Entries from December 2016 ↓

Thus far, I have not received any donation receipts for NARAL, which has me questioning the future of Matching Monday just a bit.

I don\’t want to lose momentum on this project.  I also don\’t want to get frustrated with it.  The holidays are an expensive time of year between gifts, travel, and the various minor expenses of winter; they\’re also a busy time for much the same reason.

We\’ll be back on January 2nd with another charity to support, and during the break I\’ll still continue collecting donation receipts for NARAL; even if I have nothing to match I plan to make a donation to them anyway.  But I\’d much prefer to have my match maxed out again.

I\’m also going to be thinking about ways to improve the project; if you have any thoughts, feel free to comment!

Happy holidays, everyone, and I hope what\’s left of the year is an improvement on what we\’ve seen of it so far.

It\’s been a rough week for me personally, in addition to the ongoing sociopolitical problems we face.  A lot of my motivation in writing this at the moment is simply wanting to live up to the commitment I made of doing one of these posts every week.  Five weeks in, and I\’m sure many if not most of us are already tiring of the fight.  A wise lady on one of my favorite blogs((Seriously, Making Light is one of the only places on the Internet where the usual \”don\’t read the comments\” advice for high-readership blogs doesn\’t apply, thanks to an invested community and careful, compassionate moderating.)) has some advice on how to keep up the resistance without burning ourselves out.

(And for those of you who were following my Dragaera posts and wondering what happened to them – my post on Dragon is nearly complete.  Should have it up later this week.)

Last Week: ACLU

Thanks to Maria E., David B., and Eric A., we donated a total of $355 to the ACLU.  Thank you, everyone!

This Week: NARAL

With new anti-choice legislation being pushed in Indiana, Ohio, and Texas, it is clear that opponents of women\’s reproductive freedom have been emboldened by Trump\’s victory just like other factions of his supporters.  NARAL Pro-Choice America is on the front lines of the fight to allow women to have control over their bodies.  Like the ACLU last week, NARAL participates in lobbying efforts as well as public outreach, so while donations to NARAL itself are not tax-deductible, donations to the NARAL Foundation are.  In spite of that, this week I intend to make my matching donation to NARAL itself since so much of the battle over abortion rights is still being fought in state legislatures across the company; I\’ll still include donations to either entity in the amount I match (up to $100 as usual).

NARAL will accept donations in honor of others, so this week I\’m recommending we \”honor\” Rep. Tom Price, consistent anti-choice legislator and Trump\’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services.  You can have a notification of your contribution sent to him at:

Congressman Tom Price
85-C Mill Street, Suite 300
Roswell, GA 30075

And, as always, forward your email donation receipts to matching@pyrlogos.com to have them counted!

Call to Action

Last week, Shaun King announced the Injustice Boycott, aimed at pressuring the cities of New York and San Francisco to address their racial injustice issues, and at defunding the Dakota Access Pipeline and divesting from companies that support it.  Read the announcement and join the boycott; while the boycotts in NY and SF are planned to start on January 17th, they are working on defunding DAPL immediately, and it\’s easy to help out.

We finally got some good news yesterday; the Army Corp of Engineers has denied Dakota Access a necessary permit for the pipeline at Standing Rock, and they intend to issue an Environmental Impact Statement.  Alternate routes for the pipeline will be considered.  The fight isn\’t completely over, but this is an important victory nevertheless.

Last Week: Trans Lifeline

Thanks to donors Maria E., Eric A., and Rebekah C., we donated a total of $330 to Trans Lifeline!  Maria included a note as well:

I would like this to be in honor of a brave friend of mine, \”MB\”, who was very open about his transition in order to help others not feel so alone. He brings light and strength and love to this world.

This Week: ACLU

The past few days have seen a number of alarming statements from Trump.  His baseless assertion that millions of votes were cast illegally is a pretext for continuing the voter suppression efforts that already disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of people, while his desire to not only jail flag-burners but also strip their citizenship displays ignorance of, or indifference to, our First Amendment rights.

More than ever, during the Trump administration we will need the American Civil Liberties Union working to protect our rights.  The ACLU\’s efforts in court cases, legislative advocacy, and public outreach help defend the civil rights of all Americans.

Because of the fact that some of the ACLU\’s efforts include lobbying, donations to the ACLU itself are not tax-deductible.  However, donations to the ACLU Foundation are tax-deductible; those gifts support everything except the lobbying efforts.  You can read more about the difference here; for the purposes of Matching Monday (and my usual $100 match) I\’ll happily consider donations to either entity.((I\’ll be donating my matching funds to the Foundation regardless, both for tax purposes and because I expect the outreach and litigation work to be more important and more effective than the lobbying work over the next couple years.))  Forward your donation receipts to matching@pyrlogos.com.

If you\’d like another way to help, artist Mary Capaldi is selling some beautiful enamel pins with 25% of the price going to the ACLU, through next February.  If you love butterflies, art pins, and/or civil rights, this is a great way to contribute, get something pretty, and support an independent artist at the same time!

Call to Action

A friend of mine created a Social Activism Advent Calendar for December.  We\’re a couple days in, but it\’s never too late to start!  The linked PDF is full of ideas (and links to other similar resources) for things you can do every single day – including attending local events, donating to charities, educating yourself on the issues, and doing things to protect yourself as needed.