Being Bold Podcast

The official Tumblr for the Being Bold Podcast--a podcast about telling the stories of people we should know, but don't. https://beingbold.me/

[wormdeluxe]

just found out there was a group of anarchists called the revolutionary anarchist clown bloc in the early 2000s

can we PLEASE revive clown-based protest organizations

[softcore-revolutionary]

[missmentelle]

The only way we’re ever going to solve homelessness is by giving free housing to homeless people. 

Not cots in homeless shelters. Not beds in domestic violence shelters. Real, actual, permanent housing, with a door they can lock and the freedom to come and go as they please. 

It seems like a stupidly simple solution to an incredibly complicated problem, but this is the only way we’re ever going to end homelessness for good. Everything we’re doing right now is like flinging thimbles of water onto a house fire, and it’s time to call the fire department. Don’t believe me? Consider that:

Providing free housing is actually cheaper than what we’re doing right now. Even when you factor in the cost of having round-the-clock mental health staff on hand in housing facilities, giving the homeless housing costs about one-third as much as leaving them on the streets. How is that possible? People who sleep on the streets go to the hospital a whole lot more than anyone else. Being homeless is hard on your health - you are more likely to be assaulted, experience frostbite or heatstroke, or fail to manage a medical condition like diabetes. Homeless people are also more likely to get arrested for minor things like public urination or loitering, and it’s hugely expensive to arrest them, process them, put them in prison and put them through court dates. We save so much money and eliminate so many problems by just giving them somewhere to live. 

It’s extremely difficult to get a job when you don’t have an address. There’s a huge amount of prejudice against homeless people, and the same people who shout “get a job!” are the first to toss someone’s application in the trash as soon as they see “no fixed address”. Having an address also makes it easier to vote, open a bank account, keep up with your taxes and obey the terms of your probation. 

Homeless people waste a lot of time standing in line for shelters and services. Shelters have limited space available, and if you want to make sure you have a bed for the night, you need to be there long before the doors open. The same thing applies to soup kitchens. When your whole life revolves around being in line for vital services for hours on end, it’s hard to make much progress in getting your life together. Providing people with housing gives them more time and more flexibility to return to school, find jobs, or reconnect with family. 

It’s virtually impossible to manage a mental health condition or recover from addiction when you have no permanent housing. It’s just not going to happen. Recovering from a mental health issue requires stability, routine and a safe place to retreat to, which are impossible when you live on the streets. Living rough makes it extremely difficult to show up to appointments, hang on to your prescription medications and avoid trauma. It’s more efficient for everyone involved to provide housing to the mentally ill first, and bring mental health services right to their doors. 

It’s hard to make much progress in life when you can’t accumulate possessions. Think about how hard your life would be if you had no safe place to store your things. When you’re homeless and sleeping in shelters, you can only keep as much stuff as you can carry with you, and most of your energy is going to go towards keeping that stuff safe. You can’t take advantage of clothing drives, because you can’t carry too many clothes. You eat a lot of fast food, because you have nowhere to store or prepare groceries. Showing up to appointments, interviews or shifts is difficult, because you have to lug everything you own with you to ensure nothing is stolen. Having a room with a lock changes everything. 

It keeps children out of the foster system. Ending up on the streets often means losing your children - if you can’t provide children with a stable home, that’s grounds to take them away. Families fleeing domestic violence can find themselves re-traumatized when children are placed in foster care due to inadequate housing. Providing stable housing allows families to stay together and minimizes trauma for children and parents, as well as foster care costs. 

It preserves basic human dignity. It’s hard for most of us to imagine how humiliating and dehumanizing it is to be homeless. Imagine not having access to regular showers, or even toilets. Having nowhere to clean your laundry. Having your schedule dictated by a homeless shelter. Sleeping in rooms with dozens or hundreds of other people, with absolutely no privacy. Being chased out of businesses and public places. Enduring the crushing boredom of having nowhere to go. Being treated as less than human. It’s impossible to maintain hope and dignity in those conditions, and no human being should have to endure that. 

We live in a society that treats housing like something you have to “earn” by proving yourself worthy of it, and that toxic thinking has put us in a position where we’re literally willing to spend more money to have people sleeping in the streets. It has to stop. Housing is a bare minimum requirement for human dignity, and it should be a human right. Everyone deserves a safe and private space of their own, regardless of their abilities, mental health or circumstances. No one is asking for luxury condos here - dorm-style settings with private rooms and shared bathroom and kitchen facilities have proven to be effective. This isn’t about who “deserves” housing; if you are a human being, you deserve a safe place to call home. 

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representation matters!

[the-dust-jacket]

Phillis Wheatley in Boston

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Phillis Wheatley--the first black woman to be a published poet

Sources: x x x

Phillis Wheatley was the first black woman to be a published poet. She was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a young child; cold, tired, and sickly, she was bought by Susannah and John Wheatley. There is no good way to describe the horrendous nature of slavery—and the lasting racist impact it has left; Phillis was at an extreme disadvantage from the very start not only was she a slave, but she was also chronically ill. But within this horrible situation, she ended up in an only ‘mostly’ racist household.

The Wheatley’s had other slaves, but they were gentler with Phillis than they were with them. They assigned her light housework, and when she was twelve they provided her paper on which to write her poetry. From what I’ve read, the Wheatley couple was not evil, or extremely cruel—like many slave owners at the time; they seemed to walk the line between being against slavery, and wanting to own slaves. It is difficult to understand how people can show compassion, but not change their ways to match their seeming demeanor.

In her lifetime, she managed to publish five books—though these books were ignored for many years. Today, many more people have read her writing, but she is still not as well known as she should be. And it is important to remember that there we many slaves who were just as intelligent and brave as her, that have been silenced.

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[the-ashla-project-deactivated20]

“We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”

—Malala Yousafzai

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‘The Scully Effect’: Fictional Characters Causing Positive IRL Impact

The show The X-Files has inspired many women to follow their dreams in STEM fields, because of the character Scully. This is an example of why representation matters. 

And it’s more than just a theory--there has been a study. “Women who are medium/heavy watchers of The X-Files hold more positive views of STEM than non/light watchers, and several survey questions link this directly to the influence of Scully’s character.” 

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You and I are scientists, Professor. We buy our privilege to experiment at the cost of total responsibility.

The Doctor (from the show Doctor Who)

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[When asked 'What made you want to add a gay character into the Percy Jackson series?'] Well, same reason I have tall characters, short characters, blond characters, LD characters and POC characters. There are all kinds of kids in life, and they deserve to see themselves represented in stories!

Rick Riordan

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[jessiedrawz]

Little Mushroom Forest.

[thebeakerblog]

Can a horse remember your mood? 

Writing in the journal Current Biology, a new study says domestic horses can recall facial expressions and those memories can impact how negatively (or positively) they view you later.

The inner mind of an animal is notoriously hard to quantify. But in this report, the authors conducted a controlled set of experiments presenting domestic horses with a photograph of a frowning or smiling person. 

When that individual subsequently appeared before the horse with a neutral expression, the authors write the horses’ gaze indicated they perceived a person more negatively if they had previously seen them looking mad.

“What we’ve found is that horses can not only read human facial expressions, but they can also remember a person’s previous emotional state when they meet them later that day,” said study co-author Karen McComb from the University of Suffex, in a news release, “And, crucially, that they adapt their behavior accordingly. Essentially horses have a memory for emotion.”

Read the full study: Current Biology: Animals Remember Previous Facial Expressions that Specific Humans Have Exhibited

(Image Credit: Creative Commons, Gunnsi)

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