Spoke to my friend who lives near St. Cloud, MN yesterday.
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@artemis the solidarity is much appreciated, and also: I just want to highlight that we are doing this in MN and, overwhelmingly, NOT dying, because a) we are protecting each other by sharing the risk, and b) although these goon are incredibly dangerous, they are also, on the whole, a bunch of worthless putzes who flee at the sound of a whistle, and would rather sit warm behind their tinted windows (presumably dicking around on their phones) than actually get out of their cars and do shit
@artemis for every story you hear about them kidnapping and brutalizing people, there are a hundred that you might not hear about how observers kept guard as two or three vehicles spent an hour idling in a parking lot or circling a block, then finally gave up and fucked off.
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My mom responding to me (privately) not saying "don't risk your safety," but offering me resources on community defense means a lot to me.
It means she gets it. She is proud of me & my brother, & she is also educating herself & getting herself ready to help. It means she knows that some things are worth taking risks for.
There is no reason not to be careful. There is every reason not to throw your life away pointlessly, not just for yourself but for everyone you hope to help. We are all needed. We all have ways we can help.
Y'all, stay alive. I want you to stay alive. *I* want to stay alive.
But safety? In some cases, safety just may not be an option.
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Right now it's an "if" ICE shows up right here on my street, but there is a possible scenario where that "if" could turn into just a matter of "when".
And I definitely want my brothers & sisters to understand that & what it has the potential to mean. I'm not being hysterical. I'm not making trouble or coming up with far-fetched scenarios.
I'm just saying. If thugs show up here to hurt my neighbors or the kids at the school, well, I wouldn't have a choice.
My mom responding to me (privately) not saying "don't risk your safety," but offering me resources on community defense means a lot to me.
It means she gets it. She is proud of me & my brother, & she is also educating herself & getting herself ready to help. It means she knows that some things are worth taking risks for.
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There is no reason not to be careful. There is every reason not to throw your life away pointlessly, not just for yourself but for everyone you hope to help. We are all needed. We all have ways we can help.
Y'all, stay alive. I want you to stay alive. *I* want to stay alive.
But safety? In some cases, safety just may not be an option.
As Minnesota folks are reminding me: our strength is each other. We have numbers. Together we are so strong.
And our hearts are in this in the way the fash can't even imagine. The power of love for each other, our homes, our communities is not something they can understand.
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As Minnesota folks are reminding me: our strength is each other. We have numbers. Together we are so strong.
And our hearts are in this in the way the fash can't even imagine. The power of love for each other, our homes, our communities is not something they can understand.
Little bro has told me there are people in his community who have stepped up that he didn't think had it in them. People he thought were kind of flakey & not to be taken seriously. But in this moment, they're doing the work, because solidarity fucking works.
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So little bro is sharing that, & I'm sharing that if ICE does a push in Milwaukee of the kind they are doing in MN, then ICE will come to my street, & I will go outside & take videos & be loud & difficult, & I said if I die for the same reason that Renee Good did (just trying to help people), then I am at peace with that.
We're pushing & trying to make it real for them.
Renee Good made a really stupid mistake by not stopping her car and turning off her engine. If a bad person wants to hurt you, the absolute worst possible thing you can do is to give them plausible deniability.
Renee Good avoided being a martyr in most people's eyes when she accellerated her car towards that ICE agent. And yet she still died. Even if you think for some reason that ICE agent would have killed her either way, the biggest consequence of her choice is still providing that agent a pretty damn good social and legal defense.
That kind of behavior is not the way to fight for justice. Be better! -
As Minnesota folks are reminding me: our strength is each other. We have numbers. Together we are so strong.
And our hearts are in this in the way the fash can't even imagine. The power of love for each other, our homes, our communities is not something they can understand.
@artemis Being strong enough to be gentle and kind is a lot more impressive than being violent. Any arsehole can lash out.
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Little bro has told me there are people in his community who have stepped up that he didn't think had it in them. People he thought were kind of flakey & not to be taken seriously. But in this moment, they're doing the work, because solidarity fucking works.
I'm finally getting what the Jesus character meant when he said, "whoever does the work of my Father in heaven is my sibling."
What matters is that you do what you can where you can. What matters, what unites us, is doing the work & caring for each other.
That's what fucking matters.
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I'm finally getting what the Jesus character meant when he said, "whoever does the work of my Father in heaven is my sibling."
What matters is that you do what you can where you can. What matters, what unites us, is doing the work & caring for each other.
That's what fucking matters.
We aren't all going to be on the streets. I've talked about this before: there are different abilities & different opportunities that we all have. What matters isn't how "important" or risky your work is.
What matters is taking whatever you have in front of you, whatever you know to do, & doing it.
Some of us may be called up to take some serious risks. Ok, fine. Be ready for that. But for now, help in the ways you know how. Anything that needs to be done is worth doing, no matter how "small".
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@artemis I do think that hero mentality pushed so hard by media in the last decades plays a significant role in why so many people (not just men, but especially men) have such a hard time being able to believe the atrocities happening
Peter Parker syndrome. They imagine themselves powerful and thus responsible. Acknowledgement requires breaking that fantasy in some way
@aeischeid @artemis On top of that, the only way they’ve been taught to fight back is violence. And solo violence at that. They can’t imagine themselves as part of a bigger movement@with broader strategies than “punching the bad guys”. I mean punching Nazis is an unalloyed good. But filming their atrocities and delegitimizing them to others, feeding people, helping neighbors, slowing down traffic, etc. is how you really beat them.
