Story by Elise Cookson, Illustration by Mallika Sunder

“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”

-Diogenes

“Our time is now.”

-Unknown

As the old year comes to a close, it is clearly a time for reflection, as is so often the case. A time to look back on the year, or maybe the past few, since for so many of us time has become a large blur in the face of the outrageous events of recent times. But nonetheless, a lot has undeniably happened in these times, some good, some bad, and though some of us may be anxiously awaiting the end of 2021 others may welcome it as another chance to start anew, but either way we are all on the same side and may take comfort in the fact that we are starting the new year together.

In terms of the major events of the past year, and though I am unable to comment on major personal events for you, the reader, the range of major dealings in the public spectrum alone is far too large to address here in any simple way. But even without reviewing each individual piece of data, each win and each loss, each change and each continuity, there is still a lot to be learned from the whole. Especially, in terms of social justice, egalitarianism, if you will, and that is certainly the focus of my message here.

If you are even reading this at the moment, I assume you have at least a vague interest in social justice, or at least I hope you do. Whether or not you are an individual who has personally experienced descrimination of any kind, or are part of a minority who faces it regularly, you are still searching for a way to stop social injustice around the nation and around the globe, then I applaud you and I implore you to continue to search for a solution. Social justice is a practice that applies to everyone, not only to those who may regularly face social injustices. Any type of social injustice reflects a far larger problem that affects everyone, it reflects a society or a system that fails to trat all its citizens as equals, it reflects a problem that needs to be urgently addressed. 

Unfortunately, at least so far, there is no one single solution available in order to combat all the social injustices in the world. However, only through the observation of the current problems, only through collective introspection and an unbiased look within the modern systems that exist and cause unnecessary problems in our world, can we work together to develop a legitimate solution or series of them to create a proper and inclusive social justice system. 

As the new year starts I encourage you to look into yourselves and your communities on local or perhaps larger levels, and encourage those around you to do the same. For only by observing and acknowledging the problems that exist can we truly begin to establish a framework for future success.

Happy New Year everyone, and in all your experiences, good or bad I implore you to stay strong and wish you luck and joy in the new year.

Happy 2022!