Choosing my words carefully, if not well

When I went to see my friends for the pride thing last weekend, we went out to eat before that and while we were talking about stuff while waiting for our bill, one of my friends who carries a whole medical bay in their bag took out one of those nice glass-cleaning wet wipes and started cleaning their glasses with it. Focused on the conversation I didn't pay much attention to it but the next time I looked at their direction I noticed them putting away glasses with a different glasses chain (they have like 35 of them, to match every outfit)

And I thought "hold on, how the fuck do they have the same kind of glasses chain pendants as I do? I made those out of earrings I found from goodwill!" until I realised that no wait those are my sunglasses. They just cleaned them out too since my glasses were right next to their elbow on the table and they had the glasses cleaning stuff out. Didn't ask whether I'd want them to do that as a favour, just casually took care of my shit too since it was conveniently there, just the same as they take care of their own things.

"wow that must be so terrible" "deserts are so ugly" "I would never want to live in a wasteland like that" "it's just empty nothingness"

wishing 10,000 exploding hammers upon you

behold New Mexico

[ID 1: tall, snowcapped rocky mountains rising above a plain filled with desert scrub

ID 2: brightly colored banded cliff walls of several mesas climbing their way into mountains

ID 3: a desert prairie

ID 4: colorful hoodoos against a twilight sky

ID 5: white sand dunes as far as the eye can see

ID 6: a collection of hoodoos against a stormy sky at sunset

ID 7: a juniper tree standing with a cliff wall in the background

right now the trump administration is attacking the public lands in the Southwestern US. most recently (July 2026), in Utah the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments have been cut by over 90% to allow for mining. these lands are sacred to multiple Native nations in the area and contain irreplaceable archeological sites. additionally, the commission of Native representatives who aided in management of these lands has been dissolved leaving Native people without a voice in caring for the remaining land. (read more here)

here in New Mexico, the 10 mile buffer zone surrounding Chaco Canyon preventing oil and gas drilling is under attack. Chaco Canyon contains incredibly old and incredibly fragile archeological sites sacred to Pueblo people. these sites are threatened by mining and drilling. (read more here)

you can't appreciate the desert and also erase the fact that these places are under attack.

and I'd even say it's downright racist. this isn't "just" the desert, these are sacred locations to multiple Native nations and they are under attack because they are sacred to many Native people. the least you can do is reblog to raise awareness to the attacks on these lands. there is no going back from mining and drilling. there is no way to repair these ancient archeological sites when the vibrations in the ground topple them and when they are bulldozed.

STOP-