A Call to Progress

Frank Bencomo-Suarez
Class of 2018

There are those who fear progress. They pride themselves on having things as they have always been. They find comfort in the past and idolize it as a “golden age.” They wish for everything to be traditional. In the United States many of these people label themselves “conservatives.” The past was not a favorable time for people of color, the LGBT community, people of differing faiths, and women’s rights. These groups do not long for the past. They can barely stand the present. People of color are being gunned down in the streets as a direct result of racial bias. The LGBT community faces discrimination at every turn as people such as Kim Davis deny them their rights and then become heroes in the eyes of the right. Muslims must endure threats of added surveillance as the right’s politicians chant for witch hunts and pride themselves on being good “Christians.”  Women are treated like children by patriarchal leaders who claim to know what's best for them and institutions which recommend they not walk around at night rather than focus on making a secure world for them. They are told to choose between their families and their careers. They are told how to dress and how to act in a matter that men aren’t. These more sickening traits of our culture are leftovers from the past that the political right in America so admires.

I forgive them. It is easy to look lovingly on an antiquated culture which has historically favored white male Christians. It isn’t easy for them to see that they have loved the culture for it was kind to them and gave them more opportunity than a fairer system would. To do so is human. I too, have enjoyed and prospered in a system which gave me advantages for being born in America to two wonderful parents as a native English speaker. I myself am privileged. I acknowledge this. I see the system in which we live as something to be improved upon. For we can always do better for our fellow humans. We can progress beyond that which we have been.

What will this require of us? Well all must take off the rose-colored glasses through which they have seen the past and acknowledge the faults of our past which are many. All must acknowledge their own privilege in society. We have to accept that a world that is better for all may mean that some have to give up this “privileged status.”  But that’s okay. We don’t have to stay stuck in the old ways and traditions of the past. We can start on new ways and new traditions which are more inclusive to all of humanity. It is a fallacy to assume that “this generation is too extreme.” EVERY generation has been too extreme to the one before it. At one point in American history suggesting interracial marriage was going way too far. At one point in American history the mere idea of women voting was a joke.  At the beginning of our nation it was common that our leaders held other human beings in the chains of slavery. To our children we too will have been backwards. The idea that our LGBT citizens were not allowed to marry who they loved will be barbaric. That we profiled our Muslim brothers and sisters will be viewed as idiotic. That we allowed rapists to go free after a mere three months in jail because of our stigma towards women will be an injustice to them.  How we destroyed so much of our Mother Earth will be viewed by future generations as one of the most repulsive crimes ever. To our grandchildren we will be relics.

To be progressive is to acknowledge these faults. It is to know that we have much further to go. It is to see the world as it is and to advance for what it can be, using science, logic, and compassion. I call upon the Donald Trumps and the Matt Bevins of the world to let go of the narrow rhetoric of exclusion and open up to accepting more people. I call upon those who call this nation a Christian nation to accept that we are not a theocracy but instead a secular nation for all. I call upon those who have disdain for science to wake up to the fact that you don’t have to be a scientist to accept the scientific system of proof and testing. I call upon those who favor profit over protecting our environment to know that you can’t count while holding your breath. I call for progress so that our future generations may inherit a better world sooner.

Frank Bencomo-Saurez, of Louisville, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar studying physics and political science