Christine Hanna

Can we create new traditions that honor where we've been and help guide us where we need to go?

A conversation with YES! Media Executive Director Christine Hanna and Casey Camp-Horinek, Environmental Ambassador, Matriarch and Hereditary Drumkeeper of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma.

In the face of an overwhelming tidal wave of bad news about the coronavirus, what we need most right now are daily reminders of our better human selves.

How to get from here to there in the next 10 years.

My beautiful older sister, Bess — a smart, passionate, popular soccer star — killed herself when she was 17. She took my parents’ gun, drove to a park, and shot herself in the head. The effect on my family was profound. Though I’m generally a warm person, for the next 15 years, I avoided people with big emotions, or people who seemed fragile. For me, they were dangerous, unpredictable, unhelpable. I didn’t want to get too close, for fear of being responsible for them in some way. I limited my range of empathy because I was sure if I went too far, I’d be swallowed whole.

I saw shades of the men in my own life in Jones’ story, and deeper understanding set in.