The kids point the way
For 17 minutes at 10 a.m. Wednesday, children across the land by the tens and hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands stepped out of class to mourn victims of gun violence and join the battle to fight like hell for the living. May the electrifying walkout that united students in cities, suburbs and towns, in states red and blue and in between, be the beginning of a powerful new movement of youth activism to break America free of the death grip of the gun lobby once and for all.
The mass youth protest — on a scale not seen since the Vietnam War, with a passion against injustice reminiscent of the civil rights movement — marked one month since teens saw the sanctuary of their Florida high school explode at the barrel of a single assault weapon wielded by a single deranged young killer.
One young man with one gun was all it took to rip 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas students from the world, along with three adults dedicated to their education.
An inspiring band of Parkland massacre survivors picked themselves up and in their trauma and grief demanded an end to this nation’s sick indulgence of rapid-fire, heavy-gauge weaponry and unlimited ammo in the hands of just about anyone.
Where Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and classmates led with social media savvy, legions of their peers follow. A generation raised with active-shooter drills as constant in their education as atom-bomb duck-and-covers were for their grandparents will cower no more.
At New York City schools, more than 100,000 strong protested, sanctioned by the firmament of elected leadership, including a mayor who walked in Brooklyn and a governor who sprawled in a Zuccotti Park die-in.
Elsewhere, students courageously defied school administrators’ orders to stay in class and marched out anyway. The walkout is the first step. In nine days, a half million people will descend on Washington for the March for Our Lives.
The true civic test comes in November, when young people either flock to the ballot box and choose candidates who want gun sanity — and encourage their parents to do the same — or find something better to do that day.
The energy is there. All that’s left now is the kick, a hundred thousand kicks, to convert it into action.