Lysistrategy

I am so proud of our children. When they woke up one day and realized that they were being slaughtered, they decided to do something about it. When they were told that their elected representatives were sending them thoughts and prayers, they said "thank you, no." Okay. They didn't say that exactly. They did have some suggestions about what their elected representatives could  do with their thoughts and prayers. Six years after Sandy Hook. Nineteen years after Columbine. A week after Parkland. Thoughts and prayers are not filling the holes left by the deaths of our children.
These children were not killed by foreign terrorists or illegal immigrants. They were killed by Americans, many of whom were the same age or just a little older than their victims. And now, decades after this terrible series of events began to unfold, those potential victims have had enough. They aren't going to stand around like sheep waiting to become yet another object for thoughts and prayers.

They are raising their voices. They are calling for action. They are walking out and laying down. In front of the White House. On President's Day. While the current "President" was honoring the victims of the most recent killing by not playing golf, students from the Washington D.C. area gathered in the street in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and staged a die-in. They laid there, silently, as cameras rolled and adults standing around the spectacle chanted "Shame, shame, shame."

I wondered why they hadn't chosen the front gates of Mar-a-Lago for their action, but then I realized that this is a savvy group. There are funerals taking place in real life this weekend. In Florida.

Showing up there would be in the poorest possible taste. Like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan arriving this past weekend at the Key Biscayne Ritz-Carlton for a fundraiser. These school shootings are ruining every party this season.

Do not expect the children to make this a one-off, either. There are walkouts and marches planned in the weeks and the months ahead. And if anybody understands how to effectively use social media, it's those darn kids. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

As they should be.