Play Time Is Over
On Election Night, entire states became sundown towns.
I need you to know that yesterday a group of masked neo-Nazis marched through the Short North neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. Last night, I sat in my apartment in Cambridge, MA — where I now live and plan to stay for reasons that don’t need to be explained — and watched video footage of those lethal cowards marching on the very block I lived on for nearly five years. The very same block.
On Election Night, entire states became sundown towns.
This isn’t about me. This is about the friends and neighbors and weirdos and children and elders and strangers and artists who still there. They have a right to not just feel safe but welcomed and needed where they live.
Perhaps you can donate to local LGBT organizations like Stonewall Columbus. Maybe you can subscribe to Matter News which is a great local news site doing important work. Maybe you can punch the next lethal coward you come across dead in the face. Tell him Saeed sent you. Share other ideas in the comments. Last night, I put a hex on someone deeply invested in “both sides.”
Get active or get out of the fucking way. Weaponized incompetence is a tool of white supremacy. Quit acting brand new. As my mom used to say “Play time is OVER.”
Fuck yes. On a mostly unrelated note….can we get a Hex tutorial? I have a need to know.
Safety planning. It's simple but it makes a difference.
Get together and talk about what you can do in an emergency. Identify safe people, safe places, safe routes people can rely on when lethal cowards start shit. Form networks with those you trust to provide safety to others.
Take self defense classes together.
Talk about the resources and skills (food, water, shelter, CPR, etc) that you can offer to others.
For further inspiration I recommend Miracle at Midnight, which dramatizes the story of Danes who hid and evacuated Jews ahead of a planned raid by the Nazis. The individual actions they took were simple. They spread the word about the raid, offered people places to hid, arranged transportation, changed names on official paperwork, and donated money to cover boat fare.
We can do this for each other.