Lifting Her Lamp

Yesterday morning, I was driving and put on MSNBC from Sirius radio.  At one point, they cut away from their discussion to cover an anti-gun rally in Parkland, Florida, and one of the students there was speaking, Emma Gonzales.  It was riveting, thought after a couple minutes they had to cut away for a commercial, saying they'd be back with more of the speech later.  Unfortunately, they didn't get back to it -- but I sought it out online.  And as great as they two minutes were, the full 7-1/2 minutes left it in the dust.

If you haven't seen this yet, take the few minutes here to do so.  This high school student is gripping, powerful, moving, scathing, thoughtful, deeply-personal, furious, impactful and sarcastic as only a teenager can be, including a "Duh" and her voice filled with the sassing ridicule most-every parent knows by heart as she quotes a Trump tweet.  And it all done with anger, heart, and through fighting back tears.

The girl has a serious-impressive future ahead of her.  Which is actually the underlying point of her blistering words, since 17 of your classmates don't.

And it's clear from this speech why Trump didn't have the courage to show up at the school to address students and families there.  Because he wouldn't have stood a chance against high school students like Emma Gonzales who put him to shame.  

And the gun corporation-owned NRA fringe terrorist organization must know that with guttural, profound voices like this, the cold-hearted pure greed of their own killing efforts have met their worst enemy.

And make no mistake, this is not just Emma Gonzales.  Her fellow-students at Douglas High are not only just as outraged, but have the teenage drive to act on it.  And I suspect other students around the country, because they know their lives are at stake.  All of which points to a "March for Our Lives" protest which they've begun to organize on March 24.  But more than that, it is a comment by one of those student which shows the thoughtfulness to give the near-perfect response to the traditional response by NRA-advocates whenever there is yet another mass shooting --

"The reason we started 'March for Our Lives' and the reason we are doing this on March 24th, we’ve been hearing a lot that this is not the time to talk about gun control,” said junior Cameron Kasky. “Here’s the time to talk about gun control: March 24th. My message for the people in office is, you’re either with us or against us. We are losing our lives while the adults are playing around.

"On March 24th, you are going to be seeing students in every single major city marching and we have our lives on the line,” he continued. “And at the end of the day, that is going to be what’s bringing us to victory and to making some sort of right out of this tragedy.”

“This is about us begging for our lives. This isn’t about the GOP, this isn’t about the Democrats. This is about us creating a badge of shame for any politicians who are accepting money from the NRA and using us as collateral.”

Yes, how noticeable that Trump didn't have the courage to speak at that school.

I've written in the past that candidates should turn the financial support their opponents get from the gun corporation-owned NRA into a negative, making such people pariahs for receiving those contributions, and risks them losing votes for it, which ultimately is what has the potential of weakening the value of all that money.  After all, if there's one thing politicians like more than money contributions, it's getting re-elected.  Having money to spend does you no good when it is awareness of that very money that can hurt you.  Whether this effort will build upon that, we'll see.  But it's certainly a first step.

It would be nice to think that Emma Gonzales was named after the poet whose moving words of liberty enshrine the Statue of Liberty, the statue of a woman with her arm raised in support of others.  It seems unlikely, life doesn't generally write such a neatly-tied story, but whether or not there is a connection to Emma Lazarus, the historic connection offers a moving impact for all.

By the way, I don't know where Emma Gonzales' ancestors are from.  But although that has absolutely nothing to do with the absorbing words she speaks, the optics of it all takes her words to a another level, giving further, shredding lie to the Trump efforts to demean bringing in families who over time migrate in "chains," block immigration from places that through the years have sent their "worst," and insult countries of world populated by those who are white.

The Emma Gonzaleses of the country stand tall.  And she stands especially-high with them.