A Honolulu woman’s message sent through Facebook about herself and her 4-year-old son became part of this week’s Democratic filibuster in the U.S. Senate to spur action on gun-control legislation.
Vanessa Ito said Thursday she was surprised that her Facebook message to Sen. Brian Schatz was read by the Hawaii senator during the filibuster Wednesday.
She said she was also surprised by a email from a Boston resident thanking her for sending the message to Schatz.
The woman was a life coach who had appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Ito said.
“I thought, Oh my gosh, this is taking on a life of its own,” Ito said.
Ito, 40, a University of Hawaii-Manoa administrator, is associate director of the Kokua Program, which assists people with disabilities.
Ito said she was frustrated by the lack of progress to control guns and felt compelled to send a message to Schatz on Wednesday morning.
She had been listening to a cable broadcast about the Senate filibuster conducted by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
In her message to Schatz, Ito described how she found herself thinking about the safest place she and her 4-year-old son could sit during a UH film presentation Sunday after the news broke on the massacre of 49 people in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub. Her message also said she thought about what she should do if a shooter entered the theater.
She said she’s not an anxious person by nature, but refuses to accept being powerless against gun violence.
“It seems completely insane that in 2016 we have nothing more inspiring to offer a nation of families other than hoping that loved ones are not in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said in the message.
