This past weekend, EMU students joined the March for Our Lives movement to march on the Capitol Building in Washington to call for reform in gun control laws.
Chants of “vote them out” and “this is what democracy looks like” worked their way through the crowd, and thousands of signs were scrawled with other messages. The EMU students who participated added their own signs to the crowd, some reading “I’m studying to be a teacher not a marksman” and “They didn’t get a choice; we are their voice.”
First-year Ruth Reimer-Berg said, “I think [gun control] is something incredibly important we need to address, and we should try to end gun violence. As a Mennonite and a pacifist, it’s been something that I’ve believed my whole life and it was really cool to be able to go to D.C., somewhere where it feels like our voices are being heard.”
According to the Associated Press, March for Our Lives was the largest youth protest since the Vietnam War, and for some it almost felt like marching during the protests which are taught in class.
Rachael Brenneman
With the capitol building in sight, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida were joined by teens from Chicago and other survivors of school shootings to speak to the gathered crowd. These speakers were of particular note as none were older than seniors in high school, with the youngest speaker being eleven years old.
There were celebrities such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jennifer Hudson, who sang in-between emotional speeches and testimonies from gun violence survivors from Chicago and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but none of them spoke beyond thanking the crowd for being there.
However, the speakers made it clear that this was not only for school shootings but for all victims of gun violence, especially violence against people of color who do not make headlines. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s granddaughter even led the crowd in a chant, proclaiming, “We will be a great generation.”
“[I felt] empowered as Martin Luther King’s granddaughter [stood] on the stage next to a white child — both advocating for change in a common space,” sophomore Hannah Nichols said. “This is what MLK fought for every day, to have people of color and whites marching side-by-side for justice.”
First-year Tessa Waidelich appreciated the speeches from Parkland students. “It became really personal — more than just hearing about a school shooting on the radio … There were tears shed by many people, and even though I didn’t know [them] personally, I felt hurt and affected in some way.”
In addition to the march in Washington, over 800 other marches took place around the country, with an estimated 1.2 million people. There has been uncertainty in the exact numbers of people who joined the march, but even without exact numbers the massive amount of people participating was moving.
“It was a powerful feeling to be packed together with over half a million people all gathering to voice our common belief,” Short-Miller said. “It was empowering… and I think that peaceful demonstrations such as this are important ways for our society to have its various voices heard.”
The student leaders are in the middle of organizing another school walkout on April 20, and on April 7 they are calling for every member of Congress to hold a town hall meeting. However, the effects of this march will most clearly be felt after the midterm elections if pro-gun lawmakers are voted out of office.
This march was the start of a greater movement to push for tighrestrictions on gun control and against the National Rifle Association, and time will show its effects on legislation.
