Often, the wise advice is to wait.
Count to 10 before reacting with harsh words.
What’s the point?
Young people enraged by inaction by the nation’s leaders in response to mass shootings will have to find long-haul determination if they want the change they seek.
Don't hit "send." Save that emotional email response as a draft and come back to it later. Passion-driven words sometimes need a little editing after a cool down.
Don't make life-changing decisions after a major life event, like the loss of a loved one. Give it time so that judgment is clear.
That's the way our government is designed to function. Two houses of government have to agree on legislation, and the deliberative process takes time so that cooler heads will prevail.
In the last week, since 17 of our fellow human beings were taken by a teenager with a gun, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and across the country have responded with the most powerful tool in their arsenal: their unified voices.
"I turned 18 the day after" the shooting, said a tearful Samuel Zeif, a student at the high school. "Woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. And I don't understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war. An AR. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon?"
Their outcry has awakened others who have, sadly, gone through our nation's many mass shooting tragedies. In Colorado, it has been nearly 19 years -- really, 19 years -- since two young men created havoc as they murdered 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School. Patti Seno, who firefighter husband responded and whose son almost went to a "Batman" showing in Aurora the night a gunman killed a dozen there, recently told her congressman she couldn't stay silent any longer.
"I am ashamed, as it took children to shake me from my comfort zone to come forward to say enough is enough," said Seno. "An avalanche is coming to Washington, sir, and it is going to be led by our children."
What do these children demand: Government should take action now to keep children safe.
But "now" takes a long time when it comes to government. Students from Florida discovered that the other day when they descended on their state capital to plead with lawmakers to institute a state ban on what's referred to as assault weapons. Tears were shed when the lawmakers declined.
Republican strategist Rick Wilson had this to say as 100 students descended on the state Legislature to support gun law changes: "The thought that you get to wave a wand and change the law is something that is probably going to collide with reality." As harsh as that sounds, it's a fair observation.
The old advice to cool down, to get those emotions in check, well, those just aren't going to work in this instance. The ill-advised suggestion that "now is not the time" might be reasonable if the periods between mass shootings were long enough to allow emotions to settle.
So, no, a change isn't going to come quickly. It hasn't so far. And the odds seem stacked against the notion that these young people will demand sudden change and get it. Indeed, lawmakers are likely hoping, with a little time, these young folks will go back to their lives and move on to proms, football and basketball games, dating and all those other things that fill the everyday lives of teens -- at least when those days don't include 14 of their classmates being gunned down.
President Trump deserves credit for showing some movement on the issue. Raising the age for buying certain rifles, tighter background checks for purchasers and ending the sale of so-called bump stocks that can make a semi-automatic rifle fire rapidly -- those are all steps in the right direction.
But there's so much more to the complex issues behind why someone opens fire on defenseless crowds, so it's only a start. This conversation must continue. The pressure on lawmakers must be maintained, because the status quo the NRA appears ready to maintain simply isn't acceptable.
Waiting will just mean more deaths.
Commentary on 02/23/2018