“What we must do now is enact change because that is what we do to things that fail: We change them.” Florence Yared, Parkland shooting survivor
Most of us are old enough to have lived through a few of those historic “times that try men’s (and women’s) souls.” It’s when we look in the rear view mirror after time has passed that we realize life will never be quite the same again. 1968 was such a year. America’s response to the ongoing horror of Viet Nam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the stunning events at the Chicago Democratic Convention, the display by athletes in Mexico City protesting discrimination – all were events that contributed to a sea change in America. Life was never quite the same because America was never quite the same.
Here and now, in 2018, we are experiencing a similar shock to the system. We have a president who has upended every norm of civility and discarded values most of us take for granted. He has changed that proud “shining city on a hill” to a nation that is disintegrating from without and imploding from within. He has let loose the politics of fear by promoting division through prejudice, bigotry, and hatred of the ‘other.’ He’s made it OK to denigrate the brown, the black, the Jew, the disabled, the poor, the immigrant because he has done it himself. Even some White Supremacists carrying swastikas are ‘good people.’ All that is bad enough; what’s worse is that his supporters don’t care. And some are imitating him.
The multiple curses of greed, division, incompetence and government by auction have come home to roost. And with it, the sense that things would get worse. And they did.
On Valentine’s Day, 17 kids and staff were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL; it was the most traumatic and devastating event the survivors will likely experience in their lifetime and one most of us can’t imagine. It’s impossible to predict how we might behave under similar circumstances but curling up in a ball comes to mind. Not these kids. They turned their grief and anger into action and did what few would have thought possible; they put the NRA on notice. They changed the national discussion around guns. They put the blame where it belonged – on guns, and on the organization that believes the right to own a gun outweighs the right of innocent kids to live.
So why conflate the actions and behavior of the president with events following Parkland?
Trump is a bully. It’s his natural response to anyone he doesn’t like. He uses his power to intimidate, to ridicule those he views as weaker. He makes fun of them, he encourages others to hurt or harm. His favorite go-to is a nickname; Liddle Marco, Lyin Ted, Crooked Hillary, Pocahontas Warren…it goes on. He trivializes what others view as important. And some of the people who support him also seem to feel comfortable publically trivializing the survivors’ response to the killings and even bullying the survivors themselves.
Some of the leaders who organized rallies to stop gun violence have themselves received death threats. A picture of a student photographed tearing up a gun range target was photo-shopped to make it appear she was tearing up the Constitution. Almost simultaneously with their first appearance following the killings, rumors were floated that the kids were ‘crisis actors,’ being paid by George Soros, or being coached by Hollywood left wingers. And just days ago, FOX’s Laura Ingraham taunted David Hogg, a survivor and student leader, as a “whiner” because some of his college applications were rejected. She apologized only after advertisers began dumping her. A Maine candidate for office, Leslie Gibson, said of survivor Emma Gonzalez, “there is nothing about this skinhead lesbian that impresses me and there is nothing that she has to say unless you’re a frothing at the mouth moonbat.” Iowa Congressman Steve King tried to exploit her Cuban heritage and mocked her lack of Spanish language skills.
These kids aren’t much younger than many of those advocating change in 1776: James Monroe and the Marquis de Lafayette were both 18. Alexander Hamilton was 21. If you look and listen to the kids from Parkland you will see future leaders. They do not suffer fools lightly and they will jump into the vacuum of morality that has been created by this presidency and by organizations devoid of decency like the NRA.
Maryland Congressman, Jamie Raskin, speaking to the crowd in Washington at the March for Our Lives rally, said “America’s high school students are leading a revolution against political complacency and collusion with the NRA. And I want you to know that you are not only acting in solidarity with the students from Parkland…but you are acting in the finest tradition of American’s young people who have always stood up to change American when nobody else would do it.”
Mark your 2018 calendar. Track events. This is the year when the next sea change begins. These kids will see to it.
Villager Marsha Shearer is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
