At first I was going to start off this article by saying sorry for getting political again, but actually I’m not sorry about it. The amount of pride I have in my generation at the moment is soaring and I will be as “political” and “controversial” as I please. You know why?
My generation is the one that is going to change it all.
And what are we starting with? School Walkouts to push for more gun regulation in this country. That was the point of these walkouts. Not just to get out of class, not because we think walking out of class for 17 minutes is going to solve all gun problems ever, but to make headway in pushing our government to make legislation that regulates the sale of firearms better.
I’ve heard a lot of people say “I don’t get why people are walking out, it’s not like it’s going to do anything” and I cannot express to you how wrong that is.
Will all gun control problems be solved purely by a 17 minute walk out? Of course not. BUT we have to start somewhere. We have to let congress know that we are not just some dumb kids who follow everything we are told to do on twitter. We are people with voices, with power, and with the determination to change how gun control is handled in America. We are people with genuine concern about how gun laws are affecting our citizens. People who think that our government isn’t doing its job well enough, and therefore are making sure our concerns turn into legislature.
Imagine if every single student in ONE state walked out in protest. If every single 9-12 grade public high school in North Carolina had a walk out, that would be 417 walk outs. Imagine that each of these school has 1,000 people, that would be 417,000 students walking out. Yes, we are “just” students, but a crowd of 417,000 people is intimidating no matter what stage they are in life. My High School (yea holly springs!!!) had a walk out I could not have been more proud. All the pictures in this article are from that rally.
These walkouts and protests and rallies are not pointless. It is not a bunch of people standing around complaining, it is Americans using their freedom to protest about things that need changing in their country. I feel like, as Americans, we hold ourselves to really high standards. We always have to have the best of everything, and if it’s not the best then we work on it. So when our government is not doing what we need it to do, something needs to be said. It may seem small, but I truly believe we are on the verge of a social revolution here. We just need to keep pushing.
Keep making noise. Keep rallying. Not sure how? I got you:
how to find your local March for Our Lives on March 24th, 2018
how to volunteer at the Raleigh March for Our Lives
how to donate to the Raleigh March for Our Lives