an uncomfortable conversation

Hi groovy friends. 🤎 It's time for an uncomfy conversation.

With so much happening in the world in general, I tend to keep my mental health in a better place if I avoid watching too much news or hearing about politics-- both of which I used to love. Now, news and politics stress me out. There are so many issues that I care about, but feel overwhelmed by the lack of capacity for actual change.

I may be white as all hell-- excusing me in theory from worries about the deportations and detainments, but I am a believer that it shouldn't work that way.

It shouldn't take being a POC or minority group to care about what's happening around the world in regards to people being hurt over territory or differences in beliefs or skin color. It shouldn't take those things to care about families being ripped apart and children being exposed to all of the brutality as well.

That being said, I do have a particularly emotional attachment to the issue, given that more of my family is Mexican than they are white at this point-- including of course my son, who I would do anything to protect.

I see videos of children, no darker than my kid, being hit with batons and rammed by police horses while simply walking to school-- not talking back, not resisting, not doing anything that would WARRENT that kind of behavior; simply walking to school.

I think about what I would do if my son were those kids. And that is an anger only a parent can truly understand. And that anger led to more anger, which led to hopelessness, which led to this. Caring about people is not political.

I will be creating a new line of stickers and possibly more, expressing the need for change, acceptance, harmony, and the LACK of need for ICE and police brutality.

$1 of every sale will be donated to CHIRLA, The Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights.  When the collection is up, it will be located here --> https://www.juniperbloomstudio.com/collections/chilra-fundraiser
Please stay tuned for more info soon, and stay safe. 

xo/jb