15k in Houston, TX!
About 6K in Albany. Very inspiring. Lots of students registering to vote, Speakers were great.
I DVR’d today’s coverage and will watch after I’ve taken hot shower.
The official estimate for ours in Santa Barbara was 1200 people. I think it was a bit more. We had good speakers, including one from a high school and several from the colleges in town. My whole family went. (It’s my birthday today, and that was the present I asked for.)
There were people gathering names to start a Moms Demand chapter here. We have a lot of other organizations, but not that one. I got a t-shirt from them online, so people thought I was one of their organizers.
We can preregister kids starting at age 16 here. June 5 will be the first election where my college freshman gets to vote.
In some places, kids who will be 18 by November can vote in the earlier primary when they are still 17. According to a list I found, this is true at least for one party in: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
I just got home from the NYC March and saw an estimate of 150,000 participating. If you know the city, it was wall-to-wall people from 86th and Central Park West to Columbus Circle and that was before the march actually started. What I loved seeing were the many opportunities for people to register to vote and the diversity of the crowd.
D and I stood in the cold sun in Buffalo! Our HS speakers did a great job.
Our group was smaller but enthusiastic. Many more folks were in Hartford, but the West Hartford crowd was more than several hundred. Anyone could speak. I was most I pressed by the young people who spoke!
Love this generation!
Today I met Blake. He’s an 8th grader at the middle school that connects with Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Parkland Florida. Blake shared his story today. He was in class when a voice came over the loudspeaker that MSD was on lockdown and to get under your desk. For nearly 2 hours that’s where he stayed. He texted a friend at MDS to ask what was going on (he could hear sirens and helicopters). His friend texted back “shooter” - when all was silent, Blake learned that a good friend was dead along with several others he knew. No child should have to experience what he has. I had to meet him and tell him how proud of him I am. I met his mother as well, and let her know that from one mom to another, her son is a hero today.
I went to the March for Our Lives in San Clemente as I have family and friends in that school district that asked for support. I had seen online that about 300 people RSVP’d - what a surprise to see more than 1,000 people show up! I was moved and inspired by the San Clemente High School students who organized and gave their time and energy! Way to go kids! We’re right behind you, it’s your turn to lead!
Ocean city Nj - magnificent day, change is coming - watching updates from day so moving and in
Interesting mostly middle aged- expected more teens - and lots of men, too
20K in Austin! I loved our rally and speeches. I’ll try to find video of a 12yo girl from Newtown who spoke. Inspiring!
Last night I searched for photos to print of the victims of school shootings and was struck by how few were available for victims from less affluent regions, such as Umpqua Community College (9 killed) and the Red Lake Mn school shooting (7 killed).
On the back of my sign I planned to attach a list of shooting victims. I searched “School shootings in USA” and found the Wikipedia entry that lists every reported shooting. Even restricting my printout to shootings since 1990 and reducing the font to #5, I ended up with 12 pages to print. Not all involved fatalities, but the scope of the problem is shocking.
I was too sick to go, but our college town had hundreds. I watched the coverage and social media and am so encouraged by the tone and inclusiveness of the rallies. I saw a picture from Boise captioned “Even Gun-loving Idaho says enough” . Those young men from Chicago blew.me.away.
Favorite signs so far
“I can’t even bring peanut butter to school”
“When I said I’d rather die than go to Math, I was kidding”
" I miss my friends more than you’d miss your gun"
“Congress do your job so I can do mine” held by a teacher
Also heard that the Parkland contingent was flown to DC by Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, on the team plane.
The Washington Posts’s investigative/analytic team ran the results of a year long analysis of school shootings and the solid information is so important. Kudos to everyone who pays for journalists to pursue that coverage.
This morning I was the veteran marcher participating in Nashville along with my first time marcher daughter. The Nashville march was organized by a Vanderbilt freshman who graduated from MSD last May and she was a powerful force since she committed to this. She said as she flew back from funerals in February, she thought she would organize a small campus protest, but when she put it out on FB, it blew up. Attendance was estimated by The Tennessean at 10-12K. Marchers included Sheryl Crow and former Nashville mayor, Megan Barry. While she made poor choices, I still admire Megan Barry, particularly today for showing her face and standing up for the young people advocating for change.
The most important thing that happened today was getting young people to register to vote. Now the challenge is getting young people to actually vote, as they typically do so in very small numbers, especially in mid-terms.
Long Beach, CA had about 3k…It was a beautiful warm, sunny day by the beach. It started and ended in a park where a Farmer’s Market was going on with musical entertainment. So we stayed and enjoyed lunch afterwards. Great morning all around!
I saw a lot of Am I Next? signs held by children. Also an enormous amount of hatred and derision directed at the NRA and the politicians the NRA buys.
I saw a couple of people with signs saying that their son (in one case) or cousin (in the other case) was killed by a gun.
We marched in NYC. When we got to midtown we stopped and had a nice lunch. When we got out of lunch there were still people marching so rejoined the march the rest of the way.
“What if these kids are the answer to your thoughts and prayers?”
@2VU0609 , my 23yo was with you in Nashville. He thought that it was as large as the Women’s March. Yes, I’ve raised a good feminist activist!
Next March needs to be in late September or early October…to get these folks to VOTE…to get a large turnout in these mid term elections.
@SouthJerseyChessMom A male friend of mine from high school was at the march in Ocean City today. 