SHOUTOUTS FEATURED SHOUT OUT
A VOICE
FROM
WITHIN
WALTER “TUT” JOHNSON
First let me thank my brother Mr. Demar Tyson for being such a positive source of inspiration and creating a publication for those who are dealing with the harsh realities of incarceration. My name is Walter Tut Johnson and I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I sent a picture of myself to show you what happens when you take out time to work on yourself. You see that smile on my face...there was a time when I couldn’t smile because I felt that I had absolutely nothing to smile about. One day I looked into the mirror and realize that the person that I was for so many years wasn’t the person that I wanted to be for the rest of my life. So I decided to do something about it and after a long hard period of soul searching, I finally found the tools that would help me dismantle the old me and reinvent myself into someone that I could feel good about. Years ago I lived my life without true meaning or purpose, and it was that lack of positive interest that caused me to make many bad choices. There is nothing special about me, I’m just like you when it come to strengths, vulnerabilities, and the desire to be someone special in life. My problem was that I invested time and energy into the wrong things and tried to take shortcuts in most of my endeavors. But when the time came and I was tired of being that no good shortcut taking loser, I began to do the things that make you a winner. I became self-aware of my environment and came to the conclusion that it is impossible for a man to love himself, family, community and country if he is a selfish person. I stop thinking about what I wanted out of life and began to figure out how things would be if I had a more positive attitude and live my life for the greater good. It took prayer, self inventory, lots of internal cleaning and humility. Then I changed the way that I perceived people, places, and things. I seen people as my allies instead of my enemies and became proactive in programs that demanded discipline. You see that certificate in my hand...It’s verification that I passed what was required by the Department of Labor to gain an apprenticeship as a “Hospital Sanitary Technician” years ago that wouldn’t have meant anything to me because my mind and heart was in the wrong place. Today I’m not that old school gangster running around prison fighting, extorting, stabbing and sticking people up. I’m a humble proud mature grandfather that value Public Safety. I’m facilitating victim Impact classes, spiritual awareness, road to redemption, crisis management, deglorification of gang lifestyle and reaching out to provide enlightenment to the youth with Keith Watkins No Kids Left Behind Program. Today my goals are to empower others to make productive choices and decisions, so that they will take responsibility for their actions and be accountable for the things that they Say and Do. To assist others transition from gangsters, thugs, and convicts into healthy holistic thinking members of the human family. To redefine manhood by encouraging others to become proud servants to the communities that we damaged. To helping other males like myself develop the skills that are needed to become fathers who are capable of loving their children
and qualified to navigate their families through the storms and struggles of life safely. Men who live life with respect and appreciation, and who don’t become angry or violent when things are not working in their favor. I want our communities to stand up and remember that the best qualified mothers/fathers are often like the Phoenix; they are reborn from the mistakes of their destructive past behavior. Become discipline and take control of your life, if we all can get some control of ourselves through sacrifice, we can take back our communities with skill and love. We get them back step by step and day by day. I love you all, ask for your forgiveness for my past deeds, and I personally forgive anyone who may have violated me in the past. My number one enemy was myself and that old character is fading further away every day.
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