Here’s The Thing Fam-

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, everyone! Today we honor the legacy of one of the most inspiring and dedicated leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Before the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, racial segregation was a part of daily American life. MLK Jr. saw the injustice in this, and wanted to fight against it. A preacher and an activist, as well as a loving husband and father, he dedicated his career to improving the lives of African-Americans. Sit-ins were jeered and people were arrested, but Mr. King continued his work. He encouraged many Americans, black and white, to fight for racial equality. In the end, they succeeded.  Today we honor this man’s life, and the effect his message has had on America. The right’s and opportunities of this great country should never be denied to anyone - Martin Luther King Jr. helped teach us that. 

I am the challenger. Standing in the ring,  your foolishness thundering at me, two beady eyes of human hate, two sharpened horns that prick where I’ve wounds. That turn on others when it hurts them most. I challenge you, counter you, shouting in rage at what you’ve done to hurt us; what you’ll do to hurt anything you fear. And you fear me, my swift foot, bent knee, flick of red from muscled knowledge. (I might be young, but I’ve the strength of a thousand fighters) Reading has done me so well, but experience, out in the real ring, is where I present my skill. Crowds are stomping, howling. You charge at me. I am the challenger - I will cut you down. Because I know I deserve better than this. As does all. You run, I swoop; You stomp, I switch; You bellow, I roar, and we are at it again, a bullfight of wit and change and progress. Your bright eyes are misinformed. Mine know enough to prove you wrong, to slow you, cut you down, and then we will be human again. I am the challenger, of all I see to be wrong, of all I know I can change. I am proud. You can be changed. Changed by I, the challenger. 

We are at a point where Israelis can slaughter civilians in Gaza and the West Bank with total impunity. This is worse than what we saw in apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia. The closest analogue is the European colonization of the Americas, where killing was done for sport and resistance was annihilated.

think most people do not grasp the magnitude of this horror. Imagine living under the thumb of an occupying regime that is bent on eradicating your community, either through forced removal or genocide, and if you resist this in any way - anything from armed struggle to poetry or journalism - you will be assassinated, or imprisoned and tortured indefinitely, and your family and loved ones will be bombed.

The first tweet should read, “and the response to resistance was campaigns of annihilation.” Because, despite generations of genocidal violence, the resistance lives. In the Americas and in Gaza too it lives, and in all who refuse to accept dehumanisation.

I often forget that there ARE ace/aro celebs out there - that’s how isolated I feel most of the time. We stan Moses Sumney for calling out capitalism as making money on amatonormativity.

Being this way is rlly hard but this post is a blessing. Shout out to all my ace and/or aro peeps living their best lives. That’s the best and most original form of resistance

Since it’s aro awareness week and black history month this seems like a fitting time to shout out and express my appreciation to the black aros making history. 

Moses Sumney

Moses Sumney is perhaps the most public and well known aro person out there. He create a whole album (yes! a whole album) titled Aromanticism that was released in 2017. Not only is the album stunningly gorgeous it features very aro lines such as “Am I vital/ If my heart is idle/ Am I doomed?“ and “If lovelessness is godlessness/ Will you cast me to the wayside?”

He has a deeply anti-opression and anti-capitalist perspective that informs and is informed by his aromanticism. 

“I think that romance is very obviously a political tool, and a capitalist device. I’ve even thought recently, it’s quite good for the economy: the amount people spend on weddings and gifts. Also, [romance] just can’t be separated from a patriarchal structure — like the idea that in a homosexual couple, one person is the masculine, and the other is the feminine. Ultimately we keep going back to those two figures on the wedding cake as the archetype, even for alternative relationships.“ (https://www.thefader.com/2017/09/04/moses-sumney-aromanticism-interview)

Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel is a writer, actor, poet and director. She wrote and stars in Chewing Gum, acted in an episode of Black Mirror and plays the lead character in Black Earth Rising. 

She came out as aro on twitter in 2017. She hasn’t talked about it much since then but it looks like she learned about aromanticism through Moses Sumney. 

Here’s a quote of her talking about seeing his concert. 

“He’s a beautiful artist and I’ve read some interviews of his about romanticism and capitalism, and it was really refreshing to see views that I share but are also very taboo. Just about what exactly is romance, aside from lust and love, what is this other thing and do I really have that? It’s nice that there’s this guy out there who makes those albums.“(https://www.wmagazine.com/story/michaela-coel-black-mirror-season-4-star-trek-space-episode-netflix)

There’s not much aro history out there, but these black aros are paving a path for the future. 

Happy International Women’s Day! Every March 8, the world celebrates the social, economic, and political achievements of women everywhere. For centuries, women around the world have become heroines of all shapes and sizes, reshaping their communities and achieving their goals. For over a hundred years, international communities have recognized this day as a time to honor their accomplishments and fight for gender equality. Today is the day to fight for women’s rights, to global equity, education, and dignity. So what history will you make, on March 8, 2018?

“Words have the power to change the world, and that realization inspires me everyday.” ~Amanda Gorman

Blessings and good wishes to all on this day, Veterans Day. May we forever honor those who served our country and fought for it’s ideals. Let us support their families and know that we are here today because of their time and service. God bless.

OK. It’s time to get this done.

Hi everyone. It’s been a while. 

I started this blog in September of 2017. I stopped posting in March 2018. Now i’m back, after 9-odd months of figuring stuff out. 

I guess I needed to get myself together, to eliminate some pressure from my life. I’ll say it, last spring was a really rough time for me, and I just couldn’t keep this blog up anymore. I took the summer to recollect myself, and the autumn to enjoy my new life. And it is pretty new - new school, new friends, new schedule. I’m glad to say I’m doing much, much better. 

And during this time, I didn’t think much about this blog and its purpose at all. I was still writing all the time. I was still thinking about the same things I’ve written about here. But last year, the pressure was getting to me - to be clear, pressure I was putting on myself. I wanted to put my all into this blog - and I genuinely enjoyed doing so - but I guess it just became too much.   

This is a long post. It’s written by someone you don’t know and have never met, so you probably won’t spend 10 minutes of your time reading it. I don’t really mind. But I’m writing this for three reasons: to explain myself, to advise you, and to make a super rough draft of a mission statement for this blog. That sounds a little dramatic. But I think it fits the goal here, actually: To explain, to advise, and make some super rough drafts of crap.

If you are reading this, you’re probably one of my much beloved followers. Thank you so much for all your support and (dare I say it) interest. I didn’t forget about you these past nine months, but I also learned not to forget about myself. It takes guts to put yourself out there on the Scary InternetTM, and I’ve learned that if I wanna do it right, I’ve gotta be thinking about my own well-being. I only have to do this if I want to, not for the sake of strangers. No shade - it’s just me being honest. 

And I guess that’s where the advice come in: if you want to put yourself and your work out there, whether that’s here or anywhere else, it shouldn’t be just for others. It has to be for you, too.   

And now for the mission statement part, or a very rough draft of it: the purpose of this blog is to share with you my opinions, ideas, values, and writing. That’s why I do it for me. What I do for you (hopefully) is inform and teach, about issues I care about and that I hope you care about too. Social justice, environmentalism, history, sociocultural issues; sometimes just poems or stories. 

Someone, upon hearing about my blog, told me I was a social critic. I prefer the term ’social observer’. I think that, in a way, that is my responsibility as a writer. It’s also my responsibility as an activist. Your craft, gift, passion, whatever you want to call it should be shared. It deserves to be shared. So have at it. 

There will be more posts coming up in the next few weeks. But for now, thank you, everybody. Happy (almost) New Year!

Should 16 year olds be allowed to vote?

Pros:

young ppl will have a voice earlier on

they’ll be empowered + encouraged to change their communities

the voices with the most knowledge about what people need will be elevated.

foster responsibility

Cons:

teens are too young to understand impact of their actions.

aren’t knowledgable or aware of political issues

too much pressure put on young shoulders.

those who are too immature could misrepresent people’s needs.

I say yes! More 16-year-olds than you would think, myself included, are ready and willing to make a difference. Some kids might be too immature for the vote, but frankly, so are some adults. We’re smart; we can handle it.  After all, we’ve only got a couple more years before adulthood comes along, so why not start preparing in the meantime? If we’re properly informed and coached by adults, we will make the right choices. Age doesn’t determine a person’s intelligence, maturity, or sense of responsibility. 

I really, really want to do something, something more than join a few clubs or run a blog. I want to help my community. I want to have an impact on the legislation that determines my future, to make the adults sitting indoors deciding my fate hear me. Adults don’t realize how much power they have - if I could vote.… man, you have no idea the things I’d make happen.

Well, this blog might not get very far. 

According to recent news, Net Neutrality, the set of rules that protect our Internet rights and freedoms, is on the line. The principle that enables online freedom to publish, access, and receive any content you wish might be impacted on December 14th, 2017. If Congress votes to change the bill, millions of Americans’ safety, First Amendment rights, and access to information would be affected. 

Almost since President Trump took office, his FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been pushing for Net Neutrality to be reconsidered on Capital Hill. Millions of Americans have spoken up, on social media and directly to our government officials, requesting that the bill stay the same. Pay has ignored these messages and insists that Net Neutrality limits innovation and economic growth. But what he’d really be doing, if he manages to get the bill off the board, would be clearing away regulations that prevent telecom giants, like Verizon or Comcast, from controlling what content users obtain. Right now, companies can’t pick what websites and services get to us faster, for censorship or economic reasons. They aren’t allowed to slow down or speed up their own content or sites to stifle a competitor. The general fear, and the reason for Net Neutrality, is that if they could, they would. Booming businesses could profit off of the violation of our constitutional rights, if Ajit Pai’s mission succeeds.   

You can say and view and do whatever you want online. All the information and opportunity on the planet is at your fingertips, because of Net Neutrality. Heck, while writing this I had to research the details of what’s actually been going down lately. How? Net Neutrality. Social media, websites, applications, databases - so much would be effected, and not for the better. A lot of people who use the Internet to make a change, marginalized communities standing up for their rights, all these people could be silenced. For money. 

We owe it to Net Neutrality, the result of millions of activists in 2015, that America is as safe, informed, and free as it is now. Hey, it’s the reason I’m able to run this blog - using my voice to talk about what I believe in, which not everyone out there can do.   

There’s still time. In just days, on December 14, the bill will be voted on. Send this to friends, contact government officials and politicians, take action now. While it isn’t too late.