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Happy Pride Month

Friends and strangers alike. This system that operates America has brought on a wake-up call for so many people, and that includes me. It’s because of this system that we need change, and fast, or we will all be six feet under. And I know that all seems hopeless now, now that our fates have been sworn against us, but that's only if we let it. This, is The Declaration of We, The People.

We demand a fair country. We demand liberty and justice for not just the select few, but for all. Let the poor have their fill and eat the rich, let the women live their lives without the unwanted touch of man. Let there be room for every queer under the sun’s reflection, let the disabled live their lives without the condemnation of the abled. Let your right to live and heal be priceless without the interference of the greedy, let the bare necessities not take up the fortunes in your hands. Let humanity be a part of nature, not overpower it, let humanity be free from judgement based on the parts of them that are immutable. It’s nothing less or more than what we deserve.

Your oppressors want you dead, and that is why you need to live, if you can- live and be free. Get that botched haircut, get those piercings, give a listen to that song, give that snack a try- live while you can, because damn it, you only have one life to live, and you are not gonna live it in pain and fear. If you can't live for yourself, find someone or something to live for- a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, a pet, a lover, someone you wish was your lover, hell, an enemy if you need to. Maybe find a song to live for, a plush, a goal, a wish, a feeling. I don't care what your reason to live is, I don't care how big or small it is, I just need it to keep you alive. And if you can’t live, despite everything, the least I can ask is for you to not die for nothing.

I know you’re terrified. Terrified of the wicked people in control, terrified of your lives getting into a twist. Terrified of the torture the following years will determine. I’m scared, too, but I need you to know something- you can’t become a part of a statistic. If you’re gonna go out, don’t go out like a flickering bulb- go out like Icarus, when he collided with the sun. Go out like the Phoenix, and rise from the ashes your oppressors created. Fight with everything you can, be it through words and speeches, through marches and protests, or through the guns conservatives swear by. If you're going down, take America’s cruelty with you. Don’t wait for the world to be ready for you- make it be ready for you.

If you want to keep your peace, keep your peace. If you want to bathe in your false president’s blood, bathe in his blood. This battle for the land of the free is yours to fight, and the way you fight is yours as well. But let me tell you something- we are not gonna live on a prayer and a smile, we are gonna live by putting our bloodied foot forward. Did queer people get their right to marry and to transform by making puppy eyes at their president? Did women get their right to vote by sitting around and looking pretty? Did the colored get their right to live in equality by biting their tongue? No- they fought, every damn day of their lives. And respectfully, I ask you to fight too, however you can. If you don't know how to fight, have someone teach you- and if you can't handle that, teach yourself. But I still ask you to fight.

I know, I know all seems hopeless, that a heartless man as your president seems inescapable- but so did the divine right of kings, once upon a time. We've seen things like this a million times, even if it doesn’t look like it- when there's progress, there's pushback. People will fight with their blood, sweat, and tears, only to get cut short by those who were supposed to represent them. Well, guess what? The cut will scab over, and the battle will rage on, and the fire won’t stop burning until we get the lives we deserve. We declare that we have the right to live, and we will fight for it.

Feel what you need to, but frankly, I refuse dystopia, I refuse hate, I refuse control- and I especially refuse death. I have disobeyed worse than you- my friends do not die on my watch. They want America to be ‘great’ again? Well, we, the people, will make America free again. ----------- obviously, i know what you're probably thinking; "krista what the fuck. krista a tumblr post isn't gonna do shit" and i completely understand where you're coming from- hell, before the election, i'd agree with you!! i would love to get up on a stage and recite this word-for-word. i would also like to live to my 18th birthday first, this year.

and i know what else you're probably thinking; "lol you say that and yet nobody's gonna do shit" and what are you doing?

yeah, i am WELL aware this is very idealistic, especially for the times we're gonna be living in. all seems hopeless, i completely understand that. BUT we need to have some sort of vision for our fight to live, or we're just gonna die- if not die, then live MISERABLY.

love your people. they're all you really have, right now.

I MUST NOT DESPAIR. DESPAIR IS THE ACTION KILLER. DESPAIR IS THE LITTLE DEATH THAT BRINGS TOTAL ANTIPATHY. I WILL FACE MY DESPAIR. I WILL PERMIT IT TO PASS OVER ME AND THROUGH ME. AND WHEN IT HAS GONE PAST I WILL TURN THE INNER EYE TO SEE ITS PATH. WHERE THE DESPAIR HAS GONE, ONLY HOPE WILL REMAIN.

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365/ 365 More Things that Don’t Suck:

You

Today is a very good day to listen to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

(Read the entire “Beyond Vietnam” speech here)

It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing -- embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate -- ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says:

Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word (unquote).

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message -- of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.