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.”

Standing Guard in Murfreesboro, TN

Standing Guard in front of the Murfreesboro Police Department: Since the FBI warned of police killing ‘purges,’ local citizens are becoming more concerned about the safety of men and women in blue.

As of Monday (7/11/16), a direct threat against law enforcement in Tennessee has not been made. But, that is not stopping an armed Tennessee Army National Guard Specialist from standing guard in front of the Murfreesboro Police Station for the next 24 to 48 hours.

Specialist Will Ray told me that after talking to a Murfreesboro Police Officer who told him about the so called purge, he and several friends decided to start “Operation Blue Streak.”

Specialist Ray stood in front of the Murfreesboro Police Headquarters Monday to protect and look out for the men and women in blue.

I asked him what he was armed with and he told me, “Well, I’m a medic with the field artillery unit, so um, pretty much I’m just in my regular fatigues, my load bearing vest with my medical gear, I’ve got my medical bag in the car and my Ruger .40 with me.”

The Tennessee National Guard was not as enthusiastic about the idea as Specialist Ray was on Monday. They ordered him to stand down when they found out about it.

The Guard released a statement that read, "He was not called up by the Governor. He was acting out of his own accord and his unit has been notified. He has also been notified that he cannot do this as a representative of the Tennessee National Guard. If he still chooses to do so out of uniform, then that is up to him." 

Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL

What was once an active night scene is now a memorial for 49 victims. There was overwhelming sadness in Orlando outside the Pulse night club in Florida.

Tonight, I saw parents crying, brothers and sisters shaking almost uncontrollably, visitors walking quietly in disbelief and others unsure of how to act or react.

It appeared as if some visitors have been to the scene of the terrifying massacre every night for the past two weeks.

While mourners stopped to pray together, complete strangers would walk up to someone crying and place their arms around them in comfort. This was true of those who may have been gay, straight, white, black, Hispanic or other. Everyone was truly holding each other together.

Officers respectfully stood to the side carefully watching over the area, which is still an active crime scene.

A large chain link fence covered in black canvas surrounds the outside walls of the club that stands silent tonight and likely permanently.

"The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less." - Vaclav Havel

Dark Subject, Dark Composition

As with anything, there are rules in photography and rules in life. The rules in life are often hard facts whereas photography, an art, has rules that are loose.

Typically, I don’t aim for dark pictures, but some subjects and locations call for it. I felt this was one that called for it. Striking a balance between light and dark are usually important, but sometimes the darkness can illustrate the true darkness of the subject, a problem or the future.

The Photo:

In this photo, after someone called 911, the man tried to explain how sober he was to police and paramedics. The Metro Officer gave him a choice of the hospital or jail. After the man thought wholeheartedly about the two choices, he picked the hospital.

Prior to police arriving he fell over the edge of a wall, hit his head and then stumbled over to a set of steps leading down to the edge of the Cumberland River and passed out.

Police and rescue spend a considerable amount of time on intoxication calls. Officers often give the choice of a hospital visit or a jail visit in order to allow someone time to sober up or even seek help. The reasoning, is the fear of someone accidentally harming themselves just as this gentleman proved was likely. Of course not on purpose, but on accident.

Public Intoxication:

The FBI National Crime Report annually lists over 1,500,000 arrests for public intoxication. Of course, not all agencies report total statistics to the FBI.

Auto Vehicle Accidents:

An analysis of alcohol dependence among trauma center patients found that the prevalence of alcoholism was substantially higher among vehicular crash victims and other trauma patients than among the equivalent general population group. More than half of trauma patients with a positive BAC at the time of the trauma were diagnosed as alcoholics. – SOURCE: "Alcoholism at the Time of Injury Among Trauma Center Patients: Vehicular Crash Victims Compared with Other Patients,# Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 29, No. 6, 1997.

Crime and Alcohol:

Among the 11.1 million victims of violence each year, 1 in 4 were certain that the offender had been drinking before committing the crime. – U.S. Dept. of Justice

About 1 in 5 alcohol-related incidents involved a weapon other than the offender’s hands, feet, or fists. – U.S. Dept. of Justice

About a third of all convicted inmates in local jails described themselves as having been daily drinkers at the time of the offense. – U.S. Dept. of Justice

Alcohol and College:

Death: It is possible that more than 1,800 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol- related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes -Hingson et al. 2009

Roughly 20 percent of college students meet the criteria for an alcohol use disorder in a given year (8 percent alcohol abuse, 13 percent alcohol dependence). -Blanco et al. 2008

95% of all violent crime on college campuses involves the use of alcohol by the assailant, victim or both. – National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

Drinking Underage:

Excessive drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths among underage youth each year, and cost the U.S. $24 billion in economic costs in 2010. –Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Treatment Vs. Criminal:

One study found that each dollar spent on substance abuse treatment saved $5.60 in terms of fewer arrests, incarcerations, food stamp use, and less child welfare and medical costs. In other words, if $75,000,000 were spent on public intoxication arrests last year, then $13,392,857.14 could have been saved and utilized for treatment. . – National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.” ― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

Yoga Mixed with Sleep at Bonnaroo

Bonnaroo 2016 in the morning, a mixture of sleeping and Yoga. 

"Everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here
I gotta get away
from this day-to-day
running around,
Everybody knows
this is nowhere."

- Neil Young, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere

The Closest Thing to Woodstock for This Generation

Sleeping... It was a big thing after a day/night of concerts.

Bonnaroo is perhaps the closest thing to Woodstock that this current generation will ever witness. The crowd was approximately 50,000 this year in Manchester, TN. In the past, upwards of 80,000 music lovers gathered.

"But when I played Woodstock, I'll never forget that moment looking out over the hundreds of thousands of people, the sea of humanity, seeing all those people united in such a unique way. It just touched me in a way that I'll never forget." - Edgar Winter, Age 69.

You may recall the rocker, along with his older brother Johnny, were born albino. When he played at Woodstock in 1969 his band was called “The Edgar Winter Group.”

Woodstock drew a crowd of 400,000 fans in 3 days. Of course back then, there was no social media to propel the event that included 32 acts.

Leaving Bonnaroo by foot

Leaving Bonnaroo 2016 may be the hardest part for some. Saying goodbye to an imaginary world of music, peace and love can be tough, I would imagine. The late nights and early mornings in song can be relaxing at times, and motivating when you don't feel like moving. 

As I drove away I saw people hitchhiking and asking for rides. Where they all came from, we will never know. Did they all get along, mostly. 

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” ― Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)

Music brings all together

"I'm from Florida," he told me on Sunday. "I got here at 3AM on Wednesday... It was really, really great," he continued as he took his Gatorade bottle shower. He then talked about the concerts, the cinema, the people and how they all got along.

"Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes." Claude Debussy (1862-1918)