Call lawmakers in your state, or those who represent you in Washington, D.C., and ask for them to vote for gun reform. The people answering lawmakers' phones are professionally trained to be courteous and take your calls. Be courteous in return.
If you are phone-averse, then write a letter. Send a postcard, or an email. Show up for a protest. Donate to your favorite candidate. Join a Facebook secret group to keep informed. Every little effort matters. Every one of these small steps is an action that will make you feel better about yourself and your place in the world.
Do not respond to trolls on social media. They are often not even human. Others are Alt-right provocateurs who are posting or commenting based on scripts they have been provided. Responding to trolls only serves to bump their Facebook comments up to the top, which is the purpose of their vitriol. It is best to ignore them.
Don't be afraid of failure. We must try and fail many times before we win. We only truly lose if we give up.
I cannot understand why anyone thinks a person needs an assault rifle. They are made only for violent bloody killing. They are no good for hunting so that shoots down that argument. Gun control does not mean doing away with the right to bear arms. It simply means that we need to regulate and use common sense.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Plain and simple.
DeleteOK. I'm talked out.
ReplyDeleteGoing to your blog right this minute to check in, then!
DeleteYes. Every little effort matters. There is something we can do every day. No action too small.
ReplyDeleteI believe this with all my heart.
DeleteDon't despair. Organize. I'm back on it. Thanks, Colette.
ReplyDeleteThat's the heroic American spirit we need to bring back. Hard work, high morals, and a healthy distrust of wealthy, greedy and/or stupid thugs. :)
DeleteI love that last sentence: "We only truly loose if we give up."
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to think that it will change. I can't even use the word stop. It's the nature of things in this human life - good and bad, dark and light. But I still hold on to changing it. That must happen. Vote, vote, vote.
This is a terrible thing to say, but I wonder...would things change if a tragedy like this were to happen to the family of one of the leaders of this crazy gun thing. I don't wish it, of course. But it always seems that people who hold such ignorant/falsely superior thinking are removed from the tragedy. Epiphany doesn't usually come when you wall yourself off and surround yourself with others who think the same distorted way.
I suspect you are not the only one who has thought that difficult thought today. It is so easy to lack empathy or compassion when one has always had an easy and comfortable life.
DeleteOf if they had to hold one of those dying children.
ReplyDeletenods.
DeleteHere, here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, MG
DeleteI have grandchildren in high schools in this country. Is home schooling the only way to keep them safe? We need to make mental health a priority. And we need to pray. And all the things you said.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Molly. My oldest granddaughter will start high school in Florida next year. I most certainly understand your concerns.
DeleteI may do something, like call my rep in congress, when I'm not so numb and brokenhearted about our crazy country.
ReplyDeleteI know. It really is crazy right now.
DeleteI am fortunate to live in a state with strong gun control laws and all my representatives and none have accepted any NRA money. But along with gun control laws I also think we need to address the boredom, lack of purpose and despair that often leads to these violent episodes.
ReplyDeleteYou ARE lucky to live in a blue state. I envy you. I once lived there, too. However, If the 2016 election taught us anything, it is that the heart of America is red and we need to work hard to change that for OUR future, for our children's future. Blue States cannot rest on their laurels because we are not the States of America, we are the United States.
DeleteIt is encouraging to read this from afar where we are dumbfounded by events trying unsuccessfully to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteNever fear. Good will triumph in the end. There is a large and widespread resistance.
DeleteI would agree with all your recommendations and admire your fighting spirit. But one statistic in The Guardian - a first as far as I was concerned - doesn't help. A poll of Republicans, taken before Parklands thank goodness, revealed that 70% believed that the "benefits" of the present US gun laws "are worth the risk". That was hard to swallow. Expressed another way it means that the deaths associated with school shootings are seen purely in accountancy terms, and that the "arithmetic" is thought favourable. Hard to argue with that kind of thinking but you have my full support.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Roderick. That mindset you speak of is extremely disturbing, and they are everywhere. There are more of us than them, tho. The tide is turning.
DeleteWhat has happened is that the far right has scared their Republican base with claims that gun reform means they will lose their guns. For better or worse, many in the U.S. are sportsmen and women. That is just part of our culture and we have to find a way to reign it in. Many gun owners are also rugged individualists who don't like "the government" telling them what to do. The fact is that gun reform will not mean the sports minded owners will lose their guns, it means that laws will be in place so that troubled 19 year old boys, or criminals will not be able to buy an assault rifle (military grade).
And many of our politicians rely on absurdly large donations to their campaigns from the right-wing National Rifle Association, to which they then become beholden... So along with gun reform laws, we need campaign donation reform laws in the U.S., too.
DeleteJust found your blog . The news in England does not often make time for what most Americans seem to think - the sane ones .Common sense tells me that there are many dissenters and Trump does not speak for you . You are an ambassador for your nation in your way .,
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Angela. Love the name - I guess we both enjoy taking the persona of women we admire.
DeleteKeep in mind that the Democrats won the popular vote by nearly 3 million. It is our outdated Electoral College that put Trump in the White House. Change is coming. It always is.
Thank you for the information, and encouragement.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Mary.
DeleteHave you heard about the students at that high school speaking out, and planning a March on Washington on March 24? Those kids give me hope!
ReplyDeleteYes, I sure did. They give me hope, too. We need to encourage all those turning 18 this year to register to vote!
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