I think I fell asleep before I finished that last post. Something about the combination of no rest, life re-evaluation and thought-provoking conversation and a nine-hour long day made something click gears into place. Among the things I talked about yesterday, I also:
- Attended a phone meeting between Reina and a bunch of other welfare organizers, who are setting up a press conference. After five years, they finally passed an LGBTQ welfare sensitivity training law, which is going to hopefully revolutionize the system. It was at the end of the day, so my attention was scattered, but they talked about speakers and politics, and it was cool to listen in on real-world, high-stakes organizing
- Placed a call to the "GLBT Community Liaison" for the police force at the encouragement of the office. I had been transcribing and heard another awful story about police neglect, which made me ask myself -- Are there good cops? Are there queer cops? Both of these things, to me, made sense, but I asked the office. There were about six of us in at that point, and everyone else started laughing. "What," I said, "there aren't people who join the police force to do good, or make systemic change from the inside?" They spoke carefully, and said that there might be some people who start off with good intentions. But they explained that the police system isn't designed to help people, it's designed to enforce systems of power. The people who join the police force are given exorbitant amounts of power, and in the end they are instructed to carry out the tasks they're assigned, which usually don't help anyone. It corrupts people. The prison system, instead, acts as an expensive shelter system, half of whom should be in treatment programs, not jail. But anyway, apparently this liaison guy loves talking to QEJ, and they said I could call and ask for myself. I did, so I might talk to him today.
- Went over to the CUNY and got more data to code, the open-ended answers to the question: what is your income? I'm not supposed to write the figures here, but they are lower than I ever thought they could be. "This is why we're doing this work," Michelle told me as I stared at them in disbelief.
- Finally got to watch the documentary that the Welfare Warriors made about themselves. It's so beautiful, cutting between protestors on the street and feature interviews with the participants. I got to place a lot of voices to faces I'd heard over the tapes.
- Asked Reina and Michelle for book and film recommendations. I think this was a good call. So far Michelle has told me to read Lisa Duggan's "Twilight of Equality" which addresses race, sexuality, and the limits of the idea of equality. I want more.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop near Union Square and I should get to work. This weekend should be peaceful, I'm going to Long Island with Sophia. I like this whole work-till-you-drop thing during the week, and then do-absolutely-nothing thing on the weekend.
If you want to check it out, QEJ was featured in a PBS documentary. This clip is about 10 minutes long.
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