When is it most important to use your voice? When you are inspired, empowered, hopeful maybe even when you are scared. When I began to put together the #NeverAgainRally at first I was scared, I have seen this story too many times to count, one even in my own community in Connecticut.
The day I heard about the shooting in Parkland I was devastated but not surprised. This form of violence has become a norm in our country and when the issue is brought up to be challenged it it met with the phrase “thoughts and prayers.” I was angry and I wanted to do something so I did by writing this poem that I posted on twitter.
I knew that writing a poem wasn’t enough, and after hearing the speech Emma Gonzalez did I immediately started to reach out to people and see what I could do. Then I came across the #NeverAgain movement started by the students in Parkland after the wake of such horrors.
Picture by: Marquis Pickering @_pickspics
I took that phrase to heart and approached many students and faculty to create the #NeverAgainRally on my own campus. I brought together future teachers, political activist and community organizers to talk about how vital our safety should be. I decided, along with the many other students around the country that enough is enough and that we refuse to be targets. So I did what I could to be heard by standing on top of a lunch table with a bullhorn and spoke my truth.
Taking action and raising your voice is on of the many things anyone can do. Like the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School make sure to come out March 24th for the March For Our Lives march.