It’s been a week.

The headlines we’ve read, the videos we’ve watched and the sadness we’ve felt. With every passing minute it seems there has been more bad news that floods our feeds, and if I’m being honest it’s been too much to deal with.

Los Angeles continues to face turmoil as the city burns around us, our President-elect solidified his freedom by receiving no jail time for his hush money case, DEI programs were rolled back and dismantled from many organizations, Meta confirmed they will no longer be fact checking or censoring posts on their platforms, misinformation was rapidly spread about the leadership in Los Angeles, and Idaho Republicans introduced legislation that asks the Supreme Court to reverse its decision on marriage equality.

With all that continues to happen, all I have are more questions to which I fear I will never get the answers.

In eight days we will have a transfer of power to a man whose name I personally never want to hear again. But with Donald Trump now entering into the presidency once again, the one question I have is: when will accountability start to matter? When the next person set to lead this country is a convicted felon, how are we not sending the message that people can be and are above the law?

We all know that social media is a blessing and a curse. It allows us the opportunity to engage with one other, obtain information and consume content. But with changes in how social media will be consumed and shared, how can we trust the news around us when one of the biggest sources of information has now committed itself to not allowing fact checking for “fear of being politically biased?” If no one is committed to the truth how can we ever know what’s real?

How are we still combatting marriage equality? It’s 2025! When will people let go of this obsession to what the LGBTQ community does or doesn’t do? Why can’t people love who they want to love and be who they want to be? The need to control other people’s lives because of what you believe is archaic, and still having to battle the issue is exhausting. When will politicians put energy into something that actually affects their constituents everyday lives instead of wasting time with unnecessary moves like marriage equality and who can use what bathroom?

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Will empathy and compassion ever be in the room with us? How many tragedies do we have to encounter as a society before we start focusing on solutions rather than pointing fingers about who or what caused the problem?

We aren’t even a full two weeks into this year and I’m tired. Our society is crumbling, and common sense, decency, humanity and love are becoming foreign concepts in a world that needs them the most. Sooner or later we are going to have to get a handle on this or we will keep spinning in this never-ending cycle of tragedy.

Malynda Hale is a multi-hyphenate content creator in Los Angeles. She is an award-winning actress and singer who utilizes her voice through activism in digital media. Most recently she starred in the feature film Bull Street alongside Loretta Devine and Amy Madigan and made her directorial debut with the short film Curtain Call that has screened at film festivals across the globe. She has been a featured commentator on CNN and ABC News Live as well as a guest writer for The Daily Beast, Blavity and The Female Lead. She was named by Wired as one of the top influencers affecting the 2024 election, and has been featured in LA Times, on Good Morning America and NPR’s Marketplace Tech. She’s the owner of the entertainment production company JMV Entertainment and creator of The Black Voices Heard project.

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