I Am Part of the Resistance
I am part of the resistance inside El Ciento-Siete. I work for the opinion section but I have vowed to thwart the movement led by the section’s editor, Tania de la Garza, who wants to include anonymous opinion pieces in future editions of the school’s paper.
People who write anonymous op-eds are chickens (myself excluded, for reasons that will become self-evident). They hide behind the publication and don’t have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. An opinion piece owes its weight just as much to the writing, as to who wrote it.
On September 5, the New York Times made the clickbait inspired choice of publishing an anonymous op ed written by a “senior official in the Trump administration.” The lack of clarity regarding the identity of the author is especially important when you consider that over 300 people, spread out over three different buildings, work directly for the White House Office.
The staffer could be anyone from a cabinet member to a low level deputy with no access to the president. We might never know, but we can be certain that this person thinks very highly of themselves, for the courage showed in hiding their name while stating the obvious. I myself feel brave right now, knowing that I am going against the system, insulated by anonymity for my own protection.
When my editor Tania gets the news, she’ll be infuriated. I can see her posting to her Instagram story, threatening to bring about my ruin. But what she won’t understand is that for me, this article is my get out of jail free card. If anything were to go wrong with the paper, I could just come out and say that I am the author of this great opinion piece to vindicate my actions.
The responsible choice would be to resign and testify against the de la Garza administration, and use the interior mechanisms of the paper to put someone who is more responsible at the helm—Eugenio Garza is looking like the obvious choice, a kid with spunk. That would take away all the fun and drama, which is what I and the “senior administration official” really want deep down.
For now, I will follow in the footsteps of my White House hero and continue to enable my superior disregarding her potential mental instability and job unsuitability that could end in disastrous consequences. And I am not talking about nuclear launch codes in the hands of a cheeto, my loyal fans, you have to remember that Tania holds a much more consequential power, she gives me my grade using the new four point scale. At least we know what happens when a nuke goes off, but in this uncharted territory I couldn’t be more scared.