You should read Tatiana Schlossberg's "A Battle with My Blood"

American history is full of remarkable documents, ones with a sacred aura compelling reverence from readers. This is true especially when the words are a mark of hypocrisy. "All men are created equal" isn't just an unfulfilled promise; untold numbers died fighting for equal rights against those wielding exclusionary, bloody traditions. In some situations I have been in, you could see those who understand something is on the line with Jefferson's or Madison's words getting visibly angry with those who think a ban, say, on "cruel and unusual punishment" is not worth discussing in detail. This does not reduce to a matter of being conversant with older language or believing the texts part of one's heritage. In the age of AI, it can be near impossible to locate the respect one needs for an advance in learning.

I read Tatiana Schlossberg's brief reflection on dying of cancer last night, cried, and now am wondering how to talk about it. I know some in my life will show no respect for her words. Growing up, I was near someone who consistently accused those battling cancer as being selfish, taking away resources from others. And I have been around those who, when faced with stories of U.S. citizens with cancer being exiled, or minors with car windows smashed by ICE, or the stark statistics about hunger in this country, will tune out. The U.S. doesn't have a consistent culture of showing genuine respect for neighbors or guests. We worship power and what we think signifies it. We accuse helpers or victims of not doing enough in order to say we are blameless in doing nothing.

Needless to say, Schlossberg has written something everyone should read. She is 32, with 2 children, dying of an extremely rare disease. Doctors asked her if she was at Ground Zero for significant amounts of time because blood cancers like hers show up in first responders. The treatments she is undergoing require immense bravery. I don't think most of us realize how humiliated and pathetic we would feel if our bodies were dramatically broken during our battle to survive. How we would have to find courage, or something like courage, in strange ways–dark humor features prominently–in order to remind yourself you're still fighting.

Schlossberg is JFK's granddaughter. Yes, that JFK. Explaining the Kennedys in this day and age is a strange experience. You feel like you are trying to convey a memory from decades ago to a child, except that it isn't my memory. It is a combination of history I have been taught out of a textbook and a recollection of what my elders discussed. That JFK came in with a mystique and brashness, that the Cuban Missile Crisis and Jackie O and the Rose Garden and the assassination made that mystique no less than Camelot, that for all their problems Ted Kennedy and RFK did advance equality in American life. To be sure, they are American aristocracy. We need not romanticize the aristocratic part while acknowledging this is a family that in some critical ways, despite a not-so-democratic hold on power and connections, made life easier for a number of their fellow citizens.

Of course, RFK's son, Schlossberg's cousin, currently advances the cause of mass death. He holds an obscene amount of power as HHS secretary and is responsible for numerous plagues. Ranting against vaccines and running ads against them in Samoa led to thousands getting measles there. This incident happened before his tenure as a Cabinet official. He abuses his aristocratic privilege; his name and the power it holds is not enough for him. He needs to test the limits of his eldritch strength. For him, it is not quite fame, not quite connections, not quite wealth, not quite a name, not quite a bloodline. It is all of those things, to be sure, but look at what he wants. A mass audience; the ability to dictate what he feels as truth; zealous adherents; impunity.

When you read Schlossberg's reflection, you'll notice she dwells on how she does not know if her children will have any memory of her, but she wants more than anything to fill her time with moments and memories of them. Everyone who introduces her piece starts with the fact that her cousin, RFK Jr., has done incredible damage to the treatments she has received and needs to receive. Vaccines are not an option with a compromised immune system. As I read her brief essay, what caught my ear was the depth at which she located the grief afflicting us all. There have been many comments about the monsters in charge and their ignorant, bullying, fanatical followers. And there are more and more stories of those breaking from the spell, realizing that constantly calling people "illegal" while the federal government deploys soldiers on its own soil allows literal Nazis to own the country. But none of those opinions and narratives have quite captured what she sees.

What she sees so clearly is the outright contempt for the future RFK Jr. and those like him have. It's obvious when you think about it, but she points the way. We're laughing at the President right now because of his lust for Mamdani's stardom. But POTUS has been more than willing to drop bombs or cut necessary aid or place troops against protesters for years. There is this deep contempt for the future that extends to anger at the possibility of the future. I think someone who has just had a child, like Schlossberg, may observe this exquisitely. You've got these men who want to rant and hear their rantings broadcast back to them in the mouths of fans, acolytes, or entire media conglomerates. They don't want a future, they implicitly hate those who want to believe in their children. The present, where they hear their echo, is the only thing which must continue. And so they'll cut our healthcare–literally, our ability to live–because in the end, there is only one voice to be heard.

Schlossberg's is a remarkable document, a brief distillation of the nadir American life has achieved. Where our diversity, scientific accomplishment, and devotion to healing are all disposable because the needs of broken man-children cannot be satiated. I have a copy in .pdf form if you need it – ask and I'll e-mail it to you. It is good to be reminded of how much is at stake. What specific attitudes we must destroy if we are to have any moments worth having with each other.