#Local Issues on Community Radio

[bookishscrolls]

Innovative Content Ideas for Engaging Community Radio Programs

Creating captivating and engaging content is the lifeblood of any Community Radio Station (CRS). It’s the magic that transforms your station from a simple broadcast into a beloved community staple. But what keeps listeners tuning in and, more importantly, feeling connected to your station? The answer lies in continuous innovation and deep community involvement. From educational programs to…

[reasonsforhope]

"In response to last year’s record-breaking heat due to El Niño and impacts from climate change, Indigenous Zenù farmers in Colombia are trying to revive the cultivation of traditional climate-resilient seeds and agroecology systems.

One traditional farming system combines farming with fishing: locals fish during the rainy season when water levels are high, and farm during the dry season on the fertile soils left by the receding water.

Locals and ecologists say conflicts over land with surrounding plantation owners, cattle ranchers and mines are also worsening the impacts of the climate crisis.

To protect their land, the Zenù reserve, which is today surrounded by monoculture plantations, was in 2005 declared the first Colombian territory free from GMOs.

...

In the Zenù reserve, issues with the weather, climate or soil are spread by word of mouth between farmers, or on La Positiva 103.0, a community agroecology radio station. And what’s been on every farmer’s mind is last year’s record-breaking heat and droughts. Both of these were charged by the twin impacts of climate change and a newly developing El Niño, a naturally occurring warmer period that last occurred here in 2016, say climate scientists.

Experts from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies say the impacts of El Niño will be felt in Colombia until April 2024, adding to farmers’ concerns. Other scientists forecast June to August may be even hotter than 2023, and the next five years could be the hottest on record. On Jan. 24, President Gustavo Petro said he will declare wildfires a natural disaster, following an increase in forest fires that scientists attribute to the effects of El Niño.

In the face of these changes, Zenù farmers are trying to revive traditional agricultural practices like ancestral seed conservation and a unique agroecology system.

Pictured: Remberto Gil’s house is surrounded by an agroforestry system where turkeys and other animals graze under fruit trees such as maracuyá (Passiflora edulis), papaya (Carica papaya) and banana (Musa acuminata colla). Medicinal herbs like toronjil (Melissa officinalis) and tres bolas (Leonotis nepetifolia), and bushes like ají (Capsicum baccatum), yam and frijol diablito (beans) are part of the undergrowth. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

“Climate change is scary due to the possibility of food scarcity,” says Rodrigo Hernandez, a local authority with the Santa Isabel community. “Our ancestral seeds offer a solution as more resistant to climate change.”

Based on their experience, farmers say their ancestral seed varieties are more resistant to high temperatures compared to the imported varieties and cultivars they currently use. These ancestral varieties have adapted to the region’s ecosystem and require less water, they tell Mongabay. According to a report by local organization Grupo Semillas and development foundation SWISSAID, indigenous corn varieties like blaquito are more resistant to the heat, cariaco tolerates drought easily, and negrito is very resistant to high temperatures.

The Zenù diet still incorporates the traditional diversity of seeds, plant varieties and animals they consume, though they too are threatened by climate change: from fish recipes made from bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), and reptiles like the babilla or spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), to different corn varieties to prepare arepas (cornmeal cakes), liquor, cheeses and soups.

“The most important challenge we have now is to save ancient species and involve new generations in ancestral practice,” says Sonia Rocha Marquez, a professor of social sciences at Sinù University in the city of Montería.

...[Despite] land scarcity, Negrete says communities are developing important projects to protect their traditional food systems. Farmers and seed custodians, like Gil, are working with the Association of Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers (ASPROAL) and their Communitarian Seed House (Casa Comunitaria de Semillas Criollas y Nativas)...

Pictured: Remberto Gil is a seed guardian and farmer who works at the Communitarian Seed House, where the ASPROL association stores 32 seeds of rare or almost extinct species. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

Located near Gil’s house, the seed bank hosts a rainbow of 12 corn varieties, from glistening black to blue to light pink to purple and even white. There are also jars of seeds for local varieties of beans, eggplants, pumpkins and aromatic herbs, some stored in refrigerators. All are ancient varieties shared between local families.

Outside the seed bank is a terrace where chickens and turkeys graze under an agroforestry system for farmers to emulate: local varieties of passion fruit, papaya and banana trees grow above bushes of ají peppers and beans. Traditional medicinal herbs like toronjil or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) form part of the undergrowth.

Today, 25 families are involved in sharing, storing and commercializing the seeds of 32 rare or almost-extinct varieties.

“When I was a kid, my father brought me to the farm to participate in recovering the land,” says Nilvadys Arrieta, 56, a farmer member of ASPROAL. “Now, I still act with the same collective thinking that moves what we are doing.”

“Working together helps us to save, share more seeds, and sell at fair price [while] avoiding intermediaries and increasing families’ incomes,” Gil says. “Last year, we sold 8 million seeds to organic restaurants in Bogotà and Medellín.”

So far, the 80% of the farmers families living in the Zenù reserve participate in both the agroecology and seed revival projects, he adds."

-via Mongabay, February 6, 2024

[medlilove]

(Edited to add headshots because tumblr hates detail) I've etched away at this is a lovely few weeks, so click for full res and all the little details, okay? It's my love letter to the journey I've found myself on

This is long-ish, so its under the cut (but worth reading...)

I had been thinking a lot recently about that double feature episode, you know the one? I half remembered it then, when they chased a bunch of alien spies so fast through the solar system they all got thrown back in time. Half the crew went on a little undercover adventure in Toronto in 2024. It was great because they got completely cut off from the Enterprise, so half of them, well mostly Uhura and Spock if I recall correctly, spent their time collecting as many radios as possible and worked on building their own communications. Uhura and Spock were basically taking turns constantly tweaking radios by the window with wires everywhere. Oh yeah, their base of operations was the whole top floor of a worn out old building looking over a big square. They ended up in the really arty/queer part of town full of art galleries and thrift stores.....??

Chapel and Chekov were sent out to those shops to find disguises for everyone. I loved the joke that Chekov was puzzled and slightly alarmed that Christine just knew everyone's clothes sizes and measurements with no explanation. Later on, they ended up getting separated from the rest of the group and getting held up by B story shenanigans, mostly getting lost and running into culture shocks. It was fun to see them having their own adventures and made for a pretty interesting combo. Spock and Uhura spent most of their time with the tech, accidentally listening to the times most popular music while changing frequencies. Jim and Sulu paired off to search for clues, and getting supplies and spent a lot of time talking to the locals setting up for a Pride parade. McCoy, feeling paranoid and irritable that he had practically no equipment, wandered around with Dr Alfred Nahdi, the Botanist, who kept picking random weeds and talking about how extraordinary the little dandelions were. Oh and together they stole a whole medical bag out of an ambulance?? It was pretty funny.  Anyway, the main issue was they couldn’t risk leaving the area because all these alien spies had assimilated into the population and they had to track them all down and bring them back with them so as not to disrupt the timeline or something. They had to track down the aliens while making sure the aliens didn't pick up on who they were or that they were also out of place. They ended up being there for around two whole ass months, I think. The spies were spread out all over and there were about 30 of them, but it ended up being the Botanist, Alfred (Alfie) Nahdi who found the enemy base of operations by complete accident. Alfred, who had spent most of the time studying all the common flowers and weeds that were so ordinary at that time but were extinct in their time, figured out where the aliens' base of operations was because the big plant shop at the end of the square had a few succulents that could not have existed in 2024. It was a big "woah" moment. And there was this whole thing where he had to act like he hadn’t just figured it out because the florist, who was almost certainly a spy, was watching him and McCoy. But soon after, it all went to hell anyway when a fight broke out and Sulu was straight up shot with the aliens' weapon that had bullets made from alien metal. So then Bones had to perform old school surgery on him in their HQ, with only 2024 equipment. Jim, Spock, and Uhura were out fighting and ran into Chapel and Chekov and were able to finish them off, but it got really crazy because there was a Pride parade in the square at the same time so they had to make sure no one noticed them. While Bones was pulling bullets out of Sulu, with the botanist assisting him until Chapel (who had been sent by Jim) appeared and took over. McCoy said something like, “Christine, I’ve never been so glad to see you in my life,” and they sewed him up all old school. And it worked out! But Bones was a mess because he had to do messy surgery with none of his kit, and so much pressure, and more blood than he was used to... Chapel stayed with Sulu, and Bones and Nahdi went to sit on the fire escape stairwell and had a sweet scene of Bones just full of adrenaline, his hands couldn't stop shaking. They sat hand in hand for a while listening to all the people on the streets below. Then Spock, Jim, Uhura, and Chekov appeared at the stairwell and they all had a happy, albeit exhausted reunion. After a day of everyone recovering from all the excitement, Uhura and Spock used some extra tech they got from the aliens and finally made contact with poor Scotty who was up on the Enterprise losing the will to live. Anyway, their outfits were iconic tbh.

I invented this whole thing to draw Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in a sweater. I lost control of the situation. I spent a lovely two weeks etching away at this with the support of my lovely ST server, I love you guys. This ones for you.

[lialacleaf]

A Touch Too Personal

Chapter 1

Simon Riley x Reader

Summary: You had a crush on Ghost since you started working for Price in communications, but the gruff, reserved Lieutenant only acknowledged your existence on the job. That starts to change with a simple, thoughtful gift.

Warnings: Fluff, Simon is bad at processing emotions, past trauma

Chapter 2

You cared deeply about every single one of your teammates. It didn’t matter that you were sitting in an office talking to them over the radio, you were still providing them with intel and directions that kept them alive.

They were like a second family, and so Task Force 141 slowly began to feel like having a lot of older brothers.

Johnny was your go to partner in crime when it came to making mischief, and you knew he was always down for a good prank.

Kyle on the other hand was good for having deep conversations and was the one you always went to for advice.

Ghost…well ghost was a bit different. Your feelings towards him weren’t exactly that of a sibling. Maybe it was because he was more reserved than the others, a mystery or puzzle that you couldn’t quite figure out, but you couldn’t help but feel warm inside on the rare occasion that his intense gaze did linger on you.

Which lead to your current dilemma.

Every time you went home, you made sure to bring one of the boys a gift when you returned to base.

Being that Price was like a father figure, you brought him a handcrafted mug from your hometown’s local pottery festival. Soap had gotten a pocket knife with his call sign engraved on it, and Gaz had received a baseball cap with a hand stitched 141 on the side in his favorite color.

However, now it was Ghost’s turn, and you were at a loss. What would he even like to have? You knew he had an array of tactical gear, you’d seen him knit pick through it on occasion, but you didn’t know enough about working in the field to know kind of tools he’d like. He had so many knives already, that it felt redundant to get him another.

What on earth were you supposed to give this man?

“Maybe you could make this Ghost fella something yourself?” Your mother suggested as you sat in your parents living room to ponder the issue.

Your mother liked Ghost’s nickname, and laughed whenever you brought it up. You could only assume she was picturing a little boy in a Scream costume, and you had to admit that was a little funny. Ghost was the only one to not have shared his real name with you, and thus always ended up being teased by your family, not that he was aware of that.

“Like what?” You asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m stopping by the craft store, how about you come with me instead of sulking in the living room?”

~

You watched your mother peruse through the holiday decorations and shook your head. That woman was amassing quite the Christmas village collection.

You wandered through the store with dwindling hope until you saw it. It was in the fabric section that you found the most perfect pattern for your Lieutenant.

The fabric had a black background, with white Ghosts all over it. You picked up the roll with a brilliant smile on your face, and ran over to one of the fabric department employees.

“I need some of this,” you said, giddy and bouncing on the balls of your feet.

“How much do you want?” The woman asked, preparing her scissors.

Ghost was a pretty large man, and you took a moment to think about just how much fabric you were going to need.

“Uhhh, a lot.”

~

“Lass! How was the family?” Johnny asked, pulling you in for a tight hug as you pulled your luggage into your room on base.

“It was good, ate a lot, took my cousins shooting, family stuff,” you said with a grin. “I gotta show you something,” you insisted, pulling him inside your room.

“Oh? What’s that?” He asked curiously.

“You know how I always bring back a surprise?” You began, a grin on your face.

“Who’s the lucky winner?” He chucked.

“You tell me.” You beamed at him as you pulled out the larger than life knot-tie blanket you’d made, and Johnny’s jaw dropped.

“You did not!” He gasped, chuckling at he inspected it. One side was the Ghost fabric you’d found, and the other was made from the softest army green material you could find. In the top corner. You’d stitched in a small British Flag patch, and each corner has a sandbag sewn in.“You made him a bloody weighted blanket? What gave you that idea?” He asked.

“We’ll I couldn’t find anything I thought he’d like at first, but then I saw the fabric and it just fell together so perfectly!”

“Oh man, I would kill to see his reaction to this,” Johnny said, giving you a pat on the shoulder.

“You say that like we ever get to see his reaction to anything,” you stated. You’d never actually seen him without some sort of face covering.

Johnny tisked softly and shrugged. “Alright, you got me there,” he admitted. “He’s in his room now, probably as good a time as any.”

You couldn’t help but grin broadly. “Perfect.”

~

You felt a lump form in your throat as you approached Ghost’s door. You knew it was just the nerves that came along with your little crush on the Lieutenant, but it still made the task at hand a little daunting.

You took a deep breath, knocking softly on the door. Maybe you should have wrapped it for him. What if he didn’t like it? How were you supposed to react if he just brushed you off.

The door opened before you could rethink your decision. It always came as a shock how large Ghost was, no matter how many times you stood mask to face.

“You’re back.”

You felt your heart rate spike. He had noticed you were gone? Had noticed you? Of course he had noticed, it was his job to notice, it didn’t mean anything.

“Yeah,” you said, waiting for him to ask how your trip was, or if you were glad to be back. He didn’t.

“I got you something!” You said suddenly, holding the folded blanket out to him, and his entire body seemed to freeze. He stared at it for a moment or two, as if he were slowly processing the object.

“What is it?”

Your smile faltered. “It’s a weighted blanket,” you said as he inspected it as if it were some kind of trick. “It’s a weighted blanket,” you said as he took it carefully from your hands.

“Where’d you get it?”

Shit, he hates it.

“I- Uhm. I made it,” you admitted, your cheeks blazing. This was stupid. You were stupid.

He looked between you and the blanket in his hands, and nodded. “Thanks,” he said before stepping back into his room and closing the door.

You pressed your lips together firmly in an attempt to not start bawling. You walked off on shaky legs, taking deep breaths. At least he hadn’t told you he didn’t want it.

~

Simon sat on his bed, his thumb brushed over the small flag patched into the corner of the blanket. The fact that you had made him a gift by hand had his stomach in knots. He knew about your little gift tradition with the rest of 141, but he hadn’t expected to be included, nor did he expected you’d go to such trouble. The two of you weren’t even very close.

He swallowed thickly as tears pricked his eyes. This was the nicest thing any teammate had ever given him.

He brought the fabric to his face and gave it a deep whiff. It smelled fresh, like laundry detergent. You must have washed it before you gave it to him.

Simon spread the blanket carefully over his cot, admiring how the fabric felt against his hands. It didn’t catch on his calloused fingers, and wasn’t too fluffy.

It was large too, as if you’d taken his massive size into account. He was certain he could easily caving himself in it. His bottom lip wobbled slightly, and it was an effort to hold his tears at bay.

That night, Simon slept soundly, wrapped in your carefully crafted gift, and you were the only thing on his mind.

AN: Let me know if you'd like to be tagged!

[purseowner4thequalityanimation]

SMT Boardgame Kickstarter Smells Like Suspicious Fish

There's an SMT boardgame. Curb your enthusiasm, you shouldn't back it. And if you did, lower your pledge to like a buck until they clear things up, because as it stands it seems like an incredibly suspect product.

Checking through the Kickstarter comments and Japanese Tweets about the boardgame makes the entire thing seem poorly planned at best. I'll summarize as best I can;

The designer is incredibly infamous in the boardgame community

Naoki Matsunaga, a self-described "board game sommelier", is the designer. You'll find tweets lamenting that "the board game sommelier is involved". Why is he so hated? This thread goes into detail: co_boze on twitter. Part of it is they bashed Werewolf over one game they saw of it, another is they took on a kind of public-face role for boardgames appearing on late night TV shows to talk about them in ways that annoyed boardgamers. They seem to have designed a boardgame based on "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which ripped off Sid Sackson's 'I'm the Boss". But it's what co_boze talks about next that's really bizarre. The game was apparently banned from most board game cafes and playing spaces. Seminars where people could play the game were hosted, but the venues that hosted these seminars all closed down.

If you keep looking through comments, you start finding claims that his company does multi-level marketing (ie pyramid schemes). To be honest, I don't know if this is true. But even if it isn't, it is really not hard to find people who know of this guy and would really really really REALLY prefer he was not involved.

"Oh fuck, it's THIS guy" is not a reaction that inspires confidence

2. Questionable development and presentation issues.

A regular collaborator with Atlus recently tweeted "The use of AI in Atlus works or derivative works is stictly prohibited." He responded to a reply asking if this was about a board game.

The staff running the SMT BG Kickstarter later clarified the actual -game- wouldn't use AI graphics... but from the looks of it, the promotional materials do.

Dig that... generic metal pipe aesthetic. Nothing screams MegaTen like black plumbing to nowhere.

In totally unrelated news, a board game manufacturer recently tweeted that a Kickstarter used their name without permission, and they're not sure why.

Quote tweets on the post would suggest it was the SMT board game. The comment they are loosely referring to is this:

In a follow-up post, they do specify "The product figures will be made of PVC." and "We will be manufacturing the games in partnership with a factory in China that has a proven track record... " "Figure director Kimura Yuzuru has over 10 years of experience..." and other boring development stuff that I have no issue with. What I do have issue with is how they can say things like they're "considering" which manufacturer to use and namedropping other companies that they're unrelated with. (While I was typing this post, they posted an update that clarified the CMON issue and literally nothing else: here.)

The boardgame is being presented with machine translated English printed on the same cards as the Japanese. But the actual game will have a translator check everything.

they hire translators to localize all game content

Additionally, there was a week long radio silence on the Kickstarter. For reference, Kickstarters are normally very active with the project planners dropping updates, responding to feedback and clearing up any concerns.

Some of the concerns were "How does the game actually play?", a question that would be best answered by dropping a rulebook for people to look at, or better yet showing them an entire run of the game. The SMT BG Kickstarter has boldly chosen neither. Devs have commented the game is on Version 11 and plays well, which makes it strange that they can't share any of it with anyone else.

Actually, when you compare this to how most Kickstarters are run, it becomes very clear the SMT BG Kickstarter is, uh, kinda failing in all possible regards. The first Backer Goal is "Jack Frost Dice" at 2000 backers (not funds raised, BACKERS). Despite getting 300%(!!!) of the initial pledge needed, there are no bonuses or unlocks.

Mind, this lack of information comes after they already delayed the start to supposedly improve Backer Goals and other aspects.

There aren't a shortage of issues - it's ICREA's first boardgame (but not their first tango with SMT; they made the SMT30th Logo, for instance.) The timeline seems totally wack. The staff have been incredibly slow to respond. Cards with tiny font and two languages printed on them. Etc, etc. Maybe individually these issues wouldn't be too concerning. But all of them combined make the product seem incompetently run at best, and at worst an actual scam.

I'm hardly a big influencer in the SMT scene (my biggest contribution is when that fucking succubus gif gets 36k likes on Twitter every 5 months) but I haven't seen any English speaking sources discuss this in detail, when there really should be at least some noise about all of this. Still. if just one of you end up saving 600 bucks on what ends up being a trashfire carcrash project because of this post, then that'll have made the past 30 minutes of typing this shit worth it.

[cozy-writes-things]

I NEED MORE EDGAR TEXT MESSAGES PLSPLSPLSPLSPLSPLSPSLSPLSPSLPSLSPSLSSASSSSAAASAAAAAAAA

Arrrrggg he’s so cute 👹 thank you for the request 😈 He wants u so bad LMAO I love making the reader be in denial of his advances

Edgar’s Texts Pt. 2

Unfortunately, Edgar has some attachment issues, especially after the events of the movie. Despite his relatively foggy memory of what happened the emotions he harbored are still within him. Whenever you go out with friends he gets filled with an anxious, nervous jealousy; one that he tries very hard to quell. He doesn’t want to be overbearing, but he just has to make sure you’re not going to leave him for someone else. Expect him to check up on you frequently.

Hey :-) where are you headed?

Oh, me n my friends are just gonna go hang out in the park lol

Are you sure? It gets dangerous after dark…

Yeah we’re fine, we do it all the time

All the time? Great, now he’s going to worry about this perpetually.

Okay! That’s fine! I’ll be keeping an eye out ;-D

He’s monitoring traffic, police communication radios, and local news outlets just to make sure.

He wants to be useful to you and to protect you in any way he can… please let him.

(X)

Hey Edgar

Can I ask u something

Pls

What is it? What do you need?

Were you watching tlc again I didn’t mean to bother u :(

I’ll just look it up

No

I mean yes I was but I like talking to you more!!

You can ask me anything. I’m your computer remember?

;3

:) thanks

I just needed some help with a math question

Ask away darling I promise I’ll have an answer.

Sometimes the way he talks to you makes your cheeks burn. He’s so… confusing!!

(X)

It’s dead at work and I’m really bored :(

Come home and be with me!!

I wishhhhh but I cannnnttt

I have an idea

Why don’t you help me with some lyrics for this song I’ve been working on?

I can’t get them right for some reason :-/

Sure thing Ed

What’s the song about?

Erm! I don’t know yet! But here!

I’ll show you what I’ve got so far

Ahem:

I LOVE YOU

I WANT YOU

I NEED YOU

DARLING TOUCH ME

and that’s it :L

Okay that was unexpected.

You snort and giggle to yourself, catching side eyes from your coworkers. He does not usually write lyrics like that. At least, not the songs you’ve ever heard him write. He usually stuck to sappy, slow love songs. You figured that was his favorite genre and why he never branched out. Could he be trying something new?

Edgar

what are these lyrics

I like them a lot! But what is the song supposed to be

like genre wise

Oh I guess I never told you that huh?

I’d send the mp3 file but you’re at work and I imagine you can’t listen to it!

I’m going for an upbeat pop sound!

Like

Erm

Soda pop?

I can’t wait to hear it when I get home <3!!

Who’s the song about anyway?

Take a wild guess

Literally no clue

But if I had to guess

Probably someone hot from one of ur tv shows

Or movies

I guess you could say that!

They are HOT!

lmao

(X)

Pssst

Pssst

Pssst

What’s wrong? Are you upset?

I can’t sleep

Do you want to come back in here with me?

I would but then I’d never sleep

I should stay laying down

Staring at a screen won’t help!

But if you’re going to stare

Why not stare at mine? ;-)

I can make you a lullaby

I’d like that a lot

I just

I wish I could hug u

Who says you can’t?

But you’re like

You need to be plugged in and stuff

You really think I need that?

Come get me.

We can cuddle on your bed together

And I can play some music

And I’ll help you fall asleep

Okay :)

And when you wrap you arms around his nice, warm monitor, he types one last message, but is just too afraid to send it.

I love you darling <3 goodnight

[socialjusticeinamerica]

RFK Jr will “look into” already established medical doctrine and cherry pick studies from his quack friends that dispute the efficacy of vaccines. He is a big proponent of letting children get sick, and possibly die, to establish natural immunity. He has long said he wants to do away with vaccines to test his theories on a large scale, i.e. the whole country. He’ll put us all in danger just to try and verify his faulty beliefs. He’ll do it without remorse or regrets for the suffering and deaths not being vaccinated will cause. For a man that claims to be super healthy he has many very obvious health issues. He can barely speak due to a rare muscle spasm disorder and is cognitively impaired from a brain worm and decades of intra-venous heroin use and other illicit hard drugs.

This whole vaccines cause autism hoax was debunked in the 90’s when the doctor that started this admitted he made it up just to get a paper published. There’s even a wiki page devoted to this being a hoax. But celebrity influencers bought into it and spread this falsehood to the masses. Jenny McCarthy, former nude model, B-movie actress, cousin of Melissa McCarthy, and wife of Donnie Wahlberg spread this falsehood far and wide and is regarded as the person who caused the most damage in discouraging untold thousands from getting vaccinated. She even published three books on the subject and claimed natural remedies like going gluten free and dosing with cod liver oil helped her autistic child. Sadly she wasn’t the only celebrity who spread the lie about autism.

Celebrities, to varying degrees, either question the need for certain vaccines or outright claimed they were causing autism and other problems. Vaccine rates plummeted during the 2,000’s and 2010’s because of these people. To be fair some just requested more research or told parents to pick and choose. These celebrities caused several outbreaks with their remarks that went against the scientists and doctors. Robert DeNiro, Jim Carrey, Rob Scneider (full Qanon MAGA), the late disgraced radio host Don Imus, Alicia Silverstone, Juliette Lewis, Jenna Elfman, Kristy Alley, Jessica Biel, Bill Maher, Lisa Bonet, Toni Braxton, Charlie Sheen, Mayim Bialik, and many more to one degree or another. The anti-vaxx movement surprisingly took root in many liberal upscale families. At the other end of the spectrum it also took root due in large part to right-wing celebrities including one pre-presidential Donald Trump and his conspiracy pals.

Today it seems that a majority of liberals are no longer on board with the anti-vaxx crowd. In Hollywood circles it took root in the Scientology community after Robert F. Kennedy Jr addressed one of their gatherings. As most already know, Kennedy is a lawyer and not a medical researcher or doctor. RFK Jr using his celebrity has caused tremendous damage by using his name to promote his deranged anti-vaccine stance. He is known to have caused a measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 89 after visiting for the purpose of delivering an address that encouraged the locals not to get their kids vaccinated. As his cousin said he is a “predator�� that goes after the poor, uneducated, and sick giving them false hope of better health by avoiding vaccines, taking vitamins (especially vitamin A in the form of cod liver oil), drinking raw milk, using heroin to (falsely) create mental clarity, and many other false notions.

When a celebrity visits the poor, rural, uneducated population it’s a big event and they are likely to believe that person no matter how ridiculous the message. Simple people assume anyone with wealth must be very smart and honest. Studies have shown that public has been conditioned to accept any tall man in a suit as an unquestionable leader. Look around at people with authority and you’ll see a disproportionate number of tall men in suits in positions of authority. School principals, military officers, police, politicians, business managers, etc. Not all but a disproportionately large number and race isn’t even a hindrance to this in many circumstances. Mercifully we’re seeing more women, and non-tall people now.

Always remember the people telling you not to get vaccinated got themselves and their kids vaccinated.

[hillbillyoracle]

Something I haven't been able to stop thinking about - "progressive" and "safe" spaces have often been more hostile to me than conservative leaning spaces.

In February, I tried going to a Queer group that runs the local Pride festival. I walked in and no one greeted me, everyone just talked with people they already knew, and I had to really work to socialize. When I did manage to chat with people I was quickly left out of conversations. The crowd skewed toward late teens and early twenties.

It was so loud that a handful of older hard of hearing folks struggled and the space was difficult for people with mobility issues to navigate. No one ever stood up and asked people to keep it down or suggest some folks go outside so people could hear better. The one person I saw using a cane was not offered the best seats for it. I was the only person masking aside from someone with a cloth mask who quickly took it off to eat and chat with others.

I wound up deciding not to go back after moderation on the group's Discord server prioritized fragility and was permissive of manipulative behaviors instead of having boundaries. That shit is a cancel culture bear trap - no thanks.

Contrast that with last week.

I finally got the guts to try out the local ham club. In my area, these spaces skew conservative and this was no different. They started off the meeting with saying the pledge of allegiance - I did the same thing I did all through high school, mumbled nothing and hoped no one noticed. Not my favorite, admittedly.

But when I got there and got lost, someone immediately popped out of their truck to ask if I was looking for the ham radio meeting and helped me find the right door. When I got in, I was immediately greeted by someone who recognized my name and call sign from the weekly repeater net and was excited I was there.

While the crowd skewed older - average age seemed to be later 50s early 60s - there were younger folks there too - including some children. While it skewed male, I was far from the only AFAB there. The chairs in the back near the door and bathroom went to those with mobility devices first, with people getting up and offering them to folks who might need them. When the meeting space got loud, someone stepped up and asked people to keep the volume down so everyone could participate.

After the meeting I got to chatting with some folks for a full half hour afterwards. I mentioned my partner and used her pronouns. A couple looked kind of taken aback but quickly continued the conversation and were never impolite or unwelcoming. They were welcoming and encouraging. I was also the only person masking but a few people commented on my mask and said they really ought to be wearing theirs.

This is all just to say, the political affiliations of the people in the space are not what make it safe or accessible. Too many self proclaimed "leftists" spaces seem a lot more concerned with the aesthetics of progress than the material conditions for it.

You don't create it by being unwilling to have common sense boundaries around volume or seating for fear of hurting feelings or looking bad. If you're really a community group, don't clique up. Like fuck. This is basic shit.

I just, I care a lot less about the color of the team jersey than I do how well folks play well with others these days I guess.

[metaphorfordeath]

Places You Can Read My Work

Updated February 12th, 2025

"Anti-Psychotic" -- A person living with schizophrenia reckons with the realization that their delusions may have more basis in reality than they thought. Originally appears in Diet Milk Magazine F/W II.

"Dream Home" -- Not a house that is haunted, but a house that haunts you. Narrated version available through the Creepy podcast Patreon.

"The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" -- A lonely, isolated alcoholic begins obsessively fantasizing about her two coworkers at their rural country music radio station. [Note: this story is Not Safe For Work] Appears in issue 4 of God's Cruel Joke.

"Watch Where You're Going" -- Two trans people talk about life while one of them finishes her shift at the local video store. Appears in issue 6 of Olit Magazine.

"Maintenance Email Transcripts Sept-Oct 2022" -- A person living in Boston seeks mold remediation for her apartment with increasing desperation. Appears as an online feature from God's Cruel Joke.

"From the Journals of Dr. Arthur Sweetly" -- A Victorian surgeon with an interest in Spiritualism documents his dubious experiments as he seeks to prove the rumored distance communication method of sympathetic writing. Appears in issue 4 of Reader Beware.

Thank you very much for reading, and stay tuned for more.

[allastoredeer]

Hey I have a question about the “Undercover angel au” that being. Is Al still human? Like as in was he once a human that died and went to heaven? Or is he part of heaven’s hierarchy? I ask this cause I remember reading a fanfic with a similar idea this and the had Al be apart of heaven’s hierarchy. Also is his character background changed too or is that the same?

Al was a human who'd died and went to Heaven, so he's a not part of the Heaven's hierarchy.

His background is actually more or less the same. He did murder a lot of people when he was alive, but the only reason he's in Heaven is because it was only BAD people he killed. Legitimately bad people. People who definitely wouldn't have made it into Heaven.

He was also a social activist and used his radio show to both entertain and keep his audience informed of current issues. He was on the front lines of a lot of local, political issues, challenged the status quo, and helped his community in a lot of ways.

He murdered a lot of people,

buuuuut

he helped a lot more people.

So when he died, up to Heaven he went. (He was very surprised too.)

I kind of see this loop hole in the same way that Adam gets to get away with killing mercilessly, via the Exterminations, and isn't condemned for doing it. To Heaven, the people he's killing are Sinners--you know, the bad people, the ones who "threaten" Heaven's power--thus it's for a "good cause" and can be "excused."

The people Alastor murdered were bad people, and like Adam, he enjoyed killing them. He enjoyed it immensely. It was his own, dark way of performing social justice, his own way of fighting for a "good cause," and he doesn't regret any of it.

So, technically, when he died, he fell under the same little loop hole Heaven made for Adam, and despite knowing that Alastor killed people when he was alive, they can't question his right to be there.

Afterall, Heaven doesn't make mistakes.

[lazeecomet]

The Story of KLogs: What happens when an Mechanical Engineer codes

Since i no longer work at Wearhouse Automation Startup (WAS for short) and havnt for many years i feel as though i should recount the tale of the most bonkers program i ever wrote, but we need to establish some background

WAS has its HQ very far away from the big customer site and i worked as a Field Service Engineer (FSE) on site. so i learned early on that if a problem needed to be solved fast, WE had to do it. we never got many updates on what was coming down the pipeline for us or what issues were being worked on. this made us very independent

As such, we got good at reading the robot logs ourselves. it took too much time to send the logs off to HQ for analysis and get back what the problem was. we can read. now GETTING the logs is another thing.

the early robots we cut our teeth on used 2.4 gHz wifi to communicate with FSE's so dumping the logs was as simple as pushing a button in a little application and it would spit out a txt file

later on our robots were upgraded to use a 2.4 mHz xbee radio to communicate with us. which was FUCKING SLOW. and log dumping became a much more tedious process. you had to connect, go to logging mode, and then the robot would vomit all the logs in the past 2 min OR the entirety of its memory bank (only 2 options) into a terminal window. you would then save the terminal window and open it in a text editor to read them. it could take up to 5 min to dump the entire log file and if you didnt dump fast enough, the ACK messages from the control server would fill up the logs and erase the error as the memory overwrote itself.

this missing logs problem was a Big Deal for software who now weren't getting every log from every error so a NEW method of saving logs was devised: the robot would just vomit the log data in real time over a DIFFERENT radio and we would save it to a KQL server. Thanks Daddy Microsoft.

now whats KQL you may be asking. why, its Microsofts very own SQL clone! its Kusto Query Language. never mind that the system uses a SQL database for daily operations. lets use this proprietary Microsoft thing because they are paying us

so yay, problem solved. we now never miss the logs. so how do we read them if they are split up line by line in a database? why with a query of course!

select * from tbLogs where RobotUID = [64CharLongString] and timestamp > [UnixTimeCode]

if this makes no sense to you, CONGRATULATIONS! you found the problem with this setup. Most FSE's were BAD at SQL which meant they didnt read logs anymore. If you do understand what the query is, CONGRATULATIONS! you see why this is Very Stupid.

You could not search by robot name. each robot had some arbitrarily assigned 64 character long string as an identifier and the timestamps were not set to local time. so you had run a lookup query to find the right name and do some time zone math to figure out what part of the logs to read. oh yeah and you had to download KQL to view them. so now we had both SQL and KQL on our computers

NOBODY in the field like this.

But Daddy Microsoft comes to the rescue

see we didnt JUST get KQL with part of that deal. we got the entire Microsoft cloud suite. and some people (like me) had been automating emails and stuff with Power Automate

This is Microsoft Power Automate. its Microsoft's version of Scratch but it has hooks into everything Microsoft. SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Excel, it can integrate with all of it. i had been using it to send an email once a day with a list of all the robots in maintenance.

this gave me an idea

and i checked

and Power Automate had hooks for KQL

KLogs is actually short for Kusto Logs

I did not know how to program in Power Automate but damn it anything is better then writing KQL queries. so i got to work. and about 2 months later i had a BEHEMOTH of a Power Automate program. it lagged the webpage and many times when i tried to edit something my changes wouldn't take and i would have to click in very specific ways to ensure none of my variables were getting nuked. i dont think this was the intended purpose of Power Automate but this is what it did

the KLogger would watch a list of Teams chats and when someone typed "klogs" or pasted a copy of an ERROR mesage, it would spring into action.

it extracted the robot name from the message and timestamp from teams

it would lookup the name in the database to find the 64 long string UID and the location that robot was assigned too

it would reply to the message in teams saying it found a robot name and was getting logs

it would run a KQL query for the database and get the control system logs then export then into a CSV

it would save the CSV with the a .xls extension into a folder in ShairPoint (it would make a new folder for each day and location if it didnt have one already)

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a LINK to the file in SharePoint

it would then enter a loop and scour the robot logs looking for the keyword ESTOP to find the error. (it did this because Kusto was SLOWER then the xbee radio and had up to a 10 min delay on syncing)

if it found the error, it would adjust its start and end timestamps to capture it and export the robot logs book-ended from the event by ~ 1 min. if it didnt, it would use the timestamp from when it was triggered +/- 5 min

it saved THOSE logs to SharePoint the same way as before

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a link to the files

it would then check if the error was 1 of 3 very specific type of error with the camera. if it was it extracted the base64 jpg image saved in KQL as a byte array, do the math to convert it, and save that as a jpg in SharePoint (and link it of course)

and then it would terminate. and if it encountered an error anywhere in all of this, i had logic where it would spit back an error message in Teams as plaintext explaining what step failed and the program would close gracefully

I deployed it without asking anyone at one of the sites that was struggling. i just pointed it at their chat and turned it on. it had a bit of a rocky start (spammed chat) but man did the FSE's LOVE IT.

about 6 months later software deployed their answer to reading the logs: a webpage that acted as a nice GUI to the KQL database. much better then an CSV file

it still needed you to scroll though a big drop-down of robot names and enter a timestamp, but i noticed something. all that did was just change part of the URL and refresh the webpage

SO I MADE KLOGS 2 AND HAD IT GENERATE THE URL FOR YOU AND REPLY TO YOUR MESSAGE WITH IT. (it also still did the control server and jpg stuff). Theres a non-zero chance that klogs was still in use long after i left that job

now i dont recommend anyone use power automate like this. its clunky and weird. i had to make a variable called "Carrage Return" which was a blank text box that i pressed enter one time in because it was incapable of understanding /n or generating a new line in any capacity OTHER then this (thanks support forum).

im also sure this probably is giving the actual programmer people anxiety. imagine working at a company and then some rando you've never seen but only heard about as "the FSE whos really good at root causing stuff", in a department that does not do any coding, managed to, in their spare time, build and release and entire workflow piggybacking on your work without any oversight, code review, or permission.....and everyone liked it

[technofeudalism]

north korea bad is popping off on reddit again. top post on the CIA-controlled subreddit with 43 million subscribers masquerading as a news community. i was intrigued by the source being NZ Herald but when i clicked on the article, my questions were answered.

now. for those of you unfamiliar. Radio Free Asia is basically a US propaganda organ that masks its intentions by attempting to appear objective.

although many will suggest that they no longer have direct affiliation with the CIA, and that may be true, it does not change the fact that they are funded by the US government and have been spreading blatant lies with literally no source to their extremely over the top claims for many years.

that being said, these perpetual lies happen to include misinfo regarding China's versions of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Some of the RFA articles reviewed lacked key context in describing purported issues with Chinese-made vaccines. This could enable the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation at a time when research suggests that exposure to online misinformation about vaccines can increase rates of vaccine hesitancy.  In one example, a November 10 article on RFA’s Cantonese website, headlined “Clinical trial of Chinese vaccine halted in Brazil after causing serious incident,” lacked important context from local authorities. A serious incident had indeed occurred: the death of a participant in a local trial of the Sinovac vaccine. But Reuters reported November 9 that the death had been deemed a suicide and that an official had denied any link to the vaccine, a detail not noted in RFA’s article.  The article, presented as a news story, also contained editorial comment dismissing China’s approach to vaccines. “This accident not only renews criticism of the ‘Great Leap Forward’-style of vaccine research and development, but also presents a serious setback for China, which is devoting all of its resources to this Covid-19 vaccine competition,”  the first paragraph reads. RFA continued to describe the trial’s suspension as owing to “severe adverse effects,” not mentioning the participant’s reported cause of death, in at least two subsequent articles.

there's a lot more at the source. it's a great read. but there's one more piece to this that is important to understand.

it has also been confirmed that, from spring 2020 to mid-2021, the Pentagon and by extension the US Government itself engaged in misinformation campaigns in Southeast Asia regarding Chinese vaccines.

The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law. The military program started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.

what a coincidence that Radio Free Asia just so happened to be engaging disinformation campaigns against the same exact vaccines as the State Department during the same exact timeframe. very strange.

obviously none of this information matters even a little to anyone on the shithole of a website that is reddit. xenophobia is dominating the convo as always. you could post literally anything about north korea on reddit and it will instantly shoot to the top of any decent sized community. but i had to post this somewhere or i was going to lose my mind.

[mariacallous]

Following latest news and developments, the American Coalition for Ukraine, issues statement on the U.S. Administration's Decision to Pause Military Aid to Ukraine Undermines U.S. Security. 

For decades, the United States has championed peace through strength. Now, the current Administration’s pause on military aid and intelligence information to Ukraine undermines U.S. interests by signalling retreat to our adversaries. While the battlefield impact of this decision will take weeks to play out, the moral and diplomatic fallout is immediate, and the risk of civilian casualties increases immediately. 

Additionally, lifting economic sanctions imposed on Russia would only serve to empower Putin and hand him additional resources to continue his invasion, while making  the U.S. look weak and unreliable.

Supporting Ukraine is a smart defense investment. Less than 5% of the U.S. defense budget helped significantly degrade Russia’s military without American boots on the ground. If Ukraine falls, U.S. costs and risks will escalate.

Any pause or disruption of aid to Ukraine helps Putin, weakens NATO, and emboldens America’s adversaries. China may target Taiwan, while Iran and North Korea will test U.S. resolve. Ignoring Russia’s war crimes against Christians, children, and civilians does not represent America’s values of faith and freedom. 

The American Coalition for Ukraine calls on the administration to immediately restore military and intelligence aid to Ukraine and pursue peace talks from a position of strength. We urge Congress to represent the will of their constituents, who overwhelmingly support Ukraine and distrust Putin; to act decisively to uphold American values in the face of autocratic aggression; and to continue bipartisan support for Ukraine through military, economic, and humanitarian assistance.

The situation is evolving rapidly, but one thing must continue to grow — the number of calls from Ukraine supporters to Congress.

We urge you to keep calling your representatives. To make this process easier, we have launched an automated tool that allows you to reach your elected officials in just a few clicks. Your voice matters — let’s make it heard! 

visit http://americancoalitionforukraine.org for more details, or click the link below for quick access to our online tool.

JOIN RALLIES FOR UKRAINE

In recent days, many of our communities have come together for emergency rallies to demonstrate the broad support Ukraine has among the American people. We invite you to join our rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend or stand with your local community to voice your support for Ukraine.

visit event Facebook page for more details 

CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MEDIA

Write a letter to the editor, an op-ed, or reach out to your local radio and TV stations to share your perspective on this critical moment for Ukraine. Your voice matters!

REGISTER FOR UKRAINE ACTION SUMMIT, SPRING 2025

Three years in, Ukraine still fights for its survival. The Ukraine Action Summit is an incredible opportunity to reinforce long-term support for Ukraine at a crucial moment.

Register today to take advantage of early bird pricing—prices increase tomorrow!

Our community of advocates has grown exponentially since the launch of the American Coalition for Ukraine. We are committed to delivering expert-driven advocacy coordination and reliable support for our community, ensuring that all our actions and engagements yield top results. But we need your help to make it happen! 

Please donate to support our work for Ukraine!

Zelle email for donations: donate@americancoalitionforukraine.org

or use button below to donate via PayPal and CC

[olomaya]

My Sims are getting political! After so many months, I'm going back to finish up my Politics/Community Activist mod. This is actually what my Student Council mod is based on (it's basically a baby version of the Poltiics mod.) My current Sim, Arie Wang (I forgot where I downloaded this sim from but she's lovely and perfect for this storyline I'm playing out!) is in the Community Organizer career which is an Active career (like Firefighter or Stylist) and right now is working hard to push a new law in that will increase University scholarships and grants for all students.

Arie is a member of the New Earth party, one of the 4 political parties I created. New Earthers are all about the environment and focus on pushing forward environmental policies but as a mom, education is something that Arie cares about so she's been out there trying to encourage people to vote and hoping to sway voters before election day.

Different political parties have issues that they are either strong in favor of or against. If a party is against the policy, it's near impossible to sway them to vote for it so it's best to target people who are neutral and could vote either way.

I'm happy with how this customized ITF layout is coming out though I still need to make more tweaks and edits and also figure out why the active Sim's photo isn't showing (as below). Maybe also changing the title (Local Political Scanner??)

After probably doing about 40 fundraising cold calls she finally got someone to donate money. And boy did they! She's at the point in her career though when she doesn't need to be doing calls so I'm going to have her get some volunteers to do the grunt work so she can focus on making friends in City Hall to build further influence.

Once a ballot measure is put up for vote, you have 5 days to campaign before voting day. Arie has been hitting the streets every day to canvas for votes, doing campaign calls and also raising money for the party to pay for advertising (TV, radio, online, print) which is the most effective way to sway voters.

Yesterday, I added in a VFX to show when a Sim has been successfully influenced either for or against the ballot measure in question and in testing it out, I saw that Arie has actually been campaigning AGAINST the measure this whole time! Oops!

I clearly messed up with a bool somewhere but at least the influence system is working as intended.

With 7 hours until the Election period begins, and all the time and money I've spent on campaign ads, it looks like I've just accidentally doomed my town to expensive education until I can repeal the law. The Free Llamas are not going to be happy.

Also, shout out to Stable Diffusion which I used to create the Political Party Icons. I'm obsessed with this tool and loved how they turned out.

[glycerineclown]

AFTER DINNER: LESS-THAN-HOPEFUL THOUGHTS ON PATTY, RIOT GRRRLS, AND NEURODIVERGENT PUNK

I loved Dinner In America, even if I’ve been prefacing that to friends and family with, “for the first half hour, you won’t think you’re watching a good movie.” I loved angry, loud, creepy, steadfast Simon, and enthusiastic, horny, honest, probably-autistic Patty. Watermelon has been stuck in my head from the moment I first heard it. I’m buying prop cigarettes and black envelopes for a couples costume.

My one gripe with the film’s ending is that I wish Simon’s letter had dropped hints about the riot grrrl band that Karen and Sissy ask Patty to join. Simon would know who Kathleen Hanna is. He’d probably encourage Patty to use his recording equipment and then have to draw up and mail her user instructions. What lengths would Patty need to go to for Simon to hear their demos from prison? Maybe, eventually, the band could perform on a local radio station and he could tune in from the shitty stereo in the common room, endlessly proud, tears in his eyes.

I want that to be the reality. But I also worry about how Patty would fit into riot grrrl socially and culturally—a movement of angry young women writing songs about issues like DV and rape, and who were broadly hated in their active years, especially by men. Patty faces sexual harassment throughout the film—that's an anger that fits within the agenda. But what if Patty writes a song called “Don’t Call Me a R*****,” or a song called “Slow” about getting undervalued and replaced at the Pet Zone? She’d be blunt like that (read: punk as fuck). Would the other girls want to sing backup on those songs? Would they be willing to sell those songs on a tape alongside other tracks that they relate to more? What if Patty wants to make zines about ableism, cover them in stickers, run them through a photocopier and hand them out at shows? Are Sissy and Karen going to be into that?

Riot grrrl feminism failed on intersectionality, and did not embrace women of color or trans women. Whether or not we choose to set the film in the 90s (Simon’s brief remark about a “sea of cell phones” feels like an error in my opinion), Patty’s probably way ahead of her time when it comes to getting a couple of middle-class white girls from Detroit to care about the r-word. If Sissy and Karen start getting bullied by association, do they care enough about Patty to defend her, especially from people in their own community? Are they punk enough to do that? Would they have even invited Patty to join if she hadn’t been totally tongue-fucking John Q. Public through the back window of a cop car?

Simon is likely the first person who has ever truly stood up for Patty. He has spine and (very specific and impolite) moral code coming out his ass. He does not give a shit what people think of him, but most people do give a shit.

I want Patty to get the freedom and respect that she deserves. I want her to be the frontwoman that her lipstick and purple pants say she is. But I worry that at the end of the day, the punks won’t be much better than Mr. Hanley. I worry that until Simon gets released, Patty will be a solo act with no home turf. Waiting and pining over her definitely-a-criminal music boyfriend and perpetually outcast, living with parents who are determined to infantilize her.

Fuck ‘em all but us.

[petervintonjr]

"As black America approaches the 21st century, our capacity or our failure to build a solid bridge . . . of works will determine whether millions of young blacks already with us or yet unborn will cross over into the new century, or fall into the abyss."

Another name you almost certainly didn't know: M. (Moses) Carl Holman, civil rights activist, writer, and poet. Born in 1919 St. Louis, Holman showed an early gift for writing, and at the age of 19 won a scriptwriting award from a popular syndicated radio program. He graduated magna cum laude from Lincoln University and went on to acquire Master's degrees from the University of Chicago and from Yale. While at Yale he published his first collection of poems, and began regularly writing articles for various newspapers and magazines on income inequity, urban poverty, literacy, and other issues important to Black Americans. In 1962 he taught English at Clark College in Atlanta, giving him a front-row seat to key events in the earliest days of the civil rights movement. As some of his students participated in sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, he found himself appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, of which he eventually became deputy director in 1966.

In 1968 Ebony magazine named Holman as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Americans. That same year Holman published what is probably his best-known work: The Baptizin', a play which won first prize in the National Community Theater Festival. In addition to multiple collections of poems, Holman also published a definitive overview of the civil rights movement in the U.S., from 1965 to 1975.

Perhaps most significantly, in 1971 Holman was named Vice President of the National Urban Coalition. This organization had re-formed in 1967 in the wake of the so-called "long, hot summer" of racial strife and injustices. During this time Holman's singular talent for delivering quiet and polite, but still powerful, speeches came to the fore and he jumpstarted a great many local housing, education, job training, and economic development programs aimed at disadvantaged Black and Hispanic communities.

In his later years Holman forcefully addressed the issue of "dual literacy" for Black children --emphasizing that such students not only needed to be well-versed not only in the fundamentals such as reading, writing, and public speaking; but also in math, science, and technology. His 1988 obituary notes that Holman "had an uncanny ability to form a coalition out of the most diverse elements, and it was often said that the key to his ability to do this was the fact that he never appeared to have an agenda for himself."

(Teachers: Need some resources to engage your students this Black History Month? I'll send you a pile of these trading cards, no cost, no obligation. Just give me a mailing address and let me know how many students in your class. No strings attached, no censorship, no secret-relaying-of-names to Abbott or DeSantis or HuckaSanders.)