Five weeks have passed since I last attempted to share my dilemma in adjusting to a new social-political environment. The assaults on our daily lives and livelihood, especially on black- and brown-skinned working-class people, have been relentless and vicious. The issue I had originally planned to address quickly lost importance with yet another issue demanding attention. This constant flogging by a vindictive patriarch is designed to overwhelm and traumatize us into a state of stupor.

I am currently reading Craft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Issues by Kavita Das (USA, 2022), a native New Yorker teacher, writer, and speaker. In Chapter 7: Ripple Effects of Making Waves, she raised the debate about moral clarity in journalism. At the time (August 2021), American journalists were “raising concerns about the recent tendency by journalism outlets to publish writing that is morally reprehensible under the misguided assumption that this is necessary in order to appear balanced by providing multiple perspectives on an issue” (p. 237).