I believe that we will win
Vol. 81
In This Issue: ESSAY | TAKE ACTION | NOW READ THIS | IN PERSON | FINAL FRAME
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It has been an incredibly difficult, heavy couple of weeks. The new year was not fucking around. You’d be forgiven for being surprised that Dec. 31 was only a couple of weeks ago at this point, given that we’ve lived through the U.S.-led coup in Venezuela, the cold-blooded murder of a community witness in Minneapolis by an agent of the state (RIP Renee Good), and threats to take over Greenland since then, among other things.
It’s enough to make even the most accomplished compartmentalizers feel exhausted and forlorn (ask me how I know). We can all be forgiven for feeling grief, fear, anxiety, etc. Things are very bad.
Again and again, we are forced to witness examples of how the fascist, authoritarian regime that currently holds power in this country is both run by the most incurious, ignorant assholes you can imagine, and utterly determined to enforce its incredibly narrow views and shallow values by any means necessary. No amount of whiteness or straightness, or adjacency to whiteness and straightness, will save us.
What will save us is communalism and solidarity. Nowhere do we see that more clearly than in the actions of the regular folks of Minneapolis. Even in the face of violence and death, everyday people across the Twin Cities have formed incredible networks of mutual aid and witness. They rush out to blow whistles to alert neighbors to ICE presence on their streets, put their bodies on the line to prevent raids on schools and daycare centers and restaurants, donate food and other necessities to people trapped in their homes, and speak out loudly and consistently about what they’re seeing and what they believe in.
We could all take some lessons from the people of Minneapolis (and Los Angeles, and Portland, and Boston, and so on). I’m trying to, anyway. I’ve begun sitting in on ICE Watch training sessions, signing up for an ICE sightings rapid text alert system, and am reaching out to see what networks already exist (or need to be created) in my home city, just in case.
Simply making connections with our neighbors and community members, especially immigrants and other folks more likely to be targeted, can go a long way towards building the kind of trust and compassion we need to navigate the dark road ahead.
Because the thing I need to keep reminding myself of is that I can’t focus on being able to fix everything or stop all injustice overnight. Civilians simply can’t stop a heavily funded and ridiculously well-armed paramilitary force with the full support of the federal government when it wants to run roughshod over our rights and lives.
What we can do and what we should focus on is staying true to our values and our integrity, no matter how much gets thrown at us, no matter how scary it gets. We need to double down on loving our neighbors and providing (and asking for) whatever help we need to get through each day. We need to keep speaking out and showing up in great numbers so that, no matter what happens, no one can say that the majority of this country supported the fascists. All of that matters. Stubborn adherence to the fundamental values that have allowed humans to survive–compassion, kindness, mutuality, pluralism, diversity–matters.
I’ll take the liberty of quoting James Baldwin here: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
And then I’ll quote a colleague’s recent insights that resonated: “Integrity asks us to face reality honestly (without denial, without distortion) and to respond in ways aligned with our values. Ethics guide us to choose what is right, even when it is uncomfortable, inconvenient, or unseen.”
If we each commit to doing that, even if you don’t view yourself as a leader or someone with much sway or control, I guarantee you it’ll matter. The ripple effects will help shape our culture, strengthen trust, and provide a crucial counterweight to cynicism and fear. That’s how we win. Not overnight. But in the long-run.
If my obsession with learning about history has taught me anything, it’s that that’s what counts the most. We may lose battles and lives and pieces of our heart in the fight, but we survive and create the conditions for a better world when we hold firm against the worst impulses of human nature.
All love and solidarity to the people of Minneapolis and all towns, cities, farms, etc. targeted by the regime. I believe that we will win.
Take Action
Multiple options for donating to provide rent relief for Minneapolis residents impacted by ICE. Right now, this appears to be the most pressing need, more than food/materials.
Masafer Yatta, the West Bank village featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, is currently facing total annihilation. You can donate to support them, sign a petition, and/or watch the documentary here.
Now Read This.
“Nowhere to Turn” [Our Lives Wisconsin]
Sex addiction groups, like much of recovery culture, are rarely designed or run with queer and trans people in mind. They often rely on binary gender scripts that declare men as pursuers and women as direct or indirect victims, and collapse under the weight of anyone who doesn’t fit neatly inside them. For trans people, these spaces can become a minefield of misgendering, moralizing, and violence disguised as care.
What makes this especially dangerous is that these programs are filled with people who have no idea trans participants are even in the room. Her story sits at the crossroads of several American obsessions: The addiction industrial complex, the policing of sexuality, and the medicalization of gender. It reveals how easily good intentions curdle into coercion when the underlying belief is that some people are broken.
Robin’s story is a reminder that healing isn’t possible inside systems built on shame, and that calling something “therapy” doesn’t necessarily make it humane.
“Renee Macklin Good’s wife says she nurtured kindness” [Minnesota Public Radio]
We thank you for ensuring that Renee’s legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.
“'A Directive From Above': Former NYT Editor Lays Out How The Paper Pushes Anti-Trans Bigotry” [David Forbes for the Trans News Network]
In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directed from the very top and the damage this legitimization of bigotry has done.
“Experts Warn U.S. in Early Stages of Genocide Against Trans Americans” [Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security]
Genocide scholars are sounding the alarm over what they describe as escalating attacks targeting transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans in the United States.
Experts, including two former presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), warn that the nation may already be in the early stages of committing genocide.
“A year of listening beyond the algorithm” [Hanif Abdurraquib for The New Yorker]
I have kept up my eager pursuit of new music all these years later, because I refuse to believe that the hope of brain-shifting listening experiences must be abandoned with childhood. My listening practice today is sprawling, involving as many as thirty albums a week. Each Thursday, I share a playlist of my favorite new songs on Instagram. I’ve maintained this habit for years, though it feels more important to keep up now, as the platforms through which we consume music try to seduce us with the comforts of what we already like. The ritual has become a way to resist the nefarious designs of the algorithms that wish to remind me, again and again, of what I loved once, until I don’t see fit to love anything else. Through tallying my favorite listening, I am reclaiming confidence in my own taste, even if it is still evolving as much as it was when I was using that boom box. So here is a list of songs I loved this year. I hope there are at least a few that might open up something in you.
In Person.
If you’re in the Madison area, I’d be remiss not to put in a plug for the final two roller derby games of my league’s home season. Come watch me and a bunch of lovely, strong, talented humans hit each other on rollerskates at the Alliant Energy Center: January 24 and/or February 21.
As always, “Hot Flash,” my early party DJ residency at the Cardinal Bar, continues every first Friday of the month, 7-9:30 p.m. and it’s free! Always a ridiculously good time/vibe.
Final Frame.
I had the chance to visit Winona, Minnesota recently for a prescribed fire conference (no actual fires set at the conference) and it was such a lovely and welcome chance for me to return to the place of my birth. I don’t get out that way nearly often enough, but it’s a beautiful river town along the Mississippi. The first thing I did upon getting in was drive up to Garvin Heights, a park in the bluffs overlooking the city with a spectacular view. Driftless forever!
‘Til Next Time,
Take care of yourself and of each other. Free Palestine.
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