These might be the good old days. Go outside, feel the grass, say wassup to your neighbors,… whatever you do that means community, because sh*t might get bad for a while.
I didn’t vote because the lack of domestic violence protections in my state mean that I have been working 7 am - 9 pm every day for the past two weeks. I live in Oklahoma, so voting is pissing in the ocean. There’s a good chance I’ll be murdered or arrested for existing in the next year!
Oh, well good Palestinians and Ukrainians (and afterwards likely many other Europeans) will be dying in the masses. You could’ve had problems faking a sick leave.
I work for a charter school, which means I have no sick leave. I also tutor, and don’t get paid if I don’t tutor. I’ve been working usually 8 am to 9 pm for about the past three months.
I also live in the only state that’s counties are 100% red. Part of the reason that I work so much is that there are no legal protections for my employment, housing, or even just discrimination in divorce court ❤️ I’m hopelessly in debt and genuinely terrified for my life, because I do a lot of work with children in rural areas and a cop could very easily rape and murder a transgender man with no consequences out there.
I do deeply care about what is happening in Palestine and Ukraine; my vote in a state which doesn’t recognize me as a human being doesn’t usually matter anyway.
Fun story - in high school, I did a lot of volunteering for a city council run in my city. The person running was a lesbian - she wasn’t out publicly - but it was pretty important to me after a kid at my high school killed himself after a horrific city council meeting over a pride month proclamation. We worked our asses off, the opponent barely campaigned and was fucking unhinged.
The day before the election, he sent out an illegal flyer. It said something like “sex, lies, and we wish we had a videotape!” They outed her the day before, and she lost.
I’ve knocked a lot of doors in my life. I can tell you confidently that my vote will never matter in Oklahoma, just like my personhood doesn’t. I’m sorry I didn’t perform my civic duty, but I’m working on some of those earlier levels of Maslow’s needs right now.
What about what I wrote made that come across as a choice? I haven’t had time to clean the puke that’s been festering in my bathroom for weeks. I don’t have time to do the dishes. I work and work and work, and it is killing me. I would have loved to have had the time to stand in line and vote, if just for the break.
