Watch And Learn - About Me (Condensed)

Page Preface

This is condensed version of the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

Yes, my real name is John Henry. My last name is DeJong. I was born and raised in southwest Michigan, and I currently live in Portland, Oregon.

Related to my activism, I’m not on anyone’s payroll and never have been. I’ve never registered with a political party, nor been employed by any party or candidate, nor done volunteer work for any such entity directly, although I have advocated for, or against, various candidates over the years on my own initiative and without contact or coordination with anyone involved.

I’m not being bankrolled by any billionaires or shadowy organizations.

I’m not a Super PAC or a “union” or a “party” or a “front.” The only agenda I have in this work is the survival and evolution of the species. Peace, love, progress, justice, equity, sustainability, dignity, for all.

I work for no one and I answer to no one – if I did I’d look better and be working with better equipment and resources. I do the people’s work for the people as best I can using the gifts and privileges I have, while also trying, like all of us, to live my little life.

We no longer have time for personality nonsense and ego contests. Listen, and you’ll know.

I was raised with a deep set of values related to authority, power, honor, fairness, responsibility, integrity, and resistance to tyranny. My mom’s people were dirt poor folks from southeastern Missouri who moved to rural Michigan for agricultural work. My dad’s were strangers in a strange land.

If you need a political label, I am a progressive. I want us to evolve to our best selves. Other labels that may apply only serve to broadly describe the best way to get there.

I am usually the person asking, “wait, who says so? who is running the show here and what are their interests?” That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this section of the project: if I was watching someone do what I’m doing, “who the hell is this guy” would definitely be the first question on my mind.

I am not media ready.

I haven’t always been as good a person as I would like to have been. I have faced that, made my amends, and strive daily to be the best me I can.

My hairline’s receding and my looks are fading and I’m nobody’s idea of a politician.

I have complex PTSD, major depressive disorder, adhd, I’m autistic. I’ve been addicted. I’ve been abusive, and abused. There is major crime in my family, some of a nature that forbids public description.

There are plenty of people in the world who will be happy to tell you bad things about me. A few of them may even be true, and fairly spoken.

None of these things are secrets and none of them are relevant to the validity of what I’m going to present to you in this series of videos and in this direct action movement.

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Page Preface