March For Our Lives and the Quest for Safety
A Photo Essay
Yesterday, I went to my first political rally since seeing Bernie Sanders in Sacramento in May 2016.
I’ve been too cynical to participate with any authenticity, so I’ve stayed away. But after seeing Sam Fuentes’ speech at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington DC, I stopped licking my stupid wounds, grabbed my camera, and headed to San Francisco’s Civic Center.
My BART station was empty.
For some of us, each step we take in the world; going to work, to school, and in and out of the front door of own home; is a protest and fight for survival.
For some of us, civic engagement is a given. We can gather our allies, show our faces, speak our minds, and even bring balloons.
And then one day, maybe it won’t be guaranteed, won’t be a choice.
I, like so many others, have been moved by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors who have been speaking out. Their ability to effectively articulate their experiences and demands through the mainstream media has turned up the volume of all voices speaking out against gun violence.
For this, the world is fortunate.
Being one who is often tongue-tied, I’ve marveled at how so many students in this cluster have this valuable combination of skills:
- Eloquent expression
- A deep understanding of civic rights and responsibilities
- A big dose of critical thinking
These skills did not develop in these young people by drinking from the same water supply or being raised in the same geography. There must be teachers and an incredible curriculum involved.
Consider:
…the students at Stoneman Douglas, as well as all of the students in the state of Florida, have been the beneficiaries of what is arguably one of the nation’s most comprehensive and successful efforts to teach civic knowledge and engagement.
— Why are Parkland Students So Articulate? Because They Were Taught Civics in Middle School
I’ve started hearing the 24-hour news cycle sizing up these students for public office, comparing David Hogg to a young John Kerry, for example.
This is not to say that these and all young people shouldn’t consider public office. In fact, imagine a nation thinking critically, understanding our rights and responsibilities, and engaging in our governance. This is what the establishment fears most.
As I looked through the photos I took on this day, they reminded me of Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars) by Muriel Rukeyser, published in 1968.
The word visionary is often spoken in the same breath that delivers her name, and not without reason. Note her reference to “devices” and the call for us to become what is currently referred to as “woke.”
Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars)
By Muriel Rukeyser in The Speed of Darkness (1968)
I lived in the first century of world wars.
Most mornings I would be more or less insane,
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories,
The news would pour out of various devices
Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen.
I would call my friends on other devices;
They would be more or less mad for similar reasons.
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
In the day I would be reminded of those men and women,
Brave, setting up signals across vast distances,
Considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values.
As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened,
We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,
To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile
Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,
Ourselves with ourselves.
We would try by any means
To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,
To let go the means, to wake.
I lived in the first century of these wars.
