I rage-emailed my Rep and both state senators Saturday. I live in a red state. Yesterday one senator called for an independent investigation. It’s not much, but at least one is speaking up a bit. I will keep up the emailing (along with my friends).
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Seeing a few things here and there about a general strike/walkout on Friday. Does anyone know more details and if it’s being coordinated across multiple cities/states?
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Called both my senators using 5 calls and sent some money to Minneapolis mutual aid (one of the groups at this link @mplsmutualaid | Linktree ).
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I’ve seen it too and think it’s nationwide, but I didn’t have any more details either.
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Same here.
Strongly considering not working Friday. Not buying anything is easy.
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I’m playing on easy mode since I don’t have any classes on Fridays. Trying to decide if answering student questions is cheating.
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I took off work on Friday and will do a no spend day
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I recently heard about the 3.5% rule by Erica Chenoweth and it’s given me more hope than I’ve had in a while:
I was also really moved by the Marsh Family video “Minnesota” though none of the links I’ve tried to post seem to work.
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Minnesota Anthem. Aka the reason I’m crying in the kitchen now while making dinner.
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A friend posted this on another forum and it made me cry, but also believe that most people are good.
If They Call Me a Domestic Terrorist
by Michael F. DuBois
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My fence-sitter Dem senator actually voted against the funding package! Maybe all those phone calls did something after all.
I had coffee with L, the head of our local elementary school’s friends (aka community family support) group. About 37% of the school is Latinx and ICE has definitely taken a toll. I reached out to learn more about how to help. She said triage has been challenging – apparently donating to legal defense is popular, but many of these families do not have any legal standing at all, so they’re trading off between, say, $2k for legal defense to vs. $2k for rent to help a family who already lost their breadwinner. They’re organizing a meeting next week for families & allies to hear from those families what they actually need, and I’ll check in with her on making a donation after that.
It’s been eye opening to learn more about the nuances here, and L is perfect for this role - she’s a Colombian immigrant and native Spanish speaker, and her professional experience is in a mixed/white art world, so it seems like she can bridge a variety of relationships, including making sure help doesn’t just come in the white savior format and hassling the mega school district to get results. Apparently any time they need something they coordinate so the principal, the teachers union rep, and the parents all descend on HQ like a fury of valkyries. I know this isn’t going to be a totally idyllic experience, but I’m excited for Spore to start K in a community school that’s got so much good energy and collaboration.
We’re both hoping that this November’s elections can flip the House and Senate, and moreover that it will be by people with enough guts to make sure crimes are persecuted and nazis can’t ever take office again.
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Does anyone know where to donate money to help the pregnant children who are being detained in rural Texas (where specialized obstetric care is not available) so that they can’t get abortions? I did donate some money to ProBAR, which appears to their local pro bono legal representation option, but am not sure who, if anyone, has a specific interest in their medical care.
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Oh my god a new level of hell I didn’t know about
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I’m guessing that without a path to reach those girls for care, the orgs aren’t raising funds for that purpose yet. I think it’s similar to World Central Kitchen in Gaza – there were times when they had plenty of resources to provide, but were barred from entering.
This org is tracking confidential reports from family members, to document human rights violations. They are not providing care though.
https://detentionpregnancytracker.com/
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Do let us know if you find out.
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Minnesota is still occupied.
If you want to donate to local mutual aid orgs, here is a fantastic set of links, courtesy a college acquaintance who lives in Mpls:
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Not so tiny victory
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Livestream of Trump’s name coming of of the Kennedy Center
Currently they’re still assembling scaffolding
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there was a huge rainbow as well! happy pride 
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Four hours later (and a half hour after the deadline) they are still assembling the scaffolding 
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