Newsletter - March
13, 2001
Day of National Concern for 2002
Next October 24 will be this year’s Day of National Concern about Young
People and Gun Violence. As always, we tried to think of any potential conflicts
and have ruled out all the ones we can think of. Once again, the date will
fall within National School Safety Week.
A few pledge tallies for 2001 are still coming
in, but the current number is 1,797,641, and, at this point, it will probably
not go much higher. Although this is a smaller number of reported pledges
than we had in 2001, I was actually surprised at the strong participation
of last fall, given the Day of National Concern’s proximity to 9/11.
Some highlights from last year
In this newsletter, I want to report on some
of last October’s highlights and begin the process of exchanging ideas for
next October’s observance.
First of all, a sobering thought: Assuming mortality
rates that are approximately the same as those of the last year for which
we have figures (1999), more than three times the number of Americans have died
by gunshot on our own streets and in our own homes since 9/11 than perished
in the deadly terrorist attacks. Although gun deaths are down in this country (and
the rate of gun deaths among young people has fallen more dramatically in
recent years than for the population at large), it remains a devastating
problem.
Some of last October’s Day of National Concern
highlights included the following:
-
High
school students in Florida gave hundreds of their signed pledges
to two families in their community who had lost a young person due to gun
violence. Giving
their pledges to the families was intended as a mark of sympathy and commitment: that
the students were going to work to prevent other families from experiencing
similar tragedies.
-
In San
Diego, all 700 public schools, working with the Tariq Khamisa Foundation,
took part in the Day of National Concern. After Tariq Khamisa was
shot and killed in San Diego in 1995, his father, Azim,
began working with the grandfather of his son’s killer to carry the message
that people at both ends of the gun are destroyed by violence and that
reconciliation, not vengeance, leads to healing. Videos about the Khamisa
family’s loss and message were shown in every school.
-
In Chicago,
the planning group for the Day of National Concern included the Youth Investigative
Services of the Chicago Police Department, Miss Illinois, the Cook County
Board of Commissioners, the Mayor’s Office, HELP for Survivors, the Chicago
Public Schools, the Uhlich Children’s Home, and
Chicago rock music station, WBBM 96. For the sixth year in a row, B-96
devoted an hour of commercial-free time to a call-in radio show about young
people
and gun violence, including a segment in which Mayor Richard Daley invited
all the students within the sound of his voice to join him in an oral recitation
of the Pledge Against Gun Violence. Miss Illinois
visited Chicago-area schools to carry the message that settling personal
problems with guns isn’t cool.
-
At
their October 17 exhibition game, the Minnesota Timberwolves hosted
a ten-minute ceremony honoring students in Minnesota and nationally who
had signed the Pledge. The Timberwolves also obtained
corporate funding for posters and billboards featuring Kevin Garnett and
Minnesota students wearing Pledge t-shirts. The posters and billboards
say “Shoot Hoops, Not Each Other. Sign the Pledge.” The posters were
sent to every school in the state and displayed on all metro transit buses.
-
Also
in Minnesota, TIME-Warner Cable and the Minnesota US. Attorney’s
Office worked together to get the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence public
service announcement high-visibility air time. It was seen by hundreds
of thousands of viewers of local and cable stations.
-
Teenwebtalk.com,
a national internet-based broadcast for teens, devoted most of October
17 to Student Pledge events taking place around the country. Students
called in before the Day of Concern to record messages and on the 17th to
talk about their schools’ activities.
-
Elementary-school
children in Georgia,
to raise awareness of the toll of gun violence, attempted to get into
the Guinness
Book of World Records for forming the world’s largest hug. Their theme
for the week surrounding the Day of National Concern was “Hugs Instead
of Guns.”
-
A
junior high in Washington state brought 650
students and staff members together on their football field to form a giant
human heart. Formation of the heart, a moment of silence, and a reaffirmation
of their pledges against gun violence took place in remembrance of those
students who have been affected by gun violence in places across America.
-
In Milwaukee,
a coordinator circulated a list of speakers to schools that had expressed
an interest in inviting speakers for the Day of Concern. The coordinator
then helped match speakers with schools.
Planning for October 24, 2002
There are two things that those of you who will
be taking part in Day of Concern activities might want to begin thinking
about this spring:
- Urge teachers and principals in your
community to look at the curriculum ideas suggested by the VOW Project
and listed in condensed form on our website (www.pledge.org)
as well as more expansively on theirs (www.ivow.net).
Or print them out and take them to your schools so that the Day of Concern
takes place in a thoughtful context, supported by relevant academic curriculum. (It
will also reassure teachers to know that they can weave Day of Concern
activities into their regular academic work.) It will be a lot easier
for teachers to support the Day of Concern activities throughout the curriculum
if they have plenty of time to think ahead and concrete ideas to consider. And
for elementary-aged children, Sherri Chessen’s book, The Gorp’s Gift,
has an excellent teacher’s guide, with rich suggestions for classroom activities. It
can be ordered by calling 1-888-729-4677.
- If you want to order Pledge t-shirts
and/or Pledge buttons, the following places offer very reasonable rates: Odditees,
in Minneapolis, can be reached by e-mail at oddities@bitstream.net or
by calling Joni at (612) 781-0550. Their fax number is (612) 781-0727. Twelve-year-old
Alex Garver makes 1 ¾ inch buttons with the Pledge
logo on them. He will fill orders as small as 25 or as large as several
hundred, and he can be reached at buttonchief@aol.com
You may well have local sources for such things,
but both Odditees and Button Chief already have
the Pledge logo on file, and their prices are extremely reasonable.
Some final thoughts
Finally, on a more philosophical note: I have
just started reading a book called The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. It
discusses the way in which small changes lead to epidemics of change, and
I believe that it has applicability to what we are trying to accomplish with
the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence.
Just as vaccinations have a multiplication effect
that goes beyond those who receive them, so too can the young people involved
in taking the Pledge have an influence on the health and safety of their
peers, even beyond those who take part directly. With vaccinations, each
protected person provides one less source for contagion from a serious disease. With
the Student Pledge, each young person who pledges to be part of reversing
the culture of gun violence in this country becomes one fewer “carrier” of
the deadly virus of violence.
Occasionally, I am asked why we should introduce
the Pledge Against Gun Violence even to kids who
would never think of solving a personal dispute or problem with a gun. To
which I reply that we give vaccinations to those who are healthy in order
to keep them from becoming sick – not to those who are already sick.
My hope for this student gun violence prevention
campaign is that the accumulation of young people who have taken part in
it will reach a critical mass – a “tipping point” of no return, after which
a whole generation will be empowered to see themselves as effective agents
of change.
The more widely the campaign is publicized, the
more students will see themselves as taking part in something big –
with national importance. I hope that we can, in the coming weeks and months,
exchange ideas for attracting news stories about the Day of National Concern
and what it means so that we give attention and weight to the accumulation
of good decisions made by young people.
I want to express thanks for all the many national
educational groups that have continued to publicize the Student Pledge throughout
their networks. And I want to thank new supporters such as the American
Academy of Pediatrics, which last year provided a link to the Student Pledge
web site. This is truly a grassroots observance in which everyone can play
a role: parents, teachers, community members, and – most importantly – young
people themselves.
Let us know how we can support your efforts,
and please continue to share your creative ideas for widening and deepening
this national observance.
With all best wishes,
Mary Lewis Grow
National Coordinator
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