How the Florida Town Hall Meeting Compares to the Movie Lean on Me

So, unless you have been in a coma or under a rock somewhere, we are all aware of the tragic mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School that took the lives of 17 people. I am a native Floridian. Though I love my state, there are definitely some things about Florida that I do not agree with. If you tell anyone I said this, I will vehemently deny it (and yes I am aware this is public). The students/staff/families of Stoneman Douglas High School (which I will refer to as SDHS from here on out because it is too much to type out the whole name) are a very courageous, articulate, and assertive group of individuals. This makes me proud and feel like there is some hope for our future. I was starting to feel hopeless after seeing countless videos and stories of children doing things like Tide Pod challenges, chasing around Pokemon (at least they got some physical activity and to be fair adults were chasing him too), doing hangman/choking challenges that sometimes turned out to be fatal, etc. As proud as I was of those students taking a stand and demanding action, as a black woman I couldn’t help thinking about the fact that there were no town hall meetings about Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Sam Dubose, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, the list goes on and on. There haven’t been any town hall meetings about the countless shootings and deaths that occur in impoverished neighborhoods. What is the difference? The students of SDHS had the resources and privilege to be able to fly to Washington and organize a town hall meeting that was televised. Hold on while I have a flashback to earlier today when I was listening to “The Revolution will not be televised”. Wakanda Forever!!!! Ok I am back. What do impoverished people do when there is injustice and don’t have the resources, support, or privilege to go to Washington, DC to talk to the president or hold nationally televised town hall meetings? They turn to the church or have block parties or meetings at the community center or have fish fries or as a group march to the city hall in their respective cities. Which brings me to the title of this post. After watching the town hall meeting, I was reminded of one of my all time favorite movies Lean on Me. I was discussing this with Clarence Gordon (who also loves this movie, which is a big reason why I love him) and we discussed how the town hall meeting compares to Lean on Me. Here is what we found:

1) There was a student who asked Senator Mark Rubio a couple of questions. Now at this point in the meeting, Rubio had opened his mouth and allowed things to come out that the audience were not in agreement with (surprise surprise), so they were already not on him and feeling some type of way about him. As he was talking in circles, the audience were yelling out and voicing their discontent with him. The student told the audience to quiet down and let him speak and then poignantly asked him if he would stop accepting money from the NRA. This made me think of when Clarence in Lean on Me took the loud speaker from the hater with the big lips and told the students of Eastside High to quiet down and “listen to the loud mouth wench”.

2) Speaking of the students of Eastside High, them marching to city hall chanting “Free Mr. Clark” was very similar the students coming together at the town hall meeting asking for justice.

3) The representative from the NRA reminded me of the “loud mouth wench”.

4) The song that was sung at the end of the town hall meeting reminded me of Ms. Powers singing Lean on Me minus the soul and head bobbing and people swaying in different directions.

5) The students demanding to be heard reminded me of the vice principal of Eastside High demanding Joe Clark to listen to her.

6) The whole premise of Lean on Me was that Joe Clark was trying to protect the students and he took the measures of putting chains on the doors to keep drug dealers and negative/dangerous individuals out of the school and he was reprimanded for that because it was a fire hazard. The president has proposed that teachers be armed as a proposed solution to mass shootings in the school. Marinate on that.

This has made me want to watch Lean on Me yet again sigh. Thank you for your time.