March
10, 2018
I’ve
been quiet for a while. We are inundated
by everyone’s opinions. It’s
exhausting. So I wait until something pushes
my buttons. This time it came in twos.
The
students of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School reacted to their tragic
loss by demanding that gun laws be changed.
A number of adults believe that their demands should be discounted due
to their age.
First, it was Florida State Representative Elizabeth
Porter’s statement:
“We’ve been told that we need to listen to the
children and do what the children ask,” she said during a state House debate. “Are
there any children on this floor? Are there any children making laws?" “Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says ’nohomework’? Or you finish high school at the age of 12 just because they want itso? No,” she added. “The adults make the laws because we have the age, we has[sic] the wisdom, and we have the experience.” (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-porter-gun-control-parkland-survivors_us_5aa0801ae4b0e9381c152672)
Then it was an article in the Asbury Park Press, “Teens
not wiser about guns, or anything else,” written by Jonah Goldberg. In it he writes:
“My problem is with the resurgence of an old American
tradition of celebrating young people as inherently wiser and more moral than
adults. There are really three problems with the fetishization of youth in
politics. First it’s based on a faulty premise: That young people have a
radically or uniquely superior insight into political affairs.” (https://www.app.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/03/09/parkland-kids-dont-know-what-they-talking-goldberg/407872002/)
I am an adult who is infuriated by both
statements. Both parties are operating
on a flawed assumption that being an adult automatically makes you wiser. I’m sorry.
It doesn’t.
These students have every right to be involved in the
political process. They have the right
to feel safe in their schools. Cameron Kasky,
@cameron_kasky, lashed out on Twitter:
“Try not to
tell a student that they don’t know what they’re talking about when they’ve
been locked in a room and they’ve seen their friends text their parents
“goodbye.” I am part of the Mass Shooting Generation, and it’s an ugly club to
be in.”
They are angry and they have every right to be
angry. They feel betrayed by the very
adults who are supposed to protect them. The wise choice is to take up the cause
themselves.
So are they wiser than adults? I think the better question is, “Are the
adults wiser than the kids?” All you
have to do is turn on the news to find the answer to that. How many of these wise adults have been sullied
by the political process? How many of
them have sold their souls to special interest groups like the NRA? These teens haven’t been corrupted yet. They are seeing the world through clear eyes
and they don’t like what they are seeing.
My generation went through a similar experience. We fought a war that this country had no
business being in, that was killing thousands of our peers, and we won. Can anyone say that our withdrawal from Vietnam
was unwise?
I have been impressed by the Parkland students. They are erudite and well-spoken. Like grown-ups, they do change their minds on
occasion. That shouldn’t be used as an
excuse that their arguments are not valid.
They are holding their own when debating adults on this topic. As a result, Florida has changed its gun laws
and major companies are refusing to sell guns to those under 21.
Goldberg stated that he found “…the most galling thing
about adult partisans hiding behind kids is that it amounts to a kind of power
worship.” What I find galling is his
hubris. He believes that no adult could
possibly support these students for any logical reason and that adults are blindly
revering youth. Wrong! Adults, like me, have been supporting the
creation of gun legislation for years.
Every time we attempt to get reasonable laws passed, we are blocked by
the gun lobby. These “kids” are getting the
job done. We applaud them and support
them.
Goldberg sums up his article by stating:
“Democracy
depends on arguments that are not contingent on your age. Lots of kids don’t understand that, but
grown-ups are supposed to.”
I applaud the first sentence and disagree with the
second. Democracy does depend on
arguments that are not contingent on age.
Holding the age of these students against them is wrong and they do understand
that.
