Im Inspired By The Love People Have For Their Children. And Im Inspired By My Own Children, How Full

“I’m inspired by the love people have for their children. And I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.” - President Barack Obama

The SPLC has released a wonderful guide to speaking up about bigotry.

The responses are direct, gentle, and very good.  It has sections for family, friends, coworkers, and self.

Please read it, please spread the link, please keep this link around as reference.  Everyone needs to see this.  It is very important that we arm ourselves that we may be better able to address the casual hateful speech many of us are likely to encounter.

One of the most effective tools at our disposal is protecting the area around us, and making sure that things like this said within earshot of us will not go unchallenged.

Do what you can, but also stay safe.

we have to assume that this isn’t the end. being fatalistic is easy, and feels almost good, but fundamentally, it gets us nothing. i believe in our ability to make things better. i believe that we are strong, that every oppressed and downtrodden individual in this country is strong and beautiful and deserves more. i love you all and i think we can make this better.

Hi Sam! I've been a lurker since back in the LJ days, and first off, I just wanted to thank you for all that you do. Second, in the wake of the election, I want to set up recurring donations to a few nonprofits that are doing work that I want to support and that may soon be in serious jeopardy. This is the first time in my life I'm really financially solvent enough to do much donating, though -- do you have any tips for how to evaluate which organizations are most effective?

Aw, hello longtime lurker! 

This is an ongoing debate in the NFP world, Anon, because it really is very difficult to evaluate charities even when they are transparent, and “effective” has different meanings for different people. CharityNavigator.org scores charities based on a number of factors, and these scores have been alternately praised and vilified, but they’re really the only game in town that I’m aware of (being clear: this is not actually my specialty, so there maybe others that people will want to recommend). 

I don’t recommend using CharityNavigator to find a charity, necessarily, though you can. I recommend finding a charity via other methods and then if you’re still uncertain, going to CN to vet it – to have a look at how it spends its money and how transparent it is. For example, the Salvation Army for many years has refused to provide its tax documents for evaluation. As a religious organization, they’re within their rights to do so, but the fact that they don’t is highly suspect because it means they don’t want you seeing where their money goes. Any religious charitable organization that doesn’t make its financials available is automatically super suspect in my book. 

Conversely, if you do go to CharityNavigator, please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because a charity spends a significant amount on administrative or operational costs, it’s a bad charity – people who work in not for profit have to eat, and attracting talented fundraisers is not cheap. Obviously if that’s where 90% of the money goes it’s no good, but a decent slice of the pie chart should be paying the salary of the people who work there. 

So to find a good charity to support, I would start by asking friends and family, people you trust who share your ideals, where they give; vet their charities and see if there are any you like. (Given your motivations for offering support, I will put in a bid here for Planned Parenthood and Black Lives Matter.) You can also make a list of what your philanthropic priorities are: do you want to focus on queer youth, on rights for people of color, on support for the elderly, on political activism? Are you okay supporting religious organizations, or would you prefer secular? National or international? Think about where in specific you want your money to go.  

And you can start with Google, if you want to. You can find a lot of charities on Google by searching your interest keywords, and most of the good ones will have websites that explain clearly what they’re doing and where the money goes, who their leadership is, whether they’re religious, what projects they’re working on. If you google a specific charity you can find news articles that might talk about whether they’re effective at what they do. Be careful where the news is coming from, of course, but you’re on the internet, you probably have a decent bullshit detector. And if your alarm bells go off but you’re not sure why, listen to them – they’re warning you to dig deeper, or to move on. 

It takes work, for sure. It’s not easy. But once you’ve been to a couple of websites you start to get the hang of what to look for, and you figure out where to look to get what you want. 

And of course, make sure you save your receipts (which are sometimes in the form of thank-you letters that list the specific amount you gave) – they are tax-deductible come tax time! 

If others have helpful input, by all means comment or reblog – please don’t send an ask, I don’t repost asks sent in response to other asks. :) Thanks! 

Let America Be America Again

I was just sent this poem from an acquaintance. It seems particularly important at this moment in time. It was written by one of our great treasures the African American Poet Langston Hughes.

Let America Be America Again

Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek— And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean— Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That’s made America the land it has become. O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home— For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we’ve dreamed And all the songs we’ve sung And all the hopes we’ve held And all the flags we’ve hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay— Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free. The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME— Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose— The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain— All, all the stretch of these great green states— And make America again! From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used with permission.