Bursting At The Seams

Prevent Foreclosure!

Was sent this via email. Not sure if its okay to put this out into the internet ether, but hopefully someone will see it and be able to pitch in!

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My name is Kim and I am a 26 year old fourth generation Philadelphian.

For the past two weeks I have been trying to save my grandma’s house from foreclosure. As a last resort, on December 6^th, I went to the sheriff’s sale and put a down payment on her house and I have 60 days from the date of purchase to raise the remainder of the money: $32,000. While making this appeal in some ways places me in a vulnerable position, I am stepping out on faith to make it because I know that faith requires personal action. This email is an appeal to harness our collective resources so that I can raise the rest of the money that I need to ensure that my grandmother is not evicted.

Historically, my grandma Leola’s neighborhood is a working class Black community, made up of families that moved to Philadelphia seeking economic opportunities and fleeing the domestic terrorism of the Jim Crow South. My great grandfather is a part of that migration. Currently the neighborhood is being gentrified in the form of land grabs by developers and as a community we are once again facing displacement due to institutionalized oppression.

My grandma has lived in her house for 42 years and raised six children there. Many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren, myself included, have lived there for periods of time. My grandma’s house is really the center of our family life and my Grandma and Pop Pop worked hard to get it and keep it. She is the bedrock of our family. She has never missed an important moment in my life and has been a solid backer, a constant friend, and a role model.

While this struggle/tragedy/potential foreclosure has been really hard to deal with, I feel hopeful that we can win, because for the first time in a long time there are mainstream conversations about the re-distribution of wealth, about bank greed, about the need to organize collectively for our collective survival. We are seeing the coming together of strangers to fight back against foreclosures and assert that housing is a human right. Many people are coming to understand what many of us have always known: we are more powerful than systems of oppressions and we survive and thrive because of each other.

My family I will be hustling up funds and hosting fundraisers in Philly, but I am afraid that our efforts alone will not be enough to raise such a large amount of money in a short amount of time. This is where you come in. I am asking folks to donate any amount that they can to help keep this house in my family and ensure that my family is not uprooted.

So please consider giving:

no one deserves to be kicked out of their home
because community is powerful, more powerful than wall street.
one win gives us all hope for more, and fuel to keep on keeping on

you can use my Chipin page at : http://lolashouse.chipin.com/preventingforeclosure

Thank you all for taking the time to read this.

In the spirit of hope,

Kim

***If you want to donated via cash or check please let me know and I can give you the address provided in the email. I didn’t want to post it online.***

The Wrong Anger

In these times of inspiration and struggle I feel the constant need to remember where to direct my anger.

The Wrong Anger by Marge Piercy

Infighting, gut battles we all

wage so well. Carnage in the fish tank.

Alligators wrestling in bed.

Nuclear attack

across the breakfast table.

Duels in the women’s center.

The fractioning faction fight.

Where does the bank president

drink his martinis? Where

do those who squeeze the juice

from the land till it blows

red dust in your eye

hang out on Saturday night?

It’s easy to kick my dog,

my child, my love, the woman

across the desk. People

burning their lives away

for pennies pile up in neighborhoods

like rusting car bodies.

Why not stroll down to the corner

yacht club and invite the chairman

of the board of I.T. & T.

to settle it with his fists?

How hard to war against those

too powerful to show us faces

of billboard lions smiling

from bloodflecked jaws. Their eyes

flick over us like letters

written too small to read,

streets seen from seven miles

up as they spread the peacock

tail of executive jets

across skies yellow with greed.

Their ashes rain down

on our scarred arms, the fall

out from explosions

they order by memo.

"You probably noticed, elsewhere I use the word FAT. I used that word because that’s what fat people are. They’re fat. They’re not large, they’re not stout, chunky, hefty, or plump. And they’re not big-boned. Dinosaurs are big-boned. These people are not necessarily obese, either. OBESE is a medical term. (Author’s Note: A particularly meaningless term, at that.) And they’re not overweight. OVERWEIGHT implies there is some correct weight. There is no correct weight. HEAVY is also a misleading term. An aircraft carrier is heavy, it’s not fat. Only people are fat and that’s what fat people are. They’re fat. I offer no apology for this. It is not intended as criticism or insult. It is simply descriptive language. I don’t like euphemisms. Euphemisms are a form of lying. Fat people are not gravitationally disadvantaged. They’re fat. I prefer seeing things the way they are. Not the way some people wish they were."

George Carlin, Brain Droppings. (via youngandfatshionable)

This quote is great until you put it in the context of some of the other shit Carlin said.

(via sugaredvenom)

(Source: , via sexxxisbeautiful)

Minnesota Republicans decide best way to handle the budget is to stop paying their bills

YES. I’m currently in MN where my family lives. It’s interesting to hear folks talk about this. The situation is so illogical and frustrating.

sexgenderbody:

wickedclothes:

Minnesota government “shuts down due to the state’s $5 billion budget gap and the disagreement Democrats and Republicans have had over how to fix it. Governor Dayton had asked for a plan that includes increasing taxes on the state’s millionaires. Republicans say they won’t agree to anything involving new taxes.

The Minnesota government virtually shut down on Friday, leaving only a limited array of state services in operation over the busy holiday weekend.

Many social service agencies will lose their funding, cutting state support for programs such as job training and homelessness prevention. Those that don’t have reserves will likely close their doors. Road construction projects will cease, as will licensing for teachers and businesses.

Up to 23,000 state workers are scheduled to be laid off, though they will continue to get health benefits and can return to their jobs when the budget impasse is resolved.”

You know, because it’s better to lay off 23,000 people, end job training programs, and cease licensing for teachers and businesses than to tax millionaires.

why do rich white people hate paying their share in taxes to the country they allegedly love and which has made them wealthy? oh…that’s right - there is no honor among thieves.

(Source: ajonesco)

DEAR TUMBLR

Many of the points directly addressed the experiences I have had as someone with mental health diagnoses. However, #3 really made me think about my job (as a service provider for kids with behavioral/mental health/asd* diagnoses). Kids are often hard to diagnose partially because they are still developing. Often psychiatrists will give a concrete diagnosis but then also add a “rule out”** diagnosis.I worked with a client for over a year that had an asperger diagnosis that didn’t fit very well. This year he was diagnosed as MR*** by the school district as well. This still isn’t very fitting and each doctor that analyzes him has a different take. The truth is, some kids definitely need support services in schools and insurance companies and the gov’t won’t pay for services unless a child has a diagnosis.

youarenotyou:

Please stop talking about how “bad”, “wrong”, “dangerous” or “stupid” it is when people self-diagnose, especially in regard to mental illness.

Let’s go over the reasons this is fucked up, problematic and oppressive.

1. Classism. Psychiatric and other types of evaluations are really fucking expensive, and often inaccessible. The last psych eval I had cost me…

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*autism spectrum disorder

** clinicians use the term “Rule Out” in a diagnosis to indicate that not enough information exists to make the diagnosis, but it must be considered as an alternative and revisited at the next psych evaluation

***mental retardation

(via youarenotyou-deactivated2012022)

(Source: themonkeysphere)

sexgenderbody: How to deal with being called out

jaded16india:

youarenotyou:

Don’t tone police. It is NOT your right to dictate how someone should react to their oppression.

Don’t demand a detailed explanation. You’re basically asking the person to justify their call out. It’s exhausting, many resources are available, and…

The Myth of the Good White Lady Savior

Just some scattered thoughts I wanted to share… I was just reading this review of the new film The Help, on Womanist Musings: “The Help: White Woman Saves The Day Makes A Great Movie”

I def recommend Renee’s review for a critical look at the book/film. The trailer for the movie is outrageous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0dWCXCjX9o

It got me thinking about the fantasy most white people have that they are “a good white person”. One of my favorite mockeries of this is the MadTV skit “Nice White Lady”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-nirSq5s

And, who can forget Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV00km5LFO0

[photo of the sidewalk with a spray painted stencil that states “I heart loud radical feminists” with the feminist resist fist and a pair of red sneakers]

feministslut:

I <3 Loud Radical Feminists

(via historicalslut)

sorry there are no captions/transcript available

favorite line: Being fat doesn’t make me different. Fuck! I look like America.