We interrupt your usual program of shitposts, memes, and cute fursuits to bring you something with real-world impact.
It's worth paying attention to.
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The mayor of Ridgeland, MS is threatening to withhold funds from a public library if they don't comply with a demand to purge the shelves of LGBTQ+ books.
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MORE: A Mississippi mayor is "withholding $110,000 of funding from the Madison County Library System" until its libraries purge books w/LGBTQ themes
The mayor calls the books, including an essay collection by Elton John & others, "homosexual materials"
mississippifreepress.org/20068/ridgelan
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I contacted the library for electronic means to contribute, and they responded with this link.
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Screenshot for validity (DMARC headers available on request if anyone doubts me):
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The mayor is threatening to withhold $110,000 from the library.
This isn't small potatoes, but it's within the reach of the amounts raised by furries for charities at conventions all the time.
Do you think we can crowdfund this library and tell their mayor to fuck off?
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Okay an hour ago this was at 0% and now look at it.
You all rock.
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In less than 24 hours, we reached a significant milestone (and a meme number).
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Also, I didn't expect something like this to happen on the very first day:
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Looking at the backers' comments when suddenly
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Also, the icing on the cake of the mayor in question?
His campaign's Twitter is private.
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The fundraiser is over $36,000 now, from over 900 backers.
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If the library manages to raise the $110,000, that'll be a good "fuck you" to the mayor.
Of course, someone else besides me will get the honor of delivering that message, because
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"Oh hell no" - everyone who heard about this story
"Oh howl no" - the furries who heard about this story
Congrats on breaching $50k already everyone!
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Also, I posted this elsewhere but it got lost, I posted the email and all its headers on a Gist.
gist.github.com/soatok/4be203c
What this can prove is that the email in question came from the library's mail server, and wasn't tampered with by yours truly. The URL is therefore genuine.
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If you lack the technical means to verify DKIM signatures
I guess you could just contact the library directly?
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I woke up to see this. I wonder if the mayor is paying attention to these numbers too?
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Pictured:
hearing about the library fund raising over $65,000 in the first week of their crowdfunding effort (2022, colorized)
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We are $990 short of the next meme number.
Will we hit $69,420 today? Will we blow past it before someone takes a screenshot for us all to enjoy?
I dunno, but every bit helps further declaw a homophobic municipal theocrat, which is a win in my book.
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I missed this update.
m.facebook.com/story.php?stor
The Board of Aldermen hasn't heard their case against the mayor yet.
ridgelandms.org/elected-offici
Maybe ask them to prioritize this issue?
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I don't think there has been a single day this week that I've woken up with the funding less than 100% of the current stretch goal.
When y'all go, you go hard.
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So far, by my calculations, this is about 76.7% of the $110k that is withholding, and about 3376.38% of the original $2500 goal on the fundraiser.
With more than a week left to go, and increasing amounts of media attention.
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It's being covered locally in Mississippi:
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Hell, media coverage has even gone International.
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Do you feel really deep in this Twitter thread and fear you lost the link to donate to Friends of the Ridgeland Library?
Here you go! It's no longer buried.
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Sunday Sunday Sunday
Librarians should be enjoying a day off. Because of the Ridgeland mayor, they would be spending the day stressing about their staff's livelihood.
Because of the over 2000 contributors, their mood looks more like this:
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