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athymelyreply · 4 months

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A highly recommended read. Full text of article under cut

On October 7, I was not hiding with my child in the safe room. My house was not burnt to the ground, and my husband didn't blow me a last kiss before his killer fired a fatal bullet.

I was safely at home in London where I have lived for over 30 years when my elderly peace-activist parents, Oded and Yocheved Lifschitz, along with 77 others members of the community, were taken hostage, barefoot and in their pajamas from their homes in the kibbutz where I was born and raised.

Israel's hostages in Gaza: A matter of life and death

Israeli peace activists who lost loved ones in the Hamas massacre stand their ground

What we can learn from released Hamas hostage Yocheved Lifshitz

For the past 229 days, together with the families of the other of hostages taken captive which now number 128, we have taken part in the fight for the lives of our loved ones.

A photo of the writer, Sharone Lifschitz's parents, Yocheved and Oded Lifschitz, who were both kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza on October 7. To date, only Yocheved Lifschitz has returned. Credit: Amiram Oren

In Nir Oz, my family's kibbutz, one in four people (117 in total), were either executed or kidnapped. We are still piecing together the events of that brutal day that Hamas terrorists and some Gazan civilians, perpetrated medieval levels of cruelty, driven by hate and revenge, blinded by radical religious ideology and super-charged with amphetamines.

Last month, at the "Seder in the Streets" event in New York, activist Naomi Klein spoke as if none of that ever took place. Instead, addressing hundreds who gathered for a combination Passover Seder and protest of the war in Gaza, she spoke of what she termed the "False Idol of Zionism", comparing Jewish support of it to the Israelites "worshiping" the golden calf and recalling Moses' rage seeing the spectacle.

Klein's interpretation seems to miss the point: Moses, unlike Klein, did not disengage. He did not give up on his people when they worshipped a false idol. Instead, without compromising his integrity and beliefs, he guided them through the desert for forty more years in their journey to become a nation. Klein, at this dangerous moment in history, is failing to lead her listeners to take responsibility, to engage and work towards a shared future in the region for Jews and Palestinians, one built on the preciousness of life on both sides and an understanding of the original intention of Zionism: the necessity for a safe home for the Jewish people.

"Seder in the Street" was also protesting the heartbreaking and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank. Many in Israel, like my parents, would agree. Yet their plight and that of the other hostages – most of them civilians, from a baby boy of one year to a man of 86 - are not mentioned at Seder in the Streets or other gatherings of far-left pro-Palestinian Jewish activists.

My father, Oded Lifschitz, who is 83, and his friends who are also hostages, all in their late 70s and 80s, have worked for peace for decades. My mother, Yocheved Lifschitz, was thankfully released after 17 days of captivity.

Yocheved Lifschitz after being released from 17 days in Hamas captivity, in Tel Aviv, Israel in late October. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum

How much more effective these protests could be if activists abroad could act as a bridge between the pro-Palestinian movement and progressives fighting for peace in Israel?

Hamas, a terrorist organization which has been systematically stripping freedom, women's rights and democracy from the Gaza strip since 2006 are also strangely left out of the discussion. In fact, I see more criticism of the Hamas attack and crimes from moderate Palestinian voices than from prominent Jewish voices of the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States and Europe.

Klein is instead content in disengaging from Israel based on a distorted idea of Zionism and in so doing offers no solidarity with the moderate, progressive Jews living in Israel and for whom rejecting Zionism is irrelevant at this moment. Whether we like our government's policies or hate them as many do, Israel is home. Just as Canada is Klein's home, whether or not she likes the policies of the Canadian government or condones its mistreatment of its Indigenous population.

I consider myself pro-Palestinian. My family has always fought for a shared future for our two peoples, understanding this key point: our fates are interlinked. My parents have advocated for peace and equality for and with the Palestinians since the 1960s. We have united as a family to protest policies of the current Israeli government we find abhorrent. I wish for the Palestinians what I want for my own people: to live without bloodshed, in their own democratic state, as part of a negotiated two-state solution.

The facts are indisputable to Zionists and non-Zionists alike: There are about 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians living in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Jewish Israelis cannot be expected to reject the idea that they can and should have the right to live safely in Israel. Without Israel, where would they go?

Everyone who cares about what's best for the region must strengthen those who are working for a peaceful future. As my father always says, "You make peace with your enemies."

A Palestinian family rides on the back of a donkey-drawn carriage next to damaged buildings in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, in April.Credit: AFP

Thanks to international efforts to formulate a plan for the "day after" the war in Gaza, we are potentially closer to a long-term political agreement to lift us out of conflict than ever before. To help facilitate it, American and European progressives must distinguish between religious fanatics on both sides and those working toward a path of justice and peace for everyone in the region.

We must differentiate the liberal American pro-Palestinian activists from those who justify Hamas atrocities as acts of resistance. The dominant current narrative of the American far left, including the Jews among them, unwittingly aligns with Iran, and with antidemocratic and illiberal forces.

Instead of fostering hate and promoting disengagement from Israel, progressives abroad should help those in the region regain a sense that another future is possible and advocate for a negotiated political agreement that would create a state of Palestine established alongside the state of Israel. It won't be perfect, but it will be a good start.

The work of advocating for a different, sustainable future, must start with a call for the immediate release of hostages as part of a long-term agreement, backed by America and its allies, including moderate Arab states, that has the potential to transform the lives of Palestinians and Israelis by rescuing them from this ongoing tragedy. To fail to do so is to fail not just the hostages and their families, but to throw all the people of the region further into the abyss and undo the inspiring work of moderate forces within Israeli and Palestinian society.

In this, our darkest hour, we ask ourselves, who is our enemy? My enemy is the blind hate that seeks to erase the humanity of the other side. All of us who are horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza should work toward empowering the people of the region to move away from our common enemy. That's not Zionism, but rather the religious fanaticism we have within both our societies – Israeli and Palestinian – that threatens to engulf us all.

Sometimes, I want to shout at the news on TV, to remind people that their indulgent engagement in hatred of one side is so futile, so self-congratulatory. We can do better.

As we bleed and grieve, and in the case of families like my own – hang suspended between hope and despair for the fate of our loved ones, we must seek points of human connection between Jews and Palestinians, we must fight, not against one another, but for a practical solution that dismantles the status quo so that we can all survive – and live in freedom and security.

Sharone Lifschitz is a London-based filmmaker and academic originally from Kibbutz Nir Oz, whose parents were taken hostage on October 7. On Twitter: @Lifschitz_sha

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heavyhitterheaux · 1 year

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Church Girl, Don’t Hurt Nobody

AN: Watch out for the good girls 🤭

Synopsis: Jack is head over heels when he meets a girl at a party back home in Louisville. Little does he know, she's holding on to a secret and Jack is the last to know.

Pairing: Jack Harlow x Reader

Jack Harlow Masterlist

Please Do Not Repost My Content Anywhere

The time on the clock read 4:45 AM and you knew that you would have to leave soon in order to get there on time and so your parents didn’t suspect anything. One thing they were strict about was being on time, but then again they were strict about everything.

How you did your hair, the kind of make-up you wore, the clothes you chose, the shoes, and even who you dated.

Left up to them you would date Vic, who was the drummer and they couldn’t and wouldn’t stop raving about him.

However, you weren’t interested.

He definitely wasn’t your speed and up to your standards, you preferred someone with blue eyes, curly hair, 6 '3, and from your hometown of Louisville.

All because they had a reputation to protect and the last thing they wanted was for their youngest daughter to mess it up. You had to be careful with every single move that you made when you went out into the world.

But, when you were with him, all of that went out the window and none of it mattered.

They weren’t nearly this hard on your other siblings, you figured it was because they did as they were told and you were the only one who gave them push back. And that had been happening for as long as you could remember.

You didn’t ask to be born into a family of preachers, pastors, and mega churches and you believed in your heart of hearts that you should have been able to choose your own path instead of having it chosen for you. You believed the word, no doubt about it in your mind, but you just didn’t know if this was truly what you were meant to do just because you were born into it.

Even if all that was going behind the scenes, you did love your job.

Being the lead singer and being the choir director despite how young you were. Usually in churches, the choir director wasn’t younger than 50 give or take.

Ever since you were younger, you wanted to be an entertainer and one of your biggest inspirations was different girl groups from the 80s and 90s. Destiny’s Child, SWV, Total, Xscape, TLC, and the list goes on.

That went out the window when you turned 13 and were told by your parents that you would now be a part of the choir and there were no exceptions so this was probably the closest that you would ever get to making that a reality. So, when it came down to it, you were an entertainer and people did know who you were to a certain extent. However, you liked to keep it lowkey as much as possible.

Rehearsals three times a week sometimes lasted for four hours and you better be on time for each service on Sunday morning. No exceptions.

8, 10, and 12.

Someone could be on their deathbed, but if your mother saw that you were late, she would send you to meet Jesus a little bit faster.

You had recently moved back to Louisville permanently after helping out one of the churches that was an extension of the one your parents originally built in North Carolina and you had been there for almost six months.

When you had gotten back, your cousin Taylor had invited you to her birthday party knowing that out of all your siblings you would probably be the only one to go since it had taken place on a Saturday night and that was when you first laid eyes on him in person.

Jack.

You knew who he was and you were a big fan. When you weren’t on church duty, you would tend to sneak out of your parents house and dive into the Louisville nightlife. You always made it a priority to disguise yourself so no one would be able to know that it was you and it wouldn’t somehow get back to your parents. This had been going on ever since you were fourteen.

Even though you had told Jack a lot about you, one thing he didn’t know was what your day job was and how you and your family are connected to Louisville. You always tried to put as much distance between you and them so that you would be able to have your own identity, but no matter how hard you tried, it didn’t work.

You wanted for him to get to know you without the label of you being a church girl or a preacher’s kid.

A lot of times when people found out, they ran for the hills having it already made up in their minds that they would never be good enough for you or be up to your parents standards.

Jack was very special to you and the last thing you wanted to do was lose him.

All that you would tell Jack is that you liked to sing in your spare time at your parents’ business.

However, you still hadn’t sang for him yet and he definitely did not know what your parents did.

You thought for sure he caught on when you told him your last name, but it still didn’t. And the crazy part is when you told him, the two of you were on a late night ice cream date and there you two were in the heart of the city standing directly under a billboard of your parents.

He would find out soon, you promised yourself that you would tell him when the time was right. You just hoped that he didn’t look at you differently once you did.

You were currently doing your best to try to ease Jack’s arm off of you in order not to wake him up, but of course you immediately failed when he responded by hugging you tighter. This quickly lead to you getting a smile on your face.

“Where are you running off to now? I actually caught you this time. Usually you’re gone before I’m awake.” Jack raspily asked you before placing a kiss on your neck.

“I just have to do a few things before meeting my parents. You know how they are if I’m late.”

“And when am I going to meet these parents of yours?”

He would bring this up periodically, but truth be told you were scared. You loved the thrill of being able to sneak around and have a secret relationship without anyone being in your business and you embraced it. You did plan for Jack to be in your life for the long haul, so it was only a matter of time until he didn’t take not yet for an answer anymore.

“Never if it was left up to me. But soon, I promise. I just have to tell them about you.”

Jack was now wide awake and sat up while looking down at you in disbelief and you quickly looked away.

“Babe, you still haven’t told them?”

“My parents are different and they just… can be very judgmental of people and things and the complete opposite of me. My mother more so than my dad. I think that he would really like you. I don’t want to have to subject you to that if I don’t have to. I mean, I barely like to be around her so I highly doubt that you will either.”

When the both of you fell for each other, you both fell HARD. It was only a month into the relationship when Jack wanted you to meet his parents and had no hesitations on letting you know how he felt.

“Don’t think I’m rushing you, I just thought that you would have at least mentioned me to them by now. You’ve already met mine and they love you.”

Even though it was only a month in when he wanted you to meet them, it didn’t actually take place until last week. At dinner you noticed how Maggie kept looking at you curiously and it wasn’t until she had pulled you to the side later on and said what a big fan she was of your voice and how Jack would speak so highly of you. She also said how she wasn’t surprised because she knew how well people spoke of your parents.

Even his parents knew your connection to the gospel world, but he didn’t. The relationship was still fairly new and you were going at your own pace with revealing everything to him.

He would travel a lot so that was your excuse for not saying anything, no matter how poor of an excuse it was. Every time he brought it up, you would say how busy your parents were running their business and you and your siblings always had to help them keep it afloat.

He just didn’t know that business was a mega church that had multiple locations in Kentucky and in other states.

“The only person who knows about you is my best friend and she’s also sworn to secrecy. I’d rather you meet her first before you meet them. She knows all about you.”

Your best friend Taina was also in the choir with you and you told her everything knowing that she would never break your trust or tell your parents about your secret relationship with Jack or anyone else in your family for that matter. When going out with him, she did her best to disguise you as well as she could so that no one would recognize you. It’s worked for the past few months, but you knew that your luck would eventually run out. A lot of times you would wear Jack’s clothes to make it a bit easier, but being 4’11 you were limited to only his shirts and sweatshirts.

You could only hide a Grammy winning gospel artist for so long no matter how low key you thought that you were being.

“Soon, okay? I.. don’t want anything or anyone to ruin this for me or for us.”

“Why do you think someone would ruin it?” Jack asked while moving you to lay on his chest.

“Once you meet my family, you’ll understand.”

It was now six in the morning on a Sunday and you were speeding back to the house that you shared with your parents, siblings, and their spouses along with your nieces and nephews.

You happened to be the only one out of all your siblings who wasn’t married.

Your parents had an estate built along with sections for each of their children along with their families so no one would ever have to leave.

But you knew better, it was so your mother could keep an eye on all of you.

It was easy for you to sneak out and meet Jack because of the separate entrance to your section and no one really bothered you.

You believed deep down that your siblings didn’t like you because no matter how much push back you gave your parents, they always gave you anything that you wanted. Except for your big sister Eden. You were closest with her and would share a lot with her. Many times you debated on telling her about Jack, but every time you went to tell her, you backed out, scared of what her reaction was going to be.

However, all of the pushback came from your mother and not your father.

You knew she loved you but didn’t like you.

She was close to your two other sisters, Eden and Grace, but when it came to you there was somewhat of a disconnect no matter how much you tried to get in her good graces.

So, you gave up trying to please her a while ago.

Whenever you did something she didn’t like, she would simply throw out bible verses in your face and say how you were being disobedient. She was one of those Christians that twisted the word to fit their narrative.

And you knew for a fact that no one was supposed to do that.

You slipped in the house quietly by 6:30 and immediately went to pick out your outfit. You sent a text to Jack to let him know that you were safe before hopping in the shower making sure there wasn’t a trace of his scent left on you which would lead to more questions.

Once you came out of the shower, your big sister Eden was sitting on your bed startling you.

“Sh– EDEN!”

“Go ahead and finish that first word.” She said while smirking, but all you did was roll your eyes.

“What did you need?” You asked while looking for your peach scented body butter that Jack had gifted you last week.

“Nothing, but where were you?”

“How did you know I went somewhere?”

“Don’t start, little one. You did go somewhere. You know you can tell me and that I won’t tell her. I never do.”

“I went out to see Taina and that was it. Got tired and stayed over last night, that’s all.”

Eden knew that you were lying to her, but wasn’t going to push it any further.

“I’ll let it slide for now, but I’ll get it out of you sooner or later.” She replied while hopping up off your bed and leaving your room.

You then let out a breath that you didn’t know that you were holding.

You then looked for an outfit that had to fit with the color scheme for this week and the choir had decided on blue and black. You made sure that the outfit didn’t have a lot of skin showing, proceeded to do your make-up and hair and made your way downstairs to sit with your family at the breakfast table.

“You’re late.” Your mother muttered while not even looking up from her notes.

“It’s not even 7:30 and I see that the rest of you are still here too. So how am I late? And late for what? They haven’t even brought the food out.” You asked while slipping in your seat next to your older sister Eden who gave you a small warning look to tell you to let it go, but she knew you better than that.

“Eric, get that daughter of yours.” Your mother simply replied and you rolled your eyes.

“It is literally barely 7 in the morning and the two of you need to get a grip.” Your father said while mouthing sorry to you, but you simply waved him off.

“It’s fine, daddy. I’ll just leave early since my presence is such an inconvenience for her and always has been since I’ve been born. Just say you don’t like me and go.” You said while scooting away from the table, but your father tried to stop you along with Eden.

“You’re my daughter! And you think I don’t like you?”

“Oh, I know for a fact that you don’t. Because I’m not like your other children. Anyway, Hannah, can I just get a cup of hot tea?” You asked Hannah who was the cook that worked for your family and she quickly nodded and you simply got up to follow her into the kitchen while your mother sat at the table and shook her head.

“That girl, I swear. She’s going to put me into an early grave, just you watch.”

“You’re too hard on her and you know it. I’ve told you that I don’t know how many times. All she ever wanted was a relationship with her mother, but you keep pushing her away so what do you expect?” Your father asked her and took a sip of his orange juice.

“She’s just different from the rest of us. I know that she means well in her own little way.” Eden was your oldest sibling who always took up for you and defended you.

“Of course you would defend her.” Grace muttered while rolling her eyes and got a look from Eden in return.

“Well, she needs to get on the same page. Eden, she is an adult and you need to stop defending her and babying her. She is 27 years old and needs to act like it. I don’t know where I went so wrong with her. This empire is not going to fall or be embarrassed by her. We have worked too hard for her to undo this.”

“Mom, don’t do that. She’s my sister and I’m always going to defend her. Especially when all due respect, you’re in the wrong. She always tries to do right by you, but no matter how hard she tries it never seems to be enough. Sooner or later, you are going to push her away and she won’t want anything to do with you or anyone in this family. I love my baby sister and I’m going to show her that at least one person in this family supports and cares for her.”

All your mother did was sit quietly in response until Hannah had come back in the room.

“Hannah, will you make baby girl’s favorite for dinner tonight? I need to apologize to her later.”

When the last service was finally over, you switched your shoes from your black stilettos to New Balance slides and let out a sigh of relief as you were now in your new G Wagon that was a gift from your father last month. You were patiently waiting for Taina who had been talking to a few people. You wanted to get out there as quickly as possible and didn’t stay long for someone to have an opportunity to start talking to you.

You took the opportunity to facetime Jack and he immediately answered. He was still laying in the same position as he was when you had left him this morning and all you did was let out a small laugh.

You couldn’t blame him one bit since this was a rare off day for him. His album was getting ready to be released and you knew that he better soak this all in now and you needed to soak in being able to spend quality time with him now too because in the upcoming months it might be far in between.

“Hey babe, still sleep?” You asked and he let out somewhat of a groan.

“I take that as a yes.”

“No, I’m up. How did meeting up with your parents go?”

“It could have gone better, but we’re not focusing on that right now. My dad was fine as always, it’s just that mother of mine.” You answered thinking back to this morning.

“Oh, I wanted to ask you something, baby. You aren’t doing anything next Friday are you?” Jack asked and a smile erupted on his face.

Choir rehearsal, but it could be moved to Thursday. If Friday was going to allow you to spend more time with your boyfriend, you were all for it.

“No, what’s going on?”

“My album release party and I want you there. Just a few people, nothing too big.”

You stared off into space a little bit thinking about if someone took pictures and them getting back to your parents.

All hell would break loose.

Literally.

“Baby, did you hear me?” Jack asked while looking at you confused since you hadn’t given him an answer.

“Yeah, I heard you. I would love to. I’m very proud of you and I can’t wait to listen to the entire album since you only told me the titles of the songs.”

“It’s only right that I have the person who I wrote Poison about there with me.”

He told you that he wrote Poison about you without even letting you listen to it and you had to promise him that when you finally did that he had to be with you.

“One question.”

“I already know. I promise it’s lowkey and no cameras are allowed in. I got you and I want you to be comfortable. You don’t want your parents to know about us yet, so I took all of the precautions that I needed to.”

“Looks like I have to go and get a new outfit.”

You decided to consult Taina when she had gotten in the car with you and she didn’t like the idea at all with the possibility of your so-called secret being revealed.

“Umm Y/N, someone is bound to recognize you and it will get back to your parents. I’m actually surprised Jack hasn’t caught on yet to who you are and who your family is. And you’ve been dodging meeting his friends too, so now what is about to happen? You’re definitely going to meet them on Friday.”

“T, I want to support my boyfriend and I’m going to go. I can deal with them later.”

“And the fact that you still haven’t said anything to Jack? He is probably going to be very mad at you when you finally do or be pissed at you when he finds out from someone else. You need to come clean and tell him. And deal with them how? You are a preacher’s daughter dating one of the biggest rappers on the planet! You know all your mother cares about is her reputation and will throw you under the bus any second that she gets in order to keep it afloat.”

“I promise I will. And I’ll do it soon.” You answered her while pulling into her driveway and putting the car in park.

“Y/N, you and Jack have been together for almost four months. How much longer are you going to dodge this? Time is running out and this is about to be a hot mess when shit hits the fan. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You worry too much, T. I got this all under control.”

“Sneaking out of your parents house to see your boyfriend is what you call having it under control? You are 27 years old!”

“It’s not an ideal situation, but it’ll get there. Just….. I appreciate you for having my back and always supporting me.”

“I’ll do it until the end of time, you know that. I love how happy you’ve been since you met him despite everything that goes on with your family. Just…. Be careful.”

Jack’s album release party was now underway and you finally had the chance to meet everyone that was associated with him. It was finally nice to be able to put names to faces that you had heard so much about.

You loved how supportive they were of him and how highly they talked about him and even dished out how often he talked about you. They were happy that he had found someone like you that was supportive just like they were and only wanted good things for him.

The relationship between the two of you wasn’t a secret to who Jack was close to, and you wanted to keep it that way. However, this was your first time meeting all of them in person and getting to know them. As far as you knew, Jack had only told them your first name and the picture that he had shown them was an off guard pic that didn’t show your face very well.

Just like T said, a preacher’s daughter dating a rapper?

You could only imagine the story as it hit The Shade Room.

Jack was doing his rounds across the room, while periodically coming to check if you were okay and make sure that you were comfortable. It helped that you were in a dark corner and it would be hard for anyone to recognize you.

And just like he promised, no cameras.

You were currently seated next to Neelam making small talk and she had suggested that the two of you hung out together without all of the boys around and you quickly accepted.

“So, how did you and Jack meet? He never told me.” She asked while looking over at you and smiling.

“Taylor Rooks birthday party. I just happened to know a few people that were going and they dragged me along. And from then, the rest is history. And the person that I knew was going was Taylor since she’s my cousin on my dad’s side.”

“He talks about you non-stop and it’s finally good to put a face to your name. You’re good for him in more ways than one. He has never shown this much interest in anyone before.”

“And that’s all I would ever want for him. He’s very special and I want him in my life for a long time.”

Jack was now back surrounded by Private Garden and he noticed that they were all looking at him. They wanted to ask him this before you and Neelam came back over here from getting your drinks.

“What? Is something wrong?” He asked and Urban was the first to speak up.

“We didn’t know that you were into church girls. And highly famous ones at that. Once she told us her last name it clicked.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Jack asked while opening his sparkling water.

“Come on man, you had to know before you asked her out.” 2fo piped up while looking at him in disbelief.

“What did I have to know? I’m confused.”

“You don’t know you’re dating Y/N Nevaeh Hamilton? The daughter of Eric and Adelaide Hamilton? The big ass mega church that is known in Louisville and people come from all over to go to it? She’s literally the choir director and her middle name is heaven spelled backwards! Jack, come on. And she’s won multiple Grammys for her gospel songs, she has an amazing voice. Even though I don’t think she’s ever gone in person except once. She gets nominated like every year.”

“Her parents literally own like half of the city.”

“Make that half of Kentucky. And they have multiple locations in different states.”

“And they have a private jet.”

“Damn, Jack is fucking the preacher’s daughter. Now that’s something I thought that I would never say. Definitely not on my 2022 bingo card.”

“Her mother is really the one who preaches and her dad does sometimes. And she has like four siblings. Eden, Grace, Matthew, and Malachi.”

Jack was sitting there in disbelief taking it all in that you would hide something as big as this from him. He simply looked over at you smiling while talking to Neelam and couldn’t help but to be disappointed.

“I guess you haven’t met her parents yet? I wonder how they feel about their daughter dating a rapper? I can imagine that there would be some push back.” Quiiso asked.

“No, not yet. She would always say soon, and that they were different.”

“Yall have literally been together for close to four months and her parents don’t even know a rapper is clapping their youngest daughter’s cheeks? And I thought they wouldn’t have sex until they were married anyway. Shit, did you marry her?!”

“You didn’t need to add that part, Nemo!”

“No, we’re not married and after tonight we might not even be together when I confront her about this. How do all of you know all this?”

“Uhh social media? You mean to tell me you don’t follow your own girl? That’s why we’re all confused on how you didn’t know hardly anything about her. I mean you have been in your own little world focusing on getting your album done and the relationship is fairly new. My mother blasts her music every time I go and visit her. Right when you introduced her to us, it clicked.”

“She told me that she never uses social media.”

“Well, shit. It might not be her, but someone is definitely running her page and posting for her.” Urban said while scratching the back of his neck.

“Now, Jack… don’t do anything that you’re going to regret. She’s a sweet girl and we can tell she cares about you a lot. Don’t ruin that.”

“And she might have a good reason for keeping you a secret from her parents. You never know, just hear her out.”

That’s when Shloob handed Jack his phone and it was a Tik Tok of you singing and he was floored.

-----

The video ended at the perfect time just as you and Neelam came back to join them and you took your rightful seat next to Jack and could tell that he was pissed off.

“Babe, you okay? Did something happen?” You whispered in his ear and all he did was shake his head at you.

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“Okay.”

Now you were nervous because you had no idea what was about to happen when the two of you left and were alone. You couldn’t help but to think that somehow his anger was directed at you and that was the last thing that you ever wanted. Your life at home was rough enough as it is and he was literally your peace and escape from it.

When the two of you finally reached Jack’s condo, he didn’t even hesitate. The car ride had been awkward and no matter how much you tried to get him to talk to you, he wouldn’t.

“Babe, what is going on with you? Can you please tell me so that we can fix it?” You said as the two of you were barely across the threshold.

“Do you have something that you want to tell me?” Jack asked while not even looking over at you.

“Like what? I loved meeting your friends and I already told you how proud I was of you. Did I miss something?”

“So, you forgot to mention to me who you are and who your parents are? Being a multi-winning artist who has multiple Grammys is something wild to keep from me.”

Oh, shit. He knows.

“What? What do you mean?”

“That’s why you didn’t want me to meet them because you are basically out here living a double life. And it was the fact that my best friends knew more about you than me and I’m your boyfriend! And deep down I knew that something was off. I mean I get we don't run in the same circles, but still."

“Baby, I know you’re mad, but please let me explain.” You pleaded with Jack, but all he did was shake his head at you.

“Pissed is more like it because you LIED to me. I have never lied to you in the entire time that we’ve been together. How long did you think that you would be able to keep this up for? I get I’ve been living under a rock for a little while to finish the album but damn a heads up would have been nice. Your parents own like half of Kentucky!”

“I just… my parents. I never wanted to lie, I just didn’t tell you the entire truth.”

“Who gives a shit about your parents? You love me don’t you? So why should that matter? And as bad as you talk about them why do you even give a fuck if they approve of us or not? And not telling me the entire truth is definitely lying.”

“It’s not that simple! And of course I love you! A lot would come with this! Just because my parents don’t approve is one thing, but the entire community behind them is another. All that they have worked for could go away in the blink of an eye if I don’t do this the right way! People are so critical of celebrities as it is, but someone who represents God in the public eye is an entire different ballgame. When certain things happen in our community, you’ll be lucky that they don’t crucify you like they did Jesus himself. Come on, you literally have a song called I Wanna See Some Ass. I can’t exactly play that song at a church function, now can I?”

“What is the right way? I hope you don’t think what you had been doing this time was! Hiding me? Lying to me? Lying to your family?”

“You don’t understand, Jackman! So much is riding on this! And I didn’t hide you!”

“Well help me to understand! And what the hell do you call not really going out with me in public?! HIDING!”

“You aren’t a preacher’s kid so I have no way of making it so you do! Please try to see this from my point of view because if they were to come from me, they would come for you too. I could not risk that with your album being released! I was thinking of you!”

“Then try! Try to make me understand! And don’t even give me that! As much as I care about you, you thought that this was going to scare me off?”

“Because that’s what people usually do when they find out. I wanted to keep you to myself for as long as possible no matter how selfish it might sound. People have watched my every move since the day that I was born including my parents so that I could not only live up to their standards, but the community that is behind us. I never wanted to sing in church, but I felt that it was my only option because singing the kind of music I wanted to and being in the music industry would not have gone over well with them. As much as I complain about my parents, I do still love them and do not want anything bad to happen because of me. I was going to tell them, I promise you. And I was going to tell you about them.”

“And you waited so long that someone beat you to it. It’s only a matter of time before someone leaks that you were there with me tonight. If I would have known this, we could have been more careful. Because I made sure that there was a no camera policy, we were literally all over each other almost the entire night. That never occurred to you that would be a problem later?”

“Well hopefully they don’t. All I wanted to do was support my boyfriend.”

“Preacher’s daughter seen with Jack Harlow at his album release party is something that you think no one is going to leak? Come on now babe, you’re smarter than that.”

Just then Jack’s phone went off and he looked at it while muttering ‘fuck’ underneath his breath.

“What?” You asked him while coming closer.

He simply handed you his phone and you looked at it in disbelief.

Liked by dojacat, saweetie, laflame1017, champagnepapi, jackharlowsource, mariahthescientist, cardib, and 5,980,436 others

theshaderoom: new couple alert! look who we caught leaving jackharlow's album release party! no one other than Y/N Neveah Hamilton the daughter of Eric and Adelaide Hamilton who are well known preachers that reside in Louisville. Eye witness accounts say that the two of them were all over each other the entire night! we wonder what her parents have to say about this. preacher's kid dating a rapper? We'll keep you posted as we learn more. what do you think about this roommates?

jackharlowsource: damn jack got him a BADDIE

dojacat: jack, if you can't handle her, send her my way. whewwww she's gorgeous

druski2funny: jackharlow 2022 is looking up my boy! new album and a new girlfriend! can't wait to meet ms y/n in person! in the mean time, is she taking prayer requests? because I have some

urbandjack: I am not mad at this AT ALL

keepingupwiththehamiltons: oh. can't wait until mommy and daddy hear about this one!

You didn't even bother looking at the rest of the comments before looking back over at your boyfriend.

"What did I fucking tell you?" Was all he said while sitting down on the couch.

"My parents are going to kill me."

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#jack harlow #jack harlow fic #jack harlow fanfic #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow x black reader #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow fluff #jack harlow angst #jack harlow fanfiction #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow x you

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woman-of-many-fandoms · 1 month

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Honestly though, it must be so weird to work with some people for a few years of your life and for years, decades, later people are shipping you with your co worker.

I'm obviously all for shipping fictional characters, but this is the actors job. Where they get a paycheck. They are literally being paid to act like found family.

Like imagine you worked in an office with some people for 3 years in 2004-2007 and in 2030 people are making clips of you and how in love you look while eating lunch with Carol or saying hi as you both arrived in the parking lot.

I've seen this in pretty much every fandom I've been in. Star Trek, good omens, X men, Marvel. I do not think RDJ has any emotional attachment to Chris Evens or that Shanter really cared about and enjoyed spending time with Nimoy. I'm positive for David Tennant, Good Omens is just his next job and Michael Sheen only likes it because it made him much more well known in the acting world and it'll be easier to get his next gig. Yes Pine and Quinto look like they are actual friends outside of the movies but that is an exception.

Anyway, just my thoughts since I just saw a post of some Trek actors in I'm assuming the late 80s or 90s and people were saying 'how could he not be bi saying stuff like this'. Money, the answer is always money.

edit: OK let me address some of what is in the comments. Do actors say they are friends, sure, and if you want to take that at face value then you are right, they are friends. I personally don't think it counts if you are being paid to do so. And before anyone says anything, no not directly. But they have a whole 'image' to uphold that their income is tied to.

I don't know much about the entertainment industry and don't know why people would want that life but it's .... well, different, is the nice way to say it. My sister's career is considered part of the entertainment industry though she is behind the scenes. (And, side note, even being behind the scenes I've still found photoshopped images someone made of her in her in sexy lingerie ... )

TBF we don't talk that often but I've heard some stories (apparently Bill Nye is more then a bit of a jerk behind closed doors) She's lived in Hollywood 12 years now and there is the face people put out in the public and who they truly are. Yes, we all have a self that we hide (I'm autistic so I know all about masking) but it seems that is pushed to extremes.

I've seen her act like many people's best friends (house parties and giving favors and gifts that I question) and promoting their good name in public then she'll tell me in private some horrible things that person has done to others and how it's just how it works. She house/cat sat for a guy (and sent me views from his balcony, my god it was nice) who I think a lot of people would recognize from TV but their relationship was built on respect for each other careers.

Sure, you can tell me not to base the examples off my sisters stories and, ok fair. But I'd also want to point out - the part of RDJ buying evens a car, I did some math. He has 300 million net worth according to google. I have a salary, not net worth (or a negative one cause of student loans I guess), but it is the equivalent of me buying my co worker a $32 gift assuming the car was 150k. I met a guy who performed in Vegas shows and told me how they've had dinner with (I honestly don't remember if it was Penn or Teller) at their house with their spouses. And private chats ... doesn't really tell me much.

I'm currently seeing a bunch of clips of the main actors for the new Wicked movie saying how each other changed each others lives and it just comes off as more acting to promote the movie to me.

And even with Pine and Quinto , I only gave that one a pass because they said knew each other and got along before being in Trek and even then, eh..

Again, just how I interpret things. I know friend can mean different things to different people and a lot of what I see I don't interpret as friend, I see it as networking. I would absolutely be 'friends' with someone if it helped me make and maintain my multi millions .

#star trek #spirk #stony #ineffable husbands #good omens #robert downey jr #chris pine #chris evans #william shatner #leonard nimoy #michael sheen #david tennant #star trek aos #anthony j crowley #aziracrow #aziraphale #the avengers #marvel cinematic universe #marvel mcu

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pudding-parade · 2 years

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A Distant Glacier by MySimRealty

Are you looking for a world to play a colder-climate scenario in? This might be a good one. It's an old world, from 2010, so from before the Seasons EP, but the terrain painting and roads and whatnot are such that about 1/3 of the playable part of the world is always snow-covered, and there's also frost in the terrain painting of the green parts.

MySimRealty is one of my favorite world creators, and if you are familiar with this creator's other, newer worlds, you'll definitely recognize the rudiments of her style in this world. That said, this world isn't available on her site. I'm not sure why. I think it's a pretty cool (no pun intended) little world, so I can't see how she'd be unhappy with it. I thought maybe it might have some major, unresolved playability issues, but I had NRaas Story Progression create and move in 12 families and let the world run for five simdays to see if there'd be any issues, and there were none. Not a single one, not even a single stuck sim. The only issue I noticed during that time was some oddly-parked food trucks. They'd park across the streets, so that they look like they'd be blocking traffic going both ways, though of course taxis drive right through them. That aside, everything ran smoothly, and my sim and others had no problems using anything on the community lots.

So, I can't figure out why this world isn't out there anymore. In fact, I'm not even sure where I got it. If I had to guess, it's probably on one of the Russian re-upload sites, but I'm not feeling like looking through them to find it, which is why the title of the post isn't a link this time. Instead, I just reuploaded a .world file here or here, so if you want it, get it at one of those links. If you download it, the file goes in your install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds.

The world only requires Ambitions and Riverview. There's no Store content aside from Riverview items and no CC. It's 1024x1024, but the playable area is only about half of that. It has all of the base game rabbitholes and all basegame and Ambitions lot types. (The firehouse is EA; the others are original.) It has all of the spawners that existed as of Ambitions, except the WA fish ones.

The world has about 80 lots total, split pretty evenly between community and residential. There are 18 empty lots. One of the community lots is built but empty inside, so it's ready to become whatever. Maybe a bar or club or arcade, or it might be good to use as shops if you use a merchant mod. All of the built residential lots are fully-furnished and ready to go. A few of them are duplicates, but they are all original builds, and the majority of them have at least two bedrooms. Two of the residential lots are "apartments," but since the world pre-dates Late Night, they don't function like Late Night apartments. I imagine you could make them do so it if you add the necessary markers.

There is a thread on the official forums from August of 2010 about testing this world here. Some of the issues mentioned in that thread -- particularly trees which have branches that intrude into houses and that can't be removed -- still exist, but they aren't really a problem in terms of playing.

More info and pictures behind the cut!

Here we have map view and Edit Town view of the entire playable area of the world. As you can see, it's split into three sections. There's the "glacier" in the middle, which is permanently snow-covered, and there are the two green areas. The one on the left has most of the rabbitholes. Residential lots are scattered throughout all three areas.

Here are some of the residential lots in various parts of the world:

Most of the houses have exteriors that are a combination of wood and stone in natural colors, which is appropriate for a colder climate. Personally, although they're pretty to look at, I'd get rid of the ever-blooming flowers and flowering shrubs and switch out most of the really green deciduous trees for more conifers, or maybe some birches/aspens, on the residential lots as well as throughout the world. That would make it look more authentically like a colder/taiga biome. But maybe that's just me.

Now for some community lots:

This is a little laundromat. The salon and the consignment shop look a lot like it, with the same roof and the same brick exterior. Also, the laundromat, salon, and consignment shop are all about the same size.

This is the larger of the two gyms in the world. I'm not sure why the world has two gyms, but there's this one, which is in the part of the world that has most of the rabbitholes, and then there's a smaller one just outside the stadium rabbithole in the other green section of the world. I guess the smaller one is convenient for those in the sports career, so maybe that's why there are two gyms.

This is the library that, for some reason, has a really tall roof. I'd lower that sucker by quite a bit. :) Then, on the left side of the pic is a small art gallery.

This is a little chapel. Inside it has some chairs, a stereo, and a fridge. Up front is a table that I guess is supposed to be an altar. It doesn't have a wedding arch. (Did the game not have wedding arches prior to Generations? I can't remember off the top of my head.) You could add an arch and maybe the podium from University Life to make it more church-y, but there isn't a whole lot of room inside or outside, so I don't think you could make it into a proper "wedding venue."

The junkyard and the graveyard.

This is my testing sim using the public pool. I'm thinking that I'd get rid of this lot (as well as the private pools that some of the houses have) because...Well, cold climate. LOL There is an indoor pool at the large gym which can serve the community's swimming needs. I suppose you could pretend that these are hot spring pools, but, as a person who lives in a cold climate, I can say that outdoor non-hot-spring pools aren't really a thing because you can only use them for maybe a few weeks out of the year. :)

This is the grocery rabbithole, which has a community garden on the same lot, which is an interesting idea.

The world also has several parks/playgrounds, a beach, a few fishing spots, and the EA fire station from Ambitions.

And I think that's all I have to say. We'll finish out with some random pics. :)

#sims 3 #world overview #world overview wednesday #sims 3 pictures #sims 3 scenery

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laelior · 2 months

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Six Song Soundtrack Game

Tagged by absolutely no one but this looked fun so I'm doing it anyway. <3 Tagging (with absolutely no pressure!) @vela-ad-astra @vorchagirl @citadelsushi @shadoedseptmbr @hawkeykirsah @unicorn-farm @pigeontheoneandonly and @nerdyspeechy

Rules: If tagged, make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following: 1. An event that defines your character's past 2. How your character sees themselves 3. How others view them 4. Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic) 5. A major fight scene 6. End credits song

Doing this for Peggy Shepard, Beth's badass grandma, because her story is a great one to tell through songs.

The short version:

1. An event that defines your character's past: Mountain Song - Flatland Cavalry 2. How your character sees themselves: Years - Sierra Farrell 3. How others view them: The Son Never Shines (on Closed Doors) - Flogging Molly 4. Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic): The Story - Brandi Carlisle and You're Gonna Be - Reba McEntire 5. A major fight scene - God's Gonna Cut you Down - Johnny Cash 6. End credits song - The Garden - Sierra Farrell

Details and descriptions beneath the cut:

An event that defines her past: Mountain Song - Flatland Cavalry Pinyon perfume blowin' in the wind Time ain't a thing here, luck is my best friend Carryin' with me everythin' I own and who I am Pray to God, I see your face again Peggy Shepard (née Richwine)'s father died of cancer when she was 17. He was the only family she had and he had nothing to leave her but debt, which he tried desperately not to do to her. She had few options, so she decided to enlist in the UNAS Marine Corp as a means to escape poverty. She had only the clothes on her back when she joined. It turned out to be the most consequential decision of her life since she met her eventual husband, John Shepard, shortly after boot camp, which in turn influenced the path she took through life. In a more metaphorical sense, her sense of identity is rooted in her childhood in the Appalachian mountains, and she still feels strongly connected to that region in her 80s.

How she sees herself: Years - Sierra Farrell Those years, everybody knows you gotta let 'em go And they kinda roll by like tears Just a measure of time, playin' with your mind And passin' you by, those years Not to put too fine a point on it, but she's old. She's in her 80s, which by 2186 isn't quite as close to the edge of typical human lifespans as it is now (at least according to the Codex), but it doesn't stop her from feeling all those years. And at a certain point, you just have to roll with the punches and take the years as they come.

How others view her: The Son Never Shines (on Closed Doors) - Flogging Molly I saw her there from afar Her hair gray charcoal, takes a drag from her tar I kissed her a smile, but her blood-red shot eye Said the son never shines on closed doors Little old lady who is at once inscrutable and intimidating? Check and check. The song more fits her vibe than the lyrics, but there aren't a lot of songs out there about badass grandmas.

Her closest relationship: This one's a twofer, describing her relationship with her late husband, John, and her descendants by him. The Story - Brandi Carlise All of these lines across my face Tell you the story of who I am So many stories of where I've been And how I got to where I am Oh, but these stories don't mean anything When you've got no one to tell them to It's true, I was made for you She was married to John for almost 50 years. They raised children and grandchildren together. They (figuratively) built their house together. They experienced so much of their lives together. So much of story of her life is rooted in what they had together before his sudden passing. He'll always be a part of her through what they built together. You're Gonna Be - Reba McEntire I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through some of my mistakes Lord, knows I'll be trying, oh, to give you what it takes What it takes to know the difference between getting by and livin' This applies equally to her granddaughter, Beth, and her youngest daughter, Jo. She's made mistakes as both a mother and a grandmother, but she's never not loved her children and their children with every single piece of her heart. What she wants for them is to have lives that being them happiness and meaning like she's had. Jo got there eventually, but Peggy worries that Beth never will.

A major fight scene: God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash No specific lyrics, just vibes. It's a good song with a steady beat, minimal instrumentals, and strong chorus which reflects how she approaches combat: coldly, methodically, and without and ounce of pity of sentimentality. She didn't spent the better part of 50 years specializing in sniper weapons for nothing.

End credits song: The Garden - Sierra Farrell I'm livin' in the garden again Where I fall to my knees and work with a lamp And I keep on prayin' with two dirty hands I'm livin', yes, livin' in the garden again This one can be taken pretty literally. When the Reaper War rolls around, she's working in her garden and her fondest wish is to go right back to it when the war is over. And so help her god, the Reaper better not have so much as touched her flower beds. If the universe is kind to her, that's exactly how her story will end, with her planting more flowers in her garden while this song plays over the credits.

#peggy shepard #badass granny shepard #i just think she's neat

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quiet-in-the-wild · 2 months

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Earlier this month - I lost some time so I don’t remember how long ago it was lol

I visited my family. And a couple things happened

1. A surprising amount of people called me Wes. Including neighbors that I hadn’t come out to & my conservative relatives,

So that means my mom has been asking others to respect my name / pronouns which was surprising. And I really appreciated it.

2. I simultaneously loved being surrounded by all the wildflowers & familar landscape of the mid west- but also felt incredibly suffocated & immediately wanted to leave back to the PNW. I felt so exposed and so trapped surrounded by midwesterners. Idk if it was the personality of people, the way people dressed, walked, talked I felt like I had to dress in my punkest clothes and act like a teen again to prove I wasn’t one of them lol. It was wild to have such a strong response.

3. It’s been 2 years since I’ve seen everyone in my family- and everyone looks like they have aged 5-10 years. My family is old. Most of my relatives are in their late 70s & 80s.

I’m so happy I got to see them all- especially my aunt who is having a rough time with her memory. She’s always been my favorite aunt. But it was difficult.

& it also made me really want to work out. Like I know I’m not related to them. & I know it’s so impressive how healthy they are in their 80s

My dad who is 80 this year is building an edition on my aunts house this summer. He’s built/remodeled everyone’s houses in our family

But I saw how difficult it is for some of them to get around & I’m like I’ve got a lot of years left I want to make sure I’m not in pain & stiff & feeling weak or unstable for the rest of them.

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david-goldrock · 6 months

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You are my age. I haven't had the horror of seeing a wall erected as a border, but my country has one too. There are so many people suffering. The people's front for the liberation of palestine is one of the widely supported resistance movements that existed long before hamas. The british mandate of palestine was cruel, and immigration laws from britain are what prevented jewish immigration. A hundred hamas members in one huge city does not make every child in that city not innocent. It is Israel's government that is choosing to drop bombs. Self defense is not the same as aggressive destruction.

The nabka is not trivial. how as a victim of violence do you dare trivialize pain? haven't you seen an old woman with the key to a house that was razed? haven't you felt that powerlessness knowing a US funded destruction is waged against an entire region?

aren't you angry that anything anyone is trying to justify this?

Look friend, I just frankly disagree on a lot

I haven't seen the wall being built, I am too young, but I know the difference it made. My mother was next to several terrorist attacks in a few years. Had she been early or late a few minutes, neither her not I would be alive today. The wall erected stopped nearly every infiltration, and radically decreased terror from Judea and sameria.

What do you think the Arabs there are "resisting" dear? Over 80% of them, when asked on a poll, answered that the only solution they'd accept is a 1 state for their people "solution". They aren't resisting neither occupation not hardship, only the presence of Jews.

And with all due respect, I'd prefer a hundred innocent Palestinians will die for this war before I will send 1 solider to sacrifice himself for them. Even today, 70% of Palestinians support hamas and their actions on Oct. 7th. Many of the people who die aren't much different from the terrorists in their intentions nor in what they'd do were I to be strapped to a chair next to them, the only difference between them is that one chose to be a salesman and the other, a terrorist. Not ideology, only a career choice. And please, seriously, if we don't bomb their facilities, we send a clear message to them, and every other terrorists, that human shielding works and is good. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't take precautions, and make sure we give every chance possible to civilians to evacuate and save their souls. No intentional killing of civilians either. But I don't have any hard feeling when a building with 10 terrorists and a family of 5 is taken down.

The "nakba" is a virtual event. You start a war, start to lose, go away from your homes to return when the Arab forces kill all of the Jews, and you cry when you aren't allowed back? Not to mention that the ammount of evacuations and deportations in that time was insane. This is after WW2. Millions of Germans and poles and Russians and many more displaced from their lands to others, they all integrated and were fine. "Palestinians" (they weren't called that back then) got citizenships in Jordan, and Lebanon, and america, and many other lands. By any definition except for UNRWA, there are almost no more "Palestinian refugees" alive that were considered so even a year after the war. That is not to say some innocent villages weren't rekt, but this is a wildly exaggerated event, especially when it serves as the "Palestinian people" story of origin, as before the war, these people were all different flavours of arabs from different tribes. The same ammount as that of people who got out of Israeli land in the war is that the ammount of Jews that fled the middle east at that time because of pogroms all over this land. Billions of dollars worth of land and property was lost, do you see Israelis complain for 75 years? We built what we could with what we had, like Jews do.

And please, if I have a criticism of the US's actions in the middle east is that it does not agree to wage war in here. It does everything it can to avoid a war here, even sacrificing every value we had in our relationship, only so that Biden can get reelected in November. If the US was what you claim it to be, it'd have given Israel a green light to do whatever it wants, and the war would already have been over.

#ישראל #ישראלבלר #ישראלים #טמבלר ישראלי #israeli #i stand with israel #טאמבלר ישראלי #עם ישראל חי #ישראבלר #ישרבלר

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southeastasianists · 6 months

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In February 2023, a few months after I departed from my field site in Singapore, the Deputy Prime Minister announced significant changes to Singapore’s housing policies. In his eagerly anticipated budget speech for 2023, Lawrence Wong reaffirmed Singapore’s commitment to nurturing familial aspirations among Singaporeans and proceeded to outline measures aimed at reducing the uncertainties faced by (heterosexual) couples in their housing journeys. Chief among these measures was the granting of extra balloting chances to families with children and young married couples aged 40 and below (Ong, 2023). 1 Previously, both engaged and married couples received two ballot chances each, whereas now legally married couples and married couples with children would receive three balloting chances.

This announcement and its implications must be understood within context. Approximately 80% of Singaporeans reside in public housing flats (Lin, 2022), 2 representing some of the highest flat ownership rates in Asia and underscoring the success of Singapore’s public housing model—a model that Singaporeans and its leaders rightly take pride in. However, this success comes with a caveat. In Singapore, flat ownership is contingent upon adhering to and staying on a particular life path.

In brief, there are several pathways to acquiring a public flat. Among them, the Build-to-Order (BTO) housing program, known locally as “BTO,” is the most affordable and accessible route for Singaporean citizens to own a public flat. Eligibility to apply for a BTO before the age of 35 hinges on the formation of—or in the case of engaged couples, the intention to form—a conventional family nucleus. 3 (Singles may participate after 35.) 4 Eligible couples or families submit an online application, which is then entered into a computer-generated ballot. This ballot, occurring four times a year, can induce significant anxiety, as couples may succeed on their first attempt or as late as their 13th try. 5

It is this anxiety and uncertainty that the Deputy Prime Minister sought to alleviate by offering married couples more balloting chances. Returning to the formalities of the BTO process, couples must then wait 3 to 6 years for the flat to be built, and they risk losing their down payment (an amount that can be as high as 20,000 Singapore dollars) 6 if they separate or divorce during this period. Subsequently, after moving into the flat, they must fulfil what is termed a Minimum Occupation Period. For those who balloted as a married or engaged couples this typically entails remaining married and residing in the flat for a period of five to ten years, depending on the location of the flat. In other words, access to a subsidized flat in Singapore before the age of 35 is heavily contingent upon coupling and maintaining that union.

During my PhD fieldwork, I began to realize that what I was studying was not merely housing policy, but rather people’s endeavours to live together, and the various modes of romantic labour they engage in to synchronize their relational lives with grant, balloting, and flat building cycles. Particularly, I observed my interlocutors, many of whom were still in university, attempting to pre-empt uncertainties in balloting and long wait times by committing to serious relationships early. The idea was that finding a partner early would enable them to wait out multiple balloting attempts and access optimal grant opportunities. Often, they disclosed to me that their BTO partner was also their first romantic partner.

To facilitate this accelerated romantic trajectory, my interlocutors often adopted a decidedly pragmatic attitude toward romance. They sought not necessarily passion or love, but rather what Adely (2016) 7 termed compatibility when writing about marriage in Jordan. Compatibility, for Adely and for my interlocutors as well, referred to “more practical issues of financial security, the ability of a couple’s families to get along, as well as shared expectations of married life” (103). When one girl realized that her then-partner was not aligned with her romantic schedule, she reached out to her friends to ask if she should “leave now and cut my losses”. In a departure from conventional romantic timelines, I observed my interlocutors transitioning courtship to the period after they had already made a down payment for a flat but before the flat was ready. In essence, they committed to purchasing a flat together (and indirectly, to marriage), and then sought to determine or mold each other into the right marital or cohabiting partner. The implication seemed to be that, as one interlocutor expressed, a “person can be made right”. Another stated that the interim wait for the flat was a “rehearsal” for marriage. Yet, despite their best efforts, I also witnessed relationships fail. Ironically, they failed not despite, but often because of, attempting to fit their romantic lives onto a narrow path.

When one of my primary interlocutors, a 23-year-old Chinese-Singaporean woman named Grace, broke up with her boyfriend of a few years in the middle of my fieldwork, it came as a shock to both of us. They had already selected a unit and made their first down payment for the flat. She had diligently assessed their compatibility and conducted due diligence with extreme care. In fact, when they first got together, she asked him a list of questions about how he would handle familial conflict, his approach to finances, and his views on children. Satisfied that he was a stable partner who could be trusted for the long term, they agreed to ballot together. The irony was that when they broke up, the reasons she pointed to had nothing to do with their life goals or finances. Instead, she said she felt that he was almost too stable for her – “attraction mounts for him the more stable our relationship is, but I realize that it doesn’t work for me this way.” She had simply fallen out of love, and consequently lost her down payment. She was not alone. While some of my interlocutors managed to devise ingenious kinship solutions to circumvent flat restrictions, many realized that the romantic arrangements they sought in their schooling years or early twenties were not what worked best for them. In other words, paradoxically, the pursuit of the stability incentivized by the BTO generated more modes of romantic and financial uncertainties.

This is why I was uncertain about how to interpret the announcement regarding married couples receiving more balloting chances. A starting point could be to bemoan the continued lack of attention paid to the needs of those whose life trajectories differ from statist reproductive visions—such as single mothers, queer couples, and others. However, even among the group explicitly prioritized by the BTO, there appears to be a romantic hierarchy in effect. The recent change evidently favors married couples over engaged couples. In a Today article (Ong, 2023), 8 an interviewee is quoted as saying that the change would offer “some safety net so that if the timeline does not fit and we get married, after we get married, we’ll at least have some advantage.” In theory, I understand how this change could potentially alleviate some of the pressure to enter into relationships early. Couples could initially ballot multiple times as an engaged couple, and when they are ready to commit, they could then marry and ballot for a flat together. With increased balloting chances, they are now more likely to secure a flat. This, theoretically, should reduce the uncertainty that couples feel about obtaining a flat, a factor that supposedly drives young couples to rush into the ballot. However, I remain cautious. If housing supplies do not increase significantly, 9 this would imply that it would become more difficult for engaged couples to secure flats, while marginally easier for married couples. In other words, it would extend an already exclusionary criterion – between singles and normatively coupled individuals – to the differentiation between engaged and legally married couples.

While couples enter the BTO with the expectation and hope of eventual marriage, they also understand the inherent risks involved. For my interlocutors, expediting marriage closer to key collection was a strategy to limit potential entanglements in the event of a relationship breakdown. This remains a relevant concern considering the need to meet grant deadlines and the wait for a flat, which means the need to start finding a partner young might not change significantly. I worry that what has changed now is that some couples might feel that instead of using the waiting time as a “rehearsal,” a prelude to marriage, they might now feel incentivized to simply get married. This timeline, at least in the iteration that I found in the field, leaves little room for young people to evolve, to experiment, and to figure out who they are and what they want in a romantic relationship and marriage. We talk a lot about aspirations in Singapore – aspirations for a flat, for children, for marriage – that we seem to forget that desire, and the different but often messy paths through which people discover themselves and their needs, are also part of the calculus of life. Forgetting this ironically produces more, not less, romantic and, if one were to count the potential loss of a down payment, financial instability.

Joy Xin Yuan Wang Joy is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge, Department of Social Anthropology.

Notes:

Ong, Justin . 2023. “Additional BTO Ballot Chance for ‘Prioritised First-Timers’ a Fairer Move than Reserving More Flats for Them: Analysts.” TODAY. February 16, 2023. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/prioritised-first-timers-hdb-bto-flats-2109006#:~:text=the%20previous%20day ↩

Lin, Chen. 2022. “Singapore Sees the Rise of Million-Dollar Public Housing.” Reuters, August 31, 2022, sec. Asian Markets. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/singapore-sees-rise-million-dollar-public-housing-2022-08-31/ ↩

In brief, an official family nucleus in Singapore is generally defined as

a) If you are married, you, your spouse, and your children (if any). b) If you are single: you and your parents. c) If you are widowed/divorced/separated: you and your children under your custody. d) Fiancé and fiancée e) Orphaned siblings

Marriage is central to the eligibility criteria because four out of the five officially endorsed pathways to forming a family nucleus flow from marriage. Note, for example, that option C does not account for mothers and fathers who have children out of wedlock. ↩

n August 2023, after this essay was written, the government announced greater changes to housing in Singapore. Two major changes included the recategorization of mature and non-mature estates into three categories- Standard, Plus, Prime. Prior to this change singles looking to purchase to BTO flats could only purchase 2-room flats in non-mature estates. While Singles continue to be limited in the size of BTO flat they can purchase (only 2-bedroom flats), they are now allowed to purchase flats from any location. (See this article for the details of the new changes https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/national-day-rally-2023-hdb-flats-singles-prime-bto-resale-3711471) ↩

In the field I met couples who only succeeded on the 11th time. This rice media article suggests that it is possible to fail 13 times at the ballot: https://www.ricemedia.co/bto-hdb-singapore/ ↩

Fong, Kenneth . 2021. “Planning to Break-up after You BTO-Ed? You Might Lose about $40,000!” Blog.seedly.sg. September 25, 2021. https://blog.seedly.sg/break-up-bto-hdb-application/ ↩

Adely, Fida. “A different kind of love: compatibility (Insijam) and marriage in Jordan” The Arab Studies Journal, Vol. 24, no. 2, 2016, pp. 102–27. ↩

The government has made promises and proposed measures to increase the supply of BTO flats. The most recent signs in February 2024 appear promising, with some flats promised to be delivered in a timeframe of within three years (https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/19600-bto-flats-to-go-on-sale-in-2024-over-three-exercises-instead-of-four-desmond-lee). However, how this will play out and how the acceleration of flat delivery will affect romantic timelines and decisions is yet to be seen. ↩

#Southeast Asia #Singapore #BTO #Public Housing #Marriage

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usafphantom2 · 11 months

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U-2 pilot recalls when a Soviet submarine nearly fired a nuclear torpedo at a US Navy ship almost escalating Cuban Missile Crisis into World War III

A U-2 pilot tells a scary story that took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Built in complete secrecy by Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works, the original U-2A first flew in August 1955. Early flights over the Soviet Union in the late 1950s provided the president and other US decision makers with key intelligence on Soviet military capability.

SR-71 T-Shirts

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

In October 1962, the U-2 photographed the buildup of Soviet offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, touching off the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The fear of World War III

As a result of the Cuban Crisis the fear of World War III was on everyone’s mind. The island of Cuba just 90 miles from Florida had installed nuclear missiles capable of reaching the US.

On Oct. 23, 1962, I remember my father telling my mother to go to the commissary and buy as much food as possible. At that time we were living in Texas at Carswell Air Force Base (AFB). Dad, Butch Sheffield said as he was leaving, to fly the B-58 Hustler bomber on red alert.

U-2 print

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. U-2S Dragon Lady “Senior Span”, 9th RW, 99th RS, 80-329

Buddy Brown, one of only 12 men in the world that flew both of U-2 and the SR-71

Seven years later we were living at Beale AFB and Buddy Brown was our neighbor. He was one of the only 12 men in the world that flew both of U-2 and the SR-71. The following is an interview by Buddy Brown given ten years ago to Oakridger.

‘Now let me say something about that Cuban Missile Crisis. This is probably as close as this nation has ever come to being in World War III,’ Brown began. ‘When I say close, it was probably about that far from pushing a button to launch a nuclear torpedo,’ he stated, as he gestured with two of his fingers only a few inches apart.

The crew of a Soviet submarine thought that World War III had started

‘I was at a 50-year thing at George Mason University about a year ago, and they were celebrating (the 50th anniversary of) the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since I was one of the pilots, they had me talk to the group there about that. I sat next to Sergei Khrushchev — (Soviet Premier Nikita) Khrushchev’s son — who was around 30 years old during the Cuban Missile Crisis and is now a professor at Brown University. But he was telling us that the Soviets had some diesel subs inside the line there in case nuclear war started.

The story of Buddy Brown, the U-2 pilot that took part to O Club parties wearing fake bad teeth to joke about the ozone level effect on U-2 drivers

Buddy Brown in front of an SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 spy plane

‘Well this one person running the submarine thought we were, in fact, at war — because they didn’t have any contact,’ Brown recalled. ‘They had a bunch of naval ships out there and, fortunately, somebody with a cooler brain stopped him from doing that — but he was about three inches from pushing and launching one of those nuclear torpedoes at one of our naval ships out there.’ He paused and stated: ‘Now that would have started it right there.’ The Soviets had, in Cuba, about sixty 1-megaton weapons that were ready to go. Cruise missiles and a few other things.’

1 MEGAton nuclear weapons

Brown concludes;

Former U-2 pilot tells the story of the Soviet submarine that almost fired a nuclear torpedo at a US Navy ship during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Soviet submarine B-59, forced to the surface by US Naval forces in the Caribbean near Cuba.

‘To make a comparison, the ones that they set off during World War II at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was about 15 kt (kiloton) — now we’re talking about 1 MEGAton and they were going to use them. Well, fortunately, none of that happened and it ended up that we didn’t go to war; but it was probably the closest this nation has ever been.’

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter Page Habubrats SR-71 and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

Photo credit: U.S. Air Force, CIA and U.S. Navy

@Habubrats71 via X

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justinspoliticalcorner · 2 months

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Umar Lee:

Before Mike Brown

Growing up in North St. Louis County, I remember a vibrant community full of churches, bars, VFW halls, Knights of Columbus, shopping malls, movie theatres, and all of the amenities working, and middle-class post-war Americans desired. To be a kid who loved sports, like me, North County offered Khoury League baseball, JFL football, little league wrestling, boxing gyms, soccer clubs, hockey clubs, basketball leagues, and much more. I played plenty of sports growing up in organized leagues (wrestling, baseball, and football); but I played more with kids in the street. When I wasn’t playing sports, I was listening to Jack Buck and Mike Shannon call Cardinals games on KMOX radio, sneaking up late at night to watch pro wrestling, reading wrestling and boxing magazines in the store because I couldn’t afford to buy them, also reading the St. Louis-based The Sporting News to keep track of stats, admiring the photos and articles in Sports Illustrated, of course reading the sports section in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch daily, and watching whatever sports were aired TV on the weekend for households without cable, topped off by sports news coverage from the likes of Jay Randolph, Ron Jacober, and Art Holliday on Channel 5.

Yet, while all of this was going on, which has left me with a life of fond memories, the North County, and my personal story, isn’t complete without looking at other events. The sports sections of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discussed Whiteyball, our loss of Big Red football, almost losing the Blues to Canada, and the Steamers; but the news and businesses pages were far bleaker. St. Louis had then, and has now, one of the highest rates of violent crime in America, political dysfunction and corruption, and countless municipal fiefdoms. These pages also contained news of factory closings and job losses. Like Michigan, Pennsylvania, northeast Ohio, and other parts of the Rust Belt; working-class St. Louisans were reeling from job losses. North County was built up and populated by factory workers and those in the building trades, the small houses were built for guys like my dad who left high school and walked right onto an assembly line, and when those factories close, and the builders stop building, the economic conditions that underpin the health of families and communities erode. When Combustion Engineering in North St. Louis laid off my dad, uncle, and other relatives in the 80s, it hit like a micro version of the Great Depression. The saving grace would come years later when my dad joined my grandpa at GM, which had moved from North City to St. Charles County, skipping North County in the process, and my uncle getting rewarded for his service loading dead and wounded American bodies into helicopters in Vietnam by getting hired at the federal records center in Overland.

Beneath the changing economic conditions was the issue that defines St. Louis, and in particular, North County. Race. North County was largely farmland before World War II with a sprinkling of small towns mixed in. Old Town Florissant and Sacred Heart Parish in an example of historic North County which was a community of French and German Catholics who later welcomed and embraced Irish and Italian Catholics. Like south St. Louis City, places like Ferguson and Florissant, bonded together at church, in labor unions, and in neighborhoods. The problem is that these tended to be nearly exclusively white, and as the Black population of North City spilled into North County in large numbers beginning in the 1970s, this began to create tension. As a reference point, my dad graduated from Riverview Gardens in 1970 when the first Black student enrolled, today the school is virtually 100% Black. After splitting with my dad, my mother, who lived in North City and North County with us as small kids, took my biracial younger half-siblings to be raised in the Shaw and Dutchtown neighborhoods of South City, because she deemed the Riverview Gardens schools to be too white and racist. I stayed in Black Jack and then Florissant along with my older sisters, dad, stepmom, and grandparents.

As economic conditions became unstable in North County, white families began moving out to St. Charles County, and Black families began settling in areas that had previously been all-white, the existing white establishment relied on police departments, most of them either all-white or close to it, to act as a buffer zone. This frequently was manifested in traffic stops with places like Jennings being the worst. White residents of North County feared crime rates would soon mirror those in north city, and these fears were only heightened after high-profile crimes such as the 1982 kidnapping and murders of Gary and Donna Decker in Bellefontaine Neighbors, the stabbing death of McCluer North student and football player Dan Mckeon (brother of two professional soccer players) at a 1987 party in Florissant, the rape and murders of the Kerry sisters in 1991 at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, and the rape and murder of freshman student Christine Smetzer by a fellow student in a McCluer North bathroom in 1995.

Meanwhile, Black families arriving in north county for better schools, safer communities, and more amenities, after generations of legalized housing segregation in St. Louis City and County, often faced the brunt force of aggressive north county policing. Instead of harassing criminals and reducing crime, police departments in north county were often harassing students and law-abiding citizens coming home from work, church, or a night out. Before body cameras and smart phones these police interactions often included profane and racially abusive language and frequently beatings. This created a climate of distrust and anger in the Black community in North County. Crime was going up, but police were harassing law-abiding citizens instead of stopping criminals, and Black residents were also disproportionately victims of crimes that received far less media attention. As the racial composition of North County municipalities changed to majority-Black, voter turnout remained higher among longtime and typically older white residents. This meant that the numerous city halls and police departments in places like Ferguson remained nearly all-white even as whites became a minority in those communities.

In 2014, North County was a powder keg waiting to erupt. All it needed was a spark. That’s why I began writing about north county in my Evening-Whirl column and for the Huffington Post. No one was talking about North County and it was ready to explode. Local media focused on stories about bike lanes, hipster neighborhoods, and business as usual. Months before August 9th, I told Paul Fehler, of the Pruitt-Igoe Myth and political fame, that if there was a riot and civil unrest in St. Louis it would be in North County. A week before August 9th, with future mayoral candidate Cara Spencer watching, I had a heated argument with legislative aide Michael Powers at The Royale because he said I talked about problems in North County too much. Everything in the County is fine, I was told, all focus must be on the city.

Then it happened. Mike Brown Jr., a recent graduate of Normandy High School, walked to an immigrant-owned and ran store with a friend (most such stores in the Black communities of St. Louis are owned by Palestinian Muslims), there was an altercation, but nothing out of the ordinary for a St. Louis hood store, and as he walked through the apartments and onto Canfield at the edge of Ferguson, he met up with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The encounter was fatal and almost certainly avoidable. Ferguson immediately handled the situation in a reckless and insensitive manner. Allowing the dead body of Mike Brown to lay in the streets for hours, and bringing out police dogs to intimidate family members, neighbors, friends, and those brought out by social media posts and discussions on Black radio. What happened that day, we’ll probably never know the entire truth. What we do know is what happened on August 9th of 2014 permanently changed St. Louis and America.

My Time in Ferguson

People have to remember that what became known as the Ferguson Uprising was not something that was instigated by academics, leftist political organizations and organizers, out of town celebrity activists, intersectional dogmatists, or people with college degrees. The anger at the death of Mike Brown came from the neighborhood. A neighborhood ranging from lower middle-class to generational poverty. People struggling and hustling just to stay above water. The community came out August 9th, but the uprising began August 10th and that was a day when an older generation of pastors, community leaders, and politicians were largely pushed aside, by a younger generation seeking an immediate redress to their grievances. It was leaderless and often without direction. Purely organic and there was a beautiful sense of community in the early days. Elders such as Anthony Bell attempted to provide direction (Bell setting up voter registration tables); but the situation was too fluid and beyond the capabilities of individual organizers.

[...]

From the beginning, I sought to use whatever platform I had to highlight the history of North County and attempt to tell a story of how we arrived at this moment. Having said that, like everyone else, I was caught up in the drama and passion of the Ferguson moment. I made videos, wrote some articles, cowrote a few pieces with Sarah Kendzior, and appeared on many local, national, and international news outlets (Al Jazeera links aren’t working). I was also arrested twice in Ferguson, threatened with arrest many more times, received numerous and graphic death threats, sparred with police supporters, lost my cool, provoked, was provoked, and finally lost my job and shortly thereafter my apartment (and in the middle of all of this, my grandma died and I was in a messy relationship). If you look at photos I didn't have grey hair before Ferguson. A few months later I was buying Just For Men.

I found a way to piss off police supporters and get under their skin, as did guys like Bassem Masri. In my estimation, the reasons for that are twofold. Firstly, we both grew-up in north county, so many of the people responsible for targeting and doxxing us were those we either grew-up with or went to school with. I saw lifelong friendships created in the Ferguson-Florissant School District end over Facebook posts during the Ferguson Unrest. This was mostly along racial lines. Secondly, unlike most activists, or those you see on Ivy League campuses today, we didn't talk and sound like spoiled brats, smart alecky rich kids who'd have to go to therapy for decades after one physical altercation. We'd been in plenty of fistfights, street brawls, and I'd been shot at and stabbed. Twitter trolls, insults, and radio talkshow hosts like Mark Reardon and Bob Romanik weren't gonna hurt my feelings.

[...]

Trump and The 2020 Sham

For the sake of time, and if anyone is still here, I'll fast forward to 2020. I've already previously stated, and Sarah Kendzior noted this in her book discussing St. Louis, that I believe Ferguson is partially responsible for electing Donald Trump as president. As in 1968, when Richard Nixon promised law and order, I knew conditions were ripe for a populist right-wing politician promising to restore law and order. No one saw COVID-19 coming, the shutdowns, the summer of massive protests after the murder of George Floyd, and the crazy presidential election. Four years later, I think we're still all trying to make sense of it.

While I fully embraced vaccines, and I'm happy I'm vaxxed, and I supported shutdowns at the time, I think it's pretty clear they did more harm than good. Most harmed were our children- particularly poor and working-class kids, who fell behind due to the virtual learning sham, and never caught up. I was at the Dallas campaign event where Biden was endorsed by multiple presidential candidates, thus virtually sealing the nomination. The South Side Ballroom was so packed, that I could barely move or breath, and couldn't get in a position to take a good photo, despite being relatively close to Biden. The next week it was too dangerous to publicly campaign, Biden stayed at home, and we elected an elderly man who was not up to the job but has generally been good in office both for American workers and our international allies. Mainstream media, so eager to defeat Trump, played along. Oh, the viable Democratic alternative was another elderly gentleman who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. It was not a year of good choices, but Biden was the best in my estimation.

[...]

The Aftermath: Where We Stand

Where are we today? A decade later, are we in a better place? North County is still in a state of serious decline and seems to be getting worse each year, North City is doing even worse, the population of both St. Louis City and County is declining, and many are opting for more prosperous communities, most notably Texas and Georgia suburbs (both reddish states). Violent crime spiked for a period, the decline in traffic enforcement has made driving and walking our streets far less safe and often deadly, and area police have essentially stopped policing. They don't want to be stars in a viral video or become a hashtag. For many cops, if they couldn't do things the old school way, they aren’t gonna do it at all. This has made our communities more dangerous, less livable for the most vulnerable, and places few people want to live in. This is a negative consequence from the lack of a strategic plan after Ferguson and failures on both the parts of law-enforcement and the community to hear one another.

The good news is that St. Louis now has better prosecutors (Wesley Bell and Gabe Gore) who are committed to public safety, holding those accountable who harm our community, and enacting diversion programs and other positive post-Ferguson reforms. St. Louis has a mayor in Tishaura Jones who wasn't created in a lab by white progressives; but is a genuine leader, reared and educated locally. Without Ferguson, I'm doubtful Mayor Jones would've been elected, nor a new generation of leaders such as Adam Layne and Marty Murray.

So, it must be recognized, that while there have been some unintended negative consequences from Ferguson, there are also positive developments. These aren't just political. What inspires me isn't politics. I'm inspired by faith leaders in our community who took the Ferguson moment and began having serious conversations with their congregations. Fathers and mothers who began having difficult conversations at home with their sons and daughters. Teachers who began listening to their students. Old classmates who reached out to one another to have a beer and talk across the racial divide. Our increased racially diverse families and suburbs who are defying our political discourse on both sides as progressives have adopted a rigid and dogmatic Race Science and MAGA is doubling down on Nativism and Majoritarian racial grievances. By our faithful and intact immigrant families providing needed life to a region desperately in need.

@Umar Lee wrote a solid perspective on the 10-year anniversary of the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson and North County from a North County POV. #Ferguson

Read the full story at Umar Lee's Substack.

#Ferguson #Ferguson Uprising #Ferguson Protests #Ferguson Missouri #Mike Brown #Darren Wilson #Murder of Mike Brown #St. Louis County Missouri #Missouri #Black Lives Matter #Umar Lee

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