Moral Apathy—the Death of the Heart
Motaz Azaiza! Ta-Nehisi Coates! James Baldwin! Jess Natale!
Hello Beloved,
How are you? I’m sending each one of you love and peace and hugs and all the good shit one needs to continue giving a damn in this crazy world of ours.
Before I share the latest podcast episode with you, I wanted to update you about one of the main things I’ve been doing lately.
In August, I was hired to manage a fundraising tour with UNRWA USA and Motaz Azaiza. As you know, Motaz Azaiza is the 25-year old journalist who showed the world what was happening in Gaza through his camera lens and his phone. As a result, he had a target on his back and had to be evacuated from Gaza 108 days into the genocide and his platform blew up. He has roughly 18M followers on Instagram and a couple million more on other social platforms.
This tour was absolutely exhausting and absolutely incredible. Over the course of 9 days in 4 different cities — Houston, Anaheim, New York, and DC — we were able to raise over $1.5M that will go to help Palestinians in Gaza. If you don’t know about UNRWA USA, that should change immediately. They’re an incredible nonprofit that is worthy of your attention and your donations. These people work tirelessly so that Palestinians can access health care, education, food, and so on. In a few weeks, I’ll be interviewing Mara Kronefeld, the Executive Director of UNRWA USA, so keep an eye out for that.
I can’t tell my children there is no hope. You can’t tell the children there’s no hope. So, let’s not. Let’s spend every waking moment spreading as much hope as possible and building the world we want for ourselves and for our children and for their children and for all the children.
Moving on, friends. Here are a few things I think you should read, watch, listen to, and consider as we begin this brand new week:
🎧 LISTEN / WATCH
Don’t miss the latest Let’s Give A Damn podcast conversation. This week, Jess Natale, creator of the wildly popular (3.2M followers!) So Informed Instagram page joined me on the show.
Jess Natale’s background is in marketing, journalism, political volunteering, and activism. She’s dedicated the So page to educating millions of people around the world on topics ranging from politics and reproductive rights to criminal justice reform and more.
She is actively involved in political protests and organizing, focusing on efforts on the ground to effect change. She also works with nonprofits and groups focused on prison abolition and criminal justice reform.
During our conversation, we discuss what it was like growing up on the poor side of a Connecticut town, why she dropped out of high school, how she got involved in politics, why she started So page, the genocide in Gaza, and so much more.
✅ Follow Jess on Instagram.
✅ Follow @so.informed on Instagram.
✅ Support her work by buying her a coffee (or two).
✅ Last but not least, Click here to listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts or click below to watch it on YouTube.
Oh, before we move on, here is the first clip we released of our conversation. It’s so good! Watch, like, and share.
🗞️ READ
Ta-Nehisi Coates just wrote a new book Called The Message that Publishers Weekly called “an incendiary shot fired over the bow of America’s mainstream journalistic establishment.” Moustafa Bayoumi from The Guardian interviewed him and the article that came from that interview is well worth the read.
“Those of us who have fought this battle against white supremacy and racism, we understand, as Toni Morrison put it, that distraction is one [of racism’s] greatest weapons.”
📺 WATCH
It can’t all be heavy. We must find moments of beauty, hope, peace, and rest. A few weeks ago, the great Jon Batiste released his version of “Für Elise” by Beethoven! It’s absolutely stunning. Find a quiet moment and place and hit play. Also, watch Jon’s fingers and his face during this performance. Absolutely stunning in every way.
Oh, and did you know that “Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor” is the actual title of this piece? Well, now you know.
🧠 PONDER
“I’m terrified of the moral apathy—the death of the heart, which is happening in my country.” — James Baldwin
👋🏽 GOODBYE!
Oh, one more thing! We have a monumental election coming up in a few days. Most of our readers are in the U.S. and I suspect that most of you have already made up your minds re: how you’ll vote. Additionally, I have zero interest in telling you how I think you should vote other than reminding you that you should, indeed, vote your conscience.
So, here’s all I’ll say before I leave you. For the past 391 days, a horrific genocide has been taking place in Occupied Palestine. The current administration is supporting and paying for this genocide and both contenders for President have stated they will continue supporting and paying for it, as well. Keep demanding they do everything in their power to end the genocide. Keep demanding they do everything in their power to end Israel’s illegal and evil occupation. Keep demanding they do everything in their power to Free Palestine. Don’t fucking give up. Greta Thunberg sums it all up well in this post.
That’s it for this week, Thank you for reading. I'm truly grateful. Consider forward this email to a friend? Or send them this link so they can sign up. And you can always email me about anything. I’ll be back next week with good news and steps we can take together to build intentional community and to make our world a much better place. We have a lot of work to do. Love y'all.
Keep giving a damn,
NICK LAPARRA
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