Million Mom March

I first saw somebody wearing a "Million Mom March" T-shirt on Saturday. The idea of this kind of march just had me dumbfounded. I was asking myself "What do Moms have a problem with?"

However, I got to check it out and read articles like this one, and found out that their main issue was the proliferation of automatic weapons and how it spills into communities all across the country. It is something that affects all races, all people.

Here in the DC metro area there is a problem with gun violence, and the victims are getting younger. For example, there is the continuing investigation into this 8 year old's violent death.

On hand were Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Dougie Fresh from the Hip Hop Summit Action Network. Benjamin Chavis is one of Farrakahn's right hand men in the Nation Of Islam, and he talked about how hip hop supports the Million Mom March, and related it to the Million Man March. Benjamin Chavis was one of the main people involved in the Million Man March; I remember how he was just coming out of the NAACP scandal since he was the president of the group at the time, and he was a Christian minister, but he converted to Islam and joined the NOI right after the Million Man March. Dougie Fresh got the audience hyped with some hip hop beats and some talking.

Ludacris's mother spoke and that was funny to me because of Luda's sexist, and violent lyrics. I'm not a Bill O Reilly Luda Hater, but for his Mom to be speaking at the Million Mom March against violence (and I assume female empowerment, somewhat). It was pretty contradictory, but apparently Luda has founded a non-profit organization called the Ludacris Foundation, and she was speaking on behalf of that. I guess his lyrics are just seen by his mother as a means to an end. She did a really good speech though, and I think she has a genuine interest in working in the community.

It was a good event with good intentions, but I don't think it really sparked the interest of many people, and there was a counter demonstration of Republicans who think this would be a better society if everybody had an AK-47 on their side. However, I think that the proliferation of guns in the inner cities have done enough damage. Its a sticky issue, but for a mother who has lost her son, I don't think its too much to ask to get the big guns off the street.

Check out Gun Guys, a good site dedicated to the issue of gun control.