By Matthew Zacher ’18
THE ROUNDUP
Advocacy efforts on campus this year have included remarkable, student-led campaigns to protect DREAMers (undocumented minors), condemn gun violence and promote mental health awareness.
Students have also participated in the Civil Rights March on Martin Luther King Holiday, the Women’s March, the March for Life and the March for Our Lives against gun violence.
Student advocacy is truly comprehensive and covers a wide array of social justice issues important to Catholics.
Obviously, not all efforts can receive the same support or concern, but it seems as though the injustice of abortion has been particularly stuck on the backburner.
T-shirts, buttons, rallies and significant time and resources have gone into efforts to supporting DREAMers on campus, and this student leadership and commitment was awesome to see and be a part of.
The #DREAMon campaign is needed and valuable because the imminent threat of deportation for members of our community requires swift action.
Students should view the fight to protect the unborn in the same way. In 2016, 13,332 babies were aborted in Arizona, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. That means that about 40 babies will be killed today in Arizona.
This is an imminent threat to human life and dignity as well, and it requires more attention from students, myself included.
Only 6 students attended the March for Life in Downtown Phoenix this year, myself included. By contrast, a crowd of 50-some people (too many to count) marched for civil rights.
These are both issues students should care about, and they deserve an equally loving response from the Brophy community.
If students are to fight for a culture of life that values the human dignity of every person, we must first value the gift of life that starts for every individual at conception. If we understand the inherent value of unborn life, then we will have even more gravitas with which to promote a just environment for all the oppressed, forgotten and persecuted people of the world.
