Street Sense

Martin Walker

While buying tomatoes today at the FRESHFarm market near the White House, I met a homeless man named Martin, who was selling newspapers and waiting to go to a drug and alcohol treatment program in West Virginia.

I had seen Martin on previous trips to the market but didn't say more than "Hi!" or smile at him.  Today, I bought a newspaper from him and we started talking.  Martin told me that as a vendor for Street Sense newspapers he is similiar to a self-employed subcontractor.  That means that when I buy a newspaper I am investing in him and Street Sense.

I told him I had seen other people around town, especially near the Metro stops, selling Street Sense, but I didn't really know much about it.  Martin said that people usually think that he and others selling the newspapers go to a central office somewhere in DC to pick up free newspapers and then the homeless people sell them to make money.  That's not the whole picture.

Martin purchases his own newspapers upfront for 35 cents/an issue to cover publishing costs and he sells the papers for a suggested donation of $1.  This means that when a newspaper is bought for $1, that 35 cents of it repays Martin for his initial purchase.  The remaining 65 cents is Martin's profit that he uses to support himself.  The average vendor can earn about $45 a day.

I was curious about Martin's story because I know life can present changes quickly and I wondered how he had gotten to this place.  I also know it takes an inner strength to live life on the streets and to stay clean and heal yourself of drugs and alcohol. 

Martin said he is 40 years old and has a 20-year-old son.  He said he has a mother, a brother and a sister who live in the area "but they have lives of their own."  He told me he once worked in a law firm many years ago as the company's debt collector.  He was hurt in a car accident and wanted to take more time off than the company allowed, so he was laid off.  Martin said that's when his life totally unraveled and the drinking and drugs "helped me forget reality."

 

He has lived in shelters for years, just finished a 30-day rehab program at another facility and is now enrolled in a another program at So Others Might Eat (SOME).  The SOME program involves Martin going to West Virginia for 90 days of drug and alcohol rehabilitation and extensive support treatments.  He was supposed to leave for West Virginia this week but he had to go to the dentist today to have a tooth removed.  Martin said he is grateful to be in the SOME rehab program (which paid for his dental work) because after he completes the rehab program, SOME will also help him find transitional housing and then eventually his own apartment.

 

I asked him what keeps him going when times get really tough.  "I have discouraging moments," Martin said, "but I really can't imagine quitting on life itself."  

 

Martin quietly added: "When people consistently see a person living on the streets, don't assume that it is easy to get it back together.  Once you have lost everything it is very difficult to get back to mainstream living."

 

I thanked Martin for his time and wished him good luck.  I told him when I come to the market next week that I hoped I wouldn't see him here.  He said next week he hoped to be in the mountains of West Virginia following his rehab program.

On the way back to my office I thought about how I had gone to buy fresh veggies but learned about another person's journey.  Martin is remarkably resilient, constantly trying to stay clean and never giving up on himself.  I hope his life continues on its present course.

Now when I see someone in a neon vest selling Street Sense newspapers on the streets of Washington, DC, I'll know how these people are working a program and that buying a newspaper can help change a life.  

Mad Men

The season premiere of "Mad Men" airs tonight and I can hardly wait.  It is my favorite television show and I am very curious to see where creator Matthew Weiner takes the endlessly interesting characters who work at the New York City ad agency of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Watching "Mad Men" is like opening up a time capsule and immersing yourself in all of the sophistication, controversy and change of the 1960's.

The writing is suberb and from the moment you step in to the offices of Sterling Cooper you know you are in for a great time of it.  People drink constantly during the day, smoke all the time, yet there is hardly any cursing.  There are no computers or cellphones but there are lots of face-to-face meetings (romantic and business) in hotel rooms.  No one has any tatoos or piercings but there are lots of sexy crisp white shirts on the men and beautiful form fitting dresses and suits on the women.  Everyone looks like they are pulled together even though they aren't.  And underneath all of this is the backstory of the 1960's -- civil rights, women's changing roles at home and in the workplace, the Vietnam War, drugs and the Space race with Russia.

I also like to watch "Mad Men" because my husband worked in various news rooms in New York City during the 1960's and I like to imagine what the city was like during that time.  I think it would be fair to say that it was a time of working hard and playing hard.  Watching Don Draper (played by the handsome Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (played by the witty John Slattery) is very similiar to watching two people play a game of chicken in terms of taking work and play to the limit.

So I'm going to start making the popcorn.  Check it out if you get a chance.  You won't regret it!

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston & her daughter, Bobbi Kristina

Whenever I hear Whitney Houston's version of the song, "I'm Every Woman," I feel better.

It has everything to do with the way Whitney Houston's fabulous voice sounds when she sings this song.  It's not exactly about the lyrics, it's more about the melody and where she takes it.  Even though Chaka Khan recorded the originial version of the song and I loved it, Whitney Houston brought something extra to "I'm Every Woman" that can't be described.  Chaka is definitely funky but Whitney is powerful.

Over and over as her colleagues in the music industry were asked today to comment on Whitney Houston's sudden and tragic death on Saturday, February 11, the answer would be, "That voice." or "What a voice."  It's so true.

We can never know the pressures and insecurities that brought her to drugs but recently, after her divorce from bad boy hip hop star Bobby Brown, she seemed determined to rehab herself and get her life back on track.  We were all rooting for her and wanted her to come back to being her old amazing self.

But that was not to be even as she arrived last week in Los Angeles to attend the Grammy awards and wrapped up her latest acting and singing project in the soon-to-be released movie, "Sparkle." 

Oh Whitney, 48 years was not enough!  You will be missed but I will always remember you this way:

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse was with us for only 27 years.  But in that short time her artistic flame burned bright even as she continually battled for control over drugs and alcohol.  Artistically she broke new ground, writing and recording songs that addressed her self-destructive lifestyle.  Yet for her family and millions of fans, there was always the hope that she would turn things around and bring her demons under control.

Here are the lyrics to "Tears Dry on Their Own," one of my favorites from her Grammy-award winning album, "Back To Black":

"Tears Dry On Their Own"

Songwriters: Valerie Simpson; Nickolas Ashford; Amy Jade Winehouse

All I can ever be to you,

Is the darkness that we knew,

And this regret I've got accustomed to,

Once it was so right,

When we were at our high,

Waiting for you in the hotel at night,

I knew I hadn't met my match,

But every moment we could snatch,

I don't know why I got so attached,

It's my responsibility,

And you don't owe nothing to me,

But to walk away I have no capacity

[Chorus:]

He walks away,

The sun goes down,

He takes the day but I'm grown,

And there's no way, in this blue shape,

My tears dry on their own,

I don't understand

How do I stress A man,

When there's so many bigger things at hand,

We could a never had it all,

We had hit a wall,

So this is inevitable withdrawl,

Even if I stop wanting you,

A Perspective pushes true,

I'll be some next man's other woman soon,

I shouldn't play myself again,

I should just be my own best friend

Not f*** myself in the head with stupid men,

[Chorus]

So we are history,

YOUR  shadow covers me

The sky above,

A blaze only that lovers see

[Chorus]

I wish I could say no regrets,

And no emotional debts,

Cause as we kiss goodbye the sun sets

So we are history,

The shadow covers me,

The sky above a blaze that only lovers see,

[Chorus]

[x2]

He walks away

The sun goes down,

He takes the day but I'm grown,

And in no way,

In my deep shape

My tears dry