We are poised to be the leaders of tomorrow. Our dedicated teachers encourage our curiosities, push us to explore, and dare us to ask why. Our classes champion the power of the virtuous individual and warn us of the forces of apathy and complicity. Our community forums underline the duty of the powerful to fight on behalf of the powerless. And breathing life into these inert educational resources are real opportunities for action, times where we can take our knowledge out of the classroom and into our broken — but fixable — world.
Tomorrow, we have one of these opportunities. Some of my incredible classmates have organized a walkout in protest of America’s gun violence epidemic. As students, we empathize with survivors and victims alike. But as students at Andover, we find ourselves in a uniquely powerful position, brimming with the knowledge, resources, and connections to enact significant change on issues like this one.
This is the perfect storm for activism and action. And yet, many of us find ourselves unable to make the leap from being the idealistic, frustrated commentator to the dedicated actor — the agent of change. This is no failure of our passion and awareness surrounding this issue; we all respect the gravity of this problem and want to improve the safety and wellbeing of innocent students. Rather, it is the mere possibility of receiving an absence from class that impedes this powerful, symbolic walkout. We’re stopping in our tracks to avoid what amounts to an administrative slap on the wrist.
We justify our inaction by saying, “I would, except I have a class/test/practice…” We’re forfeiting our agency and moral responsibility to the forces of circumstance, safe in the knowledge that if our schedules were only a bit more open, we would participate wholeheartedly.
How have we let our priorities become so disordered? How have we let the formality of class attendance outweigh the very principles we have discovered, learned, and respected within those classes? History tells us that the circumstances for change are almost never perfect. Yet change only occurs when we ignore every good reason to stay apathetic and decide to fight.
So here we stand, poised to be the leaders of tomorrow. I urge all of us in the Andover community to reflect on our values and to ask ourselves what is more important: the lives of our fellow students or the spotlessness of our academic records. I hope we all choose to act where words do not suffice — to make a small sacrifice for a large cause; to take the cut and walk out.
