The artist behind this painting, Criselda Vasquez, painted this portrait of her parents in 2017. The man in this painting, her father, was recently taken by ICE. He has lived in the United States for forty years. This loss has made it hard for the family to support themselves. If you want to support them, you can go to their GoFundMe here:
https://t.co/Mgp7W8m5xJ
People are missing that shooting yourself in the head because you can’t smoke cigarettes inside is a metaphor for the isolation caused by rapid societal change. What people never consider about getting old is that one day you will wake up and all the things you’ve always done will be forbidden and nobody will be sympathetic to your complaints.
Your mother is problematic. Your father is problematic. Your son is problematic. Your aunt is problematic. The cashier at the local Tesco is problematic. You've probably bought a cookie from a bakery made by hands that have done unspeakable things. Every chocolate bar you've ever eaten has probably killed a 7 year old child slave in Cameroon. The gas that drives your car is fueled by engines of death. Every person who has ever smiled at you in the streets has committed some act that if you knew about it, would make you profoundly dislike them.
We have all been bad, small, petty, unlikeable, cruel, downright mean. Authors are not special "problematic" beings, they're just more public. Part of being an adult is recognizing that without mercy for our fellow human beings, and ourselves, we'd all be condemned to death. Reading fiction should help us understand that we're all irreparably tainted with evil, every system is corrupted, every line is broken.
And like, that's okay. That's what it means to be alive.
and i’m glad we did! i love having a job, i love that the money i earn is mine, i love that it goes into an account in my name, onto a card in my name. i love having ownership over my life
📸 The last photo of Mikaeil Mirdoraghi, a third-grade student killed in the reported U.S./Israeli strike on a primary school in Minab, Iran.
He is waving goodbye to his mother.
Israel has violated the Gaza ceasefire 47 times since the truce began in early October, resulting in 38 Palestinian deaths and 143 injuries, according to Gaza’s media office.
Just today, 11 members of the same family were killed when the bus they were traveling in was struck by an Israeli tank shell in northern Gaza.
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