This is not a post about politics. We appreciate that ElderChicks come in all political stripes and sizes. We’re about other things, like meeting the present and future with spirit, and learning from and supporting each other. But we also are mindful that younger people do look to us as role models. Can we show them that we are concerned about their future and the future of their children?
I want to help make America a safer place to live for the beautiful little children I see walking into the preschool on my block, and for the police who risk their lives every day to protect us. I don’t want just anyone to be able to carry a concealed weapon into a bar, restaurant, or onto a college campus. And I definitely don’t want the kind of gun used in Tucson so tragically to be available to anyone.
Like you, I feel the need to do something specific and practical with my sorrow on this awful occasion. The nonpartisan Brady Campaign argues for sanity, not for taking away any sane person’s rights. I hope you’ll join me in donating to their work. You can link to their site: www.BradyCampaign.org/donate.
ElderChicks 
Bravo, Thelma! You wrote an excellent statement, cogent, coherent, and compassionate. I’ve been a [necessarily] small supporter of the Brady bill for a long time. The so-called arguments against what seems so clearly a reasonable attitude toward gun possession infuriate me to the point of wanting to shoot somebody [which is why we need stricter laws]. The idea that people NEED to have access to weapons of mass destruction and to carry concealed weapons, etc., is so patently ridiculous that it boggles the mind.
Keep up the good work, kid. Here’s to us.
Rita
Thank you, Rita. I believe we’ve met here in the east. I’m glad you are in a state (both in the geographical and the mental sense) that keeps your darker impulses in check. We really do have to get together on the side of sanity.
No question, brava Thelma. And brava you, too, my dear Rita, for your great response. I find it difficult to subdue my anger and rage, yes that, against the NRA, its supporters and anyone whose occupation has to do with armaments of any kind–such as that shop in San Diego called “Guns R Us.” I will send a check to the Brady Campaign immediately.
Thelma, I wish I had heard this said as eloquently by the talking heads who shout at each other on the media.
I really do think it is the media who bear much of the blame for legitimizing all the hatred that spews forth at political rallies and town hall meetings. The stuff gains “truthiness” through the media’s endless repetitions, using their broadcast megaphones. Why do they do it? Because they are slaves to the ratings game. I wish they had a worthier master.
Thanks very much, Thelma, for your sane and incisive statement. While it’s true that the nation’s political rhetoric has reached an alarming level, that rhetoric is not the main culprit in events like the tragedy in Tucson. The reason the United States has so many more deplorable events like this one than other countries is that we have much easier access to guns.
Like you, I support the Brady campaign and have done so for years, but I confess that I’m increasingly discouraged that they haven’t accomplished more. When even horrific events like the shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Tucson (and so many others) don’t make people see the need to limit access to firearms, I don’t know what will. But I’m glad you spoke out.