"Let the Revolution Begin"

As the "March For Our Lives" prepared to march Saturday in DC, a 17-year-old told the crowd of 800,000---according to some initial news reports---"Let the revolution begin."

That was not the first time that phrase has been used, nor were there 800,000 listening in person---but it was a big event.

However... are the financial backers happy with the results, are the kids from the Florida high school happy with the results as their school begins implementation of life-saving changes at school following the shooting, where does it go from here, and should we really be making children into moral authorities?

A closer look.

The Number in Attendance

By all accounts, it was a big crowd of kids and adults who marched through our Capitol Saturday. Municipal workers who were cleaning up the mess left behind by the Left said it was more trash than normal---worse than usual. And they're experts on picking up trash left behind on the streets of DC.

March for our Lives organizers had predicted anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 attendees, and major far Left organizations across the country had been working hard to load trains, planes, automobiles, and buses to deliver the crowd the big donors---Oprah, Clooney, Katzenberg, Spielberg, Taylor Swift and others, were all expecting.

However, as the trash collectors collected, the crowd counters, who actually count, were reporting very different numbers than our hopeful, local TV stations across the country were reporting.

DDIS, a Virginia-based firm working with CBS, said that the peak crowd size Saturday at about 1 PM, was 202,796.

That isn't the 800,000 some local stations were reporting, (including some here in the Northwest) nor was it the 500,000-600,000 the adult organizers were claiming Saturday---but it is still a big crowd.

One conservative news organization called the accurate report "March Sadness" for the Progressive Left.

Where Does the March Go From Here?

The leaders say they are planning another big event April 20 on the anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999.

The New York Times, of course, gave considerable coverage to what the children were saying.

The common theme among the teenage speakers was, "The voters are coming," with more than 500 voter registration booths were set up on street corners throughout the March area. They wore neon yellow shirts that read, "Register to Vote," and were calling out to the crowd, "It takes less than 3 minutes to register," and "don't just vote, go get 17 more people to vote with you."

Alex Wind, a 17-year-old, said, "To all politicians out there if you take money from the NRA, you have chosen death. If you have not expressed to your constituents a public stance on this issue, you have chosen death. None of the millions of people marching in this country today will stop until they see those against us out of office because we choose life."

David Hogg, probably the most visible teenager in the March, said, "Who here is going to vote in the 2018 election? If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking."

Teenager Casey Sherman, also a visible leader, said, "We will stop at nothing until we make real, lasting change."

You may have noticed Barack Obama was publicly praising the kids and urging them on, while the Hollywood elites, who are putting up the millions of dollars to make it happen, were more restrained, but no less elated.

While the NRA and school shootings will continue to be part of the narrative, the "Revolution" is already turning toward a broader political agenda.

Black Lives Matter are inserting themselves into the movement. While the "gun" issue will remain up front as more of these marches take place, I believe more activist groups will attach themselves to the teenagers. The homosexual activists, abortion activists, and other similar groups will join to "help the kids." And themselves.

There will also be a pushback.

The Pushback

The pushback obviously will come from the NRA and other conservatives as the base of this movement broadens.

It will also come from within.

While students and activists geared up to march in support of new restrictions on the Second Amendment, black rapper Killer Mike warned that "gun control is the way the progressive Left can return black Americans to slavery."

In the lead up to the March 14 school walk out for gun control a couple of weeks ago, Killer Mike said he told his kids, "I love you, but if you walk out of that school, then walk out of my house."

He said he told them, "You can't continue to be the lackey. You're a lackey of the progressive movement because you have never disagreed with the people who tell you what to do."

Killer Mike said, "We're raising a generation of kids where everyone gets a trophy. In real life, the cops don't come on time."

Some pushback is now coming from the very kids who are the face of the new "March for our Lives" movement. Students at the Florida high school.

The Superintendent Robert Runcie, a proponent of the radical Left-wing gun control measures, said Friday he was beginning to put in place new policy aimed at reducing school violence.

Some of the students are mad him. And pushing back.

Students will now only be allowed to bring clear backpacks to school, which the school will pay for, beginning when they return from spring break. And they will be required to wear an ID at all times.

Students immediately took to social media. I noted this: "Spending money on clear backpacks is a joke"...."Great. Because clear backpacks are gonna fix everything"..."Clear backpacks don't do anything except make us look stupid. We want to be safe, not uncomfortable"..."school is supposed to be a place where we learn and are comfortable"... "now if someone asks me for a pencil I have to give it to them. They'll see right through my bag and my lies. Gross".... "Schools are slowly but surely becoming prisons"..."Marjory Stoneman Douglas Penitentiary."

The Irony of the March

While a couple hundred thousand politically Left people descended on the streets of Washington DC to demand gun control, they were surrounded by a heavy presence of "good guys with guns" to protect them while they protest guns because the guns make America less safe.

The children in the March were actually Tweeting their appreciation for those who were protecting them: "Pup patrol reporting for duty. So much security, but all of the police and national guard are so incredibly friendly and supportive." "DC Army National Guard present to ensure safety at the march."

And Finally, Should We be Making these Kids into Moral Authorities?

Ben Shapiro, a man who sometimes says things with which I disagree, wrote a column asking this very question. I agree with his answers.

Shapiro focuses on the very young---kindergartners---saying, "But now the Left has found even more sympathetic faces for its agenda. Schools are grappling with how to address the event [the shooting] with children as young as ...Pre-K."

He says, "What makes children particularly valuable is their innocence, not their ignorance, The Left seems to like conflating the two characteristics. Innocence, as a quality, isn't about lack of knowledge or gullibility. The fact that everything in the world is wondrous to children is charming, but it's not something we can truly protect; as children age, they learn more, and they become more jaded, as we all do. We experience moments of wonder throughout our lives but never as we do when we're young. That's natural."

Shapiro, a graduate of Harvard Law School, bestselling author, married and father of two, says, "But we can protect their innocence."

Innocence is the moral quality of being sinless, and children are inherently innocent...because they have not yet come to a place of accountability or do not yet have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

Shapiro speaks to the indoctrination of our very youngest children, as we witness further evidence of the forced loss of innocence among today's teenagers.

The little ones are not moral guides, neither are the teenagers.

As one who has spent more than a decade of my life working with teenagers---thousands of them---from Seattle to Salem, Oregon, to Hollywood---I can tell you without hesitation, kids need leadership---they do not need to be forced into a faux moral leadership role to be used by pawns by a progressive Left who believe the end always justifies the means.

Particularly when they are being used by more sophisticated adults who have turned to using the children, because they have miserably failed to elect their banner carriers--Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and the rest of the shameless far Left secular progressives.

This is not just about protecting our children from guns. It's not even only about guns themselves. It's about advancing an ideology that is in stark contrast to the Constitution of the United States.

Progressivism always leads to bondage. It is not "progressive," it's "regressive" and destructive.

I rarely agree much less quote black rappers, but Mike is right. The Left is once again exploiting blacks, and now the children of all colors for their agenda.

And these kids are all destined to become not only the lackeys of the Left, but intellectual slaves as well.

The Apostle Paul explained what should be obvious to an adult: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (I Corth. 13:11).

Here's hoping and praying the secular progressive Left will grow up. And get over themselves.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful. Be Bold. Be Engaged.