I suppose my concern first began during Spirit Week last semester. It was the end of the school day, and I was sitting in class as the final bell rang, signaling the conclusion of another day of academics. I heard the crackle of the intercom buzzing to life, and expected Dr. Kesterson’s voice reading out his daily list of conspirators that needed to report to the office for goodness knows what reason. Instead, however, the voice that I heard was Fr. Stewart’s. 

 “Good afternoon, St. Louis U. High,” his voice rang out in his routine intro. After reminding the building of the purpose of Spirit Week, he continued, “Tomorrow’s theme is ‘USA,’ chosen to highlight what brings us together: we are the United States of America — one nation, indivisible. Wear red, white, and blue. Celebrate with flags, stars, and stripes. Dress like Uncle Sam, George Washington or Paul Revere. We all know our country's political climate often feels more divisive than unifying. … Tomorrow is our chance to rise above the noise of social media and the 24-hour news cycle and lead by example. Tomorrow is not about political stances or slogans. Clothing or accessories that promote political parties, candidates, or ideologies of any kind are not allowed. If you aren’t sure if your outfit is appropriate, don’t wear it. Violations will be dealt with swiftly…”

And I think that announcement was the start of my worry that we as a society have decided that it is paramount that we avoid public politics at all costs because we are afraid to disagree, and this avoidance is costing us dearly.

It was not that I felt Fr. Stewart’s message was unjustified. It is undeniably true that in recent years, our country has become increasingly fractionalized and each party has only grown more resentful of “the other side.” And this is not an opinion, it is a fact. The PEW Research Center conducted an annual survey from 2016 to 2022 of thousands of Americans regarding their beliefs of the other political party, and the results are stunning. As it turns out, in those six years, the percentage of Democrats who claim Republicans are significantly more immoral than other Americans increased by 28% percent! And lest you think I am picking on one party, the share of Republicans who believe Democrats are substantially more dishonest than other Americans increased by an almost identical 27 percent! 

And this isn’t just visible in the polls, it’s visible in everyday life. For instance, there have certainly been instances where people claimed they would move to another country if a candidate from the opposite party won the presidency, but nothing in recent history compared to the fervor Donald Trump caused in the 2024 election. In the 24 hours following the closing of voting, Google searches for how to leave the country grew exponentially, with searches for “move to Canada” increasing by a whopping 1,270 percent and interest in moving to New Zealand swelling by almost 2,000 percent. 

Far more meaningful than these statistics, however, are the acts of violence we have been privy to in recent years. We all remember January 6, 2020, when mobs of rioters broke into the Capitol building in an attempt to subvert the results of the election by taking lawmakers hostage. And I don’t think anyone can forget that chilling moment when, as a former president and presumptive Republican nominee, Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Had he not turned his head, he would have likely died. And while we will never know in this life if this miraculous coincidence was an act of Divine Providence as he has claimed, this much is certain: it should never have occurred in the first place. More recently, we were all shocked when conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in Utah while doing one of his signature “Prove Me Wrong” debates, and many of us were disturbed with the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in violent incidents involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis in the wake of their highly-controversial deployment by Trump.

All of these things are undeniably terrible, but the question we must ask ourselves is “Why now are we seeing this cruelty rear its ugly head in our nation like never before?” And I think the answer, at least in part, is our aversion to the political topics that we collectively have labeled as taboo and what that has led to.

When we look back to the seeds of modern Democracy in ancient Athens, we read that such a society relied on the daily conversing of its citizens on matters of the state, with debate bringing out the best ideas and solutions. We find this concept in the Bible as well, in which it is written “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27: 17 NIV). And while we see this play out time and time again throughout history, I cannot help but feel that it is, at least partially, missing from our modern culture. We all have had moments where we wanted to say something political, but hesitated because we worried about the possibility of offending the other person, and we do this with the intention of keeping the peace. 

However, what I have come to believe is that, in reality, rather than keeping the peace, this kindles the flames of resentment. When we fail to engage with others about the issues of the world and instead choose to hear only the voices of the loudest and most extreme who capture the attention of the media and seemingly validate what we believe to be true, we are slowly cultivating in ourselves a hatred and intolerance for those who don’t agree with us, and this has led increasingly many down the path of darkness. 

But what does this have to do with St. Louis U. High? I believe this willful societal ignorance and refusal to listen or embrace the ideas of the opposing political party is rooted in the pivotal moment in our lives where we begin trying to grasp a deeper understanding of the world. This moment occurs as our minds expand during high school. When we are looking for answers and absorbing information in an attempt to form them, it is critical that we embrace both the ideas of our peers and the experiences and beliefs of our elders, and nowhere is a better place to do so than at SLUH.

In the past, our school has had Issues Day, in which, through guest speakers and political education and conversation regarding specific issues pertinent to our democracy, our community helped nurture students’ understanding of these issues and the extent of accuracy of what they hear from the media. Additionally, mock elections were held among the occupants of 4970 Oakland Avenue, giving students a way to practice exercising their civil rights in a respectable environment. 

However, amidst the deepening political division in our nation, these traditions have been sidelined. And now, many of our incredibly knowledgeable faculty are hesitant to approach even tangentially political topics in the classroom, such as discussing the comparisons of the imperialism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to modern-day actions by the United States, leading to a lack among the student body of crucial formation from educated opinions and life experiences. How are we to fulfill our duty of cura personalis — that is, care for the whole person — by nurturing the mind and soul when we shy away from such incredibly important topics? The answer is: We cannot, because ignorance and our values as a school are incompatible.

These intellectual consequences are already justification for a change, but for us here at SLUH, they also hint at something deeper: a part of the bigger picture that we as a school rooted in Christ seem to be missing. As Fr. Stewart so powerfully put it to the school community during our Holy Hour for Peace this past week, “Jesus does not give us the option of whether to respond to the needs of the people, but rather how to do so.” For a Christian, politics are the way in which we arrive at the answer to that question. As the great Mahatma Gandhi stated, “Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.” So, when we actively choose to avoid political conversations, we are choosing to miss an opportunity to broaden our perspective and open our minds to other ways in which we, as Christ’s Hands and Feet, can be the Light of the world and the Salt of the earth. 

Even Our Lord and Savior Himself was inherently political, coming not to keep the peace, but “to set the world on fire” (Luke 12: 49 NIV), upending the status quo, debating with the scholars and the Pharisees, and challenging the people to reassess how they were living out their lives. And if, as Christians, we  are truly aiming to be like the Son of God, we must not be afraid to do this too, and it starts with opening up the streams of dialogue which have become closed. Just as President Ronald Reagan once said, “We need (religion) because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive.”

In one of the greatest literary triumphs in history — The Lorax — we read the following words: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not!” If we continue this trend of conflating silence with peace rather than problematic ignorance, our reality is only going to grow more divided, more violent, and more dismal. 

I do not pretend to have all of the answers, or even some of them, but I do know this: Each time we decide to take the risk and bridge that severed gap between minds to gain an insight into the thoughts and ideas of another person, we make the world a little bit of a better place.