Before this year ends, I need to say something clearly — and I’m done playing nice. Honestly, after this past week and the conversations I’ve had with people responding to storms, I don’t give a fuck about some of your feelings. I didn’t spend decades in this trade, didn’t bury friends, didn’t carry the weight of bad calls and close calls, to sit quietly while standards get gutted by people who’ve never paid the price or at best… have spent years quietly on the sidelines with no real skin in the game. Sure, they may have been on the roster… tagged along on “road games”… Hell, they even know the right words to use… It doesn’t make them someone the new hands should listen to… Most of the respect and support I’ve gotten this year came from men and women who actually work in the arena. They’re the people I get private messages and phone calls from daily… The ones who’ve felt their hands shake on a pole in bad conditions. The ones who understand this trade doesn’t give a damn about confidence, opinions, or marketing. But the noise matters too. Over the last year, even more so in the previous couple of days… I’ve watched some non-union hands and a handful of line-school instructors show up loud, defensive, and thin-skinned… over a post that wasn’t even directed at them… Lots of talk. Lots of credentials. Not a lot of ownership. Maybe they’re afraid of the heat or their own reflections in the mirror… I promise you… I’ve stood in the heat, and I’m at peace with mine. So let me be plain: Teaching linework without owning its consequences is bullshit. Lowering the bar so more people can “pass” isn’t opportunity — it’s negligence. Softening expectations to keep tuition checks coming isn’t education — it’s exploitation. Selling confidence without competence is how people get hurt or killed. Now let’s talk about the part that really bothers me — the kids and families. There are line schools charging $15,000 to $30,000 to people who don’t yet understand this trade — and that’s not an accident. They’re selling the image of linework, not the reality of it.