The kids killed in Parkland were no different from my friends and me, yet I get to live my life while theirs has been forced into a sentence.
They had goals, aspirations, dreams, and their fair share of mistakes, just like any teenager. They had hobbies just like me. Again and again, we hear their names, but without context they are just another statistic, another number. Some died heroic deaths saving others, but now, at best, they are a sentence.
Imagine what your life would be in a sentence: “Tadea Martin-Gonzalez was a 16-year-old gymnast and a self-proclaimed nerd who loved all things ‘Hamilton’-related.”
It’s impossible to sum up a life in a sentence, yet that’s what the 14 kids and 3 adults have become. Before them, it was those in Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, Columbine.
This has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. The cycle is endless — a mass shooting occurs, thoughts and prayers are given, and everyone vows that this will be the last. But to many in Congress, the people are not humans. They are just a name, so nothing gets done and another shooting occurs. And so on and so on.
My challenge to the politicians, both state and federal, regardless of party, pass comprehensive, common-sense gun legislation so that my friends and I don’t become just another sentence. For those politicians who take National Rifle Association money: Is it really more important that you have those extra dollars in your pocket? Is money worth more than lives?
Stop. Think. Act. It shouldn’t take much. We, the students, have done our part — we’ve walked out and on March 24 we will march. Now it’s time for you to do your part. Do it for Peter and Helena and Alyssa and Scott and Martin and Chris and Jaimie and Meadow and Carmen and Joaquin and Luke and Cara and Gina and Alaina and Alex and Aaron and Nicholas, but also for my friends and me, for kids across the country and for the children of the future.
Tadea Martin-Gonzalez
Florence