Letter to the Editor, Patriot-News
05.24.00
Million Moms Misunderstood

For days, The Patriot-News has been running editorial on the Million Mom March that is muddying what was, on Mother’s Day in D.C., crystal clear water.

John Troutman, city/business editor, editorialized on May 18 that the March was "well intentioned but misguided and hysterical." Mr. Troutman, where exactly were you on May 14? Obviously not in Washington, D.C. If you had been, you would have seen nothing even remotely hysterical (which in itself is a term men use to belittle women with opinions). In fact, for the first time in decades, moms seized the holiday back from Hallmark and protested against violence — the initial purpose of Mother’s Day. They did so with dignity and compassion. They did so with reasonable demands for more safety regulation, not a ban on guns.

And Troutman’s solution to the problem of violence? "There was a lot less violence when … principals hauled out the paddle." Well, probably so. There were a lot fewer guns on the streets in 1950. But doling out violence in the schools? Two wrongs? Who’s misguided?

Then, on May 23, an OpEd piece by Thomas Sowell, fellow at the Hoover Institute of Stanford University, appeared in The Patriot-News with the headline, "Gun march was based on deceit." "It was not a march," wrote Sowell, "nor were there a million moms." Now, Dr. Sowell, please listen. "Million" is an ongoing goal, and though the participants may not have numbered a million in the first year, 750,000 wasn’t a bad first attempt, and if you add in the rallies in other cities, the number did approach that magic million. Furthermore, "march," "rally," whatever. Let’s not split hairs.

Secondly, Sowell faulted gun control advocates for citing statistics only on Western European countries when comparing gun laws and related deaths with those in the U.S. "There are other countries with tougher gun control laws than ours," he wrote, "and whose murder rates are several times what ours are — Brazil and Russia, for example." Okay, point taken. But comparing the U.S. and Russia or Brazil is a bit like the old apples and oranges thing, wouldn’t you say?

What other country in the world is as large and as free as America? Are not our problems specific to ourselves because of our uniqueness?

The moms were out there with spouses and children to educate, not repress. One sign read, "We have the right to bear — and keep — children." What’s more American than working publicly to draw attention to a national dilemma?

So quit with the patronizing rhetoric. This rally wasn’t about curbing rights, it was about protecting them.

Respectfully yours,

Lisa E. Paige-Stone, Ph.D.
Editor, Mode Weekly

A reasonably sane letter wouldn’t you say? I believe 100% that there is a conspiracy to usurp the good intentions of a motivated group of moms not willing to cough up the millions of "lobbying" dollars it really takes to get the attention of our elected public officials. But instead, they band together to illustrate how much they just want to keep the millions of kids they already have... alive.

Read on. It’s good for you.

Scot Giambalvo