Apathetic Complacency
~ elecia (she/her)
Mr. White walked into the office of his government desk job with a take-away coffee and briefcase in hand. He logged onto the computer and began his first task of the day – the email sort. Mr. White browsed through the hundreds of messages, subject lines barely registering before he stored them into marked folders.
Subject: “Why my elderly Mother can’t pay for her home Nurse visits”
Subject: “Privatising local schools means treating our children like commodities”
Subject: “Mayor’s racist comments UNACCEPTABLE”
Mr. White methodically organised all of them into relevant files. An hour later, his boss appeared, placed a hand on his shoulder and requested a quick look over his work. Mr. White pointed at the folders labelled ‘Education’, ‘Transport’, ‘Health’ and ‘Other’.
His boss glanced over the subject lines. “We can’t do anything right now.”
Mr. White nodded in agreement. His boss ordered Mr. White to send out the standard letter.
Mr. White located the letter, the one that started with a thank-you-for-your-letter and ended with a we-are-working-hard-to-address-these-issues.
At the end of the day, Mr. White parked in the driveway of his four-bedroom house. He opened the door and walked through the hallway into the dining room. He sat at the table opposite his two children and was served dinner by his wife, a former psychologist taking a break from work while the kids were still young. The family smiled at each other over the food.
Mr. White wondered why other people were complaining so much. After all, no-one could do anything about it.
Anti-Speciesist Collective 