
Hi, friends!
For many, it’s been a real shitty weekend. I had some moments of clarity over the weekend regarding matters of logistical nature, and I wanted to bring that up here.
Let’s get down to brass tacks.
If you live in Canada or Mexico, I apologize on behalf of America as we are the shithole house down the street cooking meth and bringing down the neighborhood.
In the next week or so, here’s a couple of things I would recommend evaluating.
- What is your current health situation? I’ve been running a lowgrade fever since Friday morning, I’m 99% sure it’s stress and misery. I guarantee my blood pressure has been craptastic, too. Step back, think about what can be done to help mitigate what you can, and don’t gaslight yourself into thinking it’s nothing or it’s no big deal. Also at the rally/march on Friday, definitely had a moment of my friend and I joking that we were not in shape for any sort of sustained activism and that needed to change.
- Stop and think right now about the birth control of any uterus-haver in your life. If you were on the fence with getting an IUD, I recommend you get it scheduled NOW. Mirena lasts like 5 years (although I think it can be effective up to 7 years), the copper IUDs last upwards of 10 years. Sometimes OBGYNs require STI testing before insertion, so that can cause a slight delay. Also sometimes IUDs don’t work out for people so better to try and see if it doesn’t work and then on to other longer term options if needed. I’ll be graphic, getting my IUD was not enjoyable. It felt like throwing a dart at my uterus and the doctor had to use some small clamps to open my cervix. No painkiller, etc, was provided beforehand and I did not pass out, although I admit I did lay back before getting dressed for a few minutes to breathe before getting upright. I did go from the doctor’s office to my office job and still complete the rest of my day with jut some cramping.
- Related note – a lot of people are saying stock up on Plan B. It does have a 3 year shelf life, which is great. Friendly reminder though – if you weigh over 155 lbs, it probably won’t work for you. There’s one called Ella that works up to 195 lbs. So if you are getting this for yourself/someone in your household, take that into consideration.
- Vasectomies are great! Encourage your friends and family to consider them!
- If you plan on protesting, etc, do your safely levels vary based on location? Like for me, political leadership in Stl city and county are dem, with StL city being overwhelmingly dem. Daylight protests run an extremely low risk for issues. Even Friday, city cops showed up to block traffic on side streets for us to march even with it being an unplanned march. Anything at the capitol, by contrast, runs a much higher risk of arrest or violence. Some best practice details learned from watching BLM protesters get treated like shit/have their rights violated – carry water, small first aid kits, protective eyewear, snacks, ACLU phone number written on your arm in permanent marker, cover up visible tattoos if possible, wear masks, etc. Don’t take any selfies because they have been used to identify people at events. Turn off location services if your state is run by fascists because metadata has been used to ID protesters. Buddy system if you can.
- Consider longer term plans for where you want to live. Unless we can do a massive dem wave in November, Missouri is not getting better any time in the next few decades. I freely admit I hoped the fuckers would kill themselves off with bad covid health actions, but sadly I was wrong. I very likely will not want to continue living in this state. But how I plan to move and where do I move to? Do I even want to stay in the US? I spent about an hour this weekend doing some high level financial planning for what this could look like. I certainly don’t have the resources right now to do anything, but I need to plan out some strategy here. Is it worth doing some home improvements I was looking at over the next few years? NOPE. Those are off the table beause they won’t increase my property value more than the cost of them.
- Finally, if you are a white person follow the lead of BIPOC for protesting and activism. The knowledge and experience from BLM work is off the charts. The rally I went to Friday was organized by several black women and a few white folks from local labor movement groups. The people on the ground running the march? Pissed off Gen Z women of color. The feminist movement has a long history of fucking over people of color and acting like intersectionality isn’t a thing that matters to feminism, and that shit needs to stop and never come back. As always, shun the TERFs.
Anyways, folks, thanks for reading. tl;dr we got shit to do.
I got news this morning that my little niece now has covid, and just days after she finally got her first shot. Sounds like she’s pretty miserable, but so far ok. I’m so terrified of long covid but of course I didn’t say that to my sister. But I’m certain she’s thinking about that too.
I’m trying really hard to find hope. Somewhere. Lil got his first shot yesterday, so that’s a big win. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the oppressive theocracy we’re living in, but it’s something nice that happened.
I might do some text banking with Resistance Labs tomorrow. I haven’t managed to get out to a protest yet but I might try in the next few days. I don’t know how well Lil will tolerate it – he can be a little jumpy about big crowds and loud noises, but I think it’ll be ok if we hang on the fringes.
Swing by a rally and let the wee one tell you when it’s time to go. I remember my parents dragging me to one when I was little and getting bored out of my gourd. Doing a few brief stops is just as good as one long interminable one.
I’ve found what helps me is to focus on small achievable goals. Making my calls, emails, donating where I can, sharing information, attending a protest now and then, getting involved with mutual aid groups. Looking at the big picture can be overwhelming and discouraging. ❤️
I just spoke to my 96 year old mom & everyone in the house has Covid & she doesn’t feel well. I feel so helpless.
…here’s hoping all concerned come through with a minimum of discomfort…& that you get to feel better in the meantime
…consider an extra pair of fingers crossed for you & yours?
Ugh, hope they all feel better soon.
@loveshaq I hope your mom and the rest of the family has mild cases and recovers soon. *hugs*
Thank you! She sounded good but alway scary at that age.
Oh, Shaq!! Sending ALL the good thoughts her way, for safety and a full & successful recovery!💖
Jesus H. Christ. @loveshaq, hang in there and hoping for the best.
Hugs to you and yours; I hope that all recover quickly.
I would recommend talking to local organizers and seeing if there is a spot where they need people to stand around and hand out bottles of water or something like that. Lil can help hand you bottles if he wants and it’s something stationary so he won’t have to move around much and you can leave when he’s done.
Great idea, he’d love a job like that. I’ll see what I can find.
Thanks for the checklist. Based on personal experience I would add if at all possible unplug and just walk. Maybe 20 minutes a day? A few laps around the block? Other unplugged exercise works too. Pull weeds in the yard or pick up trash.
More if you like — Farscy said he sometimes gets 30 freaking thousand steps in, which is amazing.
Use your phone or buy a cheap used camera and take some pictures. Or take voice notes, or mental notes. Notice the weird or interesting or just slightly different. And say hi to your neighbors or local convenience store clerk.
Basically, engage in the place where you live and reinforce what works, even if there’s a bunch that doesn’t.
I’m in Illinois, so I’m “ok” for the moment. Heavy air quotes. IL has abortion, birth control, & gay marriage in the state constitution. But if Clarence Thomas gets his wish list pushed thru on a federal level, it’ll be garbage for everyone. I have an uncle in London and a cousin in Switzerland, i could pump them for info on moving, but i don’t have any “skills.” Unless other countries start looking at Americans like refugees, which is pretty insulting to actual refugees, a lot of us are stuck.
Yeah I need to decide this year if I’m going to move out of state or move abroad because I need more lead time to figure out how I can be useful to a foreign country. And honestly set aside more assets so I can be of more value to emigrate.
I just got algorithm’ed a video on YouTube by channel World According to Briggs called “Ten easiest countries for Americans to move to.” Most of them were in Central or South America and didn’t actually require a skill set, just yo cash (and not crazy NZ money either). So… Maybe 🙂
Lots of good tips here, thanks brighter.
Some lighter fare, that was shared with me, and had me busting a gut, laughing on our couch (the Matcha story!😆😂🤣🤣🤣💖);
And from the same lovely person… or cryptid;
https://gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/tagged/the%20video%20is%20genuinely%20delightful
WATCH the bear video y’all, it is adorable, goofy, AND informative!😁
An excellent checklist, brighter. Thank you for putting it together.
As upset as I am about this whole-ass disaster, I will not be going to any protests. I’m in red-state hell, but I just can’t do it. Even on my best days, this body can’t run anymore and I would be afraid of things going south and not only not being able to get myself out of the way, but actively preventing others from getting clear. My activism will have to be confined to things I can do from home (which makes me even madder, to be honest! I wish I could be out there helping!)
I’ve been reminding all the girls and women I know to get long-term birth control sorted out asap, and telling my sons to pass the message on to their friends. I plan to send some scathing letters to the (in)justices and various congresspeople. I mentioned this earlier, but I’ve started making scarves for Threads of Compassion https://c4chicago.org/find-services/threads-of-compassion/ which is a charity that gives the scarves to sexual assault survivors so they have something comforting to hold on to while dealing with the aftermath. I finished the first one today! I’ll also be making and donating baby blankets to the local domestic violence and homeless shelters. I’ve never made them before, but I’m also considering trying hat and bootie sets as well as blankets for the pregnancy outreach center near here. I suspect they’re going to be pretty busy in a few months 🙁
(As a side note… and I debated about mentioning this but decided it can’t hurt. If Myo or anyone disagrees, I’ll remove this part with no arguement… I would be happy to accept any soft, acrylic yarn donations, including any small balls or de-stash yarn, which I will use exclusively for charity projects. I have a small stash that I’m working from, but I work fast!)
I had a good rage-cry this morning, and now I’m determined to be useful in this fight.
Some folks in my local group are making signs that can be dropped off for protesters to carry. I think there’s a lot of stuff people can do to help that isn’t necessarily being at protests.
Also I love that you are making the scarves and baby stuff. That is fantastic and kind of you!
Making signs is a great idea!
I was thinking about putting out some lawn signs, but my neighbourhood is heavy on the Trumpeters and let’s go brandon bullshit… not sure if it would be a wise idea :/
It’s not a good idea to put out yard signs unless you see neighbors doing it too. Trumpers are fucking nuts and typically have guns.
Yeah… they’re nice enough and all, we wave when we walk past with the baby, but I already feel like we’re skating on the edge being openly poly when they’re all uberconservative.
Oh, Smacks!!!
You just reminded me, that I don’t know if this ever got shared over here!
Yet another bit of light & GOOD in the world–and if any of y’all are on Twitter & *NOT* following Sheletta Brundidge, you SHOULD be!😉
https://www.today.com/parents/parents/phrase-go-brandon-made-one-little-boy-autism-feel-loved-rcna33287
Turns out, Sheletta’s *other* son, Daniel–was the little boy with ASD, who went viral a few years back,for having his speech breakthrough with Little Nas X & Billy Ray’s “Old Town Road”🤗💖
I read that story about Brandon weeks ago and it made me tear up. So sweet.
Just a thought, Smacks, but iirc, y’akl are in WI, yes?
If you are an EXCELLENT & helpful thing that *isn’t* protesting, but is REALLY needed, is helping with either getting folks registered to vote, OR helping folks figure out how to get the ID’s they need *TO* vote in WI😉💖
A few tweets, with some good groups, websites, & links (I’ve been following Erik Halvorsen for YEARS now, and even though it’s an old tweet, he’s who I found some of the others through!)
https://www.blocbybloc.org/
@EmmerdoesNOTrepresentme I appreciate the time you took to list all these links! I will see what I can do about maybe doing texting or mailings for whatever poor Dem is going to try to unseat the current red schmucks in office.
Regarding the other post, can I just say… AWWWWW!! Cuties 🙂 I remember when we were trying to get KidSmacks3 to talk, because until he was about 4 and a half, he communicated largely with noises and sign. He started singing the theme songs for whatever movie or show he wanted to watch long before he would actually talk.
Anyone who can conceivably emigrate to an actually civilized country should do so without regret. Save yourselves and whatever descendants you may have. This place is a lost fucking cause for the next several decades and they’re just getting started.
Yeah right now the places I can go to aren’t really a good option and at increasing risk of severe climate change related disasters. I hate that I need to think like that but also I think it’s worth consideration for something that I can probably only afford to do once.
not a lot i can do over here
frustrating watching the world regress
at least we’ll all be underwater or on fire soon
so to answer 1 im physically fine….mentally i have my doubts
but seriously..is there anything i can do from here?
Donate? Either to abortion funds or democratic political funds. That’s kind of all I can think of.
Talk to us and try to help us cling to what little sanity we have left?
that i can do…well…talk to yous that is… i’m not sure how much it’ll help with the clinging to sanity tho…suspect i may have lost my hold on that one a while ago
GREAT post, @brightersideoflife. Thank you. Love you all.