Marching Monday Musing

Go Blue!  The Michigan Wolverines continue their March through the "March Madness" NCAA College Basketball Tournament.  They had one blow out win, but most of their wins have been tight and queasy-inducing.  But there they stand, the fourth-place team in the Big Ten (but still Big Ten Tournament Champions), the only Big Ten team in the Final Four!  Next, they play Cinderella 11th-seed Loyola-Chicago.  Under any other circumstances, I might pull for the underdog.  But not these.  Wolverines all the way, baby!

It was also the weekend of the March For Our Lives Rally.  The turnout was fantastic, throughout the United States.  Hundreds of thousands of America's young people turned out.  They loudly declared that Gen Z will not be the apathy generation.  As they protest, march, and speak out, and then most importantly register to vote, they are going to provide an important counterweight to the NRA and the alt-right.

There were many brilliant, articulate and informed young speakers at these rallies. The student pictured above was one of the youngest and most compelling.  Naomi Wadler, 11 years old, spoke out eloquently about the effects of gun violence, particularly about its disproportionally heavy effect on young black women.

Emma Gonzalez, 18 and from Parkland, brought the crowd to its symbolic knees with her moments of silence.  Edna Chavez moved me to tears when she talked about the gun violence in her South Los Angele neighborhood.  David Hogg, the young high schooler from Parkland, made it clear that this would have an electoral element, and that they would do everything they could to counterbalance and defeat those who enriched themselves with NRA money.

My prediction is that we are beginning to see the emergence of a new generation of leadership and that we will see one or more of these young leaders in high office one day.  Maybe even the highest office.  

When I see what this new generation is doing, speaking out with fire and hope, it makes me believe that we finally will have a generation worthy of our Greatest Generation, that battled depression and fascism, and set the middle class into its golden era (well, at least until Reagan and the trickle-on theory of economics).

And the way we're going, the damage we've caused to the planet and America's standing in the world, Generation Z can't come to leadership fast enough.

To all my young blog readers - register to vote!  You got the power!

If you choose to use it.