March For Our Lives | Washington DC

A little over a year ago I marched on Washington DC for the Women’s March and I just recently returned for the March For Our Lives to prevent future gun violence. I grew up right outside of Newtown, less than eight miles form the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Sandy Hook is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful small towns in Connecticut. It is a part of my home. I spent countless nights with friends at the Blue Colony Diner in Newtown and I would walk into town to get pizza with friends at the Firehouse Pizza restaurant that my friend’s mother used to own. My sister Jennifer attended school in Newtown. My weekends were spent at Edmond Town Hall watching movies with the community and waiting in the long line at Wheeler Farm afterwards for ice cream. A few months before the Sandy Hook tragedy, two of my high school classmates were in the Aurora theater shooting. Thankfully, they both survived their wounds, although many did not.

I did not grow up in an area that had regular gun violence and shootings on the streets, although thousands of American children are living in that kind of fear. I was still touched by the impact of gun deaths. The first time I lost a classmate to a gun I was only twelve years old. I later lost a young neighbor to an accidental shooting. They are so common they barely make headlines, but this is not common in most countries. I grew up with these events as sad facts of life, but truly they are not. America is unique in that regard. Just because we are living this way does not mean that we should, or that we are powerless to prevent it. 

My step-mother was the psychologist who was on call from the Red Cross that terrible day in December of 2012. It is because of her efforts with activism that we were invited to join the Newtown Action Alliance, Sandy Hook Promise, and the Brady Campaign on the buses to DC. We took off from the Newtown Middle School at four in the morning and made it into Washington DC a little more than an hour before the march. 

When we arrived we were ushered to a room to be given lunches and water for our day. These sweet kids were sitting at the podium. Outside before marching to the event, local news crews interviewed several of the students who had arrived on the buses with us. We were guided to a side entrance as people started to pour into Pennsylvania Avenue. Media crews were lined up for the event. We were guided right up to the front of the stage. It was an incredible experience to be so close. For the last march I attended, I came in through the back and made it almost a block away from the stage. It was amazing to be so close. At the same time, we had no idea how big the gathering was going to be because we could not see that far back from where we stood. It was an incredible feeling to be a part of history and to share the experience with my family. This was also Matthew’s first march! The streets began to fill with people. It was so tight that we stood shoulder to shoulder with our fellow marchers. Students from Parkland were standing with us along with students from Newtown, Columbine, and numerous other schools and communities impacted by these tragedies. A Parkland Student holds a sign before the rally begins. Never Again. Andra Day opened the rally with a song for hope. Many critics of the march brought up their distaste for performances at the march, but the emotional support of these artists brought hope and happiness to the children and the crowd during this serious event. These artists are in a position of power and influence, which they do not take for granted. Their support of these brave kids kept the message where it belonged and brought a sense of the innocence that the movement is working to protect. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Cameron Kasky gave the opening speech. “Look around -We are the change.”His speech was followed by his classmate, Delaney Tarr.Demi Moore sang her song, “Skyscraper” as a message of hope for the crowd. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and performer Ben Platt sang “Found Tonight.”Student David Hogg gave a powerful speech as well. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter Yolanda Renee King lead the crowd into a chant. She told the crowd that her grandfather had a dream, but that she also had a dream. “My dream is, enough is enough.” 
Arianna Granda followed young Yolanda’s chant with a performance followed by another moving speech by Newtown High School students who spoke with a message of support to the Parkland students. Emma Gonzalez closed the rally with a powerful six minute and twenty second speech and moment of silence, the same amount of time that it took the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to kill seventeen children and teachers. The crowd was blown away by the size when cameras showed an aerial view of the march. Jennifer Hudson, who has also lost numerous family members to gun violence, sang a powerful song with the students on stage. Other speakers and performers of the rally included rapper Common, Vic Mensa, 11 year-old Naomi Wadler, Miley Cyrus, Edna Chaves, Ryan Deitsz, Sam Fuentes, Mya Middleton, and several other students and young adults. Every speaker at the event was under twenty-one years old. I am so proud of my younger sister for being a strong activist at such a young age. She has interned with the Arielle Foundation and is really active in our local community at home. She is currently studying to become a youth psychologist. It was an amazing experience to stand with her at the march. After the speeches were over we went back out the same side entrance that we arrived through and made our way to the bus for the long drive back home. It was the most incredible 24 hour experience to drive there and back to stand for these students and make a statement. The Washington DC march brought in over 800,000 participants, the largest student march since the Vietnam war! Over 800 sister marches occurred in every state of the US as well as numerous other countries around the world, including Australia, France, Scotland, England, Japan, Haiti, and Germany. The mission has just begun and what an amazing start it is.