Sweet Jane
Pardon my outrage, but there's a greater point if you read to the end.
My daughter, Anna Benvenue, has met Fidel Castro, and now the Pope.
But neither of these occurrences have given me anything near the thrill I had when she met Jane Goodall, while she was a kid in school (I don't remember the year).
I woke late last night with an urgent message to send you about what's happening in our country. I am horrified at what I'm seeing and I feel powerless to do anything about it.
This is not that message, because I couldn't write it.
I'm responding to fascism in several ways. I make monthly donations to a variety of organizations such as...
- Trans Rescue
- Palestinian Children's Relief Fund
- The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
- The Ahimsa Collective
- Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership
- Anti Police Terror Project
- and several others
I'm making anti-fascist music...
I'm making stickers and plastering them everywhere I go (and also giving them to others to do the same). A few samples...
I've attended a few protests (which feels pointless), attended a Direct Action workshop, and have joined a Bay Area Resistance pod (we have two main focuses: helping a local international high school with a high population of immigrants, and patrolling locations where Day Laborers gather to keep an eye out for ICE).
And yet... I feel powerless, helpless, entitled, privileged, and that I'm not doing nearly enough.
I woke late last night with an urgent message to send you about what's happening in our country. I am horrified at what I'm seeing and I feel powerless to do anything about it.
This is not that message, because I couldn't write it. You don't need to hear it from me. Unless you're dead, you're also horrified.
This is where Jane Goodall comes in.
I was just browsing my Mastodon timeline and saw a video that moved me to tears. I immediately tried to share it via text message but it was too large. I wanted to send it to everyone I know.
I learned about Jane's death on Mastodon, and for the past day or two I've seen a shit ton of inspiring quotes, pictures, and video clips about and from her. I responded to a few of them. She was a giant. Every time I see her face, I melt a little. It's been incredibly comforting and heartwarming to see her so much these last many hours. I imagine you've also seen or heard from Jane during this time.
But this new vid, shocked me. It was like a slap against the side of my head saying, "You aint seen nothin yet!"
Pretty awesome, right? She's more than a giant, she's a fucking saint.
But she's even more than that to me, now. Because what I see in her face in this video, what I hear in her words, gives me a taste of something I never thought I'd feel. I thought to myself, and this is when the tears came, "this must be what it feels like to have the unconditional loving advice of a mother."