In every one of the 50 states and on overseas military bases, they walked out. The kids walked out. They did it for the dead of Columbine, and Newtown, and Parkland – for all the towns and schools branded by tragedy – and they did it for themselves and their classmates. They did it for the kids not yet in school and not yet born. They did it because the adults, a group they will join soon enough, have never been very good at hearing – really hearing – the concerns of young people, even when it’s the kids’ blood being spilled in classrooms or on foreign battlefields.
The Monitor’s editorial board and many columnists and letter writers have demanded that the leaders of this state and nation do something meaningful to reduce gun violence, and so we won’t rehash the various arguments here. All we will say is that something fundamental is broken, and the people with the power to fix it are unwilling to do so because they lack courage or insist on misinterpreting the Second Amendment. Others simply seem to care more about easy access to guns than they do human lives. But today we would rather talk about the kids, because collectively they will be the game-changer. Just wait.
In the days leading up to the walkout, it was refreshing to see that the kids had the support of a lot of school teachers and administrators around the country. But there were some school districts that suspended kids who participated, and conspiracy-prone critics suggested they were mere pawns in the gun-control debate. Other adults and students, even those sympathetic to the students’ cause, dismissed the whole thing as a big waste of time. On that matter, Audrey Carlson, a junior at Concord High School, said to the Monitor’s Leah Willingham: “There’s been a lot of debate that things aren’t going to change just by walking out of school. It’s got to be a bigger social change – like by talking to people that you wouldn’t normally talk to – and just try to create a bigger sense of community, and make sure no one feels alone.”
We agree that the walkout alone will not change policy, but the kids should be proud of the moment they created. Look at the front pages of the Monitor, the Union Leader, and the Globe and Herald in Boston. Look at the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Turn on the TV. Log on to news websites. Scroll through social media feeds. The walkout mattered, the voices carried. We believe the kids will keep finding ways to be heard, and soon enough they will vote.
The game-changers will vote.
There will come a time when the NRA’s money won’t be enough to reserve a politician’s seat, when even the most absurd display of gerrymandering won’t protect gun industry stooges from defeat at the polls, when the cries of “Enough” finally drown out the idiocy of the “Guns for Teachers” crowd.
The clock started ticking on Wednesday.