Students employ education as their weapon

By Manushri Desai

Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017 | 2 a.m.

October 1, 2017. As Jason Aldean’s vocals pour from the loudspeakers on the Las Vegas Strip, an array of piercing bangs elicits the mental image of distant fireworks. Aldean’s words momentarily falter, and the speakers go quiet. The Strip stands still, as if to take in a gasp of air. Two seconds elapse and the bangs resume, their relentless rapidity now beginning to spark the realization that the sound is gunfire.

We never think that it’s going to be our city in the headlines, but in a few minutes the streets we’ve walked and the places we’ve grown up around can become buzzwords in the media. Times like these, in many ways, defy explanation. But what such times truly warrant are individuals who are willing to challenge all explanations. The 61st annual Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum provided an apt venue to do exactly that — interact with and build upon a reservoir of refreshing, youthful perspectives. We often overlook the importance of local/statewide action in crafting public policy; however, amid such preconceptions, the students participating in the forum, entirely engaged in various microcosms of the city, are taking the initiative to evoke meaningful discourse.

One of the most contentious topics of discussion in our group surrounded the Las Vegas shooting and measures that could be taken to ensure the safety of citizens. Some students were quick to unearth the inability of gun regulations to moderate the conscience behind the hand that pulls the trigger. Others, however, advocated for a set of stricter laws on purchases of firearms due to current lax gun regulations in Nevada.

Seize the guns and dismantle the weapons; what are we left with? More than ever, the nature of our country prompts individuals to politicize events. And while fueling political conversation may be a foundational step to introducing public policy, our point of consensus, as students, did not lie in a specific method of gun control, but rather in the ability to use education as a weapon, with a better aim than any sniper, to pinpoint the unwarranted cause of bloodshed.

Education, or rather the lack thereof, contributes to the divisiveness of individuals and, by the same measure, their readiness to accept polarized viewpoints. It is perhaps the exchange of contradicting perspectives and indulgence in unknown information that can increase our tolerance for ideas and concepts that we do not understand.

Our empathy-ridden discourse shifted to the importance of student-initiated learning and civic engagement in shaping public policy. Many students recognized that platforms such as the Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum provided just that — a structured process of professional discourse wherein students educate themselves about the community and relay the same understanding in order to initiate change. Addressing issues such as the recreational use of marijuana and regional sources of renewable energy, students understood that the hallmark of meaningful discussion was the ability to be heard and to listen neutrally.

May times of hardship remind us of the selflessness that exudes from our city and the interconnectedness of our community in sharing personal narratives. It is through platforms of constructive dialogue, like the Sun Youth Forum, that we can learn to use empathy as a tool to kindle change.

They say nothing grows in the desert. Let’s prove them wrong.

Manushri Desai is a senior at Clark High School.