A little less than four years ago, @mostlybree.kitrocha.com said "what if we do an auction for the Georgia runoff?" and she and I batted the idea back and forth and picked a name and got a domain name and I woke up the next day and made a logo and got emails and a twitter account.
By the end of the day we'd smashed our total funding goal. By the end of the auction, we'd raised close to $500,000 dollars, and we keep coming back to it every two years because it raises money and it brings people together.
We have never been alone: one of Bree's big selling points was "I know a bunch of people on the Discord who are willing to help," and boy were they ever. We knew romance would pitch in with items and spreading the word.
It's been a team effort since the beginning.
But it all came from that evening when we all realized that the Senate was going to hang on the Georgia runoffs--feeling helpless, and then saying, "no, let's do something."
Doing things--finding your team, finding your community--is magical.
The feeling of helplessness is there to remind you to find your tiny corner of the world where you have that, where you can pitch in and do something.
LIke you so eloquently said in The Suffragette Scandal, it can feel like we're emptying the Thames with a thimble, but when we are all doing it together they're no telling what we can accomplish! How many gardens we can water in the meantime.
Not only do many hands make light work, the community you build is what makes the fight worthwhile to begin with.
Social justice is actually just about the friends you make & help along the etc
This is so true. A few years ago I found a local group working on various social justice issues. We try to make rent here more affordable and house the homeless and protect kids in the justice system. Incremental change gained painfully, but it helps a bit to know I'm doing *something*.
Last year, they asked me to write and submit their official testimony in support of protecting trans health care in our state. It was a small thing, but it made me feel good to represent several thousand Jews in Maryland saying "We *will* protect these people."
Incremental change looks tiny when judged by all the things that need to be done, but for the people you do house and the kids you protect, the difference is life-changing.
That matters. Those people matter.
After years of work, we got a rent cap passed in the county. If even a few people can stay in their home because of it, it will be worth all the hours we spent. We lost on juvenile justice (mostly) but we'll be back next year to try again. And every year until it's done.
Yup! Not as low as we wanted, but 3% + CPI per year, so at least it's predictable and folks can plan. And there's lots of stuff in the bill about "yeah, if we find out you're not in compliance with code, you can kiss your rent increase goodbye". Also, cap on random fees!
THIS. Keeps me going too. The long-term goal is to eradicate the immigration system, but in the meantime, every kiddo we get out of detention and reunited with family is a huge win. Every regulation we get revised to respect children's rights and identity is a win.
Thank YOU! We partner with folks doing juvenile justice and housing work across the country, because everything complicated (which is any kiddo we appoint to, we take the hard messy cases slipping through the cracks) takes community. ❤️
