#guns are for public health

[skiamachy]

just browsing a museum catalog of historical items, in the 'public health & hygiene' section, and-- uh, what, now?

[kirasometimess]

“YOU ARE DOING NOTHING”

Beto O’Rourke snapped at Abbott’s press conference today, was called a “sick son of a bitch”, and was then escorted out while audience begged “let him speak”.

“This one is on us,” Beto says, speaking about the Uvalde shooting. “Now is the time to stop the next shooting. Right after Santa Fe High School was the time to stop the next shooting. Right after El Paso was the time to stop the next shooting. Right after Midland-Odessa was the time to stop the next shooting. In each case we say this isn’t the time. Now is the time!”

He’s right.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[fandomtrumpshate]

2023 Supported Nonprofits

Our list of supported organizations for 2023 includes a few orgs from last year, and a host of new ones addressing issues such as climate and pollinator preservation, housing and immigration, and gun violence.

If you are a FTH creator and you want to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

                                        - - - -

Citizens Climate Education

A nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy climate change organization focused on national policies to address climate change; trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with elected officials, the media and their local community.

DigDeep/Navajo Water Project *

Works to ensure that every person, everywhere enjoys their human right to water. All people should have access to a sufficient quantity of safe, accessible, affordable water of good quality, and that they should understand and care for their water resources.

Life After Hate

Provides support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people

National Network to End Domestic Violence *

Offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence

Never Again Action *

A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States; takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense.

Rainbow Railroad *

Works to help LGTBQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics find safety through emergency relocation and other forms of assistance.

Razom *

Initiates short and long-term projects, or collaborates on existing projects with partner organizations, which help Ukraine stay on the path of fostering democracy and prosperity.

Sherlock's Homes Foundation

Provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system, for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves. Within these homes, young adults learn about responsibility, accountability, financial independence, life skills, and how to love themselves.

The Appeal *

A news organization that envisions a world in which systems of support and care, not punishment, create public safety, The Appeal’s journalism exposes the harms of a criminal legal system entrenched in centuries of systemic racism.

Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund *

Works toward legal equality for trans people through education, public policy, litigation, and direct legal services

Violence Policy Center *

Works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration; exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, and offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates.

Xerces *

An international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Focuses on pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation, and reducing pesticide use and impacts.

Umbrella: Abortion Funds

For the past three years, FTH has supported one “umbrella” cause: we invite participants to donate to their own local grassroots organization, while also suggesting a handful of exemplary organizations working in in communities where the need is especially acute. This year (like last year) this umbrella category is abortion funds.

Abortion funds are grassroots nonprofits dedicated to supporting reproductive justice in their communities. These organizations provide financial, logistical and emotional support for people seeking abortions, and work to build collective power to create political and cultural change around reproductive freedom.

Our 2023 selections for the umbrella group was compiled with assistance from Kiki, a digital engagement manager for an abortion support nonprofit and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the (now-defunct) site The Learned Fangirl. (Please feel free to reach out to her on twitter @kdc if you have any questions about abortion funds!)

Buckle Bunnies Fund

Indigenous Women Rising

Kentucky Health Justice Network

Abortion Fund of Ohio

New Orleans Abortion Fund

     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _     _

Organizations marked with an asterisk (*) allow for international donations directly through their websites. The orgs without asterisks may take international donations through a paypal or venmo account. If you are a non-US-based bidder/donor and you are having trouble finding an organization to which you can donate, please email us directly at fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com.

[odinsblog]

👉🏿 Guns in America: 16 Charts You Need to See

[appropriate-as-always]

today I learned that the local school district has officially instructed elementary teachers to, in the event of a tornado, stand directly in front of the vertical windows of glass next to their classroom door. why? in case the glass shatters.

their reasoning is that if it does, teachers’ bodies can take more damage than small, child bodies and they are more likely to survive the damage

[protego-et-servio]

Kids and Screens

I saw someone complaining about kids being on screens a lot and, honestly, I wonder how much these people realize that screens aren't an awful replacement for toys.

I'm not saying completely replace toys for screens, but screens aren't totally without imagination or socialization.

First off, many kids we see right now had to go through 2-3 years of online learning thanks to Covid. They also had to learn to socialize through online meeting and messenger apps.

I know, because my youngest is super extroverted. Covid was hard for them. They did - and still do - talk with friends over messengers or Zooms. They really enjoy playing Roblox and video chatting with friends.

Secondly, lots of apps inspire imagination. There's so many games that are basically digital dolls and in many cases they're more accessible for poorer kids. Like I had Barbies, but I only had a few outfits for them since they were expensive.

My kid has tons of apps with dolls and a mind-boggling assortment of clothes. They're always making up stories for the dolls and likes when they can make houses.

Thirdly, kids have access to other stuff than games on tablets and phones. Ebooks, audiobooks, drawing apps, writing apps. The Internet is literally at their fingertips and they have tons of resources to learn.

Yeah, we don't know the effects of kids growing up with screens as an innate part of their life AND there's definitely a need for balance. And there can be something said about corporations wanting to get kids hooked on electronics.

But

You don't know what a family's balance is from one snapshot of one day of their life.

As parents (from a US perspective, since that's my experience,) we are navigating plagues, climate change, political upheaval, growing class divide, public schools becoming defunded, economic inflation, daily shootings, and - if we or our children are of a marginalized group - targeted political attacks, and more.

Parents are tired and kids are getting such the shit-end of the stick in this world.

I'm not going to fault them for finding an escape in online games, media, writing, or digital art.

[contemplatingoutlander]

This is an excellent, must-read analysis of gun issues in the U.S. by Nicholas Kristoff. Here are some excerpts:

America has been shaken — once again — by mass shootings. On May 14, a gunman killed 10 people in a supermarket in Buffalo. On Tuesday, at least 19 children and two adults were killed in Uvalde, Texas. It was the deadliest shooting at an elementary school since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary.

This essay originally ran in 2017, after a shooter killed 26 people in a Texas church. But the issue is still tragically relevant, and will remain so until America tightens its gun safety policies.

America has more guns than any other country

The first step is to understand the scale of the challenge America faces: The U.S. has more than 300 million guns — roughly one for every citizen — and stands out as well for its gun death rates. At the other extreme, Japan has less than one gun per 100 people, and typically fewer than 10 gun deaths a year in the entire country.

We have a model for regulating guns: automobiles

Gun enthusiasts often protest: Cars kill about as many people as guns, and we don’t ban them! No, but automobiles are actually a model for the public health approach I’m suggesting.

We don’t ban cars, but we work hard to regulate them — and limit access to them — so as to reduce the death toll they cause. This has been spectacularly successful, reducing the death rate per 100 million miles driven to less than one-seventh of what it was in 1946.

....Use a public health approach instead.

[...] The left sometimes focuses on “gun control,” which scares off gun owners and leads to more gun sales. A better framing is “gun safety” or “reducing gun violence,” and using auto safety as a model—constant efforts to make the products safer and to limit access by people who are most likely to misuse them.

What would a public health approach look like for guns if it were modeled after cars? It would include:

If someone steals my iPhone, it’s useless, and the same should be true of guns. Gun manufacturers made child-proof guns back in the 19th century (before dropping them), and it’s time to advance that technology today. Some combination of smart guns and safe storage would also reduce the number of firearms stolen in the U.S. each year, now about 200,000, and available to criminals.

We also need to figure out whether gun buybacks, often conducted by police departments, are cost-effective and help reduce violence. And we can experiment more with anti-gang initiatives, such as Cure Violence, that have a good record in reducing shootings.

Fewer guns = fewer deaths

It is true that guns are occasionally used to stop violence. But contrary to what the National Rifle Association suggests, this is rare. One study by the Violence Policy Center found that in 2012 there were 259 justifiable homicides by a private citizen using a firearm.

Lax laws too often make it easy not only for good guys to get guns, but also for bad guys to get guns. The evidence is overwhelming that overall more guns and more relaxed gun laws lead to more violent deaths and injuries. One study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that a gun in the house was associated with an increased risk of a gun death, particularly by suicide but also apparently by homicide.

See the rest of the article for more important information and commentary.

[void-tiger]

Well…if there’s one (1) good thing about having a crush, it’s that when I’m (for the moment anyway) not worrying about the other person’s boundaries and terror about whether I’ve stomped on them or not + my own frustration at how slow things are to just communicate verbally and directly instead of constantly dancing around nonverbal reads (that are two-way, I suppose but still no substitute, can still mean just about anything)…

…yeah. I do let myself be selfish. Acknowledge what I want instead of burying it so deeply away from my consciousness to not “take up space” I suppose. Finally give myself some damn permission to fall in love with another person “despite” being ace, and “despite” being chronically ill and struggling with my mental health.

And what is it I want?

To feel cared for. Cherished. By someone here. To wake up and have someone greet me with a gentle embrace mindful of the constant chronic pain especially in the mornings to not accidentally pinch things, but not treating me like glass, either. To be given autonomy instead of having it taken away—to do things together, FUN things, without being made to feel guilty about that “taking away” spoons from chores or “well why won’t you just work a job then!” but also respecting my need to rest periodically or take a longer rest after the fact.

To feel heard. To trust that there’s love enough for us to disagree and feel angry and frustrated and sad around eachother and with eachother without judgement, without the risk that things are forever one disagreement or misunderstanding away from falling apart completely or worse.

And please tease me. Teasing is a love language just as much as communication and encouragement and acts of service and finally being held. It’s verbal play, and I trust you to not bully me.

And…I’ve shown as much as I can, I think. I know you’re trying to mirror at least some of it. And I think I’m reading you correctly, but I wish I understood why you seem so terrified to talk directly to me.

[thebsideofthings]

"In D.C. and in cities around the country, the ever-expanding racial wealth gap exacerbates the conditions that contribute to this uniquely U.S. crisis. Decades of housing discrimination, redlining, lack of access to quality education, high rates of joblessness and low-wage employment compound the challenges faced by Black communities. As the former vice president for programs at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence put it, “inequality isn’t just about making money or not making money; it’s really about whether you’re going to survive.”

- Valerie Jean Charles in We Can’t Tackle Gun Violence Until We Address Racial Inequity for Truthout

[deepdive002]

It's hard getting admitted to the psych ward. You have to thread the needle between being crazy enough that they let you in but not so crazy they kick you out or send you to jail. It's harder because your brain isn't working right.

St. Joseph of Orange County kicked me out that night. Fortunately, I got help at Mission Hospital of Laguna Beach a few days later.

[karadin]

Back to school ad in Texas

[gwydionmisha]

Your life may depend on who you vote for in November.

[aerposts]

Travel Warnings Other Countries Have About Visiting The U.S. - Your Mileage May Vary

Regardless of what we think of the United States, other countries are well aware of the very real problems we have with domestic terrorism, racism, gun safety, violent crimes, theft, global warming, medical costs, young Black men’s interactions with the police, how we treat people seeking asylum, and even our (*cough*) puritanical opinions about some modern topics.

[meandmybigmouth]

 THE 2 PARTY SHIT CIRCUS REWRITES THE UNITED STAES DEATH SENTENCE FOR AMERICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN! GUTLESS, SHAMELESS, ALL  AMERICA WILL SHARE THE BLAME FOR FUTURE MASSACRE’S!

[odinsblog]