Dear friends,
Two towns in Washington State have acknowledged the legal rights of southern resident orcas, recognizing that the whales are home and that existing protections are inadequate. The nonbinding resolution proclaims:
The rights of the Southern Resident Orcas include, but are not limited to, the right to life, autonomy, culture, free and safe passage, adequate food supply from naturally occurring sources, and freedom from conditions causing physical, emotional or mental harm, including a habitat degraded by noise, pollution and contamination.
I have written on multiple occasions of the power in a declaration to inspire action and shape the future. So, three cheers for Gig Harbor and Port Townsend; asserting the rights of nature is an urgently-needed
step towards reorienting humanity’s relationship with nature and moving toward the reality that humans are part of nature.
Humans are finding common ground on iNaturalist, where the desire for recognition, understanding, and consensus — when identifying plants, animals, fungi, and so forth — has prevailed over the impulse to insist on the correctness of one’s own position.
“Here you have a site where people are trying, together, to collectively establish what’s true,” said Jevin West, a data scientist at the University of Washington who studies methods to combat misinformation on social networks. He added: “We don’t have a lot of good examples of that.”
In Warsaw, Poland — where hundreds of thousands of Jews once lived — there is a bakery making Jewish specialties. Justyna Kosmala, an owner and culinary advisor of the small chain of Charlotte bakeries, expresses her hope:
“Maybe common, everyday life things, like food that we had in common, will draw us together.”
The inspiring activists of the WNBA are not done campaigning just because they got BG out of Russia. And the People’s Champion, Lizzo, turned an honor bestowed on her back onto people who are working for a shared future that the rest of us can’t necessarily see. . .yet.
As heartened as I am by these indications that people are trying to repair and build new connections, there has been an explosion of hate speech on Twitter.
The explosion of the term groomer particularly rankles, as it is directed at queer and trans people, who are already endangered by targeted violence.
I decided to make a Christmas card for MTG and reach across the vast ideological divide between us to connect with her as a mom.
Send a Christmas card to MTG. Feel free to use or adapt my text.
A friend warned me not to attach myself to outcomes (i.e. MTG will never read my card and even if she does, she’ll probably mock it).
One great thing about being a doctor of futurology is that you know that you don’t know what will happen; in addition to the likely, possible, and preferable outcomes, I like to visualize "‘wildcards’, which are low-probability, high-impact events.”
My springling Lena — farmer, writer, and very trans person — often reminds me of Adrienne Maree-Brown’s idea that
So, keep visualizing a future in which the wildcards get played to produce a preferable outcome.
Some MTA board members are calling on elected officials to fund public transit as the essential service that it is. This is a solid idea, long overdue. One exciting feature of the discussion is that there’s support for free bus service!
“Not only do I think it’s not a pipe dream, it’s a necessity in post-COVID New York,” John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union and an MTA board member, told THE CITY. “What are they going to do, keep raising the fare until they ice out the people they want to use the transit system?”
The union head tweeted last week that transit service should be built into the tax base, noting that “We don’t pay cops or firefighters per use and our children don’t pay to enter schools” and adding, “We need safe, reliable Mass Transit with no fare” along with a thumbs-up emoji.
Fellow futurologists: Urge the MTA to chart a preferable outcome — free bus service for NYC.
I spent the morning with some outstanding people at the relaunch of the Fair Pay for Home Care campaign.
Karines Reyes, Assembly member from District 87 in the Bronx, spoke of her own experience as an RN. She pointed out that patients are frequently discharged with complex needs. She urged us to professionalize the work of home caregivers, who are part of the health care system.
Linda Rosenthal, of Manhattan’s AD 67, remarked that
Home care workers become part of our family. They see you at your worst, and they help you to be and feel your best. They deserve a raise.
Jumaane Williams, who never fails to turn up at events for this campaign, reminded us that we are all
one incident away from being disabled.
He encouraged us to look at the folks who rely on home care as if they are our brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandfathers, because we want them to be able to stay home and be comfortable.
And that brings me to the golden thread that binds us all together.
Listen to Pete Seeger.
This afternoon, the president signed the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying federal recognition of LGBTQ+ and interracial marriages. It was a jubilant signing ceremony.
Have a great evening!
with love,
L