Must viewing.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior Emma Gonzalez was on the floor of the auditorium of the school in Parkland, Florida, when a former 19-year-old student entered and created the second worst school shooting in American history, a massacre that left 17 students and faculty dead. Gonzalez has now become a national hero after her solid, daring and powerful speech at an anti-gun rally Saturday — a big rally attended by students, family members and others who have had enough with political inaction by politicians on the NRA take.
She became a hero not due to a teary speech — in fact, she was controlling tears as she unrelentingly pressed on with a content-packed speech in which she called out President Donald Trump for not just his inaction but his taking $30 million for his campaign from the NRA. (To date Trump has not mentioned control of the dreaded AR-16 in any of his comments. Yesterday he visited survivors at the hospital and then jetted to Margo Largo where he attended a disco party).
No matter how she felt, “nevertheless she persisted,” in the words of one Washington politician in another context.
She called out politicians taking NRA money (Florida Sen. Marco Rubio aka Senator Silly Putty when it comes to principles) and demanded they stop taking money some now call “blood money.”
Here is the full video of her speech. It is must viewing and not just due to the event. It provides authentic grounds for hope that today’s students will change a world mucked up by the Baby Boomers and other generations who remain mired in power struggles, and tribal political dominance into a world focused on policy needs being thoughtfully examined and acted upon.
Watch a real Profile in Courage:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.