Rally at Franklin Sq DC @VarshPrakash #OurGenerationOurChoice re: racial justice, immigration, climate change #WTOP pic.twitter.com/zZQEMj9WFw
— Kristi King (@kingWTOP) November 9, 2015
Gearing up for rally #OurGenerationOurChoice re: racial justice, immigration, climate change: Franklin Sq DC #WTOP pic.twitter.com/iD8QJD4SJL
— Kristi King (@kingWTOP) November 9, 2015
WASHINGTON — Young adults took to the streets Monday for a march demanding elected leaders do more to foster justice on race, climate and immigration issues.
“Eighty-three percent of young people don’t have faith in Congress,” says campaign coordinator Yong Jung Cho, with 350.org.
“The demands of the people here are to keep fossil fuels in the ground, divest from the private prison industry and stop deportations.”
Gathering under an umbrella title of “Our Generation, Our Choice,” groups organizing the protest include 350.org, Million Hoodies, United We Dream, and the Fossil Fuel Divestment Students Network. Participants from as far away as Massachusetts and South Dakota gathered at Franklin Square in D.C. to rally before the march.
“Our legislators are forgetting who the original immigrants are by making all these policies to kick immigrants out, when if those policies were true they’d be kicking themselves out as well,” says Trenton Casillas-Bakeberg, 19, who spoke at the rally.
A Native American with the Lakota people, Casillas-Bakeberg, representing the One Mind Youth Movement in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, says he has a right to make demands of politicians: “We’re the original landlords, and it’s time to pay the rent.”
That rent, he says, includes more welcoming immigration policies and the creation of an economy that’s friendly to the global ecosystem.
One of the chants led from the rally podium was “No justice no peace. No racist police.” And a number of protesters carried signs with the “Black Lives Matter” message that’s evolved into a movement.
“Stop investing in policies that are harming particularly black and brown communities, and reinvest in the solutions and reinvest in communities to ensure a better future,” Cho says in an urgent plea to politicians.
The morning march through downtown D.C. included rolling roadblocks that disrupted the commutes of some motorists.
“I hope that people show us some love and support us,” Cho says. “We’ve seen in history that civil disobedience and taking direct action has led to real change.”
