Warning: "Anti-American" Content

My 14-year-old sister is sobbing about the violence at UVA.

She loves The Sound of Music, Indiana Jones, The Avengers, and Star Wars. She is used to watching the good guys escape and/or defeat the Nazis. Usually the good guys are Americans. They're heroes. They fight for freedom.

Today she's being confronted with a situation in which the Nazis are Americans. She's having to contemplate the possibility that some Americans, her people...well, they're not on the right side of history. She is seeing that the Americans are the white supremacists. The Americans are the fascists. The Americans are the terrorists.

She has questions: Where were the police? Why didn't they stop the white supremacists? Are these white supremacists the KKK without masks?

It's good that she has questions. It's good that she wants answers. It's good that she is devastated by the white supremacist terrorism that has transpired at UVA. I'm glad.

We should all be questioning our values. We should all be wondering why it took so long for the police to intervene. We should all be wondering why the police were gentler with violent white terrorists than they have been with unarmed black and Native American protesters. We should all be wondering why our president took so long to condemn the domestic terrorism that these fascist white supremacists committed. We should be questioning the whole of our social system.

From the outside, America looks like a nation that is eating its own. From the inside, we should know that America is a nation eating its own. We are not taking care of each other. We are not taking action when we should. We are not speaking up.

Am I anti-American? I don't think so. But I am 100% anti-alt-right America. The values of white supremacists, fascists, and domestic terrorists are not my American values. Their values aren't American at all. Their values are terrorist values.

Scout

Long May You Run

I'm posting this here because posting it on Facebook feels too much like sacrilege (and not the fun acceptable kind). 

When I was eight I fell in love at first sight with a timid puff of puppy. Yesterday that puppy got to embark on his next adventure and I'm pretty sad I'm stuck on "this unhappy planet / with all the carnivores / and the destructors of it" and without him. Gryffy has been more dedicated to fulfilling the measure of his creation than just about anyone I know and it has been my privilege to spend so much of my adolescence with him. He was always the ideal companion but he became better with every passing year. 

I'm sure St. Francis will take care of Gryffy until we inevitably join him. In the meantime I'll dedicate a lil Neil Young to Gryffy since it's what I played on our drives to trailheads (and it got Gryff psyched)...

Long may you run,

Long may you run

Although these changes have come

With your chrome heart shining in the sun,

Long may you run

All life is eternal!

Gryffindor is one life form that I'll be overjoyed to be reunited with.

I'm a Grown Woman // I Can Do Whatever I Want

-Beyonce, the champion of monogamy and living like you know you should

Big thank you to everyone for your cordial birthday wishes! You, the people, are the greatest, most glorious people. Whether you've proven kind or cruel, you have inspired me to work harder, work smarter, and always put people first.

A special thanks to my family, the people who have loved me loyally and taught me most of what I know: your sacrifices are not entirely wasted on me (thanks for being patient with me). You are such charitable people and I love watching you serve in our communities. I can't wait to see y'all soon!

Thank you, too, to the people I've adopted into my family. You are the best and the brightest and I hAve been ChANged for good... I have had the best roommates two years running and that's just the tip of the ice cream cone.

Without further thankimony, here's my toast to y'all this evening: in this ~unseemly~ time, let's all level up and be kinder to each other. Let's focus on being charitable rather than being right. Let's not spoil apologies with excuses. Let's become the people we needed when we were younger. People are always worth it.

Cheers and kisses,
Scout

Spring sprung

 Sent this one off to Italy (from Hires...when in Slake...)

Tea time April 2016 (Fiona, you are my hero)

Classic Greta

 Dogs must be walked...even tyrants like Sydney

Girls Camp champs

 MZC GNO 2016

I lived here eighteen years ago

 Eravati and I are the worst/wittiest ping pong players

Probably in the top ten best nights of being nineteen

 Our famous Christmas card photo

FHE Clue night (round 1)

"Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Tower Theater

Asayvastava brunch at Sundance

Asay greetings from Machu Picchu 

Sending our Cinna Stick to Ohio

2-0 and everyone's stoked

I'm off! I am morally obligated to drink the "mystery drink" my kindergarten-age cousin concocted for me for my birthday. Might not survive, but I've been trying to live a good life. :)