Where we make our last stand

Today is the last day of January. The first month of 2017 comes to an end with a dark outcome that left me sorrowful. I will not talk about any political moves or news here, as this post is not intended to recap what we are seeing in the media.

The only thing I want to remind you, is what I mentioned in some other post lately (Do you Change the Ideas or the Way of Thinking?). Our role as Graduate Students is quite important, as we help to drive the mankind development from each one of our areas. It doesn’t matter if you are developing a new alloy, creating a new vaccine or studying an ancient text. Every single one of these works matters, as they are focused on improving our living conditions and/or our understanding of the past, present and future.

Photo by Luis Villegas. Bayfront park Hamilton, Ontario. 

We traveled a long way from being just a bunch of gatherers and hunters, to be able to reach other planets with our machines. All this development was possible by humans who dared to dream about a different world even when the social construct around them struggled to silence their efforts.

Right now the vision is maybe less romantic as our knowledge expands to different fields and the science is encouraged, but our mission remains the same. Not only from our labs, but every day spreading the knowledge and combating the ignorance, which drives to fear. We must do our best to change bit by bit the way of thinking so maybe in one or two generations, our grandchildren will see in history books our current situation, as we see ourselves the rise and fall of fascism or the demolition of the Berlin wall. A history book where reason, solidarity and love won over the anger, the discrimination and separatism. It is our duty to write this book, a book where we demonstrate our effort to create a better world. Because here and now is where we live, and here and now is where we must make our last stand against fear and hatred.

Banner image by GradLife McGill Blogger Luis Villegas