On Seeking Forgiveness and Being Undeserving Of It

It's funny how people didn't care that their vote would increase the cost of or outright eliminate healthcare options, terrorize communities with masked bootleg police and the U.S. military, devastate the job market, increase the cost of living, and dismantle and eliminate food assistance programs and other social services for millions of people because they somehow thought that Black folx, Brown folx, Indigenous folx, trans folx, and immigrants would be the only people harmed...until they found themselves also being hurt because, you know, all of the things mentioned above impact everyone and not just a couple of communities voters felt were expendable and disposable.

It's also funny how these same voters begged and pleaded like Keith Sweat for their president to save them for months on end, only to realize late last month that they would not be saved because their president had essentially used them to increase his wealth and power.

Hilarious.

Now, suddenly, it's y'all begging forgiveness on TikTok and Instagram for "mistakenly" voting for y'all's president (some of y'all in the last three presidential elections) and putting us in this autocracy.

Now it’s, "I made a mistake" and "We have to stick together."

Y'all can miss me with all of that.

I can care about you as a person, even if you don't care about me and mine, because I don't want to see anyone hurting and struggling. I'm a humanist and an empathic being. Even if you hate me, I want you to be okay. But let's keep it 100: you did not make a mistake. You knew what you were doing. All of you did. So nah, we are not "sticking together." I do not forgive, and I definitely will not forget.

Y'all need to learn that empathy only goes so far.

I do not have it in me to forgive you for willingly hoping others would suffer so you could thrive under a hateful regime. And I know I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Y'all expect people you harm to forgive you because you live in a country where white supremacy has trained y'all to abuse others and expect forgiveness. It ain't happenin' this time, and a bunch of y'all are starting to see this, and you're unraveling. A part of me feels sorry for you, for your despair. But it's a small part, because y'all have made it very clear that this was supposed to be your "survival of the fittest" moment and you're realizing that a whole bunch of y'all ain't the fittest. And knowing that probably sucks. But...well...

I hope that you survive what you've inflicted on all of us, because that's what I want for everyone. And most of y'all will survive because of the work and community programs created and led by the people you were hoping would be harmed by all of this. But that's all that you'll get from me, and all you should get from them. That's more than enough. And if you have a problem with hearing that?

Better go and embrace some of that greatness you voted for to keep you fed and wealthy while "liberals" decide whether to help y'all at all.

This Week's Opening Thought: October 13, 2025

This week’s opening thought - a personally hand-drawn bit of energy for a country still celebrating a national holiday based on white supremacy, colonialism, racism, and revisionist history.

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Period. Don’t be comin’ ’round here tryin’ to shout the praises of the mediocre male of pallor who “discovered America” because, and I cannot stress this enough, you can’t discover something that was already inhabited and thriving before your colonizin’ nonsense touched its soil!

Geezus.

It’s ridiculous that we’re still discussing how we should all accept the whitewashing and gaslighting of colonialism, oppression, and murder, especially around topics we all have the facts on and have had said facts at our disposal for countless decades.

Do better.


[Image description: A middle finger surrounded by a simple wreath of roses. A banner saying “Fuck Columbus” can be seen below the hand extending the middle finger.]

Image description: A middle finger surrounded by a simple wreath of roses. A banner saying “Fuck Columbus” can be seen below the hand extending the middle finger.

This Week's Opening Thought: September 29, 2025

This week's opening thought: For those not in the know, I live in "war ravaged" Portland, Oregon. You know, that place y'all's president said was on fire, overrun with violence, and 5 minutes away from devolving into Mad Max Fury Road levels of dystopia.

I was at the farmer's market Saturday morning in "war ravaged" Portland and y'all's president was right! There's just SO much danger here, y'all! Like, how am I supposed to fight these great prices on winter squash without y'all's president's help to keep me safe from getting produce right from the farmers themselves?!

Geezus christ.

If you believe that Portland is a fiery hellscape wrought with danger and violence, I've got some lakefront property in the Nevada desert to sell you for $1 a yard.

Portland has seen sizable decreases in homicides and shootings this year, down by 52% and 33% respectively from last year's numbers. Robberies and aggravated assaults? Also down. These numbers reflect one of the steepest declines among major U.S. cities surveyed regarding crime data.

So, am I scared? Do I need y'all's president to come and save me?

Hell no.

I'm not scared of folx struggling with homelessness, mental health, and addictions. Those folx need help, support, and resources, because all of those issues often stem from poverty, a lack of privilege, generational and societal trauma, and a capitalist white supremacist culture.

I'm not scared of crime in a metropolitan city. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan in the 80s and 90s. It's gonna take a lot more than the crime that Portland does struggle with to put fear in my heart regarding walking around and living in this city. And that crime? Also often stems from poverty, a lack of privilege, generational and societal trauma, and a capitalist white supremacist culture.

So no, I'm not scared living in a city where I can walk freely around downtown Portland and damn near every neighborhood I go and encounter dozens of people with clipboards seeking signatures for causes they champion before finding myself facing a potentially dangerous encounter with someone who needs our society to care about and help them.

Y'all's president could be helping Portland and countless cities across this country with funding for addiction services and addressing our ever-increasing local and national homeless crisis, but nope. He'd rather send in the National Guard to basically beat up folx with addictions, homeless folx, folx in crisis, and people peacefully protesting the inhumanity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

His goal is to make non-dangerous places supremely dangerous for everyone living and working here to feed his narrative that "liberal cities" and "antifa" are a danger to the "[U.S.] American way of life" and harm and kill folx who protest and oppose him.

Portlanders: let's not give him what he wants.

Chill.

Have a beer.

And leave 'em to record themselves picking up trash, just like they're doing in D.C.

Taxpayer dollars at work.

This Week's Opening Thought: September 22, 2025

This week's opening thought: After this past weekend's full-on hate rally masquerading as a memorial service, and seeing the sea of people of pallor who showed up to "pay their respects" to a white supremacist bigot with tears in their eyes and a distortion of the purported "values of Christianity" in their hearts, I found myself once again playing my least favorite game: What Will It Take?

What Will It Take? focuses on me asking myself one question: what will it take for people of pallor to be uncomfortable enough to feel like "enough is enough" and stand up and fight for, well, everyone? Themselves, oppressed communities, targeted communities, everyone?

I've been playing this game for at least 30 years now, y'all.

What Will It Take?

Hell if I know.

After all my years on this planet, and decades of my own learning around the intersections of white supremacy and history, I honestly have no clue what it will take to get people of pallor to recognize how dangerous this country is for marginalized, targeted, and invisible communities and decide they're ready to fight.

I have no clue what it will take for people of pallor to collectively realize that white supremacy harms them, too, and that it's time to do more than show up to a "No Kings" rally.

And I'm flummoxed when it comes to understanding what it'll take for people of pallor to realize that we've been long past "talking it out," "finding a middle ground," choosing to "not get into political conversations," and well into dealing with an escalating level of danger that will eventually subjugate, eradicate, and oppress most if not all of us.

What Will It Take?

What will it take for y’all to fight?

I honestly don't know.

Y'all do always seem more than ready to fight and "stand up" against Black and Brown folx, melanated folx, trans folx, and queer folx for pointing out the harm, hate, or discrepancies in y'all's words and actions, though.

Huh.

Guess I know the answer to the question after all.

On Kirk, Unearned Days of Remembrance, Anti-Blackness, and the United States Doing What It Always Does

TW: mentions of murder, hate, and anti-Blackness.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day didn't become a national holiday until 1983.

It took 15 years after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., - he was assassinated in 1968 - for this country to declare a national holiday in his honor. The original proposal for a national holiday in his honor was in 1968, not long after his murder. Politicians and much of the country immediately rebuked it.

It took 15 years to properly honor a man who lost his life seeking the betterment of all citizens, regardless of their race, while voraciously fighting for human rights that Black people in the United States did not have access to.

Fast forward to today, where Charlie Kirk, a white supremacist terrorist, fascist, and bigot who fomented terror on multiple communities and profited from harming other people and the subjugation of young minds, is on the verge of his birthday becoming a national holiday.

Yeah, you read that right.

Barely two weeks after he was murdered by another white supremacist bigot fascist whose ideology was that he was not hateful enough, Charlie Kirk will likely be given a national day of remembrance. And here is the kicker:

He shares a birthday with George Floyd, a man he openly mocked the death of.

And your elected Democratic officials? Most of them have already voted for or are planning to vote this into law, as many of them are scared that if they don't vote yes, their no vote “will be perceived a certain way.”

Seriously. That's what they are giving as their reason for voting yes.

Oh, and in other news, a wannabe rapper of pallor dropped a song this week glorifying lynchings and has received little to no pushback for it.

“This is not my Ameri--”

Yes, this is your America.

Quit denying it.

This is the U.S. you grew up in.

This is the country that millions of y'all have been clamoring for.

You wanted a “return to greatness.”

Feeling great yet?

Hope you enjoy your new national holiday.