Today was pivotal. Sea change came today. I believe it. I welcome it. And millions of people around the country and around the world felt it too. The current crop of teenagers have grown up in a world my generation could never have imagined. The pressures on them are nothing like I experienced. The maturity it takes to deal with the stresses and the fears and the actual dangers of the world as it is now is immense. When these kids speak, we owe it to them to listen. The future is speaking to us, and it is eloquent and it is passionate. It means business. Thank goodness they are speaking up.
I didn't get to go to any marches today. If my business had been concluded by 2 or so, I might have tried. Instead, we didn't conclude our meeting until after 4, and the group of women who carpooled with me and I left before the final gavel came down. It is surprising how exhausting it is to sit still, listen, and raise your hand every fifteen minutes or so. It makes a difference that we had to leave at around 6:30 this morning in order to make it to county assembly in time to land a parking place at Boulder High School. Enough people heeded the warnings about limited parking, and carpooled, rode the bus, or biked, so that we had no trouble finding a spot in the school lot. It was noisy and messy and crowded on the route to checking in. Candidates and their reps formed a long reception line inside and out. I picked up literature, signs, buttons, stickers, pens, and snacks before I ever made it to the back of the cafeteria where the check-in tables sat. I covered myself in flair in a haphazard pattern, some from candidates I wholeheartedly supported, some I barely recognized, and even some who were running for districts other than my own.
Our congressional district was the smaller of the two, so we were directed up to the balcony, and most of my pictures of speakers were from that perspective. I would say that something north of half of the candidates who spoke to us were electrifying, and the same could be said for a handful of the surrogates. There are many who I hope will stay involved in government in the future. I was reminded how unruly my party tends to be. There were so many hecklers, shouted corrections, rule weasels, and people who must have been hall monitors as children. Democracy can be a blood sport. These things matter, and I feel a civic duty to participate in the background process.
A final note. After I typed that last period, while I watched video from the March for Our Lives against gun violence, waiting for inspiration on how to conclude, I heard two gun shots, several seconds apart. On the other side of the park from me, there's a rougher neighborhood, where most of these noises originate. I don't even flinch anymore on the days I can tell it's not fireworks. I don't like that this is so common that I don't even sit up straighter anymore, much less look out the front windows and expect to see someone investigating it. I don't want this level of sangfroid. I need to find my sense of outrage. I don't know whether today's 800,000 people on the National Mall, or closer to home the 1000 people downtown are able to make a difference on gun issues. For the first time in years, I have hope that they can maintain their committments
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