Big Turnout for “March for Our Lives” Rallies

Apr 2, 2018

It’s estimated that at least two hundred thousand people participated in the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. on March 24. Demonstrators completely filled Pennsylvania Avenue–a very wide street–for at least 10 or 12 blocks, stretching from near the Capitol toward the White House.

The big majority of the demonstrators were women. There were students, teachers, parents and many other people. About 80 percent were white, 10 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic.

The many speakers at the rally were white, black, Hispanic young women and men–and they were all students–no politicians. How refreshing! The calls and chants of “Enough Is Enough!” reverberated throughout the area. Signs people carried included: “NEVER AGAIN!", “Arm Teachers with Resources, Not Guns”, and “No More Silence, End Gun Violence!”

Smaller rallies also took place on March 24 in hundreds of other cities and towns around the U.S. and even in some other countries. Tens of thousands rallied in New York City and Los Angeles, thousands in Chicago and Detroit and hundreds in Baltimore, to name just a few.

Many who participated in these rallies believe that elections and the Democratic Party can be used to change things fundamentally for the better. They will learn that this is an illusion.

The Democrats are very happy to keep pushing this illusion, to say that the only thing to be done now is to vote and then wait for the Democrats to act.

But the students and their supporters are showing that we don’t have to wait. No matter what the outcome of these rallies and the recent walkouts by students at hundreds of schools around the country, the fact that millions of people–and particularly young people–have decided they need to act to change things bodes well for the future.