Parker
@jeffparker.bsky.social
10K followers 1.4K following 13K posts
Writer of BATMAN/SILENT KNIGHT RETURNS all December long! And then the ZOOTOPIA comic in January! Join me in the fight against Motion Smoothing, heroes. In between missions I cease to exist https://www.jeffparkerwrites.com
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jeffparker.bsky.social
with a mysterious knowledge of criminals and their plans
jeffparker.bsky.social
now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time
jeffparker.bsky.social
I admit I too keep thinking of that
Reposted by Parker
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)
For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from). 

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky. Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation. 
Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy. 
A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.
jeffparker.bsky.social
not even a little bit
jeffparker.bsky.social
he's wealthy, he can afford some shoes with platforms and hidden arch boosts
Reposted by Parker
mariacfrantz.bsky.social
Treating myself to some colors todayyy
jeffparker.bsky.social
more facts like this please
jeffparker.bsky.social
now THAT. Is COSPLAY.
Reposted by Parker
stevelieberart.bsky.social
Running low on Metamorpho and Underground at @newyorkcomiccon.bsky.social ! Come get ‘em while you can! Table K-19
Reposted by Parker
davidcorn.bsky.social
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
jeffparker.bsky.social
that one was real, I've held it!
Reposted by Parker
harpua.bsky.social
Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo humorously criticizes Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, leading to laughter from CNN's Boris Sanchez.
jeffparker.bsky.social
for casual readers peeking in, that letter was a fake from a jokey website
jeffparker.bsky.social
that was directed at Ben, not Trump
jeffparker.bsky.social
your alt text should be used as the entire wiki entry on CATHY
jeffparker.bsky.social
they just left off "PLUS a 30 year old"
jeffparker.bsky.social
that guy is STILL hosting a show on a station here and he's been dead almost 30 years
jeffparker.bsky.social
I would watch THAT show
jeffparker.bsky.social
come to our plywood shanty town, Powell's Plywood Books has author signings!
jeffparker.bsky.social
I just went and picked up some Thai from the food carts, bravely