(Submitted by First Presbyterian Church, Bowling Green)
Across the nation, a variety of organizations are promoting June 7-9 as “Gun Violence Awareness Days.” One such organization is the national Presbyterian Peace Fellowship of the Presbyterian Church USA, which has put out a call for local Presbyterian churches to participate. The First Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green is among the churches responding, promoting the concept to its members and to the Bowling Green community.
The anchor activity is for concerned people to wear orange on the designated days. The Peace Fellowship notes:
“Orange is a color of warning. It represents the value of human life, worn by hunters in the woods to prevent an accidental shooting. It says: ‘I do not want to be the next victim of gun violence.’ Let’s all wear orange June 7-9 to start conversations and create change.”
And the “Everytown for Gun Safety” movement adds: “Orange is the color that Hadiya Pendleton’s friends wore in her honor when she was shot and killed in Chicago at the age of 15 – just one week after performing at President Obama’s 2nd inaugural parade in 2013. After her death, they asked us to stand up, speak out, and Wear Orange to raise awareness about gun violence.”
At the local Presbyterian church, members have the opportunity to wear orange on Friday and Saturday, and to add the color red on Sunday for the Christian festival of Pentecost. Members are also invited to send letters to the two Ohio senators in support of Senate Bill 42, which would require background checks for all gun sales, including gun shows. The legislation has passed the House of Representatives but currently lacks sufficient support in the Senate.
(Submitted by Not In Our Town Bowling Green)
Not In Our Town Bowling Green supports the citizens across the country and here in Bowling Green who will be wearing orange to participate in Gun Violence Awareness weekend, June 7-9. Information is available at www.wearorange.org
Here is the description:
Orange is the color that Hadiya Pendleton’s friends wore in her honor when she was shot and killed in Chicago at the age of 15 — just one week after performing at President Obama’s 2nd inaugural parade in 2013. After her death, they asked us to stand up, speak out, and Wear Orange to raise awareness about gun violence. Since then orange has been the defining color of the gun violence prevention movement. New York gun violence prevention advocate Erica Ford spearheaded orange as the color of peace through her work with her organization, Life Camp, Inc. Whether it’s worn by students in Montana, activists in New York, or Hadiya’s loved ones in Chicago, the color orange honors the more than 100 lives cut short and the hundreds more wounded by gun violence every day. Our movement gains momentum when gun sense activists come together to fight for a future free from gun violence. Wear Orange Weekend is an opportunity for us to show the country just how powerful we are. National Gun Violence Awareness Day is the first Friday in June, which will be June 7 in 2019.
Together, with hundreds of thousands of Americans, we turned America orange. But the work doesn’t end there. Every town and our partner organizations continue to do life-saving work so that we can get closer to realizing a future free from gun violence. we wear orange to be seen, and demand that we be heard. Support us by going orange.
