“The truth is, I needed both Eastern and Western medicine. I needed to heal mind, soul, and body. And I needed to start from the still, quiet place deep within my spirit that still loved myself.”
“[We] have it there to refute when white people are like, ‘Well, that’s not how that happened,’ or ‘That can’t be true, are you sure?’ Because there’s a website for that with hyperlinks and uploads to plenty of resources for you to start. So that’s really the big portion of it – a portal for white people to come to reparations on their own.”
“The part that is most talked about when it comes to reparations to the descendants of the enslaved is monetary. It centers around labor; and then after the end of enslavement, the short-changing of labor and wages in the era of sharecropping and Reconstruction. Then of course, there’s still the racial wealth gap that exists today because of that.”
“I remember being home alone around age seven and eating uncooked rice just to have something to do. There was a panic that food would be taken away from me, and I have absolutely no idea where that fear came from – we never went hungry in our house. But I couldn’t stand the concept of being hungry. The lighter the food in my belly, the louder the pained thoughts in my head…”
“We’re celebrating our second birthday by highlighting our top 10 blog posts of all time (so far!). We hope you check some of these stories out, and stay with us as we enter an amazing new year.”
May 2024 be a year of positive transformation for all of us; may it never give us more than we can handle; may it be easier for us to welcome change when its needed; may everyone get an opportunity to live their lives with dignity; and may we all learn to embrace empathy for one another.
“Chernobyl is the kingdom of paradoxes: a dead reactor at the center of a lively laboratory, a ghost town enveloped by a wildlife haven. And as lovely as that is in a poetic sense, practically-speaking it presents a challenge when trying to answer important questions.”
“The day my brother’s body was found was the day my mother started losing life. She dedicated her life to this, to trying to bring some sense of closure– just wanting somebody to acknowledge the fact that something very wrong happened to her child.”
“I am not an unreasonable woman. I have said this to the Chief of Police of Montgomery County, to Chief [Thomas] Manger, to Chief [Marcus] Jones: I’ll meet you in the middle. I’ll go with “Undetermined”. All I’m asking is that you make it make sense to me; because there’s nothing medical, scientific, or factual to say that Keith’s death was a suicide.”
“The systematic exploitation of my friends and I seemed normal to us because we knew nothing else, and because honestly, it’s normal for young girls to be hurt. And when perpetrators prey on the young, they can make the abuse seem attractive, like peer pressure on steroids.”
“…This was originally supposed to be one piece on the triumphant return of wildlife and nature in general in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. As I began my research, I quickly became overwhelmed by conflicting opinions from journalists and scientists alike. No matter how much you study Chernobyl, you never get used to the incredulity these paradoxes invoke.”
“A person doesn’t die because of death, they die when their names are no longer spoken. That is why it’s important to keep their names alive… so that their memory, their legacy, lives on. That’s what we want for our loved ones.”
“Kathy died on May 6, 2012. The cause of death was carbon monoxide toxicity or poisoning. The challenge was, of course, how it got into her system… It took me nine months to carry her, and then there were nine months that she went through hell with an abusive person that led to the end of her life.”
“Messaging platforms can be a megaphone for disinformation, as information can be spread at an exponentially larger rate than by word of mouth. This also goes for social media sites like Facebook, making them breeding grounds for radicalization. The inaction from policymakers about technology protections only exacerbates the problem; as Sneha pointed out, ‘Self governance alone is not the solution. We need to have government intervention.’”
“White supremacy manifests itself in every facet of our society… through the rules and traditions by which we all abide, those who establish and enforce what we know as our societal mores, and by ensuring that the status quo remains upheld and resistant to change.”
“If people are scared and complaining about health issues over a week after the accident, and it really is safe, then the government has not done its job in public education and outreach to give specific details of why people are safe.”
“Being on the walk really broke a lot of my preconceived notions about what’s important and what my values are. And my values are being around people that I love, helping people regardless of whether or not I love them, and just being a good citizen or member of my community…”
“Gun violence has been used by organised crime groups to maintain these extortion tactics. Therefore exploring the root causes of gun violence in Michoacán and Mexico at large can provide answers and solutions on how to effectively tackle the rise of blood avocados…”
“Gender identity and sexuality are spectra meant to exist unfettered from societal constructs. They are both beautiful expressions of our humanity that everyone in the world has a right to explore and discover for themselves.”
“There are not as many BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ characters depicted realistically in media as there are depictions of white, cisgender men. This can lower students’ self esteem and make them feel isolated, like they are the only person who shares their lived experience.”
“Then it became apparent that if we were going to do this, we needed to do it for a cause. We couldn’t just go do something like this solely for ourselves… It was just obvious that we wanted to do something for food service workers, hospitality workers…”
“But I realize that these 90 minutes that many fans and I cherish so much are not as revered by the organizations and companies that have financial and political stakes in this game. Through our love for this beautiful game, I realize that all 5 billion of us are continually being used as pawns by organizations such as FIFA and its sub-regional organizations…”
“I got to hear a lot about people’s stories on why they got involved in climate work, what brought them to Antarctica. I think storytelling is so key to everything that we do; and especially in a place that has no people, [it’s] really interesting to hear why people care so much about being in Antarctica…”
“There are some essential, basic needs for all humanity. And if you’re struggling to have those needs met… you are tempted to try to get them met in the wrong way. So we’re out here to try to lift up people’s heads and let them know that, hey, we struggle too, and there’s a better way…”
“I was never indoctrinated into this, I wanted do this by myself. This is something I realized was an issue that I wanted to speak out against…”
“According to the ALA, the overwhelming majority of banned materials in 2021 were books (82%), but media like film and exhibits were also included. Additionally, parents are the number one initiator of challenges, followed by patrons and boards/administrations. Only 1% of challenges were initiated by students.”
“Across the 80th floor (as we found out later) was a huge, dark slash where the left wing of the airplane cut through. Then in the middle was a gaping, smoking hole, a rough circumference of the aircraft fuselage…. We were stunned. People tried to call family and friends to make sure they were safe. But it wouldn’t be long before cell service dropped dramatically.”
“It’s hard for people to sympathize when we don’t always know the full story. These people have sacrificed so much to get here and yet we still don’t value them. This country is known to be ‘The Land of the Free.’ These people deserve to know what it’s like to experience a little bit of autonomy, they deserve it.”
“The overturning of Roe v. Wade has raised some concerns about the use of facial recognition outside of reproductive health clinics. This era of surveillance and criminalization infringes on citizens’ constitutional rights, shifting the position of cisgender women and individuals with a uterus from victim to criminal.”
“We understand that there will then be the need to follow up on that to make the legal and legislative changes and practical changes that really mean there is not slavery and involuntary servitude in actual practice.”
“We also want to reaffirm our commitment to our current staff, board members, and future members of the MOF family: we respect your bodily autonomy. You have the right to have easy and safe access to abortion without having to divulge personal details.”
“But at the core of it is this thing that has gone unbroken since our country’s founding. It’s like a steady drum beat that hasn’t ever broken its tempo. Slavery was never abolished, it was simply reformed, especially through convict leasing…”
“I have to maintain that there’s hope, because that’s about faith… People so often, when they don’t see it right away, or they try it one time and it doesn’t work [they give up]… But the thing is: longevity and determination will get you further than a quick answer.”
“…it is wholly unfair that the government and our elected officials perpetually push the responsibility of advocating for gun safety on nonprofits and grassroots organizers. It is also downright repugnant that the government is shirking this responsibility off to survivors and relatives of victims of gun violence.”
“It’ll be great to get some sort of media coverage to the fact that maybe persons saw something 10 years ago, but because it was ruled a suicide, they didn’t say something. Because there’s no way that the things that happened that night, that somebody didn’t see something.”
*Audio accessible*
“One of the best and most powerful ways to do this is through telling the stories of those who are most exposed to the brutalities of white supremacy…”
“I think the lack of recognition of BIPOC climate activists is a huge issue. I think a lot of attention has been given to Greta [Thunberg], and more recently Peter Kalmus, and they deserve it, but is a shame that there are so many people of color who have also been doing the work, especially on a community level, that go completely unrecognized…”
*Audio accessible*
“What’s more, the international community’s inaction on the breach of these conventions sends a very dangerous message: that they don’t work. Sure, they may still hold up as a prosecutorial argument in international court, but what good will that do when Putin’s army is already knocking at the front door?”
*Audio accessible*
“…We are constantly warned by experts that this is a serious issue that requires our careful attention, and almost every time they are dismissed. Just like the Soviet Union, we as a global community are being afforded opportunity after opportunity to take Chernobyl seriously. And, like the Soviet government, we are not seizing those opportunities.”
*Audio accessible*
“…I don’t think people at large… maybe they understand that or know, but they’re not totally processing what that means in terms of the applicant pool and the kind of privilege to be able to have the fame of having been on Top Chef or a show like that.”
*Audio accessible*
“Because change happens so slowly over a period of time, I sometimes wonder when we look at the Civil Rights marches and we know that they were hugely impactful right now, 50 years later, but at the time how did everyone in them feel? I wonder if they also felt unsure of the future and if this was going to create real change.”
*Audio accessible*
“I think overall food is an act of care. Cooking is an act of care… Food can take on so many different meanings, which is why people care about it so much. It can very much be a really loving act of care, but also it can be a very negative, really painful, really like… it can stir up a lot of things.”
“Public financing programs help to shift power from wealthy special interest donors to ordinary citizens. These programs work by incentivizing candidates for state and local elections to participate in a new system of fundraising, where large contributions and contributions from corporations and PACs are sworn off, while small-dollar donations from regular residents are amplified so that even the smallest donation can have a huge impact.”
*Audio accessible*
“Whenever I would go back and forth from Ecuador to the United States I would always hear [my cousins] say “Mis primos son de los Estados Unidos” with such pride. However, what they don’t understand is the huge identity crisis that so many children of immigrant parents go through.”
*Audio accessible*
“In the next few months, you’ll hear stories about finding an individual identity in a multiracial (but inherently racist) country, how history can inform modern activist practices, and women who took hold of a cause and never let it go.”
