Premise behind a Day of National Concern

Following the major school shootings of recent years, conversations have centered on what adults can do to keep young people safe from such violence. Such discussions have failed to honor - or even to note - the role that young people themselves can play in helping to reverse the violence.

The hope behind the Day of Concern is that young people, by raising their voices together to make a common promise on a common day, will be able to visualize the multiplication effect of their individual decisions. Taking part in this national observance may help them imagine a collective legacy: giving their children and grandchildren a future without gun violence.

National distribution of the Student Pledge sends a message that is essential if we are to reverse the tide of violence in this country: that violence is neither inevitable nor an abstract force against which we are powerless. Violence is, rather, the sum total of individual decisions, and reversing the violence will occur individual decision by individual decision.

It is important to let young people know that while the violent world into which they were born is not their fault, this does not mean that they are without power to change it.

While we as adults must reaffirm our own responsibility for making the country safer from violence, we also need to let young people know that they have their own powerful, positive role to play.

Mary Lewis Grow
National Coordinator