Things That Are True
Feeling ranty. Might post later.
ETA: Okay, yeah, fuckit. Posting.
Here is a random collection of a few things I know that other people should also know are true. I’m deliberately not saying they’re things “I believe.” These are facts. The funny thing about facts is they doesn’t care if people believe in them.
Also not saying anyone need to “accept” these things. Facts. Don’t. Fucking. Care. Recognize these realities. Acknowledge them. Respect them. Promote them
I’m not saying you’ll hate my books if you don’t believe these these things, but…welp, you probably won’t like my books if you don’t recognize these things are facts..
ANYway. Here are some things.
Trans people have always existed and always will exist. Ditto for queer people, gay people, and every other minority the current United States government is attempting to erase from history and society.
Diversity, equity, and inclusiveness benefit everyone.
Everyone eventually becomes disabled. (Just as technically everyone is born disabled if you think about it.)
Race is a social construct, not a biological one, thus the solutions to historic, institutional inequity have to be social, institutional ones.
Vaccinations save lives. Public health policies save lives. Food safety regulations save lives.
ME/CFS, MCAS, POTS, and a host of other medically-dismissed debilitating conditions are real & physical, not psychological conditions or trendy life choices.
Assistance programs that don’t benefit you directly still benefit you.
Abortion is pro-life. <erases screed about “stop writing laws on women’s bodies”> Abortion is a medical procedure that saves lives.
Income is a lousy measure of moral worth:
Poverty is not moral failure.
Prosperity is not moral superiority.
There is also no inherent virtue in poverty, nor in riches.
It’s less expensive to house and feed people than to punish them for lacking shelter or food. (Except for the companies that profit off imprisonment)
It’s less expensive to treat minor health conditions than to treat the major illnesses that develop from them. (Except for the industries that profit off health treatment)
A few more Things. These are more fundamentals than facts, more tenets than truths, but they’re still important.
Your vote matters. EVERY vote matters. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong. Or lying. Or prefers revolutionary social upheaval to incremental progress, despite the bloodshed & chaos.
Politics happen anywhere two or three humans are gathered together. Ignoring “politics” as something unimportant to everyday life imperils lives at every level from local to global. Ignoring this fact endangers lives. Has killed people. Is killing people.
Productivity is an inherently flawed measure of human value.
Capital is a dose-dependent concept. Beneficial in properly controlled amounts, poisonous when applied indiscriminately on a large scale.
Governments are not businesses. Running a government like a business is not going to end well for either the government and businesses.
Right, so, I’ve meandered more than enough now. No, there’s no big wrap-up point. They’re just things that have been bouncing around my brain, so I’ve staked them out here in the open.
Gonna recommend 5calls.org again as a way to feel less helpless and exercise those Doing the Right Thing philosophical muscles.
And that’s that. Until later.
Pippin being judgy in his undersized sofa-adjacent sitting box, with cozy fireplace in the background.
Rainbow Sunshine Pippin closeup. Look at those magnificent whiskers.
What’s on your bookshelf?
This is the part where I talk about my books.
Relics From A Traveling Show
The newest of the new! A collection of all my short fictions in one handy volume, available now from your favorite booksite or local shop.
Or! OR! if you like your local library, you could request a purchase. Free for you, sale for me, everyone wins.
Most libraries need the following info for ordering print books:
Title: Relics From A Traveling Show
Author: K. M. Herkes
ISBN: 9781945745201 (paperback)
Every library system does things a little differently, but most want their collections to serve their communities, so most of them are very responsive to patron requests.
If you like novels more than short stories, I recommend my series The Rollover Files for hopepunk tales of about an alternate world where moms with midlife crisis superpowers have been saving the world and making the military nervous since 1943.
I also have a completed, quirky slow-burn science fiction thriller duology with a romance chaser: The Stories Of The Restoration.
All my titles are available from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Hoopla, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Overdrive and many other fine booksellers.
Support your favorite independent bookseller! Find a local shop via Indiebound
Be a potato.
" Fear is strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground."
Terry Pratchett (Small Gods)