by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
This past weekend young people and their allies from across America took to the streets to clamor for more effective gun laws. Millions carried signs and sang and chanted to protest the unwillingness of Congress and state legislatures to stand up to America's greatest bully - the gun lobby. In many instances Democratic lawmakers, at least those with spines, marched in support of the angry youth, while other politicians more beholden to the cash of the NRA and the gun industry (generally Republicans) stayed out of sight, or in some cases openly rebuked the idealistic youth.
Iowa Republican congressman and troglodyte Steve King expressed opposition to claims by the protesters that the NRA bribes legislators, and shot back that the $11,000 which he received from the NRA was not enough to constitute a "bribe." Congressman King apparently has his standards - and they appear to be quite pricey. Former Pennsylvania Senator Little Ricky Santorum went so far as to suggest that the students focus less on the availability of guns and more on learning life-saving techniques for when they come under fire at school. Santorum thinks the kids would better serve themselves and their interests by learning CPR.
But all of that GOP/NRA whining seems to be of no avail. By and large America's youth are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore. They are fired up and determined, and those who get in their way do so at their own peril.
Young people have kicked down the barricades to social change before.
Linda Brown, a young black child in the 1950's, wanted to attend a school near her home in Topeka, Kansas - a segregated school that only admitted whites. Schools were segregated in much of the United States at that time based on a Supreme Court decision from the previous century, Plessy v Ferguson, which said that separate schools for the races was permissible as long as the schools were "equal." Miss Brown became the focal point of the landmark case, Brown v Board of Education in which the Supreme Court of the United States ultimately ruled that separate schools were inherently unequal - and effectively ended the overt segregation of schools in America.
Linda Brown died this week at the age of seventy-six, but her legacy lives on in our increasingly multi-cultural nation.
Ryan White was only fourteen when he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984. White, a hemophiliac, contracted the disease during a blood transfusion. When Ryan left the hospital and was ready to re-enroll in school, his local school would not accept him out of ignorance and fear surrounding his condition. Ryan became the national poster boy for HIV/AIDS and did much to humanize the condition and educate the public. Ryan White was a central figure in removing the stigma from AIDS and presenting it as a treatable disease. Ryan succumbed to AIDS in 1990 at the age of eighteen in his home state of Indiana.
Malala Yousafzai, a young girl from Pakistan, was a blogger and peace activist when she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu. Not long after that nomination, and as her fame as an activist was on its ascendancy, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman. She lingered on the verge of death for several weeks. Now, nearly six years after the shooting that almost claimed her life, Malala has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest Nobel laureate ever, and is an leading proponent for the education of girls and women. A bullet could not stop her.
Linda Brown, Ryan White, and Malala Yousafzai each made an indelible mark on the world around them, and they did it as young people - kids - who through circumstances beyond their control, took a stand for what seemed fair - and right. The young people from Marjory Stomeman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are also taking a stand - and marching - and not even the likes of Steve King, or Little Ricky Santorum, or the whole bloody NRA will be able to stop them.
Their time is now - and they are going to leave their stamp on history, just like so many other "kids" before them have done! These kids are making the world we live in a better place, and we are all going to benefit from their activism.
God bless them and their boundless determination!
Citizen Journalist
This past weekend young people and their allies from across America took to the streets to clamor for more effective gun laws. Millions carried signs and sang and chanted to protest the unwillingness of Congress and state legislatures to stand up to America's greatest bully - the gun lobby. In many instances Democratic lawmakers, at least those with spines, marched in support of the angry youth, while other politicians more beholden to the cash of the NRA and the gun industry (generally Republicans) stayed out of sight, or in some cases openly rebuked the idealistic youth.
Iowa Republican congressman and troglodyte Steve King expressed opposition to claims by the protesters that the NRA bribes legislators, and shot back that the $11,000 which he received from the NRA was not enough to constitute a "bribe." Congressman King apparently has his standards - and they appear to be quite pricey. Former Pennsylvania Senator Little Ricky Santorum went so far as to suggest that the students focus less on the availability of guns and more on learning life-saving techniques for when they come under fire at school. Santorum thinks the kids would better serve themselves and their interests by learning CPR.
But all of that GOP/NRA whining seems to be of no avail. By and large America's youth are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore. They are fired up and determined, and those who get in their way do so at their own peril.
Young people have kicked down the barricades to social change before.
Linda Brown, a young black child in the 1950's, wanted to attend a school near her home in Topeka, Kansas - a segregated school that only admitted whites. Schools were segregated in much of the United States at that time based on a Supreme Court decision from the previous century, Plessy v Ferguson, which said that separate schools for the races was permissible as long as the schools were "equal." Miss Brown became the focal point of the landmark case, Brown v Board of Education in which the Supreme Court of the United States ultimately ruled that separate schools were inherently unequal - and effectively ended the overt segregation of schools in America.
Linda Brown died this week at the age of seventy-six, but her legacy lives on in our increasingly multi-cultural nation.
Ryan White was only fourteen when he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984. White, a hemophiliac, contracted the disease during a blood transfusion. When Ryan left the hospital and was ready to re-enroll in school, his local school would not accept him out of ignorance and fear surrounding his condition. Ryan became the national poster boy for HIV/AIDS and did much to humanize the condition and educate the public. Ryan White was a central figure in removing the stigma from AIDS and presenting it as a treatable disease. Ryan succumbed to AIDS in 1990 at the age of eighteen in his home state of Indiana.
Malala Yousafzai, a young girl from Pakistan, was a blogger and peace activist when she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu. Not long after that nomination, and as her fame as an activist was on its ascendancy, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman. She lingered on the verge of death for several weeks. Now, nearly six years after the shooting that almost claimed her life, Malala has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest Nobel laureate ever, and is an leading proponent for the education of girls and women. A bullet could not stop her.
Linda Brown, Ryan White, and Malala Yousafzai each made an indelible mark on the world around them, and they did it as young people - kids - who through circumstances beyond their control, took a stand for what seemed fair - and right. The young people from Marjory Stomeman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are also taking a stand - and marching - and not even the likes of Steve King, or Little Ricky Santorum, or the whole bloody NRA will be able to stop them.
Their time is now - and they are going to leave their stamp on history, just like so many other "kids" before them have done! These kids are making the world we live in a better place, and we are all going to benefit from their activism.
God bless them and their boundless determination!
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