Aidan Vanhoof

I live a pretty comfortable life, all things considered. My nights are spent cozy, my days are spent at a school I’m privileged enough to afford. However, even in my plucky middle class position, I’m anxious about the future and our political situation. So I can’t imagine how genuinely gross this all must be to the transgender or Hispanic communities, for example, who are genuinely suffering. Or the millions worldwide subject to the effects of climate change, effects I only feel while sunburnt during hot summer days.

We need to be grateful. My life is good, but my life isn’t universal. Sometimes it’s easy to forget and lose empathy. But to forget is to grow complacent. As members of a society, we’re obligated to contribute to it; therefore, we have an obligation to work towards its betterment.

I’m not normally one to moralize a ton. Honestly, I don’t think it gets us very far. As an approach, it’s not oriented towards solutions, nor deep analysis: all it looks like is complaining. But solidarity can’t be dumped away. We have to cling to it at all times, even just as a basic principle.