Today I am proud of America's youth
There was another horrible school shooting a couple weeks ago. 17 students were murdered. The first mass school shooting, in Columbine, Colorado, happened when I was in high school nearly 20 years ago, and it has been an epidemic ever since. At the time we were horrified, but now it's become almost commonplace. My elementary school children practice active shooter drills at school, just like fire drills or tornado drills, because even elementary schools aren't immune. 20 1st graders and 6 staff members were killed at Sandy Hook elementary in 2012. After each school shooting, you hear differing opinions yelling about gun control or arming teachers or more police training or more active shooter drills- scared, hurting people trying to figure out a way to prevent these atrocities, and often, airing their opinions on social media to create controversy. This time, the teenagers are standing up.
Today, teenagers all over walked out of school for 17 min. They read the names of the victims, formed the letter 17 on football fields, had moments of silence, did 17 random acts of kindness, met 17 new people, or otherwise paid tribute to the lives lost and protested this ongoing epidemic. Then they went back to class. Whether or not you agree with their stance, the unified, organized, respectful approach to their protest is to be applauded. There has been too much complacency in this country for the last few decades, resulting in rampant hatred of others different than us. It is too easy to spout opinions and get into arguments on social media but never actually do anything or take a stand. This is just magnified and egged on by the actual media. They build up stories about inequality and bigotry and violence and division and ignore or downplay the attempts to change this.
This protest was big enough to get serious media coverage. It was peaceful, and in many cases, emphasized love and kindness as a way to help prevent these atrocities. So many of the shooters were bullied and/or ostracized, and kindness and reaching out to these kids may have prevented some of these shootings, and the kids today seem to be realizing this and actually making an effort to change it. They are doing what we failed to do when this all started, and I am proud of them. I hope they continue to make their voices heard in peaceful, meaningful ways like this, and I hope the media continues to highlight that instead of the the divisiveness. Like the young people of the 60s, I hope these young people continue to stand up for what they believe in, especially what is right and good, and drown out the bullies and haters, and I hope that we, as adults, join and support them, instead of suppressing them.
Today, teenagers all over walked out of school for 17 min. They read the names of the victims, formed the letter 17 on football fields, had moments of silence, did 17 random acts of kindness, met 17 new people, or otherwise paid tribute to the lives lost and protested this ongoing epidemic. Then they went back to class. Whether or not you agree with their stance, the unified, organized, respectful approach to their protest is to be applauded. There has been too much complacency in this country for the last few decades, resulting in rampant hatred of others different than us. It is too easy to spout opinions and get into arguments on social media but never actually do anything or take a stand. This is just magnified and egged on by the actual media. They build up stories about inequality and bigotry and violence and division and ignore or downplay the attempts to change this.
This protest was big enough to get serious media coverage. It was peaceful, and in many cases, emphasized love and kindness as a way to help prevent these atrocities. So many of the shooters were bullied and/or ostracized, and kindness and reaching out to these kids may have prevented some of these shootings, and the kids today seem to be realizing this and actually making an effort to change it. They are doing what we failed to do when this all started, and I am proud of them. I hope they continue to make their voices heard in peaceful, meaningful ways like this, and I hope the media continues to highlight that instead of the the divisiveness. Like the young people of the 60s, I hope these young people continue to stand up for what they believe in, especially what is right and good, and drown out the bullies and haters, and I hope that we, as adults, join and support them, instead of suppressing them.
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