But I didn't miss my chance to stand with those kids. Students have already come to DC to make a statement for safer schools and stronger gun laws. They were here today.
I missed the big march--saw news of it online at lunchtime. It was such a beautiful day today (75! and sunny!) that I decided to walk over to the Capitol grounds to see if I could spot any remnants of the march on the mall.
I didn't expect to see anything.
But there, on the west lawn of the Capitol, I spotted a large group of students, lying on the ground.
Capitol Police hovered protectively nearby. A few tourists were taking photos, and there were a couple of young people with big cameras. They told me they were with "a local college newspaper"; I later saw they had GWU bags.
I took a couple photos, then stood with the kids in solidarity.
After a while, someone yelled out: "OK, that's 17 minutes." The kids got up. The protests are 17 minutes in memory of the 17 people who died.
I couldn't help wanting to go over and ask questions--I wished I had my interview notebook! I decided to go talk to the kids, not as a journalist, but as a citizen.
"Thanks for what you did here today," I said to three young women near me who looked to be about 14.
"We wanted to do it," one said. "We feel like we need to take things into our own hands."
They were from a high school and middle school in Arlington, VA called H-B Woodlawn, an "alternative secondary program" where students gain more and more "unsupervised time" to choose their own educational goals and projects as they get older.
The three girls I talked to said that some of their teachers were with them. "Some of our friends from 6th grade are here, too!" one said.
The protest I saw was the end of a day of protests for the H-B Woodlawn group. The girls told me they'd been part of a group that marched to the White House. Their group marched through Georgetown, which they said was exciting. "There were so many other people," one of the girls said. "They all had signs."
Protesting at the White House was just the beginning. The group's organizers wanted them to make the walk over to the Capitol grounds "because this is where they make the laws," one of the girls explained to me.
"And it's funny," another girls said. "Tomorrow, we're going to be back here for National Model Congress!"
If I'd had my wits about me (and my interviewing notebook), I would have asked whether the girls saw any connections or contrasts between today's protest and their participation in the Model Congress.
As I left the west lawn, I saw a couple other kids, a bit older, being interviewed by one of the GWU journalists. She was asking them what kinds of legislation they wanted to see.
"First, we want better background checks, especially at gun shows," one young man was saying. "And then, we'd like a ban on automatic weapons. No one needs those for hunting or self-defense."
"Yeah, who needs to shoot up a deer with bullets?" said a young woman, next to him.
I agree: who needs an AK-15 for anything other than the thrill of shooting it? We need to stop selling them. It's going to be a while before those go out of circulation (especially black market) after a ban so we need to start now. We had a ban on them before; we need to bring that back. And we need to strengthen background checks; the shooter at the last massacre at least should never have gotten a gun in the first place.
I'm so glad I saw those kids and their protest. My heart has been with all those young people, so full of energy, courage, and determination. As my friend Paul pointed out, (via my friend, his wife Anne, who emailed me his insights) these teens are the perfect people to protest the lack of sensible gun legislation: gun activists can't demonize kids without looking bad themselves.
Let's hope they inspire us adults to do more--and to put our money and votes where our hearts lie. The kids can't do that--yet--but we can help them there.
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| #ENOUGH |
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