3-23-2016

Activism: Forcing The Hard Issues

I wont pretend that activism is easy, it's not. It's inserting yourself into situations that don't want you there. With people that generally don't like you and don't respect your opinion.

Something I have been facing here for years.

So when something happens and it seems as though I am being back burnered again, I assume that it's happening. I don't quit, or give up, I push on. Tired and hurt, but I push on, because that's the right thing to do. Because the men here in this prison deserve a second chance. They deserve to be loved and communicated with. They deserve the chance to rehabilitate and change their lives. If that means that I am the only one who doesn't allow their violent attitudes to scare me and at the end of the day, even when they've been rude, I still tell them that I care...because I might be the only one who has...

Insert yourself into wherever you need to be because you won't be invited. No one is ever going to just hand you a 501c3 and say "thanks for answering our call" No you have to fight, and raise the tough questions, draw the hard line and toe it too. You are going to have to face problem and heartache and failure and seemingly endless amounts of "I forgot you" or "I didn't forget on purpose, it was an honest oversight"

We are nobody's oversight and I wont allow that to be an excuse not now, not ever. We are not secondary problems. We are human beings. We are LGBTQ and proud.

Love you all

With Love

Jeff Utnage 823469 humbly...