RANDOMNESS!!

please donate if you can. the gofundme link is here

Everyone should have a go-bag that they've prepared over time in the event of an emergency. It should include:

- All documents including IDs, passports, social security cards, insurance information, medical records: vitally include any documentation of recent medical procedures, documentation of any current legal proceedings, etc (or copies of all of the above)

- Credit & Debit Cards, cash, etc

- Medications (and clean medical applicators like syringes and such. If it needs to be kept cooled, I've seen people reccomend that the bag be kept within a few steps of a kitchen or fridge to be accessible to coolers/ice packs)

- Clothing (Three days of clothing per person tends to be a fair assessment. Typically add in a coat no matter the weather and a mask of any kind)

- Three days of non-perishable food per person per day. If there is a baby involved, include formula (EVEN if they are breastfed. Babies sometimes struggle to latch on when in stressful situations)

- Water. This rule of thumb is a gallon per living being per day for at least three days. Add an additional reusable water bottle for each being if possible.

- Animal/Pet Supplies (Pet food, collapsable litter box, backup litter in ziploc bags, poop bags, etc). Include Pet Medical Records if available

- First Aid Kit (which should be in your car anyway, but remember that you can't always take your car)

- Chargers for all devices

- Extra! Flashlight! Trust me on this one, you do not want to be relying on your phone. Preferably solar or battery powered but remember to add in extra batteries if it is the latter

- Basic Hygiene/Health Aid such as N95s, gloves, surgical masks, hand sanitizer, eye protection, saline, etc

THEN you add in sentimental items and valuables. Make sure you have thought about what items you own that you 100% could never ever live without and try to see if you can make sure they can be grabbed quickly if you are ever in an evacuation zone.

It is overwhelming and for a lot of people it takes time to curate this bag. You would much rather prefer to think about it now than panic in an emergency and forget something you can never find again.

Those of you who don't live in California might not know but there's currently a few fires, the biggest being Eaton Fire, destroying cities in Southern California and spreading rapidly due to high winds. Areas like Pasadena, Glendale, and Altadena have already evacuated and many more areas (including mine) are on standby for potential evacuation. Please consider donating to any of the places listed here and send support to your friends in Southern California.

altadena, calif. january 2024

So when you see fundraisers for people, please don't lump everyone into a bucket called Rich Bastards. It's bad. Historic, record breaking bad. I know one person who confirmed that his house is gone. Two more who evac'd and don't know if their house survived. And at this point, half a dozen in warning zones.

I am fine where I am, and tbh, if my location ever got evac'd for a fire of this kind, it would be the kind of fire that just gets called The Great [City Name] Fire. Don't worry about me.

Not everybody who lives in LA is rich or a celebrity or a CEO. We're people of all different backgrounds and incomes, and to categorize one of the country's biggest populations under "rich" removes all of that

Furthermore, hi, PEOPLE'S HOUSES ARE BURNING DOWN. DO YOU GET THAT?? THEIR HOMES ARE BURNING DOWN

It's not about whether they have the money to immediately make a new one (remember that majority of people in LA county do not), it's about the fact that their entire livelihoods are disappearing right before their eyes and they can't do anything about it. Those memories are gone in an instant

Even if someone isn't being directly affected, they feel it in other ways. The air quality is extremely bad, everyone is smelling the smoke and seeing the flames

But how they actually worked was manipulating racist policies to cause as much of a delay as possible. They'd sit down at the bar to order (that's how those restaurants worked, you had to sit down to order and there weren't many tables) and when the waiter said they couldn't serve them, they'd respond that they would wait until they could be served. And then all their friends who they organized this with would do the same, and they would sit there at every seat until they're holding up the whole line. Then nobody could order and the restaurant was forced to either close, serve them, or try and fail to work around them. It wasn't just to make a point, it was to cost them money and time.

Does this look quiet, peaceful, nondisruptive?

And the struggle didn't stop after formal integration, once the Civil Rights act had passed. Because even when they are legally required to serve you, they can make you really fucking uncomfortable and threaten you and the cops probably will take their side.

For one example, there was a cafe that would serve Black people, but would then publicly break the dishes so that no white customer would ever have to eat off a dish a Black person had eaten off of. This was done publicly, right as the Black diner was done eating. The waitress takes the plate and smashes it. This is a signal both to the white diners "see, we hate them just as much as you do, you're safe here" and also a threat of violence to the Black diners. "If you're not careful we'll smash you just like we did this plate."

But at the same time, if Black people go there and eat every day ... how long before the cafe can't afford to do that? How long before they have broken so many dishes that it's eating into their profits? How long before the white diners start getting used to eating alongside Black people and simply don't care as much any longer, or start getting annoyed at the noise and fuss and mess?