The End of the Million Moms
By Tanya Metaksa
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/columnists/metaksa/2001/metaksa05-16-01p.htm

FrontPageMagazine.com | May 16, 2001

THE DIFFERENCE between Mother’s Day 2001 and Mother’s Day 2000 is only 365 days; but what a difference a year makes. Last Mother’s Day, the Democrats hijacked an American family holiday by organizing the Million Mom March (MMM). An estimated 750,000 "marchers" showed up. This year, they tried again. The turnout was less than 200.

It was no accident that Donna Dees-Thomases, the director of last year’s MMM, was a professional political hack with direct ties to the Clinton-Gore White House.

Dees-Thomases conned the liberal media into deceiving the American people when they reported her bogus story of being an ordinary housewife who became angry about gun violence, called up a few of her friends, and started a little grassroots organization that blossomed into the MMM. The truth is that it was a clever political propaganda ploy designed to bring visibility to an issue that Democrats believed would propel them to Presidential victory and control of the U.S. Congress.

The MMM concept was developed Labor Day 1999 by Democrat political operatives with the goal of organizing groups of mothers in every congressional district to support Democratic candidates favoring gun control. Their strategy was to exploit the liberal media by creating the appearance of a spontaneous Washington rally. It was a clever and well-thought-out political plan that almost worked.

Their objective was to portray any opposition to their agenda as Neanderthal men, who were insensitive to women. Although many females opposed the MMM, they were not able to penetrate a biased media. Groups such as Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) and Armed Informed Mothers March (AIMM) were ignored; while MMM with Rosie O’Donnell as their spokesperson and the endorsement of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton became media darlings.

In "Million Mom Moles" I reported on how the city of Richmond, the Maryland school system and even Northwest Airlines helped to make transportation available to many women and school children, who then took the opportunity to go shopping or visit tourist attractions instead of marching.

After the media pronounced the march a success, organizers went ahead with the promotion of their political agenda. The MMM endorsement of Al Gore became an anti-climactic September announcement. Later than month they held a clandestine "first election-organizing meeting in Denver." I covered that meeting in my article "Million Mom Flop."

Fortunately all their efforts failed: Al Gore was defeated and Congress remained in Republican hands. MMM was forced to rebuild and seek new members. Yet, even in California, where gun control laws abound, they found themselves outnumbered at MMM organizational meetings by their opposition.

In January, they tried unsuccessfully to stop the confirmation of President George W. Bush’s nomination of former Senator John Ashcroft to become Attorney General. MMM President Mary Leigh Blek announced on Valentine’s Day that "Women will take to the streets of California's capital on Mother's Day, May 13, for the second Million Mom March to demand stricter gun licensing and registration controls." She expected many mothers and their families to lobby the legislators on Monday, May 14. One month later, however, Blek reported "funding cutbacks" and layoffs of 30 of its 35 employees.

On Mother’s Day 2001 less than 200 Moms rallied in Washington, DC with equally low attendance in most states. In California, however, Blek was able to encourage some 1500 demonstrators to attend the MMM rally in Sacramento. Yet the few who remained to lobby their legislators on May 14^th, were outdone by a massive effort by the California NRA Members Councils.

These California gun owners--male and female--organized a lobbying effort that turned the capital on its ear. They put together an email and letter-writing campaign that generated almost 20,000 emails and 32,000 handwritten letters, which were personally delivered to individual legislators’ offices by polite and knowledgeable volunteers.

Although most offices accepted the hand-delivered letters cordially, the office of Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) – the author of AB 35, a bill that would require all handgun purchasers to be licensed in gun safety – refused to take any letters that had not been processed by the Assembly mailroom.

When the volunteers tried to comply, the mailroom refused to take letters without stamps. Assemblyman Rod Wright (D-Los Angeles) saved the day by affixing "referred to by Rod Wright" stamps on the letters and then forwarding them to Assemblyman Shelley via interoffice mail.

Last Sunday, most Americans reclaimed Mother’s Day and honored Moms. Dee-Thomases has disappeared, MMM is running out of money, and the Clinton-Gore Administration have been replaced.

Tanya K. Metaksa is the former executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action. She is the author of Safe, Not Sorry a self-protection manual, published in 1997. She has appeared on numerous talk and interview shows such as "Crossfire," the "Today" show, "Nightline," "This Week with David Brinkley" and the "McNeil-Lehrer Hour," among others.
 
 

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