Hard Pass.

 

📣 NOT OPENING A SHOP IN GUTHRIE — HERE’S WHY:

So, I was offered a spot at The Guthrie Shops.

And I’ll be real—I was excited.

I thought: What a great chance to sell my books, keep doing suicide prevention outreach, and actually give something back to a community that clearly needs it.

But then I remembered something very important.

Y’all don’t support me.

Not when I offered books for $1.

Not when I wrote and published a full book to support LGBTQ+ suicide prevention, and not one single person in this town bought it.

Not when I’ve been out here bleeding into these pages, trying to help people who feel like they don’t matter.

So I turned it down.

And when I told the woman why, I was honest:

Guthrie is full of people who are either silent, spiteful, or just don’t give a damn.

If you won’t drop a dollar on a book that could help save someone’s life,

you sure as hell don’t deserve the time, effort, and passion it would take to run a whole damn shop.

But here’s the part that really punches me in the face:

The City of Guthrie has ZERO budget set aside for mental health.

Nothing for suicide prevention. Nothing for struggling kids.

But hey, let’s keep throwing antique fairs and pretending this town isn’t crawling with people silently screaming for help, right?

So no—I’m not opening a shop.

And it’s not because I’m bitter.

It’s because I’m done offering lifelines to people who’d rather drown and complain about the water.

We could’ve been doing something powerful together.

But Guthrie chose to stay small.

Too bad.

I’ll still be helping people. Just not here.

✌️

—Wes Jaques

(aka the guy you pretend doesn’t exist until someone else says it louder)