The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The day they ask if you’d rather
be burned or buried,
the president crashes
his bike into a sand dune.
Sitting in the long waiting room
between seconds, I notice you,
made god-like by your pain,
wrapping the world around your finger,
pushing the cursor forward & back,
pausing for glints of detail
in the periphery of the shaky video:
the spokes of the wheels drenched
in the reflection of the whitecaps
slapping the shore in the distance,
the surprised look of the man
collapsed on his side, useless
as a bouquet of lilies
sagging next to a hospital bed,
fallen before he ever had the chance
to learn he was falling.
It comforts you, how in a time
before all this history,
something brutal & long gone
like a sabertooth tiger
is slowly licking its cub
into a deep, peaceful sleep.
Down the hall in the children’s ward,
we watch as a little boy draws
thick lines on a toy horse
with a sharpie, inventing the zebra.
We cannot back down
We now confront a second Trump presidency.
There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.
Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.
Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.
The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.
Onwards,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
