#March For Our Lives

Today is the day. The day when our youth march in protest against gun violence and lax gun laws. They are marching for their lives. They are marching for the lives of future generations. They are marching for us. Yes. They are marching for me and for you. They are marching for anyone that could get caught up in gun violence…in schools, at the shopping mall, at the theater, everywhere.

It is not just a kids’ march. It’s a march for all of us. Yes, it was organized by kids in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting that took seventeen lives but it is a march for us all. We have to have their back. We adults have to have their back. They can make a difference and watching coverage from one city to another it is clear that these kids are angry. They want change. They are ready to march and to speak out and to fight for a change. And we have to have their back. We have to support them. We have failed them and it is our turn to stand up and support them.

Here in Portland, as I write, the march is underway. The numbers are huge. Police are baffled. They didn’t know what to expect as far as numbers and they still can’t make a good estimate. They know that there are approximately 12,000 in the vicinity of Court House Square but there are many more still marching toward the area where speeches will be made. There are miles of marchers approaching. The marchers are all ages. There are people of all generations, adults and teens and children.

And it is peaceful. Peace. What a concept.

It is also vocal. And it is important to note that politicians are watching and listening. These marchers are mostly either of voting age or are approaching voting age within a very few years. Politicians need to listen because these kids are not going any place but to the voting booths across the country in elections in local cities, and in states and in our nation.

We need to have their backs. If you can’t go out and march that’s okay. You can still support them. You can write about it. You can talk about it. You can tweet. You can contact your local representatives. Keep it going. They are marching for me and for you. Don’t forget that.

#March for our lives.

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No Safe Place?

Yesterday’s news was of a shooting in front of the Empire State Building in New York City.  It brought me a groan and a sense of frustration for the second time this week.  Not again.  Earlier in the week, there was a shooting at a local grocery store, the store I shop at for my groceries.  Although it didn’t end in anyone’s death as the shooting at the Empire State Building did, it was appalling.

Can you imagine being in line at the grocery store when shooting breaks out?  In line at a grocery store where the 4 PM crowd includes children?  For that matter, can you imagine anyone needing to bring a gun with them when they go grocery shopping?  I can’t but apparently that’s the world in which we live.

New York City is a destination for so many tourists.  Have you been there?  Could you imagine being there and on your way to ride the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building when shooting breaks out?  Can you imagine the ever busy streets of New York filled with children, teens, and elderly all trying to make sense of the senseless?  All trying to stay safe where there seems to be no safety?

I don’t know.  It sort of makes me want to lock myself up in my house and never leave.  It makes me want to take my grandson far away from everyone and everything to keep him safe.  I guess that’s the initial reaction even though it’s not a practical solution.

Is there a solution?  I don’t really know.  Do you?

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