M.M. Volume 01, Issue 05
JANUARY 2025
A Fire is a Fire, A Liar is a Liar
Here in the guts of America, trust what you see. Some of us have been here; some of us are just arriving (awakening). To survive the belly of the beast, here’s the mandate
Trust what you see and refuse to unsee.
Through the violent chewing up of our communities and futures, we watch the insatiable consumption of the land, our peoples, and our cultures by those who have more than enough; everything we are and steward is left to waste in service of feeding capitalism. This moment moves the threshold of hate- and fear-powered politics. Look at the billionaires (trillionaires?) appointed to the federal government’s most influential positions and tasked with carrying out pieces of Project 2025, a 900-page manifesto for unfreedom. Notice that literal genocides are not only justified, but funded on global, national, and local scales where crimes against humanity are ignored in service of national (1%) security. Experience the calculated miseducation of American children, the censorship of curricula, and the banning of books; where the Department of Education is being shut down and academic freedom becomes a privilege, not a right.
But wait, trust what you see. And refuse to unsee.
Like the snake, keep your belly to the ground and feel how this land beats with your wild heart. Earthquakes of resistance, rivers of renewal, uniting us across bodies, across continents, tethering us to where we belong beyond state lines. Look to the Black feminists, like the Combahee River Collective, whose simple, yet radical vision continues to become space for liberation. See the Zapatistas, over 30 years of defending liberated land and their sovereignty, conjuring Land Back, like the Sogorea Te' Land Trust. Hear the echoes of the Third World Liberation Front, born in the fire of the struggle for Ethnic Studies, and move with the iterations of today’s student movements like March For Our Lives, Queer Student Assemble, and the ongoing encampments for a Free Palestine.
Remember TRUTH’s Nine-Point Platform, a living, historical documentation of trans youth defiance of and devotion to this world. This year, eerily on point since 2018, we usher in Point 7 demanding “The End to Global White Supremacy.” This is an ongoing call and invitation to GSAs and TQ2S+ young people to be so boldly yourselves, history has no choice but to remember you, too.
“Once you know, you cannot not know.”
We’ve done this before. Before the last president, and the one before that.
Trust what you’ve seen, and refuse to unsee.
In many cultures, TQ2S+ people have served in revered roles as the ones with a keen powerful ability to bring together what seems apart. This is still our talent and talents must be sharpened. Refuse to surrender your essence, your queerness, transness, two-spiritedness. Refuse to surrender your foresight. Instead, use it and learn the pattern of otherness and connection… because the path of abolition makes space for what is yet to come. It is our responsibility to present and practice an alternative and accessible (revolutionary) culture rooted in the dignity of all people, especially TQ2S+ young people. Ignite the power of connection; connections that reach through mental blocks, borders, campuses, and identities. See your GSA, your pod, your community, like tendons keeping us together and nimble, while building the muscle of movement.
We’re not here to win at a game of democracy. We’re here on assignment to shape the world and stretch ourselves toward all of humanity’s potential beyond the constraints of an increasingly oppressive society. All. Of. Humanity’s. Potential. Our dignity and spirit exist deeper than the roles citizenship assigns us. Shared humanity calls us to stay united in the face of a crumbling empire. It’s not about being good citizens; it’s about being good humans. About living in a way that honors each other, our collective struggle to survive.
Trust what you see.
We love you,
Maya LaFlamme & J. Gia Loving
GSA Network Co-Executive Directors
