I was so pleased that we were in Santa Fe for today's march - it had such a great sense of community and energy. The student speakers - from all the local schools - were terrific: for those of us not in high school, and not teachers in them, it was sobering, to hear the least, about the lockdown drills, about turning over tables to practice barricading oneself in the classroom; to have testimony to a daily sense of apprehension. I'm sure that I'm not alone among the people there - how could I be - in saying that nothing like this ever crossed my mind when I was at school (albeit in a different country). When I was the age of the students on the platform, it was protests in Hyde Park at the Greater London Council's plan to remove free bus passes (which was scandalous enough at the time, but not exactly deadly.
That was probably too of the women in the image below ... "grannies for gun control" (the sign in New Mexican colors, indeed). I was very struck by the fact that the average age was not, shall we say, as young as that of the speakers. But that didn't stop them being right there, emotionally and politically, with them. And it wasn't just the speakers: Aaron Tenorio, a 16 year old from Santo Domingo Pueblo, performed an amazing self-penned rap song, "Seventh Generation." I'm not sure if this video link will work - it's taken from someone else's FB feed - but if does, listen.
And many, many thanks to all who helped to organize this. I'm looking at you, Susan Miera ...
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