This was my second march (I went five or six years ago as well), but being surrounded by so many people that share a pro-life mentality was a moving experience all the same. Life News.com estimated more than 500,000 people gathered on the National Mall to rally for life this year.
The speakers the organizers brought to the stage encouraged everyone to be strong in their support for life. Political leaders like Rand Paul and Rick Santorum were honest and truthful about their personal connections to the movement, but I was personally inspired by Rueben Verastigui, a 19 year old pro-life student leader. He vehemently proclaimed that the youth are not the future of the pro-life movement; we are the movement. This exclamation was a great reminder for me because it is easy to think that others will make the difference, but we all need to personally be involved to make the changes we hope to make.
The two photos below were taken at the top of an incline. The wintery weather makes the crowd hard to see, but it stretches past the buildings and eventually turns a corner. You can see the people turned around in the image on the right. Everyone hoped to glimpse the vastness of the march.
These are just some of the photos I took on my phone. I will have to develop some as well, since I brought along a 35mm. I hope those turn out because I think they will look beautiful. I liked editing these photos, though, because the weather was so cold and dreary. The atmosphere made it easy to see how they should be edited. The colors were less important than the emotion of the crowd. Being in a group that stretched for miles, I could feel the spirit and the passion.
I loved it, and I hope I get to march again in the future.
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