Republicans have a worthy adversary – Kids
Conservatives are in an uproar these days.
Not about the collective misadventures of our president, but about children whose honest anxieties about their futures has led them to take their concerns to the streets.
Just 39 days after a crazed gunman strode into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, many of the survivors of his brutality staged one of the largest protests in American history.
It’s not unusual for young people to show their righteous indignation.
It is, however, unusual for the world to stop and to appreciate that indignation, by showing solidarity with them in more than 800 cities.
In sheer numbers it had been a monumental achievement.
Those Florida students who had their innocence wrenched from them while they were forced to “huddle in place,” had first-person experience about the dangers of gun violence.
You’d think they hadn’t, if you watched Fox News.
The day before the march, Lou Dobbs, Fox Business News’ resident curmudgeon, complained that, “We’re tuning into high school assemblies to get the aggregated wisdom of 18-year-olds.”
That statement alone is an indication that Mr. Dobbs isn’t in full possession of much wisdom.
When hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Washington, D.C., the next day, it was far larger than any high school assembly.
And those emotional young people who took part were oozing wisdom.
Dobbs was joined by Gina Loudon, who is known as a “media personality.” That means she gets paid to make provocative statements on Fox News.
“They haven’t had enough life experience yet, to be experts on much of anything,” she said.
If you’re an 18-year-old, or an 88-year-old, looking down the barrel of an assault weapon does qualify as a “life experience.”
I certainly understand that conservatives might not be pleased when those young people take a stand against gun violence.
But I simply can’t understand why their being attacked for it.
Why do they call them “pawns,” or mere dupes who are doing the bidding of billionaires to satisfy some Democratic agenda?
The NRA posted a message on its Facebook page, claiming the marches “aren’t spontaneous. Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their play to DESTROY the Second Amendment,” that post said.
Those kids aren’t fueled by politics. They’re fueled by the fear that politics will prevent them from living into adulthood.
Another Fox News host, Peter Hegseth, missed that point.
“I don’t want a lesson on the 2nd Amendment from a 16- year-old. Forgive me if I don’t want to watch a 9-year-old tell me that her dream is a world without guns,” he said with pride.
My suggestion?
Then don’t watch them.
Instead, after watching those marches Mr. Hegseth claims he donated to the National Rifle Association.
Some Republicans have gotten personal with their attacks.
Leslie Gibson, a candidate for Maine’s House of Representatives, and a lifelong NRA member, attacked Emma Gonzalez, one of the more outspoken survivors of the Parkland attacks.
Gonzalez is known by her closely cropped hair, and her infectious energy.
But not to Leslie Gibson.
“There is nothing about this skinhead lesbian that impresses me,” he tweeted.
A few days later Mr. Gibson dropped out of the race.
If there are genuine disagreements about the gun policies those children advocate – that’s one thing.
But to attack them, is quite something different.
To falsely claim, as the right-wing online publication Redstate.com did, that one of the outspoken survivors of the attack “wasn’t even at school on the day of the mass shooting,” is despicable.
He was there. And there’s a video tape to prove it.
Or, as Rick Santorum, the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania says, “How ’bout kids looking for someone else to solve their problems, do something like taking CPR classes – or try to deal with situations, if there is violence you actually respond to that.” You now know why he’s no longer a U.S. Senator.
In fact, you have to wonder if Mr. Santorum has ever been a teenager.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.