by Miho Yoshida
"One love! One life! One man! One wife!"
Chants like these filled the usually uneventful surroundings as a string of around 8,000 people, many carrying pure love placards, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. Cars honked, answering the "Honk for purity!" placard, and people stuck their fists formed into "thumbs up" signals out of the windows. All of the passersby gawked at us in awe. With the police escort, we knew we were, for that one moment, the center of attention of the whole cosmos. Our cries for purity and family would affect many different people all over the world. To know that this was happening filled me with a silence and awe. It was fun and inspiring to participate in the Love Alive event.
Bringing so many young people together really helped to make certain the urgency of the problem of sexual immorality. It also helped me be more optimistic about our future. I could see how many young people actually do care about family values and I could be assured that the world was not going to fall down the drain of immorality. Coming together on this issue of family also helped raise the pride and confidence of many young people who were able to see that there were many supporters.
The afternoon was clear and brisk. The Love Alive rally, packed with excellent speakers and eye-catching local entertainers, had drawn a modest but energetic crowd of a thousand people. The crowd kept getting larger and larger. I could see everyone having a good time, dancing to the beat of gospel music, crooning over the life-sized dancing STDs. They were drawn in by the a cappella group from Howard University and the many distinguished speakers, including the mayor’s wife, Cora Masters Barry. I really could see how important each felt the issue was and how enjoyable it could be. The march was a huge success. We blocked traffic for miles, and the whole city of Washington could hear the echoes of our call for family values. The young and old, black, yellow, brown and white, were all devoted to this issue of bringing peace and breaking down barriers of race and religion so our children can be free of broken marriages and sexually transmitted diseases.
The day concluded with a concert given by Washington’s own Kenny Lattimore, the up-and-coming R&B artist. He really put so much heart into his singing, touching all members of the audience. It was sad to see the adorable girl stricken with HIV whom Kenny dedicated one song to. His concern for family values was inspiring. The facade of false love and free sex will fall and be diminished while true love will dominate the world and last for eternity. Reflection on the "Love Alive March"
by Steve Schneider
The march itself passed by like a kind of dream. I was concentrating so hard on trying to keep an even pace and keep everyone in line so that I didn’t have time really to see what was going on all around me. I remember the way our voices sounded shimmering off the buildings that day.... I remember the shouts, the chants, the clapping.... I turned around and could see hundreds of picket signs bobbing up and down, off into the distance..... As we went on, more and more people were getting caught up into the excitement and joining the march ahead of us; so our position in the front of the march slowly started being moved toward the middle. Somehow we got to the White House as planned.
When we got to the Ellipse, it was a breathtaking sight. There were people milling all around, too many for the eyes to focus on any one. Somehow I ended up helping them carry the banner to the front of the stage, and there we stood, waving and singing, staring out onto a sea of faces. Staring directly out at those thousands of people was a moving experience, especially seeing the way they responded to the chants we were calling out. For the first time I could see the result of our collective efforts manifested on that one day.
Looking out at those thousands of people, I could realize what a profound impact a group of individuals can have when they unite together. I really felt like this event was the beginning of the healing of the moral problem in this country, and in the world.