In some ways I wanted to post this on Facebook and in other ways, I didn't. I will probably write this here and share it there but whatever...
Today was the national School walk out that lasted seventeen minutes for each of the seventeen people that lost their lives in the Florida school shooting. I know that when i post this on Facebook, there will be at least one person that is going to be very vocal in his opposition to my thoughts but I'm writing this knowing that and he knows me well enough to know that I will respect his opinions but they won't change mine. I want to say this loud and clear:
I IN NO WAY HAVE EVER OR WILL EVER SUPPORT THE ACTIONS TAKEN TODAY.
Why?
Mainly because the very same children, and yes, that is what they are; children who participated in the walkout today are the ones that essentially started the problem in the first place.
In my time at school, if there was a bully, eventually things got a boiling point and children formed a ring around him or her and their victim and after fifteen minutes of screaming "Fight!! Fight!!" and a couple of punches and and maybe a split lip or two the issue was resolved. Whether or not it was solved entirely in that ring or an adult broke it up, the issue was resolved.
CASE IN POINT: I have a best friend. We have been best friends for THIRTY YEARS THIS YEAR. Wanna know how we met? A girl I thought was my friend primarily because we were both black girls in a predominately white school pointed across the locker room to a group of girls and told me that that "That girl" said something about my mother. She never pointed out a specific girl, but for some reason I took one specific girl out to the hallway and slapped the everloving bejesus out of her. There may have been more to that fight but in my memory, I can only remember that poor girl in the circle of my arms wondering what she did wrong that this angry black girl was screaming at her and i smacked her and she ran. That poor little girl never once tried to hit me
Yes, I was the bully. Years later the original black girl that I thought was my friend told me that she just wanted to see a fight and that the poor white girl I drug out to the hall hadn't said anything nor had anyone else but it was neither here nor there.
What made us friends? Our punishment was to be BFF's for a week. For a solid week from the time I walked into the damned school until the time I walked out of that damned school, I saw that poor girl. Monday and Tuesday, we didn't or barely talked. She resented being punished by having to spend time with me, I resented being punished period considering my mother had beat my ass so hard sitting down was still painful and I had already said I was sorry (I am an only child. Saying sorry for anything is painful because the world revolves around me.) But by Wednesday something changed and there was conversation. By Friday I was introduced to her group of friends and she mine. We have been friends since that week.
But back to my original thought.
My generation solved the problems it created. The millennials today?? That's a WHOLE DIFFERENT KETTLE FISH. (Do not ask me what that means, I don't know)
Millennials today see the fat kid in class and blast them on Snapchat, youtube, vine, twitter, etc and take pictures and video of them eating and pretend that they are eating everything in sight or trampling villages whatever and they make it so that the victim can see it. Then after the victim has had enough and done something drastic like trying to cut their fat off or OD'd on diet pills or even killed themselves, then those same kids that did the bullying want to go online and on television amd say that they never knew there was a problem. They see a kid that sits alone reading gun magazines and drawing guns all over his books and they ignore or worse torment him but when he obtains a gun and shoots up the place, then they want to yell at lawmakers because he was able to obtain that gun.
I'm not forgiving the acts of violence gripping our nation today but what I am saying is that the millennials first create the problem only to cry and want others to fix it when the problem gets away from them. You can't torment someone or ignore someone and then wail about how you didn't think they were the type to do it when they strike back wail and cry and walkout of school because the adults did fix what they did.
Stricter gun laws are needed. There's no question about that. but a school walk out is not going to achieve that.. That's the same as throwing a temper tantrum after.
Having worked on this blog all day my initial steam has blown off and I don't have anything more to say on the matter. The disgust that schools participated and sanctioned today's walk out is still there but the anger over today's act is gone....
