UNCOVERED ISSUES

UPDATE

BY: WILLIAM POWELL

UNCOVERED ISSUES GIVES OUR VENDORS AND WRITERS A VOICE. IT IS A CHANCE FOR THEM TO SHARE THEIR STORIES — AND CONNECT WITH YOU, OUR READERS.

Hello and how are you? And to all my supporters, this is William. We are coming along surely but slowly, you know the Legal Services are it and that will be enough for that. I am finished with all that calling and reporting to the Legal Services and it is time to overcome all of that right now. I like that kind of recovery, we are making progress. And now for the other side of it to see if the other part will come in later, you know the lockout situation. You know the more things clear the more things clear off, I think they might have been trying to give me a word about letting off on the reporting side of it but it was not clear enough so that is why I learned on my own. It feels good to replace all that calling and reporting, I don’t need it anymore and that is that. I am looking for things to get better and recover that way. So how do you like this one?

A CHRISTMAS ST0RY: LOST IN THE FEAST

BY: BRYANT CULPEPPER

Every year it seems as if the celebration of Christmas starts earlier and earlier. Usually people start preparing for the Christmas holiday even after Halloween. I say that because folk are so tied up in the festivities, forgetting the main source of why Christmas was actually intended to be. Luke 2:42-45, speaks of the Passover feast. And the Passover feast is a big event regarding the Jewish culture. Meaning so much work and preparations that are done to assure that the Passover feast is done according to the Jewish tradition. When the Passover celebration is concluded, and as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother Mary did not know it at the time. But supposing Jesus had been in the company, they went a day’s journey to sought him among their relatives and acquaintances. So, when they did not find him, they then returned to Jerusalem seeking him. They had lost the twelve-year-old Jesus. In which he was in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. I entitled this piece, “A Christmas Story, lost in the feast” I understand that this exhortation may not be the traditional story we’ve heard in past times. To brief this exhortation, I’d like to get straight to the point I’m attempting to render. Most folks these days are truly stressing themselves out trying to prepare for visiting guest and family members. I mean all the shopping, the erection of the Christmas trees, the preparing of the food, wrapping gifts, and then more shopping. You see, all of these activities can and surely block out the true meaning of Christmas. Joseph and Mary were so busy preparing that they lost their twelve-year-old son, Jesus. Metaphorically, folks today are doing the exact same things. All the holiday sales in the stores, all the families that travel from out of town, the cooking, the decorations, and yes, even the booze. All of that together directs the mind to assure that we have to do everything in our power to see that all is prepared and ready for the visiting guest. But all while doing these things, our Lord has been out on the back burner. To folks today, Christmas is about food, gifts and yes, boozing. What happened to the baby in the manger? Folks have truly forgot and actually lost Jesus in all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. Society doesn’t recognize Jesus in almost anything these times and ages. Oh, what a sad situation. Yes, folks have forgotten about baby Jesus of whom Christmas was based. It truly saddens my heart to witness this type of rhetoric. Even children today couldn’t break down the true intent of Christmas. What has happened beloveds? A tangible thing like gift giving, drinking, and all the festivities has drowned out the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas symbolizes the birth of the Messiah. But in our western civilization, folks seem to allow the true meaning to rapidly dissipate. Yes y’all, Jesus was lost in the feast. Our true Lord, and our Savior, and the mainstream of this particular holiday season, has been lost in the sauce. Oh, what a shame. What disrespect, and what sin. Yes, I said sin. Because when you deny the Lord, Jesus, I truly believe that is a cardinal sin in the making. I know and understand folks may not agree with me on this piece, but it is what it is. I pray and hope that this message was well received by all the saints, and the beloveds of our Lord and savior, Jesus the Christ. In closing, I’m not saying not to celebrate, give gifts, or even preparing with family members, and even erecting a tree for the little ones. But at the same time, be very sure to enlighten minds. Especially our young minds as of what the true meaning of Christmas renders. Because I truly believe that if Christ was the mainstream of the Christmas holiday season. Well then, all the other activities will be well understood in conjunction with the baby in the manger. May God bless you all…

THE JOURNEY

BY: ERIC HAZELWOOD

This writer is almost sixty years old. I have been on many a journey, throughout these years, but the one particular journey that I would like for my readers to engage began in 2008. This journey brought me to the city of “Brotherly Love,” commonly known as Philadelphia. I came to this to be with, what I thought at that time, the love of my life. I thought that God had finally delivered me a lifelong partner and that I would live happily ever after in this great city. I was wrong. I was wrong because I was more in love with drugs and alcohol, rather than the angel that had fallen out of heaven and into my arms. As a result of my abuse of drugs and alcohol, I became homeless by the year of 2010. I have always been resilient and determined. I always wanted to pursue a college education, as my grandmother had done, in her later years. I was determined to do the same. I began college in 2011 at a university here in Philadelphia. I was a college freshman and I was addicted to drugs and alcohol and most importantly, I was homeless. Let us also throw in the fact that I was penniless and without a job. It is written somewhere, “That God will not give you a burden no bigger than you can bear.” This was true in my case. Although I was caught up in the grips of addiction, I continued to ask God for help. Deliverance from the evil of my own soul. In time this deliverance came. I was no longer addicted to drugs and alcohol and landed a job as a One Step Away vendor. The money that I earned from writing and selling this street paper, made it capable for me to go to and from school. It gave me an opportunity to eat lunch with my classmates, and buy the materials necessary to maintain a 3.6 G.P.A. It is now 2018, and I am out of money to finish school. I have to pay out of my pocket for the last nine credits needed to obtain a B.S. Degree in business. I am not giving up and have once again sought help from One Step Away for employment to help pay the rest of my tuition. Again God will not place a burden on my shoulders any bigger than I can bear. Once again He has given me an opportunity to earn an honest living while, most importantly, kept me clean and sober. I am earning money as a vendor for the newspaper and hope to soon use this opportunity to obtain employment worthy of helping me get the necessary money needed to pay for the last nine credits. I will get this degree and I will graduate and work on my Masters next. I am just One Step Away from completing this journey and then it will be on to the next. Selling the One Step Away street paper has brought me money. And making money is the #1 goal for me. Not the only goal. But the #1 goal. In addition to money, I enjoy some of the good conversations I have with some of my customers. I also enjoy some of the good conversations with people who donate money but don’t take a paper. And I enjoy the good conversations with some of the people who give no money, like the conversation I had long ago with Miss Genevieve. At times I forget what people say. But at times I remember, too. An OSA customer of mine told me she faced deep problems in her past. She told me she was facing deep problems at that time she bought a paper from me. I told her I would write. Not about her life personally, but write about problems. I write this for her, and for all my customers like her. If you only gave money to me and didn’t take a paper, I write this for you, too. And to the good conversationalists who gave only that, I write this for you, too. And most of all, I write this for me. And to my dear sister friend in South Philadelphia, whom I’ve known since 1998, I dedicate this to you. As human beings, if we care, we expect hurt people to get well but in a certain time. But we don’t realize, or refuse to realize, that this can be harmful. Harmful to the hurt person. We have to at least try to be a bit more understanding. At least try. Before I became homeless, I taught myself a lesson: “No matter how many years have passed, William, if you hurt someone many years ago, go back and apologize. The person may still be hurt. Even if they are well and take it the wrong way, apologize anyway. At least you, William, had good intentions to apologize.” There are four roads to the place called “well.” The first road is no road. There is no hope. The second road to the place called “well” is a short one. You’re well in no time. The third road is the medium road. You get well but it takes a longer time. And there is the road I’m personally on..... The long road. You travel seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, and more. It snows, rains, and hails while you’re traveling. But after all the troubles end, you end up at the place called “well.” People get well when they’re ready. We have to at least try to understand, including me. I already do understand that. But I need to understand that more. And so do you, reader.

Hello World, I’m Lionel, but you can call me Point, a chronically homeless individual working to build a better today. Many people advocate that one cannot help another until they have helped themselves, but here’s a secret… if you help another… you are helping yourself; so while the obstacles we face are as diverse as the cultures and traditions in our world, I find it our duty to educate ourselves on and apply ourselves to the issues that have little or even seem to have no relevance to ourselves. Unless one can has created from nothing the entirety of their existence, I cannot fathom what independence looks like, for each one of us draws from everything around us. Facing Homelessness helps me redefine what homelessness is and the factors that contribute to it, and that aids my struggle with the emotions and mindsets that homelessness can produce. I hope it adds something to your understanding of homelessness as well.

So, let’s say homelessness is a lack of an adequate and permanent, safe and stable place designated to be a dwelling, but I believe that a better understanding includes defining home itself. 1: the place where one lives, 2: the country of nativity or origin. 3: the place where one seeks communal continuity which can be summed up in the saying: “Home is where the heart is.” I believe if a nomadic tribe member was asked “what home is?” I think they would answer in terms of land in relationship to their tribal community. I believe each of these definitions have unique consequences for those who lacks any of these identities. If a person lacks a house then the consequences are fairly foreseeable, but this is not so for those who lack a country of nativity or lack a country of origin or lack communal responsibility. It is impossible for one to lack a country of nativity or to lack a country of origin, because they were born, and their ancestry came from somewhere, but they may not have knowledge of such. In that case the results are not quickly manifested, and the repercussions are much more destructive to the psyche of an individual, because the absence of the support systems of ancestry, beliefs, and culture leave a gap in the mind and the soul that render an emptiness material can never fill. People must be able to live a connection with others like themselves. I believe that’s why people connect over likenesses as opposed to differences. Even more a great deal of wealth comes from the ground, and weather minerals, metals, natural gas, or other commodities nations own, operate, and control, a land derive for their people wealth from that land, and those who do not lack an essential resource for stability. I know that in the more dimensions I experienced homeless the greater the complexities of the illnesses that manifested. I can tell you there is a persistent despair in wandering aimlessly headed nowhere, and not knowing from whence you came. I once thought a lack of responsibility was great only to find it devastates every good thing by eroding morality through the rejection of duty. Now that I accept my relationship to everything, I realize my purpose and am working to help others realize theirs. Now please take this moment to say, “The world is more joyful and more loving,” think how this is true, and feel that truth. Thank you for making the world a better place. Your time, attention, and resources are infinitely appreciated. Enjoy your time with family and live love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR LIONEL WATERS AKA POINT

My name is Lionel Waters, but I go by Point. I am 31 years old. I have been homeless for just over 15 years, if one uses the social service definition, and I felt that way for a long time. I grew up in the state system, being housed in various youth facilities and a bit after my 18th birthday the system cut my custody because of some very serious charges I was falsely accused. They were quickly dismissed, but DHS had dismissed me even quicker. I found myself truly homeless and without any support. Who cared…I was free. Everything I felt I missed out on I would pursue with deadly ambition. Sex, drugs, and entertainment were my primary pursuits, and that lifestyle was killing me rapidly even if the physical death would never come. In a matter of five years all I studied was how to have more sex, more drugs, and more entertainment. I began doing things that I can only describe as the death of a soul, and my body I no longer took pleasure in. I thank the correctional system for helping me save my life. I do not remember where I picked up the habit of living in the silver lining of any situations people wanted me to suffer in, but I will by no means allow anyone to revel in my destruction, so whenever I’m in adverse circumstances I find what will allow me to transcend the situation, and I live there. So I used that time to improve my whole self through various practices, and even though they went out the window almost every time I left jail it would eventually come to me making a change or becoming deranged, I would listen or go to prison, I would stop taking meth or death. I chose life, liberty, and lucidity. Since 2015 I have been building a better today, and not only am I humbled and honored at the person I am, I know I will be better tomorrow. Thanks for listening.