(Editor’s note: Madeleine Edwards is Editor of Dragon’s Tale, the Sonoma Valley High School student news site. She is also a high school intern for the Sonoma Valley Sun. These are the remarks she delivered at the March 28 No Kings protest in Sonoma.)
My name is Madeleine and I’m a student at Sonoma Valley High School, and I’m here today to talk to you about the Trump administration and how it’s harming the youth in Sonoma, across the nation, and around the world.
As many of you know, my peers and I have been engaged in a struggle with the school board and our pride flag at Sonoma Valley High. Although the flag is back up, it is said that there will be discussion at the June board meeting that will be pivotal to the flag’s future.
In my mind, there’s no doubt that this entire issue stems from a changing political climate in the U.S., where the current government orchestrates harmful rhetoric against the queer community and especially trans people and queer youth.
This administration has caused significant regression and, of course, not only for the queer community.
People of color and immigrants are being increasingly targeted by ICE. Children are afraid to go to school, and families are being separated. Innocent people are being sent to camps and faraway prisons where they disappear without a trace
Schoolchildren in Iran are being killed by bombs falling from the sky sent by the very president who claimed he would end all war. Our nation is perpetuating conflicts that lead to starvation, violence, and genocide.
For all of us, including many students like me, this feels overwhelming. But we need to recognize that we have the power as a collective to create real change.
The MAGA movement was never about making America great. It was always about silencing the people who choose to speak out against fascism and corruption, from the communities that built America and made it so special; from queer and trans people, people of color, immigrants, the educated, and the youth that will carry this country into a brighter future.
Please protest and vote against the Trump administration so that by the time my peers and I are old enough to vote, there will still be elections and the participative democracy this country was founded on. If you’re my age, your voice matters too. Continue to speak up, demand action, participate in school board meetings, and focus on your education, because that is one of the biggest things that trump and his administration are trying to take away from us.
It was hard to have hope for the future growing up as a queer kid in Sonoma. It is difficult to have hope for my classmates who are living in a country that actively targets them. It is nearly impossible to envision a future where this political persecution stops and where youth around the world are free from war and violence. But good things don’t come easy, and seeing everyone here today gives me hope, and should give you hope, for a future where a king belongs in England, and people who appreciate diversity and democracy belong in our offices of government.
Thank you Madeleine Edwards for the thoughts you expressed at the recent No Kings gathering on the Plaza and written here. Your accurate observations regarding the so-called MAGA intrusion into American politics are spot on and terribly disturbing to millions of us in this nation, and that doesn’t begin to express the depth of the pain and fury we all feel.
And I have to point out as well your courage and forthrightness in reminding us about how what’s happening in our world so deeply affects our children, of all ages, and your relating to us the exceptional difficulties experienced by them in the transgender and queer communities in which we all reside. You posses wisdom and sensiibility far beyond your young years.And welcome to The Sun.