This is no award for piecing it together at the last minute. Trans, immigrant, black, brown, communist, polyamorous, socialist, autistic, liberal, disabled, feminist, Muslim, moralist, poor, it doesn’t matter. You are not safe from fascism. If not prevented, they will not hesitate to lynch you with the same rope. Today their people, tomorrow yours. When will we realize we are all each other’s people?

The longer we wait, the more of us will fall victim to the slaughter. Brown people are being disappeared without trials on Donald Trump’s orders, women are being raped by white men pretending to be masked agents, black men like Tyler Reed are being beaten and hanged from a tree for making jokes about Charlie Kirk, even local business owners right here in Camden County are doxxing underaged girls for not sympathizing with a dead fascist.

You are not safe. Your children are not safe. The evils of our world are not allocated into a skin color or a background, they are in your government and your neighborhoods and your schools. They are the poisonous thoughts you think when someone who you think looks suspicious just looks different. They are the times when a commenter says “The usual suspect” when a person of color is arrested. They are the moments when people see someone wearing a turban and they ask them if they came here legally.

Evil is everywhere, even if it’s sometimes quiet. Evil is the darkness that thrives when we sleep. We have to wake up and call it into the light, and we have to make an example of it. We don’t have time to wait for fascists to change their hearts and minds, people are dying while the masses wait for miracles. They will be waiting a long time if we don’t act because only we, a united people, can shed light on the darkness of our world.

Call it out when you see it. Fascism cannot be given peace. Record it. Fascism cannot be given deniability. Write about it. Fascism cannot be given footing for propaganda. Boycott it. Fascism cannot be made profitable. Vote. Fascism cannot be made law. Never stop making waves about it until the evil in our nation stops being considered normal. Never stop fighting until the threat is gone. We will never move past this if we accept it as it is.

MJ Mac (22, he/him)