Memorial Day

Memorial Day, a time to remember our fallen veterans.

Photo of headstone for US Army Vietnam Veteran James Albert Thornburg of Tennessee.  He served under the 1st Infantry Division, Battalion 8 in the 6/15th Artillery Company, Deadly Alpha from April of 1967 until April of 1968.

Thornburg received the National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Bronze Star with V Device and Two Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Unit Citation, and the Presidential Citation.

He died at age 56 in year 2002. 

MUSA

Slowly we sunk into the depth of the deep aqua colored sea descending about 28 feet for the first sculpture which appeared to be an explosive mind ready to detonate. As I swam north towards Isla Mujeres I came upon what looked to be a group of people frozen in time.

I noticed a small child sitting on an overturned bucket, a woman with her arms above her head as if she had just ran a race and was tired, unable to catch her breath. As I swam closer and deeper towards the silent crowd I witnessed what appeared to be a young man looking upwards in pain.

My scuba tank supplied my air and as I exhaled it almost gave life to some of the statues as bubbles of oxygen swarmed around the heads of the sculptures before me.

English sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor constructed over 500 life sized statues that were lowered into the Caribbean to demonstrate the interaction between art and environment. Each statue is attached to the seabed with material that promotes coral life allowing for the underworld of the sea to inhabit every square inch.

The exhibit is between the coast of Cancun and Isla Mujeres in Mexico. 

The exhibit is called MUSA or Museo Subacuático de Arte. It was founded by Roberto Díaz Abraham, former President of the Cancun Nautical Association and Jaime González Cano, Director of the National Marine Park.

He Humiliated Me

Domestic Violence in Tennessee... She wrote:

"He raped me, he beat the crap out of me, he humiliated me, he stripped me of my identity, and many times left me crying on the floor.

I have been to jail on Easter, it marks 1 year Sunday, I went and they let him go. I called them and they took me.

But, through it all I always screamed and begged God to help me get away. And he kept his promise!

I am free and none of it matters anymore! He is the last dark secret in my closet and I am physically, emotionally, and spiritually set free because of God whispering to me, You Got This!

That is my story."

Domestic Violence: Like a tree, we grow

Like trees, we continue to grow despite the struggles we face in life. The same is true for those who are victims of domestic violence. Once the violence is in your past, you can continue growing in a positive way.

This is a photo that captures the hands of an anonymous domestic violence survivor in Middle Tennessee.

Former Social Worker Alice Walker once wrote, "In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful."

Walker, who worked as a social worker in the 1960's, took part in the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi. She also won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for her 1982 novel entitled, "The Color Purple."

Domestic Violence: Our Hands

Her past Domestic Violence... She wrote:

“Hands are so important. You see, they can teach us love and compassion or total fear.

I have used my hands to care for the sick and elderly for 28 years in nursing as a tech. I know what kindness looks like when you care for someone.

What I did not realize was for 13 years I had not shown myself kindness. I did finally one day no longer desire to live in abuse and I remember using my hands to pack my kids clothes and toys, turn off location devices and drive to a shelter. This was new and I deserved peace away from the abuse.

Abuse is not love nor is tolerance to abuse. Please love yourself by no longer allowing abuse in your life or others’ lives.”

Domestic Violence: Hands

Her hands, which have always been used to serve others, were busily making spaghetti. However, those same hands have been used in an attempt to block punches from her former husband. Those hands were used to open a prescription pill bottle in an attempt to end the suffering during an eight hour ordeal that started on a drive home.

After she downed the prescription pills in an effort to numb or end the physical pain, her husband yelled that if she died while he was hitting her, no one would find her body.

Looking back to December of 2016, the same man traded his wife for crack cocaine. He then got angry at her for his actions, which was when a beating that lasted for eight hours occurred.

During those eight hours she was punched in the face and chunks of her hair were pulled out. The incident started on the roadway leaving the man’s home where her husband pawned her off. She was beat on the side of the road until a truck driver stopped to offer the couple a ride as they were out of gas. The truck driver failed to realize that the husband was doing the beating.

She wrote, “A truck driver picked us up to get gas and he told the truck driver he picked me up because I got beat up, our 4 year old witnessed most of what happened. At one point he cried and his dad told him he better shut up or he will do the same to him. We finally got home and he knocked me around the bathroom. I was lying on the floor and he kicked me in my face. I tried killing myself by downing some pills. The last thing I remember before passing out was him choking me.”

She closed with, “Now I know that if you get hit once, get out.”

He is now a registered sex offender after being abused

A sex offender by the name of James who lives in Middle Tennessee will soon find himself behind bars after violating his probation. He told us that he will likely spend the next six years in a small cell because of his actions.

James, whose last name I agreed not to use, said that more needs to be done in rehabilitating offenders. He further suggested that more needs to be done for those who are victims of sex abuse and treatment should be readily available.

The man whom I spoke to said that he was sexually abused by at least three adults as a child and the abuse was long term. As he grew older he never told anyone about the abuse and he levitated towards pornography.

Many victims of sexual abuse turn to drugs, alcohol, sex addiction or pornography as opposed to seeking help, so his addiction was not uncommon. That addiction later turned more dark as he started to have a fascination with child pornography. With his addiction in mind he went to his church for help...  However, the church basically shewed James away which grew his appetite for pornography.

After a separation from his wife and a lack of anyone to turn to, his addiction turned into real children, which was his next step. Luckily, he was arrested before real children came face to face with his pain.

Today James wants to be a voice for the abused and the accused so that others can get proper help before it is too late. 

While sitting in the California San Quentin State Prison he wrote:

Dear Lord,

How have I been so blind for so long? How did I ever think… ever conceive… that I understood your Grace?

I thought it a flickering candle, but have found it as strong and blinding as the sun.

I looked at it as an ember, a glowing coal of warmth. Instead, I’ve felt its inferno, roaring, raging, consuming me.

When I have said that your Grace is sufficient for me, I mistook it to be sufficient like a crust of bread thrown to a starving man. Enough to live on, but no more.

Instead, I find it as sufficient as the oceans are to fill a cup. The deserts to give a grain of sand or the forest to supply a single leaf.

For yours is an extravagant sufficiency.

Forgive me, Lord, for the sin of pride of thinking that your Grace could be understood. I could no sooner capture sunlight in my hands or the winds within my arms. I am so grateful that I do not have to rationalize your Grace to receive it, or comprehend it to be covered by it.

Thank you, Lord, for showing me just how little that I really understand. I can’t wait to spend my lifetime discovering how much I didn’t know.

Amen.

To hear the audio interview with James, click this LINK.

The Mexico Pay Gap

There is a lot of dislike for U.S. President Trump in Mexico. I did not fully understand the reasoning until a visit to Mexico City. I now understand more about the situation. Keep in mind, I fully believe to become an American resident, you need to go through all legal avenues. However, my visit did allow me to get a better grasp on why so many struggling families in Mexico want to make that journey to the United States.

The manufacturing industry in Mexico is very alive with America being one of the largest importers of Mexican made goods. With extra taxes on the imports as proposed, it will potentially drive Mexican families into deeper despair in an already impoverished area. But, is this an American problem or a Mexico issue?

Currently, about 40% of the residents in Mexico live in complete poverty earning between $4 and $8 per day. Furthermore, 5.1 million residents in Mexico live off of $2 or less per day in income.

The schools in Mexico are not doing well, which means children lack a good education. 48 Percent of state schools have no access to sewage while 31 percent have no drinking water. Another 11% of schools operate without any electricity.

Despite the sound of things, Mexico is actually the 15th richest country in the world. While this may sound a little hard to believe after reading through my statistical post, it is quite true.

That being said, is the problem with America adding taxes to imports or is the problem within the Mexican government and the manufactures failing to pay employees for their hard labor efforts?

In other words, if Mexico is to change their poverty rates, the focus should be on large employers taking a new approach to their employees and actually valuing their workers by increasing their pay.

What I learned is that Mexican manufacturing companies are taking full advantage of their employees by paying them $4 to $8 daily for 8 full hours of work. The heads of these companies are gathering wealth at a record pace by not helping the employees that make them wealthy.

Her son is missing

Charlene Toro reported to Manchester, TN Police that her son went missing this past November. Justin Edward Zeigler is 27 years old and authorities in Coffee County told Mrs. Toro that there has been no activity on her sons cellphone since November, Needless to say, she fears the worst.

Justin was known to use inhalants from spray cans, which is one reason why his mother fears that he could be deceased. However, he was described as a good guy who simply had a bad habit, as many of us do.

For more on this story, see the WGNSradio.com website. I also did an interview with her that can be heard on the WGNS site. 

The Old City Dam in Shelbyville, TN

The Old City Dam in Shelbyville, TN along the Duck River has seen its share of floods over the years. The question now is, will the old power house remain or will it be torn down?

The Tennessee Preservation Trust continues to call the old red brick building on the edge of the waterway an endangered historic site, yet little has been done to preserve it.

The building was constructed in 1915 to generate electricity for the community of about 2,800 residents. Today, closer to 21,000 residents from a variety of backgrounds call Shelbyville home.

The power generating facility was sold to the Tennessee Electric Power Company in 1929 and later to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1939. The TVA stopped using the site in 1948 and sold it to the City of Shelbyville in 1950. It has now been unused for 68 years.

As for the Duck River, it is the longest river in Tennessee. The 284 mile stretch of water is also home to more than 50 freshwater mussels and 151 different species of fish. While it may be hard to believe, the Duck River is the most biologically diverse river in all of North America. 

Anime hits Tennessee

Anime is a style of Japanese film and TV animation that is mainly aimed at adults. It was created in the 1980’s and is short for “Animeshon.” In English, that would be “Animation.”

An Anime convention is in Murfreesboro today and I thought it would be interesting to capture a few shots. This is one of the many characters I saw. Different.

Many of the characters in Japanese animation are quite flamboyant and strange. It is often described as being visually striking, which is one reason it stands out and has so many artistic followers today. 

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Indians in Tennessee

The 35th annual Indian Pow Wow and Fall Festival took place on the edge of Rutherford, Wilson and Davidson Counties in Long Hunter State Park this past weekend (10/14 - 10/16/16).

The event allowed for participants to explore their Native American Heritage while taking in the sites, colors and foods.

The event is attended every October by Indians of different Nations all working together to educate the public on their culture.

Approximately 19,500 Indians call Tennessee home.

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." - Ancient Indian Proverb

Hippie Hill and Wayd Battle

While at Hippie Hill on Thursday, I ran across a man named Wayd Battle. In a small and cramped cabin of sorts, we talked. 

Battle said, “Well, I’ll tell ya this… I’m the son of a Baptist minister and I started playing honkytonks when I was 14 years old.” As the conversation continued, Battle told me that he was born in Alabama, eventually moving to Nashville. 

While in the Music City, Battle met a man named Jamey Johnson. Battle traveled with Johnson who was growing in popularity while playing guitar, singing background and writing songs over a seven year period. 

As far as hits go, Battle stated, “We were lucky, we had the ACM / CMA song of the year called 'In Color' and that was an awesome thing [laughing] - my girls go to college because of that.” When discussing albums, Battle said, “We sold, I guess to date, 4 point something million on that.” 

The hit song “In Color” was released on Mercury Nashville Records in 2008, the same year it won both the Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards.

In 2009, the song became Jamey Johnson’s first Top Ten country hit. 

The song is about an older man who shows his grandson black and white photos from his past. Some of the photos, according to the lyrics, were of the grandfather fighting in World War II. 

Wayd Battle no longer tours with Johnson. In fact, he is now on a mission to create brand new tunes with a band called Hill Folk. Their tunes make you want to sit back and just listen.

Hear the interview HERE. 

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Mother of Newborn Dies in Auto Accident

You don’t really realize how delicate life is until someone in your family tragically dies in a single heartbeat. Today, I talked to Rachel Hartman (pictured) who lost her cousin Lorrie Barrett Straughn in a Labor Day accident this week.

37 Year old Lorrie, who got married to Jarred Straughn just three years ago, leaves behind a newborn baby who was born on April 19th of this year. That child will never get to know her mother, which is one of the things that the Barrett and Straughn families are understandably having a hard time with.

This link (below) is to the 7-minute audio interview I did with Rachel, Lorrie’s cousin. At the bottom of the story are details of a GoFundMe account set up to help the family right now with funeral costs, medical bills and more.

http://wgnsradio.com/interview-with-family-of-lorrie-barrett-straughn-who-was-killed-in-a-labor-day-accident-cms-34871

Josh may need your kidney

At the age of 21 in 2009, Joshua Surovey was diagnosed with having a chronic kidney disease.

During what would normally be a simple biopsy to see what exactly his kidney was doing, things went wrong. He nearly died twice and had to receive 6 blood transfusions. Despite the mishap, the kidney problems were still there.

In 2012, Surovey started dialysis and worked hard to get healthy losing 160 pounds along the way. He was also told that he needed a kidney transplant, news that is often devastating.

Surovey said that the journey has been mentally exhausting. His first thought was, "Why me?" He said, "I was down on myself."

However, those feelings of depression soon changed even though the kidney is still needed today. It was as if after the initial shock, a fire was lit underneath Surovey and he had a new found passion to live. Surovey said, "God brought me through this man, honestly." He went on to state, "I'm looking forward to life, I'm living life!"

Lebanese-American artist Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) once stated, "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." Some would suggest that Surovey is on track to stand strong in the near future, while others would agree he is already stronger than most.

While he is happy to be alive, 12 hours of dialysis every single night is quite cumbersome. He has to go through about three bags of fluid nightly. Surovey stated, “Every night, there’s no breaks.”

The fluids to undergo dialysis at home are shipped to Surovey. Two bags of fluids are in one box and the box weighs 35 pounds. Keep in mind, he uses three bags nightly. So, if the 28-year old heads out of town for 5 nights, he has to bring with him a little over 260 pounds of fluids to use in the dialysis machine. In other words, Surovey says that travel is “troublesome.”

Right now, Surovey is not married and does not have children, but that is one of his long term goals. “Everything that I’m doing I’m trying to better myself so I can be there for my family in the long run,” Surovey said. In further discussing the idea of starting his own family he said, “I don’t want to be in a situation where my health is going to decline and I can’t provide for them, so I’m trying to get myself to where I can have a good career at the end of this and start a family.”

Surovey confirmed that he is in need of a Type O donor and that the donor will be able to live a normal healthy life after donating.

The National Kidney Foundation reports that many people who need a transplant of a kidney fail to receive one due to a lack of donors. Right now there are over 101,000 Americans in need a kidney, but only 17,000 people receive one each year. Furthermore, 12 people die daily while waiting on a kidney to be donated.

After donating a kidney, the donor can easily live a normal, full life as if the donation never occurred. Reports also indicate that the donor’s medical bills are fully covered by the insurance of the kidney recipient. If something should go wrong for the donor in the future, their name is automatically placed at the top of the kidney donor list.

Once a kidney is located for Surovey, who currently lives in Clarksville, Tennessee, the procedure will be done at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. Vanderbilt has one of the oldest and most experienced kidney transplant programs in the United States, having performed over 4,000 transplants since its inception in 1962. According to the Vanderbilt Division of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, “The Division was also the first transplant program in Tennessee to introduce the minimally invasive technique of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy for living donor kidney transplants, and now performs the largest number of living donor kidney transplants in the state.”

If you would like to learn how you can donate or to see if you are a match, CLICK HERE today. You can also call the Vanderbilt Kidney Transplant Center at 615-936-0695.

New Singer Sewing Machines

According to the Webster Dictionary, a sewing machine is any of various foot-operated or electric machines for sewing or making stitches. 

What the dictionary fails to tell readers is that a simple sewing machine in the right hands can bring homeless women together and allow them to release their anxiety and burdens on creativity. 

Vanessa Newsome had the idea to start a sewing class at Greenhouse Ministries a while back, but she didn’t have enough machines. Vanessa told me, “While some women are sewing, other women are watching – they take turns.” 

After I interviewed her for a WGNS news story I made one phone call to my friend Penny Ray with Singer Sewing Machines. Within about an hour, Penny told me that she has gotten approval to give Greenhouse Ministries 20 brand new Singer Sewing machines. 

Today, I got to deliver those new machines and guess who was the very first person to dig into the first of 20 boxes? Vanessa Newsome, with tears in her eyes.

By the way, Penny at Singer also had a huge box of scissors, fabric and classroom books for Vanessa and the folks at Greenhouse.. 

Vanessa is seeing her dream of a large scale sewing class for homeless women to fellowship and learn creative new skills become more than a class of three machines. It is bigger than she ever imagined, because she had a vision.

Hit by a car

51 Year old Kimberly Custer was struck by a motorist on the Murfreesboro square Saturday night. The accident occurred as Custer was walking across the street near Marina’s Restaurant.

Custer, who is deaf, could not hear the oncoming vehicle. Evidently, she did not see the car as it neared her.

The local woman who was described as being homeless, was taken by ambulance to St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital in Murfreesboro. Her leg was broken in about three places, but no life threatening injuries occurred.

Custer was released from the hospital around 10:30, Saturday night (8/13/16).

Time with her children is precious

I want to thank everyone who helped to put the homeless mother of two in a hotel room for the time that she has with her kids. If you missed my original post, the mother lives in a tent and her children live in a local Christian orphanage, which she placed them in when she became homeless. She will have the children to herself over the next nine days. It will be a great time of bonding. 

The mother was so grateful for the room and the two boys, ages 9 and 10, are very polite. One of you gave me gifts to give them… You can see the excitement in their eyes when they unwrapped them. The mother gave the children the gifts and the kids thought the presents came from her. It was awesome.

I had enough money left over to give her $80 in cash to take the kids out to eat a few nights. I also had to pay a $100 cash deposit with the room, because I did not want to use my credit card. Therefore, when she checks out she will have an additional $100 to purchase food for her camp. 

It was indeed a good day today. 

“I wonder if other mothers feel a tug at their insides, watching their children grow up into the people they themselves wanted so badly to be.” ― Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of twenty-three novels

Have You Met Sonny?

If you have ever been to the Nashville Flea Market at any point in the past 30-years, you have likely met Sonny Helmer. He is a ball of fire at age 86. Sonny sells antique rotary dial phones at the market during the last weekend of each month.

Prior to restoring old phones, he was a musician. In fact, he sings at the market as you walk past his booth. If you tell him your name, he will sing a customized song on the spot using your name while playing his electronic keyboard.

Sonny told me this past Sunday that he was “Almost Famous,” which is also the title of his book.

Sonny spent 70 years in the music business and had played along with great names like Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and others. He even played trombone with Al Hirt, led a band in the Jackie Gleason night club for five years and spent ten years leading the band at Disneyland in California and later Disney World in Florida.

If you see Sonny, thank him for his service to our country too. During the Korean War, he was a member of the 392nd Army Band.

Pat Steele is an artist

“My name is Pat Steele,” he told me… “I’m 55 years old and life has been a blessing only because of the Lord.”

As we talked it was obvious to me that he is an artist. His art is finding old scraps from buildings that are being torn down and utilizing what he finds to make bed headboards, benches, wall hangings and more. Oh, and he corrected me when I said old buildings by saying, “Some of it’s out of old boats, some of it’s out of old trees, some of it’s out of old buildings.”

He then told me that he loves raw and old material to create new things with: “Anything that is raw – Everything gots’ its own level of respect and I try to respect it. Even people being created in the image of God, even they are something special because you’ll never meet one that’s the same and that kind of stuff interest me.”

About Pat Steele:

“I trained combat engineers for the Army. I got out and couldn’t adjust to society so I got into trouble. 30 years ago I went to prison – got out of prison and was recruited back into the Army, got hurt and couldn’t make an assignment.” 

You can find Mr. Steele at the Nashville, TN Flea Market on the last weekend of each month. There, you can see what his eye sees. 

Artist Peter Max once stated, “I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman.”