Ceasefire
CW: Kate Madison wrote this comment today. I'm repurposing it as a post for reasons that will be obvious when you read it.
By Kate Madison
Picking up on the gun control comment section of yesterday: I am a member of Central Coast Oregon Ceasefire--a local group of gun control activists (mostly women, ahem!), which is affiliated with the Oregon chapter, and more loosely with the national chapter. We are said to be the most active and involved local chapter in the nation, and I believe it.
First of all, Central Coast Oregon is "purple," thanks to the old hippies who live in Newport--but we are in the middle of Bright Red 2nd Amendment crazies. We sponsored a gun "buy-back" in Newport in April, but changed the title to gun "turn-in" when the local police got nervous. We held our "turn-in" at the Newport Police Station, under the direction of the Police Chief. CCCO members were not allowed to touch the guns being turned in (for vouchers at local businesses), which would be melted down to sell. So we kept track of the number of guns--an amazing 345, in a small city of 12,000--and issued the vouchers. I was one of the volunteers and I learned a lot about tragedy and crazy.
First of all, when I arrived at the Police Station on a chilly, rainy Saturday AM, there were already over 100 people waiting on the steps for the Police Dept. to open. These were the "protesters," who had come from not just Oregon--but Nevada, Idaho, Montana and even Wyoming--to meet people who had come to turn in their guns-- before they got in the doors--and to offer them a higher price. They carried posters which touted the 2nd amendment, and portrayed us as "Pussies on Crime, etc." (As I walked in, they chanted, whistled and gave obscene gestures.) I felt like an employee at an abortion clinic in Kansas.
That we actually got 345 guns is nothing short of amazing, because these protesters were quite verbal and pushy with people trying to get in the doors. I talked with all of them, and every person turning in a gun referred to personal experience with gun violence. One person had accidentally shot and killed a friend while cleaning his gun. All had become believers in the necessity of strict gun control and felt hopeless about our government ever doing the right thing.
I tell you this, because I am a believer, obviously, in the necessity of gun control and will continue my work against most odds--except in Oregon. We are lucky right now to have a Democratic governor and a totally Democratic legislature--albeit with a lot of Blue Dogs. Two weeks ago they passed a Universal Background Checks bill and this week a Domestic Violence bill (which includes banning gun possession by abusers). Our Democratic representative joined our Ceasefire celebration last Sunday and regaled us with stories about the hate mail he has received--from all over the U.S.
However.....this is a start. I am not hopeful that this legislation will be the answer to gun violence in Oregon, but it is a beginning. The sad part to me is that it has taken a completely Democratic controlled state to get ANYTHING passed.
America is to me the land of deliberately missing the point. Sad.
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Reader Comments (9)
Kate,
You are correct, of course, that many people are missing the point. I think that the reason the point is missed is because of Fear, the umbrella under which any right wing orientation stands. That fear then manifests in avarice, hate (of Self and Others) and, all the other negative thoughts and behaviors that have formed a cycle of fear ~ fed upon by the right wing marketing machine.
Kate, you are a bright light doing your part to help break that cycle of fear ~ you touched 345 people (in one event and one day), not to mention the effect you had on those with whom you had contact. You are joined, in spirit, by many other people who are also doing what they can, at their local level, to disperse the cycle of fear.
Thank you!
Remember The Supremes!
Just over the weekend two more stories making headlines:
(On HuffPost) Shooting At Detroit Basketball Court During Block Party..."One person was killed and nine others wounded Saturday night when someone opened fire at a neighborhood block party."
In Philly: Man Toting Shotgun Opens Fire on Block Party, at Least 7, Including 18-Month-Old, Hurt
Read more: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaking/Ogden-STreet-Shooting-308747231.html
And Congress basically remains silent in the face of all this
and what happened in Charleston. We all thought Newtown would make a difference...weren't we naive?
It will probably take something happening to Congressional members or their own families before any of them wake up and act. Open carry, concealed carry...it is madness what is taking place what is going on nationwide.
BRAVA! Kate–––good for you trying to rid our gun holders from brandishing their weapons––just in case. There's nothing like the actual experience of having to deal with the cat calls––the "Pussies in Crime" crowd––to FEEL the vitriol that those lovers of phallic "machinas" harbor in their hearts. I would think that kind of thing would strengthen your resolve even more. We thank you for what you are doing and thanks for writing about it.
Kate,
Your description sounds exactly like the kind of unhinged, livid--I can't even call them protesters; they're not protesting, they're demanding, ordering, insulting, threatening--card carrying Confederates who, in a country of great diversity of races, belief systems, dreams, political persuasions, sexual orientation, educational achievement, and economic security, find it not just difficult but impossible to abide those who think and act differently from themselves.
The natural reluctance of conservatives to accept change has been monstrously morphed from understandable foot-dragging to hateful obduracy that sees any and all real or perceived differences of opinion as murderous and unacceptable attacks on their worldview. You could tell us the technical term for this, but it comes across as an extreme form of paranoia.
The change from standard conservatism to unreasoning hatred has been pushed by the fact of the above mentioned differences and the stern activism from media like Fox, abetted immeasurably by even harsher voices online, and cynical and opportunistic, political forces all of whom have been telling their constituents that these different types are out to get them, out to destroy them, to warp, deceive, and beggar their children, and that nothing they do to resist these evil forces is out of bounds. Even, as we saw this week, mudering innocents. Make no mistake, Dylann Roof was not reading the Times or watching PBS news. He had it drilled into him that "those people" have taken over and it was up to loyal Confederates to take back America. Each and every speaker at the last GOP national convention said so. And they have not deviated from that deceit.
It's a zero sum game for these people, who have been told not to give an inch, to die rather than let "the other side" win (see: cold dead hands rhetoric) which is why they'll drive hundreds of miles to scream epithets at people exercising their civil rights (there are no rights for their enemies, they are all illegitimate. Sean Hannity said so) and call them "pussies". You know when things descend to the level of sixth grade insults, they got absolutely nothin'.
But this paranoia runs deep, and even in the face of facts completely opposite of the story they're being sold by winger pols and Confederate media, the events in Chareston have been twisted to demonstrate, once again, that THEY are the victims here.
Light in the tunnel? Shit, we don't even have a tunnel.
That Confederate flag in SC isn't "heritage," it was a protest against integration. In fact, it didn't show up until 1963, about the same time it showed up in other southern states. We in Georgia still have a Confederate flag on our state flag, just not the stars and bars.
Heritage my ass. Heritage if you mean white supremacy.
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That Confederate flag in SC isn't "heritage," it was a protest against integration. In fact, it didn't show up until 1963, about the same time it showed up in other southern states. We in Georgia still have a Confederate flag on our state flag, just not the stars and bars.
Heritage my ass. Heritage if you mean white supremacy.
Well done and said, Kate! Thanks.
I wish I lived in Oregon. Those of us in titular blue states and in red states are feeling pretty desperate, and YOU are actually doing something. You are to be congratulated and huzzah-ed...bless you and your work. I have to think it will be better for our children.
Kate,
Thank you, these last many weeks we have been working in RI to remove guns from domestic abusers and to prevent concealed permit carriers from bringing guns into our schools. This has involved meetings, house parties, rallies, lobbying and testifying. The end result has been that our Speaker of the House Mattiello has refused to let this out of the judiciary committees for a vote since he "claims that debating these issues, "sucks all the air out of the room", when we need to pass more important issues." [from the RI Coalition Against Gun Violence and previously reported in the Providence Journal. Apparently Mattiello is still standing by his initial statement]. If he allows another hearing on guns in schools I will give a prepared statement to another MOM to read. I'll be in Maine sitting in a kayak getting up enough energy to start this over again. By the way Mattiello is a Democrat in name only with an A rating from the NRA. Kate, your work in Oregon gives me great hope.