By Luke Weir
A busload of High Country activists is no longer departing in the early hours of the morning March 24 to make the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., according to would-be participants and reported on last week by High Country Press. Instead, a March for Our Lives in Boone, beginning at the Watauga County Public Library, is taking place Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
Dr. Susan Dean, professor at Lees-McRae College and Appalachian State University, planned to be on the bus ride from Boone to the District of Columbia Saturday.
“Unfortunately the rally bus was cancelled,” Dean said. “There was a quota we had to hit, and we were 10 people short.”
In lieu of the bus ride, Dean said she will participate in Boone’s March for our Lives Saturday afternoon.
According to the March for our Lives website, the Boone rally will proceed down King Street from the Watauga County Public Library beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The march will end at Sanford Mall on Appalachian State University campus.
“We will march in solidarity with the kids and families of March For Our Lives who will be taking to the streets of Washington D.C. to demand that their lives and safety be made a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in American schools,” the website reads.
Dean said the Boone March for Our Lives will be easier and cheaper for students and community members alike to participate in, rather than making the 400 mile trip to the nation’s capital.
“It’s a bummer we had to cancel the trip to Washington,” Dean said. “I think it’s human nature to have thoughts about effecting change, but when it comes to actually doing it, a lot of folks get paralyzed for whatever reason.”
The Boone rally is one of more than 800 March for Our Lives events taking place worldwide on Saturday.