Fred Cavaiani
On Saturday, March 24, I watched the March for Our Lives. Youth from all over the country came to Washington and other major cities to march and inspire the nation to have sensible gun control laws. The speakers so emotionally moved me. Every speaker was filled with enthusiasm and inspiration. They motivated a whole nation with simple and honest words. These young people were filled with such enthusiasm and simple wisdom that tears kept running down my cheeks. What an inspiration. What a powerful, positive emotional experience.
It has been a long time since television has had the opportunity to film such spontaneous idealism. These young boys and girls, young men and women, gave a colossal presentation of the best in America. This was an afternoon of watching the best of America express itself.
In the latter part of the 1960s I did a lot of marching for Civil Rights. I also lived In Mexico for a summer associating with people from all over the United States who came together to study Spanish and intercultural formation. Such idealism coming together. I remember people screaming at us in our marches in Milwaukee and spitting forth violent names at us. But this last Saturday afternoon I saw the best in America organize and inspire a whole world.
I think that sunny afternoon in March last Saturday is the beginning of a change in our nation. So many congressmen have been given donations by the NRA. We have heard such negativity coming from the White House in the past year. There has been little positive idealism expressed on our news stations. This past Saturday I became filled with hope at what I experienced. It made me proud again to be an American and it showed to the whole world what a wonderful country of idealism and enthusiasm we have.
These young people from all over the nation taught us that we need to open our hearts to more love and kindness and idealism and close our pocketbooks from promoting violence. They told us to start realizing that rationalizations about easy access to guns will not work anymore. It is about keeping people safe and shouting loud and clear that arming people does not promote peace.
This March and the inspiring speeches touched on something even deeper than guns and gun control. It touched something very deep in this country. That is a need to have something to believe in that is positive and good. It is a need to make sure that love and compassion is behind every law and that money or selfishness should not come before compassion and concern. These young people in their very clear and passionate manner touched a profound depth in the hearts of those listening and watching.
I think that politicians need to be concerned right now. These young people will be voting soon and are the next generation. Movements like these will continue. Rationalizations, excuses, being bought by power groups in politics is not going to work anymore. Such clear wisdom came through in each speech.
There was no expression of violence during this motivating afternoon. There was such intense and pure emotion but no encouragement to be violent or uncaring. The message was clear: join us in going forward with love and compassion or be left behind at the polls.
I think this past Saturday afternoon touched something that we have needed for a long time: a chance to be idealistic again. A chance to feel proud of idealism again. We experienced the hearts of people. We experienced sadness about loss. What an experience of genuine feelings. We experienced motivation to change things. We experienced inspiration to make things better and the determination to do that with others who will go forward to make the world a better and safer place.
93 people are killed by guns every day in the United States. These young people challenged all of us to look deeper at the wisdom or lack of wisdom of carrying around a gun. As one speaker stated: “guns do not make people safer.”
This movement says to all of us adults, “WHERE ARE WE TAKING THE FUTURE OF THIS WORLD?”
Love disarms. This was a very disarming day for the whole world. Pure emotion and pure compassion for all was the message of the day. I feel so very grateful for this idealism of our youth. These young people have given the world much hope. Maybe we all need to do the same by our enthusiasm to bring more love into the world.
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Fred Cavaiani is a licensed marriage counselor and psychologist with a private practice in Troy. He is the founder of Marriage Growth Center, a consultant for the Detroit Medical Center, and conducts numerous programs for groups throughout Southeast Michigan. His column in the Legal News runs every other Tuesday. He can be reached at 248-362-3340. His e-mail address is: Fredcavi@yahoo.com.
