a place to store all my solarpunk content

My wife is three months pregnant and suffering from severe malnutrition. My youngest child, who is a year and a half old, cries constantly from hunger, and his mother is hospitalized.

For a week now I have been pleading with you to help me so that I don't lose any of my family members.

I don't want to lose my wife or my child. They desperately need your help.

Please donate to save my family.

I ask for your help with a heart full of sorrow and loss. 😭

Help me save my family from this hell.

Please Please Save My Wife , My Baby Chile and My Family

Donate now

Eryka's partner had a history of violence towards her. She was staying in shelters as recently as January according to her sister. (Source) Some studies indicate that Trans femmes are at a higher risk of IPV (Source)

I used to prep, wash dishes, and cook at mellow mushroom. I had chronic pain that wasn't NEARLY as bad as it is today, but it was still very debilitating. I told my employer "i cannot stand more than 4 to 6 hours. I CANNOT do shifts longer than this due to my illness." And even though i made my boundaries VERY clear, everyday i worked it was 8 hours at the least and 10 or 12 at the most. I would go up to my manager and say "look i really need to leave, my shift is over, my chronic pain is killing me." And he'd say "we really need to here, you HAVE to push through." And so i did, and after one, ONE month of that job my crps got incredibly worse to the point where i could no longer walk my dog around the block which was .5 miles. I quit, and that was FOUR years ago, and ever since that day I HAVE BEEN BEDRIDDEN AND HAVE TO USE A WHEELCHAIR. It is my biggest regret in life.

My best friend who has seen my whole journey has recently developed undiagnosed chronic pain, and she is in the EXACT same scenario i was 4 years ago. Busting her ass at a pizza place with extreme pain that hurts her so much she tells me "im in so much pain i don't even feel like a person." She doesn't feel LUCID. And her manager and coworkers are saying the same thing "if you don't help us you will let us down, we'll be in the shit."

A baby is never doing something to upset you. They don't act up to piss you off. They act in the only way they know how, and yes, sometimes the behaviour they're drawn to isn't great! That's why you guide them and comfort.

Let's not piss about and deny that. They're deeply satisfying sensations, at least in the short-term, and vastly more so when they are at least to some extent justified. I wouldn't go as far as to call them addictive, but they are compelling.

They're also a trap. There is a reason why encouraging those sensations in their target market is one of the first steps in the fascism playbook (evidence: pretty much the entire history of the pro-fascist media in the UK, for example). And being a left-wing, pro-social justice highly judgemental person can deteriorate politically into something more and more unpleasant so very easily and often without you noticing. But also, cultures that are highly judgemental and heavy on disgust and moral superiority tend to fuck everything up even when the basic principles are good. I mean, this is tumblr. *shrugs helplessly*

(I say "you". I am anything but innocent of seeking out that feeling, and I want to do better. This post is partly me giving myself some accountability on that. :) )

Compassion can be a good antidote. As is nuanced critical thinking.

Be wary of posts on here that demand that you judge more intensely, or think less clearly. Remember that judging yourself too harshly, while much less pleasant, can be just as compelling, and can also cloud the mind.

Remember that the more people you have compassion towards (almost regardless of who they are), the more sensibly you're likely to behave.

Like. I remember back in my grocery store cashier days I did so much crazy shit.

When WIC (Women, infants, and children voucher program to help low income mothers/families with children) people were in my line I would pretty much know who they were. Before the cards they had to tell us upfront they were WIC and show us their vouchers for what they were allowed to get (it was awful some times. Like. 2 gallons of milk. $4 worth of vegetables etc etc). They’d always have items hanging back, waiting to see what the total was and if they would have to take it off the belt.

I began to place the fruits/vegetables a certain way on the register scale so that like 1/2lbs of grapes read as like .28lbs or something. Then act shocked when I said that they still had X amount of lbs left. They got all their fruit and vegetables.

I think it started to kinda? Catch on to the women? Because I would have the same moms in my line month after month. And even after they switched to the cards (they worked like food stamp cards?) I’d still do the same thing. They were able to get more produce for whatever shitty max amount Indiana gave them.

Dear Representative [Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented risks to digital privacy and security.

Specifically, I am alarmed by:

SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices.

SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection.

This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and vote NO on H.R. 8250.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Given that, in the wake of this mandatory identification policy, my country seems to be moving to hand over its citizens biometric data, like fingerprints, Face ID files, and identification documents, over to the USA and to ICE to maintain the visa free travel (ESTA) we have, I strongly urge any US resident to send these emails, or make calls.

But if you can’t do that, the most powerful thing you can do is spread the word. Tell your friends, family, coworkers, anyone who can help.

My reach will likely be small, and so I don’t know if this will mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot stand to see this tracking happen to another population as it did to mine.

And if you think it won’t affect you, it will. All anonymity goes out the window when your accounts can be linked via your personal ID

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