7-8 Pages in total excluding cover page and reference pages

This is a difficult lecture for me to write, for several reasons. First of all, any time a professor gives a “Final Lecture”, it becomes a “last chance” for you to gain those concepts and perspectives that are essential for the course. Whenever I leave a class, I believe that I have been granted a wonderful challenge in this job that I so deeply love: I hope that you leave this course thinking about the world in a new way that will improve the world, nation, neighborhood, family, group, and/or individual (including you, especially you) in some manner. In a face-to-face class, I would be looking you in the eye at this point. Here, I hope that my words look into your heart.

The “Last Lecture” also brings about thoughts of mortality, especially given the cultural awareness of Randy Pausch’s “Final Lecture”. Titling a “Last Lecture” in a disaster course also truly seems a challenge to my individual and potentially ironic fate. You probably have thought a great deal about death, dying, and society throughout this course. I understand many of the frustrations that you have had throughout this semester. We don’t talk about death very much in our society. Sure, we have many games, movies, and books that superficially focus on death, but we don’t talk about its reality. From the moment of birth, we are all dying. Some of our deaths are easier than others; some are noted publicly, others occur invisibly. Death happens. How it happens depends upon so many things: politics, genetics, geography, class, education, and damned luck. I have interviewed family members who have experienced absolute loss. Some have never had their loved ones’ remains recovered; others, relying upon “death professionals” did not view their loved ones remains and have said that they will regret that decision until their own dying breath. Geoffrey Gorer [endnoteRef:1] made the following comment in 1965 and I believe that it pertains to us today: [1: Gorer, Geoffrey. 1965. Death, Grief, and Mourning. New York: Doubleday and Co., 128. ]

At present, death and mourning are treated with much the same prudery as sexual impulses were a century ago. Today it would seem to be believed, quite sincerely, that sensible, rational men and women can keep their mourning under complete control by strength of will and character, so that it need be given no public expression, and indulged, if at all, in private, as furtively as if it were an analogue of masturbation.

You may have been extraordinarily frustrated at times in this course. I chose to be very quiet during the ‘Danville exercise’ and become the first ‘victim’ because I wanted you to experience disaster without my daily intervention. I believe that one of the essential challenges that our society faces with disaster is that we wait to be told what to do by “experts”. You have had the access to many experts throughout this course through the readings, videos, my lectures, and your own comments and experiences. You also needed to negotiate your thoughts and concerns without my continued direction.

One of the greatest worries that I have when I teach this course is the sadness, despair, and frustration that students sometimes experience when they truly think about this thing called “disaster”. I understand these feelings. Frankly, there are many times that “life sucks” and “ain’t fair”…and there isn’t anything like a disaster to bring these issues to the forefront of society. When I teach introduction to sociology, I tell my students that this is the time that they are encouraged to talk about all those things that are “off-limits” to normal social discussion: sex, money, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, education, media, socialization, and deviance. We have discussed exactly these same issues in this disaster and society course. This course however has focused upon the many social choices that result in something that is then defined ‘disaster’ for some in the community.

I hope that this course has made you think a great deal about your world. I hope that it has made you think about and plan for your safety…and that of your family, your neighbors, and everyone else in this world. We frankly respond most immediately to ‘disasters’ to that include people who look, act, talk, and seem like one of our “own”. I believe that many of us in the West are truly in a ‘disaster exhaustion’ that is caused by lack of education, knowledge, and the requirements of a 24/7 media frenzy. We keep waiting for the next storm, influenza, technological ‘mistake’, financial collapse, terrorist attack, fire, or flood to undermine our existence. We also don’t know about many victims or those things that we call disaster. How ironic!

Here, though is one of the greatest gifts that I hope that you take from this course: life is extraordinarily precious. We need to hold it, protect it with all of our capability, and be educated and question those decisions that put some of our society at risk. We also need to celebrate life. Laughter, love, and life are extraordinary gifts that are also temporary. My final recommendations to you: truly think about what is important to you in your life, value those who share your existence, and to be vigilant, thoughtful, and vocal about decisions that make disasters a ‘natural occurrence’.