I suppose I took it for granted that everyone believed, whole-heartedly, that fighting was important.

I’m not talking about fighting in the sense of bar-room brawls or schoolyard bullying. I’m not talking about unnecessary physical violence, or even physical violence at all. I’m talking about people who stand by their beliefs to the death.

I’m talking about people who refuse to let injustice or cruelty go forgotten or unmentioned. I’m talking about people who will not allow themselves to be pushed around or bullied—that they have to stand up and do something.

I thought that this was something everyone believed in, albeit something that was difficult to enforce when the time actually came to do it.

But the other day, I was proudly listening to the news as they talked about people who were trying to stand up to Donald Trump. People who believed in something and were not willing to just let it go. People who needed to fight. And while I was listening to this discussion, someone raised the question: “Why do they even bother? They can’t win, so what are they doing?”

I was taken aback by this question. I suppose I’ve heard it raised before, but it’s been a while since I needed to give an answer to it. Because the way I see it, when you believe in something whole-heartedly, whether it be equal rights for others, or equal treatment for yourself, what else can you do but fight?

And why do we fight? Why do we bother? I mean, people have fought battles since the dawn of time, and they have continued to fight even when they knew they couldn’t win. So the way I see it, we don’t necessarily fight because we know we’re going to win. We very well won’t win. Good battles have been lost again and again, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t worth fighting.

We fight because we can’t do anything else. We fight because we cannot be silent, we cannot allow people to get away with things that are not fair or right. We fight because it is better than laying down and being stepped over.

We fight because we need change, and that will not happen if we do not demand it. We fight because, if we don’t, nothing will ever progress. We fight because life is not always easy or fair, so what other choice do we have?

And even in fighting, things are not always fair. Good people have been torn down, threatened, spat on, and even murdered in an attempt to silence their fight—but that doesn’t mean that they should never have fought. That doesn’t mean that their efforts went to waste.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X both were assassinated, but they—and the things they believed in and fought for—are still remembered today. The Taliban tried to silence Malala Yousafzai permanently, but she still fights. And she fights because it is a worthy battle she cannot back down from.

And hopefully we do win. Hopefully our voices are heard and changes are made—but even if they aren’t, that doesn’t mean we should back down. All it means is that we have to keep trying.
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Author: Ciara Hall
Image: Wikipedia Commons
Editor: Danielle Beutell