West Palm march draws at least 3,000
WEST PALM BEACH — The President didn’t stop for a chat — or even drive by. The one shuttle bus and several vans hired to ferry protesters couldn’t keep up with the torrent of riders. And the public address system — a bullhorn — wasn’t up to the task of speaking to the thousands who arrived.
Such was the price of overwhelming enthusiasm at West Palm Beach’s March for Our Lives. Few on the ground seemed troubled by the hiccups.
They came to carry signs. They came to support teens here and at more than 800 marches across the nation. And Saturday afternoon in Dreher Park, they found at least 3,000 people mostly of like mind.
The gathering at Dreher Park was the largest of several protests across Palm Beach County, each of the others from Boca Raton to Jupiter drawing hundreds.
While the Dreher event was initiated by a 17-yearold from Seminole Ridge High School following in the footsteps of teenagers across the country, those who turned out spanned the generations.
Grandparents and toddlers — and all ages in between — toted signs decrying gun violence and
demanding limits to who can get their hands on weapons and what type of weapons they can get.
“I wanted to be involved,” said Altalischa Jean, a senior at Inlet Grove High School in Riviera Beach. Jean and seven of her Inlet Grove classmates let the message printed on their bright orange shirts speak for them: “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who do not do anything about it.” — Albert Einstein”
That’s the spirit Bernie Dienstag sought when he left his Boynton Beach home Saturday morning on his 80th birthday.
“I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than to march with these young people,” Dienstag said.
Seventy-year-old Barry Rabinowitz of Fort Lauderdale agreed, hopping into a conversation started by two visiting New York college students who made this a stop on their spring break and two high schoolers from American Heritage in Delray Beach.
“As important as this is, they need to vote,” Rabinowitz chimed in.
Organizers were a step ahead on this, and had a voter registration table at the ready. (They also had T-Shirts, free posters, bounce houses and food trucks.)
Of the hundreds of marches nationwide, including the flagship gathering in Washington, D.C., it was the Dreher Park march that promised protesters the closest proximity to the nation’s chief lawmaker, President Donald Trump.
And even before the event’s official 2 p.m. start time, hundreds of protesters headed for the park’s north side along Southern Boulevard when the arrival of police motorcycles had them anticipating the Presidential motorcade. It never materialized. When Trump did head home from golfing, he took an alternate route to Mar-a-Lago.
The closest the group came to a Trump sighting was when a truck drove by with a mounted electronic billboard flashing his name in letters many feet high.
While the sign drew loud boos, the crowd’s attention was captured by Allyson Adak, a senior at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas who came to speak in West Palm because “Someone had to be here.”
Her voice cracked as she drove home her grave concerns as a survivor of that lethal attack.
“If I’m not allowed to check into a hotel room, I should not be allowed to buy a weapon at Walmart,” Adak said. The weapon wielded on her campus, the AR-15, is made for the military, she said. “I refuse to listen to anyone who says it is a hobby.”
As she finished, Adak was surrounded by praise, and hugs, and sympathy. A little girl handed Adak a tissue. The crowd was so large that by the time Adak wrapped up and began the 1.3-mile trek, the front of the march had already reached the Flagler Drive seawall.
Workers from auto body shops and other businesses looked up to wave and flash thumbs up in support. Members of the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist church handed out bottles of water as marchers approached U.S. 1.
Although police had said they would keep Trump supporters on the north side of Southern Boulevard, about a dozen supporters wound up on the south side of the road — the same side as the passing marchers — at Washington Road and Flagler.
Some of the President’s supporters used bullhorns to confront the marchers, many with children. No fights broke out, but there were several heated debates with people on both sides coming face to face to exchange angry words.
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, greeted the marchers as they passed Washington Road. Frankel said she “proudly” wore a letter “F” pin on her blouse to signify her F-rating by the NRA.
“Hopefully this message reaches the other members of Congress (who support the NRA),’’ Frankel said. “These students are so energizing. When I marched as a student, we stopped the Vietnam War, and if these kids are persistent they will do the same with gun violence.’’
Holding a walker and breathing through oxygen tubes, 84-year-old Rita Seidner of Boynton Beach said she wanted to march but her kids wouldn’t let her. She attended the pre-march rally.
“I just hope all these people who marched will end up going to the polls,’’ Seidner said. “Showing up to march is one thing. Going to the polls is where it matters most.’’
Along the sidewalk in front of the park, signs were posted observing victims of gun violence. Along Flagler Drive, someone planted signs with photos of the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.