This Juneteenth, Let's Focus on Empathy

No... not for the Nazis

This week I gave one of my employees a few weeks off from work. She’s not sick, and she already has two weeks off coming up to move to her new apartment (I love unlimited vacay almost as much as my staff does), but she’s terrified. Her parents are undocumented and ICE is cosplaying as the Gestapo and she is too afraid to leave their side. At the same time, our unhoused clients and community are being terrorized by these same assholes on the wrong side of history because Trump is so desperate to fill the deportation quota that he pulled out of his ass halfway through his campaign that no one is safe. At home, our incredibly kind and hardworking undocumented neighbor is refusing the leave the house and her son has decided to give up his goal of joining the military in case he leads the authorities to his mother. People are making these choices in every state, every day.

Across the country, our undocumented neighbors and their friends and family are living in an completely different reality than the rest of us, a reality in which a simple trip to the grocery store or just sitting at home watching TV is filled with absolute terror and dread. And this Juneteenth, I think it’s time for us to try for a little empathy.

I’ll admit it, after the election when those turnout numbers came up I was right there with the rest of the Black community when we said “welp, they fucked around and they’re about to find out”. It was and is still absolutely unfathomable to me how the majority of American Latines could vote for a man who looked us in the eye and said he was going to deport every brown person he could find. I can’t even understand believing that he was only going to deport the “criminals” considering that he thinks every undocumented person is a criminal and he launched his first campaign with the immortal words “All Mexicans are rapists”. It baffled me, it angered me, and it stole my empathy for a little while. I still don’t know how I feel about that, but it’s true.

But now it’s mid-June. A whole lot of people are finding out, from restaurant owners and dairy farmers to the entire state of Nebraska. Regardless of how we may or may not feel about how anyone voted, the fact is that we are talking about human beings. Human beings who are the reason that we have produce at the grocery store, clean dishes at our restaurants, and a massive percentage of our most successful Americans. And even if they weren’t, even if they were people who contributed literally not one single thing, they are still people. No matter how you feel about how anyone voted, about how anyone got to this country, or anything else, absolutely no one deserves to live in terror for their lives, their freedom, or those of their families.

And on Juneteenth, of all days, it is time to remember that.

There is no honor in fighting for anyone if we won’t fight for everyone. There is no society worth living in if it is not a society that protects the most vulnerable. We are not Americans if America is only for certain people.

No matter our backgrounds, our ancestors, our histories, regardless of whether we landed on Plymouth Rock or if Plymouth Rock landed on us, right now, at this moment, we either fight for all of us or we lose everything.

They’re not just coming, they’re here. And if we don’t speak up for them, we don’t deserve to have anyone speak up for us.

Choose the Bear

In a complete reversal of topics, I thought we could escape from politics a bit so this week’s episode is about… mortgages! Because life does and will go on! I never thought I would be able to buy a house and then when I finally was I found Jordan Nutter, a mortgage TikTok influencer if you can believe it. Her skits and advice were so helpful, I think I watched her every single day as I was going through the mortgage process. I wanted to bring her on the pod to demystify mortgages, talk about how one should prepare to buy a house even years ahead, and answer some questions about what single women should be particularly aware of. Jordan is great, this info is super useful, and the bonus is you can listen and not think about Marmalade Mao for a whole hour. You’re welcome.

Watch

Stick, Apple TV- I just took up golf again (the outfits are so cute now!) and the universe is here for me so a new golf show with the only person who truly understands me, Marc Maron, just started on Apple last week. It also stars Owen Wilson playing Owen Wilson and a production team that really, really wants you to think golf is sexy. It’s a fun show, I’m loving it, and if you want something extremely lighthearted and not stressful this is the show for you.

How to Train Your Dragon, theaters- My cousin and I were going to see Ballerina but it was Friday the 13th and I had been having an extremely Friday the 13th week so it was no surprise when we were directed to see the live action HTTYD instead. We did think it was weird that there were a lot of kids in the audience and the trailer seemed awfully long but by the time we realized what had happened it was too late. And you know what? It was good! And not just because I was the proud owner of a brand new Jaws themed popcorn bucket! I don’t know how or why Disney keeps failing at these live action monstrosities, I just know my stock portfolio needs them to get their shit together. But whoever made this dragon flick knows what they’re doing.

Play

I have been attached to my PS4 (I know, I need a 5, but they’re expensive and I’m old so leave me alone) for the last week plus playing Ghosts of Tsushima, an incredible game that I absolutely cannot get enough of. It’s like RDR but for samurais with a little bit of Nathan Drake thrown in. If you game and you haven’t tried GoT yet, this is your sign.

Read

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