Last night, CNN aired a live town hall with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School community—where last week one of the nation's deadliest school shootings took place—asking questions of politicians including Senator Marco Rubio, and the kids’ candor, emotion, poise, eloquence, humor and thoroughness were an inspiration to us all. I’m more afraid of high school students than I’ve ever been, and for once, that’s good news.

Rubio joined the other Florida Senator Bill Nelson and Rep. Ted Deutch, whose district includes Marjory Stoneman, for the first few segments, and in his opening statements he called for mercy and restraint. 

“We are a nation of people who have stopped being friends with people because of who they voted for in the last election,” he said, “We are a nation of people who have isolated ourselves to only watch channels that tell us that we're right. We're a nation of people that have isolated ourselves politically and to a point where discussions like this have become very difficult.”