Give youths credit for activism, empathy

After all, they’re the ones inheriting a future being stymied by resistance and misinformation. Youths will be the ones living in the reality of 50-year climate change models.

They will endure the increasing violence of a country embracing a Wild West gun avenger mentality. They will be the ones living in a fragmented, divided country where certain races, cultures and genders are cast aside and villainized. They will have a harder time owning a home and raising a family, as GOP economic policies continue to shrink the middle class and increase the wealth gap.

Students have resorted to protesting right wing individuals who use their moneyed-influence and the media to denigrate human rights issues that these students have the courage and conviction to expose. I doubt that Democrat students who are being criticized for loudly chanting will feel chastised for their behavior, considering that adult Republican politicians and voters routinely behave that way.

Give youths credit for their empathy — a psychological sign of emotional intelligence. They aren’t black but participate in Black Lives Matters rallies. They aren’t gay but support LGBTQ individuals. They aren’t immigrants but defend their friends raised in this country but facing deportation.

Members of Cornell University’s Student Assembly may not be victims themselves but are sensitive to those who have suffered drug-induced date rape, clergy sexual abuse, losing a loved one in a mass shooting, racial profiling, a friend bullied into suicide or hate crimes. They hoped that students dealing with such traumas could opt out of potentially distressing lecture material.

Cornell University correctly stands firm on professors’ curriculum autonomy (unlike book-banning schools) and trusts its ethical, professional educators to be intuitively respectful of all students. If only society would also realize that the answer to healing those dealing with trauma, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t to expect victims to recover by being “tough” or “more mature.”

The 18- to 29-year-old voters were the highest demographic voting for President Joe Biden because he shares their vision of a forward-looking, optimistic and humanitarian world. Give youths credit for choosing hopeful inspiration and kindness instead of cynicism for their children’s future and your grandchildren.

Martha Hodges

Massena