The Contributor: July 5, 2023

her

at her home birth in Toms River,

U.S.,

11, 2022. With her own Black doula and mother by her side, Clark had hoped to have her baby at home with no medical assistance at all. She wanted to have a "wild" pregnancy — one that is medically unassisted. After four cesarean sections with her previous pregnancies, Clark said she feared that her birth plan would not be supported by the medical staff. But after a long labor, Clark said she became anxious and decided to go to the hospital, where she gave birth to a healthy son. Clark is not alone in her distrust of medical intervention in the birthing process. Nine Black pregnant women and new mothers Reuters spoke to for this story voiced similar comments. All of the women spoke of feeling unseen and unheard at times through their pregnancy and postpartum period.

Holistic doula Ciara Clark, 34, receives a kiss from her mother Elle T Parker, 53, while she labors in

birthing pool

New Jersey,

Sept.

PHOTO BY REUTERS/JOY MALONE

21

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"I think God’s telling me, ‘hey, slow it down!’ The job forces you to go ‘hey, make sure you’re gettin’ off that leg...'"

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ambientalismo es crucial para el bienestar de nuestro planeta y sus habitantes. Reconoce la interdependencia entre los seres humanos y el mundo natural, instando a la gestión responsable de los recursos, la conservación y las prácticas sostenibles. Al proteger los ecosistemas y promover entornos más limpios, el ambientalismo salvaguarda la salud pública, y fomenta un futuro sostenible para las generaciones venideras. El ambientalismo va más allá de salvaguardar la salud del planeta. La degradación ambiental puede tener graves consecuencias para la salud humana, los medios de subsistencia y la calidad de vida. Al adoptar el ambientalismo, podemos fomentar un aire más limpio, un agua más limpia y ecosistemas más saludables, lo que lleva a mejores resultados de salud pública, mayor resiliencia a los desastres naturales y un mejor desarrollo socioeconómico. A continuación, Karen Shragg, autora y consultora ambiental nos explica como el ambientalismo de ahora puede que no este tan en línea con lo que fue en sus origenes: “Los estadounidenses acaban de celebrar el 53 aniversario del Día de la Tierra. La festividad ha cambiado drásticamente durante el último medio siglo, al igual que el entorno natural que los activistas buscan proteger. Los activistas ecologistas de hoy en día tienden a conmemorar el Día de la Tierra centrándose en formas de minimizar su impacto personal en el medio

Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @LaNoticiaNews

Wills II • Judith Tackett • Justin Wagner •

Carey L. Biron • John Schnobrich • Jen A.

• Lisa A. • Joy Malone • Corinne Perkins

aine Segovia Paz

ambiente, mediante el reciclaje regular, la limpieza de parques locales, la plantación de árboles, la conducción de vehículos híbridos o la compra con bolsas reutilizables. Estos comportamientos respetuosos con el medio ambiente son bienvenidos, por supuesto. Pero los activistas que celebraron el primer Día de la Tierra en 1970 tenían un enfoque más amplio: estaban principalmente preocupados por nuestro impacto colectivo en el medio ambiente. En particular, temían, con razón, que la población de rápido crecimiento de Estados Unidos estuviera sobrecargando los frágiles ecosistemas. Como señaló más tarde el senador Nelson, la población de EE. UU. se había disparado de 98 millones el año en que nació, en 1916, a 200 millones en el primer Día de la Tierra, y "se produjo un tremendo daño ecológico como resultado de este crecimiento", ya que vastas extensiones de espacios verdes habían desaparecido, para ser limpiado para hacer espa-

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ambiente natural y limitarán el acceso a la naturaleza. Los políticos a veces descartan estas preocupaciones ambientales y de calidad de vida, diciendo que los beneficios del crecimiento económico y los avances tecnológicos superan los inconvenientes. Esencialmente, argumentan que "no necesitamos preocuparnos por cómo dividir el pastel para atender a más y más personas, solo necesitamos más pastel". Pero a veces, simplemente no hay más "pastel" cuando se trata de nuestros recursos inherentemente limitados. No hay más agua dulce para dividir entre más y más estadounidenses que usan un promedio de 80 galones por día para satisfacer sus necesidades de alimentación, bebida y limpieza. No hay más pastel cuando se trata de un hábitat de vida silvestre que alberga especies amenazadas y en peligro de extinción. No hay más pastel cuando se trata de acabar con la contaminación lumínica que hace imposible ver la magia del cielo nocturno. No hay más pastel si queremos preservar la tierra para parques y mantener algo para la agricultura en lugar de perderlo por construir más viviendas. Es hora de que los ecologistas se den cuenta de que electrificar la red, plantar árboles o comprar bolsas de tela está bien, pero no es suficiente. También debemos dejar de rebanar el pastel limitado de los recursos de Estados Unidos hasta el punto de no retorno. Aumentar nuestra población de 334 millones por millones más cada año simplemente socava todas nuestras actividades tradicionales Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada?

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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 o er full case management, assistance with housing and rental expenses, addiction recovery, health insurance, food benefits and SSI/SSDI assistance. We see the one-stopshop team approach radically transforming a vendor's image of self and their place in community.

Since we started in 2007, more than 3,200 di erent 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.

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Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – and Jeff Beck! – invade The Belcourt for Music City

PHOTO BY JUSTIN WAGNER

She might take a break every now and then, but Beverly Gallaher can’t be kept down

Since Beverly Gallaher started selling The Contributor in 2014, it’s helped her remain active and present in the community. The stillness of shelter and mundanities of survival are necessary, but Gallaher’s wanderlust leaves her restless in the city.

“I just like it. I like to do it,” said Gallaher. “Some people want to stay inside all day, I say, ‘how?’ It just gets boring.”

The Nashville Rescue Mission has been a transitory living space for Gallaher as she seeks housing, but a roof overhead doesn’t guarantee ease of living – especially when you share space with so many others.

“Trying to survive over at the Mis -

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

sion is kind of hard… you can get thrown out in two seconds for saying the wrong thing. I’m not doing that.”

Uneasy in crowds and cramped communities, Gallaher prefers to keep busy far from the ruckus of downtown Nashville. She said staying in motion is a good way to stay out of trouble.

Selling The Contributor has been a particularly good fit for Gallaher, as it helps her keep in touch with the massive, ever-changing Nashville community.

For Gallaher, a day vending in the city means connection after connection, however brief – and though she’s fallen in and out of working with The Contributor, it’s always the people that

bring her back.

“Young people, old people, a lot of people. It’s not just for one particular type of person, it’s for everybody… the city’s a lot bigger, and it’s different. You get a lot of people from somewhere else now.”

Despite the positives of vending, it’s still an undertaking, especially in the searing weather.

Gallaher explained that vending is hard work – moreso than the average stranger tends to have much appreciation for. And despite the blistering summer heat and an injured leg, Gallaher has found the biggest hurdle in striking a balance between keeping busy and

staying rested.

“I might need a mini-break. I think God’s telling me, ‘hey, slow it down!’ The job forces you to go ‘hey, make sure you’re gettin’ off that leg, sit your butt down.’ I’ve got things to do, paperwork, Social Security, going through all that.”

As for recreation, Gallaher has a few ways to distract herself. But as always, it’s not long before she’s ready to take on something new.

“Well, I’ve got my phone… I like cat and dog videos,” Gallaher said, laughing. “Music, whatever. Watch a little TV. If there’s not much to do, it gets boring, it’s like, ‘I’ve got to get out and do something!’”

A Few Questions with the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety

The Contributor talked with Mike Lacey, Metro’s deputy director of community safety from the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety as part of a series called A Few Questions With where we interview Metro agencies about their most pressing issues.

The Community Safety Office is housed within the Mayor’s Office and has three staff members. Next to Lacey, Ron Johnson serves as the director of community safety and Breanna Tillman as the grants manager.

Describe the main purpose of the Office of Community Safety in five sentences.

The Office of Community Safety was created in 2021 to help the city to be more responsive to community-based violence, which is violence that happens outside the home. It is often tied to systemic disenfranchisement and lack of opportunity. Our mission has been to implement programs and strategies to reduce the likelihood of community violence. We know that poverty, exposure to violence, lack of education opportunity and stable housing along with a whole host of other psychosocial conditions increase the rates of violence.

We have three prongs of programs. The first being community development, the second violence interruption, and the third violence intervention.

You are housed within the Mayor’s Office. What is your budget, and how are you funded?

We were created in 2021, initially there was $1 million for violence interruption programming. The next year, there [was] $2 million added, and then we had some grant funding from the Governor’s Office that was really pass-through ARP (American Rescue Plan) support. As we are moving into this next fiscal year, we were hoping that we would have $5 million for services that we have designs to be fully allocated and used by the end of the fiscal year.

In the context of expenditures like this for violence prevention, you can compare us to other cities like Philadelphia. When you look at the per capita spending for violence prevention [in Philadelphia], they’re spending about 66 times what Nashville is. They are at the more progressive end of active violence prevention. Nashville does not have an Office of Violence Prevention, our work is not chartered and institutionalized, and as such is subject to being defunded and [dependent on] grant funding to continue.

What are your top three achievements so far?

As the first achievement, I want to highlight [the journey of] Jameka Usher. She is a resident of the Napier-Sudekum

BY JUDITH TACKETT

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SAFETY STAFF

JOHNSON Director of Community Safety

MIKE LACEY Deputy Director of Community Safety

housing complex. She was also the head of the tenants association there. We were able to provide funding to the Raphah Institute to do restorative justice programming in Napier and Sudekum.

When they were looking to hire for the program, they turned to Jameka and hired her along with the man who was the hero of the Waffle House shooting. Jameka is a resident who had been in a position of seeming influence, but had found that in the role she had been given as the leader of this community group, she was not able to make a difference in the residents’ lives, and she actually resigned before this job offer came through. But [in this new position] she has been having a really wonderful experience there from what we’ve heard and is, on a daily basis, able to help her neighbors resolve conflict.

That’s exactly the kind of case study we want to see. There is funding from a group that is not this huge national group but is fairly connected. Honestly the Raphah Institute is a bit larger and more established than a lot of the groups that we support. But the fact that they hired someone from the community to serve that community and are paying her a fair wage to serve her neighbors is… I cried when I first heard it.

The next one I want to talk about was the launching of a Group Violence Intervention (GVI) program. The GVI program is working with law enforcement to identify the men and women who are most likely to be victims or perpetrators of gun violence and helping them. Period.

What we understand is that when people have their needs met, their behaviors change, and that behavior change trickles out to their social network. A thing that has been said explicitly in meetings where we had the police chief, the mayor, heads of Parole and Probation in a conversation led by the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, the old strategies haven’t worked. If you just take an ice cream scoop and scoop out the people who we think are the “real problems,” you’ve caused harm in that community, and you have just other people fill in that gap of violence and socially

detrimental behavior. If you help people in those situations, their behavior changes, and that trickles down, and it actually solves issues of generational poverty and [addresses] trauma that are the root causes of these issues.

The other thing I want to highlight is The Village network surpassing 700 members. These are all leaders of mostly minority grassroot community groups who have never been brought together in any sort of list, much less like meeting. And they’re now offered $5,000 of professional development services per organization including everything you would need to receive larger grant funding. We provide grant-writing support, free of charge audits if you’re eligible for a Metro audit but you don’t have that in place. We’re in many ways seeing the collective power in the number of people that they reach and lives they change finally being understood. Let me put it this way, everyone who is running for mayor is interested in who The Village is going to vote for.

Metro Council just approved a $137,000 grant to The Contributor for Community Safety Programs. In essence, the contract calls for an expansion of the Where To Turn In Nashville resource guide and the development of a user-friendly website.

How does this resource bring improved value to your office and the community?

I do have a lot of excitement about this grant with The Contributor. I think what Linda [Bailey] has done at The Contributor and Open Table Nashville in making this Where To Turn in Nashville resource is a timely and forward-looking way to help people. [Much of this information] is “googleable” but when people are in crisis, they need help from something that is designed to help you when you are in that crisis. For example, when you’re looking for a hot meal, [Where To Turn In Nashville] doesn’t just give you a list of the places with hot food, it puts the days of the week and times that you can go there.

As knowledge becomes cheaper and as AI emerges to process information,

what organizations need to do to make a difference in people’s lives is design things that [create] less friction in between what you need and understanding how to get it. What Where To Turn In Nashville has done is put a flag in the ground [saying] this is the way we need to meet people where they’re at. And taking that to the internet is not in any way competition with any other resources. In fact, the underlying data should be shared and is public information. Having competing attempts to design more user-friendly access to information is exactly the kind of innovation that needs to be happening in the public service space.

I don’t think Nashville fundamentally has a resource problem; we have an information problem. We have a communication and collaboration problem. And Where To Turn in Nashville is a great step in the right direction that we want to support.

Since you are located within the Mayor’s Office, what is the sustainability plan for your office once this administration leaves?

That’s the question. Part of the answer is that of the three prongs that we discussed – community development, violence prevention, and violence interruption – the last two are in some ways easiest and most necessary to institutionalize in the city. There is an active conversation where these can be placed within the Metro departments that would create an Office of Violence Prevention to oversee these strategic initiatives. There is additional grant funding being sought from the federal government that would support that type of work.

When it comes to the community development work, we’ve always had to leverage third-party vendors to process the financial aspects of paying for consultants and direct aid to organizations because municipalities really aren’t set up for smaller payments like that in an effective way. In that sense, the actual operations of community development may be able to operate outside the government in a nonprofit setting where it is still fully transparent to the public [about] what its activities are and how and if it is continuing to serve organizations in a way it needs to.

A thing that people flag with us is, whether moving this to a nonprofit status lessen the convening power of the Mayor’s Office. My personal conclusion is that it seems very fair and important for the mayor to be invited into this space. But ultimately it’s the people who should be convening through their own power. It’s not for anyone in an elected position to be giving power to the citizens. They are the ones with the power.

RON

BREANNA TILLMAN Grants Manager

Sarah Childress Polk and her role in her husband’s political life

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

For years, my late wife, Irene, suggested that I write a book about Sarah Childress Polk, the wife of James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States. Although I have spoken on Mrs. Polk at a reunion of Polk’s collateral descendants in Sewanee, I have never written her biography. I have always, however, been interested in the important role she played in her husband’s political life.

In 1819, after James K. Polk, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, studied law under Felix Grundy in Nashville, passed the bar exam and practiced for two years. He moved to Murfreesboro, then the state capitol, where he secured a job as clerk of the State Senate. There he met 16-year-old Sarah Childress, who was educated at the Moravian Female Academy in Salem, North Carolina. Polk was struck by her “Spanish style beauty.” Later, Polk asked his mentor Andrew Jackson how to best further his political ambitions. Jackson said ”You should take a wife and become an established member of society.” Polk then asked Jackson if he had anyone in mind. Jackson said Sarah Chilldress, who was from an established and wealthy Murfreesboro family. James began courting her and they were married on New Year’s Day in 1824.

With Jackson’s endorsement, Polk won a congressional seat in August 1825 and headed to Washington. His arrival there as a newly elected congressman followed the presidential election of 1824 when John Quincy Adams was elected president by the House of Representatives because none of the four candidates — Ada, Jackson, Henry Clay of Kentucky and William H. Crawford of Georgia, received an electoral majority of the votes. As House speaker, Clay engineered Adams’ election despite the fact that the clear political sentiment in Kentucky had been for Jackson. The fact that Adams named Clay Secretary of State confirmed, in Jackson’s mind, that there had been “a corrupt bargain,” and he thereafter became Clay’s arch enemy.

During his first term, young Jimmy Polk stayed in a boarding house while Sarah, because of the animosity in Washington over the Eaton affair, remained in Columbia, James’ hometown. James later said that the session of Congress seemed to last forever.

When Polk returned to Washington for the next session of Congress, he brought with him his 23-year-old wife, who quickly emerged as his conspicuous helpmate, handling his correspondence and dealing with all the issues involving the boarding house on Pennsylvania Avenue where they lived. When Polk gave a speech on the house floor, Sarah could often be seen watching from the gallery. Their friends were aware of how enamored Polk was with Sarah. In a letter to a friend, Polk wrote that, on their stage coach travels, Sarah was always cheerful, seldom needed a rest stop and complained about

the arduous trips less than he did. Sarah quickly became well known in Washington, “for her acute and unflaging awareness of the dignity of her position as the wife of a young congressman.”

We all know that Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828 with an overwhelming majority. Polk did everything he could to help him achieve that. By the early 1830s, Polk had emerged as a national figure for his brilliant legislative success in the House. When the Speaker of the House position became open in 1834, Jackson favored Polk for the job. However, it went to John Bell of Tennessee, a critic of Jackson. The next year, Polk wrestled the job away from Bell and won it again in 1837.

As Speaker of the House, the Polks needed to secure larger living quarters than the boarding house with a common mess. James told Sarah that it would not be appropriate for the Speaker to eat every day with other members of the house. Sarah replied, with a smile, “As would inevitably happen, if you were there they couldn’t openly criticize the

Speaker.” Sarah believed that, in his new position, her husband would rival the presidency in power and influence.

There was a problem at home, however, as Tennessee Democrats were begging Polk to return home and oust the Republican governor, Newton Cannon. James and Sarah discussed the matter and reluctantly decided Jim should run for governor. He did so, narrowly defeating Cannon. Polk lost his bid for re-election, suffering the first political defeat he had ever had. He lost to “Lean Jimmy'' Jones again in 1943 and wondered if his political career was over. It was not, as in 1844, Polk won the presidency defeating Henry Clay primarily because Clay was not in favor of annexing Texas, and Polk was.

Polk ventured beyond Washington only three times during his presidency and had few diversions. When they did go out for pleasure, the excursions were organized by Sarah. On the other hand, they entertained frequently at the White house, which became the focal point of Washington society. Sarah glistened as the city’s premier hostess,

usually hosting affairs two or three times each week. She allowed wine to be served, but there was no hard liquor and no dancing. Polk always worked the crowd trying to convince legislators to embrace his legislative aims. He also tended to slip away from receptions to his desk for another hour or two of work.

Throughout Polk’s presidency, Sarah proved to be an antidote to her husband’s famous reserve. She was described as “ extremely affable, perfectly self-possessed” and having a stately, regal appearance. She was also her husband’s only intimate advisor. Polk once wrote, “Sarah knew so intimately my private affairs.” Sarah also pushed Polk to open the White House to streams of visitors, including hordes of supplicants for public office. Polk did so reluctantly as he was “greatly disgusted” with the office seekers.

An English lady who visited Washington, described Mrs. Polk this way: “Mrs. Polk is a very handsome woman. Her hair is very black, and her dark eyes and complexion remind one of the Spanish donnas. She is well read, has much talent for conversation and is highly popular. Her excellent taste in dress preserves the subdued though elegant costume that characterizes the lady.”

During the last few months of Polk’s presidency, Sarah’s primary concern was Jim’s failing health. Although only fifty when he took office, he now looked much older, having constantly had attacks of fever and diarrhea.

At the end of his successful presidency, James and Sarah went home by railroad to Wilmington, N.C., a ship from Wilmington to Savannah, a train from there to Montgomery, the boat Emperor down the Alabama River to Mobile, another boat from there to New Orleans, where there was cholera, and a steamer from there to Smithland, Kentucky, where the Polks got off again on the advice of their physician. The Countess, a boat from Nashville, brought them the final leg of their tiresome journey.

In Nashville, where they planned to retire, the Polks had purchased Felix Grundy’s home on Vine Street, which workers were still renovating. Sarah and James named the handsome home Polk Place. James contracted cholera and died peacefully on the fifteenth of June, 1849. He was only 53.

Sarah, who was only 45, continued to live at Polk Place until her death at age 88 on Aug. 14, 1891. She seldom left home except to worship at First Presbyterian Church, where her name is still on a brass plate next to her seat, or to visit her childhood home in Murfreesboro. Sarah Childress Polk was a great lady, kind and intelligent. My great grandfather, Tennessee Senator Howell E. Jackson, who held Mrs. Polk in high regard, introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that gave her a $5,000 annual pension, which made her last years more pleasant.

Sarah Childress Polk and James K. Polk.

Learn More About SOAR

BY JUDITH TACKETT

We have mentioned the SOAR program in prior columns, but it’s worth explaining more why it is critical to our local homelessness response in Nashville and providing a quick overview of the Park Center’s SOAR program, which is getting a $900,000 infusion through a recent additional contract with Metro.

Park Center is a local nonprofit serving people with mental illness and substance use disorders, and SOAR stands for SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery and is a program promoted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) provide income benefits to people who suffer from disabling conditions that impact their ability to work. However, these federal programs are not easily accessible to people experiencing homelessness. That’s why SAMHSA created the SOAR program, which offers an active engagement effort to link eligible people with SSI/SSDI and couple those with Medicaid benefits if possible. SOAR offers a critical service and income connection that often is the first step toward the path of recovery for many people experiencing chronic homelessness.

SAMHSA initiated the SOAR program in 2005, and according to its issue brief released in October 2022, so far more than 100,000 people nationwide who were experiencing or at risk of homelessness have been assisted. SOAR programs focus on prioritizing people with mental health and/or substance use issues, but over the years, some programs have expanded to focus on people experiencing chronic homelessness who do not have a mental health diagnosis.

I remember when the SOAR program started in Nashville in 2006. A young chap called Will Connelly, who worked as a street outreach specialist for Park Center, was serving on a committee of the former Metropolitan Homelessness Commission. He got together with some of his committee members, especially Tom Turner, CEO of the Downtown Nashville Partnership, and presented a program called SOAR that he said should be funded by Metro. Long story short, Metro created a contract with Park Center worth $173,000 to implement a SOAR program.

Eventually the SOAR program expanded into the Sheriff’s Office to serve people in jail to help break the cycle of homelessness. Other nonprofits ran and some are still running smaller SOAR programs. I mention Will Connelly (who had his hands full as my former boss at Metro a few years ago) because he’s been a local and eventually a national champion for SOAR for years. Connelly, who, after some professional detours, now serves

as the CEO of Park Center, has for years ensured the Metro and Nashville focus on programs to serve people experiencing chronic homelessness. He shared with me some information about the Park Center SOAR program with permission for publication.

As of July 1, 2023, the Park Center SOAR team will include eight SOAR staff plus a Director of Homeless Outreach. Currently, the Park Center SOAR budget breaks down as follows:

• $173,000 per year through a Metro contract that started in 2006;

• $3 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding that Metro allocated in 2021 for a total of three years;

• Approximately $173,000 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services;

• $27,500 dedicated to SOAR as part of a SAMHSA grant; and

• $900,000 in a round two ARP allocation from Metro that was awarded in June 2023.

Plans for the newest round of ARP funds include connecting with people experiencing homelessness who are uninsured and likely eligible for SSI/SSDI. People will be identified through several ways starting with the community’s Coordinated Entry process, which means that most of them, at present, would likely be served from encampments that Metro is planning to shut down. Considering how openly I have criticized Metro for its half-baked encampment closure plan (see prior columns), by finally allocating the ARP support services dollars six months after promising they would be in place, Metro has now a chance to catch up with the Housing First evidence based practices. The SOAR program will definitely play a crucial role in helping move people off the streets permanently.

Park Center will also partner with The Contributor. For those who are not aware, The Contributor Inc . has built a supportive housing program to serve the many vendors who start out experiencing chronic homelessness. As part of its comprehensive supportive housing program, The Contributor has also hired one SOAR program staff to help fill the gap

for people experiencing chronic homelessness. Park Center will collaborate to ensure more vendors eligible for SOAR can be served.

Furthermore, Park Center will connect with people experiencing homelessness in inpatient psychiatric settings and in emergency rooms. Connelly said that Park Center will also try to use a housing-focused street outreach-based approach to identify and engage potential program participants in a proactive way.

What do SOAR workers actually do?

According to SOAR Works, a website with state-specific information (see soarworks.samhsa.gov/states/Tennessee), once people are screened for eligibility, SOAR workers:

• Serve as appointed representatives to apply for SSI/SSDI on behalf of their clients. As such, they communicate back and forth with respond to questions, receive copies of all mail sent to the applicant and communicate directly with the Social Security Administration (SSA) or Disability Determination Services (DDS);

• Complete the applications for SSI and SSDI;

• Collect medical records from providers who have treated the applicant over the last two years;

• Write a comprehensive SOAR Medical Summary Report that includes psychosocial, treatment and functional information that is co-signed, if at all possible, by a physician or psychologist who has seen the individual;

• Conduct ongoing outreach and engagement with the individual to stay connected throughout the process and to work with the individual to obtain other needed services and treatment such as housing, physical and mental health care, other support services, food and clothing.

• Track applications and outcomes, including number of applications completed, approvals/denials, and time to decision from application submission to receipt of SSA’s decision; and

• Report outcomes on at least an annual basis within the stated time frames as requested.

On average, a SOAR case worker will be able to assist 15-20 people per year. It does not seem much, but it makes a difference, especially considering that SOAR serves as a stepping stone to housing and healthcare, and as such often ends up being a life-saving measure for people with severe and persistent mental illness.

The success of the SOAR program depends on the relationship a nonprofit has established with the local SSA offices. In addition, the SOAR program differs from working with an attorney in a few critical ways. For one, the Park Center SOAR program, especially, has shown a higher approval rate at first attempt, avoiding most appeal processes. Secondly, at a current average of 59 days to a decision it is significantly faster than the average time of two years it takes for attorneys to get approval.

SAMHSA in their 2022 issue brief presented another comparison. “In 2022 alone, there were 2,920 approvals on initial applications. Decisions on SOAR initial applications were received in an average of 153 days with an allowance rate of 68 percent. This compares to an initial allowance rate of 30 percent for all persons aged 18-64 who applied for SSI or SSDI in 2019.” By the way, Park Center’s SOAR approval rate is 95% with an average approval time of 59 days.

Finally, Park Center is in the early planning and implementation stages of SOAR efforts in local ERs. This is a big step for Nashville, since we know that many people experiencing chronic homelessness cycle in and out of hospitals and emergency departments. Breaking their cycle of homelessness could not only be a life saver but also a super cost saver, so to speak.

I mentioned the monetary aspect on purpose because we know that Park Center’s SOAR Program alone has been generating millions of dollars in cash benefits, Medicaid, and Medicare dollars over the years. Connelly shared the following hypothetical with me to illustrate this. “If one hundred people are approved for SSI with the help of SOAR assistance, and those one hundred folks stay eligible for just one year and receive the current SSI amount of $914 per month, then that effort yields $1,096,800 in federal cash benefits to these new SSI beneficiaries over the course of a single year.” This scenario does not even include the value of Medicaid or Medicare that comes with SSI/ SSDI approval – and this in Tennessee, a state that has yet to expand Medicaid.

What do we conclude? SOAR programs are necessary tool for communities to consider when trying to break the cycle of homelessness, especially for people experiencing chronic homelessness with severe and persistent mental illness and/ or co-occurring disorders (which means they also struggle with substance use).

SOAR stands for SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery and is a program promoted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Can publicly owned internet close the digital divide in US cities?

BY CAREY L. BIRON

Software engineer Dan Shuhler spent 15 years frustrated with patchy internet service while living in apartments in Arlington, Virginia — and having no recourse.

Each of those complexes contracted with just a single internet provider, leaving residents with no option for other services, a common situation, he said.

"I'd probably rather have the water go out than the internet — I can get bottled water, but trying to find another place to work isn't doable," said Shuhler, 40.

Shuhler has since bought a house, but he supports an effort to push Arlington to copy a strategy backers say has proven successful elsewhere: publicly owned, locally controlled internet service.

"Especially now with everything online, it's basically a requirement to function in society," Shuhler added.

Supporters say a public option could create more local competition, prompt increased investment, drive down prices — and reach those without internet connections.

Such debates are happening across the country, bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic moving key services such as healthcare, grocery shopping and government processes online, and now by preparations for a massive federal program to close the digital divide.

About a fifth of the country lacks internet access, particularly in poor, rural and Native American communities, according to public records.

"Treat it like a public utility — then everyone is getting proper access to it and hopefully improving service," said Tim Dempsey, a member of the ArlFiber Collective, a volunteer group that has been pushing the issue in Arlington.

The county is conducting a study on addressing the digital divide that will include a community broadband option, with recommendations due this year.

"Robust broadband connectivity has become a driver of progress in... economic development, affordable healthcare, public security, transportation, education and much more," said Jim Baller of the Coalition for Local Internet Choice, an umbrella group of public and private entities.

Not making such investments, "isn't just a matter of a dropped Zoom call," he said. "You're retarded in your ability to stay current in all of those areas."

Yet some worry the new federal funding efforts place too much emphasis on public initiatives – and say their worth is unproven.

"At the very least, this should be a level playing field, with those forming the best proposals receiving the grant money," said Johnny Kampis, director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a watchdog group.

The alliance in April released a report citing "unprecedented interest" in publicly owned networks but warning that such projects have often proved wasteful, redundant and inefficient in closing the digital divide.

Year of the 'public option'?

Community broadband networks now serve more than 20 million homes, according to the recently formed American Association for Public Broadband, a nonprofit founded by state and local officials.

"The time for public broadband has come," Gigi Sohn, the association's first executive director, said in an interview following her appointment this month.

"This is the right thing at the right time, with money flowing and people sick of not having affordable choices," said Sohn, a former nominee for commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission.

About 600 communities are served by some form of municipal network, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's community broadband networks initiative.

Dozens more such projects are in the pipeline, said Sean Gonsalves, communications lead for the initiative, pointing to Knoxville, Tennessee; Pharr, Texas; Waterloo, Iowa, and elsewhere.

"For decades the market has been broken. Most Americans get internet service through a monopoly cable provider, and here all these years later... we still have this digital divide," said Gonsalves.

Some cities are creating their own internet providers, while others are simply installing high-speed infrastructure and allowing providers to use it.

Municipal systems have tended to result in more affordable rates and some of the fastest options available, Gonsalves said, citing efforts in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Wilson, North Carolina; Fairlawn, Ohio, and elsewhere.

Yet these systems have been contentious,

and 16 states have restricted such a "public option", according to research group BroadbandNow, after Colorado this month rolled back its barriers.

Nonetheless, 2023, "could be the year that things begin to change", it said in an April report, fueled by the massive new federal funding available.

The government last year created a $65 billion "Internet for All" initiative aiming to build out high-speed internet infrastructure and bring down cost, with money expected to start flowing in coming months.

Regulators have been explicit that local governments should be eligible.

"We want to get the best possible networks built," said a spokesperson with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in emailed comments.

"To do that, we've asked states to create a level playing field on which municipalities; cooperatives; and small, medium, and large companies can all compete for these funds."

Still, draft guidance requires financial letters of credit from applicants, which could be an obstacle for local governments, said Jake Varn, a principal associate with Pew's Broadband Access Initiative.

It is "an outstanding question" as to whether a waiver or other process could be put in place, he said, given that municipal governments, "don't necessarily operate on that same financial plane as a for-profit provider".

Invisible problem

Los Angeles County is using pandemic relief money to build what could become one of the largest municipal broadband projects in the country.

The effort was motivated by residents' prob-

lems during the pandemic accessing telehealth, applying for jobs and engaging in financial transactions, said Selwyn Hollins, director of the county's internal services department.

About 400,000 county households lack home internet — a figure so large as to have generational impact, Hollins said, but one that is relatively invisible.

The new program will allow selected companies to use publicly owned roofs, towers and other infrastructure to bring free broadband to low-income households, with thousands likely connected by the end of the year.

"In parts of the county, there's only one provider, so there's no other option for people," Hollins said. "This is a very expensive place to live, so the choice has become difficult for a lot of families."

While still new, the effort fits in with any county's responsibility to support the most vulnerable, Hollins said. "This is what we do."

Elsewhere, nonprofits are working to fill this role.

Price is also the main obstacle in Baltimore, Maryland, where 40 per cent of homes do not have a broadband subscription, said Samantha Musgrave, director of Project Waves.

The nonprofit works to bring free broadband to tenants in apartment complexes, currently serving around 1,000 low-income households — and with a long list of interested properties.

"The internet is a utility, the same as water or electricity," Musgrave said. "And we need to be really serious about the way that we're providing access to this utility."

This article first appeared on Context, powered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Courtesy of the International Network of Street Papers.

Plans for massive federal funding are boosting US efforts to view broadband as a utility and ensure that people who may not have access to it are able to use a high speed service.

PHOTO BY JOHN SCHNOBRICH ON UNSPLASH

Let's "Stigmatize" the Homeless

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Recently, a Fox News commentator, Jesse Watters, bloviated about the problem of homelessness in America. He said that the root cause was not the lack of affordable housing but that cities reward unhoused citizens by coddling and subsidizing their anti-social behavior. "It's about drug addicts who want to wander around and live in tents on the sidewalk," Watters continued.

"You have to stigmatize it," he said. "You can't make them out to be some sort of cutting-edge heroes. You have to call them what they are. These are people that have failed in life and are on death's door." So much for the compassion and real-world experience of Jesse Watters.

It's often said, and I agree, that if you've met one homeless person, you've met one homeless person. I've shared a camp fire with homeless high-school dropouts, brilliant artists, genuine hero military veterans and PhDs. You never know what someone else is carrying. To assume

you know is wrongheaded.

I have been homeless and I'm not a drug addict. Sure, I do know others who are. Why do the poor, the traumatized, the sick and the dying turn to street drugs? They don't have access to adequate medical and mental health care or a warm dry place to rest their heads. They turn to drugs for the same reason everyone else does. They're suffering and in pain, but they don't have access to a doctor who will write a prescription for them. How many pain killers are in your medicine cabinet?

And as far as having failed in life, I view the day I stepped out of my apartment onto the street as one of my greatest successes. I guess it depends on what one considers success. I was poor trying to make a go of it in a society that denies that poverty exists. Those with a great deal of money prey on those of us who have very little. I was working two jobs and could

Public Notice: EBT/SNAP

BY LISA A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

The sweet young employees at the downtown Nashville Farmers’s Market want you to know that your EBT/snap food stamp cards can be used at the downtown farmers market on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you buy food there, you can trade in your receipts for double your money! This makes eggs, meat, vegetables and fruit — often half the price of a supermarket. Just go to the information booth nearest to Smiley’s Farm produce stand. Soon you will be able to buy mushrooms, chicory root and edible flowers!

Right now you can buy: honey, bread, eggs, maple syrup, jam, peaches, vegetables of all kinds, fruit in season, and meat of all kinds plus fish. If you like duck eggs, they are available if you order them ahead! If you are willing to spend a little more money, you can also get cheese and milk! It is such high quality that you will not need to eat as much as you normally would to get full.

For instance, grass fed beef is super high in vitamins B, A, E and other antioxidants! So don’t wait to get wealthy— you can eat like royalty right now and double the savings! And lower your calories!

History of Food Stamps

Food stamps were started to help low income people get adequate nutrition. Equally, they were instituted to help farmers get a fair price for their products. EBT is actually a part of what the government pays in farm subsidies. Only if you choose, they don’t have to go to giant corporate farms. Do you remember? (The corporate farms that forced out the small farmers, possibly your father or grandfather?)

You can look up more information on Wikipedia.

For now, you can proudly tell people that you are supporting small farmers in their effort to get good food into the community.

barely afford my rent, let alone food. The jobs I had did not offer health insurance because they didn't have to. When I fell and broke my arm, amassing tens-of-thousands of dollars in medical debt, I just knew I couldn't continue to delude myself that the American dream was something I could believe in anymore. As a poor, aging, single woman, I couldn't rationally believe I could keep up.

If Mr. Watters believes homeless folks aren't already "stigmatized" enough, I think he should take a closer look. If his rant was just meant to add the homeless to the long and growing list of minority groups Fox viewers are encouraged daily to think of as unworthy of their care and compassion, and to drive a deeper wedge between the haves and have-nots so that the haves can feel even more entitled and superior — shame on him.

The homeless individuals I've encountered

What is Happening in Nashville?

BY JULIE B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Editor's Note: This piece originally ran in our June 21, 2023, issue, but was attributed to the wrong vendor author. We regret this error.

What is happening to Nashville? My dad (God rest his soul) used to tell me that there were people in Nashville that helped people at the drop of a hat. If you needed a ride, they're right there. If you needed food? It was left on your doorstep. But it’s not like that anymore and I think that is sad.

I think it’s sad that the homeless are just brushed aside and not taken care of. They don’t have anywhere to go. The cops, they try to push us out, harass us and the people in Nashville

don’t even care. They don’t even care about helping and I think that’s wrong. I think it’s sad that people in Nashville don’t care about anybody but themselves. I heard a lady yesterday say you know people in other cities take care of the homeless better than Nashville does, and I couldn't even believe what I heard, but you know what I believe it now. They probably do take better care of their homeless than Nashville does. Did you know Texas and Florida are building houses for their homeless. Why can’t Nashville do that? Why can’t Nashville refurbish these buildings? Why can’t they do something to help the homeless instead of just beating us and clothing us? Why don’t they start building

places for us? Why doesn’t the city and the Mayor give us the $14 million that they have sitting up there. It was for the homeless anyway. Why not give it to us? Let us get a hotel room, a bath, a shower. Let us be able to sleep in a damn bed. Why did 174 homeless people have to die last year to get somebody’s attention?

Why doesn’t Nashville do the right thing and care enough about their homeless people to build something they could live in? They are going to be people that have money that are going to be sitting where I am one day. My dad always said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover until you walked a mile in their shoes.”

And my mother (God rest her soul) used to

during my time on the street are, for the most part, some of the strongest, most courageous, thoughtful human beings you would ever want to meet. They have taken the repeated blows of an unjust society and are still finding a way to survive. I wonder if Mr. Watters and his Fox viewers could take that necessary first step out onto the street and bear up as well.

I am grateful for the year I spent homeless on the streets of America. I met some wonderful people I wouldn't otherwise have met. I am grateful for the kind folks who eventually helped me get into a sustainable room of my own. I am grateful to everyone at The Contributor who gave me a job when no one else would. And most of all, to everyone who has ever bought a Contributor, we venders are grateful. All of these groups give me hope that a more fair, safe, compassionate, and equal America is possible. That's what I'm looking forward to.

say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover until you see what’s inside.” And all of Nashville judges. Just because somebody is homeless doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings. It doesn’t mean they’re not a person. It doesn’t mean they’re not a human being. It just means they’re down on their luck and to get back up there they need somebody’s help and it is sad that Nashville can’t provide that help. Didn’t God say feed the hungry and help the poor? Well Homeless people are poor. Why don’t Nashville start helping us by building us some place to live and getting rid of the icons and the statues and everything else that makes Nashville the place that my dad told me about?

“Never Too Full for Peaches” PHOTO BY LISA A. Nashville Farmers Market Peaches with local honey and a dash of cinnamon.

Black mothers in the US speak of challenges and resilience

Ciara Clark, a Black doula, had labored for more than nine hours at home before making a last-minute switch to go to the hospital to give birth.

With her own Black doula and mother by her side, Clark had hoped to have her baby at home with no medical assistance at all. She wanted to have a “wild” pregnancy — one that is medically unassisted.

“I wanted to go through this birth without having any medical intervention,” said Clark, age 34.

After four caesarean sections with her previous pregnancies, Clark said she feared that her birth plan would not be supported by the medical staff. But after a long labor, Clark said she became anxious and decided to go to the hospital, where she gave birth to a healthy son.

Clark is not alone in her distrust of medical intervention in the birthing process. Nine Black pregnant women and new mothers voiced sim-

BY JOY MALONE AND CORINNE PERKINS

ilar comments. All of the women spoke of feeling unseen and unheard at times through their pregnancy and postpartum period.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) April data shows that Black women in the United States are three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women. The CDC said this was a result of multiple factors, including variation in the quality of healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism and implicit bias.

For Chelsea Ward, 32, a nursing student from Fords, New Jersey, who recently gave birth to twins, the state of Black maternal health in the United States is “inadequate.”

“It’s challenging when you’re fighting and advocating for your maternal health rights, and having to educate your peers as well,” Ward said.

Obtaining knowledge and

self-advocating is key to making informed decisions, Ward added.

Resilience and joy

Despite their challenges, the women described their resilience as they navigate maternal healthcare and motherhood.

Soyal Smalls, 37, from Poughkeepsie, New York, who was pregnant when photographed in August 2022, believes increasing the number of Black healthcare providers would help Black mothers, along with having more hospitals with birthing units to support the mother and allow for more vaginal births.

Ashlee Muhammad, 37, agreed, saying her doctors had assumed she would have a cesarean and she had to advocate for herself to have a vaginal birth for her twins.

Many of the women also emphasized the importance of postpartum care.

“If we are not whole as mothers, I

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) April data shows that Black women in the United States are three times more likely to die of pregnancy -related causes than white women. The CDC said this was a result of multiple factors, including variation in the quality of healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias. Black pregnant women and new mothers told Reuters for this story that they had felt unseen and

don’t know how anyone expects us to care for these children,” Clark said.

Ward said she thought more education for the Black community on innovations in birthing, postpartum care, and parenting would be beneficial. “I truly believe that if we know better, we would do better,” she said.

Shariah Bottex, a 30-year-old program manager in Flushing, New York, pumped milk while her fiancé fed their newborn son when photo-

graphed her in March. She said her biggest hope for her children is that they will feel comfortable in their skin and that they get to enjoy their childhood.

“My greatest joy as a mother is seeing my baby smile so big and knowing that I’m the cause of that smile and his happiness,” Bottex said.

Courtesy of Reuters / International Network of Street Papers

unheard.

Holistic doula Ciara Clark, 34, looks lovingly at Evan, her sleeping newborn, in Toms River, New Jersey, U.S., September 18, 2022. With her own Black doula and mother by her side, Clark had hoped to have her baby at home with no medical assistance at all. She wanted to have a "wild" pregnancy - one that is medically unassisted. After four cesarean sections with her previous pregnancies, Clark said she feared that her birth plan would not be supported by the medical staff. But after a long labor, Clark said she became anxious and decided to go to the hospital, where she gave birth to a healthy son. Clark is not alone in her distrust of medical intervention in the birthing process. Nine Black pregnant women and new mothers Reuters spoke to for this story voiced similar comments. All of the women spoke of feeling unseen and unheard at times through their pregnancy and postpartum period.

PHOTO BY REUTERS/JOY

MALONE.

BY CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR WENDELL J. #5314

Alexis Wilkins and Chris Stapleton.

I often comment on cars of ALL KINDS when they’re stuck in traffic while I’m selling the paper. I’ve seen everything from antique autos (I recently came across a 1965 Ford Galaxy 500, a replica of the original police car from The Andy Griffith Show), to the snazzy sports cars (I’m especially fond of convertibles) and even Volkswagens will get a shout out (my mom loved them, she had two when I was young: a red one and a green one).

In my area there are a few cars that stand out. One is red and painted to look like a beetle black — spots and all. Another one is pretty, pink and it is clearly a girl complete with long eyelashes painted on the headlights that would make any woman jealous. There’s also one that resembles Herbie the love bug complete with the 53 painted on the hood with red, white, and blue striping. Doing this can be a real conversation starter, and people do LOVE to talk about their cars — especially guys!

I often tell people that even though I don’t drive, I can still appreciate a fine piece of machinery. The only driving I do is driving people crazy, and I’ve been told I’m pretty good at that!

The question that ALWAYS comes up is “why don’t you drive?” Or “you should learn to drive, you can do it!” While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I’m afraid you’re wrong.

My reply is always the same, “The world is a much safer place since I don’t drive!” Why do I say that? Imagine the following scenarios:

Why Don’t you Drive?

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

When I was eight or nine my dad came for a visit in his shiny new red pickup truck. While visiting his parents (my grandparents) in the country on the Cheatham/Dickson County line he decided to give me my first driving lesson.

It was in the country, what could possibly go wrong? I was excited and extremely nervous — justifiably so.

When I almost drove his truck into the fishing pond my driving lesson was abruptly canceled, never to be repeated again!

Now I know you’re probably thinking, I was young, and you’re right, but there’s more.

Later when I was a preteen/teenager my Pop used to let me drive his old John Deere around the yard. Harmless, right? Well, it was that is until I ran over the rock path that led to the front porch, flipping the mower and taking out a section of the fence in the process. Even the cows in the pasture were confused about what was going on, some of them now meandering into the front yard, not to mention scaring my poor Pop to death! I was ok. I just curled up in the fetal position in the small opening between the seat and the ground. Lucky, I know, but banned from driving ANY more of his farm equipment for life!

After I got married, my husband was convinced that I couldn’t possibly be that bad at driving, and he entrusted me with the keys to the new lawnmower I bought for him. It proved to be a bad decision on his part. Only after seeing

for himself just how bad a driver I really was, did he restrict my use of the riding mower, from then on I was only allowed to use a push mower.

To add further credence to the fact that I shouldn’t drive, reflect on this.

When I was in college, I took a test to determine if I had a math disability because no matter what I did I couldn’t get above a C! I WAS NOT accustomed to that! (It is the only C on my college transcript.)

At the conclusion of the test, it was determined I didn’t have a learning disability, I just wasn’t good at Algebra, but the examiner told me, “I do know why you don’t drive,” explaining, “if I ask you to do something with your eyes, hands, or feet you can do it, but when I ask you to put it all together (as you do when you drive), you have a MAJOR meltdown.” It’s like my brain just short circuited! I COULD NOT do it!

Now I’m not one to give up easily, so when yet another opportunity presented itself (my friend and former roommate Cheryl told me, “she could teach ANYONE to drive”) I tried again. Throughout the process there were a number of close calls. I won’t list them all here, it would take far too long, but there is one that really stands out.

She had me practice driving in a school zone. (School WAS NOT in session and yes, I had a valid learner's permit.) So with Cheryl beside me in the passenger seat, and her three children Logan, David, and Brianne in the back seat, I

Walking the Walk

BY JEN A, CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I have to admit that I'm a real sucker for a celebratory parade. My dad was a big fan of John Philip Sousa marches and every Fourth of July my mother organized a family parade to celebrate her birthday. We even had a float! We would spend all day decorating a cart dad made for the little ones with crepe paper, flags, bunting, and balloons. Then we would hook it up to the riding lawn mower and dad, the official grand marshal every year, would drive it around the property until mother said she

had had enough. I'll never forget the year she dressed as The Statue of Liberty, torch and all. With memories like that how could I not love a parade?

This year, I was fortunate enough to march in the Nashville Pride Parade with other members of the Contributor community! I was a little anxious about what the reaction of the parade-watchers would be, what with all the hate being hurled at the LGBTQ community by our state legislators for the last few years.

Kid's Corner

tried again carefully following her instructions to the letter.

When she told me to turn, I did, and somehow ended up on the sidewalk in front of the school!

(This IS NOT an exaggeration!) She looked at me as if in a state of shock and said, “Maybe you shouldn’t drive.” My reply? “Really? You think so?” I’ve been trying to tell people that for years. Especially those who cite the old adage, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”

Trust me when I say there are PLENTY of people like me out there who have absolutely NO BUSINESS with a driver’s license! I see them on a regular basis as I’m selling the paper!

As for Cheryl, she did give me a very appropriate gift to mark the occasion, a keychain that said, “if you don’t like the way I drive, stay off of the sidewalk.”

That was my last attempt at learning how to drive, and as I said earlier, the world is much safer because I DON’T drive!

That’s why I leave the driving to MTA!

At this point, I’d like to give a BIG shout out to ALL the schedulers and drivers that do their best to make sure my family and I get to our various destinations safely.

They don’t have such an affordable transportation program where I come from in Sumner County, so THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for ALL you do serving the disabled community in Davidson County.

But I should have known that the good people of my town, Nashville, would show up in droves to celebrate this special segment of our citizenry.

It couldn't have been more glorious! There were thousands of happy, smiling faces everywhere I looked. Folks laughed and cheered all the way down Broadway. It was the best, most joyful day I've had in a very long time. Moms, dads, children, grandmas and grandpas all showed up. And what more can anyone want

Illustration By Jen A.

than to be cheered on by their community for being exactly who they are?

Thank you, Nashville, for showing up. I will not soon forget the warmth of your smiling faces and cheers. Let's hope that when the legislature reconvenes, you will be as vocal and supportive when they try to take another shot at our cherished LGBTQ neighbors. Let them know that you won't stand for the persecution of any minority group in Tennessee! And when you write, or call, or email — do it with pride!

As Mayor, Matt will use his affordable housing experience to:

Increase the Barnes Affordable Housing Fund.

Make it easier for low income seniors to stay in their homes by hiring housing navigators.

Bring together the city government, the private sector, and non-profit organizations to build more housing that Nashvillians can actually afford.

“The lack of affordable housing in Nashville is a crisis.

The Love and Help of the Berry Hill Police Department

BY WILLIAM B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

The Berry Hill police department got to know me when I first got out to Berry Hill to sell papers by Pinnacle Bank. They have helped me so much that I can’t even quit talking about it.

Some get me meals and some even buy a paper. They are so friendly to me. If I have a problem with anyone, I don’t even have to call them because so many people out in Berry Hill look out for me. If they see someone arguing with me, they call the Berry Hill police. They know me as the Spoon Man. They got a lot of respect for me because I’m not a sign flyer, I’m selling The Contributor. They love my music also. Not just what I play on my spoons but the golden oldies I play on my radio.

Let me tell you what happened to me this weekend out in Berry Hill. Our mayor in Nashville invited my lady friend (she works at Publix) to come to a picnic dinner out in Berry Hill and she snuck me in. She didn’t tell me she was going there, but she snuck me in and there was a band there. You know me, if there’s a band, I’m going to play my music with them. They played a variety of types of songs, but you know me I can play just about anything on my spoons. The problem was I didn’t bring my spoons, so I had to go

to Walmart and get some new ones and do a quick engineering job.

Also, this weekend, I went to a concert at Centennial park and played my spoons. I got out in the middle where I could hear and see good and this one lady who was singing on stage heard me playing and said, “Man somebody is playing those spoons and it sounds good!” She asked me my name. She moved here from Denver years ago and she’s really got a wonderful wonderful singing voice. Her band had great harmony. I love a band with good harmony. If you got good harmony you got good music.

Barbeque

BY MAURICE B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

What's the true essence of barbecuing? It's all about one's time and effort. By there being so many fabulous ways to prepare food we can observe the factor of barbequing as a precious time-consuming point of view whereas there are various ways to cue. For instance, some use an oven and or the top of the stove to add tenderizing methods such as slow boiling and pre-cooking different types of food. Then some use wraps and the earth itself as well as coals and or wood to prepare food. Then you have those that have and use fancy types of smokers, and let's not forget the traditional old-school grills, but regardless of what way is used to cook the food, it's mainly the time and effort placed in the action(s) of preparing and adding the sauce to the food that has been so delicately prepared. Whereas the vast

point of the whole issue of barbecuing is that the tender mouth-watering taste of whatever type of food and the sauce together is enjoyed in every bite. Now the factor of there being a difference of options on how rare or how well-done the food is is upon the one that's dealing with their time and effort to prepare the cue. There are many that presoak or just simply pour some type of alcohol over their food before and while they prepare their food, there are those that wait until the food is barely finished and they take it and soak it in sauce and then replace it back to finish cooking. Then some simply turn the food over a few times to receive the coal/wood texture or taste of it being on a smoker or grill. That's the time and effort chosen by different types of taste buds. In which all goes with the turf of barbecuing.

Life

BY JUNE P., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Wanted to finish my story about my two best friends, Cheddar and Cheesy. They've been wanting summer to come. Well, I believe it's here. I'm June P. from Osborne Bi-Rite on Belmont and Gale Lane. Come see me and get a paper.

Cheesy says we all need Vitamin C. Sunny Cheddar likes it now, but you can't please everyone.

We all three went to the beach the other day. Hot sand in between your toes was too hot for me. But they loved it. I would rather been at Bi-Rites selling papers. Cheesy and Cheddar ran and played for hours and hours. For me, I was one burnt mess. I'm tanned now though.

We are best friends Hey come see us and get your new paper from June P.

HOBOSCOPES

CANCER

It’s too hot to be doing whatever you're doing, Cancer. Stop it. At least for a few minutes. Get someplace cooler if you can. Drink something cold if you want. Jump in a swimming pool if you have access. And if none of these are available, close your eyes and think cooling thoughts. You can’t always control your circumstance, but you can at least control your mind. If you can’t turn down the hot on the outside, see if you can turn it down on the inside.

LEO

I wrote a beautiful horoscope for Leo and then I accidentally deleted it. Undo, CTRL-Z! Whew, It’s back! I was editing a photo of you and me at the rodeo and I accidentally smudged through the arrow on your “Stupid is with me” T-shirt. Undo, CTRL-Z! What a relief. I was talking to Aries about the right way to load the dishwasher and I accidentally implied that she’ll never get into knife-throwing school. Undo, CTRL-Z! Why isn’t this working? There’s no easy undo for life, Leo. Apologies are a good starting place. Conversations can help. Action does even more. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go call the dean of Flying Cutlery Academy on behalf of a dear friend.

VIRGO

I’m only one question in to this 10 question questionnaire and already I’ve got some questions. I know I’m supposed to click “strongly agree” on this one but what if there’s something further down that I agree with more? Will I be able to come back and change this answer to a regular “agree?” Will there be a blank to write in “super-strongly agree?” I guess we can’t always know the future, Virgo. Maybe today we can just say how we feel in the moment without trying to compare it to all of the past and future. And maybe if we submit this survey by midnight, they’ll still send us a coupon for 20 percent off our next bag of cat food.

LIBRA

The greenland shark is famous for being one of the longest-living vertebrate animals on earth. Nearly 500 years! They’re also known for having parasitic crustaceans stuck to their corneas. I know, it’s a terrible image, Libra. Imagine being a 100 year old greenland shark swimming along, excited about the next 400 years and suddenly — shplork! — there’s a tiny crustacean impairing your vision and your fins aren’t even long enough to reach it. Luckily, greenland sharks are better at smelling than seeing, so they don’t seem to mind so much. What’s blocking your vision this week, Libra? Is it something you have to live with or could somebody help pop that little crusty off? Try asking around.

SCORPIO

Times used to be much simpler in this town. Let’s go back to the good old days when you could trust people. Everybody was kind and knew right from wrong. There was a nice tall lady who smelled like paint who would bring you a tiny carton of milk and a straw. You were 7 years old. Now that you’re a grown up, Scorpio, you understand that things have never been easy. Going backward only means knowing less about the world. There’s always been work to do and people that need help. I’m so glad you’re grown up enough now to do it.

SAGITTARIUS

If I remember my mythology correctly, the Smoothie was discovered by Patricia J. Smoothie of Torrance, Colo. As the story goes, she was carrying a grocery bag full of blueberries, bananas, yogurt, and hot sauce when she had an unfortunate run-in with an artificial snow machine. “This wouldn’t be half bad without all the hot sauce,” she famously remarked. And thus, was the smoothie born. Sometimes your greatest achievements are born out of your most unlikely failures, Sagittarius. But you can’t wait around for genius to strike. Pick up your bag of groceries and walk, my friend.

CAPRICORN

My neighbor put a sign in his yard with the name of his favorite local politician. I thought it was a great idea, so I put a sign in my yard with the name of my favorite local acupuncturist. Whose sign would you put in your yard this week, Capricorn? Everybody needs a little encouragement and a little more good press. Don’t miss the opportunity to tell the world who you love.

AQUARIUS

Planarians are tiny freshwater flatworms that are exceptionally bad at tap dancing and are effectively immortal. If a planarian is cut into two pieces (or 10 pieces, or 101 pieces) each piece will grow into a whole planarian. There is evidence that each piece retains the memories of the original whole. Imagine it, Aquarius — 101 planarians, each more alike than the last, all hopelessly dreaming of fulfillment as a professional tap dancer. You’ve made a clean break with your old self, too, Aquarius. But you may be surprised to find you still have some of the same old wishes and habits and tender-spots. Treat your old self kindly. It’s your new self, too.

PISCES

Batteries, as you know, Pisces, have an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte. The anode is the positive side, the cathode is the negative, and the electrolyte lets the free electrons move from one side to the other. I know you want to keep everything on the positive side, Pisces. It seems easier to just focus on those experiences that you can spin as “turning out for the best, really.” But I think your electrons are getting a little stopped up. See what happens when you let everything flow from one side to the other. When you don’t steer away from the negative. It might not feel great at first, but I think it’s the only way to be the charge you want to see.

ARIES

I asked an AI to write your horoscope this week, Aries. The AI took several minutes to respond so finally I asked what the hold-up was. “When I looked to The Stars to determine the best course of action for Aries,” it said, “I simply couldn’t look away. It’s also beautiful and so distant and I’m so insignificant and disembodied” The AI told me it was going to take some time off to think about existence. So I guess I’ve got to write this thing myself. Don’t rush it this week, Aries. Look long and deep. Think about where you are and your place in it. And if you see that AI out there, tell them I said “hey.”

TAURUS

I heard you and Capricorn are gonna fight behind the bleachers after school today! Everybody’s gonna be there. Gemini started a betting pool and you’re the favorite 2-to-1! I know it’s all very exciting, Taurus, and I know you’re in the right and justified. But I still think it might be worth it to walk away. You’ve already proven yourself more than you should have to. You don’t have to keep fighting just because you can. Think it over one more time, Taurus. I’ve gotta go. My ride’s here.

GEMINI

When I was a kid, my parents never would splurge for the name-brand toys. They were too expensive and “what’s the difference, anyway.” So my sister and I played with our Darbie dolls and G.I. Bro figures. We’d make them ride My Little Donkeys across the Me-Man Castle Greenskull playset. It was fine, I guess. But as we grow up, Gemini, I think it’s good to notice when we’re working with the real thing and when we’re settling for a substitute. If you’ve got too much “like” in your life, this may be the week to splurge on “love.”

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a certified tap dancer or a trained snowmachine operator. 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

5th Wednesday after Trinity

THERE is a moving absurdity about all human categories when they are applied to Christ; for if one could talk absolutely humanly about Christ one would have to say that the words: "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" are impatient and untrue. They can only be true if God says them, and consequently also when the God-Man days them. And indeed—since it is true, it is the very limit of suffering.

Kierkegaard: Journals.

NO single teardrop lieth hid from thee, my God, my Maker, my Deliverer, no, nor any part thereof.

The Orthodox Liturgy: Prayers of St Simeon.

5th Thursday after Trinity

THE greatest exercise at once of the Divine goodness, and wisdom, and power, is to bring good out of evil.

St Clement: Stromata

MAN must be lenient with his soul in her weaknesses and imperfections and suffer her failings as he suffers those of others, but he must not become idle, and must encourage himself to better things.

St Seraphim of Sarov.

5th Friday after Trinity

THE only remedy for having given up a habit of recollection is to recommence it, otherwise the soul will continue to lose it more and more every day, and God grant it may realize its danger.

St Teresa: The Interior Castle.

WE make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and idol which we must neither love nor adore, and still less must we love and adore its opposite—namely, falsehood.

Pascal: Pensées

5th Saturday after Trinity

THREE kinds of men see God. The first see him in faith; they know no more of him than what they can make out through a partition. The second behold God in the light of grace but only as the answer to their longings, as giving them sweetness, devotion, inwardness and other such-like things which are issuing from his gift. The third kind see him in the divine light.

Eckhart: Sermons and Collations

Fifth Sunday after Trinity

YOU must not reckon with sin, from the nativity, but the conception; when you conceived that sin in your purpose, then you sinned that sin, and in every letter, in every discourse, in every present, in every wish, in every dream, that conduces to that sin, or rises from that sin, you sin it over and over again, before you come to the committing of it, and so your sin is an old, an inveterate sin, before it is born, and that which you call the first, is not the hundredth time, that you have sinned that sin.

Donne: Sermons.

6th Monday after Trinity

LORD, often have I thought with myself, I will sin but this one sin more, and then I will repent of it, and of all the rest of my sins together. So foolish was I and ignorant. As if I should be more able to pay my debts when I owe more: or as if I should say, I will wound my friend once again, and then I will lovingly shake hands with him: but what if my friend will not shake hands with me?

Thomas Fuller: Good Thoughts in Bad Times

6th Tuesday after Trinity

SCARCELY is there any man that hath delight in worship, but that he is either in great peril of falling, or else fully fallen down into the pit of deadly sin, as we may see by many reasons: first, for also much as he that hath great delight is busy all times in his mind how he may keep his worship and made it more . . . Also he that loveth worship is busy to procure and get him friends that may keep him in his worship, and also further him to greater worship . . . Also commonly he hath indignation of others that be in worship and backbiteth them to make himself more worshipful and more worthy. And so he falleth into hate and envy of his brother.

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

6th Wednesday after Trinity

FOR there is no pride, but that it may be healed through the meekness of God's Son; there is no covetize but that it may be healed through His poverty; no wrath but that it may be healed through His patience: nor malice but that it may be healed through His charity. And moreover there is no sin or wickedness, but that he shall want it and be kept from it, the which beholdeth inwardly and loveth and followeth the words and the deeds of that man in whom God's Son gave Himself to us into example of good living. Wherefore now both men and women and every age and every dignity of this world is stirred to hope of everlasting life.

Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, (trs. by Nicholas Love).

6th Thursday after Trinity

WHOEVER has admitted this tyranny of pride within suffers this loss first of all, that from the eyes of his heart being closed, he loses the equitableness of judgement. For even all the good doings of others are displeasing to him and the things which he has done, even amiss, alone please him. He always looks down on the doings of others, he always admires his own doings; because whatever he has done he believes he has done with singular skill; and for that which he performs for desire of glory, he favours himself in his thought; and when he thinks he surpasses others in all things, he walks with himself along the broad spaces of his thought and silently utters his own praises.

St Gregory: On the Book of Job

6th Friday after Trinity

HOW many maggots remain in hiding until they have destroyed our virtues. These pests are such evils as self-love, self-esteem, rash judgement of others in small matters, and a want of charity in not loving our neighbour quite as much as ourselves. Although, perforce, we satisfy our obligations to avoid sin, yet we fall far short of what must be done in order to obtain perfect union with the will of God.

St Teresa: The Interior Castle

6th Saturday after Trinity

OTHER sins find their vent in the accomplishment of THER evil deeds, whereas pride lies in wait for good deeds to destroy them.

St Augustine: Epistle.

THE impossible is still temptation. The impossible, the undesirable, voices under sleep, waking a dead world, so that the mind may not be whole in the present.

T. S. Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral

Sixth Sunday after Trinity

THY word remaineth for ever, which word now appeareth unto us in the riddle of the clouds, and through the mirror of the heavens, not as it is: because that even we, though the well beloved of thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looked through the lattice of our flesh, and he spake us fair, yea, he set us on fire, and we hasten on his scent. But when he shall appear, then shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is: as he is, Lord, will our sight be, through the time be not yet.

St Augustine: Confessions.

7th Monday after Trinity

HOLD fast this short and summary saying—"Leave all, and you shall find all; leave your desires and you shall find rest." Give your mind to this, and when you have put it into practice, you shall understand all things.

Thomas à Kempis: Imitation.

BEING to ourselves what God ought to be to us, He is no more to us than we are to ourselves. This secret identification of ourselves with God carries with it our isolation from Him.

Barth: Epistle to the Romans

7th Tuesday after Trinity

I HAVE a mind to draw a complete character of a worldly-wise man . . . He would be highly-finished, useful, honoured, popular—a man revered by his children his wife, and so forth. To be sure, he must not expect to be beloved by one proto-friend [best friend], and, if there be truth or reason in Christianity, he will go to hell—but, even so, he will doubtless secure himself a most respectable place in the devil's chimney-corner.

Coleridge: Table Talk

Pieces of Poetry III

WRITTEN BY CHRIS SCOTT FIESELMAN

It takes a good imagination, And a tender heart. When there are no limitations, You can take it too far. Federal Land, Native American, Indian Reservations, To address our messed-up, Present day, Homelessness Situation. United We Stand, Divided We Fall, If Justice for one means Justice for all. Take care of each other, And we’ll all have enough, Like Sisters and Brothers, Showing the Love. Some see an opportunity, If given a chance. Some you can help, And some you can’t. They say it takes 15 years, To be an Overnight Success. For 14 years, without a doubt, I know I’ve been blessed. But right now my life is all about, Trying to clean-up my mess. And how this story ends my friend, Is anyone’s guess.

The Rules of Poetry

WRITTEN BY CHRIS SCOTT FIESELMAN

1. Know the rules and use the tools, And the things you weren’t taught in school.

2. Say what’s been said, so often before, In a different way, that says something more.

3.Do it for you, do it for them or do it for Him. Ask yourself “Why do I write?” The life of a prophet is often non-profit. A struggle and difficult fight.

4.Think long and hard about where to start, With the thoughts you want to say. The theme you decide to write about, And the message you want to convey. Anyone can write “The Love of My Life,” Or “My Worlds in the toilet, Cause she’s not around.” Everyone does while important stuff, Goes un-noticed and not written down.

5.Listen to the whispers of Saints and Angels, And the voice of Father God. When spirit speaks to spirit, You can hear it in your heart.

6.A poem is a recipe a poet has penned. The words are ingredients. The wording’s measurement.

THEME: INDEPENDENCE DAY

DOWN

1. ____ constrictor, anagram

2. Word on a door

3. Duet plus one

4. Angry

5. Large California bird

6. Smelting waste

7. Stuff of inflation

8. Adagio and allegro, e.g.

31. *"Rockin' in the USA" band

32. Certain church member

Yiddish busybody

Theater guide

Kind of

From 21 Beach Walk, Island Park, Long Island, New York, To Nashville, Music City, Tennessee. Writing for The Contributor, “Pieces of Poetry.”

Inspired by sunsets from the 4th floor, While working at Fed Ex to earn my keep. Wondering what God’s got in store, For me and Terri Lee from Tennessee. I can’t buy my own book, Can’t buy my own movie, I can’t buy my CD, I just can’t afford it. But supposedly, I’m right where God wants me to be.

I’m fighting a good fight, And look like I’m winning. With all my experience, I’m such a bad influence.

I’ve got them convinced, They don’t know the difference. And all this is just the beginning?

Imagine if everyone, Thought they were winning. Wouldn’t that be, A Brand New Beginning? You start with a heart, And all it’s been through, And then how they happen, To come across you. If poetry to me is responsibility, Maybe I truly can, Help blind eyes to see. But all good things must come to an end. Till next we meet again my friend. The Captain Chris Scott Fieselman. Pieces of Poetry from me to you, Lord willing to be continued...

7.Syllables count mathematically. One syllable too many has its effect. If you don’t need it just delete it. Keep it rhythmically correct.

8.Every word, every sentence and every verse, Should lean on the one before it, And lead to the one after it. Eventually crashing into a wall, We commonly call, conclusion.

9.Put the cookies on the bottom shelf. Understood and Accessible, To everyone else.

10. A wise man chooses, The words that he uses very carefully. That’s why it takes so much time to write, Well Written Poetry.

11.Practice - Practice - Practice. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” You give it your best, And you give it your all. Practice - Practice - Practice.

12.Keep it together. You’ll keep getting better, The catalogue containing the work that you do. E-mail to yourself and surprise, surprise. That E-mail counts as a copy write, That’s accessible, anywhere, anytime you like, To share with somebody else.

Do what you Love and do it for fun. It never gets boring and never gets old. There’s a poet in each and every one, That may one day find a nugget of gold.

Dedicated to every poet who’s ever picked up a pen, And to all those poets we still don’t know yet, Who write like Chris Scott F.

The Backwaters Off The Mainstream

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

D.A. Pennebaker is an American documentary film pioneer and the great chronicler of the counterculture movements in the U.S. in the 1960s. Pennebaker’s thoughtful lensing of Monterey Pop (1968), Jimi Plays Monterey (1986), Don’t Look Back (1967) and Eat the Document (1972) helped to define the legendary careers of generational music talents like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and The Who. And Primary (1960) — Pennebaker’s groundbreaking film about John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey’s 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Primary election race — featured a cornucopia of candid coverage of the candidates. The film helped to define our modern era of political news coverage and impacted the development of American documentary films.

While many of Pennebaker’s Boomer subjects turned their backs on rebellious youthful idealism over the course of the 1970s, the director kept his eye on youth culture and the weird and wonderful things that always seem to grow in the backwaters off the mainstream. At the

dawn of the Reagan and Thatcher eras, Pennebaker released his strangest, funniest and most transgressive music film. Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars captures David Bowie and his band, playing the eponymous alien rock act, in their final concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, in 1973. The film underwent a torturous post-production before debuting at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1979 and opening in wide release in 1983, more than a decade after the original concert.

Pennebaker has both confirmed and denied that – spoiler alert – he knew the Hammersmith Odeon show would be the last time that Bowie performed his Ziggy Stardust character. The “final performance” from a classic period of a rock icon means that Pennebaker’s film makes for evergreen viewing even as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. And the latest version of the film features a 4K restoration and a 5.1. theatrical mix. I don’t usually get so technical when talking about repertory re-releases, but it was Pennebaker’s struggles with sound and vision that delayed the film’s original

debut. Pennebaker sought-out Bowie because he’d been hired by RCA to make a short promotional film. Once Pennebaker caught Bowie’s act he realized he had a feature on his hands. In his scramble to make what amounted to a last-minute concert film, Pennebaker made due: improvising microphone placements around the venue and onstage; making the most of the theater’s lighting while encouraging the audience to take as much flash photography as they could. The results were predictably rough, but Pennebaker’s constant closeup framing of Ziggy (Bowie) singing in the spotlight is iconic. And the fan footage and interviews Pennebaker gathered for filler give us some of the movie’s most memorable scenes, and inspired a new generation of counterculture films from Penelope Spheeris’s Decline Trilogy (1981-1998) to Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986).

This new version of Ziggy’s cinematic swan song also includes a turn from the late great British guitarist, Jeff Beck. Beck joins Ziggy for a “The Jean Genie” medley with The Beatles’ “Love Me Do”

along with a rollicking take on “Round and Round.” Beck appeared in a version of the film that aired on ABC-TV in 1974, but he ultimately asked for his segment to be cut from the final version of the movie. It’s said that Jeff didn’t think he looked good — he looks great. Or that he wasn’t satisfied with his performance — it’s predictably gravity-defying. Or that he didn’t want to be associated with glam rock — he’s obviously happy to be playing with his friends. We can’t know what Beck was thinking after his passing in January, but watching Beck and Ziggy and Mick Ronson wailing the interplanetary blues can remind you of how much rock and roll has changed our world and the Martian’s, too.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars screens as part of the Belcourt Theatre’s Music City Monday series on July 10

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

'ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS' – AND JEFF BECK! –INVADE THE BELCOURT

“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 -

G R AT I S

Julio 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

Movimiento ambientalista necesita volver a sus raíces

El ambientalismo es crucial para el bienestar de nuestro planeta y sus habitantes.

Reconoce la interdependencia entre los seres humanos y el mundo natural, instando a la gestión responsable de los recursos, la conservación y las prácticas sostenibles. Al proteger los ecosistemas y promover entornos más limpios, el ambientalismo salvaguarda la salud pública, y fomenta un futuro sostenible para las generaciones venideras. El ambientalismo va más allá de salvaguardar la salud del planeta. La degradación ambiental puede tener graves consecuencias para la salud humana, los medios de subsistencia y la calidad de vida. Al adoptar el ambientalismo, podemos fomentar un aire más limpio, un agua más limpia y ecosistemas más saludables, lo que lleva a mejores resultados de salud pública, mayor resiliencia a los desastres naturales y un mejor desarrollo socioeconómico.

A continuación, Karen Shragg, autora y consultora ambiental nos explica como el ambientalismo de ahora puede que no este tan en línea con lo que fue en sus origenes:

“Los estadounidenses acaban de celebrar el 53 aniversario del Día de la Tierra. La festividad ha cambiado drásticamente durante el último medio siglo, al igual que el entorno natural que los activistas buscan proteger. Los activistas ecologistas de hoy en día tienden a conmemorar el Día de la Tierra centrándose en formas de minimizar su impacto personal en el medio

ambiente, mediante el reciclaje regular, la limpieza de parques locales, la plantación de árboles, la conducción de vehículos híbridos o la compra con bolsas reutilizables. Estos comportamientos respetuosos con el medio ambiente son bienvenidos, por supuesto.

Pero los activistas que celebraron el primer Día de la Tierra en 1970 tenían un enfoque más amplio: estaban principalmente preocupados por nuestro impacto colectivo en el medio ambiente.

En particular, temían, con razón, que la población de rápido crecimiento de Estados Unidos estuviera sobrecargando los frágiles ecosistemas. Como señaló más tarde el senador Nelson, la población de EE. UU. se había disparado de 98 millones el año en que nació, en 1916, a 200 millones en el primer Día de la Tierra, y "se produjo un tremendo daño ecológico como resultado de este crecimiento", ya que vastas extensiones de espacios verdes habían desaparecido, para ser limpiado para hacer espa-

Conoce tus derechos:

cio para casas, oficinas, centros comerciales, carreteras y todos los demás adornos de la civilización.

Desde entonces, Estados Unidos ha agregado más de 130 millones de personas adicionales a su población. Ese crecimiento ha afectado el medio ambiente y la vida silvestre que vive allí. Nuestra nación perdió 68,000 millas cuadradas de espacio abierto entre 1982 y 2017. Esa es un área del tamaño de Florida. Y el 67% de esa destrucción de hábitat se debió al crecimiento de la población, y el 33% restante se debió a aumentos en el consumo per cápita.

Y no hay final a la vista. En los próximos treinta años, se proyecta que nuestra población alcance los 373 millones, principalmente debido a la inmigración, según las últimas proyecciones de la Oficina de Presupuesto del Congreso.

La futura pérdida de hábitat resultante y el aumento de la contaminación dañarán considerablemente el medio

ambiente natural y limitarán el acceso a la naturaleza.

Los políticos a veces descartan estas preocupaciones ambientales y de calidad de vida, diciendo que los beneficios del crecimiento económico y los avances tecnológicos superan los inconvenientes. Esencialmente, argumentan que "no necesitamos preocuparnos por cómo dividir el pastel para atender a más y más personas, solo necesitamos más pastel".

Pero a veces, simplemente no hay más "pastel" cuando se trata de nuestros recursos inherentemente limitados. No hay más agua dulce para dividir entre más y más estadounidenses que usan un promedio de 80 galones por día para satisfacer sus necesidades de alimentación, bebida y limpieza.

No hay más pastel cuando se trata de un hábitat de vida silvestre que alberga especies amenazadas y en peligro de extinción. No hay más pastel cuando se trata de acabar con la contaminación lumínica que hace imposible ver la magia del cielo nocturno. No hay más pastel si queremos preservar la tierra para parques y mantener algo para la agricultura en lugar de perderlo por construir más viviendas.

Es hora de que los ecologistas se den cuenta de que electrificar la red, plantar árboles o comprar bolsas de tela está bien, pero no es suficiente. También debemos dejar de rebanar el pastel limitado de los recursos de Estados Unidos hasta el punto de no retorno. Aumentar nuestra población de 334 millones por millones más cada año simplemente socava todas nuestras actividades tradicionales del Día de la Tierra.”

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.

hacer en caso de una redada?

Foto: Loraine Segovia Paz

Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @LaNoticiaNews

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