I’m looking at myself in the mirror and I don’t currently look like someone who is starving. I still have a lot of fat built up in my body, which is a blessing for a challenge like this. There are moments of pain I go through but after an hour or so the pain of hunger subsides. When I move a bit too fast I also get lightheaded and need to rebalance myself. Today I felt like staying in my hotel room and resting in my room, working on my website and social media.
Today was the first time I explained to a family member that I came to Washington DC for a political protest. My cousin let me know he was very supportive of the cause and that he admired what I was doing. It was great to hear that since I always assumed he leaned a bit on the conservative side and rightwingers have never seemed to be that passionate regarding the rights of persons confined to jails and prisons.
I asked him for advice on if I should have a lawyer on standby, just in case I get arrested for some reason. We both came to the conclusion that I should hire a lawyer local to the location I am arrested in, since each state has different laws. I’ve never been arrested before so I don’t know if I need to have their phone number memorized. I called a DC lawyer a couple weeks back but it seems that since I haven’t actually been arrested or accused of a crime yet there isn’t much they can do.
Now I’ll talk about some things that happened on 11/22/2025. So far I’ve been approached by a total of 4 Secret Service agents while protesting at the White House. Most protestors hold up signs and march around chanting slogans, but that’s not really my style. I’ve been putting on gloves and picking up litter I see around the White House area. There is surprisingly little to pick up which was nice to see.
I guess the first agent (we’ll call him Scott) was curious about me picking up trash and struck up a conversation with me. I explained that I was protesting and stated my goal. He was pretty skeptical of what I thought was wrong with the 13th Amendment, and asked if I thought that we should stop imprisoning dangerous criminals. I explained that we should stop treating criminals as slaves, since slavery in all forms was a reprehensible practice in my eyes. I think our conversation lasted about 10 minutes. It kind of felt like a debate. He let me know that if I googled “can prisons force inmates to work” the answer should be no. I googled it on the spot and the results revealed that actually, yes, inmates can be forced to work… because they can be slaves due to the 13th Amendment.
Another AI overview quote: “In the United States, it is legal to force convicted prisoners to work due to a specific exception in the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude ‘except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted’.”
I shared the search results with Scott, and I could see the gears turning in his head.
Here are some sources related to the topic:
https://www.connecticutcriminallawyer.com/blog/can-prisoners-be-forced-to-perform-labor
PDF File:
In the end I asked Scott if he thought that the criminal justice system was working fine as is, and he responded that there was always room for improvement. I’m glad we both found common ground in that regard.
Much later on in the day, 3 Secret Service agents approached me as a group. They mentioned that they noticed I was hanging around for an extended amount of time staring at the White House and “just wanted to make sure that I was okay”. I remove the hood of my jacket and let them know my name was Soju, like “Soulja Boy tell ’em” (that always gets a laugh out of people.)
That seemed to ease the tension. I then proceeded to tell them that I was in fact not okay, then gave my 13th Amendment spiel. This was a conversation that lasted maybe 5 minutes. This time the main guy talking to me actually was a lot more in agreement with my stance, and the body language of the other 2 indicated that they felt the same way. “I’ll have to read up on that” he said.
I was then shot 37 times in the chest.
Haha just kiddin’, those 2 encounters were hands down the most positive experiences I’ve ever had with law enforcement.
I wish I could have recorded these conversations so people can watch themselves, but it just didn’t occur to me. Besides, people tend to act differently with a camera in front of their face. And I’m sure Secret Service agents would dislike being recorded more than anyone.
DISCLAIMER: My memory is not perfect so any recounts of experiences and encounters I discuss may not be quoted, disclosed, or conveyed exactly as it occured in real life. I am a big proponent of conveying the truth even when it doesn’t align with my personal beliefs. Hiding facts and trying to present a narrative that doesn’t adhere to reality is the opposite of what I believe in, but I make mistakes.