Here Be Dragons

I couldn’t do it. After literally two decades of being a loyal  fan of anything Westeros, I could not get through the first episode of the new season of House of the Dragon (the last season of the OG Game of Thrones being somewhat of an exception). I haven’t even tried past that. Was it the violence I’d lost my taste for? It’s true, I don’t much care for animals dying, even mythical dragons, but I ruled that out when I had Alien: Romulus on in the background a couple of nights later as I got ready for bed. If I can use that as a bedtime story, violence isn’t the issue. I finally concluded it’s the political machinations I’ve lost my taste for. It’s the constant plotting and figurative backstabbing that ends up leading to the actual stabbings, burnings, drownings, and what-have-you that I’m just so very tired of. Why, when I was barely able to contain myself waiting for Sunday nights for years to see what all these houses would unleash on one another? Because, I realized, I’m exhausted by the real thing in American politics.

The constant stress of living in a society where the executive branch lies like I eat Cheez Its, trying to break free of the echo chambers both sides of the political spectrum try to box us into in order to learn what’s really true, and then decide what to do about it, if there is anything to do about is just exhausting. And I, for one, have just learned that I’m changed because of it. Burn out might be an appropriate term for it.

I was much more chilled by the bedtime story I heard last night as I listened to a discussion about the impact the firing of the bipartisan election commission will have on elections across the country, adding to fears about how the administration will try and disrupt the midterms. The good news here is preparations for local polling places is already in place and the commission wouldn’t impact that, but the message we were meant to have is clear: the administration will work to influence the upcoming midterms.

This morning I saw the headline that the Trump-controlled DOJ issued subpoenas to several New York Times journalists concerning the Qatari gift plane in a clear move to put constraints on a free press.

We watch and read the news each day and often just want to turn it off and ignore it until the administration is out of power. It’s too much, and we may feel like there is nothing we can about it right now. Including bothering to vote because we can’t count on it being handled fairly and impartially.

Does this sound familiar? I’m guessing for at least some of you it does. Which is why I know that the things I will ask of you over the next several weeks will seem like a heavy lift, but all the more reason that they will be important if we want to get back to living our lives without worrying about what our government is doing to us and the world and get back to feeling confident in our rights.

The very first ask is don’t disengage. It’s important that we stay involved in the events going on. Decisions being made in Washington are impacting all of us daily. The more we all know, the better our decision-making at the polls will be. Which, of course, is why a completely free press is so very critical.