Editor's Note

One sunny spring afternoon, we sat and watched and cried. There wasn't much else we could do as film footage documented terrified students running from their school as two classmates unleashed unimaginable evil inside. The dichotomy of it all - innocence, terror; letter jackets, tourniquets; library, murder scene; graduation plans, funerals.

As I write this, it's been two months to the day since the Columbine High School massacre and it still seems so surreal. Massage & Bodywork magazine and its publisher, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, share the same county as Columbine High, and many of our staff here live in the area, knew children attending the school, or walked the notorious

park-turned-memorial nearby. While gratefully none of us were directly linked to the tragedy, the horror of that day still lives in our hearts. The phrase heard all too often applies: "Too close to home."

So what does this all have to do with bodyworkers? Why do we broach this still-gaping wound on these pages? The answer has already been spoken - "Too close to home." Tomorrow, it might be your town, your school, God forbid - your child. What therapists need to ask themselves is, "How would I respond?" "What could I do to help?" "What would be my role in healing?" On that same sunny afternoon, April 20, 1999, as television news reports began discussing the possibility that this tragedy was much greater than imagined, a snippet of footage caught my attention. Amidst takes of heart-wrenching reunions between distraught teens and their panicked parents came the brief image of a woman offering chair massage at the reunion site. What was she doing there? Who was she? Obviously she had grabbed her chair and headed to where she thought she could be of the most help. Was she wrong? Was she heroic?

These are the broad questions we look at in this issue's Special Report on disaster massage. We start with an overview of massage therapists and disaster scenes in Sue Radosti's "A Plea for Responsible Practice," a quality look at the workings of a trauma setting and what role bodywork might play. An interview with Colorado massage therapist Karen Guzzo gives her take on the need for bodywork in the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy and the UK's Vicki Poole describes her efforts in developing a war and disaster relief program for the survivors in Bosnia. Both bring great heart to the discussion. Finally, Meleisa Mcdonnell-Alwin shares her professionally and personally rewarding experience in the refugee camps near Kosovo. It was an experience she says has changed her life. We hope that recent events and this discussion might prompt you to think about your own role as a therapist. You know the benefits of the work you do. Is there more you need to know?

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