“”
they want you to believe that care is weakness. that empathy is a liability. that to survive, you must look out only for yourself.
they want you tired, overwhelmed, too afraid to reach out. they want you to see suffering and believe it is someone else's problem. they want you to believe that the pain of others is inevitable, that there is nothing you can do, that this is just how things are.
but this is a lie.
loving and caring for each other is the most powerful thing we can do in times like these. it is an act of resistance. when the system is built to isolate us, to make us feel powerless, to force us into survival mode where we only think of ourselves, choosing to love anyway is revolutionary.
empathy does not mean absorbing every tragedy as your own, drowning in the weight of injustice. it means refusing to let the world harden you. it means staying present, staying aware, and doing what you can, where you are, with what you have.
it means showing up.
it means feeding people who are hungry, housing people who are displaced, and comforting those who are grieving. it means building networks of mutual aid, because help should not come only from institutions that have failed us. it means pushing back when the powerful try to strip others of their rights, even when those rights are not immediately your own.
it means remembering that no one is disposable.
it means rejecting the idea that people must "earn" basic dignity. that healthcare, food, and safety should only belong to those who can afford them. that love is something to be rationed.
it means seeing the humanity in people even when the system tries to erase it. it means recognizing that those in power want us divided, want us at each other's throats, want us blaming the wrong people for our struggles.
it means refusing to become like them.
it means protecting the vulnerable. not because it is easy. not because it is convenient. but because it is right. because history remembers those who stood for others, and it remembers those who looked away.
it means fighting for the world we want, not just resisting the one we have.
it means love. fierce, relentless, unwavering love.
because they do not win unless they make us forget how to care.