Protests in all US states. A new security law. An Anti-Terror Bill. Increased exploitation of children.

Every day, it seems like there is a new torment facing us. As if this virus isn’t enough to kill us.

The institutions that should be working to better our lives instead find ways to starve us, cripple us, deprive us of livelihood.

The officials charged with protecting us instead keep us in the crosshairs, put us in handcuffs, throw us in jail.

The ones who work to save our lives are themselves dying.

The journalists who seek truths and find the stories we have not heard are being silenced.

The laws that are meant to keep us safe are instead being rewritten to demonize us.

I weep for this world. I weep for the country that I love. I weep for the people dying and starving. I weep for the future my son might face.

I weep even as poets and activists and legislators declare their love–our love–for this country.

My heart breaks when I read the news. My heart breaks when I see what is happening. My heart breaks with every window and every bone that is shattered, for every innocent enslaved by injustice, for every charlatan that rejoices in this suffering.

The world is burning. But perhaps we need to let it burn. Perhaps the only way to save the world is to let it die. Engulf these institutions in flames. Throw these officials on pyres. Set fire to these documents that make criminals of us.

Burn this world down, and in the ashes build a new one. A world where kindness and generosity rule in place of greed. A world where power is given not to those who seek it, but those who truly wish to serve. A world where people see color and hear accents and celebrate rather than condemn the differences.

Burn this world down, so that in its place we might have a world that burns bright with love.

This I pray.