End violence. Start today! Five simple things you can do in 2014.

Can You Relate?

1. Resolve to be generous with your time and money, but never ever give to charity.

You can practically hear the sinews of humanity ripping apart when we think of people as charity cases. We scroll or stroll by and throw money at them.

If it weren’t for the most microscopic twist of genetics or timing, you might be the one paralyzed from the neck down, or the person sleeping in the doorway.

I know it’s terrifying, but always give to others knowing we’re all in the same lifeboat.

2. Whether you can give time and money or not, be generous with your spirit. For New Year’s, give up pity.

I do not mean sympathy or empathy. I mean pity.

I have only been pitied a few times, but ouch did it sting. I’ve written about having breast cancer, and I’ve had people pity me. There is just nothing…

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This post really hit home for me. There are about four things that I have been apprehensive to write about on my blog. There are different reasons for each one but the result is the same. I start to write and just can’t finish. I have my 100th post coming up and after that my goal is to be able to write about one of those things that scares me. Thanks for this post Amy!

What are you afraid of?

unchained faith

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.
(Eleanor Roosevelt)

A few days ago, fellow blogger Aaron posed this question to a group of writers in which we both participate:

What would you never write?

I think our failure to be brave with our words leads to cheap art, and when we use our spirituality as an excuse to pull punches in our writing we commit a tragic sin toward the faith we are professing.

So, what would you never write? Why are you scared to write that?

Good question.

My first instinct was to say, “Well, I think I’ve reached a point where I wouldn’t say there is anything I won’t write.”  I guess that’s a pretty good answer, other than the fact that it’s a…

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It’s time to start thinking bigger. “2012 was unacceptable. But it’s not too late for 2013.”

theradicalidea

It’s that time of year again…by which I mean, a new year again.  Incredibly, the world didn’t end last month, and here we are, ringing in 2013.

Before you know it, people are going to be talking about the weight they want to lose, the promotions they want to get, the charity work they swear they are actually going to do.  It’s the time of year when we start wondering what we want to be like in 2013, what we want to change, how we want our lives to be different.

There are a lot of individual things that could maybe go on those lists.  Like our activism page says, “sometimes radical protesting isn’t about shouting louder-~-it’s about living louder”.  We need to live louder by taking those principles and living them every day with ourselves and the people around us-~-by loving our bodies even if we aren’t stick figures…

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Masculinity U

Right now, as non-Native men, either of us could physically or sexually assault a Native woman on a Native American reservation and not be subjected to local jurisdiction. And many of us do. And get away with it.

“Native women are assaulted at higher rates than any other group in America. Non-Native people are the ones who are committing the (overwhelming) majority of crimes on tribal land. We should be able to have protections against this.”^[1]

For this one moment, right now, this hateful, racist, and deadly legal loophole is being held up to the light for all to see. It is being addressed by the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).This, then, is our moment to act. To support those Native women and men who have been working so hard to save lives.

VAWA is set to expire. Soon. And yet, in our name…

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Whatever

WARNING: this post is going to be oh-so-very-triggery for victims of rape and sexual assault. I am not kidding.

Dear certain conservative politicians:

Hi! I’m a rapist. I’m one of those men who likes to force myself on women without their consent or desire and then batter them sexually. The details of how I do this are not particularly important at the moment — although I love when you try to make distinctions about “forcible rape” or “legitimate rape” because that gives me all sorts of wiggle room — but I will tell you one of the details about why I do it: I like to control women and, also and independently, I like to remind them how little control they have. There’s just something about making the point to a woman that her consent and her control of her own body is not relevant against the need for…

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opt4

If you are reading this…the “YOU” in the title is YOU.

I’d like to share with you a piece written asking men to do something about what is going on in the world!

Remember:

In a time when men are stating comments about women breast feeding as equal to defecating…it’s obvious we need this.

In a time when men see no problem with telling women what they can and can’t do with their body…it’s obvious we need this.

In a time when men are deciding what kind of women can get support when they are being abused, and what kind of women can’t….it’s obvious we need this.

In a time when women are being exploited as pieces of sexual meat on stages, tv screens, movie screens, and in magazines and the majority of the people are ok with it…it’s obvious we need this.

That’s enough of my words….here are Stephen’s:

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