Peter Yarrow, who will be performing in a Mother’s Day Concert to benefit Hope Academy on Sunday, May 12, sent this message about his ongoing activism related creating a safer world for our children. He was recently interviewed by Bill Moyers for a PBS special about Newtown.
Dear friend and ally,
I was deeply honored to be interviewed by Bill Moyers along with Francine Wheeler who, lost her son Ben in the tragic shooting at Newtown.
This video includes two clips from a concert of “caring, healing and togetherness” that I was asked to organize for the Newtown community that will soon be aired as a PBS TV special – date tba.
The concert was wrenching as well as uplifting and viewing it will, I hope, help to ignite the passion in America to make changes desperately needed in our gun laws and in our school environment that is far too often fraught with bullying and cruelty.
This concert harkens back to the Civil Rights struggle and the way music galvanized us to work for change. In a way, it was like a little “March on Washington” for only 400 people. For those attending, it signaled the growth of what is becoming a great movement in America today – a movement to assure our children the right to be free from the fear of going to school.
Children deserve to be safe and prioritized and our laws and policies need to reflect that.
We need to make sure that children are no longer made to suffer, harm themselves or take their own lives. We need to make sure they are not attacked by other students whose needs went unmet when they were suffering the wounds of ridicule, ostracism and bullying – some being (tragically) pushed towards a pathological behavior, such as injuring themselves or others.
This movement is directed at all our children.
It is a movement to make sure we extend ourselves with compassion and handle the current challenges with empathy but, above all, to be there, watching our children, waiting to help them if they are in trouble or are threatened by others, be they other children and youth or adults.
I fully believe that this concert will touch the heart of America. It was a most remarkable night, one that shows who we can be when we act with courage and allow our hearts to open up fully to one another. It is painful, cathartic, inspiring. It demonstrates who the citizens of Newtown are, and who we all can be, as we rise together to meet a devastatingly painful challenge with honesty and fearlessly reach for the change that can bring us a brighter day.
I will let you know when the “Concert For Newtown” will be broadcast on PBS but, until then, know that we at Operation Respect are fully dedicated to the effort to fulfill the Sandy Hook Promise – that is, to make sure that Newtown is remembered, not for the tragedy that occurred there, but as the place where desperately needed transformational change was sparked in America.
I’m sending you my most heartfelt love, in peace, as always,
Peter