Dear C4SS Supporters, as well as friends and colleagues,

This is the last article I will publish for the Center for a Stateless Society. Before we talk too much about that, I want to mention the numbers from the month of July.

As of July 25, 14 articles were submitted, with over 17,800 submissions to newspapers across the country and around the world. Among the pickups this month were Nick Ford’s “The Tortured Logic Behind Using Torture,” which was featured at AntiWar.com, and Chad Nelson’s “Fiorina Claims She’s Not Part of the ‘Professional Political Class’,” which featured at CounterPunch.

Regarding my departure, Erick Vasconcelos will be replacing me as the Media Coordinator across the board, with help from Senior Editor Chad Nelson, as of July 26. Additionally, I have resigned as a Fellow. The reasons for doing so are mostly personal, but I want to make this clear: I regard many of the Fellows and contributors here at the Center for a Stateless Society as good, close friends and I’m leaving C4SS amicably.

Burnout is a real thing. Both in terms of writing and in terms of politics. The world is a cold and indifferent place, and knowing that you have an obligation to care about fixing that world in spite of it – or at least making it more habitable for the people you care about – doesn’t change the fact that it will weigh on you every day.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m a decent activist here, either. I am a krill in a vast ocean, lucky to swim in the presence of great blue whales who haven’t noticed me long enough to want to eat me. Whatever work I have done or am doing is of a personal nature and doesn’t even begin to register when compared to the work many of my friends here have accomplished. Perhaps because that work is personal, the toll has been higher. I don’t know. But what I do know is that after this column, I am finally taking a break from professional writing. I haven’t written for just myself since I was 17, and I want to try that for a while and see how it feels.

I of course appreciate everyone I’ve had the privilege of writing with over the past three years. And I appreciate you, dear supporter, for keeping this enclave open long enough for me to make what tiny mark I could on it.