As I go around speaking to students, teachers, police officers and other professionals, it is evident that there is a lot of emotional pain and exhaustion.\u00a0 I believe that our own pain is so great that we have trouble seeing the pain others are experiencing.\u00a0 When we prioritize one group’s pain, other groups feel neglected or disliked, and we amplify their distress when the intention is to reduce our own.\u00a0 I also believe that if we are going to address our emotional pain, we need to do it together.\u00a0 Going into our own racial, political, professional or gendered corners limits our knowledge on how to approach these issues and our ability to see our shared humanity.\u00a0 These issues are too significant to address separately.
Compassion and empathy are not for one group onto another, but for everyone onto each other.\u00a0 Perhaps by sharing in each other’s pain we will reduce it as well.\u00a0
To the students; you are each unique individual whom deserve respect and love.\u00a0 And so do your teachers, mentors and other support professionals. If you need help, please tell someone, a parent, a neighbor, a trusted friend, a friend’s parents, teacher, counselor, or coach.\u00a0 We are all busy and stressed out, but that doesn’t mean we do not care.\u00a0\u00a0
Love,
Elizabeth Hanke<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2022\/03\/iStock-1064027420-1-1024x683.jpg\")
HURT
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I’m still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emotional pain is a feeling of hurt, anguish, or sorrow, and sometimes we forget that pain is a danger signal. \u00a0“If you stub your toe, for a brief moment, your entire world is that toe,” said Dr. MacDonald during a Live Science interview. \u00a0“Pain is really good at disrupting attention and getting you singularly focused<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5483,"featured_media":6453,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6451","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"campaignId":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}