Vendor Writing

The Bracelet: A Reminder Of One’s True Value

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

A while back, a truck was stopped because of the light. I told the driver I REALLY liked her hat! Snatching the hat off her head, she said: ‘I’ll bet you REALLY like it now, don’t you?

As it turns out, She was bald, her hair had been taken from her because of the chemotherapy treatments she was undergoing because of cancer.

I apologized saying I had no idea what she had been going through.

I explained I was drawn to the bling on the hat. ANYONE who knows me knows I DO love sparkly things!

I then removed my hat and told her I had been donating my hair for over 30 years!

Her eyes filled with tears and she immediately pulled into the parking lot.

She parked got out of her truck walked over to me, apologized, gave me a hug, and thanked me.

I told her there was no need to apologize, if I gone through what she had, I’m sure I’d have a bit of an attitude too.

In an instant a friendship was forged.

From then on, she’d stop for a visit when she had her treatments IF she felt up to it.

We’d talk , I’d sing at her request occasionally she’d even sing along too.

There have been many ups and downs along the way during the course of her treatments.

Then one day, her partner stopped to let me know she had passed away, making what had already been a difficult day even harder.

He told me how much they appreciated everything I’d done for her.

He then presented me with a gift, a bracelet with the following message on it:

“You Are Beautiful, You Are Valued, You Are Loved” , he explained: ’I had them made for her when she was having a difficult time gong through her treatments.’

He continued on saying ‘I know you’ve been having a bit of a rough time lately, and I figured you could use a little reminder too.’

What a kind and thoughtful gesture! I have worn it nearly EVERY DAY since then and though several months have passed and the writing has begun to fade, the memories that it brings to my mind each time I look as it will be with me for the rest of my life.

Adding to significance of the gesture I know he was grieving at the time too, which made it even more special that he would take the time to think of me during such a difficult time.

If I may ask, if you know ANYONE undergoing chemotherapy, or ANY other type of ongoing healthcare issue, PLEASE do all you can to be there for them in ANY way you can, you’ll NEVER know how much it means to them in the end, or how much it will add to your life.

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Putting Homelessness In Perspective

BY MICHAEL M., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Perspective becomes a mental exercise in regard to the homeless issue. Let us close our eyes and try it. Try to imagine what 300 people look like. Imagine yourself in the center of a football field. There are now people all around you, shoulder to shoulder. No room to move inside this football field.

All of these people for certain have two things in common, they are financially broke to the point of being broken and have run out of means to sustain themselves. All of these people will need something to do with their time, their hands and their minds to acquire the means to pay for any quality of life.

Therefore we must enable these people by creating work, and productive labor can be used to sustain normality and housing. We all will need sleep, food, and water and in modern society money. Otherwise (imagine if you will) these 300 people are going to be stuck in that football field with you indefinitely. And the problem is two fold, all these people need to pitch tents, or build shacks. Somewhere. Or sleep right out on the ground because humans have the biological requirement to sleep. And it is a fact that if these people sleep outside that football field, they are stepping on a property that doesn’t belong to them, therefore they are trespassing and subject to this type of persecution anywhere they try to go, to try to sleep. So proper land space must be provided initially in order to be able to pitch a tent to sleep without being subject to trespass. Closed schools, military houses and abandoned factories and warehouse buildings should be used for the purpose of immediate shelter. At which point we need to determine who is in need of care. I mean in terms of being able to fend for themselves, and at what level. We have people living outdoors because they can’t fend for themselves normally for some innocent reason. And in 2024 we have the medical and psychiatric science to help these people be as healthy and productive as possible. We have nursing protocol and medical ethics that require us to help these people. And it becomes in the interest of human science that we do so. We must learn better ways of helping and treating the ailments that these people suffer from. Johnson vs. Grants Pass being overturned has allowed only cruelty and punishment for those simply needing a place to sleep. Taking people’s possessions and throwing them in a dumpster is not going to help them.

My grandmother taught me that if someone needs a place to sleep, you give it to them. If someone needs something to eat, you feed them, and anyone who does not live that way is a heathen. And when we allow our elected governments, city, county, state, federal, to treat our country’s citizens in a cruel and inhumane manner, have we then become heathens?

From 2020 to 2024, 620 Americans have died, homeless in the city of Nashville. And look at the money that has been spent. Now open your eyes, and try to understand that we have 1200 homeless in the city of Nashville. How many will die this year? Where will they go? When the city tears down all the encampments where do they have to go? Remember 300 x 4 = 1200, that’s a lot of people.

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Why Nashville don’t help the homeless

BY JULIE B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Why doesn’t Nashville help the homeless? Because they want the homeless to die off and I asked people their feelings about the homeless people and the majority wanted them wanted homeless people to just die off, and that is sad. They’d rather us die instead of helping us. I think we are set up to fail because no one cares enough to let us succeed, so what are we supposed to do? Me, I am ready to give up because no one wants me to get a place to live and have a bed to sleep in and a roof over my head. They just say they’re helping you use so you believe them so they can get you off their backs. I called my case worker every day and they never answer their phone or their text messages so how are you supposed to get their help if they can’t even answer a text message or a call and they’re never in their office and when they are they never see you. That is why I think they want to you to fail. This is why I don’t trust any one especially case workers. They lie to you half the time. That is why homeless people don’t want to get off the streets because they can’t trust anyone to get them in a place to live. Me if I don’t get the help I need I am giving up on them and finding my own place and I will make sure it is affordable.