Thank you, Mayor Greenberg, and team, for the opportunity to discuss the all-important topic of gun violence survivors. More importantly, I want to thank the very brave and resilient survivors who have chosen to stand alongside me today on this stage.
In preparing my remarks I took some time to think about the word survivor. You know, much is made of whether we are to call ourselves victims or survivors. With many landing on the latter due to the positive connotation it holds. Others struggle using the term – feel like imposters – claiming they weren’t physically shot, even though they were clearly in harm’s way or lost a loved one to violence.
I believe the reason we struggle so often with the language is because we are all still struggling with the reality of what gun violence has done to us and those we love.
On September 6th, 2018 I walked into my workplace in Cincinnati, Ohio and was immediately met with a barrage of bullets. Shocked yet focused on survival, I quickly realized that I had been shot and that I was likely experiencing a mass shooting. As I took gunfire my brain went into overdrive: How would I escape? What if I did not escape? What would my precious little children do without a mother? How would my husband move forward? Why did I believe I was immune to violence? And then prayers, lots of prayers.
The reason I stand in front of you today, and the reason my husband and I do the work of Whitney/Strong, is because I received the very best in every way. The heroic police. The highly skilled and compassionate doctors and nurses. The bystander who applied a tourniquet to my left arm. And this doesn’t even begin to cover it all. The city of Cincinnati, our family and friends, strangers, my employer …. I will never be able to properly thank everyone who put me and the needs of my family first. Paramount to it all, I get say that I was shot twelve times and none of the bullets hit any major organs or arteries.
I am miracle, and you better believe I know it and I will never take it for granted.
As I stand here surrounded by survivors with different stories of gun violence and representing hundreds of survivors who are watching us from afar, I want you to know we are bonded forever because of our shared experience. It doesn’t matter what led to a shooting, where the shooting occurred, where the bullets penetrated… when you find yourself in that moment, there is a shared humanity. All of us begging God, or the universe, to give us more time.
It is because of this bond that I ask all of us today to think about what we can do to give survivors the very best. My friend from the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN) will undoubtedly share more, but for any survivor listening today, please go to https://louisvilleky.gov/government/safe-neighborhoods to gain access to a whole host of resources from free mental health services to organizations working throughout the city to prevent homicide and suicide. I also invite you to join the Whitney/Strong team as we fight to prevent violence across the state. Please know there is a world of people who care very deeply about you and will provide the care necessary to help you start to put one foot in front of another.
For those of you not yet on the side of supporting survivors, let me share a few pieces of compelling research that may change your mind.
Caring for survivors is also an opportunity to prevent future violence.
We know that up to 20% of people who come into a trauma unit for penetrative injury will die within five years… and for each time they come in, the likelihood that they’ll experience early violent mortality increases.
Caring for survivors is also an opportunity to cut costs for our city.
According to a study completed in 2021 by OSHN a homicide with one suspect costs our city $900,240 and an injury-only shooting costs us $508,835. While costs are allocated across crime scene, hospital, criminal justice, victim support, and lost revenue, the largest cost is tied to incarceration, sitting at more than 50% of overall cost.
I looked up the definition of survivor and landed on this one as my favorite:
A survivor is someone who continues to LIVE afterward in spite of coming close to death.
I don’t care why you choose to join us in our work to support survivors: compassion, violence prevention, or cost-savings, PLEASE JUST JOIN US. Support the work of OSHN, the various community organizations they endorse, or Whitney/Strong with your time as a volunteer or with a donation today. Survivors deserve to truly LIVE, and we need you.