From ‘outside voices, please’

From ‘outside voices, please’

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I grew drunk on the dragonflies’ ultra
Three times I asked our misogynistic uncle, the
family patriarch, for money for books for the girls
to which he then scoffed drunkenly throwing coins onto
our heads onto the floor chuckling amused at his own godlike generosity
I learned to read via occupational hazard manuals
I woke up from a coma believing that I was a witch with polio
I needed you so badly I thought I would die
I told mama about cousin wincing while he peed outside
All of my curiosities ceased breaking down to the
one sum the one test whether I could keep calm while I was
drummed I was ripped off again and again and again I was
featured in revenge porn after revenge porn after revenge
porn I was deciding whether to reconcile with his enabler
because in that moment I was what my friend called completely unconscious and incapable
of consent As I sat along the Mississippi River in another life which is not the
same life no it is not the same life as the one I have come to grow
love inside like a stone birth Everybody talked and talked and talked about how
good a rapist he was right, how good a rapist a classic glass Coca Cola bottle
could be was, right Meanwhile hadn’t heard one word about what
saved her acutely patented life what cast out the canker out from within her Meanwhile
not one word about the dark sky not one word more than
the mean or the average or the outlier of it I admit it’s actually something very hard
to penetrate It’s actually something which will engulf us all incapacitate it’s not even
the Christian right or the fossil fuels of America it’s actually
It’s actually probably the only thing that the Christian right or the fossil fuels
of America have ever been would ever truly be or have been afraid of
I’ve called the minute men, they are on their way

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.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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