Growing up fast

Between a scavenger hunt at Hartley Park and a video game night sleepover this Saturday, my 13-year-old son and two of his buddies took time to participate in the local March for Our Lives rally. They made signs in the car on the way. They gathered with hundreds of others at the Central Administration Building. They marched eight blocks to the Civic Center, holding their signs and chanting "We call BS" and "Protect our kids, not our guns." Despite the wind and cold, they respectfully listened to the rally's speakers and stood in silence while the names of the 17 students who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were read. Then, with frozen fingers and toes, they ran back to the car and turned the heater and fans up full blast.

I am so proud of these youths -- and all the others here and across the nation -- for standing up and speaking out. We must listen to them.

Sharing some heart-breaking moments for this mother this past week:

• In one of our discussions, my son said that the federal government needs to provide money so his school can have more police officers -- "because the one officer his school already has isn't enough to keep him and his schoolmates safe." 
• I realized that having a SWAT team and their bomb-sniffing dogs come into your school during a lock-down drill is common enough that my son didn't even mention it when asked, "What happened at school today?" When prodded, I learned: No, he didn't get to see the police officers or their dogs because he was hiding in a corner of his classroom behind some desks. Eye roll, here. "Mom, we've been having lock-downs since kindergarten."
• My son tearfully looked over at me while a grieving mother spoke during Saturday's rally about her 17-year-old son being shot to death by his college roommate.

I am sick of the smugness and the audacity the politicians and gun rights advocates show anyone and everyone who speaks out. I am sick of the NRA and gun industry whose greed has taken away all commonsense and any responsibility on this issue. And I am sick of the rest of us (myself at times included) who remain silent. #Enough. #NeverAgain.