I want to share this image because it matters.
So often we talk about humanity centered systems, about calling in and becoming community, about becoming each other’s resources and about using the platforms to connect on and offline.
But a part of us - doesn’t quite believe it is possible. We say it but we don’t all dare to embody those values.
It requires commitment to something different. It requires faith.
The woman holding me in this picture, at my brother’s home going service, is a woman I built a friendship via DM.
I knew she was in Atlanta and I reached out to see if she would accept my son as an apprentice on her worksite.
After a few meetings we all saw a fit.
Over time she has become a resource for him of course but also a friend to me. Her daughter and my daughter friends. They celebrated my partner’s 50th with us. She and her family became friends to/with my brother and he of course had them come to the island for the holidays so they could understand us in a different element and become family.
This past Saturday she flew in for my brother’s service to say her goodbyes and hold me. She came straight from the airport and left the morning after. Like the breath that sustains a moment when your knees buckle.
Her presence showed my children that we a decade in — we have laid roots in Atlanta. That we may be grieving away from loved ones but we are not there grieving alone.
It all started with a Like, a follow, then a DM.
@halfwiseacre I love you forever. WE love you forever.
May this be a reminder to come together and tend to the land, the children, ourselves, and each other and BUILD the world we want to see and desire our children to inherit.
This too is part of resistance.
This is Everything.
Repost @our.moral.imperative
Repost @berkeleycollectiveliberation and @aroc_bayarea via @atn_1863
Berkeley parents, teachers, and students are appalled by the defamatory complaint against their school district by the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center, an Israel advocacy organization with pro-Trump ties.
The complaint, with information from a handful of parents who have been harassing our teachers and students, is replete with lies and puts our 9,400 students and hundreds of teachers in harm’s way. It coincided with a bomb hoax email sent to all our schools.
We reject the complaint’s false conflation of antisemitism and criticism of the state of Israel and its military assault on Palestinians. Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are intertwined. The danger of antisemitism comes from white nationalism, not from those who support Palestinian human rights and freedom.
Berkeley is a wholesome, progressive, and loving community that overwhelmingly supports its teachers, Black and Brown solidarity and a ceasefire in Gaza. Our students are heartbroken about the destruction in Gaza and the way their teachers are being silenced.
Our students - including our Jewish students - are not at peace knowing that more than 13,000 children have been murdered by Israel and a million children in Gaza have been out of school for more than 5 months because of Israel’s relentless bombing campaign that has wiped out all schools and colleges in the strip.
End the Harassment of Our Teachers & Students
Protect Our Students’ Right to Protest
#TeachPalestine
“Each day I am grateful for having known a love that enables me to embrace death with no fear of incompleteness or lack, with no sense of irredeemable regret. That is a gift you gave. I cherish it; nothing changes its value. It remains precious.” bell hooks
Best friend. Brother. Co-Parent. Project Manager. Soul Mate. Witness. He was everything. And now, an Ancestor.
I still feel a little lost.
But maybe also - a little found.
Your medicine was and is that beautiful.
I am eternally grateful for what you have given me — even in death. And that’s some hard ish to do. It was a beautiful send off.
The love we craved, we became. This much I know. Baby - que fuerte - pero gracias. Quedate cerquita.
~Paradise is Waiting 💫
USA: take 1 minute for Ga za now! #USA is illegally arming #Israel & we must UPHOLD #LEAHYLAW . The last 48 hours of the attacks on Shifa Hospital are just one more piece of evidence of the gross violations of human rights committed by Israel — as proven by credible sources, including Israeli forces’ social media posts.
Our elected officials are on Twitter and Ga za needs every single person to signup for Twitter, retweet the pinned post by @palivoicestoday on Twitter, tagging the same people with the same message: @ secdef @ secblinken uphold #leahylaw as Israel commits #gvhr
The Leahy Law is a law that prohibits the US government from using funds to assist foreign security forces that have committed human rights violations. The law is made up of two statutory provisions, one for the State Department and one for the Department of Defense.
Read more about Leahy Law:
state.gov/key-topics-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/human-rights/leahy-law-fact-sheet/
state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PP410_INVEST_v2.1.pdf
My daughter found this elephant in the trash with a broken tail and insisted we bring it home and wash it instead of allow it to meet its landfill fate. “We don’t throw away living things because they have broken parts. An elephant is still an elephant with a broken tail.”
One bath, a taped string tail, a dress, and an DIY earring later, our elephant friend is on bestie status.
I once had a parent whose daughter needed a wheelchair to move share with me that if play is a way for children to learn about themselves and society then, throwing away toys (animal/human form) because they have broken limbs or a missing part perpetuates the cultural belief that people with visible physical disabilities can be discarded or marginalized because are not as fun, useful, valuable, and so on.
This is a critical assertion and one that I really need us to make space for. It is also a reminder of the importance of centering marginalized voices in order to create a more beautiful humanity centered reality.
When we make room for toys that for whatever reason are now broken, we introduce expansiveness to our own children’s world! Accommodations and inclusivity can be part of our children’s play - if we make room for it.
Ableism can be a disrupted in our home through responsible, humanity centered, play.
New Democrats are demanding that Justin Trudeau takes a stand - and supports our motion for peace and justice.
The vote is on Monday. 10,000 emails have already been sent directly to Justin Trudeau’s inbox.
Add your voice to the calls, ahead of the vote.
Fill Justin Trudeau’s inbox and demand he does the right thing.
Link in stories
I was making this meme and I swear I could hear my brother laughing and giving me a dose of bombastic side eye … “you don’t take off do you?”
Who? Me?
Lobiu baby 🕊️
When we say defund, demilitarize, & disarm the police… when we say STOP COP CITY (nation) … when we say abolish this system…it is not without reason. We have so many reasons.
If we do not find the courage to fight, dream, and co-create, there will be nothing for our children to inherit.
My brother did not owe me more time. He has been living for me since the day I was born.
Sharing just a few of our daily messages these past weeks. As a token.
My work is my life. My life is my work. It is all centered on a vision of life and love, which sustains me and permeates my relationships. It is not literacy or liberation. It is literacy as liberation. It is love as liberation. It is home as epicenter and homes are not houses, people are our homes.
I speak of love only because I know and live in it. It is in my bones. And my brother and I’s love ethic was and is a part of that.
I had not spoken to him all day as per usual so called him towards midnight. I realize now - he called me in. I heard his sweet voice as he drifted to what would be his last sleep.
A parting gift.
How loved am I?
I am so loved. So loved.
An entire lifetime lived as a confession of love for me.
There was no apology, no I love you, no I’m proud of you, no I should have…left unsaid or undone.
All are deserving. Few experience this.
My children were obsessed with him.
And he with them.
Our Ancestral realm is next level good.
“It’s almost as if they preparing for the uprisings that will come with climate collapse. Who is training the cops-the IOF” rp: @redhornwoman@djlongstocking
“There are SIXTY-NINE Cop Cities being built or already built since 2020 across the US. These urban counter-insurgency training centers are called euphemisms like “public safety training facility.” The only states without plans for this type of project are ND, VT & WY.
Research shows that the major push for these projects began after the uprisings of 2020, to further militarize police and train them to quell future mass uprisings.
Full interactive map by Renee Johnston @reneejohnston815 isyourlifebetter.net/cop-cities-usa/
For more info, watch the recent @nationallawyersguild panel: “Stop All Cop Cities: Lessons For a National Struggle”” rp: @exilefromthefuture
Join the struggle nearest you #stopcopcity