We are truly all friends

He was marching, dancing and walking up and down the sidewalk of Riverside Drive next to a small park along the banks of the Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana. His old school Sony Walkman cassette player was firmly held around his neck by a belt strap, the cassette door held shut with rubber bands. A church flyer with the word “Faith” on it was in his left breast pocket along with a handwritten note.

Motorist would drive by honking their horns and waiving at him. He would respond by waiving his American flag in his left hand and waiving his hand on the right. It was as if he were a fixture of Indiana and everyone looked forward to seeing him on their commute home.

As I approached I could see his smile grow from ear to ear. He was so excited to talk. He started talking to me before I was close enough to hear what he had to say.

Scattered on the ground before him were toy motorcycles, cars, newspapers, magazines and books… all neatly lined together. “What’s this,” I asked while pointing at a small toy car. “That’s my Ferrari, my brother gave it to me,” he said with a laugh. “What about this one,” I asked. “Oh, that’s my motorcycle – I used to ride, but now I ride a bike.”

As our conversation continued he stopped to think about his childhood. Pointing at the river he said, “One time when I was a kid, I swam in that river. It was a good thing I knew how to doggy paddle, because those currents got me.” He then told me that he is 66-years old and has always lived in the Evansville area, sometimes living on the Kentucky side of the river.

“I use to go to the Masonic Temple in Newburg. I then became a Jehovah Witness. I am now Muslim, but I go to all the churches, I like everybody, we are all friends,” he said with a smile.

American Author Bryant H. McGill once stated, "One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say." Some of the folks I have met, all I can do is sit and listen. I honestly don't know how to respond at times.

He was struck by a car while on his bicycle

“I was an Army brat growing up,” he said. When asked how he landed in Evansville, Indiana, he told me that he was living in a smaller city where he was involved in an accident.

Russell said, “I was riding my bike when I was hit by a car. The injuries were too bad to be treated there, so they flew me to the hospital here (Evansville, Indiana).” The 48-year old was flown to the Deaconess Hospital in Evansville.

After being treated and released from the Deaconess Hospital, he had no choice but to live on the streets of Indiana… homeless.

He does not have the funds to take a trip back home, so Indiana is where he will stay for the time being.

“In tragedy, it's hard to find a good resolution; it's not black and white: it's a big fog of gray.” - Paul Dano

I buried my best friend yesterday

“I was born in California,” he told me, but has lived in Evansville, Indiana his entire life. As we talked more, I realized he was placed into the foster care system at age 6. A woman in Indiana later adopted him.

“My mom (talking about his adopted mother), was like Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith Show,” he said with a smile. As he continued to describe his parents he commented, “My dad (adopted father) was an Evangelist.” I could tell he was proud of the parents who raised him in life, but he was struggling. A string of bad choices mixed with a little bad luck landed him on the streets. Today he is 48-years old.

The conversation then took a downturn. “I buried my best friend yesterday,” he said while looking down. When I asked who died he said, “My mom. My dad died last year and my mom passed away this past week, she was 88.” He told me she was the best woman ever.

“No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother’s love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.” - Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Free Rabies Shots and More

I was fortunate enough to go out with Beesley Animal Clinic in Murfreesboro again on Friday. We randomly knocked on doors in local trailer parks to see who needed a rabies vaccination for their dog or cat. A local vet then gave the shots for free. 

I love doing that. The anticipation of who is going to open the door and what their story maybe fascinates me for some reason. I find it interesting.

Voodoo and more in Haiti

He was standing on Voodoo grounds in Haiti and did not say anything to me as I snapped the photo, so I took the picture and walked away. Does he practice VooDoo? I do not know as I do not speak French Creole.

Voodoo grounds outnumber viable church grounds by a huge percentage in Haiti. Voodoo is the religion of the majority in Haiti and it is taken very seriously.

Did you know that some witchdoctors in Haiti have what believers call a black magic voodoo death spell? It supposedly is the most lethal of spells and leaves the person who received the spell dead.

Voodoo derived from West Africa. The original West African Voodoo religion was called. This religion honors a god with a dual nature, both masculine and feminine. It also pays honor in a form of worship to so called spirits in rocks, rivers, trees, and more. Voodoo can also include animal sacrifices.

What is odd is that Voodoo in Haiti is blended with West African practices as well as aspects of Roman Catholicism. Of course, the Bible condemns the practice of Voodoo in a very strong manner, so how can the two intersect?  

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 states, “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.”

The Old Fashioned Way is All We Know

Drying clothing the old fashioned way takes time and patience. Or does it? You would never know by looking at those who work hard in Haiti. 

It is amazing how much work the mothers and house wives do in Haiti. For example, when they cook dinner they have to build a fire outside in most households. They then cook over that open fire, which takes considerably longer than simply turning on the stove. When they wash their clothing they do it all by hand, often in streams of polluted water. 

Anne Spencer Lindbergh, author, aviator, and the wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh stated, "By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class." (1906-2001)

Handing out leather coats on Hippie Hill

This was shot at Hippie Hill, a place where everyone is accepted. On this day, I had a chance to team up with a church and a company in the Nashville area to hand out brand new leather coats. It was an awesome day and the folks on the hill loved it. 

"My way of fitting in was through jokes and making people laugh." - Carrot Top

Chilling on Hippie Hill

These ladies are relaxing at Hippie Hill in Tennessee.

Hippie Hill is a community for families that have no where to go. It's been operated in rural Rutherford County, near the Cannon County line, for more than a decade to provide the transient and homeless community temporary housing and basic necessities. Dwight Teagarden told me, "Many of the folks out here find that they don't fit in down there [pointing towards the city], but they fit in here - we love them." 

"The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong. Fitting in is important." - Simon Sinek

Sidetracked

“My dad died of Alzheimer’s and we didn’t have no insurance. They took his place from me when he died and I was on the streets,” he told me while thinking back on his life. He told me that he is 41-years old and graduated from Smyrna High School in 1994. He later came to Nashville where he currently lives on the street.

“Do you stay at the mission,” I asked. “No, it is too much like a prison, but they have to keep it that way to keep it safe,” he explained. He went on to tell me that the mission is a good place for many, just not for him. “One guy got stabbed there like fifty times,” he told me. I suggested that many on the street have extreme mental illnesses or problems with addiction which you see magnified in some shelters.

Examining the Stabbing that he mentioned (My sidetrack):

In 2007, Frank Edward Nixon stabbed Joseph Mark Chandler approximately fifty times. The two were staying at the mission and were inside the building when the stabbing occurred. But, the stabbing was not a random event that occurred. One week prior to the stabbing, the two had an incident on the streets of Nashville. Evidently the victim tried to sell drugs to Nixon, but Nixon changed his mind and Chandler and another man beat up and robbed Nixon, according to court documents.

The stabbing took place at 7:30 in the morning on February 9, 2007. Nixon entered the shelter and headed to the TV room where he recognized Chandler from his previous encounter with the victim. Nixon briefly walked out of the shelter to smoke a cigarette and then re-entered first heading to his locker to retrieve a knife. He later went back into the TV room where Chandler had fallen asleep in a chair. Nixon then started stabbing Chandler.

With the first knife wound Chandler awoke and tried to run from Nixon, but fell to the ground where the stabbing continued. Homeless men in the shelter heard the commotion and rushed to the aid of Chandler. Those men held Nixon until police arrived. Their actions prevented Chandler from being stabbed to death. The victim was transported to Vanderbilt Medical Center where he spent four days in intensive care. He then spent three more days in the hospital recovering from surgery due to punctured lungs sustained in the attack.

In case you are curious, Nixon told the courts his marriage failed and he turned to drugs. He soon found himself homeless. Prior to his marriage failing, Nixon served in the U.S. Air Force and later the Air National Guard. He also spent several years in college at Savannah State University in Georgia. He testified in court that he originally turned to drugs to cope with “traumatic things that happened to [him] on Okinawa.” Prior to the stabbing he was a mentor to children at the Juvenile Justice Center and a “Volunteer Preacher.”

Today, Nixon is out of prison and 63-years old. He now lives in Georgia.

I am 32, no 33

“How old are you,” I asked. “I am 32… No, I just turned 33 - I just had a birthday,” she said with hesitation. When asked if she has a place to stay at night, she told me that she did. “I am staying with a friend,” she said.

“The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King is interesting and the quotes he has for life are often from his experiences in life. He was actually born with the name of Michael King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. His father, Michael King, Sr. changed his own name in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. His son, Martin King, Jr., later decided to change his name to Martin Luther as well also in honor of the German religious leader who had a profound impact on the life of his family. What is even more interesting, neither of the two ever met the German man as he lived between the years of 1483 and 1546, long before the King family was formed.

On a Blog entitled The German Way & More I read:

Martin Luther, a former Augustinian monk and theology professor, began the Protestant Reformation by nailing his “Ninety-Five Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517.

Martin Luther From a 1533 painting of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach. Although his original intent was only to reform the Roman Catholic Church, Luther’s actions led to a split in the Church, dividing it into the Protestant and Catholic branches. Today’s Lutheran Church (of which there are now several divisions, or “synods”) bears the name of the great Reformer (Reformator in German). Most of the countries of northern Europe soon became Protestant. Germany itself is today about evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants.

Besides his religious reforms, Luther also had an impact on standardizing the German language through his translation of the Bible into German. He was a leader in translating the Bible into the language of the people, rather than the traditional Latin.

This all proves my personal thought, one life can have a profound impact on the world.

Struck by a Car

I love the way street photography feels, the action you attempt to capture as it unfolds. I love the way you have to move in close when you are shooting with a fixed lens (X100s). I believe that street photography should be personal.

This woman, who could barely stand, walked into the path of the red car you see behind her. She was struck by the car and laid lifeless in the street for a few minutes before deciding she wanted to get up. Every time her husband tried to talk to the officer she looked at him and said, "Shut Up!"

Onlookers stared in disbelief that she was able to stand after the car verses pedestrian incident. Others were watching because her level of alleged intoxication was incomparable to others walking the streets.

“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” ― Charles Bukowski

From New York, Bad Childhood and All

“How old are you,” I asked. He smiled and thinking about it he responded, “About 54 or 55.” He was standing at a busy intersection in Nashville when I met him.

He told me he was from New York and hit the road at age 19. “I had a real hard life growing up as a kid… came from a broken home,” he told me. “I had to go, I became homeless on my own - by my own choice,” he said.

After a short talk I handed him a brand new 9 man tent that was given to me to give to someone who had nothing and needed something.

“Only you can control your future.” - Dr. Seuss

Once addicted to cocaine

“I had an addiction as white as your truck,” he told me. I asked, “Do you mean cocaine?” He looked up from the parking lot he was standing in, “Yes – been clean for four years.”

He lacked gloves and a warm coat, but thanks to a few friends we were able to give him not only a brand new coat and clothing, but also a tent. He called the six man tent we gave him a house.

The 51 year old man said to me, “You know, people come by here sometimes and hand us a beer – I mean, we’ll drink it, but we would prefer food,” he explained. “Everyone assumes that because we are homeless all we want is beer, but that’s not true,” he said in almost a whisper.

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson

Chief asked, "Do you believe in Jesus?"

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Eddie said that he came to Tennessee to be warmer. “Man, February is usually when it gets a little bit warmer, but not this year,” he explained.

“I polish semi-truck wheels, that’s what I do to make money… I have my polish with me,” he said proudly. “I enjoy polishing wheels, I make them look new,” he further stated.

Eddie, who goes by the nickname of “Chief” due to his Indian heritage, asked my friend Jerry, “Do you believe in Jesus?” He asked after Jerry handed him a brand new coat and his buddy a six man tent. Jerry told him yes and then Chief explained how he had just prayed for warmer clothes and then we showed up.

Chief’s friend held his new tent in the air looking at his two homeless buddies and said, “Brother we got a house!”

Melody Beattie, an author of self-help books on codependent relationships stated, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” 

I love Mom, a lot

He was standing in an alley trying to stay out of the blistering cold wind. It was about 25 degrees outside, but the wind made it feel closer to 18 degrees.

“I set up amusement rides for a living,” he told me. “It was a lot of hard work putting the rides together and then tearing ‘em down from city to city,” he said while looking off into the distance. I then asked,” I heard the guys that travel with carnivals like to party, did you party a lot?” “Man, a lot of drinking – a whole lot,” he said with a smile. He took a sip of his warm coffee, “I had to quit, that was too tiring for me,” he said. He then described how the traveling, drinking, putting up and tearing down rides is hard on the body.

On his right hand was a tattoo that read, “MOM.” On his fingers he had the numbers “1982” inked in black. I questioned, “What does the 1982 mean?”  “That is what year I was born, and then mom,” he said. “You love your mom don’t you - is she still alive,” I asked. “I sure do,” he then told me that she is alive and doing well, but he rarely sees her as she lives in another state, “I write or call her all the time though.” He told me that it has been months since he has seen her, but hopes to save up enough money to visit her in the near future.

There is something about a mom. Despite of how far away you live from your mother, she is always in your heart and you are always in hers.  

“A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all.” - Washington Irving

Shorty makes me laugh

When I see Shorty he makes me smile. It never fails, he always says something funny no matter how bad of a day he may be having.

“I got a new girlfriend,” he told me with a smile. I asked, “What’s her name?” “Doll, she spells it D-O-L-L,” he replied. I started laughing and then he started laughing. “Doll is her real name,” I asked. “Yes, D-O-L-L [laughter],” he responded.

“What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.” - Charlie Chaplin

Be Still

I took this photo in 2013. He was quietly sitting outside the Arcade in downtown Nashville listening to music on his radio only receiver. As I approached I noticed a man harassing him, however this homeless man sat in silence ignoring the other subject until he finally left leaving this young man sitting still.

"Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen - that stillness becomes a radiance." - Morgan Freeman

Walking in a dream

He was walking the dream in Nashville, TN. The famous Ryman Auditorium was on his right, the guitar on his back.

The 2,362-seat venue is the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. Music legend Elvis Presley made only one appearance at the Ryman. Elvis was a teen when he hit the stage for a special Opry performance on October 2, 1954. The performance took place right after he recorded his first album in Memphis, TN at Sun Studios. That album… “That’s All Right Mama.” He never made a return visit to the Ryman.

How many people have taken THIS exact same stroll past the Ryman in Nashville over the past 50 years? How many dreams have been dreamed and not become a career?

“Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.” ― Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)

He and his family moved from Pensacola

"We moved here from Pensacola, Florida," he told me while suggesting the crime rate was way to high to raise a family in Pensacola. "It is much better in Murfreesboro, Tennessee," he said with a smile. He explained how prostitutes would walk up and down his street in Florida. "One day my four year old daughter went out there and told one of them to keep on walking," he said with a slight laugh.

Pensacola has a violent crime rating of 71. The scale goes from 1 to 100 with 100 being highest. The U.S. average rating is 41.4. Violent crime is composed of: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

The Pensacola population count only rings in at 52,000 residents. That number has steadily, but slowly declined since 1990 when the count hit about 60,000 residents. 17% of the population is below the poverty rate.

It is also interesting to note that as of February of this year (2016), there were 779 registered sex offenders living in Pensacola or one sex offender to every 67 residents.

However, Pensacola is far from having the highest crime rate in the Sunshine State. A small town called Mangonia Park has the highest crime index in Florida. Mangonia is considered to be in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.