People in Need
by Laurie Woolever
Millicent Souris is a writer whose work often stops me in my tracks. Or rather, her newsletter comes out on Monday mornings and I often read it before I get out of bed, so really Millicent’s writing keeps me prone, agog. She writes about scrapple (“That crispy skin is everything”) and how gauche it is to work for money and quiet privilege and, most recently, she wrote about the futile arrogance of labeling things and people “stupid.” However true the word may be in describing policies or actions or people, it’s the mark of a reactionary stance that has contributed heavily to lost elections, hearts and minds.
“People remember when you stand up for them, when you care about them,” she wrote. “Transversely, people who are regularly overlooked, they don’t forget, no matter how dumb you think they are.”
Her newsletter is called Attitude Adjustment Facility and it’s true that when I read it, my attitude is often adjusted. This was the case when she wrote about simply giving cash away, if one is moved to do so, without getting caught up in any pearl-clutching about how the recipient might spend that $1 or $5 or $10 bill.
Of course this practice presumes that you have extra money, that you have had enough to eat today and the few dollars in your pocket will not mean the difference between eating or not eating.
Keep us breathing fire!
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