Important headline for March 28th
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Excerpt: As soon as she walked on the March for Our Lives stage clad in an olive green jacket, a Cuban flag patch on her right arm — the words of another student "Welcome to the Revolution" still ringing in our ears — I knew that the optics wouldn’t favor Emma González.
I get the optics. But I’m here to defend Emma against all who are shamelessly vilifying a brave 18-year-old who has lost friends and teachers to bullets, just because she hasn’t asked for our permission to be whoever she wants to be — and to speak her truth.
Hot Take: Now here's the thing. And it's a big thing. I purposefully didn't take aim at the very issue this column addressed. The fact that Emma was wearing the garb of the Castro regime... Instead, despite holding significantly different views on life than the 18-year-old Cuban-American, I held her speech up as an example of something positive from Saturday's demonstration in D.C. because of her approach, which stood and generally has been standing, in contrast to a David Hogg for example. I have strong disagreements with much of what she represents but I'm also reflective of myself as an ignorant 18-year-old who doubtless thought he knew more than he did as well. I'm willing to cut many of the students, like Emma, a break. The most likely outcome is that Emma, and most of these students, will follow the path of virtually all productive adults. She'll learn, she'll grow, and she may even come to regret the day she wore what she wore on Saturday. What isn't acceptable in my view is to suggest that we should just ignore the evils of communism if we're going to hold a conversation about the potential representation of it. For the record there's nothing to suggest that Emma in any way is a communist sympathizer (that's noise and foolishness) on any level or that what she was wearing was meant to represent something other than her family's heritage. However, in the context the Herald story addresses it, it perhaps shouldn't be ignored.
This column addresses the Castro regime and the reminder of it with Emma's clothing. I doubt that's what she was going for but since it's being addressed in this article there's a teachable and ironic opportunity here... Cuba is an example of a country with stringent gun control. It's also an example of the tyranny that a government can carry out. Ironically the very reason that the 2nd Amendment exists and was the 2nd highest priority - was due to our founders having just overthrown tyranny with weaponry. This level of ignorance is how history repeats itself. The most offensive thing this side of David Hogg's mouth that's come out of this movement is willful media's desire to suggest that somehow this band of teenagers is smarter than all others (simply because most love the political message). Ironically enough they're provably (by virtue of test scores and education outcomes), the least informed generation of Americans to date - which isn't their fault by the way. We're the ones responsible for 38 years of deteriorating education outcomes in this country. It's not their fault they don't understand history or even that the very freedom they're using was paid for by the blood of those who granted the rights they're trying to remove.
At a time when the life expectancy in the US was only 37, the founders determined that federal representatives should be at least 25 and the President should be at least 35. But now an era when the life expectancy is 82, we're supposed to bow down to the wisdom of teenagers. Seriously? If we did maybe we'd all be wearing the jersey of communism but perhaps not by choice. I don't hold it against the students that they're ignorant. All teenagers are to a large degree regardless of their views. Time and maturity provides a level of knowledge and understanding that's simply not possible at their age and if we're all thinking people we're all always learning and growing.
As an aside...according to documentation from Harvard, Communism has killed more than 100 million people since 1900. That might not be taught in our schools but the fact remains. It's also a true that 11% of Americans (according to recent Rasmussen polling) believe that Communism would be a better system of government in the United States. Ignorance gets people killed and communism is far more dangerous than any semi-automatic weapon someone's afraid of out of their own ignorance.
Until tomorrow...