Along for the Ride #248

Heya friends.

I waffled on if I would write anything this week, but I thought I might try. Writing has always helped me find clarity.. which is something that feels both close and far. The way this edition is going is that I am going to ramble, share some donation + mutual aid links, and then just have one long list of transportation links for those of you who need to distract yourselves with trains. No judgement. Take care of yourselves and do one nice thing for a total stranger if you feel up for it.

The Ramble

The clarity I do have—now more than ever—is that hatred against Black people, Women, Trans people and the queer community at large, and immigrants is more than just alive, it’s growing and raging. It’s clear to me that young men fear women’s autonomy. (To be very real, I think the demographic of young, disenfranchised men voting heavily in Trump’s favour is one of the most terrifying aspects of the election). The New Yorker wrote about it if you feel like reading / spiraling / being informed. Where I lack clarity is how we get out of this worm hole. Solutions. A way forward. I know in my heart of all hearts its through community, organizing, and caring for one another (and also going high-key feral during protests), but it’s hard to feel like anything will be enough.

Being in London this week has been lonely; people here speak about the election like some far flung science project that imploded (and not something that is emblematic of global politics). A barista asked me how I thought it would impact the markets (dear reader, please picture my blinking face to that question, as if that was the thing that mattered most). Something about being in London actually made me miss America. I wanted to be with my friends in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday night. I wanted to swim in the ocean with friends on Wednesday when cathartic releases felt impossible. I wanted to be around people who feel the weight of this and would sit in it with me.

I feel lucky enough in some ways. I got a nice message from my dad saying he was glad I was no longer in the US (and I can sleep at night knowing he, a white man, did not vote for the rapist like so many other white dads did). But that also breaks my heart big-time. Because so many people do not have the privilege to remove themselves from this environment, or are managing close family voting against their interest and wellbeing, and will bear the brunt of Trump’s election first hand.

I also can not imagine how people in Gaza will react to Trump having the controls of America’s military again and what that will mean for their home. The situation as it stands today is already a human rights crisis, and while I can’t imagine what worse looks like, I fear we will soon find out.

In seeing the demographic split for votes (aka the deplorable number of white women who voted for Trump), I am reminded (again, and again, and again) white folks have work to do. To ask ourselves what we’re letting slide. Account for the uncomfortable conversations we decided not to have. I personally am going to double down on having hard conversations with people in my life who would consider wondering down this path. People with privilege need to swallow the big gulps and learn to approach these conversations with care for ourselves and the recipients—and to have them regardless of how deeply upsetting and uncomfortable it will be.

I’ll also say this: after the election Elon Musk is worth $20 billion more than he was three days ago. Jeff Bezos is $7 billion richer. Today is a great day to cancel your Amazon Prime membership and get to know your local hardware store! Delete your Twitter account! Sell that Tesla and get yourself a bike. And then google who is organizing around the causes you care the most about locally and show up.

OK one more thought before we wrap up the ramble. In 2020, I was biking to meet friends who a hike on November 7th when the election was called for Joe Biden. Being in the Castro that day and seeing people sing Dua Lipa from the top of their lungs atop buses that couldn’t move because so many people poured out of the streets is one of my top five San Francisco moments from the past four years. And I have faith that one day we will get back to that feeling.

Image Credit: Associated Press

I think I’ve reached the end of my ramble and the feelings I can muster right now. However because we do need levity, I will say that this morning I did journal about a certain somebody being hit by a cybertruck in ~full self-driving mode~ and it earnestly made me feel better. Find your joy wherever ya can folks. (Please note I am a pacifist and I don’t actually condone any traffic violence………). 😊

Donations + Mutual Aid Links

• LGBTQ+ crisis hotlines said they saw a month’s worth of calls in the day after the election (The Independent), so the following are links to (US-based) hotlines and support organizations (but if you want to donate more locally, I’m sure those orgs would love it too):

  • The Trevor Project (National hotline for suicide prevention)

  • The Knights and Orchids Society (Provides life-saving healthcare to Black trans people in Alabama for free)

  • Campaign for Southern Equality (Connects families of trans children in states where gender-affirming care is banned to legal resources and financial support)

  • Phoenix Transition Program (Distributes gender-affirming clothing, running a crisis fund for trans people going through traumatic life events, and providing re-entry support to formerly incarcerated trans people)

• On reproductive health care the ACLU, Planned Parenthood are reliable donations. There is also the Brigid Alliance which works to help people access abortion care by booking, coordinating and paying for travel, travel expenses, and child care. There is also the National Network of Abortion Funds which details mutual aid funds across America.

• One of my favourite organizations to donate to is the Loveland Foundation who provide therapy for Black women and girls.

• On a local level, you can typically google [your city] + mutual aid and see a whole host of organizations that will help get your money directly to the people who need support most urgently. Happy caring <3

And all this to say: if you don’t have the means to make a donation that’s ok. If you have $1, that is meaningful. If you have $20 that works too. We are all in this together and every little bit helps and matters.

Transportation News

There was news about AVs this week, but it’s my newsletter and we’re gonna focus on the happy modes of transportation because I said so. Please feel free to go to TechCrunch if you feel so inclined lol.

• Paris is going to limit traffic in city centre <3 (Le Monde)

• Istanbul is providing unemployed people with free transit access to help them try and secure work (Bloomberg)

• Chicago to automatically ticket people who park in bus and bike lanes (WBEZ Chicago)

• A history of highway displacement in Houston (The Baker Institute)

• What drives inequalities in Low Emission Zones’ impacts on job accessibility? (Journal of Transport Policy)

• Community, gender and children (Journal of Urban Economics)

• How boring car centric cities … bore people lol (Psychology Today)

Chappell Roan

Making up the rules of this newsletter as I go, and this week Chappell is also getting a section. Yolo.

The one silver lining this week is a new Chappell Roan song about how women get the job done. It’s not officially streaming, but you can google it and mentally prepare to fucking destroy the patriarchy one limb at a time. 😊 Happy listening.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

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