Outside the U.S. Capitol yesterday, 7,000 pairs of shoes told the story of children killed by gun violence since Sandy Hook. All across America, children will walk out of their schools today for seventeen minutes, in observance of the seventeen souls who died in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine's Day. I don't underestimate the power of this act of protest, spreading in a wave across the land. Rather than passively receiving handed down, knee-jerk attitudes, a new generation is consciously choosing a position, taking a stand, and thereby helping to shape national attitudes about gun violence, the politics of self-interest, and corporate greed. I believe the children can lead us out of this long, bloody, NRA-fueled nightmare.
Watching on the news as students file out of their schools and stand in silence, I am sobbing. However things seem at this moment, we are not lost.
I am so uplifted by this movement. It reminds me of the anti-war passions of the late 1960s, when my siblings and I as high school students marched in the streets of Newark, NJ and then later in Washington DC. The young can in many ways shape the world and the future. I am heartened.
ReplyDeleteI have so much respect and hope and admiration for these young people. May their youth fuel their passion for that which is right.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right...
ReplyDeleteWe walked out at our school, and students were signing letters to Congress as well. (Although we're in London we're an American school full of American expats!) Like you, I am heartened by how seriously young people take this. I hope their resolve continues unabated as they grow older. If so, we will defeat the insanity of the NRA.
ReplyDeleteI really pray that this stand makes a difference. I absolutely hate what we are living through, and the NRA controls the politicians like puppets....
ReplyDeleteLaw states you can't buy a beer at 18, but here is an AR-15 for ya.....
They give me so much hope! I haven't felt this optimistic about change since my own long ago youth. I
ReplyDeleteXoxo
Barbara
Makes me wish I was a teenager right now.
ReplyDeleteThey have immense power and they will be heard, no matter what. It breaks my heart and makes me so proud of them and what they are accomplishing. Pure hearts, pure hope.
I truly believe they will make THE difference. And I hope fervently that some of those old geezers in power have their eyes opened to how they have put profit ahead of lives.
ReplyDeleteI have a good feeling that it's going to change. I love that Steve's school in England did it -- that's fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. Change may be slow, but it IS going to happen.
ReplyDeleteSeven thousand children have been killed in the last six years. WTF is wrong with legislators? These young people protesting, they give me hope.
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