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26 December 2020

A Very Somber New Year

by Steven Malins

It’s the day after Christmas and just about a week until the new year. I won’t say it’s been a great year, but there have been very happy and fulfilling moments in it. And I did get almost everything I wanted for Christmas; and that is more than too many people can say. As I was relaxing and doomscrolling twitter last night, I came across a plea by someone I follow on twitter dot com.

Mari needs help to repay money that she thought was hers, but that the government thinks it gave her by mistake. Obviously, one should be careful when considering donating to people online. I’ve not personally met Mari, but I have followed her long enough to know that her plight is not a ruse or trick of someone beating the system or a common scam. You can read what happened, in her own words, here:

Because I have dealt with SSDI because my wife is on it, I know how wild and unfair their decisions can be. I retweeted the above with the simple plea: “HELP!” But the internet, and Mari, would not let me off so easily.

why should anyone help her though? No reason….why do you think she should be helped?

Mari quickly, and somewhat appropriately, responded. As the cracks grow in our society, exposing faults that most of us find unpleasant at best, it seems that there are more cries for help than one can practically answer. I will admit that initially I was ever so slightly nonplussed by Mari’s response. But I responded with a few reasons to my literally hundreds of twitter followers why one ought to help Mari.

I maintain that helping fellow beings should be an intrinsic motivation; that it should be done for it’s own reward and cause. That for those whom it is not, I do not posses sufficient understanding of their thought processes to attempt to persuade them. If you can help Mari by donating $4 or (inclusive or) sharing her post, you should do so because it is the right thing to do!

But alas, some might need just a gentle nudge to help Mari in particular. Mari is a very kind, generous, and loving soul. What is being done to her, the government mandating repayment of disability payments, is an injustice that you can help correct. So here are 5 reasons you should help Mari:

  1. Because you forgot to get me a Christmas present. Look, it’s been a wild year. If you donate to Mari’s gofundme (link in the tweet, or at the bottom of this post) or share this post I will consider it in lieu of a personal gift to me.
  2. Mari’s mother, who lives with her and who she cares for, is an indigenous elder. Your help will also help Mari’s mother. I am not sure if colonizers can understand the value of elders of a people who have lived on their land for thousands of years; but you can help one right now, today, for just $4.
  3. Mari is an artist and author; helping them helps increase the amount of art in the world. Now art is not building roads; but no one can argue that the world is perfect. When the imperfections of the world assail our senses and it seems like we cannot go on, often art is the only thing that sustains us and makes the world bearable. Supporting artists should be a staple of a just and enlightened society; plus you can call yourself a patron of the arts!
  4. Mutual aid is the only way any of us are going to get through this. I won’t sugar coat it; things are bad for a lot of people, not just Mari. It’s not right. It’s not fair. And none of us can stop all, or even most, or even a significant portion, of the injustices that surround us. But we can help each other. We can start where we are, with what we have, and do what we are able. In the end, there is no justice; there is just us.
  5. Mari would do the same for you. I have followed her long enough to know that. She absolutely would do the same for you, a stranger on the internet. That’s gotta be worth something, right? You have my personal guarantee that Mari would do the same for you.

Just the Facts

Just do it!