hope and Light

For those of us committed to the Christian faith, advent is the time of year when we think about signs of hope. Seasonally, the winter solstice is also a time that reflects the pinnacle of darkness before days start to lengthen again. Throughout human history, this has been a time when people take stock of their lives and look forward to new beginnings. It's dark today, but we know the light is coming.

Big Horn County citizens face many challenges that are worth considering. Too many of our families with young children live in poverty. These children pay the price (along with their parents) of inadequate housing, nutrition, and preventative healthcare. They also live with the unfortunate consequences of familial substance abuse and serious mental health issues. Many of our young people are forced to deal with grief and loss very early in life. 

I started teaching here in 1973. Since then, I've seen lots of children in various stages of victimization and parents in despair over how to build trust and nourish respect. We have most often dealt with child abuse and neglect through punitive consequences. This approach has kept the cycle of abuse going generation after generation. Too often, professional intervention in families happens long down the road of dysfunction, after family members have given up hope, and is usually laced with the threat of imprisonment or violence. This makes reconciliation and learning new ways of relating doubly difficult. The most effective services happen with families with very young children, before problems crop up.

It's easy to become overwhelmed and pessimistic when looking at these complicated challenges for families. Luckily, in Big Horn County, we have dedicated and talented community members who are working at building more effective systems. Within the past few years, we have established several important supports for families living in our region. We have a Child Advocacy Center that provides trauma-based services for Native children and support resources for their families. Our Community Health Center can provide a medical home for any Big Horn County child and their family. Most recently, we have formed a multi-sector group to work together on expanding opportunities for families.

The Best Beginnings Community Coalition is made up of family support specialists, parents, and community members from across the county.  We're working together to strengthen families through a range of services, including teen parenting supports, home visiting services, and parenting networking groups.  Our goal is to expand prevention-based efforts to supplement existing treatment and child protection services.

This advent season I'm going to focus on these points of light in our community and renew my commitment to supporting this great work. I hope you'll join me in this effort.  There are many needs here, but also many ways to help. Let's follow the example of Jesus and other great prophets in bringing hope to the smallest among us.

The following is supplementary to the edition in the paper:

Here are the partners working with Big Horn County Best Beginnings:

Big Horn County Extension Service
http://www.msuextension.org/counties/Bighorn

Big Horn County Public Health
http://bighorncountypublichealth.com

Big Horn County Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC)
http://bighorncountypublichealth.com/wic.htm

Big Horn Hospital Association
http://bighornhospital.org

Bighorn Valley Health Center
http://www.bighornvalley.org

Child and Family Services Division, Department of Public Health and Human Services
http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/cfsd

Crow Tribe Education Department

Crow-Northern Cheyenne Hospital
http://www.ihs.gov/billings/index.cfm?module=bao_su_crow

Hardin Mental Health Center – South Central Montana Regional Mental Health Center
http://www.mhcbillings.org/?page=hardin

Hardin Parent Center, Hardin School District 17H & 1

Hardin Public Schools
http://www.hardin.k12.mt.us

District 7 Human Resources Development Council (HRDC)
http://hrdc7.org

Noah's Ark Preschool

Smarty Pants Preschool

Support and Techniques for Empowering People (STEP Program)
http://www.step-inc.org

St. Vincent Physician Network – Hardin Clinic
http://www.svh-mt.org/hardin_clinic

For the role of music in emotional development, and seven "c's" of music's function in human relationships see: http://www.stefan-koelsch.de/papers/Koelsch_2010_TICS_music_emotion.pdf

Some of the most scholarly and responsible scientific research into violent human behavior is that of Renee Girard, a social theorist now at Cambridge, famous for his "scapegoat" theory of the origin of human violence. Significantly, a major portion of his research into ancient literature includes Bible reading. Since most of his thirty books are infused with obscure vocabulary from the fields of anthropology, ancient history, psychology, sociology, philosophy and theology, an overview of his research is more quickly found in some of the many academic sources now participating in similar research. Many links, and written and other resources can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Girard (don't get sidelined with the French football player of the same name).

In the Bible, one can read any chapter of any of the prophets and find focus on how humans treat other humans. The first book of the Bible is framed by two stories. The one at the beginning depicts a good creation that turns bad with a sibling murder event. The one at the end turns good with a sibling decided on God's way, not to murder his brothers who attempted to kill him.

Jesus shows us the father. The father wants to "turn the faces of parents toward their children." The intention of this passage is precisely that of this column, to encourage protection and security for children. It builds our humanity and maturity at any age to attend to the needs of the most vulnerable among us.

The writer has a small collection of books and written materials on Renee Girard's basic theory of mimesis. Find greenwoodfarmmt.org, 631 Woodley Ln, Hardin, MT. 

--
David Graber
graberdb@gmail.com

Hardin, MT