Raising a middle finger to A.I.

May 30, 2024June 5, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 15 Comments

After this morning’s writing session in which I sought refuge from our current reality by working (some more) on chapter 8 of my middle grade novel, I came here to check my WordPress dashboard. In my Contacts spam folder, was the following:

Dear tracyabell.com,

Do you know that the children’s book market is an untapped gold mine? According to recent data, it’s a booming $4 billion industry in the US alone!

Did you also know that an increasing number of parents and educators are turning to online platforms to find engaging and educational children’s books? Over 60% of children’s books are now purchased online!

Now, here’s the real kicker: with the brand new A.I. Children’s Book Maker, you can easily tap into this lucrative market: https://www.moregold.xyz/aichildrens

This innovative web app uses artificial intelligence to write and illustrate high-quality children’s books in just minutes. No need for writing or illustrating skills.Just input your idea and let the AI bring your story to life.

Imagine creating a unique product for this thriving market, without the traditional overhead costs of book publishing. This could open up a significant new revenue stream for you.

Don’t miss out on this. The launch special will be ending soon:
https://www.moregold.xyz/aichildrens

Try the A.I. Children’s Book Maker today and take your entrepreneurial journey to the next level.

To your success,
[name redacted]

Me again. You can probably guess what it felt like to pivot from working on the second draft of my own children’s book to reading this message that proudly proclaims there’s zero need for writing or illustrating skills in the children’s book market. Ugh. As if this journey to traditional publication doesn’t already offer just slightly better odds than winning the lottery and as if those of us who write for children aren’t already subjected to the attitude that we obviously don’t write well because otherwise we’d be writing for adults, I then discover I’ve been going at this writing endeavor all wrong!

Silly me! Instead of doing research, creating a rough outline, lying awake thinking about plot and characters, writing an entire first draft, soliciting feedback from my critique group, taking a whole bunch of notes, reworking my outline and tweaking the characters, and then beginning the second draft, I could’ve just plugged my story idea into an app!

Except, right after reading that spam I remembered seeing something a while back about A.I.-generated children’s books. Let’s see what Sondra Eklund, librarian, has to say on the topic: Beware AI-produced Children’s Books! I recommend reading her entire post, but here’s a sampling of what she wrote after ordering a children’s “factual” book about rabbits for her library system:

The book starts out extremely repetitive and very poorly worded. There’s no logical progression between sentences, and some sentences repeat on later pages, except often with contradictory information or in a slightly different form. It’s got stock photo images and clip art text pages.

Here are quotes Sondra provides from the final spread in Rabbits: Children’s Animal Fact Book:

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of feeding a rabbit, you’ve probably wondered how they reproduce. The answer is simple: they live in the wild! Despite being cute and cutesy, rabbits are also very smart.

They can even make their own clothes, and they can even walk around. And they’re not only adorable, but they’re also very useful to us as pets and can help you out with gardening.

Apparently, not only do you NOT need any skills to write for children, you also do not need to be factual or even reality-based. If A.I. (which does include the word “Intelligence,” after all) says that rabbits make their own clothes and will refrain from eating all the lettuce in your garden, who am I to argue?

Image by freeillustrated from Pixabay

And then to add insult to injury, this article came out today, quoting the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment:

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) CEO Tony Vinciquerra does not mince words when it comes to artificial intelligence. He likes the tech — or at the very least, he likes the economics.

“We are very focused on AI. The biggest problem with making films today is the expense,” Vinciquerra said at Sony’s Thursday (Friday in Japan) investor event. “We will be looking at ways to…produce both films for theaters and television in a more efficient way, using AI primarily.”

Yippee skippee! Let’s cut all humans out of the creative process! I mean, what could possibly go wrong there? But please don’t think widespread use of A.I. will only impact art, literature, and jobs. There’s also a grave environmental impact: AI Is Accelerating the Loss of Our Scarcest Natural Resource: Water

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Humans making mistake after mistake, one of which is believing that Artificial Intelligence will make up for the lack of our own.

Edited to add this gem from another spammer on 6.5.24:
This state-of-the-art web app allows you to create captivating children’s books using advanced AI technology. It takes care of both the writing and illustration, and all you need to do is input your ideas (or let the app come up with the idea too, LOL). No writing or illustration skills needed!

“Pocketful of Warding Stones” by Rasha Abdulhadi

May 29, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

The following poem and image were published at Poetry Online (a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing literature and art accessibly) on October 21, 2023.

Pocketful of Warding Stones by Rasha Abdulhadi

…

how much of the weight of time we carry

is the burden the murderers gave us,

and whose ends do we serve to hate

ourselves for not dying as easy as they wanted?

…

what firekeeper can scrape

the char of guilt from this burnt offering,

pull air over embers of grief & longing,

find some flint in the heart left to light?

…

how can we untie living grief from the longing

to have done more, and find instead what

more could yet by our breath be done?

…

we can hold ourselves, responsible yes,

refuse a rebellion captive or complicit

confess instead a broader bravery

on which to spend the coin of our lives.

…

we who untangle loss from creation by blowing it to bits—

why obscure grief, why hoard it or hide its face,

as if a siphon could drain an ocean, no—

let them hear the holes when we sing.

…

every death in war is a casualty, no matter the speed

or how exhausted, how unscaffolded the rebuilding.

i know a hurricane who reached through years and state lines

into lungs hearts and bowels, and snatched souls back to flood.

when the disaster of war or the war of disaster steals homes it steals lives,

and though it may take time to cash them, we know where the blame lies.

…

we ward against the guilt of war

the blistered blessing of surviving our kin, and

around the undefused bombs our bodies hide,

we build a larger house to live in.

…

though the house of sorrow be vast,

give grief her rooms to stalk through

let living longing paint the walls.

can we then deny guilt, that rent-free tenant,

the lease it seeks in the house of grief?

…

refuse them victory on this field at least:

our breathing belongs to us

and is not some shame we owe or stole,

or failed to lose like they wanted us to—

our bellows blow to break knees bent over any neck.

…

i won’t devolve the monument of my body

to the keeping of the state, won’t donate

the corpse of my dreaming

to service the desires of murderers

or their gracious paperwork proctors.

i won’t do the blamework for them.

…

our mothers have been here before, they know

there’s no antidote for the poisons sown in the fields of war

but i will refuse the death machine of the imagination any morsel more

…

at least in my heart, the war can’t have you, my friend—

and wherever the last domino of my body falls,

let me land as a gear-breaking wedge—

the murder wheel won’t win my shame.

i won’t let them kill me before i die

and i offer you the same.

——————————-

Rasha Abdulhadi is calling on you, dear reader, to join them in refusing and resisting the genocide of the Palestinian people. Wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. If it’s a handful, throw it. If it’s a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw. Get in the way however you can. The elimination of the Palestinian people is not inevitable. We can refuse with our every breath and action. We must.

On this Memorial Day

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Today, as neighbors fly their red-white-and-blue flags and the U.S. government-sponsored slaughter of Palestinians in Rafah reaches new levels of horror, my thoughts are on Aaron Bushnell who was a 25-year-old active serviceman (U.S. Air Force). On February 25, Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. D.C.

Before setting himself on fire, Bushnell said this: “I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” His final words were “Free Palestine.”

I wanted to highlight Aaron Bushnell today, in part, because I also want to highlight the reality of the U.S. military that recruits desperate people who see no other way to build a future for themselves. Levi Pierpont went through basic training with Aaron Bushnell and the two became friends. After a year-long process, Pierpont was released from the military as a conscientious objector in 2023. In this opinion piece published after Bushnell’s death, Pierpont wrote of the talks he’d had with fellow service-people about wanting to get out of the military before their contracts expired:

During the process, I had so many conversations with fellow military members, a great many of whom could relate to the way I felt. One member spoke frankly with me, admitting that she had serious concerns with supporting the military. However, faced with the high costs of medical care outside the military, she commented: “If I have to sell my soul to the devil to get my children healthcare, that’s what I have to do.” [emphasis mine].

Think about that: because the elites have decided we in the U.S. can’t have universal healthcare, young people are forced to make the excruciating decision to inflict violence on strangers around the world–literally blowing up men, women, and children–so that their own children will get the medical care they need.

According to Pierpont, there are also those in the military who are unable to carry the burden of their role in violence and destruction. The above paragraph ends with this: “Others were considering taking their lives as the only way to escape, and had no hope that they could make it to the end of their contract.”

I wonder how many of those flying flags today think about the despair felt by military personnel. How many of those flag-wavers would support service members who’ve served this country and now want out after realizing that what they’re being forced to do is an affront to their consciences and souls? What exactly does it mean to “support our troops”?

Today I honor Aaron Bushnell who made his own excruciating decision to very publicly protest the U.S.’s role in the genocide in Gaza. To be very clear, that’s not a death I wanted for him or for any of us who feel so much anger and despair about the slaughter and destruction being carried out in our names. Instead, I want an end to U.S. imperialism and the military industrial complex so that corporations no longer get rich off death and destruction. I want an end to people being forced to commit violence because their own country treats them violently via not providing for their material needs such as food, housing, healthcare, and clean air/water. In the meanwhile, I made a donation in honor of Bushnell and Pierpont to the non-profit Center on Conscience & War that “advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war.”

Aaron Bushnell’s final Facebook post (since removed) said this:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”

The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell.

********

Final note: In reading more about Aaron Bushnell, I learned about an earlier act of self-immolation in December 2023 by an unidentified woman holding a Palestinian flag in New York City. At the time of the article’s publication, the woman remained hospitalized in stable condition.

Friday Haiku: on destroying futures

May 24, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

gun-wielding soldier
threatened by knowledge
scholasticide

Note: Israeli soldiers burning books at Aqsa University & posing for photos first reported here

Wordless Wednesday: golden hour

May 22, 2024May 22, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

Drunk on writing

May 21, 2024May 21, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

On a personal level, 2024 has brought an awful lot of pain and hardship to people I love, making these first five months feel like an entire year has already passed. And when I factor in the horrors of the U.S.–sponsored genocide of Palestinians, the emotional weight of these days is almost more than I can bear. But I’m now finding consistent refuge in my writing because I’ve made it a daily priority.

Rather than trying to cram a writing session into whatever slots I could find in my days and then saying oh-well if it didn’t happen, writing is now (again) part of my morning routine. As a result, I’ve been making slow progress on the second draft of my middle grade novel. I typically work for 60-90 minutes and that’s enough to keep me (mostly) centered for the rest of the day. That routine and commitment to my creativity keep me afloat, although some days I look and feel like this disheveled Northern Shoveler.

Lake Hasty. April 2, 2024

As Ray Bradbury said, You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Climate Movement Monday: FEMA, Puerto Rico, and renewable energy

May 20, 2024May 20, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which we discuss climate-related issues. Typically, I highlight a frontline community (people/place that’s bearing the worst effects of climate change) and then offer a quick action you can take on their behalf. Today I won’t ask you to take action and am, instead, merely offering info that triggered an aha moment when I read it. I’m all about sharing the aha wealth! 🙂

I considered myself fairly well-versed in the many ways that climate change is connected to various aspects of our lives. For instance, our physical and mental health, infrastructure, insurance premiums, poverty, racism, food, supply chains, etc. There’s really no escaping climate change’s many tentacles . But for all that awareness, I somehow never considered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) might play a major role in the continuation and acceleration of the climate crisis. I mean, FEMA’s job is to help people in the aftermath of disasters, so why would that agency take actions that ensure more climate-related disasters? Well, Center for Biological Diversity and a slew of other groups (energy justice , consumer and environmental) are suing FEMA for doing that very thing. From their May 2 press release:

Energy justice, consumer and environmental groups sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today for withholding public records and failing to outline plans to use resilient renewable energy to rebuild communities ravaged by the climate emergency.

The groups also formally petitioned the agencies to craft new regulations to redirect taxpayer dollars these agencies are spending to prop up fossil fuels — the primary driver of human-caused climate change — toward distributed renewable energy recovery and mitigation projects. FEMA spent more than $14 billion last year in states across the country pummeled by floods, fires, hurricanes and other weather-related disasters made worse by burning oil, gas and coal.

The press release goes on to cite a 2018 congressional requirement that demands a definition of “resiliency” that could determine how much FEMA funding goes to environmental justice communities. When I read that, I realized how often “resilient” is thrown around (including by my own city’s “sustainability plan”) and how that term has become nearly meaningless in climate discourse. Because I’ve never asked my city to definite “resiliency,” I don’t even know if they have parameters or whether it’s just a feel-good word used to lull us into a false sense that something’s being done. My bet is on the latter.

I highly recommend reading the entire press release that also includes this reference to the Department of Housing and Urban Development: HUD also spends billions annually on public and assisted housing, further propping up the fossil-fuel economy, without significant effort to encourage the use of renewable energy.

I’m embarrassed to say I never thought about HUD being a willing accomplice in the climate crisis, either.

The press release ends with this: The proposed rules would redirect these funds, requiring that whenever the agencies provide energy funding, they prioritize efficiency and other demand reductions, zero-carbon technologies like rooftop solar and storage, and electric options for home heating and cooking rather than fossil gas.

After reading the press release, I went in search of more info and came across this excellent analysis of the lawsuit that highlights the disaster response in Puerto Rico: Lawsuit Challenges FEMA Funding to Rebuild Puerto Rico’s Fossil Fuel-Reliant Power Grid. The summary paragraph reads: Conservation and community groups filed a lawsuit today against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over their plans to rebuild Puerto Rico’s centralized power grid from the return to the status quo of fossil fuels instead of investing in the distributed renewable energy that Puerto Ricans need.

Catano, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 21, 2017. Hector Retamal / AFP – Getty Images file

The entirety of Puerto Rico is a frontline community in the climate crisis! The United States colonized Puerto Rico in 1898, exploiting the people and land ever since. The analysis includes this: Five years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, causing thousands of deaths and decimating the archipelago’s already fragile electrical grid, FEMA is planning to finally spend funds intended to alleviate the consequences of natural disasters in making permanent repairs to the network. However, the agency plans to invest at least $12 billion in projects that lock Puerto Ricans into dependence on fossil fuels. The FEMA project conflicts with the Puerto Rico Law of 2019 that establishes the goal of basing 100% of energy production on renewable sources by 2050 and Puerto Rico’s energy plan based on the production and storage of solar energy.

$12 billion is a HUGE investment in fossil fuels and, frankly, it’s grotesque that those billions would be used to prop up the very industry that caused Hurricane Maria. Why would FEMA do that, especially when Puerto Rico could generate enough renewable energy for its own needs? Well, perhaps it has something to do with this (from that same analysis): In 2021, Luma Energy, a private American-Canadian corporation, assumed control of the archipelago’s public distribution system. LUMA will be a major recipient of FEMA disaster recovery and mitigation funds. In January, Genera PR, a subsidiary of US liquefied natural gas company New Fortress Energy, was awarded a contract to take over power generation in Puerto Rico.

I haven’t done the research on this, but it’s fairly easy to surmise that politicians receive money from fossil fuel lobbyists and then pressure these agencies to grant funds to fossil fuel companies. Again, completely grotesque and also another example of how our government’s policies are solely driven by special interests.

My intention in posting all this is not to (further) demoralize anyone, but to shine light on what’s happening. We’re better positioned to call B.S. and fight back when we understand the intricacies of exploitation.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for being here with me. Solidarity with you, Puerto Rico, and frontline communities around the globe! ✊🏽

Friday Haiku: on democracy

May 17, 2024May 17, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

try to guess the crime
protesting a genocide
state-sponsored terror

OR (because I’m all about revision)
criminalizing
protest against genocide
state-sponsored terror

Please add your own haiku in the comments (and feel free to revise)!

NOTE: The caption beneath that photo in Los Angeles Times: Hundreds of law enforcement personnel descended on UC Irvine to move hundreds of pro-Palestinian students, faculty and supporters protesting the UC system’s investments in Israel. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

On this Nakba Day

May 15, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

Today is Nakba Day. What is Nakba Day? A Brief History

There are many, many heartbreaking stories of what Palestinians endured as a result of that ethnic cleansing and displacement. One of the faculty members who spoke at the Auraria Campus encampment commencement ceremony on Sunday told us of their father and grandparents’ Nakba experience in which they walked to Syria, only to be told they weren’t welcome, then walked to Lebanon where they were forbidden entrance, and finally ended up in Nazareth. According to the speaker, their father refused to accept life as a “refugee” and later came to the U.S.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

These stories are painful and filled with heartache and injustice, but we cannot pretend Nakba didn’t happen (or that it isn’t playing out again right now). Many in the Jewish community refuse to stay silent and are in solidarity with Palestinians. The following email came this morning from If Not Now and, in the final paragraph, has links to further resources about the Nakba, along with a link for Gaza donations:

Today we mark 76 years since the Nakba, or catastrophe, when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes and countless villages were wiped off the map during the establishment of the State of Israel. The Israeli government has continued the Nakba by carrying out a policy of land expropriation and deprivation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights from 1948 through today.

As we bear witness to the continuation of the Nakba over the decades, we recognize the chilling parallels between 1948 and today’s catastrophe in Gaza, as the Israeli military slaughters tens of thousands of Palestinians and forces over a million people from their homes – the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948.

This history — together with our history as Jews of facing ethnic cleansing and mass slaughter — compels us to call for an end to the Israeli military’s genocidal assault on Gaza and to work towards an equal, just, and thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis, free from ethnic cleansing, violence, apartheid, and oppression that reckons with and addresses the Nakba and other injustices.

You can listen to the stories of Palestinians who lived through the Nakba at the Nakba Archive. Learn more about the history and its consequences at Zochrot. Follow, amplify, and contribute to @gazafunds on Twitter/X.

In Solidarity,
Em, IfNotNow

It’s Tracy again. If you’ve read this far, thank you.
Free Palestine!

On this Mother’s Day

May 12, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Just got home from the Auraria Campus solidarity encampment in Denver. Students have been camping on the Tivoli Quad for, I believe, 18 days now. Despite serious fear-mongering from ace reporter Jim Hooley, Zippy and I saw no signs of weaponry or human waste today.

What we did see was lots of love and admiration for the approximately 20 young people from the encampment who received diplomas during “The People’s Graduation.” We heard from one of those graduates who was introduced as an organizing wizard (in just six hours, they organized three actions that spanned twelve hours) and also heard from faculty members who are in solidarity with the students. As always, the speeches at these pro-Palestine gatherings brought tears while also filling my heart with love and hope.

It was a wonderful way to spend this Mother’s Day and it felt very fitting that the rainy, overcast skies cleared, allowing the sun to shine down on the events. I’ll leave you with this poem shared by one of the speakers.

Solidarity on behalf of all children!

Friday Haiku

May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

tanks east of Rafah
target: families in tents
our taxes bought this

Wordless Wednesday: a study in calm

May 8, 2024May 8, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Hope and grief can coexist

May 7, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 14 Comments

I don’t know about you, but it’s increasingly difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning. So far, I’ve been able to rally my energy rather than remain curled in the fetal position with the covers pulled over my head, but today I feel the need to return to one of my favorite resources, LET THIS RADICALIZE YOU (mentioned earlier here).

Sandhill Cranes from March 11, 2024, here representing Hope and Grief

The wise Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba wrote a chapter titled “Hope and Grief Can Coexist” which is filled with wisdom from their decades of organizing. The following was written in conjunction with paragraphs about climate collapse, but also applies to our broader experience (emphasis mine):

We feel deeply for those who are suffering and for the young people who have inherited this era of catastrophe. We share in their heartbreak and fury.

We also know this: hope and grief can coexist, and if we wish to transform the world, we must learn to hold and to process both simultaneously. That process will, as ever, involve reaching for community.

In a society where fellowship and connection are so lacking, where isolation and loneliness abound, we are often ill equipped to process grief. [ ] Grief can also lead us to retreat and recoil and, too often, to abandon people to suffer in ways that we cannot bear to process and behold.

. . . we, as people, do have power. Depending on our choices, we can turn away from injustice and let it continue, or we can confront our grief and move forward to shift the course of societal action in the face of a massive failure of leadership and institutional abandonment. Grief, after all, is a manifestation of love, and our capacity to grieve is in some ways proportional to our capacity to care. Grief is painful, but when we process our grief in community, we are less likely to slip into despair.

Personally, it helps to view my grief as a manifestation of love, maybe because it’s a reminder of my sense of humanity and connection to others, which makes the pain feel almost welcome. Maybe this perspective does the same for you. Later in the chapter, Hayes and Kaba write:

When we talk about hope in these times, we are not prescribing optimism. Rather, we are talking about a practice and a discipline–what Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone have termed “Active Hope.” As Macy and Johnstone write,

Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction. Since Active Hope doesn’t require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about, act for, or express. Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when we feel hopeful, we focus on our intention and let it be our guide.

Hayes and Kaba continue: This practice of hope allows us to remain creative and strategic. It does not require us to deny the severity of our situation or detract from our practice of grief. To practice active hope, we do not need to believe that everything will work out in the end. We need only decide who we are choosing to be and how we are choosing to function in relation to the outcome we desire and abide by what those decisions demand of us.

This practice of hope does not guarantee any victories against long odds, but it does make those victories more possible. Hope, therefore, is not only a source of comfort to the afflicted but also a strategic imperative.

Whew. Just typing out those words helped center me in my grief and to feel those stirrings of hope all over again. My wish is that they do the same for you. Solidarity, friends!

Climate Movement Mondays: on crushing dissent

May 6, 2024May 6, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

It’s another Movement Monday post in which we discuss climate-related issues. Typically, I highlight a frontline community–those facing the worst effects of the climate crisis–and then offer a quick action you can take on behalf of people and planet. Today’s post is a bit different and is intended to educate regarding the considerable efforts being made to crush dissent, whether it’s climate protest, pro-Palestine protest, or protest aimed at police brutality. Long story short: the powers that be want us to remain docile and accepting of the many injustices inflicted on people and the environment, and they do not take well to organized protest.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Last week, I wrote about student protest and authoritarianism. We’ve all seen the images of heavily militarized police coming onto campuses to attack and arrest students for daring to, among other things, demand their tuition money not be invested in the manufacture of weapons used in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Here’s a video of Virginia State Police threatening UVA students on May 4th, the anniversary of the four students murdered by the National Guard on the Kent State campus in 1970. Over and over again, students are being threatened and brutalized by the police. (edited to add: Oddly enough, the police didn’t intervene at UCLA when pro-Palestinian students were literally being attacked and beaten by Zionists.)

It hasn’t escaped these young people’s attention that the same police who stood outside as children were being slaughtered in a classroom are all too willing to don riot gear to wade into crowds of unarmed people who’ve gathered on behalf of an oppressed people. In Texas, students chanted “You failed Uvalde.” Also? A week ago yesterday, white supremacists were allowed to march in Charleston, West Virginia. Where were the police and their riot gear?

The willingness to send heavily armed police onto campuses is just one facet of what’s happening in this country in anticipation of rising unrest due to climate collapse, income inequality, nonstop wars, broken supply chains, etc. There are many other signs pointing to how any one of us will be treated in the near future if we dare voice opposition to the status quo.

On May 3 (as police continued to brutalize students and faculty), Biden put out a statement renewing his pleas for Congressional support for his “Safer America Plan.” Biden wants “Congress to invest $37 billion to support law enforcement and crime prevention, including by funding 100,000 additional police officers…” We don’t have universal healthcare and are not at all prepared for the ravages of climate collapse, but there’s always money/support for more cops! But this is who Biden’s always been; in the 90s he joined forces with segregationist Strom Thurmond to sponsor and pass the “Violent Crime Control Act” and in 2022, Biden used his state of the union speech to encourage the use of $350 billion in COVID recovery funds to hire more police.

I’ve written about Cop City in Atlanta multiple times and highly recommend also reading my post that connects the dots between civic actions, protest, militarized police response, and trumped up charges of terrorism that result in RICO charges. You might wonder why we should care about Atlanta. Well, guess what? The proposed urban warfare training center in Atlanta is just one of 69 proposed cop training centers in the country. Go here for an interactive map showing the status of proposed sites around the U.S.

There’s more oppression on the horizon. From Truthout: In April, the House of Representatives passed HR 6408 by a vote of 382-11. This legislation would grant the secretary of the treasury broad power to designate any charity as a “terrorist supporting organization” and remove its tax-exempt status within 90 days. The Senate introduced its companion measure, S 4136, shortly after. While that article primarily focuses on pro-Palestinian organizations, climate journalists and activists have pointed out this legislation would also make it very easy to target climate nonprofits (and any other organization that threatens the status quo). This legislation is even more alarming with the knowledge there’s a very real chance Trump will get another four years in the White House. Somehow, the Dems and Republicans always find a way to come together in order to oppress the people.

For no particular reason, ahem, I want to link to this earlier post about the U.S. government’s decade-long campaign against the anti-pipeline movement.

And one last note on our current reality: the United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Two million people are in jail or prison. Prison Policy Initiative breaks it down here with easy to read graphs and info.

Finally, I have a book to recommend: NO MORE POLICE: A CASE FOR ABOLITION by Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie.

If you’ve read this far, give yourself a cookie! I appreciate you taking the time to wade into all this information. It’s a lot, but it’s important we know what’s happening. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so please talk to me in the comments. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Bird balm for the soul

May 2, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

This afternoon Zippy and I went to Belmar Park for an infusion of nature, and it was just what we needed. The Double-crested Cormorants were nesting and their grunting, pig-like sounds cracked me up.

I also enjoyed the Canada Geese and after downloading my pics was pleasantly surprised to discover this photo also includes an array of sunning Painted turtles.

We also saw a whole lot of Barn Swallows flying above the water, catching insects. A couple times we startled at whirring sounds as they flew inches from our heads. Here’s one taking a break.

Later, I saw this Tree Swallow perched in a tree. Always a thrill when swallows (or any bird, for that matter!) sit still long enough for identification and a decent photo.

There were other sightings (Red-winged Blackbirds, American Robins, Common Grackles), but I’m losing steam so will close with this fellow:

Although I had no idea what I was seeing, Zippy informed me this is a Greater White-fronted Goose. I was particularly taken by the orange feet and legs which is quite a dapper look. However, when Zippy walked past the second time there was some hissing.

But no biting, so all was well. No harm, no fowl!

Student protest and authoritarianism

May 1, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 14 Comments

My plan for today after last night’s multiple police attacks on student encampments around the country was to write (some more) about police response to peaceful protest, further connecting the dots between the many proposed “Cop Cities” around the U.S. Instead, I’m going to delay my post in order to share a must-read piece from Sarah Kendzior: There’s a Sniper on the Roof of the School Where I Studied Authoritarianism. (You can learn more about Sarah here.)

Sniper on roof at yet another university: Ohio State 4.25.24

Kendzior’s piece begins with this:

There are snipers on the roof of the school where I got my MA.

There are police beating students at the school where I got my PhD.

At each school, I studied authoritarian regimes and how they brainwash people into believing that state brutality is not only expected, but deserved.

That last sentence bears repeating: “… authoritarian regimes [ ] brainwash people into believing that state brutality is not only expected, but deserved.” We’re witnessing this in real time as people on social media sites and network news cheer on the brutalization of students making the very humane and reasonable demands that their tax dollars and their tuition NOT finance a genocide. Those gleeful and bloodthirsty responses to the violence aimed at students reveal a profound lack of humanity and an eager acceptance of authoritarianism.

Kendzior’s piece goes on to say:
The concrete demands of the students have been drowned out by smears from powerful officials — like Benjamin Netanyahu, who compares the students to German Nazis; or fanatical Zionist Senators like John Fetterman, who compares the students, many of whom are Jewish, to the neo-Nazis of Charlottesville who chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

The campus war is a propaganda war. [emphasis mine]

Ryan Grim of The Intercept wrote yesterday that “Americans who get their news primarily from cable are the only people who believe that Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza, according to according to a new survey that examined the relationship between attitudes toward the war and news consumption habits.” Make no mistake, the cable news programs are following the Biden administration’s guidance on how they present information. They want us to believe that the students and Palestinians are the “terrorists” in this equation, distracting us with false claims of antisemitism so that we won’t look at the blood-soaked hands of Biden plus the Democrats and Republicans who’ve come together in a show of genocidal unity.

Kendzior goes on to write about the students of Gen Z:
Older people either rapturously proclaim that Gen Z will save America or demonize them as entitled. They are portrayed as saints or sinners, but rarely as human beings with a diverse array of opinions.

Every young generation faces this sneering dismissal. It happened to the Boomers, Gen X, and the Millennials too.

But there’s something cruel about ascribing great responsibility or great blame to a generation that has, in their short lives, endured a global plague, rising autocracy, the loss of civil rights, school shootings, catastrophic climate change, multiple economic crashes, and other atrocities often prefaced with the word “unprecedented”.

Each time I read those words, tears fill my eyes. Not only have we placed an incredible burden on these courageous and principled young people, many are ridiculing their humanity and willingness to fight for others. It’s grotesque. Instead of being physically attacked by the police and verbally attacked by strangers, these young people deserve our gratitude and support (bail funds listing here).

I’ll stop now, but encourage you to read Sarah Kendzior’s piece in its entirety. None of us are safe with this rapid acceleration of authoritarianism.

Solidarity! ✊🏽

Tracy Abell

Writer…Runner…Birder

Month: May 2024