March for Our Lives in Fort Worth
March 24, 2018
The Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School has galvanized teenagers and supports of reasonable gun control in the U.S. In Fort Worth, high-school age teenagers organized a local march and I was totally on board.
I have to say, the whole issue feels sort of like passing the torch. The “big” issue in the country when I was these kids’ age was the war in VietNam. Young people, who didn’t know they couldn’t effect change, came together and continued to protest–all before cell phones and social media, mind you. The movement grew, and the change did happen. I’m hoping this generation’s cause is similarly effective.
This is not to say that the change was an unqualified success. In so many ways, we’ve seen a coarsening of public dialog and a loss of concern for our neighbors in society. But our actions (and I say “our” even though I was not as active at that time as I now feel I should have been) at least showed we weren’t powerless. This is a good takeaway for the kids today.
In any case, I was there for this march in support, and I was really impressed with the organizers. They put together a good program (5-minute speeches, and not too many), the speakers were passionate and articulate, and they kept the crowd informed. They even handled a protester with a bull-horn well–by ignoring him (he was surrounded by police so as to keep everyone separated) and speaking louder.
A neighbor (Lisa) and I joined a crowd of about 7,000-8,000 of our closest friends for the march on this warm and sunny spring day, and I was home in time to watch some of the program being livestreamed from Washington D.C.
Yep, I was impressed.
