How can we imagine the unimaginable number of people who die from guns in the United States each year? Federal statistics say the tally was 37,863 people lost in 2016, the most recent year for which federal data is available.
A couple weeks back, my friend, the Gloucester poet Amanda Cook, launched a project to fold 37,863 origami cranes. “My hope is to have them displayed by this time next year,” she says. “If you were to see them all hanging together, 37,000 cranes, you can’t deny. The number would be overwhelming.” (Read her blog about the project: “Orange Origami Cranes for National Gun Violence Awareness.”)
“When I have a free moment I make them,” she says. “When I have my morning cup of coffee. When I sit down. We’ve also had a few crane-making events.” Between her and friends, she figures she’s got at least 1,500 folded so far.
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“I think the conversation about gun violence goes so easily to gun control and people’s right to have guns,” Cook says. “By making cranes that each represents a person, it takes it back to people. We’re not arguing over guns or not, we’re talking about people’s lives that were lost.”
In December 1992, a student went on a school shooting rampage at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Among those murdered were Galen Gibson, Cook’s friend, an 18-year-old student from Gloucester.
“Twenty-five years ago, I lost two friends to gun violence. My friend Galen was killed at Simon’s Rock and a friend committed suicide,” Cook says. “That changed my life. I think it showed me that there is no promise of tomorrow. We only have what we do today. You have to live right the whole time because you don’t get the chance to make up. I don’t mean it in a negative way. But if you think of something good you can do, you should do it.”
For the past few years, Cook has organized vigils and other events in Gloucester to coincide with National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 1—and this year’s “Wear Orange Weekend,” a national campaign in which “thousands of Americans will wear orange to send the powerful message that there is more we can do to end gun violence.”
Cook says, “I wanted to do something other. You make your calls. You write letters. You wear orange. But I wanted to do something constructive also.”
“I wanted it to be a tangible thing that you could feel. The idea was to create something.” She’s written: “The crane is a symbol of peace and hope. There is a Japanese tradition of making 1,000 origami cranes which are then strung together. Some claim that anyone who folds 1000 cranes will be granted a wish. Some claim that anyone who folds 1000 cranes will get eternal good luck, happiness and freedom from illness and injury. We wish for an end to gun violence.”
“Also when you make cranes it’s a meditative process. When I fold them I’m thinking of the people who were lost,” Cook says. “With 37,000, you hear about some of the deaths, but there are so many that don’t get any attention. So you fold 17 and you might think of the people in Parkland. But there’s 96 people who die in a day. So you think about the other 79 people. I think about 21 to 22 veterans who kill themselves a day. Sixty-six percent do that with a gun. I think about the people I know in the military. I think about mothers who’ve lost children.”
Recently, Cook told about a friend handing her a bag of 100 orange origami cranes. “I thought it was a lot,” the friend told her, “then I realized it wasn’t even 1 percent.”
Cook notes: “100 cranes is just a little more than would represent the 96 deaths each day.” Then she wrote, “We sat together and folded more cranes.”
Previously:
Dec. 12, 2015: ‘We Can End Gun Violence’ Rally at State House
June 5, 2016: Vigil for National Gun Violence Awareness Day
Feb. 15, 2018: ‘My Name Is Greg Gibson And I’m Speaking With The Man Who Killed My Son’
March 15, 2018: ‘Protect Children Not Guns’—Elementary School Students Protest In Cambridge
March 24, 2018: ‘Enough!’ Photos From The March For Our Lives: Boston
March 30, 2018: ‘There Are Hurts That Don’t Go Away’—Amanda Cook’s Poetic Memoir Of Her Mother’s Dementia, Of Becoming A Mom Herself, Of Everyday Life
Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.