March 4 Our Lives
On July 25th, 2016 at 3 pm, The Militant Negro’s March 4 Our Lives 2016 gathered at the Southside City Hall in Philadelphia, PA, to fight for economic injustice. The “march” highlighted the disparity between whites born in “Society Hill” and primarily blacks born in “Strawberry Mansion” which are separated by approximately 5 miles. They claimed Philadelphia’s poverty rate of 26 percent, the overall prison population of 72 percent black, and 130,000 city residents were uninsured even after passage of the Affordable Care Act. They were endorsed by several factions of the Green Party, Everytown for Gun Safety, the Revolutionary Caucus, Free Palestine, and Granny Peace Brigade. Their public platform was protesting the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as a waste of billions when the poor in Philadelphia were a higher priority. Their ranks, as mentioned, were white, black, communist, young and old. Although The Militant Negro was one straphanger, the movement was an amalgam of everything wrong with the Democratic Party. And it was mostly peaceful.
Fast forward nearly two years.
On March 24th, 2018, at noon Eastern time, the cities of Washington D.C., New York City, Boston, and other major cities across the U.S. expect upwards of 500,000 teens and adults to protest America’s gun culture and demand stricter gun laws. Unlike the 2016 sibling which was arranged primarily by Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders, the brainchild of this March is anyone’s guess. Media tells us as many as five teenagers from Parkland, FL, are the organizers of the 500,000. They have the support of Oprah Winfrey, Dwayne Wade, Amy Schumer and Charlie Puth. They have their money too.
But what is the March really about?
Cameron Kasky and David Hogg, adolescents from Parkland High School, claim the March is about Safer Schools; however, they recently rebuffed Florida’s passage of law setting aside $8.5 million for armed resource officers and $6 million to Broward County alone to expand school mental health services. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/florida-school-shooting-clear-backpacks.html) The same NY Times article talks about metal detectors, clear backpacks, and increased policing of the student population’s social media which has led to at least 3 arrests for suspicion of aggression.
USA Today cites Black-ish star Yara Shahidi as saying “We are witnessing our generation, actively come together, in a global conversation, demanding action from lawmakers to invest in and assure our right to safety,” (https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/03/20/march-our-lives-los-angeles-rally-nabs-stars/443944002/).
Seventeen magazine’s headline covering the upcoming March is found under the search parameter “Gun Control.”
Don’t mistake tomorrow’s march as anything less than more gun control debate. My prediction, and feel free to point out on Sunday if I’m wrong, is that the whole conversation won’t be about safer schools and the number of ways we can secure classrooms, but about changing gun laws to limit legal access for law abiding citizens. Children not yet old enough to vote are demanding from adults with life experiences that we further restrict their own liberties. Youth still under curfew laws when driving are bussing to Meccas of gun crime to protest their own access to safety. Juveniles naïve enough to believe gun laws apply to anyone except law abiding citizens are being borne by celebrity dollars protected by walls and guns to protest their own form of imprisonment. If that sounds illogical to you, you are not alone.
And they say I’m “backwoods” for living in WV.
Where are the celebrity dollars funding impact glass and door barricades in schools? Where are Ellen DeGeneres’ or Oprah Winfrey’s or Amy Schumer’s headlines after an armed resource officer in Maryland prevents escalation of that tragedy just this week – the week before March 4 Our Lives? Where is the outcry against the attempted bombing of a school in Utah? Where are the supporters of underprivileged Philadelphians less than 2 years after the first March 4 Our Lives?
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim 4:3-4, NIV)
(Photo courtesy of The Militant Negro)