I'm at a celebration of #MLK at the University of Houston.

One of the panelists (sorry, I had to sit in the back, so I don't know who) talked about #risk.

This is in relation to the #redemption that comes from #suffering.

There is #truth in this. I'm old. But the three times I felt something almost #holy was when I risked.

The first time. . .

After my sister changed her major to Women's Studies, she volunteered to be #security at the local #Pride #Parade. I did the training with her. Basically, we were part of a wall of bodies between the parade and the crowd. At one point, there was.a woman yelling and screaming about the Bible, and as I stood in front of her, I didn't even hear her. I felt this deep abiding #calm. I'm not a #believer, but if I were, I would describe it as some kind of divine Presence.

The second time. . .

A coworker was going to the drugstore down the street to get baseball cards, and while I walked down with him, I mentioned that I was treated better at work than at home. He asked me, "What are you going to do about it?" The same calm came to me as I realized I could leave. It was so powerful I went back to work and told my boss that I was feeling weird and I thought I needed to go home. Which I did. I moved in with my sister until I found an apartment.

The third time. . .

I had been working for about thre months when the staffing agency that all of the staff was contracted through wac bought by a bigger agency that mostly staffed the #defense #industry. Instead of #HR, they sent #attorneys. They pulled some shenanigans, but my coworkers in California didn't have to sign #nonCompete #agreements. So they allowed the rest of us to opt out. They even allowed us to jump to a different staffing agency that had profit-sharing. Except the #BigTech we worked for was slow-walkimg the paperwork for the four who were trying to do it. I very carefully set up my remaining PTO and was in another state when my final dey rolled around. Unlike the other four, my role was support. They could survive without me until the paperwork was ready. And, when my boss called and asked if I was not going to work, I felt that calm when I said that I wasn't going to work if I wasn't going to be paid.

In two weeks, all of our paperwork went through, so we all had the same hire date.

#ICE #Fascism #Freedom #alt #MLK

Canadian PM Carney
“TAKE THE SIGN DOWN”

"#communism is based on an ethical relativism, a metaphysical materialism, a denial of human #freedom, and a crippling #totalitarianism that I could never accept".

-Martin Luther King Jr.

#mlk

(EDIT; spelling)

We ain't need no leaders at all

https://mastodon.social/@bubakuyateh/115958517826545897

#MLK #Feminism