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The contrast
couldn’t have been greater. Flashing on one screen were the rigid
faces slogans and fear-mongering screed of NRA spokesmen, culminating
with the iconic image of the now long dead Charlton Heston holding a
rifle above his head and chanting “From my cold dead hands!”
On the other and on
the live stage below were the young, amazingly eloquent and
life-affirming faces and voices, one after another, of high school
students and others from across the country who gathered in
Washington, D.C. yesterday to ignite nothing less than a true
Childrens’ Crusade to take back their country from those same few
but powerful “cold dead hands” whose choke-hold on American
politics for decades has prevented any reasonable gun-control
legislation.
March for Our Lives, Washington, DC 3/24/18
Credit: Rosa Pineda/Creative Commons
Combining a healthy
blend of passion and reason, their repeated call, “Enough is
Enough” as well as the spoken and unspoken theme underlying all
their messages--“Choose Life-- reflected, at times, both the
religious fervor and sophisticated political sensibility which
characterized and energized the Civil Rights, Free Speech and
anti-war movements which transformed America more than a half-century
ago.
Dominating both the
rhetoric and the blizzard of signs being waved in the bright
Washington sunshine was a truly refreshing and deeply American faith
in the power of individual citizens to effect change. While calling
for a ‘revolution’ in politics and society, and while
calling-out, sometimes by name, politicians who reflexively do the
bidding of the NRA and the powerful gun lobby, these young citizens
assumed and asserted their right to protest, demand and, most
importantly, achieve the change and protection from gun violence they
and a great majority of others want and need from their government.
Nowhere in sight was
the cynicism, resignation and apathetic acceptance dominating the
current political scene. Nor the angry, demeaning tweets and
name-calling. Instead, the flavor was one of optimism and hope. Of
belief that the system, though corrupted by deceit, wealth and
privilege, could be reformed by the sheer will of the people
expressed through the ballot box. With the Capitol dome as backdrop,
and tens of thousands of marchers cheering and chanting in front of
them, along with sister demonstrations occurring across the nation
and world, at that moment it truly seemed possible.
Why the massacre at
Marjory Douglas Stoneman High has produced this level of response
when all the others, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas and elsewhere
have quickly faded from public consciousness, with only “thoughts
and prayers” from elected officials as a result, is still unclear.
As are the ultimate political and policy outcomes that will emerge
from this latest tragedy. What is clear, however, is that a corner
seems to have been turned in what has appeared up to now to be an
intractable debate. Suddenly, room and pressure may have emerged for
the passage of effective legislation on background checks and the
availability of assault weapons.
The voices were
neither fearful nor divisive, not nationalistic or exclusionary, but
fresh, authentic and
full of promise—a hopeful and idealistic America we’d almost
forgotten and which we’ve longed for and needed to hear again.
Les Adler
