“We Call B.S.”
“The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and are prepared to call B.S.
“Companies, trying to make caricatures of the teen-agers nowadays, saying that all we are are self-involved and trend-obsessed and they hush us into submissions when our message doesn’t reach the ears of the nation, we are prepared to call B.S.
“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the N.R.A., telling us nothing could ever be done to prevent this: we call B.S.
“They say that tougher gun laws do not prevent gun violence: we call B.S.”
“They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun: we call B.S.
“They say guns are just tools, like knives, and are as dangerous as cars: we call B.S.
“They say that no laws would have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that occur: we call B.S.
“That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works.” The crowd was now in a frenzy of anger and sadness, the people around me tearing up as they yelled, “We call B.S.”
And then, in unison, the people gathered began to chant, “Vote them out, vote them out, vote them out.”
Emma Gonzalez, Senior, Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida
I hope these are the children who will be our future.
1Those of us who can remember the Vietnam war know it was the college students who demonstrated against the war who helped bring an end to it.
2It is sad that it is high school students who have to start this revolution against the gun lobby.
Lets give them all the support they need.
I am humbled and very, very proud of them.
3Another student who needs to run for office ASAP. I hope she is our future.
4These young adults seem to be the only citizens not intimidated by the bullies that seem to have us older adults quaking in our boots.
5Perhaps they are the only hope our country has.
Bless these courageous kids! We need to support and protect them from the crazy wingnuts who will be crawling out from under their rocks to spew their hate.
6Spoken like voters, some in 2018, all in 2020.
7Those wonderful young people make me proud and give me hope for the future of our nation. I will support them and those in other states who will not be cowed by rich d white men and their vile NRA.
8These brave kids might be our salvation.
I hope so, because it seems we’ve become incapable of saving ourselves.
If I’m in physical shape to do it, I plan on participating in the March. And so should we all: graybeards, middle aged, everyone who can.
9Sorry to change the subject, but did anyone else read an article stating that Gen. Flynn is trying to get his plea deal reversed by charging that Mueller with misconduct? I can’t remember where I saw it and don’t know if it has been confirmed.
10I just now googled flynn plea deal reversed. Maryelle, I hope it’s what you’re looking for. It’s from The Federalist, maybe 15 hours ago.
11I hope their efforts turn out better than the last Childrens’ Crusade.
For all our sakes.
12They are right to call B.S.
When I was nineteen or so and protesting the Vietnam War, we protesters were repeatedly told that we didn’t know anything, that the President and the generals knew what they were doing, so we should shut up and step into line.
That was pure caca del toro. It turns out that the generals didn’t want to be in that war and didn’t have a clue how to win it. It turns out that Johnson didn’t want to be in that war.
That evil slimeball Nixon — who ran as the candidate who had a secret plan to end the war — actually secretly negotiated with the enemy to prolong the war until after his election. He committed treason by undermining Johnson’s peace negotiations.
They will lie to you. They will lie about you. Anything to get elected. They don’t care if people die.
Never trust anybody over thirty.
13The chanting kids that I heard on Lawrence O’Donnell tonight brought back memories of the war in Vietnam:
“Hey! Hey! NRA!
How many kids did you kill today?”
I hope they chant it loud and long, until it penetrates into every legislature in the country. For the first time in a long time, I am encouraged.
14Those are some impressive young people.
15The republicans are gambling that the students will turn conservative once they leave school and have to pay taxes. I hope that they will lose that bet.
16Like That Other Jean, I have some hope for the first time in a long while.
17Come to think of it, these kids are all going to have some kind of PTSD. Taking it “to the man” like they are doing is actually therapy. A percentage of them will be turning 18 and VOTING. Not long after that they will be eligible to run for office. For anyone and everyone who discounts these kids today, look the hell out for tomorrow!
18John Pavlovitz has a new column this morning about these young folks. I highly recommend it. Because I don’t have the words.
19Sorry, his website is John Pavlovitz
20Stuff that needs to be said.
At the bottom of page 34 in the book “Five Points” written by Tyler Anbinder, there is a description of that particular neighborhood!
21New York Tribune contributor George G Foster wrote in 1849 the following, as he described the area!
I believe he described the U S Congress of today, even though this was written 184 years ago!
This is U S Congress of today!
“the great central ulcer of wretchedness – the very rotting ‘Skeleton of Civilization,’ whence emanates an inexhaustible pestilence that spreads it poisonous influence through every vein and artery of the whole social system, and supplies every heart-throb of metropolitan life with a pulse of despair.”
This is what our elected politicians have done to the entire social body of the U S and the rest of the world!
I was in high school (and junior high earlier) during the Vietnam war. I not only protested, I carried petitions door-to-door (remember that? you’re old) to get the right to vote for 18-year-olds. I turned 18 in 1972, just in time to vote against Richard Nixon.
These kids will be voting soon. Some in 2018, more in 2019, all in 2020.
22Yeah. We’re all in support of the kids stepping up and denouncing our government’s lack of effort toward gun control and gun law reform.
23We put those elected officials in office.
We have refused to step up and force gun control.
We have allowed the kind of “prayers and sympathy” nonsense after every massacre.
We are the adults who should be hanging our heads in shame instead of wringing our hands in helpless cowardice.
We are the adults whose only pride can be found in these young people who see us for what we are and who are going to save their lives and the lives of others in spite of us.
We are the adults who now should follow suit and not only support every one of these young people but finally, perhaps we should stand up on our own two wobbley feet and vote every one of these dreadful congress members out of office and scuttle Trump and his cohorts along with them. Australia offered to show us how to control guns and the resulting killings. Let’s welcome the instruction.
These students are taking us to the tipping point necessary to make the societal changes this country has needed to make for a generation.
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