The Contributor: Aug. 4, 2021 by the-contributor-live

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Volu m e 1 5

| Number 16 | Aug ust 4 -18, 2021

IN THE ISSUE

Contributor Board

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

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

GRATIS

Agosto

2021 Año 19 - No. 334

L a N ticia www.hispanicpaper.com

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

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

Nashville, Tennessee

Recursos del Gobierno para facilitar el acceso a la vivienda de alquiler

Hemos recibido mensajes de nuestros lectores en referencia a opciones de vivienda accesible. A continuación le presentamos algunas opciones y recursos que hemos podido investigar. Si ha perdido su empleo debido a la pandemia de COVID- Por Yuri Cunza 19, podría calificar Editor in Chief para asistencia de @LaNoticiaNews alquiler a través de su programa estatal de HUD. Además la nueva prórroga para pagar la renta y evitar desalojos de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC) puede ayudarlo a permanecer en su casa si no puede pagar el alquiler. Obtenga asistencia para pagar el alquiler durante la pandemia de COVID-19 El Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano está ayudando a los inquilinos durante la pandemia de coronavirus poniendo a su disposición asistencia para el alqui-ler a través de las oficinas estatales del HUD. Para averigar si cumple con los requisitos: Comuníquese con la oficina de HUD de su estado para informarse sobre los programas de asistencia para el alquiler, o Llame al 877-542-9723 (oprima 2 para español) para hablar con un asesor de vivienda de la Red de Respuesta a Desastres del HUD. Si no puede pagar la renta por haber perdido su empleo o por problemas relacionados con la pandemia de COVID-19, es posible que pueda benefiaciarse de la prohibición de desalojos de los inquilinos de viviendas de alquiler. La prohibición fue ordenada por los CDC. Comenzó el 4 de septiembre de 2020. Si entrenta actualmente una orden de desalojo, utilice este formulario de declaración de los CDC para comunicar su situación al propietario de la propiedad.

Vendor Spotlight

Moving Pictures

Longtime Contributor vendor Brian W. has had to take time off after being diagnosed with skin cancer. We check in with him.

A poster campaign from, street paper Amplifier highlights the contributions of Indigenous women to global biodiversity.

Preguntas sobre la vacuna anti COVID-19

Ayuda temporal por coronavirus para la renta y para evitar desalojos

Ha intentado conseguir ayuda del Gobierno para el alquiler o la vivienda o: - Espera ganar no más $99, 000 el año calendario 2020-2021 ($198,000 si es una pareja que presenta una declaración de impuestos conjunta) - No tuvo que declarar ningún ingreso al IRS en 2020 - Recibió un pago por impacto económico o cheque de estímulo - No puede pagar el alquiler completo debido a una reducción significativa de ingresos o facturas médicas elevadas - Está pagando todo lo que puede por su alquiler - Si lo desalojan, se quedaría sin hogar o tendría que mudarse con otras personas a una vivienda con espacio muy reducido - Entiende que al final de la prohibición, el propietario puede desalojarlo si no paga todo el alquiler que debe Tenga en cuenta que esto no es una condonación del monto que debe por el alquiler. Seguirá adeudando la renta al propietario de la propiedad y lo puede desalojar durante este tiempo por razones distintas a la de no pagar el alquiler. Ayuda con los pagos del alquiler Comuníquese con las siguientes agencias para averiguar si reúne los requisitos para

recibir ayuda con los pagos de su alquiler: Es posible que la agencia de financiamiento de vivienda de su estado o la oficina de su agencia local de vivienda pública tengan información sobre los programas de ayuda administrados por su estado. Seleccione su estado en el mapa para encontrar los datos de contacto de su oficina local. La oficina local de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD) es un recurso excelente para obtener información sobre programas que ayudan con el alquiler, los derechos de los inquilinos en su estado, el asesoramiento sobre vivienda y la vivienda pública. Contacte a la agencia de servicios sociales de su estado: - Si necesita asistencia de emergencia inmediata. - Para saber qué otra ayuda puede estar disponible para usted localmente. Incluso si no reúne los requisitos para recibir los beneficios a través de estas agencias, es posible que puedan ofrecerle referencias de organizaciones comunitarias que podrían ofrecerle ayuda. También puede buscar y comunicarse con organizaciones comunitarias o sin fines de lucro en su área directamente para obtener ayuda o información.

La Noticia + The Contributor

El formulario de los CDC enumera varias condiciones que debe aceptar que son verdaderas:

Con información de www.usa.gov/espanol

La Noticia, one of the Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada? leading Spanish-language newspapers in the nation, brings Spanish content to The Contributor. 1. Mantenerse callado 2. Sólo dar nombre y apellido 3. No mentir 4. Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos 5. No revelar su situación migratoria 6. No llevar documentación de otro país 7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una)

por

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.

Si anteriormente tuve un resultado positivo de COVID-19, ¿necesito ponerme la vacuna contra el COVID-19? Según los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés), las personas que ya han sido diagnosticadas con el COVID-19 en los últimos 90 días pueden optar por retrasar la vacunación porque es poco probable que se enfermen de nuevo con el COVID-19 durante ese tiempo. Sin embargo, no hay ningún daño en recibir la vacuna si ya le ha dado el COVID-19. También puede optar por esperar a recibir la vacuna para permitir que las personas con mayor riesgo se vacunen primero. Si la vacuna es una vacuna de dos dosis, ¿cómo sabré cuándo ponerme la segunda dosis? En el momento que le pongan la inyección, recibirá una tarjeta con la fecha de su primera dosis, el nombre / fabricante de la vacuna que acaba de recibir y la fecha en la que debe recibir su segunda dosis. Su segunda dosis de la vacuna contra el COVID-19 debe ser del mismo nombre / fabricante que su primera dosis. Recomendamos que cuando reciba su tarjeta, le tome una foto para que le sirva de copia y agregue la fecha a su calendario. Si recibo la vacuna contra el COVID-19 pero mi familia no, ¿debo aún usar una mascarilla y practicar el distanciamiento social para evitar traer el virus a mi familia? Sí. Dentro del hogar, use las mismas precauciones que siempre ha practicado para prevenir el COVID-19: lávese las manos, aíslese y hágase la prueba si está enfermo, limite sus interacciones con las personas fuera de su hogar y use una mascarilla cuando esté con los que están afuera de su hogar si no se puede mantener el distanciamiento social. Cuando esté en público, asegúrese de continuar protegiéndose, usando una cubierta facial, manteniendo su distancia y evitando las multitudes. Lee más: https://www.asafenashville.org/es/informacion-sobrevacunas/ Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com

Vendor Writing

In this issue, vendors write about God, 'the itch,' community, pet peeves and Tennesee's Heathcare shortcomings.

www.juanese.com juaneseUSA@gmail.com

Contributors This Issue

Hannah Herner • Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Ridley Wills II • Nia Tero • Tracie Ching • Anna D'Amico • Joe Nolan • Yuri Cunza • Mr. Mysterio • Jen A. • John H. • Roger S. • Tyrone M. • Norma B. • Paul A. Contributor Volunteers Joe First • Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • John Jennings • Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Christine Doeg • Laura Birdsall • Richard Aberdeen • Marissa Young • Robert Thompson

Cathy Jennings Executive Director Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations Hannah Herner Staff Writer Jesse Call Housing Navigator

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Raven Lintu Housing Navigator Dymin Cannon Housing Navigator Carli Tharpe Housing Navigator Barbara Womack Advertising Manager Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom WIlls Contributor Co-Founders

The Contributor now accepts Venmo! Scan the QR Code above, or find us: @The-Contributor Make sure to include your vendor’s badge name and number in the description. If you bought this version digitally, you can still leave your regular vendor a tip. Email Cathy@thecontributor.org for more information or with questions!

PAGE 2 | August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Editorials and features in The Contributor are the perspectives of the authors. Submissions of news, opinion, fiction, art and poetry are welcomed. The Contributor reserves the right to edit any submissions. The Contributor cannot and will not endorse any political candidate. Submissions may be emailed to: editorial@thecontributor.org Requests to volunteer, donate, or purchase subscriptions can be emailed to: info@thecontributor.org Please email advertising requests to: advertising@thecontributor.org

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August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 3

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

While Brian W. recovers, community steps in to help BY HANNAH HERNER It’s been three months since top vendor Brian W. could be out selling The Contributor. His doctors have told him to “find an inside job” out of the sun that caused his skin cancer. They estimate another six months until he’s completely healed from the surgery he had on his arm in an effort to remove it. “Really they say I just need to hang it up. I’m like, I’ll figure something out,” he says. It’s not his first bout with skin cancer. He lost part of his left ear before, because of all of the time in the sun as an ironworker in his first career.

“I’m at a loss for words. I’m so much quieter now,” he says. “This cancer got me kinda freaked out. I know I’ll be all right. When you’re going through it, it’s hard to explain. I’ll get better.” In the meantime, he’s trying to take care of himself and rest, and help out around the house, but is dealing with severe pain. “It’s starting to bum me out, I’m trying to stay positive,” he says. He says he knows he’ll be met with support from his clientele in Franklin once he can get back out on the corner. One of his customers has organized a GoFundMe to help keep Brian afloat

during this time he has to take away from working. Brian was in the habit of buying papers from others and after he was laid off and started finding success as a Contributor vendor, he would still give away a percentage of his income every month. Now it’s an adjustment to have the tables turned, just scraping by with his wife’s income, he says. Brian wants his customers to know he appreciates the support. “I ain’t worked in three months, so it’s been a while. People are going to freak when I come back. I shaved my beard and cut my hair,” he says. “I’m on the road to

PAGE 4 | August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

recovery. I’ll be back. I appreciate you all. Use sunblock. Be careful of COVID-19.” Brian has sold the highest total of papers of any Contributor vendor in history, and as always, wants to get back to the top of the list for each new issue. “Buy my paper man. I want to be number one again. I gotta bounce back. Just keep supporting. It’s starting to bum me out. I got to get back in the public,” he says. “I will be back soon.” If you wish to contribute to the GoFundMe, visit gofund.me/6559d328 And if you wish to send a message to Brian, please contact hannah@the contributor.org

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

NICKAJACK CAVE IS HOME TO BATS AND HISTORY BY RIDLEY WILLS II Having spent much of the summer for nearly 60 years at the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly, it is hard to believe that until this summer, I had never seen Nickajack Cave in nearby Marion County, Tenn. The cave is one of the most famous caverns in the state and likely has the largest entrance of any cave in the Eastern United States. The entrance is 140 feet wide and 50 feet high. To reach the cave from the west, turn off I-24 at the Kimball/ South Pittsburg exit and drive to South Pittsburg, a short distance. Just as you enter the town, turn left and cross the Tennessee River on the spectacular bridge. Soon you will rive through the unincorporated town of New Hope, which some people call “No Hope.” There will be signs for the TVA’s Nickajack Dam and Nickajack Cave, less than a mile upstream from the dam. At the cave parking area, you will find a wooden walkway that will take you approximately 1/3 of a mile nearly to the cave entrance, which is under water from the dam on the Tennessee River. Before Nickajack Dam was built, local people drove automobiles a short distance in the cave. Today, there is a barrier across the entrance to keep people out. The top half of the entrance is open to allow bats to enter and depart. While the cave entrance is in Marion County, Tenn., the cave, which is 3,500 feet long, actually extends into Alabama and probably into Georgia. A short distance from the entrance, the cave is nearly 200 feet wide with a mud f loor. There are broken rocks on either side and a

NICK AJACK CAVE

sizable stream f lows through the middle. In a short distance, the cave narrows considerably and it extends southwest for 2,100 feet to a large room 300’ long, 90’ high, and 125 feet wide. There are many broken rocks and the stream f lows through the room. Beyond the great room, the cave forks. One branch, 325 feet long, extends southwest into Jackson County, Ala. It features several side branches, mostly crawl space. The other fork extends southeast following the stream for 50 yards in a dry sandy passage 50 ‘wide and

8’ high. This passage runs 850’ into the bat room, a low chamber 50’wide and 90 ‘ long. Beyond the bat room, there is a crawlway 8’ wide, 16 inches high and 210 ‘ long. It leads to the final room in the cave, a chamber 35’ high, 40’ wide and 100’ long. In this chamber there is a huge f lowstone formation, known as “Mr. Big.” It is 60’ high and 75 ‘ in diameter. At this point, you may be in Dade County, Ga. I became interested in Nickajack Cave because it supposedly was named for an African Ameri-

August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5

can, whom the Chickamauga Indians captured at Clover Bottom. At Clover Bottom, on the Stones River, Native Americans, in the fall of 1780, ambushed and killed a number of Cumberland River settlers, who included Donelsons and Gowers, who had gone up the river in canoes to harvest some corn and cotton. Native Americans used Nickajack Cave as a refuge. During the Civil War, it was mined by the Confederates for saltpeter and, for this reason, was shelled by federal gunboats on the Tennessee River.

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NEWS

WITH EVICTION MORATORIUM ENDING, AREA ORGANIZATIONS TRY TO MITIGATE THE FALL OUT BY HANNAH HERNER On July 31, the federal moratorium on evictions came to a close after 16 months in place. An estimated 167,000 Tennessee households are behind on rent and at risk of eviction, according to the National Equity Atlas. As of press time, no measures had been taken to keep the moratorium in effect. It’s impossible to get an eviction expunged in Tennessee. As such, if a person is evicted, the eviction will stay on their record indefinitely. “The detriment of having an eviction on your record is kind of catastrophic,” says Zac Oswald with Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee. “So to the extent that a tenant can comfortably make an arrangement with their landlord to avoid an eviction being there, they should probably do so.” A future landlord is, in fact, allowed to hold that eviction against you, except for some situations of domestic violence, Oswald added. A proposed bill in the 112th Tennessee General Assembly (SB820/ HB919) that would have prohibited “a landlord from refusing to enter into a rental agreement with a prospective tenant solely based upon the tenant being previously evicted during a public health emergency related to COVID-19,” was taken off notice in both chambers in March of this year. Oswald says during the pandemic they’ve seen landlords and tenants come to an agreement, even if that agreement is that the tenant move out before an eviction is served and the back rent is waived. Otherwise, back rent is an issue, too. And that can follow you for at least six years, the statute of limitations for collecting debt on a contract such as a lease. “The main issues that we see with the moratorium in place is landlords seeking self help, shutting off people's utilities, changing their locks, things like that, because they know they can’t go through the court system so they're using extrajudicial means to try and force tenants out,” Oswald says. In a case like that, tenants should get legal help immediately, Oswald says. An attorney can even request attorney fees from the landlord if the tenant wins. Legal Aid can take some of these cases, but has limited capacity, and refers out to other private attorneys, too. Now that the moratorium is over,

only been able to offer one month’s worth of past-due rent. This money can include utility assistance, and can pre-pay three months’ worth of rent. It goes straight to the landlord’s bank account. MAC cannot help prospective tenants find housing, but they can help folks pay the deposit for a new apartment as well. --

LEGAL AID SOCIETY: Las.org | 1-800-238-1443 Free clinics: las.org/find-help/freelegal-help-clinics/ HOPE PROGRAM: Hope.nashville.gov 615-862-RENT L.E.G.A.C.Y COURT: https://tinyurl.com/3nm767ks tenants who are in danger of being evicted should watch for a detainer warrant, which notifies the tenant of a court date for the eviction hearing. It’s delivered in-person or taped on the door. For 98 percent of renters in Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act, which applies to the largest 17 counties in Tennessee, leases include waiving your right to notice of an eviction. It’s something to be aware of, Oswald says. If evicted in court, the tenant has 10 days to move out, before the landlord has power to forcefully remove the tenant with help from the police. Oswald would like to see more landlords initiating applications for financial aid, as they are often more tech-savvy and have the necessary documents more readily available. “My opinion on this is that we have saturated the tenant market with 'this rent relief is out there,'” Os-

Community organizer, Jackie Paul Sims, with People's Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment (PATHE) speaks at a press conference advocating for tenants who would be effected by the end of the national moratorium on evictions, which ended on July 31. PHOTO BY ALVINE wald says. “I think everybody who's gonna know through the means that we have capable knows about it and probably has applied, but I'm not sure that we've done the outreach to the landlords to saturate that market yet.” --One place to look for rent relief is the Metro Action Commission’s HOPE (Housing, Opportunity, Partnership & Employment) program. They have plenty of money to distribute — out of the first allotment of $20 million, Metro Action has given out $10.8 million. And spokesperson Lisa McGrady added that this is just the first part of a total of $58 million coming for rent relief meant for people impacted by COVID-19. “We needed to make sure that people understood that being COVID impacted is more than just having the virus,” McGrady says. “I don't know that there's anybody that can't say that they've been impacted by COVID.” That can include being in the entertainment industry, or having to rearrange childcare with at-home schooling, or even buying PPE. Most of those who completed their appli-

cations did, in fact, get the funding. Out of 1,426 completed applications, 1,200 got funding. McGrady says incomplete applications are a problem. Out of the 4,712 applications received, 1,811 have missing or pending documentation. The application requires access to an email account, an ID, proof of income, proof of financial hardship, the current lease agreement, and eviction or late rent notice. MAC has also continued to hold fairs at local community centers to help with this process. If you can’t get the documents necessary for income, you can do a written attestation on just a blank sheet of paper, McGrady added. “I think the biggest barrier is maybe an applicant just freezing, because this is a lot to happen to you, being that far behind, and to conceptualize there is a resource that can take care of that debt for you,” she says. HOPE funding isn’t connected to the moratorium, and doesn’t expire until September 2022. One can get 18 total months’ worth of rent, so those in need can reapply if they haven’t already hit that limit. For an organization that’s been around since 1964, this influx of funds is a big change — in the past they’ve

August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 7

Judge Rachel Bell’s L.E.G.A.C.Y. Housing Resource Diversionary Court and Program only handles cases for eviction for nonpayment of rent every Tuesday at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Knowing that the end of the moratorium is already causing an uptick in landlord filing, Bell hopes that tenants and landlords will be proactive by attending their court date, and starting an application for HOPE funds, and applying through an online form to participate in the court. It’s also incredibly beneficial to have a lawyer, through an organization like Legal Aid, she says. It’s best to complete the application to participate in L.E.G.A.C.Y. before they go to the initial court date, Bell says. And there’s always the option to ask to be transferred at that initial date. “Try to get ahead of it so that we can help you before you end up going to eviction court. And when you go to the eviction court, plead and ask the judge, you know, hey, I would like to get my case transferred,” Bell says. The catch with this, is that both the landlord and the tenant must be on board with taking this route, in lieu of an eviction trial. “The majority of the landlords in my diversionary court want to see that the tenant is able to get back up on their feet, they want to see this tenant is able to avoid having eviction and definitely avoid having that on the record,” Bell says. More than a court, it’s a program. As part of it, Bell facilitates partnerships with MAC, United Way, Salvation Army, and other area service providers to try to prevent further housing insecurity. Bell’s program has just added two housing navigators to help facilitate this. The ultimate goal is to keep an eviction off the tenant’s record, and prevent them from being in that situation again.

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF STREET PAPERS (INSP)

Poster campaign highlights the contributions of Indigenous women to global biodiversity We are in a critical moment. In the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that is leaving no family untouched, compounded by increasingly extreme weather events linked to climate change, a unique global art project is shining a light on voices essential to the ecological solutions and collective healing we seek: Indigenous women. ‘Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places’, the second collaboration between Indigenous-focused not for profit Nia Tero and design lab Amplifier, will launch on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (Monday, August 9, 2021.) The global exhibit includes six original portraits commissioned from Washington DC-based artist and illustrator Tracie Ching. The art will be available digitally as well as at public art events in cities such as Seattle (US), Washington DC (US), New York City (US), São Paulo (Brazil), and London (UK). The goal of the project is to at once celebrate Indigenous women as stewards of biodiversity across Earth and to prompt action amongst an engaged global audience. The nine Indigenous women at the center of this project provide robust examples of real-life action to engage in to strive for the health and future of the planet. They are from communities spanning the globe, from the Philippines and New Zealand, to the Brazilian Amazon to Scandinavia, to the global north, embodying Indigenous experience and carrying generational knowledge and inherited responsibilities that come with that. These celebrated leaders include: • Sônia Guajajara (Guajajara), an activist in Brazil and leader of Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), which brings together 305 ethnicities around the agenda of Indigenous rights in the region. • Nara Baré (Baré), a Brazillian activist who was the first woman to assume the general coordination the largest indigenous organization in the country, the Coalition of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).

tribes; Abrahamson-Swan refocused the collective’s energies on providing pandemic and wildfire relief; daughter of Deb Abrahamson.

All posters designed by Tracie Ching. Courtesy of Nia Tero / Amplifier. More information on Page 9.

• Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá), a Brazilian activist leading a new generation of female Indigenous leaders in the battle against the destruction of Brazil’s forests both in the Amazon and the lesser known Cerrado, a savannah that covers a fifth of the country. • Vicky Tauli Corpuz (Kankanaey Igorot), an activist who not only helped organize the Igorot student movement in Manila in the 1970s and the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement in the Cordillera, but actively participated in the drafting, negotiations, and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. • Pania Newton (Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Waikato, Ngati Mahuta), a lawyer and Māori land rights activist who organized the group Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) to protest the development of land at Ihumātao in south Auckland. • Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone (Inupiaq, Kiowa), an environmental ac-

tivist whose artistic work focuses on revitalizing ancient skills such as hide tanning, making traditional regalia, and tool making. • Gunn-Brit t Ret ter (Saam i), a professor, formerly part of the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat, and current Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit for the Saami Council. • Deb Abrahamson (Spokane Tribe), an environmental activist and water protector who played a large part in the push to clean up the legacy of uranium mining on the Spokane Indian Reservation; Abrahamson died of cancer in January of 2020, attributing her illness to the very radioactive toxins that she had dedicated her life to saving others from. • Twa-le Abrahamson-Swan (Spokane Tribe), an environmental activist and executive director, the River Warrior Society, a collective across the Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Kalispel, Nez Perce, and Spokane

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This art initiative arrives in tandem with several critical global convenings, including: the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Marseille, France in September 2021, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021 with an eye towards the additional critical climate and biodiversity conversations in 2022 and beyond. At global policy events such as these, many of which were postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic and from which policy decisions evolve effecting how governments around the world respond to global issues and emergencies, the presence and participation of Indigenous women is vital. As acknowledged by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “[d]espite their enormous assets and contribution to society, Indigenous women still suffer from multiple discrimination, both as women and as Indigenous individuals. They are subjected to extreme poverty, trafficking, illiteracy, lack of access to ancestral lands, non-existent or poor health care and to violence in the private and the public sphere.” As such, Indigenous women’s understanding of intersecting issues - and the urgency and solutions needed to address them - makes their presence and leadership in global policy discussions essential. The activists, artists and scholars at the heart of ‘Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places’ exemplify the ideals of guardianship, kinship, reciprocity, and wisdom. Their voices, work, and leadership benefit not only their own peoples and communities, but all of us who share this planet, which is why now, more than ever, we must celebrate them, listen to them and, most importantly, follow their lead. To learn more about ‘Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places’, go to: www.niatero.org/storytelling

Courtesy of INSP.ngo / Nia Tero / Amplifier

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF STREET PAPERS (INSP)

Vicky Tauli Corpuz — Kankanaey Igorot – Besao; Filipino activist and development consultant

(L-R) Sônia Guajajara — Guajajara – Araribóia, Brazilian activist; Célia Xakriabá — Xakriabá; Brazilian activist, Nara Baré — Baré - Rio Negro; Brazilian activist

Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone — Iñupiaq, Kiowa – Sitnasuaġmiut (Nome, Alaska United States); environmental activist

Gunn-Britt Retter — Saami - Unjárga-Nesseby; cultural worker and politician

(L-R): Twa-le Abrahamson-Swan — Spokane Tribe (Washington, United States) environmentalist activist; Deb Abrahamson — Spokane Tribe (Washington, United States) environmentalist activist

All posters designed by Tracie Ching. Courtesy of Nia Tero / Amplifier

Pania Newton — Maori - Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Waikato, Ngati Mahuta (Auckland, New Zealand) activist and lawyer August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 9

COVER STORY

Ribbons were cut on 12 micro-homes at the Village at Glencliff on July 19. The village is located at Glencliff United Methodist Church. TOP LEFT PHOTO BY LINDA BAILEY | PHOTOS BY ALVINE

MICRO-HOME VILLAGE OPENING A ‘PIECE OF NASHVILLE THAT REPRESENTS WHO WE ARE’ B Y A N N A D ’A M I C O A Nashville church made its mark in the fight against homelessness by building the nation’s first-ever micro-home village dedicated to medical respite for the city’s most vulnerable. On July 19, ribbons were cut on 12 micro-homes at the Village at Glencliff United Methodist Church, which will be occupied by people experiencing homelessness recovering from hospital stays. “The goal is dignity and humanity in healing,” said the Rev. Ingrid McIntyre, founder of the Village at Glencliff. Occupants of the micro-homes will be able to stay in the houses throughout their healing process and until they can find permanent housing. The idea of building micro-homes for medical respite was born after Nashville’s massive flood in 2010, McIntyre said. The idea was put on the back burner until 2014, when planning began.

The project faced a list of obstacles in seven years: from struggling to find the right local partner church to holdups from the COVID-19 pandemic to being taken all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court by church neighbors in 2019. “None of these things stopped us, they all just made it drag out, made it slower,” said McIntyre. The ribbon cutting was attended by neighbors, members of Glencliff United Methodist Church and Nashville civil servants. The crowd buzzed with excitement as they toured the micro-homes, which consist of a combined bedroom and living area, a bathroom and lofted storage space. A live band added to the energized atmosphere. In addition to McIntyre, speakers at the ribbon cutting included Robb Nash, the Executive/Medical Director of the Village (see Pg. 11 for a Q&A with Nash);

Bobby Watts, CEO of National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Congressional candidate Odessa Kelly; Vice Mayor Jim Shulman; Board member Valegia Tidwell; and the Rev. Keith Caldwell, Board member and Pastor of Seay Hubbard UMC. Each speaker had an opportunity to celebrate the work done by the Glencliff United Methodist Church and the Village team and make remarks about how this community is a step in the right direction in the fight against homelessness. “This is just a little piece, a reminder, of who we are as a city and the ability of what we can do when we come together,” said Kelly. “Congratulations to the church, to the Village, for building a piece of Nashville that represents who we are and fills a hole that we have in our souls.” Mary Ann Grigg is a longtime reader of The Contributor who became a sponsor for one of the houses after reading about

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the Village at Glencliff in an article in 2016. “I cut the article out of The Contributor and saved it and when I got a chance I called Ingrid and found out it was just much more than just housing, so I was on board right away,” said Grigg. Grigg said the Village combined her care for those experiencing homelessness and her interest in the popularity of micro-homes into a cause that will always be a part of her. “Oh, it will always be in my heart,” said Grigg. “Once you’re in, you can’t back out.” The work at the Village at Glencliff is far from over. There are plans for finishing a kitchen and community space for residents in addition to the 10 micro-homes still waiting to be built. There’s also still work to be done in engaging local hospitals and building partnerships with those involved with housing throughout the city, said McIntyre.

COVER STORY

Q&A: Robb Nash looks to build community at The Village at Glencliff BY HANNAH HERNER Serving as the executive and medical director for The Village at Glencliff medical respite could be considered a third career for Robb Nash. Becoming a nurse practitioner was his second, after working for years in IT. He went back to school at 42 and his first job in the field was to be the nurse practitioner at Room In The Inn. Then, he joined Vanderbilt’s HIV/AIDS clinic, the Comprehensive Care Clinic. Through these positions, he has been working with people experiencing homelessness for 15 years. “I'm excited for Nashville,” Nash said. “I think it's really cool as the healthcare capital of the United States that we're stepping into this respite space and making it world class in a way that will reflect well on Nashville. And Nashville citizens are coming together to make this happen.” As the village waits for final approvals to start bringing in referrals from the hospital, Nash sat down with The Contributor to talk about the community of the village, and what it will entail. What was it like going from being behind the scenes working in IT to moving to direct service? It's overwhelming at first because of the grinding poverty that people who are forced to live without housing experience — and all the ramifications of that poverty — is something that those of us who are housed have no idea about what it's really like on the ground… It was certainly a shock to my system at first, but it was never something that scared me or was off-putting to me or anything other than, well, this is a problem. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. How is your past work experience going to inform what you do at The Village at Glencliff? One of the founding principles that I used at Vanderbilt to start [the PATHways Program] there that I started for people who are traumatized was: I can't write a prescription for poverty. I can't fix those big problems. But maybe if I can work with people at the individual level, I can give them the tools to be stronger, so that they can take better care of themselves in a world that doesn't care about them. So that's the approach that I use is to try to lift up the individual, and give them tools and give them the support — give them the feeling of community. Instill in them the fact that they do matter, and they are loved, as something that otherwise they never experience. And to give people that, I have seen that make more of a difference in a person's life than any medication prescription I could have ever written. We're community animals, and we want to be in groups. That's just a basic fact. So when you take a person out of a group, that's

Robb Nash stands in front of The Village at Glencliff. PHOTO BY HANNAH HERNER

really problematic at several levels, and all they want is to be back in the group. That's what we're trying to do here at the village is create that intentional kind of community so that people can have that feeling, rather than just come and stay for a few days and be bounced right back under the bridge. Will the village also be open for people needing end-of-life care? I'm very comfortable managing those kinds of situations. Those kinds of situations certainly might be difficult for other residents who aren't used to that kind of thing, and that's a community issue. But the most fundamental issue is that nobody, nobody should die alone. And nobody should die uncomfortable. And nobody should die under a bridge, or behind a bush, or in a tent behind Walmart. That's just not acceptable. And it would mean a great deal to me if this could be a safe place for people to come to make that transition. What will the day-to-day look like for you? I'll do a daily wellness check. We're the only program in the country that's run by No. 1, a nurse practitioner with 15 years of clinical experience, and No. 2, who has a PhD in nursing, and No. 3, has deep experience dealing with marginalized and traumatized populations. I'll take people's vital

signs and do all that stuff Monday through Friday. And then if they're here after surgery, and I need to check their surgical incision, I can check that every day. We can pick up things here, like an infection, for example, I can see an infection a long time before it becomes a huge problem that requires going to the ER. And that's another motivator for me is to help the hospitals break the cycle of having people in the ER for what should be a primary care problem. What will funding for this program look like? There are a wide variety of different ways to fund programs like this in different parts of the country. The model that we've chosen here is that we're asking hospitals to pay for part of the cost of sending people here. This program will save hospitals a lot of money because we are a safe, high-quality care place for hospitals to discharge patients to, to make sure they get healthy and make sure they don't come back to the hospital and not coming back to the hospital saves the hospital money. Not coming back to the ER because things went south saves the hospital money, and moving people out of the hospital bed sooner saves the hospital money. Because from the hospital's perspective, they would rather have somebody with insurance in a bed than somebody without insurance in a bed. Because they

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get reimbursed for that care. What can potential volunteers help with at The Village at Glencliff? When you come here to volunteer, it's important to understand that you don't have to do anything. Like you don't have to bring a person a meal, you don't have to bring a person clothing … because all their needs are already taken care of. Everything's out there. So what we want volunteers to do, really, is just come here and be. Come here and help instill that sense of community. Just come here and hang out with a person. It's not very often that a person experiencing homelessness would have the opportunity to sit down with the CEO of a company and just talk for an hour over a cup of coffee. My belief is that it's just as valuable for the CEO as it is for the person experiencing homelessness. And yes, there will be communal needs for keeping the grounds up, and, you know, volunteering for this day to work on this project on that day to work on that project. And the gardens will need volunteers to keep them and the flower beds as well as the vegetable garden in the back. So there's certainly those kinds of volunteer opportunities. I don't mean to be dismissive of those. But again, community, it's really about, just come and chill.

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: PROJECT RETURN

RETURNING TO SOCIETY AFTER INCARCERATION WITH PROJECT RETURN BY ANNA D’AMICO A man stands up and rings a bell hanging from the wall. The room cheers. At Project Return, that means someone is employed, fully outfitted and ready to reenter society. Project Return is a Nashville-based nonprofit with the goal of finding jobs for people after incarceration. The organization was founded in 1979 by the late reverends Bill Barnes and Don Beisswenger, after they realized the difficulties faced by those reentering society after prison. Since its founding, the work of Project Return has remained relationship-based — they work closely not only with the men and women they serve, but with employment partners as well. The program begins with prison “inreach” in which volunteers make connections with men and women doing their time who will soon rejoin the community. Once out of prison, the training begins. “Our focus right off the bat is to get them employed,” said Jordan Howes, communication manager at Project Return. “We believe that with employment comes all other opportunities like financial inde-

pendence and really the ability to build that full, free life after incarceration.” The initial week-long program begins with a three-day job readiness course, which includes topics such as interview preparation, relapse prevention and money management. Participants then receive a polished resume with their accomplishments and work experience from the Project Return team to use for job applications. The latter part of the week consists mainly of mock interviews and covering the background question: how to talk about their criminal convictions in interviews with possible employers. Employment is offered to those who go through training one of two ways: directly with a partnering employer or through PRO Employment, one of Project Return’s social enterprises. Project Return Opportunity for Employment, or PRO Employment, is the organization’s own temp-like agency that employs individuals and fills hard to staff, entry level shifts, usually at manufacturers for Middle Tennessee companies. Not only does PRO Employment provide work opportunities, they also provide

transportation, food, and work supplies — everything a worker needs to succeed at a new job. This program allows those with conviction history to get recent work experience and prove reliability to employers. The goal is to be offered a permanent position after three months. So far 1,477 individuals have been placed in jobs through PRO Employment. On average, 70 percent of people remain unemployed through their first year after incarceration, according to Project Return’s site. Project Return flips this number on its head. Between PRO Employment and direct referrals to employers, 83 percent of individuals who go through the program find jobs. In 2019, 578 out of the 694 people who went to Project Return got jobs. “It’s really about getting them employed and finding them that opportunity to highlight their skills and their experience,” said Howes. The organization’s track record shows that assistance like this can help break the common cycle of recidivism: While state and national recidivism rates are over 50 percent, the rate for those who go through

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Project Return is less than 15 percent. The community Project Return provides doesn’t end once an individual is employed. After employment, they enroll in a job retention program, where they receive job coaching and rewards for reaching milestones. “We like to reward employment and our participants’ hard work and also encourage them to keep excelling by offering coaching,” said Howes. “Great stories are everywhere around here, it’s hard not to find one.” Project Return’s newest social enterprise, launched in 2017, is PRO Housing. This program is designed to provide permanent housing to those who haven’t found rental opportunities due to their conviction history, despite working and being back on their feet. By purchasing and rehabbing homes throughout the city, Project Return acts as a private rental market that is willing to rent to those with past convictions. Since the launch of PRO Housing, 25 houses have been acquired, rehabbed and are now called home by hard working Nashvillians.

MOVING PICTURES

Groovy THIS LOVE LETTER TO PSYCHEDELIC HOLLYWOOD IS ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIES BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC Mondo films are the goofy and ghastly sub-genre offspring born of the unholy union of exploitation films and documentary movies. The genre generally traces its name back to Mondo Cane (1962). The title is a slight Italian curse — a dog’s world — and this film’s pioneering production traveled from Castellaneta, Italy to destinations all over the world to capture ethnographic scenes that might seem especially strange and shocking to Western sensibilities. In the finished film the scenes stream one after the other with a narrator guiding viewers through its tour of the taboo, the bizarre and the forbidden. As you might imagine Mondo Cane is tasteless, xenophobic and adolescent. Of course this also made it a big hit, and inspired a slew of even more tasteless movies in its wake. The mondo wave hit the West Coast when Mondo Hollywood was released in 1967. The film mirrored Mondo Cane’s vignette structure, but focused its camera on the Los Angeles entertainment industry underground,

its sex-and-drugs counterculure and the social unrest of Vietnam War protests and the aftermath of the Watts Riot. Variety described Mondo Hollywood as a “flippy, trippy psychedelic guide to Hollywood,” and the film is now considered a cult classic. The movie is also enjoying something of a renaissance: Paul Thomas Anderson introduced the movie and interviewed its one-man-film-crew, Robert Carl Cohen at AFI Fest back in 2014. And now a new independent film inspired by Mondo Hollywood turns its twisted lens on Tinsel Town today. Mondo Hollywoodland is a psychedelic mockumentary that tips its hat to the mondo genre with its three vignette structure and its overbearing narrator who is trying to discover the meaning of the word “mondo.” The first person narrator meets a man with addiction struggles on the street. The man tells him that Hollywood is “mondo” and points the narrator to a mysterious drug dealer who uses magic mushrooms and an enchanted mirror to discern the three cosmic tribes that make-up 21st century Hollywood: Titans, Weirdos and Dreamers. The

film then follows the drug dealer and his friends through a number of loosely connected scenes involving his clients who are all actors, agents, producers, and heavy drug users who aren’t very bright. The drug dealer gets lost in a mushroom haze before arming himself to the teeth in a fit of paranoia. An antifa unit can’t agree about how to attack a neo-nazi and a community organizer uses psilocybin and tarot cards to guide her dream of creating a political movement. It turns out that narwhals are actually Russian nuclear submarines disguised as animals. A third generation failed actress dreams of stardom while her manager gets blackout drunk at an Oscar Awards watch party. A personal fitness trainer assures viewers that with a healthy mind and a healthy body “nothing can stop you.” The actress rehearses a scene from Anton Chekov’s The Seagull while her director orders Chinese food and the personal trainer purchases a new space for his own gym after getting a loan from the drug dealer. There’s a car bombing and a heist, and a disagreement about the merits of the old television comedy Mad

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About You. A lost cat is found. Mondo Hollywoodland’s fractured storyline is punctuated by excellent music, creative sound design, hallucinatory visual effects and entire sequences that threaten to pull the whole production into a purely experimental realm of fantastic cinematic sensation. This bonkers plot and these technical experiments are married to Mondo Hollywoodland’s deadpan commitment to its gonzo sense of humor which seems to be informed by lots of freewheeling improvisation from this talented cast of actors and their director, Janek Ambrose. This movie is the perfect warm-up for Nashville psychedelic cinema devotees before the Defy Fest brings its experimental film program back to the 615 Studio in East Nashville in August. Mondo Hollywoodland is one of my favorite films of 2021 and it premiered on Amazon Prime on Aug. 3.

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

LA NOTICIA “The Contributor” está trabajando con uno de los principales periódicos en español La Noticia para llevar contenido a más lectores en Middle Tennessee. Nuestros vendedores de periódicos han pedido durante mucho tiempo que nuestra publicación incluya contenido que apele al interés de residentes de habla hispana en nuestra comunidad.

“The Contributor” is working with one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers La Noticia to bring content to more readers in Middle Tennessee. Our newspaper vendors have long requested that our publication include content that appeals to the interest of Spanish-speaking residents in our community.

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

L a N ticia 2021

GRATIS

Agosto

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

www.hispanicpaper.com

Año 19 - No. 334

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

Nashville, Tennessee

Recursos del Gobierno para facilitar el acceso a la vivienda de alquiler

Preguntas sobre la vacuna anti COVID-19

Ayuda temporal por coronavirus para la renta y para evitar desalojos

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

por

www.juanese.com juaneseUSA@gmail.com

PAGE 14 | August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

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

10th Wednesday after Trinity THE impurity of ignorance is in none so manifest as in the devout; for they act on their ignorance and fill themselves and others with miserable scruples and hard thoughts of God, and are as apt to call good evil as other men are to call evil good. Patmore: The Rod, the Root, and the Flower. HOLY indignation is a proof that we should do the same thing ourselves, and easy tears are a certain sign of a hard heart. Patmore: The Rod, the Root, and the Flower.

10th Thursday after Trinity EVIL locutions are occasionally hard to distinguish, for, though they dry up the love of God in the will, and incline men to vanity, self-esteem, false humility and fervent affection of the will founded on self-love, which requires for its detection great spirituality of mind. St John of the Cross: Ascent of Mount Carmel.

BEWARE of the mid-day fiend that feigneth light as if it came from Jerusalem but does not so . . . I believe that if true darkness has gone before, the false light never comes. Walter Hylton: Scale of Perfection.

10th Friday after Trinity GOD needs no image and has no image: without image, likeness or means does God work in the soul, aye, in her ground whereinto no image did ever get but only himself with his own essence. Eckhart: Sermons and Collations. A DEVOUT man grounds his devotion chiefly on the invisible; he requires but few images, and uses but few. St John of the Cross: Ascent of Mount Carmel.

10th Saturday after Trinity WE run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it. Pascal: Pensées. BLESSED is the man who beareth temptation with thanksgiving. The Paradise of the Fathers. MANY men have attained to a great height of piety to be very abundant and rich therein. But all their's is but a cistern, not a fountain of grace: only God's goodness hath a spring of itself in itself. Thomas Fuller: Good Thoughts in Bad Times.

Tenth Sunday after Trinity TOO late came I to love thee, O thou Beauty both so ancient and so fresh, yea too late came I to love thee. And behold, thou wert within me, and I out of myself, where I made search for thee: I ugly rushed headlong upon those beautiful wings thou hast made. Thou indeed wert with me; but I was not with thee: these beauties kept me far enough from thee: even those, which unless they were in thee, should not be at all. Thou calledst and criedst unto me, yea thou even breakedst open my deafness: thou discoveredst thy beams and shinedst unto me, and didst cast away my blindness: thou didst most fragrantly blow upon me, and I drew in my

breath and I panted after thee; I tasted thee, and now do hunger and thirst after thee; thou didst touch me, and I ever burn again to enjoy thy peace. St Augustine: Confessions.

11th Monday after Trinity WHOSO goes seeking God and seeking aught with God does not find God; but he who seeks God by himself in truth does not find God alone: all God affords he finds as well as God. Art thou looking for God, seeking God with a view to personal good, thy personal profit? Then in truth thou art not seeking God. Eckhart: Sermons and Collations. THIS one thing I know, that woe is me except in thee; not only without myself, but within myself: yea, all other plenty besides my God, is mere beggary unto me. St Augustine: Confessions. I BELIEVE what the Church believes; I intend what the Church intends; I desire what the Church desires. Unknown.

11th Tuesday after Trinity BY the fall of our first father we have lost our first glorious bodies, that eternal, celestial flesh and blood which had as truly the nature of paradise and Heaven in it as our present bodies have the nature, mortality and corruption of this world in them: if, therefore, we are to be redeemed there is an absolute necessity that our souls be clothed again with this first paradisaical or heavenly flesh and blood, or we can never enter into the kingdom of God. Now this is the reason why the scriptures speak so particularly, so frequently, and so emphatically of the powerful blood of Christ, of the great benefit it is to us, of its redeeming, quickening, life-giving virtue; it is because our first life or heavenly flesh and blood is born again in us, or derived again into us from this blood of Christ. William Law: An Appeal.

11th Wednesday after Trinity I CAN find no simile more appropriate than water by which to explain spiritual things, as I am very ignorant and have poor wits to help me. Besides I love this element so much that I have studied it more attentively than other things. God, Who is so great, so wise, has doubtless hidden secrets in all things He created, which we should greatly benefit by knowing, as those say who understand such matters. St Teresa: The Interior Castle.

11th Thursday after Trinity LIGHT is all things, and no thing. It is no thing because it is supernatural; it is all things because every good power and perfection of everything is from it. No joy or rejoicing in any creature but from the power and joy of light. No meekness, benevolence, or goodness, in angel, man, or any creature, but where light is the lord of its life. Life itself begins no sooner, rises no higher, has no other glory than as the light begins it and leads it on. Sounds have no softness, flowers and gums have no sweetness, plants and fruits have no growth but as the mystery of light opens itself in them. Whatever is delightful and ravishing, sublime and glorious, in spirits, minds, or bodies, either in heaven or on earth, is from the power of the supernatural light opening its endless wonders in them. William Law: The Spirit of Love.

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11th Friday after Trinity

READING is good, hearing is good, conversation and meditation are good; but then, they are only good at times and occasions, in a certain degree, and must be used and governed with such caution as we eat and drink and refresh ourselves, or they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance. But the spirit of prayer is for all times and all occasions, it is a lamp that is to be always burning, a light to be ever shining; everything calls for it, everything is to be done in it and governed by it, because it is and means and wills noting else but the whole totality of the soul, not doing this or that, but wholly incessantly given up to God to be where and what and how He pleases. William Law: Letters.

11th Saturday after Trinity FOR all other creatures and their works—yea, and the works of God himself—may a man through grace have fullness of knowing, and well can he think of them; but of God himself can no man think. And therefore I would leave all that thing that I can think, and choose to my love that thing I cannot think. For why, he may well be loved but not thought. By love may he be gotten and holden; but by thought never. The Cloud of Unknowing. ALTHOUGH it be good to think upon the kindness of God, and to love him and praise him for it: yet it is far better to think upon the naked being of him, and to love him and praise him for himself. The Cloud of Unknowing.

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity EVERY thing that works in nature and creature, except sin, is the working of God in nature and creature. The creature has nothing else in its power but the free use of its will; and its free will has no other power but that of concurring with or resisting the working of God in nature. The creature with its free will can bring nothing into being nor make any alteration in the working of nature, it can only change its own state or place in the working of nature, and so feel and find something in its state that it did not feel or find before. William Law: The Spirit of Love.

12th Monday after Trinity VIRTUE is nought else but an ordered and a measured affection, plainly directed unto God for himself. For why, he in himself is the clean cause of all virtues: insomuch, that if any man be stirred to any virtue by any other cause mingled with him—yea, though he be the chief—yet that virtue is then imperfect. As thus for example, may be seen in one virtue or two instead of all the other; and well may these two virtues be meekness and charity. For whoso might get these two clearly, he needeth no more: for why, he hath all. The Cloud of Unknowing.

12th Tuesday after Trinity EVEN one unruly desire, though not a mortal sin, sullies and deforms the soul, and indisposes it for the perfect union with God, until it be cast away. St John of the Cross: Ascent of Mount Carmel. OUR souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's if we are always criticising trivial actions which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through ignorance of their motives. St Teresa: The Interior Castle.

FUN

HOBOSCOPES LEO

The sequel is seldom as good as the original, but there are some exceptions. Some say The Godfather II is more aesthetically and emotionally compelling than the first Godfather. The Empire Strikes Back is thought to have better character development and effects than the first Star Wars. Maybe we could make this sequel better than the original, Leo. Maybe this time we’ll do things differently. Let’s consider the first go-round as exposition. This one is the main event.

VIRGO

The first time the wheel was invented was somewhere around 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. It was probably used for making pottery. Sometime over the next thousand years, the wheel was reinvented in ancient Armenia for use with vehicles. After another thousand years, Egyptians and ancient Europeans simultaneously reinvented the wheel as a more efficient and lightweight, spoked machine for use with chariots. Don’t let anybody tell you not to reinvent the wheel, Virgo. If you’ve got an idea to make things better, we’ve got the need.

LIBRA

Sailors, surfers and sea-shore-seashellsellers will tell you that if you stare at the waves for long enough, you’ll start to notice a cycle. “Every seventh wave is the big one.” It’s not exactly a scientific fact, but there is a pattern. Waves tend to fall into groups of 12 to 16. And these groups tend to organize themselves with the largest wave in the center. So if you start with a small wave and count seven more, you’ll probably get to a big one. And if you feel like this wave is too big, Libra, just wait a few and things will start to calm down. Sailors, surfers and sea-shore-seashell-sellers will tell you. You might just need to wait it out.

SCORPIO

I’ve recently realized that my career as an ameteur astrologer may not be taking me anywhere. I’m just not sure if there is an obvious career-path that branches-out from this one. That’s why I’ve decided to become a realtor, Scorpio. It’s probably easy, right? I mean, houses basically sell themselves! So I probably need some kind of license or something and then I just have to find an empty house and start selling! I mean, I guess I could do it, but I’d miss you too much, Scorpio. Sometimes the best thing to do isn’t the most profitable or the most career-building. It’s just the thing you love.

SAGITTA R IUS

Recent satellite imaging shows that the Sonoran Desert may be reaching temperatures over 170 degrees. That’s way hotter than the air temperature record of 134 degrees in Death Valley. It makes me remember that the earth isn’t just for people. And if the earth isn’t just here to meet my needs, then maybe it’s just here to be here. Maybe it just exists. And maybe you don’t have to be here for a specific purpose either, Sagittarius. Maybe you’re a part of this planet, like a fox or a cactus. And maybe you’re already doing the thing you’re here to do.

CAPRICORN

One of my least favorite phrases, Capricorn, is “agree to disagree.” Sure, it’s great in theory. We have different views and different opinions, and we’re going to get along anyway. But it’s so often used as a way of shutting things down. We agree to not try to understand each other better and to stop trying to be understood. What if instead, Capricorn, we agree to keep listening, and agree to keep sharing, and agree to remember that we all want the same things.

AQUA RIUS

When I stop to count my blessings, Aquarius, I usually start by listing the people I love and the places where I feel secure. But if I keep listing them, I eventually get to my trash can. My trash can and my compost and my recycle bin. They aren’t the prettiest things I own, but I get scared when I imagine life without them. Not only do I have so much of what I need, Aquarius, I have a place to put the things I don’t need. What are you carrying around with you that you could get rid of? What do you hold in your mind that you could just as soon throw out? If you can part with it, Aquarius, it can be a blessing to let it go.

ARIES

During the day, the planet Mercury hits about 800 degrees. There’s no atmosphere, though, so at least it’s a dry-heat. At night, the temperature plummets by a thousand degrees and then the next morning it pops right back up again. You may feel like you're living in a world of extremes, too, Aries. Everything is too much or too little. Too intense or too subtle. Too awake or too deeply asleep. But maybe if you can ride the sunrise, Aries, where the light and dark meet, you might find at least a moment where you can take it all in.

TAURUS

Look at this zodiac. (Everytime I do, it makes me laugh.) We’ve got all kinds of people in this thing, Taurus. Different people who want different things and have different hopes and different fears. (Don’t say anything, but I’ve heard Scorpio is afraid of Gemini.) And then there’s you, Taurus. You might be feeling some pressure to go with a flow. You might feel like your preferences don’t matter. Sit with that for a minute. Figure out, as precisely as you can, what your preferences are. They matter, Taurus. And you get to express them and ask for them in whatever ways you want. (Even if you want to put on Nickelback again.)

GEMINI

There’s a butterfly outside the window. It’s flying up and down, knocking into the glass, it’s trying to get inside. But if the butterf ly really understood what was going on in here, there’s no way it would want in. There’s no flowers in here to drink nectar from. There’s no leaves to lay an egg on. There’s just air conditioning and mini-blinds and some potato chips. Nothing a butterfly wants. Are you flapping up against any windows lately, Gemini? Is that really the place you want to go?

PISCES

Let’s play a game, Pisces. Would you rather be one foot shorter or three feet taller? Would you rather fight one caveman or two astronauts? Would you rather lick a rat or swallow a roach? There are so many things we don’t get to decide in our lives, Pisces. And sometimes when we do have a choice, we get so afraid of making the wrong one. Practice making some quick decisions about things that don’t really matter. You might start to notice how many of your choices have lower stakes than you think. For me it’s: shorter, astronauts, rat. How about you?

CANCER

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of literature. All of its many stories revolve around the adventures of King Gilgamesh of Uruk. After Gilgamesh’s friend Enkido dies (sorry, but does it count as a spoiler if you’ve had more than 3,500 years to read it?) Gilgamesh is distraught and takes a journey to learn the secret of eternal life. After facing many trials he learns the truth. We’ve known it for a while. There’s no stopping death. It’s not in our hands. The best we can do is live epically.

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

PAGE 16 | August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

VENDOR WRITING

Tennessee's Healthcare ‘Vision’? BY JEN A. In a dust up over the firing of Dr. Michelle Fiscus,Tennessee's medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases, Gov. Bill Lee said that while he hadn't ordered the firing, he supported the decision. In a comment to multiple media outlets, Lee said, "Leadership at departments are empowered to make those decisions based on the vision that we set out for our departments including the Department of Health." What does that mean? Biblical hand washing perhaps? Tennessee Department of Health commissioner, Dr. Lisa Piercey, a pediatrician for God's sake, echoed Lee's thoughts on the matter saying that the governor had every right to expect that his political will would be carried out at every level of his administration. I don't know about you, but I would rather take healthcare advice from caring medical professionals than from political hacks. This all started when Dr. Fiscus, in doing her job, sent out a memo to all local health departments informing them of a decades-old Tennessee Supreme Court decision that stated children between the ages of 14 to17 could receive vaccinations without parental consent. It's real. She didn't make that up. It's plainly laid out in the court records. Then the chair of the Government Operations Committee, Rep. Kerry Roberts, a farmer/businessman and state representative from a highly gerrymandered district, got his conservative tightly whiteys in a bunch and threatened to dissolve the state's health department if Fiscus didn't prohibit teens from getting the COVID-19 vaccine, or any other vaccine, without parental consent and called for her dismissal. But having watched the Tennessee Health Department carry out Gov. Lee's "vision" for nearly four

years, would anyone have even noticed if Rep. Roberts had gone through with his threat to dissolve the TDH? It is a long-standing disgrace that Tennessee politicians have repeatedly refused to expand medicaid to the working poor through the Affordable Care Act. Low-income citizens between the ages of 21 to 65 are left to suffer while Republicans hold their breath and stamp their self-righteous feet. Does anyone even remember or comprehend why Republicans so vilify the ACA? Is healing the sick that anathema to Gov. Lee's "vision"? While Republicans posture and twiddle their thumbs, hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans have no healthcare insurance because of Lee's "vision." What has the Tennessee Department of Health done about that? Nothing! Why have we watched so many Tennesseans suffer and die from the agonizing despair of opioid addiction? Where has the Tennessee Department of Health been as record numbers of our neighbors were, and are still, caught in the ghastly trap of those who grossly over-prescribe the poisonous "medication" to our sons and daughters, our fathers and mothers? As long as healthcare in the state is guided by political ideology there really is no need for a Tennessee Department of Health. With or without it, we will continue to watch as our unvaccinated children are harmed by preventable diseases, as our neighbors suffer with no chance for proper medical care, and as our cities and towns are overtaken by legal pill mills on every corner. For this is Gov. Bill Lee's "vision" for Tennessee. "A vision," as my papaw used to say, '"that is blind in one eye and can't see out of the other!"

The Opposite of Love BY JOHN H. I wanna tell you a story. There was as man who was very intelligent, well to do and all the above. There was a time when he met this poor man who camped outside his gate. One whom he ignored and wasn’t very nice too. One thing I’ve learned in life is that I may lay eyes on a person everyday, but thing of it is, I can judge him. I can’t say what’s going through that man's heart or what that person has been through or going through. Sometimes what the eyes see is not the whole story. Ya see, the way the rich man had acted was the reason why he ended up in Hell. I guess I’m saying this because I see so many Nashvillians following the rich man's footsteps. The church ain’t necessarily teaching them any better. It’s sad. If the preachers are afraid to speak out, put

this article on your bulletin board. It’s not judging, but it's scripture. You can call it judging if you’d like because according to the Apostle Paul, I have every right to judge my Christian brothers and sisters. Get it together people, we don’t have to be afraid of what someone thinks of us, because they see us doing the right thing in front of them. I know America was built on hate but if you were Godly, you wouldn't continue in it. Don’t keep denying what’s really in your heart, ask God to change it. You make the first move, let God see this is what you want, and He’ll change you. I could never have a heart like many. The opposite of Love (lived out), Read 1st John 3rd and 4th chapter. Tell me what you think. It explains why the rich man went to Hell.

THEME: LEGEN DA RY ATHLETES ACROSS 1. *Baseball's "The Say Hey Kid" 5. TV tube in days of yore 8. Proof of age, pl. 11. Medicinal succulent 12. Toward shelter, nautically 13. White heron 15. Poet ____ Angelou 16. Where a bib is tied 17. Taste like grapes 18. *First African American to play in MLB 20. Chap or fella 21. Do like Etna 22. Auction set 23. Property defacer 26. Italian vermouth

brand 30. 2nd largest bird in world 31. Informal wear 34. "The Man Who ____ Too Much" 35. Relating to Scandinavia 37. Chicken ____ ____ king 38. Nearsited one 39. Bear in the sky 40. The largest Asian antelope 42. *Dolphin great ____ Marino 43. Reusable painting pattern 45. Stands out

August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 17

47. Cotillion V.I.P. 48. Deli item 50. Cain's brother 52. *a.k.a. The Great Bambino 55. Oyster gem 56. Dwarf buffalo 57. Algonquian people 59. Body trunk 60. Hay spot 61. *"Battle of the Sexes" champion 62. A in FANBOYS 63. Altitude, for short 64. "Comme ci, comme Áa" DOWN 1. Mom in Scotland 2. Wing-shaped 3. Walk-the-dog toy 4. Bottom of the ocean 5. Fastener 6. Move a plant 7. *Pele or Bob Feller when they debuted 8. Armenia's neighbor 9. Cabinet div. 10. Dirty dwelling 12. Declares invalid 13. Encourage, two words 14. *NHL's "The Great One" 19. Very angry 22. Type of English course, for short

23. Where women are from? 24. "To death" in France 25. Florence Nightingale, e.g. 26. Mountain goat terrain 27. Opposite of cathode 28. Himalayan country 29. *Track and field star of 1936 Olympics 32. Frozen rain 33. "____ at ease" 36. *He simultaneously played in MLB and NFL 38. Ginger beer in a cocktail, e.g. 40. Pen point 41. Sea in the Mediterranean 44. Yo-Yo Ma's instrument 46. Talks like a chicken 48. Overfamiliar from overuse 49. Terminate, as in mission 50. Same as eon 51. Shakespeare, a.k.a. ____ of Avon 52. "Ali ____ and the 40 Thieves" 53. *Tinker, Evers and Chance, e.g. 54. Egg-layers 55. Parent volunteer organization 58. Id's partner

VENDOR WRITING

THE ITCH

A MESSAGE TO Y'ALL

JEN A.

Have you developed an itch In a very tender spot?

TYRONE M.

I’M COUNTRY

Please take the vaccine Know what I mean!

ROGER S.

Have you grown tired

Don’t listen to the gossip, rumors / lies

Of your four walls

I’m really country

Of the blue screen light

For heaven

Of your ever-aging face

Every day and say pray

In the bathroom mirror?

God takes the crazy thoughts away

Just stay alive!!!

Have self-imposed limitations Dulled the roses in your cheeks

Yes I have did some time

And dimmed the spark of life

A country man with a different plan

In your eyes?

Things are going just fine

Do you find yourself itching

No probation for this situation

THANKFUL TYRONE M.

Let the moon paint morning while I

For some fun and adventure To be wildly entertained

Like simple things in life

lay here in this bed — undecided on

For even the briefest

Take my dog for a walk

whether my forgiveness will affect

Glimmer of awe?

Not close to the river bank

my destiny

Me too!

Sit on a log and think Let the sun dance (caress the sky) while God does answer prayers

I ponder whether I should call on

It’s night and sleep right

God to defeat my enemies

I got to stay out, no doubt

Let the stars glow so bright that it

You know that I’m talking about

will look like daytime

JEN A.

I told you I did some time!

at night

On the occasion of The Last Supper

A country man with a different plan

Let the sky bring bring rain so hard that it will

Jesus, knowing he had been betrayed

Things are going just fine

drench me / my problems

For a bag of gold,

No probation for this situation

that I need to

Gave solemn counsel to his disciples

That’s what’s on my mind

solve

THE 11

COMMANDMENT

And decreed an 11th Commandment "Love one another"

Let fire from above burn like a million

He didn't continue on to say

furnaces from above to expel the hate

Except for the tall or

racism has

Except for the short or

caused

Except for the thin or Except for the fat

SOMETHING TO SAY

Let the snow that falls in the winter

JOHN H.

melt away your sins so (you) will be

He commanded, "Love one another"

saved

For all are welcome within the

When my mind seem a bit cloudy

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Many times our attitude is a bit rowdy

In this time of mystery and tribulation

We have to know that Jesus is always here

Let a million butterflies get together

When false prophets seek to divide us

Trust and believe and have no fear

all at once and create a multicolored giant screen of

To exploit our fears and disorientation

comfort for (you)

And false gods arise to pit us against

Of all the things to do, we must love

One another for selfish profit or glory

Only way we can spend eternity with our father up above

And encourage us to shun our neighbors

All through the day we find time to pray

And in the end let everything that is

As other

Jesus loves when his children have something to say.

spiritually surround you and keep (you) safe from

Put your faith in God's 11th Commandment

Just "Love one another"

PAGE 18 | August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

The Devil!

VENDOR WRITING

A Pet Peeve BY PAUL A. The scooters are all over the sidewalks. And I mean ALL over the sidewalks. I come down Fourth Avenue and I usually cut through the Arcade right by the hotel. But there were three scooters laying out there this morning and I had to maneuver around them — I almost tripped on one. The scooters are not doing any justice for anybody. I mean yeah, they’re probably fun to ride, but they’re supposed to be ridden on the street, not the sidewalks. That’s why they call it a sideWALK, not a sideRIDE. The homeless are complaining. And when the homeless are complaining about it, then there’s something wrong. I see groups of people walking and these scooters are almost running into them, and that ain’t right. The other day, there was a bunch of people talking and there was five people on scooters and they got mad because the group of people was talking. They

started cussing them out, I heard it. So I think they’re a nuisance. They need to figure out a way, if they’re gonna keep them in the city, to put some sort of sensor on them where they can’t get up on the sidewalk. I don’t know how that would work, but they need to do that. They need to do something, pass some kind of ordinance, to where they’re going to be able to enforce it. I’m dealin’ with it, but I don’t wanna deal with it. The visitors are riding them, and they’re riding them without helmets when they’re supposed to be wearing helmets. I suppose there aren’t enough officers to take care of it, but it has to be addressed. It’s at the point where my thought is if they’re riding on the sidewalk and an officer sees them, stop them and give them a $25 or $50 citation. Same for not wearing a helmet. It’s a pet peeve. It really is a pet peeve.

Genuine Care For Others Can Overcome Barriers BY NORMA B. One hot sticky Saturday afternoon in July — you know the kind I mean, with the air you can wear — a very nice Hispanic lady and her young son (he looked like he was maybe 9 or 10) stopped by my corner for a visit. I greeted them with an enthusiastic, “Hola, buenos días!” The lady then asked if I knew Spanish. I told her, “Oh no, no… poquito Español,” which means, “Very little Spanish.” The boy corrected me saying, “It’s, 'buenos tardes' because it’s not a.m. but after 12 p.m.” You learn something new every day! They helped me get situated and waited patiently as I climbed up in my chair. Then he asked if they could pray for me. I said yes, because in my opinion, you can NEVER get too many of those. His mom took the lead once again, and she began to pray (all in Spanish) and man, could she talk fast! Quite

different from most southerners like me who tend to talk slower and drag everything out to the point that our words can have extra syllables. I only recognized a word or two here and there, “Jesus,” and “Amen,” things like that — the obvious ones. When she finished, she gave me a simple lunch in a brown paper bag that consisted of a toasted tuna sandwich with a Mexican flair, a bag of pretzels, an orange soda, and a water bottle (or as I call it in 90+ degree heat and humidity — liquid gold!) The son then told me to, “Have a blessed day!” I said, “Gracias!” And I told him, I consider every day a blessed day, and that I was sure they too would receive a blessing for stopping to help me the way they did, I just wasn’t sure what form their blessing would take. He carefully translated what I said to his mother, and that led to a heartfelt hug! That’s pretty special in light of the COVID-19 pandem-

ic. (We were all taking precautions wearing face masks.) What is the significance of all this? I’ve often heard how differences big or small can’t be worked out because one side can’t understand the other, when if we’re being honest, many times very little effort is being put forth on either side. In this instance, I understood very little of what she said, but her intentions were crystal clear, and I felt equally understood thanks to her young child. As we parted ways that day, I felt as though we each came away with something positive from the experience. Maybe next time you’re faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle — whether it’s language, beliefs, or some other differences — STOP and take some time to see if you can find some common ground, a way to build one another up rather than tear each other down.

Let Us Negotiate Your Future First you see what you see and hear. Second you see what you hope for and fear. Third you see what’s real and near. Fourth you create the future. Will you negotiate your future or suffer from it? Let’s connect. I’ll buy your coffee. Text LIFNAV to 484848.

Major Ethan Frizzell serves as the Area Commander of The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has been serving in Middle TN since 1890. A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, his focus is the syzygy of the community culture, the systems of service, and the lived experience of our neighbors. He uses creative abrasion to rub people just the wrong way so that an offense may cause interaction and then together we can create behaviorally designed solutions to nudge progress. Simply, negotiating the future for progress that he defines as Quality of Life in Jesus!

August 4 - 18, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 19

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