"Young Adults With Passion Can Change The World"

(Photo of teens from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is from NBC News.)

Dan Rather is exactly right in this comment from his Facebook page:

We can have a debate about gun control. But to all those "adults" who mock or lie about the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High (and the waves of sympathetic students across the nation), to all those who rain vitriol down on children's heartbreak and nascent activism, to all those who spread outrageous conspiracy theories meant to dismiss those who demand to be heard, there is no place for you in civil society. 

I know why the reactionary forces who have cynically played the status quo on our gun culture to their political and economic power are fanning the flames of these outrages. They know, as I do, that young adults with passion can change the world. I saw that in Birmingham, Alabama when African American children faced the fire hoses and dogs in the march for racial justice. I saw it in the jungle hell of Vietnam and the streets of America when young soldiers and protesters asked the chilling question: what are we fighting and dying for? I saw it in Europe where waves of youthful activism shattered the Iron Curtain. 

The voice of a child is often a clarion call to action. In their purity lies passion and courage. They are our future. And when they roar, they will be heard and shake the political status quo of our nation.