Veterans, addiction, and faith in Skid Row

Are we going to be around this town? And let what I've been saying come true Get off of me I can get up if you want to understand me I can get up if you really want to help me I can get up, run in Jesus' name I'm gonna get up if you get off of me I can get up if you want to understand me I can get up if you really want to help me I can get up, run in Jesus' name I'm gonna get up The people who are talking to me Are we going to be around this town? And let what I've been saying come true Good for nothing, baby I'm a figure Just a boy who's grown My shit is a jigger Now we gonna stand for that Oh, is that really worth a sight? I'm your brother As you stand and you go around I hope you don't mind If I tell a whole story Part of your system I know you think you've come a long way I know you think you've come a long way As I walk the street As I see the world You can see my hands ain't shaking And my legs ain't trembling I turn the coin and keep it in trash Look up at the street sign It says San Julian Look back down and make eye contact with my brother And now I'm feeling like I'm standing somewhere I shouldn't be He looks around a thousand of his friends That raised their crackpipes to the lips of his I'm simultaneously Telling me, yeah, I'm getting high I'm feeling good And sister, don't you knock it till you try Now I'm standing here with visions of crooked politicians And mission corrects Life is a game of chess Out in their greedy pockets Some think it's a joke That folks are living low from social justice And we know that's not how it's supposed to be So if you can get up, stand up Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante Who will be performing Saturday, May the 25th, 2013 At 4 o'clock p.m. at the Peace Center On the campus of USC Celebrating Memorial Day weekend We will hear more about that event During our community day On the Community Calendar Welcome to the Comrade Report May the peace and blessings of the life-giving Creative spirit be upon you And upon your family My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson Coming at you from Skid Row Studios Our call in number is 800-893-9562 800-893-9562 Listen to us live Or you can download our show And past shows By googling in Skid Row Studios Skid Row.LA And hit Qumran Report Now here in the studio with me this week Is military veteran Horace Jordan And actor and community activist Lee Shaw And this week we'll be talking about Military veterans in the Skid Row community And also we'll be hearing from some college students From UCLA who visited the Skid Row community Last month Now on Wednesday April the 24th 2013 Some students from UCLA Visited the Skid Row area As part of the urban service And emergence experience By Pastor Brian Eklund And they had a chance to talk About their experience I would like to play a portion Of that interview It's 3 minutes and 31 seconds long So let's start off with Pastor Brian Yeah For those that may not know me I'm retired I retired from a church From one of the local churches in South Central And since I retired I've been doing it I'm just committed to consciousness raising amongst folks I like folks to see the side of LA That they don't always get to see The vitality I know Skid Row people have this impression But I love the vitality and energy here I was staying throughout South LA And these guys already know that I'm excited to hear about it They are part of the world A different part of the world And I was blessed a few number of years back To run into Dharma St. John And just have a solid new In friendship and relationship with them And I know that you all just do such a great job Of opening your hearts and spirits To those of us that are from here And say here's who we are So it's nice to be here And this is a group that's all from UCLA They're spending the week They are living the Mario They are living the Mario They're living anywhere from Martin Luther King South So they are in the community Staying with families And have been going around Working the Hook Street Project in the afternoon So they're veterans now Yeah And what we try to do You know we also have An internet radio show At Skid Row Studio Called the Coon Round Report There it is And Coon Round was the community Where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls At the Community of Jesus John the Baptist So that's where we took that name Because we always felt that That was the best example of community And so what we like to do Is like put the first part on the radio Like we did to students last week And so I like to go around And get the name of each student The director And I start here And tell us your name And what you The name Tiffany Doe But call me T. Doe Third year anthropology major I'm the director of all ASB programs But Tina is the director of this site in particular Oh good Okay I'm Layla And I'm a third year econ major And that's it Econome Yeah Hi I'm Megan I'm a third year art history major Hi I'm Tina I'm a third year human bio society major And I'm a third year I'm the site coordinator for Oh great Hi I'm Carol I'm a second year police econ major I'm Gloria I'm a first year electrical engineering major Hi my name is Ann And I'm a second year psychobiology major Hi I'm Sonya I'm a third year studying Spanish and literature Hi I'm Kavita And I'm a fourth year physiological science major Wow I'm Brian with New City Parish My name is Laura I'm a second year student at UCL Hi I'm Michael I'm a second year student at UCLA My name is Michael I'm an English and Chicano Chicano studies major Hi my name is Paulina I'm a third year political science major Hi Andrea Ross Drama stage coon run Hi Lee Shaw Member drama stage coon run Hi And Pastor Tony Stallworth Here at Central City Community Church Hi Errol Anthony Drama stage Hi Horace Jordan Just helping out Tony Hi Gary Carr An active member of Central City Community Hi I'm Eric I'm a second year student at UCLA Hi Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving Giving I was in the United States Navy. I went in in 1982. And I stayed in for two and a half years. And I did two Westpacs. And it was a good experience. So you grew up out here in Los Angeles? Yes. What's on? Born and raised in Los Angeles. And five other brothers and sisters. And, yeah, born and raised in Los Angeles. Now let me ask you this. How did you come in contact with the Skid Row community? Okay. I got out of the military, like I said, in 84. And shortly thereafter, I was introduced to rock cocaine. And needed to say about. Maybe four or five years later, I ended up downtown. Mm-hmm. On Skid Row. Let me ask you this. When you was growing up here in Los Angeles, did you know anything about the Skid Row area? Or had you a. Not Skid Row, no. I didn't know anything about Skid Row. Mm-hmm. In fact, I had actually lived down here maybe for a couple of years before I actually found out what Skid Row was all about. I never came down to Skid Row. Mm-hmm. What is the biggest challenge for a military veteran? Mm-hmm. What is the biggest challenge for a military veteran? Mm-hmm. What is the biggest challenge for a military veteran? Mm-hmm. Who find themselves homeless in the Skid Row area? I would say the number one thing is staying connected spiritually. Mm-hmm. You know, because you have so much opposition, when you decide to get on the right track spiritually, you're gonna face a lot of opposition, especially down here. So I would say that would be the biggest obstacle. But even with that, that's all to strengthen us in the long run. So. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's not necessarily a bad thing if we handle it the right way. Mm-hmm. Okay. How about, what do you think, what's the role of the church in the Skid Row area? How do you see the role of the church in terms of sitting here in the recovery zone? For me, it has been essential. You know, with Pastor Tony, you know, it's basically helped turn my life around. Mm-hmm. Just having... I mean, I'm a church that I can go to on a weekly basis in Bible studies, and just staying connected spiritually, it's what's helped me to get back on the right track and stay on the right track. Mm-hmm. Lee, what do you think? Mr. Lee Shaw. They need to move churches down here. You know what I'm saying? Because I passed through Church of the Nazarenes, I passed through, and there's a lot of people up in there. You know what I'm saying? It's like almost standing room in times when I passed through there. And they need to just have more spiritual outlets than some of the other things that go on down there, you know? Because knowing that God is all-powerful, right, and is able to inspire the human being to a higher level, you need more churches. You need more places like that. You know what I'm saying? You don't... One, a lot of people don't have a spiritual side. They lost connection with the spiritual side. Now they just running rampant. They just, you know, they're on their own. Because inside of you is a voice. And if you listen to that voice, that's not coming from no human being, right? But the more you deny that voice, it goes down. It'll say, stop, stop, stop. And you just press it out. You know what I'm saying? But the church will keep it up. Keep it up. Keep things going. That's the only positive thing they got going down here, you know? And I'm not shaking the missions, because they have the church up in... You know, they have church there too. But it's not like when you want to go, you know what I'm saying? You are... You driving yourself over to the church. You walking over to the church because you want to go, not because it's just there and it's just something to do, you know? I mean, because if you... If you count the number of people downtown, right? You don't even probably... Maybe five, 10% of them go to church on a regular basis. You know what I'm saying? And you got different religions and way of life and all that. So we need to have something that's going to help everybody. You know what I'm saying? Everybody's not a Muslim. Everybody's not a Christian. I mean, you know, in that respect, as far as the Baptist, you know, you're not going to be a Christian. You're not going to be a Christian. And of course the Baptist, you know, the Lutheran or whatever, whatever it is, or the Catholic, you know what I'm saying? But they need to have the West available to the people. Not on the West side of Main street. Not in some big old place. They need right there because they are human beings too. Now, let me ask you this because we know just a little while ago they had the concept that they call realignment. Yeah. They let a lot of nonviolent offenders out of the California penal system. And because of the resources that's in the recovery zone in the Skid Row area, a lot of them end up down in that Skid Row area. Now, does that mean that you have a big mixture down there? You have people coming from prison, people that fall from the community that enter down there, people that send programs down there. Now, how do the people that send programs, how do they deal with all of this element down there? What kind of advice, the best chance of working their recovery program, why they have to be down there and have all of these elements around? One, you don't allow yourself to start wondering. See, if you think about walking around, let me get some air, you're setting yourself up. You might as well just do the same things. You did when you was in other places, in lockup or whatever you want to call it, and stay in. And go away and do the necessary things. If you got some business, handle your business. Go back up in there. You know what I'm saying? I've been in there. And I had to literally put my head down on the 53 bus coming from 56th and Central because I got an urge inside of me. And I kept praying. And I put my head down. I wouldn't look up. I didn't look up until I got to Pico. Mm-hmm. That's when I felt the relief. For going through that area? Yeah. Because all this stuff, this is where I hang out at. I know people at. You know what I'm saying? And all that right there, you get an urge just to, you know, just go back, go back, go back. I put my head down and I prayed. From the time I got on that bus, I didn't look up. That's the only thing I did. When the thing said Pico, I looked up. And I felt the relief. I'm out of this area. So when you're in there, you know, the best thing for you to do is to pray. The best thing for you to do is stay in there. And if you got business to handle, handle it. And if you can't, take somebody with you when you're handling it. Because, you know, the devil talks to you all the time. He talks to you and he don't stop. Mm-hmm. You know? So them cats, you know, if they want to make the program work, yeah. Mm-hmm. Do what you're supposed to do and stay put. Mm-hmm. Okay. But let me ask something. I want to have a few comments, anything like that, George? Yes. Anything particularly you want me to comment on? Okay. Let me ask you this. What are your thoughts on the women and children in the Skid Row area? We've seen so many come in there in the past few years. You know, I would just say it has to really be tough. It has to really be tough, especially on the kids. And maybe they don't really know what's going on now, but it has to affect them in a way. It has to affect them. You know, it has to be difficult. You know, it's difficult on men. So I know. I know it has to be difficult on the females down there, especially if they have children. But at the same time, they have to even look at that, I think, as an opportunity. Mm-hmm. It's still an opportunity, you know, if they get in, like, the mission or they have a couple of other programs down there for women and just decide that that's what they want to do and they're going to do it no matter what. There's a lot of opportunities down there to get your life back on the right track. So it just has to be, just make a decision and they can do it. Now, let me ask this. How about a person that their addiction is different? Just say someone is dealing with alcohol or cocaine or heroin or something like that, but especially alcohol as opposed to something like cocaine. Should their program be different? The program that they set up to deal with it, should it? What are your thoughts on that? Addiction is addiction. It don't matter if it's gambling. Yeah. Sex or whatever it is, it's still an addiction. And you handle it in the same way that you handle it, you know, because even they got what they call gambler's anonymous, but they still go out to Big Book, right? Because the thing is still the same. It's an addiction. You hear the concept, you know, hey, it's still an addiction no matter what it is. If you're stuck on something you can't get away from, you're drooling at the mouth or whatever it may be, it's still the same. It's an addiction. Now, John, how about for a military veteran? Is it a connection in their background, their military service, a lot of times that is tied into their addiction? Well, not for me. Not for me it wasn't because, you know, mine didn't really start until after I got out of the military. But it's like I'm in a program right now, a two-year program for veterans. And I'm going to tell you something, man. It's probably the best thing that has happened to me in a long time because it's given me an opportunity to just have my own little space. They give me my own room, give me three meals a day, and basically just say, you know, I just want you to save a certain amount of your money every month. You can come and go as you please. And as Lee was saying, I don't have to be out there on the streets unless I have a reason to be out there. I don't have any problem going up to my room. I don't have to be out there watching a movie. I love being in my room. It gives me a chance to just get some peace of mind. You know, I can get on my knees and pray and I can be away from all the drama. So I've been there for like going on nine months now, man. It's just like it's made a big difference in my life just by the fact that I have my own little space. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Now, how do we make more veterans? Because it's a lot of veterans, a lot of homeless veterans in the Skid Row area. How do we make them aware of all the programs and things that's available to them? OK, well, I would say if there are veterans that really want to get help, it's not really hard to find if they really want to get help and want to turn their life around, just start asking questions and they'll be led. There's a number of programs downtown just for veterans. Mm hmm. There's three or four that I know of, you know, long term programs. So if that's what a person really wants, I think they can find it. Mm hmm. I wanted to ask a joint question. Do they have an advocate up in the different programs, a veterans advocate? The one that I'm in, no, we just have case managers. We have case managers. But I'm pretty sure the other programs in that are around do have advocates. Yeah. Because that would. That's like anywhere else you go, you know, like the thing they had at the county jail where they sent the veterans out there to Linwood. Mm hmm. You know what I'm saying? Because. Separate them. Yeah. You know, I mean, the programs down here geared towards the addictions and solutions, right? Mm hmm. Then it should be up in there as well. It should be. They should have somebody in there to tell them exactly what, you know, what's going on with the veterans. You know what I'm saying? I remember once I walked with Mary Louise down through there to go to different missions, you know, and to tell her, is there any veterans in here? Is there any veterans? And she went on one, one, one, one, one. You know, I mean, they didn't care about her, you know, some of the guys, because they didn't know what was going on anyway. But she used to work there until midnight, I think, I believe. She worked there too. So she said, I know more about this place than you do. But she just wanted to get the veterans to know this is what, you know. And I thought that they all should have a place. And just like you got a case manager, you should also have a veterans advocate up in there to let the people know exactly what they got coming. Mm hmm. You know. Now, Jordan, when should veterans that's in these like two year programs, do they also think about their planning for the future? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, you know, that would be a disaster for a person like me. Mm hmm. That would be a disaster for a person to stay a place, you know, stay someplace for two years and then not have an exit plan. Yeah. You know, they do have like VASH and things like that. But I mean, to be real with you, the main thing for me besides saving my money is, okay, it's working on myself. You know, that's the most important thing. You know, it's an inside job. Of course, saving money, that's important. Mm hmm. Because when we leave, we're going to need something to, you know, get us started when we get out there, to get us our place, to furnish our place. I want to drive out of there. So saving money is important. But even more important than that, I mean, I have to address the issues that got me in the position that caused me to be homeless in the first place. And if those issues aren't addressed, then it's a good chance that I'm going to end up going through the same things that got me there in the first place. Mm hmm. So that's been the number one thing for me, addressing those issues that caused me to be in the position that I'm in in the first place. Mm hmm. How much is economics tied into those issues? You know, the money and resources and like that. That caused me to be? Yeah. It wasn't a lack of money. It wasn't anything like that. Mm hmm. It wasn't that. I mean, you know, making money really wasn't the issue. The issue was a lot of times what I did with the money. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Lee, what are your thoughts on that? Is money just a byproduct? You know, there's so many people that end up down on the Skid Row area, you know, losing their jobs? Yeah, I believe it is. Mm hmm. Because if you look at the number, what Skid Row was saying, the number of homeless people was in, let's say, 1980, right? And that's a lot of people. Mm hmm. And that's a lot of people. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. grew up here in a good environment. But instead they wind up with some, what you call them? People who are putting these shenanigans on them financially, right? Causing them to get down here. Because you ain't got no money. You're going to have to go somewhere and everything's down here. So you can get a place to stay. You can get a room or you can get a free meal. You can get your meal. You know what I'm saying? And like they were saying before. But you have your mind. You're going to look for out. You know what I'm saying? So the next thing, the pain comes into the mind. And the next thing you know, you're drinking yourself, smoking crack cocaine, or shooting heroin, or doing something. You're just to release the pain. You know what I'm saying? A lot of them just, you know, and you was talking about the children. This is a sad thing that a child has to grow up in downtown Los Angeles on Skid Row. And in his mind, this is all it is. You know what I'm saying? You're crippling young children. Right? And another thing, person go to Vietnam or Korea, Vietnam, right? Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, right? Call himself, serve his country. Right? Now, when we get out of the military, right? Always. All you do is get a pat on the back, get out. You know what I'm saying? No treatment for the wars that you've been in, because they told you how to kill. They taught you how to kill, right? But they'll never give you nothing to teach you. You're going back into the environment now, to the world, right? And give you no tools to deal with the world. That's just like letting somebody come from, say, Iraq or Iran or anywhere in the world. Come here. You know what they get? When they get here, culture shock. Because in most of those countries, they don't have the same things. You jump off the plane. Say, if you were a Muslim, you come over here from the Middle East somewhere, Egypt, and you get off the plane, you know what I'm saying? And all of a sudden, you see a woman, and she got a miniskirt on. I ain't never seen, you know? Yeah. Liquor stores on every corner. People pulling all kinds of little tricks. You know what I'm saying? Nobody gives you nothing for you serving your country. And that's a shame. That is a shame right there, man. And if you go back, I say, we have to go back and do a forecast more or less, right? And all these killings and different things have been jumping off. 65% to 70% of them was military veterans. You know what I'm saying? We're flipped out. Yeah. I think it's real important for, let me just speak for myself. It's real important for me to accept responsibility. Okay? I didn't just end up on skid row. No. I didn't just end up because of, you know what I'm saying? I did some specific things to get on skid row. And until I accept responsibility for that and get out of the problem and into the solution, I'm not going to grow. It's real important that I figure out, okay, what was it? What part did I play in it? It's real easy to say, okay, all of these things happened to me, which caused me to be on skid row. And that's not really accepting responsibility. And until I accept responsibility for my actions, no matter what has happened to me, I'm not going to get into the solution. I'm going to always be into the problem. Well, this happened to me, and that happened to me, and this happened to me, and that happened to me. That's why I'm here on skid row. That's not accepting responsibility. And until I learn how to accept responsibility and look at what I did to get here and what I can do to get out, I'm not really going to grow. Is that the starting point? I wanted to ask a question. Yeah. Kyle. Yeah, go ahead. You lose your job. You got six kids and a wife, right? You're the sole person taking care of this family. They snatch your job from you. Your house go. You're homeless, and your six kids is homeless. We try to get our relatives to take a couple of the kids if they can, right? Mm-hmm. And we have to go somewhere, right? Now, me and the wife probably can. We can fend for our own self, you know, some. But how do you take that? I mean, how do you, who, what did I do to lose the job? Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? All of a sudden, they just gave me a pink slip one day. And my whole life turned upside down. All my dreams went out the window. There's some pain in there somewhere, and I didn't cause the pain, but it's there. Mm-hmm. And I got to, and if the pain is so great, you know what I'm saying? You ever had a toothache? You just, you had to take something. Take a whole bottle of Excedrin, whatever it is you got to take, right? To get rid of this pain in your mouth, right? Mm-hmm. What do you do? Okay. And, you know, the latter part of our show, we're going to talk about some solutions, too. Yes, I was. Before we move into the community calendar, let me ask something else about an observation that we talked about last week. Los Angeles is about nine, maybe 10% African. Americans. But Skid Row is probably, you know, they estimate about 70% African American, maybe a little bit higher than that. What are some of the connections that caused the huge amount of African Americans to end up in Skid Row? They were in a city like Los Angeles. They recycle people. You know, and I say, you know, you don't, you accept the responsibility for what you did, but you also have to accept that other people, had something to do with it. And when you say recycle people, you mean like people on parole that go through the system and come out? They go in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out. And then with this thing with the realignment deal, right? So they sit back and say, okay, the federal government said, you got to let these many people out, right? Now they come back around and say, most of these people are going to end up back in prison again, right? Guess what the state of California is going to say? I told you so. Troy, you want to say something about that? Yeah, I think there was an explosion of people that came to Skid Row in the late 80s. A lot of African-Americans and a lot of that had to do, a lot of that was a result of the cocaine epidemic, the cocaine that was put on the streets of Los Angeles. And the majority of the people downtown are there. I'm talking about the majority, not specific cases. The majority of the people I think are downtown because of serious issues. A lot of them are substance abuse related. So I think that played a big part in what we see now, going all the way back to the 80s. Let me ask you, Los Angeles have a huge Hispanic population and also have a huge Asian population. Why do you think you don't see that many? Why do you think you don't see that many Asians down in the Skid Row area? And a huge amount of Hispanics. Why do you don't see that many Asians? You know, one, if you look at family, right? The connection, right? A community of their own. When you call certain areas, you see this is Koreatown. This is Chinatown. This is whatever town, you know what I'm saying? And they're able to get help from there. They're able to get help from their family, extended family, right? And so they group themselves together economically, right? It's something that black folks, that African Americans don't do. You know, it's hard. If you're looking for a job, a job will be sitting right next to you and they're hiring people, you know, they need 10 people. They wouldn't tell you nothing. Let me ask you both for this before we go into the community calendar in a minute. I want to know, what would you think these two individuals, just say they could come back and visit Skid Row, what would they response be? First, Dr. King. All this work done for nothing. All of it done for nothing. You know what I'm saying? If you're going to follow Jesus, then follow him all the way. Don't get in the way, right? And that's what a lot of them do. They get in the way. You know what I'm saying? They sit there. No. They sit there. How can you tell me that you follow the Messiah, Jesus, right? When you let something like this go on, right? And you have the power to stop it. Okay. What would you think Dr. King would be? He just lost me on that. I don't know what that had to do with Jesus. Yeah. No, I'm talking to the preacher. Okay. He said Dr. King. Yeah. You said Dr. King, right? Yeah. And Dr. King is what? He's a preacher. Okay. He's a preacher. He follows what? He follows the Christians. But that wasn't his fault. Yeah. That wasn't his fault. Yeah. He can't say, people are going to do what they want to do anyway. That wasn't Martin Luther King's fault that everybody's on skid row. Yeah. People make personal decisions. Yeah. I can't blame that on King. I'm telling you what I said was his work, even his work today. Yeah. It's done for all the work he did. Yeah. Nothing. What would you think if Dr. King visits skid row, what would be his reaction? He'd be sad. He'd be disappointed. And he'd be hurt. Yeah. But at the same time. And what he did was magnificent. He changed. He helped a lot of people in a lot of lives. Yeah. And people are going to do what they're going to do regardless. You're not going to be able to help everybody. But he helped a lot of people. Yeah. I mean, you know. Yeah. We have a lot of things going for us today that we wouldn't have had if he wouldn't have done what he done. So I think what he did was a good thing. Yeah. Okay. We're going to come back because we're going to talk about some solutions. It's going to get interesting. Let's go to our community camp. And then we'll come back and get more into solutions and discussion about this skid row area. Right. This is the community calendar for the month of May, Saturday, May 25th at 4 p.m. Drama stage, Comron, the Son of Play reading series in celebration of Memorial Day present the play, The 101 Club, written by Judith Bowman and Mary B. Bowman. Melvin Ishmael Johnson. The 101 Club is about the Freeman Field Mutiny, a series of incidents at Freeman Air Army Airfield near Seymour, Indiana, in 1945. Also on the program is a short play entitled Private Johnson's War, written by Reverend Roosevelt Johnson. This play is about overcoming racism in the Army in the early 1970s. Special musical guests will be Willis and Shantae. The location, the United University Church, USC Fellowship Hall, 817 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, California. This is a free event and all are welcome to attend. A special June event that's coming up. The Roby Theater Company presents Bronze Bear. Written by Tim Toriyama and Aaron Wolfert. Directed by Ben Guillory. The dates are June 29th through July 21st. Opening date is June 29th. Location, the Los Angeles Theater Center, 514 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, 913. For more information, you can contact 213-489-7000. If you have a community calendar that you would like announced on our show, send the information to DramaStage1 at yahoo.com, attention Earlene Anthony. The call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our hosts. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. Let's continue with one more interview with the. Students from UCLA, and then we'll get back to our roundtable. The interview is about three minutes and ten seconds. My name's Amanda Taffy. I'm a first year at UCLA, and I'm a poli-sci major. Okay. What's your experience on Skid Row so far? I haven't. This is my first time here. I'm from LA, so it's a shock for me. Okay. My name is Katie. I'm a fourth year, and I study sociology. Okay. My name is Annie. I'm a second year in Psychobiology. My name is Andrea. I'm a third year English and Civic Engagement. Hi my name is Nick. I'm a fifth year and English major and education minor and this is my first time here. My name is Sarai. I'm a fourth year and I major in Philosophy and minor in Art History. My name is Anna. I'm a fourth year Geography major and this is my first time here. My name is Daniel and I'm a fourth year Political Science major. My name is Felicia. I'm in my last year and I'm studying accounting. My name is Naveen. I'm majoring in Physiology. Fourth year. I was born in 2007 and I asked a young lady when I got off the Greyhound bus station where all the people hang out at. She said down on Skid Row. It was 2007 on June the 19th when I got off the bus. I never in my life a city like Los Angeles seen this many homeless people that down on Skid Row living on the street living on the sidewalk and living on the sidewalk and I got myself the things I was doing is just like them and I thank God the Lord delivered me from drugs and alcohol that I'm in a program that want to help you get a roof on your head you can move on yeah right next door yeah it's a lot of resource yeah a lot of people don't want to reach out I'm willing to help somebody. Every day I'm talking to somebody. What's your name? Lloyd. Thank you. Hi, I'm Valerie. And I have heard of Skid Row and I have you know my opinions about I have come through but I never would have come shopping. But the apartment building that was living here caught on fire and I got referred here to the Union Rescue Mission. And I have seen all types of things on the street and I have said well Father, God, I have sat here here it breaks my fear. But in this community, I didn't see anything but all positive things regardless to what the habits may be. I've never seen so many people in one community that had so much faith and trust in God. And it really opened my eyes, you know, and so it's like I'm just a happy camper. You know, Jesus didn't have no address. Valerie. Okay, yeah, Valerie. Thank you for the comment. I appreciate that, you know, and I've seen how the streets have been cleaned up since the beginning. Okay, yeah, that's some interesting comments. I want to get some comments from the two of you about what they was talking. I thought it was interesting for the individual that had come from the outside at the Greyhound bus station and his view of what he saw. And it's sort of a bell ringing. He said, hey, man, this is the same thing I'm doing. If I don't make a change, I'm going to be in the street too. He commented on, you know, the way he was walking around. And it seemed, especially the young lady, she had a, it seemed like she got a lot of faith in what she saw around with all the so-called negativity and stuff. She still saw the beauty in it, you know, and the spirituality. Either one of you want to comment? We'll start on comment on. You want to pick up on it, Joy? Good. Shoot, that's a lot to talk about. That's some skid row. I said, you know, they got a lot of things happening. You know, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that's a good thing. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here. And here's the thing here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here seen the differences in the time you know and this I mean you know to get off the bus off of a bus from somewhere some other state you know and to see oh man where all these people come from you know and I'll say you know I mean that's a shock you know what I'm saying but you can if you don't get caught up in in the hoopla right you can come up out of it you know just like what's his name Pryze yeah came down came out of it you know what I'm saying first I gotta find out you know the first thing he said first I gotta get me a hustle so I can eat cause I can't you know so and you're using that but stay away from that you know from all the stuff going on just stay focused and keep moving it's only a temporary situation if you're if you point what Reverend Schuller say if you don't aim at nothing you ain't never gonna hit nothing now okay okay did you want to comment no you were just talking about the young lady and I guess what came to my mind is that you know you can have like 10 different people that see something and they all have a different perception about what they see and I think it just goes back to what we're talking about you know it's the inside job change happens on the inside we can't control what goes on around us all we can change is what's you know our thought pattern and things like that we can't really change what goes on around us so what kind of advice would you give just say individuals that find themselves down there whether they are a veteran or just a everyday community member who just getting into a program to have the best chance of succeeding what kind of what kind of advice would you give them? take God with you get on your knees and pray and cry out for help you know that's that would be the you know because if he's for us can't nobody be against us if God is on our side can't nobody be against us and we got to talk to him every day we got to talk to him every day and ask him to help us to get through this because like I said once we start getting on the right packs on the right path spiritually Satan is going to be angry because he sees us as a threat so we have to really stay focused and really connect with God because he is the only one that can get us from point A to point B I can't do it on my own if I could have done it on my own I would have done it a long time ago but that would be my suggestion to make sure that we just connect with that power greater than ourselves to get us from point A to point B what advice would you give the persons that just coming especially the first timers who come down and find themselves down in the Skid Row area and now they just step into a program you know maybe a nine month program or twelve to have the best chance of succeeding do the program do the program meet some people with a lot of time right meet some people that's doing some things you know I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying Now, you know, it's one thing. We did an interview with Pastor Tony, and we played that interview last week, and he said something that's so interesting to me, and I keep thinking about it. He said the things that you would tolerate you would never change. And he started giving some examples. He said if you can tolerate getting your lunch from a truck or people giving you a sandwich or going to these little outdoor bathrooms and all like that, if you can tolerate that, it would never change. What are your thoughts on that? You know, it was something that was said. I picked up on it. I think they said it was Jan Perry who wanted to stop people from feeding these, you know, on the streets, coming down here to feed the people. And a lot of people didn't like that idea, right? But I think it's a pretty good idea because man has to learn how to fend for himself. If you sit there and keep giving and giving and giving, I'm going to sit. I'm going to sit there, and if you don't bring it, and if I don't get it, I'm going to be mad with you. You know, and so, you know, you got to move on. You can't stay in the program all your life, right? You got to go get a job. First, you save your little money, get you a job, and when the time to come, you move to the next level. Move on to the next level. I know some brothers that was in the Midnight Mission. They don't stay down. They come down here and work, and they leave here, and they're going back home. You know what I'm saying? Life has changed for them people. But they know you got to move on. Step by step. Step by step. Okay. Now, let me, we always talk about solutions to the homeless problem, and I'm going to throw it out again, and then I want to discuss it a little. We still got a little time. We believe that the solution to the homeless problem is to make the homeless problem, the homeless veteran problem. That's the first step. And then to get the federal government to finance a think tank to come up with some solutions to solve the homeless problem, and then roll it out, roll out this answer for everybody, for all of the homeless. That's a long-range plan. Now, something that we think can happen immediately is that these faith-based organizations, the churches. The mass jiz, the temple. They can begin to buy or rent all of this empty city property and connect them with their church or their mass jiz or their temple and begin to program, begin to take some people off the skid row and bring them back into the community. If they're a Muslim, then bring them to, you know, let the mass jiz get some of this empty property and begin to put them in. And develop some programs for them. If they're a Christian, let some of these churches, especially these big, huge churches, they got some resources. And a lot of times you can get these empty city properties for just bringing it up to code. Yeah. See, what are your thoughts on that? Well, I'm still looking at it on an individual level. Mm-hmm. You know, I still think it goes down. It goes down to the individual. I think any individual that really wants to get their life together, they can do it. And until a person really reaches that point to where they're sick and tired or being sick and tired, ain't no amount of help in the world, they're not going to be receptive to it. Because I know how many people in my past had tried to help me before I was ready, gave me a place to stay, put money in my pocket. And. I hadn't made a decision yet that I was ready to change. And it all went to waste. So the whole thing starts with recovery, starts with you. Absolutely. It starts with a decision to say, you know what, I'm sick and tired of that lifestyle. And not just saying it, but really meaning it in your heart and your mind. That's where I think it starts. I mean. Yeah. When do a person, when do you think a person recognized that moment? What was it for you to make you recognize that moment? Yeah. That you was. Ready to make that step. Yeah. You know, I think it was a combination of things. Going, being locked up in jail. You know, not having anything, always having to depend on other people to support me. Yeah. Just the combination of things. And then finally being put in a position to where I would say, you know what, I'm not going to get another chance better than this right now. Mm-hmm. You know, just the combination of things. And then just crying out to God and asking for help. It was just a combination of things that happened. Lee. What are your thoughts on how do a person recognize when it's that time? When it's that time to put the responsibility that they got to make the first step? Oh, you know, when you, when you, I know a lot of people have been in jails and prisons. And they, you know, they say they found God or whatever. Yeah. God found them. They got him twisted. God found you. You opened up. And you heard him talk to you. Then you knew it was time for you to go to the next. Yeah, keep moving. Mm-hmm. You know, and now you want to, now you get the help. You know what I'm saying? Because a person can say, I want some help. Usually when a person wants some help, they already know where to go to get the help. You know? You know? They know already. They ain't got to look around for it. They look around. They already know. But it's definitely, like Jordan was saying, an individual thing. It starts with each one of the individuals down there on, sitting down in the skid row to make that change. Yeah. Because you can go, you can walk, you can walk up on one of them missions and get a meal. Right? Just as well, just as well as you walked in the mission to get a meal, you can walk up and say, I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to, I'm ready to stop doing what I'm doing. Whatever it may be. Mm-hmm. You know? And then you can get some help. Get some help. Get past that pride and all that. This is a world full of people. Yeah. And we got, we are social people. We can't, there's information that we'll never know. But we can seek information. Right? Usually coming from another person. So, you know, I mean, just say, hey, if you ever get that urge or you feel funny, you get all twisted up, call me. Before you do anything, just come on the phone and call me. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. Or I can. I can. Be a fool and let all that stuff go and try to make it on my own. It's a social world. Yeah. You got, you're going to get help from somebody or you're going to basically fail. Mm-hmm. You know, you know, Hermes running around here. Mm-hmm. You're right about that. Okay, then. We're going to, we're going to wind this up. Let me give you a couple of quick closing comments. Here, Jordan, closing comments that you want to say. Oh, sure. You got to the community. Yeah. You know, like I was, like I was saying, the thing that has helped me more than anything, in these last nine months, is the personal relationship that I have with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, and opening up that word every morning and getting in that word, you know, because, you know, I just need to thank him right here and right now because of the fruits of the spirit that are being developed in my life that I didn't have before. I just thank him so much that I can open up that word and feed my spirit on a daily basis with that word because that's what really transforms us. From the inside out. You know, I don't have to walk around with bitterness, hate, and all that stuff anymore. God has transformed my life as a result of that word in my life every day. So I'm just grateful for that. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share. I appreciate that. And God bless you guys. Okay. Then you can give us about 20 minutes. About 20 minutes. About 20 minutes. I got 20 minutes. I got 20 minutes. Yeah. Down here, as far as the children are concerned, you need more programs like Positive Life Ministries. Yeah. Right? Right. And people need to, the churches need to get involved down here. Right? Like you said, they can get a building for free. You know what I'm saying? Hey, do, like I said before, if you follow Jesus, then do what Jesus did. That's the end of the story right there. Let me do this. That's the end of it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Now, next week on a special Memorial Day report, QMRA report, we will have on the line three military veterans. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. and my brother from Memphis, Tennessee. Now, I would like to extend a special thanks to my in-studio guests, veteran Horace Jordan and actor, community activist Lee Shaw. Please listen to past shows of the Qumran Reports on iTunes, Facebook, skidrow.la, and thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report. And from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, may the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. I leave you with the song that opened the show, Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante. Darker than blue Are we gonna leave this town And let what we said come true Write your first verse If you get off of me, I'll get up If you wanna understand me, I'll get up If you really wanna help me, I'll get up But in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up If you get off of me, I'll get up If you wanna understand me, I'll get up If you really wanna help me, I'll get up But in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up If you wanna understand me, I'll get up