Atlanta & Boulder: 5+ Things You Can Do In Response

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It has been a month since the tragic shooting in Atlanta and about 3 weeks since the shootings in a Boulder grocery store, 8 miles from my home.

All heartbreaking, senseless, violent deaths on the heels of too many other senseless acts of violence and murder.

While there doesn't seem to be any end in sight to the stagnation that keeps us from taking meaningful, large-scale action to prevent these tragedies in the future, we all can, and must, play a role in healing our communities and bridging the divides that separate us from one another.

Here are 5+ things you can do to help us heal the violence and divisiveness plaguing our nation:

1. Support Healing:

  • Leave a message of hope and support for those who have been affected by the shooting in Boulder. Call 303-871-1486 and leave a voicemail for 9News.

  • Donate: Boulder County Crisis Fund, organized by the Community Foundation serving Boulder County.

  • Follow: #Muslims4Boulder Donate: Muslims Unite for Boulder Families - Though this is a Muslim-led campaign organized by CelebrateMercy, friends of other faiths are welcome to contribute. Proceeds go toward the shooting victims' families and caretakers.

  • Volunteer: Email Boulder County Emergency esf19@bouldercounty.org for volunteer opportunities.

  • Read about how to support others: Managing distress in the aftermath of a shooting, compiled by the American Psychological Association.

2. Strengthen Community:

  • Social connections form the foundation for our sense of well-being. These connections can also prevent depression, burnout, and violence.

  • All efforts, great and small, are helpful in forming these bonds.

  • Start small. Say hello. Look people in the eye. Ask people how they are doing (and listen).

  • Go the next step: Reach out to two people to check to see how this recent violence is impacting them, ask how you can be of support.

3. Chip Away At “The Great Divide”:

  • Science tells us that our brains are constantly filling in gaps, making sense of everything around us.

  • While this is essential for survival, unfortunately the stories our brains tell us are based on prior experience or what we expect to happen in the future. Not actual reality.

  • This, + factors too complex for a blog piece = quickly creates a negative and addictive “us vs them” loop.

  • If you have ever talked about “those people”, you are contributing to this loop.

  • I know I am and it is contributing to the big divide. And so are most of us.

  • Hate and division won't go away until we stop with our own rhetoric about “those people.”

  • Here are a few suggestions for chipping away at the big divide:

    • Take winning off the table. When we focus on being right, our brain reroutes activity from our Executive Functions (responsible for strategy) to the parts of the brain responsible for fight or flight. Ironically, in our quest to be right, we turn off the part of our brain we need for strategic thinking and empathy.

    • Check yourself when you find us and them thinking creeping in—your brain no longer has access to its empathy, strategic thinking, or problem-solving resources.

4. Be An Ally:

5. Educate Yourself:

Photo credit: Michael Ciaglo, NY Times/Getty Images

Jake Nicholas