Jay Bun Art

Here's Kaminari and Shinsou and my cat playing games and having fun! ╰(*´︶`*)╯

it’s unfathomable to me that someone would see we have actual nazi death camps in our country, and think the solution is writing to the politicians who allowed it to happen.

i have yet to see a post on any social media that has meaningfully helpful suggestions for how to get involved, so:

this article offers a number of suggestions including getting involved with your local chapter of Sanctuary Not Deportation, which connects faith groups to offer sanctuary to immigrants fleeing ICE. it also has a comprehensive list of immigrant-lead organizations to get involved with or donate to, as well as a link to crowdfund for detainee’s phone bills, which allows them to contact their families, legal counsel, and inform the outside world of the realities they are facing in detention.

here is a link for finding detention centers near you. there are many rallies directly outside of these camps you can participate in, and physically going to them is crucial in liberation efforts.

posting bond for detained immigrants is still one of the best ways to get people out of the death camps, even though ICE is increasingly unwilling to participate. the linked article has a list of both federal and state-by-state bail funds/organizations.

host a refugee if you have the room. Room For Refugees is still trying to build a network in the US. keeping people out of ICE’s grip and preventing detention in the first place is the best thong we can do because these camps are becoming more and more impenetrable.

help the legal organizations helping immigrants near you; if you’re anywhere close to NYC the New Sanctuary Coalition needs volunteers/donations, and if you’re on the border get involved with Texas Civil Rights Project.

on top of free legal aid, the NSC specifically also organizes rapid responses to ICE raids, which is one of the most importang things you can do – there are many local networks already in place, but here is how to organize a rapid response network if your city doesn’t have one.

one of the easiest things we can all do is learn the rights of immigrants in this country, and how to react to ICE raids. spread this information to everyone you know and keep the toolkit in easy access on your phone.

the only government policy that can make an immediate and tangible impact is municipal policy; push your local politicians to support or build sanctuary city initiatives – here is a toolkit for local political action.

finally, get involved with local antifa and leftist orgs! follow their social media to get updates on calls to action and protests happening near you. i cannot stress enough how important it is to be aware of efforts in your own city. antifa international’s tumblr is one page you can follow, but please research the orgs specifically in your area that are fighting the rise of fascism. the torch network has a list of chapters in several cities around the US, but again this is just a place to start.

i encourage everyone to find at least ONE thing from this list you can do, beyond donating. i know we are all stressed and have our time/energy zapped by capitalism, but if we do nothing, nothing will change. and please share these links wherever you can – copy and paste this post or at least share the first article i linked.

The child chooses which parent they want to live with. No other parties—not the parents, nor the judge—can overrule the child’s decision.

The other parent’s visitation rights are determined by the child. If the child is willing to let the other parent visit, then that parent has visitation rights. If the child wants nothing to do with the other parent, then that parent does not have visitation rights.

If the child is too young to express a preference (for example, a baby), then the current method of determining custody gets used—that is, each party presents evidence with the goal of determining which living situation is objectively best for the child.

If the child is old enough to talk, but it’s not clear that they fully understand what’s going on (for example, a three-year-old), then a social worker who knows the child testifies as to whether the child has a preference, and if so what it is.

If the child expresses a preference for living with a parent who is demonstrably abusive, then the child can stay with the abusive parent, and from then on at least one social worker is present in the child’s home at all times. These social workers have the goals of a) monitoring the abusive parent to make sure no abuse happens, and to intervene if it does; b) providing companionship and emotional support to the child; c) informing the child of their legal rights; and d) eventually convincing the child to change their mind and seek out a different living situation.

I don’t predict that the last bullet point would happen very often. I believe that if you give children a choice, their decisions will almost always line up with what’s best for their own physical and emotional safety.

If a child says they want to live with an abusive parent, then a few things could be happening.

The child is being coerced. This would be really bad and we should go to great lengths to avoid it. Children should be informed often and in terms they understand that their decisions will be respected, that there isn’t a “wrong” choice, and that no matter what they won’t be punished.

The court is wrong about their assessment of the parents. Maybe the evidence was misinterpreted. Maybe the supposedly safe parent is even more violent, and the child is choosing the lesser of two evils.

The child is getting something out of their relationship with the abusive parent—something they value so much that it’s worth putting up with abuse.

My suggestion of a 24/7 social worker presence in the household is tailored to the third possibility. If the child is staying with an abusive parent because it’s fulfilling some hard-to-see emotional need, then the social workers’ job is to figure out what that emotional need is, and then to find a new, safer living situation that the child will consent to. On the other hand, if one of the first two bullet points is happening, the social workers will still be there to witness and intervene if any abuse happens.

We don’t use the government to break up relationships between adults because we value the autonomy of adults, and we don’t trust the government’s judgment about which relationships should be broken up, and the police can’t be trusted not to make things worse. We allow an exception when an adult commits a crime, like assaulting their partner, at which point the government can bring criminal charges against them. When no one’s physical safety is in immediate danger, we understand that the best way to help a victim of abuse is to provide emotional support, voice our concerns, but ultimately let them decide whether to end the relationship.

I see no reason why the above paragraph shouldn’t read “people” instead of “adults.” Children are not inherently worthy of less autonomy. And the government’s ability to evaluate the merits of a relationship doesn’t get better just because one of the parties involved is small, vulnerable, and inexperienced.

There’s a legitimate gray area where children can express preferences but might not understand what’s at stake, and I’m not going to pretend that navigating this gray area is easy. But we can still get better about valuing and respecting children’s autonomy. Certainly, by the time a child is ten or eleven years old, there’s no reason for a court to overrule their custody decisions.

This post has focused so far on a binary choice between two parents, but obviously grandparents and other relatives and family friends and foster care all exist and are often on the table in cases of child abuse. I’d like the same rule to apply across the board: children should not be removed from, or placed in, living situations without their consent.

Ultimately I’d like all children to be able to choose their own families. If a child wants to move to a different household, and the people in that household are okay with it, neither the child’s original parents nor the government should be able to stop them.

They’re working to help our Russian brothers and sisters escape to countries where they’re safe, and they could really use our help. You can also read there on some of what’s going on in Russia with regard to queer rights.

You may also consider Rainbow Railroad: https://www.rainbowrailroad.com

They have the same goal and work in countries worldwide where queer folk are in danger due to anti-LGBTQ laws.

I’ve never drawn anything robotic before so while I’m trying new things, I decided to give it a try. Making this was more fun than I thought it’d be so I might just have to draw more than Freddy next time :) 

Mark: Am I fubberknucked???

Kaminari: why do people use the term “lit” at n i g h t