‘You have to get up and do something’

No one would call Erich Mische a shrinking violet Known for his general opinionated take on the issues of the day Mische spent years working in local and national politics before deciding to turn his considerable force to running Minnesota nonprofits including Spare Key and the Minnesota Alliance With Youth Two and a half years ago Mische took on a challenge near and dear to his heart when he became CEO at SAVE Suicide Awareness Voices of Action a Bloomington-based nonprofit founded in by a group of parents who had lost children to suicide Throughout his life Mische had invariably gravitated toward issues involving mental medical and leading the state s best-known suicide-prevention nonprofit felt like a great fit both professionally and personally I m from a family of nine kids half of whom have struggled with mental soundness issues during their adult lives Mische revealed That is an key part of who I am something I care deeply about In the relatively short time he has been at the nonprofit s helm SAVE has undergone essential change including becoming a leading voice speaking about the connection between young people s social media use and increased rates of suicide This month Mische issued his latest book Go F king Do Something Or how I cared so much I almost did something about it a passionate memoir manifesto designed to encourage people to take action to solve societal problems rather than waiting for others to take the lead Go F king Do Something is wide-ranging but does take special interest in mental soundness and suicide Proceeds from the sale will go directly to SAVE Mische notified me though he harbors no grand illusions about the book s bankability I didn t imagine this would end up on the New York Times bestseller list He does see the book as a great way to get people talking about issues that are near and dear to his heart For me this will be another useful tool as I go out and talk about the critical work that SAVE does he revealed This interview has been edited for length and clarity MinnPost How did you get involved with SAVE Erich Mische The SAVE opportunity came about when the board of directors met and decided We re going to take this organization in a different direction We want to return to our mission turn SAVE back to where it had been originally which was a grass-roots community-focused organization Coming out of Covid out of an ecosystem where there were clear concerns about mental fitness where suicide and suicidal ideation were at the highest levels we ve publicly acknowledged in a generation there was a clear need for this organization SAVE s mission spoke to me so did the opportunity to refocus the organization in areas that I think are aligned with my talents and skillset So far for me it has been an incredible nearly two hears building the organization back to a Minnesota-based national nonprofit that focuses on how can we really get into the nooks and crannies of communities and help endorsement them in suicide prevention MP What does it mean when you say you want to get into the nooks and crannies of communities EM I think in reality there are a lot of really large multimillion-dollar nonprofit organizations around the country focused on suicide that are trying to do good work The truth is if we are really going to get to the root cause of suicide I don t think that top-down approach has really worked we have seen that all the effort of the last or years hasn t really changed the suicide rate I think amplifying local community-based voices at a grassroots level may be the tool that we need Credit Image courtesy of Erich Mische MP What inspired you to write your book and how does it align with your work at SAVE EM One hundred percent of the whole premise of the book is that on a day-to-day basis life is a struggle a challenge even in a country as remarkable as ours Too often we get so caught up in thinking that we ve got to have the big answer to something We forget that sometimes the biggest solutions to problems start at a very individualized place That individualized place can be something as simple as volunteering for a nonprofit something as simple as using your voice to show up at a inhabitants event or even running for office As we look at the issue of suicide and suicide prevention one thing we know is that talking about it makes a positive difference Getting yourself educated about how you can assistance somebody who is struggling with suicidal ideation doesn t require a masters degree or a doctorate It exclusively requires going online and taking a - -minute training about how to talk to someone who is thinking about suicide The basic premise of the book is whether you are dealing with suicide prevention or a pile of garbage in your neighborhood or chosen other issue waiting for ruling body or a few big institution to do something about it just doesn t work You have to get off your butt and do something yourself MP Did SAVE s founders take this approach when they launched the organization EM Yes It was founded by three families who had lost loved ones to suicide who looked around and went Who s talking about this Who s really making a difference Thirty-six years ago when SAVE was founded there really wasn t anyone talking about suicide There wasn t anyone doing something about it Thirty-six years ago these founding families announced F this and started this organization They sought to make a difference to make a change They didn t wait for others to do something MP Could or should events like last month s assassination of state Rep Melissa and Mark Hortman make people less interested in putting themselves out there publicly Is it too dangerous EM I think the message that we have to deliver to ourselves and our country and our state is that when things like this happen we can t recoil and walk away It is time to double down and say We have to get involved For me this moment is an opportunity to say What can I do to make the world a better place If your answer is to say I don t want anything to do with this I am going to walk away the world is not going to get any better It is going to get worse Trust me If you walk away out of fear I guarantee there will be other people who don t agree with you who will walk in and make things even worse than they are the present day As scary as it is and I don t diminish that there are legitimate concerns out there this is a country where these kinds of assaults on our freedom can t continue Historically this isn t a country that has walked away from danger What I ve seen over the last two or three weeks is a state in which people have publicly acknowledged division and vitriol and dangerous accumulation of the vapors that are there to ignite things the way they have I ve also seen people commit to saying We need to tone down the rhetoric and be less partisan I think those things are great What remains to be seen is what is the practical impact of those promises It is not enough to put a post on Facebook I went to the candlelight vigil I was surrounded by people who were moved by this tragedy who were saying We need to do better with one another That is the embryonic stage of what we can do to try to improve our relationships with one another and how we can improve the process of governing together and the process of civic responsibility and duty to one another My point is don t tell me what you re doing Show me what you re doing It s the same message I send to my kids Don t tell me how pissed off and angry you are about something Show me how you re doing something about it MP In your book you write about having a hardscrabble childhood You were one of nine children Your father struggled with mental illness Where do you think you got your fire and commitment EM You get these ideas you learn particular things from your siblings and your parents In my book I write about how when I was a -year-old kid I worked at a gas station surrounded by other kids and adults In these situations you either absorb the things that are around you or you ignore them I chose to absorb it I only have two skills in life I can type and I can talk to people I saw I had the ability to influence people s ideas with those skills I thought Geeze If I can influence people by the way I talk what if I really do something Showing up at my first DFL Party precinct caucus with my mom was a moment where I realized the importance of doing something Over time it became apparent to me that if you really yearned to see change and make a difference you had to get down and into the nooks and crannies where people are and do the work MP One issue SAVE has been involved with lately is advocating for more regulation and awareness around the dangers of social media for children What helped to move your organization in that direction EM In February we launched a campaign called Kids Keep it Digitally Safe The goal and objective was to raise awareness about the harms that can take place in every single interaction our kids have online I don t believe for a minute that warning labels are the end-all-be-all approach for how we protect kids online but it is a way to have a conversation with the general society that is easy to access and make them aware of what the harms are so you don t just think that social media platforms are a harmless way for kids to occupy their time We worked hard with state Rep Zack Stephenson in Minnesota to get the first warning label bill signed into law by the governor about two weeks ago MP Can you say more about why you think we need more regulation around social media EM I think without equivocation that the No danger to kids in the modern day is social media Unlike cigarettes where the barrier to entry is you have to walk into a store and buy them like alcohol there is nobody checking your ID when you use social media There is no safety net to protect kids who are being bullied or sextorted or abused There is zero barrier to entry for young kids in this country and around the world There is nothing protecting them MP I m interested in your comparison of social media to cigarettes EM Big tech is the big tobacco of our times They are spending hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to prevent lawmakers from passing rule that could have any impact on their business And it s not just politics Big tech has also poured millions of dollars into suicide prevention organizations to say Social media isn t all bad and if it s done correctly and parents are involved it can be a big tool for young people Go back years and it is like what Big Pharma reported about how doctors can prescribe painkillers safely It s all crap MP Would SAVE ever accept a donation from a social media company EM We refuse to take money from any of those companies You can t argue that these products are killing kids and increasing suicidal ideation and then on the other hand say Thank you for your money The reality is that Big Tech money has created a bloodbath for our kids in this country and around the world Erich Mische MP What exactly do you mean when you say Big Tech has created a bloodbath for kids EM Prior to when social media became ubiquitous rates of suicide among young people were in fact going down Since the expansion of social media suicide rates among young people have gone up You can t ignore the reality that when there s smoke there s fire Talk to the crisis room doctors They ll tell you they are seeing kids who are dying of fentanyl poisoning from drugs they purchased on Snapchat At SAVE we work with Bridgette Norring a mom whose son Devin bought an illegal drug on Snapchat put it in his mouth and within seconds of taking it died Then there s a mom we re working with down in Texas whose son David was bullied nonstop on social media and ended up killing himself Every story is devastating and every single story should be a warning to protocol makers about what s going on in their states These are not exceptions to the rule not outliers These are just the ones we know about at present The post You have to get up and do something appeared first on MinnPost