Watch Emma Gonzalez’s electrifying speech about the massacre at her high school. She knew the shooter. She calls out the cowardly politicians who take NRA money and send their “thoughts and prayers.”
Trump says he will have a “listening session” with students and teachers on Wednesday.
Will he dare to invite Emma Gonzalez?
She is well-informed and fearless. She speaks for her classmates and her generation.
She will not back down.
Let this be the last mass murder, she says.
Tremble, NRA.
Watch out, Governor Scott.
Time’s up, Senator Rubio.
Emma is coming for you!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I loved the strong speech by Emma which spoke for so many of us. As part of a “Tinker Tour” for youth voices, I visited MSD HS in 2013, and asked students how they were using their First Amendment rights. They told me they were speaking up about cuts to their music, art, and photography classes, among other things. Now, Emma says that they will change the law, just like students did in “Tinker v Des Moines.” Yes, you will, Emma, with so many students standing up and speaking up! We are seeing is a turning point for the out- of- control gun situation in our country.
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Ms. Gonzalez would make a superior politician compared to the nearly pure dreck and wreck we have now in the House and the Executive seat. She is proof positive that there are millions of Americans who will not be fooled and who are not – or no longer are – so ignorant about the parades and charades in Washington.
It is this young woman who is the embodiment of hope and gives me personally further fuel to get our gun laws reformed big time. With tragedy, let there be strength, growth, and splendor.
Thank you, Emma Gonzalez! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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I think he will have a chosen crowd. He will have kids picked who come in MAGA hats and shirts. And he’ll either have a soundproof booth or they will be the listeners while he is the speaker. IF they take turns then while they speak he will be stalking around behind the speaker glowering and making faces. He may throw paper towels or tell yacht orgy stories. I think Melania will listen and she may actually say something very appropriate. I don’t think he will actually listen because he has not yet demonstrated that he has that skill. If he sends Melania and Ivanka and Hope and maybe Pence and Karen there could be some listening. I don’t think he can unless he is muzzled. But maybe he will have a major epiphany and step up and be gallant and shut up for once. These kids will be voters soon.
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I think Sarah Huckabee Sanders will pretend to be a student, along with Jared, Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric. All dressed in jeans and t-shirts.
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hahahahah! good one
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And the shooter was photographed and filmed wearing a MAGA hat.
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Not a chance. He’s a privileged bully, therefore a reliable coward.
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Dear Dr Ravitch,
I just phoned & e-mailed The Little Knittery in California re proposed demonstrations March 24, April 20, May 1. That’s where the pink hats for the January 2017 Women’s March originated. It seemed like a natural to ask for a knit pattern for orange armband. (based on your prior post)
People can wear that armband without even being in a march.
We could send orange armbands to Congress reps & senators. Especially the NRA donees.
Many many thanks for keeping us informed and in community. Have you noticed that each time you plan to post less frequently, something intervenes? 🙂
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I am on my way to the local craft store tomorrow to buy supplies to make my own. Even I could manage to knit a strip to make an armband although I think I will stick to ribbon and elastic. I can handle a sewing machine. 🙂
I like the idea of sending them to elected officials, state and federal.
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My daughter started a knitting club at her high school about 15 years ago that is still in existence. I bet we could find a lot of high school age kids that would be eager to knit bands. Why wait until April 20?
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April 20 is the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. It is sooner than May 1.
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I was talking about wearing armbands. Saw something about a student led event on March 24 as well as somehting on March 20. Good sign that so many are engaged.
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Booklady,
You are right. Let’s send out orange armbands. I will suggest to NPE that we order them.
And you are so right. I’m trying to back off and start my book, and I can’t stop writing about the mass murders of students and staff, and the indifference of our elected officials.
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She is impressive. I’m pulling for them, but boy, that is one powerful lobby.
They beat the gun lobby they deserve a place in the history books.
You go, Emma. Godspeed.
I think they’re the only ones who CAN do it.
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Should these amazing young people gain traction, look for new and creative ways of vote suppression to emerge.
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Yep!
And ya KNOW that is exactly what will happen!
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Thank you, Emma.
You are the hope for the future, however it may already be to late. The scales are already compromised, and only a massive weight can make them swing toward justice.
And yet, in my old age, you give me hope for the future.
Christ once said that only if one becomes like a child can one go to heaven, because children are so often correct. You, my child, are pointing the way forward. You speak from the heart (so rare among ‘adults’) and you speak truth to power.
I fear for you, and yet see in you the seed of a new world. Thank you so much, Emma. Knowing that young people like you are still there makes my slow disengagement from this world a bit easier to bear. I hope that you and and those like you can pry power from our owners and restore it to people like you. I’d say the odds are 50/50, at best, but at least you have given some solace to an old (former) teacher.
Thank you so much.
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A colleague sent this to me. Please circle it for context and to show protesting students that they are carrying on great legacy of activism.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, for whom the high school was named, was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her protection of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development.
When she was young, she was outspoken and politically conscious of the women’s suffrage and civil rights movements.
When she was 79 years old, and for the next 29 years until she died at the age of 108, she played an important role in protecting of the Everglades and the preservation and restoration of the nature in South Florida.
She now would be disheartened and saddened that a school named in her honor was the scene of this terrible tragedy.
She would be a crusader so that that schools are safe places for students to learn and that gun laws in our country are transformed to ensure their protection.
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Emma Gonzalez is a real firebrand full of passion and zeal. I doubt Trump would want to meet her as he is in the NRA’s pocket like so many of his Republican colleagues. It would be PR disaster for this empty, orange creature.
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AMEN, retired teacher.
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She is why you and I say our public schools are so successful. Proof!
Let’s groom her for Rubio’s job……
DCB
David C. Berliner
Home: 120 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., #205
Tempe, AZ 85281
☎︎ 480-861-0484
Office: Regents’ Professor Emeritus,
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College,
Arizona State University,
Tempe, AZ 85287
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So TRUE re: Our Public Schools, a public good.
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Emma could beat Rubio but she may not be old enough to run.
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According to the Constitution, one must be at least 30 years old in order to run for U.S. Senate.
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Emma should go to college and then jump in.
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Emma Gonzalez is amazing, incredibly bright and inspirational. She made that perceptive speech while wrestling with her grief and anguish over her lost classmates and teachers. She gets it, if only more Americans would get it, too.
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As an older citizen, I fear for the safety of these brave students who will march. Please, parents and friends and neighbors, please afford them your presence as much as you can so that they all return safely to their homes. What courage they have. To paraphrase, where do we get such students? As adults, prove ourselves worthy of them.
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