Fed Up Friday: It’s Time to Mom Up! Against Violence

As much as the tragedy in Tucson is about the dangers of extremism, vitriolic political rhetoric, homegrown terrorism, and media outlets challenged by the notion of unbiased, accurate, objective and informed news, it is also about the plague of violence in this country; specifically, gun violence.

This is not about amending the second amendment; lay back down Charlton Heston. This is about:We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This is about a congressional member doing her part to form a more perfect union by bringing the government to the people at their local supermarket. This is about justice for and the loss of domestic tranquility by a third grader, a community outreach worker and an elderly church leader. This is about the notion that common defense should be prescribed by those who shout the loudest (and sound the stupidest), and by those who have turned the word welfare into a privilege abused by those who they say are not the people. This is about liberty being for all and our collective legacy as a nation. Not the one we wished we had by whitewashing classic literature or by not reading aloud the three-fifths compromise in the constitution to present a blemish-free America, but the story of a nation that when confronted with its worst rises to the challenge of making it better.

This is about mothers having to Mom Up and say enough. Enough. We have been given the greatest responsibility on the planet—the care of life. And no matter our journey to motherhood, here we all are. From Tucson to Toledo, New York City to New Orleans, Daytona to Denver we all want our children to be happy, healthy and safe. And where Sarah Palin and I have about as much in common as The Queen of England and Snookie from The Jersey Shore, with her being a hockey mom and me being a football mom, even Sarah, in all her maverick magnificence, agrees that moms stand in the gap: “I'm just one of many moms who'll say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm's way," she said, when discussing her son’s deployment to Iraq during her speech in the 2008 vice presidential debate. Sadly, though, for too many mothers just the very act of their children leaving the house is going into harm’s way.

Enough.

We, as a community of mothers, have to begin to dialogue with each other on the presence of violence in our children’s lives and its resulting impact, so that we can begin to shape a much needed national discussion. As a community, we have to examine our own desensitization to what has become commonplace. Finally, we have to collectively hold those we vote into office accountable for the culture of fear that has become so pervasive that gun stores across the country saw their inventory sold out in the immediate wake of the incident in Tuscon.  Whether through prayer, petition or organized protest—which is the first amendment, now is the time for moms to stand up together and say enough. Now is the time to Mom Up.

Are you Mom enough?