#NeverAgain

In the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue,in Washington D.C., thousands of people stood shoulder to shoulder crowding the street. “Enough is enough” and “vote them out” were a few of the many chants screamed by the men, women, and most importantly, the youth of America. Signs rose above the crowd with phrases such as “protect human rights, not gun rights,” and “students stand stronger together,” “now is the time to talk about gun violence and common sense gun laws, enough is enough.”

The march started off with the powerful song Rise Up, performed by singer Andra Day and the Cardinal Shehan School Choir. The performances and speeches were given on a stage in front of the Capitol Building, but several screens were set up farther down the blocks for the crowds who couldn’t see. As Day performed some sang along, but many cried and held the person standing a shoulders’ width away.

Every speech had a different feel, and story to be told. Some talked about personal experiences with gun violence, while others told stories of immediate family members who had been affected by gun violence. Edna Chavez, a student from Los Angeles, told a powerful story about her brother being shot, and about how in Los Angeles gun violence on the streets is an everyday encounter. But Chavez did not represent the kind of gun violence that is attached to school shootings; her brother’s life was not taken in school or in a mass shooting. Instead, her brother, who was in high school at the time, was killed in a shooting outside their home in 2007.

“We cannot keep America great if we cannot keep America safe.” - Jacklyn Corin (Parkland survivor)

Countless survivors from the Parkland shooting came to speak. David Hogg, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student and one of the leaders of the #NeverAgain movement, called on the crowd to focus on upcoming midterm elections, urging first-time voters to head to the polls and vote against lawmakers who accept money from the National Rifle Association.

“We are going to make this the voting issue,” Hogg said. “We are going to take this to every election, to every state and every city, when politicians send their thoughts and prayers with no action, we say, ‘No more.’ And to those politicians supported by the NRA, that allow the continued slaughter of our children and our future, I say get your resumes ready.” Continuous phrases were chanted by the crowd after every speech.

Vote Them Out

As time went on the street became more crowded. People pushed and shoved to get closer to the stage. The speech everyone was waiting for came last in the lineup. Emma Gonzalaz, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, gave the final speech of the march. Gonzalaz has become the face of the #NeverAgain movement through her speeches and activism. The speech Gonzalaz gave was unforgettable. She talked about how it took six minutes and twenty seconds for the armed shooter to come into her school and kill 17 of the students in the building with an AR-15. She then stood in silence for six minutes and twenty seconds, to give the crowd perspective on what a short amount of time it took.

The speeches and songs that were given and sung gave people a sense of hope: a hope that laws would be changed, and that Congress would hear the voices of the 800,000 people standing outside their office and finally agree, #NeverAgain.