On this morning’s Today Show, Tamron Hall interviewed several women who had survived domestic violence. Following the segment, Hall — whose sister was murdered by her abuser in 2004 — broke down into tears.
The segment, powerful in its own right, is made more powerful by the fact that Hall is clearly so personally invested in the issue. In a piece for Today’s website, she writes about her guilt over what she worried some might see as exploitation of something that affects real families, that takes real lives. As it took the life of her sister. Hall writes,
After I announced that my Shine a Light initiative was to save a life from domestic violence, something inside of me said, “Who do you think you are? Save a life? Who are you to make such an assertion?” As the voice haunted me, I got a tweet from someone who said that I should be ashamed of myself for discussing my sister’s death. That night, I got mad, I cried and I was afraid to go forward with this idea of shining a light.
I have felt guilty for so long that I didn’t do more to help my sister. My father, who died soon after my sister of what my mother believes was a broken heart, said of his children that I was the child who “was always for right.” Yet I have felt so “wrong” since her death.
Hall adds that despite naysayers telling her that simply talking about something that affected her immediate family in her line of work as a professional journalist was akin to exploitation (LOL), she decided to go forward with the initiative. Eventually, Hall plans to create PSAs to be shown to students at schools, camps, and church events.
According to NBC, the murder of Hall’s sister remains “unresolved.”
Image via NBC