Time to Start

Like many people, I cried over the course of that sunny day this past December as the news unfolded about  the children gunned down in their 1st grade classroom.  Like many gun control advocates, I posted comments on Facebook about the senseless nature of it all.  And like many Americans, I said to friends and thought to myself, "Okay, this is it.  No more excuses.  Time to take a stand."  And then I sat.  And did nothing. 

Well, maybe not completely nothing.  I did take a stand, at least on Facebook, deciding not to let fear of non-supportive comments from FB friends who don't share my views on guns and gun ownership keep me from expressing those views.  I sent an email to a journalist whose article on the topic inspired me.  I read the personal-sounding email from Joe Biden that showed up in my in-box, telling me that now is the time to take a stand.  But still I sat. 

This morning on the radio I heard the story of a woman in Chicago who buried her fourth and last child this week; all four of them, over the years, killed by gun violence.  Then over breakfast I read the article about the U.S. army sniper who was shot and killed while trying to help a fellow soldier recover from PTSD.  Just below that was an article about the man who shot and killed a school bus driver, kidnapped a 5-year-old and held him (with a gun) in an underground bunker for days.  The boy was saved; the man was not. 

A few minutes later, after the credits rolled on "Sponge Bob", Nickelodeon ran a public service announcement where a spunky teenager paid credit to Rosa Parks.  My 10-year-old son looked up from tying his shoes and said, "Mom, Rosa Parks!"  We listened together to this poem*:

A poem for Rosa Parks

You stood up for your rights with your own two feet
Sat down at the front of the bus when they told you take the back seat
Rosa, Rosa
Your memory lives forever through girls like me
We will always stand up for ourselves and remember
To keep the peace

"Do you know her story?" I asked.  He said he did.  "Why was she supposed to sit in the back of the bus?" I asked. 

"Because the white people had more power than the black people," he said. 

"And they weren't nice to them, were they?" I asked.  He agreed they were not. 

"In our family we're nice to them," he said. 

"We're nice to all people, aren't we?" I suggested.  He smiled and agreed and went off to school.

So this is for Rosa, and for my son, and my daughter, to show them that I care about people and principles.  To show that I have the courage to take a stand, in a public way; that I am willing to do something instead of just thinking about it.   

I firmly believe that we should have fewer guns in our society, and that fewer guns will mean less pain.  Through this blog I hope to communicate this idea and support it with facts, statistics, and solid examples.  I hope to inspire those who already agree with me to take some action to help effect change.  And I hope, perhaps against the odds, to even change the minds of some people who don't currently agree. 

Please check back often; there is plenty more to come.  But now is the time to start.  Let's go.  


* Poem attributed to Urban Word; video at this website:  http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/nick-voices-black-history-month-cymphonique-miller-rosa-parks-2-TB1284-01.html