Bill Murray The Parkland kids remind me of the students who helped end the Vietnam War

[Maxheader]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Nbc news..

We are living in interesting times, and people are becoming politically activated who weren't previously.

I was thinking, looking at the kids in Parkland, Florida who have started these anti-gun protests, that it really was the students that began the end of the Vietnam War. It was the students who made all the news, and that noise started, and then the movement wouldn't stop. I think, maybe, this noise that those students in Florida are making — here, today — will do something of the same nature.

You've got to surround a deeply political issue like gun control or a war, to come at it from every single direction. You can't just focus on one thing, or aim for just the one goal.

Ending the Vietnam war was not a simple thing, either: You had to make sure that all our people were safe; we had to make sure that they were as safe as you could be. And, you might remember, people thought it was going to be the end of the world if we lost Vietnam. But that war had to stop.

And now, well, Vietnam is one of the most wonderful places to go in the world. People love going there; they love the people. And we all survived: they survived, we survived. People will survive. If you can just stop shooting at them, they really do pretty well.

It's the right idea for a human to live in peace, and a peaceful nature is a proper thing. For children to be concerned about going to school, worried about what could happen to them at school, that makes for a horrible moment. It's just a horrible place for us to be at.

The thing that's so powerful about students is that, when you haven't had your idealism broken yet, you're able to speak from a place that has no confusion, where there is a clear set of values.

But there are idealists left over the age of 18, I'm sure of it. Idealism is a voice that's inside of you; it's your conscience. That can really deteriorate along the way, depending on the road that you follow, and it can become almost dysfunctional, but it's there. Everyone has it. Sometimes it's just a whisper, but, in some people, it's a shout.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/parkland-kids-remind-me-students-who-helped-end-vietnam-war-ncna858851

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A real pity the message has to be pounded in by the kids...instead of the "adults"...

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Many of us from the late fifties and early sixties are

going to join these newbies this week end.

[getagrip_already]

2. I agree, but so far...

They haven't faced water cannons, tear gas, guard dogs, national guard firing squads, or night sticks. It wasn't all peace, love, and weed back then.

People died (at the hands of police and guardsmen), they were arrested and ruined, the FBI investigated and destroyed them.

What a time.

[Pantagruel]

4. Reality is

all our protests didn't really "end" the war, it simply just died of natural causes. As massive , effective engines of change, marching in the street effects change at a glacial pace. GOTV, it's faster.
March because it makes you feel better.

[Paladin]

7. Nation-wide protests hastened the end of the Vietnam War.

That's a matter of historical fact. If LBJ's and Nixon's "natural causes" had prevailed, that monument in D.C. would have twice as many names engraved on it.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. ...

[FakeNoose]

3. Brought about by a tragedy of enormous proportions

We Baby Boomers failed these kids when we got complacent over gun regulations & gun control laws. The NRA just beat us down and many of us gave up. The school shootings of the last 10+ years - every last one of them - should have never happened and could have been prevented.

These kids are taking up the fight and they are going to win. They won't take no for an answer. More power to them! I'm marching on Saturday in March for Our Lives in Pittsburgh. My sister is taking her kids to march in Washington DC.

[underpants]

5. No Bill...

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Makes me think we're going to have to put a protective shield of support around these kids,

so their lives are not disrupted the way the anti-war movement affected many of its supporters back in the day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Locking - the hosts feel this is an opinion piece (appearing in the 'Think - opinion' section)

and thus not LBN. Please repost in GD, or Editorials. Thanks.