Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - March 14

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Since this meme has always been on Wednesday, but I never seem to get it done until Thursday, I'm going to move it to Wednesday and see if it sticks.

Unless you've been avoiding the news for days now, you've heard that students around the nation staged walkouts today to protest gun violence. In our school district, the high school students were not allowed to go outside. Instead, they were allowed to go to the cafeteria for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims killed in the Parkland, Florida shooting. From what I understand, the student organizers at our high school read the names of the victims and also shared moments in silence to honor them. Other types of protests took place across our districts, but nothing near what we've seen in other areas of the country where students and politicians gave speeches.

While we must applaud citizens of various ages exercising their freedoms under the Constitution, it is more than disheartening that this issue--and many others--have become so politicized; that lawmakers and activists use tragedies to push their political agendas forward. The worst part is that conversations are no longer even close to civil. Long gone are the days where people could share their views without name calling and hurling insults Politics, like so many other things, has become primitive in nature. Pretty soon I expect to see politicians pounding their fists against their chests like gorillas.