Kerry's comments on the march this weekend

[karynnj]

A Washington Post article quotes from an email that John Kerry sent the reporter.

“Every historic moment has its own power, and these young people deserve their own moment,” the former secretary of state told me in an email early this morning. “Many of them have earned the right to be heard through a shared loss that innocents should never experience. Their moral clarity defies politics or partisanship. … These young people have touched the conscience of the country about common sense on guns, and they have the power to make it a voting issue again.”


Kerry became an antiwar activist after volunteering as a Naval officer in Vietnam, an experience that profoundly shaped his worldview and service in the Senate. “They were compelled because they’d seen friends suffer and die for a policy that they thought was a mistake,” he explained, referring to the veterans who became protesters. “Because they’d served, they couldn’t be dismissed by Spiro Agnew and the Nixon White House. The same way, these young people from Parkland and all over the country can’t be written off by mere politicians. Their moral authority is unimpeachable.”

The 74-year-old also sees analogues between the March for Our Lives and the movement to protect the environment, another issue that many view in existential terms. “The environment was written off for a long time as a minor issue,” he writes. “Earth Day 1970 changed all of that when millions filled the streets of America and turned the environment into a voting issue and forced [Richard] Nixon to create the EPA.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/03/26/daily-202-how-the-marches-for-gun-control-are-like-the-protests-against-vietnam/5ab864bb30fb042a378a2e6d/?utm_term=.9adc047b9967

Earlier Kerry had responded to an Emma Gonzales tweet praising her eloquence.

[brush]

1. Kerry would've been a good president. Both he and Gore had their elections stolen by the Bush crooks

I could've said the repug crooks as that is the only way they can win. They have to cheat, and/or commit treason—all the way back to traitors Nixon and Reagan.

[wisteria]

7. I agree. I tear up thinking about ho much better off we would be now,.

And, to think we have a man, such as Trump ad our President.

[YvonneCa]

2. Kerry's words encapsulate what these kids...

...are doing. And they come from someone with a parallel experience who really GETS their moment. I have been thinking of his words from the past about making ones issue a voting issue. That's exactly what these young people are doing. It gives me such hope for our future! I could not be prouder of them.
I stood with students (on Saturday) here in California with similar passion. They inspired a turnout I've not seen before in my reddish part of CA. This is a very powerful moment. 👏👏👏
Thanks for posting this, karynnj.

[karynnj]

3. Like you, I thought of how these words are so true to who Kerry is and to describing these kids

Kerry's comments on the need to make things voting issues were said in so many speeches and comments of his in the last decade, that I am sure that many of us can almost hear him say what he wrote. This is one of the reasons I am so glad that he is doing what he is at Yale. He will be an influence on many of the kids there -- and many will likely be important people in their own right.

I went to a march in far bluer place Montpelier, VT. For a small state, there was a huge crowd and the speeches were almost entirely from kids - and they were incredible. Here, they are already having an impact. The VT House just passed a bill that is expected to pass the Senate tomorrow. Not to mention, the Republican Governor has said he will sign a reasonable bill. This was a huge shift for him and for the largely rural state. Part of the reason was that about a week before the FL massacre, there was a boy in a small VT town taken into custody after a friend of his, living in NY, went to her school officials about the plan he shared with her. I think the fact that it could have happened here too, really shook him up.

I think these kids really are changing minds. They also did a great job in speaking of gun violence in Chicago and elsewhere. In VT, a few explicitly mentioned that that this was even more important for POC who were more often the victims.

[wisteria]

5. I watched that.I was wonderful to see the connection, and caring.

[wisteria]

8. It is always wonderful seeing John Kerry mentioned.

[YvonneCa]

10. I'm glad to hear that you...

...supported the kids in Vermont. The march I went to had about 3-400 people...a combination of young people, older ones like us 😳 and a few families with young children. It was organized by students at the high school my oldest granddaughter will attend in a few years.

I just wish people would actually listen to each other and HEAR each other so that we could move forward with real solutions to the gun violence problem. I wish it didn't take actual experience to understand how bad things are, in schools and elsewhere. I taught in a tough neighborhood for many years and saw what can happen when young gang members have access to guns. And how they tragically fall into the hands of younger siblings.My high school in San Diego had a shooting on campus many years ago. I never thought that would happen at *my* school.
There are so many things that could help and I believe all adults have a responsibility to take care of all our kids.

[karynnj]

4. Lawrence o'Donnell had a montage of Kerry 1971 with the students now

Very powerful.

[wisteria]

6. See above, I agree. I am rusty. Lol

[YvonneCa]

9. Hi, wisteria! Nice to see...

...you here again. I'm pretty rusty myself.

[JI7]

11. do you have a clip of this ?