“We don’t want to live in fear. We want to be safe.”
Sad words to hear from young people in the most powerful nation in the world.
Are you comfortable sending your child to school? If the answer is no then now’s a great time to take a lesson in civic action from students across the country.
At 10AM eastern time, a massive nation-wide walkout and protest began in high schools across the country. Despite threats of expulsion from many districts, students left classes, congregated peacefully and observed a minute of silence for each of the seventeen lives lost in the February 14th shooting at Marjorie Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland Florida.
In the wake of this tragic event, students have mobilized to protest and lobby for stricter gun control laws. As has virtually always been the case, this action was met with lots of platitudes, promises and virtually no action from Washington politicians.
At the state level Florida enacted a bill that addresses a few of the issues. Predictably the NRA is fighting legislation and suing the state over the provision raising the firearm purchase age from 18 to 21.
While the Florida bill is a small step it doesn’t begin to address the national atrocities that have been inflicted upon our children as far back as Columbine in 1999, continuing at Sandy Hook in 2012 and at multiple points in-between.
No age group has been spared. From elementary through College, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of school related gun fatalities of any nation in the world.
Enough is enough!
When are rational thinking citizens going to rail against the NRA and other gun lobbies? When are we going to push our politicians to revisit gun laws and create legislation to protect our young?
When are adults going to mobilize as the students have today and say, “Stop the carnage”?
Until we all join together and make our voices heard there will be no change.
This morning, Donald Trump was missing in action.
When will he speak up in support of our students? After initially making promises he has backed-off most of them. Isn’t it the job of the President of the United States of America to protect its citizens?
Mr. Trump missed a great opportunity by not speaking, even Tweeting today in support of young students exercising their right to demonstrate and request action.
The youthful optimism of today’s protesters is wonderful to see. On March 24th the protest continues with the Washington March for Our Lives demonstration. 738 events world-wide are scheduled.
It’s not enough.
History tends to repeat itself – especially if we take away no lesson. Once protests begin to fade politicians lose interest. In fact, their activity, or lack of it, is virtually always politically motivated. They want to be reelected.
Look out politicians, many of today’s protesters are registering to vote. They’ll be eligible when November rolls around. In 2019 even more will be casting their ballots.
Are you going to leave it to your children and grandchildren to assume full responsibility to force politicians to act?
Remember, you can support the right to bear arms, the sanctity of the Second Amendment and still support sane gun legislation.
Let me leave you with a thought.
You see high school and middle school students protesting today. You don’t see or hear what’s on the minds of children as young as four years old who absorb so much of what is going on around them. Try to remember what frightened you as a child but was never addressed. Then decide what you are going to do.
Perhaps a 1968 Hubert Humphrey presidential election poster said it best. “Some talk change. Others cause it.”
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
Hi, thank you for reading this article. I think it’s so important for students to use their power. Here’s another article that I believe addresseses this topic. Thanks. Dave https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/parkland-students-you-have-power-lbkr/