The Contributor: June 7, 2023

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Vendor Spotlight

Vendor Writing

Moving Pictures

WHAT WE DO

la disponibilidad y el acceso a información precisa y culturalmente apropiada. El objetivo de TN CEAL es promover la concientización, la educación la participación comunitaria para reducir las disparidades en el acceso a la información, pruebas y vacunas, y a servicios de atención médica relacionados con el COVID-19”. ¿Cuáles son las otras barreras para una comunidad saludable? Equidad y acceso a las vacunas: pesar de la disponibilidad de vacunas, se han observado disparidades en el acceso y la aceptación de las vacunas. Factores como la vacilación de vacunarse, la falta de información, las barreras del idioma y el acceso limitado a los sitios de vacunación han afectado las tasas de vacunación en las comunidades afroamericanas e hispanas. Abordar

estas barreras es crucial para lograr una vacunación equitativa y mitigar la propagación del virus. Racismo estructural el racismo sistémico ha contribuido a la distribución desigual de los recursos, el acceso a la atención médica y las oportunidades económicas. Estas desigualdades estructurales han perpetuado las disparidades en los resultados de salud, haciendo que las comunidades negras e hispanas sean más vulnerables al impacto de la pandemia. Sin duda, un tema difícil de hablar, divisivo y controversial para algunos. El racismo estructural, es lo que siempre ha sido, las prácticas, políticas y normas sistémicas e institucionalizadas que perpetúan las desigualdades y disparidades raciales en varios aspectos de la sociedad. A pesar de todos nuestros logros en materia de justicia social, sigue sien-

do una forma de discriminación profundamente arraigada en los sistemas sociales, económicos, educativos y políticos. El racismo estructural opera a través de legados históricos, distribución desigual de recursos, leyes discriminatorias, prácticas sesgadas y actitudes sociales, lo que genera resultados y oportunidades desiguales para diferentes grupos raciales y étnicos. Es un sistema complejo e interconectado que requiere esfuerzos integrales para desmantelarlo a fin de crear una sociedad más justa y equitativa. Nunca pensé que aquel Estados Unidos con “justicia para todos” con el que crecí admirando desde mi lejano país de origen en latinoamerica, proyectando siempre una imagen poderosa, con sus superhéroes y el papel de salvador del mundo, tuviera tal trágica y dolorosa historia de desigualdades y discriminaciones sistémicas.

La Noticia + The Contributor

La

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VENDOR BUYS PAPERS

WHO WE ARE

VENDOR SELLS PAPERS CUSTOMER TAKES PAPER

Buying more papers grows & legitimizes a vendor's business, allowing the vendor to apply for housing.

The Contributor is a nonprofit social enterprise that creates economic opportunity with dignity by investing in the lives of people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

Starting in 2019, our C.O.V.E.R. Program (Creating Opportunity for Vendor Employment, Engagement, and Resources) was the natural expansion of our mission of removing obstacles to housing. We now offer full case management, assistance with housing and rental expenses, addiction recovery, health insurance, food benefits, and SSI/SSDI assistance. We see the onestop-shop team approach radically transforming a vendor's image of self and their place in community.

Since we started in 2007, more than 3,200 different vendors have purchased $2.3 million worth of The Contributor and sold over six million copies, generating over $15 million in income for themselves.

Take the paper, change a life. Read the paper, change yours.

A pesar de todo, podemos hacer nuestra parte para ayudar a superar estos desafíos y abordar las disparidades en curso. Para ello, son necesarios esfuerzos específicos. Incluyendo mejorar el acceso a la atención médica, promover la equidad en las vacunas, las campañas de salud pública culturalmente adaptadas, abordar las disparidades socioeconómicas y desmantelar las barreras sistémicas que perpetúan las desigualdades en salud. Si reconocemos y abordamos activamente estos factores, podemos trabajar hacia una respuesta pandémica (y posterior a la pandemia) más equitativa e inclusiva para todas las comunidades. Juntos, podemos superar los desafíos que aún enfrentamos. Insto a todos los miembros de nuestra comunidad, independientemente de su origen, a abrazar el poder de la vacunación y priorizar el bienestar de nuestra comunidad en su conjunto. Al unirnos, podemos proteger a los más vulnerables entre nosotros y emerger más fuertes que nunca. Lideremos con el ejemplo, disipemos la información errónea y alentémonos unos a otros a vacunarse. Juntos, construiremos una comunidad más saludable y resistente donde todos puedan prosperar. El camino por delante puede ser difícil, pero nuestros esfuerzos colectivos nos ayudarán.

Contributor Board

Tom Wills, Chair Cathy Jennings, Christine Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Kerry Graham, Amber DuVentre, Jerome Moore, Drew Morris, Andy Shapiro

Yuri Cunza, es editor en jefe de La Noticia Nashville también se desempeña como presidente director ejecutivo de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville.

Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com ó 615-567-3569

Cathy Jennings Executive Director

Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations

Carli Tharp SNAP Specialist

Ree Cheers SOAR Manager

Andrew Terry IV SOAR Referral Specialist

Rachel Ternes Housing Navigator

Andreos Chunaco Housing Navigator

Mary Margaret Weatherford

Housing Navigator

Jesse Call Operations Consultant

Raven Nye Director of Housing Initiatives

Justin Wagner Resource Coordinator & Reporter

Barbara Womack

Advertising Manager

Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors

Chelsea Jackson Vendor O ffice Manager

Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus

Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom Wills Contributor Co-Founders

Editorials and features in The Contributor are the perspectives of the authors. Submissions of news, opinion, fiction, art and poetry are welcomed. The Contributor reserves the right to edit any submissions. The Contributor cannot and will not endorse any political candidate. Submissions may be emailed to: editorial@thecontributor.org

Requests to volunteer, donate, or purchase subscriptions can be emailed to: info@thecontributor.org

The Contributor P.O. Box 332023, Nashville, TN 37203

Vendor Office: 615.829.6829

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With a roof of his own overhead, James Lindsey can take a breath of relief

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

“Every morning I get up, I have my coffee, I have a table and a couple chairs out on the deck looking out over the park, over the skyline,” said James Lindsey, reflecting on the view from his new apartment.

It’s the first Nashville apartment Lindsey’s had in his own name. Despite towering over the city on the ninth floor of his building, he was able to put aside his fear of heights to soak in the view. He said it was a blessing to hit such a milestone.

“It’s one of the highlights of my life… It’s like paradise.”

This marks a brief repose in a decades-long journey for Lindsey, who’s been an on-and-off vendor with The Contributor for nearly as long as it’s

been around.

But years ago, Lindsey was far from paradise.

Spending every night homeless on Music Row was a constant battle to survive — and his struggles with alcohol use made a bad situation worse. James described the experience as feeling “dead.”

He explained that it can be strenuous to keep vices at arm’s length when your circumstances involve countless hours outside — and the challenge in staying safe is compounded without the luxury to avoid stressors. Years of military service and years on the street taught Lindsey skills he needed to survive, but that didn’t mean he was spared any woe.

“If your heart ain’t in the right place,

if your mind ain’t in the right place, it’s a struggle out there,” he said. “We get trapped in that cycle, it’s cyclical selfabuse… I gave up on a few places, I just lost faith. I lost my way, actually.”

But while he still has wounds to dress, Lindsey said he’s been making good progress finding his “way back.” After starting medication, working on recovery and reconnecting with his faith, he’s found a bit of peace again.

“I am trying to retrain myself and my mindset. That’s the struggle I have, it’s my own struggle… I’ve been trying to find my way out of this for a long time. I’ve started listening and paying attention.”

Lindsey said the community he’s found at The Contributor is like having

“angels,” and noted that finding such a community helped him feel authentic on his road to healing.

“I’ve seen some evil, evil people. And when you’ve been out on the streets as long as I have, you can always tell whether someone is good or bad. Everytime I walk in here I take a deep breath. It’s a breath of relief… I mean for me, personally, it’s salvation.”

And while he conceded that he’s come as far as he has through years of effort, he insisted that he doesn’t like praise. Moreover, he owes it all to the positivity and kindness he’s been shown by others — and that he tries to pay it forward to others wherever he can.

“I haven’t given up hope yet. Because [The Contributor] didn’t give up on me.”

PHOTO BY JUSTIN WAGNER

A Few Questions With the Metro Action Commission

BY JUDITH TACKETT

The Contributor talked with the Metro Action Commission’s Lisa McCrady and Marvin Cox as part of a series called "A Few Questions With" where we interview Metro agencies about their department’s most pressing issues.

McCrady serves as the Director of Communications and Cox is the Director of Family and Community Services at the Metro Action Commission. (Answers are from McCrady.)

How would you describe the Metro Action Commission to a newcomer in no more than five sentences?

I would start with our vision statement and that is, Davidson County is a place where people reach their highest potential creating a legacy of physical, emotional, social and economic well-being from one generation to the next.

That gives us the framework for how we engage with individuals. We learned very quickly that referring to ourselves as an organization that helps people in poverty felt very isolating to some because some residents don’t believe that they are in poverty. So, we looked at what we are really trying to get at, which is to equal the playing field. What’s most visible [in our work] is the social and economic mobility of our population.

What is your overall budget and where is the funding coming from?

During the height of COVID, our budget was over $100 million, which is the most our organization had ever administered. That was due in large part because of the funding we received from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. That was about $75 million given to the city of Nashville to help individuals remain housed. Close to 8,000 families were able to remain housed in our city. This program also impacted the city and landlords, who were also [affected] by COVID. Without those COVID funds, our budget is around $28-30 million. Probably about 90 percent of the funding we have comes from state and local grants. We also receive funding from the city to administer our programs. To clarify, state grants are generally federal dollars that come through the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) and through the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA). But our Head Start Program and the money we received from the U.S. Department of the Treasury are direct allocations from the federal government. Programs such as our rental assistance, mortgage assistance and utility assistance, those are pass-through grants from DHS and THDA. And then there are funds that come in through the city directly to us for residents who may not qualify for the programs that we fund with other grants but still have demonstrated that they experience a hardship.

What are your top three strategic priorities right now?

The top priorities would be workforce and education, [which we divide into] early education and youth.

For the workforce piece, we partner with adults who benefit from upscaling based on high-yield employment opportunities in an expedited way. For instance, sometimes having a degree is not as important as having a certain certification such as in IT, health care, and childcare. Those are things an adult can go through in 8-12 weeks of a classroom experience, receive a certification, and immediately go into a high-earning job or a career. We have been very successful in all of them, but probably the most impactful we have done is in information technology. We’ve been able to help adults receive that foundational certification, which immediately equates to a position making $50,000 to $70,000. That’s one of the [certifications] where we can see the immediacy of what rescaling will do. Also, as adults go into retraining, they are not paid and we are able to provide stipends and internships, which is a way for adults to meet their families’ needs as they’re going through these programs. So, all of our workforce programs look at opportunities to help adults in that area.

With early education, that’s our early Head Start program. The way that Head Start is designed is very comprehensive. It’s more than the preschool experience for the child. It’s also our best demonstration of what whole-family and [two-generation] work is in our organization. As we’re working with the child, we’re also partnering with the adults in their lives. And so, while the child is away learning, we’re able to engage with the parents to look at what else is out there for them, and how they can strengthen their social and economic levels.

The last category is our youth, which is specific to our POWER Youth Program. Within that program is our STEAM camp that is specifically for older siblings of Head Start children. So, we potentially work with teenagers whose smaller sibling is in Head Start and their parents are engaged with us to work on their upward mobility. The STEAM campaign came

out of a communitywide effort that started with a Youth Symposium quite some time ago. Young people were having a really tough time. They were victims of crimes and youth said there were no meaningful activities for them and no ways for them to make an income. We were part of that movement and [eventually] that’s how the STEAM campaign came to be.

We then expanded the POWER Youth Program, which was the youth program given to us when the NCAC (Nashville Career and Advancement Center) was no longer in existence. We were able to build upon the foundation and the format that we had for young people and expand it. The name POWER Youth came from young people. They didn’t see themselves as what was previously known as Opportunity Youth and then Opportunity Now. They wanted something that spoke to who they are. And so, POWER is the acronym for Providing Opportunities for Wealth-building and Economic Resilience for youth and young adults.

What are two highlights of your work for this current fiscal year that you are most proud of (knowing that you do much more than just those two things)?

Our POWER Youth Program is incredible. This summer we’ll have 1,009 positions for young people to be involved in. We have opportunities for youth as young as 14 up to 19, and then there are opportunities for young people 20 to 25 as well. The first day of youth workplace experiences and internships for the younger people will start Monday, June 5, with a huge summit — the POWER Summit.

All the young people will come together for their first day at the Municipal Auditorium. Our goal is for 1,000 youth to be engaged in a lot of activities. The different work experiences or internships will be at nonprofit organizations, local businesses, Metro city departments. The younger people, 14 to 15, will have work experiences with projects such

as learning how to run sound engineering in the studio or writing music, being scientists, working on murals, working with recycling programs, and those type of things. The older teenagers, 16-19, will have more of an internship experience where they’ll work Monday through Thursday. Then on Friday, they’ll meet with their specific coaches where they have roundtable [discussions] where they talk about how their week went, about anything they may struggle with, or they don’t understand or don’t like very well. In addition, the coaches are out during the week going to the different workplace experiences and making sure everything is going smoothly.

The second thing to highlight would be the return of our summer food program to the way it was pre-COVID. When we were going through COVID, we had to be very creative in how we distributed food in the community. These are the summer meals that we provide when school closes. We are very passionate about that program because we know that for some young people when school closes, food availability becomes very scarce, sporadic, uncertain and sometimes not as nutritious as it needs to be. During the height of COVID we were in various locations throughout the city and set up in parking lots in apartment complexes because we couldn’t go into community centers at that point.

Now that COVID [restrictions] have gone away, we’re able to resume and engage our sites at community centers and make sure we have as many meal sites available in our community as possible. We also partner with apartment complexes because sometimes children are not located near a community center, and so the apartment complexes have opened up their property to either host a site or for us to bring mobile diners to them.

Is there any new program or new approach that MAC is embarking on that you would like to mention?

I would like to talk more about our approach to workforce development. We want to make sure that we engage both residents and employers [to figure out] how we can engage those who have yet to return back to employment. What are the challenges? We know that childcare is one of the challenges because of the impact of COVID on childcare where some of them had to close. We also know that people still have preferences for working from home. We also know that some of the certifications and organizations that used to engage residents in job finding or job preparation, they’re now coming out of the virtual and remote environment.

Also, it’s worth highlighting the impact the funding through the Treasury Department had and the amount of housing support we were able to provide through COVID. It really highlighted a problem that we already knew we had, which was the availability and affordability of housing here in Nashville. Making sure that people are able to cover the cost of just living is still a challenge..

Kalb Hollow was named for workers coming to Nashville from nearby county

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

In the 1930s and later, there were so many young ladies from DeKalb County who came to Nashville after graduating from high school to work at Werthan Bag Company that people called the housing project across Eighth Ave. North from Werthan Bag Company “Kalb Hollow.”

DeKalb County was established in December 1837 by the Tennessee General

Assembly and named for Johann DeKalb, a German general who fought for the Americans in the Revolutionary War. He died at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina, on Aug. 16, 1780.

DeKalb County, whose county seat is Smithville, is an agricultural county 70 miles east of Nashville. Its population in 2020 was 20,087.

Ridley wrote a book!

Longtime writer for The Contributor Ridley Wills II has published a book cataloging all of his work writing History Corner articles for the paper from over the past decade. All proceeds from the book will be donated to The Contributor to continue its mission of providing low-barrier income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness so that they can find sustainable housing.

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

Rapid Rehousing is considered a permanent housing intervention. It provides short-term rental assistance and services, and if effectively applied, it follows a Housing First philosophy that focuses on moving people without preconditions and as quickly as possible to permanent housing with individualized wraparound support services, so households are able to maintain their housing long-term.

Over the years, Rapid Rehousing has either been touted as a cost-effective solution to homelessness or received harsh criticism as a hyped up program that does not show clear evidence of keeping people housed long-term. Let’s take a closer look at what Rapid Rehousing actually is.

Rapid Rehousing provides short-term to medium-term rental assistance with support services to move families and individuals out of shelters to permanent housing quickly. The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), all list the following components as essential to an effective Rapid Rehousing program:

• Housing Identification;

• Rent and Move-in Assistance; and

• Case Management and Services.

Rapid Rehousing came into focus through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP), which was part of the federal stimulus package (officially called the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act) of 2009. HUD explains in an issue brief* that Rapid Rehousing is effective for a wide array of populations including households experiencing homeless with “no income, with disabilities, with poor rental history. The only exceptions HUD lists are “households that can exit homelessness with little or no assistance, those who experience chronic homelessness and who need permanent supportive housing, and households who are seeking a therapeutic residential environment, including those recovering from addiction.”

However, communities often have not adopted unified standards when applying Rapid Rehousing and when taking a closer look at different agencies in Nashville, we are hard pressed to find one clear approach to Rapid Rehousing. One agency may provide move-in costs including utility and rent deposits plus the first month of rent, and then check in once or twice via phone – which is actually not a Rapid Rehousing program as you will learn. On the other hand, you may see a high-quality Rapid Rehouisng program by another agency that provides housing search services, a minimum of six months or rental assistance with a step-down program to reduce rental assistance over time, and up to one year of case management services.

National leaders are increasingly providing more guidance and support to outline solid Rapid Rehousing interventions. For

Learn More About: Rapid Rehousing

BY JUDITH TACKETT

example, NAEH** has released a toolkit, performance benchmarks, and program standards agencies and/or local communities can adopt, and USICH provides a quick overview of the different components a solid Rapid Rehousing program includes.***

In essence, I find that Nashville, as a community, has been working to put some clear housing standards in place through its Continuum of Care. For example, the city has utilized COVID funds in 2020 to develop a landlord engagement effort called Low Barrier Housing Collective to improve landlord recruitment, coordinate with providers to help households find and secure appropriate rental housing, assist with move-in costs (a program that the city has implemented since 2013 starting with a focus on households experiencing chronic homelessness), and help mediate landlord disputes to assist people with retaining their housing. In 2022, Metro appropriated and additional $4 million in American Rescue Plan funds to continue and expand the Low Barrier Housing Collective.

When it comes to rent and move-in assistance, the city launched a campaign called How’s Nashville in 2013 with a narrow focus on chronic homelessness, and ever since has provided move-in costs including security and utility deposits, first month rent and when funding was available some essential household items/furniture. A partnership between MDHA and the city expanded this program from the funding through the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). The city is now implementing a furnishing program (also paid for through the $4 million in American Rescue Plan funds mentioned above) to ensure people do not access empty apartments.

Whether or how much of these funds are available for households receiving Rapid Rehousing is unclear as Metro is focusing to increase much needed Permanent Supportive Housing programs. However, the elements of these housing locations and move-in assistance services remain the same regardless of the duration of the housing support intervention. In other words, they should also be applied when implementing Rapid Rehousing programs – the main difference is the intensity and especially the duration of the support offered.

When it comes to case management and services, the USICH sums up the Rapid Rehousing needs as follows (the following bullet points are copied from USICH):

• Help individuals and families experiencing homelessness identify and select among various permanent housing options based on their unique needs, preferences and financial resources.

• Help individuals and families experiencing homelessness address issues that may impede access to housing (such as credit history, arrears, and legal issues).

• Help individuals and families negotiate manageable and appropriate lease

services and supports available to families and individuals to allow them to stabilize quickly in permanent housing.

• Monitor participants’ housing stability and be available to resolve crises.

• Provide or assist the household with connections to resources that help them improve their safety and well-being and achieve their long-term goals.

• Ensure that services provided are client-directed, respectful of individuals’ right to self-determination, and voluntary.

When the federal government made billions of dollars available through the CARES Act, to address homelessness, Nashville received $10 million in Emergency Solutions Grant-COVID (ESG-CV) funding to focus on moving the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness into housing.

It is important to know that these funds were one-time funding, which is why the federal government used ESG dollars. ESG is able to pay for street outreach, emergency shelter, Rapid Rehousing, homelessness prevention, and Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Thus, while the federal government wanted local communities to focus on getting the most vulnerable populations into housing to reduce their exposure to COVID, the only housing intervention eligible under ESG was Rapid Rehousing.

Nashville focused on its outdoor population and was able to house hundreds of people. The ESG-CV funds provided two years of assistance, which is unusual for Rapid Rehousing programs. And the federal government made Emergency Housing Vouchers available to use for some of the people who needed ongoing housing sub -

sidies due to their disabling conditions. I have written about the Emergency Housing

Voucher program and since have learned that the city is struggling to utilize them due to a lack of permanent housing units/ landlords accepting them. Yet, there may still be people who experienced chronic homelessness, were assisted with Rapid Rehousing interventions through the ESG-CV grants to respond to the COVID threat, who need ongoing assistance that a Rapid Rehousing program won’t be able to provide. Metro’s focus on closing encampments may compete with the need to keep these people stably housed. On the other hand, Metro has yet to acknowledge that for years, we’ve struggled with “recycling” housing. We were able to house people experiencing chronic homelessness mostly when others lost their housing again.

In essence, it is important to pay attention to how agencies implement their Rapid Rehousing programs, and whether they use them for moderate-needs households that can be linked with employment and have the potential to increase their incomes. If we do not appropriately apply Rapid Rehousing, like with any other program, it won’t work. But for many people in need, a rapid intervention with its temporary assistance can make the difference between being homeless for months versus getting back on their feet as quickly as possible.

*https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/Rapid-Re-Housing-Brief.pdf

** https://endhomelessness.org/resource/ rapid-re-housing-toolkit/

*** https://www.usich.gov/solutions/ housing/rapid-re-housing/

Aranka Halmi has been working as a vendor at Hungarian street paper Fedél Nélkül since 2020, and she splits her time between pitches at Etele Square underground station and Móricz Zsigmond roundabout in Budapest. Fedél Nélkül heads out to meet her at work to find out more about life as a vendor, selling a street paper much like The Contributor.

Fedél Nélkül: You are a splash of vivid color on the street and, what’s more, you’re quite a unique phenomenon among the vendors! When people buy the paper from you, they also get a show because you play the flute too, right? How did this routine develop? What came first — playing music or selling the paper?

In the past, I couldn’t find work, so I went out to sing in the street. Then after a while I could no longer sing: a piece of bacon went down the wrong pipe and slid between my vocal cords. This made my voice as high as a fairy tale character; the ambulance driver thought I was messing with him! I was not messing around; it had to be removed surgically, and I could barely speak for two years. My voice will never be the same as it was before the surgery, but I can perform a song or two again. Then I set out to play the flute, which didn’t work

at all, so I enrolled in the District VIII music school. I’ve been going there ever since, once a week. Then it turned out that, besides playing music, I could also sell newspapers. That’s how Fedél Nélkül came into the picture.

What do you see as the charm and significance of the papers sold by the homeless?

Fedél Nélkül is awesome because it introduces people to the “cream” of the homeless, through whom they get to see that their existence doesn’t just mean that they wander the streets, pissing themselves, and being raggedy. A lot of people live in housing deprivation. To some extent, the paper raises awareness that many talented individuals are, in fact, living in the streets. They are down and out for some reason, people whose lives took a wrong turn — but they haven’t given up. They have refused to fall apart completely, and instead they fight. It makes me especially happy that street papers are a way that people learn that, yes, these individuals are homeless but, no, they don’t let themselves go and instead they make something out of nothing.

What do you get out of being a vendor?

This is the other thing that makes me

Halmi: “Sometimes

love working in the street. People come up to me: they trust me for some reason, they start telling me their life stories, and they are waiting for my help — for us to find a solution together. I had a customer who complained a lot, and he visited me for half a year, just as one might see a psychologist. After a while he disappeared; he didn’t come again. Years later, he walked up to me and asked if I recognized him. “I’m the boy you helped,” he said. This is a second vocation for me — it’s a kind of spiritual aid service.

You clearly really value the feedback you get directly from your customers; recently, however, you were also recognized by your colleagues, when you came second in the Vendor of the Year category. How does it feel to be there among the best?

I don’t want to be first, and I don’t strive for that. I didn’t even expect to be nominated by anyone! It’s like when I used to do sports; I didn’t compete to win, I just simply did. I am not the competitive type. When I received the award, it showed that I’m not just a lame duck: I’m a top vendor who does her job well, and whose work is acknowledged. That does feel good, but I never think about rankings, about defeating others.

Even though you have had to overcome great hardship in your life, it is quite rare nowadays to see a person with such a positive and life-affirming radiance as you exude. What is your secret?

To tell you the truth: I hate complaining. Sometimes things go sideways, but my take is that it’s all good: the sun shines, the rain falls, the sky is blue, the grass is green, the plants grow, the animals live, the children are cute. It is violence that I loathe. War. I couldn’t even slaughter a chicken — I am emotional, I respect life very much. It would be nice if politicians would play chess instead of war, and then people wouldn’t need to get shot. I feel the same about abortion, except no one is horrified by the fact that the fetus is ambushed with an instrument, while it’s trying to protect its little life. I am certain that this topic hits so close to home for me because I experienced it myself: I, too, was aborted by my mother, yet I survived. Perhaps because I was meant to help others.

Translated from Hungarian via Translators without Borders. Courtesy of Fedél Nélkül / International Network of Street Papers

‘Fedél Nélkül’ vendor Aranka

things go sideways, but my take is that it’s all good”

BY ZSÓKA POLÁK

Aranka Halmi. CREDIT: SZOFI MIHÁLYI

In a press conference on May 16, activists, organizers and other community members gathered to share concerns about recent state and local legislation.

“Over the past few months, the will of the people has been undermined to create a city more amenable to business interests, wealthy residents and tourists,” the group calling themselves the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition wrote in a release. “The people of Nashville are tired.”

On April 25, the majority of the Metro Council voted to approve the largest public stadium subsidy in U.S. history. Two recent polls found that over 50 percent of Nashville residents oppose the stadium deal, and only about 25 percent are in

Democracy Denied

BY AMANDA HAGGARD | PHOTOS BY ALVINE

favor of the deal. During a five hour public hearing, 70 percent of the roughly 140 commenters spoke in opposition to the deal.

“Despite this, the majority of the Metro Council decided to back billionaires and deny democracy. This stadium deal will come at the cost of rapid gentrification, redevelopment, and displacement; increased policing and surveillance; and negative environmental effects that will disproportionately impact Black, Brown, Indigenous, low-income and unhoused Nashvillians,” the group says.

If our city’s administration and Metro Council were accountable to the people of this city, they would have truly negotiated a deal in the best interest of the people of Nashville. We demand

that the Mayor and Council create an East Bank & stadium plan that prioritizes the will and needs of residents of our city who will be affected most. We demand that the Metro Council initiate an EPA Environmental Impact Study and an investigation of environmental justice outcomes alongside the EPA’s newly-created Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. To give residents a say in development near the stadium, we propose a referendum on the general obligation bonds for East Bank infrastructure.

The Tennessee General Assembly passed multiple bills during this session to actively curtail Nashvillians. When the size of the Metro Council was threatened, Metro Legal and the people of

Nashville came together to fight this punitive restriction of municipal power. The state has also gutted the Community Oversight Board for which 134,135 Nashvillians voted.

The group is demanding that the Metro Council prioritize the people who call this city home.

“We urge our Council to enact a Guaranteed Basic Income pilot program to counteract the effects of increasing costs across the city. We insist that they push for increased community input in the budgeting process. We demand that democracy be defended in Nashville. We are inviting our fellow Nashvillians to join us in expressing our concern about democracy in our city,” the group wrote.

PHOTOS BY ALVINE

Awareness

BY Anna-elisa jakob and Amanda Haggard

Astudy on mental illness from the University Medical Center Hospital at Hamburg-Eppendorf shows the majority of homeless people struggle with mental illness. Franziska Bertram, the chief researcher involved in the study, explains what this means for associations and providers offering assistance to the homeless.

When Bertram and a team of forensic specialists began examining the mental health of homeless people, it seemed at first that they were significantly better off than the general

population: Researchers at the University Medical Center Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) surveyed about 650 homeless people throughout Germany as to whether they had suffered from a mental health disorder at any point in their lives, and only 23 percent or participants responded affirmatively. However, they found indications of an undiagnosed illness in more than twothirds of those surveyed.

In Tennessee, a report from NAMI Tennessee says one in six people are diagnosed with a mental illness, and many others go undiagnosed. NAMI

Tennessee is a subchapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Amongst unsheltered and homeless people, a tendency to go “underdiagnosed”, as doctor and chief researcher Franziska Bertram puts it, seems to be a major problem. Homeless people are much more prone to suffering from mental illnesses, yet less likely to obtain a diagnosis by a medical professional.

The team only examined illnesses which are also notably common amongst the general population, such as depression, addiction struggles, and anxiety disorders. Other studies

suggest that schizophrenic disorders are also prevalent amongst homeless people, suggesting the percentage of people suffering from mental illnesses could be even higher.

According to the study, one decisive factor in assessing one’s own mental health might be one’s background. Bertram remarks that: “When we asked them what the most important cause for their homelessness was, people of German origin often cited their mental health. Homeless people of a different origin seemed to place less emphasis on this factor — even if they were highly

likely to struggle with mental illnesses.”

Several factors may contribute to the crucial role that one’s background and origin play in respect to mental health: “A valid residence permit, the possibility of obtaining health insurance, language skills, social networks — all those are factors influencing the mutual interdependence of health and origin”, Bertram says.

The report in Tennessee also says folks here struggle to get help when they need it most. Of the 231,000 adults in Tennessee who did not receive needed mental health care when they need -

ed it, 38.5 percent did not because of cost; 3,224,296 people in Tennessee live in a community that does not have enough mental health professionals to begin with. Tennesseans more than six times as likely to be forced out of their insurance networks for mental health care than for primary health care, compounding the problem and “making it more difficult to find care and less affordable due to higher out-of-pocket costs,” the report says.

Many homeless people suffering from mental illnesses have difficulties benefiting from the services currently

offered to them: “Say that you are suffering from a substance addiction and then have to navigate the pressure that comes with addiction within a crowded space amongst many other homeless people — it is easy to imagine how this could lead to added stress," says Bertram. Depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia make those affected notably sensitive to stressful situations. A room of one’s own acting as a place of retreat can be particularly important in these cases.

Bertram argues that the services provided to the homeless lack system -

atic infrastructures and fail to bring together social work, medical and psychotherapeutic support, as well as different forms of housing. This would be important to be able to correctly diagnose illnesses and subsequently treat them in a targeted way.

Translated from German by Elena Löhndorf via Translators without Borders

Courtesy of Hinz&Kunzt / International Network of Street Papers

“Of 231,000 adults in Tennessee who did not receive needed mental health care, 38.5 percent did not because of cost.”

NAMI TENNESSEE

Annie Lennox (Eurithmyx) and Harry Styles. BY CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR WENDELL J. #5314

Cattle Call

My regular readers are familiar with the stories about my Pop - how he ran a pool room for years in the small town of Ashland City, Tn. a popular hangout for young and old alike, since there wasn’t much to do in such a small town back then.

He was also a hard working farmer who also tended the neighbors cattle, (that’s why he had a milking stool made for me), and when he was fulfilling those duties you could often find me right by his side.

Until I came along, I heard he wasn’t very tolerant of children. He was often perceived as cold and distant, but that was not the case when it came to me.

Born 2 and 1/2 months premature, weighing only 3 pounds 9 and 1/2 ounces, (which today with all the medical advances wouldn’t be a big deal, but back then, those babies usually didn’t make it.)

For that reason, my Pop referred to me as his ‘miracle baby’, as such it was as if I could do no wrong in his eyes.

To give you an example, once I was sitting in the kitchen as my grandma who was busily

Is it Summer Yet?

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR BY JUNE P., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

going about her daily routine.

Meanwhile, I was messing with an antique bowl full of loose change sitting on the counter nearby.

My mom seeing what I was up to kept telling me to STOP! I didn’t listen. What happened next should come as no surprise.

The bowl fell to the floor and shattered into a million pieces, sending change rolling in every conceivable direction. Before my mom could give me the spanking I deserved, my Pop intervened saying ‘don’t you dare lay a hand on that baby, she didn’t mean to do it, it was an accident!’ That was true, but still, that being said, there were a few times when I even tested his boundaries.

As I said before, you could often find me by his side as he went about his daily chores.

On one occasion I attempted to call ALL the cattle up to the fence. I’d seen my Pop do it countless times but I was told they’d only come for their caretaker. I thought to myself, we’ll just see about that! So I went to the pasture and began calling, "Come on everybody, Come on," waving my arms as I’d

seen him do SO many times before-and what do ya know, ALL the cows came to the fence in no time at all! I was SO excited! I rushed into the house to get my Pop and show him what I’d done. When he saw what I did he wasn’t excited or proud AT ALL. Instead he was, well, I don't exactly know how describe it. He was exasperated or frustrated - I'd never seen him look or act that way before.

He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, a man of few words all he said was, "youngin’ I sure do wish you hadn’t done this, now they (the cattle) expect to be moved to another pasture," (one much farther from the house). Oops! I guess I hadn’t paid much attention to what came AFTER he called the cows up.

It WAS NOT my intention to put even more work on the man I loved and respected SO much, and yet that’s EXACTLY what I did!

Well, you can rest assured I NEVER did that again, though I’m sure I did other things that increased his workload exponentially, but he never complained, he loved me just the same!

My two best friends. You know them. Ms. Cheesy and Mr. Cheedar want it to be summer now. They say they're sick of the cold snow, the rain. One day its in the 80s and the next day is 50s or 60s. No wonder we all feel sick, down, depressed and lower. Ms Cheesy said we all need some Vitamin D in the sunshine.

I know I feel better getting to go out and not being stuck inside all day or sometimes two or three days.

My friends want to come to work with me. I think the staff here would like that. Oh, there are a few down there that would enjoy the play.

Well, I had a friend that was going to take me to see my great mema. In her special little box at her grave. But, my friend fell Saturday night. She is still in the hospital. They told her she had two strokes. Not good at all.

Please say some special prayers for her. She was running herself crazy taking care of her husband. They are waiting on him to pass. Now her. But please pray for her. And him. Her name is Sharon and his name is Jerry. Thank you so much. I'll finish my story in another issue. Have a Bless Day everyone!

Volunteer Spotlight: Mattew Murrow

I was happy to get to spend some time getting to know Matt Murrow, one of our newest volunteers. I must admit, this interview took a LONG time to develop. I first met with him in person on a blustery cold day outside The Contributor office.

Later as I was attempting to put it all together, I felt the interview was incomplete, lacking something. That led to a phone conversation to get more insight into the journey that led him here.

Let me begin by saying that to me, although he assured me he doesn’t sing, Matt DEFINITELY gives off an Adam Lambert vibe. (For those who don’t know, Adam Lambert was the runner-up on season 8 of American Idol.)

That being said, Matt grew up in Akron, Ohio (the city's main claim to fame is that it has the distinction of being the home of NBA great Lebron James).

That's where Matt began his collegiate career at the University of Akron, as well as where he obtained an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Physics.

He moved to Nashville in the Fall of 2019, to work on his PhD in Physics from Vanderbilt, which will come in the Spring/Summer of 2024, because as he stated in our interview, "Everything Is Physics."

It was there his interests shifted to include Cognitive Science/Psychology, which helps to determine and build a model of people’s behavior. (This made me think of Criminal Minds.)

He was drawn to pursue that path after collaborating one of his advisors at Vanderbilt and his wife (also a Vanderbilt professor) on their projects.

Though they may seem like unrelated fields,

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

he assured me that there are "remarkable similarities" between the two, and that the tools needed to complete each course of study are essentially the same.

So how did he come in contact with The Contributor?

Contributor vendor Dwayne B. was selling the paper on 25th Avenue by the VA near the Vanderbilt campus three years ago, and he bought papers from him.

Matt had become frustrated when he realized academia was self-contained and disconnected from the real world, stating, "it’s like living in a bubble."

In order to counteract the effects of that, he wanted to find a meaningful way to give back to the world around him.

He knew he needed to be doing SOMETHING to help people solve problems on an individual basis, although he admits he didn’t know exactly what that would look like. It was a bit fuzzy, futuristic, much like what’s to come in the future once his 10 year college career comes to an end.

He admits he’s still sorting it all out.

After having what he described as a "tumultuous year," personally, he went through training and began volunteering with The Contributor in the Fall 2022, it was the organization he was most familiar with.

He says it has been a meaningful experience that has served as a reminder of how wonderful people including the staff, vendors, and volunteers in the organization are. He says he has no expectation of getting something in return, he just enjoys helping people.

After all, "spreading more LOVE in the world" is what drives him, and these days we can ALL certainly use more of that!

'Contributor' Vendors Stand with Workers Everywhere

The other day, a very upset old woman drove by me and yelled: “Go down to the counter and get you a real job, instead of sponging off the rest of us!”

After walking over to where she had parked, offering her a free paper (which she grabbed from me and threw in the passenger seat), a short prayer for her... and then plenty of time to reflect, I CAME UP WITH A QUESTION:

Who is sponging off of whom, exactly?

I sell and write for a paper that is a non-profit, community run local paper. We have a bias, openly stated: to end homelessness.

But we also include humor, art, personal stories, important events around the city, and local business ads. We do in depth news reporting.

You can look at a paper a year or more old and still find relevant content.

Every job in civilization depends on other people to survive. In a fascist environment, the first to be considered irrelevant are artists. People without family. Musicians. Comedians.

BY LISA A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

The poor. The displaced. And, whoa! How about this one? Journalists.

The very people who depend on the First Amendment for their livelihood — and without whom we would remain ignorant and powerless, scrubbing our own pots after a meal at a nice restaurant. (Did I mention comedians? Oh that’s right - unnecessary.) These are the people who are doing the thankless jobs. Oh, and selling The News. The actual news, relevant to you.

Speaking of thankless jobs:

Let’s look at what types of jobs Contributor Vendors have held or still hold to this day. After an informal survey at our latest meeting, here’s the list:

Crossing Guard

Firefighter

Cook

Caterer

Retail Sales

Car Sales

Landscaping

Home Healthcare

Carnival Worker

Military Security Guard

Stadium Vendor

Dance Teacher

Janitor

Maid

Bookkeeper Cashier

Community Liaison

Truck Driver

Railyard Worker

Drug Pusher

Nursing Home Assistant

Dump Runner

Hazardous Waste Removal

Household Organizer

Nanny

Lawn Mowing

Researcher

Investigative Reporter

Volunteer for NGO

Manufacturing

Teacher’s Assistant

Goodwill Worker

Caveat: None of our vendors are currently holding an illegal job - despite the fact that you or a family member may have - perhaps unwittingly, benefitted from such.

We have worked hard — while getting regularly booted out from rental units due to gentrification, doing without proper medical care, dental work and often glasses. Just to name the bones of the situation. Not much room for “moving up the ladder” there. Even if it wasn’t already guaranteed that at least 90 percent of workers won’t make it to “the top” of anywhere. In the current hierarchy that is corporate America, there’s just no room way up there.

Harley-Davidson Motorcycles is an exception. And Ford Motor Plant is working hard on good corporate culture. Wow, two out of thousands! Yay.

So if anybody has been sponging off us, it’s non tax paying, non “profit sharing” corporations, including the Real Estate corporations.

BY RASHAD SHABAZZ

Seeking accountability in the brutal police beating death of her son, the mother of Tyre Nichols has filed a $55 million federal lawsuit against the individual officers, the Memphis Police Department and the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

There’s no way to predict the outcome of this lawsuit. But civil suits are by now a familiar tool of grieving families on a familiar quest.

Recent multimillion-dollar settlements by the city of Minneapolis over police use of excessive force and a Justice Department finding that police in Louisville, Kentucky, routinely violate the constitutional rights of Black people confirm what many have long complained about: that police are unnecessarily violent and violate their rights.

In mid-April 2023, Minneapolis settled two civil lawsuits against the city’s police department, for nearly $9 million. Similarly, the third anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s March 13, 2020, killing by Louisville police officers brought with it federal validation that officers from Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government often violate the Constitution and federal law when they interact with Black people.

“It’s heartbreaking to know that everything you’ve been saying from day one has to be said again through this manner; that it took this to even have somebody look into this department,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department’s findings on March 9, 2023.

Why are Black people so often ignored when it comes to complaints about their interaction with police? And why are police given automatic credibility and shielding from accountability?

Automatic credibility

In Louisville, in Minneapolis and across the nation, Black people have complained about police misconduct only to have those complaints ignored while white people’s complaints of misconduct are more likely to be sustained.

One reason for this is that, throughout American society, Black people are viewed as criminals. This stereotype encourages more police encounters, which in New York City, for example, has led to Black people’s being twice as likely to be stopped by the police. This might also explain why Black people, who are 12.5 percent of the national population, represent 33% of people arrested for nonfatal violent crimes.

There’s also a long history of police targeting racial minorities. From Black people in the South and, as I have written about, in the Midwest to Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest or the Irish, before they were considered white, in the Northeast, policing and controlling minority groups has often gone hand in hand.

And this history didn’t just fade away as time passed. It became part of the culture of modern policing. This may account for the staggering levels of police misconduct toward Black

people. Black men, for example, are more than three times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as white people. Black people are also more likely to be pulled over by the police.

These racial realities work in concert with cultural myths about police and policing that always paint them as heroes and good guys who protect us from the bad guys at great risk to their own personal safety.

These cultural myths and the support of the powerful Fraternal Order of Police — an organization made up of U.S. sworn law enforcement officers — justify violent police culture and help to immunize officers against accountability for their conduct.

Taken together, these things set up a hierarchy of credibility that shields police from accountability.

Shields against accountability

According to UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz, legal protections like qualified immunity protect police officers from repercussions that stem from abuse. Qualified immunity is a 1967 Supreme Court doctrine that protects police and other government official from frivolous lawsuits.

The court rule was designed to reduce the power of the 1871 Klan Act, which empowered citizens to bring lawsuits against police for not protecting them from lynchings.

The law shields police from accountability by requiring that complaints include evidence to show that police conduct was unlawful and that

the officer knowingly violated the law that was deemed illegal in a previous case. This legal formula gives police the power to frame interactions in a way that protects them from claims of abuse.

By claiming their actions were necessary to protect themselves, qualified immunity makes their actions legal and makes holding police accountable nearly impossible. In short, police are given the benefit of doubt and their version of events is taken as truth.

Even when complaints are made against police officers, the municipal attorney, who represents the officers, often doesn’t communicate the complaint to the police department, on the assumption that it’s frivolous.

The issue is not Black and white

As a geographer and scholar of African American studies, I use space and place to make sense of police abuse. And what my research demonstrates is that the disproportionate killing of Black people by police happens for two reasons: Black people live in racially segregated communities that are heavily policed, and Black people are viewed as perpetual criminals.

This perspective has allowed me to understand how other groups are also affected by police violence in ways similar to Black Americans.

Homeless people, who are heavily policed and seen as criminals, experience disproportionate levels of deadly force, too. In Phoenix, for example, the Justice Department is investigating claims of abuse and excessive uses of force against homeless people. The investigation

is also inquiring into whether the Phoenix Police Department has a pattern of unconstitutionally seizing and disposing of the belongings of people living on the streets.

Police misconduct also affects people with serious mental illness. In Salem, Oregon, for example, a woman called 911 because her son was intoxicated, high and mentally ill. Within minutes, a police officer burst into their house and shot her son dead, without trying to calm him down or assess the situation.

Police shot a 13-year-old boy in Salt Lake City after his mother called 911 because he was experiencing a mental crisis. Fortunately, the boy survived, but the same can’t be said for Daniel Prude, whom police in Rochester, New York, killed because of erratic behavior.

Systematic police abuse of Black people and routine misconduct against homeless people and those with serious mental illness make encounters with police officers dangerous and potentially deadly. Giving police automatic credibility and shielding them from accountability will, I believe, perpetuate abusive practice and subsequently put municipalities in a never-ending spiral of using taxpayers’ money to settle cases of police misconduct.

Rashad Shabazz is associate professor at the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University.

Courtesy of The Conversation / International Network of Street Papers

The law often shields police officers from accountability and reinforces policing that harms Black people, homeless people and people with mental illness

A demonstrator spray-paints at Union Station near the U.S Capitol, during a march in Washington, D.C. to protest police violence, after the death of Daunte Wright, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Minnesota, U.S., April 17, 2021. REUTERS/ERIN SCOTT

HOBOSCOPES

GEMINI

We should go to the zoo together sometime, Gemini. I think you’d really like it. Every animal has a sign in front with some facts about what it eats and where it lives and how it gets by in this wild world. It would be nice if more folks had signs like that. Mine would say something like “Amateur Astrologer (Mysterious mysterious) Found in air conditioned spaces with pillowed surfaces. Primarily herbivorous, they can live months of the year on only Wheat Thins and peanut butter.” What would yours say, Gemini?

CANCER

You’ve been waiting for your turn to speak, Cancer, but I notice you keep returning to the back of the line. You’re hoping that if you stay quiet for just another few minutes, some more rational voices will find their way into this conversation and you won’t ever have to pick a side. I’m not saying you’ve got the right answer, Cancer, but I do think you need to get into the conversation. You can even start by asking some clarifying questions.

LEO

I thought adulthood would feel different, Leo. I’ve been waiting for the signs to let me know that adulthood had arrived. For instance, I assumed there would be more briefcases and ties. Maybe I secretly thought that if I avoided going into a briefcases and ties line of work, I could delay the aging process and never grow up. But it hasn’t worked. I’m in jeans and flip flops and a too-small astrologer’s tunic and I still keep getting older. You’ve grown up too, Leo. Nobody’s asking you to feel old. We just need you to bring your stories to the table.

VIRGO

You were always pretty good at those multiple-choice tests, Virgo. They would be like “A) An obviously wrong answer. B) An almost right answer. C) The clearly correct answer. D) All of the above.” Of course, there would be some variety in the order, but you could usually see through them. The choices you’ve got in front of these days are a little less clear, Virgo. And if you keep choosing “all of the above” you’re going to take home way too many groceries again. Maybe there’s not just one right answer. Maybe you should just pick “C.”

LIBRA

I couldn’t help but notice, Libra, that you’ve got…how do I say this…a lot of browser tabs open. I know, you’ve explained it to me. You have a “system” and these are all “very important” pages that you “need” to remember “for later.” But what if I told you that I closed all of them? That in a fit of tidiness, I just clicked away all the tabs you’ve spent so long cultivating? Wouldn’t it feel just the slightest bit freeing? Don’t worry, I’m just theorizing here. But it’s a good exercise to think about what you’ve got that’s actually worth saving.

SCORPIO

The North American longleaf pine is a particularly fire-tolerant tree. Not only do the adult trees resist fire well, the species is actually dependent on periodic fires to clear out the competition and make room for their seeds to germinate successfully. Their plentiful needles pile up and make perfect kindling to catch a spark. You’ve done pretty well hanging on through these recent blazes, Scorpio. I wonder if there might be a little more room now for you to stretch out and get what you need

SAGITTARIUS

I got that new toaster that has three slots, Sagittarius. One for the top half of the bagel, one for the bottom half, and then a third, more mysterious slot for…maybe a slice of banana bread? A loose Poptart? I’m really not sure. People might be telling you that there’s a reason for the way things have always been done. That two slots is enough. That you need to hold onto tradition. I disagree, Sagittarius. Only you know how many toaster slots is right for you. Does anybody make one with a wallet-warmer?

CAPRICORN

It is believed that when the European explorers arrived at the coast of the Caribbean and reported seeing mermaids, what they had actually encountered were manatees in the distance. I don’t believe it. Not because I think mermaids are real, I don’t really have a fish in that fight, but because I think manatees are far too noble to be involved in a silly case of colonialist mistaken identity. Manatees would never, Capricorn. Think of them next time somebody tries to tell you who you are. There’s no reason to even stay in that conversation. Just swim away.

AQUARIUS

What do you stand for, Aquarius? For me, it’s an easy question to answer. I’ve been standing in this line to get my drivers license renewed for the last 45 minutes. They could at least play some better music in here. How many marches did John Philips Sousa write, anyway? But I’ll keep standing here, softly humming along, until I get what I came for. How about you, Aquarius? What’s gonna get you on your feet?

PISCES

You walk carefully along the narrow stone bridge. Just a few steps at a time. There’s no railing to hold onto and the rocks sometimes crack beneath your feet. You can’t go back, and you know that the lava flowing through the gorge beneath you is ready to swallow you whole so, bit by bit, you move forward. You’re more than halfway now. I think you might just make it, Pisces! That’s when you hear the shrieks of the cave-eagles as they dive toward you from the ceiling. Sometimes the obstacles life sends your way are just too great, Pisces. Pause the game and get a snack.

ARIES

You’ve been asking big questions lately, Aries, but more from despair than curiosity. Why are we here? Why do we keep going? How can this be all there is? I see you over there, Aries, with your eye pushed against that cardboard tube from the last roll of paper towels, looking out the window and sighing like you’ve just discovered the telescope and it’s boring. You’re going to need a broader perspective. Put down the tube and talk to somebody. Help somebody with a task they can’t do alone. Eat a meal together. Ask them why they think we’re here.

TAURUS

I’m starting to feel the heat, Taurus. Days like this, it would be nice to go somewhere just a little bit cooler. I think about Eris, the second largest dwarf planet in our solar system. When Eris is at its farthest orbital point from the sun, the temperatures rest at around 405 degrees below zero. Its methane atmosphere freezes and falls to the surface like snow. As it warms back up to 358 degrees below zero, the methane turns back to gas. It reminds me, Taurus, that nothing stays as it is. Change is constant even on a frozen rock. What do you think will happen next?

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a certified forest ranger, or a trained cartographer. Listen to the Mr. Mysterio podcast at mrmysterio.com Or just give him a call at 707-VHS-TAN1

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

1st Wednesday after Trinity

THERE is no one first principle of evil as there is one first principle of good.

Aquinas: Summa Theologica

CREATION in the creature is only a certain relation to its Creator as to the principle of its being.

Aquinas: Summa Theologica

1st Thursday after Trinity

WE should communicate, not for our souls' benefit, but also to satisfy Our Lord's exceeding longing for us.

Charles De Condren, quoted by Patmore: The Rod, The Root, and the Flower

IF you are the body of Christ and his members it is the mystery of yourselves that is laid upon the altar. It is the mystery of yourselves that you receive. It is to what you are that you say Amen.

St Augustine: Sermons.

1st Friday after Trinity

IT is not according to times or places that we say that the whole Christ is everywhere, as if He were at one time whole in one place, at another time whole in another: but as being whole always and everywhere.

St Augustine: On the Creed

ADORED be thou, Lord, through our sister, the Death of our body.

St Francis of Assisi: Canticle of the Sun

1st Saturday after Trinity

BUT when does flesh receive the bread which he calls His flesh? The faithful know and receive the Body of Christ, if they labour to be the body of Christ. And they become the body of Christ, if they study to live by the Spirit of Christ: for that which lives by the Spirit of Christ, is the body of Christ. This bread the Apostle sets forth, where he says, We being many are one body. O sacrament of mercy, O sign of unity, O bond of love! Whoso wishes to live, let him draw nigh, believe, be incorporated, that he may be quickened.

St Augustine: quoted in Aquinas: Catena Aurea

IN nature the body makes the place, but in grace the place makes the body.

Donne: Sermons.

First Sunday after Trinity

IT is owned on all hands that we are baptised into a renovation of some divine birth that we had lost. ßAnd that we many not be at a loss to know what that divine birth is, the form in baptism openly declares to us that it is to regain that first birth of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in our souls, which at the first made us to be truly and really images of the nature of the Holy Trinity in unity. The form in baptism is but very imperfectly apprehended, till it is understood to have this great meaning in it. And it must be owned that the Scriptures tend wholly to guide us to this understanding of it. For since they teach us a birth of God, a birth of the Spirit, that we must obtain, and that baptism, the appointed sacrament of this new birth, is to be done into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, can there be any doubt that this sacrament is to signify the renovation of the birth of the Holy Trinity in our souls?

William Law: Christian Regeneration

The Feast of St. Barnabas

ALL the Church is Christ's Bride, of which the beginning and first-fruits is the Flesh of Christ, because there was the Bridegroom joined to the Bride in the Flesh.

St Augustine: On I John.

I SAW full surely in this and in all, that ere God made us he loved us; which love was never slacked, nor ever shall be. And in this love he hath done all his works; and in this love he hath made all things profitable to us; and in this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had beginning; but the love wherein he made us was in him from without beginning: in which love we have our beginning. And all this shall we see in God, without end. Which may Jesus grant us. Amen.

Juliana of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love.

2nd Monday after Trinity

WHAT is 'spirit'? (for Christ is spirit, his religion that of the spirit). Spirit is: to live as though dead (dead to the world).

This way of life is so entirely foreign to man that to him it is quite literally worse than death.

Very carefully introduced for an hour or so in the distance of the imagination, natural man can bear it, it even pleases him. But if it is brought nearer him, so near that it becomes, in all seriousness, something required of him: the natural instinct of self-protection rises up so powerfully in him that a regular uproar follows, as with drink . . . And in that condition, in which he is beside himself, he demands the death of the man of spirit, or rushes upon him to put him to death.

Kierkegaard: Journals.

2nd Tuesday after Trinity

UNLESS a man saith in his heart, "Only God and myself exist in this world," he will not find rest.

The Paradise of the Fathers. KEEP thy conscience with thy brother and thou shalt find rest. The Paradise of the Fathers.

2nd Wednesday after Trinity

YOU do not know who you are, nor do you know whom you love, and above all you have no idea what Our Lord is going to ask of you.

Léon Bloy: Letters to his Fiancée

ONE of the old men came to another old man who was his companion, and as they were talking together one of them said, "I have died to the world"; and his companion said, "Have no confidence in thyself that this is so until thou goest forth from the world, for although you sayest, 'I have died', Satan is not dead."

The Paradise of the Fathers.

2nd Thursday after Trinity

THE terror of guilt, or sin, is certainly not at its strongest at first. On the contrary, it is not until some time has passed and there has been some progress in goodness—then, when such a man reads or happens by chance to hear that another man, who was guilty of the same thing, was lost; then terror awakes. At the time of sinning sin has the power of self-preservation in a man, and gives him a certain strength, physical strength, the strength of despair, not to remain with the thought of guilt.

Kierkegaard: Journals.

THE free will of man is a true and real birth from the free, eternal, uncreated will of God, which willed to have a creaturely offspring of itself or to see itself in a creaturely state. And therefore the will of man hath the nature of eternity and the nature of omnipotence in it, because it is what it is and hath what it hath as a spark, a ray, a genuine birth of the eternal,

Sponsored by Matthew Carver, publisher

free, omnipotent will of God. And therefore, as the will of God is superior to and ruleth over all nature, so the will of man, derived from the will of God, is superior to and ruleth over all his own nature.

William Law: Divine Knowledge

2nd Friday after Trinity

WE have this virtue (patience) in common with God. From him patience begins; from him its glory and dignity take their rise. The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God as its author. Man ought to love the thing which is dear to God; the good which the Divine Majesty loves, it commends.

St Cyprian: On Patience

PATIENCE, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray, But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks,

To do without, take losses, and obey.

Rare patience roots in these, and, these away, Nowhere.

Gerard Hopkins: Poems

2nd Saturday after Trinity

IF a man be in poverty and suffer need without through lack of worldly goods and therewith he desire with deliberation in his heart within more than he need, that man liveth not in virtuous poverty but in wretched need without reward. For the lust and the will within with full assent thereto sufficeth to the fulfilling of sin and to the love of reward. Wherefore he that would be perfectly poor, he must look that he neither have nor desire more than is needful to his living.

The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, tr. by Nicholas Love.

Second Sunday after Trinity

OUR relation to others, even when we name it a relationship of love, is governed by the law that we should render evil for evil. We do not perceive in the other the One—that is, the good which he is not. Rather, we hold him liable for being what he is . . . This making men liable for what they are is to render to them evil for evil . . . It is this failure of apprehension which makes of our whole behaviour and inherent mass of evil. Along this line of evil we all, without exception, move.

Barth: Epistle to the Romans

3rd Monday after Trinity

WHAT proportion of relief is due to him, that is thy brother in nature, thy brother in nation, thy brother in religion, if meat and drink, and in that, whatsoever is necessary to his sustenation, be due to thine enemy?

Donne: Sermons

CERTAINLY it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

Bacon: Essays of Truth

3rd Tuesday after Trinity

THERE is nothing which the Lord hates; for He does not hate anything, and yet wish what He hates to exist; nor does He wish anything not to exist, and yet cause the existence of that which He wishes not to exist; nor does that exist which He wishes not to exist. If the Word hates anything, He wishes it not to exist; but nothing exists of which God does not cause the existence; nothing, therefore is hated by God, or by the Word, for both are one, viz. God.

St Clement: The Paedagogue

ACROSS

THEME: OUTDOOR FUN

1. Bryan of "Summer Of '69" fame

6. Lake in Provence 9. ____ ____ good example 13. Hypotenuse/opposite side 14. Fuss, to Shakespeare

15. Pine 16. Filthy dough

17. Marxism or Taoism, e.g. 18. Skylit lobbies 19. *Outdoor repast 21. *Two-wheeling

Agreement word

*Climbing turf 25. "I wish I ____, I wish I

28. Cracked by yegg

Cowardly color

Slightly (2 words) 37. Matterhorn location

Charles III's ex

She played Carla on "Cheers" 41. Nev.'s neighbor 43. Rotisserie skewer 44. Indianapolis team

Underwater "nose" 47. Color of a bruise 48. Trying experience 50. "The Breakfast ____" 52. p in mph 53. Ranee's husband

plume

Pieces of Poetry

BY CHRIS SCOTT FIESELMAN

“Pieces of Poetry” is a brand new series from vendor #0015

Happy 14th year anniversary to me, In Nashville, Music City, Tennessee, April 23rd, 2023.

A book and a movie and now a CD, From the heart of Music City, Nashville, Tennessee.

My life put to music is a mystery. It took me sixty one years of history.

I know that I don’t sing and I can’t play guitar, And I’m not what you would call a Country Music Star. It took me fourteen years of being here to come this far. My book, movie and music are my battle scars.

But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due, To the people who believed in me to get through to you.

A songwriter who doesn’t play an instrument, And the words that were written, That were all so important.

DOWN

1. Knee-related acronym

2. Make pretty (2 words)

3. Mushroom spore sacs

4. Shawn Mendes' 2016 hit 5. Parts of a play 6. Secular 7. Commercial break clips

33. Chilled (2 words)

A gifted lyricist and two “Too-Cool-Musicians”

With their Emmy Award winning experience. How we ever met? And how we became friends? And how it never would have happened if it weren’t for them. Jimmy Dale down in Naples and Dave Porter back when, My life as a songwriter was all in God’s hands.

But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due, To the people who believed in me to get through to you.

My father often told me about Post Mortem Fame, And an accomplishment reminding them, Remember your Name.

The blood of my father runs through my veins. When he died my life was never meant to be the same. He left me what I needed to start playing the game, But the words don’t come easy when you try to explain, The reasons for the struggle, the strife and the strain. So much you have to lose for so much to be gained.

But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due, To the people who believed in me to get through to you.

To Be Continued…

Protect and Serve

PACINO

STARS IN MASTERPIECE 'SERPICO' AT THE BELCOURT

I previewed the Belcourt Theatre’s epic 1973 series in this paper a few weeks ago, and it’s hard to believe that the 18-film run is already almost over. The 1973 series highlights one of the greatest years in movies — particularly in American movies. Many of the films feature iconic performances from some of the best actors of the New Hollywood generation, I’m here to tell you that one of these is not like the others.

Al Pacino is the greatest actor to emerge from the great American films of the 1970s, and if I had to prove this point I could suggest a screening of Sidney Lumet’s masterpiece police-corruption saga, Serpico. Peter Maas wrote the book version of this story with his eponymous subject, former New York police detective, Frank Serpico. The book traces Serpico’s struggles with police corruption while serving for more than a decade with the NYPD. Serpico became a whistleblower, leading to the formation of the Knapp Commission. The commission indicted corrupt police officials and recommended sweeping administrative changes aimed at stamping-out systemic corruption in the department.

The 1970s gave audiences lots of anti-hero cops from Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (The French Connection, 1971) to “Dirty” Harry Callahan ( Dirty Harry, 1971). But Frank Serpico was different. Serpico ’s revelations of police corruption and the Knapp Commission had made national headlines, and Maas’s book version of Serpico’s story sold 3 million copies. People going to see Serpico in 1973 knew

they were seeing a recreation of a story they were already familiar with. The movie’s depiction of Frank Serpico also defied Vietnam War/Watergate-era depictions — like those in The French Connection and Dirty Harry — of good police doing bad things for the right reasons. In the film, Frank Serpico is an idealist who joins the police force with ambitions to connect with his community and ensure its safety. He’s a fun-loving guy with a big heart, and his friends call him “Paco.” The character might have come off as naive or unbelievable despite Serpico’s real life story. But Pacino and Lumet portray Serpico as a man with a deep sense of justice and unshakable personal integrity. Serpico isn’t a self-righteous jerk, but he knows the difference between right and wrong, and he knows that his great power as an officer of the law comes with great responsibility. Pacino’s big troubled eyes draw viewers into his torment, and Serpico’s insistence on wearing long hair and street clothes also marks him as a man of the people and not another cop looking to line his pockets on the streets.

Lumet constructs his film as a long flashback. The movie opens with Serpico covered in blood in the back of a patrol car, rushing to a hospital after an arrest gone bad.

Following the gruesome images, Lumet cuts to Serpico graduating from the police academy and tells the story of his journey from hopeful police cadet to a gunshot victim who may have been set up by his fellow officers. The

contrast between the murderous police corruption and Serpico’s sincere ambition to protect and serve creates the friction that energizes this gritty film. Conflicting loyalties and epic work/life imbalances propel Lumet’s scenes and Pacino’s performance with drama even though the audience already knows how the story is going to end.

The Belcourt could do a whole series on Al Pacino’s great performances of the 1970s. He’s incendiary in Dog Day Afternoon

(1975) and supremely subtle in The Godfather Part II (1974), but there’s something endlessly endearing about his portrayal of the good cop, Frank Serpico. It’s like his girlfriend Leslie shouts during the film’s swanky seventies par-

ty scene: “Everybody loves you, Paco!”

Serpico screens as part of the Belcourt Theatre’s 1973 series on Wednesday, June 7. Go to www. belcourt.org for times and tickets

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

“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.

LOCALES - POLÍTICA - INMIGRACIÓN

G R AT I S

Junio 2023

“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.

L L a a N N ticia ticia

Parte 2: Persisten Las Barreras Para Una Comunidad Saludable

(...VIENE DE LA EDICIÓN ANTERIOR)

En nuestra ultima edición (No.372) hablamos de los esfuerzos de TN CEAL, (Tennessee Community Engaged Alliance Against COVID19), una coalición amplia y diversa enfocada en abordar el impacto y mejorar la comprensión del COVID-19 y otras amenazas a nuestra salud collectiva.

“TN CEAL trabaja en asociación con organizaciones comunitarias, proveedores de atención médica, investigadores y otras partes interesadas para garantizar la disponibilidad y el acceso a información precisa y culturalmente apropiada. El objetivo de TN CEAL es promover la concientización, la educación y la participación comunitaria para reducir las disparidades en el acceso a la información, pruebas y vacunas, y a servicios de atención médica relacionados con el COVID-19”.

¿Cuáles son las otras barreras para una comunidad saludable?

Equidad y acceso a las vacunas: a pesar de la disponibilidad de vacunas, se han observado disparidades en el acceso y la aceptación de las vacunas. Factores como la vacilación de vacunarse, la falta de información, las barreras del idioma y el acceso limitado a los sitios de vacunación han afectado las tasas de vacunación en las comunidades afroamericanas e hispanas. Abordar

estas barreras es crucial para lograr una vacunación equitativa y mitigar la propagación del virus.

Racismo estructural : el racismo sistémico ha contribuido a la distribución desigual de los recursos, el acceso a la atención médica y las oportunidades económicas. Estas desigualdades estructurales han perpetuado las disparidades en los resultados de salud, haciendo que las comunidades negras e hispanas sean más vulnerables al impacto de la pandemia.

Sin duda, un tema difícil de hablar, divisivo y controversial para algunos. El racismo estructural, es lo que siempre ha sido, las prácticas, políticas y normas sistémicas e institucionalizadas que perpetúan las desigualdades y disparidades raciales en varios aspectos de la sociedad. A pesar de todos nuestros logros en materia de justicia social, sigue sien-

Conoce tus derechos:

do una forma de discriminación profundamente arraigada en los sistemas sociales, económicos, educativos y políticos. El racismo estructural opera a través de legados históricos, distribución desigual de recursos, leyes discriminatorias, prácticas sesgadas y actitudes sociales, lo que genera resultados y oportunidades desiguales para diferentes grupos raciales y étnicos. Es un sistema complejo e interconectado que requiere esfuerzos integrales para desmantelarlo a fin de crear una sociedad más justa y equitativa. Nunca pensé que aquel Estados Unidos con “justicia para todos” con el que crecí admirando desde mi lejano país de origen en latinoamerica, proyectando siempre una imagen poderosa, con sus superhéroes y el papel de salvador del mundo, tuviera tal trágica y dolorosa historia de desigualdades y discriminaciones sistémicas.

A pesar de todo, podemos hacer nuestra parte para ayudar a superar estos desafíos y abordar las disparidades en curso. Para ello, son necesarios esfuerzos específicos. Incluyendo mejorar el acceso a la atención médica, promover la equidad en las vacunas, las campañas de salud pública culturalmente adaptadas, abordar las disparidades socioeconómicas y desmantelar las barreras sistémicas que perpetúan las desigualdades en salud. Si reconocemos y abordamos activamente estos factores, podemos trabajar hacia una respuesta pandémica (y posterior a la pandemia) más equitativa e inclusiva para todas las comunidades. Juntos, podemos superar los desafíos que aún enfrentamos. Insto a todos los miembros de nuestra comunidad, independientemente de su origen, a abrazar el poder de la vacunación y priorizar el bienestar de nuestra comunidad en su conjunto. Al unirnos, podemos proteger a los más vulnerables entre nosotros y emerger más fuertes que nunca. Lideremos con el ejemplo, disipemos la información errónea y alentémonos unos a otros a vacunarse. Juntos, construiremos una comunidad más saludable y resistente donde todos puedan prosperar. El camino por delante puede ser difícil, pero nuestros esfuerzos colectivos nos ayudarán.

Yuri Cunza, es editor en jefe de La Noticia Nashville y también se desempeña como presidente y director ejecutivo de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville.

Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com ó 615-567-3569

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) 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.

Long lines at one of the Metro Nashville free vaccination centers back in 2021

Fuente: La Noticia Newspaper

Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @LaNoticiaNews

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