Children, Power, And Punishment

But the children—the ones invoked, debated, uplifted, and criticized—still had to wake up the next morning and live in the world adults had carved around them.

For them, nothing about the vote was symbolic. It was personal. It was tomorrow. It was their bodies, their futures, their fears, their hope.

And as the echo of that single vote settled over the country, one truth lingered beneath all the noise:
Legislation may shape policy,
but it is always the smallest voices who bear its weight.