Into Turbulent Waters

Someone To Tell It To does not publicly wade into the turbulent waters of politics. As an organization that has always been dedicated to the work of fostering human connection, we know that without a proper context, most political discourse can lead to more disconnection and division, as we so often see.

Someone To Tell It To does, though, wade into the turbulent waters of grief.

Someone To Tell It To does, though, wade into the turbulent waters of pain.

Someone To Tell It To does, though, wade into the turbulent waters of fear.

We know that grief, pain, and fear can cause great disconnection and division between us

So today, Someone To Tell It To is wading into the turbulent waters of the grief, pain, and fear that yesterday’s school shooting in Winder, Georgia has churned in the hearts, minds, and spirits of not only those who are part of the Apalachee High School and surrounding community, but also of all those who live with the trauma of mass shootings in the United States. We wonder, just how can we help to alleviate the distress that so many people experience in times such as these?

Yesterday, September 4 saw the 23rd U.S. school shooting of 2024, according to a database maintained by magazine Education Week, which counts 11 people who have died and 38 who have been injured in school attacks so far this year. 

There have been 385 mass shootings in the United States this year so far. 

So many of the shooters are young men, described as loners, with few friends and close connections. 

Someone To Tell It To exists to comfort the grief, to be a balm for the pain, and to create hope in the midst of the fear. It is through human connection that these gifts can become real.

Wherever and whenever there are those who are struggling with their emotions and thoughts about violence and trauma, whether close up or from a distance, we exist to help people process and grow to understand the complexities of their reactions. We help people to know that they are not alone in their responses to horrifying situations. We validate what is going on inside their spirits, what is churning within them and causing them to feel as if they are drowning in their discomfort and despair. We listen to hear and to feel their distress, to enable them to begin to find their way through and beyond it. We listen to know them and to accompany them as they seek light in the midst of their darkness. 

What happened in Georgia yesterday, and what happens far too many times in other places around the United States and across the globe, when violence and death take a devastating toll, is that it doesn't have to happen. It shouldn’t have to happen. Not if we were better connected with one another ...

… not if we respect one another’s humanity. 

… not if we saw one another as people of worth and value. 

… not if we sought one another’s potential and goodness. 

… not if we truly cared about one another’s perspectives or about 

     one another. 

… not if we believed that each one of us has something to offer this 

    world and was just as deserving of grace and love as anyone else. 

We work to help others find those connections with one another and even their own selves. We’re created to need human connection. And it’s that true connection that can enable us to see one another as people deserving of and needing peace of body, mind, and spirit. The more we see and allow that, the less we will begin to harangue, hate, and harm one another in the horrific ways that have become all too common.