Originally written (9/11/2025)

I’d like to talk about a friend of mine named Empathy (they/them).

Empathy is immortal.

They have been in the hearts and minds of people throughout history. Without them being around, certain freedoms would not exist.

The freedom to choose, to marry who you want, the freedom to learn and educate ourselves and others about the horrors of our nation’s past.

Due to the changes within social and federal climates, Empathy has been working double shifts for the last few years. They work in every industry you can think of, while working the stresses of being unemployed and/or unhoused.

Within all of that, they’ve also been the target of people who refuse to acknowledge Empathy’s existence.

Not just in general, but in themselves. Claims of them being weak or a new age concept are felt and rightfully criticized by those who feel the opposite for our friend.

So when something bad happens to those that discredit Empathy’s importance, we, the friends of them, have options.

We can talk about or show receipts of them dismissing Empathy’s right to live, the same way their enemies have done about us.

We can declare how their enemies meant so little to us that we’re indifferent about the inevitable, even karmic events that those people face.

Some of us will take any of those announcements to the extreme. And that’s okay.

Because we live in a world that was built to make people believe they’ve won in life by cutting Empathy off. While the rest of us feel differently, and are proof that Empathy will always have a plate at every function they show up at.

So be nice to our friend. Your friend, even.

They will survive after us, but we can take comfort knowing that our declaration of their existence will be alongside them.

– Kingston Priest