WASHINGTON DC, March 25 — One year after young people changed the conversation around gun violence with the largest youth demonstration since the sixties, students once again descended on Capitol Hill to deliver thousands of handwritten constituent letters in support of universal background checks.
As Senators weigh their decision, the Capitol Lawn offered a tangible reminder of what’s at stake: 13K connected strips of orange fabric representing all the children who have lost their lives to gun violence since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. It stretches an entire city block.
To accompany constituent letters, students created pom-poms with fabric cut from the installation and added this message: “Dear Senator, Every year, 1600 children across the country lose their lives due to gun violence. The fabric you hold in you hand represents the 16 lives you can save by voting yes on S42. What will you do?”
Schools Say Enough Sidewalk Challenge represents a broad-based nationwide student-led effort to turn anguish into action. The installation kicked off the March For Our lives national tour at Chicago’s St. Sabina a year ago. Since then, it has been featured at scores of schools, protests, and faith institutions across the country, most recently the TOMS End Gun Violence Together Campaign to drive support for HR8.
“We, the young people of the nation, are demanding that our government protect us in our schools, on our streets, and in our homes,” asserts PITT sophomore Kathryn Fleisher who organized her university’s installation on the 6th anniversary of Sandy Hook. “More than 300 schools have suffered gun violence since Sandy Hook. Enough is enough. The young people will win.”
Jacqueline von Edelberg, the Chicago artist-activist behind the project insists that art and personal protest have the power to create tremendous social change. “Young people across the country are speaking in a clear, unified voice to demand sane gun control laws. Together, we are spitfire and rebirth, and above all, love. THIS is the spirit that makes America great.”
#EndGunViolenceTogether #SchoolsSayEnough
video credit: Kevin Fogarty