Tag: Fibonacci Blue

Take it personally. Get out the vote.

Posted on by kathiemm
Veterans for Peace at an anti-war protest. This is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Author: Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA.

by Patricia Daniel

Do you know any veterans who were disabled in one of this country’s many wars? That injury affected them personally. Could they use some support in exercising the democratic values for which they fought–ask them if they would like help  getting a ballot in November or demonstrating outside polling stations.

 How about someone (perhaps yourself) who was the victim of sexual assault? Take it personally. Offer a ride to the polls.

 What about those individuals whose economic and personal wellbeing has been undermined by the billions of dollars invested in warfare and foreign conflicts rather than in education, the environment, and health care? Talk to them about how they’ve been affected. Encourage them to vote.

 Do you know people who feel so disenfranchised and despondent about the state of the world that they think voting doesn’t make a difference? Help them to understand that taking action helps to overcome despair—and that the most important action this fall is to get out and vote on November 6.

Who in your community has been affected by gun violence—your neighbor, the high school in the next town, the family going through divorce? These people have been forced to take gun violence personally. Get them to the polls. Learn about relevant ballot measures.

 Do you know immigrants whose lives have been uprooted by government-sponsored hatred and family separation? They didn’t ask for maltreatment , but they have to take it personally. Make sure they are registered to vote.

 We must take this election seriously, and personally. War and violence are not things that just happen in faraway lands and affect people we don’t know.

 On the contrary, look around at people in your community and you will see that a large number of them have been affected by violence and injustice in some way. We can and must do something about it.

 Learn about the candidates and issues. Share what you learn with others and ask them to exercise their democratic right to vote.

 Many states have early voting and the polls are already open. Take advantage of this to help your friends and neighbors find the time and place to fit voting into their schedules. Start the conversation now and inspire others to engaged citizenry.

 Take it personally. Get out the vote.

Note from Kathie MM: What are you doing to get out the vote?  Please send us your action stories.

 

Why I Will March

Posted on by kathiemm
Around 200 students from South High School went to Minneapolis City Hall to protest recent gun violence and call for gun law reform such as restricting the sale of assault rifles. February 21, 2018. This is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Author: Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA.

Note from Kathie MM: Stay tuned for a new series from our Engaging Peace intern, Sarah Mensch, who intends to be an active supporter of the March for Our Lives movement.

By Sarah Mensch

“…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff… that’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, chapter 22

A little over a year ago, I began working with Kathie Malley Morrison exploring the effect of the media on gun violence. During that time, 17 children were shot and killed in school shootings. Since then, 50 more children have been shot and killed at school. Fifteen of them (and two teachers) were victims of the shooting in Parkland.

Students around the nation walked out of their schools in solidarity with the students of MSDHS on March 14, standing outside for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims of the shooting. Adults asked their children to “Walk up, not out”— to talk to the student who eats alone, to smile and wave to the “loner kid.” to be so kind to any potential shooters that they do not become  actual shooters. It’s important to encourage children to reach out to each other, and doing so would probably decrease violence, depression, and self-harm. But adults telling children to be kind and not to protest is adults telling children that it’s their job to keep themselves safe during shootings, not adults’ job to keep shootings from happening to them. That’s a mistake.

It’s children’s job to learn how to be good adults. It’s adults’ job to keep children safe. So on Saturday, I will march in The March for Our Lives to take responsibility as an adult, because I will not accept that the government isn’t doing everything they can to disarm harmful people and to protect our children. The numbers over the last few years and especially over the past few months have made it clear that legislators have no intention of making children’s lives safer; between the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 and the five year anniversary of the shooting in 2017, 382 pro-gun bills passed in various states’ legislatures.  The responsibility of keeping our children safe from gun violence has fallen to us, the voters. So, I will march.