美国国家公共电台 NPR Students Who Lived Through Florida Shooting Turn Rage Into Activism

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're going to start the program today in South Florida, where something remarkable¹ is happening. In Parkland, the scene of that school shooting last week that left 17 people dead, the kids are organizing. High school students who survived the attack are planning a massive rally in Washington, D.C., next month to demand stricter gun laws and an end to school violence. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann has this report.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE²: At a picnic table in a city park a short drive from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the kids have set up a kind of media center.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Does he have cameras?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Can't see.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Yeah. But (unintelligible)...

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: He's a camera...

: ...Have somebody's...

: He's a camera guy. Hey, I don't know if he has one right...

MANN: It's Sunday afternoon, and they're fielding calls from news outlets³ all over the country, also from community organizers who want to help by donating or volunteering. Dylan Redshaw is a senior, 17 years old. She survived Wednesday's attack and says the message now is pretty simple.

DYLAN REDSHAW: I just know we must prioritize lives over guns.

MANN: Sofie Whitney, also a senior and a survivor⁴, is 18. She says the country needs action in the form of new laws, new policies.

SOFIE WHITNEY: We can't dwell on the sadness. Of course, we - we are all heartbroken, but we can't let the 17 people die for nothing. We have to make something good about their death.

MANN: This kind of activism feels really different compared with past mass shootings. The kids here say, in part, it's because the victims are older. They're old enough to have a voice. Chris Grady, also a senior and a survivor, is 18.

CHRIS GRADY: After what happened in New Town, those kids were too young to speak out against what happened and to really even maybe even understand what happened. And we want to be the voices for not only them but for any student and teacher who have been affected⁵ by acts of cowardice⁶ like this.

MANN: Another big change is social media. Brendan Duff is a college student who went to school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. He's come home to help manage this new movement's digital campaign. The response has been overwhelming.

BRENDAN DUFF: Hundreds of messages per minute. Like, just direct messages on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram just because people all over the country want to help, and social media is honestly the best way to reach not only everyone in this country, I think, but definitely this generation.

MANN: This is all happening really fast. Emma Gonzalez, another survivor of Wednesday's attack, went viral nationwide over the weekend after speaking at an anti-gun rally in Fort Lauderdale.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

EMMA GONZALEZ: In this case, if you actively⁷ do nothing, people continually end up dead...

(APPLAUSE)

GONZALEZ: ...So it's time to start doing something.

MANN: Gonzalez is here today in the park helping⁸ plan next steps. Her mom, Elizabeth Wiegard, drops by, and I ask her what it's like watching her daughter swept up in this moment.

ELIZABETH WIEGARD: It's terrifying, especially after last week. All you want to do is hold them tight. Like, I don't really want her to go to the bathroom on her own. And she's just, like, camped out all night with these amazing kids, organizing a movement. And it's kind of like letting them drive for the first time, which, up until about a week ago, was my biggest fear. You just got to open your arms and let them fly.

MANN: These kids know they're flying in the face of massive political opposition⁹, headwinds that include the NRA's staunch opposition to gun control and the Republican Party's distrust of limiting gun rights. Sofie Whitney says she has a question for those people.

WHITNEY: Why does your right to own an AR-15 more important than a kid's right to feel safe? It's not. It's common sense.

MANN: Another student, Dylan Redshaw, leans in, her voice shaking with anger.

REDSHAW: We're not even asking for, you know, that completely all guns need to go. That's not even what we're asking for. We need - we just need age restrictions¹⁰ and high-quality accessible mental health institutions and higher checks on when people are trying to purchase these weapons, on gun ownership.

MANN: These kids moved quickly the last couple of days to tap into a grassroots national network first organized the head of the women's march last year. With that help, they think the rally in Washington, D.C., March 24 will be big. There will also be smaller marches and rallies in cities all over the country. Again, Brendan Duff.

DUFF: We're going to have, in every major city, somewhere that people all across the country can go to. They want to feel engaged, and they want to work they're doing something to help. And this is it.

MANN: The guy who started all this with a series of viral tweets with the theme, never again, and, enough, is a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Cameron Kasky. He's a survivor too. And on this afternoon, just before we talk, he sprawls¹¹ on the grass, blowing off steam with pushups. I ask what he says to people who think the gun debate is just too dead-ended, too polarized for change to happen. Kasky shakes his head.

CAMERON KASKY: The crescendo¹² has hit its point. It's enough, and we're going to - it's over. I haven't a shred¹³ of doubt that this is going to be our change.

MANN: Another student tells me this campaign isn't just focused on rallies and social media. A lot of high school kids like her will turn 18 before the November election, and they also plan to vote. Our kids are dying and no one is doing anything about it, she says. Everyone's going to vote. Brian Mann, NPR News, Parkland, Fla.

1 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 cowardice   

n.胆小，怯懦

参考例句：

• His cowardice reflects on his character.他的胆怯对他的性格带来不良影响。
• His refusal to help simply pinpointed his cowardice.他拒绝帮助正显示他的胆小。

7 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

10 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

11 sprawls   

n.（城市）杂乱无序拓展的地区( sprawl的名词复数 )；随意扩展；蔓延物v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的第三人称单数 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• The city sprawls out to the west, north and south. 该市向西、北、南方不规则地扩张[延伸]。 来自互联网
• Explanation: Our magnificent Milky Way Galaxy sprawls across this ambitious all-sky panorama. 说明：我们宏伟的银河系蜿蜒穿过这幅高企图心之全天影像。 来自互联网

12 crescendo   

n.(音乐)渐强，高潮

参考例句：

• The gale reached its crescendo in the evening.狂风在晚上达到高潮。
• There was a crescendo of parliamentary and press criticism.来自议会和新闻界的批评越来越多。

13 shred   

v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少

参考例句：

• There is not a shred of truth in what he says.他说的全是骗人的鬼话。
• The food processor can shred all kinds of vegetables.这架食品加工机可将各种蔬菜切丝切条。