http://adiaryofamom.com/2015/07/29/to-prove-that-you-exist/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2xi9mhmuo
Who is next in your parade?
What human will you place upon display?
Why stop with these, the least of us;
Why not go to the ones who scream?
Who is next, in your parade?
What human will you place upon display?
When will you stop, or do you keep going;
Let them know, without them knowing?
Who is next in your parade?
What human will you place upon display?
How does one comprehend
The consequences of current actions?
http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/photo/lc/image/27/27041.jpg
http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/images/footprint%20BW%20shoes.jpg
http://blogs.reuters.com/yourtake/files/2009/01/yvauschwitz.jpg
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
http://liveactionnews.org/7-shocking-quotes-by-planned-parenthoods-founder/
Martin Niemöller:
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak for me."
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3027
It began and has never stopped.
Hatred that burns, that flies.
The only option:
To take away rights,
To take away personhood,
To deny those who are different
Love, respect, shelter.
Listen.
Quietly.
Do not allow this cycle to continue.
It is here, it is loud.
One day you'll be different:
The one on display,
And one day: nobody will speak out for you.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
All Lives Matter
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sn4b25
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/07/21/espns-stephen-a-smith-defends-omalley-black-lives-matter-only-when-were-killed-by-somebody-whos-not-black/ or http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/21/espn-analyst-stephen-a-smith-takes-shots-at-blacklivesmatter-protesters/ (same video, two different places)
All lives matter.
Autistic lives matter.
Young lives matter.
Old lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Every life, in every place; it all matters.
Speak more in caring.
Screw the political agenda.
All lives matter.
We all deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Every. Last. One.
Regardless of inner or outer workings.
The one exception is if we rape or murder.
But.
All lives matter.
There's my mantra.
#BlackLivesMatter
But so does every other life.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/07/21/espns-stephen-a-smith-defends-omalley-black-lives-matter-only-when-were-killed-by-somebody-whos-not-black/ or http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/21/espn-analyst-stephen-a-smith-takes-shots-at-blacklivesmatter-protesters/ (same video, two different places)
All lives matter.
Autistic lives matter.
Young lives matter.
Old lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Every life, in every place; it all matters.
Speak more in caring.
Screw the political agenda.
All lives matter.
We all deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Every. Last. One.
Regardless of inner or outer workings.
The one exception is if we rape or murder.
But.
All lives matter.
There's my mantra.
#BlackLivesMatter
But so does every other life.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Differences in a Brain
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/psychopaths.htm
http://www.springhole.net/writing/writing-mentally-ill-and-insane-characters.htm
http://www.springhole.net/other/how-it-feels-to-be-a-bigot.htm
Number one rule: People.
You are writing, first and foremost, people. Not plot, not romance, not anything else - people.
People who have different views, beliefs, and even differently wired brains.
Talk to people with these different views and beliefs and neurotypes. Keep an open mind. Learn from your mistakes.
I've recently made an autistic character, Analise. She's 18, lives with her mom, and fixates on glass and color. To her, rainbow arrangements of color - the way the light moves through colored glass - that is something so unbelievably amazing and fascinating. It'd be like me being able to see a glory of unicorns or group of dragons.
I've taken this from reading a crapton of autism blogs, regularly getting advice from a fellow roleplayer who also happens to be autistic, and from finding Analise. My goal may have been to create an autistic character, but I'd still have an "Analise" if I took away her autism. An Analise who might have less trouble getting words out and won't have her fascination with blown glass, but still an Analise interested in learning.
When you're writing a character with a different world view than you, you need to realize that. When you don't have depression, you need to make a person that can be separated from their depression: a different person, but still the same.
This might sound contradictory, but life's experiences are what makes us. If I wasn't anxious and depressed, I would be less empathetic and emotionally invested in others. I would be more outgoing. But I would still be me.
Or we can go deeper.
If Analise wasn't autistic/didn't have autism (whichever you prefer), she would have been bullied for different reasons (because, let's be real here, everyone gets bullied at least a little), she would never find her love and fascination she finds in glass decorations and with prisms and light, she would be a different Analise.
If I didn't have depression I would be a lot more outgoing. I wouldn't see or recognize people that didn't have as many friends. I would sit at busy tables and never have my times alone in quiet introspection. In short, I would be entirely different.
That is the precarious balance you must maintain: people. Make people. People who are the way they are because of their experiences in life. People who are people because of their hopes and dreams and experiences.
Don't make the disease or different neurotype or whatever. Make a person who has it. Who could have that particular thing taken away and be themselves, but would also have lost experiences that make them who they are.
So many people would be different.
Oh, yes.
You wanna know the most important thing? When you're trying to make someone different? Who maybe has stigma because of what they were born with, what life gave them?
DO NOT PERPETUATE STEREOTYPES.
Don't make a violent schizophrenic or a depressed person who is actively depressed in a social situation surrounded by veritable strangers or an autistic way into coding and programming or something off the wall.
Just.
No.
Fail.
Go away.
You embarrass me.
Make a schizophrenic who forgets to turn off the oven because they think someone else has got it, or a depressed person who confides in their closest friend, or an autistic person infatuated with writing. Make someone who has one or more of these issues and is a famous doctor or a famous scientist or even a politician.
That's the thing.
You can overcome whatever life throws at you. Nobody is a stereotype.
http://www.springhole.net/writing/writing-mentally-ill-and-insane-characters.htm
http://www.springhole.net/other/how-it-feels-to-be-a-bigot.htm
Number one rule: People.
You are writing, first and foremost, people. Not plot, not romance, not anything else - people.
People who have different views, beliefs, and even differently wired brains.
Talk to people with these different views and beliefs and neurotypes. Keep an open mind. Learn from your mistakes.
I've recently made an autistic character, Analise. She's 18, lives with her mom, and fixates on glass and color. To her, rainbow arrangements of color - the way the light moves through colored glass - that is something so unbelievably amazing and fascinating. It'd be like me being able to see a glory of unicorns or group of dragons.
I've taken this from reading a crapton of autism blogs, regularly getting advice from a fellow roleplayer who also happens to be autistic, and from finding Analise. My goal may have been to create an autistic character, but I'd still have an "Analise" if I took away her autism. An Analise who might have less trouble getting words out and won't have her fascination with blown glass, but still an Analise interested in learning.
When you're writing a character with a different world view than you, you need to realize that. When you don't have depression, you need to make a person that can be separated from their depression: a different person, but still the same.
This might sound contradictory, but life's experiences are what makes us. If I wasn't anxious and depressed, I would be less empathetic and emotionally invested in others. I would be more outgoing. But I would still be me.
Or we can go deeper.
If Analise wasn't autistic/didn't have autism (whichever you prefer), she would have been bullied for different reasons (because, let's be real here, everyone gets bullied at least a little), she would never find her love and fascination she finds in glass decorations and with prisms and light, she would be a different Analise.
If I didn't have depression I would be a lot more outgoing. I wouldn't see or recognize people that didn't have as many friends. I would sit at busy tables and never have my times alone in quiet introspection. In short, I would be entirely different.
That is the precarious balance you must maintain: people. Make people. People who are the way they are because of their experiences in life. People who are people because of their hopes and dreams and experiences.
Don't make the disease or different neurotype or whatever. Make a person who has it. Who could have that particular thing taken away and be themselves, but would also have lost experiences that make them who they are.
So many people would be different.
Oh, yes.
You wanna know the most important thing? When you're trying to make someone different? Who maybe has stigma because of what they were born with, what life gave them?
DO NOT PERPETUATE STEREOTYPES.
Don't make a violent schizophrenic or a depressed person who is actively depressed in a social situation surrounded by veritable strangers or an autistic way into coding and programming or something off the wall.
Just.
No.
Fail.
Go away.
You embarrass me.
Make a schizophrenic who forgets to turn off the oven because they think someone else has got it, or a depressed person who confides in their closest friend, or an autistic person infatuated with writing. Make someone who has one or more of these issues and is a famous doctor or a famous scientist or even a politician.
That's the thing.
You can overcome whatever life throws at you. Nobody is a stereotype.
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