On the first Friday of June, we honor those who have fallen to gun violence whether it is in a mass shooting, suicide, an accidental shooting, homicide or Dick Cheney mistaking your face for a duck. This is a tradition that dates back to 2015 and started with the friends of Hadiya Pendleton started wearing orange after her murder in 2013. You might remember her, she was part of a majorette drill team that performed at Obama’s second inauguration and three weeks later, she was shot dead because some gang bangers thought she and her friends were a rival gang as they took shelter from the rain in a park blocks from Obama’s home on the Southside of Chicago.
Since then the wear orange thing has been picked up by gun reform organizations. Here are some and what they’re doing:
WEAR ORANGE. In 2015, Wear Orange started wearing orange on Hadiya’s birthday, 2 June. They chose the first Friday for Gun Violence Awareness day and then the weekend following as the wear orange days just to help raise awareness of gun violence and its toll on the country. They chose orange because it is the color hunter’s wear to stay safe while hunting… unless Dick Cheney is in your hunting party, well, then all bets are off. At least, he’ll appear at your hospital beside (should you survive) and let you apologize to him for all the inconvenience his shooting you caused him. Of course, they sponsor events every year and have other ways you can participate. Hey, here’s an idea! If you do sumpthin, let us know about it in the comments, okay?
SANDY HOOK PROMISE. You remember Sandy Hook, right? The elementary school in which twenty first graders were shot dead along with six teachers and administrators as they cowered in their classroom. You know the incident that turned the hearts of Republican elected officials to stone as the possibility of all of their opportunities to make untold riches as paid mouths for the merchants of death would evaporate should their base be swayed by the useless sentimentality of protecting six year olds from gun violence by curtailing access to assault rifles. Anywho, the parents of those children started an organization to help promote a nation free of gun violence. Funnily enough, they participate in the #wearorange thing too, and ask you to social media with I #wearorange for __________. They have lots of ways of getting involved in the fight to end gun violence. It’s all just a click or two away!
EVERYTOWN USA. They include Shannon Watts‘ group, Moms Demand Action, a sub-group, Students Demand Action, and a focus group, the Survivors Network. In a bow to efficiency, their #wearorange links take you to the Wear Orange page.
Of course all of your favorite gun sense groups are sporting #wearorange events and sales. Look for them and let us know what you find in the comments.
Sadly, everybody knows somebody who has died from gun violence. We can all participate because it is just so widespread in the States.
Make sure EVERYBODY knows it is #wearorange weekend!
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Image Attribution
“Moms Demand Action Wear Orange Memorial, June 3, 2017” by Vermilion County Democratic Party is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
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Categories: Gun Violence
The Psy of Life 
Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Calico Jack – Time for Orange
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I suddenly wonder whether the writers of Orange Is The New Black were aware of this tradition. That title can certainly fit, black being (in Western traditions) the traditional color of mourning. At any rate, whether or not one may think it is time for prayers or policy, it can be time for Orange.
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Howdy Bob!
I wondered about the title, too, since none of the prisoners actually wore orange. I know it is the popular conceptualization that prisoners wear orange jumpsuits just like they used to wear horizontally striped suits. But, there was very little about gun violence in the show.
I had never heard of it before coming across it this year. Since then, Baader-Meinhof illusion. It’s everywhere. Maybe this time really will be different. Only the November election will tell.
Huzzah!
Jack
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There might be some, if perhaps slight, hope in this: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/06/1103252636/many-gun-owners-are-hesitant-to-express-support-for-stricter-gun-control-measure
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Howdy Bob!
Thanks for the link. It is encouraging, but I always think about how easy it is to tell a pollster that you support x, y, or z public policy, but vote for politicians who do the exact opposite. When gun voters become single issue voters or voters for the issues that correlate with gun reform, then we’ll get somewhere. When 76% of Republicans vote for Republicans who will vote for gun reform legislation, then we’ll get somewhere. As long as folks like Small are bought off with dog whistle fear mongering, we’re stuck with our gun inaction, especially considering that 40 some odd percent of Republicans think that mass shootings are part of what makes society free.
Huzzah!
Jack
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NYT’s “The Daily” had a good discussion on the hazards of believing polling on this subject yesterday. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/podcasts/the-daily/gun-control-polling.html
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Howdy Bob!
Glad to see someone has picked up on one of Ye Olde Blogge’s biggest points whether they give us credit or not!
I’ve gotten to the point where all I’m doing on social media is pointing out that if 80% of the population really supported a position, they’d vote like it.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Yes, the problems with polling have been so clear for so long, including the ease with which the results can be, and are often, manipulated in designing the questions, I often wonder why anybody relies on them.
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Howdy Bob!
I take most of my polling advice from FiveThirtyEight. They seem to have a good balance of poll interpretation and evaluation. Their approach is to look at polling averages of polls they deem to be high value and to never count the results of a single poll too heavily. Polling averages come a lot closer to capturing the “true” sentiment of the population.
That said, the 6 January hearings were illuminating in one small area that most of us overlooked. The fellow who called Arizona for Fox News said that they were evaluating how closely their unpublished poll was matching up with the actual vote. When it was being spot on, they knew the result of the election. That tells me that polling can be done well and more accurately than those that are published. I’m figuring that a lot of what is published for profit is done to attract readers and bost ad revenue rather than illuminate anything about public opinion or attitudes.
Huzzah!
Jack
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And the way to use a poll to attract readers and boost ad revenue is to make dramatic headlines.
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We live in the age of clickbait, god help us. It will be the death of us. That actually is the subject of a post I’m working on, “Humans are the problem. Our cognitive biases and heuristics may doom us all.” We just might not be capable of working in the best interest of us all, which may condemn us to ruin.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Quite possibly
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Politico weighs in on the same subject: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/7/2102822/-It-doesn-t-matter-what-Republicans-believe-or-think-What-matters-is-how-they-vote
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Howdy Bob!
I read the other day of a poll that reported that 30% of the respondents thought that political divisiveness was a major problem. That seems unbelievable to me. Hopefully, those that view it as problematic are moved to vote in greater numbers than those who don’t.
Most voting is driven by how much a person “likes” a certain politician rather than any actual beliefs. Most people will adjust their beliefs to match those of the politicians they like and never realize they’re doing it. Sad, but true.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The great worry among Democrats, and complaint among Republicans about Hilary was that she wasn’t “likeable”.
As for the divisiveness, we must remember that it is always the other party that is causing it.
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Howdy Bob!
I also read that it was 30% of Americans rated political divisiveness as among our top problems for the first time, so maybe it is a little more significant than my first read of it.
Women have a double whammy. They have to seem competent and likeable but not angry or uptight or bitchy or domineering. Men are assumed to be competent even when there is ample evidence that they aren’t and are given credit for being angry. They do not need to be likeable to be elected.
The problem with recognizing the Republicans as causing our divisiveness is that bothsideism is the default setting of most white Americans, especially the politically unaware and uninvolved.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I could start listing the profoundly un-likeable Republicans who have been elected in recent years. Perhaps, the last truly likeable GOP candidate for President was Eisenhower, but he also won an actual war. I was never able to fathom why so many liked Reagan (Oh, he was an actor.). Now, they can’t seem to get traction unless they are spitting mad angry.
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Howdy Bob!
I always liked John Anderson. He was perhaps the last likeable Republican on the national stage. Since Nixon, though, they’ve wanted people they can control at the top. They think they’ve got the election so rigged, though, that they don’t need to worry about electability. Look at the Texas GOP’s platform. Nothing but a direct appeal to the base. They don’t think they need swing voters.
Huzzah!
Jack
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They really do appear to be thinking that the single party pseudo democracy is as inevitable as the Second Coming (and, probably related to it).
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