June has been a really weird month with some real lows (family stuff, car theft) and some great highs (WWDC). I just want a two-week nap.
@ismh I understand family and transportation are important. But there are no other "lows" you can think to mention? Or activities more urgent than a two-week nap?
@ismh Very sorry about the lows. I hear you about the naps… The couple weeks since WWDC have been a blur. Hope our paths cross next year!
@ismh Hi Stephen. I'm sorry for the personal attack. And I really did mean it when I said family was important.
I am just really frustrated with the relative silence of the Apple Writer and Podcaster community. They are public figures, who have an audience. They could say something or point people in a direction to help.
I'm not expecting anyone to become a political pundit or change their focus completely. But listening to those children crying and guards laughing broke me. It feels what I imagine the beginnings in 1930s Germany were. If these public figures who I deeply admire are not speaking out now, would they have spoken up for me and mine then?
If officially sanctioned child abuse is not enough for people to write on their sites, "I oppose family separation and here's how you can help," what would be?
Perhaps you've had such a crisis that even that has not been possible for you. I'm sorry for jumping on you without knowing the facts.
I really have appreciated your writing over the years and the strength you and your family have shown in some very difficult and heart rending times. I hope you and yours are healthy and safe.
@Bruce Yes, our country is a dumpster fire with assholes doing terrible things but don’t think I don’t care about that because it’s wasn’t in a tweet.
@Bruce You don’t know where I donate money, what I email my representatives about or what keeps me up at night. I focus my public political posting mostly on healthcare for personal reasons. I don’t yell about everything all the time because people stop listening.
@Bruce What’s happening at the border is shockingly horrific and will be something that history judges our country for in the harshest of lights. Attacking people you don’t know for things you think they haven’t done is no way to move forward or to solve it. Spend your energy actually helping, like many of us are trying to do.
@ismh I did not mean to compare you to a Nazi sympathizer. I meant to compare you to a German Journalist who said nothing, even if they opposed the Nazis. That may be harsh, but our government is putting children into indefinite detention. Including infants and toddlers. If that's not a fair comparison to Nazi Germany, at least at the begining of the regime in the '30s, I don't know what could be.
I was over the line when I charged you and Myke with choosing audience and advertisers over children. It was wrong and I apologize.
I do think you should do more. You have a public audience. People pay attention to what you say. I do really think you should do something visible on your blog or on your podcasts to say this is wrong and here's how people can help. A paragraph and a link. A banner on Relay.fm. Something at the top of the show notes. You have a loud voice. Use it.
If Teen Vogue, a fashion magazine, is speaking out, I think it's reaasonable to expect the same of tech journalists and writers.
I also don't think you must devote your life to this. I'm happy with Gruber for simply posting a link and writing four sentences on Daring Fireball. It would be great if he did more, but at least he made a mark on the site he owns.
I also appreciate your work in bringing attention to children's health and St. Jude's. Since you've brought that to my attnetion, I've set up a monthly donation to them.
I truly do admire you and your work. That is why I am so frustrated.
@ismh And I am spending my energy in the ways that I can. I am donating. I am spreading information and pointing people directions they can help. And I'm prodding public figures in public spaces to publicly act. If your career and calling weren't addressing the public, I wouldn't be criticizing or bothering you.
I wish I could do more. If things were otherwise, I'd be at the border right now. Or performing direct action at other ICE facilities and risking arrest. Or volunteering and doing what people with more expertise told me to do.
But I'm in a residential psychiatric hospital and all I can do is speak out online and give money.
@adrianizq This is a long conversation from over a month ago. But, yes, I believe it is the responsibility of journalists/public figures (which Stephen is) to speak up on urgent moral issues, such as the blatant fascism of kidnapping children and putting them into camps.
I jump on him out of the blue here, which wasn't the best thing to do. And if Stephen did not make his living talking/writing to the public, I would think differently. Or if it were normal politics.
What would you want people to do if the government took your children and put them into camps? If the government lost your children forever?