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Mothers Marching on Mother's Day
By Moryt Milo
'Guns?" questions my husband, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. "Why are you writing about guns?"
I looked up from cutting my turkey and knew what he was thinking. This is the woman who won't even let her kids have super-soakers. So why would she pick this topic to write about?
Well, maybe he had a point. The issue of guns definitely doesn't fall into the area of light table conversation. It's certainly a cultural hot button. A topic everyone has an opinion about. So maybe I should pick something else. But then I logged on to the Web and there it was again, another shooting, this time at the Washington, D.C., zoo.
Once again one of those supposable safe places fell victim to a burst of emotional insanity and seven children were caught in the crossfire. Leaving one child brain-dead and six others wounded because our youth are being embedded with the belief that disputes have to be settled by violence. What started as glass bottle throwing, escalated into a shootout when one youth decided those glass bottles made too feeble a weapon.
I listened to a woman being interviewed in the park. She said, "I looked over and I saw the person next to me pull out a gun and aim it at the person on the other side of me. I just grabbed my babies put them in the stroller and started to run."
"My God," I thought to myself. "I couldn't imagine such a thing happening to me." Going to the zoo, happily visiting its inhabitants, leisurely chatting with my kids, then suddenly all hell breaks loose and I'm at ground zero.
This is what Donna Dees-Thomases must have felt when she watched the white supremacist shooting those children at the Jewish Community Center in Southern California last August. A week later she applied for a permit to March in Washington, D.C., on Mother's Day (May 14th) in support of stricter gun control laws.
Mothers from all walks of life will get on buses, planes, trains or cars to make the journey to our nation's capital. They will become part of the Million Mom March (www.milliommommarch.com). These sisters in solidarity will walk to the Washington Monument either to celebrate the enactment of "sensible legislation or to protest bipartisan ineptitude." But with less then a week to go it looks like it will be more of a protest then celebration.
After all that has happened this year and even with a recent Gallop Poll showing 61percent of the population wants stricter gun control measures, Congress still hasn't done a thing. Why do we continually allow these people, who don't represent our voices, to serve us? Why do we allow these politicians to be manipulated by lobbyists with personal agendas? The entire gun control issue seems like a major no-brainer. A "DUH!" as my kids would say.
Those marching in Washington aren't calling for gun removal. Obviously that's unrealistic. What they're asking for is the enactment of uniformly sensible laws. Safety locks, so children can't kill each other. A proper amount of time (a "cooling off period") to check out those wanting to purchase a gun. At least it would give us a chance to get some of those weapons out of the wrong hands. A limit on how many guns a person can buy in a month. If you need more then one gun a month what the heck are you doing? Building up a war chest?
For a brief moment Smith & Wesson heard the cry of the majority and said they would change "the way [they] do business." They were going to provide safety locks on their handguns in 60 days and make them child resistant in three years. There was hope. If Congress wouldn't get their act together then corporate America was going to step up. Then the "P" word hit them hard. "Pressure" from other gun manufacturers and lobbyists. Now they aren't so sure their idea is realistic.
What is realistic and obvious to anyone, who cares about life and this country's future generations, is that something has to be done. We can't just allow buying a gun to be as easy as getting a pack of cigarettes. We need to join together and fight for the passage of proper gun legislation.
But we also need to teach our youth that relying on physical force to problem solve is simply wrong. We need to teach the power of words. Then we need to lead by example. We need to explain that brutality and abuse only perpetuate itself. And we need to re-read history because apparently we've forgotten what it's trying to teach us. Life is a precious gift.
Also this column is a bit unusual. It talks about the Million Mom March slated for Mother's Day in Washington DC. There are however going to be local marches in Watsonville, Oakland and San Francisco and I wondered if you would be able to put in an editor's note (space allowing) for anyone interested, listing the local website information and contact person.
The numbers and addresses are as follows www.mmmsfbayarea.org and Beth Kotkin (Central Coast Regional Coordinator) 408-867-6661.
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Campbell, California
