My sister is Jamie Reed. She has recently released a sworn affidavit about complaints regarding issues at a trans clinic she has worked for. Before any reporters come asking about her family, or any proud boys ask to recruit me, this is my response.
Should the media machine turn its lidless reptile eye towards me, God help me, this is my only response.
I tell my story, as a writer, in the fictive narrative. And the vampire narrative of mass culture media which swoops in, finds victim, and sucks dry, powers forward on its own death drive, apart. If you and I, dear reader, should meet, may it be in our own story, and not in some narrative of another.
Let me reveal what I said to my sister Jamie when I heard of her affdavit. I heard from my Mother first, that there was likely a storm coming.
“Jamie I feel that as I am reading a report in daily mail on your affidavit that you spoke about complex issues hoping to make a positive change for the individuals you were close to at the clinic and care about. The issues of the kids and the doctors attempting to treat them are those of individuals likely good intentioned. But by releasing your whistleblower statement in the current political environment you have exposed a delicate group and thoughtful people to what one finds when one overturns a rock… Snakes and spiders… But the rock will be coming from above. I love you and believe in the goodness of your heart. I support you through what is coming. Feel free to share these words with anyone you wish to.”
I texted this to Jamie, her husband, my mother, and my sister and her girlfriend.
I am understanding of my sister’s actions because I know her. She is pro-human, and heroic, and idealist. The world is not made for us, but here we are. And here comes the politicians and news people.
At this point I say nonchalantly I have mental illness, I wasn’t at our last Christmas and yes I live on state money. I have paranoid schizophrenia. I have been diagnosed since the end of high school. I also have attempted to attend college and have a writing career and I created and stumblingly run a writers’ group here in St. Louis. We’re called the Monarch Writers.
I am very left wing ostensibly, though pro-2nd amendment and pro-constitution. Once one has been in situations like a mental ward where one has lost all bodily autonomy and been punished for some crime they are commiting they don’t undersand, one is left with naught but FAITH and DESIRE.
Which is where my sister and I, I feel, are completely aligned, that as I know her, she and I both desire FREEDOM and REASON for all.
Faith, desire, and sympathy then. Synonymous with Faith, Hope, and Love.
And, classically– and progressively, the greatest of these, is LOVE.
But then again, I did miss this past Christmas.
In closing, two quotes:
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” – Provers 8:13, KJV
“Opinions are like assholes, Rich. MINE are the right ones.” – Mike Stoklasa, ‘Best of the Worst’, RedLetterMedia
“Survival never goes out of style.” – Jawbreaker
‘Think before you speak. Read before you think.’ – Fran Lebowitz
‘You are What You Love, Not What Loves You’ – Adaptation
‘Thank God for Mental Illness’ – The Brian JonesTown Massaxre
#EverybodyRuns #MinorityReport #MostlyHarmless #JustAMinorThreat
Ironically my two cats and I danced to this song on Christmas. ↑
FTW
“I’d rather be thin than famous” – Kerouac
The Haunted Typewriter 