We need to believe

I find it interesting that people who complain about the national conversation that has erupted after the tragic events in Tucson on Jan. 8 are essentially saying there’s nothing to be done, move on. They're pointing fingers at pointing fingers.

I do not believe we are incapable of change. Sea changes can happen in the same instant a life is snuffed out. They can happen when we open our eyes and decide we are tired of the same story always told.

There are so many things we can’t control, it’s true. But there is also so much we can do.

We can’t control the weather … but we can stop adding to its fury.

We can’t control illness … but we can try and mitigate its effects.

We can’t stop bullets as they leave the end of a gun … but we certainly can stop selling them to people for the sport of killing other people.

We can choose differently.

According to the Center for Disease Control, American children are more at risk from firearms than the children of any other industrialized nation. In one year, firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great Britain, 57 in Germany, 109 in France, 153 in Canada, and 5,285 in the United States.

Since 2000, 32 infants and toddlers have died in drop-side cribs, and the government bans them entirely. Seventy-five children are shot every day in this country and the government, thanks to a powerful gun lobby, shrugs its shoulders.

I am a mother. I am a citizen. I am a voter. I want change.