December Just Posts

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~ Annie

As I sit down to write my last introduction to the Just Posts I can't help but reflect back on how it all began. Two years ago many of us held a wedding, a marriage that promised to promote justice and truth as evidenced through all of you and your work to memorialize the just and the unjust around the world.

For two years we cobbled together these lists, some months short and some months long. We came together and talked about what we were doing and also what we could do together. We raised money for organizations in different parts of the world. We made volunteerism a priority, we gave our time and our money and most of all we wrote. And in between I fell in love with all of you, you turned the lights on in dusty places and showed me that the world is better than I sometimes think and together we can do more.

As Mad and I shared earlier we've enjoyed an offline discourse over the years not only about Just Posts but also how we've been influenced by others and each other's thoughts. We posed a question about pragmatism versus a heart of gold, the latter being Mad's term more than mine, I prefer to think of it as simply saying yes. So instead of changing my spots I'll end this journey the way I started, by continuing to donate because I'm asked.

This month I've become a new supporter of Ekukhanyeni, a charity where our other Just Post sister volunteers and whose Founder has been struggling to raise enough resources to meet the demand. Let me tell you a little bit about them and I hope you'll click over and see the many things they are doing to make their community and the lives of impoverished children healthier and happier.

Ekukhanyeni - Home of Light and Hope - is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that focuses on community upliftment in two poverty stricken informal settlements close to Johannesburg. In partnership with the local communities, this project supports some 600 vulnerable children by creating self-sustaining communities through its green and holistic design approach to community development.

I promise if you go visit you'll see why Helena gives of her time and why it matters that they are able to continue. We were happy to support them this month and only wish we could have done more. 

The decision to pass off the Just Posts was not an easy one, Mad and I have been back and forth mistresses to the 10th of every month for two years now, and Su for a year or more. It's become so ingrained that I can't quite imagine a month without it, so words won't do justice to the joy I feel in knowing that the Just Posts will continue and in very good hands. We are honored to pass of the hosting of the Just Post Community to Alejna at Collecting Tokens and Holly at Cold Spaghetti, two long time and ongoing participants and true souls, these two women graciously offered to pick up where we leave off, ensuring the Just Posts will continue to have a home. Thank you both. Thank you both so much.

So with that I'll end my current role with the Just Posts but you won't get rid of me so easily. I'll keep my seat at the table by writing and reading and sharing what I find. But until then I'll be seeing you, whether here or south of the border, the world will always feel smaller because of all of you. I truly love each of your beautiful open hearts, as evidenced yet again by our Farewell Posts, many of you heard our call and wrote and donated and shared how you support others around the world. We may not always share the same formula but it's clear we come from the same place. Each of your gifts matters so much to me, I read them some in tears and others with a grin, because you proved once more how much it matters, how much it means to give goodness and justice a place to sit.

Thank you for teaching me, for inspiring me, for moving me, and for challenging me to do more.

The December Just Posts
Alejna at Collecting Tokens with Coventry Carol
Atherton Bartleby with I think I hate you
Cecilieaux with Cut off Israel now!, It's a Madoff, Madoff, Madoff, Madoff world,
Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, Republican, Green and Why Conservatism Was Always Doomed
Country Girl with This is a Great idea
De with Mini Rant
Defiant muse with harm here is harm there
Em at Social Justice Soapbox with Resolutions for a New Year
Erika with A Day without a gay (or making an actual impact)
girlgriot with Small World...Small City...Small Minds and Not Making People Invisible
Holly with Twelve STIs of Christmas
Jozet with "Redistribute the Wealth" My Hot Green Butt
Paul Newnham with The Day After International Day and Letter to the PM
Rebecca with Big Box vs Buy Local and Small is Beautiful and Affordable
Zoom at Knitnut with Bank Street Bully

The Just Post Brides Farewell Posts
Alejna with Better for me than a scone and a latte
Bon with At epiphany
Emily with Doin' it all for my babies
Holly with Example is not the main thing in influencing others it is the only thing
Jen (ponderosa) with Fare Thee Well
Kate at Peripheral Vision with Doing More
Magpie with A Just Post Call for Help
Mary G with Resolution in 2009
Metro Mama with An Ongoing Offering

behind the scenes of the Just Posts

The January Just Posts, the last anniversary gift of my social justice marriage to Mad are on the horizon. And while we've got some exciting news to unveil on the 12th, we thought we'd seize the opportunity to give you a glimpse of what has gone on behind the scenes over these past two years. The following string of emails starts in early November and ends in mid-December.

Jen: am probably getting ahead of myself but I can't help it. There's an organization in South Africa that Helena is involved with that needs our help and I was thinking of doing a call to action to raise some money. But if you aren't down with this I can do it on my own and tie it into the JPs in the piece that I write. i realize i'm getting all renegade and don't want to speak for both of us. but damn, they are only asking for $1.71 per kid to ensure they each have what they need for Xmas.

Mad: Jen, I appreciate your enthusiasm but I can't do this. I just can't. I am so swamped with work, volunteer and home projects right now that I am hardly reading anyone's blogs at all. I don't feel comfortable asking people for money at the best of times but given how bad a blog a citizen I've been these last few months, I feel especially uncomfortable about it all right now. Besides, such a call to action requires a commitment to blogging that I have lost. I can scarce muster the energy for a post or two a week. To be on the ball enough--in December no less--for a joint fundraiser? Nuh uh. I also can't see myself asking people for money during a recession at Christmas. That's all there is to it.

Jen: I understand. I do. It's totally fine. Sorry to barrage you with this. I can do it and not make it an official part of the JPs. I know the recession is scary. It's terrifying me in particular for poor people. Non profits are closing programs even as more people are in need. We've seen many NEW faces needing help every month. Every month. New. It's staggering.
I love you. Sorry for being pushy. I mean it.

THREE WEEK TIME LAPSE

Jen: The activist side of me says we can get one more community fundraising project done with our last hurrah. sorry i can't help myself. but we could. don't kick me.

Mad: Here are my thoughts on community fundraising: When we did the Just Post fundraiser in June 2007, I gave $100 to the small community fundraising project you advocated. (I think I gave some to it and some to Stephen Lewis, I can't remember exactly.) As far as the Stephen Lewis foundation goes, that org is not a one-off for me. I will continue to give to it over the years for a whole host of reasons most of which have to do with social justice but some of which are more practical, like getting a tax receipt and knowing that I can always find out its profile as a charitable org.

The group you advocated was a one-off donation for me. B/c it's an American org, I can't budget my giving b/c it is always contingent upon the value of my dollar. I get no tax receipt to help maximize my gift, and it's not as easy to keep track of the organization. The problem with one-off gifts, though, is that the organization in question never believes any gift is a one-off. In the year and a half since I gave to said organization, I have received numerous funding requests from them. Each one has spent at least $2 American in postage--not to mention the costs of printing promotional material and photographs. This organization may have heart but it is not very well run administratively: just last week I received, all on the same day, 4 identical, huge envelopes promoting their Christmas campaign. The cost in postage alone was more than $14 US. By now, they have spent as much, if not more, than my original gift simply trying to woo me back. This breaks my heart b/c it feels as if I simply threw my money out the window when I could have invested it more wisely closer to home.

So -- fundraising. It is my fervent belief that if we are going to ask people for money, we should encourage them to pick an organization that they believe in and then ask them to take the leap to becoming an ongoing supporter. Who can't afford $10 or $20 a month deducted regularly from their account or put on their VISA? (I'm sure most of our readers do some form of this anyway.) This kind of giving is the only sure fire way to maximize the impact of the giving. If we were to ask that and then ask people to name the org and write a post about it, we could have a right proper send off next month WITH a lasting legacy. Just trying to be astute and not a killjoy. What think you?

Jen:You've nailed some of the principle laments of NPOs. We must keep asking. We ask and ask and ask and sometimes, yes, it costs more to ask than sometimes we receive. I suppose I'll forever fall into the camp of grassroots organizing. If it might cost $200 to house a child for a year in South Africa, then we can all give $10 and get it done without a major impact on any one person. Plus we collectively stood up against that issue.

And I suppose it frustrates me when folks say they have no money. They say they have no money in their nice car with their latte. They say they have no money as they buy four gifts instead of two. Some people really have no money, their budget keeps them housed and fed and that is literally and only all there is. I know this too.

People are dying every single day because we all have our heads up our asses in terms of resources distribution. We can't solve any of that b/c we get 30 people to give $5. I know this too.

One of the things that scares me a bit about our move is being broken hearted by new injustices of poverty in a 3rd world country. Sometimes I don't know how to manufacture my heart to beat any other way, I see the discrepancies and I literally feel I could go batshit crazy. I see my own hypocrisies and want to beat myself around the head. Last night I helped a mom w/ a four day old baby make a bed for herself on my concrete floor surrounded by 100 people from the streets. I had M with me so at first I think she thought I was staying there too. When I said to her that it was time to go she looked at me and said "you aren't staying?". So my 4-yr-old daughter asked if we could spend the night and yet I knew I would never, ever allow it and if I truly wanted to I could have let these people sleep at my house too. Instead her baby slept on the concrete floor wrapped in old blankets. He is four days into this world in the fucking united states of america. We drove home in a car with heat and had a snack with food from our fridge and went to bed in our home. He slept on the floor.

This work of mine has colored me. I like to think it's been for the best but i really do not know. You are balance. You can see the world in a way that I struggle to. It's more pragmatic. My way is an inconsistent albatross. It's a long way of saying I hear you. I do. And your way is a good way. Folks choose how they want if they want where they want and it's good.

Mad: Yes. Folks choose where they want to give BUT WE INSIST THAT THEIR GIFT BE SIGNIFICANT AND ONGOING. We can even recommend orgs that we believe in. It is the only way. What we should do, Jen, is post these email exchanges. Your heart and your dire f-ing reality vs my pragmatic head. We've walked a tightrope with this for two years straight. I think the Just Posts have been made better by the way we balance each other out. We have both changed considerably b/c of our conversations off-blog. Let's say goodbye by making those conversations, that struggle, public.

Jen: I'm in.

Dear Readers, What say you? Are you a pragmatist or a Heart of Gold? Or are you some other kind of hybrid altogether? Will you join us in becoming an ongoing financial supporter of a cause you believe in? Will you write about it on your blogs or in your tweets? Will you help to raise money AND the profile of organizations that desperately need aid?

And that's what we are asking for as our farewell gift. Send us your link by the 8th and we'll include it in our last Just Post Roundtable on the 12th. You can send your links to me at girlplustwo(at)yahooDOTcom.

Cross posted under Mad's hat.

November Just Posts

It all started two years ago with a wedding. Six months later we all opened our hearts on our anniversary and six months after that we collectively birthed a baby and named her Volunteerism. In between we took the Just Posts global by adding hosts from other parts of the world. And always, always there was you, faithfully writing and reading and joining us month after month. Two years later (and on our second anniversary! Love you Mad!) we sit here still.

So it's with sadness and also joy that we are announcing our collective stepping down as hosts of the Just Posts.

I have sincerely loved hosting our Roundtable every month for the last two years but after much deliberation and conversation with Mad and Su we've decided that each of us, for different reasons are ready to step away. For me, our upcoming move to the jungle leaves me uncertain, connectivity might be elusive and the commitment I feel in making sure the Just Posts are collected is great. These two variables together spells potential disaster, and as such I'd rather do the prudent thing and find this community a new home.

So we've decided collectively that our last Just Post Roundtable will be in January which means we'll have one more month to do it up right. If one (or two or three) of you is interested in keeping the Just Posts alive we'll be happy to hand our little village off to new caretakers, so many of you have been with us since the beginning so if it calls to you please email me and we'll talk about how great it is and how much we'd like to see the Just Posts find a new home.

I am sorry if this comes as a surprise to some of you, we've just wrapped our heads around it ourselves. But there is a season to everything, and sometimes fresh energy is exactly what a project needs to continue to thrive.

I hope this bit of news won't detract too much from the reason we all gather, the voices this month as always are loud and vibrant, spanning American politics to African ones and everything in between. And I'll have a chance to say it later but let me also say now what an honor and a pleasure it has been to be a part of the Just Post Community for the last two years. I'm a bit teary even writing this, what we've done here means that much.

Alejna with Making history and The bittersweetness of pants
Billie with Public Defenders under siege in Miami..and everywhere
Bipolarlawyercook with The guiltiest day of the year
Bon with The morning after
Chani with Don't let them take what's yours and Waging peace: Proposition 8
Defiant Muse with My hope for you and Equality for all
Em with What about this crisis? and Triple bottom line (TBL)
Emily with photos of a rally and Flying the banner
Emily with Resisting the urge
Erika with Equality is equality
Flutter with Helicopters make him cry
Girlgriot with Tannin', Tommin' and getting merry like Christmas
Gwen with A Hard Truth. A Soft Landing
Holly with Part of the main and Yes we can improve the health of our communities
Janet with Everything is connected and Something else for you to do
Jen with Turn of a phrase, mail call and A day like any other
Josh with What would it take, my brother?
Kyla with Heavy
Letters from Usedom with My African children
Mad with 1,385
Maggie, dammit with What are you Contributing with all that hate? and Violence Unsilenced
Magpie with Repurposed: hat and blankets
Mary with The Veterans
Monkeys on the roof with Summer cold
Mother Woman with Let them eat change
Neil with Another argument for gay marriage
Ngorobob House with Food for thought, mostly
Reya with The yin and yang of it all
Tanis with It's true: You can't put a price on stupidity
Zoom at KnitNut with Harm reduction in the context of real life

Readers
Alejna
Hele
Hetha
Holly
Jess
Mary
Mayberry Mom
Sin

I hope you'll stop and see how Mad and Su are sharing the news and if you are so inspired to take over hosting the Just Posts, please, please get in touch. And in between we should think about what kind of party we can have next month for our last Roundtable, if we are going out I aim to do it in style.

October Just Posts

Nothing and everything has changed. All week we see people on the streets and there is a shared camaraderie, brazen smiles between strangers. We did it. The local taqueria, the one that usually has signs up for their specials was lit up in lights God Blessed America. Yes We Can! My father called in tears, saying that he hasn't been this happy since Nelson Mandela was elected President. My friends from France and England and Africa and Belize are over the moon. A newspaper reprinted a text message sent from a son to a mother:

Rosa Parks sat so Martin could walk,
Martin walked so Obama could run,
Obama ran so my children could fly

One of my closest friends is a teacher in Syria. You may have noticed the US launched airstrikes into their country recently and to pay us back Syria ordered American institutions closed and folks deported. My friend and her family were given 24 hours to leave their home and the country and they have no idea when they will be able to return. The day the school closed the children penned letters to Obama. She said they told her that now that he's in charge he can finally do the right thing. So they wrote him letters one day after he was elected while their school was being evacuated and asked for his help. My friend, she knows that the sentiments were right but their hopes probably too grand.

Skeptics say we need to guard against false hope, that no one man can fix everything. The rational part of me knows this but the idealistic part of me says it doesn't matter. We did this and we can do anything. We can do anything and we have to do everything. Yes we can.

The October Just Posts
Alejna with Blog Action Day
Billie with Registering the homeless to vote and Bolivia to USA: "Return Goni to justice"
Cecileaux with Thinking toward a new economy and Joe the plumber economics
Citymama with Letter to Wallie and Bunny before Election Day
Cyn at MOMocrats with National Happy Coming Out Day and No on California's Prop 8
Defiant Muse with Reprieve
Emily with How I know that I live in the South
Getting it wrong with Hippie girl days
Girlgriot with This and that one
Her Bad Mother with Angelina And Me, Our Bodies, Our Selves, Our CHILDREN'S Selves, and Sings The Tune Without The Words
Holly with Blog Action Day (After)
Jaelithe at MOMocrats with Blog Action Day: Education is the key to escaping poverty
Janelle with Wealth...
Jen with the flood pt. 4 - everything is still really bad and I am a real American
Jess with Redemption Song
Josh with Rescue package
Julie with River raft beds and other reflections
Kimberly with The ugly side of politics and people
Kyla with Joe the Plumber
Laloca with The intersection of poverty, psychiatry and the law
Lara with Gone a year and Were you bold? Did you wear red today?
LesbianDad with Oh the posts, they are coming fast and furious these days
Leslie with A perfect world and Proposition eight, proposition hate
Lia with Enriching Our Lives
Lisa Lam on CraftBoom! with Blog Action Day - Poverty. It’s helping, that’s what counts….
Maggie, dammit with Awareness, What are you contributing with all that hate and Please Help
Magpie with Healthy Eating
Mary with what women want
Mary Murtz with Reclamation
Maryam with Ethnic cleansing: Rwanda style, Rwanda and the 12 wishes and Rwanda and a colored place
Mir Kamin on BlogHer with National Mammography Day is October 17th
PunditMom with Taking our daughters to the polls
Rebecca with Trying to find the words, Donate to your local food pantry, Local food economies need local processing to thrive and Tax the rich: a rant about socialism
Social Justice Soapbox with International Day for the eradication of poverty and An apple for the teacher
Susan Wagner on BlogHer with DonorsChoose Challenge - Well, color me happy!
Suzanne Reisman on BlogHer with October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2008: The Best of the Worst Marketing
Tiny Mantras with The early voting experience
Whiskey in my sippy cup with Just say no
Wrekehavoc with Kill the poor

Just Post Readers
Moosh!
Hel
Maggie
Holly
Alejna

Don't forget to stop by Mad and Su's before you go and see what they are talking about at the other ends of the Just Post Roundtable. And thank you all for your writing this month, each of these posts are truly inspiring and it's because of you that this Roundtable exists. So if this is new to you and you want to join us please know you are welcome. All you have to do is write. Yes you can.

September Just Posts

It's not surprising that many of the posts featured this month have to do with American Politics. This is the last Roundtable before the election, emotions are running high and America's luck seems to be running out. The notion that has been briefly and in my opinion quite unsubstantially discussed in recent debates is that we all need to make do with less. It seems obvious to the observer, America acts like a binge eater, gobbling up oil and food and plastics with little regard for the world. As with any addict, there's always a rock bottom and a subsequent coming to Jesus and in our case the bottom seems to be wrapped up with blinking lights and a cherry on top, even as we sink the band plays on.

It's the unwillingness to face reality that startles me the most and I tend to believe in the American people more than this, that our politicians might be moving deck chairs around the Titanic but we are all underboard, scurrying around whispering trying to decide what to do and damn if we aren't maintaining our sense of humor, it's free and doesn't hurt a thing.

In conversation with a higher up in disaster management recently she lowered her voice and conveyed what we should already know: The shit is hitting the fan and it's bad. Earthquakes and hurricanes, drought and disease. The other secret she whispered was don't expect to count on us. You'll need to look to your neighbors to see you through. The sentiment was more about environmental disaster than financial but her words hold true.

These bailouts are not about us and no matter what we can't count on a market seemingly propped up with duct tape and paste. Instead we need to consider a life that looks very different than the one we lead now and we need to decide to embrace it. We can embrace it or be engulfed by it, but either way it's the end of the (American) world as we know it and I have a child to raise and magic to teach and I refuse, I patently refuse to let all of this bullshit get in my way. What matters now and has always mattered is us, who we are and who we want to be outside of the American Empire and corporate greed. What matters now is what we will do in the face of this uncertainty and how we will choose to live. And we'll be looking to each other to see us through.

The September Just Posts
Alejna with September 12, 2001
Border Explorer with Everything for Wall Street; Nothing for Main Street
Chani with Financial Smackdown, My Last Sarah Post, and Steal This Meme: Politics
Daily Kos with Amazing: Obama helped a stranded stranger
Denguy with Fear
Emily with Saving the planet for Starbucks customers of the future
Ewe Are Here with Busy Would Be and Understatement
Girlgriot with Speechless and Supermoms and super colliders
Holly with I couldn't hold it any longer and Pennies for peace
JCK with IMC project: Saving the lives of malnourished children
Jen at A2EATWRITE with How to vote/how to buy a car
Jen with Good morning America, how are you?
Jennifer at Faking It with To Support of not to support, that is not the question, as I see it
Julie with How you can help recent hurricane and tropical storm victims
Lia with Age And Ageism and Give Some Thought
Leslie with The most problemmatic of times
Los Angelista's Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness with Shiny and Bright Sarah Palin
Mad with Losing at the waiting game
Magpie with Ways to Make a Difference
Mary Murtz with Unfriended? Defaced? What?
Mir Kamin on Blogher with Men and Women: Becoming more alike makes 'em more different. What?
Mother Woman with Manning the Phones
Rebecca with That creepy obsession with virginity and In defense of a silver tongue
Red Stapler with Why I am voting for Barack Obama
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with Dear Mr. Harper
The Ascent of Humanity with Construction and the Glass Factory
The American Prospect with Everybody Calm Down, Obama is hitting back
The Buddha Diaries with A Fistful of Bills
Under the Overpasses with The Sky is Falling--really! and The View from Down Here

Just Post Readers include:
Alejna
Thailand Chani
Painted Maypole

The Just Post Roundtable is here every month on the 10th and we welcome writing about social issues big and small and everyone is welcome. Don't forget to stop by Mad and Su's to see what's on their minds today too.

August Just Posts

Community organizing is a process by which disempowered people—most often low- and moderate-income people—are brought together to act in their common self-interest. Community organizers act as area-wide coordinators of programs for different agencies in an attempt to meet community needs for health and welfare services. They also facilitate self-help programs initiated by local common-interest groups, for example, by training local leaders to analyze and solve the problems of a community. Community organizers work actively, as do other types of social workers, in community councils of social agencies and in community-action groups. Wikipedia.

Like so many others, I've been dismayed and even outraged at the disrespect that some folks have shown to Community organizing over the past weeks. Community organizing is about equality, about giving a voice to those who cannot be heard, to bring small groups of people together around a cause and turn them into a larger group and have their voices heard. Some of our country's greatest leaders of our time were community organizers, from Dr. Martin Luther King to Cesar Chavez, folks who knew life could be better for others in their community and were brave and talented enough to navigate political systems and corporations and show others why it matters too. But it didn't start with them, community organizing has been a part of our society for more than 100 years, early pioneers include Dorothy Day and her social justice efforts on behalf of the poor.

I've had the honor of being involved in grassroots campaigns and poverty efforts and let me tell you, it's these folks who get things done. By the time the issue is heard in your local community politics or nationally in Congress or the Senate, it's due to thousands of hours of efforts by incredibly dedicated people who are wise enough to be the change they want to see in the world and strong enough to bring us along with them. Without successful community organizing efforts countless people would have been left out of opportunities to live a better and fairer life. Without a resounding choir of voices advocating for good, people would continue to go unheard.

So when folks want to make a mockery of this very patriotic and critical process in America it only serves to remind me why community organizers are so important. They know what the truth is and we count on them to tell our story, not just for them, and not just to get elected, but because they are fighting for causes much bigger than themselves. And that my friends, is change you can really believe in.

The August Just Posts
Anne with Yolanta
Cecileaux with Tomorrow, 40 years ago and Why neoconservatism deserved to fail
Emily with Saving the Planet for Starbucks Customers of Tomorrow
Flutter with Life is good, even when it's crap
Girlgriot with It's not easy being green
HerBadMother on blogher with Toss the Tylenol, Nursing Moms: This is Terrifying, Lost boy and Hide Your Hooters, The Haters Are Coming
Holly with Games for the haves and have nots
Jen with God in the house
Kittenpie with Down and Out in Riverdale
Lara with My little girl is the issue
Lisa with How a graduate marketing class saved my life
Mad with Flotsam and Take back the night
Megan with Realities
Mir Kamin on blogher with School supplies socialism makes for an angry village
Neil with The Orthodox Jewish guy outside of the supermarket
Pundit Mom with DNC on the homefront: Ellen Malcom of Emily's list and Homeless children, don't count on John McCain
Wrekehavoc with Stop using sex as a weapon
YTSL with Life in West Kowloon

Some of the Just Readers
Janet
Yolanda
Mary
Alejna

Don't forget to stop by Mad and Su's before you go and see what they've cooked up at their end of the Just Post table. And thank you for participating in this month's Roundtable, whether by writing or reading or leaving a comment to let others know you've appreciated their words. We are here every month on the 10th and all are welcome to join us - all you have to do is write.

July Just Posts

Sometimes but not often enough I have the honor of seeing one. A kid, someone in college or even still in high school, they show up and you can tell they are magic. This one, he was earnest when he said I'd like to see if I can help. So we put him to work and I got to see him in action. He was sincere and unafraid and smart and seemingly even here for the right reasons. After awhile we got to talking and he shares what he's seeing. I can't believe how bad it is. He talks about particular people, calling them by name. He's creative in solutions, he's not afraid to ask. It's got under his skin and I love it because it's the only way a kid like this would want to stay.

I ask him why are you here and he isn't quite sure except he can't sleep now knowing what he knows. I tell him he's onto something, that he's going to have a million opportunities, all more attractive than this. His friends won't get it, his family might not either. One day he might want to make some money, get a nice car. It's easy to walk away and forget and it's harder to stick around. This one, though, I think he might have fallen in love with this work. I tell him we need all the brains we can get, that I see that thing in him, that rare thing that says this kid can probably do anything he sets his mind to so I tell him in all seriousness that I hope he chooses this. This can be extraordinary too.

He asks me how old I am and how long I've been doing this and I tell him. He smiles then you must be a little crazy and I tell him Maybe. But those fancy cars and fat bank accounts are an illusion, you have to decide how you want to live. I'm also honest about my pending escape and perhaps because of it I press him again. We need some of the good ones to decide to stay. He might, he just might and I'll miss watching what he could potentially do if he decides to make this his thing.

The July Just Posts
Baha'i Thought with Generation Y on race
Cecilieaux with The beast drops the second shoe, Two boomer final solutions, Le socialisme americaine and Disparity
Chani with homelessness in perspective
Citizen of the world with A time to mourn. A time to heal.
Defiant Muse with like a rolling stone
girlgriot with A Girl Like Me and Oh yeah and we all look alike
Hamguins Hide-Not with OFG VIII peace
Hel with Life truths
Jen with Passing Through
Jill with A penny for your thoughts
Kaliroz with sticker shock
Kittenpie with Down and out in Riverdale
Krista with The melting pot post
Magpie with On Marriage
Mrs. G with Seventies
MYLIBLOG with Uncle Bobby's Wedding
Practical Spirituality with choosing beauty: where do we go from here and Sacred life Sunday: authentic beauty inspirations
Slouching Mom with For whom city lights glow
The Ascent of Humanity with The red pill
The Blog that Ate Manhattan with Abortion on the Web
Under the Overpasses with Geography of hope

Some of our faithful readers
Alejna
Carrie
Chani
Mama Tulip
Mary

Don't forget to swing by Mad and Su's places to see what they've cooked up this month and remember, we are here every month on the 10th and everyone is welcome. All you have to do is write. Or read. And to those of you who join us here month after month: from the bottom of my heart I thank you. It simply wouldn't be a roundtable without all of you.

June Just Posts

Community: 1: a unified body of individuals: as a: state, commonwealth b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society 2: society at large 3 a: joint ownership or participation b: common character : likeness c: social activity : fellowship d: a social state or condition. merriam-webster dictionary

In a week a number of us from our online community will gather together at BlogHer. We will connect with old friends and meet new ones for the first time. It's a collision of worlds, BlogHer. One that pulls us out from behind our keyboards and into the light. We discover things we did not know, we are perhaps taken aback by previous assumptions, we are pushed and broadened and enriched and moved. Others in our community will stay behind and continue communing with others the way we do all year round, through emails and posts, comments and groups.

The Just Posts are another form of community, one where individuals find a crowd, where issues can join us, where pain and suffering and joy and light can open our eyes. It's a place where everyone is welcome, all we need to do is write. We all see with different colored lenses, but it's the way we allow the light to shine and bend that draws others around us. We do this with words, with images, and with heart and soul. It's an ongoing joy to be a part of all three of these connected worlds, month after month it's a priviledge to gather here and it means nothing without all of you.

Just Post Writers
Andrea at Punk Rock Mommy with Planting the seeds of my own garden
Andrea with The burden of perfection
Averagebean with Freedom of speech?
Blog Antagonist with Speak English Me
Chani with Wellness Wednesday: take back your time
Christine Kane with Making Friends with Songs and Food
Defiant Muse with The mommy myth
Flutter with I am an omnivore
Girlgriot with Gotta do more than holla and We can, I mean WE can
Hel with Afternoon in an urban footgarden
Her Bad Mother with Joy, And Pain
Identity Theory with The weapon of rape
Indigenous people's issues today with Five key indigenous people's issues
Jen with Where the streets have no name, the middle way and the shattered ceiling and what it means for our children
Julie with Kids and sex?
Kaliroz with indifference to me, is the epitome of evil
KC with Wheels
Mayberry Mom with 20 lousy pairs of scissors
MOMocrats with Moms need help in California family court system
Moosh in Indy with the healthcare of stereotypes
No Caption Needed with High Noon in Sadr City
The Expatriate's Kitchen with World Refugee Day
Toddlywinks with The powerlessness of three
Tossing Pebbles in the Stream with To laugh or be outraged
Susanne with Corsets, coolness, caps, and cosmetic surgery
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Banning the Pill Kills Women. Period. and "Third Genders" in Societies with Rigid Gender Roles
WhyMommy with Thank you, AmVets

Just Post Readers
Janet
Moosh!
Alejna
Celeste

Don't forget to stop by Mad's and Su's before you go. We are here every month collecting posts about social justice from around the blogosphere and around the world and everyone is welcome to participate either by writing or by sending posts you've read. If you'll be at BlogHer next week you can also find me talking about the Just Posts here. Make sure to say hello (and no throwing tomatoes either).

end of the line

I often share stories, ones that are not mine. I share them to bear witness, to etch it in stone somewhere because I believe struggles this hard have the right to be seen. But I don't always follow up, sometimes because it's awful and more often because we are only a stop on the journey and not the end of their road. But then sometimes again the dice comes up aces and the ride stops here.

Remember this guy? And this one? Both are on the verge of moving into their own places for the first time in a long, long time, a lifetime of longing and life in the streets. They are doing really well and are well on their way. I had nothing to do with this goodness aside from being lucky enough to watch others work their magic but it's the best kind of magic I know.

It's Just Post time again and that means I need you to send me the posts you've read last month that speak to you and speak of justice or mercy or goodness in the world big and small. I have the pleasure of talking about our lovely Roundtable as a panel speaker at BlogHer in a few short weeks and I plan on highlighting this month as an example of our community so I'm counting on you to help me by sending your posts or others you've read to girlplustwo(at)yahoo(dot)com. If this is new to you email me or check out the little purple and white buttons to your right. As always, the Just Post Roundtable is on the 10th.

May Just Posts

It's standard practice for us Just Post hosts to share our own thoughts on an issue or two each month at our roundtable, but this week my heart is over at Mad's sitting silently with her and her loss. So instead of pretending as we women are sometimes too good at doing, I'm simply dedicating this Roundtable to my beautiful Canadian Just Post Bride, realizing words can't suffice but knowing it's all I've got. I love you, Mad.

Just Post Authors
Ally with a post not fit for mother's day
Beth with growing new hope for refugees
Bipolar Lawyer Cook with don we now our gay apparel
Bon with dignity
Cecileaux with Argentina's farmers are not exactly old, that 70's oil crisis is baaack and oh those gay and lesbian sinners
Chani with we are all special just like everyone else and Wellness Wednesday: eliminating pain
Defiant Muse with balancing the scales and kicking and screaming
Emily with not into yoga?
Erin with Calling All Steel Magnolias: Come Out From Behind Your Ruffles
Grilgriot with only wild animals act like that and a little video slap
Hel with Truth recedes only to re-appear
Jen with Untitled, twenty four years two months nine days and I think it was the fourth of july
Jenn with Up from the ashes
Julie Pippert with 'Whatever' is not an actual salary and it really doesn't buy the groceries, either Kyla with doors
Magpie with hardwood in burma
Mary with broken string
MOMocrats with Dockworkers Display War Opposition Strength in Historic Ports Shut Down
Stella with impacts
Susanne with Why I mostly eat organic food
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Genocide, Childlessness, and Female Guilt
The Dana Files with Apparently I just need more training
The little green house with happy birthday wesley
The r house with color consciousness not color blindness
Thor with more sleeps
Walk with me with what's a girl to do
Why Mommy with spring cleaning
Won't fear love with because children are our future

Just Post Readers
Moosh!
Emily
Mary
Bon
Alejna
Joanne
And thank you to Su, the other leg of our wobbly little Just Post table and to all of you, for continuing to speak your mind and being willing to share. I hope you all take the time to read these posts, they'll take your breath away with their beauty and strength. We are here every month and everyone is welcome.

April Just Posts

I was asked to be a panelist in a townhall meeting recently where folks had the chance to air their concerns about how the foreclosure crisis is affecting them and their neighborhoods and to seek help if they need it. Feeling a bit out of my element I approached this carefully, I am more comfortable in the belly of the beast and these folks while close were still standing near the edge, some closer than others but not yet swallowed whole.

As I gazed around the room I saw it was filled almost entirely with people of color, grandmothers and little babies and everyone in between. They all sat anxiously and with flashes of humor, this portion of the city was clearly it's own community and for better or for worse they came together as one. The questions were expected, ranging from what we could do to help them (and there are some things) to what to do about the abandoned homes popping up all around them, the vandalism and trespassing and concerns for their streets. And while the folks there to help were helpful indeed I was more struck by their faces, the earnestness of these hard working families, the immigrants and the working poor and the folks who've lived in this neighborhood forever and call this their home and how this is happening all over our nation, good people are scared and the belly widens, hungry for more.

The April Just Posts
Alejna with NYC Goddam
Alpha Dogma with Yearning for Lyin'
Babyslime with Shampoo free
Beck with Get out Yer Cheque books
Brenda Dayne with You and me, baby.
Chani with Mad dogs and mean girls
Gina with For shame, 40 years and we still have so far to go and For children
Gwen with Feeling Ranty
Jen with Flags of our brothers
Kyla with The speech
Mad with Kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight
Mir Kamin on blogher with Earth Day Every Day: Raising Eco-Conscious Kids
MOMocrats with MOMocrats exclusive: Obama answers readers questions and And now for something completely different: John McCain unveils his plan for healthcare
Painted Maypole with taking stock on Earth Day
Sage with At Least the Issue is Getting Some Press and My Real Problem
Sin with Benediction
Sober Briquette with Three Month Check-up
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Which Paper Towel Would You Buy, or Why are Household Products Commercials Stuck in 1961?, How Do You Feel About Diet Foods?: Some Feminist Navel-Gazing, Keep Your Open Source Away from My Tits, Or I'll Open Source You, Buddy! and US Companies and Politicians: Paying Women Less for the Same Work is A-OK as Long as It is Kept Secret
No Caption Needed with Have we no decency?
One Swell Foop with Her heart beats in me
Thor with A Reform is a correction of abuses...
Lia with Fair Pay
The Reluctant Housewife with It's not all about bra burning and man hating

Thank you for another lovely Just Post Roundtable. We are here every month featuring posts about social issues and social justice and we welcome anyone who wants to join us. All you have to do is write or read and send me what you find. And don't forget to stop by Mad's and Su's before you go to see what they are talking about this month. Lastly, I want to dedicate this month's Roundtable to the lovely Hel who was our fourth leg of the table for a good long while and has graciously bowed out in order to care for the many beautiful and important things she's tackling in real life.

February Just Posts

This month's Roundtable reminds me of the first bloom after a long winter. So many vibrant voices here this month talking about so many different things, from human rights to the power of the written word to governmental malpractices and healthcare and bigotry and abuse. Writing means nothing has to go silent. Writing means we are awake. Writing means change. Change means everything. It's up to us. I'd originally had more to say than this but after reflection, it's all that matters in the end. Writing. Doing. Change.

The February Just Posts:
Aliblahblah with Imagine
Attila the Mom with Language is powerful
Awake with Cyclical
BipolarLawyerCook with Free school lunches and social stigma
Cecileaux with Yes, we can vote for a black man and No-cajones congress
Celeste with Immunization controversy and The revolution will not be televised
Chani with Put a little love in your heart and Sacred life Sunday on Saturday
Crunchy Chicken with Using your sewing skills for good, and Operators are standing by
Cynematic with Unable to mind my own beeswax part 2
Deb with Naivete
Eileen with home visits in America
Elspeth with What the Dream House was/is for: building dreams and a real house
Emily with Real dads don't suck and Her name
Gina with vote and wasteful
Guilty with an Explanation with Ain't nobody's business if I do
Gwen with Say it absolutely nothing
HeartFeldt Politics Why we must embrace controversy
Her Bad Mother with Juno's Choice
Ian with Emerging from the mines at last
It's Not a Lecture with Facebook: Still clueless
Izzy with the one where i get all aggro and lecture everyone
Jangari with Eleven years in the making, The Prime Minister who apologised and Sorry business Jen with Water boarding and other unnecessary evils, Little big girl and stars in their bucky eyes
Julie Pippert with Putting a face to the health care crisis for kids (and families) as health insurance options expire and vanish
Karen with Super Tuesday
Karen (needs new batteries) with Just call me Rosenblum Hussein
Kevin with 935 lies
Kyla with Hate to waste $30
League of Maternal Justice with I need to start somewhere
Liz at Los Angelista with our acceptance of the code and religious freedom
Mary with No good answers
MOMocrats Women with Just call me Hussein: The meme
MOTR with more evidence emerges about dangers of EBA exposure
No Caption Needed with The evolution of violence in the 21st century
Pundit Mom with Super Tuesday not so super
Reality Testing with In the mix: Helping our children become successful in school and in life
Sarcastic Mom with Carroll Community Cleanup
Shakesville with Call to action to help tornado victims
Sin with Backwards in Time
Surrender, Dorothy with The US and our spy satellites: Fear disguised as concern
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Women are Dumb. Let's Educate Girls and Boys Separately! That Will Solve Everything., Would the American Economy Collapse if Women Stopped Hating Their Natural Appearance? A Look at Makeup, and A Letter to My Body
Wayfarer Scientista with Bird friendly coffee/chocolate
Writing as J(oe) with Teaching in the dark and Filled with Groceries

February Readers
Mary
Catherine
Hetha
Jess
Emily
Chani
Joanne
Alejna

Don't forget to stop by Mad's and Su's to see what they've cooked up. We're saving a plate for Hel who's away from the table this month tending to the birth and newness of her little puppies. If this is new to you we host the Just Post Roundtable every month on the 10th and all are welcome.

November Just Posts

Edited to add two fabulous posts that were mistakenly left off:

The ever fab Biodtl with what does need look like? and lovely Devra (we had her previous link wrong so here's the right one) with What about the other 9 months.

I often struggle with how to make a difference in the world. There are so many issues that need our attention: homelessness, poverty, education, the environment, health care, disease. So many things that it's easy to feel overwhelmed to the point of stagnation. Turning away is sometimes easier than rolling up our sleeves. Because at the end of the day, how much difference can one individual make?

And then sometimes it's simple. When you hear how our brothers and sisters are still struggling post Katrina, that after all this time there is still so much to be done. And easier still when you learn that there are kids there who need books. That we can each help to build a library. A library that will become the gateway for these children to learn about a world beyond their backyard, where they can become inspired, where they can learn, and where they can dream.

Jess recently travelled to the Gulf Coast and came back with a plea for all of us to stand with her to help build a library. After buying several books I realized that in the midst of so many sad stories it means so much to be a small part of a story of hope. The hope of allowing young minds who've already seen so much suffering locally to expand their minds around the world.

Public libraries are one of the best inventions of modern civilization. Libraries are places everyone can go for free to learn about anything they choose. But it's not a library without books. So if your finances permit it go to the Singleton/Hands On Library Wish List and help be a part of building a place for kids to go to open their minds and their hearts to what's possible in this world after already seeing so much of what is not.

The Just Post Writers
aimee with Where does your Candidate stand on Healthcare
azahar with Thought for the day
Beck with Welcome to The Macho World
BipolarLawyerCook with Your own best advocate
bon with Other Pictures
Chani with Blog Blast for Peace: If not now, when? Passing through the Gates, Horse Manure, and Gays in the Military
The Cool Mom Picks' Safe Toy Guide
Denguy with Bad Plastic, Bad Bad and 'Tis the Season
Erin with It's That Time Again
I am the master evil genius with What does need look like?
Jangari with Toilet culture, Exodus, and Four Corners on the Intervention
JCK at Motherscribe with We are all connected, we cannot be ourselves without community
jen with Power to the people who need it most, Tradition, Choosing and doing and going
jen at MOMocrats with Power to the People (who need it most)
jessi with Donorschooseorg--helping teachers across the country
Julie at Using My Words with Blog blast for Peace, Does the abstinence message for drug use work?, Let's Get it On: Abstinence only sex education is risky and ineffective, Does putting the arts at risk put kids at risk too? and Inconvenient Truth: A Transcript of my testimony to the EPA at the NESHAP Public Hearing
Kayleigh at Another Working Mom with I'm Dreaming of a... and Holidaze
Kevin at Life has Taught Us with Your signature does make a difference
Kyla with Healthcare is a bitch
Laura with A more important PSA
lori with Thoughts for the day
Mad with SOS? You can't be serious
Mad Organica with Tell Your Girls to Call for the Ball
Madame M. with Plan: Freezing butts, Stargazing and Retail (couples) therapy
Mary G with Charity begins at home
Mel from Actual Unretouched Photo with The Homeless
Pundit Mom with Do Republican Candidates Care About Women Voters?, You Know This Would All Be Different if Men Could Breastfeed and A Promise to American Women
Roy with Intersection of racisim, sexism and commerce
Sin with Seasonal Angst Disorder, Part 1
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with For a Good Time, Call a Feminist (Not that You'd Know This From the Media), No Smart Woman Left Behind and What's Bugging Women?
Thordora with Murders are Not Monsters; they're men
TIV with Post-traumatic stress disorder and ripples of trauma
Wayfarer Scientista with The Spilling of Oil

some of the many readers
Alejna
Crazy
Jen
Kiki
Lawyer Mama
Liv
Mad
Pundit Mom
Sin
Steph
Susanne

The Just Posts turned one this month. Last year today so many of us were madly celebrating a wedding born of yearning and justice and we haven't stopped since. And a year later, my lovely social justice bride has never looked lovelier. Make sure to stop by and see what she, Hel and Su are up to today as well and stay further turned as we gear up for the big Just Post anniversary bash next month too.