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"my dad taught me to throw knives to make me less gay" 23
  • california
  • 10/19/2000
  • zzZ
  • award-winning palestinian children's illustrator baraa awoor writes:

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    "what use is it to be an illustrator of children's books when the world has sentenced the children of your country to the death penalty, to vanish, to genocide?"

    some of baraa's illustrations:

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    this is an illustration for youssef, whose mother is remembered running desperately into the hospital asking if anyone had seen a "small white boy with beautiful curly hair, his name is youssef," a description which was remembered by millions when she finally identified his body:

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    this illustration is for young omar, who was hugging his little brother and teaching him how to repeat the shahada after him (a prayer spoken by muslims before their death) as he lay on his hospital bed:

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    "we want a new year that doesn't kill us or our children, we want it a year without blood, without screaming, without pain, we want a new attempt to get our lives back, or something that resembled our life, even if life is a lie we still cling to it, return life to us—a new year's card unlike any other year:"

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  • baraa is currently fundraising to get her family of 12 out of gaza. she is a friend of mine and this is a reputable fundraiser, so please donate if you can. the egyptian government is currently charging upwards of 5,000 USD per person to get to cairo through the rafah border:

  • $76,618 / $100,000 goal

    NO DONATIONS IN 2 WHOLE DAYS - let's fix this please!!

  • 9/11 is great because they tried to turn like one instance of blowback from US Imperialism into an excuse for Forever War, only for the hyperbolic and over-saturated presentation of this "greatest tragedy of all time" to quickly lose any emotional effect on the generations too young to have understood or even witnessed it at the time. So now it's just a fucking joke to everyone like under the age of 25 (including non USamericans who learned of it through osmosis from the global hegemonic culture) and if anything has served as a jumping off point for people to learn about US imperialism (both as the cause of attacks and as actions 9/11 was used to justify) and come to oppose it. So even among like Liberals, "9/11 is funny" is just the consensus opinion and "9/11 was completely justified" isn't even that controversial. In conclusion; a merry 9/11 to all and to all a good night

  • I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but it is absolutely an example of civilizational inadequacy that only deaf people know ASL

    “oh we shouldn’t teach children this language, it will only come in handy if they [checks notes] ever have to talk in a situation where it’s noisy or they need to be quiet”

  • My mom learned it because she figured she’ll go deaf when she gets old

  • My family went holiday SCUBA diving once, and a couple of Deaf guys were in the group. I was really little and I spent most of the briefing overcome with the realization that while the rest of us were going to have regulators in our mouths and be underwater fairly soon, they were going to be able to do all the same stuff and keep talking.

  • The only reason some form of sign language is not a standard skill is ableism, as far as I can tell.

  • For anyone interested in learning, Bill Vicars has full lessons of ASL on youtube that were used in my college level classes. 

    https://www.youtube.com/user/billvicars

    and here’s the link to the website he puts in his videos:

    https://www.lifeprint.com/

  • Update: you guys this is an amazing resource for learning asl. Bill Vicars is an incredible teacher. His videos are of him teaching a student in a classroom, using the learned vocabulary to have conversations.

    Not only is the conversation format immersive and helpful for learning the grammar, but the students make common mistakes which he corrects, mistakes I wouldn’t have otherwise know I was making.

    He also emphasizes learning ASL in the way it’s actually used by the Deaf community and not the rigid structure that some ASL teachers impose in their classrooms

    His lesson plans include learning about the Deaf community, which is an important aspect of learning ASL. Knowing how to communicate in ASL without the knowledge of the culture behind it leaves out a lot of nuances and explanations for the way ASL is.

    Lastly, his lessons are just a lot of fun to watch. He is patient, entertaining, and funny. This good natured enthusiasm is contagious and learning feels like a privilege and not a chore

    And it’s all FREE. Seriously. If you’ve ever wanted to learn ASL

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    Löl

  • No. Not "LOL".

    When someone does something good, we applaud them. Even if you hate that person, otherwise why should they ever bother trying to be a 'better person". Especially if when they are being a better person, you give them shit for it, you are disincentivizing them from becoming better.

    Be better yourself.

    (I know, Dick isn't being a 'better person', he just thinks Trump is terrible for everyone, including rich assholes like himself.)

  • we probably should not be sincerely saying "Welcome to the resistance, Dick Cheney"

  • Griff, I'm a be real with you. If Adolf fucking Hitler warped in now from right before he domed himself an said "Vat is zis orange fuck? I'm telling all my Nazis to vote for anyone but him!" I'd politely swallow my fucking desire to finish doming him, shake his hand and say "Thank you Mr. Hitler."

    And then after Trump lost, I'd see to helping Hitler finish ending himself.

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    “So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in 5th grade or 4th grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?” asked state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat who taught in public schools and noted that girls as young as 10 can begin having periods.


    “It would,” McClain responded.

    Unbelievable. Link to article.

  • The first ever suicide prevention hotline was created in 1935 bevause a man conducted a funeral for a 14 year old girl who ended her life because she got her period. She didn't know what it was and assumed it was a STD. Learning about periods and sexual health is life saving. Republicans are unapologetically just evil.

  • You know, here's a thing: I went to Catholic school from age 5 to age 16. (My family's not Christian, but the local public schools weren't great, so -- )

    In 4th grade, girls were given a clear, scientific, extremely bland pamphlet about menstruation. It was Boring and Educational. There wasn't any class about it or anything -- just the pamphlet, provided in a plain manila envelope for you to take home.

    Starting in 5th grade, the school provided a small pack of pads to girls. This was probably so that anyone who unexpectedly started her period at school would have an emergency supply, but the thing was: this boring pamphlet, this pack of pads handed to you by a nun, made menstruation...so normal. It's so normal that a nun hands you a pack of pads. It's so normal that there's a boring pamphlet. It's just a thing your body does. (It's so normal that you realize, oh, nuns have periods, huh.)

    It kills me, KILLS ME, that this totally boring and bland form of education about human bodies is somehow Too Much, Too Scary, Too Sexy, for some people.

  • &.