Welcome to my first blog!

Hi there! My name is Kylie (she/her). I live in San Jose, California but also call Hawai'i home. I'm a queer, Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Native Hawaiian), neurospicy, jiggly, woman of color, and dog mom to two dorky boxers. This is my first real blog, so please be gentle!

So I'm currently reading, "Let This Radicalize You" by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, and there are two passages that I keep going back to. The first is:

"when you feel trapped by an oppressive inevitability, you never stop trying to escape, because every jailbreak begins with a decision to reject the inevitable. It is the courage to pick up a pen, every time, knowing you may not finish the story, but knowing full well that you will reject the ending you've been given, every step of the way." (page 3)

I absolutely despise feeling helpless. When I was younger, when I felt like I was trapped in the world by an inevitability like sexism or racism or the carceral system, doomed to fail no matter what I did, I felt hopeless and angry. I didn't understand then why, and so I just chose escape through alcohol, drugs, anger and aggression. But as my therapist once explained to me, anger is the bodyguard of sadness, and we often rely on anger because it's an emotion that feels more active and productive than sitting in or processing our grief.

As an adult, I learned more about the issues that angered me--where and when they originated, why they persisted, what the current impacts were, and I found that (especially with the help of therapy) these issues were infuriating, but were also things that made me incredibly sad and helpless. Instead of reaching for anger and aggression or alcohol and drugs, though, I tried finding other outlets. At first, that looked like my following social justice nonprofits and government officials on social media, and signing petitions, and going to protests, and volunteering in my community. These days, this looks more like my creating and sharing social media posts and writing letters/making phone calls to my elected officials (and creating my first ever blog site, I suppose!).

When Donald Trump, a (now) adjudicated rapist, chaos demon, racist, xenophobic, trans- and homophobic, misogynist was first elected to the highest office in the United States in 2016, I remember feeling a deep sense of grief, anger, betrayal, and helplessness. It's now 2025, and we're weeks away from his second term, and like many of you, I'm feeling those feelings again. This time around, however, I want to try something different: instead of using only social media platforms to express my thoughts, feelings, and share links to petitions, protests, and other resources, I wanted to create a resource for activists who, like me, want to DO something about the anger and frustration and grief from the things that are happening in the world. Enter this blog.

In the last decade, I've researched countless issues, drafted hundreds of letter templates and phone scripts, sent out those emails/letters, and made many phone calls. I didn't think to save any of those templates until more recently and I wish I had, because unfortunately many of these issues still exist and still need our action.

My goal for this blog site is that it can be a resource for you to:

• learn about important issues in the United States,

• to understand why and how those issues are important to me (and why I think you should care too),

• and to give you specific resources and actions to take like contacting your elected officials.

The second passage from "Let This Radicalize You" that resonated with me was:

"the most important thing you can do to transform the world is to act. Taking action is a practice of hope." (page 15).

I choose to not feel helpless or accept the inevitable. I choose action because I choose hope, even when it sometimes feels really, really, REALLY hard. I won't tell you how to feel or how to process what feelings come up for you during this second Trump administration (and beyond), but what I will try to offer you is information, resources, and specific action steps on issues that are important to me so that, if you feel inclined, you might also find hope in using your voice to take action.

Yours in hope,

Kylie