Dear Rebecca:
One thing that’s astonished me in the aftermath of the Florida school massacre: The contempt heaped upon the kids who decided to become political actors in its aftermath, demanding gun restrictions.
If there is any sense of sympathy for this kids — who, after all, just witnessed and survived their friends and teachers being shot — it’s not readily evident from the pro-gun side. This is distressing.
We seem to have a collective inability to to evaluate people (or the sympathy they deserve) outside of their political stances. If you have a different opinion than I do, any obligation I feel to treat you humanely goes poof.
Hell, I’ll say it’s a problem for the left and the right: I’ve criticized the a-holes who criticized the mourning father wearing a Trump T-shirt. But it’s a problem for the right, too. We all need to do better.
–Joel
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