Author Archives: yvonnegrapher

Yvonne’s Meme-A-Thon: Day 2, Meme 3, Pepper Spray Cop Hates Baby Seals

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Happy Monday!  Here’s a check-in on my three goals: to quit smoking cigarettes, to be grateful, and to support this stupendous movement strategy organization, Smart Meme.

1.    Hours since I last inhaled on a cancer stick: 59.  
Happily, my allergies seemed to have disappeared overnight.  My eyes aren’t red and irritated by the end of the day.  And, I’m breathing deeply now.

2.    I am grateful for my job.
Unlike 45 million residents of this country, I am gainfully employed.  But not only that, I am HAPPILY employed.  I love my job.  I get to wear my nerd heart on my sleeve and work towards justice at the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality daily.  How cool is that?  I have an amazing boss, who’s a visionary in the field of racial justice, an awesome supervisor, who not only encourages me to grow intellectually, but is also kind and empathetic.

My coworkers are kickass.  Collectively, we bring together a century of experience, organizing communities of interest.  I love the conversations that occur in the office, from dark and seamy stories about working with Cesar Chavez in the 1970s in Texas to zombies as the meme of the new century (that’s my contention).
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Yvonne’s Meme-A-Thon: Day 1, Meme 2, Good Food for All

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So, I’m still 36 and relishing the anniversary of my birth.  Here’s a check-in around my three goals: to quit smoking, to practice gratitude, and to support the kickass work of Smart Meme, a grassroots story-based strategy center.

1.    Hours since my last inhale of carcinogens: 44

2.    Decolonize Oakland
I am grateful to live in my adopted city of Oakland.  Right now, as I type, the General Assembly of Occupy Oakland is considering whether to change its name to Decolonize Oakland.  It’s a recognition that the word occupy is problematic, because it’s a reference to how white settlers from Western Europe landed in this continent, colonizing the land and peoples they encountered.  One of which were the Ohlone peoples, who lived in Northern California, along the coast from San Francisco on down to the Big Sur.   To create an equitable world, for the 99%, we must first acknowledge the history of colonialism and racism that has disfigured the landscape and extinguished our peoples.  Only then can we move forward, to build the world anew.
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Yvonne’s Meme-A-Thon: Day 1, Meme 1, Rights for All the Workers

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Today is my birthday.  As I have previously written to you, I am taking this opportunity to tackle three things: quit smoking cigarettes, practice gratitude, and support the stupendous work of Smart Meme, a grassroots movement strategy center that builds our capacity to tell stories that change the world.

    1.    Hours since my last cigarette: 37.  
Okay, I got a head start on this one, because I finished the last one in a pack Friday evening.  Yes, I savored that last one, slowly.  I resisted the impulse to buy another pack yesterday, instead choosing to arm myself with tools, such as sweet and sour Twizzlers and bubble gum.  Crisis averted!  Number of Twizzlers ingested in the last 24 hours: 9 sticks.  (This counter may need to be about Twizzling cessation, instead of smoking.)

    2.    My mother
It seems fitting on my birthday to appreciate my mother, the woman that gave birth to me 36 years ago.  She’s back in Suzhou, China to settle matters so she can return to California.  I am so impressed by her strength and resilience, her capacity to finally inhabit the life she wants to live, at 67 years.  I hope she returns soon.
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