Giffords

Los Angeles, California

Last night we joined our friends, Connie and Curt, and attended the Giffords Second Annual Los Angeles Event in Beverly Hills. For us, it was the first annual. I received an invitation after supporting Giffords throughout the past few years. I feel gun control is right up there at the top of the issues that need support and I am happy to contribute to them. And... the event was very nice! It began with a cocktail reception and dinner on the patio of The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts located on at Canon Drive and what is known by Angelenos as 'little' Santa Monica Boulevard. 

It was a warm Spring evening in LA and being outside was pleasant. And the food was kinda really good. Not the drawing point of the event, but it added something special to the purpose of why we were there. Joel had a beer and I ended up having two glasses of Whispering Angel rosé before we entered the theater to hear the heartbreaking stories of people who have lost loved ones to the senseless tragedy of gun violence. Senseless and rampant. I have written before about how this has impacted me (see post entitled: Borderline), and could write more about why I think this is continuing, and increasingly happening in the United States. Why the shooters are predominantly young. And almost always male. There have been articles explaining this much better than I can here. And there are a lot of theories including the culture of social media creating a lack of social skills, a certain hierarchy in dating culture, anger, and isolation. And the opportunity to acquire assault weapons. It is for the sociologists to figure this out, law enforcement to work on prevention, and the courts to enact consequential justice.

What is left to us is the responsibility to do everything we can to at least curtail these incidents, even if we can't stop them. In addition to these heartrending stories were the stories from Giffords organizers telling us how much has been accomplished by the organization. Much more than I was actually aware. I did some research before I decided to support Giffords. I had also wanted to support Sandy Hook Promise. And of course there are the Marjorie Stoneman kids who are now adults, and the parents and siblings who recently lost those kids in Uvalde, Texas in an intensely horrific manner. All deserve our support, but I decided that Giffords, with the Congressional connections she and Mark Kelly have, had the most potential for real legislative movement on the issue. I don't know how much my support helps, but I fervently feel that somehow, some day, this all must stop.

April 24th is a day in the memory of both Connie and myself. She lost her mother on that date. And, it was my father's birthday. The last birthday I celebrated with my dad was his 83rd. Connie and I were lucky. We lost our parents in the course of medical care at fairly advanced ages. All four of our parents passed away non-violently. But I have had other violence in my life, and can attest to the longevity of the damage. You live with it. It simply does not go away. Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly are a testament to this. The thing I noticed about them is that he never took his hand off of her. Whether she was speaking, or he was speaking, his hand was on her shoulder, her knee, or holding her hand. It touched my heart. I don't think a photo exists of my parents where my father did not have his hand on my mother. So, for me, there was a connect-the-dots between this event and the date.

Giffords deserves the support we gave it last night. Even without the lovely dinner on the pretty patio, I would contribute to continue this fight. We are living in a time when our civil rights are being threatened and taken away. That is hard and horrible. But death from gun violence is hard, horrible, and reprehensible. We must do everything we can to eliminate this threat from our schools, churches, theaters, stores, and all of the other places it has occurred. When will enough truly be enough?