America’s border wars: three weeks in a land of trauma

I’ve come to look for trauma in every place I go. This practice began years ago when, as a war correspondent in Congo, I encountered entire populations reeling from conflict and displacement – and it’s continued ever since.

I remember the wild-eyed 10-year-old soldier in Bunia who had developed a stutter after watching his parents’ massacre. He was now the militia commander’s bodyguard and one of the most feared killers in the group. Or in Bukavu, the woman who lay in bed staring at the wall, practically comatose, after having been raped by a dozen men.

Such horror, of course, isn’t exclusive to war zones or the developing world. And here in the richest, most powerful country on earth is a vast landscape of trauma found everywhere, from city housing projects to suburban country clubs.

Just scratch the surface and you’ll find it, telling a story of the land and its people.

When I reported from Belle Glade, Florida, nearly every kid on the town’s high school football...

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