Letter to the Editor: People Of All Ages Beg Legislators To ‘Please Listen’

Much has been reported about the courageous students across the country who are speaking up so eloquently for Sensible Gun Reform. I admire them but want to point out that they are not alone; others of all ages are standing alongside them and I am one.

Immediately following the Florida shootings, I purchased 250 postcards, addressed them to our elected officials and offered them to friends encouraging them to express their concerns and to urge action. The cards flew out of my hands; serendipitously, a national card company, Cardthartic, picked up my project and offered a Please Listen postcard on their website for free. To date over 22,000 postcards have been distributed across the country and are finding their way to elected representatives’ offices.

At the March For Our Lives Event at the Spa at Sacred Grounds in Ephraim we had 80 people writing cards; over 1,200 were distributed that day. One local woman expressed the feelings of many, “I just don’t want to be silent anymore.” On the same day at the Meadows Retirement Center at  Scandia Village in Sister Bay, nearly 40 senior residents gathered behind a MARCH ON sign for a quiet remembrance of the lives lost and to show their support for the students who are speaking out.

“We feel we must let them know that older people care,” said organizer Barbara Larsen. These are only two examples. In Southern Door Tori Martinez has organized postcard events at schools, churches and even pubs. I’m sure there are people like us in every community across the country and hopefully change will come. In 1968 Senator Robert Kennedy was killed by a man who lived down the street from me; I’ve been trying for Commonsense Gun Reform ever since.

Gloria Dougherty

Ellison Bay, Wis.