On a hot evening in Atlanta last summer, Harris Allen was one of those white American activists so moved by the events of the year that he decided to join what he hoped would be one of our nation’s more peaceful, and more rewarding demonstrations.
He was not disappointed . . .
A Peaceful Protest was Had by All
Marchers were still out on the city streets as the mayor’s 9:00 curfew hour approached. He guessed they numbered three to four thousand as their procession ended at an intersection adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park, a major downtown legacy landmark from 1996 when the city hosted the Olympic Games.
But Harris had showed up not only as a protester. He is also a 38-year healthcare professional specializing in population health factors and outcomes. Then along came the pandemic. During the COVID-19 period his attention turned to a field that he has since championed: social connection. It’s a growing science that documents, researches and advocates for social connection as a health benefit not only for individuals, but also as a basis for community resilience. His obsession since last year has focused on the question: How can we capitalize on the opening that the pandemic has provided to promote social connection exponentially, on a much-wider scale than heretofore thought possible?
With that passion occupying his mind he happened upon Georgia National Guard personnel, armed and in battle fatigues, who were casually lined along a fence. It was about half-past 8 p.m., some 25 minutes after the time that the crowd had been alerted they would be receiving a cellphone ping reminder about the 9 p.m. curfew. He had yet to receive the ping and so walked up to the guards to ask for an update about what to expect next.
To Harris’s surprise a 10-minute conversation ensued with one of these personnel; indeed, with the officer in charge of the entire guard presence on-site throughout the city that evening. The person was Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden, the Adjutant General for the Georgia National Guard. Harris later remarked that the encounter has come to exemplify the kind of social connection that he and his colleagues have been pursuing ever since the pandemic began. Upon introducing themselves to one another the following exchange occurred.
How Social Connection Happens
A Citizen – Soldier dialogue across protest lines
“Maj. Gen. Carden relayed how he had served for decades in the armed forces both domestically and abroad to protect this First Amendment right of peaceful protest for all Americans. He was hopeful that this evening would be the second in a row in which tear gas would not have to be used to disperse the crowd after the curfew.
“The Maj. General also said he was hopeful that soon he and his troops would be returning to what they had been doing to combat COVID-19 before the protests — activities like delivering food on behalf of food banks and visiting nursing homes to assess and upgrade precautions for infection prevention throughout the state.”
Greater social connection is not a panacea, Harris acknowledges, but it offers a basic building block for tackling pervasive ills that have befallen us. While not a substitute for mental and behavioral health care, it can mitigate social isolation, relationship distress and loneliness. And for this seminal moment in race relations it can help to humanize – and build bridges between — persons on different sides of the fence, be it race, ethnicity, or in this case, a public protest. As a keen example, Harris observes:
“Gen. Carden and I have been in correspondence since . . . engaged in just the kind of relatedness for which we all need to be striving much more often these days – a connection that is built between individuals within one’s tribe but also beyond one’s tribe, based on being assertive but receptive to the unexpected, and predicated on speaking but, more importantly, on listening.”
In this way Harris models and works for the kind of connections that all citizens can individually and collectively achieve to foster more social connection in the days ahead.
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