The March For Our Lives on March 24 and National School Walkout on April 20 were remarkable demonstrations of student activism. Both events were inspired by the horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that added 17 more lost lives to the evidence of America’s shameful gun disease.
The events of April 20 were scheduled to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School, which should have aroused a nation to meaningful action but led only to deadly legislative silence, broken occasionally by the sound of gunshots in places like Newtown, Conn.
The national response to the student-organized outcry has been mixed. Predictably, the most manipulative commentators on the right accused the students of being pawns for some mysterious anti-gun movement — never identified, but always lurking in the conspiracy fantasies in right-wing cyberspace. Several eloquent students were accused of being paid actors, ironically testifying to their effectiveness. They were eyewitnesses to the horrors in their school and attacks on them added disgusting insult to the emotional injuries already inflicted.
Many greeted the student-led activism with more love and open-mindedness. Emma Gonzalez, a Stoneman Douglas senior, became a viral “star,” prompting excessively enthusiastic folks to craft “Emma Gonzalez for President” posters. We could do worse. We have done worse. Gonzalez and other students, notably her classmate David Hogg, have been regular guests on cable news, claiming they will not be satisfied with lip service, but intend to fight until gun violence is addressed in a meaningful way.
Somewhere between dismissing the students as frauds and declaring Emma Gonzalez for president, most commentary praised and expressed some surprise at the passionate commitment of students across the country. Thousands of schools organized walkouts on April 20 and thousands more organized programs to press for an end to the epidemic of gun violence. While not universal, the general tone of coverage was that something new and fascinating was underway. Not so.
There is something fascinating, powerful and important underway, but it’s not new. Young women and men in America have been an increasing and inexorable force for justice. It is a shame that it takes another school shooting to draw the nation’s attention, but at least we are now taking notice. Better late than never.
Decades ago, social activism among young folks was relegated to a minority fringe. There was an upsurge, temporarily, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, but high school has been, by and large, a time of innocence and political disengagement. That has changed.
Even in the most conservative states and towns, high school students advocate for social justice, insisting on acceptance for their gay and transgender classmates. Most schools have programs in environmental science, despite political efforts to portray climate change as a Chinese hoax. Students are committed to green energy, recycling, conservation of public lands and environmental regulation. While economic and political policies have re-segregated many American schools, the students themselves are racially fluid and fluent, far beyond those of my generation. As has been widely reported, the so-called millennial generation is far more socially progressive and engaged. They are expected to be the most active group in voter participation in 2018 and 2020.
During my 19 years as head of a school, I witnessed the imperfect goodness of these young women and men every day. While the school was not typical — a progressive school in Manhattan — they were engaged with students far beyond their own community in networks addressing everything from abortion rights to nuclear disarmament. My granddaughter is graduating in June from St. Johnsbury Academy, which is a public-private hybrid, gathering students from rich and poor families as well as a sizable international contingent. There too, the level of awareness and commitment to issues of social justice, peace and the environment, is tenfold that of prior generations.
A great deal of attention has been paid to the shifting racial and ethnic patterns in America. The Census Bureau predicts that we will be a majority minority country by 2050. Given the current political split, that doesn’t bode well for Republicans, as black and Hispanic voters lean heavily to the left. Keeping power in the hands of the white majority is the motivation behind Republican gerrymandering and strict immigration policies. Those efforts are on the wrong side of history, but they ultimately won’t matter anyway.
Conservatives can resist progress by repressing votes from people who don’t look like them. They can delay the demographic shift by reducing immigration. But they can’t stop the wave of justice that is growing within their own families and communities. That wave of justice was forming long before the shootings in Parkland, but all the media attention will help it to accelerate.
I have great confidence that the young women and men of America can save us. I just hope it’s not too late.
Steve Nelson lives in Boulder, Colo., and Sharon. He can be reached at stevehutnelson@ gmail.com.