Quảng Ngãi Nghĩa Thục

Life as we know it has been changed forever by the pandemic. 

The endless monotone of quarantine passing by as days and days and eventually weeks and months blend into one another to form an incredibly bland soup of time and mundanity. The steady stream of negative news ricocheting around and around doesn’t help with the overall atmosphere of despair. Too many people have died. Many more are dying and suffering. It’s easier to turn away from the world’s issues and pretend they don’t exist. Because, what can we do anyways? What could we possibly do to help people? 

It is what it is, isn’t it? 

Wrong. Absolutely wrong. 

We do not turn away from the dark because that is not who we are as people. No, we stare into the darkness, daring for it to fight back, and we move forward. We do not turn away from the death, the suffering, and the misery even if it’s easier because silence is being cowardly. Silence is being ignorant. Silence means taking the side of the oppressor. It’s always easier to ignore the world’s troubles because staring into the darkness is uncomfortable and it makes us reflect on the darkness within ourselves. We cannot do that because indifference is dangerous and indifference will cost us democracy.

We need to be aware of the world’s issues and what we can do. 

One of the issues that brings me here today is the topic of the U.S. 2020 presidential election.  It’s important to fully understand the impact of this election and what it means. This election is like no other and the outcome of it will influence the nature of the nation for years to come because human rights and human lives are at stake. 

It’s not about politics anymore. It’s about human rights. 

The lives of millions are on the line. We need a leader who is empathetic, kind, just, and strong. We need a leader who sees the victims of COVID-19 as not statistics or numbers, but as people who had families and loved ones. We need a leader who realizes the daily struggle of millions of Americans who struggle to pay for their next meal and work day and night for their families. We need a leader who sees people of color as human beings and spreads messages of empathy instead of spewing hate and inciting violence. We need a leader who doesn’t play politics with lives but instead understands them and fights for them. 

Human rights is something that should never be politicized and in order to ensure the protection of the nation’s soul and for ours, we have to choose the right path for the country’s future and our own by using our voices and voting. 

Vote for those who cannot speak for themselves, vote for those who have been oppressed, vote for humanity.