I knew it would be big.

I didn’t know it would be so PURE and so WISE!

Some estimated over 800,000 attended the MARCH FOR OUR LIVES rally in Washington DC on the 24th.

I understand there were marches and rallies at hundreds of locations worldwide. I considered going to the one in Chicago, in Union Park, but I ended up watching the TV coverage. Transfixed.

I don’t recall feeling so inspired and hopeful.

As TV cameras panned the crowd, I was struck by the image of pre-teen carrying a sign declaring I should feel lucky to go to school. I feel lucky when I get home.

…But the event was about more than protesting assault rifles at schools.

The kids from Marion Stoneman Douglas HS understood that this was a special moment in history and that they had moral authority to speak up because of what they had endured on Valentine’s day and will continue to deal with throughout their lives.

They took the opportunity to give voice to so many others.

Over these past six weeks, the world has been watching them repeat the word ENOUGH on news shows. We’ve watched them back up their vow to spearhead change in gun laws by pressuring Florida politicians, by banding with other groups to encourage voter registration, and to smoke out congressman in hiding, making campaign contributions from NRA public record and a point of SHAME.

And they set a date for the DC rally, only weeks after they received THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS from the White House, obviously with no intention of follow-up action.

It was as if they were saying, ”We’re really serious.  We want things to change NOW. We’re going to change things ourselves.”

They took to social media and invited well-known performers and other young people from different parts of the country, representing different walks of life to share how they had been affected by gun violence.

While the threat of gun violence affects everyone, the notion that Code Red drills are as common at schools as pop quizzes, is hard for boomers like me to get our heads around.

They understood that our country has to examine our gun culture, that banning assault rifles has nothing to do with the second amendment, that we have to treat gun violence as a public health issue, that the only way to change laws is to vote NRA backed leaders out of office, that their first job is our protection and safety, Especially the safety of our children.

The speeches were genuine and heartfelt.

This movement is being led by children for children – and for the rest of us to learn from.

Martin Luther King Junior’s granddaughter, Yolanda, evoked one of the most quoted lines from a speech and added her own message… “I have a dream…of a gun-free world.”

Young men from Chicago’s west side spoke about everyday tragedies and demonstrated their mobile phone app that keeps count of shootings in their neighborhood. A 17 year-old Latina girl from South Central in LA spoke about a loved one lost simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the Parkland survivors held her composure during six minutes of silence, the time it took for 17 lives to be cut down by an assault gun in a place where their biggest challenge should have been chemistry, not hiding from bullets.

So many speeches moved me, but oddly one of the most memorable points of the day came in the form of a short exchange between a reporter, two girls and their grandmother.

The reporter asked them why they traveled all the way from the Midwest in order to be on the National Mall for the event.  The grandmother and 11 year-old made remarks about common sense gun laws and the importance of feeling safe in schools.

When the younger girl was asked if she wanted to add anything, she said, “Just because somebody does something bad to you, you don’t need to do something bad back.”

OMG, I thought, that’s the part of the equation we cannot forget. We need to make it hard for people to get weapons.  We also have to examine how to teach people not to act out of anger and resentment.

Maybe this time, this movement – could create a different outcome.

Witnessing the words and will of children is no small thing.