There is a commonly cited argument when it comes to “first world” social movements. These movements include introductions with pronouns, animal rights, taking “God” out of the pledge of allegiance, and many more. The argument consists of a single phrase, repeated again and again: "The world has bigger problems.”

In the midst of a protest outside a big name circus’ performance, a middle-aged woman shielded her child’s eyes from my sign. “There are children dying.” she scorned me before heading into the venue.

On my first day of orientation at Lehigh University, we were asked what social issues we found to be important. The answers came in a wide variety — human trafficking and racism. I, on the other hand, thoroughly embarrassed myself by saying “animal rights.” Right after the words left my lips, I felt horrible. I worried that my new classmates thought that I didn’t care about fighting racism and human trafficking.

In my freshman seminar, the class read and discussed an article that criticized first world countries for caring more about abused animals than starving citizens, in any country. And the class agreed. Why would anyone put time and money towards saving an elephant or a dog, when they could instead feed a child? “I feel like a jerk.”

I told my professor after class. How could I have actively raised awareness for animal rights, yet done nothing on the same scale for human rights? Sure I’d gone to the women’s march and called my local representatives to express concerns about important issues, but I am still “The Peta Girl.”

This got me thinking, would it be better if every social activist banded together for one, generally agreed upon issue? Or is it more beneficial to have hundreds of issues, and hundreds of activists, advocating to hundreds of higher-ups?

I would argue the latter. The more voices that are heard, the better. By no means am I advocating a divide among activists, but I wholeheartedly think that representation of many issues is stronger than just one. Progress comes slowly and unsteadily. If only one issue was advocated for at a time, the small victories that improve an individual’s everyday life would be absent.

Small victories like a higher minimum wage in a state, cleaner water in a town, emissions regulations in a nation, or animal testing laws in a country. A small injustice is still an injustice, and a small victory is still a victory.

So the next time someone tells me that there are more important issues than animal rights, I’ll ask them to make a definitive list of every social and economic issue that plagues the world today, based off of what they deem as most important. When you, as an individual choose one problem to devote the most time to, it is inevitable to leave some out, though we may not want to.

That’s why we have to trust other activists to achieve progress in areas where we might not be as present, and vice versa. The answer to this tired argument is not to drop what you are passionate about, but instead, appreciate and support the work of others.