When Our Students Inform the Adults!

It seems this is the theme of the Parkland shooting, young people, high school students who not only carry themselves better, but can think and act much better than the adults!  It seems there is a natural resource we have taken for granted and ignored for much too long-our young people!

The Moment
Watching a young Samuel Zeif on CNN with Wolf Blitzer caused the light to come on bright for me.  While speaking to this high school senior, Wolf cut to President Trump speaking (reasoning) with his round table of politicians and senior executives in the White House about resolving school shootings.  Some “salient” observations.

The President rambled on about how a shooter doesn’t want to get caught and therefore if we had armed people in the schools this would deter a shooter.  Then Wolf asked Samuel about raising the age of purchasing a long-gun from age 18 to 21.  His response was classic, “That is like thinking kids in high school never drink or have parties…they can get alcohol!”

It is here a few thoughts smacked me hard.  The first is how naïve adults are, like a parent who wants to believe their kid never drinks or has sex.  Facing reality shatters the illusion of their parenting and pretending makes the parent feel better about their life, that their life is more manageable than it really is!  Thus the huge gap between parent and child.  Does this gap remind us of anything going on in Washington?

The next thought was that President Trump is really that type of parent who thinks things are better than they really are.  He isn’t just naïve, he is deluded.  Again, this is the parent where the child just detaches and says, “Yeah, well, my dad is just being my dad…what can I say!”  In other words, my dad does not get it!  It is not that he is dumb, because in all other areas of his life he seems pretty smart, it is just that he can’t face the truth!

Now I am back to President Trump and America at large acting like an addict.  We cannot face the first step;

“We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.”

To admit I am “powerless” and things are “unmanageable” is at the heart of the matter here!  This is denial.  This is playing deaf, dumb, and blind…this is part of the human condition!  When our leaders are like this, we have a tremendous gap between either parent and child or politician and community.

Now the scary thought, President Trump really thinks this way!  He is speaking of how a shooter is a coward and I am witnessing a room full of cowards sitting around the President of the United States acting as cowards, not one of them saying, “With all respect Mr. President, I believe this situation is more complex and much deeper than simply arming teachers and custodians in schools!”

We are not listening to this age group that appears to be very succicent and intelligent, not blinded by ideology most adults are slave to unconsciously.  Upton Sinclair gave us a gem to unpack to understand this part of the human condition;

You can’t get a man to understand something when his career depends upon him not understanding.

Substitute “career” for “ideology, political party, religion, job, being part of the boy’s club, parenting, or being the President of the United States!

This natural resource we have called high school students are willing to tell us truth.  It might be THE truth in one sentence, but the truth about what is going on.  However, as a culture, we do not listen just like that parent who believes their child never steals, drinks, or has sex!  Playing deaf, dumb, and blind is a defense mechanism to make our lives feel more in control than it really is.  We are all guilt of this to some degree.  We all exaggerate our abilities to show we are more competent than we really are.  All of this has shame roots.  Yet, as a parent or leader of the free world, when we cover our ears to truth there are serious consequences, and in this case, deadly ones!

Our "kids" are trying to speak to us and we are not listening.  The same results happen in our culture as it does in a family, the kids detach and lose respect.  The more they detach the more loss of respect and the harder it is to get the relationship healed and connected.  Sadly, like most families that live in denial, pretend, and illusion we are witnessing the same in the White House with our President reasoning about solving school shootings.