How am I stuck in the country?

My government won’t issue me a passport.

Aside from the extreme financial and planning difficulties involved with emigrating, It’s exceedingly difficult for trans individuals to get a passport right now. The department of state has been destroying identity documents of anyone who is currently or has previously requested an official gender change and they are not providing any recourse or remedy to the issue.

Just a “please leave or you will be arrested” when asked what can I do to get a passport…

What kid these days has a dumb phone? This effectively bans phones and put the burden of corralling student attention in the hands of the parents.

Parents aren’t about to go out replacing their kids phones with dumb phones. Kids aren’t about to stop carrying their phones (I would tell my kids to keep it on them regardless of what the school says)

This is just a thin excuse for boards to put the blame on teachers and parents for the districts poor performance when really what we need is a lower teacher to student ratio, higher wage for teachers, and schools that are properly funded so these kids can be engaged with instead of policed.

My response wasn’t particularly emotional but sure.

Keeping my empathy doesn’t preclude me from being discerning, swift and decisive in moments of crisis or high risk. I prefer to be kind, that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to be vicious.

When “prepping for war”, it’s important to consider the non-actors that may get caught in the crossfire. “Conservatives” is a wide generalization, many of them are not only capable of empathy, but dare I say decent people, even if they’re under the spell of propaganda.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a trans woman with a gun and a plan for if/when crisis hits. I’m very aware of the current threats to my life and continued pursuit of happiness. But before that I’m human, and so are they. And as far as I can tell, most of them are as unwilling to participate in this propaganda driven culture war as I am.

So yeah, I’ll keep my empathy.

Don’t let one loud house ruin the neighborhood.

Then let them think we’re weak. Dehumanizing others goes against my principles, whether or not that person dehumanizes me. I won’t compromise myself to “best” them because doing so would defeat the purpose.

Refusing to dehumanize them doesn’t make us any more exploitable, and I would argue refusal to dehumanize others solidifies trust on the side of those with humanity left.

When I see someone refuse to sink to such low states as calling other humans “cockroaches” i have more respect for them, and that much more faith trust they won’t turn around and call me a cockroach a few years down the line when political tides change.

If you’re out here calling people cockroaches then I really don’t give a fuck what you have to say. Bad faith, emotional based insults get us nowhere. They give us too much ammo to be that lazy.