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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 4h

I begin every Notes on Hope essay with poetry. I used to post the poems on Instagram each week. Now that I'm only posting the essays here, I thought I'd bring the poems over!

This week's lines are from "Angels of the Get-Through" by Andrea Gibson, published in Pansy, 2015.

#poetry #AndreaGibson

Excerpt from "Angels of the Get-Through" by Andrea Gibson, published in Pansy, 2015.

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Authors Against Book Bans @authorsabb.bsky.social · 9h

New Yorkers! The New York State Teachers Union has created an easy way for you to tell Governor Hochul to sign the right to read law.

Tell Gov. Hochul to sign the Freedom to Read Act!

Tell Governor Hochul to stand up for free access to books and ideas—urge her to sign S.1099/A.7777 to protect New York’s school and public libraries from censorship.

mac.nysut.org

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 9h

Outside the tidy metaphor of an airplane cabin, crisis moments rarely permit us to balance our own needs and the care of others so neatly. When oxygen masks don't materialize for everyone, the real question is, will we have the compassion and moral clarity to find ways to breathe together?

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 9h

I wrote about why the oxygen mask analogy annoys me and, more importantly, why I think it’s inadequate to meet the needs of the present moment.

The good news is that there are plenty of examples to look to instead that show us a better way.

The Problem with the Oxygen Mask Analogy

What if we tried breathing together instead of rationing air

www.notesonhope.net

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 3d

Community is only as caring and protective as we make it. And bullies are often better at leveraging social power within communities than we easily recognize.

Resisting bullies at every level of power starts with our willingness to reflect honestly on how compassionate our own communities are.

Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 7d

Community is vital, especially now. So much depends on our willingness to protect and care for each other.

But community is what we make of it and how we enact it. Community can be a force for compassion…or for enforcing conformity and exclusion, as any child on the playground can tell you.

Giving Care More Social Clout

How we understand community and resist the appeal of bullies

www.notesonhope.net

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 3d

I just got off a call with a group of young people who were seeking some guidance for a project they have launched in their community. Folks, I can tell you that we are blessed in this generation. They are smart and importantly so damn compassionate. ALSO, they know more than we did at their age.

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 3d

To what extent are the spaces you gather in shaped by care and to what extent are they shaped by power? How do you regard those at the center and those on the outskirts? How do you weave those who most need care into your social webs?

Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 3d

Community is only as caring and protective as we make it. And bullies are often better at leveraging social power within communities than we easily recognize.

Resisting bullies at every level of power starts with our willingness to reflect honestly on how compassionate our own communities are.

Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 7d

Community is vital, especially now. So much depends on our willingness to protect and care for each other.

But community is what we make of it and how we enact it. Community can be a force for compassion…or for enforcing conformity and exclusion, as any child on the playground can tell you.

Giving Care More Social Clout

How we understand community and resist the appeal of bullies

www.notesonhope.net

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Slackermom @slackermom.bsky.social · 3d

Was just at a neighborhood school at dismissal. Hundreds of people with whistles surrounding the school and stationed down every block making sure ICE doesn’t snatch anyone. The same is happening at all the schools around here. I love my neighborhood and I love Chicago.

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 3d

Today my daughter's preschool is holding a farewell assembly for one of her classmates whose mother has no choice but to self deport. The school is hoping it will be joyful in tone, so we might make this less upsetting for this 3 year old.

There's just no words for the uselessness of this cruelty.

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 3d

Today is World Homeless Day, and after years reporting on this crisis, I'll just say: homelessness is neither inevitable nor intractable. It's the result of choices—political, economic, moral—that can be unmade.

And this: how we treat the unhoused is a bellwether for the violence we will tolerate.

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 4d

Anytime! I love a good picture book question!

Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 4d

Technically a trapper hat...But when my son was 4 he wanted one of those hats and didn't know what to call it. So he said, "You know mom, those hats that look like they have a slice of bread on each side to cover your ears." I still think of them as "bread hats" for this reason.

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 4d

Ruby the Copycat by Peggy Rathmann
Don't Copy Me by Jonathan Allen.

You might also be able to get at the concept through a book about being yourself, like Elmer or Chrysanthemum, or feeling ok about making mistakes like The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett or The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

L.A. TACO @lataco.bsky.social · 4d

Here are 10 practical tips, based on Retana’s advice, for talking to kids about ICE raids and helping them cope with fear and uncertainty. Each point is presented in english y español.

The full guide: lataco.com/kids-ice-tal...

By Erick Galindo

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

picayune sasquatch @pettyyeti.bsky.social · 4d

my autistic kid has a totally different year at school depending on who his teacher is. accommodation is so important for autism. my autistic kid is brilliant and funny and kind, and I wouldn't give him a "cure" if they found one. he just needs help navigating our neurotypically-normative world

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 5d

And parents, please know that your most important job is to love the child you have, not the child you imagined. Often this means letting go of a vision of your child that was never real—a vision you probably conjured before they were even born. But I promise, loving your real child will be sweeter.

The Love That's Possible

Even when everything appears to be going wrong

www.notesonhope.net

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 5d

If you work with kids in any capacity, this data makes your acceptance even more vital.

Feeling connected to a non-parental adult can significantly mitigate high risk outcomes. Too many trans teens don't make it to adulthood, in part because they don't always have support at home. Be a safe haven.

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 5d

1. In a devastating new Pew Research Survey, only 3 in 10 transgender adults report being accepted by their parents.

And only 1 in 10 say they are accepted by their extended family.

This is the lowest number ever found in surveys asking similar questions.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Pew Survey: Only 31% Of Trans People Report Being Accepted By Their Parents

The survey comes as transgender people experience a legal assault from the far-right in the United States.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

👻madeline boOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 5d

the answer to the trolley problem is not to pick who to sacrifice, it’s to dismantle the system that led to an unsafe trolley crossing.

if any part of your morality strategy involves picking a group to let die on a hill, throw the entire strategy out. it’s wrong.

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 7d

Community is vital, especially now. So much depends on our willingness to protect and care for each other.

But community is what we make of it and how we enact it. Community can be a force for compassion…or for enforcing conformity and exclusion, as any child on the playground can tell you.

Giving Care More Social Clout

How we understand community and resist the appeal of bullies

www.notesonhope.net

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 6d

The whole thread below from @nome.bsky.social is really wonderful and surprisingly hopeful. Airports...who knew?!

It reminded me of the poem Gate A-4 by Naomi Shihab Nye.

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Reposted by Alicia Stoller

Nono Gigsta @nonogigsta.bsky.social · 8d

"...the future is not yet written. (...) We can choose a path of abundance, of justice, and of regeneration. And to make that future real, we need not only science and policy, but also culture and imagination."

@ayanaeliza.bsky.social for @atmosmag.bsky.social

atmos.earth/climate-solu...

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on Why the Ocean Is a Very Big Deal | Atmos

The marine biologist co-hosted Atmos’ Blue Renaissance event during Climate Week NYC. She adapted her remarks for the op-ed below.

atmos.earth

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 6d

When I say that whimsy isn't frivolous and that it can actually be a powerful tool in frightening times, a protestor in a frog costume standing up to a row of armed agents is what I mean.

Playfulness can be powerful.

Peter Thal Larsen @petertl.bsky.social · 6d

This photo from Portland by @reuters.com's Carlos Barria 👌

A demonstrator dressed in an inflatable frog costume stands infront of law enforcement officers during a protest outside of the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) headquarters in south Portland, Oregon, U.S., October 3, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 7d

Community is vital, especially now. So much depends on our willingness to protect and care for each other.

But community is what we make of it and how we enact it. Community can be a force for compassion…or for enforcing conformity and exclusion, as any child on the playground can tell you.

Giving Care More Social Clout

How we understand community and resist the appeal of bullies

www.notesonhope.net

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Alicia Stoller @aliciastoller.bsky.social · 7d

@erininthemorning.com's thread on the tiny number of families who opt out of LGBTQ+ education for their kids clearly illustrates an essential fact of the "parents' rights movement." It's not really a movement driven by parents.

The vast majority of parents are not represented by these laws.

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