Response to March for our Lives

There is something devastating about watching an 11 year old girl, who starts off bubbly and smiling, start talking about the girls and women who were victims of gun violence. The image we expect of younger children is innocence and naivety. They are supposed to be the light that has yet to be exposed to all the darkness in this world. They should NOT be victims to it, yet in today’s society, many children are. Naomi Wadler is a force to be reckoned with in this speech, because she speaks on behalf of all the people who are forced to face the darkness that is gun violence. To then hear her say she comes from a place of privilege, really puts the listener into perspective. For her, privilege means to have a voice that can be heard, to speak up for those who cannot, and she is honored to utilize that privilege for a greater purpose. What I found most inspiring is when she quoted Tony Morrison for saying that “if there is a book that you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” She is the walking, talking existence of that quote, and she is very much writing the story of a brighter future.

Emma Gonzalez gave a speech that was not just powerful, but 100% memorable. I think about the speech and I’m immediately put back to where I first listened to it, processing every word and every moment of silence, trying to understand her head space. I can only imagine the horror and trauma that comes with experiencing what she did, and with every second that she remained silence, I wanted to know what she was thinking. For every second that I sat watching her face, my thoughts would not wander off. I was engrossed in the emotion she was putting forth, the atmosphere that existed around her. I thought about all the names she had listed and all the activities she paired with those names. I tried to envision what I thought she was envisioning, the moments she shared with those people she lost. She humanized what many people will often see as just another name in just another mass shooting because society has become so desensitized to its reoccurring nature. She made me really question at what cost were those lives lost and what will it take to make change before we keep losing more.

Related posts:

For the past three years, I have been researching specialized protein therapeutics to treat complications of diabetes. In the laboratory setting, we often use diagnostic tools to assess the efficacy…

Right after Jesus entered Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna, he made his way to the temple. By this time he was already well known and often had a difficult time showing himself in public lest the…

You are Cordially invited to Authors Portraits LV art exhibit. The following author’s portraits will be displayed the month of October 2019. Photography by David de Hannay has taken their essence…