Naomi Wadler tells how she became an activist at 11
SHORTLY after the March for Our Lives — an anti- gun violence demonstration that drew hundreds of thousands to Washington on Mar 24 — Naomi Wadler, 11, was sitting at a restaurant with her family.
A woman who worked there recognised the Alexandria, Virginia, fifth- grader from her internationally televised speech that invoked the experiences of black women, who are disproportionately affected by gun violence.
“Are you THE Naomi?” the woman asked, Wadler recounted in a taped appearance of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
She wanted an autograph. But, Wadler said, there was one problem: She hasn’t yet learned how to sign her name.
“I realised I don’t have a signature,” Wadler said. “They don’t teach cursive anymore.” So, she improvised. “I wrote what I do on every math test,” she said, miming writing her name in the air.
It was one of several anecdotes Wadler recalled in an appearance on DeGeneres’ daytime talk show. A video preview was shared online and with the media earlier.
DeGeneres asked Wadler how she had been selected to speak at the youth-led March for Our Lives and how her life has changed since her 3minute- and- 30- second address ricocheted around the world through video clips, hashtags and memes shared by celebrities and politicians.
Wadler, who isn’t on social media, learned about much of the impact her speech has had from her mother, her friends and run-ins with strangers.
And, of course, there was the call from “Ellen.”
“I really realised I made an impact when you guys called,” she told DeGeneres. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ “
Unlike many of the speakers at last month’s March for Our Lives, Wadler hadn’t experienced a shooting firsthand.
But after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 dead in Parkland, Florida, Wadler learned her mother, Julie Wadler, had a connection to one of the victims: A friend from high school, Fred Guttenberg, had lost his daughter Jaime in the massacre.
That’s when Naomi Wadler decided she wanted to organise a demonstration at her elementary school. About 60 students walked out during a day of national student protests and stood in silence for 18 minutes — 17 of those minutes were to honour the dead in Parkland, but Wadler added an extra one to honour Courtlin Arrington, a 17-year- old black girl who was shot to death at her Alabama high school on Mar 7.
“I feel that way too often, black women are shot, and their names aren’t remembered, and they’re not valued as much,” Wadler said to DeGeneres. “So I thought this would be a good way to get a message across.” — WPBloomberg