Fair trade
gun exchanges funded by drug dealers, a biker babe memorial, magic joints
SOMETHINGS TO READ
According to Gun Violence Archive, Monday’s school shooting in Nashville marked the 130th mass shooting in America just since the start of the year (we are, BTW, only on day 89 of 2023). And in case you missed it—Monday’s tragedy wasn’t even the only mass shooting in Tennessee this week. Yesterday, two people were killed and five were injured in another shooting in a Memphis restaurant.
What should we do?!? Reconsider why anyone would need to own assault rifles meant for war? Have a chat about mandatory background checks? No! Tennessee House Representative Tim Burchett has another idea—homeschool all children like he and his wife do! WHY DIDN’T WE THINK OF THAT.
Until all American families can adjust their work schedules, get teaching degrees, and abandon the public school system, here’s another option for action. In New York, churches and police departments are teaming up for gun buyback meetups. It’s simple and quick—surrender a gun, get a gift card or an iPad:
“‘There’re no questions asked,’ a plainclothes cop, dressed in jeans and white Nike Jordans, said, on the sidewalk outside. ‘You get a ticket. We process the gun. We get you a gift. Ten minutes!’ Inside, another cop said, “They’re not swabbed for DNA. Literally, nothing is done to these guns. They’re put into a bag, and they’re brought to an off-site location, and they’re destroyed.” (Handguns are melted down at a steel plant in Pennsylvania; rifles and shotguns are shredded at a metal-recycling facility in New Jersey.)”
According to Eric Gonzalez, Brooklyn’s D.A., the program is not funded by tax dollars, it’s paid for with “money that’s coming from drug dealers.” And it’s working. In the summer of 2008, six Brooklyn churches collected nearly 2,000 firearms. The New Yorker’s Adam Iscoe has the story from 2022: Guns into gift cards, and iPads too.
SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO
Considering how some monsters have been framing Monday’s shooting, I thought it might be nice to hear some trans joy—joy in grief, but joy nonetheless. I love these 2-minutes from StoryCorps featuring Shane Fairchild and Sayer Johnson.
Shane Fairchild lost his wife Blue Bauer to cancer in 2013. In this conversation, he talks with their friend Sayer about Blue’s wild ride through life. It’s a loving portrait of a wife and friend who rode with a motorcycle gang, protected her husband at bars from his “hillbilly” ways, and remained full of fight and love right to the end, despite the rejection of her biological family.
Both Shane and Blue are transgender and are admiringly referred to as the “mama and papa of the trans community” by Johnson. Blue was buried in her combat boots.
SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO
If the news this week is scrambling your brain, you’re not alone.
More shootings. The New York Times reporting that Gwyneth Paltrow’s “courtcore” is “precedent setting.” NPR laying off 10% of its staff—their biggest layoff since 2008—and canceling shows that were largely hosted, produced, and listened to by people of color and queers, according to (canceled) NPR podcast Louder Than a Riot.
All things considered, it seems like a good week for a nice, soothing SHOT. Here’s a beautiful video by woodworker Dylan Iwakuni demonstrating the traditional art of Japanese wood joinery. No nails, just magic and precision. Enjoy.
LET THE COUNTDOWN COMMENCE
That’s a wrap on issue 99, friends. Thanks for reading, listening, and holding on for nearly ONE HUNDRED editions of this misfit dispatch!
Would you like to give RPR a one-year bday gift??? OF COURSE YOU WOULD. As of today, we have a little over 300 misfits and unlikely optimists subscribers—and you all are a loyal crew. 🧡 Our open rate hits over 50% every week (17-28% is the industry aim). Links are clicked. Sweet and funny replies are sent. Our RPR readers are the best.
If you’re one of those loyal email-openers and link-clickers, I see you! I hug you! Here’s a few ways you can share the RPR love and help this little-newsletter-that-could have an especially excellent bday celebration next week:
Click the ❤️! See that little outline of a heart at the top and bottom of your email? That’s your chance to say, hey, this issue made me think, or laugh, or feel something, or scrunch up my face in an interesting arrangement and I liked it.
Share! Forward this issue like an email chain letter from 2001 to three misfit friends and encourage them to subscribe. Tell them it’s free and cool and that all the curious weird people are always warmly welcomed here.
Post! Venture bravely back onto your social media platform of choice (maybe even Facebook, where The Unwed Mother Agenda has a newly revived page) and post your favorite issue from our RPR or UMA archives and tell your friends why they should join our misfit crew and subscribe.
Upgrade or donate a subscription! If you’re in a place to support my work financially, please consider upgrading your subscription to paid or, better yet, donating a paid subscription to a friend or an organization. All of our RPR and UMA newsletters are fully accessible to both paid and free subscribers—no paywalls! All revenue goes towards keeping this misfit machine running and making sure it can continue to be accessible to all. Thank you!
And that’s it! If half of our followers did at least one of the four things above, I bet we could welcome in ANOTHER HUNDRED subscribers by next week’s big anniversary! Is that my unlikely optimism showing??? Perhaps! But you know I’m always here for the hope. Tag me and RPR, and we’ll share the love.
ROCK PAPER RADIO is on Twitter and Instagram @rockpaperradio, and we’re on Facebook @TheUnwedMotherAgenda. I’m on Twitter @kristinleong, and on Instagram @leongstagram.
Thank you, misfit crew! See you next week!
K.
P.S. Did you miss yesterday’s big announcement in The Unwed Mother Agenda newsletter? Never fear. Here it is.