elainegrey

I've been blowing past my weekly reminders of reflections since the hospital visit. Today's says. "I commit to sharing something that's helping me get unstuck in the face of oppression and injustice this week."

Last month i signed up with Southerners on New Ground to commit to "door knock" at my neighbors. I'm not as ambitious as they are, but it gives me some accountability to others on a commitment to walk down the private road across from my house and re-connect with one couple and at least connect with the household i walk by almost daily. Then i want to connect to the two houses closest to on the road proper.  If i meet people beyond that, it will be fabulous, but having a connection to a few neighbors lays the groundwork for mutual aid.

I am also going to the Hands Off protest in Pittsboro on Saturday. It's going to be 86° F??!!?? Ugh. And then i need to be ready on the following Tuesday to protect the blueberries from a frost or freeze. Ah, spring.

Conscious news consumption: I haven't yet come up with when or why i will read news. This past weekend i was researching in response to various prompts: Sierra Club, for example, is fighting the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that brought all the green energy stimulus. I was trying to find our if there were specific things in the county, so i could post something on the county mailing list. (The one big thing that might bring jobs to the county is unpopular for several reasons, and seems likely to fail regardless of the federal funding.)

I now have four sources i am checking for responses to the anti-trans XOs. One is a substack, so i receive that in email. Filing the news in Zotero seems a way to hold emotions at bay, a sense of control.

NYTimes is still something i turn to more for diversion (Ooh, Grammy's red carpet!).

I've since found another NC news source that is free and apparently reliable, NC Newsline is part of a nationwide network of "non-partisan coverage of state policy." - https://statesnewsroom.com/

• https://ncnewsline.com/
• https://carolinapublicpress.org/
• https://www.theassemblync.com/

Faced with the removal of the Yuletide fire hazard from the house and its array of lights, i bought some LED candles.  These will join the branch i wrapped with LED lights last year as all year glowing cheer. The lengthening days are wonderful, but it's still very dark in the mornings. This morning i was greeted by a crescent moon low to the south and the big dipper overhead -- and probably a Starlink satellite from a new train of them zipping overhead.  There's still patches of icy snow on the back deck, around the house in the pines' shade, but much melted by the time i walked Carrie down the hill after work yesterday. The creek still has big areas of ice.

One of those seven commitments was to be aware of my creating power, with the prompt claiming that by creating we can see ourselves as actors and not passive consumers. In the last week i created

• scientific data with CoCoRhas contribution
• requirements at work which translates into keeping libraries effective.
• a sketch as part of emotional care at work (and possibly some other sketches)
• a lovely dinner on Sunday with orange butter sauce over seared bay scallops
• a loaf of my breakfast bread
• a meditation for motivation to try to help me get moving

Today, i'll just inventory my sources as i become more intentional about news reading.

I'm not currently the intentional news reader i would like to be. I scroll through headlines and skim articles about "lifestyle" topics. Nonetheless, it seems we are doing our best to keep text based journalism alive. Not necessarily print, but traditional reporting. We subscribe to

• the Guardian (Christine)
• WaPo (Christine, truth done died)
• NYTimes (me)
• (NC) The Assembly (me, recently)

I think there are other news subscriptions Christine's made but i haven't bothered to connect to. The Economist, perhaps? I was glad when Christine asked about supporting the Guardian as i read many links that Dreamwidth's oursin posts and appreciate them. I never really read WaPo and am certainly not starting now.

The NY Times i read more in 2016. I now find it comfortable source of cultural topics -- style, fashion, cooking, sports, science -- i read the website headlines and don't usually read deeply.

I just subscribed to The Assembly, as i am suspecting that political involvement at the state level is going to be necessary to roll back the political gerrymandering and corrupt money that has brought us to this point. It has very long-form reporting and i hope it enables me to be more informed and more effective.

I had been supporting the county newspaper, but it was sold and became irrelevant, so i stopped a couple years ago and haven't found a replacement. The county has a semi-moderated mailing list and online newspaper maintained by a local.guy who, when i arrived in NC was running a forum site that seemed full of tea party/MAGA radicalism. I don't trust him, but the resource is an insight into the county attitudes. I looked around and found some campaign statements from him in 2008: he seemed reasonable then.

Other sources of news:

• https://www.electoral-vote.com prior to 2016 this wasn't such a daily news site, but with Trump's first election this became a good site for meta reporting (covering the coverage) along with analysis. I couldn't tell ages ago what the "bias" of the site was, but it was written by two highly educated professors for folks who could stand complexity. Which is now a bias.
• https://yaleclimateconnections.org/topic/eye-on-the-storm/ this used to be the WeatherUnderground blog but after selling the Weather Underground the blog moved here. Long form pieces about climate, hurricane analysis, and a steady drumbeat of round up reporting about hottest month, hottest year.
• https://spaceweather.com/ A different sort of news.
• https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/ Just started this recently and i'm not really taking to it, but it's yet a different summary.

I guess these coming weeks i should observe my news consumption.