Florida high school shooting survivor David Hogg to politicians who take money from the NRA: “If you can’t get elected without taking money from child murderers, why are you running?” https://t.co/UPVFELwTyP pic.twitter.com/i0zTj0JA2y
— CNN (@CNN) February 19, 2018
Via The Federalist:
There is little new about the horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead. We have seen it all before: the cocktail of a disturbed young man, access to guns, and a society that devalues life mixed to create another national tragedy. The round-the-clock news coverage and profound proclamations from politicians are all eerily familiar, a haunting echo that finds us over and over.
But this time there’s a new wrinkle that many proponents of gun control hope will tip the scales in their favor. This time, the kids who survived are speaking out. On television and at rallies, the children are taking the lead to denounce America’s laws about guns and push for political change. But what if putting traumatized teenagers, mere days removed from a shocking and life-changing event, in front of cameras and crowds is not healthy? Have we thought that through?
The day after the mass shooting, we first started seeing students appear on the news. Scant hours before, they had been huddled in classrooms, fearing for their lives. On television most were possessed of calmness even when they broke down to tears. A generation brought up to broadcast their lives on social media knew instinctively how to handle being on TV and present themselves to an electronic world.
At first, interviewers asked what they had seen and gone through, how they were feeling. Then something changed. These kids began to be asked what they thought could be done about it? In some cases it was the students themselves who seemed to want to discuss policy.