Reasons Why I Am A Glowstick:

Sometimes I think about my life through the lens of the past.

How many things do I suffer though because of the greed of European “explorers” and American imperialism.

I leave the ‘āina. I leave my ‘ohana. I leave my heart. And I suffer at a job I hate. And I spent years wearing a fakey costume and smiling for tourists and pretending I felt anything other than empty.

I colonized myself. Made myself palatable for tourists. Made myself palatable for tips and a paycheck. And I ate popcorn for dinner bc that’s what we could afford and I spent my extra money making sure my siblings didn’t feel the crushing weight of poverty. And every extra cent was spent trying to save them from how I felt.

Humiliated. Colonized. A joke.

And now I live on the mainland because we cannot afford to live on sacred land. Because haoles move there for paradise, and they kill us as they buy up beautiful houses and pave the road for resorts. Our land. Our ‘āina. And I’m now a walking attraction. And I can do the hula style smile and I can make my eyes shine like diamonds. And people ask me if I picked coconuts from trees and I think about my elders who live in concrete apartments and I miss my grandfather and his warm smile. And I never know if I will see them again.

I used to stare at the statue of Kamehameha. His arm stretched out in a loving greeting. His other hand holding a spear to defend his people. But he leads with the hand. He leads with aloha.

Because that’s what we do. It is what we are born to do. We are born to aloha. To love. To compassion. Even now, even after everything, all I want to do is be kind.

And it’s terrible. But sometimes I just wish he had lead with the spear.

Get ready for a fierce solidarity event! Travel to make it if you can. A diversity of tactics is welcome and encouraged.

just some reminders for people who are writing IDs:

do not put judgements in your ids. do not say "it needs to be noted the character looks extra adorable here" do not say "an ugly person" or "a hilarious meme" or anything like that. we don't need you to tell us how to feel about something.

do put descriptive words and adjectives. "a crudely drawn image" or "a painting of a scarlet colored apple" or "a person with large hands". we do need you to tell us descriptors so we have context.

do not type words incorrectly. do write words exactly as they appear in the image.

let me say that again: EXACTLY as they appear. is the word capitalized? capitalize it. is the word "yes" written with 3 s's? write it in the description as "yesss" not as "yesssss" or "yes". are the words in all caps? write them in all caps, or write "text in all caps says" and then include a lowercase version. is a word misspelled? spell it exactly the same way. if the image says "washning mashing" it should not be written as "washing machine"*

*you can definitely say "the words 'washing machine' are misspelled as 'washning mashing'," just make sure that you do include the exact transcription in your description

disabled people, people with screen readers, and ANYONE else who uses IDs to interpret images deserves to interpret the image as accurately as possible, and its important to transcribe and describe things properly and without judgements added.

So whenever your disability pride flag is shared on tiktok, ive noticed people asking why do disabled people need a pride flag, or saying that we dont deserve one because we are "co opting" the gay pride movement... and i am honestly at a loss at what to say to them

Okay, then: here's some Disability Pride Talking points for you, when you come upon that assumption:

First: The Disability Rights Movement gained steam in the U.S. at the same time as the Civil Rights Movement was advocating for racial equality, and the Women's Rights movement was advocating for gender equality -- all in the same decade as the Stonewall Riots.

Second: it may seem like Disability Pride Month is "copying" Queer Pride Month, because July comes right after June. But the reason we celebrate Disability Pride Month in July is because that's when The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed: on July 26, 1990. This was the first Disabilities Rights act in the world. It was followed in 1995 by the Disabilities Discrimination Act in the U.K., and in 2019 in Canada.

Third: on April 5, 1977, the (American) Nationwide 504 Sit-in (Wikipedia article) began, to protest the fact that three presidents in a row had been stalling for four years to implement Disability Civil Rights legislation. Disability advocates staged sit-ins in Federal Buildings for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle, San Fransisco, and Washington D.C..

The sit-in in Washington D.C. lasted 28 hours. The Sit-in in San Fransisco lasted 25 Days, and remains the longest occupation of a Federal Government building in U.S. History (It was epic). The civil rights group The Black Panthers also helped with logistical support.

The police tried to force the people inside to leave by cutting phone lines, forgetting that there were people who knew American Sign Language both inside the building, and outside, in the crowd, and they relayed messages back and forth through the windows (excuse me while I take a Cackle break).

Finally: Disabled people are human beings, and deserve all the human rights as everyone else. But a lot of people in authority, look at our lives from the outside, decide that we already have a low-quality of life (without actually asking us), and deciding that it wouldn't be so bad if we died. You know, at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in this country, it was a fairly common policy that if hospitals ran low on ventilators, they'd just take them from disabled people who needed to use them every day? Remember that?

That's why we have to get loud.

Times are troubling and hard right now-but never forget, your Beet loving Grandmother loves you very very much and wants you to be safe.

And for you to eat your vegetables.

Actor Brian Michael Smith’s speech against the increasing anti-trans bills in Texas and across the country.

hey so i just finished The Strange And Beautiful Sorrows Of Ava Lavender and.... fucking fuck. that shit hurted. it was so interesting and funny and the characters were all understandable (except one but i wont spoil) and real and then the last hundred or so pages happened. and it was still beautifully written and the characters were still so real, but now i was crying like a bitch! fuck man, it was both so amazing and so terrible and i dont know if i will ever recover, and i cannot give enough praise to the author; Leslye Walton, for this fucking that will never release its iron grip on my damn feels.

note; some things to watch out for if you think you wanna read this book, since books are not like Ao3 and don't have trigger warnings. this book discusses some heavy ass topics, part of why this shit hurted so much. that includes; rape, a LOT of death; gruesome death and less gruesome death, mentions of genocide from a Native American character, a shitload of bigotry, implied incest at one point but from people who were like in the past its really weird, bodily mutilation and grotesque violence, depression, and, though briefly, suicidal ideation. it may be a beautiful book, but it is a hard book, and i honestly am amazed i made it through, because while the author wrote this with a great deal of compassion and handled things well in my opinion, it was still excruciatingly raw and blunt and honest, and it fucking hurt, so it could absolutely, easily, be very triggering. so yah, be warned.

Please reblog if you think that “they/them/theirs” is a valid set of pronouns.

just because its true doesnt mean you should say it

Therapist: So, tell me about yourself. Why have you decided to go to therapy?

Tim: oh well it was all Bruce's idea. He's really good at picking up on when I'm feeling off. He absolutely insisted I talk to someone and after arguing with him for a bit, I relented.

Therapist: sounds like he really cares about you

Tim: yeah. You think as the good middle, unproblematic child I'd get overlooked, but he doesn't let anything slip by him

Flashback:

Tim [sighing]: sometimes i feel numb inside and nothing brings me joy. Everything i do just makes things worse

Batman, sitting at batcomputer: mhm

Tim [leaning dramatically over the back of a chair]: the days all blur together and i wonder if there's even a point to living. Why bother?

Batman: mhm

Tim [standing directly behind Bruce]: if i disappeared would you even miss me?

Batman: mhm yeah sound great Tim

Tim [resting his head on Bruce's shoulder]: this is a cry for help. I'm very depressed.

Batman: mhm

Jason: oh hey guys! Just dropping by before I go to kill the Penguin

Batman [whirling around]: wHAT?? YOU BETTER NOT-

Tim: oh for fucks sake