Vox Populi:

Like many true elder millennials, I find comfort in escaping into fantasy worlds — “Harry Potter,” “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars.” But lately, these stories haven’t just been a break from the chaos of real life. They’ve become a lens for understanding it. They remind me what courage looks like when the odds are stacked against you — and what it means to stand up, not just to threats to justice, but to silence, complicity and fear.

Lately, I’ve been thinking less about the final battles, the catharsis, the clarity, the triumphant arrival of friends. We’re not there yet. Not even close. What I keep returning to is “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” despite the deep discomfort of doing so — since it means revisiting a story that shaped my early moral imagination while reckoning with the dehumanizing and othering beliefs and behavior of its author. For all its flaws and the real harm she has caused, it remains a story that gave many of us early language for power, resistance and moral choice. This is that chapter — the one where everything tightens. The danger is real. The protagonists are scattered. The institutions are eroding and the air gets heavy with denial and dread.

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