The Contributor: April 13, 2021

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Volu m e 1 5

| Number 8 | Apr il 14 -28, 2021

M AT ER N A L M O R TA L I T Y Black mothers more at risk for pregnancy-related deaths

IN THE ISSUE

Contributor Board

Tom Wills, Chair Cathy Jennings, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland, Kerry Graham, Peter Macdonald, Amber DuVentre, Jerome Moore, Erik Flynn

LOCALES - POLÍTICA - INMIGRACIÓN - TRABAJOS - SALUD - ESPECTÁCULOS - DEPORTES Y MÁS...

4

13

Abril/2

2021

L a N ticia

Año 19 - No. 328

“DONDE OCURREN LOS HECHOS QUE IMPORTAN, SIEMPRE PRIMERO... ANTES”

GRATIS

14

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

www.hispanicpaper.com

¿Qué hacer en caso de deportación? Razones, Soluciones y Estafas

La deportación es el proceso de expulsión de Estados Unidos de un extranjero por no cumplir con las leyes del país.

Hace unos de dias, me contactó una persona que habia sido detenida cuando Por Yuri Cunza La Noticia intentaba cruzar la Editor in Chief frontera entre @LaNoticiaNews México y Estados Unidos. Ya me había hablado de esto hace unos años pero en ese momento no sabía donde había dejado los documentos que le dieron los agentes de inmigración al detenerla. Al parecer finalmente los encontró y desea tomar Foto: Yuri Cunza acción al respecto para poder reunirse Going into the United States of America at International Bridge Paso del Norte con su hija que ya es mayor de edad.

Mi primera recomendación fué que Si usted no ha sido detenido por las preguntas sobre el proceso de consulte con un abogado con licencia autoridades de inmigración, puede deportación o apelación. para ejercer las leyes en su localidad. salir voluntariamente de Estados Unidos. Conozca cómo realizar el Readmisión a Estados Unidos después ¿Cuando puede uno ser deportado? Una trámite de verificación de salida en un de la deportación o remoción Averigüe si puede solicitar la readpersona puede ser detenida y deportada si: consulado o embajada de EE. UU. misión a Estados Unidos.

•Ingresó al país ilegalmente.

Averigüe si puede iniciar el proceso de Comuníquese con USCIS para obtener •Cometió un delito o violó las leyes de ajuste de su estatus migratorio para más información sobre la solicitud de Estados Unidos. solicitar una tarjeta verde y conver- readmisión después de la deportación.

•Desobedeció repetidamente las leyes tirse en residente permanente legal.

Cómo localizar a una persona de inmigración (no obedeció los perdetenida por ICE misos o condiciones para estar en el Esto puede lograrse con: Usted puede localizar a una persona país) y es buscada por inmigración.

•Está involucrada en actos criminales o •Una petición de residencia presentada detenida por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas representa una amenaza para la por un familiar o (ICE, sigla en inglés) comunicándose seguridad pública.

•Una petición de asilo con la Oficina de Detención y El Servicio de Inmigración y Control Si cree que sus derechos civiles han Deportación de su estado o usando el de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE) sido violados en el proceso de inmi- localizador de detenidos. se encarga de llevar a cabo las órdenes gración, detención o remoción, puede de deportación. Para más información, presentar una queja ante el ICE tiene personal y centros dedicaDepartamento de Seguridad Nacional. dos a la captura, detención y visite el sitio web de ICE. Usted puede apelar ciertas decisiones deportación de personas que hayan ¿Qué hacer cuando existe una orden de de deportación. Solicite asesoramiento violado las leyes de inmigración de legal antes de presentar una apelación. Estados Unidos. deportación en su contra?

Comuníquese con el Servicio de Cada situación es diferente, pero aquí Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: puede encontrar algunas sugerencias: Unidos (USCIS, sigla en inglés) si tiene news@hispanicpaper.com

Vendor Spotlight

In Memorium: Don Nash

“It helps when people help you out. You get tired of going through what you been going through so it’ll make you change.”

Contributor staff and volunteers remember longtime vendor and writer Don Nash who passed away last week.

Estafas de trámites migratorios Muchas estafas están diseñadas para engañar a extranjeros que desean visitar, emigrar o que ya viven en Estados Unidos, y deben hacer trámites migratorios. Los estafadores buscan quedarse con su dinero. También pueden causarle problemas con el proceso de inmigración. ¿Qué hacer? Consiga información sobre trámites migratorios en los sitios web del Gobierno de Estados Unidos, por ejemplo el del Servicio de Inmigración y Ciudadanía de Estados Unidos (USCIS) o del Departamento de Estado. Guarde una copia de los documentos que entregue y de las cartas que reciba del Gobierno de EE. UU. Conserve los recibos que le dé el Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos. Consulte con un abogado de inmigración para que le ayude con sus trámites. También puede solicitar la ayuda de representantes acreditados por el Gobierno.

La Noticia + The Contributor

Vendor Writing

La Noticia, one of the

In this issue, vendors write about a bill in the Tennessee State Legislature that would further criminalize homelessness.

Lo que no debe hacer: No recurra a un notario público para pedir ayuda legal.

En Estados Unidos los notarios no son abogados. No pague por formularios del Gobierno de Estados Unidos porque son gratuitos. El Gobierno sí puede cobrarle una tarifa por realizar su trámite. No inicie trámites en sitios web que no incluyen la denominación .gov en su dirección. Nunca firme un formulario en blanco o que tenga información falsa. No deje que nadie se quede con sus documentos originales, como su pasaporte o certificado de nacimiento. No haga caso de mensajes de correo electrónico ni mensajes de texto sobre trámites migratorios. El Gobierno no pide información por esos medios. No envíe dinero a nadie que llame haciéndose pasar por un agente del Gobierno. No pague por una supuesta oferta de trabajo.

Reporte las estafas al 1-877-3824357 o presente una queja por escrito.

(Fuente: www.usa.gov/espanol)

leading Spanish-language Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada? newspapers in the nation, brings Spanish content to The Contributor.

1. Mantenerse callado 2. Sólo dar nombre y apellido 3. No mentir 4. Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos 5. No revelar su situación migratoria 6. No llevar documentación de otro país 7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una)

por

15

Nashville, Tennessee

Basados en la Quinta Enmienda de la Constitución, los derechos de guardar silencio y contar con un abogado fueron denominados Derechos Miranda luego de la decisión de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Estados Unidos en el caso Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, de 1966.

ww w.ju ane se.c om jua ne seUSA@gmail.com

Contributors This Issue

Hannah Herner • Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Yuri Cunza • Joe Nolan • Maggie Youngs • Mr. Mysterio • Ridley Wills II • Imani Miles • Lillian Nguyen • Jen A. • Vicky B. • Norma B. • Barbara Womack • John H.

Contributor Volunteers Joe First • Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • John Jennings • Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Christine Doeg • Laura Birdsall • Richard Aberdeen • Marissa Young • Robert Thompson

Cathy Jennings Executive Director Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations Hannah Herner Staff Writer

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Jesse Call Housing Navigator Raven Lintu Housing Navigator Dymin Cannon Housing Navigator Carli Tharpe Housing Navigator Barbara Womack Advertising Manager

The Contributor now accepts Venmo!

Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus

Scan the QR Code to the left , or find us: @The-Contributor!

Make sure to include your vendor’s badge name and number in the description. If you bought this version digitally, you can still leave your regular vendor a tip. Email Cathy@thecontributor.org for more information or with questions!

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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PAGE 2 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

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April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 3

V E N D O R S P O T L I G H T: L A M O N T C.

Lamont C. gets off the streets for a second time STORY AND PHOTO BY HANNAH HERNER It’s all new for Lamont C., who has his own room for the first time in his life.

For the last seven or eight years, he was staying at Nashville Rescue Mission, or with his brother.

In earlier years, when he was incarcerated, he had a cellmate. And when that cellmate attacked him, sending him to the hospital for stitches, he pledged to never go back. In 2017, he got out on parole.

Soon after, he found The Contributor.

It’s been a difficult transition, but he’d advise anyone in a similar situation to accept all the help they can get.

Friends, family, The Contributor and other organizations like Project Return and Mental Health Co-Op have helped set him up for success with income, job training and necessary documents to get housing.

“I got a lot of help from friends,” Lamont says. “It helps when people help

you out. You get tired of going through what you been going through so it’ll make you change.”

As a teen, Lamont lived in foster and group homes. He was raised by a single mother in public housing near the Gulch, but when she passed when Lamont was 13, he was put into the foster care system.

“It was hard, but it was fun,” he says.

“They take you everywhere, Opryland, movies, to the mall, out to eat. They get you stuff for Christmas. You write your name on a list and you wake up and you have most of the stuff you wrote on the paper. It was fun. It actually got me off the streets. I was living in the projects — a lot of stuff going on in the projects.”

It was in a group home in Knoxville that he became a 49ers fan, in the heydays of Steve Young and Joe Montana.

One of the house parents would trade

football cards with him, and even gave him a 49ers jacket. More recently, he followed the Patriots because he’s a Tom Brady fan. Now he’s a Seahawks fan.

When he has downtime from selling The Contributor downtown, he likes to watch horror movies like It, some drama and action movies, and if he does watch comedy, Chris Tucker is a favorite.

It’s hard for Lamont to think about his younger self, and what could have prevented him from being in trouble in the first place. He says he knew he was doing wrong, but it felt good to rebel against the rules.

“Back then I was always with my brother, we were doing a lot of drugs, smoking weed. I was doing some bad stuff,” he says.

Lamont is very soft-spoken, though he’s opened up a bit more in the last few months. He looks much younger than his

PAGE 4 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

43 years, constantly holding in a smirk.

While he doesn’t buy many papers at one time, he’s very consistent at the office to pick them up. He chalks up his shy nature to the life he’s lived thus far, where keeping to himself kept him safe.

“I’ve been hiding,” he says. “When you’re in group homes you’re hiding from the stuff that happens on the street.

A lot of people drink, do drugs, alcohol, run the streets all night.”

But now he has some opportunity to start again, with The Contributor housing navigators working on finding him a permanent place to live while he stays at an area hotel rent-free.

Lamont says his goal is to have his own place, continue to stay out of trouble, away from negativity and bad people. It’s starting anew in his own space.

“Everything’s the first time pretty much.”

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

Leaving a job with a family legacy can be a big decision. Ridley Wills II talks about how he made one of the biggest choices of his life.

BY RIDLEY WILLS II The biggest decision of my lifetime was to marry Irene Jackson. This summer we will have been happily married for 59 years.

The next biggest decision in my life came in 1983 when I was a 49-years-old senior vice president of American General Life and Accident Insurance Company with more than 1,000 home office employees reporting to me.

I had spent 25 years in the life insurance business, nearly all of which time I was affiliated with the National Life and Accident Insurance

Company that my grandfather, Ridley Wills, co-founded with Neely Craig and Runcie Clements in 1901.

The decision facing me in 1983 was whether to remain with American General, which had acquired control in 1982 over NLT, the parent company of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company.

The safer decision was to remain with American General, where I was a senior officer with a large salary and a possible path to the presidency. The riskier choice was to resign from American General, and choose

another career. I thought that if I left AG, I would probably never be on the board of Vanderbilt University, where my father, Jesse Wills, and my grandfather, Ridley Wills, both served as members.

In the late 1970s, before anyone knew that NLT would be acquired in a hostile takeover, Dr. Garth Fort, medical director of National Life, said to me, “Ridley, someday you will be president of National Life.”

In 1982, that possibility disappeared when American General acquired NLT and its subsidiaries.

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5

I want my wife, children, grandchildren, and my brother and sister, Matt Wills and Ellen Wills Martin, to understand the thought processes that led me to resign from American General in 1983.

By the time American General announced its acquisition of NLT on November 4, 1982, I had already decided to stay with American General long enough to determine if I felt comfortable working for that company. As I was then chairing National

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

CONTINUED: Ridley Wills II talks about how he made one of the biggest choices of his life CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Life’s annual United Way campaign, I did not want to leave in the midst of the campaign, because, without leadership, I thought the campaign would flounder. That year, the combined employee contribution from L&C and National Life employees to the United Way was $288,380. In the 1987-88 United Way campaign, the AG home office employees gave $172,578, a 30 percent decrease over five years. For a number of years before the takeover, National Life had raised more money for the United Way than any company in Nashville. In 1978, I had been chairman of the entire United Way campaign in Nashville.

Very quickly following the merger, two things happened that told me I probably should resign from American General. In 1982, I had been on the board of directors of National Life for several years.

With the takeover, the name of the board was changed to the American General Life and Accident Insurance Company Board. One day, when the board was to meet, I got a phone call from the secretary of one of the executive officers telling me that I did not need to attend the meeting. When I asked her why, she said I was no longer on the board. I was taken aback at the insensitive manner in which AG’s executive management handled my dismissal.

One of the innovations that American General brought to the National Life office staff of over 1,000 people, was to introduce a management plan called Modelnetics that every home office employee was expected to learn. Modelnetics consisted of 50 or more models, which collectively gave the philosophy of the company.

Two of the models that I remember were, “If you are on a northbound train and want to go south, you should get off the train.”

The other was, “the appropriate amount of resources to accomplish a job is the minimum resource needed to accomplish the task.”

American General needed someone to teach the first Modelnetics class to National Life employees. To do so, that person would need to go to Sacramento, Calif., where Harold Hook, American General’s CEO, had a brother who taught the class to various American General company employees. I volunteered to be that person, was accepted, and went to Sacramento for a week to learn how to teach the class at National Life. There I also learned that Harold Hook owned Modelnetics and profited by selling it to his companies. I volunteered to teach the first class at National Life because, if I did leave the company’s employment, I thought I would like to teach Nashville history as an ad hoc professor at an educational institution. So I taught the first class at National Life.

In December, 1982, two decisions I made were overturned I suppose by H.J. Bremerman, Jr., the newly appointed CEO of American General Life and Accident Insurance Company of Tennessee. In December of each year, I evaluated the written goals of the department heads reporting to me. Four of those departments paid claims — death claims, policy loans, cash surrenders, and sick and accident claims.

I gave each of these department heads a goal to pay claims as quickly as they could. The faster their employees paid claims, the larger the annual bonus I gave them. I did this because I knew that American General policyowners, many of whom

were African-Americans, were relatively poor. I knew that they needed the money. I also knew that, when my grandfather, Ridley Wills, and Neely Craig founded National Life in 1901, they decided that if they were good to their policyowners who then were all Black, everyone else would do just fine. Accordingly, Neely and Ridley put a sign in the agent’s room of every district office that read as follows: Pay all just claims promptly and pleasantly; Reject all unjust claims firmly but pleasantly; If there is any doubt, give the policy owner the benefit of the doubt.

Soon after giving bonuses in December 1982, I received word to quit paying claims so promptly.

This was a shock and a second sign that I was on a train going north while I wanted to go south. The other blow came when I recommended salary increases for my department heads. At about the same time, the underwriting departments of Life and Casualty and National lIfe were housed side by side in what had recently been the NLT Tower but were still operating separately.

Jack Gwaltney headed the National Life Underwriting Department while Clark Hutton headed the smaller Life and Casualty Underwriting Department. Jack was making $65,000 a year while Clark, who was within a year of retirement, making $35,000 annually.

I did not recommend a salary increase that year for Jack, but recommended a modest cost of living increase for Clark. My recommendation for Clark was turned down, assumingly by the CEO. American General announced at about the beginning of 1983 that

it would sell WSM, the Grand Ole Opry and the Opryland Theme Park. Soon thereafter, I was invited by Walter Robinson, the former CEO of NLT, to join a group he headed to buy these companies.

I felt honored to have been asked to become a minor member of the group, which made an offer of between $200 million and $300 million for the companies to be sold.

On March 16, 1983, American General announced that it would shop around for a larger offer. On July 1, 1983, Gaylord Broadcasting signed a letter of intent to buy the Opryland properties for $270 million.

Sometime in 1983, I was asked to f ly to Houston and spend a weekend with American General’s CEO, Harold Hook, Jr., on his ranch.The only reason I could think of why he would want to spend time with me was because he was trying to decide whom to name as executive vice-presidents for the Nashville company. He already had a CEO, H. J. Bremerman Jr., a vice-chairman, Philip G. Davidson, and would shortly announce that my boss at National Life, Carroll Shanks, would be president and COO. Hook wanted to name three executive vice-presidents and was considering promoting three senior vice-presidents to those positions.

In the running were Neil Anderson, National Life’s Chief Actuary; William Darragh Jr. who had recently moved to Nashville from another subsidiary company; Bob Devlin; possibly Sydney Keeble, Jr. formerly of Life and Casualty, and, I suppose, me. Devlin, whose office was next door to mine, and I were jointly responsible for merging the home office employees of Life and Casualty and National Life. I

PAGE 6 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

earlier realized that Devlin, who had come up from Houston, never wrote anything down, and talked daily with Harold Hook. I thought he was a spy.

By this time, sometime in 1983, I decided to quit. A couple of hours after submitting my written resignation, I saw Bremerman, the CEO, downtown at lunch time. He stopped and said something to the effect that he knew I would enjoy being in Texas with Harold Hook.

I told him that I was not going to Texas and had just submitted my letter of resignation. He seemed disappointed. Bremerman was later fired by Hook.

Leaving American General was my second best decision ever. After doing so, to my surprise, I was elected to the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust when I didn’t even have a job, and chaired MBA’s Board of Trustees for nine years, hiring two headmasters, Douglas Paschal and Brad Gioia. I have since 1990 written and published 27 books and three booklets, and was given in May 2016 an honorary PhD by the University of the South for being one of Tennessee’s foremost historians. I also taught Nashville history as an ad hoc professor at Belmont University for fifteen or more years, and in the fall of 2021 will be inducted in the Southeast YMCA Hall of Fame in Black Mountain, N.C. Ann Potter Wilson, David K. Wilson’s first wife, on hearing that I had left American General, told Pat, “I never thought Ridley was suited to be in the life insurance business.”

What I know for certain is that I have received much enjoyment and satisfaction in my life since leaving American General. I made the right decision.

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 7

NEWS

Photo Cour tesy of Open Table Nashville

Homeless advocates and service providers criticize bill that will criminalize homelessness A bill is moving through the Tennessee State Legislature that could further criminalize homelessness across Tennessee.

The bill, filed as HB0978/SB1610, would make solicitation or camping “on the shoulder, berm, or right-ofway of a state or interstate highway or under a bridge or overpass” a class C misdemeanor offense punishable by a $50 fine and community service work.

This bill would also broaden the language within the Equal Access to Public Property Act of 2012, which would allow people to be prosecuted for camping not just on property owned by the state, but on all public property across Tennessee.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville) and Sen. Paul Bailey (R-Sparta). Last year, the Mayor of Cookeville tried to pass a citywide anti-panhandling bill, but it was defeated by advocates who spoke out against the bill. Williams and Bailey then took this effort to the state level.

Last Wednesday, March 31, the bill

passed in the House Criminal Justice Committee.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the eviction crisis looms over countless households across the state, advocates and service providers from Open Table Nashville, a homeless outreach nonprofit, and The Contributor, are speaking out and working to stop this bill.

“This bill will only make things worse for people who are already in desperate situations,” says Lindsey Krinks, co-founder of Open Table Nashville. “If our state legislators really want to help, they will put their efforts into ensuring that the poorest among us can access affordable housing and health care.

Handcuffs, citations, and fines can’t heal. This bill does nothing to break the cycles of poverty.”

Tennessee is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nearly one third of all Tennessee renters qualify as Extremely Low Income, and there is currently a

shortage of at least over 126,500 affordable homes for this income group across the state.

Misdemeanor charges can also be used to deny people from employment opportunities and private housing units, even if they have received a Section 8 voucher.

“We are concerned that making solicitation on public roadways a misdemeanor could decimate the incomes of some Contributor vendors who have worked hard to build their business and work their way into housing,” says Cathy Jennings, director of The Contributor. “We have sought clarification from the bill’s sponsors. The only answer to homelessness is housing.

Not fines. Fines just push people out of sight, further away from existing services, and make it harder for them to become housed.”

The Contributor has been providing individuals experiencing homelessness in the greater Nashville area with a means of becoming self-sufficient through selling newspapers as an in-

PAGE 8 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Read more from Contributor vendors and staff as they reflect on the ramifications of this bill on pages 18 and 19 of this issue!

dependent contractor since 2007. Since its inception, The Contributor has been an invaluable asset to the city of Nashville and surrounding areas, providing the homeless with an alternative to panhandling that provides legitimate sources of income and avenues towards housing and employment. Seventy percent of six-month tenured participants work their way into housing.

Homeless advocates are turning their efforts to advocating with members of the TN Senate and Senate Judiciary Committee. If you want to learn more and help their efforts, please visit www.opentablenashville.org/no.

The bill is slated for a Senate vote on April 13. Check The Contributor’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts for updates about the bill.

IN REMEMBRANCE

‘CONTRIBUTOR’ VENDOR DON NASH REMEMBERED AS A UNIQUE STORYTELLER Franklin Nash Jr., known as Don, died in his home on March 29 at the age of 62.

Since starting at The Contributor in 2010, he purchased a total of over 32,000 papers to sell, typically vending in the Gulch.

Nash came to be well-known in The Contributor office. Executive director of The Contributor Cathy Jennings said he loved his apartment.

“Don was a friendly soul and could be full of gratitude,” she said. “A customer bought him a roller suitcase and every time he came in the office he would show it off.”

Volunteer for The Contributor Michael

Reilly said will miss Nash’s folksy and goofy nature.

“He was an optimistic soul who struggled with his personal demons,” Reilly said. “He was often disappointed with himself, but never lost his desire for self-improvement.”

Another volunteer, Joe First, said Nash could amaze with his writing.

“My favorite was when he wrote about learning to take apart and reassemble a car engine when he was 15 years old,” First said.

Volunteer Logan Ebel said Nash could spin a narrative, once telling him all about “some psychedelic dreams he had had and

The new normal?

B Y D O N N . P U B LI S H E D J U LY 3 1 , 2 0 2 0 Let us hope not. Surely COVID-19 will go dormant in the near future, but we must all do our part and wear the mask. I know they’re bothersome and those with respiratory diseases find it very hard to breathe with them, but they are the best defense and of course six feet social gathering.

I myself have been sick for six months now with severe breathing problems and fatigue. I

tested negative for COVID-19 but positive for exacerbated COPD. I’ve suffered from severe depression for a decade or more. I am trying very hard to snap out of it. This COVID thing certainly has not helped. Speaking of COVID-19, there are many, many cons to the virus and a very few pros. We all know the cons but let me share some pros with you, hopefully you will agree.

It has made us much closer as a family unit.

compared them to astrological charts. It was an extremely unique conversation that I won’t forget.”

He often would tell folks to take care of their body, once buying cigarettes and then telling Ebel to “never smoke.”

Volunteer Laura Birdsall remembers how hard Don could make people laugh with his deadpan delivery, especially when he was annoyed about something.

“Don always had a bee in his bonnet,” she says. But, she recalls, he was unfaltering in his warmth and gentleness.

“Even when Don was grumpy, he approached the people around him with so much grace and charm.”

The Contributor’s first editor, Andrew Krinks remembered Don as a special guy.

“I remember the lines in his face showing so much history and character, and the corners of his mouth curling up when he smiled. I remember how often he wrote with gratitude for his customers, who were like family to him. And I remember when he told me stories about being mistreated by police for appearing homeless (even though he was housed), how he asserted his dignity, and knew he was worthy of so much more. I’m thankful for Don’s quiet, tenacious persistence and hope.”

He was polite and thoughtful and will be missed by many.

It has brought out the good in a lot of peoples. It makes us realize how fragile life can be. There are very, very few more.

I got so sick in the last two months I was beginning to wonder if I had caught it. I kept checking on my temperature, I was coughing.

I could not walk barely 30 feet without having to stop and regain my breath, yet I kept going to the corner to try and make a lil money. I’ve had a nice apartment at Vine Hill Towers going on four years. I got it with the help of Sally B., who used to work at Room In the Inn, and selling papers for The Contributor. I’ve been selling them since 2011. I can’t handle anything else ‘cause of my COPD. I have to pay my rent (wild horses couldn’t pull me away). Of course food and normal day to

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 9

day items were and still are needed. I did finally get food stamps two months ago, for the first time in my life.

Well July 22, I went to the corner, barely making it. Next thing I know, I am in the hospital.

Doctor said I passed out in the first lane of 13th Avenue. I do not remember any of it. He also said I was still COVID negative. But I had a bad case of pneumonia. I said OK, thanks sir, but I will take the prescriptions and go to the clinic and get my regular refills, some antibiotics and a prednisone shot and tablets. Four days later I feel much, much better.

So folks, in a nutshell, let us be thankful for what we have. Hope and pray for what we do not.

GODSPEED!!

COVER STORY

MATERNAL MORTALITY Black mothers more at risk for pregnancy-related deaths

BY HANNAH HERNER In Tennessee, racism can be one of the leading reasons a woman loses her life during or in the year that follows pregnancy, according to a recent report from the state’s Maternal Mortality Review and Prevention Committee.

In 2017 through 2019, Tennessee has lost a total of 222 women to pregnancy-associated causes. Thirty percent of them were Black women while just 17 percent of Tennesseans are Black. The report also shows that Black women are nearly four times as likely to turn up on this report at all than white women, and

100 percent of their deaths were deemed preventable.

Systemic racism or racism while receiving care can impact a pregnancy for a mother.

“When we try to understand the why of this. The variability and risk of death by race may be due to several factors,” says Dr. Elizabeth Harvey, member of the committee. “It could be access to care, quality of care, the prevalence of chronic diseases, structural racism and implicit biases. And so, when we do look at recommendations, we look at

the different levels of implementations of recommendations and recognize that each of these different levels has a role to play.”

This isn’t news to Kristen Meija. It was clear that things weren’t equitable when she became a doula, trained in a mostly white space. She felt ill-prepared for dealing with infant or mother death.

It was just something that wasn’t talked about much, because it’s not affecting the white community as much, she says.

And when she had her first white client, she noticed differences in the

PAGE 10 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

way she was treated during labor and delivery compared to Black mothers in similar situations. This client was in labor for more than two days and it had stalled.

“She was given the choice of, like, the option to keep going,” Meija says.

“And for Black women it’s not that all the time. And it’s more of this, OK, like, come on, let’s get it done. What’s up?

You already been here. You’ve been here for two days. Let’s have a baby already.”

Meija founded Homeland Hearts, a doula service led by and just for Black

COVER STORY

Photos courtesy of Homeland Hearts

“Giving birth shouldn’t cost a dime, let alone somebody’s life,” KRISTEN MEIJA , HOMEL AND HEARTS

women, in a pledge to change the statistics. The organization also trains new doulas in offering non-medical, non-judgemental, evidence-based birth support.

“I had somebody ask me, isn’t that kind of discriminatory? Isn’t your program discriminatory?,” she says. “And I was like, well, if you think about the history of America, had it not been for discrimination in the first place, we wouldn’t actually be here and my program wouldn’t be a necessity.”

Homeland Hearts provides emotional and mental support during birth and throughout pregnancy. They seek to be a bridge between care providers and the mom and give support for the partners, too.

“Women are not always comfortable voicing their concerns in the doctor’s appointment,” Meija says. “I’ve been in doctor’s appointments with my clients, where sometimes I’ve had to stop the doctor and say, ‘OK, now can you explain that to us in a different way, as

though we were not your medical school classmates?’”

For seven area zip codes, care is free — reimbursed by the Metro Health Department’s Strong Babies program.

Outside of that, they work on a sliding scale, with the highest price being $750, and this always includes a birth doula, a postpartum doula, and a lactation peer counselor. Area doulas often cost more than $1,000.

Homeland Hearts also recommend doctors and hospitals where former clients have had the best experiences.

“We look for what we call dismissive care,” Meija says. “And those reports come from our clients. We have clients that can say that they feel like they’ve been put in a racial profiling situation during a prenatal appointment. We have clients that say they can tell that they don’t really feel like their doctor is listening to them, or I’ve had the experience with [hospitals] often not having enough beds for moms but then they schedule inductions.”

The Maternal Mortality Review identified contributing factors to the passing of those 222 women over three years, and categorized them into one of five factor categories in which change in the outcome could have happened.

These categories were patient/family, provider, facility, systems of care and community.

All of the deaths studied by the review council are considered pregnancy-associated because they happened close to a pregnancy, while 30 percent are actually pregnancy-related, meaning it’s a chain of events caused by pregnancy or an unrelated condition aggravated by pregnancy and eventually leading to death.

In the three years studied, overdose has actually been the leading cause of death for all of them. Where moms live and how much money they make also makes a difference. The most deaths happened in the Western region of Tennessee, and the fewest in the central

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 11

region. Overall, 55 percent were in a rural county and 45 percent in a metropolitan county.

And the fact that they live in Tennessee at all makes a difference. In 2018 the national rate of maternal mortality is 17.4, per 100,000 live births while in Tennessee it was 101. Sixty-eight percent of moms were on TennCare at the time of their death.

Before 2017, pregnancy associated deaths in Tennessee weren’t looked at very closely. A checkbox for pregnancy on a death certificate was only introduced in 2012, but it wasn’t necessarily accurate and there was no investigation into the nature of the death, or if it was preventable. The pre-2017 data isn’t even comparable to the data analyzed by the multidisciplinary Maternal Mortality Review and Prevention Committee, which was formed in 2017.

The 2021 report that came out in mid-March tells us about deaths in 2017 through 2019. There’s always going to be a lag so the committee can look at the year following a pregnancy, get the medical records and analyze them. Because of this, we won’t know if COVID-19 played a role in any maternal deaths until 2022’s report.

“Whether it’s personal stories of women or of our family members who either experienced a severe event or near death event, or women who have passed away,” Harvey says. “Those open up a conversation to think about, is it just that one story or what’s behind that?

And I think that’s where maternal mortality review committees have really played a big role in terms of keeping these issues grounded in evidence and grounded in the data.”

Homeland Hearts has been denied three state grants, including one from Tennessee State Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health and Disparities Elimination, and the Maternal Mortality board, Meija says, so they’ve pivoted to just community-led funding.

“Despite any white people that may want to help or may really want to do the work that we’re doing, it’s not going to have the same impact,” she says. “And so we know that we have to be the ones to do it. And we’re OK with being the ones to do it. We just want to be able to feed our families too.”

The Maternal Mortality state committee and Homeland Hearts are coming at the issue of maternal mortality from very different places, but what drives them both is the fact that these deaths are largely preventable. Seventy-four percent of all the maternal deaths were determined to be preventable, with 21 percent having a ‘good chance’ of being prevented and 53 percent of having some chance of being prevented.

“Giving birth shouldn’t cost a dime, let alone somebody’s life,” Meija says.

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT

Coffee with a Cause STORY AND PHOTOS BY MAGGIE YOUNGS

Nashville is home to dozens of coffee shops enjoyed by tourists and locals alike. As the city has become increasingly socially minded, so have coffee shops, who support a variety of causes including giving veteran support, providing clean water and supporting those who have been victims of violence.

Humphreys Street Harvest Hands has empowered youth in South Nashville through after school programs and sports leagues since 2007.

In 2018, the organization opened its coffee house, Humphreys Street, as a way to further empower youth in the community by creating jobs, providing mentorship opportunities and teaching job skills. Not only does Humphreys Street employ youth in the area, but all profits are reinvested into programs and scholarships that support students.

Parker Millican, general manager of Humphreys Street says, “Roasting has been our main avenue of student employment during this time, and we’ve seen a lot of growth in the skills of our student roasters.”

Although the shop currently only has to-go options, they are planning to open their backyard to customers soon and their mission has continued to thrive. Humphreys Street is set to open their second location on Broadway this summer and their bagged coffee is sold at all Nashville Whole Foods locations.

Crest Coffee House Crest Coffee House is Nashville’s first donation-based coffee house. Instead of paying a listed price, customers are asked how much they would like to donate. The donation-based model creates a space where people of all incomes and backgrounds can enjoy a cup of coffee.

Crest Coffee House is attached to Hillcrest Community Church at 1601 Martin Street. The church and its small staff have served their tight knit community for many years, pouring tithes and offerings back into the community in place of salaries. The coffee house extends this mission by investing profits to help at-risk youth and individual community needs.

Although in-person services for Hillcrest are currently postponed, the coffee house has continued to operate in the midst of the pandemic.

The Cafe and Shop at Thistle Farms For 23 years, Thistle Farms has served women coming out of trafficking, sex work, and addiction in need of time and space to heal. Recognizing the downfalls of other models seeking to help these women, the organization began as a residential program. Three years later, Thistle Farms began producing and selling bath and body products to employ their survivors. In 2013, the organization started the cafe, selling breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea and coffee as a way of employing their survivors.

“There weren’t as many places that sold tea,” says CEO Hal Cato. “With coffee, you can grab and go. Tea is really about visiting.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on the cafe.

“We had 75,000 guests in 2019, then suddenly we were closed. It was a shock.”

Nonetheless, the cafe pushed on, maintaining employment by partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank to deliver 12,000 lunches to students homebound due to the pandemic. Although catering services are still closed, the cafe is now open and thriving.

The Well “We are turning coffee into water,” is one motto of The Well Coffeehouse.

The Well began its journey in Nashville in 2012 in hopes to both build the local community and make a global impact. The company has both a storefront cafe and a subscription model, using profits to build water wells in the countries from which they source their coffee. The Well also strongly values that their coffee growers receive a living wage for their craft.

The Well’s Nashville location sits across from Lipscomb University on Granny White Pike with additional locations in Brentwood, Bellevue and even Fishers, Indiana. Since its founding, profits have built water projects in over 50 communities, bringing clean water to over 20,000 people in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tan-

PAGE 12 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

zania, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

This year, The Well also partnered with other local organizations, ShowerUp, The Laundry Stop and People Loving Nashville to provide water, health and dignity to those affected by the devastating tornado that hit Nashville in March of 2020.

Green Beans Coffee Green Beans Coffee seeks to support veterans and military families across the country. The company partners with and gives a portion of profits to a variety of organizations supporting veterans and military families including the Fisher House Foundation, Blue Star Families, and Service Women’s Action Network. They also sell Green Beans K-cups online and allow customers to sponsor the delivery of coffee to a deployed soldier, sailor, airman, marine or coast guardsman through their initiative “Cup of Joe for Joe.” The company started when brothers Jon and Jason Araghi found themselves living outside of the country, but longing for coffee with the quality and environment they loved. The company has grown immensely over the last two decades, now operating in 10 countries on 4 continents and providing coffee to a wide variety of travellers. The Nashville International Airport invited Green Beans Coffee to join in the BNA Expansion Program for 2020, and despite the pandemic, currently serves travellers both looking for a space to rest and those hurrying to catch their flight.

MOVING PICTURES

Spooked yet?

BEN WHEATLEY’S ‘IN THE EARTH’ BRINGS PSYCHEDELIC HORROR UP FROM UNDERGROUND

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

The folk horror genre originated from a trio of otherwise unrelated British films from the 1960s and ’70s. It was only a decade ago that actor and writer Mark Gatiss popularized the term “folk horror” and helped to better define the genre by pointing to the trifecta of Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968), Blood on Satan’s Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971), and The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973). These films were all made when Western countercultural

movements transformed from urban radicalism to back-to-the-land, psychedelic naturalism. But despite Gattis’ best efforts, these films really only have two elements in common: their raw landscapes and their spotlighting of the madness-inducing isolation of wild spaces.

Gattis’ popularizing of the “folk horror” moniker was right on time for the folk horror revival over the past decade: Ben Wheatley’s Kill List came out in 2011, and directors like Robert Eggers (The Witch 2015, The Lighthouse, 2019) and Ari Aster (Hereditary, 2018, Midsommar, 2019) doubled-down on the genre while making some of the best cinema of the 2010s. Ben Wheatley followed-up Kill List with A Field in England (2013) — a film that’s already considered a classic of psychedelic cinema. Now Wheatley’s back with In the Earth, which takes viewers on another mind-melting journey, and into the diabolical intersection of art, science and madness.

One year into a global pandemic, a scientist named Martin arrives at a remote lodge that’s been converted into a research outpost on the edge of a

remote wooded area. Martin goes on an equipment run through the forest with a ranger named Alma. Martin is out of shape after months of urban isolation.

They discover an abandoned camp. The woods seem full of cacophonous flocks of birds, but there’s not one wing to be seen.

Spooked yet? Wheatley is great with vibe and his wild woods get progressively weirder once Martin and Alma become the unwitting subjects of an insane artist, Zack (Reece Shearsmith) who’s also a psychedelic sommelier and a backwoods surgeon to boot. By the time the pair reach Martin’s colleague’s camp in the woods they find the scientist using an ancient demonological tome as the blueprint for a light and sound experiment that will allow her to speak with a mycological web of fungal intelligence that might be the wetware of the consciousness of the planet.

Of course, this is all even more bonkers than I can convey without spoilage.

Wheatley understands that a story like this can work if he can keep viewers from wanting to make reasonable sense of it all. To this end Wheatley gives us sudden and bloody horror film gore, arresting

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 13

original visual effects, and trance-inducing sound and music. The director immerses viewers in his movies. In the Earth is mostly just four characters in a few settings, but — like the black soil of the forest the film is set in — Wheatley’s talents for stunning sights and wildly intense moods are particularly fecund here. This is a mysterious film about ineffable presences, fleeting moods and intense experiences.

Wheatley wrote and directed this film over fifteen days in August of 2020.

It’s probably one of the first films made during the pandemic, which will have to include the theme of isolation to justify such minimal productions. Here’s hoping they’ll all be able to transform these lonely days into films as vital and imaginative as this one.

In the Earth opens in theaters Friday April 16.

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.

LA NOTICIA “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.

LOCALES - POLÍTICA - INMIGRACIÓN - TRABAJOS - SALUD - ESPECTÁCULOS - DEPORTES Y MÁS...

L a N ticia 2021

GRATIS

Abril/2

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

www.hispanicpaper.com

“DONDE OCURREN LOS HECHOS QUE IMPORTAN, SIEMPRE PRIMERO... ANTES”

Año 19 - No. 328

Nashville, Tennessee

¿Qué hacer en caso de deportación? Razones, Soluciones y Estafas

La deportación es el proceso de expulsión de Estados Unidos de un extranjero por no cumplir con las leyes del país.

Estafas de trámites migratorios

Hace unos de dias, me contactó una persona que habia sido detenida cuando Por Yuri Cunza La Noticia intentaba cruzar la Editor in Chief frontera entre @LaNoticiaNews México y Estados Unidos. Ya me había hablado de esto hace unos años pero en ese momento no sabía donde había dejado los documentos que le dieron los agentes de inmigración al detenerla. Al parecer finalmente los encontró y desea tomar Foto: Yuri Cunza acción al respecto para poder reunirse Going into the United States of America at International Bridge Paso del Norte con su hija que ya es mayor de edad.

Mi primera recomendación fué que Si usted no ha sido detenido por las preguntas sobre el proceso de consulte con un abogado con licencia autoridades de inmigración, puede deportación o apelación. para ejercer las leyes en su localidad. salir voluntariamente de Estados Unidos. Conozca cómo realizar el Readmisión a Estados Unidos después ¿Cuando puede uno ser deportado? Una trámite de verificación de salida en un de la deportación o remoción Averigüe si puede solicitar la readpersona puede ser detenida y deportada si: consulado o embajada de EE. UU. misión a Estados Unidos.

•Ingresó al país ilegalmente.

Averigüe si puede iniciar el proceso de Comuníquese con USCIS para obtener •Cometió un delito o violó las leyes de ajuste de su estatus migratorio para más información sobre la solicitud de Estados Unidos. solicitar una tarjeta verde y conver- readmisión después de la deportación.

•Desobedeció repetidamente las leyes tirse en residente permanente legal.

Cómo localizar a una persona de inmigración (no obedeció los perdetenida por ICE misos o condiciones para estar en el Esto puede lograrse con: Usted puede localizar a una persona país) y es buscada por inmigración.

•Está involucrada en actos criminales o •Una petición de residencia presentada detenida por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas representa una amenaza para la por un familiar o (ICE, sigla en inglés) comunicándose seguridad pública.

•Una petición de asilo con la Oficina de Detención y El Servicio de Inmigración y Control Si cree que sus derechos civiles han Deportación de su estado o usando el de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE) sido violados en el proceso de inmi- localizador de detenidos. se encarga de llevar a cabo las órdenes gración, detención o remoción, puede de deportación. Para más información, presentar una queja ante el ICE tiene personal y centros dedicaDepartamento de Seguridad Nacional. dos a la captura, detención y visite el sitio web de ICE. Usted puede apelar ciertas decisiones deportación de personas que hayan ¿Qué hacer cuando existe una orden de de deportación. Solicite asesoramiento violado las leyes de inmigración de legal antes de presentar una apelación. Estados Unidos. deportación en su contra?

Comuníquese con el Servicio de Cada situación es diferente, pero aquí Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: puede encontrar algunas sugerencias: Unidos (USCIS, sigla en inglés) si tiene news@hispanicpaper.com

Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada?

1. Mantenerse callado 2. Sólo dar nombre y apellido 3. No mentir 4. Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos 5. No revelar su situación migratoria 6. No llevar documentación de otro país 7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una)

por

Basados en la Quinta Enmienda de la Constitución, los derechos de guardar silencio y contar con un abogado fueron denominados Derechos Miranda luego de la decisión de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Estados Unidos en el caso Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, de 1966.

ww w.ju ane se.c om jua ne seUSA@gmail.com

PAGE 14 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Muchas estafas están diseñadas para engañar a extranjeros que desean visitar, emigrar o que ya viven en Estados Unidos, y deben hacer trámites migratorios. Los estafadores buscan quedarse con su dinero. También pueden causarle problemas con el proceso de inmigración. ¿Qué hacer? Consiga información sobre trámites migratorios en los sitios web del Gobierno de Estados Unidos, por ejemplo el del Servicio de Inmigración y Ciudadanía de Estados Unidos (USCIS) o del Departamento de Estado. Guarde una copia de los documentos que entregue y de las cartas que reciba del Gobierno de EE. UU. Conserve los recibos que le dé el Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos. Consulte con un abogado de inmigración para que le ayude con sus trámites. También puede solicitar la ayuda de representantes acreditados por el Gobierno.

Lo que no debe hacer: No recurra a un notario público para pedir ayuda legal.

En Estados Unidos los notarios no son abogados. No pague por formularios del Gobierno de Estados Unidos porque son gratuitos. El Gobierno sí puede cobrarle una tarifa por realizar su trámite. No inicie trámites en sitios web que no incluyen la denominación .gov en su dirección. Nunca firme un formulario en blanco o que tenga información falsa. No deje que nadie se quede con sus documentos originales, como su pasaporte o certificado de nacimiento. No haga caso de mensajes de correo electrónico ni mensajes de texto sobre trámites migratorios. El Gobierno no pide información por esos medios. No envíe dinero a nadie que llame haciéndose pasar por un agente del Gobierno. No pague por una supuesta oferta de trabajo.

Reporte las estafas al 1-877-3824357 o presente una queja por escrito.

(Fuente: www.usa.gov/espanol)

The New Christian Year Selected by Charles Williams

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

2nd Wednesday after Easter CHRIST was common to all in love, in teaching, in tender consolation, in generous gifts, in merciful forgiveness. His soul and his body, his life and his death, and his ministry were, and are, common to all. His sacraments and his gifts are common to all. Christ never took any food or drink, nor anything that his body needed, without intending by it the common good of all those who shall be saved, even unto the last day . . . He ate and he drank for our sake; he lived and he died for our sake.

Ruysbroeck: Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage.

2nd Thursday after Easter THE Word was from the beginning and therefore was and is the divine of all things; but now that He has taken the name, which of old was sanctified, the Christ, He is called by me a New Song.

St Clement: Address to the Greeks.

HE called us when we were not, and willed us from not being to be.

St Clement: Epistles.

2nd Friday after Easter JEHOVAH’S salvation Is without money and without price, in the continual forgivness of sins, In the perpetual mutual sacrifice in great eternity: for behold, There is none that liveth and sinneth not! And this is the covenant Of Jehovah: "If you forgive one another so shall Jehovah forgive you; That He Himself may dwell among you."

Blake: Jerusalem.

JOSEPH wraps the body in a clean linen cloth, in which same linen sheet were let down to Peter out of heaven all manner of living creatures; whence we understand that under the representation of this linen cloth the Church is buried together with Christ.

St Hillary, quoted by Aquinas: Catena Aurea.

2nd Saturday after Easter GRANT me, O most sweet and loving Jesus, to rest in thee above every creature, above all health and beauty, above all glory and honour, above all power and dignity, above all joy and exultation, above all fame and praise, above all sweetness and consolation, above all hope and promise, above all desert and desire, above all gifts and presents which Thou art able to bestow or infuse, above all joy and gladness which the mind is capable of receiving and feeling; finally, above Angels and Archangels, and above all the host of Heaven, above all things visible and invisible, and above all that falls short of Thyself, O Thou, my God. Thomas à Kempis: Imitation.

Second Sunday after Easter THERE is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. But what is Repentance? Not the last and noblest and most refined achievement of the righteousness of men in the service of God, but the first elemental act of the righteousness of God in the service of men; the work that God has written in their hearts and which, because it is from God and not from men, occasions joy in heaven; that looking forward to God, and to Him only, which is recognized only by God and by God Himself.

Barth: The Epistle to the Romans.

ALL things in motion desire to make known their own proper movement, and this is an aspiration after the Divine Peace of the whole, which, unfalling, preserves all things from falling, and, unmoved, guards the idiosyncrasy and life of all moving things, so that the things moved, being at peace among themselves, perform their own proper functions.

Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Divine Names.

3rd Monday after Easter WONDER not then that all the true followers of Christ, the saints of every age, have so gloried in the cross of Christ, have imputed such great things to it, have desired nothing so much as to be partakers of it, to live in constant union with it. It is because His sufferings, His death and cross were the fulness of His victory over all the works of the devil. Not an evil in flesh and blood, not a misery of life, not a chain of death, not a power of hell and darkness, but were all baffled, broken, and overcome by the process of a suffering and dying Christ. Well therefore may the cross of Christ be the glory of Christians!

William Law: The Spirit of Love.

3rd Saturday after Easter O LORD Jesus Christ, our Watchman and Keeper, take us to thy care: grant that, our bodies sleeping, our minds may watch in thee, and be made merry by some sight of that celestial and heavenly life, wherein thou art the King and Prince, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, where thy angels and holy souls, keep clean our bodies, that in both we may please thee, sleeping and waking, for ever.

Amen.

Christian Prayers, 1566.

WHY comes temptation but for man to meet And master, and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestalled in triumph. Pray 'Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!'

Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold, Lead such temptations by the head and hair, Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight, That so he may do battle and have praise.

Browning: The Ring and the Book.

Third Sunday after Easter

EACH one creates his god, when judging, "This is good or bad"; and men mourn or rejoice too much at events.

Pascal: Pensées.

THE names of first or last derogate from it (God's mercy), for first and last are but rags of time, and his mercy hath no relation to time, no limitation in time, it is not the first nor the last but eternal, everlasting. Let the devil make me so far desperate as to conceive a time when there was no mercy, and he hath made me so far an atheist as to conceive a time when there was no God: if I despoil him of his mercy, any one minute, and say, Now God hath no mercy, for that minute I discontinue his very Godhead, and his being . . .

As long as there hath been love, and God is love, there hath been mercy.

Donne: Sermons.

3rd Wednesday after Easter

The Feast of St Mark the Evangelist

THE scars that remained in Christ's body belong neither to corruption nor defect, but to the greater increase of glory, inasmuch as they are the trophies of His power; and a special comeliness will appear in the places scarred by the wounds.

Aquinas: Summa Theologica.

WHO has taught the evangelists the qualities of a perfectly heroic soul, that they paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ?

Why do they make Him weak in His agony? Do they know how to paint a resolute death? Yes, for the same Saint Luke paints the death of Saint Stephen as braver than that of Jesus Christ.

They make him therefore capable of fear, before the necessity of dying has come, and then altogether brave.

But When they make Him so troubled, it is when He afflicts Himself; and when men afflict Him, he is altogether strong.

Pascal: Pensées.

3rd Tuesday after Easter FAITH becomes hope through repentance, as does fear through faith; perseverance and exercise in these, united with instruction, are perfected into charity; and charity is perfected into knowledge.

St Clement: Stromata.

HE does not waste a word in talking about immortality, as to whether it actually is; he states what it is, that it is the separation between the just and the unjust.

Kierkegaard: Christian Discourses.

3rd Thursday after Easter I AS often lifted my eyes and he sent me help from his holy place. And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea fighting, with all my might under the law, as well as under grace: but then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now I was always conqueror.

John Wesley: Journal.

GLORY is perfected in grace.

Echkhart: In Collationibus.

3rd Friday after Easter WE should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and goodness, and even that Eternal Good which is God himself, can never make a man virtuous, good or happy, so long as it is outside the soul; that is, so long as the man is holding converse with outward things through his senses and reason, and doth not withdraw into himself, and learn to understand his own life who and what he is.

Theologica Germanica.

Sponsored by Matthew Carver, publisher

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 15

4th Monday after Easter WHEN the Kingdom is delivered up to God, even the Father, and all his powers are put down, then perfection begins. Here is hindrance, here weakness even of the perfect; there full protection . . . We then must strive for those things wherein is perfection and wherein is the reality. Here is the shadow, here the symbol; there the reality. Here we walk in the symbol, we see in the symbol; there face to face, where there is full perfection; for all perfection is in the reality.

St Ambrose: De Officiis.

4th Tuesday after Easter IF to obtain the temporal inheritance of his human father, a man must be born of the womb of his mother; to obtain the eternal inheritance of his Heavenly Father, he must be born of the womb of the church.

St Augustine, quoted in St Thomas: Catena Aurea.

FUN

HOBOSCOPES TAURUS

What’s the best way to end an email, Taurus? I like to go with “sincerely” but I’m thinking I might start using “warmest regards.” Is that too sappy? In any case, Taurus, it’s important to know how to end things. Sure, it’s easy to just let them go on indefinitely, but I think coming to a clean and definitive ending can set you up to start something new. What do you think? Respectfully yours, me.

GEMINI

You know what sounds good, Gemini, is a big fresh, leafy, crunchy salad. You know who has a great salad? Vickie’s Pizzeria!

Come to think of it, we could get a salad and a cheese pizza and split it. What’dya say? Or maybe we should get two. Does that sound like enough? Tell you what, I’ll order three pizzas if there’s a little extra leftover all the better.

Oh, you definitely have to try their mozzarella sticks.

And I’ll grab some sodas, too. Wow, Gemini, it sure is easy to go from wanting a light salad to hosting a full on pizza party. Look out for escalation this week. Try to end the deal with what you actually wanted in the first place.

CANCER

In the 1940s the zoot suit was the steppin-out outfit of choice in certain American immigrant countercultures. Widelegged, high-waisted pants and a long jacket with big shoulders and a fedora — any man was bound to cut a figure in a zoot suit. But during WWII the U.S. government asked citizens to conserve fabric to help with the war effort. Suddenly the fabric-intensive zoot suit was “unamerican.” This led to the “Zoot Suit Riots” of 1943 in which American servicemen in California attacked and stripped the clothes off of young Latino men who didn’t want to give up their culture. Sometimes we focus on the wrong things, Cancer. Sometimes we look at strangers and forget to see our brothers and sisters.

Take a breath before you blame anybody else for the problems we’re all facing.

LEO

I once spent a sunny afternoon on a pier.

I chased a seagull and ate a corn dog and squinted at the ocean and then I saw a man sketching portraits. It was just $10, so I sat for the man and I tried to make conversation. “Hold still,” was all he said. I laughed and I asked him how long he’d been a sketch artist and if he ever got sunburned out there. “Hold still,” he told me again. And when he was done, I gave him a $10 bill and he handed me a rolledup page. I turned around and he was suddenly gone but, Leo, I will pass along that when I unrolled what I

hoped would be the very best picture I’d seen of me, it was instead a printed message that I think was meant for you: “Hold still.”

VIRGO

I’ve made a huge mistake, Virgo. I waited until I was actually hungry before I ordered my pizza. Now the tracker on the website says it should arrive in 90 minutes. So I could snack. I could eat an apple and some crackers and maybe a hunk of cheese. But then I’ll be too full when the pizza gets here and it won’t taste as good. Or I could wait and get hungrier and hungrier while I think about the pizza.

What if it’s not here in 90 minutes and I starve? What if I eat a bowl of cereal and then the pizza shows up early and I’m not even hungry? It’s hard to plan for the future, Virgo. It’s hard to do just the right thing because you never know what’s really coming next. We just have to make our best guess based on the information we have.

LIBRA

Don’t you just hate it when you’re sitting comfortably watching TV and you want to go to the other room to grab a root beer but when you put your foot on the ground you realize that your leg has fallen asleep and you’ve got that terrible pins-and-needles feeling all the way down? Sometimes it just takes a while to get the blood flowing again, Libra. But don’t rush yourself.

There’s no need. You’ve got time. That root beer will stay plenty cold until you’re ready to move.

SCORPIO

Can I ask you a question, Scorpio? I mean, obviously, I’ve already asked you a question and, obviously, I can’t hear your answer anyway. Maybe this was a silly way to start. What I really mean is that it’s a good time for you to ask yourself a question and the question that I think you should ask yourself is this: “Is this good enough for me?”

SAGITTA R IUS

I’m so embarrassed, Sagittarius. The pizza guy came to the door and I took the pizzas and I said thanks, but I didn’t tip because I thought I’d tipped on the website but then I looked at the receipt and there was no tip and now I’m afraid he’s gonna think I’m the kind of person who doesn’t tip. What would you do? I could just order another pizza and tip double but then what if I get a different pizza guy and then that guy gets the double tip and the new guy tells everybody I’m a great tipper and then the first guy feels even worse like he must have done something wrong?

It’s hard not to focus on what other people might think about you, Sagittarius, but sometimes things happen that you just have to let go of. Sure, right your wrongs where you can. Then move forward. And be ready to do it better next time.

CAPRICORN

I always hate it on those reality shows when they make the contestants pick somebody from the group to vote out. I always think that if I were on the show I would just volunteer at that point because I couldn’t stand voting for anybody and I also couldn’t stand knowing that people were voting for me. But that’s just TV, Capricorn. In your real life you do get to decide who you spend your time with. I’m not saying you need to vote anybody out. I just think you could be more intentional about who you bring in.

AQUA RIUS

There’s that part in The Lord of the Rings where Tom Bombadil asks Frodo, “Who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?” and I think about that sometimes, Aquarius. Who is the you that is deeper than your name, further down than your feelings, underneath your thoughts? Who is the you that is watching you decide what to do next, the you who experiences your actions but does not create them? Take a deep breath and wonder about that for just a few seconds. Then you can go back to singing your song.

PISCES

It’s hard to know when to stop eating pizza, Pisces. I mean, that first slice is so amazing and it just sends you straight into the second one. By the third slice, it’s more about getting your money’s worth and beyond that you’re just trying to prove what you’re capable of. It’s like that with a lot of things, Pisces. It’s perfect at the beginning and so you keep going and then you realize you’re just doing it because you can. Think it over before your next slice.

ARIES

There are different ways of being afraid, Aries. For instance, I’m afraid of sea monsters, but that doesn’t usually affect my day to day life. I’m also afraid of dancing, which may very well keep me from experiencing life to the fullest.

If you have to pick one of your fears to work through, Aries, I think pick the one that gets in the way the most often. When those sea monsters see you dancing their direction, they’ll swim the other way.

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a trained plesiosaur, or a registered pizza delivery guy. Mr. Mysterio is, however, a budding intermediate podcaster! Check out The Mr. Mysterio Podcast. Season 2 is now playing at mrmysterio.com. Got a question, just give Mr. M a call at 707-VHS-TAN1

PAGE 16 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

GIRLS WRITE YOUTH VOICE

GO AWAY SPRING (A COVID INTERLUDE)

By Imani Miles, who performs as AmiraTheWeirdo Girls Write Nashville Verse: The birds are telling me to come outside But I won’t, Not for a while.

The flowers bloom just so I can see But I’m all good, I’ll stay in the house.

Pre-chorus: I know that winter’s gone (winter’s gone) I’m not ready to move on (not ready to move on) I see the sun in the sky, (see the sun in the sky) Trying to make me happy...

Chorus: Oh Spring, Why won’t you leave me alone?

Spring, Why won’t you leave me alone?

STOP ASIAN HATE

By Lillian Nguyen, Girls Write Nashville

THEME: THE OSCA R S ACROSS 1. Hedgehog of video games 6. And so forth, acronym 9. *Oscar-nominated black and white movie 13. Treeless plain 14. Grazing field 15. Moses’ mountain 16. Sty sounds 17. Nelson Mandela’s org.

18. Like beer at a kegger (2 words) 19. *Posthumous nominee 21. *Anthony of “The Father” 23. “What’s up, ____?”

24. Huge pile 25. Protestant denom.

28. Feed storage cylinder 30. Load again 35. Relating to ear 37. Flighty one 39. Proclaimed true without proof 40. Musician David Lee ____ 41. Ascetic holy Hindu 43. Eastern European 44. Plural of #10 Down 46. 500 sheets 47. Looking for aliens org.

48. Kitchen whistler 50. Wails 52. Bad-mouth 53. Medieval torture device 55. Pied Piper follower

To the Asians who were outcasts for their eyes Who were continuously called slurs Their scarred hands knowing through society To nourish their families To the Asians who were mercilessly silenced into death Who were innocently unique Centuries later, we will remember your names Legends live on and so do their stories Therefore we will stand for justice and for the righteous

April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 17

57. Politburo hat fur 61. *Daniel of “Judas and the Black Messiah” 65. Raspberry drupelets 66. Fuss, to Shakespeare 68. Void, as in marriage 69. Defective car 70. Given name of Jack Kerouac’s Paradise 71. ____ of Honor 72. Adam and Eve’s first residence 73. Money in Myanmar 74. Shoemaker without shoes, e.g.

DOWN 1. Undesirable roommate 2. Medley 3. Grannies, in UK 4. Tattooed 5. Universe 6. Panache 7. *Most 2021 Oscar nominations for one film, #9 Across 8. Secret storage 9. Stole fur 10. One opposed 11. Indian restaurant staple 12. U.S. customary unit of force, pl.

15. Soaked 20. DNA and RNA 22. Argonaut’s propeller 24. Shared work surface

at an office 25. *Sasha Baron Cohen’s “Subsequent Moviefilm” role 26. Be sorry for one’s wickedness 27. Pita, in UK 29. *Like Roberto Benigni’s fictional son 31. Husband to a widow, e.g.

32. Checked out 33. Stradivari competitor 34. *”Fences” winner and “Ma Rainey” nominee 36. Poker ante 38. *”Nomadland” director 42. Shadow 45. *The Trial of the Chicago 7” screenwriter 49. Greek “t” 51. Sandwich sausage 54. Necklace lock 56. Radio receiver 57. Nutritious leafy green 58. Got A+ 59. Ice on a window 60. Happening soon, old fashioned 61. Caffeine-containing nut tree 62. Editing arrow 63. Chinese monetary unit 64. Friend in war 67. *Nominee for Billie Holiday role

VENDOR WRITING

The Tennessee Legislature: JOB KILLERS

BY JEN A. HB0978 Sponsor: Ryan Williams R-Cookeville SB1610 Sponsor: Paul Bailey R-District 15 The Tennessee House has passed legislation that will profoundly limit my ability to make a living. I am a vendor of The Contributor and am fortunate enough to have a small room in public housing. Should I lose my job, and yes it is a job, I will be unable to pay my rent and will be forced into homelessness once again. HB0978/ SB1610 not only kills my job, but it makes homelessness a crime. No matter which way you look at it, I am left vulnerable and exposed to harm by the blind thoughtlessness of our legislature.

Homelessness is not a disease of the unhoused. It’s a social construct perpetrated by the powerful against the poor. Many of those who are forced to live on the street have jobs. However their jobs don’t pay enough to enable them to afford ever-escalating rents. The minimum wage in Tennessee is $7.25 an hour. I would challenge the members of the legislature to exist for just a week in Tennessee at that wage. Surely it would be of better benefit to Tennesseans to increase the minimum wage rather than to criminalize poverty.

Another key cause of homelessness in Tennessee stems directly from another hard-hearted decision made by the Tennessee legislature; their refusal to expand Med-

icaid to the working poor. Many of the homeless suffer from chronic or catastrophic illnesses. Faced with the hard choice of whether to pay rent or to use what little money they have for life-saving or sustaining medical treatment, they choose to fight for their lives.

The homeless are heroes who are largely dismissed and vilified by the well-healed. Homelessness could be greatly reduced by the stroke of a pen at the Capitol rather than by criminalizing suffering.

To propose this legislation at this particular time is doubly troubling. Have legislators forgotten that there is a killer virus in our midst? Landlords are, as I write, preparing the paperwork to evict those who have not been able to pay

HB0978/SB1610

BY VICKY B. I can honestly say that prior to three weeks ago I had no clue what these numbers meant, but now I know just how much this would affect my life.

The Tennessee State Legislature is trying to pass HB0978/SB1610, a bill that would make solicitation or camping on any state property, interstate highway or under a bridge a misde-

meanor. Let that sink in a bit. A misdemeanor.

It would also make vending along the roadway a misdemeanor as well.

Many know my story. Many know that I got into housing because of the money I made from selling The Contributor and writing. I made income from my sales that provided me with an income statement, which allowed

A Vendors Perspective to Senate Bill HBO978/SB1610

BY NORMA B. It has recently come to my attention that the bill that seeks to criminalize homelessness known as HBO978/SB1610 could also potentially bring an end to The Contributor.

In my opinion, this would be a mistake as it would not only devastate the many vendors of the paper, but it would also be detrimental to the community we serve.

For the vendor, it would surely cause economic challenges that we continually work hard to rise above on a regular basis. But more than that, it would shatter the vendor’s relationships with their customers — something we strive to establish, maintain, and build on.

Our customers have come to know us. They look for us at our selling locations and actually worry about us when we’re not there. (I’ve experienced this first hand at the grocery store, the post office, and nearly everywhere I go in

my community and the surrounding area.)

As a result, our customers have become part of our “extended family,” something many in the homeless community don’t have whether by choice or by circumstance. What gives you the right to take that away from us and them?

Something else to keep in mind is vendors of The Contributor ARE NOT simply standing on the side of the road begging for money. We are offering informative and useful products in the form of 1) The Paper, 2) Hand Sanitizers, and 3) Face Masks in exchange for reimbursement. (In my case, this can be in the form of money, food, drink, clothing etc.) Since when have good old-fashioned sales been illegal in this country? No matter where they take place.

I read that this bill was brought about as a means to increase public safety. If that’s true, how will that be brought about by the passage

their rent because their jobs aren’t there anymore. Homelessness in the state will increase exponentially. Surely the time of our legislature would be better spent thinking of ways to keep everyone whole and in their homes instead of criminalizing homelessness.

Judging by the bills offered so far by the current legislature, it is clear that their intent is not to heal the wounds of the citizens of Tennessee, but rather to demonize and persecute the least among us.

There isn’t a minority group in the nation that they have not proposed legislation to marginalize. The same ridiculous discriminatory laws are being passed by Republican legislatures across the country. Is there no Republican in the country with

an original thought? Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the legislature acted for the common good? For those of us forced to the margins of society, it would be a welcome respite.

Where are the churches we here in Tennessee are so proud of? Why have you not raised your voices and used your significant sway against the cruelty of the legislature? Isn’t it time to do a better job of protecting ALL God’s children from the narrow-mindedness of the few?

Where are those businesses and corporations willing to stand up to the thoughtless idiology of our lawmakers? Stand up for us Tennessee! Put your religious and civic principles to work for all of us! The powerless are counting on you to save our lives and our livelihoods!

me to get into affordable housing. See how that all worked together? If I hadn’t been selling The Contributor newspaper, I never would have gotten into affordable housing, ending my homelessness, because of The Contributor. Could I have done it without The Contributor? NO! I’m going through the disability process and am unable to work a “regular” job. The Contributor has allowed me to make a small income through a business of my own. I make my own hours, I document my inventory, and I budget my money. Sounds like a real job to me.

If this bill is passed, every vendor of The Contributor would be in jeopardy of losing their housing. I would lose my housing. A goal of housing that many have worked so hard to achieve. A home/apartment is like the Emmy’s of homelessness. This is scary territory for me. I could lose my housing. I could be back on the streets. For so many who are recently housed it would be devastating to have to walk away from years of hard work just because the people that represent us would rather criminalize us.

Please don’t make being homeless a crime.

of this bill? PLEASE BE SPECIFIC, because I guarantee our vendors can give you very specific ways they benefit from the paper, and it’s far more than just the money.

If you are truly concerned with public safety, why not strive to put an end to things that truly pose a threat to public safety?

These things affect the rich as well as the economically challenged. They DO NOT discriminate as this bill obviously does.

In contrast, the homeless pose no such threat; they are merely trying to survive, something that has been made even more difficult with the outbreak of COVID-19.

Maybe you think vendors of The Contributor have it easy standing out there attempting to sell the paper. Let me assure you this IS NOT the case. If you need proof, I would invite you to my corner to see for yourself — especially in the extreme heat or cold or during our ever changing Tennessee weather.

Before passing this bill, I would like to ask each one of you: What would you do if you found yourself unemployed and homeless?

What if someone you know and love were to find themselves in such a predicament? Would you be so willing and eager to pass this bill

then? BE HONEST! Would you not desire a program that would welcome you with open arms and actually help you get back on your feet? If so, I urge you NOT to pass this bill.

Rather than increase the population of already overcrowded jails with homeless or indigent individuals, penalizing them for something that is often beyond their control, why not ask yourselves what can you do to eliminate homelessness from our society?

True, answers WILL NOT be easy or inexpensive, but they will be worth the investment to both those who are assisted as well as to their communities as a whole, just as The Contributor is.

Please DO NOT become a part of this problem plaguing our society, instead let’s work together to find a solution that’s beneficial for all concerned.

Please DO NOT become a party to those who would silence the free speech contained in The Contributor a voice for those who are often ignored and underserved by those who are meant to serve ALL in the community equally without regard to their economic standing-something that NOT being done with the passage of this bill, in this writer’s opinion.

PAGE 18 | April 14-28, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

VENDOR WRITING

Many of us witness homelessness, but very few of us are willing to do something about it

BY BY BARBAR A WOMACK , CONTRIBUTOR ADVERTISING MANAGER The following is a poem by Langston Hughes: What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore— And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

This poem reminds me that we all have dreams and those dreams translate into goals, but what happens when a life event interferes with those dreams and are put on hold. If each of us were to take the time to sit and talk to a homeless person we would find that they too had dreams and hopes and aspirations and many still have hopes of achieving those dreams. Those dreams are merely deferred at the present.

Many of us witness homelessness, but very few of us are willing to do something about it. Very few of us are willing to accept that homelessness is a tragic episode

in the wealthiest country in the world.

Why should an American citizen have to sleep on the sidewalk? Why should a woman have to be raped because she is homeless? Why should homeless men be afraid to sleep at night for fear of being beaten and robbed? Why is a homeless person who is peacefully standing on the street trying to make a living being vilified?

I don’t have a solid answer for these questions, but I do know that there is a very special group of people in this city that are trying to find answers — I work with those people at The Contributor.

The Contributor is a “newspaper with a purpose” and that purpose is to alleviate the pain and suffering of those who are experiencing homelessness in this city and surrounding areas. The Contributor is the lifeline for this city’s homeless. The Contributor gives hope, praise, dignity and love to those who have lost hope, praise, dignity and love; it says to the homeless, “we are here for you, we love you and we will help you obtain your American dream.”

Without The Contributor, their dreams would be deferred and they would “sag like a heavy load.”

The Contributor organization is a group of amazing, dedicated people who have

Why do people look down on the poor?

BY JOHN H.

decided that homelessness should not exist in a country where many have several homes and many have none. Many of these well-qualified people could go elsewhere and make lots of money, but their devotion to this cause keeps them at The Contributor.

There is just a desire to do the right thing in this world. They deserve the highest praise for the love and respect that they have for the homeless and they realize that homelessness is not a choice but rather a journey that many find themselves in.

People with lived experiences on the streets tell their stories in The Contributor through art or poetry or writing. Nowhere else in this city can you read how they express themselves here.

There are so many events in this world that we cannot prevent like earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and fires, but we can feed the hungry, we can house the homeless and we can heal the sick. Another of my favorite poets, Amanda Gorman, wrote in “The Hill We Climb”: “If only we’re brave enough to see it; if only we’re brave enough to be it.”

If The Contributor is denied its right to exist and do what it has been doing for over 10 years, then the cries of the homeless will go unheard and their dreams will not only be deferred, but could explode.

Throughout my walk I’ve noticed how people look down on the poor or people who are not very wealthy or millionaires (well off). Me myself, I count it all blessings. I think about on that day when Jesus comes back how maybe I’ll be looking down on Earth. Here’s why: In Rev. 6:15, 16 it says, The Kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.

I definitely wouldn’t want to be one of those people who are left here. It says “We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17 So the way I see it, that’s my main goal, “to be with the Lord on that day.” Not care about what people may think or how they may class you here on Earth. The least thing that could be on my mind is spending eternity with Satan.

To all who agree, give me a big Amen on that.

Does it really matter how people characterize you or think about you? The best I can say is, “as long as it don’t create strife when it come to God’s word.” I’ll still love and be obedient to the laws and commandments God has given me.

To sum it all up, I can never look down on anyone. The only way I can is when we rise to meet Jesus in the clouds; may look down wishing you was rising up to the clouds to meet Jesus with me.

Policy By Process or Community Compassion by Design Creating Standard Operating Procedures for Encampments

When people are displaced by broken families and communities they often find new community in encampments. Today we visited one with tents, barbecue grills and used goods someone threw out on the ground. These encampments are all over the city. Some on public land and many on private land. They live within the unwritten policy of what is allowed and supported. Too many are without sanitation, safety, and full of despair.

Policy by process, or tacit approval, allows growth of encampments through food, tent, and material goods distribution, and community through new social norms. But at some point the private land owner may want use of their land. Or public land owners may want use of a greenway.

What should be the policy when an encampment is no longer needed or allowed?

Might a standard operating procedure be developed so that a legal enforcement policy does not dictate the response?

I contend that compassion should design our encampment response. Compassion should encourage resources to be maximized to reduce the days of homelessness experienced.

There is a private property located near the city and convenient to services where there is a new encampment of ten (10) persons.

This encampment will have to be moved due to the determination of the land owners. Might we suggest a five week Community Compassion Standard Operating Procedure?

Week 1 - Relationship Building, Basic Human Resources, Transparency of the Process Week 2 - Introduction of Community Resources and Basic Information Gathering Week 3 - Enrollment in Preferred Community Resources with a Housing Process Map Week 4 - Encouragement of Progress for Individual Quality of Life Plans Week 5 - Goals-Based Placement in Available Supportive Shelter/Housing Options Please reach out to one of our LIFNAV (Life Navigation) Coaches and share your design recommendations.

The more days someone experiences homelessness the more likely they are to die deaths of despair from homelessness.

When we invest in the wrong design we bring despair. I am comfortable with that truth and uncomfortable with the reality.

Now some will say we have no right to create such a standard operating procedure and I may agree. However, the failing Policy by Process will continue daily until we replace it with a well designed Community Compassion Standard Operating Procedure.

There is no research, evidence based practice, or city experience that encourages unfettered resourcing of encampments as a means of reducing homelessness. While housing is the solution, culture and strategy come first.

Let’s do better tomorrow.

So what is the design of a Community Compassion Standard Operating Procedure? Let me share one as a catalyst to a community dialogue.

~Major Ethan Frizzell, The Salvation Army For reference: Understanding Encampments of People Experiencing Homelessness and Community Responses: Emerging Evidence as of Late 2018 (HUD)

LIFNAV: SalvationArmyNashville.org

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