Portland observer., June 08, 2022, Page 5, Image 5

June 08, 2022
Page 5
‘Put Gun Control on the Ballot’
Continued from Front
mit database, and would pro-
hibit magazines of more than
10 rounds.
Rabbi Michael Cahana, also a
chief petitioner, raised his voice
in anguish over the great toll of
mass shootings.
“How long, oh Lord, how long
do we have to endure? How long
do we have to gather together
after another mass murder? Of
children, of people in the grocery
store, people going about their
ordinary lives, wiped out at the
hands of a murderer using weap-
ons of war,” he said. “How long?
Dr. King told us not long.”
Cahana said we must not treat
these killings as normal and said
we must make changes to make
a difference.
“Thoughts and prayers are not
enough,” he said. “Action is what
is needed right now and we are
going to act.”
Gun control laws work, Caha-
na said, and are effective not only
against mass murder, but also
against murders and suicides that
happen every day.
Photo by Beverly Corbell/The Portland Observer
Black activist and musician Marilyn Keller, one of the three chief
petitioners seeking a gun control measure on the November 2022
general election ballot, shares her disgust with gun deaths during
a rally for Lift Every Voice Oregon at Augustana Lutheran Church in
northeast Portland.
“Guns and gun violence is an
everyday occurrence and these
laws have been proven to make a
difference, to make sure that the
people who shouldn’t have guns
to not have access to those guns,”
he said. “To help responsible gun
owners use their guns effectively.
We can't just stand idly by and
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watch our children be murdered.
We have to act.”
Rev. Mark Knutson, the third
chief petitioner, moderated the press
conference and opened it by saying
that love is active, not passive.
“We are here because we have
been mourning and weeping, and
we cannot imagine what the fam-
ilies are going through. But as
parents we know how we would
feel,” he said.
Another speaker, Rev. Andrea
Cano, interim president of Ec-
umenical Ministries of Oregon,
said she can’t count the times “we
have gathered together like this,
imploring our elected officials
and imploring one another to take
steps for gun control.”
But the fact that the petition
could be on the ballot is inspir-
ing other states, and has received
many emails from other ecumen-
ical executives, Cano said.
“They are curious and hoping
that we will succeed with what
we’re doing. They’re in that fight
with us today.”
Cano said she was wearing
purple, the color of mourning,
and at times speaking in Spanish,
noted that most of the children
killed in Uvalde, Texas had His-
panic surnames.
“Uvalde is our Sandy Hook,”
she said. “So I ask, I implore not
only the Latino community, but
all our communities to sign these
petitions as soon as possible, to
help fund this process, to be in-
volved in this process, from one
end of the state to the other.
“My prayer is that we no long
continue to be contradictory and
complicit,” she continued. “If we
don’t sign those signatures, we
are complicit.”
Speaker after speaker spoke
with raw emotion about the mass
murders and the need to take ac-
tion, and Knutson called for the
Augustana Peace Bell to toll 21
times for all the lives lost in Texas.
“Our nation is in jeopardy to-
day,” said Rev. Linda Jaramillo,
past chair of Ecumenical Minis-
tries of Oregon. “Weapons of war
do not belong in our homes, on our
streets, in our communities and in
this state. We must lift every voice
and say no more. The soul of this
nation depends on it.”
And Rev. Cecil Prescod of
Ainsworth United Church of Christ
had strong words for legislators.
“It’s blasphemy for using
prayers to hide while you won’t
pass laws to keep our kids from
dying,” he said. “We will offer
our thoughts and prayers, but we
expect you to legislate, to make
policy and to change. How much
more can we bear, oh Lord, how
much more can we endure?”