Mountain Park Recreational Area
1. Wisdom from James Baldwin, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
2. Speak Up: Responding to Everyday Bigotry. A really great resource, a long list of answers to “what can I do?”
3. How to Make Your Congressman Listen to You. “A series of viral tweets by former Congressional staff member Emily Ellsworth offered advice on how to get your representative to take notice and hear you out.”
4. This “Late Night” Writer Just Said What Most Black People In America Are Thinking Right Now. In related news, On “Woke” White People Advertising their Shock that Racism just won a Presidency, and This is what happens now.
5. Hundreds Of Students Walked A Girl To Class After She Was Allegedly Called The N-Word. Would that the response everywhere be this, may every person harassed have someone who steps in, and a mass of people surrounding them with love after. Please, please, if something like this happens to you, tell us so we can walk you to class.
6. Better Things: Pamela Adlon on why the season finale was her favorite episode. And, Donald Glover Challenges Stereotypes About Rappers In Atlanta. Both Better Things and Atlanta ended recently, and it’s bittersweet — I’m so happy they are so good, so sad there are no new episodes for awhile.
7. 2 Million Photos In 8 Years Or What It’s Like To Be Obama’s Photographer. I’m not crying, you’re crying… *sniff*
8. Concrete Suggestions in Preparation for January 2017’s change in American government, a Google doc. “This list is a living document compiled and moderated by Kara Hurvitz, an attorney and advocate based out of Boston. It has received contributions from attorneys, other professionals, and lay people all over the country.”
9. Find Your Elected Officials. A really great resource. “Here you can find your Elected Officials, how to contact them, bills they’ve introduced, committees they serve on, and political contributions they’ve received.”
10. Fill my basket. “This generous organization pays for strangers’ groceries and is giving back one cart at a time.”
11. People Express Post-Election Feelings On Subway Wall. “This Post-it wall is letting people express their feelings about the election while spreading love and positivity.”
12. Don’t Panic. “I personally believe it will, that this will be remembered as the dying last gasp of the worst part of America, one final stand against the bigotry and ignorance that has plagued us since the day we decided to build this nation on the backs of slaves. But it won’t happen on its own. Nothing good ever does. Some of you wake up every day feeling like you have no purpose in life, and motherfucker, have I got news for you! The future is waiting to see what we do next. Let’s get to it.”
13. A poem from Warsan Shire,
later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.
14. Trump supporters, I love you. Seriously.TV with Dylan Marron.
15. A comic and message from Sarah’s Scribbles on the election results.
16. A Loving Kindness Meditation for America, with Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler.
17. More wisdom from Susan Piver, On Fear, Fearlessness, and the US Presidential Election: One Buddhist’s Perspective, and I want a viable third party and I want it today, and Don’t Bite the Hook: Five Things to Remember Post-Election.
18. A poem from Ellen Bass,
to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs,
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.
19. Stay, wisdom from Rachel Cole, which I already shared once, but I want to make sure you didn’t miss it.
20. Wisdom from Adam J. Kurtz,
21. The African-American Suffragists History Forgot. In related news, These Black Women Also Deserve A Visit To Their Graves On Election Day.
22. Pets Interrupting Yoga. I’ve seen this before, probably shared it before, but it always makes me giggle.
23. A bit of relief on this insane election day from Jamie Greenwood, written before we knew the results.
This election has brought so much hate, rage and vitriol to the surface that, no matter who is elected, we will still be left with plenty of toxic national sludge to wade through and clean up. Which, as I see it, is actually a good thing. It’s a good thing we’re being asked to address and face issues that have long been festering under the surface and I believe, if we do this right, we can forever change how America treats all its citizens and how we citizens treat each other.
24. Artist Leaves Funny Signs Around City For People To Find.
26. This post from Elizabeth Gilbert made me giggle,
27. We’re not going to change the world. You are. “Maybe they voted for something they perceived was in their self-interest, but let’s see how that turns out. You think a billionaire who stiffs his employees and doesn’t pay taxes cares about working people?”
28. Acceptance. Yes, everything about this.
29. Reclaiming My Power From White Women. “I believe that white supremacy is the attempt to love oneself through the subjugation of others.” Yup, chew on that.
30. No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear by Toni Morrison. “I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.”
31. For writers after the American election. “In my attention lives my capacity for love and awe. My attention enables my adoration for nature, animals, and people. Without attention, my heart can’t be open.”
32. Wisdom from Seth Godin, Empathy is a bridge, and Hang in there, and Rolling up our sleeves, and Resilience.
33. Should You Wear a Safety Pin? In related news, So You Want to Wear a Safety Pin and Questioning Safety Pin Solidarity Revealed Why I Can’t Trust White People.
34. I’ve Been Fat And I’ve Been Skinny. Here’s What I’ve Learned About That.
35. The Show And Fuel Empathy (SAFE) Project, a great offering from Jena Schwartz.
36. 11/30 Poems in November: Just the Milk from Jena Schwartz. *sniffle* Also from Jena, When Writing Is Your One Small Thing.
37. Trying is always worth it from Alexandra Franzen.
38. The Pendulum Swings Both Ways.
39. Now what? A recent newsletter from Laura Simms with some really great tips, “As a caring person, what can you do today, this week, and this year to help others?”
40. Mourn, Then Get Mad, Then Get Busy, a really, really great list from Chuck Wendig.
41. The World Needs YOU Now. (Elections are over; Now What?) from Kute Blackson. “Donald Trump is a great opportunity to live your compassion and to put spirituality into practice.”
42. Forget “Why?”, it’s time to get to work. Another great list of what to do now.
43. Send a Friend a Love Letter.
44. The photographer behind this iconic #NoDAPL image explains why he’s fighting with Standing Rock.
45. ‘Not All White People’ and Derailing Conversations.
Do not insist that your effort to treat other people with dignity and respect–which really is the bare minimum of what’s expected from decent human beings–is so remarkable that you need to interrupt other people’s conversations to demand praise. Everyone already knows that ‘not all white people are like that.’ But if you’re barging into conversations to make them about you, chances are pretty good that you’re exactly like that.
46. We Have To Create A Culture That Won’t Vote For Trump.
47. Do you live in a bubble? A quiz.
48. What to Do If You See Islamophobic Harassment. This works with other forms of harassment too.
49. Leslie Knope Writes Letter to America Following Donald Trump’s Victory.
50. With a Stroke of His Pen President Obama Permanently Protects Planned Parenthood.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 