Tribute: young people show the way

The horror and the hope

“We were always taught from a very early age to be the change we wish to see in the world…”

Elijah Abraham, student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school

No student should have to cover themselves with a dead student to survive. But I was that student.
Alaya Eastman quoted on Democracy Now!

People called this the new Colombine. (…) to be a student in that school, you don’t wanna be that kid.(…)
Kai Koerber on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

There are different levels of grief, but it is overall supportive. If you see someone crying, even someone you don’t know, you feel comfortable enough to be there for them (…)
Carly Novell on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

(Some) people are forgetting that seventeen people died and that we are grieving… even making conspiracy theories about it. We were there. We experienced it. It takes away from our pain. It takes away from the real topic.(…)
Carly Novell on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Partly I feel it still is our story. It did happen here. We see that building every day. We’ve lost 17 people. At the same time, the entire nation has taken it upon themselves (…) to make sure that never happens again. (…)
Trevor Holgate on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

We were always taught from a very early age to be the change we wish to see in the world. That is lettered on the exit of our school gates. We see that every day as we walk out. That message has been so ingrained in us and so emphasised that we really wanted to make a change, that this does not happen again.(…)
Elijah Abraham on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Every single person up here today, all these people, should be at home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together, because if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it’s time for victims to be the change that we need to see.
Emma Gonzales. See the whole speech on Democracy Now! and its transcript.

You are going from one moment when you are a kid and the next moment you are petitioning lawmakers and you are marching on Washington, trying to effect real change, so it is … still unthinkable..(…)
Kai Koerber on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

MSD students guest edit The Guardian

We have a unique platform not only as student journalists, but also as survivors of a mass shooting. We are firsthand witnesses to the kind of devastation that gross incompetence and political inaction can produce. We cannot stand idly by as the country continues to be infected by a plague of gun violence that seeps into community after community, and does irreparable damage to the hearts and minds of the American people.
Editorial Staff of the Eagle Eye (1), Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) high school, Parkland, Florida in The Guardian

In a few months from now, many of us will be turning 18. We will not be able to drink; we will not be able to rent a car. Most of us will still be living with our parents. We will not be able to purchase a handgun. And yet, we will be able to purchase an AR-15. (…)
MSD Manifesto, The Guardian

These weapons were designed for dealing death: not to animals or targets, but to other human beings. The fact that they can be bought by the public does not promote domestic tranquility. Rather, their availability puts us into the kind of danger faced by men and women trapped in war zones. (…)
MSD Manifesto, The Guardian

High-capacity magazines played a huge role in the shooting at our school. In only 10 minutes, 17 people were killed, and 17 others were injured. This is unacceptable. That’s why we believe that bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and similar accessories that simulate the effect of military-grade automatic weapons should be banned. (…)
MSD Manifesto, The Guardian

It is hypocritical to rally people to protect the second amendment, while remaining silent on the ways that blocking research violates one of our most basic constitutional freedoms. (…)
MSD Manifesto, The Guardian

(1) The Eagle Eye is the newspaper of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Editorial staff: Madyson Kravitz, Dara Rosen, Taylor Yon, Leni Steinhardt, Emma Dowd, Brianna Fisher, Zoe Gordon, Kyra Parrow, Carly Novell, Rebecca Schneid, Kevin Trejos, Suzanna Barna, Nikhita Nookala, Richard Doan, and Christy Ma

The March For Our Lives

The massive crowd Washington DC chants: Vote them out!

In a pre-prepared video, a girl says: Enough is enough. It’s time for a change. Never again!

The march ends with the whole crowd chanting, We want change.

We haven’t forgotten what happened in Sandy Hook and Columbine and Virginia Tech. Those things happened a long time ago, and people tried putting them in the back of their minds, but we’re showing here that we haven’t forgotten about any of that.
Ruqaiyah Dasti, 17, interviewed for The Guardian

When you give us an inch, that bump stocks ban, we will take a mile. We are not here for breadcrumbs, we are here to lead.
Delaney Tarr, MSD

I’m watching Cameron speak right now, and I am so close to crying. I’m just so happy that this is really happening- This is the coolest moment of my life.
Emma Gonzalez, MSD

We deserve to live a life without fear of being gunned down.
Trevon Bosley, Chicago youth

One life is worth all the guns in America.
Sarah Chadwick, MSD

To those saying teenagers can’t do anything, I am here to say teenagers are the only ones who could have made this movement possible.
Alex Wind, MSD

We can and we will change the world.
David Hogg

People have said I’m too young to have these thoughts on my own … that I’m a tool of some nameless adult. It’s not true. My friends and I might still be 11 but we know life isn’t equal for everyone and we know what is right and wrong. (…) If there’s a book that you want to read and it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.
Naiomi Walder, 11

Don’t be scared because they have Senator in front of their name.
Jaclyn Corin, MSD.

I have a dream that enough is enough. And that this should be a gun free world, period.
Yolanda Renee King, Granddaughter of Martin Luther King

We are done hiding. We are done being full of fear. (…)This is the beginning of the end. From here, we fight.
Ryan Deitsch, MSD

America I am pleading with you. That is not OK.
Matthew Soto.

Violence cannot drive out violence, only peace can do that. Poverty cannot drive out poverty, only resources can do that. Death cannot drive out death, only pro-active life can do that.
D’Angelo McDade Chicago

Get involved in your community, because change no matter how small, is change.
Matthew Soto, 19