The massacre of 19 children and two teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has caused outrage and frustration among various personalities who are using their platforms to call for political action.
[Follow our minute-by-minute coverage of the massacre in Uvalde]
The poet and activist Amanda Gorman wrote several verses on her social networks calling attention to violence in school classrooms and highlighting this type of systematic massacres.
"It takes a monster to kill children. But watching monsters kill children over and over and
doing nothing is not just insanity, it's inhumanity," he
said on Twitter.
"Schools are scared to death. The truth is an education under the desks, bent by bullets; that sinks when we ask: where will our children live and how and if."
[Irma García, Annabell Rodríguez, Xavier López... Here's what we know about the 21 victims of the Texas school shooting]
Selena Gomez and Amanda Gorman.Getty Images
Gorman, with a platform of more than a million followers, made history in January 2021 as the youngest poet in history to participate in a presidential inauguration in the United States.
“It is an epidemic that we can control”
On the other hand, Matthew McConaughey, who was born in Uvalde, published a statement on his Twitter account demanding political action.
"This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side we take, we all know we can do better," he wrote.
"We have to act so that no parent has to experience what Uvalde's parents and those before her have endured."
McConaughey has said in the past that he is interested in a political career, however, he said in November that he would not run for Texas governor.
Selena Gómez, another artist who was born in that state, called for
fewer words and more political action.
"Today, in my home state of Texas, 18 innocent students were killed while simply trying to get an education. One teacher killed doing her job - invaluable but sadly underappreciated work.
If children are not safe at school, where are they safe?" wrote the singer, who also asked to donate to the Every Town organization that seeks to prevent gun violence.
