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Statement of Mourning from PACEs Connection Team

 

Today, all too soon, we find ourselves again in the midst of yet another tragedy following yesterday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where the lives of at least 19 children and 2 adults were lost. I am writing this blog after dropping off my two-year-old and two-month-old sons at preschool this morning, where I struggled to make the drive to the daycare and to pull out of the parking lot after they were in their classrooms for fear of their safety. All of this to say, this traumatic event resonates with me both personally and professionally. As I sit here, I find myself paralyzed, as I am both frozen in fear while simultaneously experiencing an immensely strong drive to jump into action in an effort to affect positive change, a conundrum that I know is gravely impacting many of my colleagues, as well as individuals the world over.

Our team at PACEs Connection would like to issue a statement of mourning to honor the trauma so many of us feel right now. We acknowledge this traumatic event that has occurred. We grieve for the children, adults, families, and community of Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, as well as for children, adults, families, and communities across the United States and the world who are impacted by this collective trauma. For those involved in the worldwide PACEs movement, the work you do is more important now than ever. For the sake of our children, our loved ones, and our posterity, we continue despite tremendous, unavoidable, and overwhelming fatigue. As staff at PACEs Connection, we will continue to respond to the collective trauma stemming from the shooting at Robb Elementary School through our work today, tomorrow, and in the near and distant future as we continue to work to address and prevent the root causes of these and so many other intractable problems. But for now, we will pause to mourn the suffering that so many are experiencing in this moment.

*For anyone in need, please visit our Resources for Seeking Mental Health Services for Trauma Recovery on PACEs Connection’s website.  

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Thanks you for this, Porter. I will add that part of the reason this has hit us all so, so hard is the grief we have felt, too, over the loss of life in Buffalo, NY, just 11 days ago.

The national attention on Buffalo and the loss of 11 people — adults and mostly senior citizens who were parents and grandparents, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, aunts and uncles, dear friends, community volunteers, community leaders and community builders.

In Buffalo 10 of the 11 adults slain were Black.

I want to include them in this post because when I look at this time of horror, those two shootings — and several others including one aimed against Taiwanese Americans — will go together for me. Coast to coast. From one corner of our nation to another. Old and young. People of all colors and of many backgrounds.

The root cause of all of this trauma is trauma. Our toxic polarization, our sick and suffering pregnant women and babies, our suicidal teens, young people feeling hopeless, hapless, helpless. Our teachers, medical professionals and other “front-line workers” who have been exploited by an economy that wants to see people worked damned-near to death for the least amount possible. Our communities scorched by climate-changed induced wildfires sparked by, in some cases, power companies that knew the dangers of their worn out equipment.

In a nation more focused on profits and productivity than the health and well-being of our people, this is what we’re going to get. More. Of. The. Same.

I am grateful to do this work that ties together all aspects of how we got to this point; how our nation’s history of colonization, genocide, kidnapping, enslavement, imprisonments, Jim Crow laws and intentional inequity in housing, education, clean water, air, and land — all aspects of life — has been operationalized to benefit White people, especially White men, to the harm and impoverishment, incarceration, and oppression of so many others. Generation after generation.  

There is much more to say and it will be said in our Historical Trauma in America series offerings, our blog posts, our events and webinars, our History. Culture. Trauma. podcasts. The blogs and comments and events written and shared and hosted by staff and volunteers and many more among our 56,000 + members.

I am glad we are all here together in this work to prevent and heal trauma; build resilience through trauma-informed work with individuals, families, and communities to educate people about and create opportunities for culturally appropriate and community-led positive childhood experiences.

If you’re feeling frustrated, take some of our tools — our new PACEs Science Presentation, resources (in multiple languages) on parenting and self-care, growing a resilient community and more — from our packed resources center. These presentations, PDFs and more are free. Just sharing these is a step in the direction toward preventing and healing trauma. You never know where what you share — on social media, via email, in a presentation to your community resilience group — will land.  It might not change the world in a “big way” but it will in one way, in that it may lead to your feeling a bit more empowered, just as writing this note has done for me, and as I imagine, it empowered Porter as she sat thinking of her children and all on staff who have school-aged children, by writing our Statement of Mourning.

Carey

Last edited by Carey Sipp
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