Opinion | To those who came before and those who are just starting

Here’s to being grateful to the rebels of history. To the people who saw injustice and chose to fight, thank you. Illustration by YANA SAMOYLOVA, Illustrator

We’re all back from Thanksgiving break, which inevitably leads to certain conversations at the dinner table. No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without turkey, mashed potatoes and some uncomfortable conversations about politics.

Whether it's talking about how the president is doing or discussing identity politics, it is inevitable that conversations will break out that will make at least one family member uncomfortable and at least one person angry. 

I’ve been told that this is part of the quintessential Thanksgiving experience, and this year was my first time experiencing this, which left me wanting to participate in a different Thanksgiving tradition: being grateful.

So, in that spirit, I want to count my blessings and say all the things I’m grateful for. But being the little anarchist at heart my friends and family know me to be, I couldn't possibly just come up with a list of things I am thankful for like an ordinary person. 

No, my list of things I’m grateful for will not be about my family and friends or the food at my table. My list is the kind of list that would get one of the awkward conversations fired up. My list is here to counteract all those conversations. 

Emilia Cuevas Diaz, Opinions Editor

Thanksgiving should be a holiday of mourning and protest. It should be about remembering the atrocities and oppression of the past and promising that we will do better at every chance we get. So, I am fully embracing the protest and remembrance this year. And in that spirit, here’s the list of what I’m grateful for: the people who refuse to accept the world as it is without fighting to change it. 

I am grateful for every woman, every person of color and every queer person who fought to open the doors that allow me to be here today. 

I am grateful to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and all the other queer people who were at Stonewall and said “Enough.” I am grateful for all the people who started the Stonewall riots and kept on fighting so we could get the rights we have today.

I am grateful to the Suffragettes who fought to get women the right to vote so every woman in the nation could have a voice. I am grateful to The Janes, a network of women who risked their freedom and livelihoods to make abortion accessible before Roe v. Wade was passed. 

I am also grateful for the people who are still fighting today. 

I am grateful to Greta Thunberg for refusing to give up on our world without a fight; for starting the Fridays for Future movement for action on climate change; for making it clear that this is our world and we refuse to inherit it dying; for having the guts to address the European Parliament and the United Nations and telling them they need to act now. 

I am grateful for the March for Our Lives organizers who started when they were still kids and built something that is enduring; for X González for refusing to stay silent and calling B.S. on the lack of action on gun control; for David Hogg for continuing to call for boycotts of companies with ties to the National Rifle Association. 

I am grateful for Olivia Julianna, who has consistently used her voice to fight for abortion rights. I am grateful for the thousands of women in Mexico who every year go to the center to protest on Women’s Day and say: “Not One More.”

I am grateful to anyone who ever saw injustice and chose to take a stand, to anyone who fights for a better world and to anyone who sees injustice and chooses to do something about it. 

To those who are fighting right now and to those who took up the fight before I did, thank you. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for showing me there was a way. Thank you for showing me we weren’t helpless, even if we were young. Thank you for showing me we have a voice. 

To those who came before and fought so I could stand where I am today, thank you. Thank you for seeing the insurmountable odds against you and still choosing to fight. Thank you for not giving up. Thank you for everything you accomplished. 

It’s our turn now to take up the fight, and I promise you I will do my best to live up to your legacy.