In this issue, we explore voter’s rights, civic engagement and how some local organizations are working at bettering both.
An new exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum explores Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th Amendment 100 years ago.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, directed by Céline Sciamma, is one of the best 2019 films forgotten at the Oscars.
La Noticia, one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers in the nation, joins our exploration of voting in Tennessee.
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Cathy Jennings, Chair
Tom Wills, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland, Kerry Graham
Amanda Haggard • Linda Bailey • Hannah Herner • Tom Wills • Savanna Maue •
Joe Nolan • Mr. Mysterio • Yuri Cunza • Jennifer A. • Norma B., Jason T. • Anthony G. • John H. • Victor J. • David “Clinecasso” C.
Vendors write in this issue about cars, racism, faith and what happens when you scan the barcode on the back of an ID.
U d á d d (54%) dd q y p t t gú t d hi p d t d Centro de Invest gac ón Pew rea izado en d ciembre S b e e i te u a b echa pa t d sta sigf i t t g y d d ó t y p b hi p d q t b t d p líti d i ig ió es a menos a go impo tante Muchos de os 60 m ones de h spanos del país t enen conex one nm grantes A rededor de 20 m lone son nm grant es (au que e 79% so c udada os estad d ) y 19 l l p d q g A pti d 2017 hi p p t l 73% d t d d 10 5 l d i ig t t d q i l EE UU y ú t d d A é C d t l dé d nte o Aho son 12 lones La mayoría no se da cuenta que e s stema de nmigración de Estados Unidos e ha d p á bi d i 50 ñ N t ió y í p l q deber amos evitar que nuestro system de inmigración ambien lo haga o cua só o puede realmente proven r por acc ón de nue tro Congreso Como inmigrante sé o que es necesar o para llegar a ser c udadano amer cano El p oceso es e go oso y co p ejo y s e ecei ti p ñ p pl t l q i it y bt d d í V q t t d p t d d p persegu r el ueño amer cano y como resutado de y como recompen a por mi traba o duro yo como muchos otros soy un conb y g t l y d d Gente de todo el mundo buscan la m sma oportun dad hoy ta cual sus antepasa- d h t -- i E t d U id p t t d h id me or para el os y sus am l as Nuest o siste a actua está ta oo esto pe ite y t t d l g ttac ón i ega de inm grantes ndocumentados y m l ones de personas en este pa s b ig d i b N t t d i g ió q p t y l p p i t d l l y N p d y d b b t t lq i y debemos recompen ar a cualquier persona que v oló a ey para ven r aquí Estamos de acuerdo en e to ¿Y usted ya se egist ó para votar?
Joe First • Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • Ann Bourland • Patti George • John Jennings
• Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Christing Doeg • Laura Birdsall • Nancy Kirkland • Mary Smith • Andrew Smith • Ellen Fletcher
• Richard Aberdeen • Shayna Harder Wiggins • Pete MacDonald
Cathy Jennings Executive Director
Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations
Hannah Herner Staff Writer
Jesse Call Housing Navigator
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Barbara Womack Advertising Manager
Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors
Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus
Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom WIlls Contributor Co-Founders
Editorials and features in The Contributor are the perspectives of the authors.
Submissions of news, opinion, fiction, art and poetry are welcomed. The Contributor reserves the right to edit any submissions.
The Contributor cannot and will not endorse any political candidate.
Submissions may be emailed to: editorial@thecontributor.org
Requests to volunteer, donate, or purchase subscriptions can be emailed to: info@thecontributor.org Please email advertising requests to: advertising@thecontributor.org
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BY HANNAH HERNER
In Nashville there are more hospitality jobs than there are people to work them. The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp is trying to bridge that gap.
Andrea Arnold, senior VP of public affairs for the CVC, says the company has tried to make five year plans, but ends up having to change sooner to keep up with tourism growth — 2019 brought in 16.1 million visitors, up from 15.2 million in 2018, and 14.5 million in 2017. More than 100 restaurants opened in Nashville in 2019, and that’s true for the third year in a row. In the past five years, Nashville’s demand has grown faster than any other top 30 city, as measured by hotel rooms sold. It’s not common for a city to see this level of growth for multiple years in a row, Arnold says.
“Even businesses that have been around for a long time, they’re having to add on staff because of the number of visitors coming through each year. If you’re a historic home, the zoo, or the Country Music Hall [of Fame], the number of visitors each year is going up,” says Holley Howell, Workforce Development Coordinator for the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.
Three years ago, the CVC introduced Hospitality Works, a job listing website. On March 10, the CVC will be hosting its fifth annual job fair, featuring 40 to 50 employers. It is the first time the event will take place at the Southeast Regional Community Center in Antioch.
The CVC draws traffic to this website and this fair by connecting with local nonprofits, high schools and colleges. Arnold says a strength of working in hospitality is the range of jobs available. A high school student could get a summer job, and a college graduate could find a full-time leadership position. There are part time, seasonal and full time positions for a range of experience levels in the industry.
In some Metro high schools, students can select one of five career pathways to help give an application to their coursework. One of those is hospitality. The CVC is there to offer resume and soft skill training, and the occasional field trip to these students.
Area colleges are taking notice of the hospitality boom, too. Both Lipscomb University and Belmont University introduced a 4-year hospitality management degree in the fall of 2020. TSU brought their program up from a
JOB FAIR: MARCH 10 | 10:30 A.M.-3:30 P.M. SOUTHEAST REGIONAL COMMUNITY CENTER
two-year to a four-year focus. Columbia State and Nashville State also offer two year certifications programs in hospitality. These programs join MTSU’s long-running program.
Chartwell Hospitality, a Franklin-based company that manages 11 hotels in the Nashville area, will be at the job fair scouting recent graduates for its Manager in Training program, among other positions. This 10-week program will train a recent graduate in the various facets of hotel management, with the goal of hiring them into a leadership position upon completion of the program.
Chartwell alone added 500-700 jobs to its fleet last year with the opening of three new hotels and the acquisition of one more. In 2020 they’ll open two more hotels while continuing construction on the Conrad, a luxury hotel to be located at 1600 West End Ave.
“Nashville is just growing so much that I think people are just struggling to find talent,” says Christie Oclaray, director of human resources for Chartwell.
And as the industry grows and changes, so do the views on hiring people with a criminal background, Arnold says.
“We’ve worked pretty deep with the HR folks around town as this need continues where we have more opportunities than job candidates,” Arnold says. “We’ve been told by most all HR representatives that we work with that [criminal background] is just no longer a barrier. They look at that and go OK, what specifically happened? Was it something that happened a year ago or 10 years ago? What is the nature of the crime? They take all that into account.”
Those attending the job fair are recommended to bring a resume and dress professionally. Applications, interviews and hiring could happen on the spot.
“People often ask if there’s a common denominator with it all, and we often say — whether you’re going to be a finance director at a hotel, or you’re going to be working with the cheetahs at the zoo, and at some point, be exposed to a visitor to teach them about it,” Arnold says. “You just have to have that willingness to serve. That’s the thing that’s going to make you happy or not happy in this field.”
Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945), the editor of the following selections, is today probably the third most famous of the famous Inklings literary group of Oxford, England, which existed in the middle of the 20th century, and which included among its ranks the better-known and longer-lived Oxford Dons J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis—but he was arguably the most precocious and well-read of this eminent and intellectually fertile group. He was also known to have influenced Dorothy Sayers, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden. Lacking a proper degree unlike his fellow Inklings, this genius Cockney-speaking author, editor, critic, and playwright was eminently well-versed in both philosophical and theological writings of the remote past as of the present day (the mid-20th century) and used this familiarity to good effect in his poetry, supernatural fiction and his lesser-known devotional selections designed for the spiritual benefit of the faithful in the Church of England. This series of profound quotations, encompassing all walks of life, follows the sequence of the themes and Bible readings anciently appointed for contemplation throughout the church's year, beginning with Advent (i.e., December) and ending in November, and reaches far beyond the pale of the philosophical and theological discussions of his day. It was under his hand, for instance, that some of the first translations of Kierkegaard were made available to the wider public. It is hoped that the readings reproduced here will prove beneficial for any who read them, whatever their place in life's journey. — Matthew Carver
Herein lies the true ground and depth of the uncontrollable freedom of our will and thoughts: they must have a selfmotion and self-direction, because they came out of the self-existant God. They are eternal, divine powers that never began to be, and therefore cannot begin to be in subjection to anything. That which thinks and wills in the soul is that very same unbeginning breath which thought and willed in God, before it was breathed into the form of the human soul; and therefore it is, that will and thought cannot be bounded or constrained.
Herein also appears the high dignity and never ceasing perpetuity of our nature.
William Law: An Appeal.
If we were a little severe with ourselves at the beginning, we should afterwards be able to do all things with ease and delight.
Thomas à Kempis: Imitation
We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices, but that He may deliver us from them.
Pascal: Pensées
Our heart must we give wholly unto him; that hath opened his heart so wide. His heart is ours must be all one. Nothing requireth he of us but the heart. "Son," saith he, "give me thy heart."
Coverdale: Fruitful Lessons on the Passion.
Antichrist alone is enemy enough, but never carry this consideration beyond thyself.
Donne: Sermons
If this is a world in which I, and the majority of my fellowbeings, live in that perpetual distraction from God which exposes us to the one great peril, that of final and complete alienation from God after death, there is some wrong that I must try to help to put right.
T. S. Eliot: The Idea of a Christian Society.
The seven works of bodily mercy be these: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and needy, harbour the houseless, comfort the sick, visit prisoners, bury the dead. The seven works of spiritual mercy be these: teach men the truth, counsel men to hold with Christ's law, chastise sinners by moderate reproving in charity, comfort sorrowful men by Christ's passion, forgive wrongs, suffer meekly reproofs for the right of God's law, pray heartily for friend and for foe.
Middle English Sermons (abridged).
The life of Jesus is perfected obedience to the will of the faithful God. Jesus stands among sinners as a sinner; He sets Himself wholly under the judgment under which the world is set; He takes His place where God can be present only in questioning about Him; He takes the form of a slave; He moves to the cross and to death; His greatest achievement is a negative achievement. He is not a genius endowed with manifest or even occult powers; He is not a hero or leader of men; He is neither poet nor thinker:—My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Nevertheless, precisely in this negation, He is the fulfillment of every possibility of human progress, as the Prophets and the Law conceive of progress and evolution, because he sacrifices to the incomparably Greater cause there is no conceivable human possibility of which he did not rid Himself. Herein he is recognized as the Christ; for this reason God hath exalted Him; and consequently He is the light of the Last Things by which all men and things are illuminated.
Karl Barth: The Epistle to the Romans
Do not lie about the past.
Leonardo da Vinci: Notebooks
And as I walked towards the jail, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "My love was always to thee, and thou art in my love."
George Fox: Journal
Jesus said: "Would thou love one who never died For thee, or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God dieth not for man, and giveth not himself Eternally for man, man could not exist; for man is love, As God is love: every kindness to another is a little death In the divine image; nor can man exist but by brotherhood."
Blake: Jerusalem
No creature can be a child of God but because the goodness of God is in it; nor can it have any union or communion with the goodness of the Diety till its life is a Spirit of Love. This is the one only band of union betwixt God and the creature . . . Here the necessity is absolute: nothing will do instead of this will; all contrivances of holiness, all forms of religious piety signify nothing without this will to all goodness. For as the will to all goodnes is the whole nature of God, so it must be the whole nature of every service or religion that can be acceptable to Him.
William Law: The Spirit of Love
In our repenting commonly we make such haste as we take away before the fruits come. But if there happen to come any, is not this even our case? Our tears, if any, dry straight; our prayers, if any, quickly tedious; our alms indeed pitiful; our fasts, fast or loose upon any the least occasion; and so our repentance, if any, poenitentia poenitenda, "a repentance needing of another, a new, a second repentance to repent us of it." To repent us of our repentance, no less than of our sin itself.
Lancelot Andrewes: Sermon on Ash-Wednesday, 1624
Lead us not into temptation . . . Power is given against us in two modes: either for punishment when we sin or for glory when we are proved . . . But when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our infirmity and weakness in that we thus ask, lest any should insolently vaunt himself, lest any should proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself, lest any should take to himself the glory either of confession or suffering as his own.
St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer
When thou attackest the roots of sin, fix thy thought more upon the God whom thou desirest than upon the sin which thou abhorrest.
Walter Hylton: Scale of Perfection
We know no Gospel without salvation from sin. John Wesley.
Solomon saith, "Man goeth to his long home." Short preparation will not fit so long a journey. O let me not put it off to the last, to have my oil to buy when I am to burn it, but let me so dispose of myself, that when I am to die I may have nothing to do but die.
Thomas Fuller: Good Thoughts in Bad Times
Human nature is so subject to deception that it can frustrate, by some pollution or other, almost every dispensation but death.
Sarah Grubb: Journal
He who will follow him must forsake all things, for he renounced all things so utterly as no man else hath ever done. Moreover, he who will come after him must take up the cross, and the cross is nothing else but Christ's life, for that is a bitter cross to nature. Therefore he saith, "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me, and cannot be my disciple.” But nature in her false freedom, weeneth she hath forsaken all things, yet she will have none of the cross, and saith she hath had enough of it already, and needeth it no longer, and thus she is deceived. For had she ever tasted the cross she would never part with it again.
Theologia GermanicaIf you take away due fear, you take away true love.
Donne: SermonsThere is no wrath that stands between God and us, but what is awakened in the dark fire of our own fallen nature; and to quench this wrath, and not His own, God gave His only begotten Son to be made man. God has no more wrath in Himself now than He had before the creation, when He had only Himself to love . . . And it was solely to quench this wrath, awakened in the human soul, that the blood of the Son of God was necessary, because nothing but a life and birth, derived from Him into the human soul, could change this darkened root of a self-tormenting fire into an amiable image of the Holy Trinity as it was at first created.
William Law: Christian RegenerationThe darkness is not hidden even from itself; though it sees naught else it sees itself. The works of darkness follow it, and there is no hiding place from it, not even in the darkness. This is "the worm that dieth not"—the memory of the past. Once it gets within, or rather is born within though sin, there it stays and never by any means can be plucked out. It never ceases to gnaw the conscience; feeding on it as on food that never can be consumed it prolongs the life of misery. I shudder as I contemplate this biting worm, this never-dying death. I shudder at the thought of this being the victim of this living death, this dying life.
St. Bernard: On Consideration.
The paper you just paid for was bought by someone else first, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. That’s how The Contributor works. A vendor who experienced homelessness paid 50 cents for this paper and then sold it to you. By buying it and taking it with you, you’ve just encouraged that vendor to buy another. BOOM! That’s the solution. Now keep reading. This paper has something to say to you.
Street papers provide income for the homeless and initiate a conversation about homelessness and poverty. In 2007, The Contributor founders met at the Nashville Public Library downtown to form one. In a strike of lightning we named it The Contributor to infer that our vendors were “contributors to society,” while their customers could contribute to their work. But, thunder from lighting is always delayed …
It took three years, but Nashville embraced us like no other city in the world. The Contributor became the largest selling street paper per-capita on the globe. And today 50 percent of our six months or longer tenured vendors have found housing. BOOM! The thunder has struck.
The Contributor is a different kind of nonprofit social enterprise. We don’t serve meals or provide emergency shelter. We don’t hire people in poverty to create products or provide a service. Rather, we sell newspapers to homeless people who work for themselves. We train them to sell those papers to you, keep the money they earn, and buy more when they need to replace their stock.
Our biggest fans don’t always get this. Like lightning without the thunder, they see the humanity of the vendor but misunderstand the model. Case in point: In 2013 during a funding crunch, a representative of one of Nashville’s biggest foundations exclaimed, “I’m such a big fan that I never take the paper!” We responded, “Well, that’s why we are in a funding crunch.” BOOM! Thunder was heard. Taking the paper makes our model work — not taking it breaks it.
And selling the paper twice doesn’t just fund the paper, it funds housing and change. BOOM! Our vendors report their sales to qualify for subsidized housing and even for standard housing deposits and mortgages. They don’t consider your buying the paper a “donation.” It is a sale. When they sell out, they buy more and build the paper trail of a profitable business. Until making these sales, many of our vendors had never experienced the satisfaction of seeing their investment pay off. And when it does, it liberates! They have become “contributors” to their own destiny. And Nashville has become a city of lightning and thunder. BOOM!
Now that you are a SUPPORTER , become an ADVOCATE or a MULTIPLIER
You are already a SUPPORTER because you know that taking the paper makes the model work. You bought the paper and you are reading it. Now your vendor is one copy closer to selling out, which is exciting!
Now you can become an ADVOCATE when you introduce your friends to your favorite vendor, follow us and share our content on social media, contact us when you witness a vendor in distress or acting out of character, or explain why others should pick up a copy and always take the paper when they support a vendor.
And, you can become a MULTIPLIER when you advocate for us AND directly donate to us or become an advertiser or sponsor of The Contributor. Our income stream is made of 50-cent- at-a-time purchases made from our vendors, matched by contributions, ad sales and sponsorships from multipliers like you. Because our vendors are business owners, your donations are seed-money investments in their businesses and multiply in their pockets. Every donated dollar multiplies four-to-seven times as profits in the pockets of our vendors. Thanks for contributing.
El periódico que usted acaba de pagar fue primeramente comprado por alguien mas, de otra manera no existiría. Así es como funciona The Contributor. Un vendedor que está sin hogar pagó 50 centavos por este periódico y después se lo vendió a usted. Al comprarlo y llevarlo con usted, usted animo a este vendedor a comprar otro. BOOM! Esa es la solución. Ahora continúe leyendo. Este periódico tiene algo que decirle. Los periódicos vendidos en la calle proveen ingresos para las personas sin hogar e inicia una conversación sobre lo que es la falta de vivienda y la pobreza. En el 2007, los fundadores de The Contributor se reunieron en una librería pública en Nashville para formar uno. Y como golpe de un rayo, le llamamos The Contributor para dar a entender que nuestros vendedores eran “contribuidores para la sociedad,” mientras que los consumidores podrían contribuir a su trabajo. Pero, el trueno siempre tarda más que el rayo. Nos llevó tres años, pero Nashville nos acogió como ninguna otra ciudad en el mundo. The Contributor se volvió uno de los periódicos de calle más vendido en el globo. Y hoy el 50 por ciento de nuestros seis meses o más de nuestros vendedores titulares han encontrado casa. BOOM! Ha llegado el trueno.
JENNINGSThe Contributor es una empresa social sin fines de lucro muy diferente. Nosotros no servimos comida or proveemos alojo de emergencia. No contratamos gente en pobreza para crear productos or proveer un servicio. En vez, nosotros vendemos periódicos a las personas sin hogar para que ellos trabajen por ellos mismos. Nosotros los entrenamos como vendedores, ellos se quedan el dinero que se ganan, y ellos pueden comprar más cuando necesiten reabastecer su inventario.
Nuestros mas grandes aficionados no entienden esto. Como un rayo sin trueno, ellos ven la humanidad de el vendedor pero no comprenden el modelo. Un ejemplo: En el 2013 durante un evento de recaudación de fondos, uno de los representantes de una de las fundaciones más grandes de Nashville, exclamó: “Soy un gran aficionado, y es por eso que nunca me llevo el periódico.” Al cual nosotros respondimos: “Y es por esa razón por la cual estamos recaudando fondos.” BOOM! Y se escuchó el trueno! El pagar por el periódico y llevárselo hace que nuestro sistema funcione, el no llevarse el periódico rompe nuestro sistema.
Y el vender el papel dos veces no da fondos para el periódico, pero da fondos para casas y causa cambio. BOOM! Nuestros vendedores reportan sus ventas para calificar para alojamiento subvencionado y hasta para una casa regular, depósitos e hipotecas. Ellos no consideran el que usted compre el periódico como una “contribución” pero más lo consideran como una venta. Cuando se les acaba, ellos compran mas y asi logran establecer un negocio rentable. Hasta que lograron hacer estas ventas, muchos de nuestros vendedores nunca habían experimentado el placer de ver una inversión generar ganancias. Y cuando logran hacer esto, da un sentido de Liberación! Ellos se han vuelto contribuidores de su propio destino, y Nashville la ciudad de el trueno y el rayo. BOOM!
Ahora que te has vuelto nuestro SEGUIDOR, vuelve te en un ABOGADO o un MULTIPLICADOR. Ya eres nuestro SEGUIDOR, porque sabes que al llevarte este periódico sabes que esto hace que nuestro modelo funcione. Compraste el papel y lo estas leyendo. Ahora nuestro vendedor está a una copia más cerca de venderlos todos. Que emoción!
Ahora que te has vuelto nuestro ABOGADO cuando presentes a tus amigos a tu vendedor favorito, siguenos y comparte nuestro contenido en social media, contactanos cuando seas testigo de un vendedor actuando de manera extraña o fuera de carácter. O explicale a tus amigos porque ellos deben de llevarse el periódico cuando ayuden a un vendedor.
Te puedes volver un MULTIPLICADOR cuando abogues por nosotros, Y directamente dones a nosotros o te vuelvas un anunciador o patrocinador de The Contributor. Nuestra fuente de ingresos consiste en ventas de 50 centavos hechas por nuestros vendedores, igualadas por contribuciones, venta de anuncios, y patrocinios de multiplicadores como usted. Porque nuestros vendedores son dueños de negocios, las donaciones que den son dinero que es invertido y multiplicado en sus bolsas. Cada dólar donado se multiplica de cuatro a siete veces en la bolsa de nuestros vendedores.
Gracias por Contribuir.A new 8,000 square foot, two gallery exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum called Ratifi ed! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote explores Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th amendment 100 years ago.
The exhibit opens March 27, 2020, and runs through March 28, 2021 — it looks at the stories of various Tennesseans and their roles in women’s the women’s suff rage movement.
“In August of 1920, the nation’s eyes were on Tennessee,” reads a release from the musuem. “The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote throughout the country, had passed at the federal level a year earlier, and was making its way through state legislatures for ratification. It needed 36 states to approve it, and was stalled at 35. Tennessee was its best hope for ratification.”
On Aug. 18, 1920, the historic fi nal vote for ratification happened at the State Capitol in Nashville. Ratifi ed! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote, curated by assistant chief curator Miranda Fraley Rhodes, Ph.D., the Tennessee State Museum will take a look at the dynamics around women’s suff rage in Tennessee in 1920, what the state looked like in the decades leading
up to the vote, and what the vote’s impact had in the 100 years since it happened.
“The ratification of the 19th Amendment was a major step forward in recognizing women as equal participants in American democracy and public life,” Rhodes said. “For Tennessee women, this was especially important. They continued to face discriminatory laws that limited their rights to their children and prohibited them from activities like serving on juries. With the power of the vote, women gained a critical tool to demand change from state and local governments. It was a milestone in American and Tennessean women’s ongoing search for equality.”
Tennessee women found ways to express their political views before the vote for suff rage passed. The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention was the fi rst women’s rights convention held in the United States and acted as the movement’s launch event. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, suff ragists in the state built a movement in a less than desirable atmosphere.
“Together with the stories of those women who represented the movement on the national stage, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony in its earliest days, and Ida B. Wells, Catherine Chapman Catt and Alice Paul later, the exhibition highlights the stories of suff ragists throughout Tennessee,” a release reads.
Ratifi ed delves into Maryville College Equal Suff rage Club, the Tullahoma Equal Suff rage League, and a suff rage parade in McKenzie that included “a column of young boys and girls afoot, waving balloons and banners.…” Across the state in cities, towns, and rural communities, women like Abby Crawford Milton of Chattanooga, Juno Frankie Pierce and Anne Dallas Dudley of Nashville, and Lillian Perrine Davis of Lexington, among many others, worked to further the cause, despite much opposition.
“The importance of the ratification story lies in its emphasis on the power of the individual,” said Ashley Howell, Tennessee State Museum executive director. “It’s a story of a movement, but also a story of the individuals in that movement, whose actions, some on the local level, some on the state and some on the national level, had an enormous impact. It’s a good reminder that individuals, and individual actions, at every level, matter.”
Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote is told through six major sections that include Women’s Search for Political Rights, Why Women Want the Vote, Tennessee Suff ragists, Women Gain the Vote, Changing the Political System. A fi nal section will provide an opportunity for visitors to watch a fi lm and reflect on the history of the suff rage movement.
Further information about the exhibition and related events, including 100th anniversary commemorations of the ratification of the 19th Amendment will be posted on the Museum’s website at TNMuseum.org.
In the past two major elections, Tennessee’s voter turnout rate has been one lowest in the nation. As a state, we ranked 44th in voter turnout for the midterm election in 2018 and 49th for the presidential election in 2016. ThinkTennessee, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank dedicated to promoting pragmatic public policy solutions, is trying to change that.
“When Tennessee cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment a century ago, we cemented our place in history as a leader in civic engagement,” said Shanna Singh Hughey, president of ThinkTennessee. “But the latest dashboard rankings show that, when it comes to civic engagement and areas like family economic security, we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to resume that leadership role.”
Ahead of Singh Hughey speaking at The Contributor ’s annual fundraising breakfast on March 5, she and ThinkTennessee’s Advocacy and Government Relations Director Dawn Schluckebier sat down with The Contributor to talk about civic engagement and why it’s important to work on policies around voting.
Tell me a little bit about the origins of ThinkTennessee. Why this format to try and move the needle on civic engagement?
Singh Hughey: We really wanted to help create a state where all folks can be civically engaged and economically secure. And that means a lot of different things. But for us it means really thinking about the policy solutions around moving the state forward. And so we spent really a year in 2016 really looking at that — I drove around the state to every big city mayor. And then I would ask them like, who are five more people I should talk to? And then it turned out I had 310 cups of coffee — probably more than that in terms of cups of coffee, but 310 coffee meetings. We tried to figure out if there was an appetite for a nonpartisan think tank focused on moving our state forward in these ways. And there absolutely was
Schluckebier: There are so many great people now who are involved and excited and really we’ve moved beyond just starting an organization and celebrating that. It’s kind of a solid, sustainable, successful thing and you know, celebrating the change that we’ve been able to make again, knowing that we’re here for the longterm, but thinking about the momentum that we’re building for years
SHANNA SINGH HUGHEY DAWN SCHLUCKEBIERto come, which is really exciting.
What do you think has been the largest barrier in the work you’re taking on?
Singh Hughey: Gosh, you know, I think I almost just want to say bandwidth. We’ve got four positions right now and it’s a really great team and we’re actually hiring for our policy and research director. So technically right now we just have three. We’ve got research assistants and interns, but there’s so much that we want to do. We also know that we can’t just sort of dabble in all of the issues of the day and like weigh in whenever we find something interesting. Change has to be much more intentional than that and there’s a lot of spadework and behind the scenes work that goes into anything that actually has some sort of impact. And that means that we’ve had to be really narrowly focused on civic engagement and family economic security. And even within those buckets, narrowly focused there. And there’s so much more that we want to do.
When looking at voter engagement, Tennessee is clearly one of the least engaged in the country. In three years, how do you feel you’ve moved the needle?
Singh Hughey: I think so much change starts with awareness. And so for three years we’ve been doing a few different things, but one is building awareness. I like to say it like this: Our state deserves nice things too. And so if we’re 49th in turnout in a presidential election and 45th in the midterm, that really tells us something? It’s not like we just had low turnout in 2016 and 2018, but we have in like every year before that.
Schluckebier: Every election has been like that. And so part of I think creating an appetite for change is helping folks understand that [the state is] at the bottom of the nation and there are actual solutions, right? We believe strongly in finding pragmatic solutions that work for folks on both sides of the aisle. And so part of what we’ve done is work with the folks in power to understand where the appetite for change was and what sort of change is possible in this state right now. So some of that’s a lot of trust building and listening to the election administrators all over the state.
Singh Hughey: And so I think we’ve done a great job raising awareness and kind of building relationships, building trust, and then sometimes just working with legislators to understand impact. Last year there was a bill that threatened to criminalize some things around voter registration. And so sometimes what we’re doing is trying to make good things happen. And then other times we’re trying to mitigate the issue and make sure there are not unintended consequences from bills being passed — things that could end up not working out maybe the way anybody would have hoped or how even the person writing a bill intended.
I’m curious too about the bipartisan piece because I think in the South voter suppression is often seen as like a very partisan effort. How do you work on these issues and look at them as bipartisan?
Singh Hughey: We look at systemic policy change. So what does systemic policy change look like in this state, at this time, with the leaders we have right now? So many other people are handling issues in a more partisan way and they’re doing a good job with that on their own.
All that individual groundwork in neighborhoods and protesting — there are other groups that do in the state and we know that we don’t need to jump in and do that do. We can bring the data and research on policy making.
Talk a little bit about voter purging and what that looks like in Tennessee.
Schluckebier: The question and concern [with voter purging] comes in if people are being removed from the voter rolls for not voting, for lack of participation. Tennessee, like many other states, was sending confirmation notices to voters who had not participated in a number of elections. So that was the way that they did it before. They would see that you’re not really an active voter. You don’t respond to that and you don’t vote for the next two federal elections, they’re going to take you off. The only way that the election officials can do that now is if you’ve moved or are no longer eligible to vote.
How do you work with individual communities to understand the issues around civic engagement?
Singh Hughey: That looks different across the board. We’re not coming to them to say this is how you do it. We’re asking them to take an inventory to sort of assess kind of the landscape of their community, what’s already happening, where are there folks on the ground, organizations that you can partner with and plug into if there are things missing, what types of things can you add? We work with mayors — they’re kind of taking a look at their community, picking out what makes sense and then setting a goal and an action. They’re creating an action plan to say this is how we’re going to try that and we’re really on the front end of it. We don’t have any kind of best practices because different things are going to work in different places. So these mayors are just saying: I’m committed, I’m ready, here’s how I’m going to try and grow [voter turnout] and it’s been really well received and just everyone is excited about the idea. We’re not having to convince people to say like, ‘Oh, civic engagement should be a priority.’ They understand that in some cases their communities are very engaged and they want to give more. And in other cases they feel like there might be, you know, they may be starting from ground zero.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
As Kat Calvin recalls the story of Spread the Vote’s founding, she says it took about five minutes to realize there was a much bigger picture surrounding the idea of registering voters for upcoming elections.
The nonprofit’s mission soon evolved from mere voter registration to a large-scale effort to secure government-issued photo IDs for anyone with no legal form of identification.
“We help people get a government issued photo ID, we help them get the documents required, birth certificates, proof of residency, etc.,” Calvin said. “We pay for everything, we provide transportation to whatever government offices are necessary — basically we do whatever it takes to help someone get an ID in their hands.”
Since May 2017, Spread the Vote has expanded its reach across the U.S., and assists people in 12 states receive their documentation and register to vote.
Ruby Marvel is the Nashville Regional Field Coordinator, who assists about 20 people at a time through the process of retrieving documentation. To date, Calvin says they have helped more than 4,800 get an ID and regain their sense
of humanity.
“One of the really common things we hear after people get their IDs is, ‘I’m a person again,’ ” Calvin said. “And it’s kind of amazing how many people say that, because you’re really not a person in this country if you don’t have an ID. Once they have this card, it gives them access to citizenship, and life and opportunities.”
Before receiving an ID, Calvin says she and her field coordinators do not strictly focus on the voting part of their mission. Without access to basic human needs like a roof over their head or food on the table, clients aren’t ready to talk politics. But after, there’s a newfound motivation.
“You can see this real difference in how people perceive themselves, their ability to interact with the world and their ability to make themselves feel heard once they feel like they’re a person again,” Calvin said. “A lot of the ways we talk about voting are very personal. We try to really focus on local elections because the city council really runs your life.”
Once they are registered, Calvin says it is not uncommon for her clients to bring friends with them to the polls.
The average cost nationally to retrieve the paperwork necessary to get an ID is $40, while the average cost in Tennessee is only $28.25. Processing takes around three to four weeks. The more documentation a person has, the quicker the process, Calvin explains.
Calvin explains these expenses are covered by individual donations, family foundations and by, “applying to every grant under the sun.”
There is no priority to which clients are selected to receive assistance. The staff and volunteers with Spread the Vote simply have to work within their capacity, Calvin says. In the United States, 21 million eligible voters do not have a photo ID, so there is always a wait list. Calvin’s staff have set up relationships with local partners, and travel across Nashville to meet with clients for intake evaluations and periodic updates. They also work within the prison system,to make sure inmates have access to resources once released from incarceration.
To donate, volunteer or learn more about getting an ID through Spread the Vote, visit spreadthevote.org. You can also call or text (323) 694-0738 for more information.
At The Contributor, we welcome people with past felony charges to become a vendor. When a person is charged with a felony, their right to vote is taken away. Vendors Paul and Shawn have charges that happened more than 25 years ago, and have not been able to get their voting rights restored. Here are their stories:
It would mean a whole lot if I could vote. I do believe that everybody should have that right to do what their conscience says. Having the right or privilege back I think would help the people that are running for office — maybe we can get somebody in there that would do some common sense. When you get the privilege back it does help build self-esteem, like you’re accomplishing something. Once you’re stamped as a felon you lose everything. You lose your right to vote, sometimes your place to live. It’s harder to find jobs. It hurts you all the way around. One mistake and you’re screwed. Everybody has to learn by their mistakes.
We need to have better bus services. I’d like to vote on that. Cutting property taxes — I’d like to vote on something like that. Voting on, if they have it, healthcare. Voting on what they’re going to do for the homeless, because I’d like to see people get in office that’s going to do something for the homeless instead of sweeping the homeless up under the rug.
Me, I’m not a voter. I can’t vote. And the reason why is because I’m a felon.
If I had a chance to vote, you want the people you’re voting for to do what they say they’re going to do. Don’t say that you’re going to do this and you can’t do it or you don’t do it. Voting, yes, it does bring a good opportunity, but you just want the people that you’re voting for to be realistic.
I’ve been out for almost 13 years now, and I had 20 years in. You always got people that are trying to criticize you. When you’re trying to do right, they’re trying to see the wrong in you. Anything that you do, they look at you as a criminal.
Whether you can vote or not vote, it’s a question. You gotta really look into who you’re actually voting for. Sometimes I wish I could vote, and sometimes I’m glad I can’t vote. And if I can’t vote for them and I know they’re doing positive things, I’m going to represent them. On my corner, I’m going to wear my T-shirt, I’m going to wear my hat. I’m going to pass out fliers to people that I know.
My mother used to campaign and work in the offices to help people become mayor, president. So that’s where I get it from.
‘Contributor’ vendors with felony convictions talk about why voting matters to them
Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire started 2019 with a blaze when it won the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first woman-helmed film to win the award. Sciamma’s script for the film also won Best Screenplay at Cannes, and the movie’s been showered with awards and nominations through this winter.
That said, Portrait of a Lady on Fire didn’t get any love from the Oscars — the film’s local premiere at the Belcourt Theatre this Friday gives Nashvillians an opportunity to see one of the best movies they may have missed over awards season.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a must-see film for Nashville’s visual art scenesters; this period love story about a painter and her subject gives audiences an allegory that equates the creative process and the pro -
cess of seduction. And the film’s feminist and queer themes are right on time for a contemporary art moment preoccupied with questions about identity, and questing for inclusion. The movie is tailor-made for French film buffs and lovers of historical drama, but it’s also an exceptional display of pure filmmaking recognizable to any true lover of cinema.
Marianne is a young painter commissioned to make a portrait of another young woman named Héloïse. Héloïse is engaged to a nobleman, and the portrait is a rite of passage for the soon-to-be-married, but Héloïse refuses to sit for Marianne in a bid to remain free from the restrictions of marriage at the end of the 18th century. The film is set on an isolated island in Brittany — it’s remote but romantic, bleak but beautiful. Marriane and Héloïse spend days slowly getting to know one another, and Marianne works on completing the portrait at night and in secret. The bond
between Marriane and Héloïse grows with fits and starts before they’re left alone in the house and the pair embark on a short intense romantic affair.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire features compelling characters in a solid story, but it’s really a movie about tone. The film is intimate, but also claustrophobic. It’s erotic, but also existential and psychological. It’s a film that’s simultaneously sexy, smart and even spooky, and in its best moments it feels like a masterclass in mood and atmosphere. This is a film that reads like a good painting — there’s lots to talk about, but this is a work of art you’re meant to stand, or sit, in front of and experience.
One of the loudest conversations of this past awards season focused on the dearth of women nominated for Best Director Oscars. Little Women deserved its Best Picture nomination and Greta Gerwig is emblematic of the women directors possibly overlooked at this year’s awards. The Farewell was one
of my favorite films of the past year and it could be argued that the movie and director Lulu Wang deserved better from the Academy. Add to this list of women-director-alternate-Oscar-picks Céline Sciamma and Portrait of a Lady on Fire .
It’s a fool’s errand to second-guess the political vagaries of movie awards, but this film is clearly one of the best made in 2019, and even though we’re all looking forward to the decade’s first big new releases, an opportunity to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire on the big screen is one worth waiting for.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire opens at the Belcourt Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 20. Go to belcourt.org for times and tickets.
‘PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE’ IS ONE OF THE BEST 2019 FILMS FORGOTTEN AT THE OSCARS
“The Contributor” está trabajando con uno de los principales periódicos en español La Noticia para llevar contenido a más lectores en Middle Tennessee. Nuestros vendedores de periódicos han pedido durante mucho tiempo que nuestra publicación incluya contenido que apele al interés de residentes de habla hispana en nuestra comunidad.
“The Contributor”
¿Sabía usted que cada mes, durante los próximos 20 años, 80,000 hispanos cumplirán la edad de 18 años? En el 2020, la comunidad latina re presentará al menos 30 millones de votantes
A raíz de las acciones del presi- dente Donald Trump, ha habido mucha polémica en todo el país en apoyo y en contra de la inmigración Con mucha razón ya que la regu- larización y eventual privilegio de obtener la codiciada ciudad ania, y con esto, la oportunidad del voto, para los más de 12 millones de personas indocumentadas, podrian afectar el destino de nuestro pais “Las primarias demócratas cada vez más competitivas e indecisas aumentan la importancia del caucus de Nevada Dado que los votantes latinos representan el 20% de los votantes elegibles, se espera que los temas hispanos tengan un papel más importante en la agenda de los candidatos que en cualquier otro momento anterior ” dijo la USHCC (Cámara de Comercio Hispana de los Estados Unidos) organización no partidista, en un reciente comunicado enviado a raiz del reciente cabildo abierto con cuatro candidatos a la presidencia realizado en asociación con LULAC (Liga de Ciudadanos Latino Americanos Unidos) en el College of Southern Nevada en Las Vegas esta semana Cabe destacar
que LULAC es la organización de derechos civiles latinos más grande y antigua de la nación fundada en 1929 y la USHCC , organización de miembros, líder en representar los intereses y la voz de las empresas hispanas de EE UU desde hace 40 años
Se gún las proyecciones del Centro de Investigación Pew, 27 3 millones de latinos son elegibles para votar, lo que representa el 12% de todos los votante s Desde 2012, el número de votantes hispanos ha aumentado en 4 millones, lo que representa el 37% del crecimiento de todos los votantes durante este período
Tengo entendido que para naturalizar me debo llevar viviendo al m e n o s t re s m e s e s e n e l e s t a d o d o n d e h i c e m i s o l i c i t u d E s t o y pensando hacer un viaje de cuatro meses para visitar a mi familia en el extranjero y presentar mi solicitud después de que vuelva ¿ Te n go q u e e s p e ra r t re s m e s e s después de mi viaje?
No Puede presentar su solicitud en cualquier momento antes o después de su viaje
L a r e g l a d e l o s t r e s m e s e s l e p i d e q u e e l e s t a d o s e a s u r e s i d e n c i a p r im a r i a p o r t r e s m e s e s a n t e s d e p r es e n t a r s u s o l i c i t u d s e g ú n d ó n d e d e c l a r e s u s i m p u e s t o s N o t i e n e q u e h a b e r e s t a d o p r e s e n t e f í s i c a m e n t e e n e l e s t a d o e s o s t r e s m e s e s
dar nombre y apellido entir a acepte/lleve documentos falsos velar su situación migratoria var documentación de otro país so de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta da (llámenos si necesita una)
e n l a Q u i n t a E n m i e n d a d e l a ción, los derechos de guardar silencio y on un abogado fueron denominados s Miranda luego de la decisión de la Corte de Justicia de Estados Unidos en Miranda vs Arizona, 384 U S 436, de 1966
Se estima que en Nevada la población de votantes hispanos llega a 500,000 “Es interesante darse cuenta como el mensaje de los candidatos que buscan nuestro voto pareciera sincronizado Es como que quisieran decir nos lo que ellos creen que nosotros q ueremos escuchar Hay mucho deseo de apoyar por par te de nuestra comunidad, pero también existe el desencanto de las promesas incumpli- das Fué bueno escucharlos a todos, y dar me cuenta que esto no afecta mi voto No creo en quien en el último minuto aparece como nuestro defensor, yo creo en quien siempre hizo de su plataforma politica una que no ha cambiando Eso me da confianza Nosotros no queremos que nos den un trato especial para “hispanos”, queremos que nos consideren como parte del país en el cuál vivimos, al cuál contribuimos, y en el cuál, por una circunstacia u otra, hemos plantado nuestras raices ” , dijo Sharon Courtney, artista visual nacida en Mexico, activista comunitaria, voluntaria, y madre de tres hijos nacidos en los Estados Unidos Sharon recibió aprobación preliminar, a un pedido de ajuste migrato- rio Este es el primer paso en un complejo proceso de muchos años viviendo e n u n e s t a d o m i g r a t o r i o i n c i e r t o Establecer una manera para que la mayoría de los inmig rantes no autorizados per mane z can le galmente en el país es el objetivo principal de la política de inmigración para los hispanos en los Estados
Unidos, con más de la mitad (54%) diciendo que es muy importante, según una enc uesta nacional de hispanos adultos del Centro de Investigación Pew realizado en diciembre
Si bien existe una brecha partidista signi- ficativa en este tema, una gran mayoría de demócratas y republicanos hispanos dicen que este objetivo de política de inmigración es al menos algo importante
Muchos de los 60 millones de hispanos del país tienen conexiones inmig rantes Alrededor de 20 millones son inmigrant es (aunque el 79% son ciudadanos estadounidenses), y otros 19 millones tienen al menos un padre que es inmigrante A par- tir de 2017, los hispanos representaron el 73% de un estimado de 10 5 millones de inmigrantes no autorizados que viven en los EE UU , y un número creciente de ellos vino de América Central durante la década anterior Ahora son 12 millones
La mayoría no se da cuenta que el sistema de i nmigración de Estados Unidos se ha mantenido prácticamente sin cambios durante casi 50 años Nuestra nación y nuestra economía evoluciona, por lo que no deberíamos evitar que nuestro system de inmigración tambien lo haga, lo cual sólo puede realmente provenir por acción de nuestro Congreso
Como inmigrante, sé lo que es necesario para llegar a ser ciudadano americano El proceso es engorroso y complejo, y s e necesita tiempo, a veces años, para completar los requisitos y obtener la ciudadanía Vine aquí, a esta tierra de las oportunidades para perseguir el sueño americano, y como resultado de y como recompensa por mi trabajo duro, yo, como muchos otros, soy un contribuyente orgullosos a nuestra economía, nuestra cultura y nuestra comunidad Gente de todo el mundo buscan la misma opor tunidad hoy tal cual sus ante pasa- dos lo hicieron antes-- venir a Estados Unidos para tratar de hacer una vida mejor para ellos y sus familias Nuestro sistema actual está tan roo, esto per mite y alienta la entrada ile gal, la contratación ile gal de inmig rantes indocumentados, y millones de personas en este país se ven obligados a vivir en las sombras Necesitamos un sistema de inmig ración que respete y vele por el cumplimiento de la ley No podemos y no debemos abrir nuestras fronteras a cualquiera, y no debemos recompensar a cualquier persona que violó la ley para venir aquí Estamos de acuerdo en esto ¿Y usted, ya se re gistró para votar?
is working with one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers La Noticia to bring content to more readers in Middle Tennessee. Our newspaper vendors have long requested that our publication include content that appeals to the interest of Spanish-speaking residents in our community.Dibujo y concepto: John Yandall Por Yuri Cunza La Noticia Ne wspaper Editor in Chief
“The Contributor” está trabajando con uno de los principales periódicos en español La Noticia para llevar contenido a más lectores en Middle Tennessee. Nuestros vendedores de periódicos han pedido durante mucho tiempo que nuestra publicación incluya contenido que apele al interés de residentes de habla hispana en nuestra comunidad.
“The Contributor” is working with one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers La Noticia to bring content to more readers in Middle Tennessee. Our newspaper vendors have long requested that our publication include content that appeals to the interest of Spanish-speaking residents in our community.
I’ve got a friend who was born on February 29, 1980. Some people would say she’s turning 40 this year but somehow this will only be the 10th time she’s had a birthday. So who’s to say how old she is, really? If humanity can just add a random day in February every four years, than who’s to say how old any of us are? Sure, we usually measure age in trips around the sun, but maybe you could measure yours in the number of times you’ve been to the beach or had a really good eggplant parmesan or seen Caddyshack . Maybe you’re only as old as the amount of Tolstoy you’ve read. You decide, Pisces.
I’m having one of those days where people just want to talk to me. Which is great, it’s fine really. But I’m on my shift at Wandering Hills Super Video and Tan and I’ve got a lot of work to do. There’s tanning beds that need bleaching and a box of recently returned VHS that I’ve got to sort and scan and shelve. But everybody wants to tell me about their day and their week and their opinions on politics, both local and national. Sometimes, Aries, you need to decide which one you’re gonna do. Are you gonna focus on the work at hand or are you gonna put your energy into the people in front of you? Doing both at once isn’t helping anybody.
I grew up hearing that a young George Washington once threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River. Wow! What a presidential arm! But the Potomac River is more than a mile wide at Mt. Vernon. And, as it turns out, the American colonies didn’t even have silver dollars when Washington was young. In the end, it’s a pretty unlikely story. And I wonder what other stories from when I was young are imbedded in my brain but make no sense when I say them out loud now. Question your origin stories, Taurus. Tell them to somebody and see if they even make sense.
Would you say you’ve been tired lately and maybe a little dizzy? Have you had a low-grade headache for a couple of days and do you find the bottom of your tongue keeps drying out? Maybe your knees
feel kind of soft and you haven’t wanted to eat anything lately except Cheez-its and Bubble Yum? Is that basically accurate? Studies show you could probably use a nap or a long walk in the park. If it still doesn’t go away, maybe go outside and stare at the moon.
Leap Year is kind of that moment when the whole world sets it’s clock back. You get one more day of February to do whatever you want and then its like it didn’t even happen. What kind of person are you going to be on the 29th? Sure, you could just do the things you usually do, but I’d recommend mixing it up a little bit. Try something new. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it again for four years.
Sometimes a Tuesday is just a Tuesday, Leo. Even if you want it to be perfect or hoped it could be wonderful or were told that it would be super. Maybe it’s just going to be a Tuesday. We all have to brace for that possibility. And if it is just a Tuesday, Leo, I’ll be there too. We can get through the rest of this week together.
OK, let’s see, there’s Toby Keith, Keith Richards, Richard Marx, Marc Jocobs, Jakob Dylan, Dylan McDermott, Dermott Mulrooney, Rooney Mara, Mara Wilson, Wilson Phillips, Philip Morris, Morris the Cat, Virgo! Why do we have to know who all these people are? I haven’t called to find out if my brother got the job he applied for, but at least I know that Billie Eillish’s given middle name is Pirate. This week, Virgo, try to ignore all those people you’ve never met and pay attention to the people who actually know your name.
There are stories that the world tells again and again just hoping this time we’ll understand something new. Gilgamesh, Euridyce, Sisyphus, Spiderman, Buffy — all the greats have something to offer with another telling. What you may tend to forget, Libra, is that your story could use another telling too. Maybe this time you’ll understand something new.
I’m getting to an age where there are parts of my past that I’ve just completely lost touch with. 2008. What did I do in 2008? I guess I know where I lived and where I worked. That’s on my Amazon order history and my resume. But what did I think about? What did I know? Sometimes the backyard of the past just gets absorbed into the kitchen present. I think this might be a good time to go digging around back there, Scorpio. See what you left back in 2008 that you could use today.
Third party candidates get a lot of flack. Seems like they always show up and siphon votes away from whichever candidate you think should win. And in the world of politics, sure, that might be true. But I do think there’s a lot of value in giving yourself another option. We get stuck, Sagittarius, thinking it has to be one way or the other. Thinking there is a right choice and a wrong one. Maybe this week you could make a choice that’s not in line with what’s expected. Maybe pick one that lines up with what you hope.
Nothing against rain, Capricorn. I know it’s great and important and it makes the flowers grow and the birds sing and all that. I’m just tired of driving in it. And there are plenty of things in your life, Capricorn, that are good for you. Things that will make you a healthier and a better person. But sometimes you just hit that point where you’ve had enough and you feel like you just need a break from all that. It’s OK if you stay inside today, Capricorn. It’s OK if you give it a rest. The rain might not stop, but you don’t have to go back out into it. At least not until tomorrow.
I know you’re tired of scraping the ice off your window, Aquarius. I know you’re sick of it taking an hour and a half to warm up your toes after you get home. And I understand that you’re ready for shorts weather. You can’t rush these things, Aquarius. Seasons take the time they need. In fact, seasons are the metaphor we most often use for something that takes its time to come around and takes its time to leave. Scrape it off one more time. This too shall pass.
Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, an trained fisherman, or a stocked cupboard. Mr. Mysterio is, however, a budding intermediate podcaster! Check out The Mr. Mysterio Podcast. Season 2 is now playing at mrmysterio.com
It was a cold, windy day in Nashville when I decided to stop by a local Mapco convenience store to get a cup of coffee. There was only one cashier and the line was long so I stood warming my hands on the steaming hot cup and my backside near the hot dog grill and watched the long line of customers move along.
I noticed that when someone bought cigarettes or alcohol, the cashier scanned the barcode on the back of their driver’s license. But when an older gentleman wanted to buy cigarettes but didn’t have a license, the cashier told him she wouldn’t sell them to him unless he had a license.
He asked to speak to the manager and was told the same thing: No license — no cigarettes. I wondered why they refused the sale. The man was obviously over 21. Heck, he was probably over 71. He had cash in-hand to give them. What could possibly be more important to Mapco than the money they would earn from the sale?
I decided to investigate what information could be gleaned by scanning a driver’s license and was
shocked to discover —NEARLY EVERYTHING! Not only does the scan confirm that the customer is 21 with their birthdate (month, date, and year), it also gives the business your name, address, your driver’s license number, as well as how tall you are, how much you weigh, and the color of your hair and eyes. That seems like an awfully high price to pay to buy an adult beverage or a cigarette.
What is Mapco doing with all of that vital, personal information? And who all has access to it? Those are important questions to ask as we attempt to protect ourselves from financial ruin in the digital age.
That experience also has me wondering why everyone has to get a REAL ID. Isn’t your driver’s license real enough? You have to show a lot of documentation to get one. How does that added yellow symbol in the lower right-hand corner make your ID any more real? What does it do?
The world of information-harvesting technology has become a treacherous place. I don’t trust it. How about you?
BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR
My mother was raised in a different time when discrimination because of someone’s race was readily accepted. (I’m not saying it’s right by any means, but that is how it was back then.) However, in the mid 70s she began to study the Bible and things slowly started to change.
It all started when after studying for some time she was invited to attend a Christian meeting. The sister explained how people of all races were invited to attend free of charge. My mother was NOT impressed and she responded, “You mean you let n*****s go to your church?”
The lady explained how God is not partial and we shouldn’t be either. She went on to ask my mother why she felt she was better than someone of another race and — perhaps most disturbing of all — after giving it some thought my mom said, “Well, I don’t know, I just am!” The woman looked horrified, and immediately went into prayer mode. Even though I was young and didn’t understand the full importance of the subject, I knew what my mom had said was definitely not the right answer.
As a result, when I got older, I was determined not to be prejudiced like my mom had been. As time passed, I’m happy to say my mom became more inclusive of people of other races — especially African-American people. She started learning about their culture, their food (something I was grateful for) and their music. In fact, Soul Train became as much a regular feature in our house as American Bandstand
It was a process. It definitely took some time, but in the end it was definitely worth it. She eventually overcame her issues and learned to appreciate and even embrace their similarities and at least tried to understand their differences.
Fast forward some 20 years and I was once again
confronted with prejudice — this time it was my own. I was at a Sunday service and the brother gave a particularly moving part. I went to tell him as much after the program, and he proceeded to introduce me to his wife. Now, I didn’t say, “But she’s black and you’re white.” I didn’t have to. The look on my face spoke volumes. The word “God smacked” comes to mind. Let me tell you there’s nothing like being God smacked in God’s house!
I was shaken to my core. I knew instantly my attitude was wrong. I went home SO upset! I cried hysterically. I didn’t eat for a few days (and for anyone who really knows me, that’s BIG!) When my husband asked me what was wrong I blurted out, “I’m prejudiced!“ Confused, he replied, “How can that be? You have lots of black friends?”
That was definitely true, but none of those friends were involved in an interracial relationship. I prayed for guidance to help me get rid of these inappropriate feelings and I’m happy to report they proved successful in time.
I’m glad it did. Now I’m a proud grandmother of two beautiful biracial granddaughters! My oldest asked me as we entered her new elementary school in first grade and saw all different races of people going into the school, “Am I different?” (Her former school was mostly black students.) With 10 minutes or so before the bell rang I said, “You know how when you have ice cream you can mix a little chocolate and a little vanilla and it turns out so good? Well, that’s kinda how you are, and you turned out just right!”
The point of this story is to prove that prejudice — whether deeply rooted (as in my mom’s case) or unknown prejudice (like mine) — can be overcome and it’s well worth the effort! Before you reach for hate, why not look deeper to see what unites us rather than focus on the things that
Jeremy Pruitt, a hard-headed businessman, glared at the automobile salesman and shouted, “No more automobiles for me! The one I’ve got right now has cost me entirely too much money in upkeep this last year and I am through!”
There may have been a time where you, the reader, have had an occasion to blame your car for its expensive upkeep and, uhm, “doctor bills.” If so, this story will save you money.
I’m going to let you know a secret: a motor car is amazingly like a human being! And the trouble with all the Jeremy Pruitts in this world is that they have, in fact, had a bad and decidedly costly habit of forgetting that italicized fact: There is a human side to your car!
An automobile — your automobile — is a symphony of cooperating parts, each of which, as is in the case of the human body, must work smoothly, silently, perfectly and efficiently at all times with all the other parts. If one part is neglected and doesn’t perform correctly, all the other contributing parts may become affected with the result that your automobile won’t run in the most satisfactory and economical manner. Comparing the automobile with the human body, I say correctly that a car breathes, perspires, has a “nervous system,” sees, feels, has a “heart,” falters under excessive strains, get full of “pep” under the right conditions and at other times becomes loggy, lifeless and unresponsive when neglected or abused.
So let’s look at your automobile with X-ray eyes and just see how the vital parts of it compare with the structure of the human machine. If you were to take five minutes and read this non-technical explanation, you will, in the future, have more respect for your automobile and never again complain when, if really
BY JASON T., CONTRIBUTOR VENDORneglected, it doesn’t give you the service you are entitled to.
The chassis, or frame, of your car is a steel foundation, strongly reinforced at every point. It is like the bone structure or skeleton of your body. It must stand all the strain and stress you give it: Roaring around corners and sharp curves, bumping over rugged roads, hurtling through mud, slush, ice, sand, or whatever the conditions may be — carrying you safely and silently on its back: Thousands of pounds which must travel speedily and comfortably.
The joints on the axles of your car — all joints, in fact — are surprisingly like the joints of your own body. Nature puts them in man to permit easy movement of the limbs and torso. When they become stiff and unruly, they cannot function properly. This condition is called arthritis. It may truthfully be said that a car, too, can suffer from this painful malady. So it is highly important that both the joints of the human body and your car be properly cared for and kept free from friction.
The oil circulation of an automobile can be compared to the blood circulation of the human being. Dilution or sediment in your oil may be likened to any condition in bloodstream which results in a change in the constituents of blood, such as the corpuscles or cells, etc. Thus, if the condition of your oil is not right at all times and in all temperatures, your car will certainly complain in audible measures; It will reach the danger point, and if further neglected, may develop really serious trouble. Keep the blood stream in your car right—and avoid high blood pressure!
In your automobile, the electrical system is precisely like your own nervous system: Those countless, delicate,
fibrous “wires” that carry your “feelings” from the seat of your brain to the soles of your feet and the tips of your fingers. You turn the key in your ignition cylinder and an electrical flash instantly travels to your battery, starter and spark plugs. Your engine turns over and catches, humming silently, waiting for your command. Have you ever known a person whose nerves were constantly “on edge”? If you have, you know that such a person cannot possibly be entirely normal in his reflexes and reactions. A neglected electrical system in an automobile does the same thing. The car gets “nervous” and loses stamina; It doesn’t perform “normally.”
Does a car “see?” Certainly it does. Just as the two eyes in your head look out upon the world and advise you constantly, so does the two headlights of your car provide the “vision” necessary for you too proceed. When your eyes get a bit dim or out of focus, you consult an eye specialist. Treat the lights of your car considerately and eliminate “pool-visioned” driving.
Now, something about “heart trouble” in your car. Yes, an automobile can have attacks of this serious ailment. You see, the carburetor, or injectors, may properly be termed the heart of the motor car, pumping the life-giving fluid to the entire system, supplying the food and fuel, regulating the “flow” in correct proportions.
True, the machine heart differs substantially from the human heart in that it is also directly connected with the combustion chamber, which actually compares with the human stomach, or digestive tract. But the important point still holds true. In your car, as in the human body, deposits of waste matter collect in the “digestive tract.” These
carbon formations on the piston heads, valve seats and guides, piston rings, and spark plugs cause loss of power and generally unsatisfactory performance. In order to do away with sluggishness, to restore latent energy, and to make your car lively as a colt and rarin’ to go, these deadly deposits should be removed.
Remember this: Every part of your car that moves must be kept in perfect harmony with all the other working parts. This is imperative. No part of an automobile can be better in service than those hundreds of other component parts with which it must work satisfactorily, just as your heart works with your network of nerves, muscles, joints and tendons.
You take pride in your own personal appearance. Why not take pride in the “personal appearance” of your automobile—its body, its nickled parts, its wheels, its fender, its tires? A man actually walks and runs better on well-shod feet. An automobile runs better (and easier) on well-cared for tires. Perhaps an auto feels ashamed of itself when it is all run down at the heel, with a shabby, mud-spattered body and a serious gnawing at its “vitals”.
The next time you take your car out of the garage, stand away from it a few feet and take a closer look at it through newly opened eyes and a gentler heart that have never seen it as it really is: A living, breathing, anxious to (sure?), mechanical servant that deserves considerate and respectful care. Also, a mute note, remember an ounce of care and prevention is worth more than a pound of cure—like a complete periodic exam by a doctor—it prevents expensive “cures” later on and lowers operating costs. If you do this, you will never be a typical Jeremy Pruitt.
ANTHONY G.
I look and I look, but I can’t seem to find
A new apartment that I can call mine.
Some places I look say, “no, Section 8.”
The landlords you meet don’t even smile in your face.
I’ll continue my search until I can find A new apartment I can call mine
VICTOR J.
People in life are always afraid of people, places, things, and life because they think they won’t make it.
JOHN H.
To love one another is what God wanted us to do If people spoke the opposite, what they spoke wasn’t true To keep his command, there will only be a few
But to hate, make sure you’re not among that crew
Many days on my way to corner, I don’t stop by The Contributor
In a rush to show God’s love. being a great distributor
That’s why all the time. I see people who act confused Only listen to their neighbor, not seeing they’re being used
Agreeing with my neighbor is not always a good thing
Thinking the way some think can drive you insane
Just read God’s word, and all be on one accord
Doing the right thing, his word never come back void
