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Anni Glissman's avatar

I have so many feelings about this that I am still processing, I think because of the very point you're making--there is so much of this toxicity and violence and desperation that we no longer even have time to process one horror before another invades our life. I have been, off and on, debating whether or not to write about a similar (not deadly, but it feels like "yet" is the caveat there) situation I experienced with roommates a few years ago. It is so thorny and so hard and it brings up all that related toxic masculinity and white supremacy that feed off each other and perpetuate these cycles. There are so many days I just want to write anything else. There are so many days I fiercely resent how much time these traumas steal from us, not just in the happening but in the aftermath. I'm constantly putting off writing about them because I don't want to let the things that happened to me become who I am. And yet.

Thank you for writing this. It's necessary and appreciated. Your words are so powerful and carry so much weight. I think they're a beautiful start in doing something about all of this.

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Chris Danforth's avatar

This past summer, I took a clerkship with the Division of Children and Family Services here in Arkansas. I supported the attorneys who represented the State in cases where children had been taken from their parent or parents by the State. I had more than one case with a similar fact pattern to this one. I saw a lot of good people doing extremely difficult labor in the closest proximity to human suffering that one could be. I also saw a system starved of resources where they were needed most, and our most vulnerable people suffered because of it.

But you are right. It is all connected. These children are starved just like their parents are starved just like their teachers are starved just like their bodies are starved for food and healthcare and education and safety and resources and futures and humanity.

At least the fuckin' homogenous grass is green, though.

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