Hundreds of thousands of high school students are going to get a lot of attention this weekend, the kind of attention they would never have expected until six weeks ago.
That’s when the school shooting in Parkland Florida happened and 17 lives were lost, hundreds of lives were changed and around the country, hundreds of thousands of lives were touched.
And that’s why the students and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida organized an event to let their voices and the voices of other students like them to be heard tomorrow in Washington and in cities around the country, including San Diego. Even in other countries.
The March for Our Lives is what it’s called and it’s about a call to our government leaders to take steps to prevent the school shootings and the violence that guns can cause.
Said one student leader in Florida, “Nothing in my entire life has affected me that much — ever.”
That comment from a 16-year-old, the member of a generation of school kids for whom practicing what to do if there’s a shooting at their school has become a regular part of their school year, every year, since they’ve been going to school.
The message from all those young people this weekend? A statement from the Florida high school students who organized the event puts it this way:
“To demand that (our) lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today.”
People will disagree about the many reasons for school shootings, but these students just want the politicians and the leaders in our communities and our country to show the courage to find an agreement among all sides to do something to prevent them. And that’s why they are marching for their lives and the lives of others.
(Photo credit Getty Images)