March for Our Lives: A Movement that Will Shape the Nation’s Agenda draws hundreds of thousands to D.C. and at least 85,000 to Chicago's Union Park event...
Two of the hundreds of students and adults who assembled in Chicago's Union Park for the "March for our lives..." Substance photo by Susan Hickey.The Parkland mass shooting, which claimed the 17 lives -- 14 students and 3 teachers -- has produced a student movement that is reminiscent of the anti-war movement over fifty years ago. The March for Our Lives movement has sparked a meaningful conversation on gun violence and the need to ban certain weapons and to stop the ‘everyone is allowed to buy a gun’ madness that make the United States is only country in the so-called developed nations to have the highest by far the number of killings by guns. It is appalling that these students have been receiving death threats for speaking out against their fellow classmates being killed.
The one important feature of this organizing by the Parkland students was their reaching out to Chicago students and making a concerted effort to show how the killing of young people by guns is an epidemic and a major health concern.
Within a very short time, they organized student walkouts with one just occurred on the month anniversary, March 14th. Here is a link to hear some of the speeches in Washington: http://time.com/5214452/march-for-our-lives-best-speeches/
They also organized a March for Our Lives events to take place in Washington D.C. on March 24th.
There were over 800 ‘sister marches’ both in the United States and around the world, including one in Chicago. The march and rally started at Union Park and had approximately 85,000 people in attendance.
The rally at Union Park was organized by Chicago students and it was impressive to hear them speak so passionately about this issue. There were speeches and performances by Chicago Public School students that were inspiring. What was interesting to know is that there are a number of grassroots student organizations in Chicago and it was these young people that put the program together.
Some of the organizations were: Good Kids Mad City whose speaker was very moving as she spoke of her friend being killed recently (unfortunately I have not been able to find her name in any of the news reports or through Google), Majority Youth Rising (a speech by Chyann Global), Young Urban Professionals, Kids Off the Block, Indivisible 606 and Chicago Student Union. There were other groups that were part of the planning.
There were two students that stood out and both of them are students from Whitney Young: Jalen Kobayashi and Juan Reyes. If you Google, Jalen, you will find out that he is an accomplished poet/writer already. His poem, ‘Zoo’, spoke about the reality of being a young person of color in Chicago. One of his lines was: “It is easier to buy a gun in this city than to plug a tooth”. Juan Reyes spoke of better funding for public schools and more mental health providers for students. In fact, a number of the speakers brought up the need for more social workers, psychologists and counselors and no armed guards.
What was noticeably absent in the leading up to this event was the silence from the Chicago Teachers Union. They have promoted other events, rallies or marches that were organized by other groups but there was not anything on their website about this. At the Delegate and School Leadership conference, individual delegates asked that there would be a discussion about how to respond to the announced national walkout planned in the middle of March. There was a post on their blog but no press release on the March 14th student walkouts.
Here is what CTU posted March 12th:
"CPS students are planning walk-outs and other actions at a number of schools on March 14 - the one-month anniversary of the horrific mass shooting that took the lives of 17 high school students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Those actions are part of a national school walkout marking one month since the worst school massacre in U.S. history, with another national day of action planned for April 20.
"The AFT has released "GUIDANCE ON EDUCATOR SUPPORT FOR STUDENT PROTESTS", and CPS has released "Responding to Parkland: A Guide to Support Student Engagement." Plan accordingly, using the AFT and CPS guidelines as tools that outline allowed versus unallowed CTU member participation in school communities, and contact your CTU field representative in the wake of any issues or problems.
"Nationally, March 14 is being framed as a call for tighter gun laws. In Chicago, more than 1,800 children under the age of 17 have been shot in the last five years, according to the Chicago Tribune, leaving at least 140 children dead. These largely unheralded victims are the casualties of both individual crimes and larger public policies that undermine children’s safety and thwart their futures.
"CPS students are taking action to address racist policies that cause violence and economic instability In their neighborhoods. On March 14 and April 20, student leaders in a number of schools will target mayoral policies that exacerbate violence and harm children, from deep budget cuts at their schools and Rahm Emanuel’s closure of NTA and Englewood's high schools to the police killing of teenager Laquan McDonald.
"For thousands of CPS students, gun violence is part of the daily trauma they experience in a school system and a city that often seems to view them as of little value. Students recognize that violence and despair in their neighborhoods are driven by a host of inequities, from the lack of affordable housing and living wage jobs to the widespread mistreatment of Black and Latinx youth in Chicago.
"Yet instead of tackling the root causes of much of the violence in Chicago, Mayor Emanuel has consistently forced our students to bear the brunt of racist, classist policies that undermine their safety and their futures - whether it’s racist school closings that force students out of their neighborhoods into unsafe terrain or deep cuts to classroom resources in South and West Side Schools. Our students confront not just the daily trauma of gun violence but a parallel - and dire - lack of school counselors, social workers and trauma wrap-around services, driven by the funneling of TIF funds and other public revenue away from our students’ schools into projects that serve wealthy elites.
"The CTU encourages our members and supporters to show solidarity with our students and challenge the physical and economic violence they endure daily. We encourage signs and messages that demand an end to school closings and support an elected representative school board, affordable housing and TIF funds for sustainable community schools. We encourage solidarity that challenges the physical and economic violence that our students confront, from racist school closings and the desperate need for an elected representative school board that actually listens to parents and students, to demands to channel public funds into education, affordable housing and living wage work for students and families - a path to undercutting much of the violence that plagues Chicago’s neighborhoods. We can't adequately honor the victims at Douglas high school without also recognizing and combatting the daily assault on the lives and futures of our students - particularly this city’s poor Black and Latino youth, who make up the vast majority of our students.
"Our students are this city’s future. They have a right to make their voices heard - a right the CTU embraces and supports."
There were individual teachers at the Saturday march there were no union leadership that was visible there. On Twitter, CTU posted only one photo from the March. This is unfortunate as the students were making demands to have more mental health providers in schools and CTU should have embrace their call to action. The March is not the last we will hear from students and there is a planned walkout in April 20th which is the 19th anniversary of the Columbine mass shooting.
Here are two articles written about the March for Our Lives; one about the Washington march and the other about the one on Chicago:
Chicago: Organizers estimated that more than 85,000 Chicago-area students and community members participated in the March For Our Lives event March 24 held in Union Park on Chicago's Near West Side. Schools from Highland Park to Crown Point, Indiana, and from the South, North and West sides of Chicago were represented.
The event, organized by survivors of gun violence and high school and college students, was among 800 nationwide protesting gun violence and calling for more gun regulations in the aftermath of the murders of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Meanwhile, bisexual activist and Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez was among the many youth speakers in Washington, D.C., speaking to more than 800,000 in a March For Our Lives main event broadcast around the world. Her speech was followed by moments of silence—the total time she was on stage equaled the length of time it took for the Parkland killer to complete his shooting spree—and was widely touted as being among the most powerful speeches of any March on Washington.
The March For Our Lives movement is calling on lawmakers to make students' lives and safety a priority by passing common-sense gun safety legislation. After the rally, community members marched through the surrounding neighborhood and back to Union Park "in solidarity with the Parkland students and all those across the nation affected by gun violence."
As tens of thousands of people streamed in for several hours Saturday, youth speakers addressed the inter-connected issues of racism, poverty, subpar education and more that lead to the high rates of gun violence in Chicago and around the country. There were references to the murders in Parkland, at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando, and the shooting death by police of Chicago youth Laquan McDonald.
Scheduled speakers included: Chyann Global, Majority Youth Rising; Eduardo Medel, Young Urban Professionals; Denzel Russell, Dontrel Dismuke, Malcolm Russell, Devon Lewis from Kids Off the Block; high school student Caitlyn Smith who spoke on the lack of media attention for female gun violence survivors; Juan Reyes and Chloe Hancock of Chicago Student Union. There were performances by Jalen Kobayashi (poet/singer), the Hinsdale High School Poetry Team and Kuumba Lynx.
"As a student organizer, today is one of the biggest days of my life. We get to use the platform that the Parkland students have started to shine a spotlight on the the need for better gun laws in this country," said Marley Rosario, student organizer in Chicago and co-founder of Gather Activism. "We are telling lawmakers in Illinois and DC that we're not going to take this any longer and this fight is far from over."
Also in D.C., Pulse Nightclub shooting survivors and family members led hundreds of members and supporters of the Human Rights Campaign in the March For Our Lives. Before stepping off, the survivors and family members addressed HRC's annual Spring Equality Convention to talk about the Pulse Nightclub shooting and the importance of mobilizing the LGBTQ community against gun violence.
Christine Leinonen, mother of Drew Leinonen; Brandon Wolf, friend of Drew and Drew's boyfriend Juan Guerrero, who were both killed; and Jose Arraigada—the three of which appeared and spoke on stage at the DNC one month after the shooting in 2016—joined with fellow survivor and Pulse survivor, Ricardo Negron, onePulse Foundation Board Chair Earl Crittenden, and HRC President Chad Griffin to lead hundreds of HRC members and supporters. The marchers were also led by Karamo Brown, one of the hosts of Queer Eye and a graduate of
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Brown knew Aaron Feis, the football coach who was killed in the Parkland attack. He is the co-founder of 6in10.org, which combats HIV stigma and provides support and education to the Black LGBTQ community. Brown has partnered with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the Center for Disease Control, and the National Black Justice Coalition through his advocacy.
For more information, visit:www.facebook.com/events/418245641921459/ .
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http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/More-than-85000-attend-Chicagos-anti-gun-March-For-Our-Lives-/62348.html
The story behind 11-year-old Naomi Wadler and her March for Our Lives speech
Naomi Wadler, an 11-year-old from Alexandria, Va. delivered a speech at the March for Our Lives rally in D.C. on March 24. (Reuters)
The youngest speaker at the March for Our Lives rally Saturday made one of the biggest splashes with an eloquent speech urging the nation not to forget black women, who are disproportionately represented among the victims of gun violence.
Naomi Wadler, an Alexandria fifth-grader, became a hashtag, a meme shared around the world, praised by celebrities who included actress Lupita Nyong’o and comedian Eddie Griffin. The 11-year-old was heralded as future presidential material.
But Wadler hasn’t seen any of that: She’s not on social media.
“I have been accustomed to not Google myself, so I haven’t seen everything,” Wadler said Sunday in a phone interview during her spring break beach trip. “My speech might not have caused a giant impact on society, but I do hope all the black girls and women realize there’s a growing value for them.”
That was the focus of her 3-minute, 30-second speech, which was repeatedly interrupted by roars of applause.
“I am here to acknowledge and represent the African American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don’t lead on the evening news,” Wadler said. “I represent the African American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential.”
“For far too long, these names, these black girls and women, have been just numbers,” Wadler later said. “I’m here to say ‘Never again’ for those girls, too.”
Many of the young people who spoke Saturday had personal experiences surviving shootings or losing loved ones to gun violence.
The path that took Wadler, who likes to sing, run and play tennis, to a worldwide stage started when the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., inspired her to activism.
Her mother, Julie Wadler, sat her down to talk about the shooting and shared a personal connection: A friend from high school, Fred Guttenberg, lost his daughter Jamie in the Parkland shooting.
Naomi Wadler was thinking about what she could do when she saw reports of high school and middle school students planning walkouts on the one-month anniversary of the Feb. 14 shooting. She and classmate Carter Anderson, a friend since kindergarten thought: Why not elementary school students, too?
So, they organized a walkout at Alexandria’s George Mason Elementary School.
Like thousands of other students who helped organize walkouts, they wanted the disruption to last 17 minutes in honor of the 17 Parkland victims. But they decided to add an extra minute in memory of Courtlin Arrington, a 17-year old black girl who was shot to death at her Alabama high school March 7. That shooting, three weeks after Parkland, received far less national media attention.
Arrington, a high school senior, had been accepted to college and planned to become a nurse.
A study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last summer found that black women were more than twice as likely to be killed, and the most likely of any racial group to be shot to death.
“It’s subconsciously embedded into peoples’ minds that somebody with a darker complexion is worth less and their life isn’t as valuable as a white girl or man’s,” Wadler said.
Wadler also spoke at a gun violence forum hosted by her congressman, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
Her walkout garnered some media attention that made the rounds on social media. March for Our Lives organizers also noticed.
While Wadler wanted to attend the D.C. march, her family suggested they go to a sister march instead so that they could proceed with their spring break vacation as planned.
Those plans changed Thursday when a march organizer called Julie Wadler and asked if her daughter would speak. Naomi agreed without hesitation.
George Clooney, one of the celebrities who bankrolled the march, called Thursday, too, and mentioned he watched her interview with NowThis.
“He said he loved how I spoke so eloquently and the message I was trying to get across, and I was kind of like, ‘Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay,” said Wadler, who hasn’t seen any of Clooney’s movies but has watched him give interviews.
At first, she worried that talking about black women would be off topic. But then she found out other students from all over would speak from their experiences, and she felt comfortable telling her story as a black girl disappointed by how stories about gun violence involving people who look like her don’t incite the same outrage and sympathy. Or garner the same media attention.
Wadler was born in Ethiopia and attends a school where nearly six in 10 students are white, a third are Hispanic and 6 percent are black. Her mom is white, and her dad, a recreational hunter, is black.
“We are a family that watches the news. She wants to know why on the news they identify black people as black, and not white people as white,” Julie Wadler said. “She wants to know why Trayvon Martin was shot. She wants to know why Philando Castile was shot. Her father is black, and she wants to know, does she have to worry about him being stopped and killed?
“She’s an aware kid,” she said. “To listen to the past two years of our world and inside the Beltway, conversations about race are dinner table conversation for us.”
On Saturday, a driver picked up Wadler and her mother to take them to the rally, and she sang “Rise Up,” by Andra Day, during the ride.
Backstage, she met Clooney, as well as director Steven Spielberg and rapper/activist Common. She was more excited to meet the Parkland student activists whom she admired, including Emma González and Jaclyn Corin, who now have her email.
Wadler also bonded with Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King’s 9-year-old grand-daughter who took the stage to pump the crowd up. When it was Wadler’s time to speak, nerves were setting in.
“I tend to be a pretty catastrophic thinker when it comes to these things,” Wadler said. “I think, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die, am I going to die?’ I need lifesaving serum.”
She needn’t have worried.
Her presentation went smoothly and drew widespread praise for directly tackling how race plays into society’s reactions to gun violence.
Beyond the substance of Wadler’s remarks, many were impressed by the eloquence and poise of an elementary school student speaking on the national stage.
“Wow wow Naomi Wadler. She is ELEVEN YEARS OLD. And smarter than us all,” tweeted Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti.
After the speech, Wadler gave her mother a big hug and joined her friends Carter, Matt and Lily to watch the rally from the audience. When she got home, she found a note left on the door by a friend telling her she’d done a great job. Teachers emailed her mother with praise.
On Sunday, her mother casually mentioned on the drive to the beach that “Black Panther” star and Oscar winner Nyong’o had given her a shout-out on Instagram. “She screamed so loud that I thought I lost my hearing for a month,” Julie Wadler said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-story-behind-11-year-old-naomi-wadler-and-her-march-for-our-lives-speech/2018/03/25/3a6dccdc-3058-11e8-8abc-22a366b72f2d_story.html?utm_term=.39317a98b579
By: Susan Hickey, LCSW
Another resurce to continue the fight!
The March for Our Lives — and its hundreds of sister marches around the world — represents a historic moment for youth activism.
Building off the momentum of other youth-led groups against gun violence, like Black Lives Matter and Black Youth Project 100, the movement initiated by the Parkland survivors has already prompted many corporations to drop ties with the National Rifle Association, convinced businesses to adopt common-sense approaches to the sale of firearms, and pressured legislators to pass gun reform.
People are joining together in recognizing that the momentum from youth could make this the moment for change. To the young people out there, this is your movement. The world is finally hearing this generation — so it’s time to be so loud that you can’t be ignored. Together, young people have the power to put an end to school shootings and push for stronger gun laws.
Here are six ways to do something about gun violence online, in your community, and at all levels of government once the March for Our Lives has taken place.
1. Join the post-march movement.
Sign up for the Do Something About Gun Violence campaign from DoSomething.org, one of the largest not-for-profits in the U.S., designed exclusively for young people and social change. You’ll receive a handful of immediate ways to take action on gun violence, along with updates on new ways to get involved throughout April. This platform — which, full disclosure: I work for — makes it easy for young people to vocalize their opinion about issues that matter most to them.
2. Demand your local representatives push for policy changes to protect your community.
Through DoSomething, you can call 202-335-8470 to connect to your local decision-makers, who have the power to inform gun legislation in your area. These officials were elected to listen to YOU — so be so loud you can’t be ignored.
When you call 202-335-8470, here’s what will happen:
You’ll hear the voice of Freddie, a DoSomething staffer, who will tell you what to say to your representative.
Freddie will then ask for your zip code. Type it in on your keypad.
You’ll be automatically connected by phone to an elected official near you. Use Freddie’s tips and tell them how you feel about gun violence prevention. If they don’t answer, leave a message!
It’s OK to be nervous, but you got this! There are thousands of other young Americans making these calls, too. Raising your voice together will make a huge difference!
3. Make sure you and your friends are registered to vote.
If you and your friends are turning 18 by election day on November 6, when midterms will occur in many states, registering to vote is the best way to voice your opinion about gun violence. If you’re under 18, you may be eligible to vote in a few states — either way, reach out to your friends who are. Read Teen Vogue’s local ballot guide to better prepare on what the political seats up for grabs actually influence once elected.
4. Get smart on U.S. gun laws in your state.
Knowledge is power, and by better understanding gun legislation and laws in place, you and your friends will learn the real deal about the gun laws that affect young people most. Learn about assault rifles, the NRA’s roots, and how the organization has blocked research into the effects of gun violence. If you’re up for it, take and share this quiz to test your overall understanding of gun laws — at the end, you’ll be connected with local reps who can affect gun legislation near you.
5. Share a national location finder to help friends find on-the-ground, student-led events.
After the March for Our Lives event, thousands of young people will continue to take to the streets to stand up to gun violence. Inspire your friends to join them. One student-led event to keep in mind is National School Walkout Day, which will take place on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. This surely won’t be the last walkout to take place in the weeks to come, so make sure you’re aware of your rights before attending a walkout. And if you’re nervous about attending a demonstration because you’re not sure how your guardians might feel, here’s a helpful guide on how to raise the idea.
6. Start organizing your own community — it’s hard work, but you can do it.
You have the power to create a dialogue about gun violence prevention in your community and at school. Whether you want to organize your own walkout or attend a town meeting, Women’s March Youth Empower created a step-by-guide to help you keep fighting for gun violence prevention locally. There’s also much to learn from those who have been activists for a long time, like Chicago’s Black Youth Project 100 national director Charlene Carruthers, who explained to Teen Vogue readers that, “Strong movements require many strong leaders.”
7. Take advantage of the power of social media.
You can use every day as a chance to speak up for what you believe, using your social media feeds to present facts and ideas about the movement. Continue using #Enough and #MarchForOurLives on social media to spread the word to friends and family. Share details about other student-led events you hear about, like 50 Miles More (March 24–28), a four-day 50-mile march in Wisconsin, from Madison and to Janesville, which is the hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan. Making your voice heard and amplifying the voices of other students will help keep this movement alive.