Things in these (for the moment) United States are getting weird, I wrote to a friend presently traveling overseas, and not the good kind of weird. The least qualified person imaginable for the job of Most Powerful Person In The World appears to be getting more and more unhinged, and we’re possibly less than a week from his hiding under the covers in his special blankey with only people that tell him he’s great allowed in the room.

Traditionally, that stage worked out great for the madder Roman emperors.

I’m thrilled to see that particularly the webcomics community has come together to support those who are, by definition, the most vulnerable in our society: refugees that the regime thought they could beat up on for quickie points among its base; immigrants, some living here for decades, cruelly and intentionally equated with enemies of the state¹; and everybody else caught up in the capricious, arbitrary enforcement actions at our borders².

For those who needed a break from the weekend new, the situation was explained nicely by Sarah Glidden, and since Saturday we’ve seen members of our community at protests and standing witness in airports, and more than a few that are (or have been) trading art for donations to organizations like CAIR and the ACLU.

The responses have been overwhelming; to cite a single case, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (whom you may recall is the new favorite artist of we at Fleen) announced yesterday that she’d give original drawings in exchange for US$20+ donations to organizations defending others. Today she had to put a pause on the offer because in a day, her fans have donated more than US$3000 and time has become a limiting factor.

Others that have made offers, some still open, some finished (for now) include:

• Noelle Stevenson, offering rare commissions (to be repeated in future).
• Box Brown, offering up wrestling drawings until they because neo-Impressionist.
• Matt Lubchansky, now drawing 40 Twitter avatars.
• Ursula Vernon, selling out of her art design pendants (iconic/tribal rabbits) in record time, in support of the International Rescue Committee.
• Jason Shiga doing original drawings of his “hero” Jimmy Yee for US$50+ to the ACLU; as of this writing that one’s still going on.
• David McGuire, Jon Rosenberg, and GOP Teens are all offering chunks of sales for varying times … McGuire’s giving 100% of profits until Tuesday to the ACLU and Cair; Rosenberg’s updated his classic Republicans For Voldemort design with US$1 per going to ACLU, and GOPTeens giving all store proceeds to ACLU until further notice.

That’s just what I remembered reading at some point in the past 48 hours and could find quickly; there’s plenty more out there. And if you doubt that you could have that kind of impact, a hack web pseudojournalist matched $US7800 earlier this month and that guy’s terrible. The collective effort is tremendous — the numbers can’t keep up, but it appears that the ACLU’s average annual online funding was exceeded by a factor of four times in 48 hours this weekend.

We made that happen. You made that happen. And on Fred Korematsu’s birthday, no less.

Fight’s not over, not by a long shot; but in all honesty, I feel more hopeful today than I have for some time. A voice is building across the country and it is saying No. You will not drag us back decades. You will not prey upon the vulnerable. The words we founded our nation on apply to all of us, not just those that have always been privileged. We have distance to go, yes we do, but today the road seems a little gentler and the way a little easier because we are sharing the burden.

One final thought, and I have never been more sure of anything in my life: everybody working together to make this a fairer, kinder, better country and world?

Mr Rogers would have been proud of you.

Also, T-Rex has invented a religion based on dogs and that’s almost as good as Mr Rogers.

Spam of the day:

Gtyrrell Notice N15499

Yeah, no, I don’t believe that FedEx is in the secure electronic message delivery business, so I ain’t clicking on that link. But, wait, what’s that say?

From: Nerys

OMG, is that you, Major Kira? Did you bring the Reliant back via the Orb of Time? Are you the time travelers here to fix the timeline? Hooray!

_______________
¹ I read yesterday of an Iranian-American permanent resident held at the border; his citizenship ceremony was (hopefully still is) scheduled for two weeks from now.

² I read today of a scientist, a Danish citizen by birth, who’s been barred from the US because he performs archeological digs in Iraq. Clearly, a threat to our way of life.