tevinternet:

systlin:

wolfnanaki:

tami-taylors-hair:

These Florida kids are not fucking around. 

The kids’ response to the shooting has been something truly incredible.

Normally, it’s always been very young children and it’s only their parents that can speak about it. The narrative gets controlled, the conspiracy theorists talk about how it’s all an act, so much bullshit.

But these are kids who are active on social media, incredibly close to voting age, and they’re demanding their voices are heard. Every single thing that downplays, dismisses or conspiracies the shooting has been subverted by their efforts, and they’re not letting adults who’ve never lived what they lived through control the narrative.

“It was a conspiracy!” “No, we have video evidence of it happening.” “Shouldn’t you be calling 911 instead of making videos?” “We called 911 so many times they told us to stop.” “But he was a troubled child!” “We were ALL troubled, that’s no excuse.” And it just goes on like this.

Honestly, I’m so proud of my fellow Floridians.

I said to my husband the other day that “This one feels different”, referring to this precisely. 

The whole energy around it feels different. These kids are not having this bullshit, and while they should not have to stand their ground and fight this battle, goddamn it they are going to. If the adults won’t, then goddamn it these kids will draw a fucking line and say ‘no, no more, this is bullshit’. 

I don’t know what it means, or how it will play out long term. But there’s a sense around this whole tragedy that this one is different, and I hope, maybe, that means some actual change will come. 

People compare this to Sandy Hook and talk about how different the reactions have been because they’re teenagers and not six and seven year olds. And I think it’s easy for people to miss that these teenagers, they’re peers of the children killed in Sandy Hook. They’re the same age (give or take a year or so) as the children who survived Sandy Hook.

They watched that tragedy as children of the same age. And then watched as absolutely nothing changed. This has happened over and over and now it’s happened to them. And they are rightfully angry, except unlike their peers at Sandy Hook, they are old enough now to have the words and the knowledge and the means to speak out. And they’re not just speaking out, they’re screaming so they aren’t overheard.

This is what happens when a generation is brought up watching tragedy after tragedy, and have known since they were six, seven, eight years old that their lives are worthless to politicians. They aren’t going to sit back and let this be forgotten.