This week,
We're trading purple for orange!

This Friday, June 1st is National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

All weekend long there are events planned around the country to raise awareness about the problem of gun violence in our nation.

Americans are encouraged to wear
ORANGE 
because it's a color that is too LOUD to ignore.

The Purple Living Room Project is currently focusing
our efforts on finding areas of common ground
in the many issues surrounding guns in America.

This week,
we encourage you to learn more about the problem.

Once we understand the scope of the problem,
we can start to see the urgency in finding a solution.

To learn more, visit...

Moms Demand Action for Gun Safety 
or
Everytown for Gun Safety

This weekend, 
pull that  ORANGE shirt out from
the back of your closet.

#WearOrange
and let the world know
you want to be part of the solution!

Then,
start talking,
start listening
and start thinking... 
PURPLE.

-The Purple Living Room Team

Here we are again...

It's only been a few months since the last mass shooting in a school.

Now ten more precious lives have been taken...

In a SCHOOL.

What has happened since February?

What meaningful gun legislation has been passed?

What has changed?

Very little.

And here we are again...

and again...

and again...

We the people must make a change.

What are the purple points around the issue of guns in America?

Have you found any?

Start talking to your neighbors.

Start writing to your representatives.

All of your representatives.

At the federal level...

the state level...

the city level...

Demand a change.

Demand action.

And if our representatives refuse to make meaningful change, 

We the people can make a change for them...

We can find representatives who will.

-The Purple Living Room Team

​

We've all been there before...

We hear a position from the "other" side and we lose our minds!

How can they possibly believe that?

How is that even grounded in reality?

Are they CRAZY?

When we are coming together to find common ground,
it's important that we keep our collective cool.

One of the hardest parts of the
Purple Points Protocol 
is listening without interrupting.

It's tempting to want to reply...
or to argue...
or to offer exclamations of indignation!!!!!!!!

Instead, we need to breathe.

To pause.

And to listen.

Take time to choose your words wisely.

Make sure they are respectful.

Seek to understand, not to convince.

If we can all keep our cool,
perhaps we can find the center
and move forward.

-The Purple Living Room Team

Wise words.

So, let's ask ourselves...

​What's been happening inside our houses lately?

Have we been having thoughtful conversations?

Have we been listening to one another?

Have we been looking for ways to meet in the middle?

We have the power to reshape our national conversations.

We can revive the art of respectful discourse...

and thoughtful compromise.

And we can do all of this in a spirit of warmth and goodwill. 

In a 2014 interview, Barbara Bush spoke about the close friendship she and her husband had developed with Bill Clinton in the years after leaving the White House. She said, "I love Bill Clinton...maybe not his politics, but I love Bill Clinton." 

This presidential friendship is an important reminder that we can enjoy each other as people without agreeing with one another on every issue politically.  

And we can work together to bring positive change to our nation.

Let's bring that message home.

-The Purple Living Room Team

That's all for this week...just a reminder...keep looking!
--The Purple Living Room Team