Writing like I'm running out of time

This doesn’t exist for infamy or attention. However, you deserve to know what this country carries. Yes, you, the reader. You deserve to know why you’re reading this. I’m done censoring myself, done filtering, done worrying about if the truth is too “triggering” for public ears. I’m tired of quiet indignation while everything I love falls apart around me. 

I could ignore the political situation up to a point where they weren’t completely self-serving and detrimental to over 80% of the population. However when the ones in charge are taking the citizens’ trust just to turn around and do whatever they want, I cannot stand for it. (And for possible jokester readers, yes, I’m already sitting down.) The constant abuse of the public trust, if you can still call it that, endangers everyone who isn’t wealthy.

Knowledge isn’t and should not be limited to those in power. As politics involves everyone, transparency is a public right. Governments need to be held accountable and the censorship of knowledge removes the need for them to take responsibility for their people.

The people who run the country are dangerous. And not dangerous as in “wealthy” dangerous or “powerful” dangerous, although it could be argued they might be both. That isn’t enough to override the worst type of dangerous they could possibly be - dangerously incompetent. If undereducation in the government about women’s health isn’t enough, they’re also instilling undereducation in their citizens, whether it be censored information formerly available to the public, banning books, or defunding schools. Less knowledge means a shorter reign to keep us on. 

If you’re a Trump supporter that wants to keep pretending like their “leader” isn’t sucking the life out of the country, or that the government isn’t a steaming pile of corruption, I commend you. If that’s your choice, you truly are impressive. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” right? Just be warned, you aren’t “loyal” to the man. You’re blind. Loyalty only gets you so far until it negatively affects you and the ones you love in the name of progress that isn’t even for you.

We’re losing international allies as our president bleeds us dry - of our money through inflated tariffs and soaring prices that benefit the rich - of our rights as new policies are constantly being put in place - of our own people who face deportation over a “threat to national security” for having ‘too much knowledge’, for loving the wrong person, or even for feeling like their own body is wrong. He actively turns away foreign aids, whether it be immigrants or those seeking refuge, or even trade with other countries. 

This shouldn’t be “just politics” anymore - it concerns everyone. This isn’t about women’s rights, or LGBTQIA+ rights. It’s about rights - people’s rights. It’s not about ‘black lives matter’ or being ‘pro life’. Every life matters. This isn’t about immigrants or refugees. It’s about the citizens of the United States. This isn’t about choosing who gets to live under the spotlight while the rest are reduced to shadows. All of us are in the same boat, and we’re all sinking.

The world is watching this country rot from the inside out, and frankly I’m sick of sitting around, of others waiting for someone to fix something. So talk about it. Be controversial for the sake of your country, because I hope this document reaches someone else fed up with our situation, that it helps someone make up their mind, someone scared to fight back. This document is the first of many, and if they fail, I’ll just draft another one. And another, and another. If you see this as a threat, take it as you will. All I want is for people to have hope. I won’t stop until our situation improves - until we get the future we deserve.

We can’t stay silent in an impending dystopia. I’m raising my voice before it’s taken from me.

- I.T.

Are you at least 18 years old and have read a book in the past 12 months? If you are, congratulations! You’re part of the 51.5% of the adult American population that has - a number that has decreased since 2023 by a whole 4 percent. Four percent might not seem like a lot, but let’s walk through some math together. The estimated population of the United States is around 332.39 million people, 77.9% of them being adults. Four percent of that population still leaves us with ten million people who have not read for a year. I’m willing to bet the majority of that is due to low literacy rates or limited access to books. 

“Just get more books,” you might say. How surprised would you be to learn that some new banned books include the highschool level classics, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger for “negative content or depictions”, or maybe YA favorite series “The Hunger Games” for social critiques, anti-government themes and violence? All of these titles I’ve listed have at least one thing in common: they’re fiction. They’re just that- stories. They’re an escape from the current reality to a world where a character fixes a problem for themselves. Maybe they give themselves hope in an ambiguous ending. Maybe they solve all their world’s problems. They’re not real. But they can give hope to readers that things will get better.

We don’t look at a tv show about monsters who scare children to use their screams as an energy source and think it’s happening to us right now. We don’t play a medieval war game and assume knights and dragons are right outside the window. Our brains have something called suspension of disbelief - the willingness of a reader or viewer to ignore critical thinking, accept elements of a story that might never occur in real life, and just experience the media - yet sometimes this suspension of disbelief comes manually to people. And they forget to use it. Banning a book based on a character’s “low grade of morality” (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain) as a possible influence on kids without teaching them what’s nice and what’s not is almost like saying a tennis video game makes its player better at tennis. Characters and their stories can’t be flawless from page one. Otherwise there would be no story. 

Fiction is a vessel of imagination. Denying a child from reading “Where the Wild Things Are” is like denying them access to imagination, to dream, to come up with fantastical worlds that might not fit the classic “rainbows and sunshine” vibe people associate with children’s imagination.

Fictional stories should stay just that - as fiction. It’s said that the imaginary often draws from reality, but it really shouldn’t be the case when that fiction is dystopian. It’s especially bad when reality not only influences the dystopia, it reflects it. Reality gets even worse when this reality bans fiction remotely similar to it.

Now don’t even get me started on nonfiction books. Yes, some may be banned because they contain topics inappropriate for children of young ages to read. However, that doesn’t mean older people who want to learn about those topics shouldn’t be able to read them. Banning nonfiction books is like banning history itself. Knowledge is power and keeping information from those who want to learn essentially keeps them weak. Take the Diary of Anne Frank as an example. Anyone who has read it and internalized its message can recognize that the state of the United States perfectly reflects the state of the Netherlands in 1942 during the Nazi occupation. 

“First there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews. Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees…  You couldn't do this and you couldn't do that, but life went on. Jacque always said to me, "I don't dare do anything anymore, 'cause I'm afraid it's not allowed."

- The Diary of Anne Frank, 1947

Suddenly people walking on the streets or who show a bit of resistance to following orders are labelled domestic terrorists. People being regularly informed are dangerous and need to be censored. It’s gotten ridiculous.

Books are sources of information, immersion, or entertainment. We can take lessons from even the most ridiculous of stories. Ideally, those lessons make us into better versions of ourselves. Banning books then complaining when no one learns anything is wildly hypocritical and it’s sad that this is pretty much the case currently. The argument “for the children” is stupid, and people should see it for what it is - fiction doesn’t corrupt people, the reality that makes them desperate for stories does. When books are banned, people aren’t protected, rather ignorance is. Bans rob people of opportunities to develop critical thinking skills, to form opinions for themselves, and navigate the world around them. If we teach kids to use the follower mentality, then of course they’re more likely to think of characters as role models, because you teach them it’s better to stay in line and not ask questions than to have a different opinion. If this keeps up, the bans won’t keep people safe. Sure, knowing some historical events happened will hurt. I won’t deny history - not just American history - has hurt. World War II hurt people. Internment camps hurt people. Slavery and the Trail of Tears hurt people. But they were real, and they need to be acknowledged. When a government decides what history is, then we’ve already gotten a major intellectual disadvantage. 

- I.T.

I don’t assume anything about your background, your race, anything about you. However I doubt you would be happy if someone in charge of you ordered you fired based on how you present yourself - maybe you’re not the gender they prefer you be, or you’re wearing something not matching their vision of your gender, or maybe you have a unique feature they claim isn’t real. 

Since when was it not okay to be referred to how you want? Maybe using a nickname you prefer over your full name is now banned. Maybe they don’t want you using he/him despite being a man. Since when was fashion restricted to genders? Most modern fashion pieces “exclusively” for women have currently started out as either men’s and women’s or just men’s: high heels for horse riding gentlemen to stay secure in their stirrups during the 10th century; makeup, initially for both genders, facial oils invented in ancient Egypt to protect from the sun, and kohl (check: eyeliner) invented to protect their eyes from flies and diseases, eventually evolving to make one more attractive; as for skirts and dress-like garments, pretty much most people in ancient times wore one, starting as far back as 3000 B.C.E., being easy to make and replicate, as well as keeping the legs cool during the summer. But that's beside the point, right? Clothing is clothing. A practical solution to a simple problem. A way to express your individuality. Until someone makes it political.

Simply put, we live in a country where it’s illegal to openly and proudly express your opinion, the government cares little about its people - much less legal visitors, and our democratic republic is slowly becoming a corrupt monarchy. If you ask someone well-read from two, maybe three years ago, they might compare it to a fictional story setting - “1984” by George Orwell as a good comparison, with its totalitarian government, constant surveillance on its citizens, and Thought control. 

I don’t plan on having children, but if I did, I wouldn’t want them to be afraid of speaking their mind and asking questions. I wouldn’t want them thinking it’s not okay to love someone solely based on gender. I don’t want a country where the Lorax, a classic children’s storybook, is banned for depicting the consequences of consumerism and overwhelming greed. I want a future where children can go to school without fear of being shot. I want a future where people with any disability can access the help they need. I want a future where there is no ‘inferior’ or ‘superior’ person. I want a future where education isn’t behind a paywall. I want a country with a future. 

Wealthy adults and cisgender straight white men may thrive in the current setting, but for the rest of the American population, it’s not sustainable. It starts small, with idealistic thinking under a fascist regime - the current leader will fix everything, right? Then your immigrant spouse is deported despite being a legal citizen. You’re unable to vote due to changing your name after marriage. Your sibling is arrested without due process for being remotely close to a protest. Your child with a life-threatening pregnancy forced to die because the government prioritizes a fetus over your child, resulting in both dying. Your mother’s unfortunate miscarriage turned into her death penalty. Every action we let happen will snowball into something much bigger. What’s considered “unconstitutional” now is the very document that shaped the country, as well as the word itself. 

I consider myself a patriot, but I cannot support a country that destroys its own citizens, and by extension itself, for the sake of money. I believe everyone should have rights. Simple, basic, human rights - The right to life: Access to basic needs like food, water, shelter, and clothing; The right to liberty: Freedom from fear for who you are, how you identify, lifestyle, and opinions; The right to the pursuit of happiness: Chasing satisfaction or fleeting joy in an otherwise chaotic world. If these sound familiar, they should. The Declaration of Independence’s preamble, though having a limited scope at the time in its definition of citizens, provides a good outline to what should be “certain, unalienable rights”. There should be one more, one that should not even need to be stated: the right to safety. People shouldn’t need to hurt others, nor be hurt. It isn’t difficult to be kind, to help others. Money, guns, or bombs don’t define ‘strength’. Military power, sure. But this kind of power doesn’t make anyone happy - it makes the poor desperate and rich tyrannical. It breaks people apart and tears down rights. True strength is lifting up others so you both can reach greater heights together. It shouldn’t be a luxury. It shouldn’t be a debate. It shouldn’t even be a question. Use fear against a man and he will eventually turn against you. Show him kindness and he will gladly fight for you. Compassion is not weakness. It builds strength. Unfortunately we’ve gone so far back we’re breaking apart again.

The “United States of America” aren’t even that anymore. 

We’re fractured into pieces from a giant that calls itself our leader.

- I.T.