Add me to the count: monicocelot.ghost.io/take-it-to-t...

I'm glad I'm not the only one. So much is shifting underneath our feet. Finding shared understanding in a time like this feels essential

40th Ward Ald. Andre Vazquez is up next.

“I’ve never been prouder to be a Chicagoan in my life. … Come to Chicago and you’ll realize what greatness in this county looks like,” he says, riffing off MAGA. “Chicago is a welcoming city unless you’re a fascist.”

You can arrest us or pepper spray us or whatever, but we will make you look stupid and feel silly doing it because wanting to assert control is stupid. You want to assert control? Do it to an inflatable frog!
So, it’s not just a meme thing, it’s a Portland cultural thing.

@govpritzker.illinois.gov owns every arrest and act of violence against protesters this morning. He is aiding and abetting Operation Midway Blitz by allowing state cops to do this. He tells us to film ICE. His cops have shoved me around for filming this morning.

@emanabdelhadi.bsky.social tells these cops about themselves.

So, Chicago, thwart. Thwart like lives depend on it because they do.

This was long and nobody'll read the whole thing, but man it felt good to write because, for the time being, LA fucking won.

11/end

That’s what time it is on the clock of the world, and it’s what time it is in Chicago. I’m not made of steel. I can feel the anxiety of this moment. But I can honestly say there’s no place I would rather lock arms and hold the line than here, in the city I love—in this place where I belong.

We have three urgent requests today:

1. Contribute to a trusted org or individual fundraiser. Don't keep scrolling..

We know that the many requests can get overwhelming - like your contribution won't make a dent. But we have strength in numbers.

Here is one: chuffed.org/project/1132...

I am full of a horrible dread and grief because of who it's too late for and what's coming.

But we don't have to fail everyone.
There are so many precious lives we could act to save and care for.

we should invite them in, feel our way towards them, & identify what it is they are motivating us to do. I think they lead us to courage, rage, & the kind of sacred care for life which gives our bodies the best ideas for what to do next. I hope we can save as many of our comrades as possible. (2/)

It couldn't be clearer now that no more analysis is needed. All of the people in Gaza reaching a starvation point of no return. What we need is courage and fight. I wrote this because I am trying to figure out how we find it, together. Desperation & grief at this horror are rooting into us (1/)

When we told our Death Panel listeners that we were having a baby, hundreds of people wrote in to say some version of the same thing: that knowing, loving & raising children had further radicalized them. That it exposed how much of the world is built to punish vulnerability and make care impossible.