This is premium advice from
Better Living through Beowulf. Though I did cancel our subscription over the decision for a non-endorsement and this is no apologetic for the owner’s behaviour, we could be swayed to rejoin by one disappointed but not defeated columnist’s argument that cites not only the accolades that the publication has been awarded and the as yet relative newsroom independence that the paper has enjoyed (the agnostic Bezos is no Musk and the Washington Post is no vanity project) but also the stoical 1895 poem “If—” by Rudyard Kipling—not only as a stance and signal for freedom of the press but moreover a way to combat election anxiety:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and ‘em up with worn-out tools…
“If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” recalls those above false councillors are not the ultimate arbiters and no victory or defeat is ever final; the struggle goes on and we have work to do.
