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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2000)
Mothers' activism takes aim By Amy Westfeldt The Associated Press SHORT HILLS, N.J. — It took an unforgettable image of young children escaping a racist gun man to transform Donna Dees Thomases from a wealthy subur ban mother into a grassroots activist. The image was from Aug. 10, when a white supremacist opened fire on a Jewish Commu nity Center in Granada Hills, Calif. Dees-Thomases was flipping channels when she saw the video of children the same age as her daughters crossing the street hand-in-hand with police offi cers. “These were my kids crossing the street,” Dees-Thomases said. “My kids go to-a JCC. Anybody could walk in. It was just crazy.” One week later, Dees Thomases registered a Web site and launched the Million Mom March campaign. The grassroots effort is expected to become the nation’s largest gun control demonstration to date. The Mother’s Day rally is ex pected to draw 100,000 people to the National Mall in Washing ton, D.C. Other demonstrations are scheduled in 20 cities nation wide, including Tulsa, Okla., Los Angeles, Denver and Portland, Ore. The group is pressing Con gress for stricter gun control, in cluding measures to require all handgun owners be licensed and registered, require built-in child safety locks and limit handgun purchases to one per month. “Mothers are certainly an im portant voice in this debate, and they are a voice that has not been very strong until this point,” said Shannon Frattaroli, researcher at the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins Uni versity. National Rifle Association spokesman Bill Powers said the organization was unconcerned about the appeal of the May 14 rally. “It is one of the great freedoms of America” to express oneself politically, he said. Prior to the Granada Hills shooting, Dees-Thomases con sidered herself rather apolitical. Today, her cluttered basement office is adorned by bright pink posters and T-shirts reading, “We’re looking for a few good moms.” Dees-Thomases, a part-time publicist for David Letterman’s late-night talk show, chose the name Million Mom March to borrow on the success of the Mil lion Man March rally for black empowerment in Washington in 1995, and the subsequent Mil lion Youth March. The campaign has grown — mostly by word of mouth — to at least 500 mothers working out of their homes and out of an office in Washington, D.C. The group also has received a $300,000 grant from the Fun ders' Collective for Gun Violence Prevention, part of the nonprofit Open Society Institute estab lished by billionaire George Soros. It also sells T-shirts for $25, the same price as an annual NRA membership. “This is just common sense. These are handguns,” she said. “This is just stuff that should have been done 25 years ago.” O Q rnmrn of UO students drink 1 or fewer days a week... or don't drink at all New View 2000 Office of Student life
