August 27, 2024 • 58 mins
Join us for a compelling conversation with JW, an unhoused gentleman I met outside my gym in downtown Nashville. The episode begins with my personal frustrations as a business owner dealing with safety and cleanliness concerns outside the gym, only to be challenged by JW's perspective on empathy and understanding for those living on the streets. Can we truly balance the needs of both communities? This eye-opening discussion aims to break down stereotypes and foster a more compassionate approach.
The conversation extends to dismantling societal prejudices and urging a call for greater awareness and connection. JW shares insights into the mental freedom that comes from living without a conventional schedule, juxtaposed with the need for simple solutions like secure storage for belongings. We stress the importance of small acts of communication and standing up for one's beliefs as steps toward a more empathetic society. Tune in to listen to our vision for a more connected, aware community, and how you can play a part in making it a reality.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
we are back in the booth and I'm sean booth and
thank you guys for tuning in.
We got a fun episode today.
I got a very special guest tomy left, which I'll intro here
in a minute.
So whether you're listeningfrom st louis, missouri, we got
a couple guys in here from StLouis Area code was a 314.
314.
, 314.
Or you're listening fromSyracuse, new York, or Austin,
(00:31):
texas.
Thank you guys for tuning in.
We appreciate the love, weappreciate the support and I'm
excited for this next hour, as Ihave a guest to my left and I
just want to kind of set thescene up here to how we got here
in these seats.
As you know, I own a gym rightdowntown.
It's actually right down theroad here from the studio and a
(00:53):
few Fridays ago a gentlemanwalked up to me and asked to
talk and we sat down and we hada good conversation for about an
hour and I don't know if youremember your first question you
were asking me how I felt aboutthe homeless outside of the gym
that we're using an outlet.
So there's an outlet rightoutside the gym that has had a
(01:18):
lot of people from Nashville,homeless in particular, coming
and hanging out and we kind ofwere going back and forth a
little bit about it and you weretelling me your side of things,
I was telling you my side ofthings as a business owner.
And then we just sat down andhad a great conversation and I
ultimately asked you what youwant to do.
(01:39):
And you said you wanted to do apodcast one day.
And I said, well, I actuallyhave a podcast, so do you want?
Said well, I actually have apodcast, so do you want to come
on my show and have aconversation Because you're
providing a lot of insight to me?
You said let's do it.
We got you here in the building.
Everybody give it up for JW.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I really want to thank you forreal, just having a heart to see
what you saw when you saw thatplug and those people
congregating which could be anuisance to what you got going
(02:19):
on or what you potentially couldhave going on.
Instead, you still saw, you hada heart to see the need of what
was going on there.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Your thing was your investment there, but who knows
what they think was Right.
You know what I'm saying and weall live by a phone today, and
if you don't have it charged,you might as well toss it in the
closest creek you run across.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Because it's going to do nothing for you if it don't
have a charge.
You can't even do AI if itdon't have a charge.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
So I'm glad that you saw theneed and it was striking to me
that maybe a person who have nothad the experiences of living
(03:07):
on the street right, uh, mostpeople who don't have the
experience of living on thestreets, they really don't have
the flavor for the best decisionwhen it comes to dealing with
people that are living on thestreets right and that's um,
it's kind of a tricky situationbecause, you know, to be
(03:27):
completely honest, I have beenlike I need to get this damn
outlet out of here because ofthe negative things that it
brings.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Like, um, you know, we have a very heavy female
populated gym and so for ourmembers to go outside, they're
working out right there, runningthrough, uh, you know,
sometimes 5, 10, 15 people whoare hooting and hollering at
them or saying negative thingsto them, um, obviously makes
(03:55):
them feel uncomfortable, or thatyou have, uh, a bunch of trash
out there.
So it's like I was like, ah,this is not a good thing.
But also I understand, becausethis is their life, this is my
life, and it's divided by onebrick wall.
And then you came across totalk to me and I got to see your
(04:16):
side of that brick wall.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, we get a chance to take down that wall.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Just look across and see what's actually there.
Yeah, Exactly, just look acrossand see what's actually there,
and you know I want to be honestwith you.
I've seen your place is likeright across from the Greyhound
bus station.
I've seen just as many guysfrom Greyhound hooping and
hollering.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh, exactly Right, right yeah, because I put them
all together.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I'm not saying that in defense but, putting them all
together is not a fair shake,right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
And you know, some of the access trash there, I would
probably say 100% belongs tothose who are kind of jacking
around needing to use the plug.
Right.
I don't need to use the plug,Right.
My first thoughts when I hadapproached you.
To be honest, I wanted to seeif you were interested in seeing
how it could work.
(05:13):
Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And so I had to ask some particular questions to get
around to see if you wereinterested in how it could work.
Right, because if you were like100% done with it, you don't
care if it could work.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's done, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So I kind of wanted to see where you were with it,
yeah, and I was glad to findthat, you know, you had an ear
for it and a heart for it andsay, hey, you know, this ain't
all about me, right?
This ain't all about me, right,you know?
Yeah, and my job became to letthe population, those who are
using this plug, know that itwas not all about them.
(05:51):
You know what I'm saying, and Ithink when you have two parties
that understand it's not allabout them, you have a better
place.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right, yeah, yeah, all about them.
You have a better place, right,yeah, yeah, and I think it's uh
, like you said, unfair for meto put everybody, group
everybody together, because youknow there are a lot of people
from the greyhound who just comein for a few nights or whatever
it is, and then you have thepeople who live here right right
in downtown or, uh, near thegreyounds, and so it's
(06:25):
definitely two different parties.
Being there for six years, Ihave seen everything imaginable
from the Greyhounds or whoever'soutside.
We have seen people get shot.
We have seen just the other daya guy was for lack of better
(06:47):
words masturbating right on nextto that outlet.
Um, we've had a lady come intothe turf when I'm coaching class
with a knife, just walkstraight down.
We've had people steal mygeneral manager's uh, belonging.
So it's like every day we feellike they're like I saw a guy
chase another guy with an axeand there's cops there and
(07:08):
ambulance.
So it's like you never knowwhat you're gonna expect.
So when you approach me, I waslike, okay, I didn't know what
to expect, but I'm glad you did.
And here we are.
So, um, wanted to kind of getyour background for the
listeners and your story and howyou ended up here in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I've come to Nashville from St Louis,
missouri.
I've come to Nashville forreasons I'm learning daily.
If I knew the whole answer ofwhy I've come to Nashville, I
would probably give it to you,but I don't even know of why
I've come to Nashville.
I would probably give it to you, but I don't even know it.
I can say well, there's beensome things I've learned.
(07:52):
There's been some things I'vebeen able to do.
There's been some people I'vebeen able to help.
And those things help reveal mypurpose of coming to Nashville.
And I know that there's agreater purpose than that for me
being in Nashville.
I just had not walked into thatpurpose yet.
I have a background in education, believe it or not.
(08:14):
I spent a lot of years workingin youth development, in the
community of youth development.
I worked a lot in communitydevelopment.
I worked a lot withnot-for-profit organizations.
I feel a need just to always bein a place mentally and
(08:39):
physically, to know that youdon't live in a space by
yourself and you're alwayslooking to help another.
St Louis been there a lot ofyears.
Things have changed.
It's becoming a better placeand a worse place for others.
It just became an old place forme.
So I come to Nashville.
(09:02):
I knew nothing about Nashville,I didn't even know two streets
that crossed, and that kind ofsums up the story of my life.
I go places where I knownothing.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Right or anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Or anybody.
And it's so funny because I geta chance to talk to persons and
they be like well, I'm going togo over here because my uncle I
say, well, you ever try goingsomeplace, you never knew
anybody.
It gives you a chance and anopportunity that going home and
going around familiar faces andgoing places because you're
(09:37):
familiar with people, thosescenarios can't supply that
Going there and knowing nobody,you're talking about everything
you come up with.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You came up with so is that more of like a fresh
start or more of a trying to run?
I guess those two kind of gohand in hand.
If you want to leave a placethat you're familiar with.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I embrace the whole idea of life being a journey.
Your journey takes you whereyour journey takes you.
Your journey may take you outof conflict and another person
can say you ran, but yourjourney didn't cause for you to
run into that battle.
We have to know that we arejourney oriented and stop, you
(10:24):
know, being controlled by somany different sources out there
that I won't name.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Right, you can name them, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
You can name them, but I do want to start here, for
you and for your listeningaudience.
We want to do away with theterm homeless.
Right, it's so outdated.
The term homeless is acharacter, now it's a creature.
(10:54):
If you were to go home, if youwere to say hey, honey, I'm
bringing this homeless man homefor Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And they say, no, you're not yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
If you're having Thanksgiving dinner with him, it
won't be in here.
You know what I'm saying, andit's not that people are being
mean.
Society has created homeless asa character, and it's not a
character, it's a condition, andso I try to encourage people to
not use homeless and simply usethe term unhoused, because it
(11:27):
speaks to the condition and notthe person.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Nashville is your home.
These streets over here couldbe your home right, it's just
you don't live in a house.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Right.
So, that's unhoused is thepolitically correct term.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I don't know, that politics is involved in this,
but Right, politics is involvedin everything.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's always involved in everything.
Yeah, always involved.
Okay, yeah, and now was thatsomething that you decided on
your own that you didn't want tolive in a house, because I've
always wondered how someonecould get to that point.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Because I've always wondered how someone could get
to that point.
Well, you know a lot of.
They say all roads lead to Rome, but I know there's a lot of
roads that lead away from Romeas well.
But in reference to people whofind themselves homeless, I
don't feel like I chose it, Ifeel like it chose me.
(12:29):
You know what I'm saying.
And sometimes homelessness canbe the result of some decisions
a person made and so,inadvertently, they may have
chose homelessness withoutknowing that homelessness was on
the menu of listed choices.
(12:49):
And then you have some personswho have gone through bad
relationships with family andloved ones and it seemed best
that if they were to just leavethe environment or leave the
house, somehow that solvesthings.
And so there's a lot of reasons.
I've heard a lot of reasons whypeople become homeless, and it
(13:12):
ain't all because some guy justcouldn't get it right, just
became so outright that nobodywanted to deal with him.
Another reason for homelessnessin a lot of the cities is when,
a few years back, when MrRonald Reagan was president, his
(13:34):
administration thought it wasbest to cut down on the budget
and they closed all the mentalhealth hospitals that were
holding persons on a long-termbasis in terms of cases and
working with them, and hadcommitted to work with them
pretty much the rest of theirlife.
(13:55):
He done away with all thoseplaces and just gave everybody a
check, and that's where we aretoday.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And you say that there's decisions obviously
everybody makes.
Is there something?
You look back at your life,something that happened, if you
were to pinpoint one thing andyou say homelessness kind of
chose you.
But if you're looking at yourpast, is there something that
you may have done that was likeoh, that was the breaking point
(14:26):
and that's what led you to thatdirection?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
now, uh, I want to be 100 honest and say that, uh,
sometimes, well, all times wecan have, we can make decisions
that will make that the result.
One decision I made was, youknow what?
(14:51):
I'm not interested in workingjust to be able to live behind
this door and not having enoughto do nothing else on the other
side of the door, outside goingto work.
That didn't register as thebest life I can live.
It just didn't.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know, I feel like a lot of people can agree with
that.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, you know, it's some things you have to think
about, you know, and say, hey,which one is me, a, b, c or D?
I'm not the person that justwanted work, just to have a
place to go.
I don't know if that's calledliving.
You know, I've done more livingon the streets than I've done
(15:40):
living in an apartment.
If that makes sense to you,yeah, let's dive into that a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So living on an apartment, If that makes sense
to anybody.
Yeah, let's dive into that alittle bit.
So living on the streets do youremember the first night where
you were on the streets?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Oh, I can't 100% say I remember the first night, but
I can 100% say that every night,sleep on the streets is
dangerous and I share that withpersons that I've never seen on
(16:17):
the streets before, that mayseem like they just arrived, and
I'll let them know thatsleeping on the streets is
dangerous arrived and I'll letthem know that sleeping on the
streets is dangerous and that,to scare them more, so to make
them aware, don't let yourguards down.
You know people sleep on thestreets, wake up without their
(16:38):
ID, without their phone.
You know what I'm saying.
And whatever that was in theirpocket that fell out, or
whatever, just kind of take legsand walks off.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
and and whatever that was in their pocket that fell
out, or whatever, just kind oftake legs and walks off, you
know yeah, because I think wetalked about this too, how it's
never really a comfortable oreasy night's rest because it's
always dangerous and you'vealways got to, kind of I guess.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, that's exactly it.
It is the wiser choice out ofall the other options is to be
that way.
Now sometime, um, life cancatch up with you to where you
just so dead tired, to where youjust kind of pan out like you
(17:26):
know you didn't work fivedoubles, you know in a row, and
that you just can't help, youknow.
And then sometimes you have togo to a safer place than the
streets.
You know what I'm saying.
Maybe spend whatever monies youhave to get a hotel room that
night Right, just to not putyourself out there in a
(17:48):
vulnerable situation in avulnerable way.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And so when you're on the street, are you changing
where you sleep on a nightlybasis, or you have a spot that's
?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
yours.
Well, you know, one of thethings I really don't subscribe
to is persons that are takingownership over things that don't
belong to them.
I really don't subscribe tothat and I really don't
(18:22):
encourage people to do that.
And it's like hey, man, thatcorner belongs to whoever comes
and walk down it and whoeverdecides to stand on it or
whoever decides to sit on it orwhoever decides to lay on it.
Right, you know?
But of course, if this was aspot you stayed in and laid in
often enough, you wouldn't say,hey, this is a spot I stay in
and lay in often, and you knownot the hey, I own this spot,
(18:44):
and none of that kind ofcraziness.
Okay, you know I want to andmaybe you would have got around
to bringing it up, but since youdidn't, I will.
What do you think about whenyou see unhoused persons or
(19:04):
people just holding signs sayingwhat they need in life?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
yeah, what do you?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
think about that it's .
Speaker 2 (19:13):
That's a good question, um, I think obviously
the initial thought is damn,that sucks, like you feel bad.
The next thought is, oh, I wantto help them, like, do I have
anything here to help them?
And then the next thoughtimmediately after that, um,
(19:37):
which might be the wrong thought, is they're probably just going
to use my money for drugs orsomething or something not good
and they're gonna be up in thesame spot, right.
And then you see people you'relike you don't know what to
believe, um, so, yeah, I gothrough all these thoughts when
(19:59):
I'm sitting right next tosomebody who doesn't have a home
and, um, somebody who doesn'thave a home and, um, I don't
know what I can do to help them.
And I I, you know most of thetime I feel like a lot of people
.
I just sit there and then driveon by, you know, and I don't
(20:19):
know if that's necessarily theright thing.
I want to help, but I have ahard time, I guess, justifying
if it is for the right reasons,if they're doing that.
Let's ask easton same questionif you see somebody on the
streets holding a sign andyou're sitting there at a
stoplight, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
what do you think and what do you do?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I mean, I would say I echo the same things that you
said, but you also see a lot ofpeople who like, especially on
social media.
You'll see someone who like isstanding on the street with a
sign and then gets a bunch ofmoney and they follow her till
the end of the day and then shegoes and gets in a pretty nice
car and drives back to her houseand so it's like there's
there's the fact that you don'tknow what they're going to use
(21:02):
it for good or bad or you don'tknow if they're going to get it
back in their car and they justlike basically took a bunch of
money.
What I usually do is I alwaysjust try, whenever I'm in that
situation I have something, Iusually try to give something
other than money.
So, like in the summer, Iusually have like extra, like
bottles of water in my car.
(21:23):
So, like in the summer, I'll belike here I don't have cash or
anything, but here's like abottle of water.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
if I have like granola bars or like a bag of
chips or something, I'll usuallygive that yeah, because I know
I mean yeah you can't go buydrugs with a bottle of water, or
you can't yeah, I've done thatin the past too and then I get a
bunch of people coming to thegym and then they'll walk into
my class and it's just like, doyou have any money?
And then I'm like I'm sorry, Idon't, because I you know
(21:48):
because.
But then there's people whocome and they ask for water and
I give them water.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And I'll do that.
But then you run into well,then they or other people then
start coming and asking for more.
It's like I'm also paying forthis water and I have to like I
try and help out when I can.
I guess I don't know what theright thing to do is.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Okay, I thank you for your honesty on that.
I've asked that question beforeto some people and a lot of
times they'll start saying goofystuff that they thought they've
done in the past, but not evensure if they've actually done it
.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Right Just to, you know, notfeel so awkward.
(22:34):
One of the things that I will,one of the topics I will discuss
on the podcast that's soon tocome, real Talk with JW is how
to help.
First off, help starts with aquestion.
It don't start with a gift.
(22:55):
It starts with a question.
And when you walk up and give aperson a gift without asking
the question, and when you walkup and give a person a gift
without asking the question,without asking the question,
then who's wrong, you or them?
And now, if we start reactingthat way in this population of
(23:19):
unhoused persons, a person thatare economically struggling, if
they start to just say, hey,we're living in a gift-giving
society, we expect them to startthinking and reacting and
living.
Right, because you're notinterested in their condition.
Why?
Because you didn't even askhere.
(23:43):
You know what I'm saying.
And there's times where aperson may have some things on
the side that you may say oh man, this is interesting.
Oh, you're trying to get backto Montana.
Hey, man, where you live at inMontana, they probably can't
even name a city in Montana.
Right, you know, if they canname a city, they couldn't name
two streets that crossed inMontana.
I mean so to help.
(24:05):
If you're interested enough tohelp, you should be.
Help starts with time.
You got to invest your timebefore you invest your money in
helping somebody, and if youinvest just your money in
helping somebody, it's not goingto work.
It may not work as often as itworks, and 50-50 is nowhere.
(24:25):
You know what I'm saying, andso those would be my answers to
if a person was to ask me howcan you help a person who's out
there kind of struggling?
However their struggle goes,sit down and talk to them.
Find out how you can help.
It may be something simple, itmay be something you even been
through, it may be something arelative I've been through,
(24:48):
something you're familiar with,but if you never sit down and
talk to him, it kind of stays.
Everybody kind of stay on theirside of the street, right?
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
yeah, no, I agree with you.
Um, and I just think of peoplewriting on signs where they just
and I feel like the sign gamehas changed because of social
media now everybody's like hasto be super witty or try and get
attention for their signbecause you know, you see funny
signs down the road and thesigns like not gonna lie, I just
(25:21):
want to go get a fucking beer,you know help me out saving for
a hooker.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yes same stuff like that right well, the thing of it
is is, you know, uh, I had athought or two pertaining to
that.
I was like, and so I would askpersons who would potentially
give to some of these people anda lot of times these are
(25:49):
tourists coming into the cityand sometimes there's some
regulars that may live outsideof it don't come into the city a
lot, at any rate I would say,hey, how ridiculous of a sign do
he need to hold up to say, hey,I'm struggling, can use a few
bucks.
What must you say?
I will kidnap your grandmamaand turn her into a ninja or
(26:13):
some ridiculous stuff.
You know what I'm saying.
How graphic do we have to be totalk about getting a penis
reduction and saving for thisand saving for that?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
I'm thinking when you takedignity.
When a man loses dignity, hehas nothing.
It can't be replaced.
(26:34):
You know what I'm saying?
If he can, it's going to bevery hard to replace it, and to
hold up a sign saying somethingI don't agree with or something
I don't feel from the inside outis losing a shred of dignity
every time I do that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So you do hold up signs.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I do not hold up a sign.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
You know what I'm saying.
The sign is what you see.
If you see something you wantto help, you will.
If you see something you don'twant to help you ain't Right.
Personally, I have put somethought into this.
There are some persons who areliving on the streets that know
the streets very well.
You are in a city where there'stons of tourists who couldn't
(27:17):
tell you nothing but the streetwhere the hotel is at and can't
tell you the streets that ittake to get back to it Exactly
Now, if you can't figure out howto make the two ends meet, it's
like supply and demand.
You have something this personneed, and that's directions, and
the person that need directionssay you have something they
(27:38):
need, and that's a knowledge ofhow to get there.
You know what I'm saying.
I try to encourage, uh personsthat, as opposed to holding up
goofy signs and stuff, just seehow you can be of assistance to
somebody, yeah, provide somevalue for them yeah, and that
way you won't lose dignity.
It's holding up saying stuffthat you know you wouldn't say
(27:59):
to your grandmother.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Right, yeah, yeah, and so then that's got to be a
struggle then to find ways toget money, and every day you're
waking up.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
And you got to eat.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And you got to eat.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
You got to survive yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And that was my next question A day-to-day, how does
it look for you?
What are you doing when youwake up?
Is it thinking about how you'regonna get your next meal?
Is it thinking about how you'regonna get some money?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
well, uh, for me it's how closer can I get to doing
the things I need to do?
How closer can I get today toproducing my podcast?
How closer can I get today, youknow, to meeting some goals?
(28:53):
It's more than just well.
Today I hope to be able to eat.
You know you have persons thatare like that, but you have
persons who are not inspired.
You have persons who may feelhopeless.
I used to share with people.
To be hopeless and homeless istwo different things.
(29:14):
A lot of people think everybodythat's unhoused is hopeless or
feeling hopeless.
There are persons who feeluninspired and there are persons
who feel hopeless.
And then there are persons thatfeel hopeful and they are
inspired.
I happen to be one of those,but everybody kind of just
(29:38):
groups everybody together.
I don't worry about what I'mgoing to eat today.
You, don't you know I may worryabout the fact I ain't ate at
the end of the day, but I don'tput a lot of nah.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
It just kind of comes along throughout the day.
No, I believe in.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
God, if he going to feed the birds and everything up
in the air, I'm pretty sure hegot a hand on me.
So then, what does a meal looklike for you?
What's the last thing you ate?
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Maybe a hot dog or something, Not today though Not
today.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Okay, so maybe you'll respond to that need after the
podcast is over.
Yeah, yeah, for sure Not to puthim on the spot Right?
No, 100%.
They want to come back nextweek and say where did you give
him?
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I had a pit of a junkiemy wife put in the bag.
(30:40):
I didn't get around toyesterday.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, we'll go to the buffet after this.
Okay, so then you can go acouple days without any food.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
No, I could never go a couple days without any food.
I could never go a couple dayswithout any sleep.
Persons who do those things areusually on meth or some other
drug.
That somehow makes that theanswer.
I don't know what the questionis, but somehow that becomes the
answer is hang out all nightfor about three, four days and
(31:12):
don't bother eating.
That's called some guy ran intoa few bucks and having a good
time.
That's what I would call thatone.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Okay time.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, that's what.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I would call that one .
Speaker 1 (31:23):
But hey, man, nashville is one of those cities
where it has a reputation oftaking care of people, and so
that's for a lot of people whomay find themselves unhoused
come to Nashville.
And then there are some personswho find themselves unhoused
(31:47):
and say, hey, that's not theworst situation to be in in
Nashville.
I can do this until things getbetter or whatever.
And so as Nashville is growing,you know, economically and with
all the businesses and whatnot,the population of what it
attracts is growing as well.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
And I'm real curious on how it's going to answer that
question.
Yeah, you know, I've seenefforts where they were helping
people, where they put them allin a hotel and helping them
slowly but surely get a place orwhatever.
But the list kind of wentaccording to those with income.
(32:28):
If you're homeless and on thestreet, that should qualify you.
How can income qualify you fora place if you're homeless and
living on the street?
Exactly Because personallyhomeless and living on the
street the only income you gotis what the government gave you.
And if the government gave itto you, why you gotta tell them
they giving it to you?
They sure already know they canput your name in there and say,
(32:49):
hey, we're giving them that, sowhy not give them this place to
stay with it?
But to go through the wholeordeal, having to prove that you
ain't got no money, I neverquite understood that.
One right, you know, uh, butanyway, yeah, yeah.
Another topic.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, I can talk about that all day.
Um, well, you also mentionedtoo that there are a lot of
tourists that are on the streets, so you probably see them all
the time, and obviously on theweekends I mean a lot of nights
that are on the streets, so youprobably see them all the time
and obviously on the weekends Imean a lot of nights.
Here in nashville, we're soclose to broadway people are
drinking up and down the streetsand I I mentioned this to you
(33:32):
when we spoke.
I said, hey, what did you everhear anything about that riley
strain kid?
Because that was major news,that was global news.
And then, all of a sudden,there were, um, a lot of people
saying, well, the quote-unquotehomeless people know, or
something happened where wethink that he got attacked,
(33:53):
beaten up under the bridge, sawa homeless man wearing his
clothes, whatever, and that wasa huge story.
So when you were out on thestreets, when that was going on,
did you ever hear anythingabout Riley Strain?
You heard about the situation.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I'm familiar with the situation only with what the
media has shared.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
And for those that don't know, riley Strain was the
kid who went drinking with hisfraternity brothers on Broadway
and then he ended up missing andthey found him in the river a
couple weeks later.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But yeah, yeah, go on .
Uh, I started to hear storiesabout, oh we think, some
homeless person.
What's so crazy is, uh, wherehe was found in the river was,
uh, right, was right near anarea where there is a ministry
(34:47):
People up in Nashville they comeand they set up, they spread
and share up and set up withclothes and food and stuff for
the unhoused population and itwas kind of right where they had
found the body at.
And so, you know, people werestarting to get weird thoughts
and say it had to have been partof this deal over here or
(35:10):
somebody out of this deal overhere or somebody should know
something.
You know, being on the streets,homeless people do they see a
lot of things.
They do, they see a lot ofthings.
They do they see a lot ofthings and you know, sometimes
if you say everything that yousee, it will involve you.
Go tell the police everythingyou know and you become
(35:34):
instantly involved.
Now, what person living on thestreets wants to be involved
with the police?
They're kind of oppressing thepopulation on the streets
because they're politicians,nobody wants them around and so
they're nowhere near embracingthem.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Yeah, I agree with that statement.
But so you're saying that youcould literally talk to anybody
or tell anybody your life story,no matter who you are and
you're somehow involved if youtell them everything you see?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Well, you see a situation on the streets and
stuff.
Yeah, because you become awitness, right, you know what
I'm saying.
And now you're a witness and weneed you to be part of this,
and this person is struggling,living on the streets.
And they don't want Nobody issaying hey we want you to be a
witness and we're going to takecare of you for a couple weeks.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
It's like well, what are you going to do for me?
Why am I going to help you ifyou're not helping me?
Speaker 1 (36:38):
And it's not like this person is being difficult
and operating with no morals.
I mean, the first law ofpreservation started with self.
He got to worry about himselffirst.
Right Before I started worryingabout what happened over there,
I got to worry about what couldhappen to me.
(36:59):
You know what I'm saying.
I see people sleeping on thesidewalks all the time and man,
I've done it a time or two, Idon't make a practice out of it,
and here's why I've seen carsjump curbs all the time.
You know, for whatever reasons,lose control.
Maybe the guy's drunk, whatever, whatever, maybe he misjudged
(37:21):
the turn.
I've seen cars, especially overin the area where we're talking
about, over near the gym.
I've seen so many accidents atthat street corner it's so funny
, we do too.
All right, yeah and imagine ifyou had some unhoused person
laying their sleep and then thiscar comes jumping over the
curve.
Yeah, you, you know there's aVidox that's kind of with, you
(37:44):
know, with a little shrubberyand stuff.
That's in the middle of thestreet right across from your
gym.
I've seen cars drive clean upand over it and keep going like
that Vidox, that big cement.
Vidox was part of the trafficsignal or something Right,
because they just jumped in andkept going like they was in an
part of the traffic signal orsomething Right, because they
just jumped in and kept goinglike they was in an episode of
(38:07):
the Dukes of Hazzard, right, andI'm like man for real, right.
And so how safe do you think aperson feels Right?
So leave it on the street?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, all right.
So then you're saying that theunhoused population isn't really
going to speak up or say things, if they see something, because
they're not getting helped.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Well, it's a if.
This person first off, let's besmart about this this person is
living on the streets, right?
If I say this about anybody andI'm vulnerable and he knows
where I live because I'm livingon the streets, right, what
(38:50):
protection do I have Exactly?
Why am I going to involvemyself and put my livelihood and
I'm not just talking about me,but why would a person put their
livelihood on the line, right,who are already struggling?
Now I got to put my livelihoodon the line.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
For the sake of somebody that ain't about to
look my way, let alone help me.
Yeah, For the sake for somebodythat ain't even bothered to
look my way, let alone help me.
Yeah, Unless they neededsomething from you like
information, yeah, right, but alot of times when we, when I say
things like that, people don'tthink that far into the idea of
okay, I can see that, I can seethat.
(39:28):
Yeah, that, I can see that.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Uh, so it's for many reasonsthat a person may see and not
see things yeah, oh did you seethat guy hit that guy?
no, I didn't see that, because Idon't want that guy coming at
me next yeah, right so why am Igonna turn around and say I saw
(39:48):
that and put myself you knowwhat I'm saying?
I don't have a bodyguard oranything.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Do you think it's unfair for people to assume that
the unhoused population hadsomething to do with somebody
like Riley Straner people goingmissing?
Do you think it's just an easytarget, or do you think?
Speaker 1 (40:08):
It was an easy target for the media.
It sold papers, it soldadvertisement and all kinds of
stuff.
It didn't do anything healthyfor the unhoused population.
Even after it was said and done, the foul play we thought it
(40:33):
could have been, turns out itwasn't, and they still never
said hey, we kind of shined abad light over on this crew over
here and we want to just kindof say that ain't cool and we
want to make amends andapologize.
Nobody, none of that.
I wonder why you have any ideas.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
That's crazy how it works yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
You know.
And so how trusting should thisunhoused population be with how
society's working for them?
Yeah, they see it.
They see the way the wheelsturn.
Yeah, they see the way thewheels turn against them when
(41:21):
they have no reason to.
Exactly, you know what I'msaying.
And it was just easy to pointthe finger and say had to be
some homeless guy.
Yeah, they watching this guyand I've learned that I didn't
know there was so many camerason so many buildings.
They watched this guy walk four, five blocks and didn't miss a
step he made and nobody jumpedout and said hi to this man.
(41:45):
Yeah, why would you concludethat this had to have been the
fate?
Right?
You know what I'm saying.
So people living on the streetshave to deal with those type of
stereotypes and those type ofopinions that people have.
(42:06):
They don't want to look aperson in the eye and speak,
because if I look up in the eyeand speak, he's going to ask me
for something.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
You know, sometimes, hey, I have nothing.
So if you say you have nothing,I understand that, no problem,
I have nothing and you havenothing.
But what if a person thinks Ihave something, but I really
don't have nothing?
Just be honest.
And and you have nothing.
What does a person think I have, but I really don't have
nothing?
Just be honest and say you havenothing.
Why are you making it hard onyourself to go through all that
(42:39):
anguish and unnecessary energyyou're losing by saying, hey,
man, today I'm just as poor asyou might feel.
And be honest, you know what.
I'm saying as poor as you mightfeel.
You know and be honest.
You know what I'm saying yeah.
And I think people take.
I've seen people take offensewhen persons may ask them for
(43:00):
something and they may not haveit and it may look pretty shiny,
might have got out of a shinycar, whether they was riding or
driving, but the fact of thematter is, you know, to be
honest, hey, man, you misjudgedme today.
Man, I have nothing If youjudge me to have something not
(43:23):
good.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
You misjudged me today.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, and I feel like there's just a lot of judging,
obviously on both sides, and, um, what would you say?
You know one thing or a fewthings, uh, the pros and the
benefits of being unhousedversus the house population,
something that you look at andyou're like, oh, I'm not jealous
of that.
Well, I think living on thestreets is is a lot better
(43:49):
because of this.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Well, I'm not jealous of the guy that got evicted,
you know what I'm saying.
I'm not jealous of the guyafter he paid this bill.
He has enough for one can ofbeer and a bus pass to go do it
all over again.
I'm not jealous of him, youknow what I'm saying.
(44:11):
And I'm not jealous of the guythat's written a place from a
slum landlord that won't fixnothing and the place is flooded
and right.
I'm surely not jealous of him.
And so I'm just saying thatthere are some situations that I
don't regret not being there.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
And when I asked you to do the podcast and then I
thought about it, I'm like doyou even know what day it is?
And he said no.
And I said do you know whatmonth it is?
He said I think.
I'm like okay, I'm jealous ofthat.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I don't keep a calendar in my head of events.
I keep track of a schedule thatI may have.
I think you and I made aschedule and it just 100%
slipped my mind.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah.
So I said all right, if youwant to do this, meet me here
next week at 1 o'clock.
And then you didn't come.
But then you came the next twoMondays at the same time.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
I was like alright, let's do this.
The thing of it is, a lot ofpeople may say, hey, you look
good for your age, I just turned60.
But you know, your memory isthe first thing to go.
That starts going.
You won't if I don't write itdown.
(45:35):
It don't exist.
You know, we could talk aboutsomething and five minutes from
now I wouldn't have a clue whatwe talked about.
And you know what?
I really don't even want one,because I learned to just roll
with the times.
When you start losing your hair, you know, start cutting it a
(45:57):
lot shorter.
You know, yeah, that's whatmakes more sense than going to
get some weave and some implantsand all these other things
People will be glad to sell you.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
And you came in here you got two bags.
I said what do you have in theback?
And you said what I need to getthrough today.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
That is absolutely correct.
You know some loose papers thatI've put a few notes on.
You know a change ofunderclothes, a pair of socks
(46:40):
and the other bag I usually have.
You know, if I you know ifthey're passing out a sack,
lunch or something, I may grabsome things out of it and hold
it in that bag and whatever youkind of come across.
I had a couple of baseball capsgiven to me so I put them in
that bag.
(47:00):
The thing of it is one of thestruggles for a person living on
the street and a lot of peoplehave.
Even the people who arecommitted to helping people who
live on the streets don't have aclue.
The main thing a person needsthat's living on the street, is
(47:22):
storage.
Yeah, pushing carts, draggingsuitcases and all this other
business because they have noplace to store it.
Now, if a person have no placeto store their things, how can
they make an appointment andkeep it without having to take
(47:44):
all their things with them?
Who's going to welcome you tofill out an application?
And I'm sitting there with ashopping cart full of my stuff
out there.
Now, these people may notdiscriminate against the fact
that I'm unhoused, you know, anddon't have a permit, and we'll
talk about that in a second.
But if I show up with ashopping cart full of all my
(48:07):
belongings in it, I'm prettysure the application is going in
the trash.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah, I think that's probably a good assumption.
Yeah, that's the reality.
If I was a bad man, I wasprobably bad on that, and you
could be the best guy for thejob.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
And it won't even matter, and it won't matter.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
So is that all of your belongings right here,
everything you have?
Speaker 1 (48:29):
That's everything I have In a backpack, in a grocery
bag.
It's not that I need me to cutyou off, not that I hadn't.
I've owned probably enoughstuff to fill up both of those
couches, both of your couches inthis studio.
And over a period of time youlose stuff.
You put it in storage.
(48:50):
Things happen, you get behindyour storage and they auction
off all your stuff, soeverything there is gone, right.
And then you know, uh, you'redown to what you can stash
behind a bush or or a person'suh place or garage that you may
meet.
Then all of a sudden you stopseeing that person.
(49:11):
They move and you know thefirst thing a person loses that
live on the streets.
The first number two things,number one things uh they lose
is id telephone.
Everybody started off with one,basically right, but not
everybody ended up with one.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
When you say losing, or is it stolen from other
people?
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Because you said, a lot of people wake up and they
don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Well, if I find it on the ground.
I didn't steal it from you.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
So that's technically not stealing.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
An ID?
For what purpose?
Speaker 1 (49:49):
An ID for the purpose of being able to prove your age
, prove you are who you say youare be able to prove that you're
a citizen for sake of a job,for sake of qualifying and
showing eligibility for whateveryou're trying to apply for to
(50:10):
move ahead in life.
So you got to.
You got a hundred percentstandstill if you have no ID.
Yeah, and that's, yeah, that'sthe hopeful.
Right, and if you have no IDand no phone, you know, just lay
down and take it out of yourcar.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
No, you made a good comment too.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
You're saying when you don't have a phone, you
don't have all these problemsthat most people do well, but I
would just speak into if youdon't have your id or a phone,
right, you, you, you just layingthere, uh.
But for me, I hadn't had aphone in almost five months and
(50:53):
it's been five of the bestmonths of my life.
I don't know what radiation iscoming out of those devices, but
not sitting there staring at it, and everything I think about
and everything I do is centeredaround it.
I feel so relieved.
Not that I had gone through thatfor the last five months, it
(51:19):
was not by my choice.
I didn't have a phone, but Ididn't say, hey, this is
something that has to be fixedright now, right now, right now.
I didn't feel that I just letit go.
Things were still kind ofclicking and rolling without it.
You know, it showed me how toappreciate what was in front of
(51:42):
me and the people that were infront of me.
See, a phone connects us withpeople that are not in front of
us.
They're across the world,across the country, all this
other kind of crazy business andit distracts us from dealing
with what's in front of us todeal with, if that makes any
sense.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
What do you think?
I agree with you.
I wish I didn't have to have myphone.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
But there's a place for it and there's a need for it
, you know, uh, but then I canlook back and I'm, you know, not
going back to the dinosaur days, but you know, 20, 30 years ago
, before cell phones were evenout there, people did just fine
and that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Uh, I think about stuff like that all the time too
, where it's, like you know,sending somebody an address or
if they don't have, like people,figured it out how to get there
years ago without a phone andnow it's drop me your location.
Yeah, yeah, and there's so manythings now that we're just so,
(52:48):
we're such prisoners to thiswe're so dependent it's so
dependent, that's the word.
Yeah, and it's slash prisoner toit yeah, we're dependent
prisoners, if it's a such titleyeah, well, there is now, and, I
think, one of the main things.
The reason why I think aboutthat is because, uh, we just had
a, a baby, eight months agowell, congratulations yeah,
(53:08):
thank you.
and the amount of informationthat's out there and the amount
of people trying to tell you howto raise your kid and what's
best, and I'm just like there'sso much information, and people
have been fine for years andyears and years and years
without any of this stuff, likeevery.
Our parents figured it out,their parents figured it out,
(53:31):
their parents before all thistechnology figured it out.
It's now just an overload ofinformation.
So I have to remind myself thattoo.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
You know.
But yeah, the other thing Iwant to kind of look at with the
unhoused population is, youknow, we all one step from being
a part of it.
We one paycheck away, twohousing notes away from it, and
(54:03):
I thank for a lot of people.
That scares them and they feelthe closer I'm to that type of
situation whether it's beingaround people that are homeless
makes me that much closer to itand so they may feel a need to
create a border or a wedge.
(54:24):
That may not be healthy interms of what's best for all,
because it may make this personfeel, you know, awkward and you
feel awkward about it.
It's just not a good deal.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, we're getting close totime here wrapping it up, but
want to end on you.
You know what you hope toaccomplish going forward in life
, your goals where you seeyourself well, my goal is to
(55:03):
attract all your listeners tolisten to my podcast.
Real talk with jw you to getthe podcast going first.
I got to get it.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
Well, you know you invite me to come here as part
of the start Right.
Everything has to startsomewhere somehow and for most
of us who have started thingsbefore, the hardest part is just
getting started.
Everything else just kind ofworks its way out Right and just
(55:35):
like with your gym.
I bet the hardest part was justGetting started Without seeing a
wall, a building a floor andstill moving forward, as if all
those things you see and knowthat they're there.
And I'm looking forward to it,man.
One of my biggest goals, man, Iwant to be a part of just
(55:58):
raising people's awareness,helping people to heighten their
awareness.
I think we live in a realdumbed-down society to where all
we know is just all we know andall we know is just what those
who are in power tell us, and wedon't seek anything further
(56:19):
than that, and I don't thinkthat's creating a healthier
society for us.
So if we're going to look afterour kids, grandkids and
great-great-grandkids, we got tostart trying to push back and
bring some normalcy back intoour society.
(56:39):
Where we can look at each otherand speak and not feel awkward,
where we feel okay, asking forhey, man, you from here, you
local, how do I get down thestreet?
Where we feel comfortable doingthe simple things.
Again, I like that, that's whatI feel most committed to, and
(57:03):
if a nice house, come with it,so yeah, exactly I that.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
And then one thing if you had one sentence to
describe yourself or say youknow, I like asking people if
you had a tombstone one dayright, we're all going to pass
what would you want that to sayabout you?
Speaker 1 (57:24):
Well, here lies a guy that stood up more than he said
that.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
All right, I like it.
Alright, we'll end it on that.
I appreciate you coming in well, I thank you for the invite.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
I thank you for the invite and I thank you for
sharing your audience with me.
I hope we all can get togetherand do this again real soon yeah
, I would love to do that.
Speaker 2 (57:51):
I usually tell people where to find people on social
media, and you can find JWoutside of BC Gym over here.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
Yeah, you can find me outside of BC Gym, that's right
, and I look forward to seeingyou all soon.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
All right, thank you.
We got team on three.
we are back in the booth and I'm sean booth and
thank you guys for tuning in.
We got a fun episode today.
I got a very special guest tomy left, which I'll intro here
in a minute.
So whether you're listeningfrom st louis, missouri, we got
a couple guys in here from StLouis Area code was a 314.
314.
, 314.
Or you're listening fromSyracuse, new York, or Austin,
(00:31):
texas.
Thank you guys for tuning in.
We appreciate the love, weappreciate the support and I'm
excited for this next hour, as Ihave a guest to my left and I
just want to kind of set thescene up here to how we got here
in these seats.
As you know, I own a gym rightdowntown.
It's actually right down theroad here from the studio and a
(00:53):
few Fridays ago a gentlemanwalked up to me and asked to
talk and we sat down and we hada good conversation for about an
hour and I don't know if youremember your first question you
were asking me how I felt aboutthe homeless outside of the gym
that we're using an outlet.
So there's an outlet rightoutside the gym that has had a
(01:18):
lot of people from Nashville,homeless in particular, coming
and hanging out and we kind ofwere going back and forth a
little bit about it and you weretelling me your side of things,
I was telling you my side ofthings as a business owner.
And then we just sat down andhad a great conversation and I
ultimately asked you what youwant to do.
(01:39):
And you said you wanted to do apodcast one day.
And I said, well, I actuallyhave a podcast, so do you want?
Said well, I actually have apodcast, so do you want to come
on my show and have aconversation Because you're
providing a lot of insight to me?
You said let's do it.
We got you here in the building.
Everybody give it up for JW.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I really want to thank you forreal, just having a heart to see
what you saw when you saw thatplug and those people
congregating which could be anuisance to what you got going
(02:19):
on or what you potentially couldhave going on.
Instead, you still saw, you hada heart to see the need of what
was going on there.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Your thing was your investment there, but who knows
what they think was Right.
You know what I'm saying and weall live by a phone today, and
if you don't have it charged,you might as well toss it in the
closest creek you run across.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Because it's going to do nothing for you if it don't
have a charge.
You can't even do AI if itdon't have a charge.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
So I'm glad that you saw theneed and it was striking to me
that maybe a person who have nothad the experiences of living
(03:07):
on the street right, uh, mostpeople who don't have the
experience of living on thestreets, they really don't have
the flavor for the best decisionwhen it comes to dealing with
people that are living on thestreets right and that's um,
it's kind of a tricky situationbecause, you know, to be
(03:27):
completely honest, I have beenlike I need to get this damn
outlet out of here because ofthe negative things that it
brings.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Like, um, you know, we have a very heavy female
populated gym and so for ourmembers to go outside, they're
working out right there, runningthrough, uh, you know,
sometimes 5, 10, 15 people whoare hooting and hollering at
them or saying negative thingsto them, um, obviously makes
(03:55):
them feel uncomfortable, or thatyou have, uh, a bunch of trash
out there.
So it's like I was like, ah,this is not a good thing.
But also I understand, becausethis is their life, this is my
life, and it's divided by onebrick wall.
And then you came across totalk to me and I got to see your
(04:16):
side of that brick wall.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, we get a chance to take down that wall.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Just look across and see what's actually there.
Yeah, Exactly, just look acrossand see what's actually there,
and you know I want to be honestwith you.
I've seen your place is likeright across from the Greyhound
bus station.
I've seen just as many guysfrom Greyhound hooping and
hollering.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh, exactly Right, right yeah, because I put them
all together.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I'm not saying that in defense but, putting them all
together is not a fair shake,right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
And you know, some of the access trash there, I would
probably say 100% belongs tothose who are kind of jacking
around needing to use the plug.
Right.
I don't need to use the plug,Right.
My first thoughts when I hadapproached you.
To be honest, I wanted to seeif you were interested in seeing
how it could work.
(05:13):
Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And so I had to ask some particular questions to get
around to see if you wereinterested in how it could work.
Right, because if you were like100% done with it, you don't
care if it could work.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's done, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So I kind of wanted to see where you were with it,
yeah, and I was glad to findthat, you know, you had an ear
for it and a heart for it andsay, hey, you know, this ain't
all about me, right?
This ain't all about me, right,you know?
Yeah, and my job became to letthe population, those who are
using this plug, know that itwas not all about them.
(05:51):
You know what I'm saying, and Ithink when you have two parties
that understand it's not allabout them, you have a better
place.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right, yeah, yeah, all about them.
You have a better place, right,yeah, yeah, and I think it's uh
, like you said, unfair for meto put everybody, group
everybody together, because youknow there are a lot of people
from the greyhound who just comein for a few nights or whatever
it is, and then you have thepeople who live here right right
in downtown or, uh, near thegreyounds, and so it's
(06:25):
definitely two different parties.
Being there for six years, Ihave seen everything imaginable
from the Greyhounds or whoever'soutside.
We have seen people get shot.
We have seen just the other daya guy was for lack of better
(06:47):
words masturbating right on nextto that outlet.
Um, we've had a lady come intothe turf when I'm coaching class
with a knife, just walkstraight down.
We've had people steal mygeneral manager's uh, belonging.
So it's like every day we feellike they're like I saw a guy
chase another guy with an axeand there's cops there and
(07:08):
ambulance.
So it's like you never knowwhat you're gonna expect.
So when you approach me, I waslike, okay, I didn't know what
to expect, but I'm glad you did.
And here we are.
So, um, wanted to kind of getyour background for the
listeners and your story and howyou ended up here in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I've come to Nashville from St Louis,
missouri.
I've come to Nashville forreasons I'm learning daily.
If I knew the whole answer ofwhy I've come to Nashville, I
would probably give it to you,but I don't even know of why
I've come to Nashville.
I would probably give it to you, but I don't even know it.
I can say well, there's beensome things I've learned.
(07:52):
There's been some things I'vebeen able to do.
There's been some people I'vebeen able to help.
And those things help reveal mypurpose of coming to Nashville.
And I know that there's agreater purpose than that for me
being in Nashville.
I just had not walked into thatpurpose yet.
I have a background in education, believe it or not.
(08:14):
I spent a lot of years workingin youth development, in the
community of youth development.
I worked a lot in communitydevelopment.
I worked a lot withnot-for-profit organizations.
I feel a need just to always bein a place mentally and
(08:39):
physically, to know that youdon't live in a space by
yourself and you're alwayslooking to help another.
St Louis been there a lot ofyears.
Things have changed.
It's becoming a better placeand a worse place for others.
It just became an old place forme.
So I come to Nashville.
(09:02):
I knew nothing about Nashville,I didn't even know two streets
that crossed, and that kind ofsums up the story of my life.
I go places where I knownothing.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Right or anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Or anybody.
And it's so funny because I geta chance to talk to persons and
they be like well, I'm going togo over here because my uncle I
say, well, you ever try goingsomeplace, you never knew
anybody.
It gives you a chance and anopportunity that going home and
going around familiar faces andgoing places because you're
(09:37):
familiar with people, thosescenarios can't supply that
Going there and knowing nobody,you're talking about everything
you come up with.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You came up with so is that more of like a fresh
start or more of a trying to run?
I guess those two kind of gohand in hand.
If you want to leave a placethat you're familiar with.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I embrace the whole idea of life being a journey.
Your journey takes you whereyour journey takes you.
Your journey may take you outof conflict and another person
can say you ran, but yourjourney didn't cause for you to
run into that battle.
We have to know that we arejourney oriented and stop, you
(10:24):
know, being controlled by somany different sources out there
that I won't name.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Right, you can name them, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
You can name them, but I do want to start here, for
you and for your listeningaudience.
We want to do away with theterm homeless.
Right, it's so outdated.
The term homeless is acharacter, now it's a creature.
(10:54):
If you were to go home, if youwere to say hey, honey, I'm
bringing this homeless man homefor Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And they say, no, you're not yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
If you're having Thanksgiving dinner with him, it
won't be in here.
You know what I'm saying, andit's not that people are being
mean.
Society has created homeless asa character, and it's not a
character, it's a condition, andso I try to encourage people to
not use homeless and simply usethe term unhoused, because it
(11:27):
speaks to the condition and notthe person.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Nashville is your home.
These streets over here couldbe your home right, it's just
you don't live in a house.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Right.
So, that's unhoused is thepolitically correct term.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I don't know, that politics is involved in this,
but Right, politics is involvedin everything.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's always involved in everything.
Yeah, always involved.
Okay, yeah, and now was thatsomething that you decided on
your own that you didn't want tolive in a house, because I've
always wondered how someonecould get to that point.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Because I've always wondered how someone could get
to that point.
Well, you know a lot of.
They say all roads lead to Rome, but I know there's a lot of
roads that lead away from Romeas well.
But in reference to people whofind themselves homeless, I
don't feel like I chose it, Ifeel like it chose me.
(12:29):
You know what I'm saying.
And sometimes homelessness canbe the result of some decisions
a person made and so,inadvertently, they may have
chose homelessness withoutknowing that homelessness was on
the menu of listed choices.
(12:49):
And then you have some personswho have gone through bad
relationships with family andloved ones and it seemed best
that if they were to just leavethe environment or leave the
house, somehow that solvesthings.
And so there's a lot of reasons.
I've heard a lot of reasons whypeople become homeless, and it
(13:12):
ain't all because some guy justcouldn't get it right, just
became so outright that nobodywanted to deal with him.
Another reason for homelessnessin a lot of the cities is when,
a few years back, when MrRonald Reagan was president, his
(13:34):
administration thought it wasbest to cut down on the budget
and they closed all the mentalhealth hospitals that were
holding persons on a long-termbasis in terms of cases and
working with them, and hadcommitted to work with them
pretty much the rest of theirlife.
(13:55):
He done away with all thoseplaces and just gave everybody a
check, and that's where we aretoday.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And you say that there's decisions obviously
everybody makes.
Is there something?
You look back at your life,something that happened, if you
were to pinpoint one thing andyou say homelessness kind of
chose you.
But if you're looking at yourpast, is there something that
you may have done that was likeoh, that was the breaking point
(14:26):
and that's what led you to thatdirection?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
now, uh, I want to be 100 honest and say that, uh,
sometimes, well, all times wecan have, we can make decisions
that will make that the result.
One decision I made was, youknow what?
(14:51):
I'm not interested in workingjust to be able to live behind
this door and not having enoughto do nothing else on the other
side of the door, outside goingto work.
That didn't register as thebest life I can live.
It just didn't.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know, I feel like a lot of people can agree with
that.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, you know, it's some things you have to think
about, you know, and say, hey,which one is me, a, b, c or D?
I'm not the person that justwanted work, just to have a
place to go.
I don't know if that's calledliving.
You know, I've done more livingon the streets than I've done
(15:40):
living in an apartment.
If that makes sense to you,yeah, let's dive into that a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So living on an apartment, If that makes sense
to anybody.
Yeah, let's dive into that alittle bit.
So living on the streets do youremember the first night where
you were on the streets?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Oh, I can't 100% say I remember the first night, but
I can 100% say that every night,sleep on the streets is
dangerous and I share that withpersons that I've never seen on
(16:17):
the streets before, that mayseem like they just arrived, and
I'll let them know thatsleeping on the streets is
dangerous arrived and I'll letthem know that sleeping on the
streets is dangerous and that,to scare them more, so to make
them aware, don't let yourguards down.
You know people sleep on thestreets, wake up without their
(16:38):
ID, without their phone.
You know what I'm saying.
And whatever that was in theirpocket that fell out, or
whatever, just kind of take legsand walks off.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
and and whatever that was in their pocket that fell
out, or whatever, just kind oftake legs and walks off, you
know yeah, because I think wetalked about this too, how it's
never really a comfortable oreasy night's rest because it's
always dangerous and you'vealways got to, kind of I guess.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, that's exactly it.
It is the wiser choice out ofall the other options is to be
that way.
Now sometime, um, life cancatch up with you to where you
just so dead tired, to where youjust kind of pan out like you
(17:26):
know you didn't work fivedoubles, you know in a row, and
that you just can't help, youknow.
And then sometimes you have togo to a safer place than the
streets.
You know what I'm saying.
Maybe spend whatever monies youhave to get a hotel room that
night Right, just to not putyourself out there in a
(17:48):
vulnerable situation in avulnerable way.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And so when you're on the street, are you changing
where you sleep on a nightlybasis, or you have a spot that's
?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
yours.
Well, you know, one of thethings I really don't subscribe
to is persons that are takingownership over things that don't
belong to them.
I really don't subscribe tothat and I really don't
(18:22):
encourage people to do that.
And it's like hey, man, thatcorner belongs to whoever comes
and walk down it and whoeverdecides to stand on it or
whoever decides to sit on it orwhoever decides to lay on it.
Right, you know?
But of course, if this was aspot you stayed in and laid in
often enough, you wouldn't say,hey, this is a spot I stay in
and lay in often, and you knownot the hey, I own this spot,
(18:44):
and none of that kind ofcraziness.
Okay, you know I want to andmaybe you would have got around
to bringing it up, but since youdidn't, I will.
What do you think about whenyou see unhoused persons or
(19:04):
people just holding signs sayingwhat they need in life?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
yeah, what do you?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
think about that it's .
Speaker 2 (19:13):
That's a good question, um, I think obviously
the initial thought is damn,that sucks, like you feel bad.
The next thought is, oh, I wantto help them, like, do I have
anything here to help them?
And then the next thoughtimmediately after that, um,
(19:37):
which might be the wrong thought, is they're probably just going
to use my money for drugs orsomething or something not good
and they're gonna be up in thesame spot, right.
And then you see people you'relike you don't know what to
believe, um, so, yeah, I gothrough all these thoughts when
(19:59):
I'm sitting right next tosomebody who doesn't have a home
and, um, somebody who doesn'thave a home and, um, I don't
know what I can do to help them.
And I I, you know most of thetime I feel like a lot of people
.
I just sit there and then driveon by, you know, and I don't
(20:19):
know if that's necessarily theright thing.
I want to help, but I have ahard time, I guess, justifying
if it is for the right reasons,if they're doing that.
Let's ask easton same questionif you see somebody on the
streets holding a sign andyou're sitting there at a
stoplight, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
what do you think and what do you do?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I mean, I would say I echo the same things that you
said, but you also see a lot ofpeople who like, especially on
social media.
You'll see someone who like isstanding on the street with a
sign and then gets a bunch ofmoney and they follow her till
the end of the day and then shegoes and gets in a pretty nice
car and drives back to her houseand so it's like there's
there's the fact that you don'tknow what they're going to use
(21:02):
it for good or bad or you don'tknow if they're going to get it
back in their car and they justlike basically took a bunch of
money.
What I usually do is I alwaysjust try, whenever I'm in that
situation I have something, Iusually try to give something
other than money.
So, like in the summer, Iusually have like extra, like
bottles of water in my car.
(21:23):
So, like in the summer, I'll belike here I don't have cash or
anything, but here's like abottle of water.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
if I have like granola bars or like a bag of
chips or something, I'll usuallygive that yeah, because I know
I mean yeah you can't go buydrugs with a bottle of water, or
you can't yeah, I've done thatin the past too and then I get a
bunch of people coming to thegym and then they'll walk into
my class and it's just like, doyou have any money?
And then I'm like I'm sorry, Idon't, because I you know
(21:48):
because.
But then there's people whocome and they ask for water and
I give them water.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And I'll do that.
But then you run into well,then they or other people then
start coming and asking for more.
It's like I'm also paying forthis water and I have to like I
try and help out when I can.
I guess I don't know what theright thing to do is.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Okay, I thank you for your honesty on that.
I've asked that question beforeto some people and a lot of
times they'll start saying goofystuff that they thought they've
done in the past, but not evensure if they've actually done it
.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Right Just to, you know, notfeel so awkward.
(22:34):
One of the things that I will,one of the topics I will discuss
on the podcast that's soon tocome, real Talk with JW is how
to help.
First off, help starts with aquestion.
It don't start with a gift.
(22:55):
It starts with a question.
And when you walk up and give aperson a gift without asking
the question, and when you walkup and give a person a gift
without asking the question,without asking the question,
then who's wrong, you or them?
And now, if we start reactingthat way in this population of
(23:19):
unhoused persons, a person thatare economically struggling, if
they start to just say, hey,we're living in a gift-giving
society, we expect them to startthinking and reacting and
living.
Right, because you're notinterested in their condition.
Why?
Because you didn't even askhere.
(23:43):
You know what I'm saying.
And there's times where aperson may have some things on
the side that you may say oh man, this is interesting.
Oh, you're trying to get backto Montana.
Hey, man, where you live at inMontana, they probably can't
even name a city in Montana.
Right, you know, if they canname a city, they couldn't name
two streets that crossed inMontana.
I mean so to help.
(24:05):
If you're interested enough tohelp, you should be.
Help starts with time.
You got to invest your timebefore you invest your money in
helping somebody, and if youinvest just your money in
helping somebody, it's not goingto work.
It may not work as often as itworks, and 50-50 is nowhere.
(24:25):
You know what I'm saying, andso those would be my answers to
if a person was to ask me howcan you help a person who's out
there kind of struggling?
However their struggle goes,sit down and talk to them.
Find out how you can help.
It may be something simple, itmay be something you even been
through, it may be something arelative I've been through,
(24:48):
something you're familiar with,but if you never sit down and
talk to him, it kind of stays.
Everybody kind of stay on theirside of the street, right?
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
yeah, no, I agree with you.
Um, and I just think of peoplewriting on signs where they just
and I feel like the sign gamehas changed because of social
media now everybody's like hasto be super witty or try and get
attention for their signbecause you know, you see funny
signs down the road and thesigns like not gonna lie, I just
(25:21):
want to go get a fucking beer,you know help me out saving for
a hooker.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yes same stuff like that right well, the thing of it
is is, you know, uh, I had athought or two pertaining to
that.
I was like, and so I would askpersons who would potentially
give to some of these people anda lot of times these are
(25:49):
tourists coming into the cityand sometimes there's some
regulars that may live outsideof it don't come into the city a
lot, at any rate I would say,hey, how ridiculous of a sign do
he need to hold up to say, hey,I'm struggling, can use a few
bucks.
What must you say?
I will kidnap your grandmamaand turn her into a ninja or
(26:13):
some ridiculous stuff.
You know what I'm saying.
How graphic do we have to be totalk about getting a penis
reduction and saving for thisand saving for that?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
I'm thinking when you takedignity.
When a man loses dignity, hehas nothing.
It can't be replaced.
(26:34):
You know what I'm saying?
If he can, it's going to bevery hard to replace it, and to
hold up a sign saying somethingI don't agree with or something
I don't feel from the inside outis losing a shred of dignity
every time I do that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So you do hold up signs.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I do not hold up a sign.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
You know what I'm saying.
The sign is what you see.
If you see something you wantto help, you will.
If you see something you don'twant to help you ain't Right.
Personally, I have put somethought into this.
There are some persons who areliving on the streets that know
the streets very well.
You are in a city where there'stons of tourists who couldn't
(27:17):
tell you nothing but the streetwhere the hotel is at and can't
tell you the streets that ittake to get back to it Exactly
Now, if you can't figure out howto make the two ends meet, it's
like supply and demand.
You have something this personneed, and that's directions, and
the person that need directionssay you have something they
(27:38):
need, and that's a knowledge ofhow to get there.
You know what I'm saying.
I try to encourage, uh personsthat, as opposed to holding up
goofy signs and stuff, just seehow you can be of assistance to
somebody, yeah, provide somevalue for them yeah, and that
way you won't lose dignity.
It's holding up saying stuffthat you know you wouldn't say
(27:59):
to your grandmother.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Right, yeah, yeah, and so then that's got to be a
struggle then to find ways toget money, and every day you're
waking up.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
And you got to eat.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And you got to eat.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
You got to survive yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And that was my next question A day-to-day, how does
it look for you?
What are you doing when youwake up?
Is it thinking about how you'regonna get your next meal?
Is it thinking about how you'regonna get some money?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
well, uh, for me it's how closer can I get to doing
the things I need to do?
How closer can I get today toproducing my podcast?
How closer can I get today, youknow, to meeting some goals?
(28:53):
It's more than just well.
Today I hope to be able to eat.
You know you have persons thatare like that, but you have
persons who are not inspired.
You have persons who may feelhopeless.
I used to share with people.
To be hopeless and homeless istwo different things.
(29:14):
A lot of people think everybodythat's unhoused is hopeless or
feeling hopeless.
There are persons who feeluninspired and there are persons
who feel hopeless.
And then there are persons thatfeel hopeful and they are
inspired.
I happen to be one of those,but everybody kind of just
(29:38):
groups everybody together.
I don't worry about what I'mgoing to eat today.
You, don't you know I may worryabout the fact I ain't ate at
the end of the day, but I don'tput a lot of nah.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
It just kind of comes along throughout the day.
No, I believe in.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
God, if he going to feed the birds and everything up
in the air, I'm pretty sure hegot a hand on me.
So then, what does a meal looklike for you?
What's the last thing you ate?
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Maybe a hot dog or something, Not today though Not
today.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Okay, so maybe you'll respond to that need after the
podcast is over.
Yeah, yeah, for sure Not to puthim on the spot Right?
No, 100%.
They want to come back nextweek and say where did you give
him?
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I had a pit of a junkiemy wife put in the bag.
(30:40):
I didn't get around toyesterday.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, we'll go to the buffet after this.
Okay, so then you can go acouple days without any food.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
No, I could never go a couple days without any food.
I could never go a couple dayswithout any sleep.
Persons who do those things areusually on meth or some other
drug.
That somehow makes that theanswer.
I don't know what the questionis, but somehow that becomes the
answer is hang out all nightfor about three, four days and
(31:12):
don't bother eating.
That's called some guy ran intoa few bucks and having a good
time.
That's what I would call thatone.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Okay time.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, that's what.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I would call that one .
Speaker 1 (31:23):
But hey, man, nashville is one of those cities
where it has a reputation oftaking care of people, and so
that's for a lot of people whomay find themselves unhoused
come to Nashville.
And then there are some personswho find themselves unhoused
(31:47):
and say, hey, that's not theworst situation to be in in
Nashville.
I can do this until things getbetter or whatever.
And so as Nashville is growing,you know, economically and with
all the businesses and whatnot,the population of what it
attracts is growing as well.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
And I'm real curious on how it's going to answer that
question.
Yeah, you know, I've seenefforts where they were helping
people, where they put them allin a hotel and helping them
slowly but surely get a place orwhatever.
But the list kind of wentaccording to those with income.
(32:28):
If you're homeless and on thestreet, that should qualify you.
How can income qualify you fora place if you're homeless and
living on the street?
Exactly Because personallyhomeless and living on the
street the only income you gotis what the government gave you.
And if the government gave itto you, why you gotta tell them
they giving it to you?
They sure already know they canput your name in there and say,
(32:49):
hey, we're giving them that, sowhy not give them this place to
stay with it?
But to go through the wholeordeal, having to prove that you
ain't got no money, I neverquite understood that.
One right, you know, uh, butanyway, yeah, yeah.
Another topic.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, I can talk about that all day.
Um, well, you also mentionedtoo that there are a lot of
tourists that are on the streets, so you probably see them all
the time, and obviously on theweekends I mean a lot of nights
that are on the streets, so youprobably see them all the time
and obviously on the weekends Imean a lot of nights.
Here in nashville, we're soclose to broadway people are
drinking up and down the streetsand I I mentioned this to you
(33:32):
when we spoke.
I said, hey, what did you everhear anything about that riley
strain kid?
Because that was major news,that was global news.
And then, all of a sudden,there were, um, a lot of people
saying, well, the quote-unquotehomeless people know, or
something happened where wethink that he got attacked,
(33:53):
beaten up under the bridge, sawa homeless man wearing his
clothes, whatever, and that wasa huge story.
So when you were out on thestreets, when that was going on,
did you ever hear anythingabout Riley Strain?
You heard about the situation.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I'm familiar with the situation only with what the
media has shared.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
And for those that don't know, riley Strain was the
kid who went drinking with hisfraternity brothers on Broadway
and then he ended up missing andthey found him in the river a
couple weeks later.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But yeah, yeah, go on .
Uh, I started to hear storiesabout, oh we think, some
homeless person.
What's so crazy is, uh, wherehe was found in the river was,
uh, right, was right near anarea where there is a ministry
(34:47):
People up in Nashville they comeand they set up, they spread
and share up and set up withclothes and food and stuff for
the unhoused population and itwas kind of right where they had
found the body at.
And so, you know, people werestarting to get weird thoughts
and say it had to have been partof this deal over here or
(35:10):
somebody out of this deal overhere or somebody should know
something.
You know, being on the streets,homeless people do they see a
lot of things.
They do, they see a lot ofthings.
They do they see a lot ofthings and you know, sometimes
if you say everything that yousee, it will involve you.
Go tell the police everythingyou know and you become
(35:34):
instantly involved.
Now, what person living on thestreets wants to be involved
with the police?
They're kind of oppressing thepopulation on the streets
because they're politicians,nobody wants them around and so
they're nowhere near embracingthem.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Yeah, I agree with that statement.
But so you're saying that youcould literally talk to anybody
or tell anybody your life story,no matter who you are and
you're somehow involved if youtell them everything you see?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Well, you see a situation on the streets and
stuff.
Yeah, because you become awitness, right, you know what
I'm saying.
And now you're a witness and weneed you to be part of this,
and this person is struggling,living on the streets.
And they don't want Nobody issaying hey we want you to be a
witness and we're going to takecare of you for a couple weeks.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
It's like well, what are you going to do for me?
Why am I going to help you ifyou're not helping me?
Speaker 1 (36:38):
And it's not like this person is being difficult
and operating with no morals.
I mean, the first law ofpreservation started with self.
He got to worry about himselffirst.
Right Before I started worryingabout what happened over there,
I got to worry about what couldhappen to me.
(36:59):
You know what I'm saying.
I see people sleeping on thesidewalks all the time and man,
I've done it a time or two, Idon't make a practice out of it,
and here's why I've seen carsjump curbs all the time.
You know, for whatever reasons,lose control.
Maybe the guy's drunk, whatever, whatever, maybe he misjudged
(37:21):
the turn.
I've seen cars, especially overin the area where we're talking
about, over near the gym.
I've seen so many accidents atthat street corner it's so funny
, we do too.
All right, yeah and imagine ifyou had some unhoused person
laying their sleep and then thiscar comes jumping over the
curve.
Yeah, you, you know there's aVidox that's kind of with, you
(37:44):
know, with a little shrubberyand stuff.
That's in the middle of thestreet right across from your
gym.
I've seen cars drive clean upand over it and keep going like
that Vidox, that big cement.
Vidox was part of the trafficsignal or something Right,
because they just jumped in andkept going like they was in an
part of the traffic signal orsomething Right, because they
just jumped in and kept goinglike they was in an episode of
(38:07):
the Dukes of Hazzard, right, andI'm like man for real, right.
And so how safe do you think aperson feels Right?
So leave it on the street?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, all right.
So then you're saying that theunhoused population isn't really
going to speak up or say things, if they see something, because
they're not getting helped.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Well, it's a if.
This person first off, let's besmart about this this person is
living on the streets, right?
If I say this about anybody andI'm vulnerable and he knows
where I live because I'm livingon the streets, right, what
(38:50):
protection do I have Exactly?
Why am I going to involvemyself and put my livelihood and
I'm not just talking about me,but why would a person put their
livelihood on the line, right,who are already struggling?
Now I got to put my livelihoodon the line.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
For the sake of somebody that ain't about to
look my way, let alone help me.
Yeah, For the sake for somebodythat ain't even bothered to
look my way, let alone help me.
Yeah, Unless they neededsomething from you like
information, yeah, right, but alot of times when we, when I say
things like that, people don'tthink that far into the idea of
okay, I can see that, I can seethat.
(39:28):
Yeah, that, I can see that.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Uh, so it's for many reasonsthat a person may see and not
see things yeah, oh did you seethat guy hit that guy?
no, I didn't see that, because Idon't want that guy coming at
me next yeah, right so why am Igonna turn around and say I saw
(39:48):
that and put myself you knowwhat I'm saying?
I don't have a bodyguard oranything.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Do you think it's unfair for people to assume that
the unhoused population hadsomething to do with somebody
like Riley Straner people goingmissing?
Do you think it's just an easytarget, or do you think?
Speaker 1 (40:08):
It was an easy target for the media.
It sold papers, it soldadvertisement and all kinds of
stuff.
It didn't do anything healthyfor the unhoused population.
Even after it was said and done, the foul play we thought it
(40:33):
could have been, turns out itwasn't, and they still never
said hey, we kind of shined abad light over on this crew over
here and we want to just kindof say that ain't cool and we
want to make amends andapologize.
Nobody, none of that.
I wonder why you have any ideas.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
That's crazy how it works yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
You know.
And so how trusting should thisunhoused population be with how
society's working for them?
Yeah, they see it.
They see the way the wheelsturn.
Yeah, they see the way thewheels turn against them when
(41:21):
they have no reason to.
Exactly, you know what I'msaying.
And it was just easy to pointthe finger and say had to be
some homeless guy.
Yeah, they watching this guyand I've learned that I didn't
know there was so many camerason so many buildings.
They watched this guy walk four, five blocks and didn't miss a
step he made and nobody jumpedout and said hi to this man.
(41:45):
Yeah, why would you concludethat this had to have been the
fate?
Right?
You know what I'm saying.
So people living on the streetshave to deal with those type of
stereotypes and those type ofopinions that people have.
(42:06):
They don't want to look aperson in the eye and speak,
because if I look up in the eyeand speak, he's going to ask me
for something.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
You know, sometimes, hey, I have nothing.
So if you say you have nothing,I understand that, no problem,
I have nothing and you havenothing.
But what if a person thinks Ihave something, but I really
don't have nothing?
Just be honest.
And and you have nothing.
What does a person think I have, but I really don't have
nothing?
Just be honest and say you havenothing.
Why are you making it hard onyourself to go through all that
(42:39):
anguish and unnecessary energyyou're losing by saying, hey,
man, today I'm just as poor asyou might feel.
And be honest, you know what.
I'm saying as poor as you mightfeel.
You know and be honest.
You know what I'm saying yeah.
And I think people take.
I've seen people take offensewhen persons may ask them for
(43:00):
something and they may not haveit and it may look pretty shiny,
might have got out of a shinycar, whether they was riding or
driving, but the fact of thematter is, you know, to be
honest, hey, man, you misjudgedme today.
Man, I have nothing If youjudge me to have something not
(43:23):
good.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
You misjudged me today.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, and I feel like there's just a lot of judging,
obviously on both sides, and, um, what would you say?
You know one thing or a fewthings, uh, the pros and the
benefits of being unhousedversus the house population,
something that you look at andyou're like, oh, I'm not jealous
of that.
Well, I think living on thestreets is is a lot better
(43:49):
because of this.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Well, I'm not jealous of the guy that got evicted,
you know what I'm saying.
I'm not jealous of the guyafter he paid this bill.
He has enough for one can ofbeer and a bus pass to go do it
all over again.
I'm not jealous of him, youknow what I'm saying.
(44:11):
And I'm not jealous of the guythat's written a place from a
slum landlord that won't fixnothing and the place is flooded
and right.
I'm surely not jealous of him.
And so I'm just saying thatthere are some situations that I
don't regret not being there.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
And when I asked you to do the podcast and then I
thought about it, I'm like doyou even know what day it is?
And he said no.
And I said do you know whatmonth it is?
He said I think.
I'm like okay, I'm jealous ofthat.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I don't keep a calendar in my head of events.
I keep track of a schedule thatI may have.
I think you and I made aschedule and it just 100%
slipped my mind.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah.
So I said all right, if youwant to do this, meet me here
next week at 1 o'clock.
And then you didn't come.
But then you came the next twoMondays at the same time.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
I was like alright, let's do this.
The thing of it is, a lot ofpeople may say, hey, you look
good for your age, I just turned60.
But you know, your memory isthe first thing to go.
That starts going.
You won't if I don't write itdown.
(45:35):
It don't exist.
You know, we could talk aboutsomething and five minutes from
now I wouldn't have a clue whatwe talked about.
And you know what?
I really don't even want one,because I learned to just roll
with the times.
When you start losing your hair, you know, start cutting it a
(45:57):
lot shorter.
You know, yeah, that's whatmakes more sense than going to
get some weave and some implantsand all these other things
People will be glad to sell you.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
And you came in here you got two bags.
I said what do you have in theback?
And you said what I need to getthrough today.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
That is absolutely correct.
You know some loose papers thatI've put a few notes on.
You know a change ofunderclothes, a pair of socks
(46:40):
and the other bag I usually have.
You know, if I you know ifthey're passing out a sack,
lunch or something, I may grabsome things out of it and hold
it in that bag and whatever youkind of come across.
I had a couple of baseball capsgiven to me so I put them in
that bag.
(47:00):
The thing of it is one of thestruggles for a person living on
the street and a lot of peoplehave.
Even the people who arecommitted to helping people who
live on the streets don't have aclue.
The main thing a person needsthat's living on the street, is
(47:22):
storage.
Yeah, pushing carts, draggingsuitcases and all this other
business because they have noplace to store it.
Now, if a person have no placeto store their things, how can
they make an appointment andkeep it without having to take
(47:44):
all their things with them?
Who's going to welcome you tofill out an application?
And I'm sitting there with ashopping cart full of my stuff
out there.
Now, these people may notdiscriminate against the fact
that I'm unhoused, you know, anddon't have a permit, and we'll
talk about that in a second.
But if I show up with ashopping cart full of all my
(48:07):
belongings in it, I'm prettysure the application is going in
the trash.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah, I think that's probably a good assumption.
Yeah, that's the reality.
If I was a bad man, I wasprobably bad on that, and you
could be the best guy for thejob.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
And it won't even matter, and it won't matter.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
So is that all of your belongings right here,
everything you have?
Speaker 1 (48:29):
That's everything I have In a backpack, in a grocery
bag.
It's not that I need me to cutyou off, not that I hadn't.
I've owned probably enoughstuff to fill up both of those
couches, both of your couches inthis studio.
And over a period of time youlose stuff.
You put it in storage.
(48:50):
Things happen, you get behindyour storage and they auction
off all your stuff, soeverything there is gone, right.
And then you know, uh, you'redown to what you can stash
behind a bush or or a person'suh place or garage that you may
meet.
Then all of a sudden you stopseeing that person.
(49:11):
They move and you know thefirst thing a person loses that
live on the streets.
The first number two things,number one things uh they lose
is id telephone.
Everybody started off with one,basically right, but not
everybody ended up with one.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
When you say losing, or is it stolen from other
people?
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Because you said, a lot of people wake up and they
don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Well, if I find it on the ground.
I didn't steal it from you.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
So that's technically not stealing.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
An ID?
For what purpose?
Speaker 1 (49:49):
An ID for the purpose of being able to prove your age
, prove you are who you say youare be able to prove that you're
a citizen for sake of a job,for sake of qualifying and
showing eligibility for whateveryou're trying to apply for to
(50:10):
move ahead in life.
So you got to.
You got a hundred percentstandstill if you have no ID.
Yeah, and that's, yeah, that'sthe hopeful.
Right, and if you have no IDand no phone, you know, just lay
down and take it out of yourcar.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
No, you made a good comment too.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
You're saying when you don't have a phone, you
don't have all these problemsthat most people do well, but I
would just speak into if youdon't have your id or a phone,
right, you, you, you just layingthere, uh.
But for me, I hadn't had aphone in almost five months and
(50:53):
it's been five of the bestmonths of my life.
I don't know what radiation iscoming out of those devices, but
not sitting there staring at it, and everything I think about
and everything I do is centeredaround it.
I feel so relieved.
Not that I had gone through thatfor the last five months, it
(51:19):
was not by my choice.
I didn't have a phone, but Ididn't say, hey, this is
something that has to be fixedright now, right now, right now.
I didn't feel that I just letit go.
Things were still kind ofclicking and rolling without it.
You know, it showed me how toappreciate what was in front of
(51:42):
me and the people that were infront of me.
See, a phone connects us withpeople that are not in front of
us.
They're across the world,across the country, all this
other kind of crazy business andit distracts us from dealing
with what's in front of us todeal with, if that makes any
sense.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
What do you think?
I agree with you.
I wish I didn't have to have myphone.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
But there's a place for it and there's a need for it
, you know, uh, but then I canlook back and I'm, you know, not
going back to the dinosaur days, but you know, 20, 30 years ago
, before cell phones were evenout there, people did just fine
and that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Uh, I think about stuff like that all the time too
, where it's, like you know,sending somebody an address or
if they don't have, like people,figured it out how to get there
years ago without a phone andnow it's drop me your location.
Yeah, yeah, and there's so manythings now that we're just so,
(52:48):
we're such prisoners to thiswe're so dependent it's so
dependent, that's the word.
Yeah, and it's slash prisoner toit yeah, we're dependent
prisoners, if it's a such titleyeah, well, there is now, and, I
think, one of the main things.
The reason why I think aboutthat is because, uh, we just had
a, a baby, eight months agowell, congratulations yeah,
(53:08):
thank you.
and the amount of informationthat's out there and the amount
of people trying to tell you howto raise your kid and what's
best, and I'm just like there'sso much information, and people
have been fine for years andyears and years and years
without any of this stuff, likeevery.
Our parents figured it out,their parents figured it out,
(53:31):
their parents before all thistechnology figured it out.
It's now just an overload ofinformation.
So I have to remind myself thattoo.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
You know.
But yeah, the other thing Iwant to kind of look at with the
unhoused population is, youknow, we all one step from being
a part of it.
We one paycheck away, twohousing notes away from it, and
(54:03):
I thank for a lot of people.
That scares them and they feelthe closer I'm to that type of
situation whether it's beingaround people that are homeless
makes me that much closer to itand so they may feel a need to
create a border or a wedge.
(54:24):
That may not be healthy interms of what's best for all,
because it may make this personfeel, you know, awkward and you
feel awkward about it.
It's just not a good deal.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, we're getting close totime here wrapping it up, but
want to end on you.
You know what you hope toaccomplish going forward in life
, your goals where you seeyourself well, my goal is to
(55:03):
attract all your listeners tolisten to my podcast.
Real talk with jw you to getthe podcast going first.
I got to get it.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
Well, you know you invite me to come here as part
of the start Right.
Everything has to startsomewhere somehow and for most
of us who have started thingsbefore, the hardest part is just
getting started.
Everything else just kind ofworks its way out Right and just
(55:35):
like with your gym.
I bet the hardest part was justGetting started Without seeing a
wall, a building a floor andstill moving forward, as if all
those things you see and knowthat they're there.
And I'm looking forward to it,man.
One of my biggest goals, man, Iwant to be a part of just
(55:58):
raising people's awareness,helping people to heighten their
awareness.
I think we live in a realdumbed-down society to where all
we know is just all we know andall we know is just what those
who are in power tell us, and wedon't seek anything further
(56:19):
than that, and I don't thinkthat's creating a healthier
society for us.
So if we're going to look afterour kids, grandkids and
great-great-grandkids, we got tostart trying to push back and
bring some normalcy back intoour society.
(56:39):
Where we can look at each otherand speak and not feel awkward,
where we feel okay, asking forhey, man, you from here, you
local, how do I get down thestreet?
Where we feel comfortable doingthe simple things.
Again, I like that, that's whatI feel most committed to, and
(57:03):
if a nice house, come with it,so yeah, exactly I that.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
And then one thing if you had one sentence to
describe yourself or say youknow, I like asking people if
you had a tombstone one dayright, we're all going to pass
what would you want that to sayabout you?
Speaker 1 (57:24):
Well, here lies a guy that stood up more than he said
that.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
All right, I like it.
Alright, we'll end it on that.
I appreciate you coming in well, I thank you for the invite.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
I thank you for the invite and I thank you for
sharing your audience with me.
I hope we all can get togetherand do this again real soon yeah
, I would love to do that.
Speaker 2 (57:51):
I usually tell people where to find people on social
media, and you can find JWoutside of BC Gym over here.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
Yeah, you can find me outside of BC Gym, that's right
, and I look forward to seeingyou all soon.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
All right, thank you.
We got team on three.
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