Naomi Wadler, 11, a student at George Mason Elementary School, who organised a school walkout at her school in Alexandria, Va. speaks. Photo / AP
Naomi Wadler, 11, a student at George Mason Elementary School, who organised a school walkout at her school in Alexandria, Va. speaks. Photo / AP
She was an 11-year-old girl who stopped the world in its tracks on a day filled with impassioned speeches from eloquent young people.
Americans are already declaring Naomi Wadler a future president after her devastating speech at the record-breaking March For Our Lives, delivered with utter conviction, cut through to the heart of the world's problems.
She told the crowd in Washington that she and a friend had led a walkout at their school in Alabama last week, for the Florida students and for a far less well-known African-American girl named Courtlin Arrington, who was shot dead at her school in the weeks afterwards.
"I am here today to represent Courtlin Arrington," said Naomi, from Virginia. "I am here today to represent Hadiya Pendleton. I am here today to represent Taiyania Thompson, who at just 16 years old, was shot dead at her home here in Washington, DC.
"I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don't lead on the evening news.
"For far too long, these names, these black girls and women have been just numbers. I'm here to say 'Never Again!' for those girls too. I'm here to say that everyone should value those girls, too."
Her words struck a chord with the crowd, which screamed and whistled at her regal call for change.
This satellite image shows downtown Washington and the site of the March For Our Lives. Photo / AP
"Naomi Wadler is my president," tweeted Tessa Thompson.
"My white 6yo watching #NaomiWadler in awe... 'that girl is going to be president some day,'" added Jennifer Colamonico.
Even Kim Kardashian, who has three children with African-American singer Kanye West, retweeted Naomi's speech.
"The single most powerful political speech of 2018...was just delivered by an ELEVEN year old girl," tweeted Krown City King. "You'll hear from her again."
Matthew McConaughey speaks during the march in Austin, Texas. Photo / AP
Beating her critics to the punch, Naomi acknowledged that some had said she was " too young to have these thoughts" and must be the "tool of a nameless adult." That isn't true, she insisted.
"My friends and I might be still be 11 and we might still be in elementary school, but we know, we know life isn't equal for everyone.
"So I am here to honour the words of Toni Morrison: if there is a book that you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it.
"I urge everyone here and everyone who hears my voice to join me in telling the stories that aren't told — to honour the girls, the women of colour who were murdered at disproportionate rates in this nation.
My white 6yo watching #NaomiWadler in awe... “that girl is going to be president some day.” #NeverAgain
"I urge each of you to help me write the narrative for this world and understand so that these girls and women are never forgotten."
A small giggle at the start of her speech was the only evidence that this composed, self-assured young girl was not yet even a teenager.
Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, stood silently at the podium for six minutes. Photo / AP
Emma Gonzalez, famous for her "We call BS" speech after the Parkland shooting, gave the other most captivating speech of the day.
"Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands," the 17-year-old told the hushed crowd, describing the hours spent waiting for authorities to identify their slain classmates, and the horror of discovering many died before many students even knew a "code red" alert had been called.
When an 11 year old #NaomiWadler gives a better speech than the President, you know there is hope for the future!
"Six minutes and 20 seconds with an AR-15 and my friend Carmen (Schentrup) would never complain to me about piano practice," she said, her voice catching. "Aaron Feis would never call Kyra 'Miss Sunshine.' Alex Schachter would never walk into school with his brother Ryan."
She listed the names, and then fell silent for a long time, as members of the crowd gave tentative whoops and some started crying. Then an alarm rang.
"Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest," she said, voice clear. "Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job."
She explained that was the amount of time it took Nikolas Cruz to shoot dead her teachers and peers at last month — sparking the idea for the movement that is now in full swing.
"One final plug," concluded the Majory Stoneman Douglas High School student. "Get out there and vote."
Thousands of people march to Liberty Plaza during the March For Our Life in Atlanta. Photo / AP
And there more astonishing moments from these young people. Naomi wasn't even the youngest person to stir the crowd, with Yolanda Renee King — granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr — leading the masses in a rousing refrain. "Spread the word. Have you heard? All across the nation. We, are going to be, a great generation."
Referencing her grandfather's most famous speech, she said: "My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream that enough is enough! And that this should be a gun-free world, period."
The Parkland shooting survivors gave powerful speeches, with one standing silent for the length of time the shooting took, and one even vomiting on stage, Paul McCartney talked of losing his best friend John Lennon, but most tragic of all were the words of young people for whom gun violence was not a horror that reverberated around the world, but a daily, unremarkable reality.
Christopher Underwood, 11, stood up on stage to tell the crowd about how his teenage brother was shot in the dead on a street corner six years ago.
Christopher was just five years old and his brother was 14 — and survived for 14 days. "Senseless gun violence took away my childhood and nothing in my life was ever the same because I no longer have my best friend," said Christopher.
This wasn't a mass shooting, a horrifying tragedy that reverberated around the world, it was just a bad day in Brooklyn, New York.
"For me, I would like to not worry about dying, and focus on math and science and playing basketball with my friends," said Christopher. "Don't I deserve to grow up?"
Alex King and D'Angelo McDade took the stage with their fists in the air and duct tape over their mouths. D'Angelo, 18, said he was from the West Side of Chicago, "I, too, am a victim, a survivor and a victor of gun violence.
"I come from a place where minorities are controlled by both violence and poverty … but today we say 'No more.'"
Mya Middleton, also from Chicago, told the crowd she was at a store when a distressed customer began trashing the store, throwing products on the ground and pushing trolleys over.
"When he finally turns to me, he comes toward me, and I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, I couldn't think," said the 16-year-old.
"He pulls out this silver pistol and points it in my face and said these words that to this day haunt me and give me nightmares. He said, 'If you say anything, I will find you.' And yet I'm still saying something today.
"Chicago goes through this every day and you don't realise how much of a toll it is taking on the city until you see it in our communities you see it in someone you know, you see it on someone like me."
