[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written by a Reader. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Waterland Blog nor its staff:]
Letter to the Editor:
To the people of Burien,
In January, it was a bullet fired through a window at New Start High School. In February, it was a lockdown at Highline Community College after reports of gunfire on campus. In March, it was guns brought to school at Sylvester, New Start, and Tyee. What’s next?
On March 24, Seattle will join cities across the nation in March for Our Lives, a movement started by the Parkland shooting survivors to advocate for stricter gun legislation and an end to gun violence. I urge you to stand with us.
Every day, students in our community go to school wondering if they will make it home. When we have assemblies, students glance fearfully towards the doors, plotting their escape routes. When we’re sitting in class, we think about where we would hide if a shooter came in, and if it would be good enough to save our lives. When we go home, we turn on the news and hear of another mass shooting, another kid shot on the streets, and we wonder if next it will be us.
Schools are meant to be places of learning. Communities are supposed to be safe and supportive. Our right to live is supposed to be more important than the right to own a gun. Yet the body count keeps rising, and politicians still refuse to act.
March for Our Lives is a way to hold our elected officials accountable, to remind them that they represent us. Not the NRA. We demand common sense gun legislation – universal background checks, banning assault rifles, and raising the minimum purchase age to 21. We demand to feel safe in our schools.
I am 18 years old, haven’t even graduated high school. Alone, I am virtually powerless. But there are students, and parents, and community members just like me, all across the nation, coming together to fight for change, and together, we cannot be ignored. Will you join us?
March for Our Lives Seattle will take place on Saturday, March 24, beginning with a rally at Cal Anderson Park at 10 am, which will be followed by a march to Seattle Center. For more information, please visit marchforourlivesseattle.com.
Sincerely,
Katalia Alexander
March for Our Lives Seattle Organizer and Mount Rainier High School Student
Letter to the Editor:[Have an opinion or concern you’d like to share with our ~100,000+ engaged monthly Readers? Please send us your Letter to the Editor via email. Include your full name, please cite your sources, remain civil and – pending our careful review – we’ll consider publishing it.]