A card, a bouquet of flowers and a pair of tennis shoes. That’s what Donna Dees-Thomases anticipates for this upcoming Sunday.
That, and the sound of 2 million feet marching behind her.
Unless you haven’t been to Osco lately, you probably know Sunday is Mother’s Day. (Quick! Run to the bookstore! Find a card, slap on a stamp and send it home to Mom. Oh, and don’t forget to sign.)
But before you rush out to mail your note to Mom, keep reading. This particular Sunday means a bit more, especially to Dees-Thomases and to countless other women and children across the country. This Sunday is the Million Mom March.
Million what march? What issue could a million mothers possibly have on their minds? What besides some great sale at Bloomingdale’s could inspire such numbers to march on the Mall in Washington?
The Million Mom March is Dees-Thomases’ brainchild. After watching the news of shootings at an Los Angeles-area day care last August, she had the idea to coordinate a march to urge “common sense” gun control legislation from lawmakers.
“Common sense” law includes, specifically, licensing and registration. For example, common sense points out that licenses are required to operate cars. Why should guns be any different?
But the problem the March seeks to remedy isn’t so much guns in general; it is that children specifically are falling victim to the increase in gun homicides. “Wrong place, wrong time victims; unlocked-and-loaded-in-the-house victims,” states the March’s Web site. And the collective thread, according to the site, is that these fatalities transpire “because a gun fell into the wrong hands.”
Typical rhetoric, I thought to myself while perusing the site’s pink-crayoned pages. While I’ve always considered myself in support of gun control, such overly and overtly emotional claims made me want to turn the other way. How were the March’s propagandized proclamations any different — or any better, for that matter — than any of the pro-gun or NRA newspeak that always enrages me?
With a closer look, I realized that while the words on the Web site were ardent in claim, they were not, however, irrational. Nor were they blatantly anti-gun.
“We acknowledge that guns may be necessary for hunting, law enforcement and national security,” states the site. But the proliferation of firearms for the purpose of killing other humans has become indefensible. And this wrong is what the group seeks to right.
The NRA may argue that millions of people are careful and capable firearm owners. But the truth also is that millions of people are not.
And I guess that’s what Sunday’s event boils down to. Intense rhetoric aside, the Million Mom March seeks to correct this final truth — to see that stricter “common sense” laws are implemented to prevent irresponsible gun holders from causing the deaths of America’s children.
Those marching on Sunday are the mothers of these children. Mothers who are trading in their roses, cards and homemade coupon books for Dees-Thomases’ tennis shoes and telling words. Mothers who are calling on Congress to enact common sense gun control legislation.
They will march, and they will be heard.
And, in the end, doesn’t mother know best?
