now more than ever i want to see you gringxs be the allies you claim to be for latines. put your body where your words are, we are tired of hearing only thoughts and prayers, and justifications. if you’re a gringx (that means non-latine white person for those of you who are years behind in history), i want to see you reblog posts on how to help brazilians. i want to see you talk about how poverty, homophobia and transphobia are rising in argentina. i want you loud about the situation in venezuela, the caribbean, and all of latin america in general, and not just helping those of us who are white.
we’re tired of you demanding us to control our emotions, calling us “illegals” when we’re in “your” countries and pretending you stand with us when you talk with us on the internet while ignoring the fact that the situation in latin america is mostly your fault.
your individualism is killing people, and you don’t care. you justify your ignorance with the fact that your news system does not cover events in marginalized regions, yet ignore us when we reach out on the internet. now we’re loud and we want you to listen to our voices.
please reblog this with no commentary if you’re not latine. and, for once, pull your head out of your goddamn ass.
The brazilian dictatorship and many others in Latin American were financed and encouraged by the US just because they needed to profit from our misery, financially control the countries and impose capitalism on all of us. Hundreds of thousand of people disappeared, were tortured, murdered, raped, exiled and silenced, even children. And now, here in Brazil, 50 years after the end of one of the worst parts of our history, and, once again, mirroring and being stimulated by the US elections and the anti-communism that settled over the world (iniciated by them), we will suffer all over again.
Eleven people were killed on Saturday when a gunman entered Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire on the congregants. The victims ranged in age from 54 to 97; eight were men, three were women. Two of them were brothers, and two were a married couple.
Chuck Diamond was a rabbi at Tree of Life until about a year ago, and he remains a member of the community, living just around the corner from the synagogue. He knew many of the victims.
“These are wonderful people, good souls, who were just coming to synagogue as the usually did,” he told NPR on Sunday. “Synagogue was just getting started and mostly elderly people who come there are there at the beginning, and you could count on them every week for coming. … It’s such a crime that their lives were taken from us.”
The names of the victims were released on Sunday morning by the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner. Here are some of their stories, as we learn them.
Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill, was the oldest of the victims.
Diamond told NPR that Rose “was in her 90s, but she was one of the younger ones among us, I have to tell you, in terms of her spirit. Rose was wonderful.”
Daniel Stein, 71, lived in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He is the former president of the New Light Congregation, a Conservative synagogue that held services at Tree of Life.
He was remembered for his kindness.
“He was always willing to help anybody,” his nephew Steven Halle told TribLIVE, formerly the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He was somebody that everybody liked, very dry sense of humor and recently had a grandson who loved him.”
Melvin Wax, 88, also of Squirrel Hill, was a remembered as a pillar of the New Light Congregation.
“He was such a kind, kind person,” his friend and fellow congregant Myron Snider told The Associated Press. “When my daughters were younger, they would go to him, and he would help them with their federal income tax every year. Never charged them.”
“He and I used to, at the end of services, try to tell a joke or two to each other. Most of the time they were clean jokes. Most of the time. I won’t say all the time. But most of the time.”
Snider said Wax was a bit hard of hearing, and unfailingly attended Friday, Saturday, and Sunday services, filling in at nearly every role if someone didn’t show up.
“Just a sweet, sweet guy,” he said.
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood Borough, was a family doctor.
He practiced in a “small, cozy office in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood,” TribLIVE reporter Ben Schmitt wrote in a personal remembrance. Rabinowitz was his father’s doctor, and his own.
Schmitt recalled how his father became ill on a trip to India, and called back to Rabinowitz in Pittsburgh for advice. The doctor called his father every day for the rest of his trip to check in on his health.
“I felt like I was in such competent, caring hands,” Schmitt’s father said. “Such a kind and gentle man.”
Rabinowitz also was the personal physician to former Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Lawrence Claus, who released a statement on Sunday remembering him.
“Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz … was truly a trusted confidant and healer who could always be counted upon to provide sage advice whenever he was consulted on medical matters, usually providing that advice with a touch of genuine humor,” said Claus, according to CBS affiliate KDKA. “He had a truly uplifting demeanor, and as a practicing physician he was among the very best.”
Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal, 54, were brothers who shared an apartment in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
Raye Coffey, a close friend and former neighbor of the Rosenthals’ parents, toldTribLIVE that the Rosenthals spent a lot of time in her house when they were younger. She said the brothers faced mental challenges and were fixtures at Tree of Life, where Cecil was a greeter.
“Cecil was always a big brother. He was very warm and very loving. Whenever he would see us, he would always say, ‘Hi, Coffeys!’ ”
“David was quieter,” she said. “But both were … to die like this is horrendous.”
ACHIEVA, an organization that works with people with disabilities said that the brothers were well-respected members of its community. Chris Schopf, who runs the group’s residential programs, said the brothers never missed a Saturday at Tree of Life.
“If they were here they would tell you that is where they were supposed to be,” Schopf said in a statement. “Cecil’s laugh was infectious. David was so kind and had such a gentle spirit. Together, they looked out for one another. They were inseparable. Most of all, they were kind, good people with a strong faith and respect for everyone around.”
Bernice Simon, 84, and Sylvan Simon, 86, of Wilkinsburg were remembered by neighbors as sweet, kind, and generous.
They were married at the Tree of Life synagogue in December 1956, according to TribLIVE.
“A loving couple and they’ve been together forever,” longtime friend and neighbor Michael Stepaniak told the news site. “I hope they didn’t suffer much and I miss them terribly.”
Joyce Fienberg, 75, lived in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, and grew up in Toronto. She had two sons and was remembered as a proud grandmother.
“[She was] the most amazing and giving person,” her brother, Bob Libman, told the CBC.
Fienberg was a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center for more than 25 years.
In a statement on Sunday, the center called her “a cherished friend” and “an engaging, elegant, and warm person.”
Gaea Leinhardt, professor emerita at Pitt, called Fienberg her best friend and told The Washington Post that she had a way of putting teachers at ease when she visited their classrooms.
“She was very intellectual,” Leinhardt said. “But also people would just always open up to her in a very easy way. She was an ideal observer.”
Her husband, internationally celebrated statistician Stephen Fienberg, died in 2016.
Leinhardt told the Post that Fienberg had been especially involved at Tree of Life since her husband’s death. “I just can’t say how terribly sad I am that this person isn’t in the world anymore.”
Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township, shared a dentistry practice with his wife.
The two met as dental students at the University of Pittsburgh, the Post reports, and they volunteered with Catholic Charities’ dental clinic. He was said to be an avid runner and had been going to services at Tree of Life more often recently.
Irving Younger, 69, ran a real estate business in Squirrel Hill for many years, and was also a youth football and baseball coach.
Tina Prizner, who lived next door to Younger in the Mt. Washington neighborhood, remembered him as “the most wonderful dad and grandpa” and as a devoted member of his congregation.
“He went every day. He was an usher at his synagogue, and he never missed a day,” she told TribLIVE. “He was a beautiful person, a beautiful soul.”
“This takes a position that what the medical community understands about their patients — what people understand about themselves — is irrelevant because the government disagrees,” said Catherine E. Lhamon
The Trump Administration is trying to define us trans folk out of existence- but we DO exist, we HAVE existed, and we sure as hell will CONTINUE to exist! Please, make sure you get out and vote, bring attention to trans voices, and support us wherever you can!
Now is a good time to remind people that it’s almost impossible to reverse climate change. If we were to start releasing zero greenhouse gasses now (which is impossible) it would STILL take decades or even centuries to see effects.
So the goal isn’t ‘stopping’ it, it’s attempting to avoid the worst possible results. You can hardly call it combatting at this point.
What we have to do is live with what we have—ensure people have access to food, shelter, etc during disastrous weather events. Food insecurity is and will be more of a huge problem. This is where capitalism fails. The number of people hungry/malnourished is increasing. We have the money and tools, but not the system to feed people.
im just really mad bc people in this fandom will get so fucking heated over mixed-race headcanons and assume that every darkskinned edit of a character just automatically means they’re black and that so-and-so isn’t black/more unsavory words and they’ll defend it until they’re frothing at the mouth. all that really says is that you people think that being black is really the worst thing you can be and we’re the only ones willing risk whatever reputations we have in, whatever semblance of respect people may have for us, because we’re already crossing the line by being black, in order to defend ourselves
People also seem to think that when facing these types of people, it’s a lot better to be funnie than you know,,,stand up for people. Being funny gains them brownie points. But I’ll be damned if anyone actually tries talking seriously for a second on an issue they seem to care so much about.
i think people should be more aware of the fact that all the regular citizens who helped jewish people escape the country or openly mocked hitler or simply didnt join the military were committing a crime
i often hear people talking about how they would love to help the syrian refugees in europe or do something against trump to help the immigrants but they dont because theyre scared of what others will say about them / because its hard and complicated / because they dont want to get in unnecessary trouble like im absolutely not trying to guilt anyone here but did you really think that working against fascism would be easy or legal in any way? did you think that those germans who hid jewish people or who protested against hitler did so because it was easy and completely safe? of course not but they still did it! they were completely unaffected by hitlers regime and could have lived peacefully (until the war at least) but they sacrificed that and put their lives at danger for the right thing. and despite being traitors they were still treated better in jails and camps than the groups the nazis originally persecuted
so yeah you do have many things to lose – actually less than before bc helping refugees isnt illegal yet – when you actively stand against the norm but looking at the big picture (yknow, helping people survive under a fascist government) it really is a small price to pay
theres something that feels very colonial/imperialist about superfood fads
the idea that a rare and exotic grain or berry from some pristine Ecuadorian mountain or a salt slab from “the himalayas”(those are all mined in Pakistan) will suddenly cure you with their magical benefits is all pseudoscience. eating more fresh produce is definitely good but the “magical nutrients” of those superfoods are no different than common produce, and there’s no food that makes you slimmer that’s not how calories work, its snake oil. and it causes damage from overfarming and making a once staple food in a community inaccessible when its value soars, leaving them open to predation from food giant.
anyways i’m just tired of Bethany from facebook bragging about “discovering” the health magic of some new plant from cambodia or whatever, but in reality it’s advertisers making this shit tantalising to justify an insane price markup of a superfood and playing to that colonial mindset that things from a foreign far away land used traditionally by its natives is instantly mystical and cool so you want it. frankly it reminds of the victorian’s egyptomania craze when people believed in the health properties of mummies
I spend so much time trying to stay under the radar of t/erfs and when you some of you get into debates with them that are just you replying with a dumbe meme or something to their arguments it doesn’t look good…. you’re not really defending trans women. Mocking t/erfs can only do so much, don’t engage with terfs on serious posts of theirs unless you actually plan to defend trans women. And when a trans women actually steps up to say something serious NONE OF YOU back up her up and it’s just so disappointing.
I feel the mountains burn inside 