ok, sure, i guess theres nothing wrong with “hating your oppressors,” but if hating your oppressors means treating 50% of the people around you like human garbage cuz of something they cant help, then youre being kind of an asshole
like, being guarded or gruff around certain people is one thing. im not asking you to get on your knees and roll around like a dog for everyone who says hi to you. put up your walls, protect yourself, dont put yourself in dangerous situations.
but if you start calling people names at no provocation, or going around harrassing people, or sending death threats or suicide baits, youre not, like, being an activist. youre just being a bully, and youve decided the acceptable targets are the one for whom your ire is “justified”
you are in fact doing the opposite of activism. change is made through relationships; it’s about people and community. it’s about the power of connections with, and connecting with, those people.
you don’t have to connect with everyone like that- and in fact sometimes it is anywhere from useless (they won’t listen to someone like you) to dangerous (they will hurt someone like you)- but actively ostracizing every single person you come across who isn’t just like you is in fact working against the formation of communities and power that can be used to enact positive change.
and you don’t have to be an activist! it’s okay if you aren’t there, and it’s okay if you need time to unpack your emotions and your trauma before you can do that kind of work, or even just get past that kind of unhealthy paranoia. just understand where you’re at for what it is. accept that what you’re dealing with is not good, it’s not okay, and it’s not the way you or anyone else should have to live.
you don’t need to be paranoid all the time, yes, even if things are sometimes legit dangerous for you. you are not hated by the entire world. there are more people who care than you know.
that’s hard to hear when you’re struggling, I know and I’ve been there, but it’s an important truth to hold: you are not the only safe, good person in the world. you are not uniquely correct. other people have good ideas, and good intentions, and they’re worth listening to.
take care of yourself. seek out the help & support you need. heal. grow. change. do it at your own pace, and do what you need to get there the right way and the healthy way. but do it.
I put together a post containing Awesome Sites and Links for Writers, which is also pretty useful for school work too. Some of these sites I’ve discovered on my own in pursuit of knowledge and other times by friends. Many of them I wish that I knew about back when I was school. Most of the websites listed below are geared towards college students, but a few are aimed at high school students and primary students. So there is a bit of everything for everyone.
Homework Help & Studying
Cheatography – A site that collects cheat sheets that condense information on all kinds of topics, which can be helpful for building study guides.
Study Hacks Blog – Is a college blog that contains a lot of study advice and studying strategies that actually work.
Quizlet – Provides free tools for students, teachers, and learners of all ages to make flashcards to help them study any subject. For many topics, someone has already created a list of flashcards that you can flip through. Generally they might not be exactly what you need, but they will be close enough. You can even print them off.
StudyBlue – Is an online studying platform for high school and college students. The website allows users to upload class study materials, create electronic flashcards to study and share with others, and practice quizzes. StudyBlue allows students to store their notes in the cloud and connect with other students studying the same subjects.
Koofers – This all-in-one website not only helps college students study by providing access to flash cards and practice exams. It also gives you information on professor ratings, helps you generate the ideal class schedule, and posts job/internship openings.
Shmoop – Connects 13 million students and teachers with study guides, practice tests, an essay lab, informational videos, and career advice.
Mathway – Is a free math problem solver from basic algebra to complex calculus with step-by-step explanations.
S.O.S. Mathematics – Is a free resource for math review material from Algebra to Differential Equations. Get help with your homework, refresh your memory, prepare for a test, and so on.
Math.com –
Contains explanations on almost all topics in mathematics from basic math to
algebra, geometry and beyond. If you need review, more practice or deeper understanding of specific topics, this is the place to look. There are many useful tools such as calculators, study tips, etc. Even games that require some logical thinking.
Symbolab – Performs operations, solves equations, computes derivatives and integrals and more. It even come with a symbolic interface.
Number Empire – Is a collection of math calculators that can help you solve equations, compute derivatives and integrals, matrix arithmetic, statistics, and more.
MathPapa – Helps you learn algebra step-by-step.
You can also plug non-algebraic equations into Mathpapa and use it as a calculator. It will show you the final answer and step-by-step instructions how the calculations work. There’s also a mobile app of it for Android and iOS devices.
Citation Machine – Helps students and professional researchers to properly credit the information that they use.
CK-12 Foundation– Is a California-based non-profit organization whose stated mission is to reduce the cost of, and increase access to, K-12 education in the United States and worldwide. They provide a library of free online textbooks, videos, exercises, flashcards, and real world applications for over 5000 concepts from arithmetic to science to history and so on.
Course Hero– Is a crowd-sourced online learning platform for students to access study resources like course materials, flashcards, educational videos and tutors. Its educator portal is a micro publishing platform for educators to distribute their educational resources. Course Hero collects and organizes study materials like practice exams, problem sets, syllabus, flashcards, class notes and study guides from users who upload. Users either buy a subscription or upload documents in order to receive membership and access website material.
HippoCampus – Is a free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content: videos, animations, and simulations on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school students to help with their homework and studies.
Slader.com– Offers millions of step-by-step solutions to all the questions in the most popular textbooks in middle school, high school, and college. Math homework answers, Science homework answers, Spanish, History, Economics, and more.
Free Online Courses
University of Reddit – Is a community project that aims to focus on the teaching, learning, and sharing of knowledge and experience among its users. There are over 100 courses available: Art, Computer Science, Fun and Games, General Studies, Language, Mathematics and Statistics, Music, Philosophy, Science, Social Sciences, and Technology. Within each category are many, many sub-categories, that focus on particular areas of the genre.
edX – Is a massive open online course (MOOC) provider. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. Unlike other MOOC, edX is a nonprofit organization and runs on the Open edX open-source software.
Khan Academy – Is a non-profit educational organization with a goal of creating an accessible place for people to be educated. The organization produces short lectures in the form of YouTube videos. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and tools for educators.
MIT OpenCourseWare – Is a web-based publication that contains thousands of Massachusetts Institute of Technology course content. It is a free and ranges from the introductory to the most advanced graduate level. Each OCW course includes a syllabus, some instructional material (such as lecture notes or a reading list), and some learning activities (such as assignments or exams). Many courses also have complete video lectures, free online textbooks, and faculty teaching insights.
While some OCW content is custom-created for online use, most of it comes straight from the MIT classroom.
Udacity – Is a for-profit educational organization that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) for free and
Nanodegree
programs.
Saylor Academy – Is a nonprofit initiative working since 2008 to offer free and open online courses to all who want to learn. They offer nearly 100 full-length courses at the college and professional levels, each of which is available to access at your pace and on your schedule.
Alison – Is a website founded with a noble goal: to enable anyone to receive free education of high quality. All you need is a will to learn new things and they will provide you with all necessary tools.
Lynda – Is an online education company offering thousands of video courses in software, technology, creative, and business skills.
The ones in blue are available to watch for free, so you don’t need a membership for them. However, others in grey require a lynda.com library subscription for access. But there is a way to get it for free and that’s by checking if the courses are available online through your local library’s website.
There is a growing number of libraries that are providing their members free access to Lynda.com courses.
Udemy – Is an online learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults who want to add new skills to their resumes, or explore their passions. Unlike academic MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.
Codecademy – Is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript (jQuery, AngularJS, React.js), Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS
Math Planet – Offers courses in high school math such as Pre-algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry for free. They also have practice tests for the SAT and ACT.
AcademicEarth – Has a collection of free online college courses from the world’s top universities. They also make sure that there is something for everyone: whether you want to explore a new topic or advance in your current field, they bring it to you for free.
Open Culture – Has 1,200 free online courses from the world’s leading universities: Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford and more. You can download these audio & video courses (often from iTunes, YouTube, or university web sites) straight to your computer or mp3 player.
Open2Study – Is an initiative of Open Universities Australia that brings you the best in online education with their four-week, introductory subjects. Open2Study provides free, specialized short courses, entirely online, across the world, in a range of subject areas. When you successfully complete your course you’ll get a free Certificate of Achievement, which you can use to demonstrate your interest in learning about a certain area.
Information & Research
Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine – Introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers; not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods. In a way it’s basically a little bit of everything; a search engine, an encyclopedia, and a calculator that can answer nearly any questions you have.
Virtual Learning Resources Center (VLRC) – Is an online index hosting thousands of scholarly websites, all of which are selected by teachers and librarians from around the globe. The site provides students and teachers with current, valid information for school and university academic projects using an index gathered from research portals, universities and library internet subject guides recommended by teachers and librarians.
Stack Exchange – Is a network of question-and-answer website on topics in varied fields, each branch of the site covers a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process.
Microsoft Academic
– Operated by the company that brings you Word, PowerPoint and Excel, it is a reliable, comprehensive research tool. The search engine pulls content from over 120 million publications, including scientific papers, conferences and journals. You can search directly by topic, or you can search by an extensive list of fields of study. For example, if you’re interested in computer science, you can filter through topics such as artificial intelligence, computer security, data science, programming languages and more.
Refseek – Is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than one billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers. It also has an option to search documents directly; providing easy access to PDFs of academic papers.
WorldWideScience – Is operated by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, a branch of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy. The site utilizes databases from over 70 countries. When users type a query, it hits databases from all over the world and will display both English and translated results from related journals and academic resources.
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) – Is a great tool for academic research with more than 1.3 million bibliographic records of articles and online materials. ERIC provides access to an extensive body of education-related literature including journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers and more.
iSEEK – Is a targeted search engine that compiles hundreds of thousands of authoritative resources from university, government, and established noncommercial providers. It provides time-saving intelligent search and a personal Web-based library to help you locate the most relevant results immediately and find them quickly later.
ResearchGate – Is
a unique social networking site
built by scientists, for scientists.
Over 11 million researchers submit their work, which totals more than 100 million publications, on the site for anyone to access. You can search by publication, data and author, or you can even ask the researchers questions. Though it’s not a search engine that pulls from external sources, ResearchGate’s own collection of publications provides a hearty selection for any inquisitive scholar.
Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) – Prides itself as being “one of the world’s most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources.” Utilizing 4,000 sources, the site contains results from over 100 million documents. The advanced search option allows users to narrow their research, so whether you’re looking for a book, review, lecture, video or thesis, BASE can provide the specific format you need.
Infotopia – Describes itself as a “Google-alternative safe search engine”. The academic search engine pulls from results that have been curated by librarians, teachers and other educational workers. The search feature allows users to select a category, which ranges from art to health to science and technology, and then see a list of internal and external resources pertaining to the topic. So if you don’t find what you’re looking for within the pages of Infotopia, you will probably find it in one of its many suggested sites.
PubMed Central – Is operated by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The database contains more than 3 million full-text journal articles. It’s similar to PubMed Health, which is specifically for health-related research and studies, and includes citations and abstracts to more than 26 million articles.
Lexis Web – Is your go-to for any law-related inquiries you may have. The results are drawn from legal sites, which can be filtered by criteria such as news, blog, government and commercial. Users can also filter results by jurisdiction, practice area, source and file format.
CollegeMajors101 – Wondering what you can do with a degree in biology or dance? College Majors 101 offers lots of information about what you can do with dozens of majors, as well as what you can expect academically if you pursue these majors.
College Insight – Is the brainchild of the Institute for College Access and Success. It gathers detailed information on thousands of colleges. You can find statistics for any school on such topics as college affordability, graduation rates, and college diversity, including the racial and ethnic breakdown of students and professors.
Fastweb – Is an online resource in finding scholarships to help you pay for school. All you have to do is make a profile and you’ll have access to their database of more than 1.5 million scholarships.
Books & Shopping (Student Discounts & Deals)
Online Research Library: Questia – Is an online commercial digital library of books and articles that has an academic orientation, with a particular emphasis on books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences. Questia’s library has over 5,000 public domain, classic and rare books that you can read online absolutely free.
The Book Pond – Is an independent online selling service for UK university students and graduates. They allow you to sell your old academic textbooks or buy the ones you need from other students who don’t need them anymore.
Chegg – Is an American online textbook rental company that specializes in online textbook rentals (both in physical and digital formats), homework help, online tutoring, scholarships and internship matching.
Open Book Project – Was made specifically for the academic community. Students and teachers can find free textbooks and other open-source education materials.
Bookboon – Is a source for free textbooks in PDF form that focus primarily on accounting, economics, engineering, IT, marketing, and management. The books are modest in size, most run from 50 to 100 pages.
Boundless – Offers openly licensed, high-quality, customizable digital courseware at a fraction of the cost of traditional textbooks.
Project Gutenberg – Offers more than 43,000 e-books, completely free. Comparative literature students taking only Jane Austen at Binghamton University, for example, can find every book on their syllabus via Project Gutenberg. Titles available on the site span categories such as archaeology, horticulture, microbiology and World War I. Copyrights are expired on all of the titles available for download via Project Gutenberg, so students studying history or classic literature may have more luck than those taking courses in other subjects.
Open Textbook Library – Contains textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.
Internet Sacred Text Archive – Is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language.
StudentRate – A site that allows college students to take full advantage of their school ID to get student deals and discounts on clothes, travel, textbooks, electronics, and lots of other things.
UNiDAYS – Is totally free to join, and used by over 4.3 million students every day. Signing up provides discounts on fashion, technology, music, stationary, food and more. It’s super useful when online shopping, and useful offline too.
Save the Student – Calls itself the number one student money website in the UK. It gives budgeting advice on how to make money and how to save money. Gives you checklists when looking for a student house, how to pay bills, what to take to university.
Student Hut – Is an online resource that helps prospective students find highly rated university courses, student offers & freebies, jobs and guides.
Student Beans – Is a popular UK hub where students could find useful stuff like offers and discounts on everything from travel, to fashion, to health and beauty and gadgets. And what students can get for free, from Uber vouchers to free drinks and trips to America. It has a dedicated jobs section, advertising part time jobs, internships and grad schemes.
Groupon – In college, every dollar counts so it helps to have Groupon when you can’t find any Student discounts and deals going on. When you and your friends are looking to try out a new restaurant, or if you’re looking for some alternative Friday night plans, make sure you check this first. It offers deals on everything from dining out to shopping products based on your location.
Amazon Student – With a student email (an valid .edu e-mail address), you get six months of Amazon Prime for free! Which means free two-day shipping, cheap textbook rentals, and discounts on anything from electronics to clothing.
You’ll also earn $5 for each friend you refer, and they’ll get $5 credit as well. When the free trial ends, students will have to pay a fee of $49 per year, which is 50% off the cost of Prime membership. The student fee includes extra perks such as unlimited instant streaming of movies, TV shows and music. If you don’t want that, just make sure to cancel before your free trial ends.
CollegeBudget – Is like Groupon for college students. There’s all sorts of discounts on clothing, electronics, activities, and more.
Apps & Tools
Sleepyti.me – Uses the sciences of REM cycles to calculate the optimal time you should go to bed in order to feel well-rested, especially when you have to be up at a certain hour.
Alarmy – This app ensures that you get up in the morning for work or school by being very annoying. You set it up by registering a photo of an area or room in your house. Then once the alarm is set, the ONLY way to make it stop ringing is to get out of bed and go take a photo of the registered area. There are other options as well, such as doing a math problem in order to turn the alarm off or shaking it for a certain amount. It’s available on Android and iOS.
Ginger Software– Contains a free online spelling and grammar checker that will correct any mistakes you make. They also creates apps and products that help people communicate more productively and efficiently on their mobile devices and desktop computers.
Plagtracker – Is a plagiarism checker that scans content to determine if any part of your essay has been plagiarized. Teachers aren’t the only ones that use this, students, website owners, and anyone else interested in protecting their writing do.
Hemingway Editor – Is a proofreading tool that helps you to see and fix potential problem areas in your writing.
It color codes each potential error type, so you can address them one at a time. It’s a standalone program that costs $20 US, and you can download it to a PC or a Mac computer. But there is also a free online version of it that you can try.
Student Loan Calculator – Was made by the College Board to make it easier for college students to stay on top for their student loan payments.
Desmos – Is a free online grapher and scientific calculator.
Mint – Is a
free money manager and financial tracker app from the makers of TurboTax that does it all. It’s available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch as well as on Android.
My Study Life – Is a free app that lets you coordinate your calendar and to-do list. It is designed especially for schools, a planner that can be customized for rotating schedules and long-term assignments. You can even set up reminders about your homework due dates. The app is available on iPhone, Android, Windows 8, Windows Phone and the web.
Habitica – Is a free self-improvement web application with game mechanics overlaid to help the player keep track of and remain motivated to achieve their goals. They do so by turning all your tasks (habits, dailies, study time and to-dos) into little monsters you have to conquer. The better you are at this, the more you progress in the game. If you slip up in life, your character starts backsliding in the game. It’s also available on Android and iOS operating systems.
Todoist – Is a free app that keeps track of all your tasks, projects, and goals in one place. Its clean look keeps you focused, and the app allows you to organize tasks into categories like household chores, reading lists, and long-term projects. You can access Todoist from any device, so you’ll always have it with you.
Dropbox – Is a file hosting service that you can access your work from any computer or device. You can also share documents with friends or group members which their edits will show up instantly for convenient group work. Basic account is free with 2 GB of space, but you can earn more space on your Basic account by referrals and enabling camera upload on mobile.
Each referral that signs up for Dropbox will give you an extra 500 MB, and switching on automatic photo upload expands storage by three GB. The maximum free Dropbox storage can amount to 16 GB, so 28 referrals on top of your starting storage will get you there. Also, Dropbox is compatible with more platforms than Google Drive which is good if you need your cloud storage to across a range of devices.
Google Drive – However, Google Drive provides you with 15 GB of free online storage from the start, so you can keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos and whatever else in one place as well. Google Drive’s web client has more features, greater file type support and a better search tool than Dropbox. Unfortunately, Google Drive isn’t available for
Linux and there isn’t an updated version of it for Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari browsers.
Mircosoft OneDrive – Is another
cloud storage service that you can access your files and photos from anywhere and on any device. As well as share and work together with anyone in your life. They use to offer 15 GB of free storage, but they’ve recently changed it to 5 GB. They also cut the previous bonus 15 GB of storage when you activate your camera roll backup.
Miscellaneous
UCampus – Makes it easier for you to find the information and resources you need as a college student. It also provides you with opportunities on your campus and in your city that you may otherwise miss.
Talktyper – Provides Speech Recognition for free. It makes voice dictation freely available to anyone with a computer.
My Money Steps – Is a free online debt advice service from National Debtline. They will tell you what options you can choose from to deal with your debts and give you a personal action plan to help you manage your money.
StudentRecipes – This site offers over 5000 quick and easy recipes for students by students. As a student you often don’t have the time or money, but with this site you can find plenty of recipes that are quick and easy to cook but more importantly cheap.
theSkimm – Is a free daily email newsletter that focuses on delivering a summarize version of all the top news stories for you with a bit of sassy humor. They also have an app called SkimmAhead that will sync important events, like the return of your favorite Netflix show or a presidential speech, with your iPhone calendar (and soon Androids as well).
UnplugtheTV
– Is a website meant to replace mind-numbing television. Instead of wasting your life watching TV, you’ll be watching something much more mind-opening and educational. The site has hundreds of educational videos to help you learn or gain a new perspective. If you’re expecting to see cats being cute and double rainbows you’re going to be disappointed.
HackCollege – Is a lifehacking website on a mission to teach students to work more effectively. In addition to offering practical advice and tips, the site also provides information on quality open source software.
Hollar - Is not a dollar store in the sense that everything costs a $1; instead, almost everything is priced between $2 and $5. Free standard shipping is included for orders of at least $25. A lot of the items they have you’ll be saving 50-90% here than elsewhere on the web. So can find a little bit of everything from toys, apparel, electronics, beauty, accessories, party supplies, home essentials, and so much more. There’s also an app version for Androids and iOS.
PrintWhatYouLike – Lets you print the good parts of any web page while skipping ads and other junk, which is a great way to make sure that your ink last longer.
Blood quantum is how much native blood you have in you and it needs to be a certain threshold to qualify you as a tribal member. Blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe.
It means my mom is a tribal member but because my dad is outside of my tribe… I don’t have enough tribal blood to enroll. Neither does my daughter. Our “official” indigeneity ended with me.
My dad is still native tho. Just southern native. Others have two parents enrolled in separate tribes and can’t enroll in either one despite being Full native because their parents were mixed with other tribes so they don’t have enough blood of Any tribe to qualify.
And to what end are they doing this?
Under the treaties the US govt can lay no claim to native land. So how do they fix that? Get rid of the natives, of course.
And since they can’t slaughter us in broad daylight anymore they did the next best thing. What the colonial government has ALWAYS done to us and other poc.
Made up a bunch of arbitrary laws to restrain and limit our power and numbers.
And this can’t continue. We are the only race who needs to apply to be part of the community we were born into. The only race who needs to prove our blood.
And that’s the thing: it’s not even based on blood. Racist scientists defined who was a full-blooded native based on things like shoe size, head circumference, and skin pigment.
Not blood. And besides that it wasn’t uncommon for outsiders to become part of a tribe!! You didn’t need to be native by blood to be native! Blood quantum has made it IMPOSSIBLE for them to qualify and made it impossible for tribes to practice that long time aspect of our culture.
So please share this post. So many people legitimately think natives are extinct and even less are aware that we do more than just sit around drinking all day. Few people have good feelings about us and within that there are a few who actively help. Please be one of those few.
We need support and allies and for our voices to be heard. Please don’t let this post just be me screaming into a void. We need people to know what blood quantum is, how archaic and harmful it is, and to help us spread awareness to people who otherwise would ignore us. Use your privilege.
At the center of this is blood quantum, the system imposed by the U.S. government to determine tribal membership. A new Wilder Foundation Research study projects that unless there is a major change to the criteria, Red Lake, like many tribes across the nation, faces catastrophic population loss in coming years.
Wilder Research scientist Nicole MartinRogers is blunt about what’s ahead for the Red Lake Nation.
“A tribal population that is right now about 16,000, is going to drop to 1,000 people potentially or under in the next 100 years, if they continue to maintain their current enrollment criteria of one-quarter blood quantum,” she said. “That’s a pretty scary thing.”
blood quantum was designed to eliminate native americans while the one drop rule was intended to keep african americans slaves in perpetuity
There’s that post about the Mormon missionaries going around right now, and it’s true, many of the missionaries who have been raised in the Mormon church have never thought any deeper than what they’ve been taught in Primary and Sunday School.
But I also want people to consider those of us who have questioned our belief in this church, have thought about all the ways it is wrong, and have decided it is the right one for us, even though it doesn’t want us here.
yeah. It’s understandable, and I empathize with a lot of people having religious trauma (I myself have been greatly affected and it’s effected the path of my faith) but at the same time, staying or leaving is someone’s individual decision. the idea that becoming atheist, or disavowing your religious upbringing is compulsory with queerness is just wrong.
there’s also this tendency to treat religious groups wholly like monoliths, which does make sense in some cases. Some organizations are really bad in terms of controlling behavior, ignoring or condoning abuse, etc. You can see this from officially stated beliefs from the authorities of any church. But a lot of churches like the LDS one get lumped into that for being weird and having odd beliefs. I do get a lot of people have had poor experiences with wards and bishops and church authorities - but it doesn’t feel as unilateral as people assume.
Something people forget is that we need queer people on the inside to stay, share our grievances, our faith, and work to build a better church for ourselves our children tomorrow. If you push all queer people away from religion, all you’ll be left with is a bland group of hateful people unable to help the people in the organization that are queer. And everyone deserves a loving place free of hate and misappropriation, where they can make friends, family, and organize their communities.I want to help make that happen - but sadly it’s not as cool to do as just leaving
I’m actually going to reblog a thing just because this is really important.
As someone who has epilepsy and used to have several grand mal seizures a day, I’d also like to add that “offer help” can range anywhere from keeping the person calm to explaining to them where they are and what they were doing to even just telling them they should sit and rest for a while longer (lack or coordination is common, and it can be hard to walk straight or see clearly).
It’s okay for them to take up to a half hour to fully regain their bearings and sort out what they were doing prior to the seizure. Just answer any questions calmly and be there for support.
If they come around and you start to panic or shake them or ask them what the heck is wrong with them they are going to freak out and panic too.
I cannot stress it enough that this is bad.
If someone has a seizure and they come out of it, please. please stay calm. They are likely disoriented and confused, even if it’s only for a minute or two, and you don’t want them panicking on top of that because they can have another seizure as a result.
IMPORTANT
IMPORTANT because last year a kid in my class had a seizure, none of us even knew he was at risk for them either so just cause you don’t think you know anyone doesn’t mean you don’t
stay safe
I have to stress how important it is to time a seizure. If it lasts more than a few minutes, call an ambulance.
DO NOT CALL THE POLICE. I’m dead fucking serious. I had a grand mal in public once and the POLICE were called and imagine coming out of the seizure, feeling like you got smacked in the head with a sack full of bricks, confused, dazed, in desperate need of some sugar to boost low blood pressure and some DIPSHIT has called the police and I was being threatened with being ‘drunk and disorderly’. It took a phone call to my doctors office to get them to back off. The police cannot properly deal with sick people.
Offer help can be:
assuring person where they are/what time it is
getting them something to drink if they can; seizure burns so much energy and does cause a blood pressure drop
getting them safely to transport or a carer
getting them some dignity like a blanket/towel [loosing control of your bladder and bowels is fucking horrifying]
ensuring they have a way to get home. Someone who has just had a seizure should NEVER DRIVE straight after
calling emergency services if you notice any of these symptoms because they may have stroked out.
Why you shouldn’t put anything in someone’s mouth: they will choke. Yes, they may bite their tongue but I can assure you it’s less traumatic than cracking your jaw on someone’s greasy wallet or choking on a spoon.
DO NOT HOLD ANYONE DOWN. Example: someone pinned my right shoulder mid-seizure a few years back and how I have a permanently displaced and clicking shoulder. Let the person flail around, those muscles are out of control and restraining them does cause more damage to the patient and you.
My brother has epilepsy so I’ve had to help him out through various types of seizures before, all of the above advice is extremely important to remember.
One thing that seems to help my brother regain awareness faster during an absent seizure is talking to him and repeating questions until he’s able to form coherent sentences and offering him something to look at that requires his attention, our dog also licks his hands and barks until he comes out of the seizure.
I’m not sure if any of that would apply to help anyone else but I wanted to share just in case someone might find it useful.
As someone who has had epilepsy nearly 50 years, I just want to add that NEVER make fun of a person having a seizure, no matter how it might look. It is embarassing enough to have a seizure in public. Besides, you can never be sure if they are aware of your presence or not. Remember, anyone can have a seizure in right conditions, so imagine how would you feel in their place.
I, for example, am unaware at the start but after awhile become aware of everything around me while still having a seizure. I hear, see, understand and remember everything that happens but cannot respond or do anything because my body is not in my control. It’s like being underanesthetized.
My dad did not believe me when I was younger so he asked what happened. I told exactly what had been said and done, by whom, who came to room and when, the noises I heard etc. My dad looked horrified.
Basic advice to help someone seizuring
Stay calm even though witnessing a seizure can be frightening or disconcerting.
Time the seizure with a watch or mobile phone, do not just estimate it in your head. Time moves differently in crisis situations and timing the seizure is crucial and really makes a difference.
Do not try to prevent movements, it actually does more harm than good. Preventing movements won’t stop the seizure and can cause injuries as previous commenter described.
Make sure the person does not hit their head or otherwise injure themselves.
Turn them on their side when the convulsions allow it. The airways remain open and any secretions can drain out of the mouth (basic first aid).
Do not put anything to their mouth. It makes breathing difficult.
In case another seizure starts after previous has ended without the person returning to normal or the seizure lasts more than 5 minutes, make an emergency call. Do not call the police. They are not medical experts.
Reason: 2 or more seizures within a 5-minute period without the person returning to normal or a single more than 5 minute seizure is considered prolonged seizure (status epilepticus, a life-threatening medical emergency, particularly if treatment is delayed).
If the seizure goes away on its own, make sure the person answers questions and knows where they are going and are fully recovered before you leave them. Offer help as suggested above.
If necessary, ask for advice from the emergency services.
I haven’t found a version of this post with an image description yet, but the only things in the image that aren’t listed in this reblog are “remove glasses” and “loosen tight clothing”
i think the worst thing to come out of this site are the ‘NAZIS ARE TERRIBLE. they WILL KILL ALL JEWS in COLD BLOOD, LET THEIR FAMILIES DIE IN FRONT OF THEM, and start the HOLOCAUST 2.0!! also reblog to make a jew feel safe.’ formatted type posts
ways to make a jew feel safe and comfortable:
-let them celebrate their holidays openly around you and encourage them to express themselves religiously. if they invite you over for a holiday, go!! they’re making an effort to let you learn more about them.
-consider any different diets they might be on (ex. kosher or even if it’s passover) when you have them over at your house. a little goes a long way with this one
-if christmas is around חנוכה that year, feel free to send them a חנוכה card!! it’s not really as big of a holiday for us but we do appreciate the effort put into making us feel included :)
-educate any of your friends that might make antisemitic jokes. even ‘grammar nazi’ jokes. standing up for jewish people goes further than when theyre just around. antisemitism isnt something that only exists when a jew is in the room.
-understand that, if they practice judaism, their beliefs arent like yours, and that that’s ok! a lot of people forget that not everyone is either a christian or an atheist whenever the topic of religion comes up. (but also remember not every jew practices or believes in judaism!!)
-if they tell you to warn them before you talk about nazis, do it. It’s really easy just to give someone a heads up before you talk about people who want them dead, especially if they’re openly jewish or a holocaust survivor descendent.
ways NOT to make a jew feel safe and comfortable:
“NAZIS are EVIL. they will KILL ALL THE JEWS. that’s just BAD. they will MURDER EVERY SINGLE JEWISH FAMILY. NO JEW IS SAFE. anyway reblog to make a jewish person feel safe and loved 🤗”
also if you can goyim reblog. and if you’re jewish and want to add on feel free!
hey by ‘if you are a goy reblog if you can’ i meant ‘i highly encourage you to reblog this because i have seen too many posts that make me and other jewish people very uncomfortable and they are, to be honest, entirely surface level and exhausting to see over and over again. not only that, but they are also annoying to us because they dont make us feel safe at all, and reblogging posts about how bad nazis are isnt actual activism or showing real, substantial support for jews. if youre serious about being there for your jewish siblings actually take part in their lives. make sure they’re comfortable. make sure you make casual antisemitists uncomfortable. dont just reblog posts about hating nazis, your posts dont do shit. supporting your jewish friends by even doing something as simple as what i listed above does have an affect of us. your posts about you hating nazis mean absolutely nothing unless you care for and acknowledge Actual Jewish People’s problems and challenges. otherwise, they’re surface level bullshit and do not contribute whatsoever to improve our safety.’ :) :) :)
With vanilla extract being a meme, I wanted to share some black history of Edmond Albius a black slave who revolutionized vanilla pollination.
He used a technique he learned of pollinating melons to polinate the orchids to create the vanilla beans. Vanilla was rare and a luxury mainly due to only being able to be pollinated by its natural pollinator in Mexico.
unfortanely, he didnt receive any money for his discovery despite being called the main man who revolutionized pollination, he died in poverty…
