Is there a March For Our Lives event in Bellingham, WA?
I want to participate in this really badly, but wouldn't be able to
make it down to Seattle.

These kids need to go back to doing what they do best; validating their existence on social media.

Well there you go - I guess these kids should call off the march, because some troll disapproves...

@2: They've got better things to do than mindless trolling.
@3 COMTE: I like your sarcasm.

#2 said a non-kid who validates HIS existence on social media.

Face facts folks...the kids are doing this themselves, and what they are doing is real. There's no good reason for anybody to piss on them or try to crush them in the way young people were crushed at the end of the SIxties.

If your country doesn't have passionate, idealistic youths(of all ages) the country you live in is not alive.

@3 Well, #2's "trolling" apparently worked since it got the white supremacist like COMTE to respond.
@5 Last time there were "passionate, idealistc youths" to respond to a call of the ideology, it was in.... Hmmmm, let me think... Nazi Germany, and Communist, totalitarian regime, countries. Good job, you fucking Nazi!

@1 March for Our Lives update (in Whatcom County): There IS a March for our Lives event in Bellingham, for those in my neck of the woods, tomorrow on Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 10 am at City Hall on 210 Lottie Street.
Be seen and make your voices heard, everybody!

“...repealing the Dickey Amendment, which prevents federally-funded researchers from studying gun violence.”

The jokes about gun ownership and penis size have been writing themselves for a very long time.

I know there's a link to the Stranger Event page, but it is notable that a post entitled "What you need to know about Saturday's March For Our Lives" fails to live up to its own claim by not specifying the start-time of the march. (It's 10am)

(sorry - speakers at 10, march at 11-2pm)

@3,4,5 Since when did stating facts and telling hard truths become trolling? I suppose it was when a generation of flower children raised a generation of snowflakes.
Call it trolling all day. The truth is painful sometimes I know. Keep up the "woe is me" victim mentality, Snowflakes.

The hard truth is we live in a world in which two generations (Y and Z) have grown up in a world in which the thrill of doing others wrong far out way the punishment. Where people value their phones more than their friends. And "friends" have been reduced to a number, or "followers".
I know it sucks to hear that most boomers and some x'ers failed in their parenting. But it's true. The value system is so twisted, that people have kids on leashes while holding their dogs.
Let that twirl around your minds for a bit, you self-absorbed pricks.

@3, @12, @13: Sorry you got so old and bitter. Today's march will literally pass you by without a glance. Try not to take it personally, because it's not; the marchers do not care about you.

Seeing youth engaged and active, taking a stand for their beliefs, makes me so proud. This is so awesome.

@14 Sorry you're so young and naive. I feel sorry for your generations. So disconnected from meaningful relationships. And, this march...means nothing. You're marching against the 2nd Amendment. Almost takes an act of God to change it.
So all you feel-gooders and social media heads, go to your diluted gathering of the momentary "we are all in this together" feelings and safe spaces. Take your selfies proving and bragging YOU were there, and poat them to yoir FB page.

#12: Uh no...you didn't OFFER any facts. You simply offered your uninformed opinion that these kids are supposedly better at validating themselves on social media than at anything else. You won no argument, because you MADE no argument. I'd say "try again" but that would imply you tried the first time.

#16: OK...I'll bite...can you offer any actual examples of the inherent personal superiority you ascribe to yourself? You're not even good at insults-no forcefulness, no originality, no actual sting, really.

And as to personal relationships...have you ever had one?...with another person, that is.

16

Protests and protests movements have a history of major political and cultural impact in the US, even in the face of long standing laws, institutions, and even the Constitution. Hell, the Constitution itself was born out of protest.

Seems a disingenuous stance to simultaneously deride an entire generation for not being able to have meaningful relationships (however you define that), and hate on them for taking action on a real world issue that has meaningful impact on their lives by connecting with, and acting in solidarity with, other like minded folks.

@17,18,19 Seriously folks, are you that thick?

I hope that someone on this thread will comment in 1 year from today how much change in Law happened because of some kids marching. It'll be a lot of change I'm sure. The ban on assault weapons will happen. Politicians will no longer accept money from the NRA. All states will impose a 21+ minimum age to buy a weapon of any kind. No more school shootings either. A lot of signs say "No more guns", "no more school shootings", "I'm tired of seeing my classmates die".

That will all come true because it's what the kids want. The threats to vote certain Senators and Congress people out of office will happen too. Their power is their age, their tenacity, their vote, their willingness to continue what they did today to protect future generations of school kids.

This is not Cause Celeb, but only the beginning started by kids. Like the Children's Crusade. Except without the religious conversion part. They will do eet!

20

Guess so. Can you explain your position more clearly?

What I gather from your posts is:

The current generation of young folks have no values or morals.

They are self absorbed and unable to make real life relationships due to social media use.

Protests make no difference.

These kids should abandon taking real life action (in the form of building relationships with their real life peers and community members) and just go back to their phones and social media.

If that's your argument, parts of it seem to conflict. Aren't they demonstrating values and moral courage by taking a stand on issues they feel are important to their future and country? Aren't they demonstrating taking their civic responsibility seriously?

Were you ever a naive, idealistic, and self absorbed youth? I sure was. Did you ever take a stand or engage in a cause you felt strongly about?

Also, US history shows that your argument that affecting change on major societal/legal issues is not possible nor likely doesn't really hold water.

Or am I misreading you? Are you not here to offer an argument, but rather to put down others?

@21: I hope that someone on this thread will comment in 1 year from today how much change in Law happened because of some kids marching. It'll be a lot of change I'm sure.

The boycott of busses in Montgomery, Alabama, took almost a year, just by itself. Was the Civil Rights movement thus a failure for not achieving all of its goals in that one year?

@16: I don’t have a Facebook page. And it takes no act of god to change our interpretation of the 2nd Amendment; the Supreme Court radically did so with their rampant judicial activism in the Heller decision. A future Court can reverse that quite easily, thus restoring centuries of American jurisprudence.

Finally:

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through...”

Could those who are deriding the kids here at least say why? It's not as though there's non-homicidal use for "bump stocks". You don't need to fire DOZENS of shots to ward of a home intruder, for God's sakes. Nor do you need a damn AR-15. This is the Pacific Northwest, not Anbar Province. None of the people who are obsessed with having an unlimited right to own weaponry in this country have any actual need for it. The violent crime rate has been plummeting in most places. And if somebody wanted to set up a police state, they wouldn't send the army and the police door-to-door to disarm people-they'd nuke a Red State. People who want to set up a tyranny would never give those who want to stop them a chance to fight back. They'd go Sun Tzu on us-they'd just launch some sort of strike that would kill a million people instantly in order to terrify everybody into submission. Your personal armory would be useless in any such scenario.

I don't have the time to thoroughly elaborate, nor would I bother wasting my time. Hence, a simplification; take almost ANY of those so-called "brave" children (what makes them brave for being lemmings I have no idea), but I digress. Take almost ANY of those kids out of the crowd, and ask them this; "Would you be willing to give up one thousand of your _______(insert social media platform) followers in order to attend this march?"

#25 Thoroughly elaborate? You haven't elaborated at all. You haven't provided any facts at all. You haven't done anything at all.

And why are these kids brave(btw, they aren't "sheep"-when somebody invades your school with a gun and starts slaughtering your classmates, you don't need to be "duped" into doing something about that)?

I'll tell you why they are brave.

They are literally making themselves targets.

There are a lot of people on your side of the argument that actually want these kids dead. There are more than a few who would take care of the deading themselves.
These kids, who, again, have done this ON THEIR OWN, have joined forces with people all over the country on their own, are putting their lives on the line.

And it goes without saying that they would all trade whatever "(insert social media platform) followers" any of them have to be able to make sure that nothing like Parkland ever happens again.

They're doing this because they saw their friends die before their eyes.

And the other kids, and the tens of millions of emeritus kids who stand with them from coast-to-coast, are doing this because they realize it could happen in any school and in any town-and that nothing the Right proposes on this(teacher-led class prayer? Yeah...right....armed teachers...really? really? as if a TEACHER couldn't snap under the pressure of the No Child Left Behind/Race To The Top/"teach to the test, but for God's sakes don't teach them about contraception or ways to prevent STDs" public school system?) would do anything to stop this from occurring over and over again.

They're doing this because they've had to see people their age lowered into the ground in caskets. How much more real does it need to be before you'll respect it?

Tell me this, Simon...do you actually support the idea of people being able to buy "bump stocks"? Can you think of any non-psychotic, non-criminal use of "bump stocks"?