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Thor: A True Story of a Homeless Woman
People wonder where I come up with this stuff. Well, you asked.
It was March 2020. I had lost my job at Ollie’s Bargain Hunt. I had moved back to Nashville under dire circumstances from East Tennessee, which is another story, but I hadn’t had time to get on my feet yet or make any kind of money.
The COVID-19 vaccine was over a year away and I was being required to move out of my current shared household by April 15 because they thought they were going to create a bed-andbreakfast … just before lockdown. My landlady/roommate, suggested that I could just move into income dependent housing. I informed her that there was a four-year waitlist.
Of course they had pity after six weeks of watching me struggle to pack without help, get rid of stuff and find a storage unit for important papers, photos and furniture I knew I couldn’t keep in my truck. Trying to get stuff into my storage unit without help caused a couple of back injuries for me, which still plague me today. I was suffering from a mysterious loss of muscle strength. By the time my landlady/roommate said, “maybe you should just stay,” I had packed and stored everything and I was so peeved that I left anyway. I was 58, just under the wire for “at risk,“ and really felt as if I were part of the new generation. The one that sees 60 years old as the beginning of middle-age. I was pretty strong and super resilient. Or so I thought.
I had a temporary job with a family that wanted to move to Seattle due to a career opportunity. I had about two months to earn some decent money. My landlord/roommates were very nervous. And I really had no choice. So, the family with the career woman that needed a lot of help stepped in to ask me for help. There were three adults and five children in a three bedroom house. It did have a garage that was serving as a makeshift bedroom as well. Needless to say, they were a mess and they really needed me. However, that required that I go through hospital protocol a minimum of three times a day: upon arriving, upon leaving, and upon arriving back at my so-called “home.” My elderly housemates were in constant fear that I would bring “the disease” home because I had to keep working. I couldn’t just “shelter in place.” But as you may remember, my life was still extremely isolated. I made contact with just a few people each month. They were the same people, over and over. I did develop a habit of porch visiting and long walks on empty streets. I saw a lot of wildlife. I saw a bluebird for the first time in my 30 years in Tennessee. One time, out in the woods, a fawn came up and snuffled my arm. I was so startled that I screamed and she ran away. My cat ran the other way. She remained terrified of deer for
BY YOUR FAERIE GODMOTHER OF THE FREE PRESS (FREEPRESSGMA), CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR
the rest of her life. I felt so bad. I hadn’t seen her coming. She was so quiet. The deer in Tennessee were suffering from some kind of wasting disease, so her mom had probably died. It was a year of plagues, as we know.
I had been feeling an unexplained constant exhaustion and disorientation ever since January. I had had a mysterious illness that lasted almost four weeks and wouldn’t let go. I blamed the man who came in for NyQuil and coughed all over me on his way out of the checkout line. This did not help my case with my elderly roommates. (At my first vaccination, I was told by the pharmacist that I had probably already had COVID because I reacted so badly to the shot.)
My plan was to “glam camp” with the largest tent I could afford on a friend’s farm. No livable housing there, but plenty of woods. If I thought of it that way it sounded exciting.
I was 6 feet tall, so finding a tent for around $250 that could let me stand up in the main part or contain a vestibule that I could at least stoop in, and plenty of screened windows actually happened. I also needed a bed frame so that my cat could be in there with me and hide under the bed. Should she need to. My “career family” employers had an extra one of those. It was free! Yay. I “move House” into the woods while working for them.
April 15 was the last frost date in Tennessee, so I set out then. Amidst unseasonable heat, followed quickly by unseasonable cold, and then unseasonable hot again, I set up a camp spot, figured out an outdoor kitchen and got ready to hook up the hose as soon as it really was safe. Meanwhile, I turned water on and off (at the city control spot, not the tap, folks) while I filled up water jugs to heat up in the sun so I could keep clean. I did get some help from my employer’s husband, thank the gods. The tent set up proved to be a two person job. My friend suggested that I set up by the pond, since the earth had been tractored into a flat spot at the dam. Although I have a slight fear of water loving snakes (copperheads), I still thought that it was the best spot considering how much meadow was in the other spot (rattlesnakes). Plus, nothing could hide from me in that flat spot that was so shaded that nothing could really grow very tall, and I could use the mower if needed.
Speaking of gods, I had been given a T-shirt by a librarian friend of mine, whose husband had gotten rid of his old shirt that said Thor on it with some gorgeous lightning bolts and things on it.
I was wearing this shirt pretty much constantly to give myself encouragement, and imagining that I was Thor. Much to my surprise, people who were glued to their Internet at this time
reported to me that indeed, Thor had become a woman in the series!
So there I am in my tent and my cat is purring and happy. She comes out of the tent when I do, but not when I don’t. She stays in there when I’m gone. Everything is looking pretty good. I can run down to the half finished building about 500 feet below me and plug-in at the single electric pole to recharge my phone. This is a huge deal when one is homeless. Of course, when it’s raining, this isn’t an option.
Then my landlady texted me to say that straight line wind was coming in. Straight line wind is basically a land hurricane. There was going to be 70 mile an hour winds with gusts of up to 120 mph. “That’s OK,” I thought. “I am under these nice safe trees! I am near a pond. It will be more temperate here and I’m in a little hollow so the wind will pass over us and not through us.”
Denial is often the best course when there are no other options.
Suddenly, I thought I could hear Thor laughing. He showed up in my daydream. I am not sure I was actually daydreaming. I think I actually was sleeping on my feet. One thing about being homeless is that after a few weeks, one begins to feel weary. Sleepy. Talking to oneself out loud seems normal. Especially if you are trying to hold down a job or two, which I was. Every two weeks, I would go and see a client (or two if they happened to be a couple).
That was to ensure that I didn’t have COVID and they didn’t either. Of course, physical work with a mask on feels quite suffocating. But I did it.
Anyway, I thought I saw a gorgeous glimmering strawberry blonde Nordic man across the pond from me who said “Come dance with me!“
“Ooh, that sounds like fun!“ I said. “But I’m really tired so how about later?”
I crawled into my tent with my cat, and she was a little nervous. But she finally settled down and we took a nap. It turned out to be a really long nap because about six hours later I was awakened by the sound of a howling wind. I thought about going down to the half built basement structure down below, but I thought man it’s gonna be cold! I would have to unpack my whole bed just to get bedding drug down there and set up. And what about Titi? Getting her into her cage would mean a whole lot of getting clawed up at this point. And then the wind might not really stay off of me. So I fell back asleep.
I was suddenly awakened by the sound of a booming Thor like laughter. My tent suddenly collapsed onto my face. I was suffocating, so I lifted my left arm and struggled to get the tent pole snapped back into place. The tent pole was bending and twisting wildly. The tent fabric was twisting. My cat was definitely under the bed. My arm was feeling pretty strained, and I was
worried and thought, “Again? Oh boy this will be a fun way to die.”
“Thor, this is NOT funny!”
I could see the shadowy, laughing, gyrating man outside my tent. I could see in fact, many flashing swirling images outside my tent that looked as if they were bending to the ground and leaping back up. I strained with all my might to get the tent pole off of my right arm. I succeeded, but the tent pole felt like a writhing mamba snake. In other words, five times as strong as me. But somehow it managed to stay off of my face.
With my right hand, I unzipped a portion of my tent and looked out. The trees were their usual 200 feet tall, but they were spinning in gigantic circles that almost touched the ground.
“OK, that’s enough!” I yelled and willed the wind to blow the other way. Miraculously, it did! My tent snapped back into place. The wind didn’t particularly die down, but the trees quit
bending to the ground. A few minutes later, Nashville was hit hard by the straight line winds and a whole bunch of people lost electricity.
I really felt in solidarity with them. We were all living without electricity together. Of course, me being apparently, “bride of Thor,” I had been gifted with a down comforter, so I was feeling pretty comfy. I did hear a lot of complaining from Nashville later though.
Neil Gaiman maintains that the gods gain strength when you name them and worship them. I suddenly have no doubt.
Also, my wrenched arm reminded me daily for about a month that no, I had not been imagining things. Well, hallucinating from lack of proper oxygen due to the after effects of COVID?
Would you have passed me on the street, thinking that I was mentally ill and completely lost and not worth saving?
She struck out into the woods alone and set up camp by a big fat stone
A wee fair pond held minnows and moss her matted blonde hair hung down to her arse. The skies were fair and cold and still. all the day long, she called on Thor, God of strength and power for the will to carry on..
So she set up camp and to sleep she went to calm her weary soul.
Sadly, that was the moment he chose to appear.
“I’m tired” she said, “come back later.”
Being a god, he took her at her word woke her in the dead of night to a howling wind, thunder, and flashes of blinding light. Through the flashing, she saw trees aswirl as if they were grassand a golden man standing - staring at her - waist.
“Ho ho!“ He boomed. “Let’s dance!”
And her wee small tent collapsed on her face. Struggling and straining, she grabbed the tent pole, a writhing Jörmungandr that did strike her eye. Blood tickled her nose.
Snake was Stronger than her, but not her Will.
“Enough!“ She yelled and threw the wind back from whence it had come.
Thor laughed and Roared and said with great smarm, “Come out! Come out! I ask you to dance!”
She said “you know, I’m just flesh and blood you big oaf! Be gentle oh Thor I beg of you.”
So with a great sigh, he ran off to havoc and fun with some little bitty in the city And all she had for proof was a mighty. wrenched. arm.
Odin's anchor. Sketch of artifact by freepressgma.
Learn More About Foster Care and Homelessness
BY JUDITH TACKETT
The other day I spoke with one of The Contributor vendors, and he mentioned a meeting with his former foster care mom. This was a stark reminder about how many people who experience homelessness have been in foster care.
May is designated as the National Foster Care Awareness Month. And maybe the timing was coincidental or specifically selected, but officials of Tennessee’s Department of Children Services were hit by a lawsuit in May that seeks to represent all 9,000 children who are currently in the state’s foster care.
The lawsuit, “alleges that the Department of Children Services (DCS) has persistently violated children’s constitutional rights and federal law, including Americans with Disabilities Act protections for kids with disabilities,” according to a report in the Tennessee Lookout.
The fact is that homelessness will not end if we do not take care of our kids and continue to inflict the trauma that led to their foster care placement to begin with.
The class action lawsuit is referred to as Keira M. v. Commissioner Quin and was filed by A Better Childhood, a national watch group out of New York, on behalf of 13 Tennessee foster children and their legal representatives. The lawsuit claims that, “foster kids in Tennessee are being denied the basic right to education, healthcare and stable homes and instead kept in unsafe institutions or bounced through multiple foster families for years at time, a lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of 13 children alleges,” per Anita Wadhwani’s article published in the Tennessee Lookout on May 21, 2025.
In its press release, A Better Childhood talked about the lives of two siblings — Amara and Zane — who are now eight and nine years old. (We used the names provided in the press release. They are usually changed to protect children.) They had been in foster care since 2017 due to neglect and abuse.
“After leaving their first foster home, they were placed with foster parents who sexually and physically abused them, but it was not discovered until they were removed from the home,” A Better Childhood stated. “Because of this history, both children have significant trauma and PTSD, but the state fails to consistently provide them the therapeutic services they need.
“Amara was eventually returned to the first foster home, but the state failed to find Zane a safe and permanent foster placement. At one point Zane was switched between institutions nightly and placed within an institution for teenagers as a 7-year-old.”
Youth Experience Different Forms of Homelessness
Youth who reported not having a stable place to stay, categorized on where they slept the night before:
A Better Childhood continues that even now, by the filing of the lawsuit, Tennessee has not found an appropriate home for Zane. For the past eight years, a total of seven caseworkers have been assigned to the siblings at different times. The children have not seen each other in two years.
This is not the first lawsuit in recent months that was filed against DCS. Just last June, DCS made headlines for allegedly abusing children with disabilities who were in their custody while in Tennessee’s juvenile justice system. Back then, the Tennessee Lookout listed some details DCS wards experienced while in custody (cited from Tennessee Lookout article by Anita Wadhwani — June 27, 2024):
• A 17-year-old boy beaten more than 31 times;
• A 15-year-old girl shackled, dragged across the floor and placed in a solitary cell, where she was later pepper sprayed while naked;
• A single Middle Tennessee juvenile detention facility with 48 instances of pepper sprayings each month;
• Kids left in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, sleeping on bare bed frames in bug-infested cells with no education or mental health care provided;
• Multiple DCS facilities where “bounties” are used to induce kids to attack other kids, singling out those who filed grievances against staff or conditions. Ramen noodles were a popular reward for kids who beat other kids, the lawsuit noted.
About 25 years ago, when I was a daily news reporter, I covered foster care and juvenile justice, and DCS was part of my beat. Back then, there was a class action lawsuit filed, known
Unshelter Youth
24% 28% 48%
as Brian A. It included similar allegations about lack of education, lack of healthcare, and appalling living situations.
Consequently, the Brian A. lawsuit led to federal court oversight that formally ended in 2017. It seems that the situation of children in DCS custody — whether in the foster care system due to neglect and/or abuse, or through the juvenile justice system — has again deteriorated to possibly a worse point than what led to the Brian A lawsuit.
As I mentioned earlier, the way we treat our foster youth relates directly to homelessness.
About 25 percent of former foster youth experience homelessness within four years of aging out of the foster care system, according to the National Foster Youth Institute.
Similarly, a blog post updated in July 2024 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, listed the following key findings for youth that transition out of foster care:
• One in five report experiencing homelessness between ages 17 and 19, and over one in four (29 percent) report being homeless from 19 to 21. Among American Indian and Alaska Native young adults, the figure jumps to almost half (43 percent) for ages 19 to 21.
• One in five report being incarcerated between ages 17 to 19 as well as ages 19 to 21.
• One in 10 report becoming a parent between ages 17 to 19 while nearly one in four (23 percent) say they became parents between ages 19 to 21.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, about 20,000 youth age out of foster care each year. Based on the statistics above, we could expect that 5,800 of youth aged 19 to 21
DCS, do their jobs and stop inflicting further trauma on children while in their custody. I hope lawsuits like the ones filed in May 2025 and June 2024 can help.
Then, extended foster care programs seem to provide a great opportunity for young people to help them transition to adulthood. Critical to these programs are independent living programs, which help young people with developing life skills and following an academic or a career path.
However, while extended foster care programs are offered in Tennessee, the reality is that many young people who have lived under state custody for years are ready to be on their own. They do not wish to continue in foster care after the age of 18 — especially if they were subjected to more trauma and instability while in state custody.
pretty much exit to homelessness. In Tennessee, roughly 800 youth aged out of foster care in 2023, according to Tennessee Voices. That means an estimated 230 could end up being homeless.
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) reports that as many as 46 percent of former foster care youth experience homelessness by the age of 26. This would increase our Tennessee estimate to about 360 former foster kids per year that age out of the system and become homeless by the age of 26.
Data for Davidson County was not readily available, but we know that when young people end up on the streets, they tend to move to a larger city. Youth and young adults are considered a subpopulation of homelessness, and the large majority of these young people are invisible to a casual observer.
For one, it is harder to spot young people on the streets as being unhoused since they tend to blend in with other youth. Secondly, a large portion is couch surfing, staying with friends and sleeping in different places, hopping from friends and relatives to other acquaintances.
When I looked into how many adults who experience homelessness have been in foster care, I saw different organizations saying that as many as 50 percent of unhoused adults had foster care experience. That seemed a little high to me. But I found an article that showed different research studies between 1991 and 2005, which claim anywhere between 10-39 percent of the adult homeless population had experienced foster care.
In any case, the claim that the foster care system is a pipeline to homelessness has become an undisputed fact and is a tragedy. We need to ensure that foster care systems, like
The best way to ensure young people find stability is to create that support system as early in their lives as possible. This could include mentorships, group homes, shared independent housing with rental assistance and available support groups, peer support specialists where a young adult who may be in their mid-to-late 20s and has experienced foster care and homelessness is trained to offer support and link people to services if needed.
I spoke to one such young adult quite frequently. He became a staunch advocate for peer specialist services. He shared with me that when he talks to a young person, he usually can be more direct than other service providers and have what he termed as “real talk” with them.
But first and foremost, young people need to be offered choices. And that’s where we often fail. With current federal cuts in basic health care, food assistance, and rental subsidies, young people are likely to become even more vulnerable as organizations specializing in supporting kids aging out of foster care are starting to hemorrhage funding.
Here I would like to stress that not all children in foster care end up homeless. There are success stories where children were saved from neglect and abuse and found support through the foster care system.
Yet, there are still too many stories, like the ones listed in Keira M. v. Commissioner Quin. We can do better. We must do better.
And by doing better, we will be able to cut that direct line from foster care to homelessness. The reality is, no matter how much money we spend on chronic homelessness, we won’t be able to ever end it without taking care of your children, youth and young adults.
(Source: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago)
Youth staying with family, friends or other people.
Youth staying in a shelter or transitional housing program.
Music That Makes You Sit Up And Take Note
BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR
I’m not sure what it is that makes music so memorable in our minds, but it can DEFINITELY have an effect on the outcome of our day. Here are two examples that led to a positive result.
In the first instance I was just getting started for the day trying to find SOMETHING on my iHeartRadio to listen to.
As I was channel surfing my local radio stations, I came across Metallica’s version of “Turn The Page” so I decided to give it a listen.
Just then a guy in a cool old pickup truck pulled up along side of me and said, “Oh no! I NEVER figured you for a metal head!”
I assured him that I was not and that I preferred Bob Seger's version of this classic hit, but I also reminded him that they’d just had not one, but two concerts in Nashville recently, so they ARE popular with people of a certain age group.
I also told him that my step son Robert was a hard-core fan of that kind of music, and of Metallica in particular.
I was thinking of him as I listened to the music he loved so much, wishing he could’ve attended one of those shows. He didn’t say much after that, but at least he did seem to have a better understanding of why I was listening to it.
Next up, toward what had been an unusually slow time during the Memorial Day weekend, I was EXTREMELY bored. It was near the end of my day and my phone was dead. That meant NO MUSIC. UGH!
I decided instead of just sitting there doing nothing I’d get up and make sure there was no trash left between the red light at OHB+Central Pike, Rudy’s Studio Apartments and everything in between.
As I was picking up trash left behind on the sidewalk, a black pickup truck with three people inside in their late teens or maybe early 20s got held up near the back of the line of traffic. They were playing “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi. It was SO loud the windows were reverberating!
That was the most exciting thing that had happened in a while, so I immediately stopped what I was doing and began to sing/play along! It didn’t take long for the girl in the passenger seat to notice me, and pointed it out to the others in the vehicle asking repeatedly if any of them had any cash, but no luck. The driver seemed unfazed by my presence, but the girls were DEFINITELY into it.
When the traffic finally began to move, the young lady in the passenger seat rolled down her window and yelled, “We’ll be back!” True to her word, they returned before dark, and though they weren’t interested in the History Corner book, each of the girls bought a paper and a Zine!
As for the driver, he NEVER made eye contact with me, so you may wonder why I bothered to mention him.
Well, to his credit, he DID bring the young ladies back to make their purchases, and THAT was music to my ears, figuratively speaking.
Our Lives Are As An Unwritten Song
BY DANIEL H., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR
Prior to May 3, Belmont University approached Daybreak Arts with an idea for a project. Five people, along with myself, volunteered: Amattulah Hassan, Robert (Zareef) Edwin Lockridge, Daniel Holmes, Cheryl Harris and Sidney Sparkle. Belmont broke us into two groups: photography and music.
First, we learned black and white photography using a camera. We were asked to take pictures that described our homelessness. Later on, after several meetings, we were invited to an opportunity to display our photographs in a show. Large pictures would be sold for $75 and small ones for $50. They would be displayed at the Packing Plant, an art space in the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood.
While the photography work was being done, I was presented with an idea to create music from a painting that I made. I wrote the lyrics to the song a year prior with several failed attempts. Belmont asked me if they could write the melody to complete my dream of having a song that represented the daily struggles for homeless society. I believe this will allow people to know that if given opportunities we can do anything if given the chance. We met several times at the Daybreak Art Studio to practice with just a guitar and several gifted singers who
Joke of the Issue
BY HOWARD P., CONTRIBUTOR
VENDOR
A Sunday teacher puts four worms into separate containers:
One container holds beer
sang the backup as I took the lead. Belmont creates some talented students who should be utilized as often as possible.
Next, we performed at a music studio for six hours. It was an experience I will always cherish. Amattulah Hassan added her beautiful voice to the background vocals to create a song truly made for people to listen and appreciate.
The title of the song is, “Our Lives are as an Unwritten Song” by Daniel Holmes and it’s available on YouTube or by scanning the QR Code below. I am trying to reach 10,000 views. Please hit like and subscribe with the bell.
One container holds wine
One container holds whiskey
One container holds mineral water
Near the end of the class the teacher show as the results of the worms:
The worm in the beer was dead
The worm in the wine was dead
The worm in the whiskey was dead
The worm in the mineral water was alive and ... swimming.
The teacher asked her Sunday school students, “What can we learn from this lesson?
A student raised his hand and replied, “If you drink beer, wine and, whiskey you wont get worms!!”
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” – Albert Einstein Jim's Journal
Slipping and Sliding No Excuses, Find Solutions
Written by Chris Scott Fieselman, Vendor #0015
You’re so far along, Till you do something wrong. When temptation comes knocking? You’re not that strong. You open the door, To the room that you swore, That you never would, Go into... Anymore... Did you make a mistake? Or did you make up your mind? Were you in the wrong place? At the wrong time?
Ignoring the warning, You’re crossing the line, When you set yourself up, For what you want to find?
There’s a difference between, Slipping and Sliding, Of that, there is no doubt.
Slipping’s an accident, Sometimes things happen, It’s all a part of what life’s about? Sliding is different, It’s done with intent, Well planned and then carried out.
There’s a difference between, Slipping and Sliding, Of that, there is no doubt.
Practice Makes Perfect, That’s what they say. You get better at the game, The more you play. A good friend of mine, Went back one last time, And sometimes, That’s all - It takes … The heart is above all deceitful, And the flesh has its desires. Make no preparation for evil, And bring every, Thought Unto Christ ...
There’s a difference between, Slipping and Sliding, Of that, there is no doubt.
Slipping’s an accident, Sometimes things happen, It’s all a part of what Life’s about. Sliding is different, It’s done with intent, Well planned and then carried out.
There’s a difference between, Slipping and Sliding, Of that, there is no doubt.
Written by Chris Scott Fieselman, Vendor #0015
I had fun while it lasted. Didn’t think that I’d get past it. Didn’t think that I could take it.
Wondered if I’d ever make it? Now, it’s all just history.
I didn’t quit till victory.
And I’m standing where I am, Cause, I became a better man.
No Excuses, Find Solutions.
Don’t give me your reasons why.
Find a way to make it happen.
Get it done and don’t just try.
No Excuses, Find Solutions.
Give it more and don’t give in.
The key to unlock the door, Persistence wins out in the end.
You play the game. You play to win. You get knocked down. Get up again. It’s just a challenge that you face. Where there’s a will, There is a way.
When your excuses are your crutch. Say, it’s too hard or costs too much. You tell yourself it can’t be done, And what you want, Will never come.
No Excuses, Find Solutions.
Don’t give me your reasons why.
Find a way to make it happen.
Get it done and don’t just try.
No Excuses, Find Solutions.
Give it more and don’t give in.
The key to unlock the door, Persistence wins out in the end.
Getting there is half the fun.
You fight your battles one by one.
The journey of 1000 miles, Begins with just one step. Because a winner never quits, And a quitter never wins.
Don’t say, that it won’t happen. Say, it hasn’t happened yet.
No Excuses, Find Solutions.
Don’t give me your reasons why.
Find a way to make it happen.
Get it done and don’t just try.
No Excuses, Find Solutions.
Give it more and don’t give in.
The key to unlock the door, Persistence wins out in the end.
THEME: FATHER'S DAY
ACROSS
1. Home to Taj Mahal
5. Centum weight, acr.
8. Psychedelic drug, acr.
11. Elephant trainer's poker
12. *Ned Stark's youngest daughter
13. Draw out a conclusion 15. Parks of Civil Rights fame
16. Toothy wheel
17. Birth-related
18. *Pinocchio's father
20. Fortune-telling coffee remnant
21. Religious doctrine
22. D.C. mover and shaker, abbr.
23. Assembled
26. Raidable hotel room
amenity
30. Evergreen creeper
31. "Fasten" a shoe (2 words)
34. Nay, to a baby
35. Dryer accumulation, pl.
37. Expose to moisture
38. White heron
39. Sodium hydroxide
40. Same as battle-ax
42. UN labor grp.
43. Like localized disease
45. Crab's grabber
47. Catcher in the what?
48. Food-borne bacteria
50. Begone!
52. *"Fathers and Sons" author
55. Not expensive
56. Medicinal plant
57. Joie de vivre
59. Batu Khan's posse
60. *Fils' father
61. Chicken of the sea
62. *Tarzan's adoptive dad
63. Before, poetically
64. Big Bang's original
matter
DOWN
1. Financing acronym
2. Hot rum drink
3. *Official flower of Father's Day
4. Adjusts
5. Minotaur's island
6. *Kurt Russell's son of "Thunderbolts" fame
7. Tropical tuber
8. Stringed instrument
9. Slang for heroin
10. Marina ____ Rey, CA
12. "To do" list
13. "____ ____ a high note"
14. *Fictional Mr. _____ who banished children's nanny to a doghouse
19. Banana refuse, pl.
22. Gladys Knight's band member
23. *Christopher Robin's father A.A. ____
24. Like certain flu
25. Church assembly
26. Speechless
27. Gabriel of Chile
28. Administer ceremonial oil
29. Chopper blade
32. Nile dweller, for short
33. Snake-like reef dweller
36. *Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic father/ son novel (2 words)
38. Expatriate
40. Dream in the sky
41. Climactic stage
44. Nearsited one
46. Degrees in right angle
48. Prolific Swiss mathematician
49. Ten million, in India
50. Mercantile establishment
51. This location
52. Cassette contents
53. Twelfth month of Jewish calendar
54. Rooftop contraption
55. Cuban dance step
58. "Platoon" setting, for short
Summer Reading
In The Contributor’s annual reading list, regular writers, volunteers and friends of the paper help wrangle a mish-mash of our favorite reads. Here is what we're reading this summer.
The Blueprint might hit a little close to home in these times. Much like the worlds Margaret Atwood builds, Rashad’s tales of a dystopian world full of overt misogyny and racism are only our own world shaken slightly and retold. The ways slavery displays itself in the book might be two notches away from our current reality, but with reminders that freedom and revolution are only a couple notches away as well.
AMANDA HAGGARD
Ministry of Time
The nameless protagonist in Kaliane Bradley’s sensational debut, The Ministry of Time , is a modern-day British civil servant working in a top secret program. The government has used a time machine to snatch people from various points in the past and bring them to our world. Our girl is to be the “bridge”— a sort of housemate/guide/spy — to a British naval officer who was kidnapped during an 1845 Arctic expedition. Literary in style, The Ministry of Time not only has an epic sci-fi premise. It’s also a thrilling love story.
ERICA CICCARONE
The Blueprint By Rae Giana Rashad
The
By Kaliane Bradley
When systemic inequality, incompetent bureaucrats and private interests intersect, maintaining stable housing becomes complicated by design. Property-law scholar Bernadette Atuahene explores Detroit’s housing crisis in her sweeping, page-turning Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America. With novelistic flair, Atuahene investigates how the city of Detroit illegally foreclosed on thousands of homes, and how predatory governance has blighted Black neighborhoods, wrapping homes in red tape and leaving them to rot. Atuahene follows several generations of one Detroit family from the Great Migration to the present day, as one woman fights to maintain her birthright. This gripping saga will make readers look closely at their own laws and policies, how they may be leaving people out in the cold.
ERICA CICCARONE
On Disobedience
By Erich Fromm
This little book includes four essays the socialist psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm penned in the 1960s. Fromm is writing about societies that are “led and manipulated by big, powerful bureaucracies – societies in which the individual becomes a well-fed and well-entertained automaton who loses his individuality, his independence and his humanity.” While penned during the Cold War era, it is astonishing and scary how relevant Fromm’s words remain in today’s political climate.
JUDITH TACKETT
By Charles Portis
In honor of the Contributor's long-time physical office space in Nashville's Downtown Presbyterian Church, consider picking up a copy of Charles Portis' iconic adventure novel True Grit this summer. Its heroine, 14 year old Mattie Ross, is devoted to the Presbyterian church. She is also devoted to avenging her father's murder. Set in the American west in 1878, the novel tells a tale of amoral drifters, hardened bounty hunters and corrupt federal agents, all delivered in the rollicking deadpan of its singularly motivated protagonist. The book is hard to set down - plan to plow through the entirety of True Grit in a single day at the beach if you're not afraid of a sunburn.
LAURA BIRDSALL
By Tilar J. Mazzeo
Irena Sendler is the woman who smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and is hailed as the female Oskar Schindler. This biography explains who Irena is in all her humanity. It shows that one person alone cannot save thousands of children, but she sure can have the courage, spirit and tenacity to create a network of saviors. Irena’s story is also told in a 2009 movie starring Anna Paquin.
JUDITH TACKETT
A poet. A teacher. An unapologetic Black lesbian feminist, Audre Lorde was among our most influential thinkers about gender, sexuality, art and activism. With Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, poet and scholar Alexis Pauline Gumbs presents an unconventional and moving portrait of Lorde’s singular life. Bringing a special focus to Lorde’s poetry and how her spiritual philosophy was informed by the natural world, Gumbs’ biography weaves through the themes of Lorde’s life, from her childhood Harlem, to her early adulthood working in a factory, to her remarkable tenure at Hunter College and relationships with other literary luminaries throughout her adult life. Gumbs does not hide her own admiration and affection for Lorde, and the book is all the better for it.
ERICA CICCARONE
By Marshall Ganz
Here is a guide to fighting for democracy. Ganz starts by explaining the importance of relationship building and ends by demonstrating how we can build capacity and bring organizing to scale. He shows how meaningful change is based on moving beyond mobilizing to organizing where people embrace their diverse viewpoints and rise up to become leaders themselves. Ganz is a must in any organizer’s personal library.
JUDITH TACKETT
True Grit
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde By Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Irena’s Children: A True Story of Courage
Plundered
By Bernadette Atuahene
People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal
In honor of Contributor co-founder Tom Wills' fondness for the Inklings, a cohort of Oxford writers that also included J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, I humbly propose that the uninitiated experience the joy of C.S. Lewis' foray into science fiction. In the first book of his famous trilogy, protagonist Elwin Ransom is kidnapped by two university professors and forced into an unplanned interplanetary adventure. The richness of Lewis' universe is unparalleled and Ransom is an almost perfect hero: an initially reluctant underdog who rises to the moral conundra of interstellar power struggles with winning and earnest charm.
LAURA BIRDSALL
Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age
By Amanda Hess
If you need any extra reason to poke at the digital age, Amanda Hess points out a few ways the internet, social media and the expectations around modern parenting are rotten. In some ways, it's an exploration of how the models of shame and guru-ism have long been embedded in parenting, but the lense Hess views this through is one of a new parent just having birthed a potentially medically complicated child with tech apps at her fingertips throughout.
AMANDA HAGGARD
If for no other reason than I think she deserves to be heard in her own voice on the matters of her own life, Megan Barry’s story of her tenure as mayor is worth reading, particularly if you followed any of the coverage of her resignation from her seat. Barry comes off as transparent, and the book is as much a mini history of that era in Nashville as it is a telling of her story. If you run in any Metro circles at all, there’s a story or two in there for you.
AMANDA HAGGARD
By Ross Gay
Ross Gays’s Inciting Joy: Essays reads much like how I imagine a conversation with me feels like: footnotes on footnotes, stories within stories and a sort of “we will get there, I promise” that only folks that want to get there with you will continue with. It’s a good thing the message and beauty buried in these asides is wonderful. Though I can’t say the same of my vocal ramblings, Gay always manages to tie things together in a meaningful way. An essay on basketball might have a sidequest or two, but there’s a long game there.
AMANDA HAGGARD
By Jesse Q. Sutanto
Readers fell in love with the title character of Jesse Q. Sutanto’s 2023 cozy mystery Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Both charming and, at times, infuriating, Vera is a Chinese widow who owns a tea shop in modern-day San Francisco. When a random man dies in her shop, she becomes a de facto sleuth, and picks up stray young adults (all suspects!) in her quest for the murderer. Vera Wong's follows her on a new mystery that deepens Vera’s character and adds more danger into the mix. Snooping has loads of heart, and following Vera and her growing pack of strays makes for jaunty, relaxing reading.
ERICA
CICCARONE
By Kristin Hannah
Set during the German invasion of France, this World War II novel tells the heartbreaking story of two sisters. Each one fights the war in her own way. One as a fierce defender of her family who is forced to house a German officer, the other as a rebellious freedom fighter determined to help save her country. Of the many World War II novels I have read, this one is by far my favorite, and I recommend it as an inspirational story during uncertain political times.
JUDITH TACKETT
It’s What You Do Next: The Fall and Rise and Nashville’s First Female Mayor
By Megan Barry
Inciting Joy: Essays
The Nightingale
Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
Out of the Silent Planet
By C.S. Lewis
A Right to Housing: Maria Foscarinis on the Fight to End Homelessness
Ahead of her book release, Foscarinis reflects on her role in shaping federal homelessness policy and the urgent need to reframe how America thinks about housing
By Amanda Haggard
Many folks in the homelessness service arena know Maria Foscarinis’ work. In 1989, she founded the National Homelessness Law Center with the goal of using legal power to end and prevent homelessness. But before that, her first major campaign was to elicit a response from the federal government on the explosion of homelessness in the early ‘80s.
“That led to the enactment of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in 1987,” Foscarinis details to The Contributor.
“It was a huge win at the time — Reagan was President and denying homelessness even existed. But it was only part one of the three-part proposal we were pushing — it was the emergency part, providing mainly shelter instead of housing, which was in the parts left out.”
Ahead of her time leading the National Homelessness Law Center, Foscarinis’ work on that first campaign that led to the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act took her from New York City, where she’s originally from, to Washington D.C.
“[In DC], we fought to enforce the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, including the right of homeless children to go to school and the rights of service providers to use vacant federal properties to help folks,” she says. “We also focused on addressing root causes, and we won legislation including the protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act and the housing provisions of the Violence Against Women Act.”
On June 3, Foscarinis will release her book AND HOUSING FOR ALL: The Fight to End Homelessness in America, a longform exploration of narratives around the housing crisis she’s seen over the past 35 years in America and an examination of the policies that discourage change. Her experiences in advocacy and policy work are woven in as a piece of the overall narrative.
Foscarinis answered a few questions for The Contributor ahead of her book’s release.
Can you give a bit of a sense of the highlights of your work of the past 35 years [in addition to the above work]?
In the mid 1990s, I was part of a small group of advocates who traveled to an international conference and heard about the human right to housing. I remember thinking this was an amazing concept — if we had a right to housing that would go a long day to ending homelessness. We started working on developing the idea and advocating for it here in a practical way.
In 2003 we started holding regular convenings to bring advocates together from around the country to strategize. We also turned to the international community, highlighting homelessness in the US at the
United Nations, putting more pressure on our government. We began making progress, especially at the local level.
But at the same time we were fighting the criminalization of homelessness — a trend that really started growing in the 1990s. In 1991, we began publishing regular national reports to call attention to the trend, argue against it and for constructive alternatives, and to support local groups fighting criminalization. We also went to court to challenge laws criminalizing homelessness.
In 2016 we launched the Housing Not Handcuffs campaign with advocates across the country. We wanted to make clear we weren’t just fighting against criminalization but also for housing, and we wanted to coordinate our efforts more closely.
We were making headway on both fronts — fighting criminalization and getting support for the human right to housing. Then came the Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass, followed by the election of Donald Trump for the second time.
I stepped down from leading the Law Center in 2021, but the organization is going strong with the leadership of my successor, Antonia Fasanelli.
What were your goals going into writing this book? Who were the folks you were most hoping to reach?
Homelessness is something Americans see in their daily lives, and I think many people instinctively understand that it’s part of the bigger affordable housing problem that’s gripping much of the country. But there’s a real lack of understanding about how we reached this point, and a lot of misconceptions about homelessness itself. I’ve been an advocate working to address homelessness nationally virtually since the beginning of the modern crisis, and I’ve seen up close
the deliberate policy choices that have led to it — and their impact on human beings. I wanted to tell the story of those choices and their impact in a way accessible to the general reader.
Over the years, I’ve met and worked with thousands of unhoused people, and I wanted to find a way to honor their lives and experiences. The book includes a few of their stories and voices into the narrative. My hope is that the book will not only inform but also enrage readers — and spur them to demand change.
Can you talk about how the conversation and work around homelessness has shifted toward Housing First in that time and how this book addresses that? In our community in Nashville, we see a lot of folks, organizations using the term in their work, but maybe not fully believing in or adhering to the strategy. What does it take to make that kind of shift happen?
Housing First is a critical programmatic strategy backed by mountains of evidence that it works. Over time, federal policy shifted to embrace and prioritize it as an approach. A key problem, however, is that for Housing First to work you need housing. The federal shift towards Housing First has not been accompanied by an increase in funding for housing — that is the fundamental problem. Housing First is now being criticized by Trump and his supporters for not ending homelessness — but that is totally misplaced. Housing First can and does end homelessness when it is backed by funding for housing. But it’s never been funded at scale.
My book discusses this at length and contrasts Finland, a country that invests substantial resources into housing as well as other social services that people need. This is why they have made so much progress in ending homelessness. They also have a right to housing in their constitution and a public narrative that supports housing for all.
For folks who work in this field for a long period of time, the narratives are not just narratives when they get put to paper. Can you speak to writing a book that I know must've called up some really difficult moments and memories for you? Sometimes previous failures, and even successes, can be difficult to put out there.
Even after so many years I still find it enraging that people can be so desperately poor in a country with so much wealth. Homelessness does not have to exist in a rich country like the U.S. It’s hard to have worked so long for solutions — and to know they are possible, given the political will to put them in place — and yet they have
not been because that will is lacking. So many people are suffering so much and so needlessly. I try to remind myself that our work has helped many people and that without it things would be even worse. That’s something, but cold comfort to people who are suffering, and I felt a lot of outrage as I was writing the book. I hope readers will also be outraged and moved to take action to demand change — that is how we can create the political will that is essential for action.
I also write about advocacy that is going on at this very moment in communities around the country — advocacy for social housing especially, which is a key way to implement the human right to housing. That advocacy is scoring victories and that gives me hope. It also shows that change really is possible if enough people mobilize to demand it.
I hope my book will contribute in some way to spurring that change.
I want to ask about the challenge of "pitching" housing for all in our current social and political climate. Obviously, it would be ideal if folks could come to understand the basic humanity around roofs over heads, but there's an unfortunately large group of people who don't seem quite moved yet. It seems basic to ask, but what do you find most moves people who are normally rigid in their thoughts around homelessness and/or poverty?
This is something I address in the book, and I think there are several answers.
First, more and more people now have some kind of direct connection to homelessness. They may know someone who has experienced it, or, more likely they’ve felt the effects of high housing costs themselves and can see or can be helped to see the connection to homelessness.
Some people have religious or spiritual beliefs that promote caring for one’s neighbors and fellow human beings, or philosophical beliefs about how we are all interdependent.
Some people understand — or can be helped to understand — that without meeting their basic survival needs — like stable housing — people can’t truly or fully participate in society. Homelessness undermines the foundations of democracy. President Franklin Roosevelt spoke to this around the time of the New Deal.
Finally, there’s also a financial argument: According to many studies, ending homelessness with housing saves money. Even if you don’t care about anything else, you might still care about saving money.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Q&A with Martesha Johnson Moore
The head of Nashville’s Public Defender’s Office talks development, expansion
Nashville native Martesha Johnson Moore has devoted her career to serving and representing indigent people. In 2018, she became the first African American and only second woman to be elected as Nashville’s Chief Public Defender.
Since 2009, she has served as a lawyer in the Nashville Public Defender’s Office, but said there was still an incredible learning curve after she was elected.
“I was doing direct representation and then, when I became the Chief Public Defender, that role flipped from direct representation to high-level administration,” she says.
One of the things Johnson said would have been helpful to know is how frustrating things sometimes can be, especially when she feels unheard.
“I represent people that are easily cast aside and not listened to, and so that can sometimes fall on my plate as well,” she says. “I knew that was going to be a challenging role. I don't think I had any idea of just how challenging and how overwhelming it can be at times with all the various responsibilities.”
What does a chief public defender actually do?
I am the administrator for our office. The public defender’s office role is to represent people who are charged with crimes and cannot afford to hire a lawyer to represent them. In those situations, the court will appoint us because anybody who is charged with a crime is entitled to and has the right to a lawyer. My office, we are the entity that represents people who cannot afford to hire their own lawyer.
I am responsible for the hiring, recruiting, training and the development of lawyers and support staff in the office. I manage the overall budget of the Public Defender’s Office and advocate [for] what that really looks like. I do all of the meetings with the other stakeholders like the district attorney general, the sheriff, the judges, the mayor.
I also do direct assignments. I am responsible for putting the lawyers in the various courts and assigning them to their particular judge, managing their caseloads, hearing client concerns, and responding to [those concerns], and also maintaining our actual physical office building. So, I'm the one responsible for all things “public defender.”
How has your advocacy role changed over time?
It's become a more global advocacy role. When I was doing direct representation, I was advocating for one client at a time. Now I am advocating for the entire client base of the Public Defender’s Office. But not only that, I’m advocating for other indigent people who find themselves in the criminal legal system. I'm speaking out against injustices that happen in our city and trying to be a strong voice for how we could create a more equitable, fair, and more humane legal system in Nashville.
What are some of your office's achievements over the past few years that you would like to highlight?
I think our biggest achievements have been expansion. When I started as a public defender, we were already a wonderful office that was really trying to provide excellence and representation to our clients. [Now] we have completely expanded
BY JUDITH TACKETT
how we recruit and train people to work in our office. We have a full-time training director because we're passionate about what it means to be excellent advocates. And that means we have to train and develop people to know what they need to do in order to meet that excellence requirement.
We've hired more people in the last six years than the entire time that I was a lawyer in the Public Defender’s Office. Each year, our budget has included positions in our office, and so we've been able to expand the offerings that we are able to provide to our clients.
We have a serious felony representation team. We have expanded our juvenile division to include young adults who are our kids but are facing adult charges. They are being transferred to the adult courts. We’ve expanded the team that will provide for them. We've expanded our client advocate team and our investigative team. We have expanded our lawyer team. We have more lawyers in the office now than we have had. We have expanded our intake team, the people that you see when you come in.
We have really become a sought-after public defender’s office. We know this because law schools tell us this. Students who apply to our office are saying the reputation of the Nashville Defender’s Office is that we are one of the leaders in the field and people want to work with us. We have many achievements from schools having us on their preferred list to receiving the Community Ambassador award from Gideon's Promise, which is the premier organization that trains public defenders. I think with our partnerships and our passions and the way that we are trying to do this work, we are showing that we are committed to doing it at the highest level, and that's the thing that I'm most proud of.
How many positions does the Public Defender’s Office have?
The office currently has 110 staff members. If our budget request is successful, we’ll have 12 more positions that have been granted to us in the mayor's budget; so as long as that passes, our staffing will go up to 122 members of our team.
As the city grows, I assume you need more staff? Absolutely. Workload is an extreme challenge. We at the Public Defender’s Office are here to represent people that can't afford a lawyer. There
are many indigent people in the criminal legal system. And unfortunately, even with our best efforts, we can't represent every single person who was charged with a crime because we have to be mindful of our workloads. In order to provide excellent representations of people, we have to maintain workloads that are consistent with our ability to do that.
What happens when you cannot take any more cases?
If we have a conflict and our office cannot represent someone who is charged, then the courts will appoint another lawyer to represent them. That lawyer will not be a lawyer that works in the Public Defender's Office, but a private defense attorney who takes appointed cases.
What are some of the biggest opportunities you see in Nashville to improve the justice system?
I think the biggest opportunities for us are around how we treat poor people in general in this city. That's my client base, people who are indigent. I have found that humanity in society is really cruel to people who don't have wealth.
Our biggest opportunity is to create a better justice system that isn’t cruel to poor people and works really hard to eliminate racism and bias and is not utilizing incarceration as an answer to some of our societal problems. For people who don't have access to health care for mental health treatments or drug addiction or alcohol addiction, the jail oftentimes becomes the answer to all of that.
We have to reimagine what we think about incarceration because it really shouldn't be that jail is the answer for everything. We have to be creative and bold and willing to think about justice differently than what we have historically done.
Is there anything specifically you focus on to achieve that goal of criminal justice reform?
I can't think of a specific thing. That is the root of what we do every day. It is our work day-to-day in the courthouse that reflects that. [It includes] arguing for people to receive releases that don't involve incarceration. It’s me at the executive level talking with the District Attorney and the Sheriff about ways that we think about how we are moving people through the system differently, trying to eliminate some of the overcrowding issues that exist in our jails. It's me advocating to the Mayor
about how we show what we care about in this city [by showing] what we spend our money on. And so, [we need to make] sure we are resourcing the Public Defender’s Office so that we're not furthering the disparities that exist for people to have access to justice.
Nationwide, we hear a lot about criminalization of homelessness, and Tennessee was the first state to make camping on public property a felony. What is the role of your office in trying to assist people who are arrested mainly because they have no places to go?
The role of my office is to be on the front line with our clients who are experiencing homelessness and raise the alarm about how unjust it is to be incarcerating people, taking away their liberty, solely because they don't have a place to sleep.
Spending all of those resources to incarcerate versus spending resources to build housing, to build places where they can go – this is fundamentally wrong. Our role in all of that is to fight about it and try to convince people of better options and better ways to treat our neighbors who don't have a home.
The federal government is now constantly attacking any DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and justice approach. How does that impact your work?
Any state law or federal mandate has an impact on how we do our work. If sentencing passes an elimination of DEI law, which we have in this state, then I have to follow the law. That's a part of what my role is, and it makes it difficult to recruit and retain the absolute best people to do this work because what we know is that when we embrace our differences and our diversity of mindset, our diversity of where we come from, our diversity of what we look like, we really build a community of thought that helps us be our best selves in our office.
We've always been committed to hiring the best people for the work, so I don't think that's going to change the way we approach this anyway, but I think we weaponized the term DEI so much that we really need to get back to the reality and that is [when we have] different people at the table, we can interact better. If everybody thinks alike, looks alike, walks alike, talks alike, then we don't have the ability to effectuate change in the right ways.
Do the recent ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) activities at the state level trickle down to your office?
We represent people who are charged with crimes. We do that regardless of what their immigration status is. If somebody has been charged with a crime in Nashville, and they qualify for our services, we're going to represent them.
The Supreme Court requires this to go one step further. Not only will we represent them in their criminal cases, we also have to know enough to be able to advise them about how their criminal charges will affect their ability to get any immigration status. We have a responsibility to people who are charged with crimes and have immigration concerns. We make sure we're on top of that when we're representing them. So that hasn't changed for us.
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.
Prepárate: Herramientas para Proteger tu Negocio ante Investigaciones Migratorias
por Inmig ración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) en el condado d e D av i d s o n durante un operativo coordinado con la Patr ulla de Caminos de Tennessee (THP) La operación incluyó casi 600 paradas de tráfico, principalmente en áreas con alta población latina
D e l o s a r r e s t a d o s , 9 5 t e n í a n antecedentes o cargos pendientes, y 31 habían reing resado ile galmente al país tras una de por tación previa, lo que constituye un delito federal
Este clima de tensión ha generado preocupación en la comunidad Pequeños negocios en el sur de Nashville donde se concentraron muchas de estas acciones repor tan una caída drástica en ventas, ya que muchos clientes han optado por limitar sus salidas para evitar quedar atrapados en situaciones que puedan inter r umpir sus planes cotidianos de compras, cenas o desplazamientos, así como retrasar su reg reso a casa o afectar su r utina diaria
Ante esta realidad, la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville (NAHCC), junto con organizaciones nacionales aliadas, está respondiendo con un prog rama urgente y esencial:“Her ramientas para Prote ger tu Ne gocio: Pre pár ate ante Investigaciones Migratorias.
Este esfuerzo ofrece recursos g ratuitos para que los pequeños empresarios y sus empleados puedan pre pararse de
for ma le gal, financiera y operativa ante auditorías mig ratorias, inspecciones del I-9, redadas o cualquier acción que pueda poner en riesgo la estabilidad de su ne gocio
1 Pre paración Le gal y Cumplimiento Re gulatorio
Uno de los documentos más importantes que todo empresario debe tener es un Poder Legal (Power of Attor ney –POA) Este per mite designar a una persona de confianza que pueda actuar en su nombre si el dueño del negocio no puede hacerlo, ya sea por una detención, emergencia mig ratoria o investigación oficial
Tener un POA no significa que esperas lo peor; significa que estás preparado para proteger tus bienes Los recursos disp onibles incluyen plantillas g ratuitas de POA diseñadas especialmente para empresarios inmig rantes Estas permiten que un re presentante maneje cuentas, fir me contratos y mantenga la continuidad operativa
Además, se brinda orientación sobre cómo actuar ante auditorías del for mulario I-9, car tas de “No Match” del
Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada?
Mantenerse callado
Sólo dar nombre y apellido
No mentir
Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos
No revelar su situación migratoria
No llevar documentación de otro país
En caso de ser arrestado, mostrar la Tarjeta Miranda sados en la Quinta Enmienda de la Constitución, derechos de guardar silencio y contar con un ogado fueron denominados Derechos Miranda go de la decisión de la Suprema Corte de Justicia Estados Unidos en el caso Miranda vs Arizona, 4 U S 436, de 1966
Seguro Social, y visitas de ICE Saber qué documentación mantener actualizada y cómo capacit ar al equipo puede ser la diferencia entre una crisis controlada o el cier re temporal del negocio
2 Apoyo Financiero y Protección de Activos
Muchos empresarios inmigrantes son los únicos fir mantes autorizados en sus cuentas bancarias Si son detenidos o investigados, esto puede paralizar las operaciones Entre las recomendaciones del programa destacan:
• Ag re gar un co-fir mante o persona autorizada a las c uentas del ne gocio
• Establecer una estr uctura le gal, como u n a L L C , p a r a s e p a r a r y p r o t e ge r bienes personales
• Abrir cuentas en bancos que ace pten ITIN, mejorando el acceso a ser vicios financieros
Disponemos de guías y plantillas para estructurar de forma segura las finanzas del negocio, proteger activos y asegurar el acceso a recursos en cualquier circunstancia
3 Preparación Operativa: Empleados y Comunidad
El temor que generan los operativos
también impacta a los empleados Por eso, la preparación inter na es clave
Se recomienda desar rollar un plan de continuidad operativa, que debe incluir:
• Lista de contactos de emergencia y re presentante le gal
• Contraseñas y accesos clave
• Documentación esencial: licencias, contratos, re gistros bancarios
• Protocolos sobre cómo actuar ante una redada o auditoría
Dispo nemos de plantillas y materiales para capacitar al personal en sus derechos y reponsabilidades y cómo responder ante la presencia de ICE en el lugar de trabajo Tener este conocimiento empodera a los dueños y a sus empleados No es cuestión de miedo, es cuestión de preparación
Un Llamado a la Acción: Los operativos recientes han demostrado que c u a l q u i e r n e go c i o, s i n i m p o r t a r s u t a m a ñ o, p u e d e ve r s e a f e c t a d o
Pre pararse no es opcional es fundam e n t a l “ P ro t e ge r t u n e go c i o e s prote ger tu esfuerzo, tu familia y tu comunidad,” afir ma Yuri Cunza, presidente de la NAHCC “Queremos que cada empresario sepa que hay h e rra m i e n t a s c o n c re t a s p a ra enfrentar estos tiempos difíciles ”
La NAHCC ofrece a los empresarios, y a sus miembros, acceso g ratuito a plantillas de POA, guías le gales, recursos financieros y talleres educativos
✅ Lista de Preparación Empresarial:
• Poder Le gal actualizado
• Persona autorizada en cuentas bancarias
• Plan de continuidad operativa
• Empleados capacitados ante redadas o auditorías
• Documentación organizada y se gura
Infór mate y prote ge tu ne gocio en: www nashvillehispanicchamber com
Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper com ó 615-582-3757
Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @LaNoticiaNe ws
Año 23 - No 414 Nashville, Tennessee
“DONDE OCURREN LOS HECHOS QUE IMPORTAN, SIEMPRE PRIMERO... ANTES”
Over the past several years there have been a great number of people who simply can’t understand my faith in Jesus Christ. When I inventory my entire life, I can’t ever understand why at times I simply couldn’t see the obvious. I am human in every way.
I was for the most part raised up until a teenager in Iowa. I was always blessed with talents of every kind, but could never really see it as a blessing. In fourth grade during the year of our Bicentennial I won a contest for short story writing. I actually took a ribbon for first place and somehow was also awarded fourth place as well. The chess club was also wanting me badly as I was able to easily defeat anyone, and I probably read half of the library books as well.
Gym class was different than it is today. You were required to participate and run. I missed the day everyone had to run the 880, which is a long run. So, I had to stay after school one day and make it up. The gym teacher blew the whistle and I took off running around the track not really paying attention because it was only me. As I was coming in for the finish, I could see the gym teacher excited and waving his arms as to say, “Hurry up!” So I stepped on it as I got closer. I was panting as I finished and heard him say, “You just shattered the school record!!”
I was enrolled at Madison Elementary in Davenport, Iowa. It really didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. All I did was run. The school was the avenue that was provided for me to collect up some memories and ribbons. Soon I was wanted in football and other sports. However, I
The Madison Finish Line
BY JEFFREY W., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR
shied away. I was just that way.
Not too long ago I went on this ultra long bicycle ride. Before it began, I have to admit that I was being a little down in the dumps about turning 60 years old. When I began, it hurt like hell to pedal a bicycle up and down all the hills of Tennessee and Georgia. My knees were hurting before I even left. Every day I would endure the pain knowing that Jesus blew the whistle and this was the pathway he chose for me to get over the mental and the physical problems I was letting overtake me.
I never really knew my destination. I just went everyday as far as I could and then pitched a tent for the night. Highway 231 was my route south. The highway ends in Panama Beach, Fla. From there I continued further south, eventually staying along the Gulf of Mexico. I made my way through the Everglades and then crossed over to Key Largo, Fla. When I crossed Seven Mile Bridge, I remembered the Wheaties commercial from decades ago where a man was riding his bike in a race to the victory. Jesus was waiving me into the finish line that last 125 miles of the race. On Christmas Day, I ended the race in Key West. This is the U.S. Hwy #1. It ends on a street with my same last name, “Whitehead.” I was blown away by the crowds of people. A merchant had a snow machine blowing snow. I could only smile inside as I understood that Whitehead was still #1 and being 60 years old wouldn’t stop me from doing anything at all!!!! The avenue was the bike ride and all I had to do was pay attention to the whistle and go.
Making It Through The Storm
BY MAURICE B.., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR
From moon rise till the next rising of da moon it’s all bout getting how one is built. Many were born to loose, but fight very, very hard to win. The aspects of this type of fight are vastly different than what many others would call a normal fight.
Every time you feel you’ve accomplished something there’s always something or someone that’s trying to hold you down or back from sustaining the full potential in your life. The fact that we have actually achieved a goal that has allowed us to feel free and able to move forward, is the same reason why someone or something tries to hold us still.
For instance, look at an individual who has been incarcerated and is coming out of incarnation after they repaid their debt to society. They repaid that debt by staying within the concrete jungles — an area that also includes the horrible aspects of one’s dignity being shattered and some having to deal with the inevitable consequences of 23 & 1.
When an individual must live inside of a world, inside of a small world, and sometimes inside of an even smaller world, the question becomes, since an individual is down at their bottom, is the only thing left to move up?
When you enter the classification phase of the system you are stripped from all your man or woman hood and forced to become nude in front of others where you are
searched, showered and issued state clothes to be assured that you are identified differently from other people on the outside, but then housed amongst individuals that are clearly seen as having the same mental capacities and characteristics.
After these individuals have accesses the proper channels, finished their sentences, and completed the work of being paroled there are still 1000 people holding their legs as they strive to climb towards success.
And what about individuals that messed up and allowed alcohol or street drugs to get the best of them? Then they pulled up and went to rehab and got clean or sober and began to start to search for employment. Then individuals that are occasional drinkers or people that are hidden users nag about them wanting to be and do better.
What about those that hit rock bottom and end up at one of the missions or in a camp, and they get sick and tired of being sick and tired of sleeping here or there and wondering were their next meal is coming from and tired of smelling bad so they began to do better. Individuals just stare and laugh as they present themselves in a better manner.
It’s a cold game out there. As one plays, just remember that there is one that will always play harder. The game surely goes in circles. It surly won’t rain forever. Guarantee the sun will shine.
Not too long after this event I was told by a person at The Contributor office that my name had come up for an apartment. I had gotten to the point where I really no longer cared. The thought of anything different than the way I was living had really slipped away. The name of the apartments that my name had come up at ironically was the Madison Towers in Madison, Tenn.
Irony is that 50 years after my first Madison Elementary finish line, here come the next one. I actually had a conversation with a man while on the bike about something called the Year of Jubilee in the Bible. This is a year of new beginning as the old things pass away in a person’s life and the next beginning unfolds. When I went to Madison Towers let there be no doubt that the right person was there to greet me. She was probably the only one that really had the ability to wave me into the finish line. We both knew that this had a divine thing involved. There was no favor as far as protocol, that would be wrong to do.
I asked for the help of a particular person at The Contributor office as well. Serious mistakes were made in the past by a person working there. This is why we all should fully understand that an entity is only that. It’s just like a store or anything else. Without the people it’s just a worthless building. So, to the people only I say, “Thank you.” That however is no slap in the face to the entity. They provide the avenue.
I witnessed this for years on the streets of Nashville. People falsely think the organization is to thank. The opposite is actually true. It’s only the avenue that can hand the right person a whistle and
the ability to wave that one personal a time into the finish line. I am really happy about the place of my jubilee and finish line. Only Jesus Christ could provide a one hundred percent true story that has this kind of flare. There is no other explanation, especially given the fact that I could probably share hundreds of stories like this that have an actual template. Just as a cookie cutter provides a perfect shape for a Christmas cookie, my story matches up precisely to the King James Version.
Carlie Tharp is the agent at The Contributor that agreed to help me get across the finish line at Madison. I am not an easy person to help at all. Things happen on the streets and you get to the point of not having trust. This is actually earned the hard way. Eventually the sentiment of us against them can actually set in and this becomes a bad place to be.
I am very grateful the avenue was provided and that everything went great. Now the next whistle has already blown and what lies ahead would be for a book that I have been working on to get a blue ribbon. Time will tell if the one who has the Jubilee cookie cutter had that incorporated into it or not. When you are blessed to see that which was, that which now actually is, you can’t help but marvel and wonder what in the world is yet to come. I really don’t like getting a hand out. The hand up is what I believe in. The task before me is to honor every American by demonstrating the investment they have made in my future. They, just as I once also did, pay taxes to provide opportunity to the vast number of people. God Bless.
ARTWORK BY TEE
HOBOSCOPES
GEMINI
If I get outside early in the morning before it gets too hot, I might see a hummingbird sipping on my jasmine flowers. They really seem to enjoy the imported delicacy. And I usually get a brief moment of appreciating the beauty of the soft hovering lightning that brightly-colored bird brings to my porch. And then, without fail, I think “I should take a picture.” So I reach in my pocket for my phone and before I can get the screen unlocked the bird darts away. Now I’m disappointed and regretting that I didn’t move more subtly. And I’ve missed half the moment that I could have had if I’d just stayed still. The less you try to capture these perfect moments, Gemini, the more of them you get to keep.
CANCER
I didn’t plant any tomatoes this year. I just couldn’t get myself to do it. I pulled up a few weeds and threw down some marigold seeds, but I just wasn’t feeling up for the whole “gardening” thing. And yet, when I look out in my garden what do I see but three little tomato plants. A couple of peppers too. Just leftover seeds from whatever I let die on the vine last year. And it reminds me, Cancer, that, sure, you may reap what you sow, but sometimes you also reap whatever just happens. And sometimes you get more than you deserve. Don’t forget that when you’re deciding who deserves to share the harvest.
LEO
I forget, Leo, how long does it take to boil an egg? Am I supposed to put the eggs in the cold water and then boil or drop them in once the boil starts? Should I salt the water to get the temperature up or is that gonna break my shells? Do I need vinegar or is that just for poaching? Tell you what, Leo, get back to me when you have all this info ready. I’m gonna swing by the drive thru at Ned’s Egg Shed. They always cook them just right. Plus the hash browns are perfect. Sometimes, Leo, it’s the day to learn to do it for yourself. Sometimes it’s the day to let Ned take care of it so you can get to work on other things.
VIRGO
Two styrofoam boxes of leftover beans and rice from your enchilada combo. Two round plastic containers of curry with the tofu picked out and one clamshell of stiffening noodles that used to have broccoli in them. Half a pack of fries that won’t reheat right. Half a coke with the ice melted. The fridge is packed but there’s nothing to eat for dinner, Virgo. Start by throwing out everything you know you won’t really eat. You’ve got to compost some bad decisions if you’re going to find the things that will keep you going for the next phase. Now you can see what’s really in there. And, hey, looks like that leftover chili from Thursday is gonna pair well with the potato you forgot you bought last month. You just have to clear the junk, Virgo. You’ve got what you need.
LIBRA
I can’t keep up with all these changes at the National Astrological Board. They just issued a statement that Libras no longer need to read a horoscope every week. They say once a month should be enough unless you have complicating factors like “chronic dissatisfaction” or “unspecified worry.” But you’re so well adjusted, Libra, that I can’t imagine you’ll need the extra astrological wisdom. Still, I don’t think it could hurt if you just want to drop by to check-in. Maybe you’ll see something you can use to encourage a Scorpio or correct a Sagittarius. Just don’t tell the dweebs at N.A.B. I said that. I could lose my license.
SCORPIO
There’s a man building a fence in my backyard. One of those tall privacy jobs. It’s not for me. It’s the new neighbors. I guess that old chain-link just wasn’t giving them enough solitude. I mean, sure, everytime I would step outside wearing nothing but a towel and my astrologer’s cap to stare into the night sky looking for answers, I knew they could see me from their kitchen window. But I thought it was community-building. I’ve heard something about better fences making better neighbors, and that might be true, Scorpio. But before you shut out any part of the world, make sure you have a plan to be the better neighbor once the fence is built.
SAGITTARIUS
Sometimes technology scares me, Sagittarius. I saw a video this week of a man outrunning a train to save a baby and then I found out it was all A.I. It never even happened. It was a made up man, a made up baby, and a made up train. But I believed it and that makes me not trust myself. And that kind of thing is going to keep happening, I guess. More and more ways to keep us from trusting our senses. I think the only way to fight back is by trusting each other. We have to make real connections with real people and then we have to believe that those can hold weight. And when they fail, we can forgive and move on. And that made up baby is just gonna have to wait.
CAPRICORN
I saw that new movie, Capricorn, and it’s exactly what you think. I more or less knew the whole plot just from the title. Not to mention that they gave away every twist in the trailer. But I’m still glad I went, Capricorn, because even without novelty or surprise, stories are worth telling. That goes for you, too. If you find yourself wanting to hold back or be quiet just because you’re afraid of being boring or under-planned, remember that we want to hear each other’s stories. We need to. You don’t even have to wait until the movie is over to tell us what you’ve got going on. We’ve seen this one before.
AQUARIUS
Twice a year in Hawaii the sun is positioned so directly overhead that nothing on the ground casts a shadow. It’s called Lahaina Noon and it’s stranger than it sounds. We’re so used to shadows as part of a scene that pictures from this solar event look fake. Like the artist forgot to add shading. I feel like we’re in a Lahaina period right now, Aquarius. Nothing is covered up, it’s all perfectly lit from above. It’s a great day to see the world for what it is. And while you’re at it, show the world who you are too.
PISCES
My friend has one of those self-driving cars. He says it works great, but he never really goes anywhere. He asked if I could pick up burgers and we could just hang at his place tonight. I’m grateful for the time together, but it would be fun if we could go out someplace else for once. Maybe he just finally reached the mountain top. He doesn’t really have to work anymore except for answering a few Slack messages and making a video for his subscribers. And now he doesn’t even have to steer anymore either. I wonder, Pisces, if it’s sometimes the challenges in life that keep us going. We need barriers to overcome or we won’t even want to go. Lucky for us, Pisces, those barriers just keep coming. Maybe you can steer around this one.
ARIES
Sometimes it feels like I’m just a day late to everything. For instance, I’m finally getting into watching sumo wrestling only to learn that Hakuhō Shō, one of the greatest sumo wrestlers of all time, retired four years ago. If I’d only gotten here sooner I could have seen him complete the 15th perfect zenshō-yūshō of his career in 2019. But I’m here now. And so is Ōnosato Daiki who finished 14-1 in the spring tournament, catapulting him to becoming the 75th Yokozuna in history. You can’t be where you wish you’d been, Aries. But you can be where you are.
TAURUS
There’s a “Now Hiring Experienced Cashiers” sign on the front door at my job. But nobody even told me we were looking for help. I cover the nights and Lonnie still works the mornings. I never see Cindy, but she works afternoons. Why would we need anybody else? Do you think they’re trying to replace me? Do you think I should apply? Is this because I forgot to vacuum last weekend? What if this is the end for me at Wandering Hills Super Video and Tan? How will I pay rent? Oh wait. I was trying to read it backwards through the door. The sign says “Now Honoring Expired Coupons.” It’s amazing how the mind can fill in the gaps, Taurus. What would happen if we just worked with the information we actually have?
Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a trained egg boiler or a verified AI. Listen to the Mr. Mysterio podcast at mrmysterio.com Or just give him a call at 707-VHSTAN1.
New Pee-Wee Herman documentary is a unique portrait of an artist and an iconic character
Pee-Wee as Himself opens with actor Paul Reubens looking directly into the camera, having a friendly disagreement with the movie’s director, Matt Wolf. Reubens thinks directing his own documentary is a good idea even though everybody else tells him the resulting movie would be lacking in objective perspective. Reubens emphasizes that he’s not interested in a “legacy movie” and only hopes to “set the record straight on one or two things ....” The chat cuts to black before onscreen text informs viewers that this interview was shot shortly before Reubens death on July 30, 2023. Reubens had been privately battling cancer for six years. Wolf and his crew didn’t know that. They captured 40 hours of interviews with the actor and the creator of iconic comic character, Pee-Wee Herman.
Reubens was — perhaps unsurprisingly — a kid with a big imagination. He talks over a collage of family photos and archival footage, waxing about staring at the patterns on the wallpaper as an infant, and listing the early television programs that
BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC
had an enduring influence on his growing young creative mind: Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, The Mickey Mouse Club Reubens’ parents were a fun, loving couple. His mother had a gift for dramatic storytelling, and his father was a larger-thanlife figure: a daredevil pilot who helped to found the Israeli Air Force. Reubens’ doting younger sister became his first creative collaborator. Reubens decided they should dress up as a lumberjack and a princess on Halloween. Reubens was the princess. His sister was the lumberjack. Reubens’ father built the kids a stage in their basement, and Reubens became a pint-sized Orson Welles, directing productions of neighborhood children in an atmosphere of creative chaos just like the one Reubens saw on The Little Rascals television program.
From a young age Reubens was magnetized to the crude black-and-white images on his television screen. He was sometimes sure that his parents were imposters and that Lucy and Ricky were his real family. In the documentary he refers to climbing
inside of the television or living in a television world more than once. And like many young creative people, he spent a lot of time daydreaming about how he could escape the Northern Appalachian hinterland of Oneonta, New York, and make his way across the country to the West Coast and Hollywood.
The Contributor’s readers might feel their ears prick up at Pee-Wee’s Appalachian connections, and the documentary also fills-in Reubens’ adolescence in Sarasota, Florida. Sarasota is the former winter headquarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus — the whole place was steeped in circus lore and the community was full of circus folks: acrobats, animal trainers, contortionists and clowns. Reubens attended a circus summer camp that was essentially an early training ground for the local show industry. Lots of Nashvillians will know about Chattanooga’s own Wayne White’s Emmy-winning set and character designs for Reubens’ Pee-Wee’s Playhouse television show, but finding out more about Reuben’s
connections to the weird deep South is one of this documentary’s best revelations.
Pee-Wee Herman might seem like a creation of spontaneous genius, but the character was a result of years of creative development, education and treading the boards with the sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings. Pee-Wee carried Reubens from comedy clubs and tiny theaters to international stardom, but what about the artist behind the character? And what about the man behind the artist? Wolf’s documentary is formalist and intelligent, and equal to its subject. For all of Reubens’ eccentricity, he was an exacting, hard working artist, and this unique portrait adds another welcome chapter to the PeeWee-verse.
Pee-Wee as Himself is streaming on MAX
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/ songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.
