Standing for Empathy
Not a Protestor by Nature, But Twice Called to Action
I wanted to entitle this post, “My first protest ever” then I remembered I protested in elementary school. Girls could not wear pants to school. I couldn’t play on the tricky bars because I heard too many taunts of:
I see London
I see France
I see April’s
Underpants1
I’m not sure of the specifics, I checked my diary from 3rd grade and I wrote, “Wore pants with the 5th and 6th graders. We all got caught trying to change in the girls restroom. Suspended. My mom is mad.”
When I came back to school, the Principal announced that girls could wear pants on Fridays and at recess. Within the month, we could wear dress pants every day. No Levis or play pants. Within the year, the entire district allowed girls to wear pants to school.
You are welcome younger generations of aspired tricky bar players. The swings are better in pants2
I’m not sure if I can categorize my protest activities as a trend, when the break between the protest is 5 decades, but for brevities sake, I’m going with it:
I hope my trend of participating in successful protests continues.
Yesterday, I made a sign highlighting the issue I care most about: Empathy.3 My sign read:
Empathy is our Strength
on the other side, I wrote, “Tax the Rich”4
Let’s hope my trend continues: Girls can wear pants and we all know that
Empathy is our Strength
If you know anything of my childhood, you’ll know that taunt stopped me from playing on the tricky bars.
Paperdolls & Cowboy Boots
I know the term pants is hilarious for my friends across the pond in the UK. But, for some reason, we in the colonies now known as the USA, refer to trousers as pants. But, really, what about those boots in your trunk?
I recently read that Elon Musk said that empathy is western society’s greatest weakness. I was so stunned, I had to verify it. Several time. He did say it, and it’s appalling.
I chose the “Tax the Rich” snippet because of all this noise about government spending, cuts, and such, I haven’t read much about taxing the rich. By rich, I don’t mean, upper middle class. I mean the billionaires. The ones rich enough to possibly “short” the market on the Tariff Plunge last week.