I think 2k is a reasonable goal for a motley crew of passionate internet nerds, but even if we fall just shy of that goal I’ll probably draw something as a reward for good effort. Let’s go team!
“I practice abolition in my daily life by reproducing a politics of blackness that makes kinship a possibility even as it slips beyond my reach time and again."
”Anti-authoritarians have been great at theorizing ‘dismantling the system’, but there is less emphasis on the importance of building alternative institutions. It is no coincidence that the work of growing alternative relations and networks has largely been invisible in our movements because it is gendered labor. Both the dominant political economy and the microcosm of our movements are subsidized by the labor of those who provide childcare, cook meals, do secretarial work and provide emotional support. Even recognizing these as forms of labor is an uphill battle; we are able to articulate critiques of capital and labor in the wage economy but continue to invisibilize care work in the unwaged economy. A transformative politics requires us to rethink, reimagine and reorient work and its relationship to gender and dis/ability—what is the work that makes all other work possible? How do we foster social relations across generations and communities based on interdependency, resilience, vulnerability, and solidarity? Connection is, after all, the anti-thesis of commodification and at the heart of a truly transformative politics.”
Today marks 4 years since I decided to go vegan. I evolve and grow more as a vegan every single year. I could not be more proud of choosing to be vegan. It is the greatest choice I have ever made. Not only has it vastly improved my health physically and mentally, it has expanded my knowledge on health, the way we treat animals, and the seemingly endless oppression that stems from the belief that some lives have more moral worth than others based on appearances or species(racism, sexism, speciesism, etc.). It has also shown me new, better ways to see and exist in the world. With compassion and empathy for all living beings, human animals and non human animals alike. I am so grateful to be celebrating 4 years of living vegan, and continuing to align my values with my actions.
“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment.”
Since going vegan, these are some of the books that have helped me further understand veganism from psychological, nutritional, and moral perspectives:
“The China Study” - T. Colin Campbell
“Food Revolution” - John Robbins
“Beyond Beliefs” - Dr. Melanie Joy
“How Not to Die” - Michael Greger
“Veganism in an Oppressive World” - Julia Feliz Brueck
“When You Meet A Member of the Ku Klux Klan” By Robert Lincoln Poston, 1921
“When you meet a member of the Ku Klux Klan,
Walk right up and hit him like a natural man;
Take no thought of babies he may have at home,
Sympathy’s defamed when used upon his dome… .
Call your wife and baby out to see you have some fun,
Sic your bulldog on him for to see the rascal run.
Head him off before he gets then paces from your door,
Take a bat of sturdy oak and knock him down once more.
This time you may leave him where he wallows in the sand,
A spent and humble member of the Ku Klux Klan.”
“Robert T. Lincoln Poston (February 25, 1891 – March 16, 1924) was an African-American newspaper editor and journalist, who was an activist in Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He died at sea as he returned from a UNIA mission to Liberia.” More Info
Tomorrow, Wednesday August 16th 2017, at 11am at the Paramount Theatre (215 East Main Street, Charlottesville VA) there will be a public memorial service for Heather Heyer, the anti-racist demonstrator and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) member murdered in Charlottesville this past Saturday. Guests are asked to wear purple.
After the Unite the Right rally had been declared illegal and ordered to dispersed, a contingent of the white supremacists went to Friendship Court, a nearby majority-Black housing development, to intimidate and harass residents. Heyer was part of a large group of demonstrators who went to block the white nationalists; when they arrived, residents said that they had the situation under control but asked that the anti-racists stay in the area. The counter-demonstrators, now joined by some locals, moved several blocks away as requested, and were joined by another group of anti-racists on Water Street. At the intersection of Water and 4th Streets, the neo-Nazi James Fields drove his car into the crowd, killing Heyer and injuring 19 others, some severely.
Heather Heyer, we will remember your bravery and commitment to justice forever. Rest in power.
