The Contributor: August 17, 2022

$2

Buy this paper with Venmo!

Include your Vendor’s Name & Badge #:

w w w . t h e c o n t r i b u t o r. o r g

Volu m e 16

| Number 17 | August 17 - 31, 2022

THE FIRST BIG TEST

I N T HLEa INS Sticia UE

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

GRATIS

Agosto/2

2022

www.hispanicpaper.com

Año 20 - No. 354

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

El camino a la victoria en Ucrania pasa por Siria

19

3

Las fosas comunes y las ciudades bombardeadas por las fuerzas rusas en Ucrania han conmocionado al mundo civilizado. Pero para los refugiados de guerra sirios y los estadounidenses naci- Por Dr. Tarek Kteleh dos en Siria como es médico en ejercicio, presidente de yo, el ataque bárbaro de Vladimir Rheumatology of Putin contra Central Indiana Ucrania es menos un shock que un sombrío recordatorio de las abrumadoras fuerzas destructivas que él y su compañero dictador, el sirio Bashar AlAssad, desataron en nuestro país natal hace más de una década.

Vendor Writing

Vendor Spotlight

La respuesta de Occidente a la invasión de Ucrania por parte de Putin ha sido rápida. Sin embargo, la crisis siria en curso, que comenzó en el 2011 cuando los manifestantes se levantaron contra el gobierno represivo de Assad, ahora, trágicamente, casi se ignora.

Contributor vendors un errorissue ver estos about dos conflictos write inEs this como separados. El fracaso de Estados Unidos y sus aliados para hacer frente Roe V. Wade, military al gobierno de Assad respaldado por abrió la puerta para que Putin moms,Rusia their librara una customers guerra total contra Ucrania. A menos que los líderes occiand their pets.a ayudar a la dentales se comprometan

‘It was like a miracle’: How Contributor Vendor Mary Ann Fuller reconnected with her children after 40 years.

oposición de Siria a derrocar a Assad y lograr la aspiración del pueblo sirio de hacer la transición a un país democrático, el mundo seguirá siendo

13

6

Foto: Citizens for a Secure and Safe America (C4SSA)

La Noticia + The Contributor

Syria remains an unavoidable challenge for both the United States and Russia

innecesariamente vulnerable a los caprichos de los dictadores.

En los primeros años de la guerra civil de Siria, las fuerzas de oposición lograron un progreso constante y obtuvieron el control de grandes segmentos de varias provincias. Todo eso cambió en 2015, cuando Putin acudió en ayuda de Assad. Las fuerzas de Putin no solo bombardearon objetivos militares: bombardearon intencionalmente escuelas, hospitales y mercados, matando a 24,743 civiles indefensos, según una estimación, y provocando la crisis de refugiados más grande del mundo desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

a estos dictadores que no se tolerarán ataques dirigidos contra civiles indefensos, sin importar dónde ocurran.

Afortunadamente, Occidente se ha dado cuenta, mostrando solidaridad con quienes luchan por su libertad en Ucrania. Pero una respuesta efectiva al comportamiento incivilizado de Putin no puede ignorar sus crímenes pasados y actuales contra el pueblo sirio.

Moving Pictures

Es hora de que Occidente compense su fracaso en Siria y finalmente brinde a las fuerzas de oposición de mi país natal el apoyo que necesitan para hacer retroceder tanto a Assad como a Putin y lograr el deseo del pueblo sirio de hacer la transición a la democracia.

Estos ataques conjuntos ruso-sirios La Noticia, one of the kitchen comedy fueron fundamentales paraScalding ayudar a Assad a mantener a raya a las leading Spanish-language fuerzas de la oposición. Pero para The Bear is the El Dr. Tarek Kteleh es médico en ejerciPutin, fueron un campo de pruebas cio, presidente de Rheumatology of las tácticas que luegosurprise desple- Central newspapers in thepara nation, Indiana y miembro de Citizens streaming star garía en Ucrania. for a Secure and Safe America, una orgabrings Spanish content to nización no gubernamental cuya misión Start your Y es aquí donde la conexiónof entrethe estas summer. es promover la seguridad en el Medio guerras es más crítica. Si Estados Oriente y el progreso democrático en Siria.

The Contributor. free Hulu now.de la defensa: Unidos y otros países occidentales se Es autor de trial Los seis pilares

Mi propio hermano, junto con su esposa e hijos, se vieron obligados a huir del suburbio de Ghouta en

hubieran unido detrás de la oposición de Siria, habrían enviado un fuerte mensaje tanto a Assad como a Putin.

Específicamente, les habría mostrado

WHO WE ARE

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.

The Contributor is a nonprofit social enterprise that creates economic opportunity with dignity by investing in the lives of people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

www.juanese.com juanese@usa.com

$2 VENDOR SELLS PAPERS

$0.25 VENDOR BUYS PAPERS

CUSTOMER TAKES PAPER

Buying more papers grows & legitimizes a vendor's business, allowing the vendor to apply for housing.

Contributor Volunteers Christine Doeg , Volunteer Coordinator Joe First • Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • Ann Bourland • Laura Birdsall • Marissa Young • Ezra LaFleur • Linda Eisele • Matthew Murrow • Gisselly Mazariegos

Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com ó 615-567-3569

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

Contributors This Issue

Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Justin Wagner • Ridley Wills II • Joe Nolan • Judith Tackett • Alvine • Yuri Cunza • Marta W. Aldrich • Cam Rodriguez • Maria Caspani • Caitlin Ochs • Jen A. • William B. • Walter D. • Chris Scott Fieselman • Mr. Mysterio • Suzanne S. • June P. • Jamie W. • Wendell J.

acepta tu causa y transforma vidas.

Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada?

WHAT WE DO

Tom Wills, Chair Cathy Jennings, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland, Kerry Graham, Amber DuVentre, Jerome Moore, Annette McDermott, Drew Morris, Andy Shapiro

Nashville, Tennessee

Pero tal respuesta no se materializó.

En ningún momento Estados Unidos ha brindado suficiente apoyo a la oposición siria para amenazar ni remotamente el poder de Assad, y mucho menos el de Putin. A Putin se le permitió perpetrar horribles crímenes de guerra contra los civiles de otra nación con impunidad. ¿Es de extrañar que creyera que podía hacer lo mismo en Ucrania?

Damasco para evitar los bombardeos y un aterrador ataque químico que mató a decenas de sus vecinos. Se unieron a decenas de miles de sirios que huyeron a campos de refugiados superpoblados e insalubres en Idlib.

Contributor Board

Starting in 2019, our C.O.V.E.R. Program (Creating Opportunity for Vendor Employment, Engagement, and Resources) was the natural expansion of our mission of removing obstacles to housing. We now offer full case management, assistance with housing and rental expenses, addiction recovery, health insurance, food benefits, and SSI/SSDI assistance. We see the onestop-shop team approach radically transforming a vendor's image of self and their place in community.

Since we started in 2007, more than 3,200 different vendors have purchased $2.3 million worth of The Contributor and sold over six million copies, generating over $15 million in income for themselves.

Take the paper, change a life.

Read the paper, change yours.

Cathy Jennings Executive Director Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations Carli Tharp SNAP Specialist Ree Cheers SOAR Manager Rachel Ternes Housing Navigator Amy Holt Housing Navigator Jesse Call Operations Consultant Raven Nye Director of Housing Initiatives Arnita Carson Recovery Specialist Justin Wagner Resource Coordinator & Reporter 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 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

The Contributor P.O. Box 332023, Nashville, TN 37203 Vendor Office: 615.829.6829

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Proud Member of: Printed at:

Follow The Contributor:

PAGE 2 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Copyright © 2018 The Contributor, Inc. All rights reserved.

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

‘It was like a miracle’: How Mary Ann Fuller reconnected with her children after 40 years

BY JUSTIN WAGNER When Mary Ann Fuller met her son James earlier this year, she wept.

It had been the first time in more than 40 years.

“When I seen him — ‘oh my God,’” Mary Ann said. “I ran to him, crippled or not crippled, and he caught me. When he put his hands on me, I told him, ‘you don’t let me fall,’ and then he called me ‘mama.’ Nothing else mattered. I said, ‘what did you say?’”

Mary Ann looked up and saw her son’s eyes. Half her life had passed since she had last seen his eyes, or felt his hands.

“He said, ‘I said mama.’ And when I looked up in his eyes, he was crying. He said, ‘I’m not gonna let you fall.’”

They cried together.

Mary Ann had two children, James and Barbara, several decades ago. The woman that raised Mary Ann adopted the two away from her without her consent.

She remembers the last moment she saw them, while locked into an argument with their new legal guardian, vividly.

“My son was coming down the steps, and he could hear that me and his mama were having words,” Mary Ann recalled. ”And she says, ‘You get yourself back up the stairs.’ I had a chance to go upstairs and talk to my son … I didn’t want to go to jail. All I wanted to do was talk to my children.”

“He was only 13 years old. My daughter was two years younger.

He turned around … he could see the tears in my eyes. And that’s the last time that I got to talk to him or see him.”

As time passed, Mary Ann lost contact with them. For years, she was a stranger to them both.

While she always desired to find them again, it was a matter she kept private, fearing that having lost them for so many years would be looked down upon.

“I had to hide this inside of me for so many years,” she said. “It wasn’t because I wanted to lie, I didn’t want to be judged by anybody.”

It was at the behest of Donna Matthews, a friend of Mary Ann’s, that she took an Ancestry DNA test to find any living relatives and connect with them. At that time, Matthews was not even aware that Mary Ann had any children.

“In my heart of hearts — I’ve known Mary for a couple of years now — in my heart of hearts, I just, you know, if something happened to Mary, I just wanted to know if she had any relatives out there,” Matthews said. “I would hate to think that someone would pass away and you wouldn't be able to let someone know.”

Matthews said Mary Ann was hesitant, even after the process began, but eventually relented, allowing Matthews to handle the minutiae and receive the results — which revealed she had a son.

“When we got the results back, I was just freaking blown away.”

Matthews’ surprise was twofold. She was about to see a family reconverge, of course; but this was the second time she saw it in the span of a few weeks.

“The irony of this whole story is, I'm adopted. And when I was in the Navy, I gave my daughter up for adoption. She and I just reconnected after 44 years on July the 11th,” Matthews said. “Two weeks later, I get the results of Mary’s DNA test.”

She took the results to Mary Ann, first asking if she had any children.

After a long, reticent breath, the reply came: “Yeah, I do.”

“She didn't want anything to do with it, took me two and a half hours to convince her to at least let him reach out to her,” Matthews recalled. “The next day she was sitting in our living room on Zoom, on my computer, talking to her son face to face. After that she, him, and his sister Barbara did a conference call on my phone for three and a half hours.”

Mary Ann remembered the initial calls with tearful fondness.

“It was like a miracle come true after so many years,” she said.

They caught up as the hours passed, making up as best they could for decades of lost time.

Mary Ann told her children that all she wanted now was to see and hold them again.

Two days later, Mary Ann got a call from Matthews. Though James now lived in Florida, he was vacationing in Georgia at the time — the two discussed options, and agreed to meet halfway.

“Donna called me up and she said, ‘Mary, I need you to be up and dressed by 9:30.’ I said, ‘where are

Mary Ann reunites with her son James. PHOTO BY DONNA MATTHEWS.

we goin’?’ She said, ‘We’re gonna go see your son.’”

So they reunited, and have continued to talk to each other daily since. They share their day to day on frequent calls, celebrating the small things they can now share.

For Mary Ann, these little talks are a decades long burden finally lifted. She hopes to continue them

for, “as long as God gives [her] the breath.”

She hopes to rekindle the same sort of connection with her daughter as soon as they are able to meet.

In the meantime, she felt it important she share her story with whoever would hear it. The fear that once prevented her from even breaching this subject burned away, she said.

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 3

Joy took its place.

“I just want people to know how I feel, because there’s somebody out there that may be going through the same thing I’m going through,” she said. “I’m happy now … if people want to judge me, judge me, but nothing else matters to me now. The only thing that matters to me now is my kids.”

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONTRIBUTOR! You can purchase a digital subscription of The Contributor that you can read online or a physical subscription and we'll mail you two issues a month!

Subscriptions are $99 a year or $30 for 3 months.

You'll be able to designate a vendor to receive the profits — and even leave a tip for your vendor!

SIGN UP AT: THECONTRIBUTOR.ORG

Kabinart is matching talent with opportunity!

Same day or next day starts!

Pay: $15+ Call: (615)833-1961

ABBY R. RUBENFELD Attorney at Law

arubenfeldlaw.com

202 South Eleventh Street Nashville, Tennessee 37206 Telephone: (615) 386-9077 Facsimile: (615) 386-3897

PAGE 4 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

AN ABBREVIATED HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS AND TENNESSEE RIVER PACKET COMPANY

BY RIDLEY WILLS II When I was born in 1934, there were still a few steamboats on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. Still, most of us don’t have a good idea of what the steamboat companies did and how they made their money.

The largest steamboat operator on either river was the St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company, which was founded in 1887 and which primarily operated on the Tennessee River between Paducah and Florence, Ala., until the company was dissolved on Dec. 8, 1942.

The founders of the company were a young man in Nashville named John E. Massengale and another Nashvillian, Isaac T. Rhea, and his father, Maj. B. S. Rhea, the corn king of Tennessee. They decided to focus on lower Tennessee, which had no direct competition from railroads since they only crossed the river in a few places and did not parallel it at all. The territory needed good markets for its huge supplies

of farm and forest products.

The lower Tennessee River Valley also had some of the finest hardwood timber in the country. Hauling lumber cut in sawmills along the river became one of the company’s big sources of revenue.

The company, whose headquarters were in St. Louis, initially had one 200 ton steamboat, the Henry A. Tyler which was 160 feet long, and 30 feet wide. Its initial route was from St. Louis 200 miles down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio at Cairo, up the Ohio 50 miles to the mouth of the Tennessee at Paducah, then up the Tennessee 300 miles to Florence, Ala., a total of 550 miles one way from St. Louis to Florence, which, because of the Muscle Shoals, was at the head of navigation for all practical purposes. This meant that St. Louis would profit from extensive new business from Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia, Ala., and from Fayetteville, Pulaski and Savannah, Tennessee as well

as from smaller towns along the river in both states; Massengale and the Rheas didn’t focus on the Cumerland because the railroads had already dealt a death blow to many of the Cumberland rIver boats. In June 1886, Massengale went to a steamboat auction sale in Nashville where he bought the Samuel J. Keith for $8,000. He took the boat to Paducah, where it was renamed the City of Florence. It made its first trip up the Tennessee on July 3, 1886 and had no trouble reaching Florence because the boat only drew 20 inches of water.

The yet-unincorporated company began advertising two boats a week on the Tennessee.

One would leave St. Louis at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and the other at the same time on Saturday.

Tennessee River shippers had the banks piled high at every stop with cotton, railroad ties, peanuts, livestock and other farm and forest products. In the winters, the company continued to accept freight, shipping it

from Cairo to St. Louis by train because ice was usually bad on the Ohio, and had the City of Florence pick it up there and take it up the Tennessee which usually had little ice during the winters. In November 1886, Massengale sold the Henry A. Tyler because it was not a shallow water boat like the City of Florence. To replace the Henry A. Tyler, Massengale bought the William H. Cherry in February 1887. It was named for William H. Cherry of Savannah, Tenn, who had been steamboating on the Tennessee River since 1840.

The Cherry Mansion in Savannah, where W. H. Cherry lived, had been Gen. U.S. Grant’s headquarters during the Battle of Shiloh.

The Tennessee River trade exceeded expectations which meant that Massengale and Rhea had competition from Evansville and Cincinnati boats. One Cincinnati boat, the John S. Gilbert, was hauling so many “Tennessee Red'' peanuts, many of which came from Hardin County, that

PAGE 6 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

it was called the “Peanut John.” A rate war ensued between the rival steamboat lines which resulted in Massengale getting a lion’s share of the business. He was one of the shrewdest men on the river.

In 1887, John Massengale and Isaac Rhea had had such success that they and others formed a corporation named the St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company with Isaac Rhea president; James Koger, of Paducah, vice-president, and John E. Massengale secretary-treasurer.

With the acquisition of the John Gilbert in 1887, the company now had three boats on the Tennessee. In the summer of 1888, Massengale ran an ad inviting the St.Louis people to see the beautiful, winding Tennessee.

They not only responded but fell in love with Tennessee. In 1888, the round trip fare from St. Louis to Florence and back took eight days. A berth and meals cost $10.

Now that the company was prospering, its owners felt comfortable in no longer buying used

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

boats. On June 16, 1888, the owners announced that the Howard Shipyard in Jefferson, Ind.,would build a boat for them designed for the Tennessee River Trade. The City of Savannah made its trial run on Oct. 22 and reached Savannah on Nov. 11. Four hundred citizens were on hand to greet the boat. Its owners were given a silver service, bouquets and other mementos.

In 1891, the City of Florence and the W. H. Cherry were replaced by the larger and better suited City of Savannah and the City of Sheffield, which was 185 feet long, 35 feet wide, and had three boilers and 22 lovely staterooms. The City of Paducah came on line in 1894.

In December 1894, the Shiloh battlefield was opened as Shiloh National Park. Beginning the next summer, Civil War veterans, almost entirely former Union soldiers from the midwest, began clamoring to visit the battlefield where they fought on April 6-7, 1862.

The St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company, aware that no railroad came close to Shiloh, loaded the City of Paducah at St.Louis and the City of Sheffield at Paducah with Union veterans and took them to Pittsburg Landing. With competing boats from Evansville, Cincinnati and other up-river points already there, the collection of steamboats at Pittsburg Landing was the largest ever seen.

Savannah citizens also wanted to see Shiloh National Park.

They boarded the Shiloh at Savannah which took them there after picking up additional passengers at each stop between Savannah and Pittsburg Landing. Summer cruises from Paducah and St. Louis to Shiloh became a big

money-maker for the St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company.

The last run to the military park, may have been in 1928, when the Paducah picked up 50 aging Civil War veterans, including some ex-Confederates, and took them to the battlefield on the 66th anniversary of the battle.

Because of the dangers that steamboats faced on the western rivers, primarily snags that snag boats missed removing, and boiler explosions, steamboats were short lived.

Many of the St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company boats in the 1890s and the first three decades of the twentieth century were named for states and river towns. They included the Kentucky, the City of Saltillo, the City of Memphis, the Tennessee, the

Paducah, the Memphis, the Saint Louis, and the Tennessee Belle.

From time to time, rate wars with the old Lee Line and others, floods, low water, ice and the sinking of boats drove down profits. But there were many good years. One of the last of the good years was 1926.

In addition to the farm and forest products, which included apples, cotton, peanuts, railroad ties, wheat and eggs, the St. Louis and Tennessee Packet Company also loaded mussel shells dug out of the Tennessee on their boats and took them to St.Louis. Their boats additionally delivered mail between the small towns on the river.

The Tennessee had large quantities of fresh-water bivalves, somewhat like oysters. They were used extensively in making pearl buttons. Masengale’s boats took

them to St. Louis.

On the trips up the Tennessee, the boats brought both passengers and freight, including good, strong buggies made by the Banner Buggy Company in St. Louis. The villages and towns on the Tennessee had good horses and pretty girls, but needed a snappy buggy to complete the picture.

The coming of automobiles, buses and better roads, the diesel engine, towboats and barges in the 1920s and 1930s caused the death of the steamboat business. In 1930, traffic on the Tennessee had fallen off so much, particularly at night, that the federal government turned off all the 60 navigational lights along the river. By then, most of the Masengale officers and

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 7

crews had found employment on towboats or had left the river for other jobs. In 1931, the Alabama was the last of the Massengale packets. On Dec. 9, 1934, the Paducah Sun-Democrat discontinued its “River Column,” which had been in existence almost since the beginning of Paducah.

On Nov. 6, 1942, the Tennessee Belle, once owned by Massengale, burned while tied up near Natchez. That was the last leaf on the tree. On Dec. 9, 1942, Captain James Rhea Massengale dissolved the charter that officially started the St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company April 13, 1887. Captain Rhea died of a heart attack at his home in Webster Groves, Missouri on Jan. 19, 1951, at age 76. A colorful era was gone.

NEWS

Learn More About: PATH

Why the program is critical to Nashville’s homelessness response

BY JUDITH TACKET T In my years working with the city and in collaboration with nonprofits, I found that providers did not fully understand a program that offers many best practices for creating sustainable homelessness programs: the PATH program.

PATH stands for Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness and is funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Each state receives a portion of this grant, and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services works with local/regional providers to implement sustainable programs.

As our community engages in conversations about a temporary, three-year $50-million plan to address outdoor homelessness, we need to focus on increasing sustainable funding sources and learn from best-practice programs such as PATH. In a previous column, I already touched on Metro’s outdoor plan, but let’s recap quickly what we know so far.

If approved by Metro Council, the $50 million will come out of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds the city received from the federal government as part of the continued response to the COVID crisis.

The city plans to spend $25 million to create new housing units and $25 million for support services. The temporary support services funding would be administered by the Metro Homeless Impact Division and go to the following areas (as presented by the Mayor’s Office at the August Homelessness Planning Council meeting): • $9 million to implement an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team at nonprofits that are already set up to be reimbursed

by Medicaid. This basically would serve people who qualify for Tenn Care to make the ACT program sustainable.

• $9 million to pay for temporary housing in three ways: • A motel with 24/7 security (continuing a partnership with a motel that was utilized for Rapid ReHousing with previous federal COVID dollars).

• Mobile Housing Navigation Centers utilizing churches as temporary shelter spaces (expand and existing program).

• A 2-year micro housing community, which is new and would be set up as a pilot program.

• $7 million for what I would describe as community-based supports to work with landlords in

Annual Report 2020

Annual Report 2021

# Served

568

758

# of Newly Enrolled

286

191

Chronically Homeless

103 Yes; 241 No 0 unknown

132 yes 106 no 288 unknown data

274

346

274 Literally Homeless 9 Institutional 61 Transitional and Permanent Housing

346 Literally Homeless 3 Institutional 177 Transitional and Permanent Housing

68 Temporary 5 Institutional 53 Permanent 125 Other

129 Temporary 13 Institutional 51 Permanent 116 Other

(1 year or longer with disabling condition)

Literally Homeless

(in shelter, outdoors, or other spaces not meant for human habitation)

Prior Living Arrangement

Housing Outcome

("Other" includes deceased, no exit interview, or data not collected)

("Other" includes deceased, no exit interview, or data not collected)

PATH outcomes (data provided by the Mental Health Cooperative) the community. Of these funds, $ 3 million would be dedicated to expanding the Low Barrier Housing Collective, a landlord engagement program providing incentives to landlords working with Metro and/or nonprofits to rent to people transitioning out of homelessness. The remaining $4 million would be posted as Requests for Proposals (RFP) for community nonprofits to provide support services.

After Metro Council has approved the $50 million in ARP funds, there will be more to dig into it as more details appear.

What is clear, however, is that outdoor homelessness is at the center of local political attention. It would be shameful to act as if providers have not been working to coordinate efforts to reduce outdoor homelessness all along.

As outdoor homelessness has increased during the COVID crisis, shelter homelessness in Nashville has slightly decreased, and an annual snapshot count conducted on Jan. 27, 2022, actually showed a 5-percent overall decrease.

But do not let politically motivated talk make you believe that the provider community has not been calling for the politicians to step up for years.

As we know, political will only seems to form when affluent communities organize to point out a problem while elections are looming. With Nashville mayoral elections next year, Mayor John Cooper will have strong competition with two candidates already declared (Council member Freddie O’Connell, and Matt Wiltshire who used to work in the Mayor’s Office and at MDHA) and others likely in the wings waiting to announce their candidacy. Homelessness will be one of the top political issues next year, and political candidates including those running for Metro Council know it.

When we look at the need for services, an outdoor survey conducted during that one-night count showed that 48 percent of unsheltered Nashvillians reported that they suffer from a serious mental illness and 39 percent reported having a substance use disorder.

Programs like PATH are impera-

tive to assisting the people who transition out of homelessness and suffer from serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders.

PATH uses federal block grants that in Tennessee the Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services administers. In Davidson County, the Mental Health Cooperative (MHC) implements the following services through the PATH grant: • Outreach — PATH outreach specialists engage people experiencing homelessness on the streets, in encampments, and places not meant for human habitation. The MHC outreach team also provides in-reach to individuals as they utilize local libraries, day shelters, and stay at local shelters. The goal is to link and refer people to local providers with a focus on mainstream mental health and physical health services. MHC’s PATH outreach program serves Davidson, Wilson and Sumner counties. They work alongside community partners including monthly outreach

PAGE 8 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

in coordination with the Co-Responders Team that works with the Metro Police Department.

• Screening and diagnostic treatment — the PATH team conducts intake assessments, crisis assessments, and psychiatric evaluations. The MHC outreach team also completes the triage tool used for the Davidson County coordinated entry process.

• Community mental health — Davidson County’s PATH program consists of the following staff: • 3 adults outreach specialist • 1 Child and Youth outreach specialist • 1 Peer Support Specialist • 1 Primary Healthcare Coordinator • 3 Care Manager/1 Open Care Manager position • 1 Supervisor • 1 Program Manager • 1 Nurse • Psychiatrist • 1 Ryan White Mental Health Specialist (nonPATH Funded) • Substance use disorder treatment – these services are non-PATH funded, but MHC provides a Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) program to treat opioid addiction.

• Staff training — MHC staff provides training to other community agencies per request on topics such as street outreach, mental health and crisis de-escalation.

• Case management — PATH ensures people’s needs are met by coordinating and linking people with necessary health and mental health treatments. Coordination includes, but is not limited to, scheduling and transportation to appointments, medication deliveries, and accompanying people to appointments. Case managers serve as housing advocates and help locate housing, fill out forms and other paperwork, link with ongoing support services, refer to SSI/SSDI Outreach Access and Recovery (SOAR) programs to help link people with benefits, assist people with access to job training and educational services, etc.

At this point I support the $50-million plan, even though it shows clear gaps and is as of now unsustainable. But it will help a lot of people over the next three years, if our community learns to leverage programs like PATH, SOAR, and if we find ways to increase ongoing funding sources to support the services so many of our local nonprofits have been providing all along.

NEWS

A Few Questions With Councilmember Russ Bradford, District 13

BY JUDITH TACKETT

D

istrict 13 councilmember Russ Bradford says his district really stands out for its diversity.

“You have neighborhoods ranging from upper-middle class to low-income and immigrant housing depending on where you’re at in the district,” he says. “With those types of neighborhoods and housing you have widely diverse needs and concerns. It’s been interesting and challenging to try to find a middle ground.”

The Contributor talked with Bradford about his district and what he’s been hearing from his varied consituents.

Can you describe what distinguishes District 13 from other Metro Council districts?

In my opinion what really makes District 13 stand out is its diversity. You have neighborhoods ranging from upper-middle class to low-income and immigrant housing depending on where you’re at in the district. With those types of neighborhoods and housing you have widely diverse needs and concerns. It’s been interesting and challenging to try to find a middle ground.

What are the main concerns you hear from your constituents?

The biggest concerns I’ve been hearing in the last few years is panhandling and the homeless that have been popping up around the district.

To try and answer some of those concerns, I have looked to develop a strong working relationship with MNPD and Social Services. I host a monthly meeting with local business owners and MNPD and Social Services to try and figure out what can be done in the areas most affected to improve services, to improve the area, and to make sure that we’re addressing the issues.

What are some of the outcomes of the meetings, and what’s the feedback from your constituents to them?

Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of participation. I started back in February. That first meeting in the South Nashville area was very well attended. Since then I have had one each month. Some on the east and west sides of the district. Attendance has been very low from the business community.

So I really don’t think there has been much that has come from these, but I want to keep doing them to at least providing the space for the community and business owners to come sit at the table and us all work together to solve the issues.

You chair the Public Facilities, Arts, and Culture Committee. What does your work involve and what are your thoughts on where the Metro Arts Commission is regarding its recent racial equity complaints?

Our committee sees legislation that deals with the management of our parks, libraries, arts, or any property or structure that’s owned

by Metro — from facilities like the Municipal Auditorium to parking lots.

As far as the Metro Arts Commission, I’ve been very supportive of their efforts of trying

METRO COUNCIL COMMITTEES: Public Facilities, Arts, and Culture, chair Planning and Zoning Transportation and Infrastructure

to get to the bottom of what’s been going on and to try to find a way forward to ensure that these serious allegations and issues are being addressed in a responsible and professional way.

Is your committee hearing from staff directly, or how is the communication working with Metro Arts on these issues?

I’ve been in direct contact with both the chair and vice chair of the Metro Arts Commission, Jim Schmidt and Matia Powell, about their efforts. I’m actually working on having a representative from the Metro Arts Commission and their diversity and inclusivity representative come talk to our committee and give us an update as to where they’re at in the process, what steps they are looking at taking and what steps have been taken to address the issues.

You are a founding member of the Metro Council’s LGBTQ Caucus. What is its focus and achievements?

Our biggest focus is on being an advocate for the LGBTQ community here in Nashville.

It’s great that we’ve got the five of us on Metro Council to represent those voices at the Council level. One of our first achievements was to make sure we got Metro HR to begin looking into trans health care, and we also got the Metro Clerk to include a special self-identification box on all applications for boards and commissions, so that we can begin to collect and track the numbers of LGBTQ members on our boards and commissions. This way, we can ensure that not only members on the Metro Council but also

members on our city boards and commissions have fair and equal representation.

Have you already evaluated the diversity on the boards and commissions based on these changes?

It’s in the process, but we have started noticing as individuals are being nominated for boards and commissions, they are self-identifying as LGBTQ. It does influence how we vote on board approvals as we want to ensure there is adequate representation for the LGBTQ community.

The last question is in regard to homelessness, an issue that you have expressed interest in actual solutions rather than quick fixes. What are some of the solutions you would like to see implemented?

I’ve talked to individuals from cities that have had success with the city hiring individuals who were unhoused and providing them part-time employment. These programs also provide people with the wraparound resources they need, whether it’s drug and/or mental health assistance, financial management assistance, etc. It can boost their resume to add that they’ve worked for the city, and they’ve gained these skill sets they can use so they can continue to move on and getting off the streets and into stable housing.

I want to focus more on whether we do that here. We always hear from constituents related to encampments about the level of trash and the unpleasantness for people to look at that.

What if we get Social Services or Metro waste hire individuals on a part-time bases to help

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 9

routinely clean up these camps and help improve the look while at the same time do outreach with the wraparound services to get these people into housing. Other cities also implement these employment programs in Downtown areas.

This would really solve two issues we’re having.

Our lack of labor and getting our unhoused individuals off the streets.

What I’ve learned solving our homeless situation, there is no silver bullet, there is no easy fix. There are multiple factors that have caused someone to be on the streets. When we’re looking at solutions, we should be looking at some of the underlying causes and focusing on how can we improve those. Yes, affordable housing is a big factor but we also need to look at what type of services we provide. Mental health care, substance abuse care, financial management assistance.

What are the other things we can be doing to assist, and what are we looking at as far as providing housing? Are we looking at commercial spaces that are now no longer used because businesses have gone to remote status? Can we look into turning some of these structures into dormitory-style housing or rapid rehousing where we can help these individuals off the streets into a facility where they have a bed to sleep, have access to laundry, have access to a fully stocked kitchen and pantry while at the same time have access to wraparound services? This way, we can get them off the streets, get them the assistance they need and help them learn the skills and get the tools that they need to be successful in the job market and the housing market.

LOCAL ACTIVISM

Last month, teachers and advocates rallied outside of the Ellington Agricultural Center during the TISA Public Rulemaking Hearing to tell Gov. Bill Lee and the Department of Education to, "prioritize kids, not corporations." PHOTOS BY ALVINE.

PAGE 10 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

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 2022

GRATIS

Agosto/2

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

www.hispanicpaper.com

Año 20 - No. 354

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

El camino a la victoria en Ucrania pasa por Siria

Las fosas comunes y las ciudades bombardeadas por las fuerzas rusas en Ucrania han conmocionado al mundo civilizado. Pero para los refugiados de guerra sirios y los estadounidenses naci- Por Dr. Tarek Kteleh dos en Siria como es médico en ejercicio, presidente de yo, el ataque bárbaro de Vladimir Rheumatology of Putin contra Central Indiana Ucrania es menos un shock que un sombrío recordatorio de las abrumadoras fuerzas destructivas que él y su compañero dictador, el sirio Bashar AlAssad, desataron en nuestro país natal hace más de una década.

La respuesta de Occidente a la invasión de Ucrania por parte de Putin ha sido rápida. Sin embargo, la crisis siria en curso, que comenzó en el 2011 cuando los manifestantes se levantaron contra el gobierno represivo de Assad, ahora, trágicamente, casi se ignora.

Es un error ver estos dos conflictos como separados. El fracaso de Estados Unidos y sus aliados para hacer frente al gobierno de Assad respaldado por Rusia abrió la puerta para que Putin librara una guerra total contra Ucrania. A menos que los líderes occidentales se comprometan a ayudar a la oposición de Siria a derrocar a Assad y lograr la aspiración del pueblo sirio de hacer la transición a un país democrático, el mundo seguirá siendo

Foto: Citizens for a Secure and Safe America (C4SSA)

Nashville, Tennessee

a estos dictadores que no se tolerarán ataques dirigidos contra civiles indefensos, sin importar dónde ocurran.

Pero tal respuesta no se materializó.

En ningún momento Estados Unidos ha brindado suficiente apoyo a la oposición siria para amenazar ni remotamente el poder de Assad, y mucho menos el de Putin. A Putin se le permitió perpetrar horribles crímenes de guerra contra los civiles de otra nación con impunidad. ¿Es de extrañar que creyera que podía hacer lo mismo en Ucrania?

Syria remains an unavoidable challenge for both the United States and Russia

innecesariamente vulnerable a los caprichos de los dictadores.

En los primeros años de la guerra civil de Siria, las fuerzas de oposición lograron un progreso constante y obtuvieron el control de grandes segmentos de varias provincias. Todo eso cambió en 2015, cuando Putin acudió en ayuda de Assad. Las fuerzas de Putin no solo bombardearon objetivos militares: bombardearon intencionalmente escuelas, hospitales y mercados, matando a 24,743 civiles indefensos, según una estimación, y provocando la crisis de refugiados más grande del mundo desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Mi propio hermano, junto con su esposa e hijos, se vieron obligados a huir del suburbio de Ghouta en

Damasco para evitar los bombardeos y un aterrador ataque químico que mató a decenas de sus vecinos. Se unieron a decenas de miles de sirios que huyeron a campos de refugiados superpoblados e insalubres en Idlib.

Estos ataques conjuntos ruso-sirios fueron fundamentales para ayudar a Assad a mantener a raya a las fuerzas de la oposición. Pero para Putin, fueron un campo de pruebas para las tácticas que luego desplegaría en Ucrania.

Y es aquí donde la conexión entre estas guerras es más crítica. Si Estados Unidos y otros países occidentales se hubieran unido detrás de la oposición de Siria, habrían enviado un fuerte mensaje tanto a Assad como a Putin.

Específicamente, les habría mostrado

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)

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.

por www.juanese.com juanese@usa.com

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 11

Afortunadamente, Occidente se ha dado cuenta, mostrando solidaridad con quienes luchan por su libertad en Ucrania. Pero una respuesta efectiva al comportamiento incivilizado de Putin no puede ignorar sus crímenes pasados y actuales contra el pueblo sirio.

Es hora de que Occidente compense su fracaso en Siria y finalmente brinde a las fuerzas de oposición de mi país natal el apoyo que necesitan para hacer retroceder tanto a Assad como a Putin y lograr el deseo del pueblo sirio de hacer la transición a la democracia.

El Dr. Tarek Kteleh es médico en ejercicio, presidente de Rheumatology of Central Indiana y miembro de Citizens for a Secure and Safe America, una organización no gubernamental cuya misión es promover la seguridad en el Medio Oriente y el progreso democrático en Siria.

Es autor de Los seis pilares de la defensa: acepta tu causa y transforma vidas.

Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com ó 615-567-3569

COVER STORY

THE FIRST BIG TEST

Tennessee Faces Partisan School Board Elections

BY MARTA W. ALDRICH, CHALKBEAT TENNESSEE Voters all over the state saw school board candidates listed on the ballot with party affiliations for the first time ever in the most recent election.

In Williamson County, half of a dozen school board seats were up for grabs in one of the state’s most hotly contested local elections. Four of five incumbents were running for reelection as Republicans. One of the nine challengers is also running as a Republican, and two are running as Democrats.

Then there’s Nancy Garrett, a lifelong resident who has been a board member since 2016 and served as chair the last two years.

Local leaders urged her to identify herself as a Republican on the ballot in her mostly Republican district.

But Garrett, who has voted in every GOP primary since 2014, couldn’t bring herself to run as either a Republican or a Democrat.

“We expect our teachers to be nonpartisan in the classroom,” said Garrett, who’s running as an independent against Republican Drason Beasley. “How can I set a different standard for myself? And how can I put students first if I’m also thinking about partisan politics?”

“I cannot twist myself like a pretzel,” she said.

Not everyone’s on board with the idea, but partisan school board elections are now here in Tennessee, drawing local races under the influence of the national political divide and providing a new source of fuel for the combustive debates over education.

A state law passed last fall gives local political parties more power to choose candidates for races that used to be nonpartisan. In over half of Tennessee counties, a partisan primary selected candidates to run in the coming school board elections on Aug. 4.

“It’s a changed environment,” said Debbie Gould, president of the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, a nonpartisan organization that opposed the change.

“We appreciated nonpartisan elections because it helped the public focus on candidates’ positions instead of their party labels,” said Gould, noting that some partisan candidates have declined to participate in her organization’s forums this summer. “We’re also concerned that voters may not work as hard now to learn about those positions.”

Tennessee’s partisan pivot, and the outcomes of races like Garrett’s, are being closely watched in states like Arizona, Florida, Indiana, and Missouri, where similar partisan school board bills stalled but could be reintroduced in a nation riven by party politics.

“The pandemic, and school reopenings in particular, punched the chest of national politics, and education has moved quickly from being local to national to partisan,” said Jonathan E. Collins, assistant professor of education and international and public affairs at Brown University, who is writing a book about the politics of school boards.

“All eyes are on Tennessee to see if this is a viable political strategy,” he said of the

Across Tennessee, 3 out of every 5 counties experienced a shift to partisan school board races In May 2022, the highlighted counties held at least one primary school board election for at least one political party.

Held nonpartisan races

Held at least one partisan race

Map: Cam Rodriguez, Chalkboard Tennessee Source: Tennessee Division of Elections upcoming elections. “If there’s a surge in campaign donations, voter turnout, and partisan representation on school boards, it will signal to other Republican-leaning states to pass similar legislation. But if it backfires and we see a countermobilization, it could serve as a flare for other states to stay away.”

Since the early 1900s, the vast majority of the nation’s 13,000 local school boards have been elected without using political party labels.

The reasoning was that the critical but often mundane work of elected school officials — passing budgets, hiring and firing superintendents, setting school policies, approving vendor contracts — should be shielded as much as possible from potential sources of conflict that could distract them from local education issues and their obligation to students.

But the shock of the pandemic and recent cultural battles over curriculum and instruction thrust locally elected school leaders into the spotlight, and provided a platform for conservative Republicans to rally more support around divisive education issues such as mask requirements, book bans and the rights of transgender students.

Last year, politicians took note when Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin defeated his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, on a promise to give parents more say in their kids’ education. And when sketching its education agenda, the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute urged conservative officials to “strongly consider” pivoting to partisan school board elections.

Republican leaders in Tennessee were among the first to follow that advice. Last fall, the state’s GOP supermajority approved a partisan school board election law during a special legislative session on COVID restrictions. The measure headed to Gov. Bill Lee for his signature before opponents, including organizations representing school boards and

superintendents, could mobilize against it.

The law will mean different things for voters depending on where they live and whether they elect board members at large or by district.

In most cases, local political parties took the lead in recruiting this year’s candidates for primaries. According to state election officials, 57 of 95 Tennessee counties held at least one school board primary election for at least one political party.

In a few cases, there were no primaries, but local political parties convened caucuses to nominate their candidates.

And in some communities — including Tennessee’s largest district, in Memphis, a Democratic stronghold — local parties rejected partisan school board elections, and nonpartisan races remain the norm.

Not surprisingly, the partisan shift appears more pronounced in communities where school leaders took the most heat from parents in recent years, especially for pandemic-related health and safety policies like masking, and remote vs. in-person learning.

Candidates have opted to use party labels in urban districts in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, along with large suburban school systems in Madison, Montgomery, Rutherford and Wilson counties.

“It’s become a very toxic environment,” said Tucker McClendon, outgoing board chair for Chattanooga-based Hamilton County Schools, where angry parents surrounded the boardroom and banged on windows during one meeting in May 2021. Police eventually called in backup officers to control the crowd as the board rejected a proposal to let students remove their masks for the final days of the school year.

McClendon fears the tone will get even worse under the partisan shift.

“Many people running for the board are on polar opposites of the political spectrum,” he said, “and some don’t actually seem to grasp

PAGE 12 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

what a school board does.”

The president of the Tennessee School Boards Association agrees.

“The most effective school boards are those that can reach a compromise. If you can’t do that, you get gridlock,” said Keys Fillauer, who has served on the board for Oak Ridge City Schools since 2001.

Collins, the Brown University researcher who grew up attending public schools in Jackson, Tennessee, says he’ll be watching closely to see if partisan-elected school boards will govern differently from nonpartisan boards, especially when it comes to serving students who need the most help.

Many partisan candidates in Tennessee are talking more about history curriculum and mask mandates than about student poverty, learning loss and equity, he noted.

“You’re having these partisan fights over education that cover up some of the more important daily issues that need to be addressed policywise,” he said.

Scott Golden, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, counters that party identification will help voters make more informed decisions.

“During the pandemic, every parent was right to get more involved in education when their kids were learning from home,” he said.

“That experience really brought to the kitchen table how decisions made by nonpartisan boards were directly impacting their children and families.”

Golden says party labels will encourage voters to weigh in on school board races instead of leaving boxes blank by names they don’t recognize.

“Partisan races just provide more information about the philosophical beliefs of candidates,” he said.

Golden also believes that all school officials will be more accountable to voters if board members declare their political inclinations up front.

“Schools account for 75 percent to 80 percent of county budgets, and it’s only right that voters and taxpayers should know as much as possible about the school board members who are overseeing that,” he said.

Democrats generally opposed partisan school board races, but their state party still sought to recruit candidates to stay competitive, said Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Hendrell Remus.

“Without a party label or party resources, it’s going to be difficult for independent candidates to win,” Remus said. “And if we don’t engage, there’s also a greater likelihood of misinformation when it comes to things like critical race theory and book banning and other divisive ideas about education being circulated by a fringe element of the Republican Party.”

Still, many candidates are pushing back.

In Oak Ridge, a Republican-leaning town near Knoxville that’s home to several federal nuclear research facilities, all four candidates are running as independents for three at-large

COVER STORY

Who Won And Lost In Metro’s School Board Race

BY AMANDA HAGGARD In comparison to the races in Williamson County, Nashville’s first partisan school board election saw Democrats win in every seat.

One incumbent, District 2’s Rachael Anne Elrod, kept her seat, and District 6 incumbent Fran Bush, who ran as an independent, lost her seat. Nashvillians overwhelmingly decided against candidates who ran campaigns based on pandemic responses to masking and virtual learning.

Nancy Garrett campaigns as an independent candidate in a neighborhood in her district in Franklin, Tennessee, in her reelection bid to serve on the board of Williamson County Schools. Marta W. Aldrich / Chalkbeat

seats on the five-member school board.

“The Republican Party tried to recruit people to run as Republicans but weren’t able to,” said Fillauer, the board’s chairman, who is not up for reelection.

“I hope that’s because our candidates are running for the right reason, which is to provide a quality education for all students,” added the retired teacher and coach.

In Murfreesboro, three of the four candidates are running as independents for three at-large seats on the city’s school board.

Among them is Amanda Moore, a mom and attorney who is seeking a second term in office.

“I’ve worked hard as a board member for four years and developed a lot of relationships,” Moore said. “I trust the voters of Murfreesboro will look past party labels.”

The sole declared Republican in the race, retired teacher Barbara Long, says embracing a party label was tactical because she’s a political newcomer in a large district.

“In the campaign realm, it’s an identifier,” she said. “It helps people get to know who you are and what you stand for. It’s like saying you’re a Baptist.”

Critics worried early on that the new law would diminish the pool of qualified candidates by attracting more partisan warriors and discouraging some civic-minded parents. There are signs that’s happening.

Knoxvillian Rachel Snyder Miller, a former teacher with a master’s degree in public administration, has long been interested in running for office. She is passionate about education policy issues like equity and diversity and is inspired by an aunt who once served on a school board and her own 3-year-old daughter who will one day attend Knox County Schools.

But the new partisan law and the school board rancor she’s seen play out during the pandemic changed her mind about running

this year.

“I don’t know if I can be part of a partisan school board,” said Miller, who also worried that campaigning for both a primary and a general election would be too costly and time-consuming.

McClendon, who will leave his board in Chattanooga in September, worries the partisan shift will drive out good education leaders, whether on boards or at the central office.

“I tried to get good people to run for my seat, and they said they wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole,” McClendon said.

“As for superintendents, I don’t think any smart person would want to answer to 11 partisan-elected officials. They’d have to think long and hard about the ramifications to their careers.”

Garrett, the candidate who chose to run as an independent in Williamson County, knew that she was facing a tough political fight without a party label. And the stakes couldn’t be higher, she said.

“If we elect school board members who lead in a partisan way and not a professional way, we’ll lose the trust of our educators and they’ll leave,” said Garrett, whose late father was an award-winning teacher in the district where she now serves on the board.

“It’s a fight,” she said, “over everything this community values about education.”

Garrett lost the race on Aug. 4. All six district seats in Williamson County were filled by Republicans.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@ chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. https://tn.chalkbeat. org/2022/7/12/23204652/tennessee-partisan-school-board-race-law-elections

District 2: Rachael Anne Elrod Democrat and incumbent Rachael Anne Elrod kept her District 2 seat on the school board. Republican Todd Pembroke lost by about 1,400 votes.

Elrod was originally elected to the School Board in 2018, and serves as the board’s vice-chair. She studied Education at Austin Peay State University and has worked both as a teacher and a consultant.

Elrod has two young children. During the campaign, she has highlighted efforts to both increase pay for teachers, and to integrate social-emotional learning (SEL) into schools.

Elrod has also outlined a number of priorities for improving schools, including expanded access to high quality pre-k, increasing classroom resources, and supporting a student-focused curriculum that takes into account the needs of the whole child.

Pemrboke, who ran his campaign as “No Woke Todd Pembroke,” was originally from Florida, but has lived in Nashville since 2003. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida where he studied finance. Since 2010, he has run an insurance company in Brentwood.

He is also a member of the U.S. Army National Guard.

District 4: Dr. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney Democrat Dr. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney won the race for District 4 by almost 2,000 votes over Kelli Phillips, who ran as a Republican.

Nabaa-McKinney previously served on the school board in 2020 after the passing of school longtime board member Anna Shephard. Nabaa-Mckinney’s focus is “ensuring that all schools in District 4, and across MNPS, will have the equitable funding they need to provide a high-quality education for all students.”

Nabaa-McKinney moved to Nashville in 1997 after growing up in Indiana. She obtained her doctorate in Educational Leadership & Professional Practice from Trevecca Nazarene University. Dr. Nabaa-Mckinney was formerly a MNPS chemistry teacher, as well as a private school principal. She is a parent of five MNPS graduates and a 3rd-grade student in a District 4 school.

Phillips decided to run as a response to COVID-19 related changes in schools,

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 13

and advocated for ending masking policies during the pandemic.

District 6: Cheryl Mayes District 6’s Fran Bush, who ran as an independent, lost to Cheryl Mayes, who ran as a Democrat. Mayes, a former board member, beat Bush by more than double the amount of votes.

Mayes has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Tennessee State University and is the founder of My Toolbox Consulting, a leadership development and training consulting firm. Mayes works as the Director of Community Relations with the Multicultural Business Synergy Team at Nissan North America and also as District Director in the office of Congressman Jim Cooper.

Mayes was previously elected to the Board of Education for MNPS and served as chair for her final two years on the board.

Bush had been on the school board since 2018, and is a native Nashvillian with five children who have all attended the MNPS schools. During the pandemic, Bush advocated for in-person learning where masks are optional, and for school choice. She often voted against mask mandates in schools against the advice of health professionals.

District 8: Erin O'Hara Block Erin O’Hara Block handily won out over Independent Amy Pate in District 8, also by more than double the amount of votes Pate brought in.

O’Hara Block has a master’s degree in Public Policy from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and a bachelor’s degree in American government and African/African American studies from the University of Virginia.

For over 20 years, O’Hara Block has worked in education policy and research on issues including early learning, afterschool programs, college access, educator preparation, and school leadership. She is currently the Executive Director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance, a partnership between Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Department of Education. O’Hara Block wants to help create integrated systems to support the mental health of students and educators, both inside and outside of school. She wants to ensure the district provides the resources to recruit and retain high quality staff, and use her expertise to shape education policy and research in Nashville and across the state.

Pate graduated from John Overton High School and is a native Nashvillian — her campaign focused on her disappointment in the experience she and some parents had during schools reopening after the pandemic

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF STREET PAPERS

Nicole Sharpe holds a photograph of her mother, Heather Hurley, who was killed by her father, Winston Richards, when Sharpe was a teenager, in New York, U.S., June 1, 2019. Richards was convicted of manslaughter in 1993, and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

After serving 16 years he was released in 2009 and died in 2012. "I don't think in the minds of people that domestic violence has really changed too much" since her mother's death, said Sharpe, "People still are bent on blaming the victim." REUTERS/Magali Druscovich

America's deadly epidemic: violence against women

BY MARIA CASPANI

Recent murders illustrate a persistent American crisis. In 2019, nine out of ten murdered women were killed by men they knew, according to a national think tank. In nearly two-thirds of those cases the women were wives or other intimate partners of the men. Often, such killings follow years of abuse, which six experts interviewed by Reuters said raises questions about how police, courts and society at large support women.

PAGE 14 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF STREET PAPERS

Tammy Suomi sorts through her grandson, Kevin Shabaiash Jr.'s, belongings at her home in Duluth, Minnesota, U.S., October 1, 2021. Suomi's daughter Defoe was 13 weeks pregnant when she and 21-month-old Kevin were beaten and stabbed to death in March 2020 by Defoe's boyfriend Sheldon Thompson. Attempts to reach Thompson through his attorney were unsuccessful. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

Tammy Suomi's Duluth, Minn., living room is filled with memories of her daughter Jackie Defoe and her grandson Kevin Shabaiash Jr. Teddy bears line the couch.

Photos of her smiling loved ones cover a coffee table and kitchen island.

Defoe was 13 weeks pregnant when she and 21-month-old Kevin were beaten and stabbed to death in March 2020 at her home on the Fond du Lac American Indian reservation near Duluth.

In May, a jury convicted Defoe's boyfriend Sheldon Thompson of first-degree murder in the deaths of Defoe, her unborn child, and Kevin. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms and given no chance for parole for Defoe's and Kevin's murders. Attempts to reach Thompson through his attorney were unsuccessful.

The murders illustrate a persistent American crisis. In 2019, nine out of ten murdered women were killed by men they knew, according to the Violence Policy Center (VPC), a national think tank. In nearly two-thirds of those cases the women were wives or other intimate partners of the men.

Often, such killings follow years of abuse, which six experts said raises questions about how police, courts and society at large support women.

In such crimes, the attacker and target know one another intimately and may have children and a home together and intertwined finances, making the challenge complex.

"It's cultural. It's religious. It's psychological. It is many layers," said Detective Riasharo

Garcenila, who helps coordinate the Los Angeles Police Department's domestic violence response. "It's so difficult to have one answer for a crime that's multi-layered."

The statistics are particularly grim in communities of color. In Minnesota, nine percent of all girls and women murdered from 2010 to 2019 were, like Defoe, American Indian, although they make up just one percent of the state's population, according to the Minnesota Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, created by the state legislature to report to lawmakers on efforts to document, understand and reduce the violence.

In 2019, Black women and girls were murdered at a rate more than twice as high as white women and girls, according to the Washington-based VPC, which bases its figures on FBI data.

New federal moves U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this year signed a spending bill that included increased funds for housing, legal and other support for domestic violence victims. In June he signed gun reform legislation that seeks to do more to keep guns out of the hands of people convicted of domestic violence.

Three decades have passed since Nicole Sharpe's father shot and killed her mother in their Brooklyn apartment. Sharpe's father, who died in 2012, was convicted in 1993 of manslaughter and served 16 years.

"I don't think in the minds of people that domestic violence has really changed too

much" since her mother's death, said Sharpe, 46. "People still are bent on blaming the victim."

Melanie Fields of the National Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Domestic Violence Committee, who is based in East Baton Rouge, La., said she has found some attitudes have shifted in the 13 years since she helped launch her domestic violence unit.

"When I started this, it was that they (women) weren't believed or they were dismissed by law enforcement and even the community," Fields said. "Overall in our country that has significantly improved."

She said officers in her jurisdiction, for example, have learned that medical evidence shows repeated beatings and choking can make victims sound incoherent.

One persistent challenge facing researchers is determining the problem's scope. Data sets such as the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports can be useful, but they leave hard-to-fill gaps when tracking gendered killings, said Associate Professor Alison Marganski, director of criminology at Le Moyne College in Syracuse.

The picture is mixed on fears that recent pandemic lockdowns exacerbated domestic violence. James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor of criminology, law and public policy, analyzed FBI data and found homicides in family settings rose 26 percent in 2020 over the previous year.

But a January paper published by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research that studied records from 17 large

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 15

urban police departments found no statistically significant difference in intimate partner homicide rates before and during the pandemic.

Detective Marie Sadanaga, a colleague of Garcenila, said LA legal aid groups found that people struggled to apply for restraining orders when COVID closed courts. The LAPD responded by creating a guide for navigating virtual court that was distributed by patrol officers.

"We're always listening to what these different people are saying and what they're seeing," Sadanaga said of prosecutors, nurses, legal service providers and others with whom officers work.

In late 2009, Helen Buchel, 34, and her 12-year-old daughter, Brittany Passalacqua, were stabbed to death in her Geneva, New York, home.

Buchel's boyfriend, John Brown, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and in 2010 was imprisoned for 40 years to life in a plea deal that Buchel's mother Dale Cook Driscoll said her family accepted so her grandson, who found the bodies, would not have to testify.

An attorney was unable to be located for Brown, who remains in prison.

In Minnesota, Suomi was the first witness prosecutor Lauri Ketola called.

After the verdict, Suomi said of her daughter, grandson and unborn grandchild: "I finally got justice for them."

Courtesy of Reuters / International Network of Street Papers

VENDOR WRITING

A Military Mom's Call to Action

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR I don't like writing when I'm angry. Anger generally doesn't serve the writing or the subject I'm writing about. But this is too important to let it go.

On Wednesday, July 27, 2022, our US Senate voted to refuse to provide medical benefits to our service men and women through the "Honoring our PACT Act" who suffer from the toxic effects of exposure to burn pits and other chemical contaminates they were exposed to during their service to America.

My son, Will, served in the military for many years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was subjected to the toxic fumes from burn pits In both countries. Because of this exposure, he sleeps with a CPAP machine strapped to his face every night to ensure that he doesn't stop breathing in the middle of the night and die.

His name is on the burn-pit registry. Even getting that far along on the complicated process the military requires to access VA medical coverage for his wounds is almost miraculous.

Medical professionals believe that neurological damage, such as PTSD, is caused by the fumes from the pits also. Will suffers from that as well.

Our government is responsible for the harm done to the men and women who stepped up to

serve in their wars. When I sent Will a text to tell him I was sorry the Senate had disappointed him again he texted back: "I'm used to the government not taking care of their toys they send to war and break. The government sends us to war and doesn't give a shit about us when we return." That's how our veterans feel. It's next level disillusionment.

That breaks my heart. Veterans of our wars have fought the military for decades in the attempt to get care for these war wounds .When the lofty members of our government play games with the lives of our honorable sons and daughters I can't help but be disgusted. And I'm not taking this slap to the face of my baby and his compatriots lying down. I'm mobilizing for action!

Sen. Jon Testor, chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs said, "We've got to get out. We've got to call. We've got to have your friends in the military and veterans call, your civilian friends call."

You don't know him, but you know me.

Please help me draw attention to this travesty.

Please take one small action to get our sons and daughters the care they deserve. We owe them!

PLEASE CALL!

Both Tennessee Senators voted against the "Honoring our PACT Act" on Wednesday. Please let them hear from you and encourage them to make this right ASAP. Please contact them today...CALL!, WRITE!, EMAIL!

returned damaged from them get the best care we can offer.

Every military mom will be beholding for your kindness!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

---

Senator Bill Hagerty Nashville Office: 3322 West End Avenue Suite 120 Nashville, TN 37203 615-736-5129 hagerty.senate.gov

Less than a week after Senate Republicans voted to delay passage of the Honoring our PACT Act, they came back to pass it with numbers even greater than they had passed it initially.

I can only guess why their flip-flop came so swiftly. Maybe it was because of the tireless media blitz a visibly frustrated Jon Stewart went on. Maybe it was because of the backlash to the juvenile celebratory fist bump Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, gave Montana Senator, Steve Daines, when he cast his no vote. Maybe it was because of all the military mom's and dad's who called and emailed those Senators who betrayed our soldiers.

Whatever it was, I'm grateful for how quickly it finally resolved itself. When I texted, Will, my congratulations, he texted me back, "Fist bump, Mom, fist bump!"

Senator Marsha Blackburn Nashville Office: 3322 West End Avenue Nashville, TN 37203 Suite 610 Nashville, TN 37203 629-800-6600 blackburn.senate.gov They started our wars. It's their responsibility to make sure the men and women who

A Roe V. Wade Story

Hello Dear Friends

BY WILLIAM B, CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

BY WALTER D., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

My name is William. I met my first wife in Nashville. She came down to visit one of my brother’s girlfriends and we fell in love at first sight.

What happened is, we got married in the month of my birthday, November. I went up to Knoxville and asked her mom and dad if I could marry their daughter.

We came back to Nashville to live after that and my wife was working with my sister’s brother in law. He hired a man who ended up raping my wife one day at work. After it happened, I could tell something was wrong with her, but she wouldn’t tell me what. Finally she told me about the rape and I was hurt so bad. I had to go to the hospital because I injured myself because my wife was so hurt.

I was put into the hospital so they could watch me.

When I got out of the hospital, a few months later my wife found out she was pregnant. I didn’t know if it was mine or his. I told her that I would raise the baby whether or not they were mine. She begged me to pay for an abortion. I loved her so much that I paid for the abortion. I went with her to that abortion clinic

and cried my eyes out when she went in and when she came out.

This is a Roe v. Wade story. I don’t believe in abortion unless the child was a product of incest because I believe that babies can go to someone who will care and love for it. This will never leave my heart or mind. I do think the decision on what to do with a pregnancy should be left up to the mother of the baby. The father can’t feel the same pain.

But this caused a lot of problems for us. My wife started doing drugs.

So, what happened is it kind of grew us apart. We got divorced in 1994, but we still lived together for two years after that because she needed financial support and I still loved her.

But then I got in trouble and went to prison. She said she wouldn’t come to see me when I was in prison, which I understood. When I got out, I went back and I tried to rekindle our love.

We lived together, but we didn’t get remarried. We did have two kids before I went to prison though. I was hoping for twins because we both had twins in our family. But after that we did grow apart and we tried to live together but we couldn’t because I was out all night doing

drugs. I got on crack cocaine because of my depression and stress. I was at the house while she was with a man for two days. I end up going to the hospital again because I told them I wanted to kill myself. When I got out, she came back home to me. I tried to rekindle the love again, but it didn’t happen. That abortion and the drug addiction really ruined things for us.

I’m hoping that this will be helpful to people out there. There’s people out there that need to know that things like this can happen. This Roe v Wade thing can be a bad thing for a lot of people. There’s people out there who can’t get abortions and want or need to get them. I do think people need to think about it real strongly before they think about doing something like that. God bless you all and thanks for listening.

I’ve been living in Nashville all of my life and I came off the bus a while ago and saw something going on around the state capitol. It was an abortion rally and I pulled in and told my Roe V. Wade story to some people who were there. I think they really appreciated it. So I wanted to tell it here too.

Yes, it’s me again for quite a few of yall loved my last story!

Now, I must say thank you so much for caring, plus letting me know y'all wanted me to write another story, please understand that you can stop by and ask any questions about me that you might have because I am not the best at writing and I truly enjoy talking with y'all in person. Things are getting better, thank you for giving me water and asking me to please don’t overdo it in this hot weather. I try to get there early and stop selling the paper at noon time.

Like I said before we have people back at The Contributor office who have a lot to do with making sure I get the paper and getting my story in the paper.

For myself, I love being out on the corner of 21st and Blair.

It’s my understanding that nobody has been out there in over one and a half years to which I am glad yall were able to accept and loved me every time I sell in the corner.

Please let me say, that I

PAGE 16 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

truly don’t mind standing and walking up and down for I was asked, “how come you don’t have a chair to sit down like a lot of other vendors?”

Well, to be honest I almost lost my right foot because a tree fell on both of my feet which put me down for two and half years, but I was blessed because I am able to walk around now, so I will have time to rest when I am in his ground so we should enjoy life going out walking around.

Life is so much different and changed since I grew up sure i address women as young ladies because I think you must show kindness in order to get things!

Again before I close I want to say, thank you so much for all the love and help yall show me.

May this bring a smile and touch your heart to say a prayer for me cause i just turned 66 years old so he isn’t ready for me to join him yet to which I say thank you Lord for letting me wake up and giving me another day to spend with yall.

TH A N K YOU! GOD BLESS!

VENDOR WRITING

THE CODE OF ROWE VS. WADE Written by Chris Scott Fieselman

Years ago, we all know a decision was made.

To live by the code of Rowe vs. Wade.

The Law of the Land for half a century, To end an un-wanted, un-planned pregnancy.

Freedom freely given and then taken away.

Pregnant women forbidden and forced to obey.

It’s one step forward and two steps back.

We might be on the right train, But on the wrong damn track.

They take away the code of Rowe vs. Wade.

Be Afraid…

Be Very Afraid…

The code wasn’t broken.

Didn’t need to be fixed.

Why was this so high on their priority list?

Knowing by opening and closing this door, They’d be creating a present-day Civil War. Forcing all Americans to choose up sides, By widening the gap of The Great Divide.

Why the hell couldn’t they just leave, Well-enough alone?

We went from Keeping the Peace, To a Combat Zone.

They take away the code of Rowe vs. Wade.

Be Afraid…

Be Very Afraid…

When it comes to abortion, We may be personally opposed.

But should opposition be legally, Enforced and Imposed?

Liberty is different from state to state.

So, The Federal Government decided, “Put it all on their plate.”

Whoever thought this was a bright idea?

To go from Freedom of Choice, To “Not if you live here.”

It might not be quite as simple, As the North and the South, But in the end, it all depends upon, Who’s in power now?

They take away the code of Rowe vs. Wade.

Be Afraid…

Be Very Afraid…

THEME: BACK TO SCHOOL ACROSS 1. *Beginning of a computer class?

6. Mandela's org.

9. Horned birds 13. Silly and insignificant 14. U.S. counterpart to British M15 15. Inuit skin boat 16. Long oar 17. Acronym, abbr.

18. Movie "____ Day Care" 19. *End of a pencil, sometimes 21. *"Back to School" star 23. Asian restaurant frying pan 24. Anne ____ of gothic fiction fame 25. ____ Beesly of "The Office"

28. Cote d'Azur city 30. Opposite of comic 35. Major mountain chain in Russia 37. It launched Columbus, acr.

39. Walk through slush 40. Lindsey Vonn's prop 41. *Geography class prop 43. Bear in the sky 44. Idealized imaged of someone 46. Reflect deeply 47. Stake driver 48. Dismiss (2 words) 50. Not want 52. Albanian money 53. *Cafeteria ware 55. Rare find 57. *Paper holder 60. *Fictional high school in "Grease"

Now, those who seek abortions have their reasons why.

Why shouldn’t it be left up to them to decide?

A person has the right to Life and Liberty, Not a future superseded by a life that might be.

Right is always right and wrong is always wrong.

It’s just one man’s opinion woven into a song.

I’ve written what I’ve written and it is what it is.

I’m not expecting much of nothing, To come from this.

They take away the code of Rowe vs. Wade.

Be Afraid…

Be Very Afraid…

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 17

63. Pope's court 64. Barley brew 66. Run-of-the-mill 68. Boat contents 69. Little bit 70. Tale, in France 71. Small island 72. I, to Claudius 73. Terminated DOWN 1. Fleur-de-____ 2. Sometimes it's enough 3. Wild ox of India 4. On spouse's side 5. Infamous Baby Face 6. A long way off 7. Network at 30 Rock 8. Wispy clouds 9. Yemen's neighbor 10. ____ receiver 11. The Tramp's spaghetti-slurping

companion 12. Limit, to some 15. Bovine milk dispensers 20. Increasing 22. Month X 24. Reverberate 25. *Student 26. Scent, usually pleasant 27. Malaysia native 29. "Keep ____ and Carry On" 31. *One at high school reunion 32. Small Asian ungulate 33. September edition, e.g.

34. *Dry-erase marker predecessor 36. Toy construction set 38. Having the knowhow 42. Lament for the dead 45. When one is not oneself (2 words) 49. Joker to Batman, e.g.

51. *Do this in Math class 54. *Do this in Speech class 56. Subatomic particle 57. Sable and beaver, e.g.

58. *Type of exam 59. Like SNL 60. *Grader's suggestion 61. City in Sweden 62. "A day ____ and a dollar short" 63. Some special effects, acr.

65. Fall behind 67. Type of Christmas lights

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

11th Monday 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Feast of St Bartholomew NATURAL religion, if you understand it rightly, is a most excellent thing, it is a right sentiment of heart, it is so much goodness in the heart, it is its sensibility both of its separation from its relation to God; and therefore it shows itself in nothing but in a penitential sentiment of the weight of its sins, and in an humble recourse by faith to the mercy of God. Call but this the religion of nature and then the more you esteem it, the better; for you cannot wish well to it without bringing it to the Gospel state of perfection.

For the religion of the Gospel is this religion of penitence and faith in the mercy of God, brought forth into its full perfection. For the Gospel calls you to nothing but to know and understand and practise a full and real penitence, and to know by faith such heights and depths of the divine mercy towards you, as the religion of nature had only some little uncertain glimmerings of.

William Law: A Demonstration.

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.

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.

PAGE 18 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

FUN

HOBOSCOPES LEO

When the kitchen trash gets full, Leo, and it’s time to take it out, I like to do that little trick where I put my shoe right in it and stomp it down. Look! It’s good for another two days, at least! Sure, there are compromises, the smell from the half a tuna sandwich I threw out on Thursday isn’t getting any more pleasant, but I’ve avoided the work! It may be the case, Leo, that you’ve stomped down your own personal trash a few too many times of late. Whatever you’re avoiding in there, I think it’s time to take it out.

If our boat sank, Sagittarius, and it was just you and me floating on a washed up door in the cold arctic waters, I would scoot over and make sure there was enough room for us both. At least I think I would. It’s hard to know what you would do until you’re really in the situation. So when you see somebody else make a choice you think you never would, take a minute and breathe. Maybe that’s just you in a different circumstance. And if you could please scoot over a few inches, this doorknob is jabbing me in the ribs.

CAPRICORN

VIRGO

I’ve been accused of pacing. It’s true, Virgo I’m an ambulatory thinker. Sometimes my brain doesn’t work unless my feet are moving. But sometimes it’s inconvenient or conspicuous and I try to just sit at my desk and work it out. And then I spend three hours trying to work out what would take me one hour on my feet.

I’m just reminding you, Virgo, that you know how you work. Don’t waste time trying to fit somebody else’s process.

LIBRA

It’s illegal to keep a crow as a pet. That’s probably for the best. But it’s not illegal to have a crow as a friend, as long as they’re free to come and go. I’ve heard of some people who give them food and a safe place to land. In return, crows sometimes bring them shiny objects or pretty string. A relationship is different than ownership Libra. If you feel like you’re in a cage, things may need some readjusting. You should always feel free to go look for soda tabs down by the railroad tracks.

SCORPIO

SAGITTA R IUS

Everybody knows that Cain killed Abel. It’s right there in the book. And as punishment he had to leave town and live with the guilt. I wonder if he talked about it much. I like to think he got a therapist, there in the land of Nod. He had a lot of time and probably decent insurance. I like to think he learned to deal with his anger. Maybe he taught his boys to do better. We can’t change the past, Scorpio. It marks us all. But we might still have time to learn from where we’ve been.

Would you say you’re a kind person, Capricorn? Somebody who considers other people’s needs before you speak or act?

Are your responses typically appropriate to the stakes of your circumstance? What about when you’re in traffic and somebody swings into your lane and you have to slam on your brakes and then the same person won’t let you merge and you miss your exit? We all have our limits, Capricorn. There are things that make us feel too much too fast and we express it in ways we might not in our more composed moments. That’s ok. It doesn’t define you. But it may show you some places where you need practice.

AQUA RIUS

The first bicycles were designed through trial and error. How many wheels do you really need? How do you steer? How do you propel it through the street? Over time, these questions created a working bicycle.. But present-day physicists and mathematicians can’t explain exactly how a bicycle stays upright. Sure, they’ve got theories, but they’ve still got questions, too. If you can’t find an answer this week, Aquarius, maybe take it out of the theoretical. Put it on the street and see if it falls over.

PISCES

I’ve heard that housef lies can taste with their feet. I guess it makes sense.

If you’re always landing on top of your food before you eat it, it’s helpful to determine its yumminess before you take a bite. (or, in the flies case, vomit acid onto it to create a liquid you can slurp up with your proboscis) What I’m saying, Pisces, is that if you’re unsure about the ground you’re standing on, give it a taste. You might find it surprisingly palatable. You might learn it’s time to move on.

ARIES

Today the wind blew a little too hard and a bunch of yellow leaves swirled down across the road and I knew for certain that the season is changing. It certainly is for you, Aries. You’ve been making changes all over the place. I know it’s felt intense and like you don’t know where to land. But there’s a nice patch of grass on the side of the road and I think you’re going to do just fine there for a long time.

TAURUS

They say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. It’s not a scientific truth, Taurus, but it’s a pretty good statistical probability. If you stare at a specific point in your field of view, chances are you won’t see it get struck by lightning. If it is, chances are you won’t see it happen again. Whatever you’re hoping happens again, Taurus, you might find it sooner if you get on the move.

GEMINI

Once again, Gemini, I’ve looked to the Stars to determine a current course of action for you and others born in your specific cosmic moment. The Stars replied, as they always do, but this time things were different. All I could perceive was a torn piece of notebook paper with masking tape on the edges which read: “Due to staffing issues, you may experience longer than usual wait times. Thank you for your patience.” So this is me handing you the buzzer, Gemini, when it goes off you’ll get your answer.

CANCER

I went to amateur astrology school with a guy who had a thick Australian accent. He was always pretty popular and would throw around regional colloquialisms like “no bigger than a platypus bill!” and “two wombats is better than three!!” But then at our graduation dinner he gave a speech and the accent was gone. “I’m from Akron.” he said. “You’ve just all been so nice to me, and I thought you should know.” I’m just reminded, Cancer, that it’s never too late to be yourself. Speak in your own voice today. Soon you’ll be more content than a wallaby in a wool factory.

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a trained scholar of corvid law, or a registered seasonologist. 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

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 19

VENDOR WRITING

More Opportunities for the Homeless

BY SUZANNE S, CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR When I was homeless in Little Rock, Ark. for almost four years, the main thing that got me through and filled me with hope, was a program that a man and his wife started with only one van. They named it “The Van,” and offered supplies that anyone in the street could use. They operated solely on donations of food,

clothing, hygiene, medications, blankets, sleeping bags and tents.

They would drive around in neighborhoods where the homeless were known to gather. Over the years as I watched it grow as many more volunteers, more vans, operated days of different areas for help. They expanded from their house as a storage

to a warehouse. Once people started hearing about their services the word would spread very quickly. I think that such a program is in dire need here in Nashville. I think that many of the homeless population would benefit greatly from such wonderful resources. I believe that just dinners and clothes closets aren’t reachable to most of

this community. I believe that the things you require when you are homeless are not really thought of until you are in the situation yourself. When most businesses or people donate things they are not in the right mindset. Sometimes something as little as a roll of toilet paper, deodorant or even Tylenol for a migraine makes all the difference in

how much they can do. I remember when my shoes were stolen once from me as I was sleeping on a sidewalk. “The Van,” came right through as I was walking barefooted and gave me sandals for my feet. They never require ID, for some it’s their face they would recognize, they would get to know them as people, not the forgotten.

My Mouse Friend Lost B Y J U N E P. , C O N T R I B U T O R V E N D O R

In Loving Memory of My Precious Presley April 6, 2015- June 9, 2022

BY JAMIE W, CON T RIBU T OR VENDOR I just can’t believe my Presley is gone. I miss her so much. In April or May, Presley tested positive for feline leukemia, she did okay for a while and then she started getting sick again. I can not say how upsetting this is, I wish she was still here. I have been crying over her for the last three weeks and this last time I had to take her to the vet, she was dragging her back legs and I told the vet, “let’s see how she does in a couple of days and if she does not show any improvement i will have to put her to sleep.” God this is killing me, I don’t understand she was seven years old, I will be missing her, I just ask God to keep her safe and that I love her. This is so hard for me, I begged Tommy not to put her in the ground and he said that we have too.

What can I say, I just want her back. I would

do anything to her her back, I can’t believe this I am so broken, all i can do is pray I know she was loved by Tommy, Lucy Kiley, Emma and I. We will miss her so much Riley, Emma, and Lucy miss her so much. I just wish this was a bad dream, I can’t believe she is gone.

I say a prayer for Presley Evernight, I would give anything, “I want my Presley,” I think about her everyday and since she past away morning times are very hard for me but she will always be loved by me. I am doing the best that I can, we will miss her a whole lot. She was such a great cat but I wasn't gonna stand around and watch her suffer and struggle. Tommy and I did the best we could, the vet also did all they could do for her. She was my toot toot, I would called her that sometimes.

Got up this morning, slept in of course.

My mouse friend was not here, “where could he be?”

I looked everywhere, No Mouse, and went on a walk.

I love walking.

But I needed to find my mouse friend, I walked and walked and walked and my mouse friend was nowhere to be seen.

Then I thought, “where would he be on a hot summer day.”

“In the pool? Well, maybe in the lake?”

There my Mouse Friend was in the lake.

My friend was very upset with me.

I said, “Why?” my mouse friend.

My friend said, “I am hot!” so we both got in the lake.

Then, my mouse friend said that's not all.

I said, “What now?” “cracker and cheese or cheese toes?”

My mouse friend said, “no food this time, but that sounds good.”

Then my friend said, “We've been friends for like five years now and I call you cricket, but cricket you have never named me. Are we really friends?”

Ok, this is for you out there dear readers, please help me name my mouse friend.

Sex wise it does not matter, boy or girl.

And this is how you help me, please, please The Contributor takes Venmo, and if you look in the left hand corner of your paper you'll see the Venmo stamp. Come

by Belmont Blvd and Gale Lane and see me with my good, great people here at the grocery store and go on Venmo and put June P #2509 as the description and buy a paper from me. In this heat I’m out early 8:30 or 9 till 12 noon.

I was on oxygen so me and this weather are not good.

Oh I love the summer, not this humbled so please come see me Monday - Sunday or venmo me at June P #2509.

You have a Bless Day. From Cricket and my Mouse Friend

PAGE 20 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Love Beyond Busy Schedules Find out how you can volunteer to change lives in your community: SalvationArmyNashville.org

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 21

VENDOR ART

Ben Foley is a CEO of a hat company called Stevensons Ranch (SR). He is also a music manager for some talented artists such as Skeez and Mike. They tour around the country throughout the year. Foley is a successful person with a kind heart . His instagram page is @ BYFoley | ILLLUSTRATION BY CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR WENDELL J.

PAGE 22 | August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

MOVING PICTURES

Chef's Kiss SCALDING KITCHEN COMEDY, 'THE BEAR' IS THE SURPRISE STREAMING STAR OF THE SUMMER

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly scandalized the restaurant industry and kicked-open a swinging door on fear and loathing behind the lines in America’s professional kitchens. Bourdain’s book took readers inside an intimate world where chefs and cooks and dishwashers share nightly “family” meals and grab a smoke in the alley five minutes before the beginning of another pressure cooker dinner rush. Their kitchens are paradox caldrons where strict discipline and hierarchy is marinated in chaos, acid and fire.

Bourdain’s book came out in 2000 and it was translated into a not-unwatchable television series starring Bradley Cooper that ran for one season on Fox in 2005. The show was a sitcom that went-in for outrageous hu-

mor, missing all heart and true grit of Bourdain’s ceaselessly readable memoir.

But now FX and Hulu have teamed-up on the surprise streaming star of the summer, and The Bear is a show that Bourdain would have given a chef ’s kiss.

Carmine Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is a James Beard Award-winning chef who’s honed his skills in the world’s best restaurants. He’s a recognized culinary wunderkind, but the first episode of The Bear finds “Carmy” back home in Chi-town where he’s inherited his late brother’s Italian eatery The Original Beef of Chicagoland. He’s also inherited a mountain of mob debt, a bad stomach from the stress and toxicity at the top of the culinary food chain, a family broken by trauma, and the side-

eyed suspicions of the collection of misfits that make-up “The Beef ’s” barely functional kitchen staff.

The Bear’s depictions of the grind of a restaurant kitchen are piping hot and delivered in a hail of profanity over frantic, chest-tightening edits. The Bear is categorized as a comedy, but it’s a pain-filled and sincerely stressed-out comedy. It’s also surreal in a way that reminds me of FX and Hulu’s Atlanta’s more extra-realistic sequences.

Carmine doesn’t really sleep.

He has troubled dreams and he’s prone to spacing out into ambitiously visionary fugue states that bring an unexpected dimension to a show that’s otherwise committed to gas burner realism.

The Bear is well-written — Bourdain would’ve liked that — and it’s also well-acted

with Jeremy Allen White fresh off his run on Shameless and probably headed for an Emmy nomination for his fearless embodiment of the talented and troubled Carmine. Ebon MossBachrach is unlikable in the best way as a loudmouth know it all kitchen manager, and Ayo Edebiri is great as an ambitious young sous chef helping Carmine get the restaurant back on track. It’s a treat to see former SNL cast member Abby Elliot as Carmine’s loving meddling sister, and The Bear also features cameos from Molly Ringwald as an Al-Anon facilitator, the great Jon Bernthal as Carmine’s late brother Mike, and an unrecognizable Joel McHale as a sadistic executive chef.

You can’t watch The Bear and not think about Bourdain and the book that launched his television career. But it’s

August 17 - 31, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 23

odd that television has taken so long to get restaurant shows right while non-fiction food programming has become its own planet on the small screen.

Chef and Ratatouille both managed to capture the truth of food-making in their own ways at the movies, but The Bear is the only show I can recall that treats the restaurant like a character and not just a naturally dramatic setting to paste a story over. The Bear doesn’t air on television like other FX and Hulu collaborations, but you can watch all eight episodes by signing up for a free trial with Hulu.

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