March for Our Lives

2018 March for Our Lives - Wikimedia Commons

Political indifference has been our Achilles’ heel since Reagan declared to the world, “It’s morning in America” in 1984.

But I have to say that yesterday’s demonstrations signaled change among the sleeping class. And taken with the series of other change movements that have formed since the day after Donald Trump was sworn in, these days are reminiscent of the 60s - while differing in one notable respect: the degree to which these movements are organized and are peacefully conducted.

While the opposition movements of the 60s created immensely important progressive change in our society, they also resulted in establishing the climate of fear that brought us Richard Nixon and his “Law and Order” campaign. His slogan became a winning Conservative meme that was repeated by Ronald Reagan in the 80s and was cynically revived by Donald Trump in his “American Carnage” rhetoric. I think that it can be argued that the law and order rubric spawned some of the most draconian conservative policies since the 60s: mass incarceration, punitive drug policies, militarization of local police forces, and lest we forget - the primary argument of the NRA: the intense need for self-protection.

Perhaps we have finally learned the lesson taught to us by Martin Luther King Jr. - nonviolent resistance.