And So It Begins

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

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Tuesdays' Acts of Resistance

I saw the most inexplicable post yesterday about manstraution - not a typo. Once I actually paid attention and attempted to figure out what was going on, I thought “oh, yeah” this is how resistance begins!

FLO is the “number 1” period tracker used around the world. Now it is quite a large database with 380,000,000+ users tracking their menstruation, fertility and pregnancies - the health information an individual can put on the app is stunning. A few posts were suggesting men track their own “manstruations” with as much chaotic information as possible. When I figured out what this could mean, I enjoyed a lovely belly laugh at the brilliant subversiveness of such a simple act of resistance.  I'm sure it's a joke, but still...

And it got me to thinking - we need to record and share with one another what we do to resist when the government moves to take away our rights. Thus, Tuesday Acts of Resistance is born.

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Since the Election, I Have ...

• Picked up my computer and, after a hiatus, have started once again to write encouragement for parents - writing is an act of resistance. Writing is successful if even a single parent is inspired or can use anything I write to make their lives better. If our government and employers do not actively support parents with meaningful policies, then the rest of us must do so. It’s really that simple.
• Written a letter to my House Representative to urge a no vote on the H.R. 9495 “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. I am not opposed to waiving IRS tax penalties for American held hostages. But, I am opposed to granting the executive branch more unilateral and easily abused powers to identify individuals, businesses, and not-for-profits as supporting terrorists without the due process of law.
• Vetted different organizations and non-profits to see where to give my time and money. My issues are climate change and human rights.
• Stopped reading mainstream/legacy media as news sources - the normalizing of electing a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and one who fomented an insurrection to stay in power while at the same time focusing on why or how the Democratic Party is elitist and that is why Harris lost is morally repugnant and intellectually specious at best. The nicest epithet is “hogwash.” I am currently vetting Reuters and APNews, as well as a number of smaller online sources for news about the climate, as well as human rights. I’ll let you know how it goes.
• Taken the first step towards untangling myself from Amazon by cancelling my Kindle subscription. It will take time to move my online purchases to local, in-person purchases, but my goal is to complete this transition by the end of January. An additional note about the use of Libby for reading library books - it is unfortunate, but the equity firm KKR owns Libby/Overdrive, Kanopy, Sora and Teaching.net. Switching from supporting one billionaire to another set of billionaires defeats my purpose in this act of resistance, so I’m still on the lookout for other digital sources. But who doesn’t love the feel of a physical book in hand! Right?
• Stepped up to learn a new digital platform - Substack - for sharing my thoughts; again, this is part of a plan to remove myself and my material from Facebook by the end of February. I do ask you to subscribe to this newsletter using the link below, but there will be no fee - raising children in this crazy world is expensive and encouragement from a grandparent should never cost you a dime.
  

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I see all of these as significant personal acts of resistance and I am dedicated for even more resistance as it is needed..

You never know what a Nonna can do to affect change when her children and grandchildren’s futures are on the line.

Nonna