The mass walkouts by students in protest against gun violence has been tremendously inspirational. Just listening to clips from the speeches made me want to raise my fist in support.

This student movement–and it is a movement–needs to be supported. Yes, there were certainly other cases of gun violence that could have…should have started such a movement. But that is not the way that history and social movements work. Timing as well as contributing factors make for social explosions. One can rarely project as to when it will happen, though we can largely guess that an explosion will happen.

This student movement has put the NRA and their political allies on the defensive. In response the political Right is doing all that it can to defame the leading spokespersons of this movement, not to mention defaming many of the victims of the Parkland massacre. As such, we on the Left must speak up and not treat this explosion as if it were some sort of sideshow. Today’s walkouts and demonstrations represent yet another front against the political Right and its irrationalism.

Where will this movement go? Who knows? But what we can say is that it takes a lot of courage for these young activists to step forward, walk out of their schools, and make their voices heard.

My hat goes off to each and every one of them!