How Change Happens

1Turn Grassroots Gold

Grassroots [grass-roots] noun: The common or ordinary people, especially as contrasted with the leadership or elite of a political party, social organization, etc.; the rank and file.¹

IN ONE OF the worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history, Omar Mateen killed or injured more than one hundred people in a popular gay night club in Orlando, Florida, in a hateful terrorist act on June 12, 2016. Furor ignited when Donald Trump, then the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, tweeted hours after the tragedy, “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism. . . .” Democrats reacted on Capitol Hill, shouting “Pass the Bill” over a stalled vote for a proposed “no-fly, no-buy” law to prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing guns. Some Democratic leaders walked off the floor as Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called for a moment of silence in memory of the victims and then launched an unprecedented fourteen-hour Senate floor filibuster to force a vote on tighter gun laws for suspected terrorists. The NRA countered that radical Islamic terrorists would not be deterred by gun control laws, and its supporters protested any infringement on Second Amendment freedoms. Meanwhile, thousands of the surviving victims and family members and friends joined with LGBT rights activists and gun control advocates to hold candlelight vigils, mount protests, and stage “die-ins”—one outside NRA headquarters in Virginia. The entire spectacle ...