Tony Chiado

The rise of fascism is torture by a thousand cuts. Some so light that they only whiten the skin. Others so deep they scar the soul. Every cut is followed by another, and another, and another. It is pain for the sake of pain. But also to numb. And to collect power. A repetitive abuse of the soul until it breaks either into paralyzing indifference or twisted subservience.

My obsession with the news is an unhealthy use of my day. I find so much joy in my personal relationships, my hobbies, and my curiosities. But how can I look away from the horrors? Fathers pulled from children and sent to death camps, daughters self-deporting to avoid continued internment, kids abducted in front of schoolhouse doors, and political dissidents threatened with the shattering weight of a corrupted law enforcement. To look away would be indifference. I think it’s better that I hold my discomfort tangibly than wish it away to a hidden cave. It ensures that I don’t become indifferent, which Elie Wiesel asserted as the worst disposition toward inhumanity.

Among the horrors are two particulars that have hit close to home, so far. I am confident in my fear that there will be more. Number one: I was teaching in my classroom on a Spring day last year. It felt normal. Good. During my planning period, I saw a post that federal agents were at the airport I could see from my classroom window deporting my innocent neighbors to faraway places. A pit formed in my stomach. A gash across my chest. There is no conscientious man who can be indifferent to such injustice so near to themself. Number two: today, federal agents detained and arrested firefighters working hard to contain Washington State’s largest active wildfire. Having worked as a wildland firefighter, there’s a brotherhood there. And to see the freedom stripped from those who serve others makes me sick, angry, and anything but indifferent.

I refuse to be indifferent to the injustice of fascism. It’s not a minor discomfort to cast off, nor an inconvenience for my daily life. It is a radicalizing crisis. My neighbors, my students, my pew mates. They’re being targeted by the fascists more and more every day. I am quickly losing my respect for authority and the rule of law, which has really become the rule of power. Thoreau’s words echo in my mind: “The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right… law never made man a whit more just.”