Something Good #64: Literally the Least I Can Do
From the very beginning, I envisioned this newsletter as my antidote to the daily, even hourly cycles of outrage and dismay that dominated the social media I had spent way too much of my time wallowing in. I had begun to feel like an unpaid employee in Twitter’s infinite talk show writers’ room, trying to come up with a joke, a take, an own for whatever topic was currently heating up the feeds. The point was never to shut out the the outside world, but create something that wasn’t specifically reactive, wasn’t constantly in thrall to “the discourse.”
Still, some things can’t be ignored. I was in hot, crowded, insane Las Vegas, of all places, when I heard the crushing news of the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The powerlessness I’m sure many of my readers are feeling is always slightly compounded by the fact that I’m Canadian, with even less influence in the American political sphere than your average citizen of the U.S.A.—although the extent of even that citizen’s power feels debatable these days.
I have found that regardless, doing something, anything, is worth the effort, and often that effort means pushing money in the direction of the people and organizations doing the actual hard work. As I have cultivated a modest but wonderful readership here at Something Good, I would like to enlist you in this effort as best I can. I’m not just asking you to give money, though. I have an offer.
Make a donation, whatever you can afford, to an abortion rights group of your choice (here’s some ideas). Send me your receipt as proof, and I will happily exercise one or more of my skills for you. I’m happy to write any kind of text—a bio, a synopsis, a cover letter, a poem, a story—of reasonable length. I’m happy to give creative notes or edits on a project (I’m good at that). I’ll give you personal advice. I’ll do a custom-made recommendation. I’ll make you a playlist. Whatever it is, as long as the ask is not outrageous or offensive to me personally… I got you.
I’ll also match contributions, up to a total of $400, to an abortion rights/access organization in my area.
Depending on the response, I probably won’t be able to fulfill your request right away, so I hope you’ll be patient. Again, these are some ideas of things I can do:
write a thing of your choice (it could be anything, fictional or non, as long as it’s around 500-750 words or so—once I ghost-wrote a Google review for a hair salon my friend went to regularly, so it really can be anything)
write a guest post for your ‘zletter or blog
read a thing for you and give you my thoughts
recommend a thing or things
make a custom playlist
make a custom photograph
a video call on the topic of your choice
??? surprise me! (I won’t have time to do anything too multimedia/video-ish, sorry)
Please note if any of the above would be particularly helpful to you but you can not afford to give, contact me and we’ll see what we can do.
Anything I do for you will be for your own non-commercial use. Email me your receipt and your request at [email protected] (the attachments won’t work if you just reply to this email), and let’s start raising some $$$.
The Tribeca At Home program, where you can stream some of the festival’s selections—notably, our You Can Live Forever!—has been extended to July 3. If you live in the U.S. and would like to see the film, click here to rent it (scroll down to the “At Home” option.
If you’re in Los Angeles, you can see it on the big screen (an infinitely better option!) at Outfest, on July 23 at the Director’s Guild of America cinema. We will almost certainly be there so please come say hi.
Every couple of weeks I’ll send you something good, even when things are not good. If you like this newsletter, please tell a friend or subscribe below:
