It’s Better to Be Safe {The importance of feeling safe}

It’s Better to Be Safe

Steven B. Zwickel

August, 2020

I started thinking about safety last year when I read an article about a study that found wounded soldiers felt less pain as soon as they felt that they were safe. The idea that a psychological sense of safety could lessen the physiological sense of pain really got me to thinking about the importance of feeling safe.

A few months later I had a conversation with a retired US Navy officer who told me how important it was for the captain of a ship to be on the bridge and talking during tense times of battle alerts. It didn’t matter, he said, what the captain talked about for as long as the crew could hear his voice, they felt that they were safe. When the crew felt safe, it could follow procedures without hesitation and accomplish its goals.

When I was a grad student in social work, I remember learning about Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,   first published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. Maslow’s theory was that people’s behavior is determined by getting their needs met, that those needs form a hierarchy, and the higher level needs can’t be met until the lower level needs are satisfied. If the lower level needs are not met, those become the focus of behavior and people stop worrying about maintenance of their higher level needs. In other words, a person who is dying of thirst, doesn’t bother too much with prestige or self-esteem.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model had five levels of needs:

<https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/>

The Hierarchy of Needs

5 Self-Actualization needs - high level fulfillment: realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. 

4 Esteem needs - things that make people feel good about themselves: self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

3 Belongingness and Love needs - affiliation and connections to others: work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

2 Safety needs - feeling secure: protection from elements, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

1     Biological and Physiological needs - most basic: air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

The lower four levels are called deficiency needs. “These arise due to deprivation and are said to motivate people when they are unmet. Also, the motivation to fulfill such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food, the more hungry they will become.”

McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). "Maslow's hierarchy of needs." See <https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html >

The highest level of needs are called Being or Personal Growth needs. Many people don’t feel an urgent need to get these higher level needs met. Sometimes it takes a crisis or major life change to motivate people to try to meet these high level needs.

Safety needs are on Maslow’s second level, but the time has come to re-think the importance of those needs. They belong at the lowest level of deficiency needs.

Safety has become a major issue in the debate over racism in our culture. White people need to have the police ready to respond in order to feel safe. Black people do not feel safe when the police respond. Someone needs to find a middle ground where everyone can feel safe.

In 2020 we are living in a world where it is increasingly hard for people to feel safe. Millions have been thrown out of work. Millions more worry about catching a fatal disease that seems to be out of control. Who can feel safe in a world like this? We have been let down by the individuals and agencies that were supposed to keep us safe.

The failure of our government institutions to keep us safe—from the pandemic, from outside interference in our affairs, from internal strife—is a major malfunction, as Thomas Jefferson put it in the Declaration of Independence: the reason we have a government at all is to keep us safe.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” 

If the main reason for instituting any kind of government is to protect our rights to life, liberty, and happiness, Jefferson concluded, a government that fails to “secure these rights” should be altered or abolished and replaced by a government that is “most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”.

_________________________

For another view, see "Hey, America, Grow Up!", David Brooks (Aug. 10, 2023 The New York Times; Section A. p.22) The therapy culture has undermined our maturity. "By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead. Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm."

Immigrants from Armenia {Module #3}

About this module: This is one of six modules created for DMRS-El Paso's immigration history project. The modules focus on the people and agencies that helped (or tried to help) immigrants to the United States.

Creating a Demonstration Presentation

2019, Steven B. Zwickel

• Purpose 

Demonstrations may have one or more purposes. Some are strictly informative, while others are intended to persuade the audience to follow a particular course of action.

Instructive demonstrations teach the audience how to do something. Teaching means giving student not only instruction, but the ability to think critically about what they are observing. Professional educators know how to prepare lessons so that the audience can become competent at performing a task or running a process. Instructive demonstrations often include extensive explanations of the theory behind the activity. Examples include teaching students how to solve a math problem or training people to craft something.

Justification demonstrations help the audience understand why something is being done. It establishes the rationale for acting and demonstrates the reasons behind the activity. Examples might include a dentist explaining to a patient why a root canal is necessary or demonstrating different conditions that require testing water for contaminants.

Process demonstrations show how something is done. These are usually not activities that the audience members would engage in themselves, but about which they can learn. Process demonstrations may include explanations of the theory behind the activity. Examples would be an engineer describing how a nuclear power plant works or a demonstration of how they make baseballs.

Plan a demonstration with your purpose in mind. What do you want the audience to know or do when your demonstration is over?

︎✔︎Organize information so it explains the process clearly and concisely. Think in terms of a chronological or step-by-step method of development.

✔ As you go through your demonstration, teach your audience how to recognize and to analyze materials and outcomes for their merits and faults.

✔Assuming that there are options, tell your audience about different choices of materials, processes, and tools. Explain the differences so they can understand why you make the choices you make.

✔Alert your audience to any foreseeable problems and safety issues they may need to recognize.

• Outcomes

The most important outcome of a demonstration is understanding. A good demonstration is more than just giving instructions; it helps the audience understand:

✔How the thing is done

✔Why it is done

✔What makes it good or bad

✔Potential problems

• Explaining “Why?” Don’t assume that the reason for doing something is obvious to all. In some parts of the world, people don’t expect to be given the reasons for doing something, but Americans almost always expect you to tell them why. Giving them a reason "Because…" can be a powerful, persuasive way of convincing your audience to accept your ideas. Keep your explanations simple, but don’t insult audience’s intelligence. If you can’t explain why something is being done, you probably should not be doing a demonstration.

• Before you begin: PreparationThink your way through the demonstration first. This can be complicated if you’ve done it so many times you no longer need to think about doing it. For example, if you make coffee every morning, pretty soon you do it automatically, without thinking. The poorest demonstrations are those that are done on the fly, with little thought.

• Organizing a Demonstration: Start with an explanation of what you are demonstrating and why it matters. You can’t assume the audience knows this. The body should be a Step-by-step Process, followed by a conclusion in which you show how it turns out and discuss any alternatives.

• Creating a demonstration

1. List of materials needed for the process. Describe different options. Giving people choices makes them feel more empowered. 

2. List of tools needed and explain what these are used for, where to get them, and what options are available

3. List and define technical terms can be a useful handout to go with the demonstration.

4. Divide process into steps Number steps and illustrate each step during the demonstration. Too many steps will lead to confusion. If you have too many steps, sort them into logical groups to keep it simple.

5. Set criteria for evaluating results Alert audience to things that can go wrong. Discuss troubleshooting and focus on safety issues

6. Choose a mode for your demo 

✔ Live demo (watch me do it)

✔ Video (stop and start if needed). Good video needs storyboards, script, editing.

✔ Illustrated instruction manual should have lots of pictures. Have someone take photos (lots) as you go through the demonstration. Edit and label these for use in the manual.

✔ Handouts (go with a live demo or video).

✔ Workshop (do the demo and have the audience do it along with you).

Problems demonstrating software: 

✔ active window has unfamiliar icons and tiny text

✔ changes are not always obvious

✔ referring to online instructions means switching windows back and forth

Solutions: 

✔ Take screenshot, drop into PowerPoint slide and enlarge toolbar 

✔ Add clear, large labels to icons: Name the tools you are using and define terms clearly

✔  Be consistent with terminology 

✔  Pause between steps (don’t rush!)

✔  Point and move cursor deliberately è don’t wave it around

✔  Print out instructions and distribute as handout so you don’t have to keep switching windows.

7. Creating a “Ta-da Voila!” Watch cooking shows and you’ll notice the chef prepare the dish, place it in the oven, and, without waiting, pull out a completely cooked dish. This is the “Ta-da Voila!”—showing what the food should look like if all the steps are followed correctly. In just about any kind of demonstration it’s good to show the audience what the completed product looks like.

The Ta-da Voila also gives you some protection from Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong), because even if your demonstration fails, you will be able to show the audience what would have happened had everything gone well.

Summary

Demonstrations should explain:

✔ How something is done

✔ Why it is done that way (how much theory depends on the audience)

✔ What options (if any) are available 

✔ How to tell if the result is good or not

✔ Problems that may arise and how to solve them

 🍺 Living in a State of Denial [Alcohol in Wisconsin]

October, 2023 

Steven B. Zwickel

I am not a teetotaller. I drink alcoholic beverages, but I don’t drink much and a 6-pack of beer can last me a year. I am not opposed to drinking alcohol, but I didn’t grow up in a time and place where I encountered a lot of people who drank. We had no neighborhood tavern and my parents drank very little. We had wine at holidays and when we traveled in Europe, but that was about it. In fact, 40 years after the event,  I still had some bottles of liquor my parents bought for my Bar Mitzvah in 1962.

         When I went off to college, I didn’t make friends with drinkers and I was not in a frat or club, so, even though the legal age for alcohol was 18,  my drinking in college was minimal. {Confession: one night I was coaxed into going out for pizza and beer and I over-indulged. I got sick and after that I never got intoxicated.}

        Years later, I moved from New York to Wisconsin and entered a new world. I was a grad student, I made friends, and I was invited to grad student parties. The invitation almost always included this note, “Bring a 6-pack.” I was introduced to the world of Wisconsin beers—hundreds of brands and everyone I met seemed to be an expert. It made me uncomfortable, but when I asked another grad student why they only seemed to have alcoholic beverages, she told me, “Soda pop is too sweet.” And that seemed to settle the matter. Not wanting to be seen as a party pooper, I dropped the subject.

For two years I took the required courses and seminars in School of Social Work and I also took some electives in my chosen area of study—marriage and the family.  In what I now realize was a major failure, the school did not require any courses related to alcohol use. I realized later on that this gap in my knowledge left me quite unprepared to work in Wisconsin.

I got a job working as a social worker and living in rural Wisconsin. My cases involved children who were having difficulties at home, at school, and, in some cases, with the law.

Patterns Appear

After a few months in a rural county social services agency, I started to notice patterns. Every case seemed to involve a drinker or family member. I took an in-service training course on working with Adult Children of Alcoholics 1.

 I learned a bit about how families of alcoholics function (more accurately how they fail to function) and began asking questions. I polled the other social workers: how much of your caseload involves alcohol? And I was shocked by the answers. Most said three-quarters and a few said ninety percent. 

Startled by these answers, I asked other people who worked with my social services agency. When I asked two people in local law enforcement, they said, “If we got rid of alcohol, we could get rid of most cops; close most of the courts and the jails. We’d be out of a job.” The law enforcement people joked about how, whenever they stopped a driver and asked if he’d been drinking, the answer was usually, “just a couple of beers.” Apparently this was supposed to make it clear that he wasn’t really driving drunk.

I was talking to a local firefighter one day and asked him about alcohol and fires. His response, “About 95% of our calls are related to alcohol use.”

But, for the most part, the people I talked to about drinking in Wisconsin denied that it was a problem. “Everybody drinks” “Not really a problem” “I can take it or leave it” “It’s the same as everywhere else; no worse.”

I soon realized that every social and sporting event involved alcohol. People talked about “going drinking” is an acceptable activity. One of the social workers at my agency told me he used screening questions to identify alcoholics: “Ever go ice fishing?” followed by “Ever catch anything?” 

It was the same with local bowling alleys. A few people went there to bowl, but the rest were there to drink.

I heard more explanations and more ways of excusing misbehavior: “I don’t drink; just a couple of shots at bedtime to help me sleep” and “It’s not really his fault (what he did). He’d had too much to drink, is all.”

I was assured that people weren’t alcoholics because:

• They weren’t falling down drunk

• They could still hold down a job

• They only drank on weekends

I heard a slew of euphemisms: just had a few for my nerves, stopped on the way home, social drinker,  never gets really loaded. No one, it seemed, was ever called a drunk.

I learned that when a person was described as charming, it meant he was an alcoholic. I discovered some people were binge drinkers 2 and others, like a man I once worked with, took in alcohol one sip at a time all through the day. And I understood that many people (especially young people) I met felt social pressure; they must either drink or be considered anti-social, a snob, or some kind of an oddball.

I was curious to see what would happen if I tried adding information about alcohol abuse to some of the adult ed classes I was teaching. The result was immediate pushback; some people dropped out, and I heard more evidence of denial. Again, I was assured that drinking in Wisconsin wasn’t really that bad. I was told, “You’re not from here, so you don’t really understand.”

Drinking in Wisconsin: the facts

I had to find out for myself if Wisconsin is really so different from other states when it comes to drinking alcohol. So, I did a little research3 :

• Health care providers consider Wisconsin one of the worst places in the country for alcohol use. “Excessive alcohol use is a significant threat to the health, safety, and prosperity of Wisconsin’s residents. Unfortunately, every county in Wisconsin has high rates of excessive alcohol use” 4
• Binge drinking here is  a major problem. “Wisconsin not only has a higher proportion of people who drink compared to other states; it also has more people who drink ‘an incredible amount…’ ” 
• The alcohol industry is so powerful in Wisconsin that the state legislature is unable to pass any laws that might impact the Tavern League6 or the alcohol industry7. They are also deeply in denial. Recently some Republican lawmakers — Rep. John Plumer and Sen. Cory Tomczyk introduced a resolution to make the brandy Old-Fashioned Wisconsin's “Official state cocktail,” because, they argued, Wisconsin accounts for over half of Korbel's annual brandy sales in the United States — 150,000 cases in 2019 alone.8
• Driving Under the Influence (DUI): The punishments in this state for driving drunk are fairly lenient9. Many people in Wisconsin have multiple drunk driving convictions, including “a 74-year-old Green Bay native by the name of Wallace C. Bowers holds the record for most DUIs in Wisconsin, racking up his 18^th OWI conviction on January 8^th, 2021”10 The average jail sentence for a second offense DUI in Wisconsin is approximately 45 days in jail, more or less. It takes four offenses before it becomes a felony.

Life in a State of Denial

I like living in Wisconsin. It’s a beautiful place and the people, for the most part, are kind and polite. But I pay a price for living here.

• It is scary to be driving here, especially on weekend evenings. The roads feel dangerous when you know many drivers may have been drinking.11
• Bar fights downtown Madison and everywhere. That’s all related to alcohol and, sometimes, drugs.
• Failure of education. If you look at the course offerings in the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Social Work12 you will find a single elective class that deals with alcohol: “SOC WORK 453 — Substance Use Disorders [3 credits]. Presentation of social, historical, legal, political, and ethical considerations surrounding the use and abuse of alcohol and psychotropic drugs in the U.S.” That’s all. The School of Social Work let me down and is letting the state of Wisconsin down. The people who are supposed to be working with a population full of alcohol problems don’t know what alcohol does to individuals and families and how it affects all of us.

What I Learned About Alcohol Use and Abuse 13

Here is some of what I learned about alcohol abuse, which is officially called “alcohol use disorder”14 

• Alcoholics use more sick time, more healthcare, more hospital time, more court time than the rest of the population. According to a “report based on death registry data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alcohol-induced deaths increased 25% in Wisconsin, the greatest jump in almost two decades, in 2020. Starting that June, alcohol-related deaths began rising in two categories: acute deaths (such as acute alcoholic hepatitis or car accidents) or chronic ones (the long-term impact of excessive alcohol use, like cirrhosis). In 2020, Wisconsinites died from alcohol-induced causes at a rate nearly 25% higher than the national rate. The rate tripled from 6.7 to 18.5 per 100,000 from 1999 to 2020.” 15
• Alcoholics only care about getting the next drink. They will do anything they can to get to that next dose of their drug of choice. That includes lying, cheating, and making up excuses to eliminate obstacles between them and the next drink. If necessary, they will control family members with angry outbursts that justify going out to get a drink. Family members are intimidated and afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. But it is just a way of giving the alcoholic an excuse to get mad, slam the door, and go drinking. 
• Anger and stress (and just about anything else) are used by alcoholics to justify drinking. They like celebrations, holidays, and anything else that “calls for a drink” 
• Alcoholics like to have company when they drink; it makes them feel less guilty. Thus, alcoholics’ spouses are often drinkers or they are enablers (people who make it possible for the alcoholic to drink). 
• And, alcoholics lie. They lie about anything related to their drinking, including how much they drink, how often they drink, how drinking affects them and the people around them, and the impact of alcohol on their bodies. They lie so much that the helping professionals who work with them become cynical, skeptical, and exhausted trying to determine what is true and what is a fabrication.
• That is why, after a decade of practicing social work, I got burned out and left the profession.

My Guiding Lights

Steven B. Zwickel, 

January 22, 2025

When I was teaching Technical Writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I used to get a magazine called NASA Tech Briefs <https://www.techbriefs.com/>. The best part for me was a section where readers asked for help solving engineering problems because it provided me with many good ideas for student projects. In 2003 the magazine promoted a "Create the Future" design contest and put out a call for new ideas.

Although I was the first to use computer graphics to create presentation visuals, I am not an engineer and have no technical training. But I entered this contest and, to my surprise, I won a Merit Prize. My idea came when I was a passenger on a commercial airline flight. Before takeoff the cabin attendants demonstrate how to use seatbelts, oxygen masks, and where to find the exits. On one particular flight, they pointed down to the aisle and told passengers that, should the cabin fill with smoke, we could find our way to the exits by following lights along the floor. My idea was to do the same thing in any building where people might need help getting out in the event of a fire.

I did look into getting a patent, but was unsuccessful. I also discussed having my idea turned into a manufactured product, but that also didn't pan out. I was told that if the building code didn't require these light strips, no contractor would install them in a building. 

I still think this is a good idea and I hope someone will turn it into reality. In 2021, there were 3,800 deaths from smoke inhalation in the United States <https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/research/nfpa-research/fire-statistical-reports/fire-loss-in-the-united-states>.

Here is my 2003 contest entry:

 GUIDING LIGHT

Smoke is one of the deadliest dangers people face when a building catches fire.

Burning furniture, carpeting, and construction materials can release clouds of dense, toxic smoke that can disorient and, eventually, kill anyone unlucky enough to be caught inside. Recognizing that this same danger exists on airplanes, the airlines found a way to guide passengers out of a burning plane quickly and efficiently. I propose taking a page from the airlines' book and adapting a similar method to make buildings safer.

When passengers board a commercial plane, the cabin crew directs their attention to a row of lights on the floor along the aisle. These lights come on in an emergency and serve to guide passengers to the exits. Smoke is warmer than the surrounding air, so it will rise. The theory behind having safety lights near the floor is that they will remain visible, even if the cabin starts to fill up with smoke.

My plan is to use the same strip of lights to guide people out of burning buildings. Each light is made up of LEDs in the shape of an arrow, pointing towards the nearest exit. Five arrows are mounted on an eight-foot long strip. The light strips would be attached to the baseboards in hallways (Fig. 1) and stairwells (Fig. 2).

Power for the GUIDING LIGHT strips is provided by a combination of wall outlets and batteries. Batteries would be used when a wall outlet is not available. Where a wall outlet is available, batteries act as backup to power from a wall outlet, so that the system will work even if power goes out. A light on the receiver/ activator indicates when batteries are fully charged and/or when the power source is on. (Fig. 3)

The GUIDING LIGHT system includes special smoke detectors equipped with radio transmitters. Each strip of lights has a radio receiver and lights are activated by a radio signal sent from the nearest smoke detector. The lights would be activated whenever smoke detectors go off and they would remain on until manually re-set or until destroyed by fire.

While most building codes require illuminated exit lights to guide people in the event of an emergency, these are almost always mounted on the ceiling or up over doorways. As smoke fills hallways and stairwells from the top down, these exit signs are obscured from view. The GUIDING LIGHT system is attached to the walls just a few inches above the floor-one of the last areas to fill with smoke. Super-bright LED displays make it far more visible than conventional incandescent bulbs. Anyone who crouches or crawls to avoid the smoke will be able to see the GUIDING LIGHT strips.

This system is appropriate for any setting in which people need to be evacuated from a building quickly. In smoke and haze, it offers a way for people to orient themselves. It would be useful in public buildings that have a lot of visitors who are unfamiliar with the premises and who are more likely to get lost. The GUIDING LIGHT is particularly suited to places where the age and physical ability of people might keep them from finding the exits on their own-such as in schools, dormitories, senior citizen housing, and nursing facilities.

Managing Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

 Managing Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

Steven B. Zwickel

April, 2026

Last year I was invited to give a presentation based on the  Communication-Based Model of Leadership I created {See <https://stevenbzwickel.blogspot.com/search?q=leadership>} 

I have done this presentation many times since I created it almost 20 years ago and I realized that it needed to be updated and refreshed before I presented it in 2026. The world has changed and my presentation needed to reflect those changes. 

I decided that I needed to add a section about being a leader in a world where people don’t feel safe. I have written about the importance of feeling safe before {See “It’s Better to Be Safe” August, 2020 <https://stevenbzwickel.blogspot.com/search?q=safety>} so it seemed logical to include ideas about what leaders can do to help people in the workplace feel safer in my presentation.

Then I realized that a major source of anxiety and fear nowadays seems to be coming from Artificial Intelligence (AI). It seems everywhere you look there are articles about AI and how (A) it will make life easier, (B) it is taking away people’s jobs, (C)  it is making people stupid, or (D) it will end civilization as we know it, which may, or may not, be true. 

All of these seem to add up to a major change in the workplace: AI makes people feel unsafe because they fear losing their job security, their privacy, their right to fair treatment, and their ability to trust the reality they see online. 

I decided to add a section to my presentation about dealing with AI in the workplace. This blog entry summarizes what I told my audience what I think leaders (supervisors, managers, bosses—anyone in charge of other people) need to think about.

To start with, I told my audience that you can’t keep people from being afraid. You can reassure them that you will do what you can to help with job security, privacy, right to fair treatment. Dealing with the other psychological/emotional impacts of AI may require major lifestyle changes (such as reducing/eliminating use of phone and social media—which often make people feel insecure about who they are, what they do, where they live, etc. because that is how advertisers get people to buy goods and services.

I explained that as near as anyone can tell AI is here to stay and that it will continue to cause problems. Although it is “easy to use” it can be a struggle to get useful responses from a chatbot. I consider myself good at framing questions so I get usable answers—the result of going through law school and graduate work in social work. But I have also struggled to get a reliable response from a chatbot, so I know that AI can be a real waste of time. 

I also know that AI sometimes hallucinates—it comes up with bad responses and false information. This can lead to a loss of the writer’s credibility, as in recent cases where attorneys were disciplined for citing legal precedents that didn’t exist. It can also lead to an organization making bad business decisions, which can result in wasting time and losing money.

I am a realist, so I know AI is not going away; we are going to have to learn to live with it. {I have no hope that our government will ever come up with a plan for regulating or controlling AI, so there is no point in waiting for legislation to make our lives safer}.

That means that leaders must now consider how to adjust to the reality of AI. If they do nothing, workers will continue to waste time trying to get useful answers, the company will continue to be at risk of losing money due to bad business decisions, and the organization may lose credibility if there are errors and misinformation in what it distributes.

Like it or not, use of AI in the workplace is inevitable, so let me suggest ways an organization might approach these problems. 

1.  I believe organizations must have a policy regarding the use of AI. I realize that this technology is brand new and no one knows what it will become, but if you don’t have a policy in place, people will not know what is considered acceptable. Start with a policy and revise it as AI use evolves.

2. Insist that anyone in the organization using AI must disclose that they did so. The rule ought to be “If you put your name on it, it better be yours, but if you used AI, you need to make that clear”. Call me old fashioned, but I think that people ought not to get credit for someone, or something, else’s work.

3.  Train people to use AI efficiently. The most important skill for using AI efficiently is knowing how to ask a question {prompt} to get a usable answer. Of course, different types of questions will yield different answers, so people need to learn to frame questions properly. Of course, training costs money; the company won’t like this! And training takes time and effort; no one will  like this!

4. Users of AI must conduct due diligence. Chatbots hallucinate! That means that all sources must be checked for validity. To protect the organization from lawsuits, the use of patented/copyrighted material must be noted and AI users should be prepared to answer questions about all the sources. The danger of not doing so is that relying on misinformation could cost a company a lot of money.

Volunteering to help the children and families at the border - 2020

Volunteering to help the children and families at the border 

Steven B. Zwickel                                     

March, 2020

                                                
Like many people (I think) I was rattled by the news reports and pictures during the summer of 2019 about the “detention centers” the US was operating at the Mexican border to hold refugees. (Yes, they are refugees, not migrants, not “foreign invaders”, not “illegals”—they are people seeking refuge from poverty, corrupt governments, and murderous gangs). 

To me, these “detention centers” are the equivalent of concentration camps—not for killing people, like the Nazis did—but for “interning” them until something else??? is done with them.

• The whole idea of concentration camps horrifies me. 
• Concentration camps holding children is worse.
• Concentration camps holding children in the United States is the most terrible thing I can imagine.

So I couldn’t let this go. I couldn’t stand by and watch it happen. I couldn’t see it as someone else’s problem. I had to do something.

We are not wealthy enough to make big donations to the organizations working to help the people at the border, so I had to find another way to help. We have a large bed of many different types of hosta plants growing in our front yard and that gave me a way to raise money for charity. I dug up some of the hostas and divided them  into smaller plants. Over Labor Day weekend, when my neighborhood has its annual garage sale days, I set up hostas in my driveway and gave away a plant to anyone who agreed to make a donation to one of the charities. They had to send the money directly to the organizations, so I don’t know how much I raised. I gave away more than 70 plants, so if each person donated $10 that would be a good sum.

That felt good, but this situation at the border is personal for me. Too many members of my family were sent to concentration camps and never came out. Three of my granddaughters are Latinas and my son’s partner is a Mexican national. And taking children away from their parents was tearing my heart.

I wished I had a lot of money to donate, but I didn't. All I had was time and a strong desire to help. My first idea was to try to go to the border over winter break—from mid-December to mid-January—to see if I could volunteer to help out. Then I realized that holiday time was probably not the best time to go, so I considered taking a leave of absence for the spring, 2020 semester. Since I turned 70 in December and was thinking of retirement, I decided to retire in January and then I would have time to volunteer. 

I have a law degree (admitted to NY Bar, but have not practiced in many years and have no training in immigration law), an MS in social work, and a diploma in graphic arts/printing. I have taught writing and speaking skills in college and to teenagers in China. I was also licensed by Wisconsin to be a family day care provider. Unfortunately, my Español is not very good. 

On January 2, 2020 I retired after 27 years of teaching at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and two weeks later I was on a plane to Texas. My plan was to spend two months in El Paso volunteering to work for several different agencies. I paid my own way—airfare, hotel, rental car, meals, etc. My trip was more or less successful.

I passed the background check and for the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, Inc. (DMRS) I developed a series of presentations on the situation at the border and what DMRS is doing to help adults and children. I also created a simulation game to demonstrate what happens to people who try to get lawful residence status in the US and wrote a 17-page glossary of terms related to US Immigration. After my return to Madison, I redesigned an informational brochure for DMRS.

I was accepted as a volunteer for Ciudad Nueva Community Outreach Middle School Program but after I got to El Paso they decided that they didn’t need more volunteers. 

I did get to work for Abara Frontiers sorting out piles of donated articles, writing a profile of a staff member, visiting three migrant shelters in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and participating in one of their border encounter groups. 

I went through background checks and Pro Bono Attorney Orientation, but was unable to be part of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) program in El Paso-Juárez because they couldn’t arrange for an interpreter. 

Two other opportunities didn’t pan out. I interviewed with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which provides legal services to asylum-seeking parents who are separated from their families. The Las Americas volunteer coordinator said they might be able to use me to do intake interviews and to help them create a list of area resources to which they could refer clients. But then I got an email telling me that there wasn't a “pressing need right now for some of the volunteer ideas we discussed unfortunately.” 

Episcopal Father Jose Juan Bernal talked to me about teaching English to people from Central America living in shelters in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He was very enthusiastic about the idea, but a few days later, in a phone call, he admitted he was concerned about my safety and he wouldn't be able to work directly with me for at least two weeks. I explained my situation to him, about spending a lot of money to be here, etc. He said he understood and seemed sincerely disappointed. 

While I was in Texas, the University managed to mess up my retirement plans, resulting in an endless series of emails and phone calls between Madison and El Paso. By mid-February I had reached the limit of what I could do in El Paso and, because of the retirement snafus, I decided to cut my trip short and return to Madison in mid-March.

I learned a lot during my time in El Paso and I think I am still processing it. I kept track of where I went and what I did. I sent emails describing my experiences, with photos, to a list of more than 50 people who had expressed an interest in getting them. (An expanded and edited version of the collected emails can be found online at: https://bit.ly/2TCqxGR Please feel free to share it with anyone.)

To summarize what I got from my time at the border:

We don’t know what we want in an immigration policy. Like many other countries, we are struggling to find a rational way to figure out who should be allowed in and who should not. As a result, US immigration laws are a mess and they will remain a mess until Congress does something, so don’t hold your breath.

The immigration process continues to be racist and biased against non-whites and non-Christians. People all over the world consider us hypocrites for claiming to believe in diversity and equality.

The root of the immigration problem is drugs. If Americans stopped craving heroin and cocaine, the gangs that are terrorizing people in Central America would go broke. Without cash, no bribery and corruption, no guns, no caravans of people fleeing for their lives. As long as the people in Central America feel unsafe, they are going to keep on coming.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy is inhumane and has made a humanitarian crisis much worse. People in shelters in Mexico (almost all from other parts of central and south America, not Mexico) are living in dire poverty and have become easy targets of criminals who take what little they have.

Many people have asked me what they can do to help. I have three suggestions.

• The situation of the people living in shelters in Mexico is dire. This is a humanitarian crisis, so consider donating money to one of the groups that is trying to help them. This is a short-term solution; keeping them in these shelters is not a sustainable, long-term solution. 

• The people in the shelters in Mexico and in the US are waiting for judges to review their applications for asylum to determine whether they deserve to get visas. The process is slow—too many cases, too few lawyers, not enough attorneys ready to represent the applicants. Consider donating to one of the organizations that provides legal representation to asylum seekers.

• Vote. Vote against candidates who take a strong anti- or pro-immigration stance—the only way any progress will ever be made is if politicians are willing to compromise. Electing all-or-nothing candidates will result in a continuation of an immigration system that isn’t fair and doesn’t work. Don’t vote for anyone who offers “simple solutions”. They are either ignorant or pandering. Do vote for candidates who support conversation, debate, and negotiation.