Havdalah #26: Labor Day, Shapes, & RI's Primary Election

Hello all, and welcome to Havdalah #26 —

I hope that you’re able to take advantage of the Labor Day weekend for however you want to use it, and if you’re one of the ones that can’t, our sympathies. Two thirds of White Rose is traveling today, but we’ve got plenty of labor in our lives.

Labor Day was started in the 1880’s by trade unions and labor movements as a way to honor labor and push it into the national consciousness. Despite its use nowadays mostly for a long weekend and sales, it was political — something very appropriate this year, as the Rhode Island primary election is coming up soon, on September 10th. Check out your voter registration, polling location, and early voting info here: RI Voter Info

Our Sidebar today is from Lee, musing on another, very important type of labor in our lives — the work of being honest with ourselves about what we can do and what the world is really like.

Goodnight, and mind how you go —

Katherine

Help a Longtime RI Organizer

The Behind the Walls Committee at DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) is a group of formerly incarcerated people or their loved ones fighting against the injustices behind the walls. Ron is a longtime Behind the Walls member (for over 10 years now!) who helped the committee win several campaigns, including Fair Chance Licensing. He's been sick for many years and badly needs a heart transplant. He's a single father, a veteran, formerly incarcerated, and one of the many Black Americans who were affected by the government-sponsored disaster that was Hurricane Katrina — he became sick in 2005, when he was exposed to chemical toxins in the clean-up. He is having surgery in Boston soon and needs our help to make sure his family is there with him! Please help out with all you can!

GoFundMe for RI Organizer

RI Primary Election

As we mentioned in the intro, the RI primary election is September 10th. We encourage you to make a plan to vote! You can look up your voter registration, polling location, and early voting information online: RI Voter Info

Continuing Actions for Palestine

Jewish Voice for Peace Weekly Flyering

• When: Every Wednesday, 5:00pm-6:00pm

• Where: Providence Train Station, 100 Gaspee Street, Providence, RI 02903

• JVP RI invites all to join them in their efforts to spread the word about their work and simple actions people can take to demand an end to the genocide in Palestine. They meet on the Statehouse side of the train station.

Weekly Kaddish

• When: Every Sunday, 1:00pm-1:30pm

• Where: Michael Van Leesten Pedestrian Bridge, Providence, RI 02903

• Jewish Voice for Peace RI and allies will be hosting a weekly gathering on Sundays to recite the Mourners Kaddish and communally grieve the Palestinians murdered by the Israeli military. You need not be Jewish to attend; all are welcome to participate.

Power Half-Hours for Gaza

• When: every day, Monday through Friday, 3:00pm EST

• Where: online

• Jewish Voice for Peace is holding Power Half-Hours for Gaza every day — join us as we channel our fury and sorrow into collective action to stop genocide.

• Power Half-Hours for Gaza Registration

Ceasefire Today Toolkit

• This toolkit has a variety of links, including call scripts, groups accepting donations, phone banks, petitions, and more

• Ceasefire Today Toolkit

News Coverage

• As always, especially when getting news from social media, be aware of who is sharing information and why they’re doing it.

• Al Jazeera Coverage of the War on Gaza has continued to be a reliable source

• Mondoweiss has also provided excellent context and deep dive pieces.

Same Shapes, New Shapes

Lee, they/she

What do you do when the world you love is broken? What do you do when the world you love is the thing that has broken things? When the world you love inflicts oppression, dehumanization, and violation upon the world you love…

Out on a walk, I am looking up at the clouds. My eyes trace the bright swirls along the clouds’ edges and swoop over curved shadows. My ancestors have known these shapes, and admiring these shapes was advantageous — or at least not harmful — enough that I am here thousands of generations later, losing myself in the same swells and spirals.

Now wires come into view, crossing the sky at odd angles, pulling my attention to a closer scale, into a strange geometry dictated by defined edges. My ancestors would not have known shapes like these. And yet, still, my eyes dance through the patterns, delighted. On a sensory level, there is no power line, no fossil fuel being burned, no climate crisis… only shapes.

I was taught to ignore my senses, specifically when I sensed anything that contradicted authority. I am trying to unlearn the ways I was taught not to know my own experience. So I am trying to honor what my senses tell me, even while knowing that my senses don’t give the full picture.

I see shapes in the sky, blue cut into stripes and angled parts. It is not the whole truth, and it is true — I love this world.

I sink into the discomfort. I make the choice not to lie to myself by pretending things are simpler. There are wires, and my eyes know that the wires make good shapes, and my brain knows that the wires are part of an energy system that hurts living beings. Can I imagine other systems for people to engage with energy? Are fossil fuels the only problem, or are the wires themselves also a problem? If I could imagine a better system, would I be willing to give up the shapes I love for a new geometry?

Being honest with myself means I get to use and integrate all the information I am taking in as I make decisions.

Asking a friend to join me at a protest feels uncomfortable. Am I up for asking anyways? Do I know ways of advocating around the issues I care about, and are those ways sustainable for me? The best answer is the honest one. Do I know what would make advocacy sustainable for me? What am I sensing? What do I think? How does it feel?

When refusing to oversimplify feels overwhelming, when honesty is painful, I take my time. I take things in. …Then I rush ahead anyways. On a good day, I stop myself again before my actions do harm. More often, I watch my words land heavily on people I care about, thoughtless actions made sharp by the shortcuts I took. If I am lucky, there are opportunities to make repair, though the harm is never undone.

I slow down again. I recommit to complexity. My remorse is made no less by self-compassion; both are here. I renew a promise: I will not abandon the parts of myself that know painful truths; I will not perpetuate this violence.

Needle Drop: “Get Free”, Mereba

News Round-Up: Local

Malden man convicted for role in Jan. 6 riot at U.S. Capitol, records show (Charlie McKenna for MassLive, August 17, 2024)

Cranston City Council considers ordinance that will determine how the unhoused are treated (Steve Ahlquist, August 19, 2024)

As the Westerly School Committee takes up alterations to the town’s trans student policy, it violates the Open Meeting Act (Steve Ahlquist, August 21, 2024)

Cranston Mayor Hopkins issues executive order allowing police to crack down on encampments (Steve Ahlquist, August 21, 2024)

Anti-trans student activists warmly received in North Smithfield (Steve Ahlquist, August 26, 2024)

News Round-Up: Inter/National

“We Must Continue to Alchemize Our Pain Into Action” (Kelly Hayes in Organizing My Thoughts, August 23, 2024)

Transgender Adults Being Cut From Care After Florida Court Ruling (Erin Reed in Erin in the Morning, August 28, 2024)

Pod Recs: Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here

Part One: How The Liberal Media Helped Fascism Win (Behind the Bastards, August 20, 2024)

Part Two: How The Liberal Media Helped Fascism Win (Behind the Bastards, August 22, 2024)

Freedom and Suppression at the DNC (It Could Happen Here, August 23, 2024)