Show Up & Participate
This past weekend I attended the Libertarian Party of California’s annual convention, where I voted on bylaws, platform, leadership, attended the Gala, and became a Lifetime Member (I was already a Lifetime Member of the National Party, but now I’m also a Lifetime Member of CA’s party). Why am I a Libertarian? Check out my essay from last week!
This is your reminder to get involved in the things you care about, and show up to do the work, instead of complaining about the work anyone else is doing!
Speaking of things other people are doing, here’s my “things other people wrote that I’m amplifying” post of the week.
White Flag & Jonny McCoy
Spike Cohen wrote a piece on Facebook about Jonny McCoy’s journey leading to the development of a mental health mutual aid app called WhiteFlag.
“WhiteFlag's mission is to save lives and help people reclaim their mental health and wellbeing.” … “And all of this, the civil rights defense, the mutual aid groups, WhiteFlag...it all came about because of one man who refused to give in to what people who abused their power tried to do to him.”
Read the whole thing here, and learn about WhiteFlag here.
Sex Work is Real Work
A great article by the ACLU lays out of several reasons we need to decriminalize sex work, and how to do it. I recommend checking it out and sharing it widely!
TikTok Community Creates Pill Bottles for Shaky Hands To Help People With Parkinson’s
When Libertarians say “the market will provide” we really should be amplifying these incredible stories - like a crowdsourced development based on one person speaking out about a problem they have, and a community coming together to develop an affordable, scalable solution that can help countless people. A Facebook post about this went viral and you can find that here, but my links are to an article with more information.
Freedom Fest 2021!
I’m confirmed as a speaker at Freedom Fest 2021! I’ve been attending Freedom Fest since 2012 (it’s actually where I first met Judd in person - he was speaking and I was an attendee). It’s usually in Las Vegas, but this year they moved it to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota (not my ideal situation but I’m open to new experiences). I’m speaking, taking photos, am on a few panels AND I’m hosting Friday night karaoke. We’ve got a great Feminists for Liberty panel as well! It’s all happening on July 21-24th in Rapid City. Tickets are available here and for $50 off, use the code Avens50. :)
In Case You Missed It
Each week I get a handful of new signups for this newsletter, and I’m tremendously grateful for them (you!). I often do not know if they went through the archives to check out my previous essays, and I’d rather not bother them (and some of you since the beginning might miss an essay here or there!), so this subsection each week will be at the end of my non-Thursday post, so you can skip it if you’ve already seen it or read them all, but will present the long-form essays with a single sentence description in case you missed something and wanted to check it out.
Lead With Gratitude- I explain the game plan with this blog, and thank you for your support.
Choose The Better Story - My life philosophy about building your personal story and making choices.
Judge & Prepare To Be Judged - How “Judgement” does not equal condemnation, and being a discerning person isn’t actually a bad thing, but you should also know who you’re judging for.
Look Beyond Representation - Talking about “representation” as a woman - how its purpose is to eventually render itself irrelevant - let there be so much representation that nobody represents us, because we’re individuals.
Count It All Joy - Remembering a long lost friend, and how she taught me to love by letting go.
Appreciate the Mothers In Your Life - A collection of stories of my own mother.
Ask Yourself What You’d Kill For - Expanding on two concepts that explain my perspective on government & politics.
This weekend I was in Visalia, CA and have literally nothing about it to recommend. Sorry Visalia.
However, I did buy myself the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G and set it up on Monday. So far, I’m kind of loving it.
Lastly, my little cousin Erin whom I referenced in a previous post, is still in the hospital but finally got her NG tube removed yesterday. Poor kid is doing better, but it’s been a rough journey. Thank you for your good thoughts for our family.
