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Hi everyone. Lately I’ve been posting about making it to another Monday all the time, sanity and health intact and all…but this week was on another level. The world is melting down around us and I was shocked and appalled at the violence saturating the news, and I’m not talking about what the looters or rioters were doing. I’m a heterosexual white girl from Canada and my privilege was comfortably having my head in the sand about the extent of the long simmering anger and injustice. Of course we see all the news coverage when there’s another police related killing or beating or whatever other way power is being abused, but they start to blur together like all the school shootings. Every such event is horrific and terrifying and disheartening on it’s own, but there are so many. The news moves on and so do we. So I am amazed at the tenacity and courage of every single protester and marcher that’s consistently out there pushing for change, especially in the face of the vicious police response in some cites, and the ever present virus. The idea of how many more Covid cases this will lead to is heartbreaking.
Please everyone do everything in your power to stay safe, stay healthy, stay loving, change hearts, and minds, and policy. Please share any important to you links in the comments, wether charities, opinion pieces, vital stories or videos or whatever.
I love all of you and Black Lives Matter.
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June 8th, 2020 at 12:05 am
Heheh… Evil, you’re ALRIGHT. | Sometimes you gotta be a little bad to beat back at such a cruel World.
Vanity, Evil jr, Ping-Pong.. Never forget. You got a few folk at the Discount zoo, that care about ya. ^^
& so closes this chapter. What the next ones title will be, will show me what will happen!
June 8th, 2020 at 2:09 am
I wonder where he heard that from…
( ；∀；)goodbye vanity
(;_;)
June 8th, 2020 at 2:12 am
End?
June 8th, 2020 at 3:56 am
And Evil with the tactical escape! I can’t wait to see what happens now…~
June 8th, 2020 at 3:59 am
To be continued?!
June 8th, 2020 at 6:31 am
That was actually really inspiring!
June 8th, 2020 at 7:38 am
The world is a complicated place.
In our local city a peaceful protest that went on for 2 hours quickly turned into a riot that damaged most of the city. It wasn’t the peaceful protesters though. It was started by a young man who identified with the AntiFa movement. He and other AntiFa members did their best to try and terrorize our city.
Many of these young people have been arrested, others have warrents for their arrest.
I want to pass on to you some advice for you, and your kids from Mr. Rogers .
He said when scary things happen on the news, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.
In these troubled times, if you are scared, so are your children.
You are not alone.
June 8th, 2020 at 10:16 am
“I hear literally it’s Lech’s.” Well, there’s a reveal I’ve been waiting for for a lonnnnng time. :D
That was surprisingly touching… and from the least likely source, too.
June 8th, 2020 at 11:16 am
This is literally the second biggest disappointment I’ve had this week. To be fair, though, I am curious to see how this turns out- I look forward to Ping Pong’s next appearance.
June 8th, 2020 at 12:20 pm
See what i mean, Evil is Vanity’s father figure.. he taught the kid everything that he knows.
also gee..wonder who said that Lech had the biggest asshole *cough, cough* gay said it *cough* ;)
June 8th, 2020 at 12:38 pm
Back at ya, Alison. Stay safe…stay healthy.
June 8th, 2020 at 1:24 pm
AntiFa as well as Black block and those identified as such as rioters are not one and the same, believe it or not. Just like the riot instigators and looters are not of colour more times than not. I have gotten just way too many to ignore images forwarded by various friends stateside of instigators caught on camera wearing standard issue boots or vests under their jackets or those unique tactical gloves or that unique blue bracelet or cuffs stuffed in a back pocket and almost always a firearm.
I also am sort-of-privileged as a Canadian in a very ethnically mixed neighbourhood. I actually have to think hard who is what when asked because for me they are that person that now lives in that house.
As a kid, oh so many years ago [damn I’m getting old] in an almost all WASP neighbourhood it wasn’t the colour of your skin [because anyone of actual colour was unique and exotic] but your perceived ethnic background was what got you looked down upon by adults and the snot beaten out of you by the kids. Heck having a tan and pretending to be Mediterranean was safer since you only got called the W word than to be mistaken for eastern european or heaven forbid central where you would be called the N word and summarily beaten, humiliated and whatnot.
Canada’s British WASP heritage isn’t all that nice but at least there were no repeated occurrences of “The Trail of Tears” for various ethnic groups, just segregation and second class status if you were not obviously of British or in that one province even today, pure French Heritage. Mind Canada does have a highway of tears out west which is something not to be proud of.
Apologies for the long rant
In other news – have we actually found out who contaminated the water that started this whole mess?
June 8th, 2020 at 2:03 pm
@alison: Agreed! I have lived in a bubble of privilege and I am so proud of the protesters. Huge change happening in Minneapolis. And I am hopeful it will spread.
Wow, Evil…showing some real love to your friend in his darkest hour. That pep talk probably changed the course of Vanity’s life forever! <3 This is a tribute to Alison's amazing writing. So much good stuff! *writes in journal: shit happens, so make a shit sandwich and shove it down the throat of the biggest panda…*
June 8th, 2020 at 3:49 pm
About Lech – Could have sworn he was strictly heterosexual, but I guess I was wrong. Unless it’s just a rumor, indeed. (Shrug)
June 8th, 2020 at 4:05 pm
@Kath McGill Dammit. Did you really have to drag politics into this?
But yes, there are multiple causes for protests turning into riots. Yes, there are bad actors (white supremacists, Antifa, opportunists), there is also group psychology, like police actually inciting and agitating the crowd into a riot (shocking, I know: “Researchers have spent 50 years studying the way crowds of protesters and crowds of police behave—and what happens when the two interact. One thing they will tell you is that when the police respond by escalating force—wearing riot gear from the start, or using tear gas on protesters—it doesn’t work. In fact, disproportionate police force is one of the things that can make a peaceful protest not so peaceful.” https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/01/why-so-many-police-are-handling-the-protests-wrong)
June 8th, 2020 at 11:35 pm
@alison
Thank you for your heartfelt post.
As a person who lives below the 49th Parallel, and has lived long enough to see the roots of what is happening now, I am finding myself caught up in real History. Growing up, I watched movies about both World Wars and saw a few present-day wars on the TV news. From that time up to the present I have regularly read news stories and seen documentaries of people being targeted and killed because their very existence was an affront to certain angry people. I have read Science Fiction novels about plagues and forcible assimilation.
It’s one thing to view these events on media, and quite another to find yourself close to them.
It’s so polarized down here it’s not funny. I learned a long time ago to not talk about politics or matters of spiritual belief on the job a long time ago. But at my job, so-called adults from opposite sides of the political spectrum have yammering and debating since the 2016 Election. There’s at least one individual that’s so far over the edge that I worry he’s going to commit violence at our workplace.
Now we have the Pandemic and the civil unrest in a knock-out one-two punch; and the year is only half over.
I really don’t know quite how to finish this post. I need to stop before it becomes a mountain of text, though.
I guess all I can say is pray to whomever gods you believe in for peace and healing.
June 8th, 2020 at 11:42 pm
@Alison I empathize greatly. I am also aware of my white privilege, and I was also stunned by the overwhelming negativity on Facebook this week. And for me, it’s compounded by the covid isolation and loss of direct contact with my friends. I have real, actual mental illnesses that mean I’m struggling just to keep my head above water. But I’m managing. Somehow, I’m managing. AND SO CAN YOU! Do whatever you need to do. Read unbiased news, like AP News. Limit your time on Facebook, since you know what’s going to be there. Spend more time with your child. We can make it through this. Just remember the things that matter in your life, and get closer to them. 8)
June 9th, 2020 at 10:30 am
Don’t ask questions Vanity. Someones coming for you and you need to be ready to zap them and run. Evil will be waiting with the evac.
June 12th, 2020 at 9:48 pm
Alison … thank you.
As a biracial BPOC, thank you.
You don’t understand how much hearing that from you means to me. <3 I'm so appreciative.
June 13th, 2020 at 12:35 pm
Ahh yes, the Chaotic Neutral path tends to happen around the goody two shoes. Due to the unpredictable nature of these individuals, they are more than welcome with the Evil collaborates; Just point these anti-heroes at the nearest moral asshat.