Above and Beyond Closure

By Charles Moncrief

It ain't over 'til it's over.
Yogi Berra (1925-)


When we look at an outline that approximates a shape, our minds tend to fill in any gaps and complete the shape. For instance, if we see what looks like a circle with a missing arc segment of, say, 30 degrees, we likely “see” a complete circle. This tendency to “close up” a shape by mentally filling in the gaps is known as “closure.”

Closure works at the car wash as well. I remember the workers waving their towels to let me know they’ve completed drying and cleaning my car, only to come out and discover dirt all over the wheels. To them, closure apparently came when they had spent 90 seconds wiping down my vehicle.

Closure in a tax audit is when the taxing agent says “I really can’t find anything wrong, but I need to show my manager something for my time. Would you just sign this consent for a hundred dollars additional tax and we’ll call it even?” and the speed with which the consent form is signed just to get out of that office (from a lecture by tax expert Dan Pilla).

Closure in a traffic stop is when the officer quits badgering the driver who did nothing wrong and walks away saying “Drive carefully.” (This was a personal experience when an officer stopped me for driving on the left side of a street, and accused me of arguing when I said it had been one way for several weeks. OK, OK, I’m not over it, but I hold onto it because it makes for a good story after more than 30 years.)

Closure in a trauma is when the stitches are removed, the assailant is in prison, or the victim escapes from an attacker.

One definition of closure is “the often comforting sense of finality, such as with victims needing closure, or a satisfying ending that provides such a sense.” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary)

So in our modern society the accepted psychological model of mental health is to put our injuries behind us and get on with our lives. Far be it from me to encroach on psychology’s sacred ground by offering a superior definition of the word. Instead, permit me to offer a better way: to reach beyond mere closure.

Consider “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole (1860-1934).

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

I think this poem is the author’s way of saying “Yogi, it ain’t over even when it’s over!”

How does this poem apply to closure, abuse, assault, or injustice? I want to give just one example from a recent article (Born to Run by Anny Jacoby)

A woman on a jogging path is attacked by someone who jumps out from behind a bush. She struggles and frees herself. She gets treatment at the local hospital, then goes home, dresses her wounds, maybe cries tears of relief, and perhaps collapses in exhaustion. That’s closure.

But then she gathers her thoughts. She goes to the police with the assailant’s DNA under her fingernails and a vivid description of him. Now, if the assailant doesn’t skip town and the police and courts do their job, one less danger is present in this jogging park.

Look forward. This woman’s action helps to prevent the next person from being assaulted, raped, robbed, or possibly killed. She wasn’t content to cross over the chasm. She built a bridge for the next jogger.

Look backward. Suppose this woman was not the first jogger assaulted by this man. Her predecessor, if still alive, may have escaped with some of her life and possessions. But did the previous jogger, content with finding closure for herself, have some accountability for not reporting as much as she could to get this despicable person off the streets and out of the parks?

I know this is a complex situation. I won’t suggest in any way that a person should be condemned or even criticized for remaining silent. My only position is to applaud those who act to prevent recurrence, not to criticize those who don’t.

Who knows whether this man had ever attacked anyone else? And who knows why nobody before was able to get the man put away? But such questions can go on indefinitely and paralyze us. I’ll counter with the accepted reality that of all the parks in this country, the incidence of repeat violence is enough to make the case for bridge-building. At the same time, I’ll caution that in our analysis of cause-and-effect we never want to condemn the previous jogger, if any, for failing to prevent this assault.

I do hope that it will make at least some sense to hold accountable those who fail to reign in their actions. Every time we allow someone to get away with misbehavior, whether in domestic violence, criminal assault, or bad-faith representation in the halls of government, we make it easier for the assailants to hurt our children and grandchildren. Once a bad behavior is tolerated, regaining control becomes increasingly difficult.

Don’t your children and grandchildren deserve your vigilance, to hold accountable those who teach, govern, and live in community with them? We at least ought to consider the advantages of not making them struggle to cross the same old chasms we ourselves have already crossed.

Grace and Peace,
Charles+

BTW, I chose “The Bridge Builder” for a reason. While it has a lot of masculine language in it, please note that Will Allen Dromgoole was a woman.

The O-Ring Memo

 By Charles Moncrief

Some 50 days into what’s becoming known as “The Gulf Oil Spill” we hear of safety compromises by all of those involved in the original drilling project. According to one source, BP has been accused of some 740 safety violations in 2009 and 2010, compared to one by Exxon Mobil and 8 by Shell Oil. It’s hard to be objective when such loss of life and livelihood come at the result of negligence. It’s even harder to be objective in the face of expected increases in government regulations, which will translate to higher prices for motor fuels and everything in the economy that gets shipped.

It is useless to cast blame until we’ve made it through the crisis. Nonetheless, I’m dismayed that once again we turned our backs on “the O-Ring Memo,” a tool that could have prevented most if not all of our current crisis.  


The “O-Ring Memo” should have kept the space shuttle Challenger from exploding seventy-four seconds into its launch and killing its seven occupants on January 28, 1986. Roger Boisjoly, an engineer for Morton Thiokol, Inc., in July of 1985 had written a confidential memo to his company’s engineering vice president “… to insure that management is fully aware of the seriousness of the current O-ring erosion problem...” [from M.M. Jennings, Case Studies in Business Ethics, 2nd ed. (West Publishing, 1996)]. The day before the accident Boisjoly and another Thiokol engineer unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the launch. Although NASA and Thiokol knew that the launch-time temperature was ten degrees below the accepted safe minimum, the engineers were considered insignificant by management standards. 
Partly due to Boisjoly’s memo, litigation attorneys all over the nation rejoiced. 


The “O-Ring Memo” should have kept a downtown Minneapolis bridge from collapsing and killing 13 people when it collapsed August 1, 2007. At least one NTSB investigator referred to “under-designed” gusset plates. Within a year the “O-Ring Memo” surfaced, written during the design process by some insignificant engineer at URS Corp., the contractor that built (or warranted) the bridge. The memo criticized the gusset plate design, and in the legal community a good time was had by all. 


While engineers are at the bottom rung of any ladder when it comes to credibility, the cost of ignoring them can sometimes never be recovered. “Nerds” make good comedy fodder with their pocket protectors and funny ways of talking. The late Walter Cronkite spoke of NASA’s successful launches as “great scientific achievements” and the unsuccessful ones as “engineering failures.” 


But the engineer has counterparts when it comes to society’s disregard. Let’s notice who else gets short shrift when it comes to credibility. 


The abused child is expelled from school for accusing her father, a respected member of his church or community. 


The seminary student remains silent when molested by a clergyman on the short list to be elected bishop. 


The wife’s protest is dismissed because her husband is popular in the business community and a contributor to numerous charities. 


Among victims of abuse the equivalent of the “O-Ring Memo” is the “Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit.” The affidavit contains critical information to help victims document their experiences and create a permanent legal record. Its purpose is to insure that instances of abuse are recorded for future use in the legal system. This relatively new tool has already changed some lives, and it is on its way to saving countless others. 


The “Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit,” just as the “O-Ring Memo,” has far-reaching implications and is relatively simple to prepare. As far down on the food chain as an engineer sits, a small action can have a monumental effect. And an person, no matter how insignificant the abuser has made her feel, also has the power to perform a small action with an effect just as monumental. 


Grace and Peace,


Charles+


Editor's note:  Just as our cemeteries are filling because of the oversight of something so simple as an "O-Ring" they are filling even faster because of the effects of domestic violence.  The Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit is something that has been compared to a paper clip, something so simple that has far reaching capabilities to enhance every day life.