The Parkland teens are learning how nasty politics in the U.S. has become. These teenagers will have some thick skin after this mess.
Trumptrump refers to the game of bridge of course, basically beat Trump at his own game.
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Wow. I see itās an uphill battle until that kind of influence-buying is made illegal and terminated.
(BTW it is illegal here.) Are the wealthy American arms dealers also selling the bandages?
I know, but how many trump supporters will know that? Most would just think ā2 trumps are better than oneā.
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Then there is the thought that more the NRA sticks to their traditional behavior the more it drives the youth away from them, and their parents and grandparents?
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MAGA, learn to play bridge.
And theyāll be VOTING soon too. 
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A photo of one of the students supposedly tearing up the constitution is going around social media. The one I saw was the poorest photoshop job Iāve seen online in years the graphics person must think we are dumb.
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I really liked that they not only had a powerful message, but a direct call to action and a direction to take moving forward. The whole thing was very well organized and executed. They called upon people to vote and talked about pre-registration for people who will be 18 by the time of the mid-term elections. There were even a lot of volunteers going around with voter registration forms at the end so that people could register to vote then and there.
(Matt/others: sorry for lack of a link or anything. Donāt currently have time to research/look one up. I was there this weekend, so all info above is based on firsthand account.)
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She was actually ripping up a paper with a target on it - used for target practice with guns. Iāll try to find the actual story that I read this in earlier today. It showed the original and the photoshopped version. That particular student is the one that called for 6 minutes and 17 seconds of silence when she spoke. Six minutes was all it took to bring down 17 students and teachers. Thereās been a lot of talk about that moment and the impact it made.
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I didnāt find the original story I had read, but this one will do. It shows the actual item she ripped up and discusses how this alternative photo has gone viral:
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That silence was extremely powerful, and one of (if not the) most powerful moments there. Emma didnāt call for a moment of silence; she just went into it after going through and naming all of the victims, and just prior to that mentioning the amount of time that the gunman was active for. I also very much got the impression that other people up on stage with her didnāt know that she had this planned. The fact that she didnāt announce a moment of silence or anything, but just went quiet, stopping talking and staring forward was brilliant and part of what made it so powerful. In the audience it left everyone unsure, questioning what was going on or happening. Was this a moment of silence for the 17? Was this to represent the amount of time the gunman was active for? Or was it something else? Personally, I felt that you could tell from the look in Emmaās face that this was intentional; but no one at the time could know for sure. Because no one knew what was going on, there were even a few people that tried to start a chant of ānever againā a few times during the silence (did not get picked up). Towards the end of the silence, someone even came up and was whispering to Emma looking concerned (which is what makes me think that the other people on stage mostly had no clue.) The guy hadnāt been next her trying to figure out what was going on very long when her phone alarm on the podium went off, and she instantly began speaking again.
āSince the time that I came out here,ā she said, āit has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest.ā
āFight for your lives before itās someone elseās job,ā she said, and left the stage.
(quote from CNN article linked below)
The silence wasnāt even 6 minutes long (6 minutes 20 seconds being total time on stage, not length of silence), but about 4 minutes 25 seconds roughly; yet it felt like an eternity that just stretched on. An eternity where the crowd had no idea what exactly was going on or when it would end. That uncertainty, the lack of control or knowledge of what was going on; thatās what made this moment so profound and powerful.
In respect to accuracy and having multiple sources:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/emma-gonz-c3-a1lez-spends-6-minutes-20-seconds-in-silence-to-remember-parkland-shooting/ar-BBKEdCV
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Weāre so used to a noisy, non-stop in-your-face worldā¦silence can be so powerful, especially when itās not expected. I am so impressed with Emmaā¦I wonder where life will take her? Sheās a natural leader, wise & fearlessā¦those who try to pervert her words & motives, & those of the other students, are beyond despicable. I hope she (& they) never lose their voice & momentum.
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My sonās take is that most of these kids have spent enough time on the internet to have seen nastiness of a type that many of those from older generations can hardly imagine, and has already developed some seriously thick skin. In the match-up between the NRA and these teens, I take a fair amount of comfort from this notion!
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Of course, youāre āpreaching to the choirā on this forum. 
Iām tired of hearing ā2nd Amendment rightsāā¦the times have changed and the guns have changed (understatement!), weāre LONG overdue for changes to our laws.
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Oh, I didnāt mean it that way at allā¦this is exactly the place to get it all out. No oneās holding you to your āpromiseā, lol. And after we practice āgetting it all outā here, we need to transplant it to our ādeaf & dumbā representatives until it sinks in and they act responsibly, instead of being NRA puppets.
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Yes thatās right - thatās also the hard part. How do people like us get through to people like them? Apart from just getting a lot us saying the same thing over and over again until we get listened to. How does the NRA do it? We donāt really know how many members they have right? They say 4.5 million but is that true? Anyway thatās not the point: the point is that they are organised and they have money. There must be more than 4.5 million Americans who would like their kids to be safe at school. Could that group get organised and acquire sufficient financial backing to out-play the NRA?
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