(no subject)

[gwydion]

* "Aleppo is falling:"

* "China exploits presidential transitions to test US:"

I have always said that the very lowest bar for President is that ze be bright enough and diligent enough to read and understand foreign policy briefings. In my life time two Presidents (Reagan and W.) were not even close to reaching that very low bar. (I can’t speak to Ford one way or the other as my political memory starts with the Ford Carter debates, though I was alive for Nixon. I’ve studied Nixon, but I’ve not systematically studied Ford, so I can’t have an informed opinion.) Now we are getting a President who’s so far from reaching the low bar, that I’m pretty sure he can’t pass the marshmallow test.

I am terrified.

* "Putin turns political power into extreme wealth:"

* "Exxon support of dictator stability counter to US foreign policy:"

* "Not a Jew? J Street president responds:"

* "Warren goes after Trump for conflicts of interest:"

* "Absurd conspiracy? Trump has a job for you!:"

* How much do Republicans hate Democracy? Exhibit A. "NC GOP governor McCrory signs powergrab laws, hands out favors:"

* "Lynch stresses local activism on hate crimes if feds lose focus:"

* "It's The End Of The Year As We Know It :"

Watch on YouTube

* Out in the real world, Ballet is politics, just like everything else, but the thing I fundamentally liked about my second ballet school was that it was fundamentally a meritocracy. It was the one place outside the bounds of my parent's yard where you could not mean girl, or beat, or bully, or buy your way to the top. Unlike in the real world, if you worked hard, were good at what you did, and avoided injury, you were rewarded. The kids who were there because their parents made them, or to fuck around, or to bully people, ended up in the back where no one would see them, and those of us who really loved it and worked at it every second of floor we had, ended up featured. My teacher saw the right the fuck through the kids who were used to being on top at their schools and tried to use their advantages to try to make a pecking order there. I'd never seen an adult besides my Mother go after bullies like that. (My Mom was famous in our neighborhood for boiling out of the house brandishing a frying pan when guys came to throw rocks at kids in our yards). My dance teacher put of with no shit. My dance teacher did not care about the Ballanchine body type either, and some of our best dancers wouldn't have been looked at twice in other schools, but inside those walls, was a magic place where what mattered was how well you danced and your willingness to work and work with others. Her fury when she caught girls making themselves vomit is something I'd never forget. I was a runner outside and protein and carbo loading was part of my daily routine in a desperate attempt to keep my weight up and build the kind of muscle you need for leaps and lifts, I didn't know what an eating disorder was yet. My teacher had been pro once upon a time, and she grabbed the parents for conference when they came for their girls. It was safe there. So few things outside of home were safe, and I gathered those places to my heart. She wanted us to work, to treat each other and ourselves decently, and to not fuck around. It was very much my sort of thing. I loved the discipline of the bar work, and the way it felt when I danced, pushing the limits of what my body could do. The people I counted as friends were people who's work I respected and they mine. I wish more of the world was like that really. I suspect there was a touch of my dance teacher in the way I ended up teaching Middle School, that idea that within those walls my kids would be safe, that I expected them to work and be decent to each other, that if they did those things their could be fun and leeway, but I'd be on them like the wrath of God if they picked on someone else. Warmth and discipline.

*****

* Suicide Crisis numbers: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/153016816845/non-us-crisis-line-list

* Victim of a Hate Crime? Report to the police first, but also report here to help the SPLC track incidents: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate

* Trans Relief Project: http://transrelief.com/

* "Donate to the SPLC:" https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463

* "A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support:" http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078?rev=1478710019591&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

* General Charities list to help groups being targeted in Trump's America: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/153111297079/charities-that-may-need-some-love-in-the-upcoming

* Where to donate to help Immigrants: http://colinfirth.tumblr.com/post/152963467726/carecen-la-center-for-community-change

* Ways to protest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#

* More ways to protest "So here’s the deal:" http://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/153516131819/so-heres-the-deal

* "10 ways we can help Standing Rock Indian Reservation.:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/153755459138/dooder-tooder-this-is-a-photo-my-friend-posted

* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

Comments

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

And I wish I had someone like you as a teacher when I was a kid. I did not feel the classroom was a safe place. I imagine we might be about the same age, and back then, kids bullied, called each other racist names ( and when I complained about it, the teacher told me not to be a tattletale and 'grow up' about it!! To which my mom and dad had a talk with the school principal about that kind of shit)...and there was that cruel hierarchy in the school because it was a private school, and kids there can be meaner than kids in a public school. I did not have a good time in school, period, and started acting out really badly.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I discovered later that that was deliberate. They turned schools for out generation into a shark tank under the theory that kids should work things out for themselves and that kids being bullied did something to deserve it. It was systematic an on purpose. A whole generation of teachers were trained that way. It was just laziness in my opinion. It takes actual effort to properly monitor and intervene, and Boomers were all about not not so benign neglect. My Mother was trained this way, and hated it, because it went against all her instincts, and was why she ended up spending only two years in the classroom. It defies logic too, of course. If you reward instigators and bullies by heaping punishment on their targets, it just encourages more cruelty and bullying.

In the long run, it's less work to nip that shit right in the bud. You consistently punish the people causing the bulk of the problems, you support kids apt to intervene for justice and model how to do it, and make things fair for the kids being hassled, you get a lot less trouble in your room generally, the kids are happier and safer, and they are apt to grow up into decent human beings instead of sociopaths, but humans are terrible at logic and picking the long term benefit over the immediate. As a result our generation were guinea pigs for the me generation's collective decision not to protect children from each other.

This turns out to be one of the areas where doing the ethically correct thing is also the pragmatically correct thing. (Another area like this is raiusing the minimum wage. you make the minimum wage a living wage and design the tax code, etc. to limit extreme inequality, the economy booms. you do what we've done since 1980, and fix the tax code to reward wealth and punish work, while letting wages for the working and middle classes erode, you get things like the Great Depression or W.'s economic crash. The ethical thing is the pragmatic thing, but we;ve put the bullies in charge.)

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

Then of course, the blame became 'my fault' as a behavioral issue...when I stood up for myself, fought back, talked back with the same abrasiveness or got aggressive in return, I was suddenly the one who had the issue. I remember this girl called me a Jap in school and I turned around and slapped her. When the teacher confronted me I said" You told me to stand up for myself and I did." And she held me after school and spoke to MY mother about my'violence'. No where did I ever recall that girl who called me a racist name was ever punished or taught that it was inappropriate to be using words like that to begin with.

There was no intervention or sensitivity training in those days, that is what I remember. When a group of kids bullied me in the schoolyard, I clearly remember turning to the teacher at the doorway in tears and she slammed the door on us.

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

Then of course, the blame became 'my fault' as a behavioral issue...when I stood up for myself, fought back, talked back with the same abrasiveness or got aggressive in return, I was suddenly the one who had the issue. I remember this girl called me a Jap in school and I turned around and slapped her. When the teacher confronted me I said" You told me to stand up for myself and I did." And she held me after school and spoke to MY mother about my'violence'. No where did I ever recall that girl who called me a racist name was ever punished or taught that it was inappropriate to be using words like that to begin with.

There was no intervention or sensitivity training in those days, that is what I remember. When a group of kids bullied me in the schoolyard, I clearly remember turning to the teacher at the doorway in tears and she slammed the door on us.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Yep. They'd heap punishment on us for standing up as well as for trying to get help. The victim blaming was very literal. It was deliberate.