fearing & dreaming for the future.


 

Crying was not allowed at home. When it occurred, it was handled much like masturbation - you do it in private and hope you don’t get caught.

Carol Rambo Ronai

Jesus then reminds his disciple that he could call on his Father, who would give him whatever military assistance he needs, “but how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen that way?”

He understands how easily it can go the wrong way,
and then we’re back in the same old rut,
clinging to the notion that violence can bring peace.

The only way to break that cycle is for someone to absorb it. A true leader of a new exodus would have to resist ever using power in the form of violence against another human being.

Someone would have to have the courage to put away the sword, forever, regardless of the consequences for his own security. No matter how tempting it is to pick it up and start swinging, someone would have to say, “Forgive them, Father, because they just don’t get it.”

Jesus Wants To Save Christians; Rob Bell & Don Golden

remembertheladies:

GWENDOLYN BROOKSAfrican American PoetJune 7, 1917-Dec 3, 2000 Brooks spent her time encouraging others to write by sponsoring writers’ workshops in Chicago and poetry contests at prisons. In short, she took poetry to her people, continuing to test its worth by reading and speaking in taverns, lounges, and other public places as well as in academic circles. In 1985 she was named as the poetry consultant (one who gives advice) for the Library of Congress. In 1990 her works were guaranteed a permanent home when Chicago State University established the Gwendolyn Brooks Center on its campus. READ MORE [From the Encyclopedia of World Biography.]
A few of her poems can be found HERE. 

remembertheladies:

GWENDOLYN BROOKS
African American Poet

June 7, 1917-Dec 3, 2000 
Brooks spent her time encouraging others to write by sponsoring writers’ workshops in Chicago and poetry contests at prisons. In short, she took poetry to her people, continuing to test its worth by reading and speaking in taverns, lounges, and other public places as well as in academic circles. In 1985 she was named as the poetry consultant (one who gives advice) for the Library of Congress. In 1990 her works were guaranteed a permanent home when Chicago State University established the Gwendolyn Brooks Center on its campus. READ MORE [From the Encyclopedia of World Biography.]

A few of her poems can be found HERE

defyinghistoryy:

blackfashion:

R.I.P Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Irene Height who passed away today at the age 98. Height led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.

 
In a statement, Obama called her “the godmother of the civil rights movement” and a hero to Americans. “Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality … and served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement — witnessing every march and milestone along the way,” Obama said. Vice President Joe Biden said Height was one of the first people to visit him when he first took his seat in the Senate in 1973. “She remained a friend and would never hesitate to tell me or anybody else when she thought we weren’t fighting hard enough,” he said.
Read more: HERE

defyinghistoryy:

blackfashion:

R.I.P Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Irene Height who passed away today at the age 98. Height led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.

In a statement, Obama called her “the godmother of the civil rights movement” and a hero to Americans. “Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality … and served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement — witnessing every march and milestone along the way,” Obama said. Vice President Joe Biden said Height was one of the first people to visit him when he first took his seat in the Senate in 1973. “She remained a friend and would never hesitate to tell me or anybody else when she thought we weren’t fighting hard enough,” he said.

Read more: HERE
remembertheladies:

Ellen Eglui, an African American woman in Washington, D.C., invented the clothes wringer for washing machines in the 1880s. She sold the patent for only $18 (~$430 adjusted for inflation), saying:
You know I am black and if it was known that a Negro woman patented the invention white ladies would not buy the wringer, I was afraid to be known because of my color, in having it introduced into the market, that is the only reason.
via University of Alabama

remembertheladies:

Ellen Eglui, an African American woman in Washington, D.C., invented the clothes wringer for washing machines in the 1880s. She sold the patent for only $18 (~$430 adjusted for inflation), saying:

You know I am black and if it was known that a Negro woman patented the invention white ladies would not buy the wringer, I was afraid to be known because of my color, in having it introduced into the market, that is the only reason.

via University of Alabama

information addict: abbyjean: ... i have so much admiration and respect for people like...

abbyjean:

i have so much admiration and respect for people like kat who work with rape and sexual assault victims immediately after the attack - staying with them during the painful and intrusive rape kit process and advocating for them with the police. this is essential work that can make…

akosianonymous:

it maybe weird but the first time i was introduce to this pic was last semester, from my Theology Professor. It was taken by Kevin Carter, a photographer, and that was during a famine…..

akosianonymous:

it maybe weird but the first time i was introduce to this pic was last semester, from my Theology Professor. It was taken by Kevin Carter, a photographer, and that was during a famine…..

WOULD ANY SANE PERSON think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?

Forget Shorter Showers | Derrick Jensen | Orion Magazine

ok. love love love this article by derrick jensen.  can i get this on a t-shirt?

(via guerrillamamamedicine)

(via defyinghistoryy)

I also need to say that if I hear the “fat is the last acceptable oppression” meme one more time, I am going to scream (louder). Fat hatred is often blatant, shameless, vitriolic, and completely public. But guess what? So is racism! (And classism, heterosexism, ableism, and sexism.) Racism is institutionalized into our laws, our classrooms, our work places, and our daily interactions. Just because some white folks think it’s unacceptable to say the n-word, doesn’t mean that racism is gone or that it’s not “acceptable.” When people in the fat acceptance movement say that fat is the last acceptable oppression, it alienates and invalidates the struggles of people of color, who know first-hand that racism not only exists, but that it is also very much “acceptable” in polite society.

Extreme Homeschooling: No Tests, No Books, No Classes, No Curriculums

notemily:

(via emilyposts)

Sounds great.

I cannot wait until this year finishes. My extra long holiday between school & uni will look like this.

Viola Desmond is not Canada’s Rosa Parks

notemily:

thecurvature:

On November 8th 1946 Ms. Viola Desmond decided to go and see a movie while she was waiting for her car to be repaired. She requested floor seats and paid for the ticket. As she sat watching the movie she was approached and asked to move, but claiming an inability to see from the balcony she refused.

Her refusal would not be accepted and she was subsequently dragged out the theatre by two men who injured her knee in the process. She was arrested and was forced to spend the night incarcerated on the male cell block. Such was her dignity that she sat upright throughout the terrible ordeal.

During her trial she was not told that she could have legal counsel, or cross examine the witnesses testifying against her. The fact that she was unfamiliar with the legal segregation that the cinema utilized and that the sign indicating the seating standards by race was obscured was not taken into consideration. She was subsequently found guilty of tax evasion because though she asked for a floor seat the segregated seating meant that she had actually purchased a ticket for the balcony where Blacks were forced to sit.

By not sitting in the supposedly appropriate place, she had avoided paying exactly one cent in taxes. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail and was ordered to pay a total of 26 dollars in fines, with 6 of those dollars to be given to the manager of the theatre who had damaged her knee when he roughly removed her from her seat.

Not content with the verdict, with the support of NSACCP (The Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), Ms. Desmond would fight her way to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Despite the fact that this was clearly a miscarriage of justice based solely in the theatre’s racist policy, the conviction was upheld.

notemily:

purpleprimate:

loveandzombies:

pluseyes:cynflr:


Day 14 — A non-fictional book 
Naomi Wolf - The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
(or Some reasons why humanity sucks sometimes)

The first testimonial I read about this book said that 1) the reader cried and cried and 2) it changed her life forever. Both happened to me as well. I know that is a typical thing to say of a self-help book, but I don’t want to paint it like that: it won’t help you, but it will show you what in society needs help. It won’t make you feel better - it will probably make you feel very angry and very upset. But as sure as hell makes you feel understood.


I read this book for the first time last fall and it changed my life, too.
Specifically, it changed the way I looked at my childhood.  I realized that my stack of evidence that I was broken and ill was a pile of meaningless twaddle.  All the specialists and appointments I was taken to as a child and young adult — the nutritionist, the dermatologist, the orthodontist — these people were not curing me of diseases.  I was not sick.  I went to them because I was NOT PRETTY ENOUGH. My teeth worked, my skin was not troublesome or abnormal or cystic, my size was not a symptom of a disease.  I was healthy and normal and functional and perfectly me. There was nothing to fix.
And yes, when I realized this, I cried.


I’m reading this at the moment. ♥

notemily:

purpleprimate:

loveandzombies:

pluseyes:cynflr:

Day 14 — A non-fictional book

Naomi Wolf - The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

(or Some reasons why humanity sucks sometimes)

The first testimonial I read about this book said that 1) the reader cried and cried and 2) it changed her life forever. Both happened to me as well. I know that is a typical thing to say of a self-help book, but I don’t want to paint it like that: it won’t help you, but it will show you what in society needs help. It won’t make you feel better - it will probably make you feel very angry and very upset. But as sure as hell makes you feel understood.

I read this book for the first time last fall and it changed my life, too.

Specifically, it changed the way I looked at my childhood. I realized that my stack of evidence that I was broken and ill was a pile of meaningless twaddle. All the specialists and appointments I was taken to as a child and young adult — the nutritionist, the dermatologist, the orthodontist — these people were not curing me of diseases. I was not sick. I went to them because I was NOT PRETTY ENOUGH. My teeth worked, my skin was not troublesome or abnormal or cystic, my size was not a symptom of a disease. I was healthy and normal and functional and perfectly me. There was nothing to fix.

And yes, when I realized this, I cried.

I’m reading this at the moment. ♥

If you think fat people have no self-discipline, consider the fact that they haven’t killed you yet.

Fat Blogs by Miss Conduct, Boston Globe (via heyfatchick)

Relevant.

(via novazembla)

Win.

(via notemily)