#Children’s Council of San Francisco

[blueiskewl]

Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II’s  Statues and Treasures now on Exhibition in Paris

Many of the more than 180 objects have never left Egypt before.

From whichever angle you approach Ramses II, the 13th century B.C.E pharaoh earns his epithet: the Great.

His 67-year reign stands as the second longest in Egyptian history. Bold in both war and peace, Ramses expanded Egyptian territory and signed the earliest-known peace treaty with the Hittites in 1271 B.C.E. This consolidation led to an unparalleled building of cities and monuments—often to himself. Ramses’s progeny was also vast, he’s estimated to have fathered more than 100 children.

There may have been 11 other pharaohs named Ramses, but “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” a recently opened show in Paris demonstrates the pharaoh who acquired semi-godlike status in his own lifetime needs no identifiers.

The exhibition is on the third leg of a five-year, 10-city global tour with previous stops at Houston Museum of Natural Science and San Francisco’s de Young Museum. It was devised through a collaboration between the Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt and World Heritage Exhibitions.

Across more than 180 objects, many of which have never before left Egypt, the show creates a vivid picture of the country’s ancient Golden Age. Though Ramses’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings was raided and plundered of its gold adornments, the show presents ample treasures directly connected to him including a colossal red granite statue of the pharaoh’s head, one of his many gold rings, and painted reliefs celebrating his military victories.

More broadly, the exhibition presents a view of the world Ramses inhabited, sculpted, and inspired. There is space dedicated to the grave of royal tomb builder Sennedjem, a collection of mummified animals found at the Saqqara necropolis, and treasures discovered in the royal tombs in Dahshur and Tanis.

The exhibition also leans on contemporary technology to bring both artifacts and historical events to life. Drone footage and computer animations have been used to recreate the ancient splendor of Ramses’s memorial temple, photo-murals are projected on walls, and there’s a multimedia recreation of the Battle of Kadesh, a 1274 B.C.E. chariot battle widely considered the pharaoh’s greatest military achievement. There is also a V.R. experience available to visitors.

“Ramses II is considered to be the greatest king ever to rule Egypt,” said Mostafa Waziri, Egypt’s Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in a press statement. “This exhibition will illuminate the pivotal moments that earned the great pharaoh his place in history, while bringing visitors face-to-face with absolutely stunning Egyptian artifacts”.

#Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II #Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II’s Statues and Treasures now on Exhibition in Paris #ancient artifacts #egyptian artifacts #history #history news #ancient history #ancient culture #ancient civilizations #ancient egypt #egyptian history #egyptian art #egyptian pharaoh

[batboyblog]

"My Name is Harvey Milk and I'm Here To Recruit You!"

If you don't know Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office, to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. To this day Harvey remains the most famous queer person elected to office maybe in the world. His short and tumultuous time in office was dominated by the fight for gay rights. In the late 1970s there was a huge backlash against the rise of gay rights spearheaded by a group called "Save Our Children". Across the country they organized elections to revoke local gay rights ordinances in Miami, Saint Paul, Wichita and Eugene in the summer and fall of 1977. In 1978 a California state Senator John Briggs brought forward a citizens referendum, Proposition 6, which would ban gay people and supporters of gay rights from being teachers any where in the state of California. The last year of Harvey's life was consumed with the struggle against Briggs who he debated across the state. In the end the Briggs Initiative was defeated 58-41% with Harvey's home of San Francisco turning out over 70% against. The national anti-gay fever broke and "Save Our Children" never recovered.

Harvey opened every speech he ever gave with "My name is Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you" In the 1970s rather than accusing gay people of "grooming" children (an idea that didn't exist then) they were accused of "recruiting" them. "Recruiting our children to the homosexual lifestyle". So Harvey used it as a joke but also a battle cry

Today it feels like every day there's more bad news. Across the country state legislatures are trying to ban trans health care for minors and even adults. Local school boards are banning books about LGBT people (and others). States are trying to ban drag. violence and the threat of violence are trying to stop companies from doing Pride and attacking Queer events. The internet is flooded with "groomer" attacks on our humanity. There are days it does feel like the 1970s all over again.

BUT! we won then, and there are many lessons we can take from Harvey and his struggle and use to win the fight against the current wave of hate plunging American in darkness. Harvey's been gone a very long time so... My name is Max and I'm here to recruit you, here are some things I want everyone to do.

VOTE BITCH!

Are you an American citizen 18 years of age or older? Are you registered to vote? if the answer is no, register to fucking vote bitch, here check out what you need. If you want registered, click the link any ways and double check. If you're 16 or 17 years old good news more than half the states in America allow you to "preregister" so you're all signed up and become a registered vote right on your 18th birthday. Whats more ask every vaguely left of center person in your life, everyone who supports LGBT rights, if they're registered to vote and if any one says "no" bug the shit out of them till that changes.

But more than just registering to vote you have to go and vote, yes every election. Right now across America conservative queerphobes are using local elections that get little to no attention and are often very low turn out to take over and push wildly extreme and hateful agendas. Local school boards across America are banning books that have LGBT characters or themes. They pushing policies that refuse students the right to their correct names and pronouns. They want to require schools to out students to their parents against their wishes. Check Vote411 or ballotpedia to find what elections are happening around you.

Candidates on a local level, school board, town/city council, county government, even up to state Rep and state Senate candidates are almost always very responsive to questions. Email everyone running and ask them where they stand, you will get answers I PROMISE you will get answers. Its the easiest thing to do and everyone who has the right to vote in this country should do it, vote in every election.

"But I live in a super blue area my vote doesn't matter" SHUT UP! SHUT UP! even if every local election is Democratic it can be more progressive, ask local candidates what they're gonna do to push LGBT rights forward. Will your local school board push teaching LGBT history? respect trans students pronouns? will your local library board host a drag queen story hour and put together programs for pride? ask! push them! let local candidates know!

"but I live in a super red area my vote doesn't count" BULLSHIT! where ever you are there's a local election that can swing to the non-shitty side if people show up, you can be the difference in a school board election. No matter what stand up and be counted.

Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are.

Since the earliest days of the movement in the 1950s and 1960s before Stonewall, through Harvey Milk's time in the 1970s through to right now, the most powerful tool we have is to come out. It is easy to hate the homosexual, the transgender as an abstraction, as a stereotype as an unrefuted lie. It is so much harder to hate a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter, a friend, a neighbor, your lawyer, your doctor, the mailman, your 8th grade English teacher. In 1978 Harvey said:

"Unless you have dialogue, unless you open the walls of dialogue, you can never reach to change people's opinion. In those two weeks, more good and bad, but more about the word homosexual and gay was written than probably in the history of mankind. Once you have dialogue starting, you know you can break down prejudice. In 1977 we saw a dialogue start."

Thats what they're scared of, thats why they're freaking out in Target, why they're trying to shut down Drag Queen story hours and take away the books. Ignorance and hate lives in darkness and dies in the light. In 1978 gay men and lesbians went door to door in California and introduced themselves to strangers to explain the harm Briggs would do to them. They vote for us 3 to 1 if they know they know one of us.

It shouldn't be like this, it should be when you're ready when you have all the words, but they're coming for us all so come out come out wherever you are. If you know your parents will love you but you've been holding off because it's scary or stressful, nows the moment. If you're a grown ass adult who lives on your own and don't need mom and dad's money to pay your rent, tell them, no matter how much it hurts, call them on the phone, write them a letter if you have to. Does your family know but they asked you not to tell grandma, grandma, great-aunt Marge because they're old or whatever, or your aunt and uncle who are born again Christians. Listen if they still vote they could be hurting you and if they really love you they shouldn't want to do that, tell them! tell them who you really are, and it might be the work of years to bring that person around, but you never know till you try it.

Are there family members you have who know and love you but you know they're conservative and still vote Republican and you've been avoiding talking to them about it because it's awkward? Stop avoiding it, explain it to them, explain that it's not "just politics" explain to your loved ones that they ARE hurting you. If they don't hear it the first time, don't stop, if they love you they shouldn't hurt you.

Come Out at Work, Come out at your bowling league, come out to that friend of a friend you see sometimes, wear a pin, rainbow shoes, a shirt in public, tell your co-workers, your clients, your Church, your Synagogue. Wear that rainbow pin, that pronoun t-shirt, put a sticker on your car, your bag, your phone. If it's safe for you to be out in a space, claim it, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE.

COMING OUT AS TRANS OR NON-BINARY

COMING OUT AS LESBIAN, GAY, OR BISEXUAL

Go To Pride This Year.

Conservatives are trying harder than any time in my lifetime to shut down Pride. Florida and Tennessee have passed laws that will limit pride events. Terrorists are threatening and attacking brands that are doing Pride themed events and products. These events and products go back at least 20 years but the violence of attacks against them is really new. So the only answer is to GO TO PRIDE. I don't care if crowds are not your thing, I don't care if its 97 degrees out the day your city does it, I don't care if your local pride is small and embarrassing, I don't care you might see that one ex, I DON'T CARE. If you physically can go to a pride event this June DO IT. If you're scared to be seen, wear a mask, go in drag, put make or body pant over your tattoos whatever you need to do. If we want to have Pride again next year in many areas this year needs to be a show of force. If you've never been and you never go again this is the year, do it, go, find the Pride event closest to you and do it.

Get Involved Whore!

So far I've offered you pretty easy asks for things you can do, voting, coming out, going to Pride. Now comes the harder ones, get involved. In 1978 gay men and lesbians knocked on doors and told voters across the state of California how an anti-gay measure would affect them personally. If they had the nerve less than 10 years after Stonewall to go to strangers houses and come out to them, I believe you can do it too. Get out there, knock doors, make phone calls, mail postcards, wave signs. Talk to Voters from anywhere, find your local Democratic Party, check out LGBT Democrats in your state, check out groups like the HRC and PFLAG

if you've got money give to HRC, give to GLAD, Give to The National Center for Lesbian Rights all 3 of whom have been the tip of the spear fighting the insane anti-LGBT laws coming out of the states.

If you don't have money, check out The Victory Fund thats supports LGBT candidates and find one close to you and sign up to help. Can't find anyone? try Run for Something that supports young progressives. If you live in a Blue area of a blue state, you can check the Sister District Project which links up volunteers with swingy districts across the country. Swing Left does much the same on a more federal level

crazy right wing extremists can count on organized support from Churches and far right groups. You, yes you, talking to you Glenn! HAVE TO be the support network, the volunteer base for LGBT candidates and their allies and supporters. You have to HAVE to get out there, give if you have money, knock on doors, call, text, write letters go to a protest, sit at a booth, register people to vote, hand out literature, WHATEVER whatever. You can do it, please give at least one weekend over the next two years to a political campaign, be it a local school board candidate, town council, working for the Democrats or volunteering through the HRC or a progressive group, the people who want to destroy you are out working to win elections, you have to be too.

Fucking Run, why not?

This is the last thing, the hardest thing and the thing I don't expect everyone to do. Run, yes really, run for office, yes you, yes I mean it. If the crazed insane conservative who thinks Hillary Clinton drinks child blood out of kids like a juice box is qualified for School Board to ban all the books with queer people or black folks, you are MORE than qualified. I don't care if you're a high school drop out with face tats, you're more qualified than these people, so do it, if you've ever thought of it, do it. Frustratingly dozens of dozens of offices across this country are filled every day but uncontested elections only one person signed up, hell that person can be you why not? Look into it Last year 41% of the seats in the Florida Legislature went uncontested, 37% of the seats in Texas, 53% in Tennessee, 58% in South Carolina. It's not for everyone, but if you've ever wanted to, ever thought about it, take this as your sign, do it. Do you have a friend who's so smart, cool, involved and just better than you in every way and you think they should run the world? Nominate them, give them a push to run

I think Harvey put the importance of electing queer people better than I ever could so

Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio, there’s a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that she or he is gay. Knows that if the parents find out, they’ll be tossed out of the house. The classmates will taunt the child and the Anita Bryants and John Briggs’ are doing their bit on TV, and that child had several options. Staying in a closet, suicide, and then one day that child might open a paper, and it says “Homosexual elected in San Francisco,” and there are two new options. An option is to go to California or stay in San Antonio and fight. Two days after I was elected, I got a phone call, and the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the person said, “Thanks.” And you’ve got to elect gay people so that that young child and the thousands upon thousands like that child know that there’s hope for a better world. There’s hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only gays, but those Blacks, and the Asians, and disabled, and seniors. The us’s. The us’s without hope, the us’s give up. I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you have got to give them hope. Thank you very much.

If you read all this thanks, I can't make anyone do anything of course, but whatever you choose to do, I'll be out there knocking doors. I wish I did not live in such dark times but as Gandalf The Gray said "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” 

Finally to all my Queer brothers, sisters, and siblings, even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you. I love you. With all my heart, I love you.

#Pride #Pride Month #lgbt pride #Queer #LGBT #Gay #Trans #Harvey Milk #Voting #protest #coming out #lgbt community #Hope

[queer-crip-camp]

Proposal: Judy Heumann day: Dec 18th (her birth day)

A day to celebrate the disability rights, disability justice, and equity.

An excerpt from her website about her life achievements:

JUDY HEUMANN (1947-2023)

Judy Heumann was an internationally recognized advocate for the rights of disabled people. She was widely regarded as “the mother” of the Disability Rights Movement. At 18-months-old, Judy contracted polio in Brooklyn, New York and began to use a wheelchair for mobility. She was denied the right to attend school at the age of five because she was considered a "fire hazard." Later in life, Judy was denied her teaching license by the same school district. After passing her oral and written exams, she was failed on her medical exam because she could not walk. Judy sued the New York Board of Education and Judge Constance Baker Motley (the first Black female federal judge) strongly suggested the board reconsider. They did and Judy went on to become the first wheelchair user to teach in the state of New York.

In 1977, Judy was a leader in the historic 504 Sit-In in San Francisco. This 26-day protest (the longest sit-in at a federal building to date) led to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act being signed into law. Judy was instrumental in the development and implementation of other legislation including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These pieces of legislation have been integral in advancing the inclusion of disabled people in the US and around the world.

From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. Judy then served as the World Bank's first Adviser on Disability and Development from 2002 to 2006. In this position, she led the World Bank's disability work to expand its knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation. In 2010, President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served until 2017. Mayor Fenty of D.C. appointed Judy as the first Director for the Department on Disability Services, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. She also was a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, where she produced the white paper Road Map for Inclusion.

Judy was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living which was the first grassroots center in the United States and helped to launch the Independent Living Movement both nationally and globally. In 1983, Judy co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts. Throughout her life, Judy served on a number of non-profit boards, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Humanity and Inclusion, Human Rights Watch, United States International Council on Disability, and Save the Children.

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, written by Judy with co-author Kristen Joiner, was published by Beacon Press in 2020. Following in 2021 was the Young Adult version, Rolling Warrior. Both audiobooks are read by Ali Stroker, the first wheelchair user to perform on Broadway. After a four studio bidding war, Being Heumann’s movie adaptation will be done by Apple TV+ with producer David Permut (Hacksaw Ridge) and writer/director Sian Heder (Academy Award Winning ‘Best Picture’ CODA).

Judy is featured in Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, the 2020 award winning, Oscar-nominated documentary film, directed by James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham and produced by the Obama Higher Ground Production Company. She has been featured in numerous other documentaries on the history of the disability rights movement, including Lives Worth Living and the Power of 504. She delivered a TED talk in 2016, “Our Fight for Disability Rights- and Why We’re Not Done Yet”. Her story was also told on Comedy Central’s Drunk History in early 2018, in which she was portrayed by Ali Stroker. In 2020, Judy was featured on the Trevor Noah show. She also hosted an award-winning podcast called The Heumann Perspective, featuring a variety of members from the disability community.

Judy graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY in 1969 and received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. She was awarded several honorary doctorate degrees from universities across the United States including New York University, University of Pittsburgh, Middlebury College, and Smith College. She also received numerous awards including being the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award in recognition of efforts to significantly improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and the Max Starkloff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council on Independent Living.

Judy Heumann passed away on March 4th, 2023 at the age of 75. News of her passing was reported on by major outlets in the United States and around the world. Judy Heumann passed away on March 4th, 2023 at the age of 75. Stay up-to-date on projects in Judy’s honor by following Judy Heumann Legacy on Instagram and Facebook or subscribing to the Judy Heumann Newsletter.

#cripple punk #wheelchair user #cpunk #crip punk #disability #disabled #judy ​heumann #new holiday?

[catdotjpeg]

Vice President Kamala Harris’ push to rally voters in San José around support for reproductive rights ran headlong into protests Monday, demanding an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza.

At times, protest chants of “cease-fire now” broke out during the rally, interrupting Harris’ speech at least four times. Outside, dozens of protesters lined up along King Road and Alum Rock Avenue, waving signs outside Mexican Heritage Plaza.

[...]

The colliding forces at the Harris rally exposed a key election year challenge for Democrats: many of the younger, progressive voters who the party hopes to win over with a platform of protecting abortion rights are deeply dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s support of Israel.

Holding signs and banners bearing “Free Palestine” and “End U.S. Aid to Israel,” members from the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined a coalition of multi-faith, multiracial organizations with other supporters to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. Allie Felker said she was invited to the Harris event for her work advocating for prenatal care to prevent stillbirths.

But less than three minutes into Harris’ on-stage conversation with actress and activist Sophia Bush, Felker stood up and joined in calls for a cease-fire. Felker told KQED she was motivated by the risks to pregnant women caused by the Israeli invasion. “I can’t come here and advocate for reproductive justice without also standing with Palestine, standing with the women and children of Gaza and saying that the reproductive justice we’re seeking in this country needs to also be equated with what’s happening in Gaza,” Felker told KQED.

[...]

...The ongoing war in Gaza has proven costly to the Biden administration among young voters. A Gallup poll from December found that 50% of Americans under 35 believe the U.S. is giving “too much” support to Israel — compared to 21% who believe the country is lending “too little” support to Israel. “So long as President Biden and Vice President Harris ignore that call [for a cease-fire], they are complicit in genocide, but they are also demonstrating their disconnect with the electorate,” said Zahra Billoo, executive director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area office.

-- From "Protesters Demand Permanent Cease-Fire, Interrupting VP Harris' Stop in San José" by Guy Marzorati, 29 Jan 2024

#palestine #san jose #california

[theflowerofhumanity]

Written in the Stars

“Miss Grayson?”

Amanda felt a small hand tugging at her skirt. Tearing her gaze away from the very animated tour guide who held the rapt attention of the rest of her third-grade class, she looked down to see a mess of blonde curls and a pair of huge, pleading brown eyes. She was nearly as interested to hear what the guide had to say as the children, but she smiled down at him and said, “Yes, Micah?”

The child hissed “Igottagotothebathroom” through semi-clenched teeth without pausing between words. Amanda almost laughed, not at the antsy little boy but at the urgent and earnest way he delivered the information. “All right, buddy. We’ll find one. Hold on for a just few more seconds.”

She didn’t want to interrupt their tour or call Micah out in front of his classmates by announcing his needs to everyone else. Besides, there were only so many places for a group of twenty nine-year-olds to get lost in the heart of the government district of downtown San Francisco. They were all pretty good kids, and they were listening very attentively despite the somewhat dry subject matter. In the classroom, Amanda sometimes struggled to engage them about such riveting subjects as the Charter of 2161, but field trips imbued almost anything with some magic. So she took Micah’s hand, saying in a conspiratorial whisper, “Come on. I kind of have to go, too,” which made him grin just like she’d hoped it would.

The Federation Council building happened to be the one nearest to them. After just a moment of hesitation and second-guessing herself, Amanda marched inside, Micah in hand, with more confidence than she felt. Fortunately, the lobby was bright, airy, and somewhat empty. When she inquired at the reception desk, a polite middle-aged woman pointed them in the right direction with no judgment. She felt silly to have worried. Weren’t they Federation citizens? Why shouldn’t they be able to pop in here for a bathroom break?

As they washed their hands in the bathroom, Amanda noticed that her student’s reflection looked suddenly glum. “Why the long face?” she asked. Micah shrugged.

“Aren’t you having fun?” 

Another shrug. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Hey...you were so excited to come!” Amanda crouched down so she could look him in the eye at his own level. Like approximately half of her students both past and present, Micah was convinced that he would not only work in outer space when he grew up but that he’d someday attend Starfleet Academy and subsequently captain a starship. “What’s wrong?”

The boy gave a furtive glance around the empty bathroom, chewing his bottom lip. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. “It’s just...we haven’t even seen any aliens here,” he said. “No Andorians...nobody!”

Fighting the urge to laugh again, she nodded. A smile spread slowly over her face. “No...but the day isn’t even half over yet! Don’t give up hope that easily, starman.”

Micah looked skeptical, but he considered her words and then nodded too. “Okay.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “Now let’s go find everybody else...before they leave us behind!” He was almost out the door before she could even stand up straight, and she finally gave herself permission to laugh softly. Moments like that made teaching worth it. She crossed her fingers in hopes that Micah’s wish for an alien sighting would come true.

Maybe that innocent superstition worked too well. As she emerged into the sunny lobby, she heard Micah exclaim: “Miss Grayson, Miss Grayson, you were right!” He was nearly bouncing up and down in excitement. She followed his gaze to a group of three tall, dark-haired men in long robes standing several yards away, and her eyes widened. There were his aliens, sure enough, but they weren’t Andorians—and she didn’t think they would be very amenable to being interrupted by an exuberant human child.

Before she could say so, however, or even reach for his hand again, Micah dashed eagerly in their direction. “Micah, no!” she breathed. The color drained from her face. Seeing no other solution, she took off after him.

Micah had made a beeline for the man standing somewhat apart from his companions but stopped short of running headlong into him. Intimidation had won out over his curiosity at the last second. He was just a little boy, after all. But Amanda, being considerably taller, was less lucky. Even as she realized that Micah had stopped and tried to do likewise, her momentum carried her farther—right into the robed figure in front of them.

Amanda’s cheeks flamed bright red with embarrassment, and she stumbled back. “I am so sorry,” she said in a rush. When she lifted her bright blue eyes to his face, her words died on her lips. “I was just...”

Of course she’d seen Vulcans before, though mostly in passing or on film, and like many girls, she found their exotic features rather attractive. This man was at least ten or fifteen years younger than any picture she’d ever seen, much less any she had encountered in person. He was also cute. Well, maybe cute wasn’t the right word, especially since she’d just tripped right into him, which was probably much more offensive to Vulcan sensibilities than a human child doing so. If so, well, it was too bad that she wasn’t a nine-year-old boy, and she refused to be intimidated. So she straightened up to her full five-foot-four, lifted her chin, and gave the handsome young Vulcan her most dazzling smile.

“I apologize. My student’s never met an outworlder, and he got pretty excited. Say hello, Micah.”

“H-hi,” Micah squeaked from behind her.

@multirptrash

#cheesiest title of the year award #*wits

[texasobserver]

“Will Texas Cities Stay Silent on Gaza?” by Gus Bova, from the Texas Observer:

Last Thursday, a stream of Austinites poured into their city hall and packed the council meeting chamber—some carrying signs, some with hands painted red, and many sporting black-and-white keffiyehs, headscarves that serve as international symbols of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

The activists were there to push the city council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. But since no such item was on the agenda that day, they’d simply booked all the slots in an open public comment period to make their case. 

“I am a Jewish mother; I am also the descendant of survivors of the Holocaust in Germany and the pogroms in Russia. I have been devastated every day watching this genocide unfold,” said Abigail Mallick, one of a series of Jewish speakers who addressed the council that day to oppose Israel’s recent military actions. “We must pass a ceasefire resolution. … We must join the growing chorus of voices saying ‘never again’—‘never again’ for anyone.” 

The testimony was part of a monthslong effort in Austin and other cities across Texas and the country to get local governments to weigh in on the tragedy unfolding across the world in Gaza, the 140-square-mile slice of Palestinian territory that abuts the Egyptian border and the Mediterranean Sea. Since October 7, when Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, executed a horrific attack in southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and more than 200 kidnapped, Israel has retaliated by unleashing Hell on Earth for 2.2 million Gazans. As of late January, about 25,000 Palestinians have been killed with the majority being women and children, per the Gaza Health Ministry. A quarter of Gazans are starving, and nearly the entire population is displaced. 

South Africa has brought claims of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice; Israel denies the charges. Many scholars have warned for months of a possible genocide unfolding, though Israel’s defenders including the U.S. State Department dispute the claim.

Both Arab and Palestinian Americans are undercounted by the U.S. Census, according to the Arab American Institute, but Texas ranks among the top five states for both communities. The state’s biggest urban areas, especially Harris County and the Metroplex, all boast significant populations. 

The Texas Democratic Party was the first among all states to officially call for a ceasefire in Gaza; five of 13 Lone Star Dems in the U.S. House have also done so, in addition to the AFL-CIO central labor councils in San Antonio and Austin. Massive protests have been held across Texas cities, including one in November that was likely the largest demonstration at the state Capitol since the 2017 Women’s March. Nationwide, at least a couple dozen cities have passed ceasefire resolutions, including San Francisco, Atlanta, and Detroit. But, so far, Texas activists are running into brick walls with their municipal representatives as council members either stay silent or argue that endorsing a ceasefire would inflame divisions in their cities or that the issue is simply not a local matter.

At the Austin meeting last week, Council member Chito Vela told the pro-Palestine crowd that he personally supported a ceasefire and had signed an open letter to that effect. “However, I do not want this council to become embroiled in foreign policy matters,” he clarified. “These are far beyond our purview as a local government, and we have too many critical local issues that demand our attention.”

In November, Austin’s Human Rights Commission urged the city council to call for a ceasefire. Three council members issued a joint statement in December expressing their support, and activists believe these three would back a formal resolution. With a fourth member, they could force a vote, but—even in Texas’ most left-wing city—sufficient support remains elusive.

“Our city always was known for standing for human rights and for progressive values,” said Hatem Natsheh, a member of the recently formed Austin for Palestine Coalition and longtime local activist who was born in Palestine’s West Bank. “We need our leaders to stand with us and [against] these horrific crimes that happen to our community.”

Natsheh noted that the council has weighed in on foreign policy before with resolutions condemning ex-President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and the 2003 Iraq invasion. He also observed that Mayor Kirk Watson, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, spoke at a pro-Israel event shortly after the October 7 attack. “We know that the City of Austin has no power over international issues, but we are not asking because of that,” Natsheh said. “We’re asking them to take a moral stand for humanity.”

Just down I-35, in San Antonio, pro-Palestine activists nearly secured a ceasefire vote earlier this month before a council member reversed course.

With three members supporting, which is enough to convene a special meeting in San Antonio, the Alamo City council was set to vote on a ceasefire resolution in either January or February. But earlier this month, Council Member Manny Pelaez withdrew his support, saying, “It became evident that this was causing more pain and anxiety than was originally intended.” Another council member, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, called Pelaez’s decision “one of the weakest moves I’ve ever seen from any councilmember ever.” 

In late December, a group of Jewish leaders in San Antonio had written city council arguing that the resolution, “while well-intentioned, is morally wrong and will further endanger members of the local Jewish community.” Following Pelaez’s reversal, Mayor Ron Nirenberg penned a memo stating the special meeting was scrapped. In it, Nirenberg suggested the vote would have “exacerbate[d] trauma,” adding that “Wading into a complex and volatile international environment with an incomplete understanding could prove to be reckless.”

The ceasefire push has been led in part by San Antonio for Justice in Palestine (SAJP), a Palestinian-led group that existed prior to October 7 but has been revitalized in the last few months. The group works alongside others including the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which has coalesced pro-Palestine Jews across the country. “The call is coming straight from Gaza, straight from Palestine … that we need to do everything within our power to make calls for a ceasefire,” said Sara Masoud, a Palestinian SAJP core member and health science professor with family in the West Bank. She noted that the council in 2022 passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and also contradicted Nirenberg, saying a “call for a ceasefire actually reduces trauma because it speaks on behalf of peace.” 

Masoud said her group and allies will keep working to find a third supporter to replace Pelaez.

In Dallas, council members approved a resolution on October 11 stating that the city “stands with Israel in its fight against Hamas.” Since then, as the death toll in Gaza has soared, Dallasites have repeatedly turned out to push the body to consider a ceasefire resolution. “It’s a city issue in that countless Palestinians here in Dallas have been affected by it, have lost family members,” said Sumayyah El-Heet, a Palestinian organizer with the Dallas chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). El-Heet said she knew of Dallasites who are mourning dozens of family members killed in Gaza. 

Dallas Council member Adam Bazaldua has authored a ceasefire resolution. Depending on the procedure used, Bazaldua told the Texas Observer, he needs either two or four additional supporters to trigger a vote. He said he has little patience for the argument that the matter is not a local issue or that it would distract from municipal business.

“I personally cannot stand that pushback on any particular item,” Bazaldua said, “because if we were elected and not expected to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, then I don’t know why the hell we were elected.”

Down I-45, Houston has seen months of large pro-Palestine demonstrations and other events. The Bayou City has one of the largest Arab-American populations in the nation. While some council members have voiced support for a ceasefire, ex-Mayor Sylvester Turner—who left office at the beginning of this month—has said Houston City Council simply does not do resolutions of this sort. In an email, spokesperson Mary Benton told the Observer that Houston “does not have a history of issuing resolutions regarding global conflicts” or other issues beyond city administrative business, though she said she hadn’t yet discussed the matter with now-Mayor John Whitmire.

“Houston holds one of the largest Palestinian and Arab communities in the country right now; we have Houstonians who were trapped in Gaza for months,” said Fouad Salah, an organizer with the Houston chapter of PYM, which has been pushing city council unsuccessfully to take a stand on the issue. “We have Houstonians—I mean, myself, I have family, God rest their souls—who have been murdered in Gaza. … To be clear, a lack of calling for a ceasefire is an endorsement of the genocide of our people.”

#Texas #Palestine #Gaza #Ceasefire #Austin #Dallas #Houston #San Antonio #activism #protest

[necarion]

A couple minority opinions I have on voting rights:

There shouldn't be a minimum voting age There really isn't any principled reason you can/should cut the voting age at 18. Obviously, we arbitrarily cap some things at 18, like military service and (in some places) age of consent laws. But "ability to make decisions that affect all of society" is one of those things where people can make informed, good decisions at a way younger age (and people can fail to make those at a much older age). 14 year olds are affected by their school board choices or state superintendent. Wildly more so than I am as a childless 30-something. They're obviously affected by education policy in general which means choice of other state government officials. There's a common counter-argument that kids will just do what their teachers tell them. And really? 14 year olds don't even do what their parents tell them to. But if you lower the age past 14, it remains another arbitrary line. What I'd probably do is have a policy where parents can vote for their children until the children attend school, and then have a secret ballot for all children over the age of 5 or something. You'd get a lot of ballot spoiling from younger kids not doing anything right, but that would also be essentially random and probably wouldn't affect the overall vote much (especially if you randomized ballots). (You should probably provide some of the same accommodations you would for blind or otherwise disabled individuals, though. Not sure what those are.) There's the argument where "parents with lots of children will get more votes" and, yeah, probably. I just don't think "I don't like the politics of those people" is a good principled reason to make these rules.

Non-citizens should be allowed to vote in municipal elections (probably given permanent residency and X years). A non-citizen who has lived in New York City for 20 years has a hell of a lot more ties to the city than I would were I to move there for 3 months between October and December 2024. But I would be allowed to vote as a US citizen and they would not. And yet they can probably make more informed decisions than I possibly could with that little time. They've been paying taxes for ages to the city, they've been using the services, they're affected by corruption and police and gang violence. And often, they're concentrated in neighborhoods that therefore get wildly under-serviced because they can't vote. I'd probably also open municipal juries to them as well, because an immigrant can be arrested and given a trial of their peers which includes none of their actual peers. (And the same problem as above, where immigrant neighborhoods will have relatively fewer peers and probably more people drawn from outside it).

People should be able to vote in the municipal elections of the largest city in the metropolitan area. The shit that San Francisco pulls with policing, housing, homelessness, transit affects the entire Bay Area. But the only way I could seriously influence that is if I were wealthy enough to move there (or lucky enough to already have lived there). (Mind you, I think housing policy should be regional, because there are weird incentives to splitting cities up. Which is also a thing that should be unwound; San Francisco and South San Francisco shouldn't be separate cities, but that's a very different issue to resolve. There also needs to be a "Complete Bay Area" government, equivalent to the Los Angeles County government). I don't think people outside the city should be able to vote on, like, the school board or whatever. But there should be city counsel representatives for other regions of the Bay Area (East Bay, Peninsula, etc.) This would actually also be a totally reasonable place to violate one-person one-vote rules. The people who are outside the city should get proportionally fewer representatives. The SF council has about 10 members for 800k residents (1/80k). Another 5 representatives for "rest of the bay" would be 1/1400k, and yet would be enough for a very dramatic voice in the governance of the city.

Some of these things are obviously subject to implementation haggling.

#voting #unpopular opinions #some of these subject to haggling

[female-malice]

For two decades, researchers worked to solve a mystery in West Coast streams. Why, when it rained, were large numbers of spawning coho salmon dying? As part of an effort to find out, scientists placed fish in water that contained particles of new and old tires. The salmon died, and the researchers then began testing the hundreds of chemicals that had leached into the water.

A 2020 paper revealed the cause of mortality: a chemical called 6PPD that is added to tires to prevent their cracking and degradation. When 6PPD, which occurs in tire dust, is exposed to ground-level ozone, it’s transformed into multiple other chemicals, including 6PPD-quinone, or 6PPD-q. The compound is acutely toxic to four of 11 tested fish species, including coho salmon.

Mystery solved, but not the problem, for the chemical continues to be used by all major tire manufacturers and is found on roads and in waterways around the world. Though no one has studied the impact of 6PPD-q on human health, it’s also been detected in the urine of children, adults, and pregnant women in South China. The pathways and significance of that contamination are, so far, unknown.

Still, there are now calls for regulatory action. Last month, the legal nonprofit Earthjustice, on behalf of the fishing industry, filed a notice of intent to sue tire manufacturers for violating the Endangered Species Act by using 6PPD. And a coalition of Indian tribes recently called on the EPA to ban use of the chemical. “We have witnessed firsthand the devastation to the salmon species we have always relied upon to nourish our people,” the Puyallup Tribal Council said in a statement. “We have watched as the species have declined to the point of almost certain extinction if nothing is done to protect them.”

The painstaking parsing of 6PPD and 6PPD-q was just the beginning of a global campaign to understand the toxic cocktail of organic chemicals, tiny particles, and heavy metals hiding in tires and, to a lesser extent, brakes. While the acute toxicity of 6PPD-q and its source have strong scientific consensus, tire rubber contains more than 400 chemicals and compounds, many of them carcinogenic, and research is only beginning to show how widespread the problems from tire dust may be.

While the rubber rings beneath your car may seem benign — one advertising campaign used to feature babies cradled in tires — they are, experts say, a significant source of air, soil, and water pollution that may affect humans as well as fish, wildlife, and other organisms. That’s a problem because some 2 billion tires globally are sold each year — enough to reach the moon if stacked on their sides — with the market expected to reach 3.4 billion a year by 2030.

(Researchers weigh a salmon that died after four hours in a tank filled with road runoff.)

Tires are made from about 20 percent natural rubber and 24 percent synthetic rubber, which requires five gallons of petroleum per tire. Hundreds of other ingredients, including steel, fillers, and heavy metals — including copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc — make up the rest, many of them added to enhance performance, improve durability, and reduce the possibility of fires.

Both natural and synthetic rubber break down in the environment, but synthetic fragments last a lot longer. Seventy-eight percent of ocean microplastics are synthetic tire rubber, according to a report by the Pew Charitable Trust. These fragments are ingested by marine animals — particles have been found in gills and stomachs — and can cause a range of effects, from neurotoxicity to growth retardation and behavioral abnormalities.

“We found extremely high levels of microplastics in our stormwater,” said Rebecca Sutton, an environmental scientist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute who studied runoff. “Our estimated annual discharge of microplastics into San Francisco Bay from stormwater was 7 trillion particles, and half of that was suspected tire particles.”

Tire wear particles, or TWP as they are sometimes known, are emitted continually as vehicles travel. They range in size from visible pieces of rubber or plastic to microparticles, and they comprise one of the products’ most significant environmental impacts, according to the British firm Emissions Analytics, which has spent three years studying tire emissions. The company found that a car’s four tires collectively emit 1 trillion ultrafine particles — of less than 100 nanometers — per kilometer driven. These particles, a growing number of experts say, pose a unique health risk: They are so small they can pass through lung tissue into the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier or be breathed in and travel directly to the brain, causing a range of problems.

According to a recent report issued by researchers at Imperial College London, “There is emerging evidence that tyre wear particles and other particulate matter may contribute to a range of negative health impacts including heart, lung, developmental, reproductive, and cancer outcomes.”

The report says that tires generate 6 million tons of particles a year, globally, of which 200,000 tons end up in oceans. According to Emissions Analytics, cars in the U.S. emit, on average, 5 pounds of tire particles a year, while cars in Europe, where fewer miles are driven, shed 2.5 pounds per year. Moreover, tire emissions from electric vehicles are 20 percent higher than those from fossil-fuel vehicles. EVs weigh more and have greater torque, which wears out tires faster.

Unlike tailpipe exhaust, which has long been studied and regulated, emissions from tires and brakes — which emit significant amounts of metallic particles in addition to organic chemicals — are far harder to measure and control and have therefore escaped regulation. It’s only in the last several years, with the development of new technologies capable of measuring tire emissions and the alarming discovery of 6PPD-q, that the subject is receiving much needed scrutiny.

Recent studies show that the mass of PM 2.5 and PM 10 emissions — which are, along with ozone and ultrafine particles, the world’s primary air pollutants — from tires and brakes far exceeds the mass of emissions from tailpipes, at least in places that have significantly reduced those emissions.

The problem isn’t just rubber in its synthetic and natural form. Government and academic researchers are investigating the transformations produced by tires’ many other ingredients, which could — like 6PPD — form substances more toxic than their parent chemicals as they break down with exposure to sunlight and rain.

“You’ve got a chemical cocktail in these tires that no one really understands and is kept highly confidential by the tire manufacturers,” said Nick Molden, the CEO of Emissions Analytics. “We struggle to think of another consumer product that is so prevalent in the world, and used by virtually everyone, where there is so little known of what is in them.”

“We have known that tires contribute significantly to environmental pollution, but only recently have we begun to uncover the extent of that,” said Cassandra Johannessen, a researcher at Montreal’s Concordia University who is quantifying levels of tire chemicals in urban watersheds and studying how they transform in the environment. The discovery of 6PPD-q has surprised a lot of researchers, she said, because they have learned that “it’s one of the most toxic substances known, and it seems to be everywhere in the world.”

Regulators are playing catch up. In Europe, a standard to be implemented in 2025, known as Euro 7, will regulate not only tailpipe emissions but also emissions from tires and brakes. The California Environmental Protection Agency has passed a rule requiring tire makers to declare an alternative to 6PPD-q by 2024.

(A worker takes apart a tire at a recycling shop in Mit al-Harun, Egypt.)

Tire companies are conducting their own studies of 6PPD, which they have long considered critical for tire safety, and seeking alternatives. In response to new regulations and the emerging research on tire emissions, 10 of the world’s large tire manufacturers have formed the Tire Industry Project to “develop a holistic approach to better understand and promote action on the mitigation” of tire pollution, according to a statement by the project. The group has committed to search for ways to redesign tires to reduce or eliminate emissions.

One critical area of research is how long tire waste, and its breakdown products, persist in the environment. “A five-micron piece of rubber shears off the tire and settles on the soil and sits there a while,” said Molden. “What, over time, is the release of those chemicals, how quickly do they make their way into the water, and are they diluted? At the system level, how big of a problem is this? It is the single biggest knowledge gap.”

Another area of research centers on the impacts of aromatic hydrocarbons — including benzene and naphthalene — off-gassed by synthetic rubber or emitted when discarded tires are burned in incinerators for energy recovery. Even at low concentrations, these compounds are toxic to humans. They also react with sunlight to form ozone, or ground-level smog, which causes respiratory harm. “We have shown that the amount of off-gassing volatile organic compounds is 100 times greater than that coming out of a modern tailpipe,” said Molden. “This is from the tire just sitting there.”

When tires reach their end of life, they’re either sent to landfills, incinerated, burned in an energy-intensive process called pyrolysis, or shredded and repurposed for use in artificial turf or in playgrounds or for other surfaces. But as concern about tire pollutants grows, so do concerns about these recycled products and the hydrocarbons they may off-gas. There is ongoing debate over whether crumb rubber, made from tire scraps, poses a health threat when used to fill gaps in artificial turf. Based on several peer-reviewed studies, the European Union is instituting stricter limits on the use of this material. Other studies, however, have shown no health impact.

Besides California’s requirement to study alternatives to 6PPD, there are a number of efforts worldwide to redesign tires to counter the problems they pose. More than a decade ago, tire makers hoped that dandelions, which produce a form of rubber, and soy oil could provide a steady and sustainable supply of rubber. But tires made from those alternatives didn’t live up to expectations: they still required additives. The Continental Tire Company, based in Hanover, Germany, markets a bicycle tire made of dandelion roots. Tested by Emission Analytics, it emitted 25 percent fewer carcinogenic aromatics than conventionally made bike tires, but the plant-powered tire still contained ingredients of concern.

(Rubber made from dandelions.)

Other companies are searching for ways to address the problem of tire emissions. The Tyre Collective, a clean-tech startup based in the U.K., has developed an electrostatic plate that affixes to each of a car’s tires: The plates remove up to 60 percent of particles emitted by both tires and brakes, storing them in a cartridge attached to the device. The particles can be reused in numerous other applications, including in new tires.

In San Francisco, scientists studying the pollutants in storm runoff found a potential solution: Rain gardens, installed in yards to capture stormwater, were also trapping 96 percent of street litter and 100 percent of black rubbery fragments. In Vancouver, B.C. researchers found that rain gardens could prevent more than 90 percent of 6PPD-q from running off roads and entering salmon-bearing streams.

Tire waste particles, says Molden, of Emissions Analytics, are finally getting the attention they deserve, thanks in part to California’s rule requiring a search for alternatives to 6PPD. The legislation “is groundbreaking,” he says, “because it puts the chemical composition [of tires] on the regulatory agenda.” For the first time, he adds, “Tire manufacturers are being exposed to the same regulatory scrutiny that car manufacturers have been for 50 years.”

#if you use tires or spend any time near a tire... read this #cc

[winterpinetrees]

It is good? No. But it is. (the plot begins)

I have not written any fiction (barring school assignments) in four years. I do not remember how to format dialogue. This is some hybrid of Silmarillion-style summary and normal fiction writing. 

Someday I'll look back at this and cringe but that means that I'll have done something better by then. This is tumblr after all.

Anyway, here’s the start of The Gap Years.

June 7th, 2019

The Elf capital 

Marin Sondaica -the son of Apex Emer Sondaica- and a prince of the entire Elven World, leaves a note by his bed. It reads “To all it will concern. Like my mother before me, and our highest ancestor long before her, I will be spending some time in the Human World. I will be back in about a decade. Don’t look for me unless it’s an emergency.” Marin is a lean, athletic boy with mostly African features and dark brown hair styled into shoulder-length dreadlocks. He’s trying to dress like a normal American teen, which has led to a sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off, black elven boots, and cargo pants. He’s taking a gap year. Ten of them, actually. He picks up a messenger bag and casts an illusion to become invisible before walking to the ground floor. He leaves an emerald green silhouette for an instant after disappearing. Soon, he will be in the human world. 

Not even twenty-four hours later, as Marin wanders San Francisco, a Gens Mercuralis soldier stomps into his old room and finds the untouched note.

…………

The evening after the soldier finds the note, Ryn looks out at the night sky. He’s trying to look at the stars, but the city and the fireworks are throwing off too much light. He shouldn’t care. He just pulled off a coup, after all. Ryn is looking at stars he can barely see from a balcony of the palace, and he’s reached such heights without losing anyone that he really cares about. The next morning, as dictated by tradition, Ryn’s allies will announce the elves who died in the attacks. Ishtar will not be named, and neither will Arjuna, or any of his new council. or his children.  Everything is going great and he should not care about light pollution.

He hears Ishtar behind him. He’s never met an elf with louder footsteps, and her ancestral armor isn’t made for stealth. Blood drips off of it onto the balcony. Tradition dictates that she cannot remove her armor until the next morning. Ryn thinks that most noble traditions only exist to make everyone miserable. That being said, he is a noble too. Just one that swears on old astronauts instead of Lazarus and his void. Ishtar leans over the balcony and stares down at the water. Her eyes still glow like indigo embers hours after the end of the fighting. 

“We did it.” She says, exhausted. “I thought I would enjoy it more. Getting proper revenge? Doing what I was made for? I guess we gave up feeling that sort of good a while ago”. 

“We did do it.” It was an amazing thought. After decades of planning, they’d taken over the world. “And we decided a long time ago to forget what we were made for”. 

Fireworks burst over the harbor. This wasn’t just any coup. They had public support and an actual vision! This was uncharted territory. Ryn was the first Voyager in thousands of years to do anything new! He took Ishtar’s hand. It was bloody, but who cared. He’d planned half the scheme, might as well own it. 

“And Izzy, we have time to feel good. It’s over. The human world is going to be tedious -we’re going to be working on that for the rest of our lives- but we can't lose.” The hard part was over. She was the Apex now, and he was a Councillor. Another impossible height he’d reached.  “We have all the time in the worlds. Us and Arjuna and the kids in a universe that is going to be better, for once.”

She smiles faintly “Our kids are never going to feel like this”

…………

June 10th 2019

San Francisco, CA

Brian, Sierra, and Clay finish packing their heavily modified car and drive towards the center of the city. They’ve given their parents a similar message. “We’ll be back for the holidays. We’re not going to do anything that causes a scandal.” 

None of them, not even Sierra, know that their home is parallel to the capital of the elven world. None of them know that there has just been a coup, or that the prince of the elven world is now walking the city like a tourist. 

It’s foggy and cool, as San Francisco usually is. The rich kids sit down in some fancy coffee shop to decide their first moves. They know where they want to go eventually, but don’t have any sort of plan. A boy about their age with long dreadlocks and bright hazel eyes sits down next to them. They are all surprised, but happy to see him. Brian thinks he met the boy at a baseball tournament years ago. They laughed at some incompetent umpire and became instant friends the way that only ten year olds can be. Sierra thinks that she’s stood beside the boy in an engineering lab, and Clay is sure that there was a party (a boring one for adults, of course) where they ran away together from the flashing cameras and overbearing adults. 

None of them notice that his eyes flash green as he sits down. None of them notice that they’ve never met him in their lives. 

#by me #the gap years #my oc stuff #writing that *is* #The Road Trip #The High Council

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Saturday, July 1, 2023

July 1st_June 18

St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco the Wonderworker (movable holiday on Saturday closest to June 19th).

SAINT JOHN OF SHANGAÏ AND SAN FRANCISCO (1966)

In honor of the June 2nd feast of the great hierarch, ascetic, and wonderworker, John Maximovich of Shangaï and San Francisco,  we let Archpriest Peter Perekrestov, an eyewitness of the opening of St John’s coffin on October 12th, 1993, recounts the event.

Vladika John passed away in 1966 while visiting Seattle with the wonder-working Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God. After the service, he went to his cell and was found reposed before the icon. The funeral was held in San Francisco, but not immediately, because it took a long time for all the bishops to assemble. Metropolitan Laurus (then Igumen Laurus) and Archbishop Averky (Taushev) traveled for three days by car from Jordanville - almost three thousand miles. Although Vladika John's body had not been embalmed, it showed no signs of decay before or after the funeral. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors had given the Holy Virgin Cathedral parish council special permission to bury the Archbishop within the city confines, under the church building. We used to have a storage room in the basement. This room was transformed into the sepulcher where Vladika John's remains were laid to rest.

People went to his tomb before the glorification, as with Blessed Xenia in St. Petersburg. Initially, they prayed for Vladika John, but then they started praying to him, leaving him their lists of names. And numerous miracles occurred. The veneration of Saint John and the process of his glorification began as a grassroots movement and was not one directed from above. His reverence was growing rapidly, and thus the question of his canonization arose relatively soon. However, it was a great miracle that a decision regarding his canonization was made.

At that time, the head of our Russian Church Abroad was Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov), and it is no secret that he had not been favorably disposed toward Archbishop John. As a result, Vladika Vitaly was less popular in San Francisco. Nevertheless, Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev), the ruling hierarch of the Western American Diocese, told me after returning from the Synod meeting in September 1993: "You won't believe what just happened. At the Synod meeting, I suggested that materials for the possible glorification of Archbishop John be collected, and Metropolitan Vitaly unexpectedly said: 'Let's glorify him'!"

After this turn of events, it was decided to uncover Vladika John's remains. Archbishop Anthony invited Archbishop Laurus, to whom he was very close and trusted, and several priests, including an archimandrite who used to be Archbishop John's leading acolyte. The keeper of the sepulcher was also invited.

For some reason, there are particular days when every single detail is remembered. Father Alexander Schmemann reflects on this in his diaries. We can forget details of very important days: our wedding or ordination days, but some days and moments are always remembered. We recall every fact: the weather and the color of people's clothing. For example, although I served with Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev) for twenty years, I remember only certain moments well. I can close my eyes and feel him sitting nearby, see him separating his Panagia and Cross on his chest, and clearly see his facial expression. In the same way, I remember the day when holy Vladika John's relics were opened: It was like a small Pascha.

Most of us have never opened a coffin after twenty-five years after the burial. From a human perspective, I felt trepidation and some reluctance before St. John's remains opened. I was a young priest and honestly couldn't say I felt too comfortable around dead bodies. At about 9:00 p.m., we went down to the sepulcher and began serving a Panikhida. Our wives and children knew about this. Although Vladika Anthony asked us to keep this a secret, we convinced him we could not keep this a secret from our wives. They would ask where we were going at that hour. Vladika Anthony then gave us his permission to tell them.

They were waiting for us at home with great anxiety. Several days before the opening of the relics, a small delegation had gone down to the sepulcher to investigate things. The board consisted of three clergymen, one of them being a carpenter. The casket was in an aboveground concrete sarcophagus. The delegation needed to know in advance how the extremely heavy cover of the coffin would be removed. Because of their efforts, when we went to open the remains, we knew what needed to be done. Two-by-fours, a crowbar, sheets, and other items had been prepared. We lifted the cover of the sarcophagus and saw a corroded metal casket under it. The coffin was covered by a bishop's mantle, which had been put there on the day of Archbishop John's funeral. The mantle was intact. Then the coffin was raised slightly with ropes, but it started to collapse because it had completely rusted through in many places. So we put the two-by-fours under the casket to support it. The next step was to open the casket lid.

The key to the lid had been kept by one hieromonk for more than twenty-five years. He approached the casket and solemnly put the key into the keyhole, but the lid would not open. It has rusted through, and the lock did not work. Then our protodeacon got down to business and tried to force open the lid with a crowbar. He was a very strong Russian and weighed around 375 pounds. However, Archbishop Anthony disapproved of such use of brutal force, believing it is not proper and pious to open the lid in such a manner, so he stopped the protodeacon, crossed himself, closed his eyes, and started reading the 50th Psalm.

I would like to step back momentarily and recall the events that led to this. When my wife and I were deciding whether or not to move to San Francisco, she was quite hesitant because we would be living very far from family. In the Russian Church Abroad, we do not have such a strict policy regarding clergy assignments and transfers as in Russia. Usually, a bishop will propose, and the priest can either agree or refuse. The quandary is that many of our priests have secular jobs, and not everyone can leave his job because not every parish can provide its clergy with a decent salary. So we went to San Francisco for a "scouting" trip. I had more superficial reasons for moving there. I thought of the grand cathedral, the numerous youth, the large Russian population, and the active parish school. But my wife was a bit skeptical about those things. We saw the city, got to meet some of the clergy, and, right before our departure, were invited by Vladika Anthony to his residence. Archbishop Anthony lived alone. He did not have a cell attendant or a driver. He usually used the city buses and always carried a briefcase with him. He even put his food purchases in that leather briefcase when he went shopping. The Archbishop greeted us at the door, sat us down, and started cooking everything himself. When the food was ready, he faced the icon corner and said the Lord's Prayer. My wife later remarked that she had never seen anyone reading "Our Father" in such a way. Vladika Anthony was not simply reading a prayer; he stood before the living God, addressing Him. There was no formal element in his prayer. When we left Archbishop Anthony's quarters, I asked my wife: "Well, Lena, what do you think?" she replied: "With a bishop like that, one can live and serve anywhere." That was the deciding factor for us regarding our move to California

This same bishop was praying during the opening of St. John's relics. Vladika Anthony completed Psalm 50, took the lid, and quickly opened it. I believe we could not open the lid from the beginning because God wanted the relics to be uncovered by Archbishop Anthony, a man of high spiritual life and purity. The lid opened, and we glimpsed at St. John's vestments. Initially, they were white but now had become green. It seemed they were moldy. We then touched the vestments, which fell apart in our hands because of decomposition. When a priest is buried, his face is covered with an aer: the one used to wrap the Holy Gifts at the Liturgy. Such an aer was covering St. John's face. Archbishop Anthony crossed himself and raised the aer covering Vladika John's face. This was the moment when I saw Archbishop John's face for the first time. His face and body were intact - incorrupt - and we were looking at true relics.

Vladika Anthony appointed me as the photographer for this event. I was taking pictures with a film camera (this was in 1993). I ran out of the film and rushed home. All the lights were on in our apartment-it was like the Pascha. Although it was around midnight, my wife was waiting for me. I began saying loudly: "He is incorrupt! His relics are incorrupt!" I then grabbed some film and ran back to the sepulcher. Matushka started to phone others to share our joy. When I returned to the sepulcher, a sick boy was brought to the relics who was the son of one of our diocesan priests. Archbishop Anthony gave his blessing for the boy to touch the relics. And the boy was healed. Now he is entirely healthy, much taller than I, and plays college rugby. A wooden casket had been prepared in advance to replace the metal one that had rusted away. We placed the relics in the wooden coffin, closed it, and left the sepulcher praising God.

The preparations for the glorification were moving ahead quickly. New vestments were being sewn for St. John. We opened the relics again in several months to wash them and vest Vladika, but we needed to figure out how to do this. No reference book had detailed instructions on cleaning and preparing relics before a glorification service. Archbishop Anthony was searching all his books. He found some historical data on canonizations, including how St. Theodosy of Chernigov and St. Ioasaph of Belgorod were glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church. He also found some articles in the publication of The Church Herald and other old periodicals. There was some information there, but we had to figure out most things ourselves. In Russia, perestroika had only just begun, and the opening of relics was not yet widespread. There was nobody to ask. We washed St. John's relics using water, oil, and rosewater. Initially, his skin seemed light in color, almost white, but it turned a rather dark amber color after it was washed. I combed out his hair and beard (I even found several hairs in the comb afterward). We changed his vestments and left him in the sepulcher until 1994, when he was glorified on the day of his repose, July 2

St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco was glorified as follows: First, the relics were brought from the sepulcher to the cathedral proper and placed in the center of the church. A Panikhida was then served, the last one for Archbishop John. At the end of the Panikhida, an icon of St. John, wrapped in a cloth, was laid upon the closed reliquary. The Panikhida finished with the words: "May God bless and give him rest, and by his holy prayers have mercy on us." After the Panikhida, the All-Night Vigil began, at which the stichera (verses) to the new saint were sung. During the litya, when a list of saints is remembered, St. John was mentioned for the first time: "Our father among the saint's John, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco the Wonderworker, whose glorification is presently taking place, and all the saints..." That Vigil was unforgettable!

Saturday, July 1st, 2023. St Jon's relics has been brought out of its shrine and sits in the middle of the church from Thursday to Saturday 

During the polyeleos, the Metropolitan came up to the reliquary, untied the icon of St. John on top of it, and two tall priests raised it on high so the faithful could see it. Afterward, the reliquary lid was lifted, and everyone could see St. John's relics. Immediately, all present did a full prostration, and the numerous clergy sang the Magnification to the new saint.

The glorification service was beautiful and genuinely conciliar, with the participation of numerous faithful. It was also one of the most important spiritual events in my life. And I will not cease to remark that our generation is highly blessed. Not one generation has received as many mercies from God as we have: We have not experienced wars and witnessed the rebirth of church life in Russia and the glorification of the New Martyrs and St. John. In addition to these blessings, we have seen and taken part in a tremendous and unprecedented miracle: the unification of the two parts of the Russian Church!

Archpriest Peter Perekrestov is currently archpriest of the Holy Virgin Cathedral “Joy of All Sorrows” of San Francisco, where St John Maximovich of Shanghaï and San Francisco reposes.

Source: Orthodox Christianity

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11 

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself. He became obedient to the point of death, even at the end of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

LUKE 10:38-42; 11:27-28 

38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village, and a confident woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. 27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!" 28 But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

#orthodoxy #orthodoxchristianity easternorthodoxchurch originofchristianity spirituality holyscriptures gospel bible wisdom

[casspurrjoybell-17]

HEART'S FATE - CHAPTER 50

*Warning: Adult Content*    

 "Prince Scyllian, It has been far too long."

A man with a black braid coiled about his head like a snake bows with a flourish and tries to kiss Skylar West’s hand. 

He barely deflect the attempt without causing a diplomatic incident before turning aside and greeting someone else, a woman this time, wearing a dress that makes her resemble an aged seahorse. 

Skylar murmurs something that he hopes sounds like a convincing combination of a greeting and her name, mixed with a suitable dash of royal ennui.

It was all coming back to him now... the tedium, the absurdity, the mounting desire to slip away and find some corner in which to hide. 

He had forgotten how liberating the surface world had seemed when first he found himself laid flat upon the sand, cast into a boundless realm in which not a single soul knew him from a lowly crab. 

The first person who came across him had mistaken him for a drunken sot, passed out upon the beach at dawn and ever since, it had delighted Skylar to be taken for a vagabond.

Now, with the weight of a kingdom threatening his  shoulders, he was already itching to be away again. 

Perhaps once his mother was free and the whole misunderstanding with his father cleared away, things might change.

Skylar’s father's idea of joining the Supreme Council resonated with him. 

If they were less focused on isolating and protecting ourselves and more free to explore and mingle with the wider world, their culture and way of life would be enriched, not diluted. 

Perhaps they might even move away from this ancient and outdated model of monarchy and spread the burden of leadership more equally among many.

The thought was as inviting as the promise of a soothing bath and a soft bed and as the meet-and-greet continues with no end in sight, Skylar indulged in a daydream of taking his sisters on a tour of the globe... from San Francisco to Tokyo, Paris to New York and everywhere in between. 

His bond-mate Martin West and his children would come along as well, of course... perhaps they'd home-school them for a year.

He is halfway through constructing a mental lesson plan on history and art when Martin himself reappears at his side, wearing a surprisingly contented smile. 

Skylar expected his mate to be miserable and ill-at-ease among so many strangers but he looks entirely at home. 

Anemone trails after him, a decidedly less happy expression on her face and slips away without meeting her brother’s eyes.

"Where have you been?" Skylar asks, as Martin takes his place at his side.

Martin smiles. 

"The library. It's magnificent. I don't suppose the books are written in English, though, are they?"

"No, most are in Mer. Our language uses an alphabet that predates early Greek and Phoenician."

"I wish I had Noah's acuity for language," Martin says. "I wonder if he could ever visit us here. The children, too."

Skylar casts him a glance. 

"I'm sure they can. When we've settled things and you are free of Elena, we can arrange it. I'm sure there will be innumerable royal balls and other uncomfortable affairs to attend once mother is free. My presence will undoubtedly be required and having you and the children along will make my duties far more pleasant."

"I shall be at your side, of course," he says and then smiles.

Skylar gives Martin’s hand a squeeze and sighs as the endless pleasantries continue. 

With every passing minute, the truth becomes more clear... this isn't where Skylar belongs. 

He’s glad Martin is enjoying himself but he’s already counting the minutes until they can go home.

********

"That was exhausting," Skylar says, crawling across the enormous bed and collapsing face first into a pillow. "I'd forgotten how much I hated those things."

It's nearly dawn, the celebration of Skylar’s return having lasted the entire night. 

Unfortunately, there really is no polite way to leave a party thrown in one's own honor but Martin had been true to his word and stayed at his mate’s side for the duration, unshakable as a shadow. 

In fact, he'd seemed content to do nothing else and his docility troubled Skylar, who worried it masked some state of inner shock.

Skylar rolls onto my back as Martin joins him, lying at his side and shutting his eyes with a gentle smile on his lips.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Skylar asks. "You've been... quiet."

"I'm perfectly happy," he says easily. "Thassos is wonderful."

Skylar frowns. 

"It's alright if you enjoy stuffy traditions and pompous displays for the sake of vanity. Oh, and blood-bound curses that all but imprison you. Honestly, I miss my classroom. I'd take a parent-teacher conference over another royal ball any day."

"But it's so peaceful here," Martin murmurs. "I never want to leave."

Skylar frowns and sits up. 

Martin's eyes remain closed and his face is the image of peace as he slips towards sleep. 

Usually, Skylar would love to see him so relaxed but Martin’s words trouble him.

"What about the children?" Skylar asks. 

Since the day he met Martin, he's seldom thought of anything without thinking of them first. 

Now, though, he seems to have momentarily forgotten they exist.

"Children? Oh, yes. Well, they'll be alright. They have their aunts and uncles to look after them."

"And their mother, I suppose," Skylar adds, watching for Martin’s reaction.

"And their mother, too. Yes."

A strange shock goes through Skylar... a wash of hot anger mixed with a tingling chill... as the truth hits him like a sleeper wave. 

Martin has been influenced by a Voice and the only person he was alone with for any amount of time is the person Skylar would least suspect. 

To use her Voice in such a way is not only a breach of etiquette but a serious crime and Skylar can't imagine why Anemone would risk it simply to change Martin's mind.

Skylar shakes him gently.

"Marrtin, wake up and focus. What did Anemone say?"

Martin sighs sleepily. 

"Hmm? About what?"

"Did she use her Voice on you? Tell me."

Skylar put the barest hint of power in his own words.

"She helped me see the truth, is all," Martin whispers. "Our place is here. Thassos is... wonderful."

"No, it isn't," Skylar snaps, grasping Martin’s shoulders and shaking him again, a little less gently this time. "If coming home has convinced me of anything, it's that my place is not here. I don't want to be king,and you don't want to be my 'consort.' You want to go home to Flora and Nico and Rio and Miguel... to your family. Think of them and remember, Martin."

Martin blinks at Skylar, his expression shifting from contentment to confusion and then he sits up and looks around.

"What happened? How did we get here?"

"Anemone took you to see the library. What did she say to you?"

Martin winced and rubbed the side of his head. 

"We were talking about your father and Natalis and... holidays."

"Holidays..." 

Suddenly it hits Skylar and he swears. 

"Fuck me with a whale cock." 

“What?”

"My father," Skylar snaps, rolling off the bed and snatching up his clothes from where he'd dropped them on the floor. "He's land-born. He doesn't have a siren's Voice like the rest of us. Most Mer-folk don't. It runs in the royal line."

“So?”

"So, if he'd revealed himself... showed up one day and revealed the fact he was alive... what do you think would be the very first thing any of us would do?"

"Er..." Martin squints at him.

"We'd use our Voice, of course and demand he tell the truth. He'd have no choice but to tell it. And if that truth happened to be that he really did intend to kill mother, put me on the throne and use me as a puppet for his own political machinations, well..." Skylar pulls up his trousers and buckles his belt rather violently. "You can imagine how quickly he'd have found himself on his way back to the depths."

"What about Natalis?" Martin asks, rising as well and dressing himself hastily. "Anemone said she's as powerful as your mom. Wouldn't she have asked your dad the same thing?"

"She's on his side, obviously."

“Oh.”

"And Anemone..." Skylar shake his head. "I don't know. She's young and impressionable. Maybe Natalis convinced her to help. At any rate, she was obviously supposed to convince you to convince me to stay and take the throne. Fat chance of that."

Skylar stalks to the doors and throws them open, ready to confront whatever might await on the other side but the corridor is empty. 

Martin scrambles to keep up with him as he strides off down the hall.

"Where are we going?"

"To the throne room," Skylar says, taking a sharp turn at a side passage meant for the serving class, another thing that could do with a modern overhaul. "I don't know what my father has planned but I'll break this curse on my own terms."

Martin jogs to keep up as Skylar trots through narrow and notably abandoned, hallways towards his destination, the map of the palace as clear in his head as it was in his childhood, when eluding angry tutors was the primary inspiration for such forays.

After a labyrinthine journey, they emerge, breathless, from behind a tapestry hanging from a wall of the grand hall. 

The doors of the throne room are within spitting distance to their left, flanked by two guards.

With a deep breath, Skylar steps into the passageway, straighten his posture and lifting his chin. 

The guards raise their weapons but upon recognizing Prince Scyllian, lower them halfway, as if uncertain.

"Apologies, my Prince," one guard says, holding her spear in a neutral position, "But no one is to enter. Orders of Lady Natalis."

Skylar adopts his snootiest tone and looks down his nose at her. 

"The last time I checked, I was next in line for the throne. I would like to pay my respects to my mother, if you please."

The guard purses her lips and shoots a sideways glance at her partner, who raises his brows in an 'I don't fucking know what to do' sort of way.

Taking the initiative, she stands aside and bows. 

"As you please, my Prince."

Casting her a nod of royal acknowledgement, Skylar links his arm through Martin's arm and marches through the doors.

Sweat trickles down his back as they traverse the length of the room, mounting the three steps of the raised dais at the end and approach his mother's cloth-covered, stone-bound form.

Skylar pulls the dust cloth aside and barely restrain a gasp.

She's as beautiful as he remembers her, every detail preserved in perfection.

He recalls coming across a man in a park, once, who had covered himself in gray paint and taken to posing as a statue in the name of art. 

He seemed to delight in scaring the shit out of people who failed to discern his disguise.

His mother looked just like that, like at any moment she might move,and prove herself a living being and not a figure cast in stone.

"Give me your amulet," Skylar says, pulling his own over his head. 

Martin complies and Skylar holds the two halves of the gem in front of him, back to back.

As it had when his father gave him the half he lacked, the gem fuses into a single whole, a three-dimensional heart lit from within.

Skylar places it around his mother's neck. 

The blood red gem glows, pulsing with a heartbeat rhythm that matched it’s shape and a corresponding excitement swells within his chest. 

In a moment, he will have his mother, his freedom and all the answers he desires.

The statue begins to glow as if heated from within and then, with a suddenness that makes Skylar gasp, the stone figure shatters and crumbles into dust.

The truth explodes like a bomb in his mind but before he can give Martin so much as a warning, a troop of guards bursts through the door amid a chorus of horrified shouts. 

Above all, Natalis's Voice rings out loud and clear.

"Seize these assassins," she commands. "They have killed the Queen."

[artivist]

LADEDA 2014 - a new cultural tradition that never happened...

2014. Well, actually, 2013 this proposal went to Council. 10 years ago!

A very excited Council… then the wheels fell off when the administration couldn’t see the “value” in the event.

Creative Director on this was Philip McDougall. At the time Philip was EVP Creative in New York for the prestigious Experiential Company Jack Morton Worldwide & was rebranding San Francisco Bay Area in preparation for Super Bowl. He had been Creative on some of the largest broadcast events of the new century including Melbourne Commonwealth Games & Beijing Olympics as the head Creative of JMW Australia… he was home on a rest while waiting on his new position with another global giant & we decided to put our heads together to make something to celebrate our home town…

We aimed to show Wellington as vibrant & exciting to the world. Not celebrating ourselves to ourselves. Allowing others to celebrate us, our city & our place in the World - if only for the fact we are the first capital city to see the New Year!

We did this to instil some pride in our children in our home town. There was no gain for us. Sure we each have a son at Victoria & I even have a son who works at Paperkite as a Product Owner & Designer but he lives in Christchurch. But all my kids live overseas or Auckland & Christchurch & don’t see Wellington as “home” like we do.

Philip is now Creative Director at Google. I’m shifting our business out of Wellington this month to Auckland & overseas. I’m still questioning why Wellington does not have anything to offer us. But I keep thinking it’s more that Wellington wants nothing that we have to offer…

Wellington creatives don’t make it in Wellington. They make it elsewhere & live in Wellington until it becomes easier to live somewhere else or they are prepared to adjust their work & lifestyle to suit - I live in Wellington but we’re moving core business to Auckland. When I first worked with Phil in 2000 I commuted to Melbourne but worked in a satellite office (old style remote) back here in Wellington or my studio in Melbourne… we worked on installations in Sydney & I worked on events in Auckland too.

But as Wellington gets more & more isolated the remote working style gets more difficult to justify. The issue for our home town is that it keeps telling us it has great food & theatre & entertainment however it’s not as good as Melbourne or Auckland or Christchurch right now - ask all those new students who went to Canterbury this year.

The issue is the town needs to stop making out it has a lot to offer & start offering a place that new people feel they are making a contribution… that’s what we wanted from LA DE DA 2014. A new culture that offered a place to belong & then celebrate that. And then show off about it to the World!

note: 2014 the main question was “who is Kendrick Lamar?”

[lboogie1906]

Ethel Ray Nance (April 13, 1899 - July 11, 1992) was born in Duluth, Minnesota to William Henry Ray, who was the president of the Duluth chapter of the NAACP. Duluth had a small African-American population.

She graduated from Central High School. She trained to be a stenographer. She worked as a stenographer for the Minnesota State Relief Commission, an organization that helped the victims of a series of 1918 fires in and around Duluth.

She met W. E. B. Du Bois when he spoke at an NAACP meeting in Duluth. This sparked a lifelong friendship between the two, and she would work for Du Bois. She gained national recognition for breaking the secretarial color barrier in the Minnesota State Legislature. She became the executive secretary for the Kansas City Urban League. She was offered a position with the League’s publication, Opportunity. She moved to New York and assisted with writing, researching, and editing for the magazine.

She returned to Minnesota, where she would become the associate head resident at the Phyllis Wheatley House. She worked with the Women’s Bureau at the Minneapolis Police Department. She was one of the first African American policewomen in Minnesota.

She moved to San Francisco with her family and became a secretary for Du Bois. She worked for the regional office of the NAACP, the War Department, the US District Court, the Federal Public Housing Authority, and the San Francisco Board of Education. She researched Black history and became involved with the African-American Historical Society.

She became the oldest person to earn a BA from the University of San Francisco. She was involved in several organizations, such as the Minnesota Negro Council and the San Francisco African-American Historical Society, and wrote for many publications. With the African-American Historical Society, she contributed to Negro History Week, which would become Black History Month.

She married LeRoy A. H. Williams (1929-1943) and they had two children. She married Clarence A. Nance (1944). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[newstfionline]

Monday, February 19, 2024

Flood watches issued as another round of wet winter storms hits California (AP) The latest in a series of wet winter storms blew ashore in Northern California on Sunday, with forecasters warning of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days. Gusts topped 30 mph (48 kph) in Oakland and San Jose as a mild cold front late Saturday gave way to a more powerful storm that will gain strength into early Monday, said meteorologist Brayden Murdock with the National Weather Service office in San Francisco. California’s central coast is at risk of “significant flooding,” with up to 5 inches (12 cm) of rain predicted for many areas, according to the weather service. Isolated rain totals of 10 inches (25 cm) are possible in the Santa Lucia and Santa Ynez mountain ranges as the storm heads toward greater Los Angeles.

Prominent Black Church Leaders Call for End of U.S. Aid to Israel (NYT) Leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the country’s oldest and most prominent Black Christian denominations, called this week for the United States to end its financial aid to Israel, saying the monthslong military campaign in Gaza amounted to “mass genocide.” Black churches and other faith groups have pushed for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war for months in advertisements, open letters and social media campaigns. Black faith leaders across denominations have amplified their calls as the number of dead rises. More than 28,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to health officials there, many of them women and children. But the A.M.E. council’s statement goes further than a cease-fire demand, insisting that the United States immediately stop its financial support of Israel. It came as Israeli forces pushed into southern Gaza and prepared for a ground assault on Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are trapped.

Tens of thousands rail against Mexico’s president and ruling party in ‘march for democracy’ (AP) Tens of thousands of demonstrators cloaked in pink marched through cities in Mexico and abroad on Sunday in what they called a “march for democracy” targeting the country’s ruling party in advance of the country’s June 2 elections. The demonstrations called by Mexico’s opposition parties advocated for free and fair elections in the Latin American nation and railed against corruption the same day presidential front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum registered as a candidate for ruling party Morena. Approximately 90,000 people turned out to rail against the leader, according to government figures. Sheinbaum is largely seen as a continuation candidate of Mexico’s highly popular populist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He’s adored by many voters who say he bucked the country’s elite parties from power in 2018 and represents the working class. But the 70-year-old president has also been accused of making moves that endanger the country’s democracy.

Surging cocaine violence has Uruguay clamoring for DEA help (Reuters) Uruguay’s main port received two cargo scanners sixteen years ago to detect drugs and other suspicious loads. Unfortunately, during delivery one of them fell into the sea. Since then, cocaine shipments to Europe have surged through the port of Montevideo, which handled a record 1.1 million containers last year, fueling a rise in gang violence and undermining Uruguay’s reputation as a beacon of stability in turbulent South America. Uruguay’s current center-right government, which took office the following year, has repeatedly asked the DEA to return but U.S. officials say there are no imminent plans to do so. Three former DEA officials told Reuters that—with Washington focused on fentanyl flooding its borders from Mexico and little of the cocaine that transits through Uruguay heading to the United States—there’s scant appetite for seeking congressional approval to re-open a Montevideo office. “Everything’s fentanyl now,” said former DEA official Larry Reichner, who oversaw Uruguay as the DEA’s assistant regional director for southern South America from 2015-2019. “They couldn’t give a rat’s — about cocaine.”

Britain’s David Cameron visits the Falkland Islands as Argentina renews its sovereignty claim (AP) Foreign Secretary David Cameron will visit the Falkland Islands this week to show they are a “valued part of the British family,” the U.K. government said Sunday. Britain’s top diplomat is making the trip amid renewed calls by Argentina for negotiations over the contested South Atlantic archipelago. The Foreign Office said Cameron will meet Falklands government officials, pay his respects to war dead and visit some of the islands’ 3,500 people and 1 million penguins. He’s the first British Cabinet minister since 2016 to visit the Falklands, over which Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982.

Macron says recognizing a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France (AP) French President Emmanuel Macron says recognizing a Palestinian state is not a “taboo” for France, as international frustration grows with Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories. France and the EU have long supported a two-state solution in the Mideast, but as part of a negotiated settlement. With talks long stalled and Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza deepening, some European countries are voicing support for recognizing a Palestinian state sooner. “Recognizing a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” Macron said Friday at a meeting in Paris with Jordan’s King Abdullah. “We owe it to Palestinians, whose aspirations have been trampled on for too long. We owe it to Israelis, who lived through the worst antisemitic massacre of our time. We owe it to a region that is seeking to rise above those who promote chaos and seed revenge.”

Over 400 detained in Russia as country mourns the death of Alexei Navalny (AP) Over 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony, a prominent rights group reported. The sudden death of Navalny, 47, was a blow to many Russians. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms. The news reverberated across the globe, and hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay a tribute to the politician. In over a dozen cities, police detained 401 people by Saturday night.

Iran, wary of wider war, urges its proxies to avoid provoking U.S. (Washington Post) Iran, eager to disrupt U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East but wary of provoking a direct confrontation, is privately urging Hezbollah and other armed groups to exercise restraint against U.S. forces, according to officials in the region. Israel’s brutal war on Hamas in Gaza has stoked conflict between the United States and Iran’s proxy forces on multiple fronts. With no cease-fire in sight, Iran could face the most significant test yet of its ability to exert influence over these allied militias. When U.S. forces launched strikes this month on Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Tehran publicly warned that its military was ready to respond to any threat. But in private, senior leaders are urging caution, according to Lebanese and Iraqi officials who were briefed on the talks.

Netanyahu Says He Won’t Bow to Pressure to Call Off Rafah Invasion (NYT) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel insisted on Saturday that Israel would not bow to international pressure to call off its plan for a ground invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza that is now packed with more than a million Palestinians. Many of the people now in Rafah are displaced and living in schools, tents or the homes of friends and relatives, part of a desperate search for any safe refuge from Israel’s military campaign, which has dragged on for more than four months. Their lives are a daily struggle to find enough food and water to survive. “Those who want to prevent us from operating in Rafah are basically telling us: Lose the war,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem on Saturday evening. “It’s true that there’s a lot of opposition abroad, but this is exactly the moment that we need to say that we won’t be doing a half or a third of the job.”

Nigeria’s currency has fallen to a record low (AP) Nigerians are facing one of the West African nation’s worst economic crises in years triggered by surging inflation, the result of monetary policies that have pushed the currency to an all-time low against the dollar. The situation has provoked anger and protests across the country. The latest government statistics released Thursday showed the inflation rate in January rose to 29.9%, its highest since 1996, mainly driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages. Nigeria’s currency, the naira, further plummeted to 1,524 to $1 on Friday, reflecting a 230% loss of value in the last year. “My family is now living one day at a time (and) trusting God,” said trader Idris Ahmed, whose sales at a clothing store in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja have declined from an average of $46 daily to $16.

Coming to an airport near you (NYT) Biometrics are transforming the way we travel. The technology, which identifies travelers using unique physical traits like fingerprints and faces, is becoming more common at airports in the United States. As a result, time-consuming rituals that once required repeated ID checks—such as bag dropping, security screening and boarding—are getting easier and faster. Some experts believe that this will be the year that biometric use, primarily facial recognition, becomes standard at many airports. The technology offers several advantages: enhanced security, quicker processing of passengers and a more convenient airport experience. Executives at various airlines tell me they believe passengers are becoming more comfortable with using biometrics in their daily lives. Many people regularly use facial recognition to unlock their phones, and shoppers can use their palms to pay for groceries at some Whole Foods stores. Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel on privacy and technology at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government had not yet shown a demonstrated need for facial-recognition technology at airports. And he expressed concern over what he called the “nuclear scenario.” “Facial recognition technology,” he said, could be “the foundation for a really robust and widespread government surveillance and tracking network.”

Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise, study finds (NPR) Tai chi, a traditional, slow-moving form of Chinese martial art, is known to increase flexibility and improve balance. Now, new research suggests it's better than more vigorous aerobic exercises for lowering blood pressure in people with prehypertension. Prehypertension is blood pressure that's higher than normal but doesn't quite reach the level of high blood pressure, or hypertension. The new findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, add to a large body of research pointing to health benefits from tai chi, a wellness practice that combines slow, gentle movements and postures with mindfulness. It's often called meditation in motion.

#headlines #news

[fashioneditswebsite]

Six moments you might have missed from NYFW 2024

Fashion month went off with a bang in New York City. With boundary-pushing designs and plenty of famous faces on the front row, New York Fashion Week (NYFW)2024 has wrapped up. And what a glittering season it has been! Filled with bold designs and celebrity-filled front rows. New York is often seen as the cooler younger sibling to Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks, and it didn't disappoint with the autumn/winter 2024 season. Here's what you might have missed from a week of fashion in the Big Apple… 1. Beyoncé sits in the front row. In a surprise appearance on Tuesday night, Beyoncé sat in the front row to watch her 19-year-old model nephew Daniel 'Julez' Smith Jr walk the runway at the Luar fashion show, a clothing brand "for the culture." The singer and her mother sat together, both wearing stylish outfits. She finished the look with oversized sunglasses, a holographic Luar bag, and a cowboy hat in the same color. 2. Molly Ringwald walked the runway. Sixteen Candles star Molly Ringwald opened the Batsheva show, wearing a dramatic hooded black gown, which the brand described on Instagram as "a velveteen funeral Jackie O dream." The 55-year-old is usually seen sitting in the front row, but this season, she joined an entire cast of models aged 40 or over. Designer Batsheva Hay had spent weeks recruiting random women for the show, telling The New York Times she did it because she was 42. "I find that aging is a big preoccupation for me and my friends. It's an area of discomfort in fashion," she said. 3. Tommy Hilfiger comes back home. Fashion veteran Tommy Hilfiger wanted to honor New York in his second show since the coronavirus outbreak. He staged the show at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station, with the likes of Damson Idris, newest brand ambassador Sofia Richie Grainge, and Kelly Rutherford all in attendance. "We thought it was time," Hilfiger told CNN ahead of the show. "Time to come back and celebrate New York. It's iconic, and it's where I started." From varsity bomber jackets and trench coats to striped jumpers and polo shirts, the mega-brand was bold and modern in its interpretation of preppy fashion. 4. Blake Lively makes an appearance. In support of her good friend Michael Kors, the actress and Gossip Girl alum attended the autumn-winter runway shown Tuesday. The mom of four wore a giraffe-print trench coat and mini skirt with brown boots. She attended the Super Bowl to see the Kansas City Chiefs win against the San Francisco 49ers. Taylor Swift, Ice Spice, Lana Del Rey, Miles Teller, and Keleigh Sperry spotted her watching the game. 5. All eyes on Area Interestingly, to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Area broke from tradition and debuted spring/summer clothes instead of the usual autumn/winter collections. The designers drew inspiration from Sixties pop art and 1920s cartoons and studied the outfits with statement googly eyes. The designers drew inspiration from Sixties pop art and 1920s cartoons and studied the outfits with statement googly eyes. Area's collection delves into the interplay between viewing and being viewed. It explores the dynamics of essentials and the extraordinary. The collection reconstructs the interconnection between fashion and its observers. Area shared this on Instagram. 6. Storybook drama at Thom Browne After a spell in Paris, Thom Browne returned to the New York Fashion Week schedule in a suitably dramatic style. A veteran of the industry – and the chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) – he's known for high-production-value shows, and this season was no different. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven, models walked around a wintery wasteland of a catwalk. More than just a runway show, this was performance art – one of the 'trees' on the runway turned out to be a man on stilts wearing an oversized puffer jacket, and four children emerged from the coat to watch the show. The clothes were suitably Gothic – practically everything was monochromatic, with models wearing sculptural headpieces. Moreover, the fashion show emphasized tailoring and boxy silhouettes with a sporty edge. It was a dramatic and exciting experience for everyone, including celebrities like Janet Jackson and Queen Latifah, who enjoyed the show in the front row. Read the full article

[deltamusings]

No more blaming the plandemic. This is what happens when young thugs know the police aren't going to do anything. At this point, every violent assault in major cities is on the mayor and city council. When God is absent, peace comes only by threat of retaliation.