I feel distressed. I feel grim. No particular instance- just the general prospect, the outlook of the Human race, a form of which often terrifies me. Each one of us is bound with a tremendous potential to love and to be kind. Yet, many of us actively choose otherwise.

No number of sad songs and videos will ever amount to the remorse felt by the 4-year-old bullied for her race. Nothing will ever amount to the sufferings of the 80-something-year-old kisans, whose deaths are left not only unmourned but defamed.

I feel responsible in ways I never knew I could. I feel remorse every time I recall being the bully, and not being grateful enough.

Let’s talk about the capacity for endless compassion we all are equipped with. What circumstances misplace our hope? Our sense of humanity? Our faith? Why do people display vanity in actively hating other communities? Why do people choose to propagate hate and catalyse anger, pure rage, and hatred?

Here’s something I wish I could understand.

We fear contrast- be it the variance in the belief of Him, or in traits uniquely incongruous to ours.

Stereotypes arise, us and them factorise, resulting in polarisation. Simply put, distrust is fruited from unreasonable suspicions. This is just my attempt at understanding the complexity of behaviour.

Compassion. Empathy. Sensitivity. These words hold incredible strength.

We aren’t hunting savages anymore. We don’t need to be on our toes all the time. We have the ability to collaborate and create a community bigger than ourselves. Bigger than our individual beliefs.

Yet, we find strength in mislead numbers and hate speeches.

In the age of science and reason, how are we still bound by primal desires of senseless power and greed?

My shoulders are weighted down- with every student caught in tragedy and lost potential. With every massacre and attack on the innocent. With every eye of suspicion on those who dress differently, and the labels of ‘terrorist’.

Terror. Mass hysteria. Fear. Also words that hold strength.

Every time a little 7 year old asks, “why am I different” and proudly says “I am going to change the world someday-“;

every time the all knowing adults dismiss the judgements of a 15 year old, avoiding political and social debates, instead, scrapping off themes of federalism and secularism from their school syllabi; every time an 18-year-old wishes to leave the country to study abroad, feeling lost of purpose ‘cause the education system doesn’t do justice to their skills; every time the 20-something year old participates in local politics, gets labeled as ‘anti national’, and attacked- let me ask you once again, “what kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids?”

As I fear for backlash, for labels and my safety, my sanity, I’ll ask once more.

Why can’t we just get along? Why can’t we be kinder?

The student who scored low in a test- why do we label them ‘failures’. Failure, by definition, is an abstract noun, not an adjective used to describe someone. There is so much more to a person. All the much more to our society.

We are perturbed by sentience, by conscious thought, by experience. Live and let live. The almighty never assigned the task of ravaging, of punishing the supposed evil to you. You are the creator of your own destiny. Be sure to create a compassionate one. 

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