I got an email from an old neighbor from some 20 years ago. Twenty. Way back when I was the young mom in Bath Ohio, had three kids under three feet tall, pregnant with the fourth, and desperate for a good babysitter and her daughter came to our rescue. Back in 1999, Columbine happened and I sat, pregnant, crying, staring at the tv, wondering how in the world a kid could
The POTUS and the Professor
It’s been a good month for GVP (gun violence prevention). A really good month. Executive actions. Town Hall meetings. Scumbags getting fired. First, the President of the United States, affectionately acronymed POTUS, details executive orders that may indeed give the gun lobby, and by extension, Congress exactly what they’ve asked for: enforcing existing laws. Ensure dangerous, mentally ill cannot access weapons, which may curtail a suicide. Or two. Or 10,000. Then POTUS had
How to call congress about anything
GOOD NEWS!! Bipartisan federal legislation has been reintroduced for federal background checks on all gun sales, even those sneaky ones at gun shows, on the internet, and in the Pennysaver. (Am I dating myself? Or is Craigslist the new Pennysaver?) Either way, you want a firearm, you gotta pass a background check. Duh. Got a problem with that? Many paranoid patriots will, make no mistake about it: they’ll work like crazy to
Are you registered to vote?
It’s National Voter Registration Day, so make sure you are registered so you can vote … and complain if need be, cuz if you don’t vote, don’t kvetch. And ask around and make sure your friends and neighbors are registered as well because it’s actually true: every vote does indeed count. It matters. It matters more than money, more than signs, more than anything. “The only thing that stops a bad guy
The Power of Nobody
I’m nobody and don’t pretend to be anything I’m not. Recently, I’ve been thinking there’s a whole lot of nobodys out there, and if we could all get together and decide to do something, we’d be somebody. Wow. That sounds like some pretty serious late night, smokin’ discussion on third floor of the mighty, mighty Sig Tau house back in the 80s. (Or so I’ve heard.) So I jumped at
Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk
So guess what I did this weekend? I closed my eyes, and jumped. You gotta start somewhere, so I started this weekend. I took my one-woman, unaffiliated, non-partisan GVP (gun violence prevention) show on the road, and spoke about life as I live it in Newtown, Connecticut at the 2nd Annual Walk Over The Hudson for Gun Sense, sponsored by the hard working advocates from upstate New York chapter of
They Came, They Listened, They’ll Vote
The first mom arrived promptly, walked to the front door, looking confused. “Do I have the right night?” she asked politely. I invited her in. “You never know how these things go. Might just be you, me, and a couple bottles of wine.” “Works for me!” she said. But I was nervous, and she knew it. “It’ll be okay. Everything will work out. Even if it is just you and me,