GRAPHIC PROTEST
‘Die-in’ crowd: ‘We’re still out here remembering’
PALM BEACH — She had laid out her signs the night before, made sure her rainbow American flag was ready to go. The next morning, her grandfather drove her 45 minutes from her home in Jensen Beach to here, a couple of miles from Mar-a-Lago.
Carrying her flag, Samantha Miller met with three other girls. Together they walked to the edge of the seawall along Flagler Drive, the top tower of Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home peeking out from across the water.
“The good thing is,” Miller said, “he’s not in town this week.”
Soon, others gathered: Manuel and Patricia Oliver, parents of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14. Jeffrey Kasky, father of Cameron Kasky, a Douglas student and antigun violence advocate. Michael Pincus and Jenni Corwin, two local high school students who had organized Tuesday’s protest, where about 60 students and parents stood in front of the seawall directly across from Mar-a-Lago and participated in a die-in, part of a national movement on the anniversary of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting. They held microphones and waved signs and gave speeches, speaking about the 49 victims at Pulse and protesting what they said was the Trump administration’s failure to prevent gun violence.
“We’re feeling helpless and somewhat useless,” Jeffrey Kasky said. “We felt like we had to do something.”
After they finished speaking, Miller and the others lay down on the concrete and pretended to be dead for 12 minutes. Twelve minutes, Pincus said, because that’s how often someone dies from gun violence.
“It’s a little morbid,” said Pincus, a Dreyfoos School of the Arts student, “but it’s our way of holding officials accountable.”
His leg shook. His voice rose. Earlier that morning, he had woken up and scrolled through the comments on the die-in protest’s Twitter account.
“I hope they actually die,” one commenter wrote.
“Let me get my snowplow,” another said.
But later that morning, standing along the seawall, the students — many of whom said they were members of the LGBTQ community — tried to forget about the hateful comments. Cars passed slowly with their windows rolled down. A woman walked onto her apartment’s balcony in a nearby condominium and watched. A man riding past on a bicycle raised a fist and chanted “Trump.”
The students turned away. Miller stood around them and videotaped all the speeches,
smiling and clapping. She said she was proud people had come out to remember the Pulse victims, and she hopes it continues.
“We have to let people know,” said Miller, a recent graduate of Jensen Beach High School. “We’re still out here remembering.”
As the die-in ended, parents hugged. Students walked back to their parked cars.
Manuel Oliver, wearing a black shirt with his murdered son’s face on it, jumped on to the seawall and turned toward Mar-a-Lago.
“So he can see my son’s face,” Oliver said.