What We Quietly Accept - by Julianna Rowe April 26th, 2026

 

What We Quietly Accept by Julianna Rowe   April 26, 2026

(After reading and seeing things I almost wished I hadn’t) But that would be selfish and ignoring as though I do not care and that is not the case.

There are things in this world we don’t look at too closely, or possibly not close enough. Not because we don’t care… but because part of us already knows that if we let ourselves really feel it, we won’t be able to un-feel it.  

I have been watching on the news for some time now about beagle dogs being used in research here in Wisconsin. There are people trying to stop it and many have been arrested for trying to force attention onto something they believe should never be happening.  And here’s the part that sits even heavier. It’s not always stopped right away… because much of it exists within a legal system that allows it under certain conditions. That’s the truth most of us don’t realize or don’t understand. It doesn’t mean people agree with it and it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt to hear or see. It just means change doesn’t come as fast as our hearts want it to. And that’s a hard place to sit. Sometimes I want to stop scrolling because lately… it’s not just one thing that causes my heart and mind to seek some deeper help in understanding the horrible things humans do. Yesterday, or I should say nearly daily, it is something. Yesterday it was people being pulled from a building.  There was total chaos and fear. Families were being separated in a way that didn’t look human in the moment it was happening. Yes, a different situation and a different reason. Yet the same feeling. That sense of…Why? This feels so wrong… and why can’t anyone stop it right now? So, we scroll past. We turn it off and tell ourselves someone else will fix it. Because what else are we supposed to do with something that big? But the uncomfortable truth is…a lot of things continue not because people agree with them…but because most people never fully look long enough to feel what they mean. We do this in more places than we like to admit. We do it in relationships when something feels off but we explain it away and or when words don’t match actions, but we wait and hope they will. When silence replaces honesty… and we accept it because it’s easier than asking why. And we do it in the world around us. Not out of cruelty… but out of distance because once something becomes real…once it moves from information to feeling, it asks something of us. Awareness has weight. And sometimes it feels like more than we can carry. But here’s where I landed, sitting with all of this: Not being able to fix something immediately…doesn’t mean we stop caring about it.  Not understanding the legal system… doesn’t mean we accept everything it allows. And feeling overwhelmed doesn’t mean we look away forever. Because if enough people keep noticing, keep questioning, keep refusing to say “this is just how it is” things do change. Maybe not overnight or as we want. But they don’t change at all… if everyone decides it’s too much to feel. We don’t always look…because part of us already knows we won’t forget it if we do. (And that is a seperate compartment of my brain that holds these horrors I can't forget.)

But maybe some things aren’t meant to be forgotten. -  J.R.