Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

I am frustrated. Deeply, profoundly frustrated.

Not just by the decisions being made at the highest level of our government—though those are infuriating enough. Not just by the constant stream of executive orders that feel more like unchecked power grabs than actual leadership. Not just by the lack of ethics, accountability, and integrity from those in charge, who seem to operate as if consequences are for everyone but them.

I am frustrated most by the people who choose not to care. The ones who aren’t impacted—so they don’t engage. The ones whose lives continue on as usual, uninterrupted, as if the chaos and damage happening around them aren’t their problem.

I’m not mad at people for surviving. I understand self-preservation, and I know what it means to feel helpless, exhausted, and overwhelmed by the sheer weight of it all. I get that there’s only so much a person can carry.

But what I can’t accept is willful ignorance.

I can’t accept people turning away, choosing not to pay attention, choosing to remain uninformed—simply because they can. It’s one thing to feel powerless. It’s another thing entirely to pretend the fire at your feet doesn’t exist just because it hasn’t touched you yet.

And that’s exactly what it feels like right now.

Slow dancing in a burning room.

The music is playing, life is moving forward, and people are just carrying on, oblivious—or worse, indifferent—to the flames creeping closer.

History has taught us that when power is abused, when corruption goes unchecked, when people stop demanding better, it doesn’t just fade away—it spreads. It gets worse. It grows.

So many of us are screaming, trying to wake people up, trying to sound the alarms. But the ones who could amplify these voices, the ones who could stand up, show up, speak up—so many of them remain silent. Not because they don’t understand, but because they don’t have to fight. Because it doesn’t affect them. Because they have the luxury of pretending this isn’t happening.

Americans, do better.

This is not okay. This has never been okay. And if you’re not paying attention just because you don’t have to yet—trust me, you will. The fire is coming. It always does.