Today was March for our lives. I was in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and got to witness firsthand the magic that happens when young people get organized, and get motivated about something they care about.  I also was fortunate to have been asked to help with the running of the event.  As an advisor of a student group on the campus of the Community College where I teach, the Association of Students for Social Justice stepped up to the plate and lent their hearts, bodies and words to the event.  One of our students read a beautiful poem, and another's daughter spoke words of power about her desire to grow beyond her eleven years.  I was honored to speak as well as read the names of the seventeen victims of the Parkland massacre, and the text of my speech follows:

  

"As an educator, I am so proud of the young people who are standing up and saying ‘enough’. When I was in High School, the thought that someone might enter our school to cause us harm was unheard of. We had an innocence that the youth of today have had stripped away. They aren’t allowed the freedom of learning without fear. I’ve heard that some elected representatives have said that they needn’t listen to children and those children need to let the adults handle things.  They didn’t handle things after Jonesboro. They didn’t handle things after Columbine. They didn’t handle things after Virginia Tech. They didn’t handle things after Sandy Hook, They haven’t handled things after Roseburg, or Rockford, or Rancho Tehama Reserve.  They didn’t handle it after Marshall County, but they are listening now.  They forgot that the victims of these senseless acts of violence have parents who loved them, they have teachers who care, and those supporters and survivors will be voting in the next election. The victims of the Parkland shooting inspired this movement. Their friends, family, neighbors, classmates and teachers are keeping their memories alive by not allowing their voices to be silenced.  Whenever change is needed, voices of dissent are silenced.  A conversation about gun violence is what is needed, but that conversation cannot occur when we are told ‘now is not the time.’  Now is the time. And these seventeen victims’ memories will continue to inspire us to not allow our voices…to not allow their voices to be silenced.

Alyssa Miriam Alldeff, age 14

Scott Beigel (Beagle), age 35

Martin Duque Anguiano, age 14

Nicholas Dworet, age 17

Luke Hoyer, age 15

Aaron Feis, age 37

Jaime Guttenberg, age 14

Christopher Hixon, age 49

Cara Loughran, age 14

Gina Montalto, age 14

Joaquin Oliver, age 17

Alaina Petty, age 14

Meadow Pollack, age 18

Helena Ramsay, age 17

Alexander Schachter, age 14

Carmen Schentrup, age 16

Peter Wang, age 15

Thank you!