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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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#indigenouslivesmatter

Monday, October 12th 2020 is Indigenous People’s Day but is still called Columbus Day by the government. Columbus represents the rape and genoicide of indigenous peoples as well as the slave trade. The specifics of Columbus’s life are disgusting, but the problem I see is that this country has spent over 220 years celebrating Columbus as the man who ‘discovered’ America when there were people already here. Every time our teachers or textbooks told us Columbus discovered America the foundation of our country was further cemented in genoicide and ignorance. It takes a powerful propaganda machine to the past and the present consist of sustained injustice and atrocities to indigenous peoples and the land. I learned two things last year when I stayed at Yalui Village, I have arachnophobia and the border wall is bullshit. Last year I traveled to the US/Mexico border along the Rio Grande near McAllen Texas to stand with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe (a name given by Spanish colonizers) at Yalui Village, a cemetery and sacred site tribal members have been protecting from border wall construction. The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe or Esto’k Gna in their own language which means ‘people’ are native to the Rio Grande, spanning both sides of the river which is currently the delineation of the US/Mexico border. The truth is, Trump’s racist talking point is another excuse to roll back environmental regulations and build pipelines. It is all about the pipelines. Right now members of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe, a native tribe of Texas, are traveling around Texas and cataloging sacred sites in order to preemptively defend them from pipeline construction. The government has rolled back regulations on indigenous burial sites, wildlife preserves and environmental protections against deforestation, pollution and endangered animals in order to build a border wall that is unnecessary. What I saw at the border was not open land in need of security, I saw border patrol agents around the clock always eye sight of the camp. Border Patrol puts barbed wire and cement into the river to slow down any potential migrants, the land has motion censors and surveillance with border patrol agents ready to respond in under two minutes. Not only is it wrong to have a border wall which violates the sacred sites of indigenous peoples, it is also unnecessary. Further, it is political misdirection while the real violation is the building of pipelines. It is pollution for profit and the desecration and deforestation of the land is an ecological disaster. The construction is in violation of 28 federal laws and NAGPRA meant to protect our health, our safety, and future generations but the current administration has waived all these protections in the name of national security. Right now in border towns just opposite some of the safest most policed towns in the US, Mexico faces rampant gun violence with murder rates in the 10s of 1000s. Mexico only has one place you can purchase a gun. They have strict laws but still gun violence is horrendous because they get their guns from the US. Who suffers from the violence? The innocent people born on the wrong side of an imaginary line and the asylum seekers from all over the world who have been deported to wait indefinitely in this incredible dangerous area. The migrant protection protocol has thrown unknown numbers into mortal peril, consigned to anonymity. Yalui Village, which is at Eli Jackson Cemetery and the National Butterfly Center have been protected due to the diligence and efforts of the Esto’k Gna. Surrounding both these sites are construction vehicles and military enforcement. The land around the Rio Grande, called Somi Se’k is sacred to indigenous peoples and contains the history of their people. Right now members of the tribe are traveling around Texas to identify and catalog sacred sites so they can protect them from this devastation. They need support to do this, please donate what you can. Venmo @Juan-Mancias

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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To Mayor Kenney and Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA CEO

Please stop gaslighting us.

Today, Thursday July 16th at the press conference PHA and Mayor Kenney stated it would be ‘unfair’ for encampment residents to jump the waiting list for housing. The waitlist for low-income housing has been closed since 2013 and those who got on the list have been waiting for eight years or more. PHA has more than 40,000 vacant properties which instead of being converted to low-income housing as per the Philadelphia Housing Authority mandate, are being sold off or just left to rot. The Philadelphia Housing Authority has a history of corruption and has continued to decrease public housing and to sell off public property, turning a profit at the expense of the real people desperately in need of affordable housing in Philadelphia. Instead of opening low-income housing, PHA has built a $45 million headquarters last year. The CEO of PHA, Kelvin Jeremiah pays himself over $300,000 a year. How is that fair?

Prices in the city are going up, low income people are being pushed out. Often pushed out into the streets. When your rent costs over 30% of your income, you are two months from being homeless. During this time, when unemployment is suddenly at an all time high and we are facing health risks unprecedented in our life times, what is the city doing beyond gaslighting the people? Trying to ‘place’ people into shelters or temporary hotels is not a resolution.

Kenney, you say the encampment is ‘unsafe’ and ‘unhealthy’ and ‘unsanitary’. But you only seem concerned with the safety, health and sanitation conditions of the houseless when you can see them in your nice neighborhoods. I just don’t believe you care beyond the image it projects.

Kenney, you say there has been violence at the encampment but where is your concern for the violence on our streets all over the city? My mom taught me safety in numbers, on the streets alone with no housing, anything can happen and no one will care. Gathered together there is safety not available for the individual on the street. The stabbing you keep referring to happened to a resident by a non-resident. Instead of breaking up encampments why don’t you take a look at the gun violence in the city?

Kenny, you say you worry about the health of residents and the risk of Covid spreading. It has been reported that the encampments are Covid breeding grounds; this is a lie. The encampment follows guidelines as much as possible. The proof is in the pudding as they say, our record tells the story. There has been one Covid positive resident and due to our quick response and frequent testing, the spread was stopped. Compare that to Philadelphia homeless shelters where the largest male shelter recently had 50% Covid positive.

Kenny, you say you are concerned about the hygiene of the camp. The parkway encampment is only unsanitary because the city has pressured the port-a-potty company to cancel our contracts. You are using dirty tactics to disrupt and disturb the encampment. You are trying to play all the sides but winning none.

Lastly, every decision made is based on consensus of residents; the encampment is an autonomous zone. That autonomy is grounded in the decision making power of houseless and housing insecure residents. Organizers are not denying residents the ability to talk to city outreach, the encampment is fully directed by residents. Due to a history of abuse and the belief that allowing these organizations into the encampment would be akin to allowing the police free access, residents have banned city workers. The very real history of abuse and neglect is on the side of the city, not the organizers nor the residence nor anyone involved. If you mean to respect the agency of residents then feel free to offer to the residents to talk to you outside the encampment, there is nothing stopping them from coming to you, they just don’t want to.

Residents are safer both from the regular dangers and pandemic danger at encampments. The houseless in our city are people who have often been ignored and forgotten; this is easier to do when they are dispersed and alone.

Sincerely,

GO FUCK YOURSELF

#housingnow #JTD #phillyprotest

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Philly Homeless Encampment

The city is not listening to us and the media is complicit. The homeless encampment on the Philadelphia parkway, named James Talib-Dean (JTD) and the encampment outside PHA headquarters, named Camp Teddy are now being told to vacate by July 17th. How the encampments, the residents, the organizers and volunteers have been portrayed by the media has been perverted by a distorted worldview situated from the safe, stable and posh perspective of city establishment. This distortion is evident in the paternalist attitude taken towards the residents of the encampment. The agency and decision making ability of residents has been called into question; the motives and actions of organizers and volunteers have been called into question. Even our commitment to what we demand has been called into question. Our list of demands has not changed and we having nothing to negotiate until permanent housing is on the table. The city has refused categorically refused our core demand but the Inquirer reports organizers refuse to negotiate. I also you, why would residents be risking the ire of law enforcement if not for the hope of housing?

Philadelphia has more than 40,000 vacant properties which instead of being converted to low-income housing as per the Philadelphia Housing Authority mandate, are being sold off or just left to rot. The waitlist for low-income housing has been closed since 2013 and those who got on the list have been waiting for eight years or more. The Philadelphia Housing Authority has has a history of corruption and has continued to decrease public housing and to sell off public property, turning a profit at the expense of the real people desperately in need of affordable housing in Philadelphia. Instead of opening low-income housing, PHA has built a $45 million headquarters last year. The CEO of PHA, Kelvin Jeremiah pays himself over $300,000 a year. How is that acceptable?

Prices in the city are going up, low income people are being pushed out. Often pushed out into the streets. When your rent costs over 30% of your income, you are 2 months from being homeless. During this time, when unemployment is suddenly at an all time high and we are facing health risks unprecedented in our life times, what is the city doing?

Affordable housing needs to be guaranteed by the city and the media’s reporting has been detrimental to this cause. The Philadelphia Inquirer portrayal of the homeless encampment has been particularly problematic; starting with an article written early on that completely mischaracterized the actions and motives of all involved. It has been claimed that the residents of the encampment are being used by organizers to send a political message. What that message is exactly is only hinted at but the meaning is to lump us in with other autonomous zones in Seattle and DC. We are here doing something very different but the city would like us to be discredited.

The accusation that organizers have their own agenda not in the best interests of residents is ridiculous. Every decision made is based on consensus of residents; the encampment is an autonomous zone. That autonomy is grounded in the decision making power of houseless and housing insecure residents.

The inquirer reported that organizers and volunteers would not allow city workers to come in and speak to residence. Organizers are not denying residents the ability to talk to city outreach, the encampment is fully directed by residents. Due to a history of abuse and the belief that allowing these organizations into the encampment would be akin to allowing the police free access, the residents are no longer willing to speak to these people. The very real history of abuse and neglect is on the side of the city, not the organizers nor the residence nor anyone involved.

We are being maligned. I strongly encourage media to retract previous statements and attempt to have a thoughtful discussion with residence as equal human beings deserving to be believed and respected. Why do you assume some city employee knows better than the people on the ground and the people living this every day? Mainstream media reporting on the homeless encampment has no basis in reality or good journalism. We are ready and willing to talk; we are ready and willing to negotiate our demands when the city brings real solutions to the table. It is a pretty simple solution, provide immediate permanent housing.

The options the city provides are unhealthy in a normal world, but we are not in ‘normal’ anymore. Advising the houseless population, and all those who will soon be unable to afford rent, to go to a shelter during a pandemic is an outrageous position to take. Have you ever considered what it is like to live in a shelter? It is the epitome of transience and instability, you cannot have many belongings as they have to be carried with you during the day. There is no social distancing, no stability and no real options; and to me, the worst part is the paternalistic structure and lack of dignity. It has been reported that the encampments are Covid breeding grounds; this is a lie. The encampment follows guidelines as much as possible. The proof is in the pudding as they say, our record tells the story. There has been one Covid positive resident and due to our quick response and frequent testing, the spread was stopped. Compare that to Philadelphia homeless shelters where the largest male shelter recently had 50% Covid positive.

It has been reported that the encampment is unsafe and needs to be broken up. But I ask you: how safe is it living on the street on your own? Would you rather be out there alone, fighting for survival or would you rather be surrounded by people who can offer a measure of safety and support? My mother taught me there is safety in numbers. Residents are safer both from the regular dangers and pandemic danger at encampments. The houseless in our city are people who have often been ignored and forgotten; this is easier to do when they are dispersed and alone.

The city must yield vacant PHA properties to the use of our residents and we are happy to support and assist the residents in moving and maintaining this permanent housing. It is shameful the media has taken up the position of the oppressor and maligned the genuine and reasonable demands of the encampment. We ask all Philadelphia residents to stand with us on this demand. Media has reported the cities narrative and forsaken their duty by presenting a one sided world-view. We are the ones on the ground. We are the ones the residents trust and we have no ulterior motive other than a love of humanity and demanding permanent affordable housing for those in our community. I do not speak for anyone, I speak from myself and from what I know to be true.

#phillyprotest #jtd #housingnow #workersrevolutionarycollective #homeless #phillyprotests

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history.

“in fourteen hundred and nightly three, Columbus stole all he could see.”

Someone recently said to me that America has the greatest propaganda system ever created. Then my mom said to me that the people protecting the Columbus statue at Marconi Plaza in south philly probably do not know all the horrible things he represents. That I am blessed to have an education and an interest that is more expansive. She said they don’t know what they are depending. So I decided to compile a list of the things that make Columbus basically one of the worst historical figures. He is known for two things. 1- stealing the land and the genocide of indigenous peoples. 2- starting the transatlantic slave trade. I have provided ample primary sources as evidence. I am not clear on where the confusion lies….willful ignorance? Thats as kind as I can go.

So one concern may be that its not right to judge historical figures based on todays standards. Columbus was a slaver and a pedophile. The founders were slavers and the Greeks were pedophiles but we revere them. The point is not that Columbus did these things, the point is the way he did them was barbaric and inhuman. The point is that Columbus was not just a slaver or pedophile but a war criminal who committed atrocities against indigenous peoples and stole their lands. But MY point is that the story of Columbus has an insidious message, the history we teach our children is full of lies created as a system of propaganda and myth building. The myth of Columbus teaches us to identify with the oppressor, to ignore the perspective of those the land was stolen from, and the rhetoric of discovery implies only the feats of the white man matters.

“Not understanding their past renders many Americans incapable of thinking effectively about our present and future”

“Students of the dominant social group are taught lies in the guise of fact creating an ‘inverted world’ view which hide the unjust distribution of power in the past so they do not have the tools to identify them in the future.”

Myth: Columbus was bold and brave, ahead of his time while his crew was fearful of sailing over the edge of the world. “The people of your earth believed the earth to be flat; Columbus proved it was round.“-star trek

Fact: In Columbus’s time all educated people and most sailors believed the earth was a sphere.

Proof: It looks round. It casts a circular shadow on moon. Sailors see its roundness when ships disappear over the horizon, hull first, then sails.

Proof: Washington Irving made up flat earth fable in 1828

Propaganda: The lie makes Columbus a man of science who corrected our faulty geography That those who direct social enterprises are more intelligent than those nearer the bottom.

2. Myth: Columbus on the first voyage with the pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria braved a dangerous journal and the crew almost mutinied.

Fact: It was smooth sailing and at worst rained only the last day when they knew they were close to land

Fact: there was no mutiny, at best some grumpy sailors

Fact: the journey was no more than a month and they stopped at the Canary Islands and were given aid.

Propaganda: Columbus bravely succeeded in an arduous journey even while dealing with superstitious sailors.

3. Myth: Columbus was a skilled navigator and leader who hid the distance of his journey from the crew so they would not think they had gone too far from home.

Fact: Columbus had false entries in the log of Santa Maria to keep the route to the Indies secret. Columbus was a less experienced navigator than the Pinzon brothers who captained the Nina and Pinta

Proof: Columbus admits this later in his journal

Proof: argument from Salvador de Madariaga that we would have to think the others on the voyage were fools. Columbus had no special method available only to him whereby distances sailed could be more accurately reckoned than by the other pilots and masters

Propaganda: Those at the top are smarter than those at the bottom. Columbus was a genius navigator.

4. Myth: Columbus died alone and poor without recognition for his deeds

Fact: Columbus died well off.

Proof: He left his airs well endowed with the title: ‘Admiral of the Ocean Sea’ now carried by his 18th generation descendant

Propaganda: Columbus’s story is a tragedy of a brave man wrongly treated by the world

5. Myth: Columbus did not know he had reached a ‘new’ continent

Fact: He knew.

Proof: His journal entries

Propaganda: to humanize Columbus and maximize his greatness

6. Myth: Columbus discovered a ‘New World’

Fact: It was new only to Europeans

Proof: People had lived in Americas for thousands of years

Propaganda: the white European conquest was right and natural. Implies we have a right to this land and subtly says it was empty of anyone who mattered

Propaganda: justifies American exceptionalism and natural right to the world. In 1989 President George H.W. Bush invoked Columbus as a role model for the nation: “Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith.”

7. Myth: Columbus ‘discovered’ America

Fact: Columbus not the first to discover America but the last

Fact: the rhetoric of discovery has been used to justify the stolen land

Proof: How can one person discover what another already knows and owns?

Propaganda: All the important discoveries are traceable to white Europe

Propaganda Analysis: “So long as our textbooks hide from us the roles that people of color have played in exploration, from at least 6000 BC to the twentieth century, they encourage us to look to Europe and its extensions as the seat of all knowledge and intelligence. So long as they say ‘discover’ they imply that whites are the only people who really matter.” -Lies My Teacher Told Me page 66

Use of Propaganda: words matter: In 1823 Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court decried that Cherokees had certain rights to their land in Georgia by dint of their ‘occupancy’ but that whites had superior rights owing to their ‘discovery’. How American Indians managed to occupy Georgia without having previously discovered it Marshall neglected to explain.

8. Myth: Columbus was the first to voyage to the Americas across Atlantic.

Fact: The Norse, The Phoenicians and Africans sailed to America long before Columbus.

Fact: Columbus was not the first, just the first white catholic to make it

Fact: Phoenicians beat Columbus by over 2000 years

Fact: at best students are taught the Norse came a little earlier but they failed where we succeeded. No mention is made of the vast amounts of evidence that show other peoples traveling across the ocean

Proof: There were people already there and all humans originated from same place, so the indigenous peoples had to have traveled somehow

Proof: the huge face stones in Mexico have distinctly African features

Proof: archeological discoveries of tools and art

Propaganda: Only the feats of white people matter. All important developments can be traced to white Europeans

Propaganda: students learn that black feats are not considered important while white ones are.

9. Myth: Native Americans walked across the Atlantic in an Ice Age

Fact: Native Americans came to the Americas between 70,000 and 12,000 BC, from Siberia to Alaska

Proof: It is impossible to walk across the ocean even in an Ice Age

Propaganda: the natives people were primitive and European whites were smarter and more advanced

10. Myth: Columbus came for exploration and trade

Fact: Columbus’s purpose from the beginning was conquest and exploitation for which he used religion as a rationale to force the indigenous peoples to work for him

Proof: the Spanish sought gold, they killed Indians, and Indians fled and resisted.

Propaganda: Columbus’s venture had good intentions and his efforts were religiously motivated

11. Possible Myth: Columbus was a Catholic Italian

Fact: this is an unproven story

Fact: some scholars believe he was a jewish convert from Spain hiding from the inquisition.

Proof: He wrote in his journals in Spanish and could not write in Italian

Propaganda: Italian American Nationalism

12. Probable Myth: Columbus yelled ‘Tierra!’ Or ‘land’ when he spotted the coast and his first act on ground was to thank god

Fact: There is absolutely no proof this is the case

Proof: Considering all the other embellishments to the myth of Columbus it seems reasonable to think this is a lie as well.

Propaganda: focus white American identify with Columbus and the moment of ‘discovery’ not what Columbus did to the native peoples and lands he ‘discovered’

13. Myth: White Europeans invented navigation and sea fairing ships

Fact: Not true. White history says the design started with Henrey the Navigator of Portugal between 1415 and 1460.

Fact: Egyptians and Phoenicians where sailing long before white Europeans. Portugal probably saw their designs and that is where Columbus got his ‘new ship’.

Fact: There was nothing special about Columbus’s navigation abilities

Proof: massive amounts of archaeological data, including coins from ancient Rome.

Proof: If everyone originated in same place, then how did any people get there before Columbus?

Propaganda: all important discoveries came from white europeans and the natives where primitive and fortunate to be ‘civilized’

14. Myth: White Europeans conquered because they are/were naturally the stronger smarty people

Fact: History tells us it was one man but it was actually many cultures

Fact: White Europeans learned medicine and without the help of the native peoples would have starved for lack on knowledge of local agriculture

Fact: Democracy came from Indigenous Peoples

Fact: ‘Syncretism’ is combining the ideas from two or more cultures to something new.

Proof: Muslims preserved the wisdom of the greeks and enhanced it with ideas from china, india, and africa, then passing it on to Europe via Italy and spain

Propaganda: only white Europeans are strong and a multiracial society is not rational. Clearly, all advancement and progress has come from the white man.

Propaganda: European world domination is natural and inevitable

Propaganda: all culture and modern Tecnology comes from white europeans

15. Origin Myth: He was good and so are we.

Fact: Some people cannot accept Columbus as a villain. “But an honest account of history does not mean Columbus was bad and so are we. Textbooks should show that right morality or immorality cannot simply be conferred upon us by history. Merely being part of the United States, without regard to our own acts and ideas, does not make us immoral or moral human beings. History is more complicated than that.”

Truth of the Legacy of Christopher Columbus:

Columbus changed the world and revolutionized race relations.

His Legacy: the class of cultures and system of domination that still exist today

A bloody atrocity that left a legacy of genoicide and slavery that endures to some degree to this day.

Christopher Columbus changed the world in two ways: Colonization in the form of genoicide and Slavery

The taking of land, wealth, and labor from indigenous people in Western Hemisphere, leading to their near extermination.

Sunday October 14th 1492: “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased.”

Columbus returned with Haitian Slaves and Ferdinand and Isabella outfitted Columbus for a second voyage with 17 ships, 1200-1500 men, cannons, crossbows, guns, cavalry, and attack dogs.

The War of the Worlds allegory

When the ‘primitive’ peoples were terrified by the advance Tecnology of the aliens Wells wanted us to sympathize with the natives on Haiti in 1943 or on Australia in 1788 or in the upper Amazon jungle today

Haiti

Conquer them he did. Columbus and his men demanded food, gold, spun cotton, women, ect.

Columbus used punishment by example to ensure cooperation

When an Indian committed even a minor offense, the Spanish cut off his ears or nose. Disfigured, the person was sent back to his village as living evidence of the brutality the Spanish were capable of

At first the resistance was passive but eventually they took up arms, their resistance gave Columbus an excuse to make war

Ferdinand Columbus’s biography of his father: “The soldiers mowed down dozens with point-blank volleys, loosed dogs to rip open limbs and bellies, chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike and with God’s aid soon gained a complete victory, killing many Indians and capturing others who were also killed.”

Columbus’s created a tribute system where natives received a medallion after paying tribute and were safe for three months where they would have to provide another tribute or have their hands chopped off.

The encomienda system came later but was of Columbus’s design

Pedro de Cordoba wrote a letter to King Ferdinand in 1517 describing the Haiti that Christopher Columbus had created, "As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass suicide. The women, exhausted by labor, have shunned conception and childbirth . . . Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery.” -Lies My Teacher Told Me pg 57

The Haitians impaled themselves, drank poison, jumped off cliffs, hanged themselves and killed their children

Haiti Pre-Columbian

Estimates as high as 8 million.

1496 estimates of 3 million

1516 estimates of 12,000

1542 estimates of 200 full blooded Haitian Indians

1555 none.

The methods unleashed by Columbus are the larger part of his legacy. Other Nations rushed to emulate Columbus. “In 1501 the Portuguese began to depopulate Labrador, transporting the now extinct Beothuk Indians to Europe and Capa Verde as Slaves. After the English established beachheads on the Atlantic coast of North America, they encouraged capture and sell members of more distant tribes. Charleston South Carolina, became a major port of exporting American Indian Slaves. Pilgrims and Puritans sold the survivors of the Pequot War into Slavery in Bermuda in 1673. The French sipped virtually the entire Natchez nation in chains to the West Indies in 1731.”

2. The transatlantic slave trade which created a racial underclass

Columbus sent the first slaves across the Atlantic

Columbus sent more slaves across Atlantic than any other individual (5,000)

On Haiti Columbus did not find gold at first so he found another source of wealth

Columbus in letter to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1496 on Indian death rate: “Although they die now, they will not always die The negroes and Canary Islanders died at first.”

“there now began a rain of terror in Hispaniola”- Hans Koning

On The sexual slave trade

Columbus rewarded his lieutenants with native women to rape. They raided villages for sex and sport

Columbus wrote to friend in 1500 “A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a women as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from 9 to 10 are now in demand”

African slave trade

To replace dying Haitians, the Spanish imported tens of thousands more Indians from the Bahamas, to extinction

Because the Indians died, Columbus imported slaves from Africa. Beginning the massive slave trade the other way across the Atlantic, from Africa

Haitian revolution

Site of first large scale revolt, when blacks and American Indians banded together in 1519. The uprising lasted more than a decade and brought to end by Spanish in 1530s

In 1791-1804 Haitians Revolted in the first successful slave rebellion in the West

Who are our US History Textbooks written for?

Who are ‘we’? Columbus is no hero in Mexico even though Mexico is must more Spannish and might be expected to take pride in this hero of Spanish history. Why not? Because Mexico is much more Indian than US, and because Mexicans perceive Columbus as white and European.

‘the fundamental epistemic asymmetry between typical white views of blacks and typical black views of whites: these are not cognizers linked by a reciprocal ignorance but rather groups whose respective privilege and subordination tend to produce self-deception, bad faith, evasion, and misrepresentation on the one hand, and more veridical perceptions, on the other hand’

Continuing to use terms like ‘discovered’ and ‘civilized’ allow whites to think of selves as master to the native (even though colonization is over) and superior morally and intellectually.

“When history textbooks leave out the Arawaks, they offend Native Americans. When they omit the possibility of African and Phoenician precursors to Columbus, they offend African Americans. When they glamorize explores such as de Soto just because they were white, our histories offend all people of color. When they leave out Las Casas, they omit an interesting idealist with whom we all might identify. When they glorify Columbus, our textbooks prod us toward identifying with the oppressor. When textbook authors omit the causes and process of European world domination, they offer a history whose purpose must be to keep us unaware of the important questions.” -page 69, Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen

#lies my teacher told me #decolonize #columbus #phillyprotest

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness.

BAsics, Bob Avakian

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Open Letter to White People

Open Letter to white people,

“White people show up and protest with automatic weapons and nothing happens. Black people protest (no guns) and they get tear gas. I wonder what the difference is?” -Devin on social media

White person response: “there is a difference between a peaceful protest and vandalism.”

So first, this white dude has no right to comment on the appropriate response when a member of BIPOC is killed AGAIN with seemingly no repercussions. The voices that matter right now are those in the BIPOC community. On social media I continuously see white people judging the protesters and saying how they ‘ought’ to act. I have no right to tell a BIPOC person what they should feel and how they should respond, I have no skin in the game so I cannot arbitrate how the game is played.

Second, it is astonishing to believe showing up at public buildings with assault rifles is less of a problem. The fact this guy is calling this a peaceful protest speaks to his utter conformity and blindness. The fact that reports right now of Minnesota protests claiming the protesters are the agitators are misleading if not overtly false. Things are happening behind the scenes you do not get to see, the police are often the agitators in more ways than one.

Third, I am done with the narrative that the only option is peaceful protest. When has that worked since civil rights movement? We live in a different world. As human beings we all have an obligation to think critically and do what is morally right. I am convinced maintaining this system is not the way.

Fourth, white privilege is clearly a thing. I recommend a book called: White Supremacy and Me by Layla F. Saad. Don’t let the title scare you, if you claim to be an informed white person who is not racist in any way, read this book and take that hypothesis for a test drive.

Fifth, this month has been tough, lets try to support our BIPOC friends. A few weeks ago it was Ahmaud and Sean Reed. Then it was George Floyd in Minnesota which is somewhat of a shock because well…Minnesota. Then there was the lady in NYC calling the police to make a false report about a black man. I thought NYC was progressively minded. It has been a tough month for BIPOC and it has all been happening during a pandemic where most of us as stuck at home and getting tired of watching uneducated conservatives waging a war on science putting those we love at risk. Compare the actions of the protesters with guns yelling at people, essentially putting their lives at risk by not wearing masks. Compare the response by police to those protesters to the protesters in Minnesotta. Lets add the war on class unraveling before our eyes as health is given a price tag and economic disparities are being exacerbated. Police brutality is not just an issue of color but one of class. Could the message be any clearer? This is injustice. This is not what a government is for, the government protects the health and safety of its citizens. Well our government has failed to do this, instead our government has launched a ship into space. I for one, no longer feel obligated to obey.

I want to support BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color). I feel it is my moral obligation to take action to stop these injustices from happening. I do not want to hear another black man say ‘I can’t breathe’ 5 years from now. It is my responsibility to critically think about my place in this system and the role I play. When injustice is happening and maintained by law and order, I have a duty to disregard that law and the order.

I remember Eric Garner, I remember so clearly the video where he said ‘I Can’t Breathe’. I remember the calls for reform and the promises from politicians. Since then I remember every BIPOC unjustly killed by police. Their legacy is a series of hashtags and little change. We shared #JusticeforAhmaud #JusticeforSeanReed just a few weeks ago. Nothing has changed since Eric Garner said I Can’t Breathe. So much so that another black man with the same words ended with the same fate. But we are told nonviolence is the only response. We are told that in a democracy there is recourse to change the law and we should spend our energy petitioning the legislature for change. Think about that for a minute. If you do not see the insanity of that line of reasoning, take another minute. How effective and responsive is our government? Will we stay seated and wait for congress or city officials to act? Sometimes violence is the only answer to systemic violence. Sometimes disobedience cannot remain civil.

There is a discussion going on on social media about the protestors response in Minnesotta. There are calls for non-violent civil disobedience. Protesting is fine, but not real movement. Standing on a street corner with a sign may make you will feel better but no change is happening. The politicians and the capitalists are not willing to change the status quo. The status quo right now entails every BIPOC child in America being told how to handle police interactions so they will not be another statistic. The status quo is every BIPOC in America fearing they may be the next hashtag. We have been conditioned to express our outrage without actually causing any change.

The 2nd amendment is there not so another white man can shoot up a Walmart or a movie theatre or a school. The 2nd amendment is not there to protect the right of hunters to have semi automatic weapons. The 2nd amendment is expressly there so that the people will have a way to fight the tyranny of the government if the need ever arrises. But the possibility that the people will ever truly rise up has been squashed by those with vested interests in the system. We do not need to use guns, but we do need to take a stand that goes beyond assuaging our own guilt for remaining complicit to injustice.

Martin Luther King Jr preached nonviolent civil disobedience, and that is why our government has made him the only black hero in history textbooks living in the last century. They want us to take the path of King. The establishment wants us to stand on street corners and remain silent. But those were different times and our goals are now different. We have accepted a semblance of equality through supposed parity. White children believe race is not a thing we deal with anymore. When Eric Garner was killed, I was one of those white children, early in college I had the naiveté to believe that we could change the system but obeying the system. I said that the politicians of yesterday have failed but the politicians of tomorrow will not. Well it is tomorrow, and they have failed us.

Today, I am a white women whose eyes have been opened to reality. We are not equal. I have never feared a cop would hurt me even though I have had many run ins with officers. I have never seen someone who looks like me being treated like an animal. I have never then watched those who murder receive no justice. I have never had to fear wearing a mask during Covid because I have been conditioned it is not safe for people like me on the streets with a face covering. I have never wondered if someone finds me threatening, if someone hates me because of my skin color. I have never been systemically told I am less worthy than others whose only special ability is being born in the right place at the right time to the right people.

There is no obligation to obey a government that does not protect its citizens. There is no authority implicitly granted to government because they are government. Even if such an authority existed, it would be revoked when government perpetuates injustice. We must decide if they are worthy to be our leaders. We must decide if it is morally right to remain quiet. We must decide where our limits lie, when will we rise up? In another 5 years after dozens more hashtags? If the government acts unjustly then the social contract is void. If the government does not fulfill their end of the bargain or they go beyond the scope of their powers, then we have no obligation to fulfill ours. If our government allows injustice to continue in our streets, they are not my government. If our government can not do the bare minimum it promises: to keep us safe and protect our health; then YOU have to decide if you will continue to consent. We are social creatures capable of rational thought so stop and really think about your moral duty.

All those in our jails and prisons suffer injustice. The drug laws of our country where created to criminalize minorities. The jails are overflowing with BIPOC. Our public hospitals have been allowed to close if they do not make a profit. Our health is not guaranteed, our freedom is only to consume, our justice system is the new Jim crow. What are we going to do? What are we waiting for?

Martin Luther King Jr preached nonviolent civil disobedience. Unfortunately, today our protests and outrage only comes in nonviolent obedience. We allow ourselves to believe we are making progress, that things are changing and soon we will really make a difference. King also preached that WE CANNOT WAIT. Don’t tell me its not the right time, don’t tell me standing for justice will destroy order. There are no words that I can provide that will speak to the heart of people more than the words of King. Lets remember what he said and stand struck that it still rings true today.

In Letter from Birmingham Jail: “I MUST make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

Hong Kong is a more brutal place, their government more violent and authoritative. But we can still learn from them. Hong Kong had a staggering 45 percept of there population participate. The only successful movements are those in which a large percent of the population participates. This means if you do not stand up too, nothing will change.

Lets take the example of Hong Kong and:

Be strong like ice

Be fluid life water

Gather the dew

Scatter the mist

We cannot do the same thing we have been doing. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. We have gotten to the point where the liberal version of civil disobedience, of publicity, nonviolence, nonevasion of law enforcement, respectful protest has reached the limits of efficacy. We have to try something new, we have to be brave enough to step out of the box constructed by the powers that be and take a stand and make them listen. It is time for uncivil disobedience.

Crowd sourced, decentralized, highly mobile, shape shifting tactics.

We need those who are tech savy to provide open sourced technology.

We need gas masks at the front lines. We need to exercise our right to make our voices loud and clear. We need to tell them this can’t happen here. Don’t tell me wait another year.

One can oppose aggressive violence while still acknowledging that violence in self defense or responding to attack is justified. The capitalist elite believe they can silence us with distractions and the appearance of progress. That we will just move on to the next shiny thing and leave it at a #hashtag. I hear you when you say violence is not the answer. I am not saying violence is the answer, I am just saying violence is not not the answer.

We all need to take an inventory of the government and our relationship to obedience. We need to question political authority and determine if, as an individual, you feel it is ethical to obey and maintain the system. You do not change a dysfunction system by the parameters provided by that system.

From,

A White Lady

We are all human beings capable of rational thought. These are some papers written by people smarter than me who effectively opened my mind beyond the establishment way of thinking.

Some references for arguments that changed my opinion:

Huemer’s “The Duty to Disregard the Law”

Huemer’s “The Problem with Political Authority”

Davis’s “Are Prisons Obsolete?”

Reiman’s “The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison”

#opinion #justiceforahmaud #justiceforseanreed #justiceforgeorgefloyd #minneapolis #minneapolis riots #omarjiminez #whitesupremacy

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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So I have this long memory gap for maybe from end of 2016 until early 2019. I have a strange relationship with the world. Currently I am study my relationship with reality or rather my minds knowledge of the world. You know, the mind-body-world problem that everyone is talking about? HA! or are they?

This is also a strange time to be studying Descartes and hobbs and wittgenstein, as always they are all white men of privilege. But the problem stands and I want to study this stuff. Its a strange time to not be able to interact with the world using the typical sense data that is most of my evidence of reality.

I am following the guidelines and I now only leave my apartment to occasionally help neighbors but mostly just go to grocer right outside building. So my interaction with the world is minimal at least in the usual format. Fuck I am going crazy. I do not know what the right thing to do is.

#ludwig wittgenstein

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Two New Things

So, I am a little high, took an edible. Two things I want to reflect more on is

1) my first covid19 rejection

2) I am frustrated, I see friends and family and strangers doing things, and socializing or taking risks. I am afraid, this may go on for a long time. I may not socialize with anyone except digitally for a year or more. I am sad, everyone is struggling, health is wealth and I have health and my family has it but I see people hurting. This cannot go on like this, it is insane. I am able to make my health a priority because I have the means to.

I am struggling with two separate things (two other things). I feel intense empathy for everyone who has to struggle so much right now. I know what it is to struggle to survive. People who need to worry about other people. Its so insane I am not sure anything is ok. The civilized countries are socialized. Maybe I chose the social over political. We need welfare. The people cannot be left to fend for themselves, why do we even have a god damn government if not to act in these situations, to protect us. Seriously, lets think about why we obey..where does that duty come from? I am angry at the people who have the power, I am ashamed to be from this country. I have been ashamed of US before (of course) but that was our history. We slaughtered a people and took their land. But this time I am ashamed of a thing we are doing right now. Goodbye American Exceptionalism... right? I mean we cannot continue to pretend we are the good guys right?

I am struggling with terror, that I will pass this along to someone else. Someone I love or just someone. The terror sets in when I think of being a symptomless carrier and having someone in my immediate family die. I have heard how some have died alone, in a hospital. My eyes get hot and burn a little when I think about it. What if...What if my mother or father or brothers get it? And that is only the core people, their loss would destroy me. I do not know anyone who as died of covid yet. But people are dying of covid.

I am scared for you, the world. I am trying to be responsible, its eating me up to think I risk YOUR life when I go to the grocery store or I use the elevator in my building.

I am scared for me, for my mental health..NOT A DIRTY WORD. I have fought for my health and I have made big moves. I know what it is to feel depressed, to be alone and be lonely. I thought I had moved on from that but with the state of the world being what it is..well social distancing. And what if social distancing is what I have been doing for years. But now its distance from everyone. I used to get my fill of human contact by leaving the house and being around people. It was too much actually. I liked to go see live music every so often and work off that social energy and get the interaction in day to day. Now I am just like, oh my apartment. AGAIN. I am going to have a very small world for awhile. The things I liked to do, like see live music are no longer an option. Nor will it be for awhile. I have what I have when this all started and that world was small. I liked that world but now I am again feeling an absence, of meaning; that existential depression.

So that brings me to the first thing because it all ties together. Its why it felt so raw; being rejected. For friendship...kinda. The things that happen all the time in past, a friend doesn't follow through or some social hope is blown away. I was going to do a zoom thing for a game someone was testing...Guess who almost went, took my first shower this week, even did a costume thing.. wtf are clothes for anyway? And then last minute got bumped out. It was also a last minute join. I wasn't like looking forward to this, but when it was offered I was like ya. I took an edible and a shower and now I’m like cool bro.

I think I have broken empathy. I can not turn it off but when someone almost feels empathy for me, I do or say anything to avoid it. Its like empathetic feedback.

#shelterinplace #isthisreal #@covid-19 #social distancing #covid anxiety #twothings #healthiswealth #empathy

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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The only thing we are all entitled to is death

#redrising #fear of death #fear of dying

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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You know what has terrified me? To not exist. To wake up one day and know I am old and to be afraid. To watch people I love struggle with the same thing.

Things that terrify me. My therapist asked me if I had ever been terrified in my life. I often have very vivid, very real dreams. I am usually being chased and I am fearing death. But not in the abstract. Its that raw terror you feel when you take a misstep on the stairs and it feels like you are going to fall. That moment, it wakes us up. Sometimes is like my entire night is spent like that, I’ll wake up and go right back into the dream. I feel terrified.

My therapist asked if I had ever been terrified like that not in a dream. Nothing immediately came to mind. I can’t recall a trauma that made me feel that raw fear. I thought, maybe, when I spent that week in jail. I was terrified, but surprisingly not for the reason I should have been terrified. You know that time, when my face was pressed against a drain in the shower. I remember feeling this terror there, but not when I was being hurt physically. It was when I had time, seemingly endless time. I became terrified.

It feels like the same terror I remember growing up. I cannot remember being a person before 7/8th grade. Does that make sense? I know intellectually things happened but I don’t remember experiencing those things. The moments that have stuck even vaguely do not feel like they happened to me.

The one thing I can remember is growing up terrified. Terrified of death. There I said it. It makes other people uncomfortable when I bring it up. No one ever wants to have a real conversation about death. But being back in my childhood room, its been happening more and more. I used to imagine what it was to not exist and become so afraid I had to sometimes sleep in my parents room because it was the only way to fall asleep. I feel like everyone goes through life trying to forget we are all going to die. The only thing all humans are entitled to is death.

I am also afraid of being old and having never resolved these feelings. I hear you boomer, when you say it happens in a blink of an eye. But I do not want to wake up one day and know I am old, that I have few years ahead of me. It seems like most people never stop and really process or they hold onto beliefs that make the reality more tolerable.

I want to believe. I want to believe all my friends who died are not just gone. Its easier to process other people’s deaths when you can believe they are not really gone. I want to believe that my grandparents are somewhere together. I want to believe for my mother who wants to believe. I want to believe for my father who, like me, cannot really believe. My father who has spent his entire life working hard and now he is 65 and having to face is own mortality. I think he is drinking me. That is what has terrified me since I was a child. I remember my father telling me about death, that he is afraid of death. I know if he feels even a sliver of what I feel then he too is terrified. I need us to find a spiritual path, to delude ourself with belief or resolve ourselves to reality.

I need my father to deal with his own death so I can someday deal with me. This overwhelming fear is not something I can abide forever. Sometimes I wonder if I can get through life like other people. It feels harder for me to have my brain gloss over this stark reality than other people.

Sometimes I feel the need to write because it is the only thing that can make this real. It is the only way I know what I know reflects something in the world. It is the great equalizer and the great destroyer of humanity. No one wants to acknowledge it.

#i am afraid #coronavid19 #idontwanttodie #fearformydad #childhoodhome #terrified

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Day Counting Doesn’t Work.. neither does digital therapy

So I feel crazy tonight. I spent the last 24 hors at my apartment and it was beautiful and strange. I cant explain the change. Being in my apartment is like being inside my head. I can be me and feel free. But I am a very sensitive person. Not my feelings per se but to being around people. It takes something I can’t do all the time. But my brother. living with him in my childhood home... Its hard. I want to go back to the city but its so different there. For half a second I forgot why I was panicked...thinking of what I want to be and creature inside my apartment is beautiful.

What was strange everything else. Sometimes its very heavy. I am unsure how to articulate what I am feeling but the world is much scarier today than it was yesterday. And that's the world. This country is more fascist by the moment and I can’t see a conclusion other than more political nightmares. He is a crazy man, the orange one. I wish I was living in a dream because that would make more sense. I don’t know how to keep the shreaks back anymore. WHAT THE FUCK MAN. Is this real? How is it that only a small population seems to be screaming with me? I went to the border and I wanted to make change and I told people and no one wanted to change. I stood on street corners and helped with a small fascist protest group. I told people, some seemed to care but few came out to change. And now we are fighting a virus that keeps ALL of us marching into the streets and that is the only way to change a liberal democracy (by that I mean one who is run by the ‘free market’). What scares me the most is I feel like my family, the people I am worried for, they don’t thing it can get that bad. My mother is still wishful thinking. By father only believes the wall street journal. My brother believes in the economy. But they are not alone. I see them reflected back at me everywhere. You know what scared me today? Tonight I saw an emptier city than I did suburb. The world is changing. That one dude who is at least so wealthy he is credible said things cannot go back to ‘normal’ until we have a vaccine. And my mother wants to come home in 3 weeks. I swear she hoped for Easter last month. No one cared before and even less seem to care now. And I recognize that it has been my privledge to care. And I too (not like usual) feel the strain to protect my family and friends. I don’t know what that looks right now, but it is a full time job. I find myself reaching a limit and say I just can’t do my more. I was doubting before, what was a doing standing on a street corner with a sign? How did that help anyone? But then it all rushes back in and I remember: not just a lot of people are struggling (like usual), most people are really struggling. And this free market machine where there is no limit on wealth at the very top, some will control all. I doubt democracy at all as a concept. I think, like Kant: human nature is antagonistic. Its human nature to fight each other like the trees race each out to the top and strangle the rest. Today someone reminded me: there were other ways. When I was doubting democracy as a concept, because its human nature to destroy each other, a classmate reminded me it inevitable. There have been other cultures able to have community structures in other ways. There have been examples.. If I can believe in democracy I can almost believe my voice matters and I should keep shouting at people (not literally *usually). I don’t know where to put this energy, how do people look at the world, really look and not want to look away?

Just to draw some type of conclusion to this rant, I’ll connect it to therapy. I believe mental health is one of the most important types of health. When I am already struggling to be there and talk about stuff, its just not happening over the computer. And I am super stable and totally happy bra :) (*I pictured a LA voice for that.)

So I am trying to right this down just because if its written, it feels real. It existed. So did I. You know the phenomena whereby cat ladies know they are real because eyes are looking back at them? Maybe without a reflection, I don’t exist? I am trying to breathe but when some people constantly consistently tell me I am not normal, I start to believe them.

#coronavirus #goinginsane #hasttagsarehardtothinkof withoutmoreresearch andwhentired

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Day 22 Quarantine.

Yo so I changed my fb profile picture, I always feel so weird posting or doing things. It feels so public and permanent. Only being able to interact with myself, its losing its meaning. Not that it ever had meaning. I mean why do we care what the internet says about us? because we are afraid someday someone will find something embarrassing..or maybe because we secretly home someday our lives will have been worthy of a story and someone will be interested in what we said? Not to be dark, but thats not going to happen. There are what? billions of people on fb? I need to live like I care about no ones validation beyond my own? I need to find a way to do things and not imagine someone seeing me do things. I dont think god is watching but I definitely often act like someone is/or could watch. Maybe living along is making me batty. I have lived alone awhile and I prefer it, but not actually interacting with anyone is driving me bonkers! And yet, I write like someone is going to read what I am saying while trying to make myself forget someone is going to read this as i write. Does this make any sense? I think so, but I am also not big on rereading. I do like to write and dream of writing something people will read, someday. I am in a constant struggle with comprehending my existence, life and death and meaning, but no one wants to really talk about this thing. It drives me, consumes me sometimes. Imaging being old and dying, or just being old and not having reconciled myself with my non-existence. Sometimes I bring it up just to see if I can get any traction. I have yet had another human being want to truly engage about death. It is the one thing we all have in common, but its the thing we cant talk about.;not really.

#isthisevenreal #corvidcrazy #quarentine #do i exist #doyou

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Dude this is true. I at a loss

i hate my life rn so much o my god

every day i go to work. my company has made it explicitly clear that they do not care if we die, so long as we die following their arbitrary rules that are just enough to keep health Canada away. the higher ups believe in the Company. the workers do not. we are so alone and so overworked. people treat us like shit. there are so many essential workers who aren't recognized or helped right now and we are SUFFERING. we do not have any government help. we do not have any subsidy. we should be grateful we have jobs even though we are making less than the unemployed right now. people constantly insist that their desire for marijuana, snacks, a burger are inherently worth more than our peace of mind, our health, our safety, our lives.

I am so tired.

I do not feel essential. I feel sacrificial. Already my company has plans with what they'll do to replace those who die. The only articles about the lesser Essentials are how Society™ will find more workers to feed to the fucking pandemic after the current ones die.

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cornaviruscarwreck · 4 years

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Day 20 Quarantine (roughly)

Its such a strange paradigm to be living in this. I am incredibly fortunate, I have had great healthcare and the resources to maintain a level of health that is now only becoming all to clear is crucial. I think about whats happening, and I can spin into the news frenzy ..but there are things we can do. Here as some:

Be kind to yourself. Take precautions. And act like you are living in a moment that will change the world. You are. If you want to be the hero of your story, then do small things to help in big ways.

Its a change for all of us and the devastation is becoming more apparent. If you are reading this, you may have extra free time on your hands. Use your time to help those who are worse off. Its not just about giving money, there are many ways to help your community. Be the person you want to be.

1.Be kind and take care of yourself. The most important thing I have taken from social media is not to be too hard on myself. We don’t have to be completing big projects, learning new skills, or posting happy picture to be enough. Now more than ever, take care of yourself first. Maybe start doing yoga or playing games online. Whatever you do to cope, be proud because you are navigating uncharted waters in history.

2.If you have resources, donate. Don’t stock pile money. Health should not be a commodity, it is a human right. We will have to solve this problem when the fog clears, for now try to give what you can because all of our health is at risk.

-Friends, if your struggling hit me up and I’ll give you what I can

-Buy something from local artists

-Local animal shelter

-Food banks

-Philadelphia harm reduction coalition

-Your local EMTs

-Firefighters and first responders

3.Give Blood. Massive shortages for blood donations. Check out where you can go to give blood locally and what precautions they are taking: https://www.redcrossblood.org/

4.Have a sewing machine? Learn to use it and make masks. Get materials from local hospitals or Joann Fabrics is donating supplies you can get curb side at your local store

-Philly- sewfacemasksphilly.com

-Joann Fabrics- https://www.joann.com/make-to-give-response/

5.Don’t have a sewing machine? Become a distributor. Networks of people all across the country are delivering materials to people and picking up finished masks to deliver. If you are in the Philadelphia area and have time and a car- fill out this google doc and get involved

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fz1DOVt044znf3slSs0PY4rPpR7GVjo9kKEvBAaTexE/edit

6.Foster a cat or dog. The shelters are struggling too and more than ever they need fosters to care for the animals. They don’t just magically get taken care of. They are euthanized. Any animal you help, multiply by two! You saved them and made an open space for another at the shelter

.7.Reach out to 3 new people a day. Ask them how they are, if there is anything they need, and let them know you are here for them. Text people you havnt seen since grade school. Text your high school teachers. Text your friend who lives across the country.

8.Offer to run errands for your neighbors. Lets limit the grocery store runs and ask those around you if you can get their groceries for them. Especially people who can’t go out without risk. Take some pressure off the delivery drivers and do what deliveries can’t: (pick up alcohol)

.9.Try not to order a bunch of stuff on amazon. Do you need it? Can it wait?

10.If you are using delivery, tip. If you use any services and you can, give something to the people who are risking their health because they have to work.

11.Video chat with kids. Parents at home with children are under extreme pressure. No one wants to be stuck in their home with their toddlers for month on end. Let the kids play with the filters and make weird faces at you. Check in with the parents.

12.If you do have kids, have them make cards for the elderly or those living alone. Drop them off at nursing homes or local religious organizations.

13.Volunteer to tutor online. Do it directly with kids you know, help them with math or reading or just let them tell you what they have been learning recently. 1.You can also volunteer your time to digital learning.

-.MightyWriters Philadelphia is asking for volunteers to step up to offer homework help and writing tutoring in English and Spanish, via Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp, phone and other platforms.- I can send you the information for who to contact if you cannot find online

#covid2020 #covidquarantine #what can i do #corvid19US #corvid19philly #sewmasks #i hope someone reads this

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