image by Marta Steele
I am as old as the hills and have been a Progressive
activist as much as life circumstances have allowed since my early twenties,
but never have I been to a rally where the U.S. president and vice president
were praised as leading supporters, as occurred earlier today in Washington, DC at a thousand-strong protest. The catalyst was NRA policies that advocate for legal ownership of assault guns and related, lethal, condoned permissiveness. Representation at the federal level has
been limited to "fringe" legislators
like Dennis Kucinich, Keith Ellison, and the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, among
others.
The voice in
question belonged to the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, the first
cabinet member I have ever heard or seen at a Progressive rally. He spoke
passionately, not for the first time, in favor of gun control and against the
NRA.
Another federal
voice at the rally was Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen. Of course,
DC's own Eleanor Holmes Norton, who would be our representative if we had one
beyond the committee level in the House, was there with fiery and inspiring
rhetoric, though she laughed before speaking, mumbling something about her
ambiguous status in Congress and how we need to work hard toward full
representation.
The event began
with a silent march by a thousand or so participants from the Reflecting Pond
west of the Capitol building to the Washington Monument. First to speak were
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray and District Council Chairman Phil Mendelson,
both of whom, as leaders of one of the most crime-ridden areas in the country,
had lots to say about the desperate need for gun control here and throughout
the country.
Sponsors included
Molly Smith and Suzanne Blue Star Boy of DC's Arena Stage, along with the
Washington National Cathedral and One Million Moms for Gun Control, a month-old
organization created on Facebook in response to the Sandy Hook massacre in December.
More than one speaker remarked that
despite egregious episodes of gun massacre since Columbine High School's in
1999, immortalized by filmmaker Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine; the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007; the
gun-rape of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's townhall-style gathering in January 2012;
and other similar tragedies, it took the murder of twenty innocent young
children along with some brave school personnel to mobilize the people
effectively. One horrifying statistic revealed that far more people have died
of [non-war-related] gun wounds since the 1960s assassinations than the sum total of victims of
all wars fought by the United States since the Revolution.
This time, we
won't be stopped, speakers reiterated, until we have achieved our goals.
The chant "Yes, we can!" familiar from Barack
Obama's inspiring 2008 presidential campaign, was heard several times during
the rally.
Music and poetry
punctuated the many speeches, including John Lennon's immortal "Imagine" and
Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' on?" There, the Washington, DC native asserts that
"War is not the answer" (a rallying cry among Quakers around the world) and
"Only love can conquer hate."
Colin Goddard of
the Brady Campaign, a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre who was shot three
times but survived intact, was a dynamic and compelling
contributor. One hundred residents of Newtown, Connecticut were also present,
along with busloads from neighboring states, and others from as far away as
Seattle, San Francisco, and even Alaska, Molly Smith's home state.
The founder of One
Million Moms for Gun Control and mother of five herself, Shannon Watts, said
that she materialized out of anonymity into activism as a result of the Newtown
killings. In one month, seventy-five branches of her organization have sprung
up throughout the country. Author and activist Marian Wright Edelman, of the
Children's Defense Fund, was another compelling presence, as was Meghan DeSale
of Doctors for America, who spoke of the horrors of treating children and other
victims of gunshot wounds when she worked in a hospital emergency room.
Pastor Dean
Snyder, of DC's United Methodist Church, delivered an invocation on behalf of
both religious and nonreligious supporters of gun control legislation. Actress
Kathleen Turner was last to speak, dramatic both in and out of Hollywood. When
successful celebrity performers donate their time to activist causes, whatever
their persuasion, their forcefulness, charisma, and verve helps to justify the
millions they rake in, even in times of recession.
The platform of
the organizers of the march, stated on their webpage, is that "We want Congress
to reinstate the assault weapon ban, ban high capacity ammunition magazines and
require background checks for all guns. We want Congress to enforce a 28 day
waiting period, require mandatory gun safety training before the purchase of a
gun, and outlaw bullets that shatter in the body."
Wrote Smith: "I
have many friends who hunt. This is not about hunter's [] having their
rifles restricted. It is about a ban on assault weapons and stricter background
checks. No one needs a magazine that fires 60 bullets in a few minutes."
Among the signs
displayed, one re-construed the letters NRA to imply "Not Representing
Americans." Another protested that 3 percent of the country, members of NRA,
were controlling the lives and destinies of the overwhelming majority. By far
the most common sign carried by protestors, distributed by the organizers, was
a simple, small poster with a person's name on it, each one a victim of a
senseless death by a gun, accidental or purposeful.
2
1
1
