Resilience-Roar Like the Lions of Serengeti-Tough Times Doesn’t Last, Tough People, Do!

Resilience is defined as the ability to recover from the setbacks, adapt well to change and keep going in the face of adversity. With the ongoing debate on guns safety that our children are involved in, teaching them resilience is the best tool adults who support and care about the current students’ movement on guns control can offer.

After witnessing countless schools shootings that killed many students as well as adults, while wounded many more, yet there was nothing the parents of the killed students or the injured students could say or do to sway the NRA and the gun manufacturers that the gun business is not only killing people and the most vulnerable of all children in their learning places, but also guns are the source of violence in the society! The time has come to face the truth and deal with this chronic gun violence once and for all!

The ENOUGH and NEVER AGAIN Gun-Control Movement was born and kicked-off on March 24^th, 2018 as for March Four Our Lives advocacy which was joined by the millions of people, young and adults around the world. Led by the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, where the last school gun shooting took place and killed seventeen and wounded fourteen more, making it one of the worse school massacre in recent memory.

To keep the Gun-Control Movement going strong, responsible adults must become the instrument of inspiration, not a tool to demean, hurt, or humiliate! And always, in all situations, adults should remember that it is their responses that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child will be humanized or dehumanized!

The flames that the student have given light in addressing the evils guns can do to humanity must not be extinguished unless safety becomes a new normal in our society! It is imperative that we embrace the culture of a peaceful society and despise the culture of violence-whether its gun violence, racial tension and all other forms of discrimination.

It is immoral for an adult to choose to disrupt, mock, or bully children who have made sacrifices (emotionally and physically) and are doing an extraordinary job to get out there in public with the intention to make the world a better place to live for tomorrow than they find it today!

What our children need right now is uplifting positive support and attitudes that build good relationships, mutual understanding, and eventually solves big problems amicably and for the benefits of all. No law should favor few at the expenses of many.

Neither do I believe that when the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment over two hundred years ago had a vision on how the 21^st century society will look like, nor do I believe that Second Amendment gives right to guns to the people who otherwise should not get the guns because they cannot differentiate between the good and the bad. It is insane to claim that the Second Amendment grants all people the right to own guns, since not all people are equally responsible and or capable to own and/ or carry a weapon that can kill many people. It is illogical not to toughen the loopholes or the safety gun laws because of the Second Amendment. To safeguard the killings from guns we must safeguard the laws pertaining gun safety!

Now that our children have paved the way and are leading the Gun-Control Movement, resilience will be their friend and confidant. Building resilience is an important part of growth and change. Steve Goodier once said, “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.”

Since you (Children) have decided to embark on this journey of advocacy, as you already have seen, some will offer you moral support, others their time and money, yet few will be a negative force with the intent to pull you down and to fail you! Fight the good fight and don’t let the people define you-if they do, hit back smartly, passionately, but aggressively.

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new”, said Socrates.

Apply the collaborative learning and the project-based learning approaches in your movement as a way to build new avenues which will strengthen your message and broaden your movement and build on inevitable and unshakable capabilities.

Change is hard, but we must be open and willing to embrace change! Time will come when beliefs and ideology won’t make sense or save the humanity at large. Think about it! Two hundred plus years ago things weren’t as they are today! Societies have been going through various and major transformations that enabled people to live better lives and/or simplify their way of life. And as people, building a 21^st Century society, requires a 21^st Century laws, principles, values, and whatever else-technology and infinity leadership.

George Bernard Shaw asserted that “progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything.”

Therefore, change is your destiny, go chase it; and when you do, roar like the lions of Serengeti!!!

Proof that Youth Leadership Matters!

On March 24^th, 2018 the world witnessed our youth’s organized marches-March For Our Lives rallies for common sense gun safety laws unfolding across the cities of America-from the nation’s capital, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, to Parkland Florida; and around the world-in London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Tokyo, Sidney, Berlin and many other cities. It was a phenomenon, many people turned out, in Washington DC the crowd was over 800,000 people. Their messages and their voices were engaging and powerful.

The youth aired their griefs, their frustrations and their tiredness of senseless guns violence that our society had become so accustomed to, that the adults in power lost the integrity and the moral authority to stop such violence from continuing to happen.

In loud and clear voices, they demanded change, “We cannot keep America great if we cannot keep America safe.” They make it clear that their rights to live supersedes the rights to guns! It was a historical event-a beginning of a beautiful lifelong story yet to be told! 

All students want to go to school with their minds thinking about learning not with their minds worrying whether they will be safe in school. Likewise, parents want to send their children to schools not worrying whether their children will return home safely!

We all calling for safer schools and communities; and now, our children are leading the way-unwavering support, mentoring and empowering youth leadership will bring the changes we want to see in our schools and in the communities.

“The world around us really belongs to youth, for youth will take over its future management. Our children must never lose their zeal for building a better world. They must not be discouraged from aspiring towards greatness for they are to be the leaders of tomorrow.” ~ Mary McLeod Bethune~