The Emerging Activist


I’m not political. Never have been.

The idea of a politician is filled with images of deception and lies for convenience at the cost of innocent lives, many of which are ignorant they are being toyed with in the first place. They are known for it more so than lawyers. I never wanted to be connected to that idea.

Being an activist seemed to be the same type of thing; to be an activist you have to stay angry at all times and have access to a nearly esoteric language that revolves around concepts I can’t begin to fathom.

However, I do have a sense of how I like people being treated.

It makes me angry when people treat someone like crap because of their gender. Or their sex. Or their religion. Or their race.

Most notably, there has been this thing going on in a little town called Ferguson. If you have not read about it, you really should. Essentially, a young, black kid was shot by the cops and upon investigation, it turns out that the cops had no good reason to do this. As such, it has brought up a fair bit of conversation with which I find myself increasingly upset.

I don’t understand how someone appearing to be a “thug” is justification for taking their life. I don’t get how, when someone brings up the statistics related to race on this issue, they receive anger or apathy. I don’t get how people can say things like “this isn’t a big deal. Don’t make it a racial issue.”

I also don’t get how girls that say, “hey people, you’re treating us like crap and here is how”, they get death threats.

It angers me enough that I write about it. It angers me enough that I want to be involved in fixing it. It angers me enough to make other people aware of it so they can help me fix it. It angers me enough that I don’t really care how other people feel about the fact that I’m complaining about it.

I realize that this isn’t something outside of me, but it is within me. It is me and could be me on any given day for no good reason at all.

Then I realize that there are hundreds of people walking in lock-step behind me that feel the same way. So much so, that it is becoming an international issue.

Suddenly, I think I understand why activists seem angry and even more than that, I feel that I am becoming one of them.


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