What a heartbreaking week.
Roxane Gay is her usual insightful self writing about Ferguson for the Guardian. The entire thing is very good, but the ending is just so spot on:
"We need to do the hard work of overcoming our lesser selves. Silence is not an option but words are not enough."
The If They Gunned Me Down tumblr is something you should look at, if you haven't already.
This cartoon from Erika Moen on deciding she wants to live is wonderful, but it made me cry.
Libby Nelson's report on the Yazidi community in Lincoln, Nebraska also made me cry.
This story about the chaos scheduling software is creating in employee's lives just makes me angry. Some a**hole optimized on the wrong thing. Meanwhile, my mayor just vetoed an ordinance that would have raised the minimum wage and required a small amount of paid time off for hourly employees. The city council is trying to decide if they'll override.
Here are some campaigns to consider supporting:
Fund to send Michael Brown's siblings to college
Fund to feed kids in Ferguson
An organization that provides tutoring and other support to kids in north St. Louis, founded by Antonio French, the St. Louis alderman whose tweets kept so many of us informed about what was happening in Ferguson.
And, because I can't leave without some happy things: 3-D printing for picture books and a 13 year old girl kicking ass in the Little League World Series.
I'm shocked that the media are all just taking this abuse, and just basically seem to have no fight in them about it.
ReplyDeleteWhy the hell are they not lashing out against the Ferguson police's stonewalling? Why the hell are they not reporting how they are being turned away, their first Amendment rights trampled on; how the "no fly zone" decision is calculated to keep the real stories from getting out, etc etc? Media, do your job!
I wish Glenn Greenwald were here.
Here's Glenn Greenwald on Ferguson a few days ago:
Deletehttps://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/14/militarization-u-s-police-dragged-light-horrors-ferguson/
"Last night, two reporters, The Washington Post‘s Wesley Lowery and The Huffington Post‘s Ryan Reilly, were arrested and assaulted while working from a McDonald’s in Ferguson. The arrests were arbitrary and abusive, and received substantial attention — only because of their prominent platforms, not, as they both quickly pointed out upon being released, because there was anything unusual about this police behavior."
"Reilly, on Facebook, recounted how he was arrested by “a Saint Louis County police officer in full riot gear, who refused to identify himself despite my repeated requests, purposefully banged my head against the window on the way out and sarcastically apologized.” He wrote: ”I’m fine. But if this is the way these officers treat a white reporter working on a laptop who moved a little too slowly for their liking, I can’t imagine how horribly they treat others.” He added: “And if anyone thinks that the militarization of our police force isn’t a huge issue in this country, I’ve got a story to tell you.” "
"Lowery, who is African-American, tweeted a summary of an interview he gave on MSNBC: “If I didn’t work for the Washington Post and were just another Black man in Ferguson, I’d still be in a cell now.” He added: “I knew I was going to be fine. But the thing is, so many people here in Ferguson don’t have as many Twitter followers as I have and don’t have Jeff Bezos or whoever to call and bail them out of jail.” "