A Week of Hope June 27

Docs-
This week brought a sea change- from the despair of the Charleston, S.C. shootings to the hope of the Supreme Court rulings on health care and gay marriage. And we are bouyed by the decisions to bring down the Confederate flag, a painful symbol of the wrong of slavery and opposition to civil rights.
Hope is high that something will change in gun violence and the president called for this change yesterday in his eulogy of the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. Now we physicians can follow the president’s lead and speak strongly about the need to abandon the gun as a way of solving problems. The gun, too, is a wrong symbol, and like the Confederate flag one that many in our country revere. But, when a gun death or injury happens too often it is life altering and wrong.
So today the sheriff is leading a buy back effort at the Brown Chapel in Ypsilanti and Bethesda Bible Church in Pittsfield township. Go to Washtenaw Co Sheriff for details. www.ewashtenaw.org/government/sheriff or @WSheriff for Twitter.
Sonya Lewis and other PPGV doctors will march against gun violence in Detroit at 11 am today. Silence the Violence Parade begins at Church of the Mesiah in Detroit to counter the tragedy of violence in our great city. Join in.
And we can lead by ASKing- the ASK campaign national day was this week, June 21. The question “Is there a gun where my child is plays?” This critical question, perhaps led by “Where do our kids play when they come to your house?” goes to the issue of unlocked, often loaded guns in many homes. Parents are responsible to make sure their kids don’t find and use them. ASK.
We have work to do to become a safer country. We have a history of being leaders. Speaking up about gun violence with colleagues and patients can make a difference. We can have great hope!