As soon as you turn out the light, a thief takes your day and your night

[sovay]

Just because one of the speakers at last night's protest thought we were well past any use in calling on elected officials does not mean that I did not just leave messages with mine in the matter of Rumeysa Ozturk, my senators to encourage them to speak out further and my representative to thank her for doing so. I do not feel that I have so many levers available to me that I can afford not to pull all of them just in case.

In all of the articles I am reading about deported, disappeared, or threatened students, I understand the tactical importance of their good characters and I don't care and I wish it were not necessary to make anyone care. I don't want their civil liberties to depend on a referendum of their pro-Palestinian activism and the degree to which it may or may not have been antisemitic as defined by a government which platforms Jew-haters like there's any kind of shortage. I was in Boston for the Marathon bombing. I was so afraid that the Crusader roleplay of the war on terror which even then had been part of the American doomscape for more than a decade had shot due process out of a cannon in the case of a bona fide domestic terrorist. Nothing about this steamrolling of constitutional rights makes me feel safer and it is not meant to, but it does make me want to scream that the fundamental rights and privileges of the law are apparently no longer even a nominal cornerstone of the American mainstream. It should not get tangled with whether their free speech is your free speech. It should not matter even if they are a nice person. I have gathered to my perplexity that the fear of the Devil turning round on them motivates far fewer people than I had once imagined, but come the everlasting exceptionalism on. Disappearing people off their doorsteps, dumping them in black sites for profit should be a no-brainer no-no.

I am obviously having a bit of a fritz-out over whether any of the actions I am taking even rise to the level of grit in the gears or whether they are merely a garnish of historical interest on an unstoppable slide and I am well aware that on some level it doesn't matter, because there is never any excuse for standing there looking on with folded hands and in any case it doesn't feel to me like the better course, but I would feel a whole lot better if I could see even a little bit of resistance in the mechanical sense in action.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Yeah. :(

[selkie]

I think it's more visible here at the epicenter, where you can see the awful little pissy-faced zombie-stoats booed out of bars, tripped up the escalator, and confronted with lipsticked swasticars after leaving them parked around; where you can catch up with the feds stickin' their wooden shoes in the machine one spreadsheet at a time. I think the speed and breadth of the clown car shocked people, but it's still clear it's a clown car.

Your godson has just broken the dryer I spent $250 this morning to fix. He dropped a pencil down the trap and when he was unscrewing the door panel to get the pencil out, the door's locking mechanism dropped down after the pencil.
Yes, there is a load in the wash.
Did you want him alive I guess I'm asking or would you be fine communicating with him via his remaining fingerbones, nicely boiled.

[sovay]

Yeah.

*hugs*

[sovay]

I think the speed and breadth of the clown car shocked people, but it's still clear it's a clown car.

I am glad to hear that it is being treated as such where it is trying to make itself most at home. The seat of power should have so many tacks on it right now.

Did you want him alive I guess I'm asking or would you be fine communicating with him via his remaining fingerbones, nicely boiled.

I kind of was looking forward to seeing him in an animate state, but I am incredibly impressed with his method of breaking the dryer.

*hugs*

[selkie]

I kind of was looking forward to seeing him in an animate state

Hnnnnnngh. *twitches murderously* Preserve offspring yes fine nice nice.
Why is he some kind of magical Rube Goldbergian human? He just looked at the latch and it -- he was so round-eyed with -- he's a menace.

And as to the other uses of your time and their effectiveness, I won't stop you from going anywhere while you're here. Borrow my mittens if you want. I've even got an alpaca hat.

[julian]

Yeah, basically, it may do good; if it does good, then it is good; if it does not, then it was not much time taken out of your time.

[sovay]

Yeah, basically, it may do good; if it does good, then it is good; if it does not, then it was not much time taken out of your time.

I mean, attending a protest physically took me out for the rest of the night and most of the following day. But I would still much rather have done it than not.

[sabotabby]

I often have the same reaction. Like both parts of it.

[sovay]

I often have the same reaction. Like both parts of it.

Solidarity and painkillers.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I mean, attending a protest physically took me out for the rest of the night and most of the following day. But I would still much rather have done it than not.

Co-signed! <3 (By the way, your protest made the news here, so that's one example of its impact being real! *more hugs and support*)

[julian]

Yes, sorry, in that case I was meaning yelling at your Congresscritters. Physical protests are more complicated, but also worth it in their own ways.

[sovay]

Co-signed!

Also solidarity and painkillers!

(By the way, your protest made the news here, so that's one example of its impact being real! *more hugs and support*)

Thank you so much for telling me! I wouldn't have known otherwise. I had seen before bed that it was national news: I am glad it's rippling further out. People should know.

*hugs*

[sovay]

Yes, sorry, in that case I was meaning yelling at your Congresscritters. Physical protests are more complicated, but also worth it in their own ways.

Check! Understood. It does in fact cost me little to leave a succession of similar messages by phone or even compose their equivalents of short letters.

[asakiyume]

My sister is a Tufts graduate. She's written a letter to the Tufts Daily and gotten a bunch of fellow grads to sign it. I'll ask her if I can share it with you.

I think any kind of anything makes a difference. No, we are not going to just sit here and stare.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I am glad it's rippling further out. People should know.

Absolutely! *hugs*

[moon_custafer]

He dropped a pencil down the trap and when he was unscrewing the door panel to get the pencil out, the door's locking mechanism dropped down after the pencil.

As a high-school classmate said when I lost a pencil inside one of our lab benches in grade nine Chemistry: “There’s no going where that one’s returned to.”

[sovay]

My sister is a Tufts graduate. She's written a letter to the Tufts Daily and gotten a bunch of fellow grads to sign it. I'll ask her if I can share it with you.

If she's comfortable with it, would it be of use for me to signal-boost it? I may know other Tufts grads.

I think any kind of anything makes a difference. No, we are not going to just sit here and stare.

After I had made this post, underneath my own feelings and Mordechai Gebirtig, I realized there was an echo from Babylon 5, which recent conversation with sholio may have drawn out or may just like so much else of that show be permanently shot through my brain: "It doesn't matter if they'd stop! It doesn't matter if they'd listen! You had an obligation to speak out."

[thedarlingone]

Speaking as someone who grew up on the right-wing side of the tracks, I'm honestly just as baffled by the exceptionalism. I grew up on a constant diet of "we can't set this precedent because a left-wing successor in the position could use it against us, we have to work within the system and gain power legitimately". And now the same people are just smashing every check and balance in creation. I really don't understand humanity sometimes.

[asakiyume]

She did let me share it with you, so I'm going to email it to you. If the Tufts Daily doesn't publish it, she'll share it on social media and then absolutely, I'll give you the go-ahead. But I think she wants to give it a chance to appear in the newspaper first--because IF they'll publish it, that's a convenient way tot spread it around. But FWIW, one of the signatories gave Tufts like $100 million, so maybe that will have some sway????

ETA: And absolutely re: speaking out.

[sovay]

But FWIW, one of the signatories gave Tufts like $100 million, so maybe that will have some sway????

Fingers crossed! And good for your sister and good for the signatories. If the paper publishes it, I'll link it then.

[dewline]

We understand each other.

[sovay]

I grew up on a constant diet of "we can't set this precedent because a left-wing successor in the position could use it against us, we have to work within the system and gain power legitimately". And now the same people are just smashing every check and balance in creation.

I can see how that would not feel any less head-spinning.

*hugs*

[sovay]

We understand each other.

*hugs*

[selkie]

With time and a very masc spouse who prides themself on this kind of handypersoning (this is an indication of their character energy and not who-should-do-what) the door mechanism came back to the light, but that pencil has gone the way of the rest of Andy Irvine.

[radiantfracture]

Solidarity and painkillers

It should be a song.