Learning! (From Emilie Ferris’s new online course) by nightingalelib
Damn it really just hit me how much sum y'all hate Muslims. Israel's colonial, genocidal aggression against Palestine isn't even a religious conflict but y'all have to be reassured that it's not about Islam to even think about showing solidarity. Mad how dehumanised Muslims are. There are Palestinian christians and atheists and agnostics and children not old enough to have even gotten a chance to develop a world view but y'all stay scared of aligning yourselves with the oppressed incase they Muslim folk. Mad.
BLM is not a trend
One year ago today, George Floyd was murdered.
Although his killer was found guilty, centuries-old racism and hate still stands. Black Lives Matter is not just a hashtag. It is finally giving voice to the marginalized groups who live in constant fear of bastard police and the system, among others. Do not let it fade into oblivion like silly bands and whipped coffee. BLM is more than that. BLM represents lives and a movement to improve the quality of those lives and prevent deaths. George Floyd will not be forgotten.
it makes me uncomfortable how frequently attempts to raise awareness about adhd and autism in girls emphasize these kids as quiet, well-behaved, and not noticeably different from their peers. neurodiverse girls who successfully mask and and suffer invisibly deserve empathy, of course, but so do the girls who grow up labeled aggressive, inappropriate, or “weird.” a lot of nd girls have meltdowns and social difficulties which are labeled as anger issues and behavioral problems. nd girls are often perceived as “bad kids,” especially if factors like poverty or race are already priming both adults and their peers to see them that way. i don’t think it’s honest or socially responsible to present silently blending in as the only or even primary way developmental differences manifest in girls.
its insane too because little girls who are freaks in school but are dead pin drop silent at home out of necessity basically live double lives and are fucking impossible to diagnose later on
If you dare come at me about banning straws, I will throw you into the sun cannon. I’m disabled, I’m crippled, I need disposable plastic straws, and all those pricey ridiculous alternatives aren’t working as well. Plastic straws were invented for the disabled.
Way to shit all over a vital access need because you think straws are worse than corporate greed.
We all care about the turtles, the seals, the oceans, obviously. Notice how the easiest thing to yell about was something that would barely affect anything but appealed heavily to emotional discourse.
The disabled community is huge, and it can be joined by anyone. Most of those As Seen On TV products were invented for us. Society still mocks us and ignores us, and often outright harms us in multiple ways.
Communicate better. Listen better. But stop putting us out in the cold because you are inconvenienced by our simplest needs.
Straws aren’t killing the planet, its animals, or people. They’re a microscopic fraction of an iota of a percentage of the problem. You want to do something? Ban plastic fishing nets. Anything else is just a hollow feel-good gesture at the expense of real living disabled people.
i have an environmental degree and i’ve been saying this since this straw ‘debate’ started: its all a tactic by those in power to distract people’s attention from bigger issues such as fishing waste. don’t fall for it. and don’t be a dick to disabled people who need straws to make their lives easier.
what if public libraries were open late every night so that:
- children and teens who cant get home until a later time have a safe, warm, well lit, populated area to socialize, charge devices, rest, etc
- children and teens have a safe place to go to stay away from danger
- people who have jobs that take up most of the day would still have time ANY DAY OF THE WEEK to go use the libraries facilities (printing, computers, etc)
This is exactly what public libraries are trying to achieve - public libraries as a third place is a whole thing - it’s just that the funding isn’t there (yet).
Libraries need and deserve so much funding
I’m going to apologize if this post comes off as sounding very aggressive, but having just been through one of the most stressful experiences of my entire career in libraries:
if you want this, you need to be at your local community government meetings. you need to be talking to your representatives. you need to be out there Lobbying.
Just a few weeks ago, my library, me, my coworkers, we had to write letters, send emails, make phone calls, speak at council meetings, just to beg our aldermen to give us our usual funding. Which they didn’t even give to us last year. Losing last year’s funding forced us to cut staff, hours, and all of our databases. If we’d lost this year’s funding? two positions would have been gone and we would have likely had to close on Saturdays. On Saturdays. The day of the week most of y’all working M-F jobs actually have time to go to the fucking library.
And do you want to know how much money we were asking? We were asking for an increase of approximately 13 cents a person.
13.
Fucking.
Cents.
ACROSS AN ENTIRE YEAR.
No one seems to understand how libraries are funded. It’s not just Free Stuff. It’s your tax dollars being paid back into your community. It’s crowdfunding. The highest cost anyone in my community pays for the library a year is approximately $250. Divide that up. That’s just $4 a week. That’s less than a coffee. It’s the equivalent of purchasing about 10 hardcover books a year. For that price, you could have access to every book that has ever been written, a place to go that’s not a bar, programs for kids, teens, and adults, educated staff that can help you find the answers to your questions, and so much more.
You want these late-night libraries? You want all this stuff? Start fighting for it. Start showing up. Start making phone calls. It’s not going to come out of thin air. Start fighting to erase the idea that taxes = evil. Start fighting to spread the understanding that taxes are what help us build a better society.
Make sure the people who represent you know that you want this. That this is where you want your tax dollars to go. That this is what you want them to support. That you are willing to see your tax bill go up a few more dollars for this.
Because otherwise? None of this is going to happen. Libraries are going to keep cutting their opening hours. Keep cutting staff. Keep cutting programs and databases and collections.
We NEED your support, and we need more than just a post on Tumblr. We need to see people show up and speak out.
Public libraries need your support for all of that and also because when we (librarians) lobby for ourselves, the usual reaction is “oh you’re only here because it’s your job on the line and it’s a cost center that we’re cutting from the budget” like our livelihoods aren’t important enough as-is. But if the community (read: taxpayers) starts talking about it, suddenly it’s worth listening to.
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