mel katz (she/her)

shoutout to all the new teachers/educators starting their first year tomorrow who know that teaching *is* political, neutrality *isn’t* an option, AND act on that knowledge. it is an honor to join the veterans in this messy, brilliant, necessary work of education.

Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Wishah was killed in an Israeli strike that targeted his vehicle in Gaza City. His death brings the number of Palestinian journalists killed since October 2023 to 262, amid violations of the US-brokered “ceasefire.” #JournalismIsNotACrime

we need to think more about how much violence against the middle east is normalized. mainstream media always paints ir as a "war" or "conflict" and not active racism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and constant dehumanization towards these countries and their people

The world not screeching to a halt when the US killed more than 100 little school girls on the very first day of this "liberating war" led us exactly to this moment

I genuinely feel sick. This is just beyond anything the mind can fathom. And I keep thinking of what Ta-Nehisi Coates said. If you can’t draw the line at the genocide in Gaza, you can’t draw it anywhere else. Moral failure, on a mass and collective scale, brought us here.

The President of the United States is threatening to exterminate a whole civilization of people and this is just a normal day in the world now

Today, March 31st, is International Trans Day of Visibility. In an era of immense difficulty for the community, it can be hard to remember that Trans Day of Visibility is as much about positivity as it is about awareness and resistance. The annual awareness day, which takes place on 31 March every year, was founded by activist Rachel Crandall Crocker as an alternative to the comparatively bleak awareness holidays dedicated to trans people, such as Trans Day of Remembrance.

ICE at airports is just laying the groundwork for ICE at polling places btw

Another cornerstone of Project 2025 and the Trump republicanism is to intentionally break government services and say “see government doesn’t work” so they can try to privatize essential services with tax payer money to enrich their friends

March 24, 2025 March 24, 2026 Today marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of my brother, the journalist Hossam Shabat… He always stood in the face of the enemy with his camera and his free voice, fearing none but God, bearing witness to the truth until his very last moment. My brother… I lost you before my eyes, and I was helpless, unable to do anything. That moment still lives within me every single day. You were martyred for the sake of truth, because you spoke what had to be said and revealed what they tried to hide. The occupation does not accept the voice of truth, but it can never silence it… your words will remain alive, and your voice will stay with us—it will never die. May God have mercy on you, my brother, and grant you the highest place in Paradise… You were a hero, and you will always be 🤍

A more apt analogy would be comparing those who refuse AI with those who resist corporate farming methods, which have decimated our food systems, displaced poor farmers, damaged our health, & destroyed our planet.

Re: ICE mobilized to US airports I’ve been discussing (since 2021) how the US will eventually close borders “from the inside” and restrict people from leaving this country. Allowing ICE to patrol borders (international airports are borders) is a step towards that goal. 1/5

Eid Mubarak! free Palestine and all lands that are still under occupation 🤍🕊

i get AI being difficult to avoid when it's been baked into existing services (e.g. google), but chat gpt is the most avoidable thing in the world to me. there's no useful function it could serve in my life, or in the life of anyone with a brain. it's not inevitable or necessary

"Living without ai is an impossible utopia" bruh we were living it like 5 years ago and we were doing just fine without that shit. You're letting your brain be cooked on slow heat. And your planet too. In exchange for wrong answers and shitty pics.

There are many reasons to resist AI (e.g. environmental harm, the power it gives to states/corporations, intellectual theft), but perhaps the biggest one for me is that, despite it all, I still believe that the human intellect is miraculous, irreplicable, & worth fighting for.

Eid Mubarak to the hospitalized, the unjustly imprisoned, the displaced, the refugees, the homeless, the grieving, the workers who had to spend it away from their families, and anyone who woke up to no one wishing them a blessed Eid. May Allah lift all of your burdens.

Eid Mubarak to our mothers in tents, our children without limbs, and our fathers under the rain. Eid Mubarak to our sisters making their morning coffee on a makeshift stove, our prisoners in blindfolds, and our brothers crushing the tanks. Eid Mubarak to the jewels of our ummah.

Anas al-Sharif should have been celebrating Eid today. And Hossam Shabat. And Ismail al-Ghoul. And Hind Rajab. And Shaban al-Dalou. And Mariam Abu Dagga. And every beautiful soul in Gaza murdered by Israel. May the next Eid be in a Palestine free from Israeli oppression.

It’s terrible that Huerta felt like she had to keep this secret for so long in fear of “hurting the movement.” This speaks to a long-enduring attitude among working class organizations where sexual abuse of female comrades is silenced in favor of protecting the “bigger cause.”