gather here is CLOSED on Monday, July 4, 2022 and it's a paid holiday for our regularly scheduled team members. But that doesn't mean we are celebrating the founding of the United States (a country founded on stolen land). We ARE taking a day off from capitalism and the never-ending hustle to make payroll and rent and health benefits. We ARE reflecting on who is truly "free" in the US. And what we can do to protect existing freedoms while also expanding freedom for all.
We're not alone in not feeling like celebrating, this Yahoo! article www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/people-canceling-july-4-roe-v-wade-ruling rounds up other folx feelings about how 2022 has left us wanting to "cancel the 4th". The article sums it all up really well, too. "Rather than canceling or calling out the Fourth of July, this can be "an opportunity to call it in," Akilah Cadet adds. "And when you call this holiday in, it means into accountability, action and change, and how you're moving forward differently. And so I would encourage people to call Fourth of July in and to say like, 'OK, this is a really kind of f***ed-up holiday, but what does this mean for the privilege I have, and what I can do?""
We love this print from Lucky Budgie, now framed and on display in our "restroom gallery". We also love Sister Corita Kent: “Doing and making are acts of hope, and as that hope grows we stop feeling overwhelmed by the troubles of the world. We remember that we – as individuals and groups – can do something about those troubles.”
