Reflections on dignity and survival

I write today not to point fingers, but to bear witness. Too often, systems answer stigma with control instead of care. I write to affirm dignity and presence. My testimony is not conditional. My survival is not fragile. It is found in family, in presence, and in the refusal to be erased. 

Systems have tried to erase me in visible and invisible ways. Identity documents have been taken. Accounts and devices went missing. Mail was delayed or withheld. These losses were more than paperwork — they were attempts to strip recognition and make survival conditional. 

Still, I chose presence. I made tea. I donated coffee to a shelter when I had little. I tidied rooms and sat at the bedside for my family. I offered empathy instead of blame. 

These acts of care are testimony. They prove that dignity endures even when recognition is delayed, even when documents vanish into silence. My ledger records both betrayal and care, both false prosperity and true prosperity. False prosperity is conditional and fragile. True prosperity is testimony, legacy, and presence — belonging that cannot be revoked. 

Home is not a postal code. Home is presence: family beside me, the refusal to be erased. Real compassion lives at ground level, not in broken promises from political offices or public servants. Even when errors have been made, and judgment sought through human connection, I have still found connection. 

If bureaucracy has tried to silence you, remember: your voice matters. Testimony does not vanish in silence. It finds witnesses, even here. No matter what, I am still Jordan.

Jordan Sargeant 

Taber