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| hey look everybody, it's my boyfriend! |
A horrible, inexperienced man is president-elect, a MASSIVE downgrade to the wonderfulness that is Obama, massive leaps backwards into the harsh and ugly parts of history. Trump is bringing in people that plan to dismantle civil rights for many marginalized peoples, destroy school systems, spreads white nationalist propaganda, have no regard for the environment, and overall simply doesn't give a f*** about anyone but themselves.
More than ever, we need to be kind to each other. Compassion should be the law of the land as everything goes to chaotic evil.
My plans are to talk more about my feelings and share what I find here and elsewhere. I feel it's my duty as an American citizen with social media and a blog to be a sounding board and a messenger. If you wish to avoid this posts, that is up to you. If you choose to no longer follow me because of this, or for my views, I understand that as well. I only ask you to go out and be kind.
I will continue to post about writing, my life, and whatever else. You'll just be seeing more politics is all.
I also plan on donating more often and even volunteering. I detail a little more below.
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Donations or Volunteering:
I have donated all my birthday money (and soon, some of my Christmas monies) to six non-profits and charities (a seventh to follow...) that will need all the help they can get as they gear up to fight against a president and a cabinet full of horrid, hateful monsters.
If you work with a company that matches donations, take advantage of that as well! I know I will.
Here is a pretty damn good list.
If you want to know who I donated to, here ya goes:
Planned Parenthood of South Texas (I am researching on becoming a clinic escort)
ACLU of Texas (also now a proud member!)
NAACP
Stand with Standing Rock
Southern Poverty Law Center
Bitch Media (along with a renewed subscription to their most excellent magazine)
Posts and a Book to Read:
If you want to improve on your compassion, I highly recommend Karen Armstrong's beautiful book Twelve Steps to A Compassionate Life. I read it a long time ago and found it to be a balm. It has changed how I feel about the world and my interactions with any and all people.
Van Jones gives a realistic view on what happened and what we need to do moving forward.
Tananarive Due talks about why she wasn't active on social media and took to journaling to cope with the horror.
Chuck Wendig drives all the post-election feelings home here very well. In fact, you should read his entry before mine. It is definitely better.
It's interesting to note that this post will be almost a year old, but boy howdy, we are gonna need it more than ever now.
George Takei speaks from painful experience about why a Muslim registry is starting to sound too familiar...
This lovely post about what to do to take care of yourself after all this...
Rowdy Kittens shares some thoughts and some lovely pictures with inspiring quotes.
Susannah Conway tied together the sadness of the political atmosphere along with a sweet dedication to the late Leonard Cohen.
Videos:
John Oliver provides some laughs and outlines some more non-profits to support.
Commander Holly continues to be the human incarnation of sunshine by suggesting non-profits and other ways to be kind this holiday season.
LittleKuriboh eschews politics to get to one heart of the matter: self-care in times like these.
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This is merely a primer of suggestions. There are many posts like this I'm sure, so I'm not saying anything newish. But I like to think it's just an addition to the voices. May my voice not be louder than those who said it better and have more to lose than myself.
I will be blunt and say that a Trump "presidency" is not gonna affect me greatly as a straight, cisgender white person. It will affect me as a woman, but not as much as say... a woman of color. And you know what? That disgusts me more than anything that I will be more okay than a great chunk of friends, colleagues, coworkers, neighbors, and complete strangers. I was raised to be considerate to everyone and not think I was better than anyone regardless of any identifying traits.
That is why I am going to use my privilege for something good: do anything in my power to stop this madness from getting any worse than it already is.
Who's with me?!
