One week ago, tens of thousands of students across the nation solemnly walked out of their schools, many holding candles and reading the names of the 17 high school students and teachers who died in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018.
In less than a month’s time, these students have created a nationwide movement. This coming Saturday, March 24, 2018, hundreds of thousands of people of every age will be participating in the March for Our Lives in numerous cities and towns all over the United States.
In a recent story on 60 Minutes, one of the teen survivors of the Parkland attack referred to himself and his peers as the “mass-shooting generation.” They were born after Columbine happened, and these kinds of events have been part of their consciousness for their entire lives. The difference in this case is that the students are taking their grief and outrage and turning it into action.
Emma Gonzalez, one of the survivors-turned-activists from the high school, wrote in Harper’s Bazaar: “We are tired of being ignored. So we are speaking up for those who don’t have anyone listening to them, for those who can’t talk about it just yet, and for those who will never speak again. We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.”
Judith Herman M.D., author of Trauma and Recovery, says trauma survivors who become activists “recognize a political or religious dimension in their misfortune and discover that they can transform the meaning of their personal tragedy by making it the basis for social action. While there is no way to compensate for an atrocity, there is a way to transcend it, by making it a gift to others. The trauma is redeemed only when it becomes the source of a survivor mission. Social action offers the survivor a source of power that draws upon her own initiative, energy and resourcefulness but that magnifies these qualities far beyond her own capacities.”
Andrew Malekoff, Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, says that taking action with and on behalf of others can open the door to increasing empathy among children and youth and help them to empower themselves to make a difference.
“Talking about the trauma is rarely if ever enough,” says Malekoff. “Kids need to learn how to make waves, big waves and gentle waves. Making waves is an inherently spiritual act, one that leads young people to think and feel deeply. Making waves is an empowering and hopeful act and an antidote to inertia and apathy.”
Sources:
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a18715714/protesting-nra-gun-control-true-story/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parkland-shooting-what-stoneman-douglas-students-want-you-to-know/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/opinions/florida-shooting-no-more-opinion-kasky/index.html
https://www.unhookedmedia.com/um-articles/2016/7/25/finding-a-survivor-mission
Photo Credit: Fabrice Florin https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/38488882960
