During the Billboard Awards on Saturday night, the host Kelly Clarkson flipped the switch on Billboard’s request and opted out of asking the audience for a ‘moment of silence.’ The request was in relation to last week’s Santa Fe High School’s mass shooting. Clarkson directed her words to protest that and all the senseless and much too common mass shootings. What she did took courage. It was on point—and it was powerful. Here is a Twitter video clip of Clarkson’s speech posted by actress/activist Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano).
Transcript:
Before we start tonight’s show, there’s something I’d like to...this is going to be so hard—there’s something I’d like to say about the tragedy, Friday, at Santa Fe High School.
So sorry.
I’m a Texas girl and they’ve had so much heartbreak over this past year, and once again we’re grieving for more kids who’ve died for [absolutely] no reason at all. And tonight they wanted me to say that obviously we want to pray for all the victims and pray for their families, but they also wanted me to do a ‘moment of silence.’
And I’m so sick of ‘moment of silence.’ It’s not working, obviously, so, why don’t we not do a moment of silence—why don’t we ‘moment of action’—why don’t we do ‘moment of change, why don’t we change what's happening. (Applause) because it’s horrible.
And mamas and daddies should be able to send their kids to school, to church, to movie theaters….you should be able to live life without that kind of fear.
So, we need to do better. We need to do better. Some people are failing our children. We’re failing our communities, we’re failing their families.
I can’t imagine—I have four children. I can’t imagine getting that phone call or knock at the door.
So, instead of ‘moment of silence,’ I want to respect them and honor them. Tonight, y’all, in your community, where you live...let’s have a moment of action—a moment of change.
Thank you to Kelly Clarkson and every celebrity who uses their platform to speak out. And thank you, again, to Alyssa Milano for doing so every day.
Celebrities, entertainers, sports figures, artists... who publicly protest gun violence, the NRA and the NRA-bribed lawmakers, know they will probably lose a chunk of their fans, face harassment, bullying and the possibility of death threats. But what they gain are more fans, more admiration, more respect and the possibility of saving countless lives as they stand on the right side of history.
