I have been called a bad person. I have been told I am a constant complainer. I know that I am neither, nor am I a lot of other things people call me. I try to be a person who stands up for what he feels is right or where I feel an injustice has been served.
It was Thomas Jefferson who said,
"What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right."
You need to be less concerned about being popular than getting the outcome that you desire. There is a saying that I often follow that plays a significant part in how and when I decide to advocate , “it is more important to be concerned about the cause than the applause”
To be a self-advocate means to personally work on something that has affected oneself. Too often, people with disabilities spend their lives having others 'do for them'. They may even come to believe this is the way it is meant to be. Psychologists term this 'learned helplessness' and it is rampant in Indian country. People who have learned helplessness believe that they cannot have an effect on the world around them, that they can never get a job, graduate from college, make a change in their community. Because they don't believe they can succeed, they don't even try. They don't apply for a job, or study, or attend a meeting or talk to their tribal council representative. Then, when they don't have a job, or a degree and nothing changes, it just convinces them even more that they are helpless.
Why to become a self-advocate