https://www.wonkette.com/p/texas-commies-moms-for-democracy

My thanks to Ten Bears for the link.  Ten Bears, you are seriously cutting into my free blog reading time.  😀😁😎  Hugs.  Scottie

They were doing it in Texas.

DOKTOR ZOOM

DEC 15, 2023

 

 

Check out this impressive new ad — or you don’t have to — from Mothers for Democracy, a 501(c)(4) political group that got its start in Texas with grassroots protests against Gov. Greg Abbott’s rightwing extremism (just as a reminder that Texas progressives are still as pissed off and active as iconic Texas Dems like Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, or Barbara Jordan). They’re very definitely positioning themselves as the polar opposite of that other bunch of moms who say they’re for liberty but want to ban books — and certain people too.

 

The ad, “Thoughts and Prayers,” debuted on social media yesterday to mark the 11th anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. It’s a fresh indictment of the cliché the Right has offered instead of action following mass shootings, from Newtown to Uvalde and since.

The ad begins with a little girl at the edge of a backyard swimming pool reaching for a pink flamingo floaty, priming you to think this is going to be another safety PSA. Which it is, just not about pools, because as the onscreen text explains,

The number one killer of children in the USA … [girl yelps and tumbles into pool]

is not drowning

or car wrecks

or cancer

The girl’s distraught mom arrives on the scene, but instead of jumping in to rescue her daughter, kneels at the edge of the pool and prays, “Please, please, God, save her! Do something! Save her!” [camera cuts to a close-up of the mom’s praying hands, the blurry shape of the girl at the bottom of the pool] “Please save her, please!”

Then neighbors show up to say their “thoughts and prayers” are with her, including one couple relaxing in the pool’s attached hot tub, in swimsuits and enjoying beverages (in pool-safe, nonbreakable containers, for safety). “Thoughts,” she says, finishing a drink. “Prayers,” he adds, nodding at Mom.

Onscreen, we’re shown the statistic that many of us have known for far too long:

The #1 killer of children in the US is

GUN VIOLENCE

The ad closes with an overhead shot of the backyard, the scene centered on the blurred image of the little mannequin in a red dress at the bottom of the pool, over which the final text unscrolls:

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

ARE MEANINGLESS

WHEN YOU CAN ACT

The scene blacks out and transitions to a white screen and the words “Act Now. Demand Gun Reform,” with a link to Mothers For Democracy’s gun reform page, which calls out “the hypocrisy of people who say ‘thoughts and prayers’ while going on with their lives as if nothing has happened.”

For the ad, Mothers for Democracy partnered with gun safety groups Newtown Action Alliance, Lives Robbed (founded by parents of victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School), and Change the Ref, the group founded by the parents of Joaquin Oliver, who was murdered in the massacre in Parkland, Florida. That group also brought us that devastating ad where they invited prominent gun advocates to address an empty “graduation” ceremony for the “lost class” — all the kids killed by guns, who’ll never see their own commencement ceremonies.

The ad is the first of what Moms for Democracy hopes will be six for the 2024 campaign season, on “crucial issues that directly impact families” that also include “quality public schools, climate action, healthcare access, LGBTQ+ rights, and voting protections.” Yep, they have an ActBlue link if you want to help; I gave a few of my Ameros just to find out what with they come up with for climate. On Xitter, the group noted that it didn’t use an ad agency, but rather that it (and we assume the partners?) developed the ad with an in-house team, which is pretty cool, too.

As the circle of Americans directly affected by gun violence expands, year by year, there are more and more people who desperately want the madness to end. They include some impressively talented communicators, like Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida), who started campaigning for gun control when he was 15 and horrified by Sandy Hook — and is a survivor himself, having witnessed a 2016 shooting in Orlando. Together, we can all make sure we’re heard.

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