Month: November 2016

It’s Not That Hard to Understand: A Recount Request Can be an Effort to Confirm Democracy

Please do not let friends and family become confused about this. It’s NOT a hard distinction. BEFORE an election, it IS a threat to democracy *to shout that it is “rigged,” *to hint about the 2nd Amend, *to incite militias to prepare, *to inspire open-carriers to intimidate and bully voters, *to hold the world in “suspense,” *to encourage ‘monitoring’ of ‘suspicious skin tones,’ and more.  AFTER an election, on the other hand, *when states have publicly boasted about successful voter suppression efforts, *when computer scientists have noted anomalies, *when US officials have found Russian interference in the outcome and are investigating hacking, and *when a party exercises a legal right to request a recount, it is NOT a threat to democracy.  It is the opposite. It is an effort to confirm democracy. And it’s really very simple. Think instant re-play to in effort determine a fair and correct call.  

Please Don’t Discourage the Safe Haven Safety Pin Message

  • A Brief Response to Christopher Keelty @ChristopherKeelty on the Matter of Safety Pins 

    Um, Mr. Keelty?  Regarding your ’embarrassing safety pin’ position?  You got a few things very wrong.

    First, no white person I know is wearing a safety pin to ‘make themselves feel better.’  We won’t feel better.  Ever.  And we didn’t feel so good to begin with.  (Can’t imagine where you’re getting the “make yourself feel better” stuff.)  Second, don’t worry.  We already ‘feel like crap.’  We’re already ‘sitting in our guilt’ and have been our whole lives. We already see that we benefit and that we were fortuitously born into a certain privilege.  We’re not total idiots.

    So we try to act to set things right, in small and big ways, even if right– in the largest sense – has never been and can never be restored.  A show of solidarity via safety pin is simply one more small thing.  Maybe it’s meaningless to you.  Maybe it’s meaningless in general.  But it’s something rather than nothing.  And yes, of course, we know to do other bigger stuff.  Again, we’re not total idiots.

    What is more (and worse) is that you miss a very important point about the safety pins when dismissing them as an “embarrassing” symbol of solidarity.  The pin-wearing had an original purpose:  to give a small sign to another human being – being bullied or chased or worse – that they have somewhere to turn.  To mock and discourage such a safe-haven sign is not just pointless.  It’s also potentially dangerous.

    [And yes, I realize here that this safe-haven meaning may be ultimately be rendered obsolete if white terrorists and hate groups fully co-opt it and twist its meaning.  In the meantime, why not use it for good if it helps someone?]

    Finally, please keep in mind that in many communities your preferred ‘black lives matter’ attire and symbolism is NOT effective at all.   In fact, it is often the exact OPPOSITE of effective.  Many people are beyond ignorant about this movement’s meaning and willfully relentlessly so. Therefore, depending on where you live, such attire may only work to give platform to hate-spewers, a symbol wearers’ message becoming twisted to serve and perpetuate racist thinking.

    The safety pin’s message, by contrast, may in these communities be more difficult to twist and misshape.  Those who mock its wearers directly mock safe haven and compassion and thereby reveal their own ugliness in no uncertain terms to otherwise willfully ignorant observers.  So, for simple practical purposes, please refrain from discouraging anyone’s ‘small action.’  Even a small act can help someone and have a big impact.

    © “Please Don’t Discourage the Safety Pin Safe Haven Message” and justanothermom.me, 2016-17.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Momsupallnight, justanothermom.me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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I Will Not Be “Moving On” Thank You Very Much

And here now I confess to WordPress my dark thoughts . . .

I am NOT feeling graceful or remotely inclined to “move on” from this election outcome.  I am not inclined to “find peace.”  And I am increasingly hardened, in a no-turning-back-sort-of-way, toward people who are asking this of me and others.

This election is NOT over for so many and will not be for a very long time if EVER. Working to “move on” is a privilege many people in our country do not have.
There are already wounds – literal, physical, emotional, systemic – deeply cut and permanent – wrought by these past 18+ months and now this outcome.

Those who cannot see this are in my estimation shockingly lacking in empathy and shamelessly willfully uninformed.   Those who CARE not to see it – and won’t even bother to consider it when asked – are . . .

You know what?  I can’t find the words.  And this is really saying something because I surely can talk a LOT.

© “I Will Not Be Moving On Thank You Very Much” and justanothermom.me, 2016-17.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Momsupallnight, justanothermom.me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.