Toots 🦣 from 11/27 to 12/01

As discussed previously, on Fridays, I present my weekly social media roundups. Note that toots of articles generally include header images from the articles, which I don’t include here unless their creators happen to have released them for use under a free license, and I notice. Most have not, or I don’t notice. But I now add my commentary here, where I don’t feel restricted by message length.

Also, I don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:07 – Mon 27 November 2023

Image Not Shown: Teenage girl at home doing her homework

Air pollution can take a toll on kids’ test scores from Futurity

More privileged populations, Zang says, may have more resources that allow them to live in a better environment, such as in houses with air purifiers.

Hashtags: #Health #Education #Pollution

I guarantee that this doesn’t limit itself to children…

12:07 – Mon 27 November 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Now break up your council of war. Leave here - and I will make you a great feast.

Eagle Woman

Hashtags: #Quotes #NativeAmericanHeritage

9:06 – Tue 28 November 2023

‘Valley of the Yosemite’ by the 19th-century artist Albert Bierstadt, owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Image credit: VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images (but certainly in the public domain)

In America, national parks are more than scenic − they’re sacred. But they were created at a cost to Native Americans from the Conversation

In addition, the National Park System is a testament to Manifest Destiny, a prominent feature of U.S. civil religion.

Hashtags: #NationalParks #USHistory

I have to admit to a small amount of eye-rolling at articles like this, because as interesting as I find them, the framing that we created the national parks at the expense of the native populations feels slightly disingenuous, considering that the entire country exists at their expense.

12:05 – Tue 28 November 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

You come here to tell us lies, but we don’t want to hear them. I don’t wish any such language used to me; that is, to tell me such lies in my great Mother’s house.

Sitting Bull

Hashtags: #Quotes #NativeAmericanHeritage

9:05 – Wed 29 November 2023

Image Not Shown: Misoprostol, one of the drugs used for home abortions

Inside the secretive network of pro-choice activists on the US-Mexico border from openDemocracy

However, thousands of Mexican women find a way to terminate their pregnancies each year. In northern states near the US border, they are frequently helped by reproductive rights activists and their network of acompañantes.

Hashtags: #Abortion #Mexico #US

Many years ago, people invited me for some holiday dinner or other, and the political rhetoric at the time led many to worry that the Supreme Court would take that opportunity to overturn Roe v Wade. My host, a nurse, talked about this angrily, declaring that if it came down to it, they would perform abortions themselves at that dining room table.

I quipped that, in that case, we might not come back the following year.

While I have no idea if the comment landed the way that I wanted it to—referencing the idea of eating where medical procedures have taken place—it introduced me to the idea that a government really can’t reasonably ban abortion anymore. I mean, sure, they can put a law on the books, but we’ve progressed far beyond the dilation and curettage technique common prior to Roe, to the point that, if the need arose, we could quickly have people everywhere trained to conduct medical abortions or menstrual extractions as necessary, with referral networks so distributed and complex that authorities would only ever know if someone confessed.

12:01 – Wed 29 November 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

A very great vision is needed, and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.

Crazy Horse

Hashtags: #Quotes #NativeAmericanHeritage

9:01 – Thu 30 November 2023

Image Not Shown: North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe, left, and Attorney General Drew Wrigley, right, converse with State Treasurer Thomas Beadle, unseen, before a meeting at the state Capitol, Sept. 29, 2023, in Bismarck, N.D.

In wake of Voting Rights Act ruling, North Dakota to appeal decision that protected tribes’ rights from Daily Kos

But, in an unrelated lawsuit Monday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act.

Hashtags: #Voting #USPol

I wish that I could have the same sort of optimism about voting rights as I do about abortion. However, committing voter fraud doesn’t work nearly as well as underground abortion network, as evidenced by how many Republicans we catch trying to sneak a few votes through. Instead, we need to constantly fight the elements in government that would rather silence certain populations, from town officials up to the Supreme Court.

12:02 – Thu 30 November 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

What shall we do now? The big knife is coming on us, and we shall all be killed. Now we must fight or we are done.

Cornstalk

Hashtags: #Quotes #NativeAmericanHeritage

9:02 – Fri 01 December 2023

Image Not Shown: A participant of the Delhi Queer Pride Parade poses for a photograph during the march in New Delhi, India, Nov. 26, 2023

India’s LGBTQ Community Holds Pride March, Raises Concerns Over Country’s Restrictive Laws from Voice of America

The justices called for steps to raise awareness among the public about LGBTQ+ identity and to establish hotlines and safe houses for those in the community who are facing violence.

Hashtags: #India #LGBT

At least somebody’s Supreme Court has gotten on the ball…

12:06 – Fri 01 December 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain of wishing forever.

Seneca

Hashtags: #Quotes

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, I drop any additional articles that didn’t fit into the one-article-per-day week, but too weird or important to not mention, here.

Image Not Shown: Screen Capture from musician Didier Awadi's YouTube channel featuring Awadi

Senegalese music: A national emblem, renowned worldwide from Global Voices

Senegalese music got off to a rocky start in the contemporary era, thanks to the domination of foreign music, particularly Cuban salsa music, which was prevalent in the years prior to independence in 1960.

You’ll find some interesting music in there, unsurprisingly.

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Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.