Monday, March 26, 2018

Cowards of the Country: CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?

Hundreds of thousands of kids and their supporters descended on Washington, DC this weekend. 

The Coward-In-Chief of the Country blew town to go golfing at his personal, private club:


I mean, why would he stay in the nation's capital when a half a million people were blowing into town to demand the government actually do something? 

CongressClowns....take a good look at this picture. It's just what you asked for: here are all those thoughts and prayers come to tell you that you work for them.


Over 800,000 protesters in DC. 845 support marches took place not just in the US, but around the world. 150,000 marchers in New York City, 20,000 in St. Paul. More in Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Milan, Geneva, Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Nairobi, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney...shall I go on? The numbers are still coming in, but it's safe to say well over 1,000,000 marchers came together with one mind to demand sane gun laws in the United states. 

While I realize this all happened after the mass murder in an affluent community, the survivors made sure March For Our Lives wasn't just about the dead at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High. This was about all children's lives cut short by gun violence. MSDH might have been the catalyst, but it is neither the focus nor the end game of this activism. 9-year old Yolanda Renee King, invoked her grandfather's spirit when she said, 
"My grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world, period."

Honestly, I don't expect anything to happen right this minute with this sitting Congress. And I don't think there will ever be a gun-free world. But I believe the seeds we tried so hard to sow in the 70s, the ones we hoped would produce another generation of warriors for the common good, may have finally spouted. My generation protested and marched in opposition to the Vietnam War, the draft, and Richard M. Nixon. We forced change to happen sooner, rather than later. Even if we didn't get everything we wanted, we set a precedent, one that has not really been equalled since the 70s. We proved youth that refuses to be silent cannot be silenced. 

This weekend, as the kids from Parkland fanned out across the country and even the world to stand with protesters in other places, we saw the beginnings of a new movement. Voter registration tables were crowded, and teenagers boldly confronted the reality that they would have a voice in the midterm elections, and that voice was amplified with a voter registration card. Social media is a powerful tool in the hands of this expert force and to date, they are burning up the net with new programming and plans for getting the message out. If they continue to pick up steam, they will be a powerful force with which to be reckoned come November. 

It's about time. 

We may have a chicken-shit draft-dodger for a president and a congress whose soul concern is selling their souls to the NRA to get re-elected, but We, the People, have something better. We have youth who can and will vote. They are smart, savvy, understand memes, fake-news, and media manipulation. They know bullshit when they see it, read it, smell it, and hear it. And they are tired of bullshit. Plus, they are so much better at mass communication than we ever were with our mimeographs and ditto-masters. 

Welcome to the revolution, kids!
Do let us know what we old-timers can do to help you.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Support the movement, but this is not our show.
If asked to help, support, don't instruct or dominate.

5 comments:

  1. My favorite 70's protest signs:

    Drop acid, not bombs
    Styx and Stones may break my bones, but Zeppelin blows my mind

    ReplyDelete
  2. I call BS. Apparently some are using DJT arithmetic:

    Initially, NBC News reported there were an estimated 800,000 people who registered to vote at the march on Saturday but then issued a “correction,” saying 800,000 is the number of people who participated, which is what the March for Our Lives organizers claimed the number to be in the nation's capital

    According to CBS News: More than 200,000 people attended the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C. on Saturday, according to Digital Design & Imaging Service Inc (DDIS). The Virginia-based firm uses a proprietary method for calculating crowd size using aerial photos.

    The peak crowd size was 202,796 people, with a margin of error of 15 percent, the firm said. The crowd reached its largest size at 1 p.m., according to the company's estimates.

    The organizers put the total number of attendees at closer to 800,000. The largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history was the 2017 Women's March, with a crowd size of 440,000 people, according to DDIS' estimates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Last night, several usually reliable sources estimated the number of attendees in Washington was about 800,00.

      I never heard 800,000 registered to vote. EVER. The number of voters registered was probably closer to 5,000, but I did not present a figure for that one since I could not find a source that I deemed reliable enough to use.

      As for the crowd size, I have not seen the DDI numbers, so I won't comment, other than to say the 800,000 number was oft repeated and said to be vetted.

      DDI's estimates are just that; estimates.

      That said, if you want to reduce this to a body count, I would suggest you begin with counting the number of children's bodies lying inert due to gun violence. That's a better use of your time.

      Delete
  3. Still BS. Thankfully once posted on the Internet, content remains:
    https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/978248977639444480/photo/1
    @NBCNews
    Correction: The number of participants at the #MarchForOurLives event in DC is estimated at 800,000, but not 800,000 registering to vote. This tweet, noted here, will be deleted, and a corrected tweet will be issued.
    5:35 AM - 26 Mar 2018

    MSNBC & HuffPo can repeat many times whatever they want but do not make it so. Think for a minute: why are they inflating the crowd size by 4X? You were aghast when DJT inflated his crowd sizes yet you do little due diligence with these inflated reports.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for your excellent blog. I am very proud of Beth Jacob*s Rabbi Morris Allen who went along with our young people on the bus to Washington. He carried with him the petition from Lorraine Hertz and tens of St. Paul residents that asked our congressmen and congresswomen to vote for gun control.

    ReplyDelete