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Watching the March For Our Lives

I woke up today, turned on the T.V., flipped the channel to MSNBC, and didn't turn it off until 2:30 which is when I went down to Olde Town Square to participate in Fort Collin's march. The speeches I saw were so amazing and moving; my mother sister and I watched and cried together as the march went on.

I loved the fact that only the kids spoke today--no adults! What an amazing sight! This truly is the future generation's revolution. This also meant that people couldn't say that because a Democrat spoke at the march, it was a political thing. This is a life vs. death thing.

I am mainly writing today because I wanted to talk about what my mom said while we were watching the march. She said that when she was younger, she used to have the fire that these kids have. She used to fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves, she used to shout when she saw injustice, and that's the reason she became a teacher. She wanted to bring that fire to the future generation. But as the years went on, the fire started to die out. She hoped this won't happen to the kids today. And I kept thinking about that. I think the reason she started being quiet and just accepting everything might have been because everybody kept telling her to be quiet and just accept everything. And I guess after a lifetime of listening to that, she did what they asked. But I think this time is different. Yes, there are people who are telling these kids to be quiet, but the kids are not listening to those people. Instead, they rally together and making a change! I am so proud of these kids!

Comments

  1. Meg, my husband and I were at the march, too! (which was really more of a "stand," but whatever)

    Anyway, we also found it to be an inspiring reminder of the power of student voice. What feels different to me in this movement is that the students ARE NOT GIVING UP. And you gotta know that their teachers are right there spurring them on. If you get a chance, you might want to take a look at excerpts from the CNN townhall at Parkland just a few days after the shooting (https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/02/22/gun-town-hall-full-version-parkland.cnn). Teachers speak and students speak a lot about their teachers. It doesn't take much to read between the lines to see how teachers have equipped these students to think, write, and speak with confidence and logic. Have you heard the doubters who've claimed that the students are being force-fed words by adults because they surely couldn't be this articulate on their own? Well, if that was the case, the students would have run out of gas by now. They haven't. Youth voice matters. And so do the teachers that enable them to use it.

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  2. (Mudita, you will see in my next few comments that I have consistently referred to you as Meg. Why, you ask? Nobody really knows. Chalk it up to hours of work on my laptop today. Anyway, let me say publicly here that I am SORRY for the error. Geez, Louise. I hope you can forgive me.)

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