On February 14th, 2018, the nation witnessed one of the deadliest shootings in modern US history at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This event was the eighth school shooting resulting in casualties that has occured in this year alone.
The students who witnessed the deaths of their 17 are not going to stand by while these tragedies continue to occur. The rise of the #NeverAgain movement seeks to change, once and for all, the gun laws in our country that make it far too easy for guns to make their way into the wrong hands.
iMatter strongly believes that this tragedy could and should have been prevented. No matter your politics, there is no excuse that an 18-year-old should be able to purchase an AR-15 before they can buy beer. Both gun violence and climate change result from the same underlying issue: our culture’s inability to check its careless decisions against the safeguarding of the futures of its youngest citizens. They are a result of our society’s apparent disregard for the future.
Whether it is yet another school shooting or another oil spill, the lack of gun control or the lack of carbon regulation, young people are fed up. Young people are not waiting to be heard, shouting at the top of their lungs, “Enough is enough!”
The question used to be, “How can we prevent these events from happening?” Now, the question is, “How many more of these events will have to happen before the government finally wakes up and takes action?”
It is an issue of youth having the authority to speak on issues and yet being continually ignored in favor of wealthy corporations. In an incredibly powerful and moving speech, Florida student Emma Gonzalez declares: “If us students have learned anything, it’s that if you don’t study, you will fail. And in this case, if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead – so it’s time to start doing something…That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works? We call BS.”
On March 24th, youth will be marching in Washington DC and in sister cities around the country to demand state and federal lawmakers take action and that politicians stop accepting money from the National Rifle Association. For more information, visit the March for Our Lives website.
Source: iMatter
Photo credit: Mike Stocker
Women of Green is TURNING UP THE VOLUME of the feminine voice on the planet in order to create the world we know is possible.