In a matter of days, Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, who had just suffered a devastating trauma, changed our country.
Children, in days, were able to affect change which eluded us for decades.
The state of Illinois banned bump stocks. Dicks, Kroger, and Walmart raised age requirements and stopped selling assault weapons.
There are real conversations about sensible gun control happening on every level.
The minimum age to buy guns is raising to 21 all over the place.
Young adults made this happen.
We didn’t see change like this after Sandy Hook. We didn’t see it after Las Vegas or Orlando. We didn’t do shit.
Then, 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida.
The survivors, who have been through a trauma most of us will never be able to comprehend, said enough. They said no.
They aren’t begging for their lives, they are demanding their lives be protected.
If these students hadn’t put their foot down, then we would have been horrified for a few days or a week and gone back to waiting for the next one. Waiting to hear more news of bullets ripping through the flesh of our children.
We put this burden on the shoulders of children and young adults.
As adults, we failed our children and now they have to take up a cause and engage in a literal bloody battle before they’re old enough to buy a beer.
I am ashamed and sad we’ve let it come to students being forced to take the lead.
Conversely, I am grateful for these amazing, brave and passionate humans.
I am grateful for Emma Gonzales and David Hogg and all their classmates who have started a movement growing at an astonishing 
rate. Thank the stars for these students. I have more hope than I’ve had since that horrible night in November of 2016.
We owe these survivors a debt of gratitude.
Even more, we owe them our support.
March with them when you can. Support candidates who support sensible gun control. Register to vote. Encourage others to register to vote. These young adults are literally fighting for their lives. We must support them.
I’ve read so many opinions about what these students are doing. How they are too young or traumatized to have an opinion.
These students have been mocked and discounted. These students and their families have received multiple death threats.
When I say we adults let our youth down, that is a goddamn understatement.
Here’s the thing about all our opinions regarding the marches and walking out of school: our opinions don’t matter. These survivors aren’t asking for our goddamn permission.
We must support them. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but don’t forget that one day these activists will be taking care of us and if we don’t give them the support and care and consideration they deserve, then we are going to get exactly what we deserve.
Hundreds of people have died by guns since the Parkland shooting. Hundreds more will die. Probably, thousands.
I believe these students are going to continue to change our country and continue to make a difference.
I will be with them every step.
Oh, and anyone who denigrates, threatens, or mocks these bad ass students? You realize you’re a piece of shit asshole, right?
Please consider marching or donating to March For Our Lives.
#NeverAgain
#Last17
#MSDStrong
They are inspiring. Their teacher is pretty awesome, too. He teaches an AP course on government and they were talking about NRA lobbying just before this happened. So so proud of them.
I know! I read that! Amazing.
These students know exactly what they’re doing and I applaud them. First thing to do is get rid of all of those congressmen and senators who support the NRA, Marco Rubio must go. We have old representatives in Washington and they’re bought and paid for by the NRA. Second we need to say the obvious, why are these white boys shooting up the schools, do you really believe if they were black or Hispanic or any other race this would be tolerated? No! Third, lets call them what they are HOME GROWN TERRORIST and finally lets say NOT ALL people that do this is mentally ill. They’re jus mean and rotten to the core and have decided I’m going to do something today that will make me notable.
So so upsetting.
Oh, I am so heartened by these kids. They’re the perfect age for this: young, smart, educated, with no “hostages” yet (kids, employment, etc.). They are free & full of righteous energy. My heart is with them.
This was the energy young people had during voter registration and again with the Vietnam war. This is a fearsome force and I am thrilled to see it again. (Yeah, I’m old.)
They energize me. We need that energy to not give in or give up.
Thank You for writing this, I was hoping you would 🙂
I shoulda bought stock in Dick’s when they first made the announcement 😉
I had too..xo
You said it. What wonderful.
XO
I couldn’t agree more. These kids are amazing and I am so proud of them. We need to keep our children safe no matter who it pisses off. End of story. I have three year-old twin grandchildren and the thought of them entering school soon terrifies, but now I have a little bit of hope.
I am terrified for my grandchildren, but yes, I do believe there is hope.
Yes! These children are our future…they give me hope!
me too!
I’m glad something is being done by a generation of people too young to be cynical because, wow, I am cynical about anything getting done about guns.
The upside of being really cynical is that you can only be pleasantly surprised, I guess.
Here’s to continuing to be pleasantly surprised.
Well said. Thank you. It’s maddening that so many politicians, who vow to protect us and lean to our will are such mamby-pamby cowards when it comes to standing up to the NRA. Cowards. There’s no other word for them. And I think every politician who takes money from them, whether as campaign donations or other forms of “bribery,” should be called out publicly, humiliated, and shamed. It’s just insanity that we, as a country, are basically controlled by the NRA, who lie to people with impunity in order to convince the ignorant among us that any form of gun control, including more comprehensive background checks, infringes on our second amendment rights. It’s just crazy the power they have. If anyone can fix this, it’s those brave and brilliant children.
I am disgusted by our gutless, money grubbing government. Disgusted.
Yup. You know, this country was founded by young people. Those guys (and women) in those old paintings look old because the artists wanted them to look that way. Many of them were teens and twentysomethings when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
But these kids are indeed something else. It’s like they were born for this. They all know how to communicate over the media, because they’ve been doing it their whole lives. They know how to make a compelling video for the same reason. I am old enough to remember the last time kids were in the streets to protest being killed needlessly, and these kids are far better at it than their brethren from the sixties, and their voices aren’t as easily discounted in the media because there is no war to get all jingoistic about in their denigration.
Lewis Black did a bit about those kids that was so excellent I want to share it with you.
“For years it was ‘well how come these kids aren’t marching?’ and now they are, and you’ve awakened a beast, you fuckers…” and “these kids have done what the adults couldn’t do…” and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMCmj3TjM9Q
It’s always the young people, isn’t it? Thank the stars for them.
Wonderful post. Fantastic replies. Did you see two of the students on Bill Maher? They speak more lucidly than adults. They are definitely our future in so many way. I have written about this also. It fires me up every day. ARMING TEACHERS? Are people nuts? I taught high school. There is no room in your life for being a policeman. The people who will get hurt in that situation? The students. THANKS. Keep writing.
I didn’t see that, but I will look it up. These kids are amazing. Just amazing.
Thanks for your thoughts Michelle, I’ve thought about why there is movement now when our grief and horror has existed each time before fading. I wonder how many other adults felt like I have in not kow what to do or believing that calls to action wouldn’t matter. I think we need these kids, their energy, their belief in themselves, their ability to be less cynical and jaded dispite the trauma surrounding them. These kids have provided us a place to channel our fierce but inept desire to see change. I am so grateful and also feel hope in a way that has been missing for a long time.
It feels good to have hope again, it does. But hope is fickle, I know this.
I agree with you Michelle. Arming teachers is absurd.
It is absurd.
Michelle, So agree. And I can’t comprehend anyone so soulless as to denigrate these amazing kids in any way. Its beyond disturbing that money comes before anything else to some people.
There are SO MANY who do. So many.
I so support these kids. I’m hoping it spreads, and they keep it going. I know other kids from other places who have this kind of strength, and its awesome.
(One sad note: Dick’s stopped selling assault weapons before, and then started again, and Walmart wasn’t selling them anyway because it wasn’t profitable. Unfortunately many of them are being sold by smaller shops, which are making a profit.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/02/28/dicks-sporting-goods-ceo-says-company-will-no-longer-sell-assault-rifles-guns-to-people-under-21/?utm_term=.33839e2019b2
)
I’m just hoping we continue to see progress.
Amen sister! Every word!
Adults have been useless in the fight against gun violence and these kids give me SO much hope!
We must continue the movement that they started, and vote out the terrorists that are servants to the NRA…they never have represented “We the People”!
No..no they have not. This whole situation is insane.
These kids inspire me so much.
I work for a major university and spend far too much time wondering, when will it happen here? I’m in an off-campus office so I don’t worry about my own safety. I worry about the students who shouldn’t even have to ask themselves what will happen if there’s a mass shooting. And I’ve marched with them.
Something I didn’t think about, though, until you said it, is that these kids will eventually take care of us. Thank you for that important point. We need to take care of them now because that when the time comes that we need them we’d damn well better have earned their support.
Exactly! And I would share your concerns. These are scary times.