In coordination with the national March For Our Lives in Washington, DC with the students from Parkland, Florida.
The March For Our Lives takes place Saturday in Kansas City, Mo., as well as in our nation's capital and more than 700 other locales. Beginning at noon locally, this is our chance to show that overwhelming numbers of Americans of all ages support new restrictions on gun purchases and ownership. Background checks for every gun sale in America and other common sense regulations for the sale and possession of lethal weapons -- and the gadgets that increase their killing potential -- are necessary in order to increase public safety and reduce gun violence.
Please come out to rally at Theis Park (formerly Volker Park), just south of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, where a full program of speakers and performers will be dishing up plenty of food for thought along with creative artistry. When the program winds down about 3 p.m., those who wish to march will embark on a solemn memorial march to the Plaza and back, remembering the 17 lives taken last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; the 206 lives taken in school shootings since the Columbine High School tragedy in Colorado in 1999; and the 7,000 children killed by gunfire in the United States since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
We'll have live music while participants are arriving at the rally, and a group of UMKC Conservatory dancers will perform new choreography created for this event. Mayor Sly James will speak at 2 p.m., and you will also hear from some of the determined teenagers from the metro area who have taken a huge role in creating this day of peaceful protest. There will be modern slam-poetry, traditional speeches, and songs both old and new. Local long-time activists and families who have lost loved ones to gun violence will also speak.
For a peaceful, smooth-running event causing as little environmental harm as possible, please observe these best practices.
1. Carpool to the event with friends, family or neighbors. Park in any available UMKC parking lot, then walk a few blocks north to the park. If you have the Lyft app, you can arrange for a free ride courtesy of the Lyft company from your parked car to Theis Park. Disabled or elderly people may park at the Kauffman Gardens parking lot, which will also be the dropoff location for Lyft rides.
2. Bring signs, if you like, promoting reasonable solutions to this horrible problem. Bring a peaceful, reasonable sense of comradery and a healthy respect for our right as Americans to peaceably assemble and demand redress of grievances. Certainly, as a people, we are aggieved.
3. No leaflets or flyers! Please do not pass out leaflets or other items that people would tend to lose track of or leave behind as trash. You can save money and bring a page or two of information you want to share and then ask people to snap a picture of it with their phones to have it for reference, or give your web address to follow up. Don't leave our hard-working volunteers with trash to clean up at the park.
4. Do bring food and drinks, a blanket or camp chair to sit on, a hat or sunglasses, and keep yourself comfortable. We will not be selling anything at the event. Portable toilets will be available, and trash cans will be at hand.
5. There will be sign language interpreters, some designated seating for disabled people and a couple of ADA-compliant port-a-potties.
6. Moms Demand Action volunteers will be staffing the event, wearing bright red T-shirts with their logo, so you should be able to find a staff person if you need to report an issue. Paramedics will be on hand if needed, and police officers will provide security.
7. If you choose to march at the rally's end, you must stay on the sidewalks on the route and cannot block streets or intersections. Megaphones will not be allowed during the march portion, but we can chant.
Please remember, the most powerful thing we can do as a nationwide movement right now is to show up, all across the country, to stand together on this day and to say with one voice, "Never Again!"
See you there!!
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