Worker Wellness Blog: Jason Kander, Hometown Hero

Date Posted: December 10, 2024

Posted In: Discussion, Workforce,

by Dr. John Gaal

Editor’s Note: Each week, Dr. John Gaal, director of worker wellness for the Missouri Works Initiative, a non-profit workforce formed by the Missouri AFL-CIO, collects and comments on news and trends in workforce wellness and life balance. Construction Forum carries the Worker Wellness & Well-Being Blog as a regular feature.

The MO Works Initiative focuses on creating healthy and recovery friendly workplaces; connecting laid-off workers with job-search or upskilling resources for future employment; and collaborating with community partners to offer innovative points of entry to traditional apprenticeship opportunities.

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog looks at a couple of significant drug busts here and abroad…on land and sea; to how a wave of people in recovery are now entering their twilight years; to how US-DOL is looking to revamp a system of lower than minimum wages for disabled workers.

This week I would like to take this opportunity to shed some light on our “hometown” HERO: Jason Kander, Missouri’s former Secretary of State and, more importantly, former US Army intelligence officer.

Less than a decade ago, Jason was no doubt a rising political star on both the state and national levels. However, his battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was enough to cause him to take a step back and remove himself from the world of politics in order to obtain much-needed help. For this, I admire Jason! But our “native” son’s journey does not end here….

If you missed the chance to see the related 60 Minutes’ segment last Sunday (12/01), I highly recommend taking 15 minutes to watch the video in the link below. In it, from my viewpoint, Jason truly exhibits a phenomenon that is known as Post Traumatic Growth (PTG). The concept of PTG is a relatively new theory since it has only been around since the 1990s. In short, PTG suggests that people can experience positive psychological change after trauma or other challenging life circumstances. To this end, Jason was able to bring a variety of stakeholders together in order to devise a fluid, clever, and successful plan to rescue ~400 Afghanis—from the Taliban—who were left behind after the US withdrawal in 2021…including his translator’s nephew and family.

Far too often, we complain about what’s wrong in our state/country. This is one time, no matter your political party, ALL mid-westerners should be proud to say they “know” the chief architect of Operation Bella. May God bless all those who assisted Jason in these beautiful efforts!

Please check out the rest of this week’s blog: https://moworksinitiative.org/category/worker-wellness-news/

Source:

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/jason-kander-afghanistan-rescue-plan-60-minutes