Another Thing We Can Do

and we know they’ll be doing it for us when it’s our turn! This is a partial copy of their page.

https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

Minnesota is under occupation by federal agents from ICE and CBP, and they need your help.

Not just Minneapolis, and not just people protesting. Across Minnesota, ICE continues to stop, harass, and detain people regardless of their citizenship status. Normal life in Minnesota has been interrupted, as schools have been forced to close or go virtual, as people live in fear of leaving their homes or going to work.

Minnesotans are organized and activated to respond to this violence. But they need our help.

This directory of places to donate to all comes from activists on the ground, plugged into the situation. Everything is vetted, with the exception of individual GoFundMes (not everyone is in our networks, and we don’t want to pick and choose who is worthy of help.)

If you don’t have resources to give, please amplify what you are hearing and seeing about Minnesota, across social media, but also to your networks, friends, and family offline.

Read our testimonies and know what life is like in Minnesota right now.

Overwhelmed by the amount of listings here? Donate to the Immigrant Law Center of MN, who is providing assistance to hundreds of people with families detained by ICE, or the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund, a fund assembled by a coalition of Twin Cities Foundations committed to getting assistance out the door as quickly as possible.

Mutual Aid & Materials Purchasing

These funds are administered by neighbors helping their neighbors, not large organizations. This is one of the most direct ways to help and to get cash and resources into people’s hands quickly.

Diaper Fund

Rent Relief Funds

Mutual Aid Funds

Provide Food Support

Buy/Donate Materials

Crowdfunding Campaigns

We are only including campaigns which have not met their goals. To get a campaign added please email contact@standupforminnesota.com

Funds for Employees

For Individuals

Funds for Schools & Students

Funds for Communities

And there is so much more on the page. Please thoughtfully consider what you can do, including simply telling people about this when it comes up (or when you bring it up, maybe?) And thank you!

https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

Martin Luther King, Jr. Was Born in Atlanta, Georgia

on January 15th of 1929. The US, or most of it, observes a day of service and quiet celebration on the 3d Monday of January; this year that’s tomorrow. Because of the good he did while he was alive, I like to mark one or another day over the long weekend with a post about one or another (or more than one!) of the things he did.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the son of a Baptist pastor, and followed in his father’s footsteps. He also became a leader in the U.S. civil rights movement, and also was vocal and visible in the movement to halt the war in Vietnam. About five years after his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, about a year after his address to the Moblization To End The War in Vietnam, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

I’m guessing we’re all very familiar with Rev. King’s “Dream” Speech. The Letter From A Birmingham Jail found here, The address mentioned above is found here, with snippets below.

I come to participate in this significant demonstration today because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this mobilization because I cannot be a silent onlooker while evil rages. I am here because I agree with Dante, that: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.“ In these days of emotional tension, when the problems of the world are gigantic in extent and chaotic in detail, there is no greater need than for sober thinking, mature judgment, and creative dissent.

In all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war by the American people. Polls reveal more than ten million explicitly oppose the war. Additional millions cannot bring themselves to support it, and millions who do assent to it are half-hearted, confused and doubt-ridden.

Tens of thousands of our deepest thinkers in the academic and intellectual community are adamantly opposed to the war; distinguished church and theological leaders of every race and religion are morally outraged by it; and many young people in all walks of life believe it a corruption of every American value they have been taught to respect. Let no one claim there is a consensus for this war — no flag waving, no smug satisfaction with territorial conquest, no denunciation of the enemy can obscure the truth that many millions of patriotic Americans repudiate this war and refuse to take moral responsibility for it.

Nor can the fact be obscured that our nation is increasingly becoming an object of scorn around the globe. The respect we won when our course was right is rapidly being lost as even our closest allies leave our side embarrassed with our pretense that we are bearers of a moral crusade. (snip)

All of this reveals that we are in an untenable position morally and politically. We are left standing before the world glutted with wealth and power but morally constricted and impoverished. We are engaged in a war that seeks to turn the clock of history back and perpetuate white colonialism. The greatest irony and tragedy of it all is that our nation which initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of this modern world, is now cast in the mold of being an arch anti-revolutionary.

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society.

This confused war has played havoc with our domestic destinies. Despite feeble protests to the contrary, the promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam. The pursuit of this widened war has narrowed the promised dimensions of the domestic welfare programs, making the poor, white and Negro, bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home.

While the anti-poverty program is cautiously initiated, zealously supervised and required to be an instant success, billions are liberally expended for this ill-considered war. The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode at home, they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

It is estimated that we spend $322,000 for each enemy we kill, while we spend in the so-called War on Poverty in America only about $53 for each person classified as “poor.” And much of that $53 goes for salaries of people who are not poor. We have escalated the war in Vietnam and de-escalated the skirmish against poverty. It challenges the imagination to contemplate what lives we could transform if we were to cease killing. (snip)

Let us save our national honor — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us save American lives and Vietnamese lives — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us take a single instantaneous step to the peace table — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us put an honorable peace on the agenda before another day passes — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us be able to face the world with a concrete deed of genuine peace — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let our voices ring out across the land to say the American people are not vainglorious conquerors — STOP THE BOMBING.

During these days of human travail, we must not permit ourselves to lapse into pessimism. We must organize for peace. We all owe a debt to those student body presidents, Peace Corps volunteers and others who have raised their voices to question the war. I would like to urge students from colleges all over the nation to use this summer and coming summers educating and organizing communities across the nation against the war. I have already talked with students who are organizing in this vein from such schools as Harvard University on the banks of the Charles River in Massachusetts and my own Morehouse College in the red hills of Georgia. We must all speak out in a multitude of voices against this most cruel and senseless war. The thunder of our voices will be the only sound stronger than the blast of bombs and the clamor of war hysteria.

I have tried to be honest today. To be honest is to confront the truth. To be honest is to realize that the ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and moments of comfort, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy. However unpleasant and inconvenient the truth may be, I believe we must expose and face it if we are to achieve a better quality of American life.

A few weeks ago, the distinguished American historian, Henry Steele Commager, told a Senate committee: “Justice Holmes used to say that the first lesson a judge had to learn was that he was not God … we do tend, perhaps more than other nations, to transform. our wars into crusades … our current involvement in Vietnam is cast, increasingly, into a moral mold … it is my feeling that we do not have the resources, material, intellectual or moral, to be at once an American power, a European power and an Asian power.”

I agree with Dr. Commanger, and I would suggest that there is, however, another kind of power that America can and should be. It is a moral power; a power harnessed to the service of peace and human beings.

All the world knows that America is a great military power. We need not be diligent in seeking to prove it. We must now show the world our moral power. It is still not too late for our beloved nation to make the proper choice. If we decide to become a moral power, we will lead mankind in transforming the jangling discords of this world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we make the right decision, we will be able to transfer our pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. This will be a glorious day. In reaching it we can fulfill the noblest of American dreams.

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Whew. Well, now here is a timeline of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, from the Peace & Justice History newsletter:

Since 1986, the third Monday in January has been designated a federal holiday honoring the greatness and sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A chronology:
April 4, 1968 Dr. King was assassinated. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced legislation to create a federal holiday to commemorate Dr. King’s life and work.
January, 1973 Illinois became the first state to adopt MLK Day as a state holiday.
January, 1983 Rep. Conyers’s law was passed after 15 years
January, 1986 The United States first officially observed the federal King Day holiday.
January, 1987 Arizona Governor Evan Mecham rescinded state recognition of MLK Day as his first act in office, setting off a national boycott of the state.
January, 1993 Martin Luther King Day holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.

So an update and thank you for Kamyk, and Ron is on the road to Texas.

First thank you to everyone who donated to Kamyk’s go fund me. He had to start it out at the minimum of $300 due to the rules of the site. The real goal is $1,000 which will allow him to get the game, a secure pack for storing it, and a little left over for a set of earbuds and a few games. Currently he has to have it set for $600 because the rules say he has to set it up in stages. I don’t understand it but he sent me the goals and I put it on the page. The current amount donated is $315. Again thanks to everyone for helping if you can. I understand if you can’t. I can’t until next week when Ron gets paid. This last week we had to put the groceries and medications on the credit card.

Which leads me to the second update I want to share. After I got home from my visit with Suzy Sunshine in which we both decided she couldn’t help me, Ron got a call from his sister. She had fallen and broke her wrist a few days ago. I guess it was bad. So Friday around noon she called and was very upset. Ron said he never saw her this way before. She told him she couldn’t handle the situation of trying to show the home and everything along with the pain in her wrist that she couldn’t use for anything. She wanted him to come to Texas and be with her. It would be for at least a month maybe more and then she would be coming back to Florida in March anyway. In two weeks she will have surgery on the wrist and will need the extra help anyway.

Ron looked at me and I knew what he wanted to ask so I told him it was OK. I understood the bond between him and his sister. I understand he needs to help her in her time of need. I was in a good place, I have the van and it is running well, and we already did the large grocery shopping. I would be OK for a month and half if he needed. So he spent yesterday afternoon packing and left in the car early this morning for Texas. It is about 1,000 miles to where his sister lives. He is going to do it in two days. The good thing is it should give me lots of time to do all the blogging stuff. Hugs

Some Stuff I’ve Run Across This Week

A jumble, of a sort.

Josh Johnson is up for an NAACP Image Award for The Daily Show.Take a look, and vote! Right now!

Also he’s hosting The Daily Show next week, T-Th nights. 🙂

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxX7xdrgo6C73tJ3UlZKTEAPyRmpTcEsB7?si=qZ4LDDE713mt-7yx

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In their words: Greenlanders talk about Trump’s desire to own their Arctic island

U.S. President Donald Trump has turned Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it (Note: there is a video of this report on the page, if you prefer; click the title just above -A)

By EMMA BURROWS AP european security correspondent January 16, 2026, 12:17 AM

In their words: Greenlanders talk about Trump’s desire to own their Arctic island

(Snippet:)

NUUK, Greenland — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.

The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark’s foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “fundamental disagreement” remains with Trump over the island.

The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and “people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.

Here’s a look at what Greenlanders think:

Trump has dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, suggesting it’s “two dog sleds.”

By saying that, Trump is “undermining us as a people,” Mari Laursen told AP. (snip-MORE)

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(It’s like another world inside my state, which is sorta nice. -A)

‘This is what you built’: Kansas workers rally in solidarity at the Statehouse

By:Sherman Smith-January 14, 20262:11 pm

TOPEKA — Union leader Jake Lowen told the hundreds of workers who gathered Wednesday in the first floor rotunda of the Statehouse to look around and take in “the house that labor built.”

He referenced the stonemasons who cut every piece of limestone in the walls. The iron and steel workers who raised the dome, with the help of operating engineers who ran the hoists built by machinists. Plumbers, boilermakers and electricians brought light, heat and water.

Lowen, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Kansas State AFL-CIO, said some of the workers who started building the Statehouse, which took 37 years to construct, never saw it finished. At least seven gave their lives in the process, he said.

“The work was hard and the price was high, and yet they persevered,” he told the crowd that was gathered for an annual “solidarity day” labor rally.

He said the workers were building a Statehouse by day and a movement by night. In 1890, the year they raised the Statehouse dome, workers formed the Kansas State Federation of Labor, he said. (snip-MORE)

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Update about Minnesota ICE reporting

Ben Werdmuller

16 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

After today’s post, Seth Larson let me know that the Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, has established a portal for sending in evidence of ICE activity.

I’ve updated the web version of the post, but I wanted to send out an email update too so that readers on the ground in the Twin Cities are aware of the resource.

I’ll republish Governor Walz’s quote for emphasis:

“Tonight, I want to share another way you can help: Witness.

Help us establish a record of exactly what’s happening in our communities.

You have an absolute right to peacefully film ICE agents as they conduct their activities.

So carry your phone with you at all times.

And if you see ICE in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record.

Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans – not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.”

If you are local to the Twin Cities, and feel safe and able, this is a concrete way in which you can help.

Here’s that link to the submission form again.

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One of those young Democrats I keep writing about. We can help her get elected.

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Some humor:

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Taking Joy In Ourselves

21 Inspiring Quotes from Transgender Activists

Supporting and learning from trans people is essential in fostering an inclusive and compassionate world. Members and allies of the trans community recognize the unique struggles and challenges that trans individuals currently face: discrimination, marginalization, and dangerous legislation.

By actively supporting and learning from trans activists and leaders, we can better understand these challenges and work together to create an environment where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their gender identity.

We’ve compiled a list of impactful quotes from trans activists to foster understanding and appreciation for the trans community.

Please share and utilize these quotes to promote support for trans people and create a more inclusive, respectful, and supportive environment for everyone.

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Explore inspirational transgender quotes and captions — to help celebrate trans liberation & fight for trans rights

“I’ve never been interested in being invisible and erased.”
— Laverne Cox

“Trans people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, persistent and resilient. We have to be. And we will not stand for the picking and choosing of rights. We still have hope.”
— Grace Dolan-Sandrino

“Despite the constant hatred we face as the LGBTQ+ community, we must stand united and strong in spreading our message of love.”
— Jazz Jennings, in a tweet

“I think trans women, and trans people in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms.
A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you’re supposed to be to live a more authentic life.”
— Laverne Cox

“They can try to ban us. They can try to get rid of our health care. They can try to deny us housing, credit, and public accommodations. They can try to shame us. They can try all they want to erase us, but at some point, they will realize the trans community is never going away.
Trans people are everywhere.
Every country, every race, every ethnicity, every religion, every socioeconomic level, every period of human history — we are everywhere. We are natural. You can’t rid of what’s natural. I think they know that, and it terrifies them.”
— Charlotte Clymer

“I want to make a difference in the world by speaking out and spreading hopeful messages. I want to send the message of “you are not alone and you are safe” to other transgender kids.”
— Rebekah Bruesehoff

“I don’t know what I am if I’m not a woman.”
— Marsha P. Johnson

“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.”
— Sylvia Rivera

“Being transgender is not just a medical transition. … [It’s about] discovering who you are, living your life authentically, loving yourself, and spreading that love towards other people and accepting one another.”
— Jazz Jennings

“We have to remain visible. They have to see us, they have to know that we’re not going [nowhere], that we’ve been here ever since God made man and woman, and they have to get over it.
I don’t need their permission to exist; I exist in spite of them. I want you to train and teach and love on and create families within my community and gender non-conforming people, so that we can understand that we have a culture, we have a history, we have a reason to be here.
We have a purpose.
We’re entitled to be loved, and seek happiness, and share that with the people that we care about.”
— Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Snip-There are a few more, and some graphics with the quotes that we can snag and share, too.

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/transgender-quotes

Things We Can Do

to spread brightness in as much space around us as we can, especially if we’re in an area endangered by the Trump enforcement brigades we’re seeing. But even if we’re not, we can extend these actions locally to build community so we’ll be safer when it is our turn.

For Minnesotans afraid to leave home during ICE crackdown, this pizza joint delivers free food across the city

Jan 12, 2026 1:04 PM

As the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown ramps up across Minnesota — especially following a deadly shooting of a bystander named Renee Nicole Good last week — locals are rallying to support their vulnerable community members.

One such example is local pizza chain Wrecktangle Pizza.

“F—k ICE, eat pizza, and we love you,” representatives of the pizza joint and nearby sex shop, The Smitten Kitten, started a video on Thursday.

Here, they announced they were teaming up for a community initiative.

“We, at Wrecktangle, at all locations for the rest of the weekend, are going to donate one pizza for every single pizza sold, to families and friends that are affected by the increased ICE presence in Minneapolis,” one representative said.

In the caption, they noted that they are “set on volunteers” who would deliver pizza and other goods to people unable to leave home, but added: “We could really use some help raising funds to keep the momentum and keep people safe inside during these disturbing and uncertain times.”

Wrecktangle leaders said they started with $2,000 in donations from family and friends, and figured if they posted their Venmo information, they might be able to double that.

The support exceeded their expectations.

In addition to the collection of non-perishable foods and home essentials, two days later, they announced that they had received over $83,000 in donations.

Along with the donations, the local chain sold 2,291 pizzas between Thursday and Sunday.

“We couldn’t be more stunned — or grateful,” they shared on social media.

During this time, they distributed 600 pizzas, non-perishables, and toiletries to vulnerable families, adding that “we have been working only with volunteers we personally know and trust to ensure the safety of our community.”

But thousands more meals are being made and prepared for free delivery as quickly as possible.

Wrecktangle co-owner Breana Evans told Bring Me The News that nearly every local restaurant in their area has been negatively impacted by the presence of ICE.

“We have staff, coworkers who are directly affected and scared to come to work,” Evans said. “It’s not fair for our friends to be scared to provide for their families and make a living. We know how to make food. So, we said, let’s just start making food.”

The company began donating their 13-inch frozen pizzas privately by connecting with their network of neighboring businesses and organizations. But then they realized the community could expand their efforts even wider.

Trusted volunteers were sent off to deliver free pizzas and meal kits, and others came to the shop to help assemble the goods.

“I think that’s a testament to our community and that there’s more good in the world than this horrible bad that they’re making us go through,” Evans said.

After meeting an immediate need to distribute food, Wrecktangle owners are working to figure out how to best use the funds they raised to help the community.

A screenshot of an Instagram story from Wrecktangle pizza in Minnesota, sharing that 2,291 pizzas will be donated to people in need — *A screenshot of an Instagram story from Wrecktangle, sharing a weekend total of donated pizzas. Photo courtesy of Wrecktangle/Instagram*

“We are working hard with nonprofit organizations to make sure these funds do the most good. We have not yet touched a cent,” they shared on social media. “As soon as we have updates as to specifically where your kindness is going, outside of purchasing food and home products, we will keep you thoroughly updated.”

And on Sunday, to finish out the campaign, Wrecktangle encouraged supporters to spend their money with other local restaurants. For one day only, they accepted emails containing a photo of a receipt from any Minnesota restaurant, and an additional meal was donated on their behalf.

“A lot of our community wants to come back to work, and we need to make sure these restaurants can help support their staff,” Evans said in a social media video. “We need you to be there.”

s of Monday morning, Wrecktangle shared on an Instagram story that they received 176 emailed receipts, which translates to 176 more meals for vulnerable community members.

“This week has spread so much love and friendship,” the company added in an Instagram story. “And we couldn’t be more grateful.”

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Josh Day Next Day!

Enjoy!

A Lament

These past months have been difficult. I was so very shocked to see the death of Renee Good, how chaos and hate seem to be the republican drug of choice, and how horrible it is to consider that we have but begun this 4-year trip through hell. Recently somehow this song found its way into my youtube playlist. All I could think as these young voices invaded my troubled thoughts was what are we leaving for them?

America the Beautiful followed, a song we all know if not by memory then certainly we recognize it when we hear it sung before the football game on Friday Night. “O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies, For Amber Waves of Grain…” proudly sung by the proud and mighty citizens, the mothers and fathers, grandfathers with war wounds and grandmothers who know loss and pain yet hope. It is a calm and flowing song, one that somehow has always given me a peaceful heart for in that long ago poem is a promise of home.

President Kennedy, long ago, asked Americans to consider what they could do for their country. I think many think that is defined as joining the military, and that is certainly one great thing a person can do but there are far more. And, I think it is primarily why tRumpf has sought to destroy the legacy of the Kennedy Presidency by paving over the Rose Garden and defacing the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

See, I don’t think Kennedy asked us to serve in the military. I think President Kennedy asked us to Love Our Country! Like the song America the Beautiful, he asked us to recognize the beauty of our home, he asked us to treasure it, he asked us to see it not as a resource to be stripped bare but the precious refuge of our grandparents and where our children rest their heads as they dream of their future. I think Kennedy voiced a challenge, a warning and a condemnation that there will come those who seek to strip our precious home like a thief in the night – a conman who lied his way past the door and is filling his pockets.

It is a sadness that so many in this beautiful home we share have determined that they can only hate the others who would hope to enjoy living here. To look upon another’s misery with spite, blaming the wounded for their wounds and glorying in the overflowing pockets of the thieves who seek to steal the silverware is a sickness that I don’t understand. I don’t understand those who say they have love in their heart yet show contempt in their words and actions for others. Especially I can not find understanding for those who claim to love Jesus yet fail in every definition of love that he gives us. Perhaps it is no wonder they are cruel, because surely their hearts are convicted and defensive in their misery as they have given away their love for their country and their Christianity for a red hat.

randy

Some Words & Some Art For Today’s Shtuff

The Naked Pastor’s art has been posted here more than once. I receive newsletters since he got off Substack, (I think that’s how it happened? Or someone on Substack linked him.) Anyway, today’s newsletter is really nice to post with today’s news. I don’t have a link for the newsletter, so I’ll copy-paste it below. This is the link to his About page on his site. His site where all the art is!💖

Now here comes the letter. Many of the links go to his art pages, or authors’s Amazon pages, and he does sell his art to sustain his work (his work is not on Amazon, to be clear.) It doesn’t hurt to windowshop, but it’s perfectly fine to not click the links (except his About page!) I wanted to say something just in case going to a page might put someone off that this is all about advertising; it’s not. Again, here’s the newsletter! (And Bless The Badass is a fine piece of art!)

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Cartoon of the Week
Bless the Badass!
I bless the badass that you are! I am so inspired by so many women to be a badass myself! (BTW… several people have commissioned me to draw “Badass” for a loved one to make the person look like them.)

Dad Joke
What if God just came down one day and said, “It’s pronounced ‘Jod’! and then left?

Quote
From an expert criminologist on violence against women: “Statistically, we know now that once the hands are on the neck, the very next step is homicide… They don’t go backwards!” – Kate Manne, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. This next one is a fascinating book because it exposes just how thoroughly embedded is the patriarchy in our thoughts, attitudes, and treatment of women. “… if a woman became pregnant following her rape, it meant she had ultimately enjoyed herself.” – Eleanor Janega, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society.

Women Suffer
The above quote about a woman getting pregnant from her rape meant that she enjoyed it is based on the “two seed theory”. This theory, which lasted more than 2,000 years, taught that the man and the woman each contributed a seed when they both orgasmed, that these two seeds mixed, and that the dominant one determined the formation of the child. The only way a woman could get pregnant then was if she orgasmed. How condemning! I believe the residue of that bad theology and science is still deeply embedded in the patriarchal psyche. Janega’s research also reveals that whenever women began to succeed, men would attempt to put an end to it. For example, it was believed that embroidery was a woman’s task. But when women began to build successful businesses by embroidering clothing for the wealthy… that is developing a fashion industry… the men took over the businesses, and put the women to work as labourers. There are so many stories like that. Interestingly, though, all of this patriarchal maneuvering is rooted in philosophy, theology, and even science. It wasn’t just the ancient philosophers who proposed and espoused the two-seed theory, but theologians like Tertullian and Augustine, and scientists like Hippocrates. The assumption was that man was the gold standard of what it meant to be a person, and women were a spin-off of that ideal and therefore second-rate. This, of course, is rooted in the creation story of Adam and Eve. But once this assumption of supremacy is embedded in our thinking, then it determines every other thought that follows. I have a personal story. Lisa and I finally got a new car… something we’ve needed for a long time. It’s a Toyota Rav4. We need a reliable All Wheel Drive because Lisa often drives to work as a nurse before the plows clear the roads of snow. I want her to be safe and secure. We love it. Or, I should say, I love it, and Lisa isn’t so sure anymore. Why? Because she can’t get the driver’s seat comfortable. I was talking to a neighbour about her work car, also a Rav4, and she said she wouldn’t get one. Why? Because she can’t get the driver’s seat comfortable. I’ve heard of a few other women with the same complaint. I googled it, and it is a thing. This reminded me of another book I read by Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed For Men. As the title suggests, the book is filled with data illustrating how the world is designed by men for men. It’s not necessarily malicious. But when a car seat used to be designed, manufactured, and tested by men, women inevitably suffered. (Is this still going on?) This included seatbelts, especially for pregnant women. As well as little things like lower temperature settings in offices where men warmly wear suits or at least sleeves, while women are expected to bare their arms, upper chests, and legs. Like I said, it’s not necessarily malicious, but women suffer as a result. Just like science believed that women could only get pregnant if they orgasmed. It wasn’t necessarily malicious, but women suffered for centuries. This is why I think it is so important to question everything, including our most cherished assumptions, and to consider the consequences these assumptions have on those around us.

So my friend, if we want to build a more just, compassionate world, we have to be willing to ask hard questions about where our ideas come from and who they are leaving out. It is not just about our personal beliefs. It is about recognizing the ripple effects those beliefs have on others. Sometimes the harm was not intentional. But it is harmful nonetheless. I say, let’s ask more questions!!!

With love,

David

https://nakedpastor.com/pages/about