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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2011)
7 Street roots Jan. 21, 2011 Getting back on your feet, with support BY SAM AL-JONDI blowing from every direction. It was raining and because the wind kept changing o one was born to say, “I want to be direction, it was very hard to find a dry spot homeless when I grow-up.” It is an where one could put a sleeping bag or experience that does not appear on blanket. A group of us gathered under the anyone’s radar screen. When you have Broadway Bridge and we each found a dry reached adulthood: You have a job, a wife spot where we could lay our heads. There and a mortgage. Everything is hunky-dori were four of us. and is going according to plan. A short time later a woman on a bike Then any number of things can happefi. 1 made her way to us. She put her bedding Your job gets outsourced to China or India down and lay down on her blankets. She had o r any number of other places on earth no tarp..Everyone fell asleep, cold, listening where labor can be obtained cheaper. After to rain and wind whipping up around the all, the corporation that we work for is out bridge. Like I said, the wind kept changing to make a profit, so if need be, that might direction. When I awoke again, I uncovered mean shipping your job overseas. If this my head from the tarp and sleeping bag-to happens, it can all start to fall apart. You see the woman getting up. She was literally lose your mortgage, the bank takes your soaking wet and shivering. She boarded her house and in the process, you lose your wife bike and le ft I looked at the sky and and family. Then, for many, they end up out thought, “what is wrong with you?” on the streets. I woke later that morning to a man Of course, there are many reasons for kicking my feet demanding to see some I.D. . people ending up on the streets, but the It was a police officer that had driven his results are the same. You find yourself car under a portion of the bridge. He took walking around - feeling like the world is each of our I.D. cards. I feared what he closing in on you. You see no hope on the might do. My heart raced. He took our horizon. You forget what to even hope for. names and gave us a warning, but said next Somehow you can’t help blaming yourself- time we would be arrested for trespassing. and believing it’s your fault You believe you Something inside of me felt like a boxer can’t escape i t You know you must take down on my knees. All I could hear was the responsibility for yourself. This is the voice of my coach who’s mouth barely psychological drama you find yourself living reaches the platform, yelling at me, “Get in, right beside your physical need for up. Get up, you bum. You can win. You can shelter and food. Some people simply give get out of this. Get up and fight” up and resort to drugs o r other things to For me, my coaches in this circumstance cope. Others are able to hold on and search are people like Israel Bayer, Joanne Zuhl, for that roadmap to living again. Kreeg Peoples at Street Roots, the people Not all the homeless are good and not all of the Northwest Pilot Project and Rebecca, them are bad, but none of them deserve to Jason, Jessica and the children who get up suffer and die on th e streets. A lot of them a t 5 a.m. to go to Blanchet House to serve are vets who put their life on the line to the homeless. I hear their voices saying, protect this country, and its way of life, “Get up. You can do this. F ight” They are ultimately, protecting the haves sitting in the voice of that coach who belived in me their mansions. and helped me win. I have experienced homelessness. My I am not out of this nightmare yet, but I own set of circumstances put me there, and am on my fe e t It is indeed the American I want to talk about some of my spirit and the great hearts of the people experiences. and services I mention that are making the One cold night recently, the wind was difference. C O N T R IB U T IN G V E N D O R H S a m Al-Jondi is a Street Roots Vendor Ocean Michael Vance Spew forth your relentless power Come crashing over these buildings drown these freeways and overpasses leave not one courthouse or police car behind when the tide retreats. Let the high rises sink to the deepest abyss. I’ll be on my lifeboat popping the bubbles as they surface with an American flag pole in my hands and a shit eating grin on my face. We’re starting this mother fucker over! Amen. Untitled sonia i. french Oldies, classic rock, playing on the FM shaking memories loose I can't turn down the volume on my past It screams decibels over the sound of my future Two year old E m m ett Quigley stuffs dollar bills into the Panera Cares Cafe donation box as his aunt, Julieanne Quigley reads the mission statem ent o f the shared-responsibility restaurant. The Hollywood Panera has become Panera Cares Cafe, a nonprofit business that offers suggested donations fo r goods. I f people can’t afford to pay, they can pay less, or nothing a t all. PHO TO BY KEN HAW KINS
