A poem based on this article.
Having kids is hard
Difficult on both parents
Sleepless nights…and days
All bleed together
A cacophony of stress
That saps energy
Babies, though, are great
With chubby cheeks and fat feet
But…we’re still tired
Four weeks? Laughable
Healing takes longer than that
Both emotional
And then physical
For a country so obsessed
With the birth of babes
It should be easy
To both have a baby and
Have time with baby.
New energy source.
Renewable energy.
Sounds pretty great right?
Of course it sounds great
We all want to fix the world
But…what is the cost?
“Future Energy”
Also means “future profits”
And…exploitation
When there’s money made
There’s people to profit from
And land to ruin
It’s not the future
If old practices are used
We must do better
Beginning today
I will post haiku format
For most my blog posts.
Haikus are Easy
Time is a commodity
One which I don’t have
The blogs that I post
Will still revolve around news
But…digestible.
On October 25, the New York Times released a visual story on their Instagram page with pictures and short blurbs of men and women who were making the choice not to get vaccinated. The stories discuss their reasons which ranged from hesitancy regarding the safety of the vaccine to fears about breastfeeding to religious reasons.
However, what they did not include were pictures and short blurbs about men and women who could not* get vaccinated. This is an important part of the puzzle and leaving out this piece of information glorifies the idea of choice, rather than the idea of social need.
Because you see, by choosing for non-medical purposes to refuse the vaccine, the unvaccinated are making a choice for those who can’t get the vaccine for medical purposes.
*The Times did release an opinion piece that went into more detail – but let’s be real, people get their news from social media
Before I go further, I want to note that I’m very aware of the barriers that prevent people in the United States from getting the vaccine. Not having a car, living in a rural space, communities mistrusting medical providers for various reasons – I understand these. Additionally, there’s been a raft of misinformation – largely for political purposes – regarding the Coronavirus and Vaccines. I get it. Don’t at me.
Recently I had a student break down in my class because his mask broke. He’s a student with underlying medical conditions already. As he descended into panic mode, he told me he was afraid he was going to die because he was only able to get one shot. He had a bad reaction to the first one, and the doctor said he couldn’t get the second. This wasn’t a choice that he and his family made – they tried to protect him. However, he’s only partially vaccinated because of necessity, not a choice.
The conversation regarding vaccination often revolves around those who are making a choice to remain unvaccinated. I think this is in an effort to humanize and understand the various reasons so many refuse the vaccine. However, there are people who actually can’t get vaccinated. Up until recently, that meant any child under the age of 12. It also means those who had an allergic reaction to the first shot, those who are undergoing chemotherapy, or those who have other underlying health conditions.
This is important because vaccination provides a shield for the most vulnerable people in the nation. While an unvaccinated person may feel comfortable taking risks with their own health and their family’s health; those who can’t get vaccinated are forced to remain in isolation. Telling the stories of the vaccine-hesitant glorifies that choice, and leaves out an incredibly important piece of the puzzle.
The unvaccinated are preventing children from going to school, preventing families from seeing their loved ones, and very literally may cause the death of another person.
The voices of the medically vulnerable deserve to be heard. Large news outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times should do better, and flip the narrative.
And, if you aren’t vaccinated. You should get vaccinated.
Wisconsin’s Senate has passed a bill that will allow 14-year-olds to work until 11 PM in the evening. They’ve done this in an apparent attempt to “fix the labor shortage” during a pandemic that’s seen the loss of over 700,000 men and women, many of them within working age.
I want to note, this bill has not been passed as a law, however, I want to talk about it because if it passes, this law will have ramifications greater than just “the parent for this kid is up late picking them up.”
On a school night, the bill would allow a 14-year-old to work until 9:30 PM, on a non-school night, the child could work until 11:00 PM. Federal law mandates children stop working at 9pm during the summer, and 7pm for the rest of the year. Children could still only work three hours on a non school day – but Federal law currently allows teens to work eight hours on weekends, and up to six days a week.
Apparently, proponents of the bill (in tourism no less) think that putting teens to work will solve the labor shortage. Obviously, they’ve never worked with teens.
In practice, what this means is they want children to fill low skill, low wage, menial jobs that adults don’t currently want to work, and they want to continue to pay the barest wages possible. For the record, I don’t know full motivations, however, I think the idea that it would “plug the labor shortage” is laughable. I love teens, I work with them, I have 4 of them myself, but getting them to do anything well is a labor of love. Might as well just do it yourself (or pay better wages and have an adult do it).
Obviously, this bill targets teens most in need of work. This means financially disadvantaged teens, or children who are working to help support a family. Yes, this happens, especially if students are citizens, but parents are not.
In practice, keeping a teen until 11 PM, or allowing them to work as early as 6 AM, will impact them socially, emotionally, and academically. They’ll be prevented from completing homework, lose sleep, which will affect their academic performance, and lose valuable social opportunities with friends and family.
All for what? So some hotel can pay a 14 year old 7.25 an hour to clean rooms? So that some restaurant can split tips with a 14 year old bus kid?
There are deep ramifications on an individual level for teens, but also on a societal level. Privileged students already don’t have to work, and if they do – they don’t have to start at 14. They have access to opportunities already. Putting 14 year olds at work until 11 PM will degrade the laws already in place that protect literal children from the greed of corporations. This means a widening of the gap that’s already created between rich and poor.
This is important, and it could set a precedent. It should be noted, and you should fight in your community for labor laws that protect children.
On Monday, the nation celebrated what is now proclaimed as Indigenous Peoples day. Previously, it was called Columbus day. The name of this day has been the cause of quite a bit of controversy over the years, but while the name change is a good step forward, it doesn’t really do anything actionable for Indigenous People in the United States. Americans will continue to receive the day off whether they call it Columbus Day or Indigenous People day, and the worst kinds of these people will whine about the name change.
It is well documented that Columbus is the worst. He stumbled into what is modern day Bahamas by luck and/or accident. He wrote about how he planned to enslave the people he encountered, and he was so awful that he was brought home in disgrace and jailed. There’s no real argument that he was awful.
The argument comes in whether we can judge him for how shitty he was.
This is something that comes up a lot when people talk about history. I say something like “UGH, I HATE Columbus.” And, inevitably, some dude bro (probably Deuce) says “ok, but you can’t judge someone in history based on modern day values.” As though it was perfectly fine to rape, murder, exploit, and enslave people (it may surprise to you find out there were laws back then.)
You too, may have run into this problem when talking about history. This idea, that we can’t judge historical actors is usually a bad argument. It’s an attempt to shut down the conversation while still uplifting one of the “hero’s” of history that’s on the decline. Because here’s the thing, it’s true that we shouldn’t judge historical actors based on our modern day values (though there’s another argument about “progress” in there somewhere). However, we CAN judge historical actors based on how contemporaries judged them.
Take Columbus for example. I’ve already mentioned that the Spanish monarchs had him jailed for tyranny he was doing in the new colonies. But if we only talk about colonizers, then we are missing a large part of the story.
The argument of “you can’t judge someone on modern day values” excludes the judgement of people who were colonized, enslaved, and exploited. It takes away their agency and their story. The Indigenous People of what became the Bahama’s weren’t like “Oh hi, yes, please! Take my land, take my labor, take my body!” NO, they resisted. They did not want Columbus to exploit them. Their voices matter, and the argument of “don’t judge” ensures that the voices of victims remain obscured.
People who were exploited, colonized, enslaved – all of them resisted. Their constant, daily resistance was a judgement against their exploiters. They judged Columbus, just as enslaved people judged their enslavers.
So, when someone is shitty in history, your first thought should not be “Yes, well he was shitty but…” *gestures* “It was the 1500’s” *shrug*. Your thought should be, “how did people resist this exploitation?” Because guaranteed, the people being exploited did not want to be exploited. They had agency, and they absolutely judged.
Part of growing up is complicating the stories you thought were true. That includes the people who were pitched to us as historical hero’s. We can and should judge them, and we do that by listening to the voices of the exploited. As a nation, and as a people, this is the only way we can “progress.”
Hipstory 