so today a public health official guy came into my class to give a lecture on disaster awareness and he was talking about house fires and mentioned that the reason people most likely die during a house fire is because they refuse to leave their pet inside or they go back to get their pet. and right when he said this my friend immediately turned his head and looked at me and in that moment I had the most complete and genuine acceptance take over my body. I would 100% in front of my family and Jesus himself walk straight back into some raging inferno that was once my house to go get my fat cat. I nodded back
the best part of this post is reading all the tags from animal people who would also go back to save their pets. like no hesitation. walk backwards from heaven straight back into hell. someone even said they would go back for their fish. amazing
President Obama explained that after last year, his daughters decided they couldn’t put up with his dad jokes, so he was joined at the pardon by his adorable two nephews! President Obama is clearly letting his full nerd hang out now. (Yes he cran!) The full video of jokes is truly worth the click.
It’s a few months after the Holy War ends, and the injuries haven’t even cleared up yet – Miranda’s wrist is wrapped, Marie’s ribs are bound, Lenalee is in a leg cast, Kanda’s shoulder is bandaged for no readily discernible reason – but everyone is smiling. It’s a relatively small service, with just the exorcists and a few members of the Science Department and other support staff they’re close to, like Head Nurse and Toma.
Tiedoll picked out Marie’s suit; it’s comfortable and flattering and easy to move in. Johnny made it, and he designed Miranda’s dress himself – it’s long and flowing, but tailored so she won’t trip over it and beaded with green and black and silver. The first time Miranda puts it on, she cries and hugs Johnny as tightly as she can.
Kanda is Marie’s best man. He only argued about it a little bit, even, but the speech he growls about, grumbles over, and practices with Allen about a dozen times before he’s sure it’s good enough.
Lenalee is the maid of honor. She was surprised but delighted, and one of the first to hear that it was taking place at all – one of the first to offer her congratulations, as well. She talks to Emilia and to Reever and to Komui about what she’s supposed to do, and outlines her speech but mostly speaks from her heart.
Timothy is the ring-bearer. He asks about a dozen questions of both of them before they’ve even gotten around to telling him that part, and he’s delighted but, of course, he gets bored easily. Still, he does his best to stay still and pay attention, and he mostly succeeds.
Link officiates. He picked up how to do so somewhere along the way, but he’s never even attended a wedding before; this is his first, too. Still, he reads everything he can and memorizes it all, and does his part without a hitch.
Komui walks Miranda down the aisle. Tiedoll offered, but Komui insisted that it was improper, since Miranda was being ‘passed’ to his family anyway. Miranda agreed to have Komui do it, and would, if asked, shyly admit to liking the implications.
Tiedoll cries through almost the entire ceremony, but when Miranda and Marie kiss, almost everyone is laughing, euphoria and relief and happiness all manifesting in this one, iconic moment, because if there’s one thing this means for all of them, it’s this:
This Thursday is Thanksgiving, a day on
which we remember an almost entirely fictional encounter between the
settler-colonists in Mâsach8sut and the local Wampanoag people. While
the details of the Thanksgiving story are largely mythical, it is
true that the settler-colonists would have died without the aid of the
Wampagoag in those first few years. If we go to the heart of the story
we’re remembering a moment where Native people helped non-Native people
survive.
Now it’s our turn.
You’ve probably heard about
the Water Protectors in North Dakota, trying with all their might and
main to stop an oil pipeline crossing the Oglala Aquifier and going
beneath the Missouri River. Millions of people downriver of the
crossing depend on the Missouri for their drinking water – the Lakota at
Standing Rock reservation would be the first and most drastically hit.
The protectors have a phrase: Mni Wiconi – Water is Life. They are
standing between the company and the river for all of us.
There
are thousands gathered at the three camps that make up the Water
Protector presence. Local law enforcement has violently tried to
disperse the camps – they have attacked Protectors with rubber bullets,
sound canons, concussion grenades, and high-pressure hoses. The Water
Protectors have done nothing wrong. The land on which the pipeline is
to be built belongs to them – the Supreme Court upheld it as such in
1980 when it agreed with the Lakota that the U.S. government had broken
the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which promised the Oceti Sakowin (the
seven council fires of the Lakota) the Black Hills region forever.
Once
again, Native people stand between non-Native people and catastrophe,
and this time we have to do more than be passively grateful. This
Thanksgiving, could you pass the hat at your dinner table for money to
send directly to the camps? If you raise $5, and everyone did it, that
would be an enormous influx of resources. Those resources would enable
camp leaders to buy the supplies that are most needed – medical
equipment (local law enforcement road blocks make getting anyone out of
the camps by ambulance very tricky); below-zero-grade sleeping bags;
camp heaters; winter-ready tents etc., as well as provide legal counsel
to those who have been arrested.
All of these have been verified – your money really is going directly to the causes listed.
Please
think about the encounter at the heart of Thanksgiving as you gather
with your nearest and dearest (and those you don’t feel so near and dear
toward) on Thursday. Give back.
“You can’t have a character with big boobs and not sexualise them”
“There aren’t any feminist female characters that want to do things that are typically feminine”
“There aren’t any badass gay characters”
“There aren’t any cool/badass disabled characters”
“Okay well what about disabled POC characters?”
“There are no interesting or complex villains! None that ever question their morals, or have an interesting motive”
“There aren’t any women characters that don’t just do things for men”
“I want a poc character that fights against racism”
“There aren’t any cool characters that aren’t young and healthy”
“There are no male characters that like feminine things”
Need I go on? Go watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.
Fullmetal alchemist also tackled the issues of imperialism, genocide, PTSD, friendly fire, racism, war brutality, and military corruption unflinchingly. “Most military commanders are killed by their own disgusted soldiers.” indeed.
May's Blog 