This Saturday, students around the country demonstrated in support of gun control. The protests, called “March for Our Lives,” attracted thousands of high school students, many of whom do not have a driver’s license. Burgeoning SJWs need not fear, though. The rideshare company Lyft offered free rides to and from the protests.
In a post published on the company’s blog, Lyft promised,
If you are attending a March For Our Lives event in one of the 50 cities identified below, we want to help you get there with a free Lyft ride. We’ve partnered with the March For Our Lives organizers to ensure that our commitment of up to $1.5 million in free rides will have the most impact on their efforts — and yours.
There were some limitations on the free rides. Since the company has only pledged up to $1.5 million worth of free rides, the blog encouraged people to RSVP in order to ensure that they would receive a free ride. There was also a cap on how much was covered per ride. Entering the code when you RSVP “will cover the cost of a ride up to $15,” Lyft said.
Initially, the offer for free rides to and from the March for Our Lives was announced via a letter sent to the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green.
In part, the letter said:
We believe there is something seriously wrong when the threat of gun violence is so frequent and real throughout our country. And like many, we are inspired by your leadership.
We’d be honored to support you work with free Lyft rides to March for Our Lives rallies across the country on March 24 (please remember, anyone riding under 18 must be accompanied by an adult).
Recent tragedies have created a lot of fear and uncertainty, and as new parents those fears have taken on new meaning. Your bravery and intelligence have provided a renewed and much needed hope for our future. We are incredibly grateful for the example you are setting.
Zimmer and Green ended the letter with the promise, “We will continue to use our voice and platform to encourage civic participation.”
Except Lyft was not encouraging civic participation. If they were, the company would have also offered free rides to and from counter protests or pro-Second Amendment rallies.
Look, Zimmer and Green can run their company how they see fit. They can donate their money to whatever causes tickle their fancy. They can support protests that adhere to their personal ideology. That’s one of the beautiful things about this country that so many leftists hate.
My problem is that they’ve defined civic engagement in one direction.
Lyft is not using their “voice and platform to encourage civic participation.” They’re using their “voice and platform to encourage” participation in the leftist agenda they support. What’s really worrisome is that people like Zimmer and Green are using their influence to convince an entire generation (or two) that conservative activism is outside of legitimate civic participation.
Lyft has made it clear that not only do they support gun control but, and more frightening, that they don’t believe that opposing voices should be part of the civic discourse.
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