-Queue up, still on-
I have a lot on my mind so I let it out here. Most of me tries to make sense, but the right words slip away. I'm still growing - to love, to build.
"[We're] losing just as much as we're finding, constantly." - Roger Harvey
I just hope I'm losing the negative instead of losing my mind. Balance, strength, drive.
I joked a few minutes ago about how in internet discourse anyone over 25 is a âqueer elderâ but come to think of it most of these young discoursers donât even believe such a concept exists. Gay men who watched their entire friends groups perish to AIDS are âprivileged cis gays,â older trans women who use dated terminology to describe their own experiences are problematic, elders are just a conservative old guard to rebel against, and anyone over thirty who speaks to you at all must be a predator. The first time I heard the phrase âokay groomerâ online, it wasnât coming from self identified conservatives but from tiktok teens reacting against leather at Pride. You guys are ignorant and uncultured and proud of it!
Cory Lee has visited 40 countries on seven continents, and yet the Georgia native has never explored Cloudland Canyon State Park, about 20 minutes from his home. His wheelchair was tough enough for the trip to Antarctica but not for the rugged terrain in his backyard.
Leeâs circumstances changed Friday, when Georgiaâs Department of Natural Resources and the Aimee Copeland Foundation unveiled a fleet of all-terrain power wheelchairs for rent at 11 state parks and outdoorsy destinations, including Cloudland Canyon. The Action Trackchair models are equipped with tank-like tracks capable of traversing rocks, roots, streams and sand; clearing fallen trees; plowing through tall grass and tackling uphill climbs.
âIâll finally be able to go on these trails for the first time in my life,â said the 32-year-old travel blogger, who shares his adventures on Curb Free with Cory Lee. âThe trails are off-limits in my regular wheelchair.â
Georgia is one of the latest states to provide the Land Rover of wheelchairs to outdoor enthusiasts with mobility issues.
In 2017, Colorado Parks and Wildlife launched its Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program, which provides free adaptive equipment, though guests must pay the $10 entrance fee. Michiganâs Department of Natural Resources has placed off-road track chairs in nearly a dozen parks, including Muskegon State Park. In 2018, Lee reserved a chair at the park that boasts three miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake. âIt allowed me to have so much independence on the sand,â he said.
I know I already made a post about this. But ICWA is LITERALLY being challenged by a white couple that wants to adopt indigenous children to erase their culture and Christianize them. The tribe, whom has a say in who can take their children, is like "Nah, we don't want our youth Christianized like you tride last time"
And the lawyer that's helping the white couple try to overturn ICWA (so that they can erase the cultures of indigenous children) is doing it pro-bono (which means he's not charging the couple anything).
AND that lawyer is a big time lawyer whose clients are usually oil and gas industries. He's literally fighting for indigenous children to be ripped from their tribes and culture so there's less indigenous people to protest big oil destroying their sacred land.
"I did not like to be touched, but it was a strange dislike. I did not like to be touched because I craved it too much. I wanted to be held very tight so I would not break."