#2 MARCH FOR OUR LIVES
PEOPLE AROUND THE MARCH
On March 28, 2018, I attended the March for Our Lives—a demonstration along Pennsylvania Avenue, which connects the Capitol Building and the White House in Washington, D.C. The student lead rally was a direct response to the shooting at Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, FL, where a former student fatally shot 17 students and staff members. Hundreds of thousands of people stood along "America's Main Street," spilling into the connecting roads—climbing trees, landmarks, stairs, lampposts and any other nearby objects to get a better view of the crowd and the stage where student-activists spoke, and among others, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Jennifer Hudson performed.
I went with nothing more than a DSLR camera and my iPhone. Three hours and a dozen interviews laters, here is a glimpse of what I experienced. The people I spoke to did not organize the event, speak on stage, or survive the Parkland shooting, but each of them, (including the head of the DNC whom I found roaming the streets registering voters) had unique motivations to fight for gun reform.
Courtney Plummer, 18, shows off her sign before she and more than a dozen classmates from her school in New York March toward Pennsylvania Avenue.
“It was important for me to be here today to stand in solidarity with what happened in Parkland, but also to address the issues of gun violence and criminalization that black and brown students have been lobbying for and fighting for—for years...before this happened. ”
Darren Williams is pursuing a PhD in Austin for Crisis Communications focusing on emergency management in schools, specifically active shooter scenarios.
“...I’m a graduate student. I’m here trying to sell some merchandise and pay my rent...In terms of arming certain people in the classroom...It’s kind of like putting a band-aid on a mortal wound.”
In 2012, Ana Marie Vasquez was living in Magdalena de Kina, Senora, Mexico, which borders Tuscon, AZ when a 16-year-old boy in her city, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was fatally shot through the fence by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, on claims that he was involved in drug smuggling.
“All the time people are being shot at the border...They say, ‘They’re probably smugglers, they’re Mexican, who cares...’
This is the perfect time to let people know that this has been happening in other places. For 30 years, the victims in Colombia have been asking for justice, and it is the voice of the vitctims that moves the people.”
“Japan doesn’t have any guns, and I remember a Japanese kid in Louisiana was shot because he didn’t know that America was such a gun society...It was shocking to me that simply not knowing about this country could kill you.”
“I’ve been an activist over 30 years. Something different is happening now. 10 years from now this country will be much better off. You’re lucky, you’re going to be young in a country that’s saner than the country I had to be young in. I have nothing but hope right now...and a little anger.”
“I’m not sure we’re going to see enough change here in Washington...You saw Donald Trump do that charade of a meeting at the White House in the aftermath of Parkland...Two hours or so after he met with young people in the aftermath of this shooting, he’s meeting privately with the NRA and he totally backpedals on everything he said...”
