In some sense, this is probably the most energizing event that could have come our way. My phone, my email, my Facebook are lit up with outrage. Big Cuter says that "Patty really needs to be the poster hero to disprove the nonsensical NRA jingle that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun". I'm pretty sure this was the case of a "good grandmother with her gumption stopping a bad guy with a gun".
But that's trying to find the silver lining in what is a very dark cloud. I overheard this today, and, though it's crass, I can only hope it's true: "If the image of twenty, dead, white, six year olds isn't enough to move them, this is not a group that can expect to be reelected."
I can barely formulate coherent thoughts. I spent the morning on the phone with Senate staffers. Ayotte, Coburn, Flake, Heitkamp.... they all heard my spiel. Standing 10' from your Senator's former colleague.... holding the hand of my 9 year old friend.... our shooter's information was never entered into an accessible data base.... if you have the strength to vote your conscience it will be remembered at election time.... we are not going away. Most of them thanked me and hung up the phone.
But some of them were really listening. I could hear the intake of breath as I told my story, quickly, tersely, pulling no punches. Those staffers got the second tier: Gabe Zimmerman was doing your job that Saturday morning. Now, he has a trailhead, a bust, a room with his name on it, and a headstone.... while you have a career. Ask your Senator to look you in the eye and tell you why she won't vote for a bill that would have kept Gabe safe.... that will keep you safe.
Was I hitting below the belt? Big Cuter, often my sharpest critic when it comes to others receiving an unadulterated dose of his mother, paused, and said, with a rueful laugh, "really, though, it's all true and they need to hear it."
Yes, they do.
*****
So that no one else's son ever has to post this on Facebook:
If you are represented by any of these Senators, and believe that the world would be a better place if my mom had never been shot, I'd ask you to vote your craven, bought and paid for "representative" out of office when next given the chance
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coats (R-IN)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Enzi (R-WY)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lee (R-UT)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reid (D-NV)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rubio (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
I am so pissed! I wondered how you would even manage to put together anything coherent for your blog today. You did fine. They did NOT.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping Mark Kelly will replace Jeff Flake when he's up for reelection...poetic justice.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how Gabby and Mark can be friends with that jerk Flake. I cannot stand him or Cruz. They both need to go. What I don't understand are the moronic people that voted these people into office. They basically gave their middle finger to 90% of Americans and said we pander to the NRA. We are more afraid of them than YOU!
ReplyDeleteI'm off to get some tea. I'm just so damn angry today.
Sending hugs,
Megan xxx
This is just getting started. Here is part of Gabby and Mark's response (via Americans for Responsible Solutions website):
ReplyDeleteWe will use every means possible to make sure the constituents of these senators know that their elected representatives ignored them, and put Washington, DC special interest politics over the effort to keep their own communities safer from the tragedy of gun violence.
Gabby has always said this would be a long, hard haul. Our work does not end today; we are committed to finding commonsense compromises that will keep us safer, and to making sure we have a congress that will put the interests of their communities ahead of the interests of the gun lobby.
(http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/news/statement-of-gabby-giffords-and-mark-kelly-on-senate-vote-on-background-checks/)
What really made me mad were the democrats that voted no. They deserve to lose their seats and hopefully they all will. What we began to do last year is donate to candidates outside our district and state. We had never done that before but all of them won because a lot of Americans took the view that we can't afford to just think locally. It matters to us here in Oregon who Arkansas elects as a Senator and even a Representative. So Americans need to go beyond letter writing and phone calls and donate/work for those who will vote in responsible gun control which means background checks but also no extended magazines and a definition of assault rifles that takes people killing weapons out of the hands of people inclined to go somewhere and start blasting away. It will take caring enough and long enough and Obama said it well in his statement afterward. Get mad and stay mad. As he said the NRA is always there and they know it. Americans are short sighted and quit on things. No quitting on this or they win.
ReplyDeleteLast night we watched Lincoln for the first time and it was a reminder of our messy political system and how it hasn't changed. The names of the parties might but the same mentality said what Rand Paul did before the vote about how the people who had lost loved ones were being used and should not have been there while he evidently is fine with NRA lobbyists bombarding the elected officials. If anybody said anything more revolting, I don't know who it could have been. Congress is supposed to be of the people but it's not and it's time we stick to it on this issue (and there are others that matter too) and vote out those who don't do what is right. Support those who promise they will. Watching Lincoln was a reminder of how things get done and why. We need to not forget it today.
Good for you! This is not an issue with anonymous victims. Those aides needed to hear exactly what you said. Brava!
ReplyDeleteNeither of my senators are on the list, but I did notify each of the Democrats who voted against that I would send money to their opponents in their next election. Not that they care (I'm not rich enough to matter), but they need to know. And can we PLEASE get rid of Harry Reid? We know where his nose is in relation to the body of the NRA.
It's all true, and you say it well because of where you have been Keep saying it. I'm praying that Diane Feinstein keeps saying it, too. Loving my California senators this morning.
ReplyDeleteYou know what--you laid it on them, and that's all right. I'm proud of you for speaking up and telling it exactly like it is. I cannot believe anyone could vote "No" under any circumstances, but to do it in front of Newtown parents and Tucson survivors was inexcusable. We are at a senatorial low ebb. Thank you for what you do.
ReplyDelete