We keep each other safe.

Terrible things keep happening in our country and I’m reminded more than ever that we need each other.

We need each other for community care in the absence of systems that keep us safe. We need each other to heal from the trauma that we are uniquely and collectively intertwined in. We need each other to build a collective power that can stand up to systems of oppression that are holding us back. And we need each other to imagine the future that we all deserve; where everyone gets to thrive.

Please take care of yourself and each other. Because we need all of us.

Kerri (she/her)

Art and words @cleowade

1. Saying never again to the violence in Atlanta means saying no to more policing. Massage workers and sex workers know how to fight the kind of extraordinary violence we saw last week. It’s time we listened. [click to tweet]

2. Perhaps more than anything in the history of the American government, the filibuster remains the most durable, relic of white supremacy. And Democrats need to do something about it. [click to tweet]

3. Over-reliance on police is preventing us from imagining and investing in other public safety tools — ones that could revitalize the struggling neighborhoods that experience the most crime. Here’s how we reimagine safety. [click to tweet]

4. Black women and Latinas face an even bigger pay gap than women overall getting paid 63 and 55 cents respectively, for every dollar paid to white men. This Equal Pay Day, fight for the Black women and Latinas hit hardest by the pandemic. [click to tweet]

5. “I’m Realizing My Friends Are Racist. What Should I Do?” How to respond when your friends reveal their prejudices. [click to tweet]

This week’s call to action demonstrates the interlocking issues that converge to make crises like what we’ve experienced over the past week possible. From the violent attack on Asian Americans in Georgia to the mass shooting in Boulder, the incidents and issues are not isolated but interconnected. Breaking the cycle of harm requires us to take action at every level to ensure that we can keep each other safe and build a better world. Here are this week’s calls to action:

• Kill the filibuster: There are many reasons to end the filibuster. It is undemocratic, it has been abused, it has no constitutional foundation, and it empowers a tiny minority to stop anything. Not to mention, this Jim Crow relic in the way of ANY progress in the near future including gun control, raising the minimum wage, voting rights and more. Here’s how we get there.

• Decriminalize sex work: Criminalizing sex work puts women of color, femmes, trans folks and disabled people at high risk by causing increased vulnerability to abuse, violence, extortion and fatalities. But decriminalizing sex work leads to better access to healthcare, less interactions with law enforcement and less likelihood for abuse, violence and incarceration. Learn more and take action.

• Demand gun control: The horrific mass shootings in Boulder Monday and in Atlanta last week were two more painful reminders of how desperately our country needs action on gun safety. Demand your representatives do the right thing and pass gun control legislation now.
  

The more I name my own personal struggle with burnout, the more I’m discovering that many are feeling the post-Trump slump. But we can no longer afford to keep plowing forward. We must make time to heal and recover. Otherwise, we are destined to burnout our people, break down relational trust, tap out our resources and diminish our capacity to show up for the uncertain future that lies ahead. Now more than ever, we must lean on the wisdom of our practice and center care for ourselves and one another. We need to practice both healing and accountability as we live into the future we are creating together. And we must listen to our bodies as they speak truth to pain and trauma that is demanding to be healed. Lama Rod Owens reminds us “To hold space for our pain is a way that we begin to take care of our pain. Taking care of our pain softens our hurt as we do the work of empathizing with ourselves. Empathizing with ourselves makes it easier to empathize with others around us. This empathy is at the root of the love and compassion that will begin to disrupt the systems that create harm.”

Art @keeleyshawart

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