Where to even begin. I know that you have all worked hard to earn the stake that you have now, and have devoted yourself to grow, improve, and actually achieve your dreams. I cannot fathom what kind of things you needed to go through to reach the point where you are now. I also read many blogs that encourage everyone to be genuine, passionate, and to share their voice, because no one goes unheard- We ALL have a voice. I wanted to use my voice to ask you something today.

How the fuck do you sleep at night?

The reality is that this $90,000 is what WE AS STEEMIANS AGREE that @haejin deserves to be paid this week. I don't agree with this amount and have been flagging him since I found out about this. If you agree that this amount is okay, disregard my message, but if it's not- You should be flagging too.

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The Reason Everyone is NOT Banding Together to Fight This

Cause we look up to you guys. If you are going to post about a brighter Steemit future, and how this platform transformed your lives and helps others, you should back up your words. We listen and accept what you big fish say as truth, so when we don't see you taking action on something like this, you are sending the message that for some reason-

It's not important enough to you and you just don't care.

but, do you know what that tells us smaller fish?

Because you don't care, we shouldn't care too.

So what is it? Do you not want to lose your rewards, because you have more to lose and us minnows wouldn't understand the weight of your risk? Do you want to save your voting power to upvote content in the communities and initiatives you are involved in for a greater cause? Do you ignore this issue completely because it doesn't affect you or those you care about?

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You have the strongest voices of all, but you won't say anything or spread awareness.

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Have you wondered how many minnows it would take to actually overturn this? How many whales?

I don't know what you're expecting, but I would imagine that it would be sort of difficult to coordinate some hundred-thousand people. It's super shitty to learn that even a group of you guys aren't even willing to work together to help everyone else out. Yes, you would be willingly and publicly putting yourself at risk, but if you actually did this- you could protect each other, and in turn everyone else. Together you could do it. Although @haejin has a lot of stake and power now, you make like he's stronger than all of you ...combined.

What I think is double shitty is that you guys are all letting @berniesanders take the fall for your inaction. By not saying anything, you make him look like a crazy old geezer who doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. Everyone sees a -18 and thinks that he is not credible just because he doesn't have a 70+ rep score. If one of you posted about this instead, this situation would have been taken more seriously from the start.

What Bernie's rep score tells me is that he was willing to stand behind his words and put himself at risk, because having a voice is the most important thing. Not saying the shit you think others what want to hear, but the shit that you actually want to say.

That -18 says to me; "My voice is even more important than this stupid number." Everyone on Steemit is used to this reputation system, and thinks that you are better person if this number is higher. I'm starting to realize that this may not be true. He is one of the most compassionate Steemians on the entire site, and is always at the front to take the bullet that no one else is brave enough to take.

So you let him be your scapegoat and blame him for starting a flag war instead of doing something yourself. He's using his time and resources to help everyone on Steemit, and that includes you too. That's not cool.

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I Like My Voice

I said this before, but I'm 100% behind Bernie, and I'm willing to risk everything I have now to stand behind that. My votes may be incredibly small, but if there is some way that I can help everyone else on Steemit, I'm gonna do it. This post is my contribution. I wonder what you believed in when you were a minnow, who you looked up to. Would they have fought and stayed true to what they believed in? Did something or someone change your mind along the way?

The people you looked up to when you came here. You are those people for all of us now.

If I get my account flagged into oblivion for speaking my mind (and it wouldn't take too much to do it either), I wouldn't mind it too much. You can hide my post at best, but you can never erase what I said here. Plus! I got to say exactly what I wanted to say.

If you guys are gonna let something like this slide, then I feel that @haejin actually deserves these rewards. What he is teaching me and others is that fear is more powerful than trust, and not everyone wearing a cape is a hero. He is teaching us lessons about greed, and status, and how these things can affect how inhuman the brightest and best can really be when given the opportunity.

-Sheryl