I keep going back the hearing on “Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Childhood Trauma,” and when I do, I notice that the YouTube video of the testimony skips over the survivor testimony.
Entirely.
There are two videos on the Oversight Reform page.
- The first (starts at the 1 hour and 30 minute mark, as shown above) leads directly to the “expert” panel, starting with Dr. Houry of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It streams for several hours, entirely skipping over the first panel and the testimony of each and every survivor expert.
- The second video has the opening remarks by Rep. Elijah Cummings (of MD, who is also the Committee Chair). It’s less than ten minutes long. It happened before the survivor panel gave testimony.
In other words, the only video not shown from this page is the survivor testimony. Why? Why is none of the survivor testimony visible or highlighted?
I’ve written about how often survivors are used as emotional click bait at conferences, hearings, and in general and how artificial the divide between “survivors” and “experts,” – especially at this hearing when all of the survivors are also professionals, and as “expert” as the expert panel in terms of this topic and their years of work as teachers, as parent educators, community leaders, and non-profit founders, all geared towards addressing the very topic of this conference (i.e. prevent trauma and adversity and managing traumatic stress and creating trauma-informed programs).
I’m not even going to go into detail about how surviving trauma (not guaranteed) and managing traumatic stress (which can be deadly), is a whole type of expertise which should be valued. I’m not going to rant about how much I hate the “lived experiences” label (as though there’s any other kind) and that it is reserved entirely on people with very specific types of experiences. All experience are lived and have value.
For me, those who have survived trauma and manage traumatic stress can simply be called experts, as well as survivors. In addition to personal expertise as relates to surviving trauma, they may often have tons of professional expertise. Possessing both types of expertise holds value. Their testimony should not be entirely skipped over.
As Rep. Ayanna Pressley (of MA, my home state) said:
Shouldn’t survivor testimony be included if not prioritized? Maybe it’s a simple oversight by whoever manages the oversight committee web page? If so, I hope it’s corrected.