I Stand With Ravelry

As you may have heard (I've seen stories today from NPR, the Washington Post, CNN, and Buzzfeed, among others), the fiber-lovers-website Ravelry announced on Sunday a new policy "banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry."

They go on to say, "We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy. Support of the Trump administration is unambiguously support for white supremacy."

Amen.

If you think no one could argue with that statement, I will (sadly) tell you that you are wrong.

If you yourself happen to disagree with it, well, it was nice knowing you, back before I knew that about you, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Feel free to unfriend me everywhere.

And for those who want to argue 'free speech,' I will suggest you read this.

(See it on the web here.)

Ravelry is a private company, and they can enact any rules they want to. I happen to agree with this one, but if you don't, your options are to keep using Ravelry but not speak up about the current administration on the site, or leave Ravelry. Up to you. It is still a free country. For now.

I would also like to point out, specific to the immigration/refugee horrors going on now, that just about all of us in the US came here from someone else (apparently just 2% of the population is Native American). Imagine if these policies had been turned against the pilgrims? Oh, look, you don't have to imagine it:

I support the people that the current administration seems determined to demean, diminish, denigrate, dehumanize, torment, and kill. Women, LGBTQ, BIPOC, and especially (given recent events) immigrants, refugees, and anyone else covered by the poem on the Statue of Liberty, no matter what the current administration thinks.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Thank you, Emma Lazarus. I want my country to live up to that.

All right, you made it this far. Are we still friends? Do you agree? (Are you speaking up?)

Then here, you've earned a pretty yarn photo, appropriate for Pride Month.

And a cat photo, just because.