By foot, car or bus, many Shepherd Park residents headed to the Metro Saturday morning, ready to participate in the “March for Our Lives.”
The platforms were crowded and the atmosphere was lively. On Pennsylvania Avenue, by 11 o’clock, people were everywhere, parents with their children and teens, large school groups with their sweatshirts. Movement was limited. People jostled to keep from knocking each other with homemade signs with calls for action, clever slogans and creative artwork. The tone was upbeat, but urgent.
The speeches, by teens feeling empowered by the numbers and support, drew loud applause and at one point gripping silence. The lesson of the day: we need to listen to our young people, ask them their vision of our neighborhood, find out how we can mutually support the visions, and involve them in our decision making and problem solving whether it is safety in our schools, development on Georgia Avenue and the former Walter Reed, making the local library and churches more responsive to community needs, or providing more recreational facilities.
— June Confer
