Hi Val,
My name is Amberly Simpson and I am a student at Purdue. I got your email and blog from one of the professors here, Julia Chester as we had met to discuss the situation that had happened last week with the shooting. Julia and I got connected after I organized a flash mob last year at Purdue for an organization called One Billion Rising which raises awareness and empowers women against violence across the globe. They have an annual event that people organize individual flash mobs and other such events for every year on Valentines Day, which is coming up soon and we will be doing again. Anyways, this year, in light of the recent events at Purdue, we are making gun violence the specific theme of this year's OBR event and we are dedicating the event to the life of the student who was killed last week, as well as all others who are unable to rise with us as a result of violence. I'm not sure if you'd be able to help in any way, but I have been looking for information on gun violence to try and compile some information to distribute that would be relevant to the event and I didn't know if you might happen to have or know information that would be useful. If you do, it would be fantastic if you could pass some of it on to me so that we can try and make this event as big of a success as we possibly can.
Other than that, I have been interested in trying to organize something of this sort, whilst also collaborating with people like you and Julia at other universities to see if we could get some kind of network going and expand outside of the walls of Purdue University. I know gun violence is a hot topic for both you and Julia, and while women's rights and empowerment is more of mine, gun violence is showing a strong correlation. I'm not sure what exactly we could do, or what exactly I'm suggesting, but if collaborating in some way so that we can raise awareness and perhaps organize some sort of rally is something you're interested in, please let me know and I would love to start a discussion on what it is that we could do.
Thank you so much for your time and I apologize for the long email. I hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
Amberly Simpsonsimpsona@purdue.edu
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Hi Amberly (please call me Val),
Thanks so much for writing! I'm glad to hear at Purdue students are so engaged in working to reduce violence in our communities - art and dance are vitally important media to spread that message. And you're right that different forms of violence (such as domestic abuse and gun violence) overlap and all too often feed into one another. Just recently, for example, the NRA and other gun-rights activist groups argued before the Supreme Court that people with past convictions for domestic abuse should be legally allowed to purchase firearms. Think of how George Zimmerman's history of violence against women was not admitted into the Trayvon Martin trial, because it was deemed irrelevant - actually, violent offenders often use women and children as the "testing grounds" for later, even more extreme forms of violence - I have some links to research about that which I can dig up if you're interested, and I'm sure Julia knows more about it than I do.
Anyway, I know how you feel with regard to wanting to do some kind of project, but not being quite sure what. With your permission, I'd like to share your email with my class at Lewis, as well as with my local chapter of Moms Demand Action and the Illinois Council Against Hangdun Violence. If we all put our heads together, we're much more likely to think of positive action we can take. I also think my class would be much more interested if they were somehow involved with the planning-and-ideas process, rather than me just telling them what we're going to do. What do you think?
I hope we can get some ideas together in time for the 14th! Maybe my class can come to Purdue that day....what time will the flashmob be? Feel free to call me at 773-633-4683 if you want to talk instead of write.
Val
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Hi Val,
Yes, you may absolutely share my information with whomever you feel might be interested in helping or starting something. And it would be great if you guys could make it down here for the flash mob as well. I will have a video posted soon (it won't be hard to learn), but if there's anything else I can do for you guys, just say the word and I'll do what I can.
I completely agree that the information omitted in the Zimmerman trial was definitely relevant, even if not to that specific case, for exactly the reasons you listed. I think that they should have allowed it to be presented in that way as well, but I can also see why they wouldn't have allowed that, as well as the information about Trayvon's past drug use. However, Zimmerman's history of violence is severely more relevant, in my opinion, than whether or not someone has ever experimented with a drug. The implications don't add up in the same way, and it's strange that violence can somehow be seen as more acceptable, especially when it's enacted against women, than a young kid who tries a drug. The image you attached relates to that in a lot of ways. I don't understand how anyone can think that is an appropriate thing to say or do; it's absolutely appalling in my opinion. It's when I see things like that that I feel motivated to keep fighting for change because it's absurd that with how far we have come over the past century that we still have people living under such prehistoric value systems that they can consider that okay, justified, or appropriate on any level. To me, the logic just doesn't add up.
Going back to the topic of One Billion Rising, if there is any information or statistics that you can share with me so that I can compile it together, that would be fantastic. The more I know, the better an argument I can present. It's been surprising to me, with how prevalent gun-related issues are, how hard it has been to find solid figures that reflect just how important an issue this is. So please feel free to send anything you have or know my way when you find the time. Other than that, there are six different times for the flash mob throughout the day and they occur all over Purdue's campus. Each mob happens during our class passing period (which always happens between the twenty and thirty minute marks of the hour (e.g., 9:20-9:30am, 10:20-10:30am, 11:20-11:30am, 12:20-12:30pm, 1:20-1:30pm, 2:20-2:30pm). The mob is about five and a half minutes long, though most of it is stillness. We were working off the inspiration this year from a video called the Frozen Grand Central where a couple hundred people infiltrated the busy train station with synchronized watches, froze for five minutes, and then continued as if nothing had happened (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo). However, instead of going on as if nothing happened, we will all start dancing a flashmob together (there will be a musical cue for this) that uplifts and empowers. So it should be both fun to do and interesting to watch.
Let me know if there is any more information that I can provide you with and if you come up with any ideas. I definitely look forward to what you and the others whom you forward my information to can come up with in the way of some sort of collaboration. There is so much potential to really do something here! I can't wait to see what actually becomes of it.
Thanks,
Amberly
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