A New Medium for Our Message
Dear Leading Ladies,
We are trying to be hopeful. We really are. But the deck is stacked against us. A mass shooting on the campus of Brown University. The murder of a professor at his home in Brookline. The murder, again by gunfire, of 15 Jewish people celebrating Hanukkah together at Bondi Beach in Australia. And now, the removal by US forces of the Venezuelan president and his wife with our president vowing to take over the rule of that country for an indefinite amount of time.
On Christmas Eve, a time of peace and good will, a time to be with family and friends, and to acknowledge the teachings of a man who promoted love, my hope took a nose dive when at a small party I encountered a man — a father of two young girls — wearing a tee shirt that read, “Now I have a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho.”
As I learned, the quote is from the 1980s movie, “Diehard,” debatedly a Christmas movie. No one else at the party seemed to get the reference either. The message struck me as more than a little tone deaf at best, dangerous and incendiary at worst, especially in light of recent events.
Two weeks later, I’m still haunted by that shirt glorifying guns and making the message hip. It makes me think that we all might join the war for social justice, not only on social media, at rallies, with donations, or by volunteering, but also on our chests and backs. We are suggesting the launch of a clothing billboard campaign, not just around the issue of guns, but including other social justice issues close to our hearts.
Photo credit: bahairesources.com
After all, we already wear clothes with labels promoting The Gap, LL Bean, Old Navy, fancier stores and products, as well as hats and sweatshirts with the logos of the schools either we or our kids attended or attend. Why not make our bodies billboards for our values? If the Ho ho ho shirt affected me so strongly, others probably felt equally affected by it — some positively and some negatively.
This may seem a small effort at redress, but words have impact. Please let us know what you find to wear with thought-provoking messages and facts — rather than cute platitudes — about gun violence and the need for gun protection laws and about other social justice issues. When we searched on Amazon for tee shirts about gun control, by the way, the vast majority were pro-gun and anti-gun control. (We’re talking about 100 to 1). Hope you do better.
Please let us know what you find to wear with thought-provoking messages and facts — rather than cute platitudes — about gun violence and the need for gun protection laws and about other social justice issues.
Let’s go beyond wearing our hearts on our sleeves and wear our values on our chests (and heads and backs, too!). At least we can feel we are willing to express what we believe and combat the hateful and dangerous messages being sported by some others.
Send us some of your favorites and where to find them. Thanks.
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org