I've been busy. It's usually my main focus to
not be busy. I don't do my best work when I'm busy. I've been slowly inching up the amount of action that I can participate in while remaining in good form. I'm not sure I've perfected it yet. A friend invited me to something tonight and I feel it's important to go but, man, it was going to be my first full evening in my own home in well over a week and I'm working hard to process the resentment.
Of course the best way to process that is to take a look at the wider picture and, man, is there a wider picture these days.
Gaza,
Robin Williams,
Ferguson,
Irish anti-choice, the
NYPD. I'm lucky to be able to be so busy. Some folks have been gently trying to guilt me into writing here more. I've felt the guilt but it hasn't made it easier to write. I've been not so gently trying to guilt myself into writing about any of the above topics and it just hasn't produced anything. Today I decided it's fine to do a links round up. As I've been following these issues, and many other things, online I've said that I'm listening and boosting the signal. It only makes sense to boost it here, too.
Let's quick start off with some boots on the ground in Ferguson, MO and the surrounding area. Go to Twitter, even if you don't like it, and follow the real time news from these folks. Make sure to come up for air but listen, amplify, think.
@Awkward_Duck @elonjames @AntonioFrench @Nettaaaaaaaa @TefPoe @brownblaze @Vandalyzm
Here's Schmutzie on
the difference between sex and gender. It's important to think about all the questions you're asked in our box-ticking world.
Also, Schmutzie did an exercise where she
stopped "liking" things on Facebook. She primarily did it to adjust the way the FB algorithm saw her and then noted the personal changes. I'm in day 2 of trying it (for 7 days at least then I'll re-evaluate) and it's not easy but it's endlessly interesting.
The sentiment on this graphic about
violence and reproductive rights is chilling.
Hey look, here's some good news. The
Listen To Your Mother book's cover has been revealed!
In the category of people doing the right thing is the
interim president of Kentucky State ensuring that during his tenure and beyond all workers at the University will receive a better wage.
Let us always remember
Renisha McBride. Her killer, who claims he thought he needed to defend himself because she was knocking loudly, was convicted of 2nd degree murder. It won't bring her back but there is some small amount of justice to it.
It's no secret that I think that the health insurance situation in the US is supremely fucked up. In fact I've had reason to revisit that belief in my personal life lately. Here's another way it's totally fucked up, this time by
union negotiations at the Metropolitan Opera.
I don't completely understand how much national coverage the death of Eric Garner has received. He was in police custody, there is video evidence that unauthorized methods were used to detain him. When you hear any protesters saying, "I can't breathe. I can't breathe." they're quoting him.
A memorial went up in my neighborhood and a special prosecutor has been put in place to handle the investigation.
Concluding that our collective narrative about abortion contains very few descriptions of how women feel directly leading up to the procedure,
Jenny Kutner decided to record her own experience. It's important. I hope you'll give her the courtesy of reading it.
On the one hand, this is what I feel like when I am accompanying someone who loves shopping.
I do not love shopping. On the other hand, at least I can follow through if I promised to keep them company or keep my own damn self appropriately amused. Most of the time.
We have all fallen in love with the idea of
certain celebrity relationships, even if those relationships don't exist, right? Well, I have. I have no power over these two wonderful actors but, man, I bet they could conquer the world together (or separately but if they do it together we'd get to see them together all the time).
Rape is like pregnant.
There aren't different levels. It's pass/fail. Well, it's all fail.
I hope that this
profile of a doctor who performs abortions doesn't contribute to his injury or death. He's brave and doing important work.
Via @Vandylyzm, a Flickr stream with
photos from Ferguson protests.
A sign in
a library in Ferguson via .
Local
Ferguson businesses were being
protected by community members.
Because I try to end on a high note with these, here's a
funny photo.
Gah, can't end there. Have to share something I learned on Twitter today. If you are protesting something and recording your efforts via social media please be sure to turn off the location tags on your posts. Police in Ferguson may have used those location tags to find a church being used as an organizing point and first aid station for protestors. It's a matter of your own safety on a number of levels. Let's be careful out there.