Who can you take in? Who can you shelter? Who can you care for?
I'm not saying you have to run an underground railroad. I'm saying times are rough and are going to get rougher, and there is always someone more precarious than you. So who can you help?
Aging parent? Extra teen? Friend? A new pet?
Give to your community. Homelessness is going to be illegal, so give to orgs that help. Trans folks are in danger, so help those orgs. Give to food pantries. Give to youth programs, give to churches, give to arts programs.
You can always help *someone*.
And we are all gonna fucking need it.
Do not, ever, criticize how someone else gives help. Don't y'all at someone who fosters cats just because people are dying somewhere else. Other folks are all doing what we can, and if that person can help cats? Well, cats need help, too. So do trees, waterways, library archives, you name it.
That's my point here. Do what YOU can. Other people do what they can. Everyone cleans up their tiny corner. Everyone pulls the tiny lever they can pull. We all do this. Don't you see? That's the *point*.
We all have to do what small things we can.
Do not despair.
Do not, I beg of you, despair.
Tend your garden. Care for your kids, your elders. Give what you can. Help where and when you can. Shelter who you can.
I will not lie and say it will be okay.
But if we do nothing, it will be worse.
Be the helper, and do not despair.
right now all I seem to be able to do is get as many books about and by marginalised people in my library as possible. It seems so small and useless, but - impoverished, disabled - it seems to be what I have right now
You are fighting evil and darkness with every book you save. Every small scared person who is alone, who reads those books and chooses to live? That's a fucking life you saved. Think of how the world was changed by single texts. You are doing that.
Librarian here, it is most definitely not useless. A book that has a record of being checked out is a book that we will keep on the shelves. An author whose books are popular with our patrons is an author we will buy the next book of.
It feels a little like building walls of ice cubes against the lava flow of fascism, but maybe me doing that over here (and recruiting a few other people to do it actually) helps in some small way I can't see while other people bring in ice guns... this metaphor got away from me.
Idk if I'm buzzed yet but I keep reading ogres and I'm so confused. 💀
However on the subject of giving:
Give blood
It's free, you get cool shit, and it's guaranteed to help someone.
They also give free health reports to you afterwards and there's no discrimination in who you help nor where.
