Distinguished persons of the week: They remind us of our obligations to one another. Who stood tall?

[DonViejo]

By Jennifer Rubin February 18 at 7:45 AM

They took our breath away. They grabbed our attention. They spoke without pretense. The students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had undergone a life-altering ordeal, and yet they spoke to the press (and therefore to the country) with poise and grace, with eloquence and directness. They made a mockery of the “too soon to talk” gun absolutists’ script. On social media and in interviews, they told politicians to save their “thoughts and prayers” and do something. David Hogg, 17 years old, was among the most articulate:

Their texts to parents and siblings while the shooting was in progress were heart-breaking. “If I don’t make it I love you and I appreciated everything you did for me,” one girl told her parents. Two brothers texted each other from different parts of the school, affirming their love for each other (“forever and your the best brother”).

After the shooting had stopped, a father texted his son to say that the boy’s mother wanted to come get him. The boy texted back that the school was still on lockdown. He told his parents to wait. “You could get hurt,” he said protectively. The expression of selfless love exemplified the decency and bravery of these teenagers.

Emma Gonzalez, a senior at the high school, gave an electrifying speech on Saturday. “When adults tell me I have the right to own a gun, all I can hear is my right to own a gun outweighs your student’s right to live. All I hear is mine, mine, mine, mine,” she said, quoting from the perspective of a teacher. She blasted the president and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa): “If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association. … Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa was the sole sponsor on this bill that stops the FBI from performing background checks on people adjudicated to be mentally ill and now he’s stating for the record, ‘Well, it’s a shame the FBI isn’t doing background checks on these mentally ill people.’ Well, duh. You took that opportunity away last year.”

These students remind us that we are not defined by race or politics or geography, but by our shared humanity. Their safety must come first. Yes, they take precedence over the gun ideologues who care only about their right to own weapons of war, not about their obligation to fellow Americans and, specifically, to the most vulnerable of their compatriots.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/02/18/distinguished-persons-of-the-week-they-remind-us-of-our-obligations-to-one-another/

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