Dear friends,
Too often, we think in binary terms — life or death, win or lose, and so on — when the messy reality demands more from us. Today, I’d like to offer some appreciation for the people who see beyond narrow thinking to something more whole and beautiful.
Here is a heartbreakingly wonderful story of gratitude for a good life: In the last months of her young life, Casey McIntyre still found many reasons to be happy — her family, her access to medical care, her circle of friends, and the ‘extra’ months during hospice, when she was able to go to the beach, host karaoke parties at home, and write letters to her young child.
Casey wrote a message that was posted on social media after she died, to inform her friends of her own passing.
“The cause was stage four ovarian cancer,” the note read. “I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved.”
Ms. McIntyre asked for donations to a campaign to pay off the medical debt of others. By Sunday morning, the campaign had raised nearly $220,000.
That’s the way to die while loving life, to transcend the boundary between life and death.
Donate to RIP Medical Debt.
Two Israelis — one Jewish and one Palestinian — are Standing Together for peace. The mission that brought Sally Abed, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and Alon-Lee Green, a Jewish Israeli, to the US earlier this month is to talk about their lives and teach Americans about what they think of as the only way forward:
one in which millions of Israelis and Palestinians would remain on the land they each call home, and one that would require enough popular political will to demand peace.
They talked to large audiences in New York, Washington and Boston about their vision, which rejects false choices and embraces a nonbinary idea of a shared victory for peace.
Learn more about Standing Together.
Girl Scout Troop 6000, founded in 2017, is comprised entirely of girls who are experiencing homelessness or living in shelters, including 100 young people seeking asylum. The troop has also welcomed women who do not yet have work authorization the opportunity to participate as troop leaders.
It is possible to live in transitory circumstances and to belong.
For more than a century, the Girl Scouts has been dedicated to the idea that curiosity and possibility make it possible to realize one’s full potential. Note that even though the organization has ‘girl’ in its name, the troops welcome gender-expansive and trans kids.
Support Troop 6000 and the Girl Scouts.
Lena Greenberg shepherded a resolution through their Neighborhood Planning Assembly in Burlington, VT to create a welcoming space for all members of the community.
The need for the resolution arose because of some transphobic language used at meetings. Two weeks ago, I wrote about a mean email that Lena received from a Burlington neighbor after the resolution was introduced.
The language of the resolution was discussed and edited in a public meeting, where it was approved unanimously (20-0):
The Ward 5 NPA affirms that all community members, regardless of gender, gender identity or expression, sex, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, place of birth, pregnancy, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law, are fully and equally welcome at NPA-sponsored events.
All participants in NPA 5-sponsored events are called upon to respect the gender identity, including stated pronouns, of all other participants.
There is a way forward, and it requires patience, discussion, and vision. As Toshi Reagon noted at every performance of Parable of the Sower, nonbinary people have special capacity to think outside the boxes that we are generally forced to choose from. The rest of us can learn a lot by listening to them.
Yesterday, Jessica Valenti reported on a poll that found that most Americans are pro-choice. If this sounds like a contradictory cheer for binary thinking, bear with me.
Valenti noted that the poll results reveal a marked shift in views:
the majority of voters, 55%, want abortion legal “for any reason.” The poll also shows that 77% of Democrats believe abortion should be legal for any reason—up from 52% in 2016—and that 53% of Independents believe the same.
But here’s the kicker: One third of Republicans believe abortion should be legal for any reason.
Abortion has emerged as something other than the partisan issue that Republicans pretend it is. It is a life-and-death issue that has become so much clearer since so-called ‘pro-life’ advocates have jeopardized the lives of pregnant people and their tiny tenants by constraining the judgment of medical professionals and their patients.
It is possible that we can stand together for reproductive rights.
with love,
L