Category Archives: Uncategorized

Second open letter to union-busting Seward Co-op: stop illegally harassing Amy Swenson.

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This is my second open letter to Seward Co-op’s board, HR, and managers regarding unionization efforts at Seward, and your by-the-book union bashing.

After my first letter, Sean sent me an email all about how cooperative they were being with the union. Look! He said. Look how great we are being!

This letter was clearly a lie.

You continue to have ‘disciplinary meetings’ with one of the major organizers.

I see you. I know what you are doing. This is a classic intimidation technique, and an attempt to not only silence her, but cow others into submission and fear.

I am beyond disgusted. Stop this NOW. Everyone can see you. We can all see what you are doing. This is NOT what the co-op movement is all about.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. You are on the wrong side of history. Stop. NOW.

Most extremely sincerely,
Haddayr Copley-Woods
Member # 31XXX

On Being SEEN

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Today, walking downtown, I approached a man sitting on a windowsill, holding a cane.

We locked eyes and exchanged the Crip Nod. We know what it’s like to have people look away from you on the street.

“How are you TODAY?” he asked.

“TODAY is good,” I said. “How’s it going TODAY?”

“Good, good.”

No one else would have heard the emphasis I provided. Just us. We know some days are better than others.

*

A few blocks further down, I was stopped at a light waiting for it to change when a beautiful young woman with a sleek, close hair cut stood next to me.

“Happy Pride!” she said.

I looked down. I was wearing no rainbows, no ‘GAY AF’ shirt, no Secret Queer Army pin. She just knew.

I lit up. “Happy Pride!” I said.

All the way to my errand, I was grinning.

Thanks for seeing me, random strangers. I hope you felt seen, too.

disabledqueer

My open letter on union busting by the Seward Co-op

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Dear Board, Manager Sean Doyle, and HR Director Liz Wozniak,

When I received your ridiculously slick corporate letter about the unionization efforts of the workers at Seward Co-op, stating that Seward would be forcing them to hold an election, I immediately knew you were engaged in an illegal intimidation campaign.
 
I knew this because forcing an election in the face of an overwhelming majority of signed cards is a classic union-busting technique, and I was not born yesterday. 
You are stalling to give yourself more time to intimidate, harass, and probably fire one or two of them as an example to others: to fill them with too much fear to vote for the union.
 
My assumptions, of course, have since been backed up by multiple sources working in the store that I co-own.
 
I know you. I see you. And this garbage is utterly abhorrent, especially as a co-op. 
 
I demand that you recognize the union.
I demand that you stop illegally harassing workers, specifically Amy Swenson.
How dare you use my membership money to union bust? How dare you?
 
Most definitely sincerely,
Haddayr Copley-Woods
Member/Owner, Seward Coop
 
PS I am not threatening to leave the coop. I am not going anywhere. I am contacting leaders right now after I have sent this email to find out how I can help them.

This is what white privilege looks like

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Here is what white privilege looks like, even if you don’t have a lot of money and have other stuff stacked against you:
I saw a couple cops at Chipotle a few days ago. I was very very very tired from moving and painting and moving again and moving again, and so my usual wary look whenever I see cops probably looked much more hostile.
The cops immediately changed their order to go, followed me and my boys out of the place, and begin to follow me. They followed very closely, and waited until I put on my signal each time I turned to put on their signal. They wanted me to see that they were following me. I raced through my mind whether I’d paid my tabs, weather my very hungry breath might be confused for alcohol on my breath, if when I got pulled over Arie would flip out, I wondered if they were running my plates and made sure through my head that there is nothing they would find, which of course there wasn’t. I kept my hands at 10 and 2. I came to a very very very full and complete stop at all stop signs, and I waited for a while before I started when the lights would change. I was so so careful. 
After they had seen me nervously checking my rearview mirror over and over and met my eyes multiple times, I guess they figured that they had taught me not to glare at cops, and they turned and went their way.
At no point during any of this did I have even a MOMENT of fear for my life. 

On Gender Categorizations

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Dax Schwartz just started a story that I FUCKING LOVE based on a tweet that made her super angry.
I went to look at the tweet, which was a list of lesbian categories from high femme to stone butch with our accompanying weapons of choice:
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I thought it was funny, although in soft butch/butch the weapon was not sledgehammer, so I was not represented.
And we had a really interesting conversation about how freeing it felt to me to have a woman ask me at a bisexual conference: “Do you identify as butch?”
And to be able to say back, after some hemming and hawing: YES.
For me, identifying as butch (which I get is a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to certain gay communities as I am bi/pan and some folks might think I am not allowed to use it) was incredibly freeing, relaxing, and affirming. So many of my anxieties about my presentation, etc. just melted.
I call myself a ‘swishy butch’ instead of ‘soft,’ because there is nothing soft about me except for my gut, but it’s basically the same thing. And defining myself, with the help of that lovely woman, felt like power.
Whereas Dax, as well as, I think, several of my other friends, found this enraging gender policing essentialist bullshit.
I won’t speak for her in too much detail, but I believe that her self identification as flouting the binary is also essential to HER peace of mind and identity.
tl;dr
People who come from very different perspectives can come to opposite and yet entirely correct conclusions on the same image. OH MY GOD IT’S DIALECTIC!
#dbtFTW

Joy to the World

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Dear Laughing, Stamping, Clapping, and Pointing Man on the Corner of 4th Av. S and 4th Street:

Your untrammeled glee at that big-ass truck swiping my parking spot in spectacular fashion was so profound that I ain’t even mad. I can only be humbled by having brought so much joy to another human being that early in the morning.

Dear Guy In the Big Ass Truck Who Stopped In The Middle of 4th Street to Back Sideways into A Parking Spot at the corner on 4th Avenue in Such A Strange And Unexpected Way That I Can’t Adequately Describe It:

You were in too much of a hurry as you sprinted into the courthouse with that paperwork (and good luck with whatever that was)  to see the spectacular pas de deux you and I performed for our fellow man. You don’t even know that you made the world a slightly better place this morning. Nonetheless, I salute you.   


— No, really not even mad because it was too awesome and also I found another spot fairly close right away.