Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Are Safer Shirts a "Target on your back"?

A member of the Safer team was having a conversation with someone online about the way wearing a +Safer Shirts is similar to wearing a "target on your back". Below you will find some of what was said by team safer:

...I felt exactly the same way when Jared gave me a shirt about a year ago. Was pretty tepid about wearing it around where I might get noticed by someone I knew. As such, would wear it places less frequented. Finally truly "came out" on a road trip to Portland and what a life changer. Met so many great, friendly supportive folks accompanied with man an acknowledging, though quiet, smile. 

People may not be ready for "in your face" truth, at first blush. But give 'em a minute to digest, and to overcome deeply ingrained drug war hysteria, and this faint smile of acknowledgement usually crosses their face. Witness that "aha" moment of this denuded truth, time & again, and suddenly you realize you are making a difference and you actually WANT that target on your back!

Because with that target, should anyone shoot, comes an incredible opportunity to educate. And when you see how you helped a light come on, you know you've had a powerful activist moment and furthered healing to change a too sick world. 

I always suggest a more friendly environment to start - arts & music festivals and things of that ilk usually pretty supportive. But if like me, after a year, you start to realize how the real changes are where the challenges lie where the audience may have a real stake in the statement. But after a year of exchanges, you're more than ready. 

And that, in a nutshell, is how you, the new shirt wearing activist, will help turn this into a S A F E R world. 


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