The Power of the Witness

I was back on the picket lines at the NRA headquarters on August 14. Ever the pragmatist I have to confess to some slow-growing doubts about the utility of this monthly picketing  –does it change anything, move the needle at all, this standing there with a sign when in the last few days we’ve experienced the unabated horrors of mass shootings in Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH?   

The December 14, 2012, murders of 20 defenseless children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT,  spurred the initial protests in front of the fortress-like NRA headquarters in Fairfax, VA, protests that soon became monthly vigils.  All the protesters hold signs, which have grown in number and creativity over the years: “Choose life:  Stop Gun Violence;” “Newtown Parents We Love You;” “The NRA Buys the GOP;” “Cowards Carry.  Mothers Bury;”  While standing here on a hot August day I calculate that about 28,000 have been killed so far this year, well on our way to America’s annual average of 40,000 gun deaths. The number staggers.  But not enough to stagger Congress —yet.

As I looked over the crowd of about 168 protesters, many regulars who show up religiously — rain or shine, cold or hot, and some for seven years (!) –made me question my pragmatism.  We need hard-nosed policy work and legislation and equally hard-nosed political work, ensuring that we elect gun-safety candidates to state and Congressional offices.  Do we need this?  Is picketing part of our action portfolio?  Speaking with fellow protesters and listening to those interviewed on local news stations, I came to this realization, almost an epiphany: this monthly public and peaceful demonstration is not an important part of our struggle for sensible gun policies, it is essential.

First, I thought, we are not alone, but are together, witnessing.  We are there with each other, supporting each other, giving each other strength for the long haul, embodying the message.  Second, who knows what is lodged in the hearts of the many drivers who speed by, many honking in affirmation (a few non-honkers, I’m certain, wanted to run us over).  Third, this is something almost anyone can do for an hour, namely, standing, holding a sign (bad knees notwithstanding).  Fourth, the ripple effect, the vigil serves almost as an information-sharing mart, e.g., “Did you hear about the rally in DC…?” or ”A few of us are going to visit some of Virginia’s Congressional delegation.  Want to join us?”  Fifth, the inspiration, some provided by the Parkland kids who once joined us, much of it provided by the seniors, some with canes, one with a walker, all holding signs.  I overheard one say passionately to the Channel 9 interviewer, “I’m going to get gun legislation passed before I die.  I owe it to my grandchildren.”

Perhaps it’s even deeper.  Perhaps a message, a visible, moral public counter-message to the orange-maned Mocker-in-Chief by 150 or so people lining the sidewalk in front of the NRA waving signs saying in essence, “We will not be moved until policies change. We will outlast you.”

Witness is a noun, as “witness to a crime or accident,” one who testifies, attests to a fact.  Witness is also a verb –“We witnessed the birth of a new era.”  To witness, then, can be passive—simply watching, recording – or it can be active, a proclamation of a message, witnessing to a powerful story.

Witnessing can carry an element of danger as the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi attest or more recently the protestors in Hong Kong.  You can get hurt if you “witness” what you’re not supposed to see or publicly “witness” to what you believe, but what those in power do not also believe.

Those on the picket line embody energy, urgency, purpose, and persistence.  Witnesses to the horrible truth of gun violence seems to grow daily in America: new local and state laws have been passed; new candidates run on gun safety platforms, marches and demonstrations abound,  although blocked by the Senate, Universal Background Check and Assault Weapon Ban bills have been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and  youth –witness the Parkland youth –have rallied.  Progress, yes; but still the deaths continue.

For me, a biblical reference captures the witness ideal: “…and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The number of gun violence prevention “witnesses” grows.  How far into “Judea and Samaria” these “witnesses” have penetrated is anybody’s guess.  But without the witnesses, there will be no penetration at all.

One thing we do know: In this small corner of Virginia about 150 witnesses will, no matter what, picket with signs aloft on the 14^th of every month next to the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, VA, their witness born of gun tragedies but sustained by the collective hope that change is possible…