KAMALA HARRIS

New York Times
Kamala and Maya with mother Shyamala Harris
Berkeley, California

Last fall a member of our meeting led a couple of Forums to enlighten us on the role that Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACE's play in a wide range of problems which we see in individuals and in society. Carol's education in Psychology and Public Health gives her unique perspective on understanding the sources of childhood difficulties. The Forum was spread over two sessions to demonstrate first how the developing brain is fixed into patterns of activities which determine how the child behaves at multiple levels. The second session was directed toward the interventions which alter the automatic reactions which are observed in the child.

The types of problems observed in children who have experienced adversity are as wide as are the conditions which children endure through neglect, abuse, poverty, illness, accidents, natural disasters and more.

Carol recommended that we read a book by Nadine Burke Harris, M.D. titled The Deepest Well. I found it a fascinating book with lots of technical information about how the brain develops and operates in conjunction with the body, and how she was able to organize a clinic in a low income neighborhood which provides a range of services to diagnose and treat the conditions resulting from ACEs. Dr. Burke Harris makes the book personal by including poignant accounts of her life experience.   

In her search for assistance in finding expertise and funding for her projects, Dr. Burke Harris came across Kamala Harris, the District Attorney of San Francisco who thought that a way to prevent crime could start with dealing with the drop-out problem.

Dr. Burke Harris wrote:

"Harris was interested in getting to the root of the problem, preventing rather than simply responding to the downstream effects once the chain of violence had been set in motion. Prevention is not something you hear DAs talk about ever day, so when she told me about the redirection program she was developing to keep kids in school, I was seriously interested. I told her I thought she was right and that I believed we could go even further. I had heard about a pediatric emergency doctor in Kansas City, Missouri, that seemed to point to the root of both of our problems.
...
Harris listened intently until I finished, Then she paused and looked me straight in the eye. Nadine, you need to be the one to make all these things come together." (page 119, 121) 

Anyway, I hope that Kamala Harris will be the one to make things come together when she is vice president - such as providing for the needs of children who suffer adversity and creating educational programs which serve the kids who are being left out.