Her
View: A lesson in intelligent protesting
By Lenna
Harding, Moscow Pullman Daily News April 5, 2018
I have enormous respect for the teenagers in Parkland, Fla.,
as they demonstrate to the country the proper way to lobby and protest.
They are a far cry from the destructive and disorderly
protests by young people during the Vietnam War. I suspect many older adults
who disparage their efforts are those same earlier protesters. I have long felt
the reason the earlier protesters acted as they did was because of a failure of
our school system to teach them how to work within the system to achieve their
goals. They belong to the same generation as my daughter, who never had a
civics course from elementary to graduate school.
It was a required course in Washington high schools when I
was attending, and I was even more fortunate to have Oscar Gladish as my
teacher. He not only taught civics and an American history course - also
required - but as principal, he had set up an elaborate student government
program at Pullman High School.
Making policy was a student council composed of elected
officers and a representative from each class. Then there was also student
control in charge of discipline. If a member spotted an infraction of school
rules, the miscreant would be cited and had to appear before the council for
trial.
Punishment was so many minutes helping either the janitor or
home economics teacher after school. The infractions might have been sitting on
desk surfaces, defacing desks (punishment was resurfacing the top under
instruction of the shop teacher), being in the halls during class time without
a pass (there were hall monitors at key locations in the halls) and running in
the halls.
Another "agency" was the fire patrol in charge of checking
fire extinguishers, arranging fire drills with the city fire department and
monitoring them for the time it took to evacuate the building.
This gave us practical lessons about the function and
structure of government at various levels. It also demonstrated that government
is the people, both by their vote as well as actual participation by running
for office and lobbying. I've often wondered how the war protesters would have
acted if they had a better understanding of the workings and system of government.
These Parkland students are doing almost everything right
and setting a marvelous example to their peers elsewhere as demonstrated by the
many peaceful, meaningful demonstrations throughout the country in support of
Parkland and other schools that experienced violence.
Registering new voters strengthened their clout as they vow
to elect new legislators who will listen and act to correct what they perceive
are the causes of the violence. They directly lobbied leaders and simply
protested. The marches were well planned and orderly, and the speeches
eloquent. The fact that other teenagers throughout the country are taking their
cues from this is heartening.
The big question now is: how long can this momentum continue
if they don't get what they want? Will they lose heart or simply run out of
steam? It's so nice to see the number of adults in the marches with them, but
I'm not sure that is enough. I think it falls on the rest of us grown-ups to
take up the sword as well and help maintain the momentum.
Instead of ridiculing or demonizing them as some adults are
doing, we should be bombarding those in Congress and state legislatures with
organized group lobbying, letters to the editors, phone calls and all the other
correct ways to lobby. I believe these teenagers deserve our validation of
their efforts.
Our children only want safety in schools, the right to life
and the right to not live in fear. The measures they ask are reasonable and
well within the Second Amendment provisions. I personally think we could enact
even further restrictions and still be well within the Constitution.
Lenna
Harding lived her first 20 and past 43 years in Pullman. A longtime League of
Women Voters member, she served on the Gladish Community and Cultural Center
board. lj1105harding@gmail.com, ljharding.com
