athingthatwantsvirginia

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Israel just shot and killed over 100 Palestinians trying to access the aid trucks.

Let me restate. They murdered innocent civilians that were trying not to starve themselves, because of living conditions that were Israel’s fault to begin with, because they bombed their homes.

I genuinely have no words. There is no way anyone can support Israel and still consider themselves as a human being. Free Palestine. 🇵🇸

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

miss you. would like to grab that chilled tofu we love. / miss you. would like to take a walk with you. (gabrielle calvocoressi)

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Just a general reminder that the week of 18-24 February is another strike. Please don't ignore this, no one has the excuse of it being too spontaneous this time as it has been planned since the strike in January ended. Don't talk about anything other than the injustices in the world. Talk about Palestine. Talk about Sudan. Talk about the republic of Congo. Talk about West Papua. Do not let anyone forget about any of the genocides going on rn.

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Good morning. This might be my last message from the city of Rafah. The occupation [Israel] is carrying out crazy fire. Violent belts. As you’re hearing, there are helicopters. Planes and gunfire from the vehicles. There’s a complete invasion of the city.

We don’t know what is going on in Rafah. The place that the occupation [Israel] claimed to be safe. This is happening all of a sudden; the people didn’t go out. They didn’t do anything. More than thirty targets were hit in just minutes. People were asleep. We woke up to the bombing, to the shooting from the helicopters. It was horrifying. Unacceptable. This might be my last message. Please relay it to the world.

— Hazem, journalist residing in Rafah; 02.11.2024

Rafah was Palestinians’ very last safe zone. There is quite literally nowhere else left to go. And now it’s being bombed with airstrike after airstrike.

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Hey everyone, this is Bisan from Gaza. I'm still alive but Hind is not. Do you remember Hind Rajab? This seven (7) years old child who was missed 12 days ago. Hind was in a car with five (5) family members and they were all killed - except Hind - by an Israeli bomb, and then she called the Ambulance, she asked them to rescue her. Two Ambulance men from the Red Crescent tried to do this but they were also missed. Now; today they were found killed. The body of Hind found killed, found murdered. It's just a new massacre added to the list of endlessly massacres committed by Israel against my people; Palestinians in Gaza right now.

No one holds Israel accountable until now. No one is doing anything. Hind was killed. Who is the next? I don't know, it might be any one of us, but I mean, it's a new, it's a new massacre - she is murdered. You all heard her story, you all heard her voice asking for help saying (Bisan speaks in Arabic first then translates to English the following) "take me with you, take me from here". She was between dead bodies for days, alone and no one could rescue her. We knew where she was, we knew that she was okay, we knew that she could contact the Red Crescent but no one rescued her.

-- Bisan on Instagram, 02.10.2024

There really is nothing left to say.

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Just because we aren't seeing more posts about Palestine, doesn't mean the genocide has stopped. Let's keep Praying and speaking up for Gaza, Palestine.

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Snow and traffic on Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

david, commission. 2019

i am aware that this piece of mine has been re-posted a thousand times, but now you can re-blog it from the original artist! :~D

edit: since people asked you can now get a print of this here!

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

WHAT RESEMBLES THE GRAVE BUT ISN’T

Anne Boyer, former poetry editor of NYT Mag

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

the glass castle by jeannette walls

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

MYRNA LOY in THE THIN MAN (1934) dir. W.S. Van Dyke

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

dudes, we did not go through the hassle of getting these fake IDs for this jukebox to not have any Springsteen by Hanif Abdurraqib

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

👏👏👏

part that got cut off ⬇️

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

“After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: if anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu-biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—she stopped crying. She thought our flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late. Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother until we got on the plane and would ride next to her—Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out, of course, they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—non-alcoholic—and the two little girls from our flight, one African American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade, and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.”