Thursday Thoughts - What is it that they're really looking for just a hobby on the internet

1. Mom and Rich were here Monday to last night. It was a nice and relaxed visit. We walked the boards Monday night and saw a lovely sunset. Tuesday after work I hit the beach with them and Mom bought pizza for dinner, and Wednesday we did sunrise and shelling at Corson's Inlet, Mom and I went to the Farmers Market, and we strolled Asbury at lunch. Plus dog walks and general lolling around. 

2. That's right, sunrises are back. No regrets avoiding the wake up before 4:45a, hazy, buggy, crowded summer sunrises in favor of the wake up around 6:20, quiet, my dogs can come fall ones. Best friend dogs are back on the beach seven days earlier than technically permissible. We all break rules (even those law and order people), this is one of my big ones. 

3. This is that Monday night sunset. The waves were big and the currents very strong most of the week from storms churning up. The light has been beautiful at night. 

4. Fall light is wonderful, and it became official on Tuesday. 

5. I saw this on Instagram and bought it. Is it perfect or is it fucking perfect? 

6. I am off Friday and Monday and I frankly cannot wait. 

7. Nails of the week - Essie without reservations - this has some sparkle to it which you can't see well in this photo. Solid fall color. Or any time of year color because we do what we want when we want. 

8. Breonna Taylor was never getting justice under this system which was designed to work to be unjust for Black and brown people. The entire system is guilty. It needs to be abolished and we have to start fresh and build one that is just for ALL people. As Audrey Lord said, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Kentucky has a democrat governor, Louisville has a democrat mayor, the Attorney General is Black and the police chief is Black. NO CHARGES FOR THE POLICE THAT KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR because the goddamn system is working as it was designed to. There is no justice in this systemically racist system even IF people working in it say and believe Black Lives Matter. Even IF people working in it are themselves Black. Charging a police officer for wanton endangerment for his bullets going through walls and possibly killing someone versus not charging him for his bullets going through someone's damn body and actually killing them. How can you not see this? How can there be justice when shooting the walls of a white person's apartment brings charges and killing a Black person with the same bullets during the same incident does not? Legally allowable does NOT equal justice and we all fucking know it. Slavery was legally allowable. How can there be justice when regular people focus on property damage around protests instead of people protesting EN MASSE all over the country over the lived experience of Black people in America? Hell they're protesting on behalf of Black Americans in other countries too. Property over people is a fucked up place to live, and that's why I freak out when people focus on property damage surrounding any protest against racial injustice - it all connects. See where it connects here? What exactly do we mean when we say Make America Great Again? To return to our lips not coming near the same water fountains, our asses not sitting on the same seats, our kids not going to the same schools, our neighborhoods staying lily white, red lining, Jim Crow, Black bodies being used and discarded, Black labor being valued differently? Was America great in those times? What time do we want to go back to when America was great? The entire time we've been racist since the beginning? The incredible horror we've inflicted on the native people and the land? The time when we fought World War II against fascism? Wait, people are against Antifa now, which essentially means being in support of fascism, so that can't be right. It seems like we want to go back to women dying from back alley abortions too. Is that the time? All of the above times? I don't have enough expletives right now. And to quote something I saw on the Internet last night, fuck off I'm not leaving just because it's unjust and fucked up here. There is work to be done. We cannot change the past but we sure as FUCK should not be going back to any time in it because America was NEVER great for ALL of her people. Act right and stop saying Make America Great Again. Your racism is showing. Work to build a better tomorrow for EVERYONE instead. No fucking exceptions. To see how many white people are invested in upholding this system that disproportionately benefits them, read any comment section on the Internet. The longer we hold on to old ways designed to keep a foot on the neck of Black people (read a book, the criminal justice system was literally designed to do this, and modern day police themselves were born from slave catchers-we need to start ENTIRELY OVER), the more the unrest grows and makes everyone less safe. Change is needed for the well being of Black people, brown people, white people, and police of every color. 

9. Reminder

10. E-cards: I'm not kidding.

And you? 

The words following the hyphen are the song I am listening to when I start the Thursday Thoughts post. This week is New Biography by Van Morrison 

Thursday Thoughts - It starts when you're always afraid, step out of line, the man come and take you away

Sitting on porches with dogs. That should be the name of my album.

Shouting a happy birthday to my brother . The bond we have is super important to me. 

Watching a lot of white people being very vocal about systemic racism and having hard conversations with peers / watching a lot of white people address systemic racism out loud, head on for the first time that I've seen / watching a lot of white people stick with what they've been taught to say in regards to race which is nothing or I don't see color/I treat everyone the same (good, but the system does not) / watching a lot of white people really dig their heels in and refuse to acknowledge or discuss systemic racism. It is hopeful and awakening and frustrating and horrifying all at once. I was once in the latter three places so I know for a fact you can get to the first one. Are you unsure of where to start or do you need resource suggestions? Email me at lifeaccordingtosteph@gmail.com

Wondering if people who are struggling with black lives matter because their standard stance is  back the blue understand that eradicating racism and making the criminal justice system itself not racist makes police entirely different and safer overall. Safer than being retaliated against for allowing a mob of white men with weapons to roam the streets yelling racial slurs for sure (this happened in Fishtown here in Philadelphia this week). Behavior that is allowed for white people by law enforcement and would not under any circumstance be allowed for black people is the main crux of the issue here.

Pushing for people to address what's under the tip of the iceberg - the why, not the how.

Wishing people cared as much about other people as they care about a statue of a Mayor long gone from Philly who once said "vote white." This shirt is from a Union covid fundraiser (remember Covid19? The global pandemic?) but when I say Fight for Philly, I mean for its people. All of them. Not for statues.

Unlearning. I saw a friend share this on Instagram and this is it, for a lot of us. If we can just get over that initial hump of hanging on to the old ways, we can fight for what is right. 

Reading slowly still in quarantine. I got a new delivery from Harriett's Bookshop this week. Show Us Your Books is Tuesday! In addition to sharing the books I've read since May, I'll give a list of books on race that I started with/that have helped me since I committed to begin the process of weeding covert racism out of myself a few years ago, and if you have any you recommend I hope you share them too. It is a long and daily process to unlearn ideas and behavior you grew up "knowing" to be true and right.

Taking a lot of trips to Dog beach. It's been me and Bruce and Ben since Monday? Tuesday? MFD returns today after work.  

Considering this to be a simple, great way to state the state of things. Courtesy of Rainn Wilson AKA Dwight Schrute. If this is too small for you to read, click through to his Instagram post.

Hoping you are following people like Sonya Renee Taylor, Rachel Cargle, Afrominimalist, Layla F Saad, and listening. Not commenting and inserting yourself, but listening and processing. Sitting with information. Asking yourself why you had the reaction you had to something. And when you learn something, leaving a tip via Patreon or Venmo or whatever they have set up. And if you have someone you're learning from, that you'll share them with me. I originally started intentionally following more black women back in late 2016, under the auspice of making sure my feminism was intersectional - because if it's not, it's not really feminism, and my feminism feed was all white - and lord have I learned a ton of shit from these women. Particularly how often women, race, and class intersect (hello Angela Davis). So often we think our opinion is set for life and I don't understand that. New information should lead to revisions. I hope we can get to that place.

Refusing to cancel 2020 simply because it is calling on us to get out of the rut and stop being lazy and accepting.

Getting as close as I get to running last night with skies that looked like the top on the start of my walk but were more like the bottom on the way back home. Especially since the storm earlier on Wednesday saw my recycles blown all over the block and me out retrieving them in sideways rain and gross runoff water from the sewers. I was not amused.

Needing to do a lot of touch up painting this weekend. First shore renters come Monday.

Eating trash. I mean, like also eating salad and fruit, but last night for dinner I ate salami on crackers topped with banana peppers served with a side of Sour Patch Kids strawberries as fruit because it was all available and I just don't feel like cooking anything.

Listening to For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield - lyrics behind the Thursday Thoughts. Old, but timely, no?

Using my new ottoman slash desk. Much easier to move around without bumping knees on the old table (that's going back to Philly to be put in the basement).

Reminding you

Laughing because the answer is pretty much I could eat depending on what it is

What's new?

Linking up with Kristen

Thursday Thoughts - look at my king all dressed in red

1. Iko iko un-day. The other day I spent a legitimate half hour looking up the origin of that song, and towards the end of that half hour I found myself on a freaking Grateful Dead fan site reading the comments section. I don't even like the Dead save for a few songs, and I certainly am not interested in immersing myself in their super fans. I backed the fuck away from the internet and went for a walk outside.

2. When something feels tight on my skin I know I need to make a change. Most summer TWTW posts will be pictures with phrases. I like being able to look back on weekends but I will take the summer off from being verbose about it.

3. If you get to Dunkin Donuts behind this guy in the morning, boy you are fucked. Because it means he's ordering for like 15 people.

4. A few people have asked my thoughts on Hillbilly Elegy. These were my biggest takeaways. I don't think it was the cultural phenomenon it was hyped to be. I was also interested in the commentary Vance made on the decline of hard work and how people are bitching up a storm about things they're doing themselves but that they consider themselves the exception to the rule. Interested because that appears to be what HE is doing and the hypocrisy is unsurprising but still fucking annoying.

5. Newsflash: if you are anti-abortion but also anti- full health coverage for pre-and post-natal care, anti-full (longer than 6 or 8 freaking weeks, that's for sure) and PAID maternity leave, anti-higher minimum wage, anti-equal pay for equal work, anti-public schools, anti-TANF, anti-Medicare, anti-HUD public housing, anti-SNAP, anti-WIC, anti-National School Lunch Program/Breakfast Program/Team Nutrition/Milk Program, anti-head start and early start, etc...then stop calling yourself pro-life. You are pro-birth. You are into controlling women's choices on the front end and blaming them for failing alone on the back end.

The United States is the only country in the developed world where the Maternal Mortality Rate is RISING. Our MMR is on par with Saudi Arabia's - that country we like to wave around like "Hey ladies, stop bitching, you have rights and you have it better than the women in Saudi Arabia." Why, because we can wear makeup? GTFO. 13 white men are cutting women's healthcare behind closed doors as we speak.

From the article Why a Pro-Life World has a Lot of Dead Women in It: "Pretending that women should remain quiet on the topic of their rights because women have it worse in other countries is absurd. We do not live in other countries. This argument should carry all the weight of a C student, who, when told to do better by their parents, replies by shouting, “I could be getting Fs! I could be shooting heroin into my eyeballs!” Which is to say, it should carry no weight at all."

Read it.

6. When an opinion piece on the National Review calls the Philando Castile Verdict a Miscarriage of Justice, you fucking KNOW it was. Of course, in the comments, people are defending it. We are sitting on a powder keg and people still don't know why there is a Black Lives Matter movement. Yesterday was the 53rd anniversary of the Freedom Summer Murders and I don't think a damn thing has changed because people still carry so much hate in their hearts. 53 years is enough time for that to go away except people are teaching it to their children so it is not going away. But enough of that. Let's talk about the murder of Nabra Hassanen, a 17 year old who had just left extra prayers at a Mosque during the last 10 days of Ramadan. Was it because she was Muslim? They seem to think not and it's not being investigated as a hate crime at this time...but man, we've made them pretty easy targets, haven't we? Reminder: hate has no home here, motherfuckers.

7. This guy is my America. Watch this ad for Randy Bryce who is running against Paul Ryan in 2018. "If someone falls behind, we are so much stronger if we carry them with us. That's the way I was raised." Made me cry at my desk, no shame.  The cherry on top...his twitter handle is IronStache. Can you even?

8. Things that take me from zero to murderous rage in under three seconds:

9. Tomorrow is the seasonal goals linkup with me & Sara if you're interested! Graphic grab:

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10. Reminder:

11. E-card of the week.