Category: activism

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Last Night

Exhaustion. I know that you feel it and I certainly feel it too, but we cannot let it stop us from moving forward. We cannot stop fighting for what is right and fair and equal.

After the despicable performance of the man who calls himself President last night, as he metaphorically stomped around the stage, threw temper tantrums, cut off and talked over both the Democratic candidate and the moderator, and tellingly put the White Supremacists on standby for election day, he showed himself to be unfit. We already knew that he was. His performance as President, so far, has been just that – theatre. He has no demonstrable qualities that would make him a good leader and his lack of decorum and distaste for rules of order seal the fact that he is not someone we can afford to keep in that office going forward. 

He should have never been elected. After the tapes came out proving he is a misogynistic piece of shit, he should have lost votes. But as we all know there are forces at work that prefer to ignore the White Supremacist and Misogynistic aspects of Trumps personality and go all in for the Patriarchal stuff. Holding on to the consolidation of White, cishet, affluent, dude power is all that mattered in 2016 and the display that we saw last night was the natural outcome of that rhetoric. You wanted a bully? You got a bully.

He should have been removed from office after being impeached. But the Republican Senate majority is also a collection of White, cishet, affluent, dudes, who are grasping at the last straws of that power structure. 

He should not be re-elected. But this is where YOU come in. You who are exhausted and turned off by the display of machismo and general lack of respect for rules that came across last night. You who are angry that the person who calls himself President of the United States, rather than denouncing White Supremacy in our country, put the White Supremacists on standby for election day and beyond. I mean, this is not a surprise to any of us who have been paying attention to the history of the American Republic, but it should be a wake up call for everyone else. So, you who know that keeping this horrible, disgusting, human in power for another four years will not be good for the country and, in fact, will be the demise of democracy as we know it (no hyperbole there, only truth) need to vote.

Now I realize that some of you are too tired to even THINK about this stuff, but you have to keep engaging and moving forward. Last night’s display of disgusting behaviour behooves each and every one of us to stand up and say “WE AREN’T GOING TO TAKE THIS SHIT ANYMORE – THIS GUY HAS GOT TO GO”. And yes, I realize we are trading one White, cishet, affluent, dude for another White, cishet, affluent, dude, to be put in power, but we need to get rid of the first one and then we can move forward with the plans.

And what, you might ask, are these plans? Well – I’m glad you are inquiring of that. The plan is to unseat the tyrant and then move forward with the actual agenda of ALL the people in our society. Move forward with police reform. Move forward with immigration reform that gives all people the chance to become citizens and removes the cages and walls from the border. Move forward with healthcare for all. Move forward with the eradication of a virus that is killing 750-1000 people per day. Move forward with social justice intervention that makes change at a structural level. Move forward with the reinstatement of laws to protect the climate and make a future where we actually still have a planet to live on. Move forward with the restructuring of America into a nation that is truly meant for all of us, not just the White, cishet, affluent, dudes. Move forward.

It will take all of us, after the election, to continue working to hold Biden and Harris accountable to our needs as a nation. It will take us working toward social justice and equality on a daily basis and never stopping because this is the long game. We need to hold our Senators and Representatives accountable. Hold our local officials accountable. Hold their feet to the fire on issues that are important to us and make this system work in the way it should. For the people, by the people. 

So, although that debate was a despicable display of greed, power, and White Supremacist Patriarchal values on the part of the sitting President, let it be a fire under you to do what you can to make this place better. Don’t let it determine your inaction. We don’t want to see a repeat of 2016. Trumps strategy is to exhaust the American people so much that they just don’t vote. Don’t let him get in your head. Bullies can’t bully if we don’t play into their games. We are stronger than his rhetoric. We can make this country a place we are all welcome and all equal. It just takes work. Are you ready to do the work? I hope so. Let’s go!

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Choices

You have two choices. Would you rather live in a Christian nation or a free country?

In a free country, you are free to be Christian, but in a Christian nation, only Christians are free. Let me rephrase — In a free country, everyone is free to be Christian or not, but in a Christian nation, only White, Protestant, cis, straight, affluent, men are free. Everyone else lives as beholden to that minority.

So let us rewind, for a moment, and talk about how we have always lived in a Christian nation, despite the founders supposed belief in freedom. White Protestant dudes have been running the show and oppressing everyone else, since they landed here, while they claim to be persecuted in America. The claims of persecution are merely a way in which to maintain their power over everyone else.

Whenever a man from this group is sad, we rush to make sure he feels okay. A good example of this was the #metoo movement and the backlash that followed. It mattered, for a moment, that women were calling out powerful men, but eventually the callouts turned back on the women. How dare they call out men. How dare they try to be equal. How dare they tell their stories of horror and make men uncomfortable.

When women stand up for themselves and call out men, a rush to check on the men is inevitable. Think pieces flow like rivers assessing the state of men in the workplace or men after harassment laws or the future of men. After all, checking in on the oppressors is SUPER important to maintain the order and we have been brainwashed to believe that even when they are fully and completely responsible for terror (slave masters, rapists, lynch mobs, supreme court justices, affluent movie execs with unlimited power) we still need to make sure that they are okay. We need to check in and check up on them. We need to coddle them. We need to feed their egos and let them know that we don’t believe ‘all men’ are bad. We need to make sure they are not feeling oppressed or persecuted. This is the beauty of minority rule. The White, Protestant, cis, straight, affluent, dudes have duped us all into believing that they should be prioritized. Even when they do the most heinous things. In the end, we all suffer in order to maintain the continuity of the freedom myth.

So, then, what can we do? How can we ensure the freedom of all moving forward? How can we turn the tide so that people will stop voting against their best interests? How can we make sure that everyone has an equal chance to succeed and that everyone is setup for success, regardless of their identity?

Step one is to stop believing the persecution myth of the White, Protestant, straight, cis, affluent, male minority. In a free country, individuals are able to practice their religion or not practice religion at all, without fear. In a free country, White supremacy is not a driving force and class solidarity can make change. In a free country, we can live our lives without fear of oppression from Christians who believe they are on a mission from g-d. In a free country, we each have autonomy and we can make decisions about our bodies without the opinions of religion destroying that freedom. In a free country, BIPOC people can live without daily fear of violence, terror, and potential death.

America should be a free country. Not a Christian nation. Christians are welcome to practice freely, in their churches, without persecution, but so are Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Atheists and all other forms of spiritual practice or abstention from those practices. All religions are welcome and no one practice takes precedence over any other. This is true freedom.

But when have we actually been free? From the moment the pilgrims landed here and began annexing land by slaughtering aboriginal people, this land was not free. From the moment the ships started arriving with enslaved people to work the land and be treated as less than human, this land was not free. From the creation of a document that was supposed to give equality and justice for all and left out people of color and women, this land was not free. Even in the midst of eight years with a Black President, this land was not free. As long as this land is run by the minority, who seek to deny rights to everyone else in favor of their own freedom and supremacy, this land will not be free.

We can only make this land free by voting and marching and demanding that we are all equal. That the majority of us want to see a future that is better for everyone, not the small few who hold power. I mean, that future will also benefit the minority, but not at the expense of the rest of us.

We cannot be free as long as we have an autocrat in office.

If you sit out the election or you vote for Trump, you are allowing the persistence of a Christian nation where the smallest minority of people will ever be truly free. And, most likely, you are not one of those people. So why would you vote against your own interests?

Don’t believe the lies and fake promises of a wannabe dictator. Vote for Biden/Harris. Vote for Democrats down the ballot. Vote to save our lives because another four years of Trump in the White House is not just an inconvenience. It is a nightmare. It will be the end of democracy as we know it. And not for the better. We do need to upend the system in real ways, but not through a dictatorship. We need to make the promise of the people real. That we control our futures. That this land truly is OUR land. And that with our votes, our voices, and our dollars, we can make it equal and just for all.

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Earth Day During a Pandemic

Today is the day. The 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The day that we celebrate the earth.

Unfortunately, we are not following through on our Earth Day promises. Climate change is no longer just a looming threat, but an eventual cause of demise for the earth. And the current pandemic we are dealing with is fully tied to the climate and the way we, as humans, have treated the earth.

If you recycle, that’s great. If you reuse, that’s better. If you reduce, that is fantastic. But what else are you doing on the individual and family level to make a REAL difference for the environment? Here are some things that you can do, and that we NEED to do, in order to heal the earth and save the human race. Yes – it is THAT serious – this is not hyperbole – this is real.

Eat less (and eventually zero) meat

I realize that this is a difficult thing for people to even consider, let alone put into practice, but changing to a more plant based diet and eventually to a full vegan way of life is one of the things that can seriously help heal the earth and support our species survival. Eating more greens and less fatty meat is also better for humans, in general, but it helps the earth heal as well. Click here for more information on this from Greenpeace.

Shop local instead of online

I totally get that right now it may seem impossible to buy local, because we are in the middle of a pandemic and need to stay inside except for essential work and shopping. The thing is – there are still local merchants that are trying to adjust to this current state of the world by offering delivery or curbside pickup for customers. Need a book? Buy from a local bookseller. Need groceries? Try curbside pickup or delivery from a local grocer. Need takeout? Try curbside pickup from a local restaurant that could use your business. Need toiletries? Put in an order at your local pharmacy and pickup curbside.

If possible, shop in person through touchless pickup and stop ordering goods and services online. This helps local businesses AND allows the earth to not be bogged down by all of the travel necessary to order online and receive at your door. Yes – there are things may have to order online, but in general, if there is a local alternative for it, please try to purchase from those vendors.

100 mile diet

This is an old concept that seems to have fallen out of fashion a bit. Searching online for the 100-mile diet, brings up very few recent articles or resources. In the past, there was a 100-mile diet map online that you could use to determine your circumference of eating, but it has disappeared from the internet. The most useful resource I found online was here.

The basic gist of this diet is to only eat foods that you can acquire from within a 100 mile radius of your home. My suggestion would be to try and grow some of your food in a garden or pots, if possible. You can grow many herbs and veggies in windowsill gardens, so you don’t even need a large garden plot to grow a few items. You can also join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm or food co-op to buy directly from farmers in your area. Farmers markets can also be good sources for local food, without the cost of joining a CSA.

Learning to can will also help to sustain your 100 mile diet goods through the seasons when you cannot grow specific fruits and vegetables. Some folks decide to eat seasonally, which means you would only eat the foods that are actually in season.

Overall, this technique helps to lessen the strain on the environment because you are not buying foods from other parts of the country and contributing to the pollution that is caused by shipping foods around the world.

Stop buying fast fashion

Fast fashion is horrible for the planet and for the people who produce it. Buying clothing that is basically disposable puts a huge strain on the environment and contributes to the poor working conditions of those making the pieces. One of the best people to follow, if you want to learn more about changing your fast fashion habits, is Aja Barber. Check her out and start rethinking your buying behaviors. The earth will thank you for it.

Heed scientific warnings

There are, of course, many other things you can do to help the planet heal and perhaps change the course of climate change, but the most important thing that we ALL need to do is listen to the scientists. Believe them. Heed their warnings. Start following their suggestions to change course before it is too late.

As we can see from this current pandemic, there are reasons for us to do better. The earth is giving us a signal that we need to listen to the experts. Science is real. Climate change is real. Humans are killing the earth and unless we change course now we will have to live through many environmental crisis situations in the future. So – c’mon people! Let’s get our shit together and take care of mother earth. This is, after all, the only home we have!

Go forth and make some big changes for the earth!

Peace and Happy Earth Day.

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How To Make Things Better

What Happened?

We could have had it all. We could have had a leader that would understand our place in the world and act accordingly. A President that would have led us to a better place as a society. A President that understands America’s place in the world and would have governed accordingly. We could have had a President that cares about social justice and human rights for ALL. Instead – we got the opposite of all that. We got a dud. The Electoral College math was in favour of the worst human possible for the job and he slimed his way into the highest office in the land. Now, we are slowly moving toward demise as a ‘great nation’. Our status in the world has been diminished by someone that has no clue how to be a successful businessman, let alone President of the United States. A President that would rather tweet about the media and how he feels they attack him. A President that just says whatever comes to mind, no matter how detrimental it might be for the citizens of this country. A President that only cares about being liked, which, in turn, has led us down a path of horrible outcomes. A President that has tarnished the highest court in the land by adding a second accused sex offender to it’s ranks.

Hillary

What Do We Do Now?

Vote! Vote like your life depends on it (because it does). Vote like the lives of your family members and friends depend on it (because they do). Vote for peace and justice. Vote to remove the disgusting old, white, dudes that are clogging up the system with their misogynistic views of the world. Vote to turn the House blue. We need it. The only way to right the ship that is America is to vote out these horrible people who have been killing our country with their rhetoric. Vote to remove those that do not believe in freedom for all. And then, after you have done your civic duty and voted, take to the streets and raise your voices! Find a protest and MARCH! Civil disobedience shows the world that we are on the side of right and that we do not agree with the people who are currently in power.

Find Your Polling Place

If you have not already, please check here to see if and where you are registered to vote. The deadlines are mostly passed, but hopefully, you are registered in your area. Take a look at the requirements and be prepared at the polls. There may be voter suppression at your polling place, so take special care to be prepared (both mentally and with proof of residency).

See You On The Other Side

If we all band together and raise our voices – both in the voting booth and on the streets – we can bring our country back to where it needs to be. We can move forward in a positive direction. We can find peace and justice for all. This experiment in democracy is not at the end, but the beginning. We can make this a better country and, by extension, a better world.

Additional Resources

Rock The Vote
The 2018 Midterm Elections
24 Acts of Self Care Perfect for Concerned Americans

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The Teens Are Alright

Yesterday was a wonderful day for the future of the United States of America. Teenagers across the country walked out of their classrooms to protest the gun violence that has become all too common in American schools. They also walked out to honor the 17 people that were killed last month at Stoneham Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida. The walkouts showed that collective action is alive and well with Generation Z and it made me seriously optimistic, for the first time in a while, about the future. Before I go on, though, I would like to say that the Black Lives Matter movement has had teens involved from the beginning. Yesterday showed the collective will of teens across a diverse spectrum of humans across this country, which was heartening, but we have to give it up for the teens in the BLM movement that have been showing up for many years now to protest violence against communities of color by the police. If you are looking for inclusiveness and action, look no further than this movement (https://blacklivesmatter.com/about.)

When I was a teenager, I was not civically engaged. In fact, I did not get politically motivated until I was well into college and had experiences that changed me. The first rally I attended was in undergrad and the reason I decided to go was that I thought Ani Difranco was going to perform. Yes, I realize that makes me sound selfish, but that’s how I was as a teenager. I guess it was good that Ani was listed as a performer, though, because that first rally really changed my perspective about what can be done when people get together to make change happen through collective action and civic engagement. Although Ani didn’t play, and in fact, she didn’t even attend, that ‘Take Back the Night’ rally opened my eyes to the struggles that women on my college campus were facing. It was one of the first ‘me too’ moments that I encountered and I was already 19 years old. I guess that I should feel lucky to say that, but it also makes me kind of sad.

In my senior year, when I was 16, there was a tragedy that occurred at my high school. A teenager who had recently transferred from Niagara Falls High School to Lasalle Senior (LSHS) was crossing the street to meet her mother after school. The front of LSHS faced a very busy road (Military) and there were no crosswalks. As she was walking across the street, one of the students came barreling out of the student parking lot and hit her. She was killed on contact and there were several student witnesses. It was a horrific accident that sparked a student movement. A week later there was a walk out and the students walked from Military Road to Main Street (5.5 miles) to assemble for action in front of City Hall. The students demanded a stoplight and crosswalk in front of the school and shortly thereafter a light was installed. This was protest in action and I was not involved. I was sad about the death of a classmate, but I wasn’t engaged enough in politics to actually participate in this action.

Looking back on it now I can’t quite fathom why I decided not to walk out. After all, I was raised by a family of union workers. My Papa and my mother both worked for the New York Power Authority My Nana had worked in the steel factory during WWII. My dad worked at Carborundum and then later for the Carpenter’s union, where his father had also worked. My uncle worked at Nabisco. Having so many union members in my family, you would think that I would have been on top of any peaceful protest and collective action that came my way, but I just wasn’t. My teenage apathy overrode my desire to assemble and I regret that each time I think about it.

Having lived through that time and saying quite certainly that most of my peers in the 90’s were also apathetic, I’m happy to see that teenagers today are not. They are engaged and enlightened. They understand how to keep the light shining on a topic of concern and to feed the flames of social media to continue to overcome the daily news cycle churn effect. They are adept at working with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get their message out and they have resilience. They will continue to fight for themselves and future generations because they know it is important. Guns are a scourge on our nation and with an activated young citizenship, we might just be able to move away from the violence that has come from complacency. A shift in the conversation around guns has started, again, and if these teens can keep the heat on, they might just make a real and lasting change. We, as adults, need to let them do their thing and be there to support them. We need to stand by them and move forward together as a nation to a better day.

Yesterday was a wonderful day for the United States of America and, with enough protest and pressure, all our tomorrows can be great as well. We just have to continue the civil disobedience and make a better nation for ALL.

Peace and happy marching!

Chantale

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Patriarchy, MRAs, and Dismantling the Current System of Oppression

Over the years, whenever straight, white, men feel threatened, they band together in groups to discuss the situation and ‘right’ the ship. See – when dudes feel like they are losing grip on the control that they have ALWAYS had over women, they freak the fuck out. This is evidenced by the backlash against moves toward gender equity in the tech workplace. Women, in Silicon Valley specifically as well as other areas of the country with a heavy concentration of tech jobs, started speaking out last year about the harassment inflicted upon them within the male-dominated field. At my own place of business, I have witnessed dudes that have gotten away with low levels of harassment with a slap on the wrist and a ‘just try to be better’ or ‘avoid that girl from now on’. This amounts to a wink and a nod between dudes and we, as women, continue to suffer under this horrible system of misogyny.

In 2010 there was a similar backlash within women’s studies departments on college campuses. The MRAs (Men’s Rights Activists) got all twisted up about women’s studies being biased toward women. They felt the need to have male studies as well (this was in contradiction to the formal men’s studies wing of sociology that had already been incorporated into what is now called gender studies). As if all the other things that are studied in college weren’t already MALE studies. Good grief. The HIStory of the world has always been taught from the perspective of men. Women’s studies departments were created to bring some equity to the world of education and suddenly some men were getting nervous. This is what happens when people get scared. They start a backlash against the thing that scares them. And when men (specifically white, straight, cis and mostly wealthy men) get scared, the rest of us better ‘get in line’ because they have to get things back to the status quo. The patriarchy must survive and if it looks like it is being dismantled in any way, that’s when the MRAs appear to prop it back up again.

The best question we can ask ourselves, at this point in human history, is what would the world look like if the system of patriarchy that we have lived under, for all of eternity, was dismantled?

If we had a true and lasting system that was not skewed toward one sex (in this case the male sex), we would ALL be better off. Feminism works toward making EVERYONE EQUAL, not making women more powerful than men. That was never the cause of feminism. Women need more power in order to be equal to men, yes, and this is where those who are afraid of losing their grip on the full scope of power get nervous. Men who speak up against feminism are afraid of losing their power over women. They do not want to be equal because they want to continue to hold ALL the power. They want to be able to make all the decisions for the women in their lives and not allow those women to gain any traction in the movement.

This isn’t about losing equality, it is about losing the top spot in all areas of life. It is about losing the boy’s club and the ways in which the patriarchy support their policies of subjugation. If the patriarchy was dismantled, we would all be free to be ourselves and live our best lives. Women and men would both have the same opportunities and have to compete with their brains on an even playing field. Men would not be given preference, as they have for all of HIStory, in business. We are a long way from dismantling the patriarchy, but we chip away at it a little each day.

Patriarchy is not an American invention. You would not know this if you read the comment sections of any article pertaining to dismantling it though, as most Americans think that 1) our system of patriarchy has only been around for 100 years or so and 2) it’s all quite fine and dandy here in America and the misandrists (a bullshit term that denotes people who hate men and boys) need to stop trying to change things. See, when feminists (or anyone that wants to make things better for any group of people) try to make changes in society, those that benefit the most from the status quo start screaming as loud as they possibly can. Often, they find ways to back up their claims with arguments that look, on the surface, to be valid, but with a little bit of research, these arguments can be quickly dispelled.

The difficulty with research though is that many people do not want to hear facts unless they align with the position they already hold. So they listen to non-experts that spew garbage on the internet and regurgitate this crap for their ‘friends’ on social media. We used to live in a society where research and reason ruled the day, but it feels like those times are quickly diminishing. I am hopeful that we can turn the tide and stop the stupid among us from claiming expertise, but hope is not enough to make lasting change. Voting for progressive candidates that understand how to assess information is super important. If we don’t get smart people in office in 2018, we will continue down this path of stupidity that has been cultivated by the current POTUS.

So – what can we do to move toward a world where patriarchy is a thing of the past?

VOTE! Get to the polls and choose the smartest and most informed candidates, regardless of their place on the spectrum of gender.

MARCH! Attend marches in your local, regional, and national community to show support for the issues that affect you and yours the most. March with women when they gather to demand equal rights. March with people of color when they gather to demand equal rights. March with LGBTQQIA folks when they gather to demand equal rights. March with immigrants when they gather to demand a path to citizenship and equal rights. March with people of conscience when they gather to demand equal rights for all, regardless of the distinctions above.

WRITE! Go online and send a letter to your representative on issues that you find important. Hold these leaders accountable. You can even do this through text messaging with Resistbot! To setup, simply text RESIST to 50409 to get started. It is simple and awesome!

STAY INFORMED! Continue to read up on the issues that are important to you and research articles before posting/reposting on social media. The ALA has a comprehensive set of rules for evaluating sources listed here: Evaluating Primary Sources. Assessing the Authority, Audience, and Accuracy of the source will allow you to determine it’s credibility and worthiness. Let’s work together to improve the nature of what is shared on social media and on the internet, in general. Improving the reliability of sources will help EVERYONE.

So – are you ready to join me in dismantling the patriarchy to improve the world for everyone? It’s time to get to work! Leave comments below to tell me how you will work toward a world of equality for ALL humans!

Peace and Down With Patriarchy!

Chantale (hippiegrrl)

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The Holiday Rush

During my time writing for Backwash (Hippiegrrl Explains It All – archived here), I wrote many posts on holiday shopping and alternatives to giving store bought, big box stuff. Over the years, the writer and I have tried many alternative ways of shopping (or not shopping) for the holidays. Taking the handmade pledge, pushing ourselves and others to buy local, participating in buy nothing day and culminating in an actual buy nothing christmas in 2010. The underlying urge to change the holiday season has been pushed along by our economic status, but the outcome has made the holidays more enjoyable.

Instead of focusing on buying tons of things and rushing around at the last minute, we have been able to take a step back and breathe. Here are a few ideas that we have come up with that you might like to try. They will make your holiday season more meaningful and less stressful. And after all, shouldn’t spending time with family and friends during this time of year really be the priority anyway?

– Framing a picture that I find in my collection and wrapping it up for someone whom it will be meaningful.
– Baking a batch of cookies and packaging them up in a lovely way for the receiver.
– Making a piece of jewellery that is one-of-a-kind and speaks to the style of the person who will wear it.
– Giving a donation to a charitable organization in the name of the person receiving the gift.
– Creating a coupon book of your time. Each coupon gives the receiver the ability to cash in on your time. For example – “this coupon entitles you to 1 hour of help in your garden!”

The best part of the holidays, by far, is the ability to gather with loved ones and friends. That is my favourite gift of all. The gift of time spent with people that enjoy each others company. If we could all have more of that, the whole year could be a lot better.

Enjoy your holiday season and try to remain as stress-free as possible. Remember that it isn’t about what you give or receive. The memories that are made are priceless.

Peace – Chantale