Radicalized by Basic Human Decency.

By Mr. Roger’s teaching me about being a neighbor.

By Sunday school stories about building community with people who others reject, and caring for the hungry, unhoused, abandoned, and poor.

By parents who guided people asking for directions, helped teens asking for money for a bus ticket, volunteered to practice English with someone hoping to learn, or returning a lost dog.

By spending spring breaks on top of mountains and summers on the shores of Lake Michigan, amazed by how big and beautiful the world is.

By my students raised by immigrants, students who had no home, students who weren’t sure if they’d have dinner, students who fear for their safety at school.

By friends who understand the pain of infertility, pregnancy loss, and the necessity of reproductive healthcare.

By queer friends who are so often ostracized and demonized, but who regularly show me more kindness and care than many who sit in a pew every Sunday.

I believe that the people around me regardless of economic status, home life, race, religion, and orientation should be fed, housed, healthy, safe, and welcomed. If believing that the greatest and only job we all share is taking care of each other and the world makes me a radical, count me in.

How can you not be?