sassypotatoe1

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello 👋🌸,

I hope you’re doing great! 😊 I’m Jaber, and I’m reaching out for help to evacuate my wife, Muna, and our 2-year-old son, Hashem, from Gaza. They’re in a really tough situation due to the war, and I’m doing everything I can to bring them to safety so we can be together again.

We also lost our small family business due to the bombings, so we’re hoping to rebuild our lives from scratch. If you could take a moment to check out our campaign, share, or even donate, it would mean so much to us:

Link: https://gofund.me/b8dbbb43

Thank you so much for your support 💖

Jaber and Family

Vetted by @90-ghost and by association

.

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello 👋🌸,

I hope you’re doing great! 😊 I’m Jaber, and I’m reaching out for help to evacuate my wife, Muna, and our 2-year-old son, Hashem, from Gaza. They’re in a really tough situation due to the war, and I’m doing everything I can to bring them to safety so we can be together again.

We also lost our small family business due to the bombings, so we’re hoping to rebuild our lives from scratch. If you could take a moment to check out our campaign, share, or even donate, it would mean so much to us:

Link: https://gofund.me/b8dbbb43

Thank you so much for your support 💖

Jaber and Family

Vetted by @90-ghost and by association

.

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello 😇👋,

Our family is facing incredibly difficult times due to the ongoing war in Gaza 💔. Our dreams and future have been shattered, leaving us feeling lost and without purpose. Anas and Ahmad have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help them escape Gaza, continue their education, and support our family.

Making a small donation or sharing the campaign would mean the world to us.

Link: https://gofund.me/8eb29f87

Thank you so much for your kindness and support 💖

With gratitude,

Anas & Ahmed Family

Vetted by @90-ghost & by association

.

[sassypotatoe1]

I think I just absolutely blew my (white) coworker's mind. I grew up in large groups of mostly black kids, I was in regional choir, I did gymnastics all the way to nationals, and in university I made a point of it to immerse myself in as many cultures as possible to learn about different world views and cultures so I can better portray them in my writing, and just so I can understand people better.

As a result, my whole life I've been immersed in a much stronger sharing culture than my white peers. In choir everyone shared water bottles and Bobby pins and hair spray. At gymnastics it was the same thing, but sometimes socks too (which is not smart but if you forgot to pack your floor socks for comp and your partner has an extra and you don't want carpet burn you do what you gotta do). In varsity we shared food, we shared clothes and accessories, we shared study materials, I even brought my own tools to theater for communal use when we were building sets for first years concert.

I've never been bothered by a strong sharing culture because I've been immersed in it my entire life. I did come to learn in university though that the sharing culture is so strong among Africans because they don't really believe much in private property. A lot of property in their eyes is communal property. Everyone has access, but everyone also has responsibility to maintain and protect.

I thought this was immensely beautiful, and the last vestiges of paranoia about losing my property faded away. It's just stuff, it can mostly be replaced, I'm helping out fellow human beings by opening access to my stuff and I've found that most people accept responsibility for it while it's in their possession. I'm not too sentimental, I'm materialistic in the vaguest sense that I like a little trinket, but I'm by no means a hoarder or stingy.

I collect sauce and spice packets from fast food and keep it on my desk. Most of the time my coworkers ask for a packet, or to use my charger (it's a great charger), but sometimes they just help themselves and I do not actually give a shit. If someone breaks my charger I'm fully certain they'd tell me and offer to replace it. I'll turn them down, because accidents happen and there's enough stress in this industry to not have to sweat the small stuff.

Recently however I got a tub of chewing gum that I keep on my desk. I have some tooth sensitivity, so I got the expensive gum that's sugar free and enriched with fluoride, and it genuinely actually helps. I also knew upon purchasing it that my coworkers will want gum too, it's a great way to manage stress because it tricks your brain into thinking you're eating and therefore safe and secure. So I leave it on my desk, instead of in my drawer like my other snacks, which is a nonverbal invitation to take gum.

They've been taking gum, as expected, and I still have a bunch left so it's genuinely just a piece or two every now and then, and I still have enough to last me to payday so I can get a new tub, so I'm perfectly happy and comfortable. My white coworker, however, is very confused about this situation, and has been thinking that our black colleagues are stealing my expensive gum. So she tells me people have been helping themselves and I go "oh I'm not bothered by that at all" and she like actually almost swallowed her tongue.

Anyway adopt a stronger sharing culture it removes a lot of stress around property security, and people are more likely to take in moderation if they know you're open about it. We could all use a little less paranoia and a little more community.

[sassypotatoe1]

[sassypotatoe1]

Oh by the way I once attended a writing seminar in early high school and the journalist/author presenting it insisted that you have to keep a notebook on you at all times and write down EVERYTHING that even remotely grabs your interest. Like yeah you'll end up with a notebook full of "this guy at the coffee shop tried to carry 4 drinks without a cup holder and absolutely ate shit and then asked for a mop so sadly you could almost physically see the rain cloud above his head" but you also now have a great way to describe a similar scene in your book.

My postgrad writing class had a vignette assignment, and the task was to make the most boring setting sound as interesting as possible in 300 words. I won, because I wrote about the security guard at the cafeteria checking till slips and how tired everyone looked because it was exam season, like much better than that though, and people were actually shocked silent for a good 3 minutes after I read mine aloud.

Anything can be a good idea, it just depends on the value you attach to it and the effort you're willing to put into it. I made a vignette about a security guard checking receipts sound like Shakespeare (in the words of one of my classmates) because I didn't say "the security guard diligently checks every receipt as students leave to continue exam prep" I got his name and said "as tired as the students are of repetition and reviewing this time of the semester, they don't hold a candle to Steve, who faces the repetitive reviewing of students' receipts every day for the whole year and never fails" and like, is it my best work? Nah I was exhausted and it was exam season, but I managed to use the humanity of the experience to give life to my writing. I wanted to do Steve justice, so I gave him life in my writing.

Any silly little idea you've ever had has value, it all just comes down to whether or not you choose to pursue it. I like older fiction writing because a huge chunk of it is exposition, and it's floral, and I know that's not everyone's thing but I absolutely love reading about Elvira's drive up to her cousin Jeffrey in her old blue Ford fiesta, with her mongrel coward dog in the back seat.

A lot of modern writing forgoes exposition because the current trendy assumption is that people don't want to be explained at when they read fiction, and that people's attention spans are too short for exploring the mechanics of a world and they just want to get to the plot, but I think there's value in talking about the guy eating shit with four drinks in hand and asking for a mop, even if it has no bearing on the plot. It gives your story life, and it does the people you base it on justice.

The Shape of Ideas

[sassypotatoe1]

There should be no billionaires.

[sassypotatoe1]

I wonder how many people are actually aromantic and don't know because they confused ~wanting someone to connect with on a more intimate level than they've ever connected with anyone because they have support needs that aren't being met and crucial platonic or even familial connections that aren't being made and the world has just sold them this idea that love=support and deeper connection and that love=actual romantic attraction~ with ~a crush~

Because besties maybe none of your romantic pursuits work out because they all sucked, but maybe you weren't looking for romance after all, just support and care and connection, and your expectations going into your relationships aren't your partners' expectations because they want a partner, not a ward to care for, and you want affection, affirmation and your needs met, not mutual love. Idk maybe it's just me.

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello 👋🌸,

I hope you’re doing well! 😊 My name is Jaber, and I’m reaching out to ask for your support in helping me evacuate my wife, Muna, and our 2-year-old son, Hashem, from Gaza. They’re currently stuck in a really tough situation due to the war, and I’m desperate to get them to safety so we can finally be together again.

I also lost the small business I built with my brother due to the bombings, so I’m trying to rebuild our lives from scratch. If you could take a moment to check out our campaign, and maybe share or donate, it would mean the world to us:

Link: https://gofund.me/b8dbbb43

Thank you so much for your support 💖

Verified campaign—please check the end of the story for more details.

.

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello.. I am Mysolin Bahadur.. from Gaza.. I am 35 years old and a mother of 4 children.. I was displaced from my home many times, and my house was bombed and my children were deprived of living in safety and peace. Now we live in a small tent.. I ask you to help and donate to me from In order to save my children’s future.. Any donation can save our lives..

Every €15 or €20 will contribute to saving

my family🙏🩸

https://gofund.me/556d5689

I don't have money unfortunately but I can share

[sassypotatoe1]

Scientists: we've looked at the evidence and readings and the gasses we release into the atmosphere are trapping solar radiation that would otherwise have been reflected back into space, we expect more extreme weather events in unexpected places, higher temperatures and more uv-radiation. We need to reduce these emissions or we might cause rapid ecological collapse in a few decades.

The public: you're making shit up we aren't powerful enough to affect the entire planet's climate, nothing will change.

Weather: I'm unpredictable, more powerful and warmer now, plants, corals and animals are dying, people are getting skin cancer more often, and places that shouldn't be are experiencing floods, droughts, extreme temperatures and crazy winds.

The public: THE LIBERALS ARE CONTROLLING THE WEATHER AND THE SUN FROM MY CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A HOTTER BRIGHTER ONE BY BIG GOVERNMENT

[sassypotatoe1]

Golf Courses ARE Being Converted

The Solarpunk "fantasy" that so many of us tout as a dream vision, converting golf courses into ecological wonderlands, is being implemented across the USA according to this NYT article!

The article covers courses in Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, and New York that are being bought and turned into habitat and hiking trails.

The article goes more into detail about how sand traps are being turned into sand boxes for kids, endangered local species are being planted, rocks for owl habitat are being installed, and that as these courses become wilder, they are creating more areas for biodiversity to thrive.

Most of the courses in transition are being bought by Local Land Trusts. Apparently the supply of golf courses in the USA is way over the demand, and many have been shut down since the early 2000s. While many are bought up and paved over, land Trusts have been able to buy several and turn them into what the communities want: public areas for people and wildlife. It does make a point to say that not every hold course location lends itself well to habitat for animals (but that doesn't mean it wouldn't make great housing!)

So lets be excited by the fact that people we don't even know about are working on the solutions we love to see! Turning a private space that needs thousands of gallons of water and fertilizer into an ecologically oriented public space is the future I want to see! I can say when I used to work in water conservation, we were getting a lot of clients that were golf courses that were interested in cutting their resource input, and they ended up planting a lot of natives! So even the golf courses that still operate could be making an effort.

So what I'd encourage you to do is see if there's any land or community trusts in your area, and see if you can get involved! Maybe even look into how to start one in your community! Through land trusts it's not always golf course conversions, but community gardens, solar fields, disaster adaptation, or low cost housing! (Here's a link to the first locator I found, but that doesn't mean if something isn't on here it doesn't exist in your area, do some digging!)

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello, I hope you and your family are well. Can you please help me with your generous donation or recycle this post on my account? 🌺 And help save my family from the war in Gaza?

Your donation, even a small amount, means hope, creates a smile and makes a real difference in the lives of others. Be part of this smile 🙏 Thank you

https://gofund.me/124fd3c9

I'm unfortunately unable to donate but I'll happily share

[sassypotatoe1]

Dear Friend,

I write to you with a heart weighed down by the unimaginable pain my family and I are enduring. My name is Mohammed Hassouna, and we are trapped in Gaza, caught in the unrelenting grip of war. In an instant, everything we knew was taken from us—our home, our safety, our peace 💔. Now, we find ourselves in a fragile tent, vulnerable to the harsh elements, living each day with fear as our constant companion 💨💦.

In this moment of despair, I am turning to you with a plea for help 😢. Any gesture—whether it’s a donation, sharing our story, or even offering a kind word—could bring us closer to safety and give us the hope we desperately need. Our home, once a place of joy and warmth, now lies in ruins beneath the rubble 💔. Every day, we face uncertainty, barely surviving as we hold on to a thread of hope 😔.

I ask you, with all the strength I have left, to please help us escape this nightmare 😭🙏. Even the smallest act of kindness could change everything, offering us a lifeline to rebuild our shattered lives. Your compassion could be the light that guides us from despair toward a new beginning 🥺❤️.

Here is my campaign link: https://gofund.me/d04d2c13. If you're unable to donate, simply sharing our story could help reach others who can offer the support we so desperately need.

From the depths of my heart, thank you for your kindness and for standing with us during this dark time 🙏❤️.

With profound gratitude, Mohammed Hassouna

11% of my long-term goal

1,143€ out of 10,000€

Donations are protected by GOFUNDME,

.

[sassypotatoe1]

Like a year ago now, some old ladies I know were spreading around disinformation about comprehensive sex education under the south african Bela bill that was proposing ammendments to the basic education act. The bill is intended to address 3 main fields within basic education, which is the quality of the curriculum, the rights of students and the government in placing students, and the oversight of governing bodies of public schools.

A lot of disinformation was spread, primarily by the democratic alliance (da) political party who are the most vocal opposition to the bill, and I can't prove this but having actually read the bill in its entirety I am 98% certain that they don't want the bill to pass because of the language policy and placement and acceptance ammendments.

Why? Well they don't want black kids in majority white schools. It's not too obvious, and racial segregation was legally abolished in south africa right before the 1994 election, and has been codified over 30 years ago. The da will also never admit it, but they are a white supremacist party. They have their token black and Indian members and higher ups to garner votes, but they absolutely will reinstate racial segregation if given the power and the chance.

What does all this have to do with sex ed? Well two things, the government wants to adjust the curriculum on several levels to enrich it and improve the quality of it, and a part of that is comprehensive sex education from the age of four, but also education about lgbtqia+ identity. They (the da) know sex ed from the age of four sounds shocking, so they decided to focus on that with their disinformation campaigns by making people think, and I'm sorry for being blunt about it but this is for educational and awareness purposes, that they're teaching 4yo kids how to masturbate. They (gov) ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT planning on doing that. The adjusted comprehensive sex education at age 4 is about basic consent and anatomy.

This is of course to protect children, as explained by op, because if they don't use euphemisms for their genitalia and they talk about sexual abuse and know it's wrong it will be easier to identify. This has been proven to be effective, and the earlier it's taught the safer the kid will be because younger children are the easiest to manipulate and groom, because they don't have knowledge about consent or physical ability to fight back, or an understanding of what is happening to them. They need basic knowledge to be able to protect themselves.

The reason they went this route is actually because they want to suppress queer education, as part of sex ed (which I personally don't think it should be), so they want outright push back against the entire sex ed curriculum from the public to achieve this. Unfortunately that comes with leaving children vulnerable to abuse, and they hate (again they would never admit this because a large chunk of their voter base are queer and they need to pander) queer people enough to take that risk.

This is just one segment of their disinformation campaign though, like I said earlier they're also targeting the sections of the bill aimed at addressing divisive language policies and segregational placement in public schools. This is a good thing on the part of the bill, it's intended to make quality education accessible to all, and it will take huge leaps forward in terms of racial tension and the social remnants of apartheid, but the da are framing it as a tool of oppression. Instead of accurately communicating that the bill wants to give government the power to place students at schools depending on where they live and what their education needs are, they are framing it as the government wanting to stuff schools so full that one teacher will have a class of 50 students. This of course panders to educators, who are already overworked and underpaid.

Instead of accurately communicating that the language policy of a school will be dictated by the language needs of the school's students, who will be placed at said school based on proximity and educational needs, they are framing it as the government wanting to oppress Afrikaans people by removing Afrikaans from all schools in the country.

Instead of accurately communicating that the comprehensive sex ed curriculum will help protect children against sexual abuse, educate teens better about safe sex and queer identities, and help avoid teen pregnancy and std spreading, they are framing it as teaching toddlers to commit sexual acts.

The reason I'm making this post, again, is for educational purposes and awareness. I can see these patterns, I'm autistic, I've been following politics since my tweens, I know how these guys operate and what their motivations are, but not everyone can. My hope is that with this post people will learn, just a little bit, what the harm of small scale disinformation campaigns like this actually amounts to. And just how they actually achieve it.

Never take a politician at his word. Go read proposed bills, acts, ammendments yourself. Go read studies and journal articles yourself. Make notes, ask questions, think critically. They can take away your rights and autonomy, but they can not take your knowledge.

sex education is both necessary for and can be adapted to any age range of children who are able to understand complete sentences.

Sex education should be some thing that begins in early childhood and grows with the child becoming more expansive as far as what they are being taught.

A five year-old should know the anatomical names for their parts and basic hygiene

An 8-year-old should know where babies come from and what a period is.

12-year-olds should be talked to about coercive sexual assault.

The idea that keeping important information from our children keeps them more “innocent” and somehow that “innocence” keeps them safe from sexual violence or exploitation is causing us as a society to neglect our children and leave them without the tools that they need to navigate a world where that kind of sexual violence does still exist

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello 👋

Please take a moment to read my story.

I am Heba Al-Dahdouh. I currently live in the completely destroyed city of Gaza. Since the war on Gaza began on 7/1/2024, my family- my father Nasif, my mother Asmaa, and my siblings Khaled, Ahmad, Muhammad, and Malak-have been living in constant fear, crying, and suffering due to shrapnel, shells, and bullets.

We have no food, no electricity, no cooking gas, no schools, no homes, no cleaning supplies, and no clothes. Our house was completely destroyed. My school has been bombed, and my brother Khaled's university is now rubble, depriving us all of education. The war has forced us to live in displacement centers, which are just tents unsuitable for living, especially in winter.

Every day we live death, terror, and panic a thousand times because of the ongoing bombardment of my city. The war has killed more than 50 of my relatives and neighbors. At the start of the war, we sought refuge at my aunt's house, but it too became rubble. Imagine: we have survived imminent death more than 20 times and have been displaced among shelters more than 13 times. My siblings and I have suffered from many illnesses due to malnutrition, and we need medication continuously.

If we stay in Gaza, we might lose our lives. Recently, we have been seriously considering leaving Gaza for a safe place. However, travel costs are extremely high. We need over $50,000 to leave Gaza. Due to exorbitant prices, rampant unemployment, lack of security, the ongoing siege, and relentless bombardment, we have lost all our money. How can we live in such insecurity, with constant shelling and shrapnel flying above us? Dear compassionate friends around the world,

With your generous donations, even if small, you can save 7 people from imminent death, allowing us to start a life outside Gaza filled with love, peace, and hope.

With my warmest regards from the city of Gaza,

Heba Al-Dahdouh.

[sassypotatoe1]

Hello, I hope you and your family are well. Can you please help me recycle the post on my account? 🌺 And help rescue my family from the war in Gaza? 🙏 Thank you.

https://gofund.me/d36bfdc0

Sure thing I'll do that right now