America, it's time to choose what matters most: profit or people.
I wasn't very keen on writing this article, and to be honest, I'm still not.
I'm not sure, as someone who has the privilege of savings, the privilege of clients, and the privilege of a partner who still has a job, if I'm allowed to talk about this.
I'm not sure, as someone who insists overflowing optimism is the key to keeping everyone's heads on straight, if this is the smart play here.
But it's a play I have to make.
Because last night, sitting up with my partner until well past 2:30 am, and holding him as we both felt the weight of unstoppable mortality crushing us to tears, my move became obvious.
I could keep pretending not to be freaked out, or I could write a call to action, provide info, and try to get people on the goddamn level.
So here I am, giving it to you straight, no filter:
We're On The Precipice Of Change. We Have Decisions To Make.
As our late stage capitalist system breaks down, we can make a decision. And we are, making decisions. As people flood to the front-lines to tackle COVID-19, risking their lives, they've made a decision.
As people flood grocery stores and gank all the toilet paper—which, if you'll excuse me, Corona doesn't cause Chipotle-shits that much so I don't know what you're attempting—they're clearly making a decision.
As spring breakers continue to party hard, risking their lives and the lives of others, they're making a decision.
As temporarily embarrassed millionaires attempt to cash-in on this epidemic, they're making a decision.
As brave souls who are also sick are volunteering and going through drug trials, expediently so, and knowing there's a possibility of failure or worsening, they're making a decision.
As 'bootstrapper' ideologues wave their rhetoric around like a glaringly self-evident "UwU Corporate-Daddy" signal flare, they're making a decision.
As nurses, doctors, volunteers, grocery store employees, teachers, national guardspeople, non-profits, landlords with souls, businesses owners with beating hearts, scientists, and more all wage war against the invisible, microscopic enemy, they're making a decision.
Now I'm going to ask you to make a decision, finally.
It's time to choose what matters most: profit or people.
We do not currently have the capacity to completely reforge our broken American way of life, especially in the middle of a pandemic. What we can do now is take action to put people before profit.
I'm going to give you some resources to make moves. It's up to you to put people first and make smart plays concerning your livelihood and the lives of those around you.
Below is a list of resources, both grants, grass-roots organizations, tips, non-profits, and more, compiled by Shine Registry.
Thank you, let's put your documents and efforts on reverb over 9000.
Consider donating (where applicable, and if you can), and at the very least, leveraging your network to share the absolute shit out of this link right here.
Local Relief / Resources & Aid:
Resources for Businesses:
Resources for Artists:
Resources for Freelancers:
Resources for Remote Workers:
Updated Resources (thanks Meg]
450 Ivy League Courses you can take online, right now, for free:
Here's a searchable database for Mutual Aid resources:
Check out this robust database of resources, organizations to support, and more. Includes resources for elders, LGBTQIAA+ people, as well as kids and teens:
Unemployment/Employment Resources By State:
Reddit has also done amazing job at compiling a list of unemployment info by state. I'm going to dump them out here, please take advantage of them, and do your part by sharing them with those that need them:
Alabama — COVID-19 UC Changes - March 16, 2020 News Release
Arizona — COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Information | Arizona Department of Economic Security, Unemployment - Employer | Arizona Department of Economic Security
Arkansas — Arkansas to help people get unemployment during covid-19 pandemic | thv11.com
California — Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), How to File for Unemployment in California During the Coronavirus Pandemic | KQED News
Colorado — Colorado workers affected by COVID-19 closures eligible for assistance
Connecticut — File for Unemployment Benefits - Connecticut, Unemployment Due to Coronavirus
Delaware — The Delaware Department of Labor Expands Unemployment Benefits to Workers Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic - State of Delaware NewsFloridaGovernor: Florida workers need immediate economic relief
Hawaii — Department of Labor and Industrial Relations | News
Idaho — Idaho Department of Labor
Illinois — COVID-19 and Unemployment Benefits - IDES, News and Announcements - Details View
Indiana — DWD: DWD's COVID-19 Information
Iowa — Updates and Resources about COVID-19 | iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov - www
Kansas — Unemployment Insurance and COVID-19 FAQs - Benefits - Kansas Department of Labor
Kentucky — Unemployment waiting period waived in KY as COVID-19 affects jobs
Louisiana — COVID-19 Information - Louisiana Workforce CommissionMaineMDOL: Information about COVID-19
Massachusetts — Information on Unemployment and Coronavirus (COVID-19) | Mass.gov
Michigan — Coronavirus - Governor Whitmer Expands Unemployment Benefits for Michigan Workers
Minnesota — COVID-19 and unemployment / | Applicants - Unemployment Insurance Minnesota
Mississippi — MDES - Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response
Missouri — Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information | Missouri Labor
Montana — COVID-19
Nevada — UInv - The Nevada Unemployment Insurance Claim Filing System
New Hampshire:Welcome | New Hampshire Employment Security
New Jersey — Department of Labor and Workforce Development | NJDOL Benefits and the Coronavirus (COVID-19): What Employees Should Know, Department of Labor and Workforce Development | NJDOL Benefits and the Coronavirus (COVID-19): What Employees Should Know
New York — Unemployment Insurance - New York State Department of Labor
North Carolina — DES: Apply for Unemployment
North Dakota — Dealing with COVID-19 | Job Service North Dakota
Oklahoma — Oklahoma Employment Security Commission - Claimants
Pennsylvania — COVID19
Rhode Island — COVID-19 Workplace Fact Sheet
South Carolina — COVID-19 Resource Hub
South Dakota — COVID-19 Reemployment Assistance Eligibility
Tennessee — Information about Tennessee Unemployment Insurance benefits and Coronavirus
Texas — Coronavirus
Utah — COVID-19, Unemployment Insurance Benefits (UI)
Vermont — COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions | Department of Labor
Virginia — FAQ from Workers Regarding COVID-19
Washington — ESDWAGOV - For workers and businesses affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus)
West Virginia — WorkForce West Virginia - Unemployment
Wisconsin — Unemployment COVID-19 Public Information
Wyoming — Unemployment Insurance
Here are organizations—that help people—that need our help:
If you have other organizations, resources, links, or important things to note, please comment on this article and I'll add them.
Shout-out to Buzzfeed for the list; click this link for more.
Seattle Mask Brigade: N-95 Mask Donations: "We are a very small group of volunteers attempting to fill a (hopefully) temporary need for N-95 respirator masks in our hard working healthcare and social service communities. Masks are in very short supply in many area hospitals and nursing homes."
Feeding America: "This organization helps feed communities and individuals facing hunger across the United States through a nationwide network of food banks."
No Kid Hungry: "With coronavirus forcing mass school closures across the country, millions of children are losing the daily meals they depend on. No Kid Hungry uses donations to send emergency grants to food banks and local community groups. It diverts resources to feed kids in the hardest-hit communities. The organization also has plans in place to ensure families know how to find food while schools are closed and making sure kids get three meals a day."
GlobalGiving: "Donations to this US-based organization’s coronavirus relief fund will help local organizations in affected areas meet immediate needs for health care, food, and water and transition to longer-term education and recovery efforts."
Center for Disaster Philanthropy: "This US-based organization is supporting local nonprofits in areas with a high number of affected individuals and vulnerable populations to help them support hourly wage earners, gig economy workers, immigrant populations, older adults, people with disabilities, and other communities vulnerable to the physical, mental, and economic impacts of the pandemic."
Khan Academy: "With the coronavirus (COVID-19) creating mass school closings, demand for Khan Academy has spiked. Please help us meet this demand."
This is my decision: to use what small platform I have to make a difference by giving you resources and a swift kick in the ass.
I'm not rich, I'm not powerful, I'm not well-connected...
I'm just a hopeless freelancing dork who is hopelessly in love with a man who risks himself every day because he's an employee of a business our state considers essential for emergency services.
I hope, possibly hopelessly, that we won't both be infected. That it won't find a way to jump to our hopeless little old furry baby named Rolly. I hope we'll get to live long enough to enter the robot renaissance so I get a chance to love him for another several hundred decades.
I hope, beyond all hopes, that the people in charge of our stupid country will find a way beyond all the petty rhetoric, petty profits, and petty politics, to do what's right and not just cure and save people, but also make sure they have a life to come back to after surviving.
I hope, beyond all hopes, that the people I love, and the people they love, and the people they know, and the people they don't know, and the people I will never meet, and the people they'll never meet, are okay.
I know these hopes sound stupid. I know writing this is stupid. I know I'm just one more drop in the puddle of people crying out for change, who have been crying out for it for forever.
But I hope, therefore I write. I can't stop writing these hopes.
I hope that we, as Americans, can finally see life for what it really is. That we can finally see just how much we all matter, and put each other first, in a system of governance and life that puts us far behind the almighty dollar.
You can not put a price-tag on life, no matter how hard some people wish to.
Please consider sharing this half sob-story, half-resource article, if only to get people clicking the links inside. Share the links, donate when you can, if you can.
Please prove to me that at least you, dear reader, can put people over profit, by just sharing one link to one cause in need.
When the dust settles, we will have a decision to make. A very, very big decision, and possibly the most important decision we as human beings of our time can make.
We will have to decide if profit really does take precedence over people, or if we have the capacity to reorient America's Late Stage Capitalist Hellscape to something that puts the lives of the people over the predatory practices of the profiteers.
I await all our decisions, with hope in my heart. I do hope I'll get to see the day where we make progress and putting people first, our priority.
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Updated 3/22/20 with more resources under the first section.
Updated 4/1/20 with a link graciously given to me by Meg.
Warning: if you reply with wHy CaPiTaLiSm ThE PrObLeM tHo, I expect you to go Google the answer before bothering me. I'm not going to think for you.
Cloud Engineer & Solutions Architect | AWS, Azure, Terraform | Securing & Optimizing Cloud With Projects @ runtcpip.com | Open to Global Remote Roles | Contact Me
4 年I'm glad you wrote this. America has, frankly, been far too inhumane for far too long. Sticking this article in my list of resources.
GRC/Risk Management/Payments/Privacy/Data Security
4 年Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and resources!! Hopefully this is a time for intense reflection on the choices we make, some of which have lasting repercussions beyond the immediate crisis at hand. I hope that when it really matters most people will prioritize people over money. I hope that sanity prevails.
Weird art, unusual designs. Open to commissions and projects.
4 年America is profit-first. You look at the stock market and you think something bad is happening. You look at the state of small businesses now. For ordinary people, something terrible is happening. For a select few, something wonderful is happening. It's a consolidation of wealth and elimination of competition for a very few who have much to gain by screwing the many, You watch and see who the big winners are. Here's a hint: They're already the biggest winners.
Snr QA Manager Creative Assembly - People Project Product - Scrum Master - SAFE - 505 Games Electronic Arts Gameloft
4 年How is capitalism to blame about this? "As our late stage capitalist system breaks down". Human greed did not come with capitalism and will not dissapear if capitalism dissapears.