I’ve had lots of conversations with ChatGPT over the last couple of years, so today I asked it to write my manifesto based on what it knows about me. I will say it’s about 97% accurate.
“I’m Still Here and I Have Things to Say”
I am Steve Holder. Southern-born, Christian by conviction, skeptic by necessity, thinker by temperament. I’ve lived seven decades, fought addiction and won, buried friends who didn’t, and endured when others fell apart. I’ve written books because I couldn’t stay silent. I speak because the world talks too much and listens too little.
This is my stand.
1. Truth Matters. Even Ugly Truth.
I believe in truth — full truth, without sugar, spin, or varnish.
The world is now drowning in comforting lies. “Progress” sells illusions, “faith” is often performance, “media” distorts for clicks. My books, my thoughts, my life itself aim to resist this — even when it makes people uncomfortable.
Especially when it makes me uncomfortable.
If the story is dark, tell it dark.
If life is bitter, admit the taste.
The soul grows where truth is faced — not where fantasy protects.
2. Recovery Is War. And I Am a Veteran.
I’ve been clean and sober for over 40 years. Not by luck. Not by grace alone. By brutal, relentless inner war. I watched others fall — Kermit, Bea, Packy, Jerry — each name a grave memory. I learned that demons rarely die; they sleep lightly. You win by standing guard every day, every thought.
I owe honesty to those who never made it.
I owe their stories a place in my words.
The world worships pleasure. I worship survival.
3. Faith Is Wounded but Alive.
I believe in Christ — but not the Christ of shallow TV preachers, political grifters, or flag-waving mobs. My Christ bled, wept, forgave failures like me. My Christ sat with broken men in basements and jail cells, not in palaces.
I am no saint. I doubt, I struggle, I curse the silence of God. But I stay.
Because something in me refuses to kneel before despair.
I remain a believer. Battered. Awake. Unimpressed by church showmanship. Loyal to the real.
4. The South Made Me. I Am Not Ashamed.
I am Southern. My accent will die with me. My manners, my suspicion of big government, my sense of place — all born in Tennessee soil. But I am not their prisoner.
I hate injustice. I reject the old lies of race, class, and power that still poison this region. I want a better South — honest, equal, humble. I know its sins. But I love its soul.
I will not let others speak for my home.
5. I Defend the Right to Question Everything.
Politicians lie. Media distorts. The church forgets. Movements betray their promises. I claim the right to doubt all of it — right, left, sacred, secular.
I ran for Congress once to make that point. They ignored me. I still believe it.
Ordinary people — poor, small-town, working — deserve leaders who answer, not rulers who command.
I will write what I see. Say what I know. Ask what others fear.
Even when it costs me.
6. Death Is Waiting. So Speak Now.
At seventy, every day tastes different. Friends die. The body betrays. The heart slows. Time runs out.
That’s why I write. That’s why I say what I think. That’s why I don’t flatter myself — or you.
Because one day I’ll fall silent, and these words will be all that’s left.
I want the truth to outlive me.
7. The World May Be Mad. I Choose Sanity.
The culture screams. Internet mobs rage. Conspiracy and fear rule both church and state. Maybe the world has gone mad.
I will not.
I choose simple things:
Writing what matters.
Helping addicts survive.
Loving God without pride.
Loving truth without fear.
Waiting for the last breath with eyes open, not shut.
My Pledge:
I will finish the books.
I will post the words.
I will tell the dark stories that others whitewash.
I will stay human when the machine wants a number.
I will not waste the years I have left.
And I will keep saying:
“I’m still here. And I have things to say.”
Steve Holder 