"We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?"
-William Golding, Lord of the Flies

The world is watching. Do not mistake this for hyperbole; the world is watching. We are at a precipice, as President Donald Trump continues to erode our influence and alliances around the world the rational minds of this nation, of these United States, have come to push the influence of high school teenagers with more morals and sense in one of their hearts and minds than all the Republican elephants combined.

Columbine was 18 years ago. Sandy Hook and Aurora were six. Orlando was less than two years ago. Las Vegas,

the largest mass shooting in United States history, was less than six months ago. Every single step of the way we let down the victims of those tragedies. We let them down on those days and we let them down after they were gone. And so it has all led up to this. Seventeen high school students in Parkland, Florida have lost their lives while Congress has turned a blind eye while clutching the National Rifle Association's (NRA) money in a death grip. We can not let allow them too to have died in vain.

America's failure to protect its people from vicious gun-wielding maniacs is not a secret. We've all sat by and the world laughed until they cried, and then they wept. This doesn't happen anywhere else. It isn't an anomaly, This isn't a mystery. This is a failure; a failure to protect innocent people from special interests groups and a failure for any semblance of leadership to stand up and demand a change. This need not be an impasse, it need not be another example of our cowardice, ineptitude, and greed. This could be a turning point.

The president is, to put this lightly, an imbecile. For the life of me, I cannot understand why we are listening to counsel on gun control from a man who dodged the Vietnam Draft. He was a coward then and, as his failure to stand up to the NRA demonstrates, he's a coward now. Instead of actual, tangible legislation, Trump's "plan" is to arm America's teachers. Every teacher I've ever had was underpaid, undersupplied, overly caffeinated and would a little too tight. And you want to give these folks weapons? I don't think we need a militant wing of the PTA to add the tension of a school year. We need action, real bipartisan action.

What we are seeing among the youth of this country has not been witnessed since Vietnam and the failure of the Counterculture. We are seeing high school students in Parkland lead a movement against the NRA and their demonic influence on Capitol Hill. The#NeverAgain and #BoycottNRA have caused real change.

Companies are dropping their promotional deals with the lobbyist group in bunches as social media continues to pressure companies like the tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple to do the same under the cloud of a mass boycott. This is democracy at work. Our country was founded by a boycott when the Founding Fathers revolted against English tyrannical laws. Here we are once again. If Congress will not stand up to the NRA, then the people will.