For us, critical mass for action on gun carnage came long ago. But perhaps, just perhaps, this moment in time is spurring enough recognition among enough people of all stripes to make a difference.
It’s not as if the random shooting of innocents is anything new. But the middle of April brought something that seems to have created a special level of community disgust — when ringing a doorbell, turning a car around in the wrong driveway, playing on one’s own front lawn or mistakenly entering the wrong car, was enough to trigger gunfire and grievous injury or death. Finally, there was a growing sense that weapons and paranoia had truly run amok.
Will we see real progress in beating back the uniquely American scourge of death and damage caused by fetishizing weapons at the expense of ever-more young and old alike? Will popular outrage trump vested and moneyed interests in the gun lobby? We will do everything we can to make it so.
There is positive action afoot across the country — though opposing forces are agonizingly strong.
The Tennessee statehouse erupted after the sickening gun violence that claimed the lives of three children and three adults at a church school. The protests, and clamor for change, resulted in three legislators being censured, and two removed. But they were reinstated by their constituents within a week.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear was personally touched by gun violence when friends were killed at a bank shooting in Louisville. The suicidal perpetrator left a note, saying he wanted to show how easy it was to get a gun. It is an appalling, tragic fact that he took five others out with him to underline his point. We have been making the same point for more than a decade.
On a positive and personal front, in Colorado we were very moved and heartened to see our daughter honored when Governor Jared Polis signed the Jessi Redfield Ghawi Act (see more below).
We will always grieve that her name could not be associated with the kind of ground-breaking sports reporting she hoped to provide, or books, or even the day-to-day satisfactions of a life well-lived. But we do what we do in honor of her memory.
During the height of April, we were interviewed by Anderson Cooper and other outlets. The rest of the month has been busy from start to finish, and we’re fundraising to launch our mindfulness meditation programs for survivors in Mexico. If you can, please help!
In May, we’ll be celebrating Giffords’ 10-year anniversary. We couldn’t be happier to be in the orbit of such an inspiring and wonderful human being as Gabby Giffords, and involved with the organization she founded.
In this issue, we interview a schoolteacher-hero, Gary Bowden, who 25 years ago ran toward danger at Thurston High School in Oregon. The trauma will always be with him, but he continued to give love and guidance to students for years after the shooting, which changed his life forever.
No one provided Bowden with a roadmap for how to cope back then. A bit over a year ago, we decided to assemble resources that would be immediately available after a shooting to deal with the aftereffects. We urge any of you suffering from the impact of gun violence to consult our survivors’ toolkit, produced in tandem with Giffords. In next month's newsletter, we will begin highlighting sections.
We are thrilled to be spending a week at the Garrison Institute this June. Our meditation practice and workshops are bringing us there, and we can’t wait to spend the early part of June in dialogue with some of the best minds and spirits working to heal the world.
On another note, our new collaboration, The Forgotten Survivors of Gun Violence: Wounded, will be available in a few short weeks! It documents the lasting impact of gun violence on those who survive, but continue to bear the scars.
We wish you all peace, and we fervently wish for progress as we work for it.
In solidarity,
Sandy and Lonnie
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