Connie Schultz: And the Children Shall Lead Us

[babylonsister]

https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/02/18/and-the-children-shall-lead-us

And the Children Shall Lead Us
By Connie Schultz

February 21, 2018

snip//

In response to their blooming activism, too many supposed adults — fueled by right-wing media and pundits — are mocking these young people.

Particularly egregious are claims that these outspoken teenage survivors of the most recent massacre are FBI plants and Democratic pawns or, worse, "crisis actors" who flit from tragedy to tragedy to fire up opposition to guns. These attempts to rob these children of their authority are as baseless as they are despicable. This may explain why Donald Trump Jr. "liked" two tweets attacking one of the most outspoken survivors, 17-year-old David Hogg.

It's easy to see why the most hateful among us are targeting this young man. He is articulate and photogenic — and he knows his mind. And so there he was, with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night, defending himself against these false accusations.

"I'm not a crisis actor," he said. "I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this, and I continue to be having to do that."

Think about this. A week ago, this teenager was huddled in a dark closet with his classmates as a former student walked through the halls with an AR-15 and killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen others. Less than a week had passed, and he was on national television insisting that he was nobody's pawn.

Earlier that day, former Rep. Jack Kingston, a regular CNN commentator, asked on-air, "Do we really think — and I say this sincerely — do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?"

Well, yes.

Yes, many of us do think they can succeed where we have failed, but it doesn't matter what we think. The impatience we may have with these young people is no match for their impatience with us. They are sick of our hypocrisy. Our lethargy. Our unwillingness to hold NRA-funded elected officials accountable for failing to protect our children.

Will they stumble? Sure. All movements do. Don't mistake missteps for surrender. They're young. Remember those days? Poking the bear, I know.

If you are even tempted to think they'll run out of steam, I suggest you get off your couch and out of those chatrooms and go meet some of the young people of this country.

Rush to do this. It's only a matter of time before they leave you behind.

[samnsara]

1. they wont stumble cuz the rest of us are going to hold them up...

[Gabi Hayes]

2. Just linked this

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/dana-loeschs-nra-background-check-claim-at-parkland-town-hall-misleading.html

Excellent post, btw!

[longship]

3. They can even sing it!

From CNN's Town Hall.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017481287

Here's the YouTube:

Just listen to these people sing it!!!

Shine the light!

[Guilded Lilly]

4. The children are the targets here. First in front of the barrel of a war machine and

then in front of the mouths of ignorant, insecure adults (?) of a gutless, soulless and quite vomitous political party who value personal wealth and power over human lives, safety and dignity.

We were “the children” once.

The ones whose friends and brothers and selves were used as bomb fodder and unspeakable horrors of the Vietnam war and wars before. In massive numbers. The ones thrown into hideous debt just for wanting an education. The ones often abused and bullied into despair and disfunctional grown-ups. You would think more of us would have learned as we grew into adults...IF we made it that far.

This gawd awful disease of a political party, these foul “adults” and their supporters are the very people who want to multiply the number of humans brought into this world so they can control them , undereducated them, beat them down and use them.

This impassioned activism of youth has saved our soul on many occasions in history and those among us with brains and hearts and memories will support them, respect them, guide them and let their passion and energy be our wearied legs and their anger be our battered psyches’ voice. They are “our” finest strongest and fiercest weapon against the Deplorables (who are scared shitless and apparently senseless of them).

[volstork]

5. THIS.

"This gawd awful disease of a political party, these foul “adults” and their supporters are the very people who want to multiply the number of humans brought into this world so they can control them , undereducated them, beat them down and use them."


A thousand times this!