I have watched as much of the White House "listening session" with the survivors of school shootings as I could stomach. This carefully orchestrated pantomime of caring and legislative determination should remind us adults, and should teach young people, exactly what we are up against whenever we try to make meaningful change in this democracy these days: Old, tone-deaf professional politicos and bureaucrats who care more about votes than people's lives.
You don't just "listen" after scores of innocents have been shot down in places that ought to be sanctuaries, whether they are schools, churches, or concert venues -- you act. For years during the war on terrorism we have been told "If you see something, say something." The recent mass killing in Florida now adds a dimension to that dictum: If you see something, say something, and if we say something, you damn well better do something. The urging to do something is directed at those who have the power to act: government, law enforcement, and mental health authorities.
When I was in high school and college in the 1960s and '70s, students took to heart their collective responsibility to do something - something about civil rights and the war in Vietnam. They organized, marched, taught, protested, and boycotted until real change became inevitable. Student protests were an integral part of enacting voting rights and other civil rights legislation, in compelling Lyndon Johnson to withdraw from the 1968 election, in forcing an end to the war in Vietnam, and Richard Nixon resigning from office. And, in the era before smart phones and the Internet, they did it all by word of mouth and telephone and the written word.
Now students have social media which they can use as a tool to organize, to protest, and to demand change. We have seen time and again in recent years that rallies and protests can be organized in a matter of days if not hours, given the urgency of the issue. All that is necessary today for large-scale student activism is the leadership and the will to use social media to rally young people behind the cause which concerns them the most right now: school safety.
What I am urging is that students across America rise to the challenge created by the horrific events of recent days and organize a nationwide school boycott. Get on the Internet and use the cellphones which now blunt your waking hours with idiocy and idle chatter, and create a movement to walk out of school and stay out of school until at the very least, local, state, and federal authorities impose a ban on the sale of all military-style weapons, accessories, and ammunition to private citizens. And if they do not, target legislators who vote against such a ban for defeat at the next election. Make it unmistakable to them that guns are no longer a winning issue.
To the students of 2018 I say in a voice from 1968: Don't just march lemming-like into unsecured schools; organize yourselves and walk out and stay out until your schools are safe. Candlelight vigils and White House photo ops will not get it done. The only thing the politicians respond to is well-organized mass protests. Adults won't do it so students must. Demand meaningful gun control, metal detectors in schools, trained security guards, and real enforcement of gun laws and mental health standards. Have the courage and determination to do what my generation of students did: Stop playing the game the adults dictate to you, and take responsibility for changing the world you live in. For all of our sakes. Before it is too late.
