TOMS Shoes Launches Anti-Gun Violence Campaign With $5 Million Donation + Background Checks Campaign

TOMS Shoes Launches Anti-Gun Violence Campaign With $5 Million Donation + Background Checks Campaign

TOMS’ Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie is expanding his already legendary activism and philanthropy. The recent deadly shooting that left 13 dead in Thousand Oaks, Calif grabbed Mycoskie’s brain, telling him thoughts and prayers for yet another mass shooting in America, weren’t cutting it.

The shoe company is well known for its “One for One” program (you buy a pair, they give a pair), which has expanded now to also providing safe water and eyeglasses to communities in need. TOMS has never engaged in political action.

 Mycoskie made a $5 million dollar donation on behalf of his Los Angeles-based company to a diverse coalition of anti-gun violence organizations, making it the largest public corporate donation toward gun violence in America’s history.

In addition to the donation — which benefits organizations like March for Our Lives, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, among others — Mycoskie launched a Toms campaign called "End Gun Violence Together," aimed at engaging citizens with the gun violence epidemic in America.

The initial focus is a call for universal background checks before a gun is sold. The initiative is supported by 90% of Americans but not Trump’s Republican Party. Jimmy Fallon filled out his postcard on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘The Tonight Show’ Monday night, with Tom’s producing an actual postcard w/the sender’s name and zip code. I just filled out mine.

TOMS’ retail stores and social media are also part of the project and will become advocacy centers.

'Fearless Girl' Wears A Bulletproof Vest, The Newest Fashion Must-Have For Students Of All Ages

'Fearless Girl' Wears A Bulletproof Vest, The Newest Fashion Must-Have For Students Of All Ages

Wall Street’s beloved ‘Fearless Girl’ got a makeover in advance of Tuesday’s election — and days before this week’s slaughter of 12 mostly young people in a shooting late Wednesday at a bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Artist Manuel Oliver gave New York’s most famous symbol of women’s empowerment some extra armor last Friday, dressing her in a bulletproof vest broadcasting the hashtag #FearfulGirl.

Oliver’s son Joaquin ‘Guac’ Oliver was murdered along with 16 other victims in the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“She can’t be fearless if she’s afraid to go to school,” wrote Change the Ref, Oliver’s pro-gun control nonprofit, on Twitter, about the rebranded “#FearfulGirl.” The organization is dedicated to using “urban art and nonviolent creative confrontation to expose the disastrous effects of the mass shooting pandemic,” according to its website.

Young Activists Parkland's Jaclyn Corin & Company, BLM DeRay Mckesson Featured By Vanity Fair

Young Activists Parkland's Jaclyn Corin & Company, BLM DeRay Mckesson Featured By Vanity Fair

The poor polling in predicting Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum's Florida Dem. gov primary win didn't take into consideration the Parkland students criss-crossing the state with a massive get out the vote effort among young people.

Bernie only endorsed the former Hillary supporter in the last month. Meanwhile, Parkland students were on the move with voter registration and barely received any recognition for turning out the votes last week. Big media and pollsters struggle with anything new that doesn't fit their narrative.

Reflecting an editorial shift, yesterday, BLM co-founder DeRay Mckesson was featured at Vanity Fair online, w/his now iconic Patagonia blue vest. (Not sure if article is in print). Now Vanity Fair takes an in-depth lookat Jaclyn Corin a key logistical brain behind the nationwide Parkland students movement. VF gives you 3 free articles a month, so take a read about this inspiring young people's movement across America and check out Deray's equally positive profile as he promotes his new book 'On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope'.

Ryan McGinley Flashes 'Up In Arms' With Young Gun Control Activists For Dazed Magazine S/S 2018

Ryan McGinley Flashes 'Up In Arms' With Young Gun Control Activists For Dazed Magazine S/S 2018

Dazed Magazine's Summer 2018 issue focuses on Youth in Power: the gun control activists changing America. I just discovered the convo myself, but the cover article is rich in links and other articles about the activists beyond this cover story. Thank you Dazed Magazine. Yours is journalism at its best!!!

Ryan McGinley captures the Parkland students and activists from around the country in 'Up in Arms' styled by Emma Wyman./ Hair by Jawara; makeup by Francelle Daly

Parkland Students Launch Nationwide 50 Stops Tour To Register Young Voters & Talk Gun Laws Reform

Parkland Students Launch Nationwide 50 Stops Tour To Register Young Voters & Talk Gun Laws Reform

Anyone who thought the Parkland students might go into summer hibernation, hitting the beach and soaking up the rays is wrong. Last Sunday 788 diplomas -- four of them posthumous --- were handed out to graduating seniors of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On Monday students of the March for Our Lives movement announced the kickoff of a national summer bus tour designed to raise awareness around gun control issues and to register voters in advance of the November midterms. 

Launching June 15th at the Peace March in Chicago, the tour – named March for Our Lives: Road to Change – will make 50 stops across America in 60 days. The state of Florida will not be forgotten when a separate tour led by March for Our Lives activists rolls into action, with events in all 27 of Florida’s congressional districts. Registering young people to vote and educating the community about where their political candidates stand on gun reform and their relationship to the NRA is the students' priority.

Parkland & Chicago Young Activists Cover Town & Country's June 2018 Philanthropy Issue

Parkland & Chicago Activists Young Activists Cover Town & Country's June 2018 Philanthropy Issue

Students from Parkland and beyond share one of the covers for Town & Country's annual June Philanthropy issue. Parkland survivors Delaney Tarr, Emma González, and Leonor Muñoz, as well as Chicago teenagers D’Angelo McDade, a survivor of gun violence, and Alex King, whose young nephew was shot to death, reflect on the movement they have started and the future they’re fighting for. Their interviewer is none other than Jimmy Kimmel, with Max Vadukul in charge of the photo shoot. 

Kimmel asks each of the students about their proudest moment in the last few months:

Environmentalist & Social Activist, Majory Stoneman Douglas Leaves Rich Blueprint For Parkland Activists

Environmentalist & Social Activist, Majory Stoneman Douglas Leaves Rich Blueprint For Parkland Activists

Meet Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who was invited to witness the signing of the Brady Bill, after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993. These inspiring students, rising out of the ashes and anguish of a devastating act of murder and violence in their Parkland, Fla school have a legacy to honor -- and they know it. We're not accustomed to schools named after women, but Marjory was an exemplary progressive who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom when she was 103, the same day the Brady Bill was signed.

Douglas was a woman way ahead of her time, blessed with a father who clearly believed in her. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1912 as an English major and then went to work as a reporter for her father's newspaper, now known as The Miami Herald, where she became an editor. 

Marjory Stoneman Douglas became the first Floridian woman to enlist in the Navy and then joined the Red Cross in 1918. Trained as a nurse, Mrs. Douglas soon set off to Europe to work as a nurse with war relief efforts. Read on. 

Yolanda Renee King: Have You Heard? We Are Going To Be A Great Generation!

Yolanda Renee King: Have You Heard? We Are Going To Be A Great Generation!

“My name is Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King,” said the 9-year-old girl addressing an enraptured crowd gathered in Washington, DC on March 24.  “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

“I have a dream that enough is enough! And that this should be a gun-free world, period!” Yolanda proclaimed, standing next to Parkland survivor Jaclyn Corin at the 'March for Our Lives' rally.

King wore an orange gun violence awareness ribbon pinned to her coat, inspiring marchers and an international TV audience with her vision.  She stood not far away from the site of her grandfather's famous 'I Have A Dream Speech', delivered 55 years ago at the March on Washington.

It's doubtful that America will achieve Yolanda King's dream of a gun-free world, given an accepted right enshrined in the US Constitution to own guns to hunt or protect oneself. Many of us imagine victory as getting assault weapons off American streets and instituting universal background checks, no exceptions.

For me, Yolanda Renee King left us with an even greater gift: HOPE. 

As Donald Trump and his wrecking crew try to take America back to the 1950s, where white men ruled, activism needs HOPE and that hope can only come from our young people, who will lead a new wave of demands for racial, gender-based and economic justice in America, free from the stereotypes deeply embedded in the American psyche.

An Open Letter to Student Marchers At 'March For Our Lives': 'You Are Revolutionaries

An Open Letter to Student Marchers At 'March For Our Lives': 'You Are Revolutionaries

To the students marching in Washington D.C, and across the country tomorrow: an open letter from Reshma Saujani, CEO and founder of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that aims to boost the number of women in computer science fields. 

If there’s any generation that sets us free, it will be yours. If there’s any generation that achieves real lasting change for our country, it will be yours. You are change-makers. You are revolutionaries. You are patriots.

You are the most diverse generation in American history–and that diversity is reflected in your movements, in your insistence that they include the experiences of all people no matter their race, sexuality, gender, ability, or economic status. You are also the most digitally savvy generation in American history. To you, tech is not just about convenience or distraction–it’s a tool to complement community and create change (or the ultimate clapback!).

You have the ideals and you have the tactics necessary to transform our world. Combine these with your poise, endurance and anger–and you are a force to be reckoned with.

Michelle Obama Says She Is Committed To Creating Thousands Of Mes By Working With Young Leaders

Michelle Obama Says She Is Committed To Creating Thousands Of Mes By Working With Young Leaders

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is well aware of the impact she has on young women, and especially young girls of color. How many times did we see them incredulous that she had walked into their school room unannounced, leaving all the kids -- but girls in particular -- shrieking with delight and covering up their eyes in disbelief. 

Michelle Obama has that kind of impact on young people -- even very, very young people. Parker Curry, age 2, found herself fixated over Obama's new portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. So spellbound was Parker over the towering image of America's royal black goddess that she refused to turn around for just one snap for mom Jessica Curry. 

Curry, a lifelong DC District resident, was so fixated on her daughter being fixated on the portrait that she didn’t see a man to the side taking a cellphone photo of the moment — Parker in utter awe, her mouth agape.

Oprah, George & Amal Clooney Are Joined By The Spielbergs & Katzenbergs In Pledging $500,000 To March For Our Lives

Oprah Winfrey stepped into the philanthropy box Tuesday, joining George and Amal Clooney,in also committing a $500,000 donation and general pledge of support for March for Our Lives in partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety. The event is being organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Both Clooneys will also participate in the Washington, DC demonstration on March 24, being organized by the surviving students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

"Amal and I are so inspired by the courage and eloquence of these young men and women from Stoneman Douglas High School . . . Our family will be there on March 24 to stand side by side with this incredible generation of young people from all over the country, and in the name of our children Ella and Alexander, we're donating $500,000 to help pay for this groundbreaking event. Our children's lives depend on it."

The March for Our Lives is organized by Stoneman Douglas students Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Alex Wind, and Jaclyn Corin, in partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety. “I'm just a high school student,” Kasky wrote in a recent op-ed, “and I do not pretend to have all of the answers. However, even in my position, I can see that there is desperate need for change—change that starts by folks showing up to the polls and voting all those individuals who are in the back pockets of gun lobbyists out of office.”

The articulate voices of the students have overwhelmed open-minded adults across America. On Twitter, Winfrey compared the Stoneman Douglas student organizers Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Alex Wind, and Jaclyn Corin to the Freedom Riders of the 1960s who “also said we’ve had enough and our voices will be heard.”

Two more Hollywood couples joined the Clooneys and Oprah in matching their donations. Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife Marilyn were joined by Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg in also supporting the initiative.

“The young students in Florida and now across the country are already demonstrating their leadership with a confidence and maturity that belies their ages," said Spielberg via his representative, Marvin Levy. "Kate (Capshaw) and I applaud their efforts to take a stand for the benefit of this and future generations. They are an inspiration to us all, and we are joining in this movement with a donation of $500,000.”

In a statement sent by representative Rachel Peterson, Katzenberg said, “(My wife) Marilyn and I are proud to stand with the brave young leaders from Parkland, Fla., who have taken their pain and grief and turned it into action. We will join Amal and George Clooney on March 24 to stand alongside these remarkable young people. We are also donating $500,000 to March for Our Lives to support this historic event.”

Florida Lawmakers Say They Will Not Debate Gun Control But Declare Porn A Health Risk

Florida Lawmakers Say They Will Not Debate Gun Control But Declare Porn A Health Risk

After posting on FB last night that South Carolina lawmakers want to declare gay marriage'parody marriage', I see that Fla lawmakers are also very, very busy.

Our brave Parkland kids rose the buses for 8 hrs. yesterday to their state capitol -- sleeping in the civic center w/their parent minders Tuesday night -- even though Fla legislators announced yesterday that there is no way they will debate an assault weapon ban or other gun legislation.

BUT the legislators DID have time to declare porn a health risk, reports BuzzFeed. .

I REPEAT, Fla legislators declared porn to be health risk but say they will NOT debate gun control in any form. My international friends, this is the state of the American conservative Republican mind today, the Trump mind in action.

More guns. Less porn. Maybe porn is so important to them because they buy more of it and watch it on Sunday. The credit card companies have worked in HUGE research studies -- like 500,000 porn purchases -- to identify by state and date bought.