Not sure if you have been following this story (Megyn Kelly has touched on it), but a female high school basketball player recently refused to play when she realized there was a boy playing on the opposing team and she also went up to the boy and told him she knew he was masculine (I am not sure if she said man or boy). The school proceeded to sanction her for harrassment, and the case has gotten a lot of local and some national media attention. FAIR has stepped in to support the girl. One of our members informed us in today's peer-support group that a local podcaster has interviewed the girl and the boy, and he was able to provide a link to the latter (it sounds like the former is paywalled).
Here is the letter FAIR wrote to the Office of Civil Rights asking them to investigate this case: https://www.fairforall.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Civil-Rights-Complaint_Tumwater-Schools.pdf
I made this for my friend's daughter who is trying out pottery. I've been making her little instructional videos and this one is a timelapse of me trimming and putting a handle on a mug. Thought I would share in case you guys find this interesting.
Someone shared this with me who said it had been circulating in the Hasidic community. Will likely offend a lot of people these days.
Hi everyone, I haven't been active in Solid Ground for a while, but I am still alive and kicking! I now work as personal assistant to a mind-bendingly weird and diva-esque artist-lip-syncher-performer named Fiona Blueberry. She is blissfully clueless about politics and seems to be completely unaware of the culture wars. Working with her is a breath of fresh air. If you need a mood lift, I encourage you to watch this video we made together. Happy 4th, everyone! Wishing you fun/love/peace on this holiday. :) www.fionablueberry.com
Way back in 2011-ish an acquaintance at the Catholic Worker handed me Personalism by Emmanuel Mounier. I tried to read it but it was too dense for my attention span at the time. Now I wish I could find my copy. Today every individual impulse is funneled into movements or management: politics, healthcare, education, hiring, online algorithms. We are conditioned to act as totalizing machines: this person is conservative/liberal, educated/ignorant, etc. We have forgotten to see the beauty of the individual with nuance. I wonder how we can, like the proverbial mustard seed, spread this idea of personalism within our spheres of influence.
With the Minneapolis uprising and media frenzy I am grateful to not share a household with a leftist. I asked myself yesterday morning "why I am so tense?" I was tense because last year this would have resulted in extreme tension in my household.
Chat GPT got the stereotypes right! I wanted to make something like this cause when parties believe the other is an existential threat, how to we navigate such large differences?
I’m reminded of what Leslie often says about people finding connection and belonging via politics these days. I think I’m one of them. I just need something outside of politics with which to connect with others.
