If There Was a March For Our Lives in "He Was Weird"

My weird and wonderful mind has been at work since I posted about the "March For Our Lives" last week. I have no shame in stating that the original intention behind starting Peaceful Rampage was to get all of you to buy copies of my book, "He Was Weird." These last two sentences fused together shortly after I posted about the march. The thought entered my mind, "Would the children of Ramsgate, New Jersey have done a similar thing after their school was shot up?"

Knowing the town where my story was based, (Ramsgate, NJ only exists in my mind and now in print), I earnestly believe that they very well might have done so. After the shooting occurs, the town goes totally into victim mode. Of course everyone in the town tries to deflect the bullying hell, they inflicted on the main character, but the tragedy felt by the people of the town is definitely real. Genuine sympathies are shown in this light by the media, local, national and international as the report of what has happened is spread around the world. Still, the main issue with many was the fact that a thirteen year old boy was able to get his hands on a gun and carry out such a bloody rampage.

When writing "He Was Weird," I only mention the gun debate in passing as I wanted to focus on the issues that made him 'snap.' The point of the story wasn't to debate the Second Amendment but instead, other issues like bullying, DAMP, and the other mental health issues Mark, the main character, might have had. However, this would not have stopped the children of Ramsgate, many of whom were very academically gifted, from organizing and staging a march on Washington DC. In spite of what I wrote in the book, I can easily see them doing it and it would have been very much like what the students in Parkland, Florida had done. There would have been more media focus on those students and the debates in favour and opposed to the march would have bounced around the mass media as it had done with the Parkland shooting. In fact, everything to do with the march would have been pretty much the same, only the name of the town have been different.

[caption id="attachment_1106" align="alignnone" width="300"] March For Our Lives Protest in Washington DC[/caption]

So, why didn't I write about a march in "He Was Weird?" The answer is that I have always been more of a reactive person than a proactive one. I knew of no marches after a mass shooting so the idea of writing about one never entered into my noggin. Still, it might have been cool if I had written one in because I am sure that the children who survived the shooting would have definitely marched on Washington.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523264617&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird