I—yeah. I was called a whore by the chaplain [laughs] at Western Illinois Correctional Center. J wanted to have vegan meals, I think largely because the meat there is absolutely disgusting, and, like, inedible, and probably horrible for your health. You have to do it through religious reasons? For your meal changes? So he applied, I think as, like, a Buddhist. It had been three months, and nothing had happened, and he was getting really fed up with it, and so I was like, “All right, I’ll call.” And this was like—yeah, one of the first times I called the facility [laughs]. Um—and, they were like, “Oh, the chaplain’s in charge of processing the meal plan changes.” And I was like, “That makes a lot of sense?” [laughs]

Anyway, I get on the phone with this guy, and he’s like, “I have to talk to J, and make sure that he’s serious and that he’s really in Buddhist practice, cause, like, we don’t just make meal plan changes.” And he hadn’t done any—like, he hadn’t processed this or touched this thing at all. And I was like, “What—!” I was like, “Just give him his meal change!” I was like, “It doesn’t matter! You’re not here to be the police of, like, whether someone’s the real—“ And I—I really went off on him.

I ended up telling him that he, uh, was like, a shame to Jesus. [laughter] Um—and—and he was like, “I don’t know how many boyfriends you have in this facility!” And [laughs] um—and I was like, “A few!” [laughs] Um. I’m just kidding. But I really questioned his devotion to the Lord’s word and his interpretations of the Lord’s word in order to restrict my friend from having the food that he wanted.

He ended up calling J down, like, right away. And I was like, “Oh my god, I’ve made an absolute mess, that was so risky, and I shouldn’t have lost it at this guy.” But J was so happy with me. I had clearly rattled this guy, and J was just like, “I’m so glad you yelled at him!” And like, he didn’t change his meal plan, but it was, um—I was so happy when he called me later, because I was like, “Maybe he’s going to get in trouble, because his family’s calling down”—and I said I was family and whatever, but. Yeah.

In my view of what an abolitionist future is is just infinite care work—like, an abundance of care that exists. And I also think that just modeling that, modeling what relationships can look like, is in itself political education. Being like, “Actually, no-one should be controlling the food that you eat.” “I think you deserve everything!” Like, “I think you deserve to have whatever food you want.” That it’s, like [pause] to me it’s, like, the most important—yeah, it’s the most important thing. Yeah.