March for our Lives Versus Trump’s America

March For Our Lives was founded in a living room and by teenagers coping with the trauma of a mass shooting. They created a movement to literally fight for young people's lives by bringing them together and preaching the importance of voting. After dealing with tragedy, most people take their grief and deal with it privately. Opponents of the movement say the teenagers behind it politicized their situation and are the pawns of leftists and democrats, however, what people like Emma Gonzalez, Jackie Corin, David Hogg and Cameron Kasky have done was get the people politics affects the most, young people, ready and excited to vote. The young minds behind the movement were not the ones who politically publicized it; the adults who disagree with them fall guilty of doing so.

In Washington, there were two protests: a protest of the lack of gun laws and a protest of that protest. Two Trump supporters, Eric Ciabottonia and John Bolduc, spoke to CNN about their opinions. According to Bolduc, Memorials are OK. It's when you start to militarize and politicize a tragedy -- that's when I start to have a problem. (CNN) Interestingly, the party those specific young adults follow created the politicization of Marjory Stoneman Douglas' event and the march itself. The teens have been constant victims of manipulation of video: Emma Gonzalez was accused of ripping the Constitution and the video looked believable to anyone who wanted to dislike her. In reality, she was tearing apart a target made out of paper. David Hogg has been accused of being a crisis actor, someone who acts as a real victim during a tragedy, but only to prove himself as a Stoneman Douglas Eagle and not a crisis actor from California. All of the teens behind the movement are ostracized on social media for their age, gender or both. With these fallacies being spread, many Conservatives believed them. These lies comprised of hate are what the media speaks on. Yes, the march was covered heavily. So was the Right Wing wave of false truths about teenagers and their movement. The immature adults who politicized the march were the ones who created the supposed Liberal agenda that the young activists were pawns of.

During the teen's first event after the march called Road to Change, a country wide road tour where the leaders of March Four Our Lives visited different states and helped register people young and old to vote in the midterms. While in Texas, a place where public carrying of a gun is legal, the young adults registered people of all ages eighteen and older. As a group of protesters arrived, they knew that a conversation was going to be needed. Matt Deitsch explained that David Hogg, a member of MFOL and the topic of slander for this specific conservative man, was able to explain that he ...wasn't anti-gun, his family was...law enforcement agents, gun owners and registered Republicans, and added that he didn't want to take away the man's guns (aplus). This was not covered by many media outlets that can be easily and quickly accessed. Any positive conversation held between opposing viewpoints, in this case Liberal and Conservative, is not entertaining nor captivating so news channels like Fox will not air those stories. Instead of airing the truthful, encouraging and kind stories about March For Our Lives or the brains behind it, they give airtime to people like Tomi Lahren. Lahren is a right wing Conservative who commentates on current political news.

Unfortunately for the kids who speak up about the need for new gun laws, Tomi Lahren's voice echos over theirs. But unfortunately for Tomi, she unknowingly proved that when some Conservatives don't have an argument against stricter or newer gun laws and restrictions they start accusing the Left of unrelated things in order to call their hate as fact. In a Right Wing Watch News segment, Lahren said ...They aren't interested in a few more laws! They're interested in eliminating the Second Amendment all together. That's the real goal and even that would solve nothing (youtube.com). Previously stated, David Hogg expressed that their plans were not to take away the second amendment nor guns. The media, specifically Fox News, needs viewers. People are not going to watch two opponents sharing values and shaking hands. They want to watch someone or even multiple people arguing their side and using hand gestures, a loud voice and a tone that makes one sound professional. A simple Google search would prove all of Tomi Lahren's claims to be incorrect and blatant lies.

All she expressed on camera was her party's fears. The right wing Conservatives do not want their guns to be taken out of their possession and they want the Second Amendment to stay in place because that's their whole argument. The fallacies and false knowledge spoken by a woman dressed in an American flag hoodie were the ones in the Liberal agenda that the children of Marjory Stoneman Douglas were accused of spreading. The irony is that the March For Our Lives founders never once said they wanted to deprive people of the right to protect themselves nor did they say that they planned on removing the Second Amendment. Because Fox News gives Tomi Lahren an outlet larger than the Eagles', she is able to reach a wider demographic. She's on a network that anyone with a television can watch. The March For Our Lives founders have had some interviews, but not like Tomi or people like her. They have social media which helps them reach out to a younger demographic, but aren't always the ones who have the legal ability to cast a vote. The media failed the youth as it puts the children of Stoneman Douglas in a bad light and gave leeway to a spiteful, hateful and simply incorrect woman to spread her message of grievance about the same kids the media ignored. The agenda the young adults are accused of spreading was created by the media and for the media, not by the victims of it.

The event that occured on February 14, 2018 left an entire school divided. You were either a survivor or a victim. Seventeen innocent lives were uprooted from their homes and moved to graveyards. Those are the victims. The survivors were left with hurt, anger and trauma. What did they do with their emotions? They fought back against the cause of their schoolmates' untimely death. Like Alex Jones did to the Newtown victims, many accused the Parkland shooting to be fake or a publicity stunt. This fueled the teens more because they had already lost their friends, they were not going to lose against bigotry. They were also said to be uneducated on what they believed because of their ages. Radio host Kevin McCullough stated Even though they have a little more than a junior high level of education...the Leftist media...continue to use them to advance their socialist utopia ideas (usatoday.com). The young adults have proven themselves more mature and educated on the topic of gun and gun violence than some politicians by being willing to have an open dialogue with them. Those same politicians literally closed their doors in their faces when they tried to speak with them. That was not a push from any Leftist group except their own. The founders of March For Our Lives were smart enough to take their anger and use it for a progressive movement, they are definitely smart enough to ignore people like McCullough or Lahren who simply are not aware of what is truly happening.

A large reason the right wing has such a passionate belief about guns, whether or not they have the truth about them is out of question because clearly the facts have been misconstrued, is because of the NRA. The NRA stands for National Rifle Association. The NRA endorses politicians and gives them money to their campaign based on their stance on the Second Amendment. The money the NRA can put into an election could sway it in a different direction. ...during the 2016 election, the NRA and its affiliates spent a record of $54m to secure Republican control of the White House and Congress, including $30.3m to help elect Donald Trump (theguardian). Politicians, primarily Republicans, are commonly endorsed by the NRA. Those same politicians, along with the NRA as a whole, are the ones offering thoughts and prayers instead of action. That very sentence is what inspired the teens of Parkland to start March For Our Lives in the first place. They were sick of the cycle that the NRA has encouraged for years: a mass shooting, thoughts and prayers, forgetting it ever happened, another mass shooting. The politicians who take the blood money happily are afraid of the NRA. They do not want to lose the trust of the powerful group of people, the promotion from the people nor do they want to lose their money. Without their money they have no campaign.

During a CNN town hall, Marco Rubio, an acceptor of the NRA's donation to his campaign and Florida's Senator, was faced by Cameron Kasky who at the time was a junior in high school. This is about people who are for making a difference and people who are against it and prefer money. So, Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future? (CNN). As Rubio stammers his way through the question and tries his best to give as little of an answer as possible, he finally says ...people buy into my agenda??¦ (CNN). Marco Rubio confirmed he was afraid of the NRA by wording his answer to Cameron so it would leave the NRA out completely. With such a hold on the Republican party, the National Rifle Association adds fuel to the gun control fire by giving money to the people who are not morally just and are controlled by checks from the bank. Though they may not realize it, but the NRA and the politicians that take their money are against school kids and their safety. If they are not willing to change unsafe laws, they are against children's lives. Those same people are criticizing the left for supposedly using kids for their agenda, but why should they care? They seem to think that a piece of metal is more valuable than one of those propagandic children's lives anyways.

From February 14, 2018 until the current day, the Parkland teens have been under the microscope. They've been called bullies for ignoring or picking on the shooter before the massacre. They've been called liars by people who disagree with them. They've been accused of faking this whole shooting for sympathy and to boost the left's chance of winning back the government. They have been personally attacked by adults about things going on in their personal lives. They've dealt with all of these things on top of the trauma of grief of losing schoolmates, friends and teachers. While being teenagers, the courageous youth of Florida has dealt with a tragedy no one should ever have to go through. The Liberal agenda the activists have been accused of spreading did not exist to the extent it has been portrayed to be before the kids rose up. Adults who have a different opinion and a weaker argument created this idea of a Liberal agenda that differs from everything March For Our Lives stands for.

The blatant lies about their goals include but are not limited to: March For Our Lives taking guns away from all Americans, March For Our Lives banning all guns and March For Our Lives removing the Second Amendment. Instead of being afraid of children who some Republicans call uneducated, maybe politicians should open up their doors and their minds to new ideas and new voices. Generation Z is the generation of mass shootings. They have grown up practicing active shooter drills, but no one with any say in Congress will get anything done except put blame on others. The leaders of March For Our Lives are not Liberal pawns. They are setting an example for other young adults to speak up about things that matter. They are getting kids excited to vote. They are changing the next generation. Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job. - Emma Gonzalez

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