just try to catch me

Below I’ve copied and pasted my letter to my congressional and senatorial representatives. Please feel free to use sections or the entirety of my letter as you reach out to your own representatives. 

I cannot recommend ResistBot enough. I have discovered I have serious phone anxiety when it comes to things that are important to me, and ResistBot lets me say what I want without talking to anyone on the phone. If you hate writing and love talking to the aides of representatives on the phone, 5calls is also a fantastic resource. 

Oh! And don’t forget to include your full mailing address when contacting your representatives! If you don’t include your full mailing address, your comments can’t be logged and your voice will not be heard.

To Representative __________:

While FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has made it clear that he doesn’t put much value in the opinions of American citizens, I nonetheless feel compelled to write and urge you to continue the fight against any attempts to dismantle Net Neutrality. The Internet provides a platform for free speech that connects us across the nation, and around the globe.

The Internet has opened doors for me to be a better participant in the democratic process of my country, a better citizen. And that newfound ability is what lets me say: regulations on what megacorperations are allowed to censor are absolutely necessary in today’s political sphere. I am twenty-five years old, I am part of the last generation to know what it’s like to be alive WITHOUT the Internet. And the thought that I might suddenly need to buy a literal soapbox and yell in the town square to get my voice heard leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Net Neutrality allows small Internet-based businesses to flourish, allows independent artists to be discovered and celebrated, allows international news to see the light of day in America. Don’t think for a second that reining in speeds so that Twitter loads slower than dial-up, and separated “content packages” won’t happen because while I may have hope for the future of America, I do not have hope that perhaps the heads of big businesses will shirk at the thought of making a buck off an infringement of my rights. I equate Net Neutrality with free speech, my first amendment right. And you can bet that the service that I am using to contact you now, ResistBot, which encourages me to write letters to my representatives about issues that affect my life and will continue to affect every generation after me, would be one of the first services to be stagnated to the point of unusability.

I also take issue with the fact that an unelected board of commissioners has the power to threaten something that so closely affects my life and there is nothing I can do about it. If one of my elected representatives were behaving this way, and publicly declaring that they didn’t care about the opinions of their constituents, I’d be able to cast my vote to unseat them in the next election. As it is, I can only dream of the day Ajit Pai sees the inside of the Supreme Court for his attempts to sell my right to free and open discourse to the highest bidder.

Again, I urge you, please redouble your efforts to bring this attempt to dismantle Net Neutrality to its knees. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

 Sincerely,

Sometime before Beyonce was 21, likely around 18, Jay-Z sets his sights on her. The youngest he could have possibly been was 30.

The day she turned 21, he asked her to “go steady” by saying “Don’t embarrass me”. He was cheating the whole time. She had just turned 21 so he would be 33 in 3 months. This is in 2002. That same year Destiny’s Child announced a hiatus. They would release their final album in 2004.

Jay repeatedly boasts about the baddest chick in the game wearing his chain. He’s still cheating left and right.

Destiny’s Child has their last performance in 2006.

“I am alone at a crossroads. I’m not at home in my own home and I’ve tried and tried to say what’s on my mind.” - 2007

Bey married Jay in 2008. He’s still cheating.

She has a few miscarriages. Finds out her dad’s a sack of shit with all types of outside children. Is CONSTANTLY attacked by white feminists. Is told she isn’t open enough and consistently critiqued for “not being real” as she sings about this man, who has been grooming her to deal with his shit since she was 18 and he was 30, treating her terribly and constantly breaking her heart. Home is not the refuge is should be, not at all. Her husband is still cheating and, by his own admission, is not emotionally supportive in the slightest.

The Grammys keep finding reasons to rob her and taint the one thing still kinda working the way she needs. Her husband is still cheating. He’s having threesomes and shit. Still bragging about the hottest chick in the game wearing his chain though. Because, apparently, that’s all she was to him. A trophy.

2011- she’s still trying desperately to get him to be better. She’s still thinking she’s not doing something right (that’s what “getting in early” does for these men). This is when we get that epic love letter to Jay-Z in the album “4”.

She’s finally able to carry a child to term, but not without people constantly accusing her of lying about being pregnant and saying the baby isn’t hers.

Blue’s arrival and Beyonce’s reflection of the hell she’s been dealing with get her to finally consider leaving for real and for good. She’s about to walk away.

With Blue’s arrival, Jay finally thinks he should treat his wife better. It’s 2012. He’s been treating her like absolute shit, after grooming her to take the emotional abuse, for 11 years.

2013 - Beyonce starts telling her story in the eponymous album.

2015, once Blue is old enough to notice things start forming her understanding of relationships, LEMONADE. Trash men get angry at her “airing their dirty laundry”. Delusional stans of the relationship swear it’s not about them but her parents. Stans refusing to believe this man is who he is is part of her hell.

Gillian Lynn, Choreographer - Phantom of the Opera “Behind The Mask” Documentary (via opera-ghost)