Sting-raye

but someone else could.

that’s the whole point of frodo—there is nothing special about him, he’s a hobbit, he’s short and likes stories, smokes pipeweed and makes mischief, he’s a young man like other young men, except for the singularly important fact that he is the one who volunteers. there is this terrible thing that must be done, the magnitude of which no one fully understands and can never understand before it is done, but frodo says me and frodo says I will.

(when boromir is thinking of how he can use the ring to defend gondor, when aragorn is thinking of how it brought down proud isildur, when elrond is holding council and gandalf is thinking of how twisted he would become, if he ever dared—)

but then there’s frodo, who desires nothing except what he has already left behind him, and says, I will take the Ring.

it is an offer made out of absolute innocence, utter sincerity. It is made without knowing what it will make of him—and frodo loses everything to the ring, he loses peace and himself and the shire, he loses the ability to be in the world. It’s cruel, the ring is cruel, it searches out every weakness you have and feeds on it, drinks you dry and fills you with its poison instead, the ring is so cruel.

and frodo picks it up willingly. for no other reason except that it has to be done.

(the ring warps boromir into a hopeless grasping dead thing, the power of the palantir turns denethor into an old man, jealous and suspicious, it bends even saruman, once the proudest of the istari, into a mechanised warlord, sitting in his fortress and bent over his perverse creations—all the best of intentions, laid waste)

but there’s a reason gollum exists in the narrative, which is to show—well, to show what frodo might have been. because even as frodo grows mistrustful and wearied, as the burden of this ring grows heavier and heavier, he is never gollum. he is gentle to gollum. he is afraid—god frodo is so afraid for 2/3 of these books he is so tired and afraid, but he keeps moving, he walks though it would pull him into the ground, because he asked for this, he said he would.

someone else could have carried the ring to mordor, I suppose. the idea of a martyr is not dependent on the particular flesh and blood person dying for some greater purpose. but such a thing has to be chosen, lifted onto your shoulders for the right reason, the truest reasons, and followed into the dark, though it would see you burnt through and bled out.

OK Highway Patrol Captain George Brown says the best “tip” for women to not get raped by a cop is to “follow the law in the first place so you don’t get pulled over.” http://youtu.be/BO8g8akPWcY (Last third of the video).

Three serial rapists in 3 weeks arrested in Oklahoma, all cops.

I know that sounds dumb, but hear me out. My mother is a dispatcher for the local police station. I asked her about how to pull over for a cop and even brought up the use of hazard lights, and she told me that it is not always accepted. This is what she told me you can do in order to feel safe when pulling over:

Call the police. No, really. Call and tell the dispatcher where you are and that there is a cop behind you demanding you pull over. The dispatcher can and will stay on the line with you while they look up the area you’re in to see if it’s one of their station’s cops. Then, once the cop comes to your window, you can crack it open (it only has to be an inch!) while still on the phone with the dispatcher. This is definitely, 100% accepted protocol.

The dispatcher will verify that it is their own, real cop, and they will gladly stay on the line with you throughout your interaction with the officer. And God forbid this ever happens to any of you, but if something were to happen to you during this time, you’ve already contacted 911 and given your location to the dispatcher.

Please keep this in mind if you are ever requested to pull over and do not feel safe. The dispatcher will understand. Do not, however, continue to drive, because there might be the off-chance an officer will think you’re flat-out refusing to pull over (a well-lit, populated area might be a ways away).

Hey there. My name is Louis J. Vega and I thought I might make a better post to promote my gofundme page.

For those of you who don’t know me, I have recently hopped from one bad situation to another. I moved back home to California after being stuck on a shitty farm where my grandmother wouldn’t let me leave the property or get my driver’s license. I chose to move back down here because I knew I could learn to drive and that I would be more likely to get a job in a town rather than out in the country.

Unfortunately things aren’t that great out here either. While I have my learner’s permit now, finding a job is proving to be difficult. Things only got more difficult with one of my cousins taking the wifi away, but we’ll get to that later.

When I moved down here, I thought that I would be living with my uncle in a home he already had until I could save up the money to move to Washington. What my mother neglected to tell me before making the trip was that my uncle didn’t have a place and he wanted to put it under my name. This is a problem because a) I don’t want to stay down here and b) the guy wrecks the houses he’s in. I just can’t be held responsible for that.

Currently I am staying with my Great Grandmother who is housing five other people. On top of how cramped everything is, the living conditions are horrendous.

This is what the living room looks like(at least part of it). The whole house is cluttered like this. In fact there is a whole room that’s not in use because it’s full of garbage(pictured below).

Right now I am sleeping in my Great Grandmother’s old recliner chair(again, pictured below). It’s old, stiff, and it creaks when you breath(I am not joking). I am sharing the living room with two other people and boy neither of them are quiet. Not to mention no one in the house is considerate enough to not shout in the early hours of the morning.

But wait, I haven’t even told you about the infestations yet! This house is overrun with mice, black widows, and cockroaches. You can’t go anywhere with out seeing either a mouse, roach, or widow. It’s frankly disgusting. Naturally the whole house is covered in mouse droppings.

Putting the horrible living conditions, my family is totally racist, homophobic, transphobic, and just all around evil. I am literally not safe to come out. I WILL be assaulted or they will try to convert me and repent my sinning ways. And let’s not forget that everyone is very manipulative. My mother is still trying to strong arm me into moving in with my uncle(who is probably one of the worst transphobes I know). My older cousin took away the wifi(as mentioned before) because I dared tell her not to bully my uncle’s kids. I know he himself is a shitty guy, but his kids had nothing to do with it.