Cincinnati Ignored a Peaceful Call to Heal Trauma—Now History Repeats in Violence

Time Business News

16-05-2025

Nearly a decade ago, Ronald Hummons stood face to face with Cincinnati police, just hours after losing his son to suicide. He wasn't armed with anything but grief and truth. His words were simple, yet prophetic: 'You're going to deal with our trauma—either by healing what this country broke or by facing the consequences when that trauma explodes.'
Hummons knew what was coming because he lived it. His son, like many African American children, suffered from untreated trauma—Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder born from poverty, violence, and instability. Rather than allow that pain to consume him, Hummons chose a peaceful path. He launched a nonviolent movement calling on Cincinnati to declare a State of Emergency on Childhood Trauma. His goal wasn't just symbolic—it was systemic: to bring real healing to communities drowning in generational pain.
He even went so far as to stage a 48-hour hunger strike to raise awareness about the silent epidemic of Black children living with undiagnosed and untreated PTSD. 'Our trauma doesn't always cry out,' he said. 'Sometimes it shows up in how we act, how we disconnect, or how we explode.'
City Council members told Hummons and his team that addressing childhood trauma was not an issue they could support. His proposed
legislation was minimized, dismissed, and politically buried. Instead of being met with compassion, he was met with retaliation. He was falsely charged, publicly defamed, and silenced—punished for trying to heal a wound this country created.
Ten years later, history has repeated itself.
Rodney Hinton Jr, a young Black man in Cincinnati, was shot in the back while running from police. In the aftermath of his son's death, Rodney Hinton—grieving, traumatized, and broken—responded with violence. It was not the response of a political strategist; it was the expression of untreated, generational trauma finally erupting. The very trauma Hummons warned the city about has returned, this time not as a peaceful protest, but as a violent cry for justice and acknowledgement.
What Cincinnati ignored then, it now faces in tragedy.
This is not about just two fathers. It's about a system that refuses to recognize that trauma is a public health crisis. A system that chooses punishment over prevention, silence over solutions. Hummons gave the city a roadmap. He offered peace. He offered a plan that was continually ignored.
The question isn't whether more trauma will surface—it will. The question is: Will Cincinnati finally listen? Will it choose healing over harm, policy over punishment?
The time for ignoring trauma is over. The city must declare a State of Emergency on Childhood Trauma—not tomorrow, not in the next crisis, but now. Before the next headline is another name we mourn on both sides.
TIME BUSINESS NEWS