To the editor:
When does authoritarianism suffocate self agency? When do we lose our autonomy, or is autonomy just an illusion? Who gets impacted? How does it happen? What makes one population more vulnerable than another? The color of their skin, the language they speak, the job that they have, their nationality or their economic status?
Self agency is critical to one’s sense of control and self-esteem. Self agency allows one to choose the food they eat, the doctor they see, the car they drive, the church they attend and the grocery store they shop at. A simple action of determining where one’s mail or packages are delivered enhances one’s sense of self agency. What is the effect on a person who through no fault of their own has that taken away? What are their options? Anger, helplessness, apathy, depression or resignation. When does one’s spirit become muted?
When authoritarian systems destroy self agency they destroy the human spirit. Everybody loses.
This is just a microcosm of what is happening in America today.
Elizabeth Sullivan
Farrell Court
