“Congratulations to all the teenage kids who organized the marches across the USA on Saturday, raised money for flights, buses, television crews, made signs exceeding their vocabulary and arranged for hundreds of thousands of hotels, that’s pretty impressive for a bunch of kids”, “media puppets”
These are quotes from Facebook that refer to the thousands of students and parents that have been publicly standing up in non-violent protest of a subject they feel passionately about.
This is a group of people that has found unity in loss and belief of a change needed. It started with students coming together using their social media and school walk outs, to say what they were feeling about fear and loss. Very quickly their supporters came to stand with them. They gained support from politicians, media, entertainers, peers, parents and teachers. The movement ran across their country and went international.
They are not doing anything that hasn’t been done before, standing together to share a message, standing against a force that doesn’t want change. History has shown that getting this message out is never easy, influencing change can be harder.
It was pointed out to John Lennon, that he was disconnected from the the Vietnam War and people didn’t understand how he could protest it.
“The whole effect of our bed-ins has made people talk about peace,” Lennon said. “We’re trying to interest young people in doing something about peace. But it must be done by non-violent means — otherwise there can only be chaos. We’re saying to the young people — and they have always been the hippest ones — we’re telling them to get the message across to the squares.”
I’m guessing the Facebook comments were sarcastic when referring to the economic growth that has come from the collective support these young people have generated, or the comment “media puppets“, wasn’t referring to the national and international exposure they have received.
Young people coming together in a non-violent inspirational force, that stimulates the economy and supports jobs seems to me to be far more important then any passive aggressive comments on social media.
“You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one”
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