Pop Culture Care Package Pt.6 (I Mean 7): Mutual Aid!
Listen, I didn't major in math, it's fine
Darling Dames Nation! I…nearly did forget to write this daily love note to you all. Sorry about that. I’m very glad to be working from home but even a half-day of conference calls is exhausting, and even though I’m wiped out by mid-afternoon, I’m not sleeping great. How are you? Please let us know. We love reading your notes back whenever you send them, little messages in bottles in response to ours, letting us know you’re here, wherever you are. We’re sending lots of love your way.
Like the Go-Go’s, Miss Bianca’s got the beat
Today’s Pop Culture Care Package is light on the pop culture so as to highlight the care aspect of it.
So, as you probably know, the US federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic is at best…iffy? Unimpressive? A mortifying failure on the world stage? Take your pick. In the absence of an adequate, coherent, non-racist response at the national level, states are devising their own responses, often in concert with neighbor states, and so are our counties and municipalities. That’s great and super-important! but what about each of us as individuals within our own communities? I’m talking about hyper-local responses, at the micro-neighborhood or apartment building level.
Say hello to a classic concept having a real moment, mutual aid networks. (The Guardian has a good explainer on the concept.) Mutual aid networks have been around for ages, of course, and the Left and marginalized groups have never stopped using them. I hope their current renaissance will last long after the worst of this crisis is behind us, because they’re genuinely helpful and nurture a spirit of community care and mutual responsibility. And done safely and well, mutual aid is compatible with social distancing.
I attended a webinar last week about creating micro-mutual aid societies (aka Neighborhood Pods) and all of the organizing materials are right here on Google Drive waiting for you to read and use and pass along to someone else you think would find them useful. If you’re in the UK and want a resource more specific to your neck of the woods, that Guardian piece linked me to Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK.
I’m sure similar resources exist in many countries, and if you have a resource you particularly like, sling it my way and I’ll add it to the web version of this newsletter! Before you get started in your own neck of the woods, you may find that a network already exists for your town or even your neighborhood via this super-detailed Google Doc. I got there via this related, super-useful Google Doc of mutual aid & advocacy resources.
This time is really scary and taking care of ourselves and each other can help make it less so. I think. I hope. We’re going to find out, I guess!
Miss Bianca’s sentiment is right-on, though we do not recommend her proximity to Bernard.