It's Time For The Teen Gun-Grabbing WALKOUT!
The kids are out to save themselves. Seems like we should help, maybe.
Today's the second major school walkout since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High on February 14; this time, the walkout marks the 19th April 20 since the massacre at Columbine High School. The kids organizing the walkouts weren't even born when that happened, and the gun violence has just gone on and on. They're not only marching, though: They're registering young people to vote, or at least get it on their to-do list once they turn 18. The goal seems reasonable: Pass gun laws to reduce the number of iconic names of schools where kids were slaughtered.
Students will be walking out of more than 2,600 schools across the country, wearing Safety Orange so no one will mistake them for deer. The walkouts will take place at 10: 00 AM local time, and organizers ask that each protest include a 13-second moment of silence in memory of the victims at Columbine, where in 1999 two students killed a dozen classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.
The ACLU is reminding kids that, yes, they do have free speech rights: If they "disrupt" school business or walk out, they can be disciplined. But schools that discipline students more harshly for a political walkout than for other absences are breaking the law.
And if parents want a letter to send with their kids to school excusing their absence, Robert DeNiro has one all ready for them to use:
"I have a note from Robert DeNiro" is a fairly effective excused absence strategy, we'd say. But kids, you probably shouldn't push your luck and follow it with, "Are you talkin' to me?" [The kids have no idea what that means, Dok, but might POSSIBLY recognize something about cat nipples instead -- editrix.]
In Phoenix, high school students are planning a "die in" at the state capitol to demand that Arizona adopt universal background checks on firearms sales. Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely injured when a gunman opened fire on Giffords as she met constituents at a Tucson grocery store in 2011, killing 6, sent her encouragement to the kids in Arizona and everywhere:
To the students of Parkland—and all the young people speaking out—you have my ear & my support. @BarackObamais right: “This time, something different is happening. This time, our children are calling us to account.” We’re with you. #NationalSchoolWalkout https: //t.co/eQ9tRwzZSi
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) April 19, 2018
There's some crazy dissonance and pretty wild variations in the Shuman piece. If it was a good American version it would only be Godly major chords and maybe some banjos.
As a bassoonist I love the stories of how Stravinsky's opening bassoon solo in The Rites of Spring incited riots. As someone who has had to play the thing it made me want to riot, too.