That’s amazing! Good for you. I think it does count as big news, because it’s a small local action within your power - that’s very solarpunk!

"The real work of planet-saving will be small, humble, & humbling, & (insofar as it involves love) pleasing & rewarding. Its jobs will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous."

Got chatting to her and she's been doing this for SEVEN YEARS, starting as a collection for the refugee camp in Calais and then switching to Slough food bank when the Jungle was cleared. In this time she has collected over 1 tonne of goods for the food bank.

She said she started because she was so despondent at local politics- people were running as Labour candidates but didn't care about left wing policies at all. It was all about corruption and power and wasn't actually helping anyone.

Such a fabulous example of direct action.

Want to help save a life this fine Saturday afternoon? Find your local library’s website, and if they’re still open to the public, ask them why. Call and ask for the director (don’t you dare ask the person who answers the phone about this), email the director or the board, leave a facebook comment. “I thought libraries were one of the few functioning institutions in our country, why are you exposing library workers to a deadly pandemic and setting a bad example for people who already think this isn’t something they need to take seriously?”

They may point you to someone else who actually makes the decision. If they claim this is the health department, you’re talking to a decisionmaker who doesn’t want to take responsibility for their lack of decision. If they point you to a governmental hierarchy, follow it up the chain. (For instance, the City of Chicago libraries are run by a Library Commissioner, who answers to the Mayor. Actually, if you’re in Chicago, feel free to yell directly at Mayor Lori Lightfoot about this.)

Then get your roommate to do it. And your neighbor. And your mom. They have an answer they think is good; it’s not. Make them repeat it so often that they have to think about the ways in which their answer is insufficient every single minute of the day, just like their front line staff do.

Protip: do NOT say “you can do it all online,” librarians have a kneejerk reaction to that phrase and anyway it’s not true, plenty of people still don’t have reliable internet access and especially right now, that’s a problem. Say “I know you’re talented enough to find safer ways to offer essential services to people who really need them.” (One of our essential services is printing, which is now equally used by privileged and underprivileged households, because most people don’t print often enough to own a printer any more.) If you know they do offer tech - laptops, hotspots, wifi that extends into the parking lot - point this out. Ask them how they’re protecting their workers when health departments all around the country are screaming at people not to leave their homes unless it’s absolutely necessary.

I’m terrified of going back to work next Saturday, the first normal day after Thanksgiving, when we’re usually crazy busy after being closed for two days and everyone wants to trade in their Thanksgiving travel entertainment for Christmas travel entertainment. But as of right now, I’ll be there, because no one’s forced my library to close, and we won’t until something else happens, because my director is terrified of pissing people off.

Happy Disability Pride Month!

Disability happens to people without our control or consent. Every single disabled person has strong feelings about their own situation and I would not presume to talk about anyone’s thoughts but my own. But none of us chose to do life on hardmode, so if the world could listen this month, there’s a lot to say.

Disability Pride Month Journal #3 -

Track of the day // DAWN - Sauce