In my rural white farming community, often derided as Trump Country by the media, children walked out of school not to protest gun laws, but in memory of the seventeen Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school students who were killed when a murderer, rampaging through their building with an assault rifle, ended their lives. Our school superintendent, seven-months on the job, green-lighted the walkout providing it wasn’t politically divisive or alienating to the gun-families that make up the majority of the student body, because guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people kill people, and stricter gun laws would do nothing to prevent a troubled teenager from buying a battlefield weapon in accordance with his second amendment rights, but mandatory psychological evaluations will save lives.
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Interesting. Had a family gathering Sunday for a niece’s birthday. We are a purple family, some left, some right, and common humanity. The niece, who tends towards conservative religion reactions, made a comment about “those kids should have stayed in school”. My sister in law, who is from rural CO (guns, ranches, etc) and is a school principal responded “Its their right to express their feelings and their concerns, and its very important, whether you agree with their take on the issue or not.” Fabulous use of the teachable moment.
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Amen to your SIL. I don’t know how weapons made to murder people became acceptable to people with “conservative religion reactions”.
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utterly mysterious to me as well, on a logic basis. Given that many conservative (fundamentalist) religions are fear based (screw up and you are damned to hell for all eternity), its then a fairly easy move to the perspective of the survival/reptilian brain. us against them, and whatever is necessary to survive. Common amongst your current clientele when triggered–feels like their existence is threatened, even as its nothing of the sort.
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Our schools were on spring break last week, otherwise I am sure they would have been involved in the walkouts.
I live in a university town, so there are often protests, etc., which trickles down to high school aged kids.
I live in a very blue area, school officials generally are permissive when it comes to the idea of walkouts. I personally would like the walkouts to be a catalyst for greater discussion. If we are discussing gun control and violence I’d like to see the kids thinking about all children who are hurt or killed by gun violence, not just in the context of school shootings. If you are walking out because Trump got elected and you think he is a misogynist and a racist, what about the racism and misogyny in your community or your very own school. There is some irony when high school kids present Trump as a pig but wheel out of the parking lot playing music with misogynistic lyrics.
Sometimes kids just walk out of school for the heck of it, and go get something to eat as opposed to actually protest.
My family tree is mostly from Chicago, where there is a lot of gun violence. I wish we’d see the same amount of outcry for murders there, and a push for politicians to do more.
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I agree. It’s strange that we can galvanize over a school shooting, but we can ignore the ongoing carnage of day-to-day life. I’m hoping that momentum can keep strong through the midterm elections.
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I turned on the radio this morning, and the first news story was another school shooting. I yelled out loud I was so pissed.
I think we can respect the second amendment and still have common sense gun laws.
This is a mashup of songs from Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen. It was made in support of the kids who will march on Saturday for safe schools.
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The problem, as I see it, is how the 2nd amendment is interpreted. From my liberal point of view, I don’t see how restricting assault rifles infringes on the right to own reasonable guns (hunting rifles, shot guns, etc). Not all weapons should be legal.
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There are some quick and pointed thoughts about second amendment rights and mental illness in this post: https://tericarter.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/thoughts-and-prayers/ (Aside from the snide remark about having ever read the constitution – she makes a good point.)
It’s nice that students were allowed to march in memory of the murdered kids. I’m just not sure if marching in memory of murdered kids after they are already dead, even if we did it every time, would prevent future murders.
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Thanks for the link. That’s a good rant. People (school administrator and the like) need to be less concerned about hurting feelings and let the kids protest how they want.
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Thanks. Agreed!
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Well, we both know how I feel about this. And the “mentally ill” quip really gets my goat.
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My comment on that nonsense is some expletives and grunts of frustration.
I wonder if all these second amendment shouters even understand the second amendment and why it was added. Grrr….more grunting….
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