“Everything is politics,” said Thomas Mann, German writer and philanthropist — and he had a point. These words appeared in his book The Magic Mountain in 1924, a few years after Germany’s loss in WWI, and a few years before Hitler’s rise to power. The Weimar Republic struggled with extremism on both sides. So for Mann, it would have been easy to draw this conclusion that “everything is politics.”

But is it true?

Lots of things are political. Art is political. Books are political. Speech, press, education, infrastructure, language, and religion are all political. But sometimes a conversation can be tied so closely to tragedy that to bring up politics would be an insult to the topic’s very nature. Everything is political. But that doesn’t mean everything should be created into a political issue at the expense of lives, dignity, or respect.

The DC Plane Crash

Take the recent collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet over the Potomac River in January. 60 passengers, 4 crew members, and 3 helicopter operators were killed. The collision shocked the nation.

Fingers were thrust into the air, frantically searching for someone to blame. Trump took to the stage and stated the crash happened because of DEI practices from the previous administration. Critics bashed the lack of government intervention in dangerous practices and short-staffing of air traffic control, and condemned Trump’s insensitivity in bringing up DEI at a time like this.

But amidst all the chatter, families of the deceased held funerals for their children, spouses, parents. Different skating groups lost crucial and valued coaches and teammates. 67 people dead. But except for the rare article focused on the victims of the crash, the media focused on who was to blame, or who reacted inappropriately, or who was insensitive to the very victims they overlooked.

What gives?

Everything is political… But sometimes, a country should come together in shared mourning and motivation to prevent such a senseless tragedy from occurring again. Sometimes, political affiliation should be set aside — grievances with DEI, resentment towards Trump, keen searching for missteps by political opponents should be put to rest out of respect for the people, real people, whose lives were upended.