This is a prayer for Samhain; this is a prayer for Resistance.
This is the cry that rends the Veils; this is a prayer for Resistance.
Samhain is a dark festival, the feast of the dead, a crone’s picnic. Samhain is a Sabbat of Resistance.
The bones beneath the Earth cry out, and, more than that, the colonizers fear that they will. The hungry crowd the dumb supper table and, more than that, the greedy fear that they will. The chains of slaves clank in the graveyard and, more than that, the slavers fear that they will.
This is the cry that rends the veils; this is a prayer for Resistance.
Samhain is a dark festival, the feast of the dead, a crone’s picnic. Samhain is a Sabbat of Resistance.
The ancestors throb in our blood and the merchants of Lethe try to distract. Our raped grandmothers drag ragged nails across their cheeks and the armies wish that they wouldn’t. Under the earth, dead children scream for their fathers and Wall Street distracts us with sex and beer.
This is a prayer for Samhain; this is a prayer for Resistance.
This is the cry that rends the Veils; this is a prayer for Resistance.
Samhain is a dark festival, the feast of the dead, a crone’s picnic. Samhain is a Sabbat of Resistance.
Owls hoot in the darkness and the guilty fear that wisdom. Bats flap against a dark Moon sky and the predators quiver in fear. The innocent of Salem jerk at the end of the rope and the church collects the money.
This is a prayer for Samhain; this is a prayer for Resistance.
This is the cry that rends the Veils; this is a prayer for Resistance.
Samhain is a dark festival, the feast of the dead, a crone’s picnic. Samhain is a Sabbat of Resistance.
Samhain is how our ancestors paid for the right to be part of the cycle. Samhain is how they remembered the mighty dead, the miscarried child, the beloved ancestors. Samhain is how they built a bridge to the Isle of Apples, how they ate both the flower and the seed, how they saw a Spring at the end of Winter. May we have their courage.
Samhain is a dark festival, the feast of the dead, a crone’s picnic. Samhain is a Sabbat of Resistance.
This is a prayer for Samhain; this is a prayer for Resistance.
This is the cry that rends the Veils; this is a prayer for Resistance.
The cells of our bodies are a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for Samhain; this is a prayer for Resistance.
This is the cry that rends the Veils; this is a prayer for Resistance.
Samhain is a dark festival, the feast of the dead, a crone’s picnic. Samhain is a Sabbat of Resistance.
When you vote, the campaigns take your name off their lists of people to contact. No more phone calls, texts, door knocks, flyers, etc. That allows them to use their limited resources to contact other voters — what we sometimes call “lower propensity” voters. These are folks who maybe don’t vote every election and/or who may need a gentle nudge to get out and vote this time. So by voting early, you are essentially creating more voters for our side.
And when you vote early, you make shorter lines for the people who do wait until Election Day. Every year, some folks show up to vote and then have to get out of line to go pick up their kids, get to work, make their doctor’s appointment. If the lines are shorter, there are fewer of those people.
Voting early is convenient. You’re normally not going to have to stand in as long a line. If you wake up sick on Election Day, or with a family emergency, or if the weather is nasty, no worries. You’ve banked your vote and you’re good to go. And if you show up and there is some issue about your registration, you’ve got some time to resolve the issue or vote a provisional ballot.
And, finally, when large numbers of us vote early, it makes it more difficult for one side to cheat. News reports that thousands of people have voted with no issues creates an atmosphere that everything is going as it should.
(Love that patriotic feeling of being there on Election Day? Me, too. Go vote early and then contact your local Democratic Committee about staffing the sample ballot table on Election Day. Do a two-hour shift, get all the great feels, and still know that you’ve helped out by voting early.)
Now go vote like your ancestors died for it. Because they did.
Recent discourse on Twitter (no, I will NOT call is X – bite me, Elon) purporting that Black men are seeking a “child support forgiveness bill,” and I’m not falling for it and neither should you.
Look, we know plenty of bad actors outside the US (and some inside, looking at you Trump / Vance campaign and your lies about FEMA in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton) are trying any bullshit they can, just like they did in 2022 and 2020 and 2018 and DEFINITELY DEFINITELY 2016, to stir us all up against each other and create division and discord and chaos going into the election.
This one’s obviously fake.
And it’s a huge insult to the Black community and to many of my friends in particular.
I know so many (SO MANY) wonderful Black fathers who may (or may not, just like every other community in the US) still be with their kids’ mothers and who are actively raising their children.
And I’m offended for them that bad actors would try to use this foolishness to tear us apart.
So to my friends Rafael and X and Malcom, Donte and Eric and Moe, Rob and Rob and Robert, Alton and DJ and Reggie and Derek: I see you and I know what you do every day for your kids and your community. And I’m not falling for it, and no one else should, either.