My republican friend and her little girl are coming with me to a protest rally!

It's been a difficult year for my friend "Marta" and her 8 year-old daughter "Koko." First Koko lost her health insurance when the repugs in Congress refused to do anything to fund the CHIP program because giving tax breaks to billionaires was their priority one - I asked Marta if her own paycheck had gone up and she said "no."

Then the school shootings in Florida happened. Marta was already worried when she sent Koko off to school each morning after the school bus left Koko behind and the school - and Marta - had no idea where she was. That was awful. Poor Marta searched everywhere crying and shaking until Koko was safely found sitting under a shade tree on the school grounds. Just like everyone else, Marta was horrified at the deaths of those poor children. She downloaded onto her phone the pictures of the 17 people who were killed and showed them to me with tears in her eyes.

Koko was already anxious about going to school thanks to the school bus incident. Now she wakes up every morning with a tummy ache and begs to stay home. School has become a place where bad things can happen.

When the local Dems notified me that they're planning a gun control rally in the town park, I asked Marta if she and Koko would like to come with me and Marta said yes. WOW! My town is located in conservative rural Colorado. The Traitor won over Hillary by 77% of the vote. Plus, like many rural Coloradans, Marta and her husband own a number of guns, including two semi-automatics, but Marta has had enough.

The NRA and the repugs have made a huge mistake. The mothers in this nation are enraged. They will do whatever they can to protect their babies - a Mom will fight to the death to protect her child - and I can't help but feel that Mom's across the nation are going to go to the polls and vote Democrat in the coming midterms.

The tide is beginning to turn folks. There is hope for our country yet!