Dear Reader,
Happy New Year!
Let us, on the first day of a new year, celebrate transformation — specifically a nationwide movement that is turning weapons of violence into tools of growth and beauty. What is Dot talking about? Let me share a story:
Mike Martin was a Mennonite pastor when a friend of a friend, in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting of children at an elementary school in Connecticut, wanted to rid himself of his AK-47, reads a story in Reasons to Be Cheerful. Martin, along with his father and the gun owner, took the weapon to a blacksmith in their community who dismantled it and transformed it — into a rake and a shovel.
That single act has become Mike Martin’s life mission, which he’s pursuing through a non-profit he calls RAWtools (that’s “war” spelled backwards) that spans four states and has already taken 6,000 guns out of commission, transforming them into garden tools and art, even children’s toys. “For Martin, the physical act of destroying a gun can be healing, but often it’s just the beginning of a bigger conversation,” the story tells us, quoting Martin as saying, “The dominant culture often tells us that we can’t escape the violence, so we should therefore join the violence. Instead, this counter-story of turning swords into plows insists that violence is the problem, not the solution.”
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Anyone can go to the RAWtools website to learn how to get involved or participate in the Guns to Gardens buyback program. Martin takes his message of deescalation — focused on survivor and community support — into schools and neighborhoods. “We’re not just changing metal,” Martin says, “we’re changing people.”
Let’s all celebrate a champion who recognizes the value of coaxing food, beauty, and resilience from a weapon and a community, and who wants to give all of us tools for transformation.
Transformationally,
Dot
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