With Martin Luther King Junior Day having been observed last week, there comes a much needed reminder of his words, his teachings, and his morals. Also, in an attempt to continue his fight for equality, people use this day as a call to arms- a call for more social change outside of racial equality that includes but is not limited to equality for women and LGBTQ* and treatment of mental disorders. But King’s day of memorial has passed and, unfortunately, so have those calls.

It’s a common occurrence- a holiday or news event arises and triggers empty cries from people across the country. Sometimes it stems from a controversy; sometimes it stems from memories of past injustices- it varies with the event. However, one thing is always a constant- the majority of people that say that they want change and say they will lead the masses into battle retract their demands almost immediately after the event fades from the national spotlight. It’s a shame, really. If the amount of people that pretend to be advocates of social change only when it’s timely and may get them more Twitter followers would actually support different causes for real, maybe a lot more would get done when it comes to such causes.

Let’s rewind to December 2012- the Sandy Hook shooting at Newton- a day of tragedy and national upset over gun laws. While that controversy really picked up due to the shooting, something a lot nicer gained ground. The movement 26 Acts of Kindness began and was based on the 26 people that were killed at the elementary school. The movement promoted kindness in the little things in life with hope that the country would become a kinder, less violent place. In the weeks following the shooting with the country still in mourning, people everywhere embraced the 26 acts movement- a teacher in North Penn even had a board in her classroom where her students would write down the kind things they did and display them on the board, and the board was full by the end of the school year. But all of that kindness lasting for seven months was quite the anomaly. By the New Year, the majority of people had dumped their attempts to be kind in memory of the 26 victims. Then of course, they picked it back up at the one year anniversary, but once again it was forgotten about within the following weeks.

Whenever there is any sort of shooting- Newton, the Navy Yard, etc. – the motive is unknown aside from the assumption that the shooter had some sort of mental disorder. Enter the calls for better treatment of mental disorders in order to curtail such tragedies from taking place. Likewise, when a story about a teenage suicide gains momentum and reaches the media, the same occurs. But after the story disappears from the front pages of newspapers and news sites, the public forgets about the issue when it is still in need of attention and change.

Then there was the Wendy Davis filibuster in June 2013 in the Texas senate. Wendy Davis, a politician from Texas, spent eleven hours standing on the senate floor filibustering, or extending the debate in order to prevent a vote on a certain issue, in an attempt to stop an abortion bill from being voted on that would set regulations on abortions that would make it astoundingly more difficult for a woman to receive an abortion in the state of Texas. Ignoring the fact that the bill was illegally voted on and later passed anyway, Davis’s attempts sparked an ephemeral movement for increased women’s rights, but it passed and was forgotten as fast as it came about.

And of course, pop culture feeds into this matter as well. Take the recently aired Grammy awards for example. The popular hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were the big winners of the night, taking home four Grammy awards, most for their hit song Same Love featuring Mary Lambert. When the song first came out, it was relatively unknown- that is, until the radio picked it up- then it became an overnight hit. With the duo’s increasing fame over the song, which highlights their support for equal rights for same sex couples, also came, you guessed it, increased support for the cause from the public. For a few weeks, the song and its lyrics were everywhere, but after it dropped a few spots in the top ten and wasn’t being played every half hour on Q102, the movement lost momentum. Now, with the song’s success at the Grammy’s and the moving performance of it, during which Queen Latifah married 33 gay, lesbian, and straight couples right there at the awards show, overwhelming support for the movement has risen from the grave once again. It was an extremely beautiful performance, but just wait- the hype will die down in a few weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, every single one of these causes are worthy of the support that they get when a news or pop culture event related to it arises. But what good is that support if it isn’t there all the time? Contrary to apparently popular belief, the world isn’t going to change just because people are taking up a cause when it’s convenient for them and dropping it when it becomes “old news.” If those people actually became truly passionate about causes and advocated for them all year round, change might actually occur, and who knows- the world may become a better place.