Things that have never happened on the stage of large protests like this. The most extraordinary and illuminating thing on that stage today was the simple rule that no adults were allowed to speak. There were no politicians on that stage, although many politicians requested speaking slots today. They were all turned down. The oldest speakers were high school seniors. The youngest was 9yearold yolanda rene king, the granddaughter of Martin Luther king jr. We saw things weve never seen from speakers on stage like this. Emma gonzales bravely and fiercely held the stage in the middle of her speech for six minutes and 20 seconds off silence in which she forced the odd kraudience to expeerience t passage off the exact amount of time a shooter used to kill 17 people in her high school. And we saw fuentes turn away from the it podium and throw up. She bent over and vomited repeatedly and then she, who survived multiple gun shots in the mass shooting at her school, pulled herself back up to the
And what happens after demonstrators flood the streets in many other cities you can see here around the country today, san francisco, dallas, boston, atlanta, miami and l. A. , just some of the places where crowds were even larger than expected. In washington this was of course led not by an interest group, not by a long planned political process, but led by people who became activists because they were survivors, students from parkland, from the massacre that left 17 murdered and is now spreading around the country. I would like to not worry about dying and focus on math and science and playing basketball with my friends. [ cheers ]. Dont i deserve to grow up . For far too long, these names, these black girls and women have been just numbers. Im here to say never again for those girls, too. Its time for the nation to realize gun violence is more than a chicago problem or parkland problem, its an american problem. I have lived in south l. A. My entire life and have lost many loved ones