My Manifesto

Sadie Stock
2nd period
Catten

“Compassion is contagious. Every moment we choose compassion, we move towards a

better world.” - Amit Ray

Back at the beginning of this semester, the very first assignment that I did for my

humanities 1100 class was a “playlist of values”. This assignment asked me to think of at least 5

core values or beliefs that I felt were the most important in my life. I spent a lot of time

contemplating what core values I truly claim to practice. There were any to choose from but I

eventually settled on Belief in a god, compassion, open-mindedness, optimism, and loyalty.

Although I hold many more beliefs and values, I felt that these five were at the core of who I am

as a person. Throughout this course, I have had the opportunity to reflect deeply on who I am and

what the best version of myself I want to become would be like. The value that I have come to

cherish and appreciate the most is compassion. I feel that compassion is the key to eradicating

many of the negative aspects of life that plague so many people. Aspects like racism,

discrimination for any reason, injustice, poverty, abuse of power, war and contention, ignorance,

and misunderstanding. There are many synonyms for the word compassion, a few of my favorite

include empathy, understanding, care, kindness, mercy, love, and humanity. I found it fitting that

humanity was a synonym for compassion given the fact that my humanities class is what caused

me to identify a value that was important to me. The world needs countless things, mainly

because it is full of countless heartbreaking issues and situations. However, one of the things that

heals a broken heart is love, so I believe that the thing that our world needs the most is

compassion.
 Compassion is something that directly relates to every social issue going on right now so

it is difficult to pick only one to talk about. My humanities class has taught me to see people as

individuals, to recognize their humanity, and to see what I have in common with them instead of

focusing on differences between us. I would like to focus on the refugee crisis that is going on in

several countries. This issue directly affects families and individuals that we might not always

see outside of the label of “refugee” or “displaced person”. I feel that we often group all refugees

into one issue, by taking away the individual needs we are essentially taking away their humanity

which makes it easier to ignore the problem at hand. I believe that the way we handle and look at

refugee crises could benefit incredibly from compassion for those who have just lost their homes.

The general feeling towards refugees is one the has negative connotations. “They’re going to

take our jobs” “ there isn’t enough room” “they are a threat to our security”. These feelings lack

the empathy that every human being deserves. Refugees often flee from dangerous areas like war

zones, or they leave to have the opportunity for a new life. They leave their home and submit to

the mercy of another country to allow them in. If we had a little more compassion for what they

go through we would be able to see them for the strong, brave, and hopeful individuals they are.

I believe that if you can help someone then you should do it. There needs to be less debate on

whether or not we are kind to other people. Everyone needs mercy and everyone deserves to be

understood.

As my civic engagement activity for this issue, I have decided that I will corroborate with the

Utah Refugee Connection organization to help provide necessities for refugees who have come

to Utah. I will sign up to host or participate in a donation drive for items that would be put in kits

to deliver to refugee families. The kit I decided on is a “Covid-19 Kit” that contains items like

hand sanitizer, soap, laundry detergent, disinfection wipes, etc. I feel that a covid-19 kit is
relevant to what is currently going on with this pandemic and creating these kits would help

those families stay safe and healthy.

I chose to focus on the refugee crisis because the immigration unit that we went over in

my humanities class stood out to me. I remember watching a ted-talk presentation that was

included in the course material that discussed how the refugee system was failing. “Economist

and political scientist Alexander Betts believe we need to protect people from having to choose

between life-threatening conditions in their home country or an even more perilous journey to

escape them”( Diversity and Difference Chapter: Immigration section, E-reader). I strongly

agreed with this quote. After all, I feel that we could be kinder to those who are struggling to find

a safe place to live because I believe that if we were in their shoes we would want to be treated

with compassion. We would want to be treated like humans too. By focusing compassion on

relevant issues we can essentially shrink the problem down to more achievable solutions. All big

changes start small and they can start with you.

“ The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”

- Albert Schweitzer