MY DAY: Raising their voices

As a young child, I can remember seeing teenagers demonstrating against the Vietnam war.

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Today, I attended the student rally in Lincoln Park with my friend, Nicole. It was my first rally to attend.

I was impressed with the speeches. They were well-thought out and delivered; not rhetoric, but individual thoughts with great vision.

I was impressed with the attentiveness of the several hundred students. They listened and were involved; they courteous and polite.

I was impressed by the fact that in fifty years of my own recollection students still need to come together in this fashion to plead for their young lives. During the 1960s and 1970s young men knew that when they graduated high school they’d be sent off to fight in Vietnam; thousands would not return. Today, these students were pleading with the gathered politicians to protect them in their classrooms, and in other places.

I was moved by their voices.

I was moved by their posters.

I was moved by the fact they are scared… “Am I next?” was a poster that kicked in the gut.

I support these students. I am proud of these students, and students everywhere, for standing up, for crying out, for visualizing a better tomorrow than the days of fear we’ve given them.