Galvanized by an Image

That haunting image--a daisy chain of wide-eyed preschoolers being led to safety by policemen--was on view again last week as newspapers and television news programs recounted the top news stories of 1999. The Aug. 10 shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills ranked infamously at the top.

Those who saw that image, shown over and over on the day of the shootings, hardly needed the reminder. The daisy chain seared itself into a city’s consciousness.

The image became a local call to action after a self-described neo-Nazi turned himself in and, according to authorities, confessed to the shooting spree that left three children, a teenage counselor and the center’s receptionist wounded and a Chatsworth mail carrier dead. In the San Fernando Valley and across the rest of Los Angeles, residents marched and rallied against hate.

Sometimes it takes something close to home to galvanize a community. But when a daisy chain of children is involved, close to home becomes a relative term and community, a broad one.

Across the country, Donna Dees-Thomases, an East Coast mother of two, saw the news footage that August day and felt ashamed at her own complacency. Gun violence had always seemed like someone else’s problem. That image, those children, made the violence seem very, very personal.

And so the image became a national call to action. By Labor Day, less than a month after the shootings, Dees-Thomases and a group of other mothers announced a Million Mom March on Washington, D.C., scheduled to take place nine months later--on May 14, Mother’s Day 2000.

Mothers from the Valley plan to be there.

Gail Powers, who lives in Northridge and whose four-year-old son was part of the daisy chain, is California coordinator of the event. Other area residents have volunteered to help organize marchers from Santa Clarita, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena area, West Los Angeles and Orange County.

The mothers want Congress to pass what they are calling sensible gun-control legislation, like child-safety locks and regulation of gun shows.

If Congress does the job before May, then the mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, godmothers, foster mothers, future mothers and anyone who wants to be an “honorary mother” will head to Washington to cheer.

If not, they’ll be there to protest, called to action by an image of innocence and terror from 1999 that will not be forgotten in the new year.

To Take Action: You can find information on the Million Mom March on the Web (www.millionmommarch.com) or by calling (888) 989-MOMS.