The Crowd Last Saturday - And Today?

Big downtown parades usually start in front of Union Station (lots of German-influenced architecture) and proceed east down Market Street, the main downtown east-west thoroughfare, towards the Arch. This was the scene last Saturday before the start of the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Today, the same space will hold our iteration of the national March For Our Lives. It was spurred by high school students from Parkland, Florida, after the massacre at their high school. The motivating idea it that our safety, our civil society, our very lives, are more important than the unbridled ownership of semi-automatic firearms. The main demonstration will be in Washington but local marches will take place in hundreds of cities across America. The activism and outrage of these students may bring a tipping point in the gun debate in our country.

The weather forecast for here looks miserable, cold and raining, but my wife, my daughter, my granddaughter and I will be there until we are soaked through.