Hello lovely humans. So another month has already passed, woah! Time has flown by so quickly – I essentially kept track of time by knowing what weekly Zoom meeting to attend. To briefly summarize, my month involved my internship for my university, a new job working with house boat tours, and lots of bike rides.
Though, rather than going into detail about my rather uneventful month–I want to write about a topic going on right now in the US. If any time matters to keep up to date with the news, it's now. We should all keep our eyes open and see what is happening: People are protesting the injustices going on throughout the US, especially now for #GeorgeFloyd, #AhmaudArbery, and #BreonnaTaylor. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "A riot is the language of the unheard." These protests are happening all throughout the US, and internationally, including Berlin:
(warning: graphic, but still necessary to share.)
There are also courses of action against these injustices and resources to spread awareness of injustices including here:
I also encourage everyone to search tags including #BlackLivesMatter, #SayTheirNames, #GeorgeFloyd, #ICantBreathe, and many others on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media forms. These tags are one way of being informed and also seeing the sheer amount of protests and responses to those who lost their lives.
From the Say Their Names Fund:
"Don't look away. Don't be silent. Say their names. Remember their names. George Floyd...Breonna Taylor...Ahmaud Arbery...Tamir Rice...Trayvon Martin...countless others...Say Their Names is about affirming the lives and humanity of the black Americans who have been wrongfully murdered by law enforcement. It is out duty to show that we will NOT be silenced."
The #SayTheirNames Fund is fundraising to directly support those protesting for justice in Los Angeles, California, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and New York, NY. They are actively being hurt and silenced during these presentations and many require emergency assistance.
And also equally as important, relief funds such as the #FreedomFund for those being sent to jail or already in jail.
It is unsafe with the current situation of the virus to be in jail with close and confined conditions. So the #FreedomFund pays "criminal bails every Tuesday and immigration bonds every Thursday."
The fund writes further:
"it is wrong to cage people, to jail those who are not a risk to themselves or their communities, to imprison those who cannot afford to pay the ransom of bail, and to hold in detention those whose “crime” is being born in a different part of the world. It has been wrong to do this, and now, to this baseline immorality is added the monstrous act of telling these people that their lives are literally not worth saving. That it’s worth it to look “tough on crime” even if the price is to exacerbate a public health crisis both for those in the jails and, as it turns out, all of you reading this."
Lastly, if financial support is not a possibility at this time, participating in events or protests, held by the #FreedomFund, #SayTheirNames Fund, posted on Facebook, or elsewhere is also possible. Or if one is wary of participating in protests due to the virus and being in close proximity to others, then talk about it. Share posts of articles, funds, protests. There is plenty of information I have not shared here but is still crucial to read. Keep an open dialogue, discuss why these injustices are happening, ask questions when you don't know the answer, see color around you. "The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice." (Paul Robeson.)
I am not black, but I see you. I hear you. I mourn with you. I am with you.
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