SOLIDARITY MEANS STABILITY

Jennifer Gonzalez, brilliant organizer, immigration attorney, and visionary living just over the California/Mexico border in Tijuana, has joined the "Chronically Ill from Long Covid" Club. The last 3 years have been a struggle to understand her new nerve pain flares, migraine triggers, and why things she used to do suddenly keep her in bed for days. Work has been a struggle. Through trial and error, she has been able to find a sustainable system of work/rest by serving as a consultant for nonprofits who want to restructure towards a more liberatory, justice-centered framework. She is currently working with the Equal Freedom Institute, a diverse and radically inclusive network of thought leaders, policy makers, and social activists dedicated to securing human rights and civil liberties and building a freer and more equal world through research, advocacy, and engagement (the antithesis of the Heritage Foundation in every possible way). The EFI has been fund-raising for sustainability, but payment for her work has been delayed.

Her closest friends have helped keep her housed, fed, and as medically stable as possible with a weekly trickle of mutual aid, money they could definitely use themselves. It's like her squad has been Venmo-ing each other the same hundred dollars in steady rotation, trying to make sure no one else is lost. But it's time (past time) to look to a wider field for support. If she can't catch up on her rent, she'll be homeless on March 1. If she can't focus on work, she'll have no income indefinitely (rather than the 2-month delay in billing she's currently trying to survive).

And while her current financial situation is a full-blown crisis, it's been coming on for months. For the last 7 months, she hasn't been able to afford survival. She's pared her consumption down to the bare minimum. She has titrated off more than one medication and all of her supplements—the daily headaches are back and she's nauseous more days than not. But, she's accepted these untreated symptoms as the price for maintaining access to the medications that keep her out of the hospital. The list of foods she can eat, access, and afford is down to about ten. She triages her own symptoms each day, deciding whether she needs to be able to move around physically or focus mentally or stare at a screen or be on calls and clear-headed. It’s a delicate balance and usually ends with her crashed out in bed every 2-3 days. We are seeking the total above to cover 3 months of rent, utilities, food/sundry, transportation, and medical bills, by far the largest expense.

She needs to catch up, and she needs a cushion to transition to steady work that has the potential to change one corner of the nonprofit landscape, if her vision can become reality. The world is burning, many poorer people and families are being harmed by greed and fear and profit, and she is trying not to lose her home again for the 7th time in 5 years. She wants to be able to work and create something better, not only for herself, but for all of us.