Marching For Our Lives – Portland, Oregon

You bet the youth will be voting!

Checking in from the beautiful, albeit chilly and damp, Pacific Northwest… Where earlier today I spent a few hours braving the Portland shvitz with neither hat nor hood… But truly, I had no choice. Resistance is called for, and resist we must.

A minor aside… I rarely write diaries because I tend to make such big productions out of them most of the time when I do, and they take me weeks to wax in poetic perfection. Therefore, I will wax on to say I dedicate this diary to ALL the brave students who are speaking truth to power, and also to Stephon ‘Zoe’ Clark, who also died for no goddam reason due to the insane regard for guns that is so deeply entrenched in the sick parts of our culture and society. And then I will wax off and say to you, enjoy this photo diary. Once posted, I will make all these images available to all DK users.

Marching up Broadway

There were people of all ages marching.

“I can’t wait to vote these assholes out.”

“How to hide 26 kids should not be part of my lesson plans”

Pretty much...

“Even the Second Amendment Says Well Regulated”

Yep.

Arriving at Pioneer Courthouse Square

First view of the crowd, while many more people were still arriving

Pioneer Courthouse Square was packed.

There were a number of young people registering voters today.

Another view across the square, with the edge of the stage showing

Enough is enough!

Beautiful and tragic sign

This is what a patriot looks like.

Exactly.

I stayed for all the speakers… There were six, seven, eight… I lost count… But they were all students, from 8th grade through college, from Portland, Beaverton, and Clackamas County. Each young person spoke truth to power, and each one spoke with a maturity, clarity, and sense of nuance I have yet to hear from the average adult these days. I was brought to tears by a few of them. They are our hope for a better future for all of us, and we need to give them all the support they need, however we can.