With all the scary things happening in the world right now, I welcome this over-the-top display in a neighborhood yard.
Image not great due to glare and the dirty windshield, but you still get the idea. This display makes me smile every time I see it. Also? I can’t help but wonder where these tall beings spend the rest of the year.
Perhaps in a dark and dank dungeon filled with the sounds of rattling chains and anguished moans?
There’s a collection of signage in my home. Signs that family members and I carried at marches against G.W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The non-mobile Iraq death toll sign we created on a piece of countertop, the one chained around the honey locust tree in our front yard for years and years following the invasion and occupation. Signs urging my so-called representatives to go big on climate policy. Signs against fracking. Signs in support of a Green New Deal. Lest you think I’m incapable of throwing anything away, I no longer have my sign from the May 1987 march in San Francisco that shouted U.S. OUT OF EL SALVADOR or the signs protesting Bush Sr.’s bombing of Iraq in the early 90s. I do, however, have a bag filled with clean, blank cardboard just waiting to be made into other signs.
Why? After all, none of those things I marched in opposition to were stopped. None of those policies I marched in support of have been enacted. So why do I continue to make signs and take to the streets? Because it helps me feel less alone. Because chanting in unison with others helps release anger and frustration. Because silence feels like complicity.
Today I made another sign for my front yard: ARMS EMBARGO NOW. I’ve been meaning to do so for months and finally summoned the energy today.
The CEASEFIRE sign has been in the yard for over a year now. There are layers of packing tape holding the vinyl letters in place and today I added more to extend the sign’s life since the two major candidates share the same goal to not only continue the onslaught on Gaza, but to extend it to the surrounding region. When I made that sign a year ago, I had no idea this nightmare would continue as long as it has. Silly me. I’m old enough to remember Joe Biden’s four decades of war-mongering. The man has never not chosen violence and destruction. And Kamala Harris, booed yesterday at a rally in Michigan (a swing state) for her unwavering support for genocide, cares more about enabling Israel than winning the election.
We’ll see if the liberals who got mad about missing brunch after Clinton lost in 2016 will return to the streets this time around. No matter what happens on November 5, I know where I’ll be. Holding a handmade sign and shouting my outrage.
Earlier this week, I highlighted how anti-Zionists in the Jewish community are being targeted by Jewish institutions, schools and synagogues, for expressing solidarity with Palestinians. It’s a heartbreaking situation that has fractured communities and led to feelings of pain and isolation for those bravely speaking out on behalf of our shared humanity. Unfortunately, that’s not the only community being torn apart over Zionism.
Writers are also facing the same kinds of pressure from literary institutions. Yesterday, Truthout published the following from author Lisa Ko: “Literary Institutions Are Pressuring Authors to Remain Silent About Gaza.” The article begins with this (emphasis mine):
When writer and disability justice activist Alice Wong received a MacArthur Fellowship earlier this month, she shared a statement about accepting it “amidst the genocide happening in Gaza.” The backlash was swift, with a deluge of posts on X attacking Wong’s character and accusing her of antisemitism.
This conflation of opposition to Israel’s military action with hatred of Jewish people is only one part of a broader wave of political and social repression that is attempting to silence writers speaking out against the war. In the past month alone, authors who have criticized Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza — which is funded largely by the U.S. — have been labeled extremists, been suspended and fired from faculty jobs, and targets of defamation and harassment.
Ko goes on to detail how she received death and rape threats as a result of her expressing concern for the safety of a Muslim woman scheduled to be on an upcoming Writers Institute festival panel with Ko. However, Writers Institute isn’t the only institution pressuring writers to remain silent in the face of genocide. PEN America holds this mission statement — “PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide” — and yet feels comfortable pressuring authors to keep their mouths shut in order to be eligible for literary prizes.
A culture that demands certain political allegiances from its writers and artists at the risk of losing career opportunities is one that is antithetical to democratic values, and harkens back to the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist that barred writers from employment on suspicions of “subversive” and “un-American” leanings.
I write for young readers and for many, many years belonged to and volunteered for the largest international organization dedicated to children’s writing and illustration: Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). I cancelled my membership several years ago because of how SCBWI treated a Palestinian woman who questioned SCBWI’s one-sided support for Israel following an attack on Gaza. I’ve never regretted that move, especially since SCBWI, which exists purely on behalf of creators for children, remains silent in the face of a genocide in which children are being shot in the head by snipers. I now belong to Story Sunbirds: a kidlit collective of authors and illustrators who stand up for children with all our hearts. I feel much more comfortable in that community.
Reading Ko’s article made me incredibly sad. Institutions that supposedly exist to uplift voices and create stronger bonds between humans all around the globe are instead using coercion and threats to keep people from speaking out on behalf of fellow humans. Please take a few minutes to read the article: “Literary Institutions Are Pressuring Authors to Remain Silent About Gaza.”
We can’t stop talking about Palestine.
Although I am not Jewish, I wanted to share two recent pieces focused on the generational and political fractures forming in the Jewish community (specifically, institutions such as synagogues and schools). It makes me sad on multiple levels to see the damage being done to longstanding communities and those with lifelong commitments to Jewish professional life because of the clash between Zionism and anti-Zionism.
The first article, “U.S. Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists: A months-long investigation found even the smallest hints of dissent are often met with unemployment” was published by Shane Burley on
On October 18, 2023, protesters with the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace and other progressive Jewish groups staged a sit-in in the Cannon House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to protest the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Countless Jewish progressives and youth have answered the call for solidarity with Palestine, and the community’s entrenched political, religious, and cultural institutions are determined to punish them for it.
This attitude has long-term consequences for Jewish institutions. Per Shane Burley (emphasis mine): “… this is happening across the Jewish world at the same time that there’s a leadership vacuum, or people are retiring from these jobs and they can’t get them refilled. It’s harder to hire rabbis, less people are becoming rabbis. It’s harder to hire Jewish educators. It’s harder to hire these people. And so at the same time as they’re having trouble reproducing these organizations, they’re kicking out the people that are often the most tied in, the people that are most involved in it.“
Burley goes on to say: I think history is very clear that Jewish life flourishes when Jewish diversity and Jewish freedom of conscience flourishes as well. And also in a cosmopolitan, multicultural society where difference is respected and all communities are protected. Historically, Jewish communities are often safest when partnering with other communities who have been threatened by the far right or by the state or things like that.
So we’re undermining exactly that history with this very isolationist, nationalist narrative. And we’re cutting out the very forces, activists, community organizers, anti-fascists, that have protected us in the past. So we’re breaking that continuity really distinctly.
Near the end, host Marc Steiner says this:
Well, I think that the voices that you allowed us to hear in your article are the voices that need to be heard. [ ] Because their stories are important for the world to hear. And I really do look forward to more conversations with you, but also with some of the folks that you interviewed in your article that we can do together to bring their voices out because they need to be heard. They’re the ones who were attacked. They’re the ones who are fighting for their beliefs. They’re the ones who are going to be the engine that pushes the revolution of change inside the Jewish world, I think.
I stand on the side of those speaking truth to power. Solidarity with the courageous people risking their livelihoods to speak out against apartheid, settler colonialism, and genocide!
I know I’m not alone in feeling pretty horrified and despondent about the two major presidential candidates, neither of which will use the considerable power of the executive office to address the many crises we face.
Neither candidate cares about Palestinians, but one wants us to believe she does. Except, the longer she goes without stating the obvious–that the U.S. must enact an arms embargo–her concern is revealed to be nothing more than a veneer of compassion.
One candidate is a climate denier. The other says the right words about the climate crisis, yet vows to lead the world’s “most lethal military” (the U.S. military emits more carbon dioxide than entire countries) and fully supports funding and facilitating a nonstop bombing campaign. Sorry, but that seems an awful lot like climate denialism.
Neither candidate is talking about Medicare for All while we face down year five of a global pandemic. Both candidates are trying to out-hate the desperate people showing up at U.S. borders. They both want more cops and more criminalization of people trying to survive in this capitalist hellscape. No matter which one takes office, the brutalization will continue.
To be clear, I loathe that horrible little greed-head. I detest his othering of vulnerable people and his naked desires to further enrich himself and his already-rich fascist friends. But couldn’t we have a candidate who offers more than the fact that she’s not him? Couldn’t we have bold and aggressive policies that will meet people’s material needs (and allow humanity to survive) rather than a Democratic candidate who cares more about peeling off a few Republican votes? (Challenge: name one Republican presidential convention in which Democrats took the stage).
Anyway, those are some of the thoughts bouncing around my head as Zippy and I walk through our neighborhood with its many political signs.
We love this homemade sign aimed directly at the two houses across the street with Tr*mp signs in their yards.
While I feel visceral disgust for those with Tr*mp signs, I don’t feel a whole lot better about those with Harris signs (except for the above). I get it, the duopoly has put us in a horrible position. But Harris signs bring another kind of despair, forcing an acknowledgment that this country has normalized mass death, disability, and suffering. We’ve never reckoned with the million-plus people who died and the millions of others disabled due to Covid (Biden did so much damage in his four years) and way too many voters are completely happy to overlook the slaughter of Palestinians (fully sponsored by the Democrats). Yet we’re supposed to believe these same voters will “push Harris left” if she’s elected? (They said the same about Biden and I wonder, for example, how many of those who were rightfully outraged by images of children in cages due to Tr*mp’s policies know that Biden also put children in cages and unleashed this at the border?)
The one and only good thing about the Electoral College is that, living in Colorado, I don’t have to agonize about my presidential vote because it doesn’t matter. The state votes blue no matter who, and Harris will win Colorado. Not so in the swing states where there are basic steps Harris could have taken to insure those votes. She chose not to take those steps. I hope people remember that on November 6th.
Mondays are usually devoted to climate-related content, but today I’m pivoting to the oppression happening on university campuses here in the U.S. (which, as you know, is frequently touted as the world’s greatest democracy and defender of free speech).
I’ve written before about the oppressive tactics employed against college students around the country who don’t want their tuition and taxes used to fund a genocide of Palestinian people (here, here, and here), and today am linking to a sobering article from Truthout about the ramped-up efforts to crush dissent.
“…Israel is committing scholasticide in Gaza and throughout Palestine. In Gaza alone, more than 625,000 students have no access to education because 85 percent of schools have been directly hit or damaged, all universities have been destroyed and entire pathways of knowledge and wisdom have been annihilated. Given this context, it is particularly egregious that U.S. universities resume classes this fall more determined than ever to silence and repress speech and action in support of Palestine.”
Rather than spending the summer months meeting their students’ demands for transparency and divestment from weapons manufacturers, the universities spent that time encoding repressive policies to crush dissent.
Alongside outright bans on encampments at virtually every university come a coordinated set of campus policies, including mask bans, mandatory ID policies, bans on chalking, new protest guidelines and even curricula and syllabi review, all of which promise to severely undermine academic freedom and free speech. On some campuses, as in the California State University system, these restrictions are enacted through “Time, Place, and Manner” policies, which — while they claim to be “content-neutral” — are clearly a direct response to the student movements that transformed campuses last spring, as they explicitly prohibit “vandalism, property damage, trespass, [and] occupation of a building or facility.”
The California State University system restrictions feel personal to me as I was a student at several of those campuses. Shame on them.
Jarmakani continues:
Even more chilling is the fact that these policies seem to presumptively assume that “unlawful discrimination, harassment, and defamation” are the goal of the prohibited activities, specifying that they are “not protected by the First Amendment,” and setting them up for punitive action, even though the right to protest is a central pillar of the First Amendment. Of course, no university should tolerate discrimination, harassment and defamation on its campus, but amid a new “red scare” driven by contrived charges of antisemitism, in which outside Israel advocacy groups weaponize Title VI to argue that criticism of Israel constitutes discrimination and harassment, we must be clear that the actual purpose of such policies is to penalize pro-Palestine speech.
A writer I admire recently wrote on a private forum that they worry that within a year or two, open discussion of Israel will be censored under law. That doesn’t feel like an exaggeration.
I highly recommend reading the entire article which is filled with links to examples of the many egregious practices aimed at crushing students’ voices. I’ll close with the final two paragraphs (emphasis mine):
Student encampments were examples of principled protest, nonviolent civil disobedience, collective education and political resistance; they intentionally cultivated spaces of popular education, mutual aid and collective care. Through this ethic, their demands for divestment not only invigorate the movement for Palestinian liberation — they make urgent connections among U.S. imperialism through the war on terror, Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, and deadly policing practices in the U.S., all through the lens of weapons manufacturers. We must not let them be silenced.
In the face of ongoing genocide in Gaza and devastating attacks on Lebanon, I take solace in the communal forms of knowledge and practice that activate and sustain us. The actual S.O.S. urgently before us does not call for the securitized response of militarization and repression; it demands our urgent commitment to life and collective liberation.
Thank you for reading this far. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Until next time . . . solidarity! ✊🏾
It’s a Wednesday, but I’m offering what would usually be a Climate Movement Monday post because the synchronicity of the two elements contained here was just too perfect to pass up. Below, I offer information on hurricanes and then a quick action.
As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida while millions struggle to recover from Helene (mutual aid links here), I received two connected emails. The first, from HEATED which is billed as “a newsletter for people who are pissed off about the climate crisis,” was their latest article titled “How fossil fuels mutated Milton: Climate scientists tell HEATED the historic storm represents “the profound irresponsibility and culpability” of polluters.”
I highly recommend reading the entire piece which begins: For scientists who study the effects of climate change, the scariest thing about Hurricane Milton is not simply its historic strength. It’s the fact that Milton grew so strong so quickly—mutating from a pipsqueak into a monster.
screen grab from a news broadcast
Milton’s rapid intensification from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane left meteorologists speechless, with one veteran NBC6 Miami scientist tearing up on air. On X, hurricane scientists described Milton’s sudden explosion as “unprecedented,” “terrifying,” and “jaw-dropping,” as the storm’s wind speeds grew from 60 mph to over 180 mph in only 36 hours—one of the fastest intensifications on record.
A similarly rapid hurricane intensification happened just weeks earlier with Hurricane Helene, which transformed from a relatively weak tropical storm into a historic Category 4 hurricane within two days.
The article goes on to quote climate scientist Michael Mann who points the finger at the fossil fuel industry which is responsible for 76 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. “ExxonMobil’s own scientists warned that continued fossil fuel burning would lead to “potentially catastrophic events,” Mann said. That those catastrophes are playing out today represents “the profound irresponsibility and culpability of a fossil fuel industry that knowingly hid evidence of the tremendous danger of their product—not just danger to individuals … but danger to humanity and the planet. A whole higher category of crime.”
The article continues, including an explanation of how warmer sea temperatures contribute to the strength and size of tropical storms. Then the article ends with this quote from hurricane scientist Andra Garner (emphasis mine):
“The bad news here is that we know that human-caused climate change is driving these kinds of extremes to be more deadly,” said Garner. “But the good news is that we are the cause, and so we can also be the solution.”
That bears repeating: We are the cause of climate change which means we can also be the solution.
Right after reading that HEATED article, I returned to my inbox to find an email from Stand.earth. That email opened with: “Exciting news! Late last month, Philadelphia, PA, became the latest city to join the growing chorus of municipal and sub-national governments to officially call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Not only is Philadelphia one of the largest cities in North America, it’s also located in Pennsylvania, a state dominated by fracking. It’s proof that our movement is even reaching areas where the fossil fuel industry is most powerful.”
The email then offers a link to send a message to your local city council, asking for them to call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. What are the principles of such a treaty?
It was SO easy to send a message to all my city council members and mayor. I personalized (and shortened) the letter to make my point which I must say felt extra personal since one of those council members lives right down the street from me. We’ve seen horrific climate policy on the federal level and the Democrat’s presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, now contradicts her earlier campaign vow to ban fracking, but local communities offer a greater chance for citizens to make an impact. Please take a moment to reach out to your city council to let them know how you feel about the role of fossil fuels in these catastrophic hurricanes which are destroying lives and property.
Thank you for reading this far! I appreciate you being here. Solidarity! ✊🏾
Heading to a walk-out march in Denver to share outrage and resolve with others.
synchronized flight
deceptively effortless
sky ballet
I discovered Norwegian artist Tiril Valeur through Mariame Kaba‘s newsletter and wanted to share because (1) I love this anti-genocide sentiment and want everyone to take it to heart and (2) the artist-activist has created additional powerful pieces you can access here. Beautiful art that refuses to keep quiet is needed more than ever as the U.S. enables genocide and regional war.
Free Palestine! Free Sudan! Free Congo! Free all oppressed people! ✊🏽
Yesterday I shared links to lists of mutual aid groups that are helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Those lists are a bit unwieldy to navigate so I wanted to update with this great list put together by Appalachian Voices and 7 Directions of Service.
Georgia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Kentucky
Virginia
If you live in an impacted area and need support, check out these links to a crowdsourced resources document called Hurricane Appalachia.
Tracy Abell 