The shooting in Parkland, Florida this past week absolutely terrible. There may be a lot of things the people of this country disagree on, but that isn't one of them.
Something else we all agree on is that we don't want this type of event to happen again. We value the safety of our children and want solutions that work to that end. We disagree on the hows, but not the whats.
Unfortunately, that's not the message that many news outlets would have us believe.
The message I've seen hammered over and over by the mainstream media is that we are a nation deeply divided. If you aren't 100% onboard with whatever legislation that particular outlet is pushing for, then you are an evil, bigoted, no good, rotten human being. Either you hate children and want them all to die is mass shootings, or you hate families and want them to be gunned down by home intruders.
That, of course, is all nonsense.
But it hasn't stopped them from propagating it.
And following the Parkland shooting, it's gotten even worse. Now the chosen weapons of this culture war have expanded from fear, misinformation, and character assassinations to fear, misinformation, and character assassinations carried out by children.
Last night's town hall event hosted by CNN was a prime example of this, but it's certainly not the only example. This has been going on nonstop for the past week.
The problem, of course, isn't that the survivors of this traumatic event shouldn't speak about this. Their opinions do matter. The problem is that they are being used. The media does not care about these children; they are pawns in a game of political chess. They are weapons. And once their 15 minutes are over, they will be tossed aside like spent casings.
There is nothing noble about trotting out a hurt sixteen-year-old before an audience of millions so that they can defend your cause. It adds no value to the debate. It's manipulative, and the child is the one who will end up paying the price.
My prayer is that, when this is all over, these kids will have someone waiting to catch them. Otherwise, I fear a fall from this height might hurt them more than Nikolas Cruz ever could.