#disappeared there would be widespread mourning and people would be talking about it!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

maddestzoomer · 4 years

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that photograph.

summary -

a death, a photograph, and endless white walls.

warnings -

mentions of death, also (not really sure if it counts considering he’s already dead lmao, but whatever) technically suicidal thoughts.

authors note -

i haven’t written for a while, but this is a story i recently found scribbled in my notebook from a few years back. i figured i’d edit some and post it here. feel free to give me any feedback you may have :)

The last picture, dark and blurry, sat crammed in between two pages of his favorite book. It was a photo from the cross-country trip Billy had taken with his family last year.

The negatives were long gone, but one grainy picture remained. It had been there for almost a hundred years, long forgotten, but well protected within the lines of verse.

Billy had died on July fourth.

When it happened, it much more of a bigger deal than he thought it would be. He was nineteen, impaled multiple times by a fucking monster only to die in his sobbing sister's arms.

But in the newspapers, it was nothing more than a freak accident. No-one knew how or why what happened happened, and just about everyone agreed it was strange, but there weren't any real answers supplied.

It was one of those awful things that no one expected and shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have. He had done a lot of wrong in his short life, but maybe he didn't deserve to die.

People cried for him, sang for him, wished for things to have been different.

Billy was still dead. His ribs were broken, lungs were punctured, and his esophagus was filled with blood until he could no longer breathe. It wasn't short and it wasn't painless. But it didn't matter how he died.

It wasn’t a loss of life, persay- it was more of a transition. On to the next world, the new beyond.

The next world had started with a line. Hundreds of people waited in front of a single window. Surrounded by endless white walls and equally white floors, Billy had slowly made his way to the back.

Some people hugged their knees and sobbed. Some muttered and stared off into space. Some looked genuinely bored. One woman, a pretty brunette girl, had run up and down the line, frantically asking questions.

“Where am I?” She’d shrieked, hazel eyes wild with fear. “What happened?”

She had been met with shrugs and vacant stares. She was not the first, nor the last.

The line took ages. There was no way of telling time- it could’ve been a year or an hour. But when Billy had finally reached the window, he’d asked the question many screaming and terrified before him people had asked.

“Where am I?” He said to the woman behind the window, who had been busy typing something into an archaic computer system.

“You’re dead, honey.” She murmured, not looking up. “Billy Hargrove?” He’d nodded, not sure what else to do.

“Hand,” she’d instructed, holding out her own. Once he’d placed it in hers, she turned it over, palm facing down, and stamped the back.

It was a triangle, tiny and solid black. Billy’d looked back up to ask where he was, or where to go, or what was next, but the window was gone. So was the line when he turned around.

Instead, he was in a small room. White walls and a white bed stared back at him. A bookshelf sat in the corner. Next to it was a small, black desk with a lamp.

“Hello?” He’d asked to the walls. No one answered.

He’d found out later- hours later- that the door was unlocked. Outside, there was a single potted plant next to his door. He touched the leaves, breathing in the stale air. They were plastic.

Fluorescents reflected off of white walls as he walked down the hallway, searching for another soul.

There was a common room about fifty doors and three turns down from him. When he went out of the hallway on the other side, there was an identical hundred doors and common room. He sat down in a puffy chair, mind overwhelmed.

Emotion had left his body. He wanted to feel anything- scared, excited, nervous, lost, angry- but all he felt was empty. As empty as the rooms around him.

As time passed, he saw other faces. None he’d recognized. Initially, he’d hoped he would reunite with lost family members and friends, but it was quickly apparent that that would never happen. He would never find them.

He could talk, but no one was interested. Once you talked about your life and death, there was nothing really left to speak about but the uncertainty that plagued every soul in the place.

Where were they? What was next? Was this hell?

It wasn’t really hell as much as it was boredom. The bookshelf had every book you could ever want, and endless paper appeared on the desk. He tried to keep himself entertained, but the endless walls and fluorescents shot daggers into any creativity he could have mustered.

It turned out the bed wasn’t for sleeping- it was so he could lay down and stare at the perfectly white ceiling.

He did a lot of that. There was no food to eat, no shit to shit. He probably could have had sex, but finding other people was the last thing he wanted to do. He just wanted to be alone. To think about the life he could have lived. He just sat and stared, not knowing how or when or if time passed.

After re-reading a random book for the third time, Billy decided to try to kill himself. He wasn’t sure if it was possible, because he was already dead, but he could definitely try.

He’d begun to try to fashion a length of paper into a noose when fresh air caught his nose. It was bright, sweet, warm, and it danced into his brain, lighting up parts that hadn’t been touched since he’d died.

It was coming from under the door. Slowly, trying not to scare the hope away, he crept towards the door. The air was intoxicating- better than any vodka he could have bought when alive.

Emotions sprung to his chest for the first time since he’d gotten in line. Dry pine smoke and bird cries flew in on the air, bringing promises of a forest.

Was he hallucinating? Was it a dream? Had he finally killed himself? He touched the handle, fingers shaking. It was electrifying, the feelings that filled him. He felt alive again.

He opened the door to a forest, lit by softly flickering candles. Sobs echoed through the needles, carrying to his ears.

He saw his friends hugging one another. Saw Max silently sobbing into her hands, his Father staring drunkenly at the ground, and his Step-Mother, Susan, gently rubbing Max's back. Sitting on a table was a picture of him, smiling brightly with a surfboard at his side and an endless blue ocean behind him.

Billy had just walked into the anniversary of his death.

Being back in the real world filled him to the brim with long lost emotions.

Life danced within his eyes, as transparent as he was. He found out quickly that he couldn’t communicate or interact with anything- he could only watch.

And when he stared at his hands, he could see the fire-lit carpet of pine needles beneath him. He ached to speak to his mother (even though she wasn't to be found at the funeral...), to Max, to his friends, but even complete silence was better than the room.

Anything was better than the room, the four walls and the plastic plant guarding his door. Anything.

The worst thing in the world, even worse than the room, was having to return to it.

He felt the ground leave his feet as he was thrust back into the four walls, the life leaving his chest as quickly as it had come.

It felt like being socked in the stomach with the force of an entire lifetime. But worse, because he couldn’t cry about it. He couldn’t cry about anything.

Everything- the joy, sadness, nostalgia, content- left his body in a snap. He was left in the room again, with the hallway beyond the door.

He couldn’t even feel upset. He could just sit on the bed and wait.

He waited for another year, only living for the time that the forest would sneak in under his door.

Sometimes, he feared it would never come back, but there was nothing he could do. So he just waited. Re-reading books, walking the endless halls. There was something to look forwards to. He didn’t want to kill himself. He wanted to go back.

He continued going back for a decade, and then another. Slowly, the mourning of his death became smaller and less widespread as his parents died. His picture still existed in old family photos and friends’ diaries, but the memory of him slowly dropped existence.

Eventually, everyone he'd once known was death. Every year he went back it seemed another friend was gone.

Pictures kept getting lost or destroyed- thrown away by accident, or torn in broken picture frames.

Slowly, his descendants died, only to give way Max's great-great-grandson, Arthur, who had the last remaining picture of him.

It had been almost a hundred years since Billy had tried speaking with anyone connected to him. He’d never been able to find any of them within the long halls of the Place- but he seldom left his room, anyways.

The only time he stepped outside the door anymore was when he went back to earth, when he felt the grass beneath his feet and the sun in his hair.

Billy knew, from seeing his hallmates disappear, that when no pictures of him existed he’d never be allowed to go back to the real world. He’d also leave the Place, but no one knew what was in the Beyond.

Billy, when he could feel emotions, was terrified. The last picture of him sat in an ancient book of poetry, on a bookshelf in the attic of Arthur's house.

Max had kept the picture of Billy when he died, cried with it even when Billy had been gone fifty years. She had kept the book with her treasures, a ratty red book cover covered in dust. Almost no one had touched it since she'd died.

Arthur looked like Max. Skin full of freckles, head wild with red hair. The two even shared a similar smile.

Billy found himself following Arthur around when he could almost as much as he followed his own descendants, just to see how he lived his life.

Arthur was, unlike Max, incredibly forgetful. He’d leave his wallet on the counter or forget the dog was outside.

Watching Arthur was almost like watching his step-sister. Even though they were incredibly different, the two shared the same laugh and the same wit.

Then, one day, Arthur forgot to put out a candle when he went to bed.

He’d set them up for a date, but the boy he'd invited had stood him up.

Billy had wanted to comfort him, but he just sat on the couch and watched. After crying and eating almost an entire tub of ice cream, he’d blown out most of them and headed up to bed.

All except one.

One, hanging by the curtain, greedy flame licking at the fabric.

Billy stared at it. Watched as it grew, climbed up to the wall. There. It had to end there.

But it didn’t.

It grabbed the ceiling, expanding up and around the window. Billy glanced at the fire detector. Surely, it would go off?

It was silent. Another unlikely event. Billy was beginning to get nervous.

He tried to touch the fire, to stop it, but of course, his hands went straight through. He tried fanning the smoke to the detector. He grabbed for the phone, tried to shake Arthur awake.

Nothing was working.

Flames greedily ate up the living room and expanded to the upstairs, finally waking up Arthur.

Red hot pain suddenly lanced through his back, ripping a scream out of his mouth. He bucked as the pain forced its way into his mouth. It was similar to the pain he felt when that creature had impaled him.

His entire body felt like it was on fire, lines tracing and crossing over his skin. Billy arched his back, where the pain was concentrated, heat searing his skin. He screeched as if it would never end, because it felt like it never would.

It only got worse. His forehead erupted with slicing agony. Collapsing to the ground, he grabbed onto his blond curls as he screamed, wishing for death. But he was already dead? Dead twice? He was gone. Wishing it was over. Wishing he didn’t exist. Simply wishing.

As quickly as it had come, the pain left. He laid on the ground, softly gasping as his muscles unconstricted. Flinching at every sound, he waited for the agony to come back.

Minutes dripped by. It didn’t come back. He was sore, his body didn’t feel like his own. But he wasn’t being hurt.

Slowly, he stood. When he looked down at his hands, the black triangle had multiplied, spreading over his skin. His veins were black and pronounced over thick, corded muscle.

His tongue prodded his canine teeth, only to find they were long and sharp. Fangs. Billy had fangs. His fingers shook, fear pounding around his mind. He needed answers.

He tried to run his hands through his hair, but something stopped him. Big, bony horns curled out of his forehead. They were solid and sharp at the end, and he cut his finger as he ran it over.

A shard of glass on the floor caught his eye. He glanced at it slowly, scared at what he would see.

Dipping around the side of his back were wings, heavy and black. He reached back to feel them, wincing at the pain that started through his body. They felt leathery, cold.

Blood dripped to the floor from his cut finger.

By the door rested an iron pitchfork, tips covered in dried blood. He shuddered as he felt the very tips of his wings, now hyperaware, brush against the ground.

“Mr. Hargrove?” A voice called as the door creaked open.

Another demon, freakish and unworldly, stepped through the door. He was tall, powerful, with long black horns and a mane of thick, flowing hair.

A pencil rested behind his pointed ear, and he held a staff in his left hand.

Leaning against the stone wall, he looked Billy up and down.

“Where the fuck am I?” Billy asked, knowing full well what the answer was.

“Well, Mr. Hargrove,” the demon laughed, tapping a pencil against his equally pointy teeth.

“You’ve got a triangle on your hand. If you have a circle, you get to go up there,” he pointed to the ceiling, “and live in eternal peace.” He laughed, lip curling into a mocking snarl.

“Here, though, we are not brown nosers. We do not believe in total harmony. We wage war where we see fit, defend ourselves and those we love. We are honest about what we want. We have dignity, courage, and pride. “ The demon smiled, tossing his pitchfork to Billy. It glinted in the low light.

“Welcome to Hell.”

#billy hargrove #max mayfield #stranger things #halloween #demon #devil #angel #hell #heaven

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theouijagirl · 4 years

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what do you think of those stories of people picking up a hitchhiker along the road at night, and shortly afterward looking back to find they've disappeared in the seat? such as the mourning ladies in white from many different parts of the world. I think most of these stories are just fake but it does seem to be a widespread archetype

They’re made up. But most likely based loosely on actual events.

I wish I could find it, it’s buried somewhere in my blog, but someone sent me a story about how their Dad was driving one night and saw a little old lady walking and thought he would help her out, and she started saying weird stuff and talked a lot about graveyards, so he was scared she was a ghost and just dropped her off at some random place. And I’m like.... your Dad just abandoned some little old lady somewhere!!

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Saturday, July 24, 2021

Virus’s impact (AP) The eruption of COVID-19 last year caused the proportion of people working from home in the U.S. to nearly double. The share of employed people working from home shot up from just 22% in 2019 to 42% in 2020, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was among the striking findings of an annual government survey that documents the far-reaching impact the viral pandemic has had on Americans’ everyday lives since it struck in March of last year. Because of the pandemic and the widespread social distancing it required, people on average spent more time last year sleeping, watching TV, playing games, using a computer and relaxing and thinking—and less time socializing and communicating in person—than in 2019. Adults also spent more hours, on average, caring for children in their household. The survey also lends support to concerns that the pandemic worsened isolation for millions of Americans. With people working from home or attending school online, the time they spent alone increased. Among Americans ages 15 and over, time spent alone each day increased by an average of an hour. For those ages 15 to 19, it rose 1.7 hours per day.

Medical debt (NYT) A new study put the amount of unpaid medical bills held by collection agencies at $140 billion last year, up from $81 billion according to a similar analysis carried out in 2016. The analysis looked at 10 percent of all TransUnion credit reports and found that about 18 percent of Americans have medical debt that has been sent to collections. Over the period from 2009 to 2020, the largest source of debt owed to collection agencies became medical debt. The $140 billion, to be clear, is not an estimate of medical debt; that figure is far higher, as the $140 billion is merely the debt that has been passed along to the vultures.

Crews make progress on huge Oregon blaze (AP) The nation’s largest wildfire raged through southern Oregon on Friday but crews were scaling back some night operations as hard work and weaker winds helped reduce the spread of flames even as wildfires continued to threaten homes in neighboring California. The Bootleg Fire, which has destroyed an area half the size of Rhode Island, was 40% surrounded after burning some 70 homes, mainly cabins, fire officials said. The fire, which was sparked by lightning, had been expanding by up to 4 miles (6 kilometers) a day, pushed by strong winds and critically dry weather.

Thousands of bullets have been fired in this D.C. neighborhood (Washington Post) Markeith Muskelly, a barber who has spent half his 52 years cutting hair in Southeast Washington, has seen people get shot on the street outside the shop where he works. Last fall, he saw a man die there. The shop is tucked into a corner of the Benco Shopping Center, a mainstay in the Marshall Heights neighborhood for six decades. Its plate-glass window has long offered a view of one of the most dangerous streets in the District. In the neighborhood where Muskelly works, gun violence has affected generations, bringing a sad realization that, for some, that the danger may never end. A Washington Post analysis shows that in a recent period of a little more than three years, crime scene technicians found 2,759 bullet casings—byproducts of shootings involving rifles, pistols and shotguns—in about a one-square-mile area that includes Benning Road in Marshall Heights, with Benco between them. Bullets have struck people, pockmarked parked cars, embedded in walls of homes and shattered windows of businesses filled with patrons. Patrol officers carry “quick clot gauze” used by troops in war.

Volunteers hunting for Mexico’s ‘disappeared’ become targets (AP) The mainly female volunteers who fan out across Mexico to hunt for the bodies of murdered relatives are themselves increasingly being killed, putting to the test the government’s promise to help them in their quest for a final shred of justice: a chance to mourn. Those who carry on the effort tell tales of long getting threats and being watched—presumably by the same people who murdered their sons, brothers and husbands. But now threats have given way to bullets in the heads of searchers who have proved far better than the authorities at ferreting out the clandestine burial and burning pits that number in the thousands. Two searchers have been slain the past two months. Fear has always accompanied the searchers. They go to wild, remote, abandoned places where terrible crimes have been committed. But up to now, they mostly shrugged it off.

Cuba’s communist authorities have long feared change. Street protests show the risk of resisting it. (Washington Post) On a farm not far from the town where Cuba’s protests first erupted this month, police investigators last summer carried out a major sting operation. Their target was not a dissident activist, but a dairyman nicknamed El Rey del Queso: The King of Cheese. His offense? Operating a clandestine factory that produced tire-sized hunks of cheese for private sale in Havana. Authorities arrested the King, confiscated hundreds of pounds of yellow queso and produced a news report about the bust on Cuban state television depicting him as a villain. Cuba’s communist authorities have for decades treated private entrepreneurs as a threat to be contained, not encouraged. Long after China and Vietnam embraced market reforms, using material prosperity to buttress authoritarian rule, Cuba has clung to an economic model based on centralized planning and state control. The July 11 protests that shook Cuba’s rulers showed that model might be their biggest vulnerability, as its weak foundation is further eroded by the decades-long U.S. embargo, additional Trump-era sanctions and now the coronavirus pandemic. The country’s economy contracted 11 percent last year, according to government data. Cubans are spending hours in lines to buy basic goods they can barely afford. Hospitals have been overwhelmed by covid patients, and medicine is scarce. Power outages are turning stifling summer heat into an explosive fuse. “Unless the government makes profound changes, I think people will take to the streets again,” said Camilo Condis, a Cuban entrepreneur and business advocate.

Haiti leader’s slaying exposes role of ex-Colombian soldiers (AP) As the coronavirus pandemic squeezed Colombia, the Romero family was in need of money to pay the mortgage. Mauricio Romero Medina’s $790 a month pension as a retired soldier wasn’t going far. Then came a call offering a solution. When Romero answered the phone on June 2, another veteran, Duberney Capador, offered what he said was a legal, long-term job requiring only a passport. But Romero had to make a decision fast. “Talk about it with your family and if you are interested, see you tomorrow in Bogota, because the flight is the day after tomorrow,” Romero’s wife, Giovanna, told The Associated Press, recalling the conversation. A month later, Romero and Capador were dead and 18 Colombians were reportedly in custody, accused of taking part in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. It’s a case that dramatizes Colombia’s role as a recruiting ground for the global security industry—and its murkier, mercenary corners. Colombia’s Defense Ministry says about 10,600 soldiers retire each year, many highly trained warriors forged in a decades-long battle against leftist rebels and drug trafficking cartels. Many—including a number of those involved in Haiti—have been trained by the U.S. military. Those soldiers make up a pool of recruits for companies seeking a wide range of services—as consultants or bodyguards, in teams guarding Middle Eastern oil pipelines or as part of military-like private security in places like the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan. The UAE paid Colombian veterans to join in the battle against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Italy makes health pass mandatory for many leisure activities, in bid to pressure the unvaccinated (Washington Post) Italy on Thursday significantly ramped up pressure on its unvaccinated population, announcing that a digital or printed health pass would be necessary for accessing a range of everyday leisure activities, from theaters to indoor dining. The decision puts Italy in a rare category along with France among Western nations that have been willing to leverage certain freedoms and equalities now that vaccines have become widely available. Italy is essentially betting that it can revive its slowing vaccination campaign—and avoid future, onerous restrictions—by creating heavy incentives for inoculation, in the kind of step that would be politically unthinkable in the United States. Italy is looking for ways to avoid a new round of closures and curfews. For now, every Italian region is “white”—meaning that life proceeds almost as normal, and people can stay out as late as they want. That has made for a joyful Italian summer.

‘Messy’ fight (Washington Post) KUNDUZ, Afghanistan—Around 3 a.m., a small team of elite special forces were halfway through an operation to retake a sliver of territory along the city’s northern edge when a police unit assisting them refused to advance. Hours later, the police fled, ceding the territory back to the Taliban. For weeks, the Afghan military has struggled to hold provincial capitals such as Kunduz after a surge of Taliban attacks that came as U.S. forces withdrew and U.S. air support dropped. Afghan ground forces are increasingly used to fill the void. Their capabilities are uneven, however, resulting in government advances that often rapidly evaporate. Experienced and motivated elite units are leading the battle to retake territory. But the troops called up to secure those gains—army, police and irregular fighters—often have little training and are less inclined to fight. First Lt. Abdullah Ansari, 30, led the elite unit retaking territory house by house in Kunduz earlier this month. He said the debacle on Kunduz’s northern edge made him miss working with U.S. troops. “Now everything is just messy,” he said.

Death rates soar in Southeast Asia as virus wave spreads (AP) Indonesia has converted nearly its entire oxygen production to medical use just to meet the demand from COVID-19 patients struggling to breathe. Overflowing hospitals in Malaysia had to resort to treating patients on the floor. And in Myanmar’s largest city, graveyard workers have been laboring day and night to keep up with the grim demand for new cremations and burials. Images of bodies burning in open-air pyres during the peak of the pandemic in India horrified the world in May, but in the last two weeks the three Southeast Asian nations have now all surpassed India’s peak per capita death rate as a new coronavirus wave, fueled by the virulent delta variant, tightens its grip on the region. The deaths have followed record numbers of new cases being reported in countries across the region which have left health care systems struggling to cope and governments scrambling to implement new restrictions to try to slow the spread.

Typhoon to bring heavy rains to Taiwan, China over weekend (AP) A typhoon is forecast to bring heavy rains to Taiwan and coastal China over the weekend, days after the worst flooding on record in a central Chinese province caused at least 51 deaths. Forecasters say Typhoon In-fa is moving toward China and expected to make landfall in Zhejiang province either Sunday afternoon or early Monday morning. Zhejiang’s bureau of emergency management said on its microblog Friday that it is raising its risk warning to the second-highest level and calling on all localities to take preventative measures. Those usually include recalling fishing boats to port and relocating people living in vulnerable coastal communities. Fujian province to the south has issued similar orders. On its current track, the eye of the typhoon is expected to pass north of Taiwan while still bringing considerable rain to the island.

#headlines #news

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xtruss · 4 years

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De Blasio's Coziness With the NYPD May Be the Nail in His Coffin. | City & State

New York City

Did Bill de Blasio’s Political Career Just End? The NYC Mayor Isn’t Going to Resign – But the Last Week Will Hurt Jis Legacy.

— By Jeff Coltin | June 3, 2020

The chant could be heard clearly in the crowd of hundreds at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge: “De Blasio resign! De Blasio resign!” The Black Lives Matter protesters in Chinatown Tuesday night were not the only ones to share the sentiment lately.

Hawk Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, called for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s resignation in an interview on NY1 Tuesday morning, saying that the mayor “has failed black New York time and time again.” Mehdi Hasan, a columnist at the leftist outlet The Intercept, wrote that “de Blasio needs to resign.” And it’s not just the left. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a close ally of President Donald Trump, said that either de Blasio should resign or that Gov. Andrew Cuomo should remove him from office. A petition demanding de Blasio’s resignation, started by Republican Staten Island Assembly candidate Marko Kepi, had nearly 1,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning. Another petition that called for de Blasio’s impeachment in 2014 because he is “anti-police” and a “socialist” has resurfaced and has more than 80,000 signatures.

It seems everyone can find something to be angry about when it comes to de Blasio. The protestors like Newsome have excoriated the mayor for the NYPD’s heavy-handed response to the largely peaceful protests and marches that mourn the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and call for an end to police brutality, especially against black people and Latinos. The mayor earned his strongest criticism for his initial defense of the NYPD officers who drove their SUV forward into a crowd of protestors blocking them even though it appeared that the cars could have backed up.

On the other side, conservatives like Giuliani attacked de Blasio for not doing more to stop the widespread destruction of property that has occurred on recent nights, sometimes following on heels of Black Lives Matter protests. That’s what got Gov. Andrew Cuomo musing at his Tuesday press conference about how he could remove the mayor – “technically the governor could remove a mayor, but you’d have to file charges, and then there’s an acting mayor,” he said . To be clear, it was all hypothetical and Cuomo has a habit of pointing out what his theoretical powers would be even when not intending to use them so dramatically. But even if it wasn’t quite a threat, it did come with a scathing critique of de Blasio’s government. “I’m not happy with last night,” Cuomo said. “Police did not do their job last night.”

There’s no reason to think de Blasio is going to resign. He has devoted too much of his life to politics to just give up now, and while he may not seem to particularly enjoy the job, his presidential run proved that he isn’t lacking in personal ambition. And de Blasio has brushed off earlier calls for his resignation. First, upon the murders of Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, NYPD officers who were killed in an ambush in 2014. Later, after he was campaigning for president in Iowa when much of Manhattan faced a summer blackout. Those earlier movements never got much further than the New York Post editorial page, and while this recent round of calls for resignation includes New Yorkers across the political spectrum, the mayor doesn’t seem bothered.

“It doesn’t appear that any of it affects him,” said John DeSio, a political consultant with Risa Heller Communications. “The farthest left and the farthest right and everybody in between has some reason to say ‘he’s a shitty mayor and he needs to go.’ And it’s like it rolls right off his back.”

While many politicians and allies of the mayor have shared harsh criticism of de Blasio, nobody seems to be asking for his resignation. Even New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who would potentially have the most to gain from de Blasio’s resignation, since he would temporarily take over as mayor, didn’t go as far as to tell him to step down.

“All I want is leadership,” Williams told City & State Tuesday night, when asked about the mayor’s job. “So if you’re going to step up, great. If you’re not, then we need new leaders.”

Of course, the situation could change quickly – particularly if somebody dies as a result of either the protests or looting in New York City. But for now, de Blasio is safe in his job until the end of his final term on December 31, 2021.

But the same can’t be said about his future after leaving office, as de Blasio’s legacy could be the New York of the last week – protestors marching against the kind of policing he promised to end, while looters shatter windows and clash with cops in the street.

To this day, you’re hard pressed to find a mention of the mayoralty of David Dinkins without an immediate reference to the 1991 Crown Heights Riots. The circumstances were different, but some of the story was the same then as it is today. Dinkins, like de Blasio, was accused of calling off the police and letting people riot. De Blasio was working in City Hall at the time, taking calls from New Yorkers who were fearful and furious about the violence.

But in the three decades since, it doesn’t seem like de Blasio learned how to respond. “Now the second half of his second term is filled with a complete and total disregard and lack of understanding of the anger and anguish of the residents of his own city,” said Christina Greer, political science professor at Fordham University, and host of the FAQ NYC podcast.

A former aide to the mayor, who asked for anonymity to speak freely, thought that the mayor’s response has been “abysmal,” but that these days of protests after the death of George Floyd would only be one part of de Blasio’s complicated legacy. “I don’t think this one response will be the defining moment of his legacy the way it is for Dinkins,” the aide said.

But many of the people in de Blasio’s orbit have started thinking of their own legacy. Some of the mayor’s once-close allies have started to openly criticize him – first during his initial, slow response to the coronavirus pandemic in New York, and now for his response to the protests. More than 200 current and former staffers have written a letter denouncing his record on police accountability and demanding new reforms.. Under City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the city’s legislative body had been increasingly defining itself in opposition to de Blasio. But even that has escalated in recent weeks, with Johnson vowing to criminalize chokeholds by passing a bill that could earn the first veto of de Blasio’s mayoralty.

“This is the time to remove yourself from alliances with the mayor, and, and not necessarily be penalized by New Yorkers for doing so,” Greer said. “So I think that, you know, we'll see a lot more intra-party dissension over the next few months.

The aides and Council members are all planning ahead for a life under a new mayor starting in January 2022, and so has de Blasio. It’s a poorly kept secret that the mayor is interested in seeing his wife Chirlane McCray as the next Brooklyn borough president, but the past week may have ruined any chance for that. De Blasio and McCray have always presented themselves as a political package deal, and the mayor’s sinking stock will hurt his wife.

“You can't run on our record, when Bill andI were helping New Yorkers when you have so many New Yorkers who were disappointed and disgusted with the way Bill de Blasio has handled so many crises across the city,” Greer said of McCray’s potential argument to voters.

And, of course, nobody knows exactly what de Blasio plans to do next after leaving office in 2022 – other than move back to Brooklyn. His own presidential exit plan failed, and any hopes of joining a Bernie Sanders presidential administration have disappeared too.

“What’s he going to do? There’s no job waiting for him,” DeSio told City & State. “There’s no organization that would be like ‘You know who we should put in charge of this? Bill de Blasio, because he did so much for us when he was mayor.’”

In 2017, Dinkins told The New York Times that in the newspaper’s pre-written obituary for him, “They’ll say, ‘David Dinkins, first black mayor of the City of New York,’ and the next sentence will be about Crown Heights.” But Dinkins’ life after Gracie Mansion has been, by all accounts, positive. He became a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (from which de Blasio received a master’s degree). He hosted a weekly talk show on the radio, and wrote a memoir. De Blasio could do worse than to have the same fate.

With reporting by Rebecca Lewis

— Jeff Coltin is a senior reporter at City & State. He covers New York City Hall.

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whereareroo · 4 years

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2020 IT IS WHAT IT IS

WF UPDATE (8/17/20).

Did you miss me?

In order to attend to some important stuff, I took a short break from blogging. What was the important stuff? It's none of your business. I don't have to tell you everything.

One purpose of this blog is to make a historical record. I hope that my grandchildren, and great grandchildren, will read this someday. I want them to understand what was happening in 2010 and 2020. If God is good to me, I'll still be writing in 2030.

The summer of 2020 will always be known as the summer of the Coronavirus.

I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to know that the summer of 2020 was a time of chaos. It was a time of unease. America was in a state of disarray.

The Coronavirus has a very odd feature. Many infected people never exhibit any symptoms. They get the disease, and recover from the disease, without feeling sick. Nonetheless, these "asymptomatic" people are carriers. They can spread the disease.

There is another category of people who are "presymtomatic." They are carriers who do not exhibit symptoms during the first few days of their infection. Without even knowing that they're sick, presymptomatic people can spread the disease.

The experts have been studying this disease for more than 6 months. They estimate that 50% of all new cases arise from exposure to asymptomatic or presymtomatic carriers.

Testing is the key to defeating a highly contagious enemy like the Coronavirus. Carriers need to be identified and isolated. Because so many carriers are asymptomatic or presymtomatic, extensive testing is the only way to identify the "secret spreaders." All of the experts agree that a widespread testing program, a program that is easily accessible to everyone and that provides prompt results, is essential. If the "secret carriers" don't know that they're "secret carriers," they're more likely to unwittingly spread the disease. If somebody knows that they have the disease, they're less likely to spread it.

To do my important stuff, I had to travel outside of my state. Under new rules that have been issued by various states, I was required to get a Coronavirus test. Because I am a good citizen, and because I don't want to stupidly infect anyone, I would have taken a test anyway. Why not be safe and careful?

I went for my test, at CVS, 10 days before I was due to arrive at my new location. CVS says that the test results are electronically available in 6 to 8 days. I figured that I'd have my results before I got to my new location. No problem, right?

Guess what? Our testing system is so bad that I didn't get my results for 16 days. What a mess! The experts say that an effective testing program provides results in 3 days or less. We obviously don't have an effective testing program.

Thus, I was forced to pursue "Plan B." Near my new location, there were several medical facilities that provide "instant tests." In this case, "instant" means that you get your results in 20 minutes.

I went to medical facility #1. The doors hadn't opened yet, and I was the 25th person in line. That was a bad start, but it got worse. The place never opened. No explanation was given.

About 45 minutes later, I was at medical facility #2. After about an hour in a long line, a nice medical worker came outside and made an announcement. The place was closing. A staff member had just tested positive for Coronavirus and the protocols required a shutdown so a total disinfecting could occur. Strike 2!

Within 30 minutes, I was at medical facility #3. I'll spare you the details. After almost 3 hours, I had formal proof that I was NOT infected with the Coronavirus. My testing ordeal took almost all day. Thankfully, I was free to do my important stuff!

I'm telling this story to create a historical record. When they read this years from now, I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to know the truth. All levels of government did a terrible job with this pandemic. We're 6 months into this plague, and the American testing system is still an unreliable mess. Tests are not readily accessible. The process is burdensome and time consuming. The process is so bad that most people don't even think about getting tested. Due to the massive testing failure, thousands of "secret spreaders" are roaming around and circulating the disease.

As of right now, the Coronavirus has killed more than 170,000 Americans. By the time we get this under control, the fatalities will certainly top 200,000 and might get as high as 250,000 or more. When my descendants read about this in history books, I want them to know that many of the deaths were avoidable. Tens of thousands of people died because our leaders were incompetent, ineffective, or both.

As of now, there have been 5,420,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the United States. On February 26th, President Trump claimed that the disease was going to disappear quickly. These were his exact words: "You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down close to zero." Apparently believing that the disease will magically disappear, Trump has not done enough to fight this enemy. The abysmal testing regime is one result of his inaction and ineffectiveness.

What's worse? Trump apparently thinks it's funny. On April 28th, when we surpassed 1 million cases, a reporter asked him about his prediction that soon after the original 15 cases our caseload would be down to zero. Trump quipped: "Well, it will go down to zero, ultimately." That wasn't funny when we had 1 million cases, and it certainly isn't funny now that we've surpassed 5 million cases.

On April 24th, Trump predicted that "we're going to lose between 50 and 60" thousand people to Coronavirus. By May 3rd, he changed his prediction to "anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people." Soon thereafter, he stopped talking about the death toll. How do you explain that 200,000 Americans died on your watch? Does the president understand that there aren't numbers? They're people, with friends and families. Millions of Americans are in mourning.

Being President of the United States is a tough job. Sometimes, presidents get blame that they don't deserve. During this summer of 2020, President Trump deserves every ounce of blame that he has received. As time goes on, and the death toll rises, he seems to care less about this problem. In an interview on July 28th, a reporter challenged Trump's assertion that the situation is under control. When Trump made that assertion, the reporter said: "How? A thousand Americans are dying a day." Trump responded: "They are dying, that's true. It is what it is." Isn't that outrageous? It is what it is? That's what the president says after 170,000 people have died during his watch? What would you say if you were running a company, or hosting an event, and people under your care died by the dozens? I bet you wouldn't say: It is what it is.

It's been a sad summer. The summer of 2020 will be a black mark in the pages of American history. We faced a challenge and our response was very, very poor. One can only hope that we learn from the experience. We need better leaders, and we need to be more prepared for catastrophic events.

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Scottish cycling hero Skinner tells how the pursuit of glory led to depression and early retirement

What happens when the brilliance of the gold becomes dull when the thousands have traveled but the destination remains unknown, even unreachable ,

& I was in Scotland Scotland and felt trapped. I knew that when I stood up or looked into someone's eyes I burst into tears. I was in my gear for an hour and a half, sat. Locked up. Become more anxious. It felt like I was in a prison. I text & # 39; the friends, my mother, looking for help. I thought, "I can't do this." It was a complete slump. It felt like I was in a prison. & # 39;

The speaker is Callum Skinner, Olympic gold medalist. The scene was the cycling track during the Commonwealth Games of 2018 in the Gold Coast . It was a Friday and Skinner had the heir of the keirin, where he did not advance. The next day I was scheduled to participate in the sprint. But the dam burst apart

<img id = "i-a462539b4714cee1" src = "https://dailym.ai/2ZFftJc /00/0687E9DF000007D0-0-image-a-62_1561159198343.jpg "height =" 447 "width =" 634 "alt =" Olympic champion Great Britain Callum Skinner withdrew from elite cycling at the age of 26 "class = "blkBorder img-share"

Olympic champion Great Britain Callum Skinner withdrew from the elite cycling at the age of 26

Olympic champion Great Britain Callum Skinner retired 26 years old back from the elite cycling

& # 39; I went through a period in which I thought I felt like I was ticking the dike, but in the end I felt it would overflow & # 39 ;, he says, publicly publicizing his fights with depression for the first time.

A relentless pursuit for gold to the soundtrack of harmful, intrusive voices in his head had reached the ground to stop in a full arena for the world's press.

Skinner sought comfort and help in the form of the Scottish team doctor. The cyclist, who refused medication, was instructed not to race.

& # 39; My mother came and saw me & # 39 ;, he recalls. & # 39; She realized how bad it was. The light had disappeared from my face. She looked at me with tears. It was a difficult few days. & # 39; That was Friday. On Sunday, Skinner won the bronze medal in the 1,000-meter time trial. This performance is screaming of resilience, it is screaming of hardness. It also whispers emphatically from obsession.

<img id = "i-a37566f2fd02617" src = "https://dailym.ai/2FouBCY 0-image-a-63_1561159202767.jpg "height =" 422 "width =" 634 "alt =" Philip Hindes of Philip, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Philip Hindes of Team GB, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner at the Rio Olympics in 2016

Philip Hindes, Philip Kenny and Callum Skinner from Team GB at the Rio Olympics in 2016

& # 39; I said to myself, "It's a one-way trip, alone." I had never won the Commonwealth Games Medal, so you never know when it will be your last chance, & he says. & # 39; was one of the most difficult races of my life, I crossed the line first.

& # 39; There were two riders left, so I knew I had won a medal.

& # 39; Behind the sight was di EPE sadness. The expectation of elation to win a medal did not come, it had not taken away the bad feeling deep down. I had won a medal, but I wanted to run away. & # 39; The race had failed him. Performance could not silence the internal monologue. A medal could not bring peace.

& # 39; I never realized until I realized how great the distraction was of pursuing an Olympic medal, & # 39; he says, thinking about winning team gold and an individual silver in the sprint at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. & # 39; When it left me, it became a bit of a mourning process. It became the most difficult two years of my life. & # 39; The road from Rio included treatment from the Priory, intervention by the leading sports psychiatrist of his time and a bruise against a personality in British Cycling. But what happened after the Golden Coast?

He explains: & # 39; I did everything else after the Games. I have been partying, drinking and falling off the radar for a while. Then I kept going. I was in denial. & # 39; So how did it happen? Skinner, 26, sits in a Glasgow restaurant, graciously fit and compellingly worded about cycling at full speed in the abyss.

<img id = "i-67ca6c6b0fbd0570" src = "https://dailym.ai/2ZEK9KE 0-image-a-64_1561159205582.jpg "height =" 827 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-67ca6c6b0fbd0570" src = "https://dailym.ai/2UkHcAp /2019/06/22/00/3721484C00000578-0-image-a-64_1561159205582.jpg "height =" 827 "width =" 634 "alt =" Ilympic gold was the most difficult two years of his life and the & # 39; mourning process & # 39;

Ilympic gold was followed by the most difficult two years of his life and a & # 39; mourning process & # 39; mourning process & # 39;

He said goodbye to a glorious career earlier this year. The unintentional words of his statement contain a hint of the greater truth. He spoke about & # 39; making the athlete's experience more human & # 39 ;.

Skinner elaborates on this theme and says: & I feel that I am now in the right place to tell the whole story. I have always been a free public person and I feel obliged to share my experience about how the sporting world lags behind society, the less glamorous side of sport, and its reality. I have a story to tell and I am tired of covering it up with people. & # 39; As a leader of Global Athlete, an organization that wants to improve the rights of athletes, I also want to add corrective staff to a widespread message.

& # 39; I know people who need help & # 39 ;, he says. & # 39; But I recently saw a campaign that advised athletes to talk about their feelings, it was titled & # 39; Let & # 39; s Talk & # 39 ;. I did that. With 99 percent of the people it was fine, people made it terrible. It was a disaster.

& # 39; It is not a responsible message. Not everyone is your friend. Do it with someone you trust. I say this to prevent someone from making a wrong decision. & # 39; The recovery of Skinner began when he spoke with professor Steve Peters, the sports psychiatrist and author of The Chimp Paradox. Peters took over the cyclist pro bono after the cycling body refused to finance the treatment.

& I had been wrongly diagnosed with cancer when I was 18 when I

The Peters Sessions were favorable. the cycling program and Steve was there, & # 39; says Skinner. & # 39; I have done a lot of research and you have no lymphoma & # 39 ;. I was walking around the circuit as if I was dying, but Steve was right, so I had this savior mentality about him.

I went to his house and it was a real stump in his stomach. I wanted him to say "I'm fine". I would like to take a break from cycling. I felt that my world collapsed on me. The weight of his words was enormous. & # 39; The long period of post-Olympic depression had to be tackled

I loved cycling as a hobby, as an escape, he explains.

& # 39; There was a very difficult time when I got these pushy voices when I was on my bike. They told me: "You are nonsense, you are useless, you are afraid of this". This was my safe place. Whatever happened at home or at school, where I was rather shy, I could escape on my bike. But suddenly it became a bit of a prison. & # 39; Peters offered the shine of a delay. & # 39; Things then did a twist & # 39 ;, says Skinner.

& # 39; In one of his many negative comments, I was called to a meeting, he made me feel that it was necessary to explain myself.

& # 39; Everyone takes a gamble to tell how much you have to tell someone to get their insight.

& # 39; I was advised by Steve, my coach, family and doctor to take a break because of my "safety", but the position of this person was: we don't let our athletes 12 weeks of vacation. It was more than two years before the Tokyo Olympic Games

& He had an outdated opinion on what mental health was. I tried to put my problems in bed with that guy. Some people just aren't good people. No empathy, no understanding. I feel that I'm over now.

& # 39; But that meeting was crucial. At that moment I collapsed inside. That was when I decided to delete. At that moment. I would not question my athleticism and work ethic. & # 39; This is how it is now, with Skinner saying: & I started to get better when I decided it was time to stop using energy to become competitive again.

& # 39; It was time to focus on improving the competition. . And it worked. I have had some setbacks along the way, but I am better. & # 39;

& # 39; I remember having this worried thought that I had lost a bit of myself when darkness was lifted & he said. & # 39; There was a part of me that always embraced. But it has been a long process to see any light. & # 39;

& # 39; I think the world of the British bicycle system, & # 39; he says. & # 39; I had the best time of my life there and I met people who will always be my friends. To win an Olympic gold medal with two of your best friends … It's the perfect place to be if you want to be a champion. I don't let an employee tarnish that memory, I don't represent the British cycling I know. & # 39; But he is determined to protect his fellow-worners from unnecessary pressure and adds: & # 39; I am passionate about that. Athletes are people and not goods. I know the reality of an elite program, it's murderous and I respect that. But something has to change in the landscape. & # 39; He reflects on his experience: & # 39; It's the hardest thing I've ever experienced. I lost a relationship, a successful and above all happy career, commercial opportunities and I made sure that people loved each other. But I realized that I have fought a lot to fight it all my life. However, a doctor told me that I wasn't pedaling. I was drowning.

& # 39; I know myself a lot better. I still make mistakes. I see scores such as the Olympic Games partly as a bandage on what really hurt me. Cycling was my world, but I moved on, changed jobs. & # 39; In the past year he has quickly become a leading reformist-focused athlete; a prominent voice on anti-doping and appeared on TV and radio, talking about politics and culture.

& # 39; I do something new, challenging, exciting, I do something new, challenging, exciting. I have my new Olympic Games.

The effortless recall of that glorious day suggests the love of cycling. & # 39; Of course you do, & # 39; he says. I loved the sport, I loved competitions and I loved my teammates. It was all great until it became a little more ominous.

I still do it, but it is on my terms. I'm still here. I'm still on my bike. It has become my escape again. & # 39; With a smile and perhaps a surprise, he says: & # 39; I feel free. & # 39;

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#Scottish cycling hero Skinner tells how the pursuit of glory led to depression and early retirement"

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ixvyupdates · 6 years

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How We Can Transform Schools Into Sites of Racial Healing

Students across the nation have joined in solidarity to ignite a long overdue national conversation on gun reform and school safety. So far, they’ve successfully garnered widespread public support from the media, over 80 colleges and universities and several high-profile celebrities.

Yet, amidst the momentum and air of victory lingers racial tension.

Many racial justice activists and scholars have pointed out that while the youth at the forefront of this historical moment certainly deserve encouragement and solidarity, the public’s sweeping approval of their activism has never been afforded to Black and Brown youth activists. They have a point. Take recent events from the past week, for example.

During National School Walkout Day—initiated mostly by students from Parkland, Florida, a middle class, predominantly White suburb—there were almost no reports of police arrest, harassment, or intimidation of students.

Yet, when Black youth have organized peaceful protests and marches, following back-to-back acquittals of police officers who have killed unarmed Black kids, police have confronted these young activists with K-9’s, night-sticks, riot shields, and tear gas. It seems that the same rallying cry and protest tactics about gun violence are just not as palatable coming from Black youth in predominantly Black, inner-city communities as they are coming from White youth in the suburbs.

This selective outrage and mourning is exactly why a coalition of educators in Seattle founded the Black Lives Matter At School movement—believing that starting dialogue about racial justice in schools is the last hope for rectifying America’s miseducation about racism and race relations.

Why We Need to Talk About Race in Schools

By and large, U.S. schools completely shirk their responsibility of educating citizens about race relations. State-mandated textbooks sanitize the nation’s violent history of genocide, settler colonialism, slavery and structural anti-Blackness.

Teachers get reprimanded for presenting counternarratives to revisionist history. Discussing White privilege is altogether taboo. And it’s becoming increasingly commonplace to subsume any explicitly race-related issue under euphemistic umbrella terms like “diversity,” “equity” or “inclusion.”

Instead of investing in the societal benefits of promoting civic engagement and sociopolitical awareness in schools, most of today’s school systems depoliticize the purpose and role of education in creating a just society—especially with regard to racial justice.

How Did We Get Here?

“The ’60s were characterized by a heady belief in instantaneous solutions,” as Black feminist activist and writer Audre Lorde put it.

As my baby boomer parents and older Black people tell it, the civil rights movement culminated with hardly any actual healing of America’s racial wounds. Quite the contrary, as the momentum of the period dissipated, it seemed that White Americans were hellbent on pretending that racism had magically disappeared after the passage of landmark civil rights legislation.

Perhaps shame about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or humiliation about the exposure of America’s racism in the international press, gave rise to denial, colorblindness and a post-racial fantasy. Whatever the case may be, racial amnesia has long since affected the national conversation on race—or lack thereof—in all sectors of society, including within our schools.

Consequently, schools have produced generations of citizens who believe that being anti-racist is a simple moral decision, rather than a lifelong process of unlearning the complicity conditioned into all of us by a seven-century legacy of structural and systemic racism.

How We Can Move Forward

1. To transform schools into sites of racial healing, we, as educators, must first accept that students think about race, and discuss it with each other, every day. Although kids may not articulate what they know about race relations with sophisticated sociological theory, they make keen observations about race, and then attempt to deconstruct and make sense of what they’ve witnessed. In the age of digital news and viral social media activism, attempting to shield kids from racial justice issues and movements is futile. Coverage is pervasive.

And given the fact that students’ perceptions about race relations influence school culture and climate, deeming these conversations as too “mature” for school is also dangerous. The better approach would be to keep students’ discussions going, while steering them in the right direction, instead of ignoring them or shutting them down.

2. As educators, we must take seriously the critical importance of our duty to shape the social and ethical consciousness of future generations.

Fearing the backlash of openly discussing identity, injustice and oppression, is understandable. But educators do a disservice to society at large when we do not make every effort possible to demonstrate that real justice is an obligatory and proactive undertaking, not just a passive or reactionary moral sentiment.

This intentional embodiment of justice and espoused values matters tremendously, as most children’s first encounter with healthy or unhealthy power dynamics between institutions and people will occur in schools. For better or worse, students internalize a culture of either accountability and engagement, or abuse and neglect. Our pedagogy has the power to encourage them to fight for the former and stand up against the latter.

3. To transform schools into sites of racial healing, we, as educators, must take charge of our own professional development and continuing education.

We must educate ourselves about liberatory pedagogies that educator preparation programs often do not teach. Central to the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools was critical pedagogy, a philosophy of education that aims to awaken students’ critical consciousness.

Paulo Freire, the father of critical pedagogy, defines critical consciousness as an in-depth understanding of the world that allows one to be an agent of change through social critique and political action. We typically associate this kind of learning with higher education, but K-12 students need this type of education, too. What most schools currently provide is a miseducation, but fortunately, critical pedagogy gives us the tools to change that.

4. Lastly, to transform schools into sites of racial healing, we, as educators, must constantly resist the shame that we’ve internalized about standing up for racial justice in schools.

To do so, we must fully embrace and own our vision that education serves a greater purpose than to just prepare students for the workforce. We must reassure ourselves, again and again, that our educational philosophy and pedagogies are not a fanatical or radical agenda to dictate what students think or believe. We must truly believe that what we stand for is a humanistic vision of equity.

One day, these guiding principles for transforming schools into sites of racial healing will be standard practice as much as they are ideals. Until then, they constitute a call to action for us to do any little thing that we can to encourage students to imagine a more just world; to empower students to use their voices to stand up for what is right, long before they can vote; and to uproot a legacy of oppression by planting seeds for a legacy of liberation.

Like the organizers of the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools, we all have the power to spark students’ passion for learning and fighting for justice.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Unsplash-licensed.

How We Can Transform Schools Into Sites of Racial Healing syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

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ionahradicaldance · 7 years

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Honoring Jamie Lee Crooked Arrow on Trans Day of Visibility

Yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility. As someone who is not trans—I am a queer cis woman—I only want to add my voice to uplift those of trans folks—particularly trans women and femmes of color—whose voices are often only lifted when they are gone. Nine trans women have been murdered this year so far—at least nine. This is only the reported number of trans women killed this year as, in many cases, the homicide victims are misgendered or their lives unknown. Late last year, our community lost a trans woman—a black trans woman—to suicide, which when trans lives are pushed to the margins, is still part of the structural violence against trans women. Of the women killed this year, the majority have been women of color—particularly black and Native.

It is the life of Jamie Lee Crooked Arrow that I want to highlight here. The second trans women of color to be killed in 2017, Crooked Arrow was a Two Spirit trans woman who was an Oglala Lakota woman originally from Pine Ridge[i]. I remember when I read of her death that my heart broke. I did not know her, but she was a Native Two Spirit woman and so my heart fell into pieces mourning for her.

The lives of Native folks are made to be invisible. They are erased from memory such that, to dominant white society, Indigenous folks are but a relic of history, which makes white folks feel capable of bastardizing their name and image in culturally appropriative sports mascots, clothing and accessories, and for-profit New Age-style spiritual practices. As Sherman Alexie, a Spokane writer, noted in his poem The Great American Indian Novel, “In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written, all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts.[ii]” This erasure of Indigenous people is vital to the perpetuation of the myth of the American dream and American Exceptionalism; were the United States and those who support it to confront the realities of historical and present-day genocide of people of color—particularly black and Indigenous people—it would uproot all concepts of some glorious free, democratic past; of any egalitarian underpinnings of the founding fathers; and of the very foundation of the accumulated wealth and concentrated power in this country, which was earned on the backs of the genocide of Native people and theft of their lands and the enslavement and criminalization of black folks. It would also underscore that the issues of racism today are not merely in the hearts and minds of racist folks (which they are), but also in the very institutions that continue to shroud these old myths that America is the beacon of freedom and democracy when, in reality, the U.S. has always and continues to wield colonial and imperialist power against black and brown folks—and poor black and brown women and femmes in particular. Kelly Hayes, a Native organizer, activist, and writer based in Chicago, talks about the how and why of the invisibility of Native folks’ experience from media and the dominant U.S. narrative in the video of her speech from the Women’s March (1/21/17) in Chicago, IL:

“One of the greatest things that we are up against as Native people is that we are unseen. Native people are more likely than any other group in the United States to be killed by law enforcement...Who here can name a Native person that was killed by law enforcement? Go ahead, yell it out…And I'm not coming down on those of you who [can’t name someone]. This isn't about you being a bad person who doesn't care about the right things. You are not meant to see us die. We were meant to suffer in silence and disappear because American mythology, the myth of American exceptionalism doesn't exist when you have to factor in all the terrible things that have been done to my people, that are being done to my people. Black exploitation on the other hand is performed in public, for a reason. Because whether it's a postcard of a lynching, or a YouTube video, or a person left hanging in a tree there is a lesson. It is an attempt at social control. It's about keeping people in their place because this country could not function without the financial exploitation of Black people, and never could have. To change that we have to upend everything.[iii]”

This effort to make Native folks invisible is not dissimilar to the ways our society attempts to make trans women invisible through misgendering, rendering to the margins, or through more overt acts of violence (that also then do not even receive as much attention as violence against cis women and particularly cis white women or other cis white folks)[iv]. That is perhaps why I was dealt a blow when I heard of Crooked Arrow’s death.

In Pine Ridge, where she is originally from, suicide rates are some of the highest in North America, unemployment and alcoholism hover around 80-90%, and domestic violence and sexual assault against Native women and Two Spirit people is especially high (in a 2016 U.S. Department of Justice study, nearly 60% of Native women reported experiencing sexual violence and nearly 85% have experienced some kind of violence in their lifetime). The average household income in Pine Ridge hovers around $5,000 a year, average life expectancy is about 50, and many live with multiple families per household—the houses not equipped with running water, electricity, or indoor facilities. These issues exist only because of widespread, systemic white supremacist colonization that has rendered jobs, housing, and the means to obtain a livelihood less valuable and less easily attainable for Native folks. We do not hear of this, though, do we? This is erased in our pursuit of American myth and mythology. This is where Jamie Lee Crooked Arrow is from. This is where her Two Spirit identity may have started, in the resilience of life the Lakota way—the Indigenous way—not the way of white folks. Because despite these statistics, the beauty, joy, and resilient strength of Indigenous people is why Native people are still here, fighting colonization, climate change, sexual violence, and the gender binary (among many other things)[v].

This is what Native people have said and known all along.

Two Spirit identities have been and are alive and thriving in Native communities[vi]. They have been under attack as a result of widespread white colonization and the need to force gender binaries for a profitable division of labor and a concentration of power, but these gender identities are important to recognize to begin to make visible the structural (and tangible) violence committed against Native communities and to reverse the invisibalization of Native communities and identities.

So as we honor trans women and other trans folks and gender diverse people on Transgender Day of Visibility, let us ground that in recognizing how colonization and white supremacy have played a hand in erasing trans identities—and particularly Two Spirit identities—and in celebrating that Jamie Lee Crooked Arrow lived this identity, was loved and was loving, was living her identity as a resilient Two Spirit Oglala Lakota woman, and honor her life by showing up better for communities that have been erased.

[i] Many articles discuss Crooked Arrow’s death including this one from Mic.com: https://mic.com/articles/164689/two-spirit-woman-jamie-lee-wounded-arrow-is-2017-s-second-transgender-murder-victim#.okC07FnDc

[ii] For Sherman Alexie’s full poem, please visit https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/52775.

[iii] For the audio and full transcript of Kelly Hayes’s video, please view the article from Truth-Out regarding Hayes’s speech and platform here: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/39191-why-i-threw-out-my-speech-for-the-women-s-march

[iv] As “cis” may be a new term for those unfamiliar or without access, here is a link to its definition on Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender and here is a reference to help understand how to better learn terms that are critical to the LGBTQIA community without burdening folks with those identities to be at the forefront of the education: http://www.transstudent.org/definitions

[v] Prior to colonization, many Native nations had diverse genders and gender roles and identities. Despite colonization, these practices have continued to thrive and have provided resilience and strength to Two Spirit individuals. Although this article uses an incorrect term (“transgendered”), Indian Country Today Media Network discusses this gender diversity: https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/two-spirits-one-heart-five-genders/. More on Two Spirit identities here: https://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/the-two-spirit-people-of-indigenous-north-americans/ and here: http://www.westender.com/news-issues/two-spirits-one-struggle-the-front-lines-of-being-first-nations-and-gay-1.1269015#sthash.QnK7yUau.aZIYnUjS.gbpl

[vi] Two Spirit is a term to reference people in Indigenous communities and should not be used by non-Natives: http://www.conspireforchange.org/?p=2283

#TransDayOfVisibility TDOV JamieLeeCrookedArrow TwoSpirit Resilience Strentgh

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While You Were Offline: Hey YAll, Remember to Set Your Doomsday Clocks Forward

Hey, Starlee Kine. We still miss Mystery Show, but while we mourn its disappearance, why don’t you tell everyone what this past week has felt like?

Jesus you miss one day's worth of news and you're Luke returning home to his aunt and uncle on Tatooine.

— Starlee Kine (@StarleeKine) January 25, 2017

Yep, pretty much sums it up. This has been the week where reality has been rejected by those in charge, and perhaps with good reason, considering how badly reality is working out for… almost everyone? But if you’ve had the good luck to have been busy doing other things for the past seven days, here’s a quick roundup of what you might have missed over the last week of World Wide Web-spinning.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It and This Is Fine

What Happened: So, turns out that the Doomsday Clock was updated this week, for those of us having trouble dealing with the anxiety of the modern world. Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports What Really Happened: But perhaps all this naysaying and doom-mongering is just paranoia, and things aren’t as bad as they seem. Let us just check in with what the big brains at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistsyou know, the people behind the Doomsday Clock—are saying to get some perspective.

Doomsday Clock moving from 3 minutes to midnight to 2 and a half minutes to midnight

— Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) January 26, 2017

Well, crap. So, what brought us that little bit closer to apocalypse? According to the official announcement, none other than the new President of the United States. Well, him and a general worldwide push towards nationalism. “Disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons made by Donald Trump, as well as the expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change by both Trump and several of his cabinet appointees, affected the Board’s decision, as did the emergence of strident nationalism worldwide,” the release explains.

The change was, of course, picked up by multiple news outlets as everyone tried to just pretend everything was fine.

Certainly, there were plenty of doubters on Twitter:

Have to say, introducing half-minutes to the Doomsday Clock feels like a cop-out.

— Phil Sandifer (@PhilSandifer) January 26, 2017

Real talk: The Doomsday Clock is stupid.

— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) January 27, 2017

At least some people had a certain type of gallows humor

Can't wait to hear Donald Trump's response to the #doomsdayclock moving 2.5 mins to midnight. Probably has a clock that is bigger & better

— Adam C. (@adamecurry) January 26, 2017

The #DoomsdayClock has moved closer to Midnight. It's just like Cinderella. Except when the clock strikes 12 she turns into a mushroom.

— TwistedDoodles (@twisteddoodles) January 26, 2017

TBH, I'm surprised the Doomsday Clock isn't CLOSER to midnight…

— Hope Larson (@hopelarson) January 27, 2017

So, what's everyone doing for their last 2 min 30 sec on earth? #doomsdayclock

— Ezra Harper (@EmDrive16) January 27, 2017

That’s the spirit! Chins up, everyone The Takeaway: Well, this feels appropriate:

It's not at all concerning when #DOOMSDAYCLOCK is trending. Not at all. Everything is fine. http://pic.twitter.com/F0SzyH47TB

— Tom + Lorenzo (@tomandlorenzo) January 26, 2017

#SpicerFacts

What Happened: How do you know you’ve made it as White House Press Secretary? When your very first press appearance in the role turns you into an Internet meme. Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports What Really Happened: New White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had a rough start to his new job last weekend, when his first appearance at the podium proved to be an argumentative one, as he basically said many wrong things about the size of the crowds for President Trump’s inauguration and everyone called him on it. The resultant online kerfuffle immediately became a meme as #SpicerFacts started trending and everyone offered up their own versions of reality:

President Trump finished the NY Times mini-crossword puzzle each day in roughly 15 seconds. #SpicerFacts

— colbyhall (@colbyhall) January 21, 2017

Trump swam the English Channel while holding Chuck Norris above the waves with one arm. #SpicerFacts

— Charlie Reed (@CharlieReed2004) January 21, 2017

"Everyone knows Beyonc was the weak link in Destiny's Child. Period." #SpicerFacts http://pic.twitter.com/jIWuYHb7bS

— Josh Crews (@JoshCrewsReally) January 22, 2017

"Admiral Ackbar is wrong. There is no trap. Period." #SpicerFacts http://pic.twitter.com/oXKrwKBckk

— Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl) January 22, 2017

Unsurprisingly, the media couldn’t resist reporting on this meme, especially considering Spicer’s ire was directed towards the media. Soon, the very idea of #SpicerFacts had gained enough currency that it got a Twitter account of its very own, the surest sign that something had gone mainstream. Well, one of the signs, at least.

Announcers at an NBA game were making #SpicerFacts jokes this weekend. This moment broke through huge. And can't be put back in bottle.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 23, 2017

So how could the White House fight back against this widespread acceptance of the idea that its Press Secretary had, in his very first official appearance, revealed himself to be unfamiliar with the truth? KellyAnne Conway had an idea: double down.

WATCH: Kellyanne Conway defends WH press secretary's "alternative facts." #MTP http://pic.twitter.com/q4PVzhpA1g

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 22, 2017

Yes, that’s actually a government official arguing that Spicer wasn’t actually being untruthful, he was just delivering “alternative facts.” Anyone want to make a guess at what became the next hashtag to trend on Twitter?

Never too late to teach your children about #AlternativeFacts http://pic.twitter.com/RlVCEgkusU

— Kenneth Fernandez (@KenFernandezPHD) January 23, 2017

Icebergs are disappearing because polar bears are eating them #alternativefacts

— David Belz (@dmdb44) January 23, 2017

All of the Jedi inexplicably decided to jump into friendly Stormtrooper fire or onto Darth Vader's lightsaber. #Alternativefacts

— Death Star PR (@DeathStarPR) January 23, 2017

Unicorns went extinct when David Bowie died. #AlternativeFacts

— HaberTweets (@ToddHaberkorn) January 23, 2017

As sales of George Orwell’s 1984 spiked almost 10,000 percent (it is, after all, a book filled with alternative facts, or as it’s called in the book, doublespeak), the war on truth continued with Sean Spicer’s second press conference, in which he told reporters, “I think sometimes we can disagree with the facts.” If he seemed unclear about what words mean, thankfully the dictionary was there to throw some shade in his direction:

*whispers into the void* In contemporary use, fact is understood to refer to something with actual existence. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 24, 2017

The Takeaway: Sometimes, the truth is out there all along, just mixed up somewhat.

Best. Anagram. Ever.

ALTERNATIVE FACTS = AN EVIL STATECRAFT#AlternativeFacts (h/t @anagramtimes) http://pic.twitter.com/SbDAG7jvWA

— Jonathan Kaye (@JonathanMKaye) January 24, 2017

Did You Mean…?

What Happened: Sometimes, search functions give you what you need, if not necessarily what you wanted. Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports What Really Happened: Call it the surprise search gift of the week.

It's crazy who pops up when you search the word 'asshole.' on Twitter.

— BEEZ (@bugattibeez) January 26, 2017

Note: This isn’t still the case, so don’t go rushing to Twitter to try it for yourself right now. But, up until Wednesday evening, this was entirely true:

Search "asshole." Search "fascist." Search "racist." Search "worst."

What do you get? http://pic.twitter.com/v0rfqKCiHB

— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) January 26, 2017

The @realDonaldTrump account would also come up as a suggestion if you searched for “tiny hands,” although that was discovered after the fact. Twitter, meanwhile, was rather excited about this new discovery.

If you type "asshole" into the Twitter search bar Donald Trump's profile comes up lmfao who did this?

— Anthony (@OMGItsBirdman) January 23, 2017

y'all type "asshole" into the search bar and donald trump comes up sjjakhsjsha

— diego (@shadesof666) January 26, 2017

So anyway I typed "asshole" in the search bar and Donald Trump shows up

— Tay (@CakeFaceTay_) January 26, 2017

WHEN YOU SEARCH "asshole" it shows Trump http://pic.twitter.com/jnSJdejpe4

— Dank Memes (@DankMemes) January 26, 2017

Turns out, Twitter wasn’t the only place people got excited about this search suggestion; unsurprisingly, it got a lot of traction in the media. And why not? If Twitter was trolling Trump it would have seemed an awful lot like making a dig at the guy who has made the service very newsworthy in recent months.

But what if it wasn’t trolling?

Not a troll. Algorithm to find relevant accounts based on the "discussions" they are part of, i.e. lots of tweets to Trump using "asshole". https://t.co/0wlUntdKeV

— Izzy Galvez (@iglvzx) January 26, 2017

The Takeaway: Whether it was a legitimate algorithm or strange glitch, Trump was removed from those results pretty quickly after it became public. It was over almost as soon as it began, but let this serve as a lesson to randomly search for things on Twitter and see what comes up. (That is the lesson here, right?)

There Is a Tweet Tied to an Argument For Torture, What Do You Do?

What Happened: Turns out, Twitter is not so impressed with your ridiculous hypothetical moral dilemmas. Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports What Really Happened: Funny story: our new ppresident believes torture “absolutely works.” As people try to come to terms with what that actually means (FWIW, new Defense Secretary James Mattis disagrees), British comedian Lee Hurst took to Twitter with what we can only assume he thought was a compelling thought experiment.

Your baby is tied to a timebomb. You have the terrorist. He tells you you have 1 hour. Do you #torture him to find your baby or let it die?

— Lee Hurst (@2010LeeHurst) January 26, 2017

Let’s just say that Twitter, en masse, didn’t agree.

Simple. First you row the baby across the river. Then row back and get the time bomb and the goose, leaving the terrorist with the beans.

— Davey Jones (@DHBJones) January 26, 2017

Were you attached to a time bomb when you were a baby? I'd like to talk to you for a thing – DMs are open #journorequest

— josh pappenheim (@papsby) January 26, 2017

Good luck tying my baby to a time bomb. It takes me half an hour just to put a vest on him.

— Ben Davis (@bendavis_86) January 26, 2017

Okay, okay, but what if it were baby Hitler tied to a bomb you sent back in time?

— Kip Manley (@kiplet) January 26, 2017

For sale. Baby timebomb. Never used.

— Kieran Shiach (@KingImpulse) January 26, 2017

The Takeaway: There’s no way to avoid it: this pun just might have made the whole thing worthwhile:

"Lieutenant, they've strapped your baby to a bomb!"

"Don't worry. That won't…"

(puts on sunglasses)

"…RATTLE her."

YEAAAAHHHHHHH

— Li'l Stuffed Bull (@bully_thelsb) January 26, 2017

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