Lauren Hogg....Parkland, Florida

[pbmus]

Link to tweet

[FM123]

1. Lauren, what your son & his fellow Parkland students have done for us

by speaking out and standing up to our administration - now that is beautiful, hope & democracy....

[JI7]

3. I think this is his sister

[RHMerriman]

2. Remarkable young woman

Remarkable young woman...

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

[Stonepounder]

5. I've been thinking about that song quite a bit for the last two years.

We need more Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Woody Guthrie, and the like. Their music fueled the Civil Right Movement, the Anti Vietnam protests.

Well, I'm not going to point any moral,
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're, waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!

[efhmc]

11. Music with a moral and a message.

nt

[RHMerriman]

12. Damn right...

[Haggis for Breakfast]

4. To all of the Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland

(including my beautiful niece)

[catchnrelease]

6. Ditto from me!

My grand niece graduated in June from Douglas. Now attending Cornell on a softball scholarship!

[Haggis for Breakfast]

13. Congratulations !!

Is Cornell ready for her ?

[catchnrelease]

14. She is little but fierce!

I just had an email from my niece saying that her daughter was the only freshman on her team to turn in all As! So that was great news.

But the bad thing is that 10 days ago the fire alarms went off on the 5th floor of her dorm and that with the fire and police activity triggered her back to the Douglas shooting. (She had been in the building next to the actual shooting/deaths, but took it all badly.) She has had trouble sleeping and focusing since the fire alarm thing. So, her parents had to go to Cornell and help her find some resources to deal with it. Counselors, ptsd people etc. I'm sure she will be ok in awhile, but it's so sad they have to deal with it at all.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

15. I hear you.

My niece is still at Douglas. She's in her junior year now. Everytime a helicopter goes over the house, she's instantly back . . . there. So many things trigger her still. She knew everyone of the dead children. They were her friends and in her classes (She's in some advanced classes in math and the sciences, so she knew the seniors, too..) and one of them was her coach.

She's made a lot of progress, both with group therapy and one-on-one therapy. It breaks my heart how much she has changed. She has aged so much in such a short time. I hate that this incident has now defined her life. When I was in school, the worst thing to happen was people smoking cigarettes in the bathrooms.

I will keep your grand niece in my thoughts along with my niece. Here's to wishing them both peace in time.

[catchnrelease]

16. Sending hugs her way

And yes, hope that they both can come out of it stronger and without too many emotional scars.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

17. With my niece, it may be a matter of using hypnosis to try to help her bury some very graphic, vivid

pictures that she still carries in her head. Right next to her best friend, another girl died while holding that girl's hand. She was so afraid to die alone, so she asked my niece's friend to hold her while she died. When SWAT came to escort the teens out of their classrooms, they had to walk past many dead, so much blood (and other things) spattered every where. I come from a military family. In addition to my father, two of my brothers and one of my sisters and I all served. None of us have ever seen anything like what those children saw that day. One thing that did not capture headlines, was that the shooter, with his AR-15, aimed at faces. My niece still will not talk about what she saw. We have told her that she doesn't have to talk about it. EVER. But that is her decision to make. I know she still has nightmares. For the first six months after, at 16, she began to sleep with her mum again. Now, she's back in her own room, but the desk light stays on.

We give her all the space she asks for, with a weary eye on her and only move in when it feels right. Does that sound familiar to you ?

One day at a time . . . . . . .

[catchnrelease]

18. Reading that makes me weep

Thankfully as far as I have heard my grandniece didn't see anything like your niece did. At least I was not told she did. The boy that was her prom date was sitting next to a girl that was killed. I know she was told to look away and not turn her head when they were walked out. Her issues have been more related to sound. She was reliving hearing footsteps, door knobs being tried (I think that was actually SWAT that was doing that) and of course the sound of the gunfire. She also slept in her parents bed for sometime. I hope she will find help at school to get over this hump, and maybe even more long term help.

I'm in California, and normally not in touch with my niece all that often, so am only getting the updates she wants to share with the rest of the family. I can tell it has traumatized their whole family though, especially now that their daughter is in NY and not close to home.

[Scurrilous]

7. K&R

[Cha]

9. Walkout to Vote..

Link to tweet

[Cha]

8. Tomorrow we get to prove that our voices matter. And we will use them to protect our futures.

Link to tweet

Mahalo, Lauren Hogg!

[ffr]

10. Many of those young adults will be future leaders.

They are inspiring.