(no subject)

[hermionesviolin]

I said on FB earlier today:

RTing lots of things about how red states are often only red (or even purple) due to aggressive voter suppression efforts has me thinking that probably orgs working against voter suppression are where I'll be investing in the near-term.

Also: reminder that, in fact, there are lots of progressive doing hard work in the states that we in places like Boston want to write off -- and lots of marginalized/oppressed folks living in those states, generally. So let's not make glib comments about wishing The South would secede from the Union or whatever.

(Did I set up a recurring donation to Stacey Abrams' org Fair Fight today? Yup.)

Reading TruthOut's "How to Do More Than Panic About Voter Suppression" [from September 16, 2020], I was getting mad all over again about how the state legislature undid so much of Florida's (21018) Amendment 4.

Amendment 4 restored the right to vote to folks who had had a felony conviction*, but after it passed, the legislature added in a hoop that you had to pay all your fines and fees (or petition a judge to have them waived) before you could be allowed to register to vote (SB 7066).

* and who had served their sentence (including freaking probation/parole!), excluding the categories of felony convictions that squick people out (murder or felony sexual offense) -- it was like the Most, "these are just some good people who've done some bad things, but they've paid their debt to society"

I did some phone-banking for Amendment 4 back in 2018, so I'm on Florida Rights Restoration Coalition [FRRC]'s email list, but did I set up a recurring donation to them today? Yup!

It was interesting to notice in myself over the course of today a move from, "Yes, working against voter suppression," to, "Yes! Abolish the carceral police state!" Like, both of them are objectively important, but one of them is clearly where my more sustained efforts are gonna be. (Which should not really have surprised me. 😂)

I was reminded of Frederick Buechner's "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (from Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC)

I mean, have I invested a lot in world-changing over the past 2 years? No. Do I think I will manage to invest a lot in the next 2 years? Also no. But I can maybe remind myself to do Some Things.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Thank you very much for this post.

[lunabee34]

I really like that Buechner quote. Thanks for sharing.

[hermionesviolin]

You're welcome :) I can never remember the correct wording, and in Googling this time I was frustrated by the number of instances that don't Cite Their Sources :( But I did find this blogpost which cites an actual book, complete with page numbers, so that seemed legit.

I appreciate this excerpt from that blogpost:

After looking inward, the Christian thinking about vocation and calling must look outward. Must look at the world in its most honest moments, at the nightly news with the sound turned off, at the world in all its pain and anguish and deep hunger and ask, How can my deep gladness touch this?

[lunabee34]

I really like the part you've bolded, too.

I know that this isn't a new idea at all, but since the pandemic began, I have really been focusing my attention on that "deep gladness," the gratitude that I have for all the good in my life, and then trying to direct that outward. It has made a huge difference to me in the way that I feel.

Not that I was ungrateful before or directing shittiness to everyone LOL, but choosing it as a deliberate practice is new.

[meat_and_breath]

😍 (On brand leading with an emoji reply)

The Buechner quote is so good, and is definitely going to be something I think about in the ongoing work of figuring out where I can best do good.