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At the risk of being called cold or harsh, let me begin by saying every American has a right to his/her opinion on just about any issue. Including guns.
Now that we've got that out of the way, let me add this: the people playing partisan politics on the graves of the 17 innocent dead people from Douglas High School are despicable. I don't care what age they are.
Over the last couple of weeks, a variety of conservative voices have gotten in trouble for insinuating that the anti-gun protesters coming out of Douglas High School seem far too practiced to simply be grieving students.
Benjamin Kelly, a district secretary for Florida GOP Rep. Shawn Harrison,
was fired after wondering if the anti-gun students were actually just "crisis actors." Yes, Kelly went too far. Yes, he spoke to soon about a subject that was far too raw, and he should have known better. But in his defense, the anti-gun student leaders simply seemed too prepared to respond to such a horrible disaster.
Once the students were proven to not be "crisis actors," others began to wonder if they had someone training them.
'Of course not,' we were told.
The students were "born online," so they're better able to handle the media spotlight, and Douglas High School simply has an excellent debate program, which helped prepare these kids to speak in public about important issues. I kid you not.
The Miami Herald seemed to actually believe that a school debate program could prepare grieving children to speak on international television in such a calm and direct fashion as to make everyone wonder if they'd done this before.
Comment: Some background