I hope you've had the chance to watch the speech Emma Gonzalez gave as a survivor of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Speeches like this transcend human constraints like age. Don't we wonder how such a young person to be so articulate, clear and inspirational?
They also transcend politics and dividing ideologies.
Politicians and the powerful will quickly try to divide us on which side of the debate we stand. Do we stand for or against Emma Gonzalez?
"It's not about guns. It's about mental health."
That simple two sentence response to Emma Gonzalez is a propaganda grenade that explodes in the minds of all Americans.
Now we've instantly forgotten every word Emma Gonzalez has said. We retreat to Facebook and have endless, irrational debates about whether or not guns kill.
This is how THEY all play us.
Look at this Gallup Poll of the percentage of people that primarily lean one party or another:
It is absolutely critical in understanding how America works by understanding those numbers.
Every election year between 85% to 92% of votes are already accounted for.
It's the 8% to 15% politicians fight like hell for.
Ask any Texan or Californian how many times a presidential candidate makes a stop in their state. It's almost none. They already know how those states are going to vote.
That fact should infuriate you.
You are just a reliable statistic to these people. I mean, doesn't it seem odd to you that presidential candidates don't spend much of any time in two of the most populous states in the country? That only means one thing. They don't actually care about you. They only care about your vote.
So we get these brilliant, catchy, dividing propaganda statements like: "It's not about guns. It's about mental health."
And let me be clear: that statement is just as helpful for Democrats as it is for Republicans.
Democrats LOVE the NRA just like Republicans LOVE abortion.
These wedge issues make their lives so much easier.
An issue they both hate is: How do we make kids safer?
That's not catchy at all.
That's messy. That's complicated.
Sure. Democrats rally around those kinds of phrases. But they don't truly want to fix the problem. They are just using that position to excite their base.
Bernie Sanders is the knight in shining armor for "Progressives" in America. Here is his stance on guns:
That is the PROGRESSIVE stance on guns in America.
If our politicians really, truly cared about kids getting killed in mass shootings they would be figuring out how to get guns out of the hands of Americans.
Australia bought and destroyed more than 600,000 automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.
Over the next few years, gun-death totals were cut nearly in half. Firearm suicides dropped to 0.8 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 2.2 in 1995, while firearm homicides dropped to 0.15 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 0.37 in 1995.
Why don't we do that?
It's a rhetorical question. You know why, right? BECAUSE IT WON'T GET THEM ELECTED!
They only care about getting into power and holding onto power.
They will tell you this is because they can then get inside and make important change. But the important change never comes. They just get more and more addicted to their power.
Republicans increase deficits. Democrats give healthcare to private companies.
But ultimately, I believe this is our fault. We the people are making this happen.
As long as the polls show that we are all correctly aligning to hot button issues then there is no reason to change.
There is a passive, look-the-other-way and blame-others mentality in America. And politicians love it. They can count on it.
But people like Emma Gonzalez muddy the waters. They make things complicated.
The FBI and mafia killed Martin Luther King Jr. for this very reason.
Change agents don't make the powerful happy.
When change happens very often the first people to go are the existing powerful elites.
Could Emma Gonzalez take down the NRA? Hell yeah she could. Or, quite frankly, she could end up dead.
The NRA will not go quietly.
But change like this must happen.
The list goes on and on. There is still much to do in the world and in America.
But know this: It is NEVER EVER the people in power that will make these changes.
It is people like Emma Gonzalez that make these changes.
It is people like YOU that make these changes.
Paid For By The People for Sage Lewis