Skip to content

New Here?

Seattle: “Sustained Moral Outrage” — Hundreds march on Capitol Hill against gun violence

February 11, 2013

Seattle01-02092013
The procession between cathedrals featured songs — “We Shall Overcome,” “Amazing Grace” — heard a half-century ago as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led clergy and laity in marches against racial violence in the deep South. Photos: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM

By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

A candlelight march against gun violence put more than 900 people onto Capitol Hill streets Saturday night, with vigils at both St. Mark’s and St. James cathedrals and a goal stated in three words: “Sustained moral outrage.”

Seattle02-02092013The march was triggered, so to speak, by the recent mass shootings at a grammar school in Connecticut, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a shopping mall in Oregon. But it also passed just a few blocks from the site of a 2006 Seattle mass murder, where six young people were shot dead.

“My greatest fear is, as a country, we get used to such tragedies. We march tonight to proclaim that we will NOT get used to such tragedies . . . We march to symbolize our movement from mourning to action,” the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, Episcopal Bishop of Olympia, said from the pulpit of St. Mark’s.

Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James, added from the pulpit of his cathedral: “We are not going to be quiet. We’re going to march, pray and be heard.”

Read the entire story and view a photo slideshow at seattlepi.com

If you're a member of the media, please send inquiries to [email protected]