A SURVIVOR’S MANIFESTO

its been more than three years since i jumped off key bridge
almost ending a life that at the time felt so tortured
never consciously suicidal i was caught in a visceral panic attack following a dream that felt like a premonition of a torturous shift at the georgetown establishment known as kafe leopold

so i guess that makes me a survivor—of both suicide and of years living on the manic depressive spectrum…
so many who had been close to me have been lost to this persistent scourge so endemic to our present social disorder
i channel the energy of dabs and andre—of josh and quentin—and of aaron, a comrade with such searing intellect and such a beautiful heart

if you are ever questioning your ability to avoid death by your own hand please ask for help
it is trite but true that suicide is a permanent solution to triggers and stressors that are usually temporary

but we need more than suicide hotlines and walks to raise money for research
we need to craft the skeleton of a new society where human misery will be minimized and where community and solidarity can sustain our lives…]
we need a matrix of liberation
but to get there we need to create circles of trust and support that realize the cosmic potential of mutual aid and transcendent love

countless human generations have wondered where we go when we go
i hope and pray that those we have lost to suicide will be reborn in future lives
reborn to a society aligned with the centrality of collaboration and collective solidarity to the human species

this is a survivors manifesto
written to give hope to the hopeless and to celebrate how far i have come from that incomprehensible moment that sent my body plummeting into the freezing waters of the potomac

there are no victims in the future we are crafting—only survivors
let this manifesto resonate and let us extend love and support radiating into the heavens where it will be reflected back to the earth’s surface
peace and love family—we have a world to win and nothing to lose but the chains of exploitation, oppression, and psychosocial incarceration

–BYPO PHOENIX c)2017