Evacuate disabled mom Nara and her family! 

Send support to givebutter.com/NaraMedicalAid

They need $17,500 to evacuate their family and the rest will go towards medical treatments for her Pancreatic cancer and MS which were both brought on by a white phosphorus exposure in 2008. 

Please support the @fedup4palestine_campaigns verified give butter and please share with your networks! Sending direct messages to people, texting and calling with specific asks for support work the best, so please take a little time out of your day to share mindfully! 

Nara cannot share her own campaign because only her immediate family knows of her disabilities and cancer, so it is our responsibility to get her funded! 

The other day she got her first chunk of money from Fed up successfully! 

For our lesson today for my student Mos’s 13th birthday, they finished up this great poster of Nara! 

Image description: A marker drawing by 13 year old Mos of Nara, a disabled pal-eh-steinian mom who is using supplemental oxygen and has a line going into her hand. She has a heart over her face for anonymity and she  is wearing a black hijab. Underneath her is a Pal-eh-steinian flag with a heart instead of a red triangle. Text reads “Evacuate disabled mom Nara and her family!” In colored pencil block text. There is a QR code that goes to the give butter link givebutter.com/NaraMedicalAid

End image description]

He didn’t invent anything

🏳️‍⚧️ We're trying to raise $200,000 for LGBTQ+ youth programs before the end of the year! 🏳️‍🌈 Wanna help?

As they grow up in a world that wants to keep them down, LGBTQ+ youth are fighting to be themselves. But we believe young, queer people shouldn’t have to be "brave" just to exist.

By making a donation to support our programs, you're showing that you believe in the better world that we can create together.

Over the past couple years, the support we've gotten from some amazing donors has enabled us to support queer youth in SO many ways, like:

Granting LGBTQ+ students more than $1.2 million to imagine and create their own safe spaces and resources in schools across the US and Canada through 50 States, 50 Grants.

Creating award-winning content series educating LGBTQ+ youth on safe sex ed, inclusive terminology, careers in STEM, as well as tons more educational and mental health resources.

Handing LGBTQ+ youth the mic to advocate for themselves — at national conferences, on our award-winning Twitch vodcast Perfectly Queer, on social media, and in interviews with major news outlets...

...and so much more that you can see on itgetsbetter.org!

🟣 If you believe in "better" the way we do and want to help us keep doing this work to uplift, empower, and connect LGBTQ+ youth around the world, you can make a donation here!

As someone who's very conscious of individual fundraising, between my job and my work with Radio Free Monday, I'm seeing an uptick lately in something that I want to talk about. But it's sensitive, so I'm asking you all to read this in the spirit of help, and understand that any negative tone you take away from this is not my intention.

We live in communities: neighborhood, friends groups, workplaces, fandoms. Part of the point of community is that we help others in that community. But there's an aversion to the idea of non-reciprocal aid, of accepting financial help that won't be repaid. And on the one hand I understand; nobody wants to be perceived as a freeloader. But I don't think we can move past the idea of transactive relationships, an ultimately capitalist idea of how we relate to others, until we stop stigmatizing it, even when we're the beneficiaries of it.

I see a lot of "normally I would never ask for help" and "I hate to ask for money" and "I'd rather die than accept charity but" and I'm sure that's true. But...you don't need to say it.

If someone is inclined to give, it doesn't matter. If someone isn't inclined to give, it doesn't help. Charitable giving on the individual level is not a sales situation. There is no magic combination of words that will induce someone to give if they weren't going to. And the more we protest that normally we wouldn't accept, the more we loudly imply that there is shame in asking, the longer it will take us to achieve a compassionate and supportive society.

And also, frankly, you're making other people feel like shit for asking too. Which I know is not something anyone wants.

If you need to ask for money that sucks and I'm sorry. I've been there and it's a real bind to be in. But I also know that in those situations energy is short, and this is one less thing to expend energy on -- instead of protesting your aversion to asking, put that energy into doing one thing to make it easier for folks to give -- make your payment app username a hyperlink or a QR code, or make a carrd with your giving options and link that.

Instead of "I would never ask for money normally" say "I know there are many kind people out there who will see this." Instead of "I hate to make this post" say "You all understand how difficult life can get." The nonprofit world has done a lot of studying of what makes people give, and positivity is a huge aspect of it. Opening with a negative, particularly a negative that people see constantly in other solicitations, is more likely to hurt your chances than to help.

Don't follow a script that continues to debase and abuse you. Mainly because it's not actually helping; there's no upside to prostrating yourself before an imaginary combative donor. Talk to the people who are actually likely to give, who recognize themselves in your words when you talk about kindness and compassion and who don't need you to shame yourself in order to be worthy of support. This is not to scold or shame anyone further, but to offer an alternative that is kinder to you and more helpful to the people who want to help.

Do yourselves and your fellow sufferers the kindness of dignity; lord knows you've had enough unkindness already.

Silence is betrayal.

day 10!🎉 featuring special guest: raiden!

Okay here’s the thing I’m really annoyed about concerning Tim Drake:

He didn’t remain CEO in more than name. He let Lucius take care of everything he just used the position to create his Neon Knights initiative. He isn’t running WE. He is however running NK. He’s traveling around the world setting up NK locations in cities with lots of at risk youth. He’s not running a Fortune 500 company he’s running a non-profit charity organization dedicated to protecting kids and getting more people on a stable path earlier in life. He isn’t out here dealing with rich, white, assholes so he can make money for himself! He’s doing it to better the world, he’s doing it for education and a safe environment for kids around the world! And he is facing a lot of resistance from the rest of the rich and powerful. He is endearing himself to no one in the business world because his ultimate goal is to dethrone them all by fixing the wage gap. He wants people to have choices so the rich and powerful can’t exploit them as easily.

Tim Drake is not a business man. He has the skills, the ruthlessness and the determination but not the desire. He uses his status and money to help people in need. And it’s a more realistic way of helping the world. You can’t just throw money at problems and expect them to go away. Donating money doesn’t help nearly as much as using money to create systems that help people get the skills and opportunities they need. It takes dedicated work and meticulous oversight and it’s not something that can be done casually. It’s a commitment, not a hobby. The world is to fucked up for any easy fixes. But Neon Knights is a great idea, a long term solution if done correctly. I’ve always thought that fixing education and making sure everyone has equal opportunity from a young age would fix a lot of the issues in the world. More educated people making smarter decisions, more diversity because everyone’s success in entirely merit based. Anyway I’m getting off track. Point is, Tim isn’t some business man with charitable contributions here and there. He’s dedicated his civilian life to the long term benefit of society. He’s not a slacker or a full time vigilante. He’s out there building an entirely new system, a global network of people and locations dedicated solely to helping kids have better futures.

[Video Description: Mazen speaking directly to camera, then videos of the baby supplies and then people carrying the supplies downstairs. Then multiple clips of the supplies being given out to families and children in Gaza. Video ends with a piece of paper with the Fed Up For Palestine logo. Transcript: Mazen says, “I am Mazen Shaheen from the Fed up for Palestine team, today, every night, present at one of the displacement camps to distribute milk and diapers to families in need.” hopeful music plays. end video description]

Introducing the Fed Up 4 Palestine Tumblr Blog!

Hi all! We have created a tumblr since our Instagram is being shadowbanned and we have been dealing with a lot of problems with Meta

Check our our website under construction

Follow us on Instagram

Donate to our Emergency Appeal

Who we are

A Palestinian led non-profit organization who was founded on the principles of justice and advocacy for Palestine.

After the recent events in Gaza, we became FED UP with the injustices against the Palestinian people. Our dedicated team is committed to providing easy, safe & trustworthy ways for communities around the world to help.

We are currently all volunteer run by a very small team! our Tumblr is currently being run by a non-Palestinian volunteer who does not speak Arabic (sorry!) Sky Cubacub of @rebirthgarments. Our volunteers are all over the world (across 5 different time zones currently).

What do we do?

Watch our video to see some of the mutual aid work we are doing currently on the ground in Gaza with our partner Mazen . We are focusing on providing, food, water, formula, diapers, pads and other sanitary essentials to people in Gaza.

While our site is under construction and our foundation is new (just got our nonprofit status in the first week of March) , we have been working hard to provide relief as fast as possible, and we can’t wait to share more about what we’ve done and how you can help! For now, please consider donating to our emergency appeal for Gaza, or joining our online community to see how else you can start helping today (we are currently mostly looking for people to help who can speak and write Arabic!)

Mutual Aid workers need aid too:

If you would like to donate directly to our on the ground worker Mazen and his family for their evacuation fund go to givebutter.com/Mazen

Please Note: our applications for individual family campaign creation is currently closed, and we are pivoting our focus to our on the ground relief work.

Please do not send us DM's here, we will not be responding to DM's, go to our website and email us if you want to connect with us.

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Andrea, a trans woman, UU minister, and veteran, and her wife Wren, a genderqueer veteran, who are currently homeless along with their three cats. While they are working with the VA to get approval for housing assistance, they're in need of funding to get back on their feet; you can read more and support the fundraiser here.

littleredreadinghood linked to a fundraiser for kirkaut, who was recently diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and is in need of help with medical bills. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

like-the-midnight-sun linked to a fundraiser for a close friend, a queer, trans, and multiply-Disabled writer who has just lost their job and needs to pay a steep phone bill to reactivate their service so they can look for work. You can give via paypal here or via Chime to nachonaco.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for crazywolf828, whose grandfather, one of the household's main income sources, recently suffered a broken hip and is currently in a rehab center; they need help with medical bills among other things. You can read more and reblog here or give via ko-fi here. (The page does pop up a "possible NSFW comment" warning window but there's nothing NSFW on that page.)

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Vinn, a disabled nonbinary person who is raising funds to move away from Utah, where being a queer person is becoming steadily less safe, to Michigan, where they have a place to live with their partner already set up. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

like-the-midnight-sun and her wife are multiply marginalized people who don't feel safe in the US anymore; they are fundraising to move to somewhere in Europe, probably Norway or Sweden, where they will be less likely to experience violent persecution. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

like-the-midnight-sun and her wife are also hoping to get temporary assistance with a vet bill before they go out of town; the appointment is the day before payday and they won't be able to cover it until they are paid. They need a loan of $150 that they can pay back; you can give (with repayment on March 30th) via paypal here, via Venmo to ARZinzani (9980), or via Chime at $Nassun-0428.

Recurring Needs:

thelastpyler is raising funds to help with food, transportation, and replacement IDs after being robbed; you can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

Some people have love for humanity, but no compassion for it, no real empathy for human beings that goes beyond the surface level and superficial. Being a misanthropist with compassion is better than being a philanthropist who thinks that there is ultimately nothing fundamentally wrong with the world, who thinks it's okay if all the horrors that humans are subjected to continue to persist, because they think "everything balances out in the end" or because "everything happens for a reason" or some shit. Like I'm sorry, but we definitely tolerate toxic positivity and allow it to masquerade as healthy optimism out of a fear of ever validating anything that seems "too edgy" way, way too much. At some point a desire to only think normal thoughts that aren't cringe turns into intellectual cowardice and moral laziness, and you've definitely reached that point if your attitude towards the abundance of heinous suffering in this world is just, "oh gee well that sure is unfortunate, but you know, ultimately life is beautiful and everything is okay, and none of that stuff really matters in the grand scheme of things, life is still inherently good, etc. etc."

If there is no form of suffering so heinous to you that you would rather vaporize the planet than allow it to continue for one more day, then I'm sorry but you are someone with a hollow and performative affection for your species. Valuing the mere presence of human minds over the actual experiential quality of the lived realities of real humans will always be oonga boonga brain shit to me, I'm sorry. Like your primal drive to support the species' survival is dampening your higher moral functioning. I would rather live in a world where there's just three clones named Sally who are immortal and always happy, than live in a world where millions of people are enduring unspeakable horrors every single day, sorry. "The beauty of life" and "the wonderful tenacity of the human spirit" mean nothing to me when there are people living their entire lives in slavery and little girls are getting gangraped to death. The fact that people regularly take their own lives because their pain is so unbearable that they'd prefer to just cease existing should tell us all we need to know about the value of quantity vs. quality on this issue. Life itself is not inherently good any more than anything else is, and more life does not automatically equal more value and goodness. If you see nothing wrong with throwing new people into this world despite knowing what it could have in store for them, what potential fates they, or their children, could endure, then you only love humanity in the way you love coffee or a good book. You love the idea of humanity. The ideal of humanity. What humanity represents to you. You love humanity as a concept, not as a collection of individual human beings with thoughts and feelings.

What if we were two guys who started our own secret club, with its sole purpose being to track down and destroy silly bipedal tanks capable of launching nuclear weapons of mass destruction, but we couldn’t fight our insatiable passion and lust for one another and had to stop and quickly you know mid-mission? 🤭