Children coming to take back the streets

THE EDITOR: As I looked at AC360’s The Parkland Diaries on March 23, my mind went into overdrive. This documentary recorded the wounds, feelings, thoughts and future of the US, through the eyes of young people – the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.

This took place on Valentine’s Day, February 14. Seventeen students and teachers were killed, with no mercy. The survivors, fed up with gun violence, through tears and grief, said, “Like we are in a war zone.” “We did not sign up for this.”

Over 500,000 young people took to the streets on March 24, descending on Washington, DC, visually expressing: “Enough is enough;” “You are not going to knock us down;” “We are not going to let you win;” “Vote them out;” “They have not seen the last of us yet;” “Tougher gun laws will not stop the violence;” “The time is now;” “Protect kids, not guns.”

It was reported that there were over 700 rallies throughout the US, and from the looks of it there are more to come.

Then in a playback, my mind saw the Black Power uprising spreading from the US to the Caribbean and across the world. Van Jones compared the civil rights movement with what is happening today. He remembered at that time they did discuss having college students en masse involved but decided to leave them out. From this movement, black people learned that they had as much right to the pursuit of happiness as any other citizen. The movement made an impact. Powerful personal changes came.

He observed a change in the dynamic, as the student movement gains momentum. He sees a sustained movement, moving from emotion to strategy. Wow! Moving from thoughts and prayers to enough is enough and then to the strategy of vote them out. He said that getting a permit to march is easy but getting people to register to vote is not that easy. There will be many potential new voters heading into the next election. He sees intensity in the movement. I do too.

A map of the world illustrated all the European and Eastern countries where students are mobilising in support of their peers in the US. This kind of intensity has the propensity to radiate and permeate all the spaces in the world where young, intelligent citizens are fed up of the corruption, the violence, the destruction and the patronising “why should kids be telling adults what to do?”

I sat, hearing in my head 3 Canal’s (1999) Talk yuh Talk:

“Doomsday reach; Plan yuh retreat.

De chirren comin’ to take back de streets.

De power of de word in de conscious stylin’

Pavin’ a way for a brand new morning.

De power of d word in d rapso styling

Rockin’ de roots of de vampire system.

“Everybody talking. Nobody listening.”

ANNA MARIA MORA via e-mail