Before the March For Our Lives began, I knew it was going to be an extraordinary event.
Because those young Americans had already impressed me with the way they had confronted the horror of gun violence.
And the way they had turned sorrow into resistance.
I also knew by the way the NRA crazies were screaming, that the kids were making an impression on them, more powerful than any weapon.
But who could have imagined something like this?
Hundreds of thousands of people marching in Washington and other places all over the U.S., to tell the politicians and the gun lobby that enough is enough.
Standing before vast crowds from Washington to Los Angeles to Parkland, Fla., the speakers — nearly all of them students, some still in elementary school — delivered an anguished and defiant message: They are “done hiding” from gun violence, and will “stop at nothing” to get politicians to finally prevent it.
And being supported by others all over the world, including Canada.
Who can forget the courage of the Parkland survivors?
Emma Gonzalez standing there silently for six minutes and 26 seconds, the time it took the gunman to kill all those people in her high school.
Before breaking her silence this way.
Who can forget another of her classmates, Cameron Kasky, vowing that this is just the beginning?
I know I never will.
The NRA and other Cons may roar like bestial bullies.
But that's only because they are quaking in their boots.
For I believe that what happened yesterday marks the official arrival of the millennial generation on the political stage.
They are the most progressive generation in human history. They will be the biggest single voting bloc in the next elections in the U.S. and Canada.
And with the support of other progressives of all ages they will send ratty reactionaries like this religious fanatic and NRA tool...
To the garbage can of history where he and all Cons belong.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, the young are leading the way.
A better world is being born.
And despite the darkness all around us, the road ahead has never seemed brighter...
These kids are fighting for their future, and for all of us. Emma Gonzalez' 7 min video is remarkable.
ReplyDeleteIF these events don't bring real change to stop violence, in the USA, and the world... then, there is really no hope for humankind.
hi Norberto... The Parkland kids have given me new hope for a better future, and Emma Gonzalez is simply amazing. The courage it must have taken to stand their silently facing a crowd of about a million people just blows my mind. Whenever she's ready to run for President, I'm at her service... ;)
Deletethe gun laws are sufficient the way they are.i despise cons.but law enforcement do not protect the public they abide by the law.meaning they do fuck all until it is too late.after the law has been broken then they try to enforce it. damage is done,then we continue o hoping for the best in our judicial system, lots of failure there also. I do not own a hand gun and never will, i think there is few reasons to own hand guns, us your imagination for the reasons.i grew up in a generation of peace , love, dope.and look what has happened to that generation,leave our gun laws alone as they are.more regulation only helps the powerful and criminals.
ReplyDeletehi anon@12:34...I don't know why gun lovers get so upset. Nobody is trying to take their guns away, just trying to make sure that they stay out of the wrong hands. In Britain people are allowed to own guns, but they are more tightly controlled, and as a result it's a much safer society. What can possibly be wrong with that?
DeleteAnon12:34 - The longer you bury your head in the sand and bitch and moan about gun, god and your rights, the harder the now inevitable change will be to accept.
DeleteThe young of this world have had enough of the shit talk of our generation.
I, for one, Welcome the era of our new young overlords
You are going to be so sadly disapapointed when they crash and burn.
DeleteThey will, they always do.
Liberals pass new gun controls this week. Con panels on tv spend entire time talking about India and how Scheer is in the drivers seat.
ReplyDeleteI would hope BLM is learning something from these kids.
Liberals didn’t pass anything. They introduced a bill, that’s all. It’s long, long way from becoming law....if it ever does.
Deletehi Steve...yes, for the Con media there is only that fake India story they created with their hysterical and simplistic reporting. I don't know how they think that story is playing in anywhere else but Parliament hill. But I can't think of a more irrelevant story. Those losers need to get real....
Deletehi anon @4:05 PM...To my knowledge the Liberals still enjoy a healthy majority, and if they introduce a bill it will sooner rather than later become law. So keep on repeating the NRA prayer, but I doubt it will do you any good...
DeleteThe Liberals have pretty much written off gun grabbers, I mean this is pretty thin gruel for them.
DeleteStill it will cost them a couple of seats in the next election.
"A better world is being born" indeed Simon.
ReplyDeleteOnce these kids deal with the GOP and the NRA, they can then go after the fomenters of hate who've inspired these mass murderers. It's long overdue that anti hate laws are enacted to deal with the scum that hides behind the first ammendment and whose sole purpose in life is to cause pain and suffering to our most vulnerable people.
Let this be a warning to the Breitbarts, the Infowars and our own despicable The Rebel. We've had enough, the kids have had enough, and now it's time to take out the trash.
JD
hi JD... I like this a lot:
DeleteLet this be a warning to the Breitbarts, the Infowars and our own despicable The Rebel. We've had enough, the kids have had enough, and now it's time to take out the trash.
It is time to start building a better world because the one we are living in couldn't be more insane or more dangerous.
Something has got to change or something really bad is going to happen...
Thank you Simon.
DeleteYou know how the free world always tried to follow the examples of democracy at work in America? Well, I believe these kids are the catalyst for change that will truly make America great again, the envy of the world. It will take time but these forces are in motion and there's nothing the prophets of doom can do about it.
JD
Shut the fuddle-duddle up, Andy, you're out of your element. It was "law-abiding farmers" who shot that Indian boy in the most dangerous game, right in the backyard of Andy's home province of Oilpatchistan. Not that he or his bloodthirsty racist base would care about that. He's too busy holding Parliament hostage to score clips for the highlight reel and hanging around with Nazi scum from the Rebel Reform Alliance. Not just Hamish Analytica either. No, we all know what a man of Faith is Pope Andrew. Perhaps he'd like to explain what exactly he meant by "duck hunting." Hey, I'm just asking the questions...
ReplyDeleteSimon, I thought you should see this, and spread it out far and wide. Security expert Malcolm Nance has come right out and said what a lot of us had feared: conservative parties the world over are owned entirely by the Russians. The NRA in the U.S. is a laundering front for Russian dark money. Dark money that Chrystia Freeland has written about extensively and why Putin has a target on her back. It would behoove Canada's investigative services to look into the NRA's Canadian equivalent that the cons and their Proud Boy are so in hock to.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/security-expert-malcolm-nance-warns-conservative-parties-across-world-being-owned
Scratch the surface enough and I'm sure you'll be able to sniff out rubles in one place or another. The British Tory/Kippers, the Front National, the AfD, the GOP... Time to start digging into the Conservative Coalition of Canadian Plutocrats (CCCP) before you folks end up with a Comrade Trumpovich of your own offering "thoughts and prayers" after every Polytéchnique massacre that occurs on days that end in Y.
Although Putin is an opportunistic foe with a partially valid ax to grind we should not loose sight of the Mercers and Koch's who believe in survival of the fittest as individuals rather than as a society or the human race. The foes within are far more dangerous than the external ones. Then there are the buzzards that can sense the weak and alienated over vast distances. We have to know that we are in serious trouble when the Trumps, Scheers and Dougies of the world start circling overhead.
DeleteRT
The ad which shows a woman sitting in a safe light filled environment under the PC umbrella on the left versus Trudeau's bleak dark and blood red gang riddled environment on the left is pure irony. In reality the woman is much more likely to be killed by gun violence in her home by distraught family members, an estranged spouse or close neighbors compared to an out of control gang. The bill with increased background checks, sales transfer certificates and greater funding for crime prevention at the local level actually goes much further than the Cons who are all about lots of guns,murders,race targeted punitive laws and private prisons are good for business and political control.
DeleteRT
In the USA - USSR war there are no good guys. Since the end of WW2 its the USA that has become the evil empire.
DeleteHi Jackie...thank you for those links, and yes, it is starting to look like one vast right-wing conspiracy. The results of the American election have been tainted even more than we thought they were. And as for Brexit, the British should hold another referendum for the last one was just a farce. It's frightening to see what's been going on and how just about everything has been manipulated or bought. On the positive side, the independence drums in Scotland have started up again, so if people in this country are dumb enough to elect Ford or Scheer, I'll have something to keep me occupied until sanity prevails... ;)
Deletehi RT...yes, I agree with you, we also need to focus on the right-wing bagmen like the Mercers or the Koch brothers who are funding right-wing groups all over the place. They need to be hounded like the criminals they are, and we need to find out a lot more about their activities in this country. Maybe if the Con media wasn't obsessed with the fake India story we might make some progress on that front. But since they are part of the problem, and are probably receiving tainted money themselves, I'm not holding my breath. We will have to do the job ourselves...
Delete@ Jackie Blue
ReplyDeleteI would put as much faith in Malcolm Nance's rantings as I would in the ravings and tweets of Cadet Bonespur himself.
I do not know if you have ever seen a picture of President Putin. He is not 12 feet tall, does not have horn, and does not even breath fire.
Here’s one of the most common questions I get from students:
ReplyDelete“How is cold email different from spam?”
Cold email and spam are polar opposites.
Here’s why…
Spam:
• Uses a fake name
• Doesn’t include contact information
• Isn’t personalized (the same email is sent to several people)
• Isn’t meant to start a conversation; rather, it’s usually targeting a direct purchase.
• Has a commercial motive.
Spam is an example of a one-to-many email.
Can you see the difference?
This cold email does three things:
• It addresses the recipient directly.
• It has a highly specific and relevant request.
• And it mentions a common contact.
I’m not trying to push a product, or get anyone on the phone for a long conversation.
The real world equivalent of this email would be like saying, “Hi,” to a
friend of a friend you bumped into at a conference.
It’s not pushy.
It’s not annoying.
And it’s perfectly reasonable, as long as your call to action isn’t overly aggressive.
For example: “Buy my product!”
Sounds pushy, right?
But if you say: “Let’s get coffee sometime!”
That sounds a lot better.
Want a ‘sniff test’ for spam vs. cold email?
Before you send out a cold email, ask yourself:
Would I be comfortable saying this to someone I met at a
conference for the first time?
If the answer is no, then it’s likely spam.
If the answer is yes, then it’s a cold email.
Keep in mind that spam is illegal. Send too much spam and you will run afoul of CAN SPAM laws.
Are you clear about whether an email falls under the CAN SPAM laws?
It can be tricky. So let me break it down:
As per FTC, all emails can contain three types of information:
• Commercial content, such as selling a product, promoting a
sale, etc.
• Relationship or transactional content, such as a bank sending its customer
a bank statement, an e-commerce store sharing transaction details, or a blogger sending a
message to his list of subscribers.
• Other content, which can range from personal content to mixed (relationship + commercial) content.
According to FTC’s regulations, the purpose of
an email decides whether it needs to comply with spam laws.
If the email is primarily commercial – or is deemed to
be so by the recipient – it has to comply with spam laws.
A well-crafted cold email might have a commercial tilt,
but it also offers significant value.
Now, let’s get into how you can write amazing cold emails that convert!
Hi (recipient’s first name),
My name is (your first name), and I’m (title) at (company name).
We are currently offering (describe product/service).
This is just an educated stab in the dark, but
based on your online profile, you seem to be the right person to connect with.
Or, if not, maybe you can point me in the right direction?
I’d like to speak with someone from (company name) who’s responsible for (position relevant to your product/service).
If that’s you, are you open to a 15-minute call on (specific time/date) to discuss ways
(service/product) can more specifically help your
business?
Or, if not you, can you please put me in touch with the
right person?
I’d appreciate the help!
(Signature)