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swan_towerThe title of this month’s tikkun olam post comes from something Marissa Lingen once said years ago, about the symbolism of the darkest time of the year (and the making of difficult but lovely cookies in that season). Seems apropos.
As promised, I’m posting an open thread on the first day of each month where people can talk about the things they’re doing to repair the world. Any good deed you have done recently, any charitable donation or volunteering of your time, any change you’ve made in your life so that you will be a better citizen of your society, please share it here. Anything you are intending to do in the coming months, tell us about it.
Nothing is too small. Don’t hold back on mentioning something because you’re embarrassed to mention something so trivial. We need every bit of light.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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Date: 2016-12-03 08:27 pm (UTC)I also had a very difficult, tearful conversation with my mom (who voted for Trump) about the increase in hate crimes since the election and the level of fear that I and most people I know are feeling. I am still squidgy feeling about my parents voting for Trump, but my mom expressed genuine dismay at the lack of safety oppressed people are feeling and is willing to be pointed in the direction of people to call and issues to throw her white Republican weight behind.
I also had a Thanksgiving fight with SIL#3, and it turns out we have both disliked each other for thinking the other person is snobbish and superior, and so we are at least trying to start over and give each other grace.
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Date: 2016-12-06 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-07 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 07:23 pm (UTC)I also became a member of the ACLU this month (they sent me a card!) with a recurring donation, and I'm on their volunteer list now. I donated for a second time to the Standing Rock charity to support the DAPL protests. I might make that one recurring, too.
It still doesn't feel like enough.
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Date: 2016-12-01 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 07:30 pm (UTC)This month I'm also starting volunteer sessions on technology at a local women's center: some skill-teaching on specific tools, but also some "come ask questions about tech stuff", plus I'll be making their computers work better once they get a couple of things sorted out. I'm excited!
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Date: 2016-12-01 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 01:00 pm (UTC)Good luck with everything that you're doing! And thank you for starting this thread.
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Date: 2016-12-06 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 09:14 pm (UTC)I donated to a local mosque that go hate mail, and am hoping to go to a solidarity event that they are holding in a couple of weeks. I used the donation credit my company gives to donate to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. (Apparently the director of our local Planned Parenthood branch is encouraging people to donate directly to Planned Parenthood clinics in Republican-controlled states.)
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Date: 2016-12-01 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 05:25 pm (UTC)Today's action was to email Senator Feinstein and ask her to join the other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee in calling for the Obama administration to release additional information about Russian hacking and the election.
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Date: 2016-12-06 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 09:18 pm (UTC)I've been making phone calls. I know lots of people who would love to call politicians but can't use the phone comfortably or at all, so I try to make extra calls to balance them out.
I talked a lot and hugged a lot with visiting friends who were stressed about politics. And I reminded them that we could talk about things other than politics, so we had a lovely brain-soothing conversation about multilingualism instead. :)
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Date: 2016-12-01 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 10:40 pm (UTC)I donated to the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council and to the ACLU. Toward the beginning of the month, I called a number of local politicians either to request support on specific issues or thank them for taking the actions they had; more recently I called my governor's office several times more and then signed my name to a petition in hopes of getting him to take some kind of stand on either the status of Massachusetts as a sanctuary state or any of Trump's appointments, which he has continued to overlook in favor of encouraging his constituents to give the president-elect another chance. I attended a meeting with my city's mayor and actually got to tell him in person that I think he is doing a terrific job of being a rational, ethical, compassionate human being in a position of political power and while it shouldn't be unusual, right now it's frankly kind of amazing and he should keep it up. Otherwise I think mostly I've been talking on the internet and having a cold.
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Date: 2016-12-01 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 12:19 am (UTC)I think Baker's trying to avoid being seen to commit to one side or the other and, as is usual with that course, is mostly just looking as though he left the house without his spine that morning.
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Date: 2016-12-01 11:27 pm (UTC)I haven't yet contacted my library about literacy tutoring nor donated to the food drive, but I'm hoping to go to CostCo tomorrow for the latter, and the former is still on my to-do list.
I've donated books to several causes, including Worldbuilders and an auction to benefit a literacy charity. I've put myself on the mailing lists for my senator, representative, state legislators, and city council, so that I'll be more informed about what they're doing (as a precursor to contacting them about issues). I've contacted several local mosques and Islamic community centers to ask if there's any useful way for me to volunteer or otherwise show my support, and will be going to the Hour of Prayer and Solidarity being hosted by a nearby mosque in the wake of them receiving hate mail.
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Date: 2016-12-02 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 03:14 am (UTC)Upthread you asked how someone was assembling lists of people to contact, so here's how I'm doing it:
"We're His Problem Now" Calling Sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/) (google doc)
Most contact lists/scripts for NoDAPL are approximate clones; here's the one I worked from (https://anthrophonebank.wordpress.com/support-nodapl/).
Also just social media. an acquaintance discussed (http://flourish.tumblr.com/post/153875348690/call-the-senate) calling every senator on the Foreign Affairs committee to support Sen. Cardin’s investigation into Trumps's international financial conflicts (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/11/29/cardin-trump-organization-blind-trust/94606930/?siteID=je6NUbpObpQ-Wre0SnSw93U2PVNUyzBlZg), because regardless of whose delegate they are their committee serves national interests. Another option: The members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who didn’t sign Sen Wyden's request for President Obama to release more information about Russia’s involvement in the election (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/senators-probe-for-details-on-russian-involvement-in-election/509249/): Richard Burr (North Carolina), Dianne Feinstein (California), James E. Risch (Idaho), Daniel Coats (Indiana), Marco Rubio (Florida), Susan Collins (Maine), Roy Blunt (Missouri), James Lankford (Oklahoma), Tom Cotton (Arkansas). (Social media post on the topic here. (https://shinelikethunder.tumblr.com/post/153890087976/is-the-white-house-hiding-secrets-about-russias))
A lot of phone lines and voicemails for well-advertised calls to action are chronically busy or full; representatives that haven't been at the heart of a specific call to action but are rather part of a committee are easier to contact. And I want to put my voice in as many places as I can, no matter how minor or how crowded; any excuse to petition or sway or pressure anyone seems like a good idea to me.
(I edited this like 243438 times; my apologies if it send a "comment edited" email for every single one.)
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Date: 2016-12-11 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-12 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 04:46 am (UTC)Made good art. Actually, made lousy first draft art, but it will be good art by the time I'm done with it.
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Date: 2016-12-11 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-13 05:28 am (UTC)But yeah, it's easy to forget, when it's my own stuff, that it belongs on the tikkun list.
Thank you again for doing this.
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Date: 2016-12-02 01:29 pm (UTC)I've also got small Patreon contributions going monthly to several writers, because as someone else said, we need stories. Those aren't new, but they may be an option people haven't thought about.
I have a couple of friends who have asked for charitable donations instead of gifts this Christmas, and have been researching options for that.
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Date: 2016-12-11 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-03 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-19 11:10 pm (UTC)(If you also have a backyard tree with more fruit than you know what to do with, see http://www.villageharvest.org for donation instructions.)