This time feels different

 

After the massacre of elementary school children at Newtown, the country asked for change.  Nothing happened.

 

After the massacre of music festival attendees in Las Vegas, the country asked for change.  Nothing happened.

 

But after the massacre of high school staff and children in Florida, it feels different.  The children who were attacked are not preschoolers.  They’re old enough to speak for themselves.  They are eloquent, informed, and they’re outraged.  They are not asking for change, they’re demanding it.  No more open season on school children with military assault weapons.  They are demanding change directly from the politicians who have been unable to deliver.  They are saying if you’re not with us you’re against us, and if you don’t choose to protect us, shame on you.  We’ll vote you out and vote in someone who will. 

 

This local movement in Florida almost instantly went national.  Eleven thousand young people turn eighteen every day in the U.S.  That’s four million new voters every year.  If this really is a national movement; if this continues to resonate with all young people; they have the power to make this work; to make something happen that the “adults” have been unable to do; stop the carnage.

 

I respect and admire these Florida high school students/shooting survivors who are speaking out.  I embrace their mission to ban mass murders of school children.

 

This time feels different.