Writers of fiction, especially often escapist fiction like romance, sci-fi, and fantasy, are usually told to steer clear of politics. You don’t want to alienate half of your potential audience, they say to us.
In some ways, it’s sensible advice. Readers are looking for an escape from their daily lives, not another diatribe on the dire state of the world. If they wanted to be depressed about the events of the day, they would turn on one of the 24 hour news stations. There’s already plenty of commentary out there about politics and the savage world we are living through.
In general, I agree. I’m writing my stories to give people an outlet, a world they can explore without having to spend time thinking about the one they’re trying to get away from. In a normal world, in an ideal world, writers wouldn’t need to talk about politics.
But we are far from an ideal world.
Politics has seeped into everything, and even things that used to be relatively politically free, like where you get your coffee, major sporting events, and even which authors you read are now tainted by its influence.
So this is not going to be a political column per se. Instead, this is a reaction to our current day politics forcing its way into everything we hold dear.
This is me standing up for what I believe, for how I want the world to be.
I want my country, the United States, to once again be a beacon of hope for everyone around the world, and to fight for truth and justice, not billionaires and oil.
I want those who come here seeking a better life to not to have to live in fear for their freedom, or their lives.
I want my representative to answer to me, and to represent all of their constituents, not just for the narrow range of people who voted for them.
I want someone to fight for equality. Income equality. Marriage equality. Access equality. I want this to be a country where everyone gets a fair shot, not just those born to privilege.
I want my government agencies to be boring – to do the jobs we hired them to do, not to harass those who believe something different.
I want churches to go back to being churches, ministering to the poor and providing light in the world, instead of supporting candidates whom Jesus would have thrown out of the temple.
I want the world to fight climate change, putting the solutions we already have into action. Solar panels providing shade over parking lots. Electric cars with 500 mile ranges that aren’t feeding money back to a trillionaire.Carbon capture and decarbonization and support for wind and solar energy and an end to the Oil Oligarchy.
I want to see science being done the old-fashioned way, testing hypotheses, instead of figuring out the results first and working backwards to justify them.
I want to see justice for those who were killed by the state, and for others who were sent to languish in foreign prisons.
I want to see dignity restored to the White House. To Washington DC. To never see a brutal fighting event carried out on the White House lawn again.
I want to see those who have profited from ill-gotten gains be forced to give them up.
I want to see AI stuffed back into the Pandora’s Box it was pulled out of, and sanity returned to the business world that’s now so enamored of this faceless mirage.
I want to see “truth” mean something again.
And last of all, I want long stretches of days and weeks where I don’t have to think about politics at all.
I remind myself, one day, this too shall pass. One day we will find our way forward again.
In the meantime,I write the worlds that live in my head, worlds I’d like to see, where justice ultimately prevails and the wicked get their due.
And maybe I will live long enough to see the world come back around to sanity. I can only write, and hope.