(Me awkwardly taking a photo because I'm not sure if I should be smiling.)
On
March 24, 2017, I participated in the March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C.
The event was created in response to mass shootings in public settings. The
March For Our lives was created by students of all ethnicities, religions and
sexualities across the country. Specifically, the most notable leaders who
receive the most media attention are Emma Gonzalez and David Hoggs. However,
this event brought together countless other young leaders and celebrities to
raise attention to the issue of gun violence in the U.S.
(Photo of crowds and Capitol building)
The
mission statement of the March For Our Lives states, “Not one more. We cannot
let one more child be shot at school.” The goals are to accomplish the
following:
1.
Universal, comprehensive background checks
2.
Bringing the ATF into the 21st century with a digitized searchable
database
3.
Funds for the Center for Disease Control to research the gun violence epidemic
in America
4.
High-capacity magazine ban
5.
Assault weapons ban
Because
the March For Our Lives was created by students, most of the content was
produced and distributed digitally. The movement used a website at https://marchforourlives.com/. The
website prompts the user to register to be counted in the movement. The
organization is also present on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Several
of the links can be found at the bottom of this post.
Most
of the promotion of the event was through Facebook event pages and promoting
the issue of gun violence on Twitter. This caused some issues for organizing because
multiple unofficial event pages were created. Other organization event pages in
support of the event were created. The official March For Our Lives page did
not include a time until it was closer to the event. Other public pages had
different times. However, these issues did not stop people from coming to the
event. CBS News reported that more than 200,000 people participated in the
March For Our Lives event in Washington, D.C.
As
a participant in the event and the days leading up to it, I thought a lot of
the organizing was standard. I did not see anything leading up to the event
that was extraordinarily unusual. However, I thought there were some
interesting tactics used to tell the narrative during the event.
During
the event, there were screens, so people could see anywhere on Pennsylvania
Avenue. I was around 9th Street, so I was around the middle. I was a
bit of a ways back from a giant screen, and originally, this did not seem
unusual to me. I thought they were just projectors for stage images. However,
they showed different footage including news coverage and videos from what was
happening inside the school during the school shooting. It allowed the
organizers to incorporate more interviews of people who were unable to attend,
and it made the story more encompassing. It was extremely emotional, and there
were several times I found myself crying.
This
tactic was unlike any other that I had seen in a march before. I have been able
to attend several other bigger ones, but this one integrated and embedded
stories in an innovative way. It was interesting to be a part of the movement,
and it was cool to log onto social media to see what other places around the
world were doing for their March For Our Lives events.
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