Three Wins Today: Nov 10, 2025
It's been a long day
I made this post yesterday, and then, well, everything happened, so, while you’d think my intro would be about the rapid response, you’ll have to wait for that till tomorrow.
Anyway, continue.
On the eve of her retirement, I want to make sure to honor Nancy Pelosi. It’s hard for many, especially those who are younger to imagine, but when she first started, she wasn’t all that different from AOC.
Think of any issue you care about, and she was at the forefront of it.
You care about the environment? In 1989, as a sophomore in Congress, she sponsored an amendment called “the Pelosi Amendment” which required that the World Bank turn down any project that would have a negative environmental impact. It went into effect in 1991. Of course it wasn’t perfect, but it was far more than anything else that existed up to that point. In 1998, a paper was written detailing the impact of the amendment.
You care about queer issues? In her very first speech on the House floor in June 1987, she said:
We must take leadership of course in the crisis of AIDS.
This might not sound like a big deal now, but oh wow was it then.
One of her consituents at the time, Ed Wolf, who worked in the San Fransisco AIDs ward spoke to the New York Times this week about her showing up repeatedly, at a time when so many people were just scared they’d catch it by being in the room with someone who had it:
Early on, it was not seen as a wise or popular thing to do, to champion people with AIDS, of all things. You didn’t want to align yourself too closely, but she didn’t care. We were her constituents, and she went to bat for us over and over and over again.
She was fierce before fierce became a cliché.
And this is just early on. In 2007 she became the first woman Speaker of the House and she continued to champion those who needed it the most in that position too.
These last few years, according to Susan Page, the author of “Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi And The Lessons Of Power,” she didn’t want to be among the oldest people in congress. She had planned to retire when Hillary Clinton became president.
Page told NPR:
You know, I think the thing she has some regret about is that she’s leaving office while Donald Trump is still in it. She was actually thinking seriously about retiring from Congress in 2016 and didn’t because Donald Trump got elected. She thought she’d leave - announce - the announcement she made today, she was going to make that after Hillary Clinton had been elected president. And when that didn’t happen, she signed back on because of her opposition to Trump and her belief that he represented a threat to democratic institutions.
She saw the writing on the wall and couldn’t leave the House Dems to have a new speaker to learn on the job. The situation was just too dire.
You might have mixed feelings about the last few years of her legacy. But please celebrate her for her incredible career and her drive and determination to always fight for those who needed support the most.
If it wasn’t for her there wouldn’t be an AOC or Jasmine Crockett. She is the blueprint and we should all be eternally grateful for what she has been able to accomplish in her career.
Thank you, Nancy Pelosi for being the first and the loudest many many times over.
Nationwide
Thu, Oct 16 - If you didn’t know, last month was LGBTQ+ History Month. It doesn’t get nearly as much attention as Pride Month, but it’s arguably even more important. This year, Lambda Legal unveiled a new plan of attack against the administration, starting with a social media campaign, “All Rise.”
If you don’t know Lambda Legal, they are at the forefront of most LGBTQ+ lawsuits in the country. They are an incredible organization that I had the absolute pleasure of working with in my TikTok days.
They created a new national campaign titled All Rise to bring attention to their amazing work.
You’ve definitely heard of ACLU, but Lambda Legal has worked more behind the scenes, and that’s changing.
This campaign is a new way to do fundraising, for them, at least, that relies far less on emails and more on personal stories.
CEO Kevin Jennings (one of the first people I interviewed as a creator) told The Advocate:
This is a break-the-glass moment. Everybody needs to throw everything at this right now. Their agenda is nothing less than the destruction of our democracy as we’ve known it.
He continued
There’s reason to be hopeful, but don’t be optimistic. Optimism assumes it’ll just get better by itself. Our only hope is if people rise together and fight back.
If you know anything about me, you know this is my new favorite quote.
I am excited to see them creating more of a public image. The work they do is amazing regardless, but it matters to show it off, so that people know who’s fighting for them.
Venice, California
Sat, Nov 1 - Every year, Venice Bakery owner, Norma Aceves, has a Día De Los Muertos alter in her shop, but this year it’s a little different. Instead of just including people who have passed who she knows, this year was about those who died in ICE custody. Each victim had a framed photo to honor their memory.
She told ABC 7:
It’s remembering that our culture has purpose, our traditions have purpose. When we do something, when we put up an altar, it’s not just to look cute or nice for a season or for a day. It’s to honor and remember the people that have passed away. It’s to remember the struggles that we come from and how powerful we are.
She also spoke with LA TACO:
I contemplated whether doing it or not because I wasn’t sure about the response from people, but then I realized that it doesn’t matter. They were part of our community, and our community is being targeted, and they needed to be remembered.
She’s right, it doesn’t matter. There are going to be millions of people with millions of different opinions, but what matters is if your way of fighting back and speaking up helps you and your community.
It’s a great example of doing something. Having an impact on this fight is all encompassing. It’s about voting and calling your reps and showing up to protests, but it’s also about just bringing attention to things no one else will. It’s about finding creative ways, personal ways to speak up and keep the conversation alive.
And I think Aceves did exactly that.
Israel
Wed, Nov 5 - I should not have to begin this with a caveat, but, we don’t live in a fair world, so, please, I’m begging you, see this as the win that it is, and don’t try to undermine it for the goal of one upping Jewish pain.
Yad Veshem, the World Holocaust Center, announced that they have officially identified 5 million of those who were murdered during the genocide. It took 80 years and there’s still 1 million to go.
Yad Veshem chairman, Dani Dayan said:
Reaching five million names is both a milestone and a reminder of our unfinished obligation. Behind each name is a life that mattered- a child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice that was silenced forever. It is our moral duty to ensure that every victim is remembered so that no one will be left behind in the darkness of anonymity.
There are still people who don’t know for certain that a family member was murdered during the Holocaust, they’ve just assumed, and some of those families are finally getting some closure.
This was only possible because of technology like AI and machine learning, that made it possible to do work that was previously far too time consuming and complicated. It’s a nice reminder that AI isn’t wholly evil, it just maybe shouldn’t be in the hands of the general population.
I hope, thanks to new and soon to be emerging technology that the final 1 million takes far less time and someday soon all 6 million Jews, and 11 million people who were murdered, are known and and able to be remembered. May their memories be a blessing.
So those are today’s wins, they’re kinda all over the place, but I like it like that. It shows that there are wins of all sorts all over, and that’s a really important thing to remember.
Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!
Kudos to Norma Aceves from the Venice Bakery. What a wonderful and meaningful tribute!
I've been an active citizen for as long as Pelosi--"Nancy," if you please, has been making news. WOW did she stun San Francisco in the 80's! Even the gay community--reeling AND active--was amazed at what she was willing to take on, and at how often she won her point(s). What we of women's power take for granted now we watched applauded, began helping create from her initiatives. WHAT a woman. Thank you, Nancy, and thank you, Ariella, for the living obit.