Street roots., January 18, 2013, Page 6, Image 6

street roots
Jan. 18, 2013
Finging
inspiration
Life’s Quiet
H eart Beating
By Ja ck A r m s t r o n g , Jr.
among
new friends
Life is very short with time.
Love is even shorter every day.
Hate needs a second, to be forever.
Sleep gives relief, our happy dream.
BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT
Life can be, too long with pain.
Walking, all alone, can be torture.
Sharing a meal, brings heartfelt joy.
Death of a partnership, makes cold tears.
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
t is not hard to find Johnny Williams and
Paula Ramirez at their spot across the
street from City Hall. Johnny joyfully
calls out greetings and jokes to passersby
beside his partner Paula.
We sit inside the Starbucks just off of
Southwest Fifth Avenue and Main Street,
across from City Hall as Johnny and Paula
share their experiences of losing their
homes, being without shelter in Portland,
selling Street Roots, and looking for
employment.
I
Life shall glow with justice, be kind.
Holding someone’s hand gives both hope.
A kiss, like butterflies, flows nose to toes.
Where does greed take our humanity?
Life for a homeless being-hurts all.
War has too many loser-just everything.
Peace is water falling, flowing always.
Be kind. Find it’s enlightenment, now...
1 1!
Johnny and Paula
A Culinary
Fundraiser for
Transition
Projects
Thursday, February 21
6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Urban Studio
935 NW Davis Street
Tickets available
exclusively at
www.soupforthesoul.org
Transition
Projects
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Like many Americans experiencing
poverty, Johnny and Paula find that
homelessness and joblessness often feed
one another in a seemingly inescapable
cycle.
“AT&T: The three things you need to get
a job,” Johnny tells me, “Address,
telephone, and transportation.” Johnny is
full of such phrases and aphorisms that
keep me laughing throughout the interview.
The two have an infectious positivity and
spirit that no doubt keep them afloat during
rougher times, such as when the stigma of
poverty threatens to demoralize them.
“When we used to keep our stuff on his
walker,” says Paula, “covered by a tarp,
sometimes the MAX wouldn’t even stop for
us because it would look like a shopping
cart, even though we have a pass.” Paula, a
short, shy, bespectacled woman bundled up
against the winter chill, often acts as
caretaker and a source of quiet strength for
Johnny, a jolly Southerner with a salt and
pepper beard and hair, and ever-smiling
eyes.
Johnny was born with a physical
disability, which - he shows me - causes
both his knees to bend completely
backward. While they both admit that times
have been hard lately they also say that
finding one another has been a blessing.
The two met in September while waiting
in line for a spot at the Right 2 Dream Too,
the tent refuge at NW 4th and Burnside.
Paula had just moved to Portland from
P H O T O BY COLE M ER K EL
Aurora after her home had been foreclosed
on when she met Johnny, a Texas transplant
who had already been experiencing
homelessness for almost two years.
“He started talking to me,” Paula says,
“We’ve been inseparable ever since.” They
draw on one another’s incredible strength
them pay to stay at Dignity Village, a
welcome reprieve from sleeping under
bridges and nightly trying to find a spot at a
shelter that has space for them, is handicap
accessible, and will accept them. Often,
Johnny and Paula found themselves turned
and spirit. Johnny had resigned himself to
use resources meant specifically for
individuals coping with substance abuse and
addiction. Unfortunately, there are few
shelters specifically available for clean and
sober couples.
For now Johnny and Paula are focused on
selling Street Roots to make ends meet and
finding Paula a writing opportunity.
However, if all goes well, in the future they
will be living together in a home of their
very own. Johnny shares one last saying
with me, a Jessie Jackson quote he lives by.
It’s about having the spirit to pick oneself
up and continue on even when life’s
circumstances have gotten you down.
Though the exact quote escapes me, Paula
and Johnny no doubt embody the sentiment
in their own lives. They, rather than Jesse
Jackson, managed to move and inspire me
that day.
away for being a couple or for attem pting to
living from shelter to shelter indefinitely
before he met Paula, a poet previously
published in Street Roots, who told him that
she was determined to get back into a
permanent home. Her determination
encouraged Johnny to adopt the same
resilient attitude.
“She inspires me to keep going,” says
Johnny. The two share a romantic glance.
Since being together they have managed to
move from staying at shelters and Right 2
Dream Too, to having their own place at
Dignity Village, a transitional encampment
located near Portland International Airport.
There they have access to a propane heater,
a commons room with a television, a
sundries store, and a secure place to keep
their things while they are out during the
day so they no longer have to carry it with
them on Johnny’s walker under a tarp.
Selling Street Roots for the past helps
Street Roots strives for accuracy, but we're
human. So we also strive to correct errors in our
oaper whenever possible. Please report any errors
:o our managing editor, Joanne Zuhl, at 503-228-
5657, or write to joanne@streetroots.org
VENDOR WORK ADS
Available for light work, cleaning, and
shopping. Assignments will get done!
Contact Essie at 503-901-9594
Jon Cornelison is available for
murals, custom work, tattoo design,
acrylic painting and sculpture.
scifiacidwarp@gmail.com
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& FUN
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