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Angus Jung wrote:Mandroid2.0 wrote:Can someone please post organizations I can volunteer for, vs. give money? I live on about enough income to put fuel in the car and maybe $20 extra a week. I do have time, however. That's pretty much the situation for a lot of the people who should be speaking out about the Hellworld but are not.If you are in Green Bay, I would go to this place. Big blue "Volunteer With Us" button on that link.Thank you. Can't make it to one of the upcoming orientations due to job and jury duty, but that's bookmarked for July. And thank you for not being an ass to me.

Angus Jung wrote:Mandroid2.0 wrote:Angus Jung wrote:Mandroid2.0 wrote:Can someone please post organizations I can volunteer for, vs. give money? I live on about enough income to put fuel in the car and maybe $20 extra a week. I do have time, however. That's pretty much the situation for a lot of the people who should be speaking out about the Hellworld but are not.If you are in Green Bay, I would go to this place. Big blue "Volunteer With Us" button on that link.Thank you. Can't make it to one of the upcoming orientations due to job and jury duty, but that's bookmarked for July. And thank you for not being an ass to me.Another suggestion I would have is, if possible sometime, for you to attend a Milwaukee DSA meeting and ask them if they know about any like-minded folks or orgs in Green Bay. I'd be willing to bet they do.Over 120 miles for me to get to MKE, but I guess I could. I would like to organize around here more than start from there, if you get my drift.

Tommy wrote:A\_Man\_Who\_Tries wrote:Mandroid2.0 wrote:I do have time, however.If you have time then maybe Google it yourself, and spare others who might be able to use their own resources to greater practical good.Fighting outright fucking evil 24/7 is hard enough without laziness.Jesus Fucking Christ. The world needs exactly less of this. WAY LESS. Let's start right there! Someone wants to help, belittling them is not helpful.Seriously.Maybe loosen up that hair around the bone, Pebbles Flinstone.(In the most loving way I can say that)

A\_Man\_Who\_Tries wrote:Mandroid2.0 wrote:I do have time, however.If you have time then maybe Google it yourself, and spare others who might be able to use their own resources to greater practical good.Fighting outright fucking evil 24/7 is hard enough without laziness.Jesus Fucking Christ. The world needs exactly less of this. WAY LESS. Let's start right there! Someone wants to help, belittling them is not helpful.

I will explain this once.The process of getting involved in volunteering or social movements is bewildering. What may seem simple to people who are already involved is not simple to everyone, particularly people who are introverted, have anxiety, or are otherwise socially disoriented. It can be really hard to separate the signal from the noise, especially since Google, which was once good for putting relevant results first, is best at putting the least relevant (but money-making) results first today. Some of us, particularly those of us with anxiety issues, are easily overwhelmed by masses of unclear choices, and the indecision can cause complete and total paralysis. Reaching out to others for help is a massive thing, because it means getting over your pride and admitting that you'd be lost without it. The thing about asking for help is that other people might have a good idea of what resources to direct someone to based upon their experience. This is great, because you can only try so many keywords before you run out of ideas, and sometimes the mere utterance of a word you hadn't thought of is all that you need to find what you want.There is, in fact, a profession that is greatly dedicated to the process of connecting people in need of help to resources that are accessible, but bewildering... it's called social work.When you say google it and find out yourself, you're basically saying that anyone who is lost doesn't deserve to be found. And that is profoundly sad.

I work with a crew called Ground Game LA. We're also just recently an affiliate of People's Action (https://peoplesaction.org/) which is one of the largest grassroots progressive networks.If you're trying to get into organizing and action holla at me, I can walk you through some of the weird shit and maybe help you find a local crew to work with.If you want to just throw money at us you can do that too.

I need to flesh this out. I don't like where it is.It's profoundly sad, to me at least, to think that anyone can't just get up and do good, off their own back. I'm a wholly unexceptional person. My health is fucked and now compounded by a heart problem I can't deal with until next year (if I can get healthcare then even), but right now life is a little easier as I'm in a situation where homelessness and isolation, at least for the medium-term, are not things to worry about. I don't have anything, but Maslow-wise the absolute essentials, for the moment, are OK.I try to do good. Having spent far too long dealing in politics filled by folk who talk about doing good, and how to do good, while unconscionable shithouses do bad by the minute, I'm of the school that to do good, you just do good. You just fucking start.I got here about three months ago. The second weekend I set up a meeting for people who had trouble with English language. This took, literally, half an hour. Find suitable portal, post message with date and place. Then show up on the weekend and set aside a few hours, see what happens.A few people showed up. A couple of locals but mostly migrants. Language troubles ranged from kids' homework, senior learners with essays, government paperwork that had an English translation but nothing in Farsi...all sorts of stuff.A few months on this gathering numbers about forty people, and a few people also show up to assume my role. So much so that a couple of weeks back, when I was sick to the point of being bedbound, the event continued as normal without me.Also, an unexpected bonus, one of the other volunteers runs something similar nearby. Health permitting, I drop in there now too. Theirs is a more formal deal and has ties to local funding streams and what not - it's far more than my prick-at-a-café-helping-people-out - but there's room for both and that's great.To stress again - I am a fucking car crash of a human being and barely good for glue, and helping took literally half an hour, a bit of faith, a little persistence, and fortune enough to have health above the line to attend the session. Which, like I said above, I'm now at a point where I can worry less about.And again, to stress - people doing hateful shit are not umming and aahing about the nature of their hateful shit. And theirs is the workrate that needs to be matched by people who claim to be on the side of good. You need to just do good things. If you're stalling because you're not sure it's the right good thing, then check yourself.And ask yourself this: When you agonise over how to help, are you agonising over how to help? Or are you engaging in a practice which allows you to feel like you care, without having to expend the energy to actually do something? Because if you're agonising about how to care, you'll just go out there and do something, off your own back, regardless of your personal limitations.I know I'm a spiky, stubborn, truculent prick (cue this bit being quoted in isolation). My life is largely fucking lousy and managing chronic pain makes it hard not to snap, so I don't mind being called out on that front. But I do mind any suggestion that I'm somehow not on the side of being good and helpful, because I do a sight more than so many who have way more in the tank to offer. And if they got off their collective arses, maybe we'd all be in a better place.Good health, and count your blessings.