The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

by Michelle Obama

Complacency these days often wears the mask of convenience: We might click on “like” or hit a repost button and then applaud ourselves for being active, or regard ourselves as an activist, after three seconds of effort. We’ve become adept at making noise and congratulating one another for it, but sometimes we forget to do the work.

With a three-second investment, you may be creating an impression, but you are not creating change.

Bravo! And the impressions we’re making do little to invite any sort of discourse, rather they encourage discord.

We can’t declare ourselves sad or angry or committed or hopeful and then just sit down and rest.

There was a cost to doing that work, to being put on the defensive. It stole their energy and kept them out of play rehearsals, study halls, and social events. It kept them from being seen in other realms, as creative and fruitful and full of interesting ideas.

It was, she said, “exactly what the student who had hung the flag really wanted: For us to be so distracted that we failed our classes and thereby reinforced the stereotype that we couldn’t cut it at a place like Harvard.”