F

And it’s the children that pay the highest price. An estimated 85,000 children have lost their lives to extreme starvation alone. Every 10 minutes, a child under 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen. When choosing what charities or goals you want to support during the last few days of Ramadan, I urge you to keep the children of Yemen in mind. And if you’re not celebrating Ramadan, or are not religious.. you’re still human.

These are a few of charities that I know of that you can donate to:

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/how-you-can-help/emergencies/yemen-crisis?

https://www.muslimglobalrelief.org/yemen-appeal (100% donation policy)

https://oxfamapps.org.uk/yemen

https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/yemen-crisis-appeal

http://sharethemeal.org

If Yemen was 100 people:

80 need aid to survive

60 have nothing to eat

58 have no access to clean water

52 have no access to health care, however since Covid-19 their healthcare system has effectively collapsed

But Yemen is not 100 people

Someone put red paint on the "Serve and Protect" sculpture at the Salt Lake City police building and it is such a powerful statement.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was slowly and mercilessly killed by 4 Minneapolis police officers while being videotaped by concerned citizens begging them to stop. Floyd was surrounded and brutally dealt with by the police as Derek Chauvin’s knee pinned down his throat. Floyd kept screaming “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” but they didn’t listen. He then became unresponsive but was continually choked until his nose began to bleed, and his lifeless body was shoved into a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance.

The officers involved have been fired and the FBI has been called to investigate. But we must do our part to ensure that George Floyd receives the justice he deserves. Please sign these petitions addressed to the FBI, The President, The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, The Minneapolis Police Department, & DA Mike Freeman. An email on your behalf will be sent to all of the above. The lawyer representing Floyd’s family, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, urges us to call DA Mike Freeman (612-348-5550) and tell him to arrest and charge these officers for the Murder of George Floyd, I encourage you to do so.

SIGN THESE PETITIONS:

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd

https://www.change.org/p/change-org-the-minneapolis-police-officers-to-be-charged-for-murder-after-killing-innocent-black-man

https://www.change.org/p/department-of-justice-mandatory-life-sentence-for-police-brutality

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd-2

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/justiceforfloyd-demand-the-police-officers-who-killed-george-floyd-are-fired

https://go.theactionpac.com/sign/justice-for-george-floyd?akid=s126290..-x2Vhw

https://go.theactionpac.com/sign/stand-with-breonna?akid=s170063..jxQ_ei

FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE INTERNATIONALLY: if you cannot sign without american postal codes, feel free to use these:

90015 - Los Angeles, California 10001 - New York City, New York 75001 - Dallas, Texas

DONATE TO GEORGE FLOYD’S FAMILY:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

TEXT “FLOYD” TO 55156!

TEXT “JUSTICE” TO 668366!

If you want to be educated and informed more, refer to the official page for #BlackLivesMatter:

I’m getting mad, so here’s something I’ve realized while reading The Order of the Phoenix again. (Please keep in mind that my books are in Italian and some concepts might be hard to explain, I apologize for my English mistakes)

In chapter 14, when The Trio talked with Sirius, he said that two years before Dolores Umbridge had written a law against werewolves that made it almost impossible for Lupin to find a job.

Now ask yourself this question. Why two years?

What had happened two years before? During Harry’s third year? Oh, right. The Magical World had discovered that one of Hogwarts’ teachers (someone who was in constant conctat with their children) was a werewolf. Does that ring any bell?

But that’s not all! If we take a look at chapter 15, in the Daily Prophet article we can see a familiar name: Remus Lupin. In a newspaper. Where everyone can read it. “The werewolf Remus Lupin”. No wonder he couldn’t find a job! And it’s not the first time the Daily Prophet has written about him, as it’s stated in the article itself. There must have been a huge scandal when it had all come out.

So basically, when Snape decided he couldn’t bear not having what he wanted (for example, SIRIUS BLACK GETTING KISSED BY A DEMENTOR) and spilled the secret, he didn’t only tell the whole school. He didn’t only tell the kids’ parents. The told the whole Magical World.

He told the whole Magical World that a man who had kept his condition secret all his life was a werewolf.

And the Magical World responded with a law against werewolves.

So, basically, Snape didn’t only ruin Remus Lupin’s life. He ruined the life of every single werewolf in the UK.

Earlier today, I served as the “young woman’s voice” in a panel of local experts at a Girl Scouts speaking event. One question for the panel was something to the effect of, “Should parents read their daughter’s texts or monitor her online activity for bad language and inappropriate content?”

I was surprised when the first panelist answered the question as if it were about cyberbullying. The adult audience nodded sagely as she spoke about the importance of protecting children online.

I reached for the microphone next. I said, “As far as reading your child’s texts or logging into their social media profiles, I would say 99.9% of the time, do not do that.”

Looks of total shock answered me. I actually saw heads jerk back in surprise. Even some of my fellow panelists blinked.

Everyone stared as I explained that going behind a child’s back in such a way severs the bond of trust with the parent. When I said, “This is the most effective way to ensure that your child never tells you anything,” it was like I’d delivered a revelation.

It’s easy to talk about the disconnect between the old and the young, but I don’t think I’d ever been so slapped in the face by the reality of it. It was clear that for most of the parents I spoke to, the idea of such actions as a violation had never occurred to them at all.

Around age 13, I tried to express to my mother that I thought I might have clinical depression, and she snapped at me “not to joke about things like that.” I stopped telling my mother when I felt depressed.

Around age 15, I caught my mother reading my diary. She confessed that any time she saw me write in my diary, she would sneak into my room and read it, because I only wrote when I was upset. I stopped keeping a diary.

Around age 18, I had an emotional breakdown while on vacation because I didn’t want to go to college. I ended up seeing a therapist for - surprise surprise - depression.

Around age 21, I spoke on this panel with my mother in the audience, and afterwards I mentioned the diary incident to her with respect to this particular Q&A. Her eyes welled up, and she said, “You know I read those because I was worried you were depressed and going to hurt yourself, right?”

TL;DR: When you invade your child’s privacy, you communicate three things:

You do not respect their rights as an individual.

You do not trust them to navigate problems or seek help on their own.

You probably haven’t been listening to them.

Too many parents wonder why their kids aren’t honest with them, and never realize their own non-receptive behavior and their failure to listen are the reasons why.

* * *

But a memory came back to her at the question. Her mother and father each holding a tiny hand and swinging her as they walked down the street. Her mother’s eyes, the love in her parents gaze as they shared a look.

That was a different kind of magic.

A young boy walked up to her, black hair and kind eyes. He looked down at the flower she’d grown from the palm of her hand.

“I’m Severus,” he said. He didn’t think Lily was a freak.

That was a different kind of magic.

Another memory flooded her senses. She was back to 12 years old and her sister hadn’t said anything to her beyond ‘freak’ for the whole year. Petunia had baked a cake and when Lily reached out to cut a slice, for the first time in too long, Petunia didn’t bat Lily’s hand away. Instead she smiled at her.That day, they were children again, running through fields and playing games under the sun.

That was a different kind of magic.

Lily was thirteen and she was reading a Tale of Two Cities. She was so lost in the book that by the time she looked up it was dark outside the window she was sitting by and she hadn’t even realised she’d been squinting just to see the words. She’d finally finished it though, and when she told Remus, he lit up and they spent the whole night talking through the book.

That was a different kind of magic.

In fifth year, Sirius Black stood on the table of the Great Hall and picked up a carrot cake. The whole room fell silent and waited for him to say whatever it was he had to say. Lily remembered watching Professor McGonagall’s face as she realised, a second too late, what was about to happen. Sirius threw that carrot cake with all the force he could muster and somehow, miraculously—Sirius still insists he didn’t use magic—got it across to the Slytherin table and straight into Bellatrix Black’s face. Lily broke into laughter as she remembered the muggle movie she’d shown him the previous weekend and how entranced he’d been during the food fight scene. The Great Hall erupted and Lily left that night covered head to toe in an assortment of foods and a memory of the sly smirk of McGonagall’s face.

That was a different kind of magic.

A memory of two hands, pale hair against dark and bright smiles. Sixth year. Lily remembered listening to Dorcas pine after Marlene for years and then here they were, hands linked and laughing as they jumped into the Great Lake. Lily, Alice and Mary laughed along with them but they were in their own world, in love and so, so happy.

That was a different kind of magic.

A final memory plays in her mind. James Potter, shy for once in his life, nervously messing up his hair and looking away from her.

“Lily. I don’t want to... I don’t want to screw this up,” he said. “I really really like having you as my friend. More than you can imagine.” He paused for a moment and looked Lily in the eyes. “But I’ll hate myself forever if I don’t try one last time.” Lily tried to imagine what he’d say. But he’d stopped talking. He wasn’t going to say it.

“Would you maybe want to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?” Lily blurted before she could talk herself out of it. James’ eyes widened but not once did his hand lift up to his hair.

“What?” Lily put her head in her hands and groaned. She was stupid. She was so, so stupid. “You can’t let me have one victory can you, Evans?” James laughed.

“What?” Lily looked up through a crack in her fingers. James was smirking at her. He pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Yes, Lily. I’d love to go to Hogsmeade with you this weekend.”

That was a different kind of magic.

* * *

“Lily?” James leaned forward and snapped Lily out of her trance. She remembered the question suddenly. Do you believe in magic?

“Yeah,” Lily said, smiling slightly. “Yeah I do.” James didn’t note the happiness in her voice, but instead grinned.