they/them

a healthy relationship with food absolutely involves what we call “fun foods”– foods you eat bc you enjoy them (taste, memory associations, celebration, etc.) even if you’re not in need of their nutritional value. pleasure is GOOD and it’s good to experience it thru food! and if you are in need of calories and free candy can help provide them, wonderful.

remember the intuitive eating concepts of unconditional permission to eat and challenging the food police. you get to have as much candy as you want, whenever you want it. that means you can have some now, and you can have some later, too. there’s no need to freeze it or throw it out to prevent yourself from eating it–the candy is not dangerous or “sinful.” this is a great opportunity to practice following your body’s cues, and to trust them. 

if you’ve been candy-restricted in the past, you might eat more than you’re comfortable with. you might even feel sick to your stomach. that’s good data! note it, and reject guilt–you’re learning. and guess what, you STILL have unconditional permission to eat. if you find yourself wanting more in the future, you can have it (this also lets you stop when you want to, bc the candy and your permission to eat it aren’t going anywhere). experiment. observe. trust.

Community centers.

Specifically, places where people can gather, have fun, host events or even just hang out. Similar to what libraries are, but not quite--a place where kids can be loud and rowdy and hang out, make friends, practice sports. Though they definitely should still have quiet areas, maybe craft rooms too. A nice place to go to and hang out after school before you're ready to head home--or a safe place to stay if you don't want to head home. Community centers could also still be fantastic for adults too--they could be used as a place to host classes on different crafts, or repairs, etc.--and still be a perfectly valid place to hang out and seek refuge.

Places like these do exist in many places in a few different forms, but a lot of them are directly tied to organizations and groups that may make people more hesitant to partake in them (ie churches, Police Athletic Leagues), or they have a cost barrier to taking part of the amenities (YMCA). While these places are definitely suitable and fulfilling for many people, they're often limiting and stifling for others--if not just flat-out inaccessible. Not to mention, they don't all fill the roles I mentioned above.

I think having robust community centers would be great for societies all over. I'll admit, my imagination is a bit grand--community gardens, sports rec rooms, swimming pools, reading and craft rooms, a repair cafe, a food cafe, maybe a dorming area for overnight stays, soup kitchens, showers, mutual aid closets and such.

Though I guess that brings about the question of how this would be funded. With churches, it's tithes and other forms of community fundraising. With police athletic leagues, its... taxes, I guess? Alongside other donations. And with the YMCA, it's memberships that provide the funding for their amenities. My initial instinct is to say a mix of taxes and maybe some community contributions would be what funds a good community center, but then there comes the issue of some places having better or worse community centers depending on the median income of their area... especially when you see how places like libraries already get little funding in favor of larger policing budgets (the libraries in my city are all closed on Sundays, and have shorter hours in general, for example)

This is consistently the case. Creators tend to do their best work when they are in a healthy place and receiving proper treatment and not being self destructive in their efforts to cope. Go figure.

…Then they put down a carpet, so that high heels didn’t clack on the floor,  and BOOM women were suddenly getting hired.

"Refusal to handle military equipment for war in Palestine

While a genocide is underway in Palestine, workers at the various airports in Belgium are seeing weapons headed for war zones.

The loading and unloading of these weapons enables the resupplying of organizations killing innocent people.

We, the different unions active in the ground handling sector, call on our members not to handle flights that ship military material to Palestine/Israel as there were also clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine.

We call for an immediate ceasefire and ask the Belgian governments to be consistent and not to tolerate arms shipments through Belgian airports. As unions, we declare our solidarity with those who are taking action for peace.

Source

[ID: A tweet by Demilitarize Western Mass @demilitarizewma that reads “BREAKING. We're blockading all vehicle entrances to the L3Harris facility in Northampton, MA. L3Harris is one of the largest weapons contractors in the world, and they profit from war, the prison industry, and the violent occupation of Palestine..” End ID]

[ID: A tweet by Rebecca Pierce @aptly_engineerd that reads “Happening now: Jewish emergency protest blockading the San Francisco Federal building in solidarity with Gaza and calling for a ceasefire and end to US complicity in the occupation of Palestinians.” End ID]

[ID: A tweet by Jewish Voice for Peace @jvplive that reads “JEWS SAY: STOP THE GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS! Over two-thousand Jews protested in front of the offices and homes of elected officials in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Indiana, Florida, and Los Angeles to demand action to prevent the genocide of Palestinians..” End ID]

Last thing I wanted to highlight was this message from Palestinian-American Author Nadia Shammas. You can read the full thread on twitter.

Various actions across the US and Australia have shut down or attempted to shut down branches of Elbit Systems and connected businesses. The Massachusetts location has been hit multiple times in the past two weeks, and the real estate building now as well.

Two of their locations in the UK were permanently shut last year after relentless actions. There are still allegedly a half dozen UK locations, which have reignited action in the UK.

If a trans person says something is transphobic you shut and listen.

If an immigrant says something is xenophobic you shut up and listen.