What Can Muppet Fans Do to Help?

Published: June 3, 2020
Categories: Feature

The world is currently full of a lot of troublesome news. Our country is rising up and fighting against the systemic issues that have been damaging our way of life for generations, including police violence, black men and women murdered on the streets, and a President who’s making the situation worse and more dangerous with every passing day.

I’m not gonna lie, this is not a great time to be thinking about what to write on a Muppet fan site.

The (very thin) silver lining surrounding the history we’re currently witnessing is that it’s allowing everyone to show their true colors. While the white supremacists deny their terrible actions, the internet is flooded with messages of support for #BlackLivesMatter. Protesters have been donning masks and taking to the streets in all 50 states to make their collective voices heard. Even pop culture franchises have refused to stay silent on the matter, including Sesame Workshop.

As I’m sitting in front of my computer trying to figure out the best way to join the chorus of support for black lives and against fascism, I am (as always) looking to the life and legacy of Jim Henson for guidance.

It’s easy to point to a bunch of Muppet, Sesame Street. and Fraggle Rock productions for examples of how to act or what to believe. There are plenty of videos of Muppets promoting equality, tolerance, understanding, and empathy, and you don’t have to look very far to find a few that really speak to you. We’ve spoken many times here on ToughPigs about how the current state of our government actively works against the lessons we’ve learned from the Muppets. (You don’t have to look very far to find those either.)

But ultimately, it feels like more of a distraction from reality than anything. There’s actual violence happening outside our windows right now, and watching old Muppet Show clips isn’t going to change that. So we ask ourselves: What would Jim do?

I can’t answer that with any conviction, but I do believe that Jim Henson would be taking action. He might’ve been on the street with the protesters, or he might’ve just used his influence to promote messages of peace. All I know is that he wouldn’t be sitting at home watching YouTube.

Therefore, here we are, a Muppet fan site asking you to take action. Below is a list of organizations that could use your donations in these incredibly difficult times. If you’ve ever learned a lesson about supporting your neighbors from the Muppets, kindness from Sesame Street, or embracing our differences from the Fraggles, then we hope you’ll take those lessons to heart and help make this world a better place.

Bail funds and legal funds for protesters

National organizations

  • The Bail Project – A non-profit organization designed to combat mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system ? one person at a time
  • National Bail Fund Network – Over sixty community bail and bond funds across the country.
  • Act Blue (Donation split between 39 community bail funds)
  • Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – A community of over 4,000 attorneys to fight against voter suppression, combat hate crimes and defend diversity on college campuses.
  • NAACP Legal Defense Fund – A leading United States civil rights organization and law firm.
  • ACLU – Nonprofit to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
  • LGBTQ Freedom Fund – Bail fund providing relief to jailed LGBTQ people in 15 states and counting.
  • Campaign Zero – Organization that utilizes research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in the U.S.
  • Unicorn Riot – Nonprofit media collective dedicated to exposing the root causes of social, economic, and environmental issues.

Funds for victims and their families

Meanwhile, ToughPigs will be taking a short break from content creation. You can still find our recent podcasts and live video interviews online, and we encourage you to sift through our archives for articles you may have missed. But while the world is burning, we’d rather keep your attention on the news at hand, and doing our collective part and putting that fire out.

Thank you for donating, supporting, and sharing.

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Written by Joe Hennes

Co-owner and Editor-in-Chief.
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