How the W's Do it

Lately, I feel deeply, bone-tired sad. Not the fleeting kind of sadness that passes after a good night’s sleep, but the kind that settles in your chest and stays there while you keep moving—packing school lunches, folding laundry, answering emails, showing up. The kind that whispers, How is this where we are? I am struggling with the reality that our current administration is condoning hate, excusing violence, and fueling an ever-widening divide. I struggle with the normalization of cruelty. With the way lies are repeated until they sound like truth. With the way harm is minimized, justified, or explained away depending on who it’s happening to. What I can’t stop asking myself is: Why? Why, when truth is placed plainly in front of us—documented, verified, undeniable—do so many people still turn away from it? Why do people we see every day, people who laugh with us, work alongside us, raise children like we do, still believe narratives built on fear and falsehoods? How do lies take ro...