CHANGE...

We either resist it... or we push for it...
    the usual human tendency is to resist change.

I read with great interest the news of the week.... especially that from New Orleans.
In those areas where people had plenty of advance warning and could leave...
many did not leave...

An elderly couple are found inside their house... no water, no food, running out of
medicine... but they will not go... they will not leave.

A volunteer tells of his experience trying to work with the evacuees... 10% give
appreciation... 10% give no reaction... 80% are rude and ill mannered.  Able-
bodied evacuees will not lift a hand to help themselves even in setting up sleeping
facilities.  Many evacuees do not want water, they want soft drink, beer or liquor.
Nourishing food is sneered at... they want McDonald's.  These were the one's
bussed to Houston... the reason for all this bickering is simple... they were and are
resisting change.  They want what they are used to.

A police officer is followed around in a WalMart being looted.  What is she doing?
Looking for looters.  All of the background has people moving to and fro picking
up items, pushing items in baskets or on pallet movers or carrying arm loads...
they are resisting change... they want what they want now, even if they do not need it.

When I am requested to counsel individuals, we get into all the details and find the
problems... then we begin to work on solutions... much of the time solutions do not
work because the counselee resists change.

Many people say they want this... or they want that...  They have this dream or that
dream.  They want certain things to happen.  When the way to get there is pointed
out to them... most people do not achieve the desired results because the  goal they
wish to reach requires change.

Even as a preacher and a teacher I have many who come and say, " I want ..." and
they go on with what they say they want.  When the way to the desired goal is laid out
for them... they say they want the results... but the requested goal requires changes
in thinking... changes in actions... changes in habits... changes in methods...
Change is so uncomfortable to the human organism.  Anything that causes
discomfort to the human organism is resisted.

Even in the workplace... We have always done it this way, why do we have to
change things?... and sometimes it seems that changes come just for the sake of
changing things. 

One of the most important things I have learned is that change is inevitable.  It
comes whether we want it or not... whether we are ready for it or not... whether we
like it or not.  Our part is to decide... will we cooperate... or resist?

On the opposite side of this is that great multitude of volunteers who have gone to
the disaster area on the Gulf Coast and faced much that they could have stayed
home and avoided... They could have avoided much discomfort, sweat and pain...
but they went and are having experiences that would have been unbelievable to
them if they had been told to them and they had not been there themselves.

This is one of the most trying of times for our nation and we are receiving a wide
variety of experiences... both good and bad... some pleasant even if uncomfortable
and some unpleasant because duty demands it... and it must be done.

Peace Keeping is one of those endeavors that daily is involved in change...
Change in the lives of the people with whom we must deal...
Change in the methods we can and must use in the process...
Change initiated by administration that rolls downhill...
Change initiated by new laws...
Change initiated by new rulings on old laws...
Change initiated by public opinion...
Change initiated within ourselves...
Change initiated because the old way... the way we have always done it... just will
    not work any more... the passage of time dictates change.

I am having to adapt to change even as I write this message today. 
Some of it is horribly uncomfortable...
Some of it is unreasonable...
Most of it is arbitrary... dictated by time and necessity... dictated by circumstances...
    dictated... just plain dictated which is just what arbitrary means.

Will I adapt?  Will I make the changes... the adjustments?  I... and only I can choose
for me... just as you and only you can choose for you.

The residents of New Orleans and surrounding areas will need much counsel,
assistance of many kinds and much patience.  Even then some of them will never
recover to live life as they were accustomed to living it before the disaster.  Crisis
incidents affect people in many different degrees. 

Some will freeze in the current debilitated state of mind and never come out of it. 
Some will come out of it stronger than ever and will live as though it never happened.
Every one else will be some place in between these two extremes.  That has been
the experience of both helpers and victims in many previous disasters, both isolated
and widespread.

Our job as Peace Keepers is to recognize the reality of the possibilities and all of
the wide ranges of emotions and affectations in the people we will be required to
work with and respond to for as long as we are in this profession of responding to
people in crisis.

I am sitting here thinking back over all of the years of my career and my life.  I have
re-experienced some of those crisis... and noted the changes in my life that some
of them brought.  Some of them dictated change in the whole course of my life.
Some of them gave me choices... improve and become better... or become bitter.
Choices and consequences.  How I choose to respond to incidents that I cannot
change determine where I go from that point in life... forward and improve...
downward and bitter... stagnant and wither... the choice is mine for me...
the choice is yours for you. 

Once circumstances dictated to me that I had to completely start over as though I
never had a life before.  Then the deaths of friends, parents, my wife and one son
gave to me a new set of circumstances and choices.  Some of these events took
the sun out of my life and made me ill of body... their affectation was so deep.  Age
and retirement are now dictating to me... and I am searching for the right responses.

Some days the telephone ring brings a required instantaneous change.  Other times
a pager brings the dictated change.  E-mail, hard mail, a knock on the door... most
any event can dictate a life course change.  Response and choice is up to me...
Response and choice is up to you.

The following statistics  happened because people made choices... Peace Keepers
for the good of the world in which we live...  volunteers made choices for the same
reasons...  Victims sometimes resisted change and dictated the responses of
Peace Keepers.
================================================================
PoliceOne.com
Officer Down
Texas deputy drowns in attempt to rescue Marine - 09/16/2005
Denny Galloway - [San Jacinto, Texas]
Authorities ID instructor who accidentally shot police recruit - 09/16/2005
Tara Drummond - [Kennesaw, Georgia]
N.C. officer fatally shot in his home - 09/14/2005
Quinn Witherspoon - [Concord, North Carolina]
Ark. trooper accidentally killed by fellow officer after chase - 09/13/2005
Mark Carthron - [West Memphis, Arkansas]
Ohio off-duty officer killed in motorcycle crash - 09/12/2005
William "Billy" Moss, Jr. - [Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio]

PoliceOne member Chief Jeff Chudwin of Olympia Fields (IL) PD has been
dispatched as part of a team of Illinois-based first responders to the
epicenter of Hurricane Katrina. Their mission is to aid in rescue, recovery
and clean-up efforts. Jeff shares first-hand accounts of his team's
monumental challenges and poignant experiences in frequent reports from
the field.

Yesterday we were tasked to roadblocks to assist the Louisiana State Troopers who
have been working the check points non-stop for the past weeks. The weather seems
even hotter and the pavement scorching. As we worked the job, checking ...
Friday's report

Wednesday's report

Tuesday's report

On Monday Team F complimented by Patrol Team E members traveled to the
FEMA staging area and compound in New Orleans. It is an immense operation in
size and scope. They are organized and equipped and everybody and thing is there
that can ... Monday's report

Related Katrina articles:
New Orleans police work on despite losing homes, desertions

180 NYC officers return from New Orleans

PoliceOne Safety Tip:

HGN Safety Tip
submitted by Wyoming LE Academy Staff Instructor
(Secure- Law enforcement only) While conducting Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus,
one major area of concern has always been the Officer's need to focus on the
eyes of the subject. In doing so, most officers tend to neglect or simply can not
keep the hands of the subject in view ... Full Story
================================================================
Washingtonpost.com

N.Va. Officer's Gun Privilege Is Restored
(The Washington Post)
========================================================================
PoliceOnTarget, Sept.16

Suspected Thief Caught Napping
Australian police responded to a break-in at a furniture store in
Alice Springs and found the suspect asleep at the scene.
[ Click Here for the Full Story ]
============================================
Waterborne@aol.com

North Dakota: Shooting rampage wounds police chief. http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2005/08/22/news/state/100994.txt

Georgia: Police searching for man that shot an officer twice Saturday.
Suspect apparently about to rob convenience store.
http://www.mdjonline.com/268/10192932.txt

Arizona: Mesa police hunt pair for firing at officers. http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=46516
================================================================
Peace Keepers... you are the glue and raw material that holds our social world
together.  Without you there would be no life as we know it.  I can look back and say
that the last 43 years have been worth the journey and worth all the events along the
way.  I am so very, very thankful for the ones of us including firefighters and medical
personnel who could pull out immediately from local obligations and go to New
Orleans.  What a tremendous difference you all made.  My heart bursts with pride
over you from the position of my being both a clergyman and a Peace Keeper.

I am just as thankful for the ones who stayed on their posts and took up any extra
work so that others could go.

All of you taken together are the fabric of this nation put on view for anyone to see.
You all represent the heart of this great United States of America.

My deepest thanks and appreciation to all of you who have served... are serving...
and those who will continue to serve.

Be careful out there.  Always be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take as great
care of yourself as possible... especially your health... and the spiritual aspect.  You
need both of these as your foundation.

As it has always been... so it still is...

"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN."  Sun tzu

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
Chaplain D. R. Staton (Don - C1) VBPD, VSP ALUMNI,
RETIRED Officer, Instructor, Senior Chaplain, Director of Chaplains
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
=================================================
Copyright: CHAPLAIN CORNER (DRS) 2005. All rights reserved. May not be
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