Table of Contents
3 Letter from the Editor 4 P.S. Check Yourself: An Open Letter 6 June Jordan: An American Hero 8 Cute Ink or Sign of Deviance? 10 Climate Change, Who? 11 An Open Letter to Selena Gomez 12 Harassment and Mental Health of LGBT High School Students 14 Open Letter to Ben Shapiro of Breitbart News 15 Check Myself 16 Personas of the Heart: Why the “Failure� of Electra Heart Exposes the Ignorance of Hollywood 18 What Media Does Not Tell You 19 Honorable Rooster 20 Grounded
Letter from the Editor This zine is a collection of pieces written by first year Research Writing students. In this zine you will read heavy pieces about race, white privilege, transphobia, sexism, and media. You will come across a variety of styles and voices from the zine contributors. Our goal is to make people more aware of who they are and their place in the world and what stereotypes and privileges impact them. We address tough topics in the form of prose, poetry, and art. By reading this, we hope the reader will be more critical of their own actions and conscious about what they say. This was made a success by the arduous efforts of Daisy Chase, Ceilidh Welsh, Olivia Hammond, and Andy Caira. Thank you to Mary Kovaleski-Byrnes for being an amazing teacher and the first person to call a check, please!
Andy Caira Editor
P.S. Check Yourself: An Open Letter by Ceilidh Welsh
Dear Cindy, We’re so glad that you’re teaching us about all the things you don’t know. It’s really great to have you learning along with us. We did, in fact, choose to take this class to get the same whitewashed account of history that you can find everywhere else! Really, your ignorance on a topic you have taught for many years is astounding. We’re also very happy for you and your culturally appropriating ukulele band of middle aged white people. They’re super awesome and we really appreciate you showing those videos. We also really admire your perspectives on all the things we’ve been learning. Our favorite is the constant slut-shaming, body shaming, etc. comments that clearly make you uncomfortable, but you continue to say anyway. Another great one was calling the mysogynistic white old men who’s greatest accomplishment in life was making the sexual exploitation film “Blood Feast” “cute” because they were “talking about their heyday” and loading the dishwasher whilst commenting on the fact that their wives should be doing it in the documentary we watched. And the other day, using the phrase “who’s your daddy” in a discussion of child pornography on the internet was a brilliant educational move. We also love that your response to any commentary on problematic issues is to agree with a slow, tentative, uncomfortable “yeah” and change the topic. We really appreciate how much you are acknowledging our opinions. Thank you so much. We look forward to your racist, slut shaming, and generally ignorant comments every day!
Sincerely, Your students P.S. Check yourself.
collage of June Jordan by Daisy Chase
June Jordan: An American Hero
progressive movement and the civil rights movement” (junejordan.net). In her speech “Problems of Language in a Democratic State,” which she by Daisy Chase delivered at the keynote address for Someone who spent her the 1982 Annual Meeting of the Nawhole career talking about t and tional Council of Teachers of English fighting the fight for racial equaliin Washington DC, she speaks on ty and identifying the existence of how problems that were problems white privilege is June Jordan. June for people of color to begin with are Jordan (1936-2002) was a black poet, activist, journalist, essayist and often never treated as such in all aspects of American society, saying, teacher. She was very vocal about From slavery to equal rights, her bisexuality and about being a from state suppression of queer woman of color in America. dissent to crime, drugs and She is extremely well-known in her unemployment, I can’t think field, and is thought to have been a of a single supposedly Black very influential catalyst and activist issue that hasn’t wasted the in the fights for intersectional femioriginal Black target group and nism, LGBTQ+ rights, and civil rights. then spread like the measles She taught at City College of New to outlying white experience York, Yale University, Sarah Lawrence ... nobody bothered to track College, State University of New York this diseased idea of the state at Stony Brook, and University of back to the first victims: Black California, Berkeley. She has a morepeople. Concepts of the state than-25-piece body of work made up as the equal servant of all peoof major works of poetry, works of ple, as the resources for jobs or fiction, essays, and children’s books. subsistence income; concepts Jordan earned many prestigious of the state as a regulator of honors and awards, including “a conthe gressional citation for her outstandeconomy to preserve the peoing contributions to literature, the
ple from hunger and sickness and doom, these are ideas about a democratic state that have been raised, repeatedly, by minority Americans without majority support. My interpretation of what is being said in this quote, seeing as I am a white individual and can’t define what Jordan is saying here, is that black people and other minorities have been raising issues and questions about the unfair functions and systems of American society while the majority of white America believes the problems are either non-existent or non-important. Keep in mind that, like a fucking bad-ass, she said all of this in front of congress in 1982. She goes on to say, Most Americans have imagined that problem affecting Black life follow from pathogenic attributes of Black people and not from malfunctions of the state. Most Americans have sought to identify themselves with the powerful interests that oppress the poor and minority peoples, perhaps hoping to keep themselves on the shooting side of the target range. The full speech goes on to talk about specific ways and systems that set minorities’ “places” in society, and explains that it was the white gaze that put them there, and it was the white gaze that kept them there and blamed them (minorities/ people of color) for it. June Jordan, a black woman of very high academic and social standing, was fighting this fight for uplifting purposefully oppressed black and minority voices,
and the injustices that they faced on the day to day basis, since 1982. She, a prominent and influential figure in her community at the time (and of course, still to this day), wrote about police brutality and disproportionate gun violence way before mass school shootings started taking place in the United States, which, it’s safe to say, is when the majority of white America slightly started to care about gun control and gun violence. In Jordan’s poem “Poem About Police Violence” from 1989, she writes, Tell me something what you think would happen if everytime they kill a black boy then we kill a cop every time they kill a black man then we kill a cop you think the accident rate would lower subsequently? In 1989, this acclaimed woman talked about and publicly commented on police violence and police brutality, which is in fact a gun violence issue. This was published ten years before Columbine, the first mass shooting in an American high school, which happened in 1999, and more importantly, the first time that white America was affected and impacted by gun violence on a major scale. The very issue that activists like Jordan had been writing and protesting about for decades, even centuries, became whitewashed and non-inclusive to the very people it had affected historically longer. And voices of color were put at the back of the conversation, a conversation that people like June Jordan had started or tried to start decades before.
Cute Ink or Sign of Deviance?
by Ceilidh Welsh
Over the past few years, I decided that I wanted to get a tattoo. I felt that permanently engraving something meaningful onto my skin felt like a ritual that would make me feel like I have control over myself in a positive way. Over winter break, I got a small outline of a hummingbird on my ankle, and I am very happy with it. However, through this process I noticed something rather unpleasant– I had been having negative thoughts about how society would see me once I got my tattoo. Several people asked whether I could hide it for job interviews. I didn’t even consider getting a lower back tattoo because of the connotations that come with them. I realized that I was subscribing to these ideas that tattoos were a mark of deviant behavior and that they were dirty or for low class people. But why? Where did these ideas even come from? As a society we often accept ideas that have been passed to us by our parents without questioning
them. This is inherently a problematic thing to do, because a lot of times, societal preconceptions are founded in myths and traditions that are no longer relevant in the modern world. Such is the case when it comes to tattoos. Tattoos date all the way back to the neolithic period, represented as markings on human-shaped clay pots left by the Cucuteni people in 4800-3000 B.C. Since then, they have appeared in almost every culture, with many different meanings and purposes. Most importantly in the context of negative preconceptions, however, the Greco-Romans used tattoos to mark slaves, criminals, and defeated enemies. This is perhaps where the negative perception of tattoos began. In other countries later on, tattoos were banned by communists, because they were a sign of individuality, so they, too created a negative image to discourage tattoos. These historical occurrences were most likely the root of the stigmas around tattoos that exist today.
Often, a more modern approach of people who are against tattoos is based in religion. Christians like to cite the one verse from Leviticus: “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:28). However, there are many other mentions of body markings of a positive nature in the new and old testament. Similarly, Jews often hear that they cannot get a tattoo because they will not be allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. This is, in fact, a myth, probably stemming from one cemetery policy, that got adopted as a scriptural doctrine that parents could quote to discourage tattoos. All of this boils down to tradition. Older people are much more likely
to cling to tradition simply because that is how things have always been. Because of that, they continue to believe that tattoos are bad because that’s what they were taught, not because there is actually a real reason. Of course, tattoos can be a sign of deviance, such as those of criminals or gang members, but they can also be used to cover surgical scars and can contribute positively to mental health. People get tattoos for every reason imaginable, from the superficial to the achingly deep. So labelling them as inherently “good” or “bad” is simply beside the point. The best we can do as a society is to be aware of the history and culture behind tattoos, and try not to stigmatize people for their choice of expression.
illustration by Ceilidh Welsh
An Open Letter to Selena Gomez and Her Inability to Make Up Her Mind by Olivia Hammond
Climate Change, Who? by Ceilidh Welsh
Let me be the first to say it– our President is so smart. He has shown it countless times, from his small spurts of genius on Twitter to his brilliant handling of the press at every conference. He really just is SO inspiring in all aspects, but most of all, I admire his refusal to believe in climate change. First of all, Trump is completely right. There is no climate change, it was completely made up by the Chinese government to trick us poor Americans. I mean here I was reading the loads and loads of scientific data that proves beyond a doubt that climate change really does exist, and I believed it! I noticed the weird weather changes across the world and thought “Yikes, we really are killing the planet”. But I was wrong! It’s all a hoax. Really, the fact that he was able to see through all that is impressive. Like he noted in his tweet a few months ago, it could have been “the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!” Honestly, how can you argue with that? Secondly, the way that Trump and his administration have completely ignored everyone’s
questions about climate change and if he still thinks it’s a hoax is very admirable. Reporters keep asking if Trump has changed his mind about climate change, and his administration replies that they are talking about more important things, like whether Paris is good for us or if they really just want our money (Everyone wants to steal our money). He already said ONE TIME what his opinion is, and that should be enough. Why does the press have to keep asking anyway? It’s not like there is more and more evidence that it exists or anything. Everything remains the same, and China is still trying to trick us. Idiots. They’ll never get our money while Trump is around. I think that Trump takes a lot of his inspiration from Jim Inhofe, another great man. He went so far as to bring a snowball to the senate floor to prove that climate change doesn’t exist in 2015. He explained that it was cold outside, and that disproved the idea that the entire globe was slowly getting warmer, and completely disregarded critics’ comments that the cold was due to the season of ‘winter’ or whatever. No. It was cold because there was no climate change, and Trump is here today to remind us that there still isn’t!
Dear Ms. Gomez, I am writing to you today on behalf of my exasperation with your so-called “activism”. Recently, I have seen you post your support to the #MarchForOurLives Movement. While I congratulate you for finally taking a stand for something, I hesitate to give you all my praise. I find your selective activism a bit… problematic. For one, your support for the #MarchForOurLives Movement seems a bit more on the lines of a publicity stunt, rather than actual support for the cause. And if I am wrong in this claim, if you really do support the #MarchForOurLives Movement than there is a very pressing question that I must inquire – why is #MarchForOurLives more than a hashtag but #BlackLivesMatter is not? Cat got your tongue? Or maybe it’s your privilege? I could not say, but I do know this – you selecting your support for certain movements over others shows your true colors and sweetie, they look a little white feminist-y. You have a platform and you should use it accordingly. Now, I am not implying that you need to use your platform for every activist movement. No, that choice is entirely up to you. I, for one, have no idea what it is like to have the level of influence that you do and therefore, have no way of understanding how that influence can affect me personally. I know that almost every breath you take is under scrutiny and that anything you do will be met with hate and criticism. So I write this letter to ensure that I am not attacking you – despite my sarcastic tone – but rather calling you out and making you bluntly realize the repercussions of your actions. What actions do you ask? Well, your blatant choice to revoke the significance of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement while praising the #MarchForOurLives Movement for the same reason you attacked the former. Sound confusing? Trust me, I am just as confused. Why does one gain your support while the other is demonized for the same reason you are supporting the other? I know I am jumping around and asking a lot of questions you cannot answer without a response so I will just get to the point. Like I have stated previously, you have a platform and you should use it accordingly. If you are going to show your support to a hashtag movement because it is “more than just a hashtag”, but criticize another because “oh, lol, so that means if I hashtag something I save lives”, then you are going to have to make explain your hypocrisy instead of remaining silent until it all dies down. Despite your silence, if you have not noticed, we will not forget. Your silence speaks volumes and exposes you more than we have too. Ms. Gomez, I want to end this letter with this. It is time for you to use your voice – your actual voice, not just the one you want the public sees – and do something with it. Your platform is not going to go away by you just hiding behind it whenever you feel like it. It is time for you to grow up and take responsibility for not only your actions, but for the words you say. So Ms. Gomez – what say you? Sincerely, One of The Many People Who are Tired of Your Shit
Harassment and Mental Health of LGBT High School Students by Andy Caira High school is a tough time for all kids. While many people understand bullying and harassment, they tend to not take it as seriously as they should. Especially for students in the LGBTQ community, harassment is something they face on a daily basis. High schools across the nation should be required to have accessible and safe bathrooms and changing rooms that are inclusive of trans people, as well as protections against hate crimes. This is not an issue that should be on the shoulders of high school students, especially LGBTQ students. Advocating for themselves often forces students to come out when they are not ready to. This should not be their burden to carry. We need to work together to make high schools are more safe and inclusive environment for all students. The health and safety of students is one of the most important things and is a basic human right. People have the right to feel welcome in their own school. According to a survey conducted by the CDC in 2015, LGBTQ students seriously consider suicide at a rate of 3 times their straight peers. They
are also twice as likely to face depression on a day to day basis. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, safety and security are basic human needs, belongingness is a psychological need, and achieving one’s full potential is a self-fulfilling need. All of these should be guaranteed to students, many of which school is their only escape. When schools do not support every single student, it sends a message to them that they are not worth any effort. While this topic is more nuanced in terms of finances, at the baseline, you do not need all the financial support to allow students to be comfortable and guarantee them a harassment-free place. High schools need to take initiative and cannot wait for an out trans student in their school to make changes. Writing to local school boards and representatives will get people to notice this issue. Some might not even know how bad it can be for students. In a casual poll surveying Emerson students (taken from the Class of 2021 and the Piano Row residence hall), 86% of students responded “Never” or “Only Briefly” learned about inclu-
sive sex ed, LGBTQ history, or LGBTQ activists during high school. Learning about the LGBTQ community just like you would any other person is so important to normalizing this to students. When you treat people of the LGBTQ community as an ‘other’ in the classroom, students will think that it is ok to treat their LGBTQ peers like an ‘other’. High schools should not force kids out of the closet in order for them to, in turn, fight for the changes that need to be made and the rights they have. According to GLSEN’s survey in 2015, 85.7% of LGBTQ students heard negative remarks specifically about transgender people, like “tranny” or “he/she” 50.9% of transgender students had been prevented from using their preferred name or pronouns 60.0% of transgender students had been required to use a bathroom or locker room of their legal sex According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 78% transgender/gender non-conforming students in grades K-12
experienced harassment, while 35% experienced physical assault and 12% experienced sexual violence According to a National Youth Risk Survey conducted by CDC in 2015, 60.4% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students felt so sad or helpless almost every day for 2 or more weeks in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities 42.8% of gay, lesbian, or bisexual students seriously considered attempting suicide during the 12 months before the survey
Open Letter To Ben Shapiro of Breitbart News by Andy Caira Dear Ben Shapiro, You know what? I never considered it that way. Yeah, you are right. You have always been right. I can’t believe the world seems so against you. Why does everyone push back so hard when you says that it’s just genetics? DUH, genetics! I never even considered biology when I came out as trans (: Honestly, I should read more up on you because your words are genius. “What is your genetics?”and “Forget about disrespect. Facts don’t care about feelings” HA! Those are some brilliant lines. Breitbart is lucky to have you on staff. I would also like to congratulate you, sir. You are the first person who has convinced me that my identity is just a mental disorder that I should deal with privately. I am excited to start my new life ignoring my gender dysphoria and “growing out of” this phase that must just be a part of puberty, as you have mentioned. Starting my new experience as no longer a trans person will reap me many benefits: for one, I will not be stared at by people when I use the man’s bathroom in public. I will also not have to worry about facing harassment from strangers and peers every day! While, luckily, my college is very open and welcoming, these 5,000 people must be wrong and I cannot wait to educate them on why they’ve been misled this whole time. Thank you, Ben Shapiro, for making my life so much easier. Truly, I have been so blind in the past, but your information about biology and genetics, from a non-scientist’s point of view, was extremely logical and swaying. Best, Andy Caira A transgender boy Female
Check Myself by Daisy Chase Some will say I’ve got privilege Some will say I’ve not To that sum I say Wake The Fuck Up. There isn’t time to debate If this is real or not Because based on color of skin People are getting shot. No repremandments Due to the systems That people who look like me Put into place. We Are Responsible For Change. Yes, this is our problem Don’t push it away This issue of oppression Affects people everyday. We are not oppressed For the color of our skin We even erase history To put ourselves in, Make us look good Though we know damn well That for all the shit We put others through We should be in hell. We have to listen. I have to listen. Listen to them. Listen to voices who, for so long have been suppressed and ignored Please listen. We’ve got work to do
illustration by Andy Caira
Personas of the Heart: Why the “Failure” of Electra Heart Exposes the Ignorance of Hollywood by Olivia Hammond
Electra Heart. The arrogant, selfish, and self-entitled persona birthed from the second studio-album by none other than Marina and the Diamandis – also known as Marina Diamandis. Marina Lambrini Diamandis is a Greek-Welsh singer born on October 10th, 1985 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales. With “Electra Heart”, Marina took on the role (or should I say Starring Role?) of reflecting the true beauty ideals of American media and what it promotes. She explains that “Electra Heart” is the “antithesis of everything that I stand for” or, in my simpler terms – Electra Heart is Marina Diamandis’ inverted (Popjustice). What does this mean? Well, Marina uses Electra Heart and the archetypes that she embodies to represent the warped view of the masses when it comes to beauty, love, and how that is portrayed in the media – and she does so, quite brilliantly. The whole point of the album is the fake-ness that it produces. The overdone-ness of the album – meaning the extra-ness of the vocals, beats, and persona – is mocking the extravagant ignorance of America’s Hollywood and the emptiness of young woman that it praises. One of the main reasons why I
believe it was not a big hit in America is the reason that America in general does not like to face the problems that we have – instead, sugarcoating any issue exploited with seemingly heartfelt apology letters and a false claim of taking time off for the benefit of getting better. Electra Heart is a masterpiece pushed to the side because people refused to understand that the outrageous of the album is point of the album – that in Hollywood-centric society, we tend to glamorize the overdone celebrity and neglect the emptiness that is actually shown. We also tend to romanticize the toxic image of love in a way that is demeaning and unrealistic. In research that author Mary–Lou Galician conducted, she concluded that “higher usage of mass media is related to unrealistic expectations… leading to… dissatisfaction in real-life romantic relationships” (Galician). That the media portrays a couple-ship that is wholeheartedly false. Marina gobbles up that lie and throws it back up in our faces, pleading for us to understand why this mindset is such a lethal model. She shows the destructiveness of a romantic fawning for a love that is artificial and as plastic as the
dolls she wishes to be. Marina is also overly criticized for her beats and how they could be better if she stripped away the tacky sound and led with her unique voice. What those people fail to realize is that Marina intentionally did that. The tackiness is a representative of the tackiness in overhyped celebrities and the frustration of actual talent squashed by pop-culture molds. In a study on how media standards affect the youth, the conclusion that surfaced was “that regardless of gender… self-objectification… may serve as a mechanism which translates the media-ideal internalization into negative body-feelings, and… body shame” (Dakanalis 1008). To simplify – it was concluded that toxic media standards do, in fact, affect body image and how the youth grow up thinking about themselves. That is what Marina tries to get across with Electra Heart. We see the good person Marina is and wonder why she chooses Electra Heart as the one who gets to experience her life. It perfectly embodies the notion that the media and societal standards corrupt pure people. She conforms to a mold that does not fit her or anyone else for that matter and then “dies” because of that. Marina’s alter-ego also portrays the lonely and heartbreaking life of the infamous Marilyn Monroe. From the changing of the name, to the blonde wig, to the hapless lovers that are unstable and consistently leaving, Marina embodies the bombshell blonde’s tragic life. Marilyn Monroe was an outstanding public figure and a true intellectual, someone who “was more into books than shoes”, despite for what she is known for (Doonan). The common misconception about Marilyn Monroe was that she was a blonde-bimbo, a hussy craving attention and popularity. The truth is, Marilyn was none of that. Monroe became victim to the typecast of the 1950s the tended to portray “the seductive blond… as dumb, evil, or both” (Richardson). Her “sexy walk
and overly tight clothes” often times getting her criticized for “[her] desire for serious dramatic roles” (Richardson). Electra Heart wanted a life much like Marilyn Monroe – one that she could be herself and be able to do what she loved – but once again, the over-arching media and the tendency that it has to skew the truth, ruined that. From the style, to the sound, to the overall aesthetic of the album, Marina hits the ball out of the park and perfectly pulls off the toxicity of a plastic picturesque life media then and now has no problem in portraying and more importantly, exploiting. It perfectly embodies the notion that media and societal standards hurt the teenage youth and is detrimental to their personal image of themselves. Overlaying an overused tune with her powerful vocals is a mirror of someone covering up their uniqueness to conform to what others want of them. Her adapting a new persona reflects the dissociation with one-self when self-love is a secondary concept. Everything that she does is at the precision of a professional that knows what she is capable of and how huge of an impact her speaking out can make. With Electra Heart, Marina shows what happens when someone decides to live a fake life and the outcome from that – but she does so much more. Marina starts an important social commentary about our ideals of love and beauty, and at what standard we should, as a society, hold a portal of them up too. Her album deserves an abundant amount of recognition not only because her artistic ability is on another dimension but because it challenges what is love and beauty and how we should depict it to the masses. Marina Diamandis gives a voice to those that are crying for help and guides them into the light. With this album, Marina becomes more than just a young pop-artist, but transforms into a role model, herself, and a true social activist. With this album, Marina shows her true heart.
What Media Does Not Tell You by Olivia Hammond
you are as sporadic as the tides; in the morning, gentle and sweet but when the moon comes out, you are wild and free so let your hopes and dreams dance together in the pale light that breaks your chains crafted from a harsh world filled with harsh people enjoying a pastime of etching words onto people’s skin trying to place them into box when they are as infinite as the universe we live in remember, you are a flower; delicate like it’s petals but as strong as it’s vines, vines that support life so be wary of those who fancy picking petals because their garden is bare be wary, but do not forget to love do not forget to let your love escape a heart that has held it for so long because you were told about monsters that look like reflections in mirrors and were forced into believing that demons live not only in the depths of hell but walk in the hallways with you at school let your love escape a heart so bruised and broken you refused to be open and closed off all emotions, bundling them away like a time capsule you intended never to dig up again you must remember, you are beyond the limits of a cardboard box dug deep into the dirt because you are not meant to be buried into
a cold ground that intends to die down the fire you set in so many people; you are meant to lighten a darkened path with a smile so huge, it spans for miles on end; you are meant to find your meaning of a lover and a friend you are meant for extraordinary things so don’t you dare let that fire become embers that will never spark again there are not enough metaphors in the world to remind you of your value and your worth so above all, know this: you will leave your mark on the world like a tattoo on someone’s skin you will see night and day, good and bad, and everything in between but never forget that you are as sporadic as the tides and water is a limitless resource
Honorable Rooster by Andy Caira
A cluster of chicks Run about Peeping and chirping Each day they grow together Mistaken for a hen at a young age The honorable rooster Lives in secret but Wishes to be free Momma of the flock Loves her hens And treats them right But never knew Of the rooster that hid among them
illustration by Andy Caira
Until the day he cawed And revealed his secret Wishing to be loved He was sent away
Grounded
by Andy Caira Do you ever miss a step on the stairs And feel like you are floating Just for a moment But that moment is more Is longer You can’t catch yourself As your foot misses the step “People who are transgendered go through so much pain and emotional turmoil dealing with the effects of that disorder or whatever you want to call it” Your head feels lighter And your eyes shutter Your chest, Tighter. You move slow, but is it you moving or is it something else “I’m saying that the Boy Scouts have a standard. You must be a biological boy to be a Boy Scout. You Have to be a boy to be a Boy Scout” Do you ever have a dream In the middle of the day That feels so real You wonder when in your life it happened to you. But that dream is real And your leg won’t move “It is trespassing on the hearts the minds the bodies of our children. They’re our children.” Dig your nails into The cold dirt And let them feel the grittiness of the earth Under your fingernails. Grounding. “She actually used to be he and I think still is ... I gotta tell you she had me fooled”
Breath in the dewy air And feel it travel in your lungs A refresh. Like a balloon You fill up. Grounding. “A lot of these girls you cant tell what they are” Hear birds Listen to them and Let their sounds of chirping and bickering Fill your mind. Grounding. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you” Let your mind go blank And feel your toes wiggle And your fingers twitch. Grounded.
Quotes from Fox News reporters, Ben Shapiro, and President Donald Trump