We ain’t dead yet

Welcome to the end of a week that has lasted a thousand years.

Still feeling like you’ve passed through a door into bizarro world? Us too.

One thing we’re not going to do on the other side of the threshold, however, is indulge too long in despair. Unlike the people of Gaza, we don’t have bombs falling on our heads right now.

While we are perhaps facing some of the darkest years of our lives (though we would add: a lot remains to be determined there, and as many others have echoed, we will never cede ground preemptively), we are still here.

And as long as we’re still here: we will continue to throw stones at evil billionaires. We will continue to resist. We will continue to organize. The only antidote to the Bad Feelings is action. If you have to drag yourself kicking and screaming to it, that’s fine. Kick and scream. But you do have to fight. It’s your birthright.

On a long enough timeline, none of us will survive this era. Our little lives last but a fraction of a second on a cosmic scale. Your options are: falling into nihilism, or embracing the magic of being alive at precisely this time, and doing whatever you can to be good.

Is this motivational enough? Maybe, maybe not. If fighting sounds like too much, we do ask that you hang in there. The world has need of you, even if you can’t see how yet.

“The resistance” has never stopped.

Every day, you are invited to join it.

Under the current administration, we’ve watched a burgeoning anti-war movement on campuses viciously maligned by a corporate, Democratic party-aligned media apparatus pushing false narratives of antisemitic attacks. We’ve seen police violently raid student protest encampments in the middle of the night, and assault college professors. Climate activists in Atlanta have faced souped-up RICO charges for their organizing, and one was even shot and killed.

Many fresh horrors await us. We sincerely hope Trump’s second election hammers home for folks the importance of defending dissent even when the blue team is in power. Activists arrested this past spring and summer (in a blue city! in a blue state!) are still facing potential jail time. Our newly elected Cook County state’s attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke, will likely pursue charges against protesters even more aggressively. In August, Mayor Brandon Johnson celebrated the absolutely massive police state success that was the DNC. He congratulated CPD for arresting Chicagoans trying to stop a U.S.-funded genocide—all while party delegates literally plugged their ears.

Then, they lost anyway.

Tremendous numbers of Democrat voters sat this one out. If that’s not an indictment of the institutions that have led us to this point—and an example of how necessary it is to stand up to power even when it’s uncomfortable—we don’t know what is.

DNC attendees cover their ears as the names of dead Palestinian children are read as they leave the convention pic.twitter.com/9bueCbFeEr

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) August 22, 2024

A struggle over access to the public sidewalk.

CPD pile on top of someone, detain and cuff them.

People in line are crying, filming it in horror.

Just watched several leave the line and walk away.

One woman says, "this is not right, this is not right." pic.twitter.com/E44xJHyd29

— unraveled (formerly Jinx Press) (@UnraveledPress) August 23, 2024

With or without Donald Trump in office, Chicago’s mayors have also continued to boost police funding. Mayor Johnson’s proposed 2025 budget represents a 17% increase in CPD’s budget from five years ago. While Chicago’s own “cop city” remains under construction, these urban warfare training facilities continue to proliferate across the country. The militarization of the police has only swelled during the Biden administration, and both parties are responsible for prioritizing law enforcement budgets over everything else.

If confronting all of this feels overwhelming, congratulations, you’re human.

None of us can change everything all at once, but we can pick somewhere to start. We can focus on what’s needed most in our communities.

If you’re feeling helpless and looking for a way to plug in locally, we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight one group doing crucial on-the-ground mutual aid work: Chicago Community Jail Support.

Every day, people released from Cook County Jail are sent out into the cold without adequate clothing, their possessions, and money to get home. Jail support volunteers work tirelessly to help them locate their belongings, give them coats, and provide rides. The group is in dire need of more volunteers, and especially people with vehicles. If you can’t volunteer in person, they could surely use financial support.

You can read more about their efforts and contact them here.

As journalists, we also have our own organizing to do now.

This includes gearing up for a long-needed fight over the media credentialing process in Chicago.

CPD have been in charge of press credential applications for decades. Why? Because no one has cared to challenge them over it. News Affairs staff are increasingly weaponizing this control to dictate how we can report on dissent and protest. Additionally, access to City Hall has been a mess since Mayor Johnson has taken office. Reporters have been stopped and questioned by police while doing their jobs, and have had their ability to carry gear inside City Council chambers curtailed.

We and other local journalists are working with advocates at Freedom of the Press Foundation to formulate a plan to change all of this. After watching independent reporters and freelancers assaulted, arrested, and criminally charged during the DNC, we have grave concerns about press freedom here on the ground. Watch for coming opportunities to push your alderpeople to draft and support legislation that permanently removes press credentialing powers from the police. Cops have no business deciding who counts as a reporter, and we all have the same first amendment rights to document police activities in public.

And now: the money beg.

We and the other independent outlets in Chicago desperately need consistent funding to continue reporting.

It’s no secret that right-wing media is flush with cash while community publications doing the real work in the trenches continue to struggle. Ostensibly “leftist” philanthropy is floundering for a multitude of reasons, and barriers to access for those who aren’t well-connected remain borderline insurmountable. This is doubly true if people choose to operate outside of the non-profit foundation fundraising model.

We eventually hope to become entirely reader supported, but we are a long way from that goal. To everyone who has already graciously contributed—thank you! Your support means the world to us.

If you have not yet signed up to make a recurring donation, please consider it. In addition to ongoing labor costs, we still have broken camera gear from covering the RNC and DNC to replace.

That’s it from us for now. We’ll see you in the streets.