Never Again: Is this the tipping point?
teamaustralia·@bec-on-the-block·
0.000 HBDNever Again: Is this the tipping point?
 *For years we have been watching the news from here in Australia... sitting here in utter astonishment at ANOTHER school massacre. This time something is different. This time it feels like something might ACTUALLY change.* I converted to steemit a few months ago, and since then I don't spend much time on other social media. The last few days I keep coming back to my facebook feed though. I'm in awe. I am watching videos as I cook dinner, or wait for a bus, and I am silently cheering with all my heart. Video after video, I'm cheering for the "kids" who are actually taking a stand. Like many people, my initial reaction to the latest shooting, was painfully indifferent. The cycle of emotions that follows these events has worn thin long ago. I think the general attitude is that if the USA won't change anything after Sandy Hook - how will they *ever* change anything? # It didn't take long to realise there was something different this time The usual 'script' has been altered. The kids are talking - and the world is listening. They aren't emerging from this trembling and shaking and asking for help... they are standing strong and *demanding* change. I'm obviously not an American, so I'm sure there are plenty of people who will happily tell me I have no right to an opinion. We've all heard the arguments go round in circles before, and I don't really care whether I am entitled to an opinion or not. These 'kids' are putting us 'adults' to shame. They are showing us how it should be done, and how it will be done, and I am with them all the way! I'm not usually one to take sides. In fact even now, I'm not really taking a 'side'. I understand that people feel they have a right to carry guns. What amazes me, is that *ANY* changes to gun laws get shot down (I'm not even sorry for that pun). But seriously... how can people actually manage to do *NOTHING* every time? It's hard to convey the disbelief that we feel watching from afar. It's a little bit like watching a friend go back to a bad relationship. You know it's a bad relationship, but your friend doesn't want to know. # What happens when the kids grow up? There is a generation of children who have grown up seeing mass shootings on the news as 'normal'. Not just in the USA. These shootings, even though they are frequent, make international headlines regularly. The children are growing up and starting to question things. They are making their own sense of the world... and they aren't having a bar of the excuses. >"We've had enough of thoughts and prayers...To every lawmaker out there: No longer can you take money from the NRA. No longer can you fly under the radar doing whatever it is that you want to do ... We are coming after every single one of you and demanding that you take action." -Delaney Tarr, Parkland school shooting survivor, in Tallahassee >"After first graders were gunned down at Sandy Hook, what did you do? Not a damn thing. After 49 people, including my two brothers, were murdered at Pulse, what did you do? Not a damn thing. You plugged your ears and turned your eyes and hoped that we would stop talking. Now we're here again. 17 people are dead. 14 of them are children. And what did you do yesterday when given the chance to do something about it? Not a damn thing." - Brandon Wolf, Pulse nightclub shooting survivor, in Tallahassee # What about now? What will the USA do *this* time? 'Not a damn thing?' - or #neveragain? I'm asking as a friend. I'm asking because I care about you and your children. You should be proud of your children America, and I hope you listen to them and protect them. Much Love, your friends in Australia. (Who are cheering loudly for your kids from the other side of the world.)