To the Editor:

After watching the recent school protests for the deplorable murderous actions of a mentally unstable individual in Florida I couldn’t help but wonder why do we protest everything but change little? Maybe it makes us feel good and less impotent?

Maybe we simply have too much time on our hands these days with all the technical innovations limiting hard work and labor? Be it the Teachers in West Virginia walking out on their jobs, Black Lives Matter shutting down highways in Minnesota or 16 and 17 year olds walking out of classrooms, how have we gotten to this point where we don’t work hard, pin our ears back, engage politically, legislatively, social club organizationally, etc. but grab signs, chant slogans and at times, be disruptive to the balance of society.

I watched the high school young adults and wondered am I watching the next wave of social activists soon to be demanding health care to the grave, a government funded standard living wage (vs. employment), free college tuition, room and board, free, free, free?

I also understand generally speaking, school administrators and teachers all supported the walk out…not surprised there, I saw several solid organized labor voices honing their skills during the walk out protests. This isn’t about free expression of thought or freedom of speech in general, it’s truly about if you don’t like something, organize, protest, call up the media, get some iPhone photos and post them.

I absolutely applaud constructive engagement and passion, what I struggle with is an ever-growing grievance culture in this country that leads to zero statesmanship.

Although the passion was in the right direction, I would have loved to have heard a news story of a school’s Student Council sitting down with a Superintendent or Principle and ironing out agreement on actions to improve safety and awareness in their schools.

That would have been constructive. Walking out of a commitment (in this case education) to protest is not constructive and typically solves little other than 5 minutes of social media fame.

Steve Rombough

Massena