I’m home enjoying spring break today. The day so far is kind of aimless; since it’s March 14th there’s a good chance I’ll go buy myself some pie because why not, even though I think the whole Pi Day thing is overplayed. Otherwise I’m not doing much more than half-paying attention to the news I have on in the background. It’s covering, with limited commercial interruption, the school walkouts happening around the country, as students protest the decades of inaction regarding gun control that has gone too far in defining the tone of their generation.
The experience of high schoolers in the 21st century is nothing like what it was for me. I grew up in what was, at the time, basically a farm town. Our rural surroundings and the hard-working, church-going populace made for, at least on the surface, the kind of simple and bucolic life the Tea Party Republicans of today likely lie in bed at night dreaming about. For us, surrounded by what seemed like oceans of corn fields, city life always seemed more adventurous, if not dangerous, the kind of existence where the simple concentration of the population made it all the more likely for you to encounter the gang and gun violence we heard about on MTV. Of course, nobody made the connection that most of these farmers walking the school halls in their flannel shirts, blue jeans, and work boots probably had more guns in their homes than most of the people living in the city. For them, it was all part of a proud tradition.
For the record, I am in favor of reasonable gun control. The closest I’ve ever come to firing a gun outside of a video game was some kind of air rifle on a shooting range at a Boy Scout camp one summer, because I guess it was the kind of thing someone decided wholesome youth needed to experience. If people feel the circumstances of their lives have led them to feel safer having a gun in their home, that's their choice. If someone hunts, I have nothing against that. As long people acknowledge guns are dangerous and they take necessary safety precautions to protect their loved ones, it’s their right. Beyond that though...well, they’re called assault weapons for a reason, and I have yet to be convinced they're necessary for anything other than military use.
I had a professor who once predicted that if America ever found itself in another civil war, the primary catalyst would be the abortion/choice issue. While I could see the logic behind her argument, and still do now, I think that, at least in the political environment we’re currently muddling through, gun control could be just as incendiary. Both issues have people on both sides with strong and polarized opinions. Both issues have people arguing a tone of life and death. The adults of America have locked themselves into a continuous spiral of disagreement over power and economics and the claim of values that allows for little to no room for compromise.
Maybe it really will be up to the next generation to make something happen. It’s been too easy for gun control opponents to dismiss the protesting teenagers as being "just kids," but let me use my teaching experience to clear something up here. When I send my 5th graders off to middle school, I usually never hear from them again. But sometimes circumstances bring us together, even for short periods of time. Maybe I’ll cross paths with them somewhere in town, or I might get an invitation to a high school gradation open house, or I might see someone’s accomplishments celebrated in the local paper.
There is far more to this 21st Century generation than Tide Pods and Demi Lovato and Snapchat filters. They see the global culture and the future evolving right in front of them at a pace difficult for us older folk to relate to, and they see it as both a challenge and an opportunity. They are formidable. Look at what a small group of them, thrust into national leadership roles they never asked for, have been able to accomplish in a month, protesting the social climate that has allowed for school shootings to become morbidly commonplace, with little more than their anger, their ambition, and their passion to guide them.
Political pundits are currently focusing a lot of discussion on how the make up of our national leaders could change after the 2018 midterm elections. I’m optimistically thinking even further ahead than that. I’m curious to see what will happen as these kids come of age and show us even more of who they are and what they can do.
They could be the ones to save the world from itself.
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