Goodbye In Advance For the Day This Regime Decides to Come and Censor Me

I just got the news that Jimmy Kimmel was kicked off the air for speaking the truth. Meanwhile, the guy over at the white supremacy propaganda station who called for homeless people to be killed, still has a job.This morning there were two separate shootings at homeless shelters in Minneapolis. When the right calls for death they get it. One way or another, all that’s left is silence.Let’s be real for a second. They’re going to get me too. One day they’ll shut me down. The easiest way would be for some oligarch to buy up this platform and bury my work. I’ve already seen that happen to some extent. My follower count was skyrocketing and it has slowed down considerably over the last few months.It’s not the quality of my work that’s changed. If anything, I’ve gotten better. The only thing that’s different is that the world is filled with hostile individuals pulling the levers of control.So, before I’m silenced for good, I just want to get out ahead of the story. Last Saturday, I offered a thank you to all my readers. That was after a hard week where I was emotionally exhausted, and you guys helped me pull through.This week, I want to offer something of a mission statement because I’ve already come to peace with the idea that this fight will go on whether I’m here or not. This isn’t going to get settled in the midterms. The midterms are an opportunity to take a step in the right direction, but we won’t have a win until everyone has the same access to healthcare, everyone has the same access to education, everyone has a roof over their head, everyone respects truth, and everyone is treated with the same level of basic dignity.Until then, the work continues. We shouldn’t be handing out awards or accolades until that moment because the energy that goes into those ceremonies comes at the expense of the people who still need our help.They still need our help.One of the main things I’ve always tried to do as a writer is help other writers. That started a long time ago when I published a book and I couldn’t get anyone to read it.I thought, “Damn it, my story is important. Where are all the people?”And then I thought, “You know, if I’m thinking this, I bet others are too.”So, I started buying independently published books and reviewing them. I would track down the writers. Some of them didn’t want to talk to me, but others became enduring friends.Then, we kept in touch and we found publication opportunities, and we helped each other and our communities grew. Today, I have 50k followers on Medium and 10k subscribers here, and it all comes from reaching out to my fellow human beings and saying, “Hey, can I help lift you up? Where do you want to go! Let’s do it!”Lately, I’ve been doing my best to reach out to other Substack creators. You all have been seeing the replays. I like the 3 way talks because it allows me to present people who are important to me to each other. Do you see where this is going?That way, when I’m silenced, there will still be a connection left behind. There will be two people who know each other because of me, and they will be more powerful because of me, and they’ll carry on this work. Then, one day, when the victory happens, they’ll smile. And wherever my spirit is in that moment, I’ll be filled with happiness because I’ll know I played a small role in the advancement of humanity.That’s a life well lived!So, I’d like to offer everyone an assignment. If you’re here on Substack and you have a newsletter, go and make a connection. Then, once you’ve made a connection, present that person to somebody else. Then encourage that person to find new people, and so on and so on until we have a chain of strong connections that cannot be broken.It doesn’t matter if you have 10 followers or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000! Talk to people. A person with 100,000 followers who talks to a person with 10 can bring visibility to a voice that might not have otherwise been heard.What we need to do is share our power, now more than ever! Share your power, don’t hoard it! Share it and expand so that it doesn’t just dissipate when you go away, it lives on!But this isn’t limited only to Substack. There are people with platforms all over the world. They have communities on social media, and in the mainstream media, and on radio, and in real life. Elevate the message! We can’t entrust the truth to only one person. Let the world know so that when the forces of evil come to silence us, they will be forced to recognize their objective is hopeless because we are all champions of truth.Every. Single. One. Of. Us.That way, it doesn’t scare me so much to think that I might one day be gone. In that moment, my thoughts turn to my wife and my children. Right now, I’m terrified because the world is so hostile. That’s why I’m working so hard and doing everything I can think of to make it just a slightly better place.Just a little bit better.The more all of you can pick up that message and share it and empower others and reflect the goodness back on each other, the less worried I am about my wife and kids. I know you’ll do it. You do it already.They can’t silence us all.So, in anticipation of the day they silence me, I just want to say goodbye, and thank you, and I love you all.But I also want to say that as of today, I’m still here, and I look forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe