Essay Contest

$100 CASH PRIZE ENDS SOON

Incite Change Essay Contest #3: Freedom

Enter the TBI $100 Essay contest. DEADLINE: Friday 9th July

There are many kinds of freedom. I live in the United States which purports to have Freedom. Freedom of speech. Freedom to practice religion. Political freedom. Educational freedom. Granted, the freedoms offered by my country are far greater than in some countries. But, they aren’t really freedoms. There are restrictions on almost every freedom offered here.

The freedom that I think of most is the one I am most lacking.

In the U.S. there is the 1% (the wealthiest people) and the 99% (the rest of us). They say the middle class is disappearing. I, personally, have lived below the poverty line most of my life. I am fortunate in that I know how to survive.

Even now, living on 30 acres with livestock and a kitchen garden, my combined household income is well below the poverty line. My state’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. In the small town outside of which I live, available jobs all start at minimum wage. Some jobs never pay more than the minimum.

My husband works at a chain hardware store, part-time (because the store does not support income for more than one full-time employee), for just a few dollars above minimum wage.

He has no health insurance benefits, no paid vacations, and no room for financial advancement. We don’t have a lot of debt, but we do pay all of our bills, including groceries, using credit. We pay off our card balances as soon as possible but often carry a balance over to the next month.

I hate the feeling of even under $5k of debt hanging over my head. We squirrel away what we can when we can, but have no savings to speak of.

Financial Freedom is what springs to mind when I think of the word Freedom.

Once upon a time, freedom meant something very different to me.

I was in county jail for a year in 1999/2000. There was a fight. I got jumped. I got my ass kicked. I did not call the cops. I learned the saying, “the first one to the phone stays home.”

I lived a caged existence. I was told what I could and couldn't eat. When I could and couldn't sleep. When, where, and how to stand to be counted. Before and after transport to court, I was told to stand, naked, facing a wall, touching other women’s naked shoulders, and squat and cough. All while the deputies walked behind us spraying air freshener and mocking the women. I appreciated the air freshener, but the mocking was cruel and unnecessary.

I didn’t have the freedom to work or attend classes. The pod I was in, not gen pop, didn’t offer these opportunities. Neither could inmates attend A.A. or bible study. We weren’t allowed outside. Yard time was a room with a basketball net. Inmates were not allowed to touch visitors, instead talking over telephone handsets through inches thick glass with graffiti scratched into it.

Despite the lack of many freedoms during my time in the Los Angeles County Jail, I had many freedoms prisoners in other countries do not. I had the freedom to purchase items from the county jail commissary. I had the freedom to eat, or not three prepared meals a day. I had the freedom to shower. I had the freedom to request a different cell or cellmate if things weren’t going well. I had the freedom to read books.

Some women don’t have any of these freedoms. Some women do not have autonomy over their own bodies. Are unable to go to a doctor without a male relative to accompany them. Some women and girls are denied education.

There are other freedoms denied in my country, despite its claims to democracy and being the leader of the free world.

LGBTQ+ kids are often not free to be themselves at home or in school. They still aren’t free to use the bathroom appropriate to their gender. Young trans men and women must use the restroom of the gender assigned to them at birth.

Black men and women are not free to walk or drive in neighborhoods deemed white. People of color are not free to go about their daily lives without fear of arrest, assault, injury, even death. Racial profiling is alive and well.

Women are not free to earn the same income as men despite having equal or better qualifications.

Our youngest adult generation is not free to live a life free of debt. Higher education is not free. And yet, millennials are mocked and stereotyped as freeloaders when they have to live at home with their parents.

I could go on and on.

I hope you can, too.

This month’s Incite Change Essay Contest is about freedom. What does freedom mean to you? How to institute freedom in places where freedom doesn’t exist. Instances of freedom that inspire you. How are you feeling about (potential) freedom from lockdown? Write about how you are free or how you lack freedom.

In order to receive the $100.00 cash prize. (Yes, you read that right: ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!)

You must follow TBI submission guidelines to qualify:
Please use the kicker Essay Contest and the subtitle Incite Change Essay Contest #3: Freedom
Your essay must be about freedom
Your essay can be as short as 50 words, but no longer than 1000 (longer essays are not necessarily better essays)
Your essay can take any form: prose, poetry, song lyrics, satire, humor, or highbrow
Your essay must include a link to our Kofi-page:

https://ko-fi.com/thebadinfluence

You must visit, like, and follow The Bad Influence Ko-fi. You don’t have to donate anything, but if you could read and share some of our exclusive content that would be great.

Schedule of events: (revised)

9th July: Final submissions accepted

10th July: Round-up of all entries and winner announcement

12th July: Winner announced

The Ko-fi page is where we get funding for prize money. We would love to be able to pay for more than just essay contest winning stories. We want to see all of our writers (and editors) get paid. For that, we need funding. And lots of it.

Here are TBI submission guidelines and a link to the Kofi-page