Locals garner national support for day against violence

By Annalee Larson
Staff Writer

Two years ago while negotiating freeway traffic, the germ of an idea came to Northfielder Mary Lewis Grow. That idea was recently introduced on the Senate floor as Resolution 282 designating a "Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence."

On Nov. 7th high-school and middle-school students across the country will step towards ending gun violence in American schools. Friday, July 24, Senator Bill Bradley introduced the resolution which authorizes President Clinton to issue a proclamation "calling upon the school children of the United States to observe the day with appropriate activities." Students will have the chance to sign the pledge not to bring a gun to school or settle disputes with a gun.

Silent March

Grow said the idea of the pledge came to her in 1994 while working on the "silent march" (the 38,000 empty pairs of shoes around the reflecting pool in Washington D.C. representing the number of gun deaths in the nation in one year). Grow and other march volunteers wanted to connect other kids in some meaningful way to this day of of focus on the human toll of gun violence.

"So, as I was driving to this meeting," Grow explained, "the idea came of having a kind of contract that students could sign."

In explaining a pledge day, she said, "I've always believed that there's tremendous power in simultaneity -- doing the same thing at the same time as a large number of other people....that it might suggest to young people the power of actually living differently. It might empower them to know that they weren't making these decisions alone or in Mrs. Jones' social studies class. That they would be in the company of a large number of people in their age group." She noted that the pledge is, of course, voluntary and the number of signers, not the names of signers will be recorded.

First thinking with other volunteers on trying to blanket Minneapolis, and then Minnesota, the idea grew. "Wouldn't it be great if we could do it for the whole country," the mused, "and kids would know they were part of something really big."

Endorsement

Starting in late summer of 1994 with some of the national education organizations in Washington, Grow has since contacted and won the endorsement of several additional national education associations, the national League of Women Voters, Physicians for Social Responsibility, many national church boards along with the American Association of School Administrators. More than 15 groups so far.

Bradley's support

Needing someone of national prominence to kick this into public consciousness, Grow explained, by random chance in '94 after the silent march she first "flagged" Senator Bradley down while walking through the Senate hallway. Bradley had been moved by the silent march and took a copy of the pledge noting it as "really important".

The wheels of government move slowly. "It took a long time to figure out exactly how Bradley and how the Senate could help with this," Grow said, but the decision was to author a Senate resolution calling for a day of national concern on that day of the student pledge [sic]. Wanting this to be bipartisan, Bradley was able to enlist co-sponsorship of Senator Arlen Specter.

"That was very important," Grow noted, "because there were lots of Republicans, including the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, Rod Grams, Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond.... this seems to absolutely transcend politics, I think that everyone agrees that they don't want kids to have guns in school. They want kids to be safe."

Along with the three original co-sponsors, (Bradley, Specter, and Wellstone) 81 senators are additional co-sponsors.

Grow pointed out that gun violence is the leading cause of death for youth 15-25 in the United States. In eloquently introducing the resolution, Bradley was very clear that it wasn't about gun control, but about empowering kids to take individual responsibility that will save their lives. "Mr. President, this resolution does not concern itself with the issue of gun control," Bradley said, "It is designed simple for one purpose and one purpose only. That is to curb the epidemic of gun violence and its deadly consequences for America's young people."

Behind the scenes

Christie Clarke, who teaches seventh-grade art in Cannon Falls, is assisting behind the scenes in organizing the no-small task of the national drive.

"I've been interested in the issue of gun violence, Clarke said. "It seems to as an educator and a parent this seems a natural to be concerned about." Clarke, who all summer has been giving weekday mornings to the project, explained her commitment, "It seems that gun control is almost an impossible task in the political climate today...We needed to look at a different way of attacking this problem, and so Mary Lewis came up with this pledge. And it's so simple that it has its own beauty, I think. If kids can take this pledge and really get it ingrained into their minds as a right or wrong issue, then it may create a real shift in the way kids think about gun violence. There's nothing out there that's telling them not to do it. With the media the way it is today, it's really hard to counteract that."

Assisting Grow and Clarke is Mike Guanella, A Carleton senior who quit his summer job to create a World Wide Web site for the pledge. "It took about one day for me to make a decision. So in 24 hours I basically quit my job at Carleton, ran over to Mary Lewis and said 'I'll take the job.' Now its not just the web site, but behind the scenes, kind of the grunt work, setting up the computers, getting stuff out, making sure everything doesn't go up in our face.

"The web site is basically a comprehensive resource," Guanella explained..."everything...We have a copy of the pledge itself that people can download, information about Senator Bradley, the resolution. We also have ideas for educators to distribute this pledge, connections to other organizations that have endorsed the pledge. As this gets rolling we'll have media releases press kit photos and information that can be downloaded -- basically a comprehensive site that is regularly updated." The web site address is www.pledge.org.

Senator Bradley concluded his remarks supporting the pledge by saying, "A very simple idea. If adhered to, a very positive and successful idea."