The Board Meeting

The Board Meeting

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There was a meeting.
They had an agenda.

It was time to talk
about loving a man

in the supermarket,
how that might

affect sales of
imported candy

and levels of light
in the produce.

It was the best meeting
they’d ever had.

Everyone wanted it
to last forever, like

it had seemed April
was going to last year

or was it the year
before that. People

at the meeting had
a lot in common.

Not only were they
all employed by

the same company,
but also most of them

drove to the meeting
in a car, sometimes

the same car, so
there was barely

a meter between them.
They could all vote

and they could all hold forth
on the beauty and danger

of poisonous berries.
It was a perfect meeting.

They each had one blue eye
and two green ones.

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

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