#justice is our demand no peace on stolen land

[satansjit]

Reflections on the Color of My Skin

By Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

My colleague had other encounters with the law that he shared later that night, but his first story started a chain reaction among us. One by one we each recalled multiple incidents of being stopped by the police. None of the accounts were particularly violent or life-threatening, although it was easy to extrapolate to highly publicized cases that were. One of my colleagues had been stopped for driving too slowly. He was admiring the local flora as he drove through a New England town in the autumn. Another had been stopped because he was speeding, but only by five miles per hour. He was questioned and then released without getting a ticket. Still another colleague had been stopped and questioned for jogging down the street late at night.

As for me, I had a dozen different encounters to draw from. There was the time I was stopped late at night at an underpass on an empty road in New Jersey for having changed lanes without signaling. The officer told me to get out of my car and questioned me for ten minutes around back with the headlights of his squad car brightly illuminating my face. Is this your car? Yes. Who is the woman in the passenger seat? My wife. Where are you coming from? My parent’s house. Where are you going? Home. What do you do for a living? I am an astrophysicist at Princeton University. What’s in your trunk? A spare tire, and a lot of other greasy junk. He went on to say that the “real reason” why he stopped me was because my car’s license plates were much newer and shinier than the 17-year-old Ford that I was driving. The officer was just making sure that neither the car nor the plates were stolen.

Among my other stories, I had been stopped by campus police while transporting my home supply of physics textbooks into my newly assigned office in graduate school. They had stopped me at the entrance to the physics building where they asked accusatory questions about what I was doing. It was 11:30 p.m. Open-topped boxes of graduate math and physics textbooks filled the trunk. And I was transporting them into the building, which left me wondering how often that scenario shows up in police training videos.

We went on for two more hours. But before we retired for the night we searched for common denominators among the stories. We had all driven different cars—some were old, others were new, some were undistinguished, others were high performance imports. Some police stops were in the daytime, others were at night. Taken one-by-one, each encounter with the law could be explained as an isolated incident where, in modern times, we all must forfeit some freedoms to ensure a safer society for us all. Taken collectively, however, you would think the cops had a vendetta against physicists because that was the only profile we all had in common. In this parade of automotive stop-and-frisks, one thing was for sure, the stories were not singular, novel moments playfully recounted. They were common, recurring episodes. How could this assembly of highly educated scientists, each in possession of the PhD—the highest academic degree in the land—be so vulnerable to police inquiry in their lives? Maybe the police cued on something else. Maybe it was the color of our skin. The conference I had been attending was the 23rd meeting of the National Society of Black Physicists. We were guilty not of DWI (Driving While Intoxicated), but of other violations none of us knew were on the books: DWB (Driving While Black), WWB (Walking While Black), and of course, JBB (Just Being Black).

None of us were beaten senseless. None of us were shot. But what does it take for a police encounter to turn lethal? On average, police in America kill more than 100 unarmed black people per year. Who never made it to our circle? I suspect our multi-hour conversation would be rare among most groups of law-abiding people.

As I compose this, about 10,000 chanting protestors are filing past my window in Manhattan. And because of the intermittent looting and related violence, the curfew for this evening has been pushed earlier, to 8 p.m., from 11 p.m. in the preceding days. The most common placard was “Black Lives Matter.” Many others simply displayed the name George Floyd, who was handcuffed face-down on the street with a police officer’s knee on the back of his neck, applied with a force of at least half the officer’s body weight, resulting in his death. Curious irony that NFL star Colin Kaepernick offered a simple demonstration of care and concern for the fate of black people in the custody of police officers, by taking a knee during the Star Spangled Banner before football games. (One media outlet mangled the moment by describing him as protesting the national anthem.) The outrage against his silent act of concern for a national problem persisted through the 2017 season when, as a free agent, he went unsigned by any team to continue his livelihood.

So, we went from a peaceful knee to the ground to a fatal knee to the neck.

The way peaceful protesters and the press are being shoved, maced, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, and tackled in the streets of our cities (when the police should have focused on arresting the looters) you would think the protestors were doing something illegal or un-American. But, of course, the U.S. Constitution has something to say about it:

Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Which amendment was that? The First Amendment. So, the founders of this nation felt quite strongly about it, empowering one to declare that protesting for redress of grievances is one of the most American things you can do. If you are the police, pause and reflect how great is the country whose Constitution endorses peaceful protests.

What do we actually expect from our police officers? To protect the peace and arrest the bad guys, I presume. But also, to be armed with lethal force that they can use when necessary. That part clearly requires training on how and when to use (and not use) the power of your weapons. The rigorous Minneapolis Police Academy training lasts 4 months. The slightly more rigorous NYC Police Academy lasts 6 months.

Yet to become a certified pastry chef at a prestigious culinary academy requires 8 months. The perfect croissant demands it. So maybe, just maybe, police recruits could benefit from a bit more training before becoming officers.

In 1991, Rodney King (age 25) was struck dozens of times, while on the ground, by four LAPD officers, with their batons, after being tased. The grainy 1990s video of that went media-viral, inducing shock and dismay to any viewer.

But I wasn’t shocked at all.

Based on what I already knew of the world, my first thought was, “We finally got one of those on tape.” Followed by, “Maybe justice will be served this time.” Yes, that’s precisely my first thought. Why? Since childhood my parents instilled in me and my siblings, via monthly, sometimes weekly lessons, rules of conduct to avoid getting shot by the police. “Make sure that when you get stopped, the officer can always see both of your hands.” “No sudden movements.” “Don’t reach into your pockets for anything without announcing this in advance.” “When you move at all, tell the officer what you are about to do.” At the time, I am a budding scientist in middle school, just trying to learn all I can about the universe. I hardly ever think about the color of my skin—it never comes up when contemplating the universe. Yet when I exit my front door, I’m a crime suspect. Add to this the recently coined “White Caller Crime,” where scared white people call the police because they think an innocent black person is doing something non-innocent, and it’s a marvel that any of us achieve at all.

The rate of abuse? Between one and five skin-color-instigated incidents per week, for every week of my life. White people must have known explicitly if not implicitly of this struggle. Why else would the infamous phrase, “I’m free, white, and 21” even exist? Here is a compilation of that line used in films across the decades. Yes, it’s offensive. But in America, it’s also truthful. Today’s often-denied “white privilege” accusation was, back then, openly declared.

The deadly LA riots associated with the Rodney King incident are often remembered as a response to the beating. But no. Los Angeles was quiet for 13 months afterward. Everyone had confidence, as did I, that the video was just the kind of evidence needed to finally bring about a conviction in the abuse of power. But that’s not what came to pass. The riots were a response to the acquittal of the four officers in the incident, and not to the incident itself. And what is a riot if not the last act of helpless desperation.

The 1989 film by Spike Lee “Do the Right Thing,” which explored 1980s black-white-police tensions in Brooklyn, New York, ends with a dedication to the families of six people. Eleanor Bumpers (age 66), Michael Griffith (age 23), Arthur Miller (age 30), Edmund Perry (age 17), Yvonne Smallwood (age 28), and Michael Stewart (age 25). All are black. One was killed by a white mob. The rest were unarmed and shot by police or otherwise died while in police custody. All deaths occurred within the 10 years preceding film, and all occurred in New York City. None of the police-induced deaths resulted in convictions, as continues to be true for 99% of all police killings.

We know of these events because they each ended in death. But even so, back then, it was just local news. Was this just NYC’s problem? I asked myself. But for every police-related death anywhere, how many unarmed victims are shot by police and don’t die, or are wrongfully maimed or injured? Most of those cases didn’t even make the local news. But if you lived there, you knew. We all knew. For what it’s worth, NYC now has the lowest police-caused death rate per capita among the sixty largest cities in the US. Is it that extra two months training in the Police Academy?

The corrosion and ultimate erosion of our confidence in the legal system in cases such as these, even in the face of video evidence, has spawned a tsunami of protests. With sympathetic demonstrations across the United States and around the world. If the threat of prison time for this behavior does not exist—acting as a possible deterrent—then the behavior must somehow stop on its own.

Some studies show that the risk of death for an unarmed person at the hands of the police is approximately the same no matter the demographics of who gets arrested. Okay. But if your demographic gets stopped ten times more than others, then your demographic will die at ten times the rate. I suppose we first have to get the bias factor down to zero, but then there’s still the matter of police killing unarmed suspects, white people included.

I talk a lot. But I don’t talk much about any of this, or the events along this path-of-most-resistance that have shaped me. Why? Because throughout my life I’ve used these occasions as launch-points to succeed even more. Yes, I parlayed the persistent rejections of society, which today might be called micro-aggressions, into reservoirs of energy to achieve. I learned that from my father, himself active in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s.

In a way, I am who I am precisely because countless people, by their actions or inactions, said I could never be what I am. But what if you don’t have this deep supply of fuel? What becomes of you? Who from historically disenfranchised communities, including women, LGBTQ+, and anybody of color, are missing—falling shy of their full potential because they ran out of energy and gave up trying.

Are things better today than yesterday? Yes. But one measure of this truth is a bit perverse. Decades ago, unarmed black people getting beaten or killed by the police barely merited the local news. But now it’s national news—even breaking news—no matter where in the country it occurs.

So how to change all this? Organizations have surely assembled demands for police departments. Here, I offer a list of my own, for policy experts to consider:

Extend police academies to include months of cultural awareness and sensitivity training that also includes how not to use lethal force.

Police officers should all be tested for any implicit bias they carry, with established thresholds of acceptance and rejection from the police academy. We all carry bias. But most of us do not hold the breathing lives of others in our hands when influenced by it.

During protests, protect property and lives. If you attack nonviolent protesters you are being un-American. And you wouldn’t need curfews if police arrested looters and not protesters.

If fellow officers are behaving in a way that is clearly unethical or excessively violent, and you witness this, please stop them. Someone will get that on video, and it will give the rest of us confidence that you can police yourselves. In these cases, our trust in you matters more to a civil society than how much you stick up for each other.

And here’s a radical idea for the Minneapolis Police Department—why not give George Floyd the kind of full-dress funeral you give each other for dying in the line of duty? And vow that such a death will never happen again.

Lastly, when you see black kids, think of what they can be rather than what you think they are.

Respectfully Submitted

Neil deGrasse Tyson — trying hard to Keep Looking Up.

Copyright © 2018 Neil deGrasse Tyson

[allthecanadianpolitics]

From 1492 Land Back Lane

September 6, 2020

In the past week, ten people have been arrested in connection to 1492 Land Back Lane. These include Allies who are non-Indigenous and people from other Haudenosaunee communities, as well as Mohawk researcher Courtney Skye and Oneida journalist Karl Dockstader.

Arresting our kin and allies is an escalation of violence on behalf of the OPP. Canada is choosing how to address our concerns and issues, and they have chosen to use police violence and criminalization instead of engaging with our community.

Our people have been charged simply for being in their territory, practicing our culture. Dealing with land disputes in this way is unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated.

We believe that this is a deliberate strategy of the OPP, to intimidate our supporters and discouraged people from supporting our use of our land.

We fear that the OPP intends to cut off our ability to receive supplies, which includes food and water. If this technique is successful, it will continue a colonial strategy of using starvation as a technique to force Indigenous people from their lands.

We are calling for a day of solidarity on October 9, 2020.

Land Defenders at 1492 Land Back Lane also call on our allies to continue to contact their MPPs and the OPP and demand our community is respected and able to pursue justice for illegitimate development in our territory.

“It is deeply offensive and unjust for Haudenosaunee people to be arrested for defending their territory. Arresting Haudenosaunee for being on the land and attempting to erase us by using police violence doesn’t legitimize these false claims over our land,” says land defender Skyler Williams.

Further, Williams states, “thousands of people across Canada have reached out to support our community, hundreds of people from near and far have visited 1492 Land Back Lane. People who want to be on the right side of history know our sovereignty is more important than another subdivision on stolen native land.”

We call on our allies to continue to amplify our demand for peace and safety. Please continue to support us on social media and through donations on GoFundMe and e-transfer and PayPal at landback6nations@gmail.com.

--

Submitted by @master7mindd

[azspot]

How can I celebrate our immigration when America spends more money on weapons and the military instead of pandemic equipment like masks? How can I celebrate a country that cannot give everyone the basic human right to free health care even with a pandemic ravaging the nation? How can I celebrate this rich nation that fails too many of its own people, as it fails to give them a right to housing, to food, to a livable living wage? How can I celebrate a nation built on violence and stolen land? A nation that prefers to erase its history, that likes to boast and sing patriotism instead of accepting its racism and lack of care and respect for its brown, black, and indigenous persons? How can I celebrate when the white man can walk around with a rifle and hunt down a black man and murder him without punishment? How can I celebrate when black people are imprisoned for life because of racist crime bills and the prison industrial complex? How can I celebrate when property in American capitalism matters more than black life? How can I celebrate when military tanks take over the streets, and unmarked vehicles kidnap peaceful protestors, and heavily armed police teargas citizens demanding justice?

We Must Fight the System, Not Each Other

[yobaba30]

Stolen from Twitter

I owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology.  I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency these last four years, and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad, other than when he incited an insurrection against the government, mismanaged a pandemic that killed nearly half a million Americans, separated children from their families, lost those children in the bureaucracy, tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church, tried to block all Muslims from entering the country, got impeached, got impeached again, had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history, pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden, fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia, bragged about firing the FBI director on TV, took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community, diverted military funding to build his wall, caused the longest government shutdown in US history, called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,” lied nearly 30,000 times, banned transgender people from serving in the military, ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions, vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers, refused to release his tax returns, increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion, had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history, called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers, coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist, refused to concede the 2020 election, hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House, walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl, called neo-Nazis “very fine people,” suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID, abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey, pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans, incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic, withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords, withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal, withdrew withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances, insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter, pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op, failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies, called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries, called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,” claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere, forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe, suggested the US should buy Greenland, colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges, repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,” claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases, violated the emoluments clause, thought that Nambia was a country, told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public, called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution, nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet, nominated a corrupt head the EPA, nominated a corrupt head of HHS, nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department, nominated a corrupt head of the USDA, praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies, refused to allow the presidential transition to begin, insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death, spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president, falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote, called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,” falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote, called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,” falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year, considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions, mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID, locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones, used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,” hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser, pardoned several of his shady associates, gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories, got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!), had a Secretary of State who called him a moron, forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history, botched the COVID vaccine rollout, tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him, charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties, constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate, claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear, called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,” used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise, opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling, got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers, claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US, ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings, blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining, redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle, got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,” threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution, botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them, pressured the governor and secretary of state of Part 2 cont… Georgia to “find” him votes, thought that the Virgin islands had a President, drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane, allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing, rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos, pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID, rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers held blatant campaign rallies at the White House, tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man, refused to attend his successors’ inauguration, nominated the worst Education Secretary in history threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted, attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t), allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues, struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble, called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,” threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders, went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic, claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,” seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution, demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director, praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles, completely gutted the Voice of America, placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service, claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower, suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country, suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public, overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported, reduced the number of refugees the US accepts, insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames, gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address, named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties, eliminated the White House office of pandemic respon used soldiers as campaign props, fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him, demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade, hired a shit ton of white nationalists, politicized the civil service, did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked US falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts, claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won, insulted reporters of color, insulted women reporters, insulted women reporters of color, suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs, attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him, summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election, spent countless hours every day watching Fox News, refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas, hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer, tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him, acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney, attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault, held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present, didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media, stopped holding press briefings for months at a time, “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power, led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform, claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers, tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course, suggested that the government nuke hurricanes, suggested that wind turbines cause cancer, said that he had a special aptitude for science, fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure, blurted out classified information to Russian officials, tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida, fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban, hired Stephen Miller, openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them, interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel, abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war, tried to get Russia back into the G7, held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden, seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive, lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated, falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t, shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies, still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan, still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure,” forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID, told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” fucked up the Census, withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,” allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act, Part 3 continues… seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win, constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump, claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened, said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake, claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him, claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President, created a commission to whitewash American history, retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain, claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there, hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims, had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others, bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties, apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House, stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians, falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police, said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about, tried to rescind protection from DREAMers, gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic, tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax, said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states, deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented, claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln, touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all, retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile, forced through security clearances for his family, suggested that police officers should rough up suspects, suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs, tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender, suggested the US not accept COVID patients from  a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher, nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy, retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event, hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags, accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address, claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia, mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, obsessed over low-flow toilets, ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release, called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek), hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech, took advice from the MyPillow guy, claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists, said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition, never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign, falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent, announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest, insulted the leader of Canada, insulted the leader of France, insulted the leader of Britain, insulted the leader of Germany, insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!), falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues, blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually, continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders, said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked, left a NATO summit early in a huff, stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that, called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary, refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise, and a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment. But other than that. . . Please share. This is how history books will read, because these are PROVABLE FACTS! Truth

[pamphletstoinspire]

THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT

On this Sunday again, the Church calls on us to rejoice in the Advent of the Redeemer, and at the Introit sings:

INTROIT Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men: for the Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in every thing by prayer let your requests be made known to God (Phil. 4). Lord, thou hast blessed thy land; thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob (Ps. 84). Glory be to the Father.

COLLECT Incline Thine ear, O Lord, we beseech Thee, unto our prayers: and enlighten the darkness of our mind by the grace of thy visitation. Through our Lord.

EPISTLE (Phil. 4:4-7). Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is meant by "rejoicing in the Lord"?

By "rejoicing in the Lord" is meant rejoicing in the grace of the true faith we have received, in the hope of obtaining eternal happiness; rejoicing in the protection of the most High under which we stand; and in the persecution for justice's sake in which Christ Himself exhorts us to rejoice, and in which the Apostle Paul gloried (II Cor. 7:4).

What else does St. Paul teach in this epistle?

He exhorts us to give all a good example by a modest and edifying life, to which we should be directed by the remembrance of God's presence and His coming to judgment (Chrysostom. 33, in Joann.); he warns us against solicitude about temporal affairs, advising us to cast our care on God, who will never abandon us in our needs, if we entreat Him with confidence and humility.

In what does "the Peace of God" consist?

It consists in a good conscience (Ambrose), in which St. Paul gloried and rejoiced beyond measure (II Cor. 1:12). This peace of the soul sustained all the martyrs, and consoled many others who suffered for justice's sake. Thus St. Tibertius said to the tyrant: "We count all pain as naught, for our conscience is at peace." There cannot be imagined a greater joy than that which proceeds from the peace of a good conscience. It must be experienced to be understood.

ASPIRATION The peace of God, that surpasseth all understanding, preserve our hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.

COMFORT AND RELIEF IN SORROW “Is any one troubled, let him pray" (Jas. 5:13).

There is no greater or more powerful comfort in sorrow than in humble and confiding prayer, to complain to God of our wants and cares, as did the sorrowful Anna, mother of the prophet Samuel, (I Kings 10) and the chaste Susanna when she was falsely accused of adultery and sentenced to death (Dan. 13:35). So the pious King Ezechias complained in prayer of the severe oppression with which he was threatened by Senacherib (IV Kings 19:14). So also King Josaphat made his trouble known to God only, saying: But as we know not what to do, we can only turn our eyes on Thee (11 Para. 20:12). They all received aid and comfort from God. Are you sad and in trouble? Lift up your soul with David and say: To Thee I have lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven. Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until He shall have mercy on us (Ps. 122:1-3). Give joy to the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul (Ps. 85:4).

GOSPEL (Jn. 1:19-28). At that time the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and did not deny; and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? what sayst thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water: but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not: the same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Why did the Jews send messengers to St. John to ask him who he was?

Partly because of their curiosity, when they saw St. John leading such a pure, angelic and penitential life; partly, as St. Chrysostom says, out of envy, because St. John preached with such spiritual force, baptized and exhorted the people to penance, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem came to him in great numbers; partly, and principally, they were impelled by the providence of God to demand publicly of St. John, if he were the Messiah, and thus be directed to Christ that they might be compelled to acknowledge Him as the Messiah, or have no excuse for rejecting Him.

Why did the Jews ask St. John, if he were not Elias or the prophet?

The Jews falsely believed that the Redeemer was to come into this world but once, then with great glory, and that Elias or one of the old prophets would come before Him, to prepare His way, as Malachias (4:5) had prophesied of St. John; so when St. John said of himself that he was not the Messiah, they asked him, if he were not then Elias or one of the prophets. But Elias, who was taken alive from this world in a fiery chariot, will not reappear until just before the second coming of Christ.

Why did St. John say, he was not Elias or the Prophet?

Because he was not Elias, and, in reality, not a prophet in the Jewish sense of the word, but more than a prophet, because he announced that Christ had come, and pointed Him out.

Why does St. John call himself "the voice of one crying in the wilderness"?

Because in his humility, he desired to acknowledge that he was only an instrument through which the Redeemer announced to the abandoned and hopeless Jews the consolation of the Messiah, exhorting them to bear worthy fruits of penance.

How do we bear worthy fruits of penance?

We bear fruits of penance, when after our conversion, we serve God and justice with the same zeal with which we previously served the devil and iniquity; when we love God as fervently as we once loved the flesh - that is, the desires of the flesh - and the pleasures of the world; when we give our members to justice as we once gave them to malice and impurity (Rom. 6:19), when the mouth that formerly uttered improprieties, when the ears that listened to detraction or evil speech, when the eyes that looked curiously upon improper objects, now rejoice in the utterance of words pleasing to God, to hear and to see things dear to Him; when the appetite that was given to the luxury of eating and drinking, now abstains; when the hands give back what they have stolen; in a word, when we put off the old man, who was corrupted, and put on the new man, who is created in justice and holiness of truth (Eph. 4:22-24).

What was the baptism administered by St. John, and what were its effects?

The baptism administered by John was only a baptism of penance for forgiveness of sins (Lk. 3:3). The ignorant Jews not considering the greatness of their transgressions, St. John came exhorting them to acknowledge their sins, and do penance for them; that being converted, and truly contrite, they might seek their Redeemer, and thus obtain remission of their offences. We must then conclude, that St. John's baptism was only a ceremony or initiation, by which the Jews enrolled themselves as his disciples to do penance, as a preparation for the remission of sin by means of the second baptism, viz., of Jesus Christ.

What else can be learned from this gospel?

We learn from it to be always sincere, especially at the tribunal of penance, and to practice the necessary virtue of humility, by which, in reply to the questions of the Jews, St. John confessed the truth openly and without reserve, as shown by the words: The latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose, as the lowest of Christ's servants, giving us an example of humility and sincerity, which should induce us always to speak the truth, and not only not to seek honor, but to give to God all the honor shown us by man. Have you not far more reason than John, who was such a great saint, to esteem yourself but little, and to humble yourself before God and man? "My son," says Tobias (4:14), "never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning."

ASPIRATION O Lord, banish from my heart all envy, jealousy and pride. Grant me instead, to know myself and Thee, that by the knowledge of my nothingness, misery and vices, I may always remain unworthy in my own eyes, and that by the contemplation of Thy infinite perfections, I may seek to prize Thee above all, to love and to glorify Thee, and practice charity towards my neighbor. Amen.

EMBER WEDNESDAY IN ADVENT

EPISTLE (Is. 7:10-15). And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of hell or unto the height above. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord. And he said: Hear ye, therefore, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.'

EXPLANATION In this Epistle is contained the important prophecy of the Savior's birth from a virgin. War was declared by the kings of Israel and Syria against Achaz, king of Juda, who at their approach was overpowered with fear, and thought of seeking aid from the Assyrians instead of looking to Almighty God for help; and for this lack of confidence in God, the prophet Isaiah was sent to announce to him the destruction of both kings, and his own preservation. The prophet, wishing Achaz to prove his assertion, requested the king to demand a sign from God; but he being given to idolatry, did not wish to ask a sign from heaven, for he had more faith in the assistance of the demons and of the Assyrians. He offended God by his refusal and the prophet rebuked him, saying: The Lord himself will give you (that is, your posterity) a sign, for the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel, that is-God with us. By these words Isaias desired to impress upon the king, that as surely as he should be preserved from his enemies, so surely this Emmanuel, the Son of the Virgin, would appear to redeem the world from Satan's power. Let us learn from this lesson always to trust in God, who can deliver us from all danger, and let us also be grateful to Him, who seven hundred and forty-three years before the time, permitted, for our consolation, the announcement of the coming of His Son, our Savior.

The gospel (Lk. 1:26-28) of this day will be found in the second part of this book on the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

ASPIRATION O Emmanuel, powerful, holy God! Our Savior and our Redeemer! be with us always in life and death: for, if Thou art with us who can be against us?

COLLECT Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the approaching celebration of our redemption may bring us the necessary graces for the present life, and bestow upon us the rewards of eternal happiness. Through our Lord.

EMBER FRIDAY IN ADVENT

EPISTLE (Is. 11:1-5). And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.

EXPLANATION In this epistle the Lord announced to the Jews, through the prophet, the consoling promise that when they were sufficiently punished, and had come to the consciousness of their own misery, the Savior would come and bring all things to order. The rod spoken of by the prophet, is the Blessed Virgin who would proceed from the root of Jesse, that is, from the stem of David, and give birth to the flower, viz., to the Savior upon whom the Holy Ghost, with His sevenfold gifts, would descend, that is, dwell in Him. As a reader of the heart He would judge man, not according to his outward appearance, but according to his intentions. He would not flatter the sinner, but with severe words punish his sinful life, and because just and faithful, He would reward every man without respect to person. Let us be always mindful in all our omissions and commissions, that our Lord sees into our hearts, and judges not only according to our works, but principally according to our intentions, and let us strive ever to have pure motives in all our actions.

ASPIRATION O Fragrant Flower of the Virgin, Jesus our Savior, come and draw us to Thee, that we may walk in the perfume of Thy ointments, and obtain a merciful judgment from Thee.

COLLECT Show forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy power, and come, that we who confidently trust in Thy love, may be the sooner delivered from all adversities. Through our Lord.

EMBER SATURDAY IN ADVENT

EPISTLE (II Thess 2:1-8). Brethren, we beseech you, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of our gathering together unto him: that you be not easily moved from your mind, nor be frighted, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by epistle, as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God. Remember you not, that when I was yet with you I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh: only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way, and then that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.

EXPLANATION At the time when St. Paul wrote this epistle, the false report was circulated that the Last Day was at hand, and Christ was coming to judge all men. The Apostle warns the faithful against trusting this, telling them they should not permit themselves to be misled; for first, the greater part of mankind would fall away from God, and Antichrist, the son of perdition appear, but not until the gospel was everywhere preached. The great falling off would be gradual, caused by the heresies which would arise from time to time, and would be completed by Antichrist, whom our Lord, at last, on the Day of Judgment would kill with the breath of his mouth. Let us learn from this epistle not to be curious concerning the Last Day, and the Advent of Christ, but to prepare, rather for the coming of Jesus into our hearts, that He may be merciful to us in death, and at judgment.

ASPIRATION The gospel of this day will be found in the instruction on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

COLLECT O God, who seest us afflicted on account of our own wickedness; mercifully grant, that by Thy coming we may be comforted. Through our Lord.

From: https://www.pamphletstoinspire.com/

[thdorkmagnet]

Light of the Sun and Stars: Prologue

Figured I’d go ahead and start posting this on here, so here you go.

Summary: His whole life Marco Diaz has been raised by monsters, living under the cruel rule of their leader, Toffee. But one day Marco escapes into Mewni where he meets a magical princess and Mewman like himself, who begins teaching him all about her world. Together they will learn about life, love, and the lights within each of them, as they change their world forever.

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. All rights go to them.

Next Chapter>>

The fire blazed with an uncontrolled fury, as wood and cement alike crackled and disintegrated under the intense pressure of the blaze. The little house, once cozy and kept, now fell to ruin as flames consumed every part of the country home. Above the scene of destruction, a lone moon shone in the night sky, watching over the scene as a large pillar of smoke rose up from the flames to greet it and the rest of its bright shining companions. The flames in the house grew and grew, spreading through the once peaceful house, bathing all inside in its hot breath of destruction that wasted no time in devouring its prey. Finally, with a mighty crack the house gave in to the fires uncontainable will and collapsed in on itself, allowing itself to be consumed by the flames.

…

Farther from the blaze, a lone monster walked alone, his back to the smoke and ashes that were slowly rising up into the night sky, with no signs of stopping. The monster in question was a tall, muscular frog. Buff Frog, as many had become accustomed to calling him, wore a green military like top with a skull belt wrapped tightly around his waste, the muscles that made up his name sake visible underneath his shirt. His normally green body was, at the moment, covered head to toe in soot making his features difficult to make out in the darkness of the night. He panted heavily his eyes darting around constantly as he walked, every little noise making him jump.

The reason for his paranoia seemed to be the small bundle he held securely in his beefed up arms, wrapped up tightly in a soft, red blanket. Despite the muscles that coated every inch of the monster's body, he held the bundle gently, letting it rest safely against his chest. As he slowly pushed on through the forest, fighting branches and bushes alike out of his way, he was extra careful not to let the cloth covered object get hit with any stray branches as he battled his way through the unforgiving vegetation.

Eventually, the frog monster found the path of resistance lightening its hold as, with one more mighty push, he became freed from the forest's entrapment now standing in the middle of a silent clearing. He took a moment to catch his breath, checking over the bundle in his arms for any damages. Unlike the monster, the bundle was free from any soot or ash, the cloth clean and fresh in the monster's arms. As carefully as he could, he turned it over until a face could be made, peeking through the swaddling cloth. It was a boy, not even a year old, his tanned face peaceful as he slept. Small, tufts of brown hair rested on his forehead, his normally brown eyes closed tightly. A small mole was just under his left eye, but that was easily overshadowed by the twin suns on both cheeks, which even now glowed bright red in the darkness of the night. The cloth slowly rose and fell with his breath as he slept, the child's mind at peace unaware of the disaster only a short distance away and how close he had come to being a part of it.

The monster smiled at the cute, little bundle of joy he held, a smile of both joy and sadness. “No worry, Marco,” the monster said in a thick Russian accent. “I will keep you safe. You will live normal life with other Mewmans. This is promise.” The baby moved a little, snuggling closer to the monster, seeking his warmth and the frog smiled, pulling the blanket a little tighter around the baby.

Suddenly, the baby became uncomfortable, squirming around in his grip, no longer content in his dream-like state. Buff Frog was confused for a moment, trying to shush the squirming child, until he heard the snap of a branch behind him. Buff Frog turned, already on guard, holding Marco as close to him as possible. He squinted trying to see the source of the sound, until another monster emerged from the shadows. This one was a tall, lizard-like creature dressed in a finely made suit, one you would expect a business man or lawyer to wear. But this monster was neither.

Toffee, in fact, was the newest leader of the monsters and Buff Frog's boss, taking over after the old leader had passed away under “mysterious circumstances”. Very little was known about Toffee, due to his often distraught nature, showing very little emotion towards anything. Very few monsters were even sure how he had gotten his position, most of it hidden in rumors and secrets. But none the less, Toffee had assured the monsters that he would bring them into a new age of freedom and help them gain justice from the Mewmans who had stolen their land. And, so far, he had yet to go back on his word, keeping true to all his promises. In no time at all, Toffee had already begun making major changes in the monster's poor living conditions, providing his fellow monsters with food and essentials that many of them had gone without all their lives, building confidence and hope in their new leader and his intense methods.

But for all the good things Toffee had done for his fellow monsters, an equal number of bad were being inflicted on the Mewmans. With Toffee in power, no Mewman was safe. Monsters, who had once been submissive and domicile, were now openly attacking them, killing any group who wandered too far from the safety of the Butterfly Kingdom and into their land. And Toffee not only encouraged it but demanded that they act out more, to take back their land from the “monsters” who had stolen it in the first place. The attacks, for the moment, were random and not very common place, just the monsters defending what they knew was theirs. But there was no doubt the relations between the Mewnians and the monsters were about to take a turn for the worse, as Toffee continued to poison his monster's minds with hatred. And the monsters, tired of oppression and seeking prosperity, seemed to be buying his lies, as their contempt grew every day and acts of violence became more and more frequent.

Buff Frog, a trusted and well-known member of the monster's society, however, openly defied Toffee's plans coming to the defense of the Mewmans, claiming them to be capable of understanding and change. His words mostly fell on deaf ears, but a few monsters were getting confused at the frog's statements, still unsure what the right solution was.

And so here the two were face to face with what they considered their equivalent rival. Buff Frog stared open daggers at the lizard, while the more controlled Toffee, only gave him a look of passive indifference, a look he seemed to have mastered.

“Buff Frog fancy seeing you here this late at night. I hope you weren't planning on running off on me, now were you?” he said, his voice as emotionless as his face. Buff Frog felt his anger boil at the mere sight of the lizard, but he tried desperately to keep it in check, hoping to find a way out of this situation with the least amount of trouble.

“Toffee,” Buff Frog greeted, but the anger and suspicion in his tone was as obvious as his accent and Toffee gave the slightest hint of a smile, enjoying watching Buff Frog's armor break. “What are you doing here?”

` “I saw the smoke and came to see what I could do to help,” Toffee reasoned, gesturing to the smoke that still rose up from the distance. Buff Frog followed his gesture, but only gave him a glare in return, not believing a word the monster was saying.

“Really, you come to help,” Buff Frog asked accusingly, but Toffee showed no emotion over the frog's cold demeanor simply replying, “Yes of course, but it seems I was too late. A nasty fire broke out and completely destroyed the home I'm afraid, killing everyone inside. But it seems you were more successful than I,” he continued, his eyes coming to a stop at the still-kicking baby, his face morphing into one of dark hatred for a second, before immediately shifting back to the blank expression he normally wore. .

“Yes,” Buff Frog began, the suspicion never leaving his tone, keeping a secure grip on the struggling Mewman child, who was quite uncomfortable with Toffee's lingering gaze on him. “I see fire and manage to pull baby out before it harmed.”

“Curious, cause it seems that the boy has not a burn anywhere on him, nor any soot or ashes unlike yourself. It seems almost as if he was pulled out before the fire. But then, that would make no sense.” Buff Frog's eyes narrowed at the comment. Toffee and he held a glare between each other for a moment, before Toffee suddenly shrugged the subject off like it was nothing. “No matter,” he said, reaching out a hand to Buff Frog, making Marco scream even more. “Give me the boy so that I may... handle the situation.”

“Handle?” Buff Frog spat, unable to contain his hatred anymore. “You will kill boy.”

“I will do what's necessary,” Toffee replied, his voice suddenly becoming hard. “You know what our goal is, Buff Frog. You know what must be done.”

“He is innocent child-”

“It is a Mewman,” Toffee hissed, anger in his tone for the first time since the conversation started. Buff Frog jumped at Toffee's sudden rage, Marco's body shuddering against him. “There are no innocent Mewmans.”

Buff Frog stared at Toffee silently, his eyes dark with hatred as he softly whispered, “Perhaps then you would like to explain to other monsters why you kill Mewman baby. A baby under the name Diaz no less.”

Toffee's seemed visibly unsettled at the mention of the name, trying his best to remain expressionless. All monsters knew the weight the name carried. The Diaz's had dedicated their lives to peace amongst the monsters and had become a symbol of harmony between the two races. No monster would dare to indicate harm against any under that name, their family alone free from the monster's revenge, including Toffee's. Toffee considered his options. He had only recently become leader of the monsters and his lack of experience was beginning to show. Though the monsters followed him, they still seemed weary to give him their full support. He didn't have the same level of trust Buff Frog held amongst the monsters and if he was going to make any progress he needed Buff Frog. And things were even more shakey now than ever before, as recently a new threat to his position arose when that pipe-squeak Ludo had began wrangling his own group of monsters from under Toffee's nose, attempting to claim himself as leader. Though he doubted it would go anywhere, Ludo's name was well-known amongst the monsters and he needed Buff Frog's own influence to keep them under control. Moreso, Toffee's more violent methods were beginning to be off-putting to the other monsters, none having the stomach for the more radical approach to “freedom fighting”. His want to eradicate as many Mewmans as possible, putting many on shaky footing. Though they wanted change they weren't quite ready to start a war against the Mewmans. They were all new to killing, none really sure if his approach was a good one. If word got out that Toffee had killed a defenseless child, even a Mewman, it could be the end of all he had accomplished. As much as he hated Buff Frog, he had no choice but to comply.

Buff Frog knew he had won, as Toffee's face slipped back into its indifference once again, all anger and venom gone from the monster's features, his hands behind his back. “Very well,” Toffee said his voice showing just the slightest hint of anger beneath it. “You may keep the child. But you both now belong to me. You will remain by my side and do exactly as I ask.”

“No! I must raise Marco away from monsters-”

“If you wish for the boy to live, you will not question my decision. He will abide by my rules and remain so until I see fit. Do we have an understanding?”

Buff Frog felt his anger growing, his grip tightening on Marco just slightly. He and Toffee shared a gaze, one that seemed to last a lifetime, both hard and cold, both waiting for the other to yield. The only sound in the forest was the moans and grunts of the restless boy in the frog's arms.  Finally, Buff Frog looked away, barely whispering “Yes, is deal,” before drifting off into a guilty silence. He knew he had already broken his promise, but there was no way he could fight Toffee and still keep Marco alive. Toffee had bested him after all, he had lost.

“Good. Make sure to hurry home. It's not good for a child to be out this late at night. Who knows what could happen to him,” Toffee said, his voice just dripping with arrogance, before he turned on his heels and walked off, disappearing into the shadows from whence he came. As he did, Marco calmed down, managing to drift off to sleep once again.

Buff Frog stared at the child for a moment, feeling guilty, as he watched the boy slowly fall back into his peaceful sleep, unaware of any wrong in the world around him. Buff Frog felt a tear in his eye as he softly whispered, “I'm sorry.” Behind him the smoke continued to rise, like a signal in the night, alerting all of the disaster that had just occurred.

[mozelledeliond]

Sayge’s Fortunes

Rules: Ah, the Darkmoon Faire, who doesn’t love it and its fortune-telling gnoll who first requires a personality test? Repost, not reblog, and bold your muse’s answer to Sayge’s question.

1. "You have been tasked by your liege to guard his fields of corn from poachers and theives. One night, on patrol, you stumble across a haggard man in thread-bare clothing stealing corn from the field. You quickly confront him, and he immediately begs for his life. He claims he is stealing corn to feed his family since the lord of the land - your liege - demands too much in taxes. Your liege is indeed known from his harsh taxes throughout the land. Make your choice." 

a. I slay the man on the spot as my liege would expect me to do, as he nothing more than a thief and a liar. b. I turn over the man to my liege for punishment, as he has broken the law of the land and it is my sworn duty to enforce it. c. I confiscate the corn he has stolen, warn him that stealing is a path toward doom and destruction, but I let him go to return to his family. d. I allow the man to take enough corn to feed his family for a couple of days, encouraging him to leave the land.

2. "You are the sworn executioner for your liege. A man has been sent to you for execution as a traitor of the liege and your people. You know this individual as a close, virtuous friend who mysteriously vanished one day. You also know that the man's crimes for which he was convicted supposedly caused the deaths of many innocent civilians. Upon seeing you he begs for his life, claiming he was framed by a higher authority. Make your choice."

a. I execute him as per my liege's instructions, and do it in such a manner that he suffers painfully before he dies as retribution for his crimes against my people. b. I execute him as per my liege's instructions, but doing so in as painless of a way as possible. Justice must be served, but I can show some compassion. c. I risk my own life and free him so that he may prove his innocence. If I can, I'll help him in any way.

3. "You are on a diplomatic mission for your liege to a cruel country that is currently at war with your's. The war has been costly on both sides. Your mission is to secure a peace that is honorable to both peoples. At a diplomatic dinner, you overhear the ruler of the opposing land viciously insult your benevolent liege. You are fairly certain the ruler meant to say it out of your earshot, but nonetheless he has besmirched your liege's honor. Make your choice."

a. I not-so-quietly ignore the insult, hoping to instill a fear in the ruler that he may have gaffed. I then inform my liege of the insult when I return. b. I confront the ruler on his malicious behavior, upholding my liege's honor at the risk of any future diplomacy. c. I quietly ignore the insult. I will not tell my liege, as I am to secure a peace at all costs. It's only an insult - not a declaration of war.

4. "Your brother seeks to join the ranks of the prestigious military order you are already a part of. While you are sure of his commitment and loyalty, his talent and ability to perform the arduous tasks of the order is what you question. While you are not certain he will be able to rise to the challenge of the order - putting himself and others in dangers - you are certain that your word alone would allow him in or keep him out. Make your choice."

a. I would speak against my brother joining the order, rushing a permanent breach in our relationship. He would be a danger to himself and those around him, and that is too great a risk hoping he would improve over time. b. I would speak for my brother joining the order, potentially risking the safety of the order. I could help him with the order's regimens, and I'd have faith in his ability to adapt and learn. c. I would create some surreptitious means to keep my brother out of the order. I can keep him out without him being any bit wiser, thereby saving our familial bonds.

5. "You alone have defeated a terrible beast that has been ravaging the countryside, taking its ear as a trophy. You later learn that your liege had offered a reward for the beast's death, and that a kind but destitute knight who you know is trying to support a family by meager means claims the beast's kill as his own. You have no real need for money yourself, but you know that the destitute knight is lying for his own personal gain. Make your choice."

a. I would show my liege the beast's ear and claim the beast's death as my own, taking the reward for my own use. It is wrong to claim a deed as your own that someone else in fact did. b. I would show my liege the beast's ear and claim the beast's death as my own - after all, I did slay it. I would then offer some of the reward to the destitute knight to help his family. c. I would remain silent about the kill and allow the knight to claim the reward to aid his family.

Tagging: @elaianna • @karthe-surick • @wiedaashcroft • @brandstonethings • @your-captain-here

[maddie-1360]

This is not a war this is genocide people are dying and have been since 1948 stop saying this is from Hamas they want freedom Israel is not a country or state it is built on stolen land and dead people. free Palestine 🇵🇸



[11100111000]

Du Bois on Stalin, who died 66 years ago today.

Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also—and this was the highest proof of his greatness—he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate.

Stalin was not a man of conventional learning; he was much more than that: he was a man who thought deeply, read understandingly and listened to wisdom, no matter whence it came. He was attacked and slandered as few men of power have been; yet he seldom lost his courtesy and balance; nor did he let attack drive him from his convictions nor induce him to surrender positions which he knew were correct. As one of the despised minorities of man, he first set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality.

His judgment of men was profound. He early saw through the flamboyance and exhibitionism of Trotsky, who fooled the world, and especially America. The whole ill-bred and insulting attitude of Liberals in the U.S. today began with our naive acceptance of Trotsky’s magnificent lying propaganda, which he carried around the world. Against it, Stalin stood like a rock and moved neither right nor left, as he continued to advance toward a real socialism instead of the sham Trotsky offered.

Three great decisions faced Stalin in power and he met them magnificently: first, the problem of the peasants, then the West European attack, and last the Second World War. The poor Russian peasant was the lowest victim of tsarism, capitalism and the Orthodox Church. He surrendered the Little White Father easily; he turned less readily but perceptibly from his ikons; but his kulaks clung tenaciously to capitalism and were near wrecking the revolution when Stalin risked a second revolution and drove out the rural bloodsuckers.

Then came intervention, the continuing threat of attack by all nations, halted by the Depression, only to be re-opened by Hitlerism. It was Stalin who steered the Soviet Union between Scylla and Charybdis: Western Europe and the U.S. were willing to betray her to fascism, and then had to beg her aid in the Second World War. A lesser man than Stalin would have demanded vengeance for Munich, but he had the wisdom to ask only justice for his fatherland. This Roosevelt granted but Churchill held back. The British Empire proposed first to save itself in Africa and southern Europe, while Hitler smashed the Soviets.

The Second Front dawdled, but Stalin pressed unfalteringly ahead. He risked the utter ruin of socialism in order to smash the dictatorship of Hitler and Mussolini. After Stalingrad the Western World did not know whether to weep or applaud. The cost of victory to the Soviet Union was frightful. To this day the outside world has no dream of the hurt, the loss and the sacrifices. For his calm, stern leadership here, if nowhere else, arises the deep worship of Stalin by the people of all the Russias.

Then came the problem of Peace. Hard as this was to Europe and America, it was far harder to Stalin and the Soviets. The conventional rulers of the world hated and feared them and would have been only too willing to see the utter failure of this attempt at socialism. At the same time the fear of Japan and Asia was also real. Diplomacy therefore took hold and Stalin was picked as the victim. He was called in conference with British imperialism represented by its trained and well-fed aristocracy; and with the vast wealth and potential power of America represented by its most liberal leader in half a century.

Here Stalin showed his real greatness. He neither cringed nor strutted. He never presumed, he never surrendered. He gained the friendship of Roosevelt and the respect of Churchill. He asked neither adulation nor vengeance. He was reasonable and conciliatory. But on what he deemed essential, he was inflexible. He was willing to resurrect the League of Nations, which had insulted the Soviets. He was willing to fight Japan, even though Japan was then no menace to the Soviet Union, and might be death to the British Empire and to American trade. But on two points Stalin was adamant: Clemenceau’s “Cordon Sanitaire” must be returned to the Soviets, whence it had been stolen as a threat. The Balkans were not to be left helpless before Western exploitation for the benefit of land monopoly. The workers and peasants there must have their say.

Such was the man who lies dead, still the butt of noisy jackals and of the ill-bred men of some parts of the distempered West. In life he suffered under continuous and studied insult; he was forced to make bitter decisions on his own lone responsibility. His reward comes as the common man stands in solemn acclaim.

[saggitarian-freedom-light]

President Donald Trump’s full inaugural address remarks.

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world, thank you. We the citizens of America are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people. Together we will determine the course of America, and the world, for many, many years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships, but we will get the job done.

Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you.

Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning, because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.

For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs, and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes, starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment --- it belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today, and everyone watching, all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration, and this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country, will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before. At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction, that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public, but for too many of our citizens a different reality exists. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge, and the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny. The oath of office, I take today, is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We’ve defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own. And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuddered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.

But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future. We assembled here today our issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power, from this day forward: a new vision will govern our land, from this day forward, it’s going to be only America first. America first.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let you down. America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels, and railways, all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.

We will follow two simple rules: buy American, and hire American. We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and you unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is when GOD’S people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by GOD.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action. Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the industries and technologies of tomorrow. A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black, or brown, or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same, great American flag. And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the BREATH OF LIFE by the same ALMIGHTY CREATOR.

So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words. You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love, will forever guide us along the way. Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again We will make America safe again, And yes, together, we will make we will make America great again. Thank you. GOD bless you. And GOD bless America. Thank you. GOD bless America.

20th January 2017

[greenpeacemagazine]

White Supremacy is Destroying the Environment, but that’s not why we fight it

© Farrah Khan / Greenpeace. A mural of Audre Lorde, renowned American author, feminist and civil rights activist, adorns a wall along the West Toronto Railpath.

By Farrah Khan, Deputy Director

It’s been a heavy few months.

As we mourn the countless Black lives lost at the hands of police and channel that grief and anger to rise up against police brutality and systemic racism, I feel compelled to speak up about white supremacy and police violence against Black and Indigenous communities here in Canada.

Greenpeace has said before that connections between the struggles for environmental and racial justice partly explain why we speak out for the latter. But this is not true. Regardless of the links between these movements, we stand up against racial injustice and police brutality against Black and Indigenous communities and other communities of colour because it is inherently wrong and inhumane and enough is enough. We fight white supremacy because silence is complicity. My hope is that within and outside of the environmental movement in Canada, we will all step up our anti-racist activism. 

Checking our “nice” Canadian assumptions 

South of the border, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis which sparked widespread resistance in cities across the continent and the world. We also remember Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other lives gone too soon. Racism and systemic violence from police against Black communities and individuals in the United States is dominating the news. We are quick to point fingers, but Canada’s history and its present day systems are steeped in white supremacy, too. 

Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Afro-Indigenous woman fell from her Toronto balcony after an interaction with police in May. Jason Collins, a 36-year- old Indigenous man, was shot and killed by Winnipeg police in April. Ejaz Choudry, a 62-year old man, was shot and killed by police during a wellness check in my hometown of Malton, Ontario in June. And along with these unconscionable stories of Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour whose lives have been violently taken by police, there are still so many more from across Canada.

In Toronto, a Black person is twenty times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white person. In Vancouver, 10 years of data reveals that Black and Indigenous people are disproportionately overrepresented in police street checks. In Halifax, a Black person is six times more likely to be stopped by police compared to white counterparts. Right now in Nunavut, five RCMP officers are being investigated for violent interactions with Inuit. 

These are very clear patterns of consistent systemic oppression against Indigenous and Black communities based on a history of the same violence: enslavement, stolen land, mass incarceration, environmental racism, residential schools, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, the Sixties Scoop, and more. Add to that the countless impacts other communities of colour face in this country, whether it’s an escalation of anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, Islamophobic attacks including the murder of six Muslims in Quebec in 2017: the list gets longer every single day. 

The fact that systemic racial injustices are ingrained in Canadian society is undeniable. 

Root causes of injustice

The values that inform the struggles for Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty are shared in the fight for environmental justice. These connections are not needed to justify solidarity, because it’s critical for us to be anti-racist regardless, but each of these injustices stem from and seek to dismantle the same root causes. Annie Leonard, Executive Director at Greenpeace USA said it well in a 2016 blog: 

“We can’t have a green and peaceful future without racial justice, equity, civil rights, and empowered communities. We believe the systems of power and privilege that destroy the environment also strip vulnerable communities of their humanity – and too often, their lives.”

In Canada, corporate and government powers have or too long put profits before people and the planet. Moreover, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People Of Colour) and lower income communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation and are experiencing the most severe impacts of climate change, here in Canada as well as globally. 

Dismantling colonial oppression, capitalist greed, and white supremacy will allow us to build a more equitable and community-centred future, one that  protects all life on the planet, one that decentralizes power from benefiting the few to the many. So a solution to one of these injustices will work to dismantle them all.

We need systemic change all around. Divesting funding from policing to reinvest in communities. Ambitious climate policy and food security solutions. Standing up for Indigenous Sovereignty and free, prior, and informed consent. Ensuring protection for biodiversity. If we truly want a green and peaceful future for all, we must consider this fuller picture and demand it all.

Using our privilege for good 

Greenpeace’s mandate is to work towards a green and peaceful future and to confront systems that threaten the environment, including systems that inhibit equity and justice.

We have a reputation for being a disruptive, bold, risk-taking organization that speaks truth to power. We at Greenpeace Canada also carry a great deal of privilege as a mostly white, settler organization that has been successful in building international influence. I would be remiss not to mention here that many of our global offices and departments are staffed and led by BIPOC folks who contribute in significant ways to our global work. We can and should do more to lend our privilege and skills to bring more people into the fold of fighting white supremacy and to stand in solidarity with those on the frontlines of the fight for Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty.

Greenpeace has not always prioritized anti-racism work. Far from it. We need to acknowledge and own that. But we prioritize it now, and our staff and leadership today commit to embodying anti-racism in all of our work to ensure the “peace” in Greenpeace is not lost.

How you can be an anti-racist environmentalist 

If you are an environmentalist who has not yet engaged in the fight for racial justice, I ask you to start. If you have shown solidarity, I ask you to do more. If you are not Black or Indigenous (and I include my fellow POCs in this category, particularly those who benefit from white supremacy) I ask you to examine your privilege, listen to Black environmental leaders and Indigenous environmental leaders, increase your awareness about the racism in our movement, learn about the experiences of BIPOC folks that work for environmental groups, and question whether you’re doing enough. 

Black and Indigenous people have the right to live without a fear of violence. If we are unable to prevent another death, we are not doing enough. Losing Regis Korchinski-Paquet and George Floyd in these last few months, and countless others before them, means we are already too late. Let’s rally to end all forms of injustice and get to that green and peaceful future for all.

This article was adapted from a blog written and posted by Farrah on the Greenpeace Canada website on June 4, 2020. To read the original article, which includes resources, reading materials, places to donate or volunteer, petitions to sign and actions to amplify, visit greenpeace.ca/racialjustice.

[docs4poc]

7/20 Black Lives Day of Action: Event Transcript

Yasmin Rawlins: Hello, everyone, and welcome. Thank you so very much for joining us. This is the Black Lives Day of Action organized by many amazing people, including residents, nurses, medical students at UCLA, LAC-USC, Harbor, Olive View, and Charles Drew University. And thank you all for joining us. This is really part of an incredible movement. And we are all working so hard to improve and to increase justice throughout our communities and for our patients. My name is Yasmin Rawlins. I am a second year psychiatry resident over at LAC-USC, I identify as a Black woman. And my journey to this point has included Docs4POC. So, back in May, we founded Docs4POC. It was designed as a group of healthcare professionals advocating for social justice for communities of color throughout the United States. I just like to briefly read our mission statement because I feel like that really encapsulates what we stand for and what we're trying to do. We at Docs4POC believe it is our duty as physicians to advocate for all of our patients rights to health and wellness. We believe that health happens both inside and outside of the hospital or clinic. We believe it is our responsibility as physicians to address the social determinants of health in addition to the biological determinants. We believe that the existence of health and healthcare inequalities anywhere and to any person is unjust. We believe that every person, regardless of race, ethnicity, ancestry, citizenship status or national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, religion, political affiliation, income, age or disability deserves the right to health. I would also like to acknowledge the land that we are on. We are currently standing in the territory of the Tongva and Chumash people. We would like to acknowledge our history of colonialism in this country and the ongoing colonial practices that still harm people of color and particularly Native American people today. We know that indigenous peoples were on this land and caring for this land long before us. If you can, drop wherever you are in the chat to let everyone know where everyone's coming from. And I'd like to pass this off to Kelechi for opening remarks.

Kelechi Okpara: Good afternoon. My name is Kelechi Okpara. I'm a second year medical student here at UCLA Drew and also the SNMA Maps co-coordinator. Thank you everyone for joining this virtual protest in solidarity with the Service Employees International Union Strike for Black Lives. Although many of you are unable to leave work, you have still joined thousands of others protesting deep seated and interconnected systems that work to oppress communities of color.

We gather today to draw attention to the racism and economic oppression embedded in our institutions - oppression that hurts all of us. These practices are all around us. We live on stolen land, and continue to pollute our environment. We limit economic investment in our Black, indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color. We allow daily violence by police and other actors of the state. We have failed in our federal response to keep our most essential workers - many undocumented, and many being people of color in CA - safe from the COVID pandemic. Our homeless and incarcerated populations, disproportionately people of color, continue to suffer outsize risk. How do you shelter in place without shelter? How do you wash your hands without soap or sanitizer? We know too well that this pandemic is disproportionately impacting communities that have already weathered so much. 

Racism, poverty, sexism, nativism, ableism - every one of these systems work in tandem to disenfranchise even the most vibrant and resilient members of our community. 

This is the reason why we have gathered today - out of love for our communities, and out of hope that together, we can care for one another and pull through the multiple crises of our time: racism, economic inequity, environmental destruction, and the COVID pandemic. We acknowledge everyone who placed their lives on the line to protest, even after media coverage has ceased. But it is not enough to protest. We acknowledge those around the country, at this very moment, holding 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence in remembrance of George Floyd.  But it is not enough to hold vigil. We must turn our collective grief, anger, and indignation into actions. We must march not just in our city streets but to the ballot box this November. We must hold our governments accountable, and implement laws and policies to ensure a more just future. We must protect workers and their right to collectively organize and form unions. We must continue to demand justice for the deceased like Breonna Taylor, who cannot possibly rest in peace while their killers walk free. 

In our action, we commit to our duty to stand against every injustice that plagues our society and takes the lives of our Black brothers and sisters. We commit to our duty to unearth the ways portions of our society have trampled on others in their pursuit of the “American Dream”. What is an “American Dream” if Black and brown Americans from all walks of life cannot also see their own dreams fulfilled? We must dream bigger than our predecessors, and lift our voices louder than those who have already worked so hard to get us to where we are today. Now I’d like to invite some of our community and union members to speak.

Andrew. Andrew Lewis: Yes, thank you so much for that introduction Kelechi. I greatly appreciate it. And I just want to share a couple of things with y'all. Brothers and sisters, my name is Andrew Lewis, I’m with the North Westwood Neighborhood Council. And I'm proud to stand with SEIU today, and their national strike for Black lives. I want to say that none of us are free until we're all free. Freedom is not a state. It's an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau, where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is a continuous action we must all take. And each generation must do its part to create an even more fair and more just society, as said by the late John Lewis. So let me repeat that freedom is not a state. It's a continuous act. It's a fight. It's a struggle. It's indefinite. And it's why we're gathered here today to collectively make our voices heard. That enough is enough. That Black Lives Matter, that Black health matters, that Black nurses matter, that Black doctors matter. I personally call on our elected leaders to ensure that frontline workers have access to hazard pay to sick leave, and personal protective equipment during this COVID 19 pandemic. To enable a healthy and just society, we must invest in a healthy democracy. We invite you to take action with us to exercise your right to vote, to speak up, to get in some good trouble and to be loud. Protect our frontline workers. So thank you. And with that, I'll pass it over to sister Aqueelah Tillman for some words.

Aqueelah Tillman: Thank you. Hi all. My name is Aqueelah Tillman, and I'm a registered nurse here at UCLA Westwood campus, and I am here to speak on behalf of CNA and solidarity with SEIU. As healthcare providers, we have to understand that we work and operate in an inherently racist healthcare system. Systemic discrimination and racism is supported by institutional policies and implicit bias. This system affects the way that African Americans and other individuals of color experienced illness resulting in worsened outcomes and increasing levels of premature death. Registered nurses know that our patient’s health is not only determined by what happens when they encounter the healthcare system, but also by the state of social determinants of their lives in our society. It is important as nurses to assert our presence and our expertise in any public health crises, specifically one surrounding racism. Nurses have to accept acknowledge and recognize the disparities that exists. Nurses have the responsibility to be committed to understanding the systemic issues and prompting and allowing conversations that lead to direct action. As nurses, we must identify bias and address it in order to provide our patients with the necessary resources and our materials while under our care. Nurses have to be advocates for all patients. Nurses have to be at the forefront by transforming nursing education. Nurses have the ability to create and structure evidence based programs and initiatives that decrease disparities. Nurses have to commit to promoting and being active and local and state and national policies to increase access equity and the health protection. It is also important that nurses are representative of the population in which they serve and understand that racism in any form is not only harmful to society, but it’s also a direct opposition to the values and ethical code of the nursing profession.

Kelechi Okpara: Thank you very much for those powerful words, Andrew and Aqueelah. And just as our ancestors relied on the power of song to move mountains and strengthen their communities, today, we are going to do just that. They are based in Oakland, California, and their music illuminates the joy, pain, and beauty of what it means to be human in this time of systemic transformation. Today, two of their artists will lead us in song. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and that will require qualitative change in our souls as well as quantitative change in our lives.” We kindly remind you to keep your masks on while singing, particularly if indoors, and to maintain six feet apart from each other, for your own safety and those around you.

Please join us in welcoming Thrive Choir.

Dyna Erie: Hi, thank you so much for having us. My name is Dyna Erie and I have been singing with the choir for four years now and I just want to take a moment to say thank you all so much for what you're doing. I am not gonna get too emotional but I do feel emotional being a part of this. So thank you, for your work for keeping us healthy. And so anyway,I’ll sing a song that is inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We turned his words into a song because we really feel the resonance with it. And if it can be something that you sing while you're walking on the street, or whenever. It might help our worlds just turn a little bit softer and a little bit kinder. So the words are - and I'm going to have you all sing with me. So I'm gonna be watching. 

I can never be what I ought to be, until you are who you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be, until I am who I ought to be. So it goes like this, and then there's two parts.

This interrelated reality This inescapable mutuality

[ group sings]

Thank you so much. Y'all have a good day now.

Kele Nitoto: Hello, y'all. My name is Kele Nitoto Thank you so much, Dyna. I’m also with Thrive choir, and that was so beautiful. I'm gonna sing a song. I'll probably throw a couple other songs in there but I'm gonna sing a song by Osibisa called Woyaya. And the words go like this:

We are going Heaven knows where we are going. We know we will Heaven knows how we will get there. We know we will. It will be hard we know and the road will be muddy and rough. But we will get there. Heaven knows how we will get there. We know we will. Alright, right. So let's start with that. And we'll see where we go from there. All right, here we go.

[ group sings ]

Woyaya woyaya What Lyndsey Scott said –

We don’t have the know the way, the way knows the way We don’t have to plan the way, that’s the way, feel your way The way knows, the way knows, the way knows the way It will be hard we know and the road will be muddy and rough. But the way knows the way But we will get there. Heaven knows how we will get there The way knows the way Thank you very much.

Yasmin Rawlins: Thank you so so very much to Thrive Choir for those absolutely beautiful moments of celebration and remembrance and honoring the people, many of our ancestors who paved the way for us today, and whose shoulders we now stand on. In many ways, music is healing. But it is also powerful, and it can be a source of strength in this continuous battle for justice. Before we wrap up, I'll hand it off to Kelechi once again for some closing remarks.

Kelechi Okpara: Thank you to everyone who has joined us today. We would like to also give gratitude to the organizations who had a role in today’s action - SEIU, Docs 4 POC, CIR, LMSA, SNMA, Thrive Choir, and our guest speakers.

Racial justice is an ongoing fight. Health equity is an ongoing fight. We cannot simply act once and sit back. We must tirelessly raise our voices in solidarity. We must commit to this fight, advocating for those who cannot advocate for themselves. It is our collective voices that will spark the flame for enacting change across our institution and Los Angeles county. 

We ask you to start those difficult conversations. Hold those accountable who perpetuate these injustices. Hold governments accountable with your vote. Hold corporations accountable by supporting and protecting unions. Hold institutions accountable by mobilizing your communities, articulating your demands, and advocating for them - like the petitions circulating for the anti-racist transformation of UCLA Health. Ask constantly, who have we hurt in our current policies? Who have we left out? How can we serve them better? Show love to one another, but especially to these marginalized populations. Raise YOUR voice. 

There is power in the words we speak, the stories we share, and the voices we uplift. We thank you all who have decided to no longer be silent. We charge you to continue to fight against these inequities with your voice, and perhaps with your own unique song in your heart. Together, we are stronger than ever before and we will not be docile, we will not be quiet. 

In the words of the late Honorable John Lewis, who tirelessly advocated for our precious, almost sacred, right to vote: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Yasmin Rawlins: Rest in peace and power to the honorable John Lewis. Thank you all again for joining us today. Today's gathering has been recorded and will be available later on (Docs4POC) YouTube channel. Look for (Docs4POC) on YouTube to access and share widely. If you haven't already, please register for this event at https://tinyurl.com/ucla4blm the Eventbrite for today's action, in order to receive an email with follow up actions, including a zoom call on Monday 7/27 at 6:30pm, where you can connect with each other and some of our resident organizers. Once again, the URL is https://tinyurl.com/ucla4blm. 

We encourage you now to tune in to the live stream by SEIU. SEIU today is striking for Black lives and we support them in their actions. Go to facebook.com/SEIU to hear stories from workers on why they are striking for Black lives on this national day of action.

[dipulb3]

People are calling for museums to be abolished. Can whitewashed American history be rewritten?

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/people-are-calling-for-museums-to-be-abolished-can-whitewashed-american-history-be-rewritten/

People are calling for museums to be abolished. Can whitewashed American history be rewritten?

Written by Brian Boucher, Appradab

After years of resisting calls for its removal, New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has asked the city to dislodge from its front steps an equestrian monument to Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth US president, which depicts him charging forward, and towering over two mostly nude figures, one Black and one Indigenous.

In a statement dated June 2020 sent to museum staff, posted on the museum’s website, Ellen Futter, president of the institution’s board, said, “As we strive to advance our institution’s, our City’s, and our country’s passionate quest for racial justice, we believe that removing the statue will be a symbol of progress and of our commitment to build and sustain an inclusive and equitable Museum community and broader society.” (After the announcement President Donald Trump tweeted, “Ridiculous, don’t do it!”)

Might this concession be a harbinger of other changes ahead for American museums? How can institutions whose leadership is often overwhelmingly White rethink their staffing, collections and exhibitions, much less move toward more truly equitable governance? Or, some ask, should museums continue to exist in anything like their current form?

The controversial statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt outside of the Museum of Natural History, featuring a Black man and a Indigenous man at his sides Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America/Getty Images

The Natural History Museum’s statement places the monument’s removal in the context of “the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd,” a Black man who was killed by four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of whom knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. After a video of Floyd’s killing went viral, tens of thousands took to the streets in protest in the US and around the world, even in the midst of a pandemic, to demand accountability for police brutality and to call for the defunding, or even the abolition of local police forces, among other demands.

The presence of an Indigenous figure in the Roosevelt monument, and the museum itself, have a very personal meaning for Wendy Red Star, an artist and member of the Crow tribe. She created a project, “The 1880 Crow Peace Delegation,” about a group of Crow chiefs who traveled to Washington, DC, that year to try to negotiate a peace treaty. In researching for the project, she found that the remains of one of those chiefs, Pretty Eagle, had been stolen from a burial site and later sold to the AMNH. The tribe was able to repatriate the remains in the 1990s.

“It wasn’t until I did this project that I learned about that,” Red Star said in a phone interview. “The Roosevelt monument was the first thing I thought of. To me, it’s a really direct connection to how my people have been presented at the museum — along with the dinosaur bones as part of the natural world. It’s always been such a surreal experience to see my community’s objects on display and watch people observing them as if these were peoples of the past.”

Just as government, law enforcement, and all forms of authority are being questioned in this moment of upheaval, museums worldwide have come in for intense scrutiny, and the situation on the ground is changing very fast. Earlier this month, dozens of current and former staffers of multiple cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art as well as institutions nationwide, published an open letter accusing the institutions of unfair treatment of employees of color and saying that “your covert and overt white supremacy that has benefited the institution, through the unrecognized dedication and hard labor of Black/Brown employees, with the expectation that we remain complacent with the status quo, is over.”

Apsáalooke Feminist #4, 2016, by Wendy Red Star Credit: Courtesy Wendy Red Star

Within days, staffers at the Guggenheim and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art openly accused the institutions’ leadership of racism. In an emailed statement to Appradab, Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, said the institution was prepared to address these concerns:

“As a society, we are confronting sustained injustices never resolved, and feel today the pain and anger of previous moments of turmoil. The Guggenheim addresses the shared need of great reform, and long overdue equality, and want to reaffirm that we are dedicated to doing our part.

“In this period of self-reflection and reckoning, we will engage in dialogue with our staff and review all processes and procedures to lead to positive change,” he continued. “We are expediting our ongoing … efforts to produce an action plan for demonstrable progress.”

The Metropolitan Museum declined to comment. The Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art did not respond to requests for comment.

Museums have also been critiqued for issuing anodyne statements that failed to mention Floyd or the Black Lives Matter movement. The Getty Museum, in Los Angeles, posted an unspecific call for “equity and fairness” on Instagram, and later apologized; the director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art privately apologized to Black artist Glenn Ligon for using a work of his from the museum’s holdings on social media without his permission, according to the New York Times.

Decolonize This Place protesting outside the American Museum of Natural History Credit: Andres Rodriguez/Decolonize This Place

The AMNH’s statement does not mention the groups that have for several years organized protests calling for the Roosevelt monument’s removal. In a phone interview, Decolonize This Place (DTP) organizer Amin Husain pointed out that removal of the monument was just one of three demands that Decolonize had placed on the museum, which include internally renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day and rethinking the museum’s displays.

“Many of the museum’s galleries contain Indigenous remains and objects,” he said. “Those things need to be sent back to the people they were taken from, and the exhibitions must be completely overhauled in consultation with, and with the active participation of, the relevant stakeholders.”

While many U.S. museums have made moves toward what the field calls “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” fellow DTP organizer Marz Saffore called for much greater change. “It’s critical that we move past identity politics,” she said. “It’s not enough to hire an Indigenous curator. It’s not enough to have one Black person on your board. Museums as we know them have to be abolished. I don’t want my voice to be added to museums that are often trophy cases for Imperialism.”

Institutions like the AMNH will continue to be sites for debate, some of which may echo heated arguments among historians and activists on how to handle monuments to objectionable historical figures. This includes leaders of the Confederate Army in the US Civilw War, which were erected by Confederate sympathizers oftentimes decades after the war, with a conscious white supremacist purpose.

Some ask whether these monuments could, rather than being destroyed or removed, be altered by, for example, adding contextualizing information. In an interview with National Public Radio on Tuesday about the Roosevelt monument, historian Manisha Sinha suggested that this tribute to Roosevelt’s efforts toward nature conservation could still stand, if the subjugated Black and Indigenous figures were simply removed. (DTP pointed out in an emailed statement that the land Roosevelt “conserved” was stolen from Indigenous people, so they would hardly find that an acceptable solution.)

By contrast, Abraham Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, former public affairs czar for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and author of books including “Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion” (2014), wrote an editorial this month for the New York Daily News saying that while he had earlier asked whether Confederate monuments could be altered, he’d concluded that they must be removed. “I was not only wrong,” he wrote; “I was insensitive.”

Michael Diaz-Griffith, executive director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation, has written a pamphlet on how to be an anti-racist preservationist Credit: Michael Diaz Griffith

Michael Diaz-Griffith, executive director of the New York-based Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation, which supports the Soane Museum in London, is author of “The Anti-Racist Preservationist’s Guide to Confederate Monuments: Their Past and a Future Without Them,” a pamphlet that succinctly explains how such monuments have a foundation in white supremacy, and outlines why they should be struck from the public realm. “In the case of the Confederates there’s no public legacy to detach from their wrongdoing,” Diaz-Griffith said over the phone.”The Confederacy was an immoral enterprise.”

Diaz-Griffith envisions a future, sooner or later, free of tributes to any such contentious figures.

“I think that all named buildings, all named places, will end up being reevaluated,” he said. “Who should they be named after? Do we continue to focus on those who were recognized in their own times, or do we shift our attention to those who fought for justice but weren’t publicly honored when they were alive? Since all people are fallible, it may be a good idea to erect monuments to principles, like justice, rather than to individuals.”

US museums, dependent as they are on the largesse of wealthy individuals and families, are far from a future in which controversial donors, who, for instance, hold views that run counter to science, nonetheless have galleries or other features named for them. The AMNH itself was under scrutiny for taking money from Rebekah Mercer, a major donor to the Republican party, whose leader Donald Trump has repeatedly denied the existence of climate change during his time in office. Mercer left the board when her term ended in 2019. Meanwhile in 2014, the Metropolitan Museum of Art named the revamped plaza on Fifth Avenue for donor David H. Koch, likewise a Republican donor, who is notable for funding efforts to undercut climate change science.

But the activists who had called for the removal of the Roosevelt monument have more foundational questions in mind than who funds such cultural organizations. Representing the group NYC Stands with Standing Rock, Sandy Grande, using the Lenape people’s name for Manhattan, said in a phone interview, “We should underscore that the city (Mannahatta) wouldn’t exist without the land and labor of Black and Indigenous peoples. This is Lenape land and the Mohawk and Seneca peoples built much of the city. In addition to Black people’s labor, their settlement at Seneca Village was destroyed.”

“So,” she said, “the removal of the monument has been a long time coming, not just for the museum but for the city itself, and we will continue to press for change.”

Makeba Clay, the Phillips Collection’s first chief diversity officer Credit: Rhiannon Newman/Courtesy Makeba Clay

“This is an historic moment — a pause and reflect moment for individuals and institutions,” said Makeba Clay, the chief diversity officer at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, over email. “The systemic and unrelenting injustices against members of the Black community have existed for hundreds of years and continue to exist all around us, including in our museums. We know we have work to do and that means being actively anti-racist — not passively non-racist.”

Clay was the inaugural appointee to her role, which she took on in 2018 and her message is that it’s not enough to “amplify” voices and messages, art institutions must take action. “We are looking at our staff and board, both overwhelmingly white, and actively examining our hiring and recruitment processes to promote greater diversity,” she said. “We recently held a town hall, which uncovered stark differences between staff of color and white staff.”

Clay also said that art does not exist outside struggle. That while it can be used for “constructive discourse, building empathy and creating community,” art also “can confront current issues and topics that aren’t neutral.”

Adding: “What appears like radical action is exactly what museums need to pursue to prove that they have a valuable role to play in this national discourse.”

Top image: Fall, from the series Four Seasons, 2006, by Wendy Red Star.

[seriousbusinessforhumans]

(Update: CHAZ is now CHOP. Capitol Hill Occupied Protest)

Jun 9

In credit to the people who freed Capitol Hill, this list of demands is neither brief nor simplistic. This is no simple request to end police brutality. We demand that the City Council and the Mayor, whoever that may be, implement these policy changes for the cultural and historic advancement of the City of Seattle, and to ease the struggles of its people. This document is to represent the black voices who spoke in victory at the top of 12th & Pine after 9 days of peaceful protest while under constant nightly attack from the Seattle Police Department. These are words from that night, June 8th, 2020.

Given the historical moment, we’ll begin with our demands pertaining to the Justice System.

The Seattle Police Department and attached court system are beyond reform. We do not request reform, we demand abolition. We demand that the Seattle Council and the Mayor defund and abolish the Seattle Police Department and the attached Criminal Justice Apparatus. This means 100% of funding, including existing pensions for Seattle Police. At an equal level of priority we also demand that the city disallow the operations of ICE in the city of Seattle.

In the transitionary period between now and the dismantlement of the Seattle Police Department, we demand that the use of armed force be banned entirely. No guns, no batons, no riot shields, no chemical weapons, especially against those exercising their First Amendment right as Americans to protest.

We demand an end to the school-to-prison pipeline and the abolition of youth jails. Get kids out of prison, get cops out of schools. We also demand that the new youth prison being built in Seattle currently be repurposed.

We demand that not the City government, nor the State government, but that the Federal government launch a full-scale investigation into past and current cases of police brutality in Seattle and Washington, as well as the re-opening of all closed cases reported to the Office of Police Accountability. In particular, we demand that cases particular to Seattle and Washington be reopened where no justice has been served, namely the cases of Iosia Faletogo, Damarius Butts, Isaiah Obet, Tommy Le, Shaun Fuhr, and Charleena Lyles.

We demand reparations for victims of police brutality, in a form to be determined.

We demand that the City of Seattle make the names of officers involved in police brutality a matter of public record. Anonymity should not even be a privilege in public service.

We demand a retrial of all People in Color currently serving a prison sentence for violent crime, by a jury of their peers in their community.

We demand decriminalization of the acts of protest, and amnesty for protestors generally, but specifically those involved in what has been termed “The George Floyd Rebellion” against the terrorist cell that previously occupied this area known as the Seattle Police Department. This includes the immediate release of all protestors currently being held in prison after the arrests made at 11th and Pine on Sunday night and early Saturday morning June 7th and 8th, and any other protesters arrested in the past two weeks of the uprising, the name Evan Hreha in particular comes to mind who filmed Seattle police macing a young girl and is now in jail.

We demand that the City of Seattle and the State Government release any prisoner currently serving time for a marijuana-related offense and expunge the related conviction.

We demand the City of Seattle and State Government release any prisoner currently serving time just for resisting arrest if there are no other related charges, and that those convictions should also be expunged.

We demand that prisoners currently serving time be given the full and unrestricted right to vote, and for Washington State to pass legislation specifically breaking from Federal law that prevents felons from being able to vote.

We demand an end to prosecutorial immunity for police officers in the time between now and the dissolution of the SPD and extant justice system.

We demand the abolition of imprisonment, generally speaking, but especially the abolition of both youth prisons and privately-owned, for-profit prisons.

We demand in replacement of the current criminal justice system the creation of restorative/transformative accountability programs as a replacement for imprisonment.

We demand autonomy be given to the people to create localized anti-crime systems.

We demand that the Seattle Police Department, between now and the time of its abolition in the near future, empty its “lost and found” and return property owned by denizens of the city.

We demand justice for those who have been sexually harassed or abused by the Seattle Police Department or prison guards in the state of Washington.

We demand that between now and the abolition of the SPD that each and every SPD officer turn on their body cameras, and that the body camera video of all Seattle police should be a matter of easily accessible public record.

We demand that the funding previously used for Seattle Police be redirected into: A) Socialized Health and Medicine for the City of Seattle. B) Free public housing, because housing is a right, not a privilege. C) Public education, to decrease the average class size in city schools and increase teacher salary. D) Naturalization services for immigrants to the United States living here undocumented. (We demand they be called “undocumented” because no person is illegal.) E) General community development. Parks, etc.

We also have economic demands that must be addressed.

We demand the de-gentrification of Seattle, starting with rent control.

We demand the restoration of city funding for arts and culture to re-establish the once-rich local cultural identity of Seattle.

We demand free college for the people of the state of Washington, due to the overwhelming effect that education has on economic success, and the correlated overwhelming impact of poverty on people of color, as a form of reparations for the treatment of Black people in this state and country.

We demand that between now and the abolition of the SPD that Seattle Police be prohibited from performing “homeless sweeps” that displace and disturb our homeless neighbors, and on equal footing we demand an end to all evictions. 

We demand a decentralized election process to give the citizens of Seattle a greater ability to select candidates for public office such that we are not forced to choose at the poll between equally undesirable options. There are multiple systems and policies in place which make it impractical at best for working-class people to run for public office, all of which must go, starting with any fees associated with applying to run for public office.

Related to economic demands, we also have demands pertaining to what we would formally call “Health and Human Services.”

We demand the hospitals and care facilities of Seattle employ black doctors and nurses specifically to help care for black patients.

We demand the people of Seattle seek out and proudly support Black-owned businesses. Your money is our power and sustainability.

We demand that the city create an entirely separate system staffed by mental health experts to respond to 911 calls pertaining to mental health crises, and insist that all involved in such a program be put through thorough, rigorous training in conflict de-escalation.

Finally, let us now address our demands regarding the education system in the City of Seattle and State of Washington.

We demand that the history of Black and Native Americans be given a significantly greater focus in the Washington State education curriculum.

We demand that thorough anti-bias training become a legal requirement for all jobs in the education system, as well as in the medical profession and in mass media.

We demand the City of Seattle and State of Washington remove any and all monuments dedicated to historical figures of the Confederacy, whose treasonous attempts to build an America with slavery as a permanent fixture were an affront to the human race.

Transcribed by @irie_kenya and @AustinCHowe. Special thanks to Magik for starting and facilitating the discussion to create this list, to Omari Salisbury for the idea to break the list into categories, and as well a thanks to Kshama Sawant for being the only Seattle official to discuss with the people on Free Capitol Hill the night that it was liberated.

Although we have liberated Free Capitol Hill in the name of the people of Seattle, we must not forget that we stand on land already once stolen from the Duwamish People, the first people of Seattle, and whose brother, John T. Williams of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe up north was murdered by the Seattle Police Department 10 years ago.

Black Lives Matter — All day, Every day.

[maddie-1360]

I’m a Muslim and it hurts so much to see people die and I can’t help but I want to,I want to start a protest for Palestine and I will be happy to get arrested and I want to be able to fight for the people who deserve to live but I live in India and no one is speaking up the so called humans here have no humanity,the Muslims what are you doing? people in other countries are protesting and are not afraid to protest

U are all corrupt,the Muslims here are not doing anything the government and people are not doing anything do something for the freedom of Palestine 🇵🇸