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| The crowd gathers around the Gazebo at the March for Life rally on Woodstock Square. Photo by Missy Funk. |
While 800,000 or more flooded Washington to in a movement built and carefully shepherded by those remarkable survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass murder in Parkland, Florida millions more lent their voices and shoe leather over 800 events across the United States and around the world. One of them was held on the Square in Woodstock, Illinois where hundreds braved a raw and blustery day. And believe me, they frightened the gun protecting local politicos every bit as much as those Parkland kids struck terror in Congress, the White House, and in the plush boardroom of the National Rifle Association.
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| Survivor/organizer Emma Gonzalez in the most power silence ever at the Washington DC March for Our Lives |
When I got home from Woodstock I found social media abuzz with clips of remarkable speech after remarkable speech made in the shadow of the Capitol dome. I watched and wept shamelessly when Emma Gonzalez stood for “the most powerful six minutes and twenty seconds of silence in history. I was inspired when young people from and affluent community made sure that children of color, who often face even more pervasive gun violence only to find their lives and deaths undervalued and underreported, were brought in to speak for themselves. And I was roused to an even firmer commitment to action and a determination to #NeverAgain allow discouragement reinforce the bloody status quo.
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| The Old Man uniformed up. |
In its own way Woodstock was just as affecting. Although a group of Democratic women helped pull together the McHenry County event, they were always respectful of the focus and message of the March for Our Lives as envisioned by the Parkland students and to keep the voice of youth front and center.
McHenry Count Democrats Vice Chair Kristina Zahorik was the skillful host of the one hour long pre-march rally. She introduced a parade of young people who brilliantly spoke for themselves or read from the heartbreaking accounts of the Florida shooting and its aftermath. The program also included Kathleen Larimer, the Crystal Lake mom whose sailor son John was shot to death sheltering his girlfriend in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre and Kayla Borton who was a freshman at Northern Illinois University who survived another mass shooting ten years to the day before Parkland.
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| Kathleen Larimer, mother of a victim of the Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre, singer Cassandra Vos-Demann, and event host Kristina Zahorik. Photo by Beth Hoover. |
Zahorik closed the speaking part of the program with clarion call to hold enabling politicians responsible. She was not shy about naming name or laying the blame at the feet of local Republicans in thrall to the NRA and called for the miscreants to be voted out of office. But this was not mere partisanship, but a call for a necessary political revolution to put lives ahead of guns and fetishes.
The program concluded with the powerful voice of Cassandra Vohs-Demann leading the crowd in singing not some old protest song or other hoary chestnut but 4 Non Blondes brilliant What’s Up. Its lyrics and catchy hook were perfect:
25 years of my life and still
I’m trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes
When I’m lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head’
And I, I am feeling... a little peculiar.
I’m trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes
When I’m lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What’s in my head
And I, I am feeling... a little peculiar.
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs
What’s going on?
And I say:
Hey yeah yeaaah!
Hey yeah yeah.
I said hey
What’s going on?
And I say:
Hey yeah yeaaah!
Hey yeah yeah.
I said hey
What’s going on?
Uhh, uh, uhuhuh uhuhuh
Uhh, uh, uhuhuh uhuhuh
And I try
Oh my God do I try
I try all the time
In this institution.
And I pray
Oh my God do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution.
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| Photo by Carol Alfus. |
The March set off to lap the perimeter of the Square with high energy and enthusiasm despite a biting cold wind. I am told that Woodstock Police estimated that over 1000 people, young and old, took part. There were enough of us to completely surround the Square. Last March a counter protest to an anti-immigrant and pro-Trump rally did the same and it had a verified participation of over 2000, gauged by the number of Hate Has No Home in Woodstock buttons were passed out.
Most folks did a couple of laps of the Square before the cold sent them scurrying for hot chocolate, a stiff drink, or a fireplace. But if you listen carefully you can still hear the message. I know the NRA and their bought and paid for politicians can.
