Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: During the course of our discussion on how the rich people expect the poor to support them – and how for some reason many poor feel compelled to defend the rich, the topic turned to the TV preachers. I asked Doc if he ever sent money to the TV preachers. I know he and Marilyn and some of their friends go to church. I have never seen them watching any TV preachers, but I wondered if they sent money to them. Many of the American TV preachers promise that God will make you wealthy if you send them money. And many of the poorest of people do send them money. I have read that the richest ministries in America are supported primarily by the poor and the elderly. People who can least afford it. That is where this conversation begins.

“So, Doc, why is it that poor people feel compelled to send money to these obviously rich TV preachers? These TV preachers, both men and women boast about their wealth and their luxury cars, and their mansions and private jet planes. Yet, these things and that lifestyle came from the gifts of their donors, many of whom are poor and elderly. How is it that people give to them? I don’t get it.”

Doc: You’re right. You’re right, Tondy. But you gotta understand this. You ain’t never been poor. I ain’t never been nothing but poor.

When you’re poor, you know you can’t do nothing to ever have much money. Ain’t nobody want to pay a poor person more than minimum wage. They know you’re hurtin’ and they know you’ll take it. And they know that ain’t nobody else gonna pay you more than that, so you GOTTA take it.
So all you got left is two things.Either play the numbers [buy lottery tickets] or give to the TV preachers and hope that they is tellin’ the truth, that God’ll give you a hundredfold return. That means if I send them ten dollars, somehow God will let me get a hold of… of… of… uh.. ummm…

Doc reaches for a pencil and an envelope to add it up… 10 plus 10 plus 10 plus 10. I don’t want to wait for him to add it a hundred times.

Tondeleo: A hundredfold means you would get a hundred times ten dollars, Doc. That would be a thousand dollars for every ten dollars you send in.

Doc: Yeah, I was gettin' there. The TV preacher tell you the truth in one part. That is that if you plant a seed into good soil, it will grow and multiply. That is true, anyone knows that. If I plant a tomato seed and it grows, it will produce more than a hundred seeds from the tomatoes what grows on the plant. Maybe a thousand seeds. No argument there. That is the truth and you don’t even need to believe the Bible to know that.

But then they tell you that THEY is the good soil! That is like a rat tellin’ you if you plant your corn in good soil you will be eatin’ corn on the cob an’ then have a lot of seed left to plant more corn, which is true, but then that rat tells you that HE is the good soil! 

If you give your corn to the rat, Tondy, it ain’t gonna multiply! You ain’t gonna have corn on the cob! All you gonna have is rat turds.That rat so’t want you to plant your seed in good soil, he wants you to plant it in him so he can eat it! If you give your seed to the rat, you ain’t getting’ nothin’ back but turds.

God don’t nowhere in the Bible tell you to give your money to rich folks. He says to give your money to poor folks and needy folks. But not all needy folks is good soil neither. He ain’t tell you to give your money to crackheads and drug dealers an’ folks that is doin’ wrong or folks what hates God.

He says to give to the poor folks what you know. An’ widows an’ orphans – what is kids who ain’t got they parent lookin’ out for ‘em. Their parent may be alive but maybe their daddy is in jail and they mama is a crack head. Somebody got to look out for those kids.

He tells you to look out for the immigrants too, Tondy. He says help them. He don’t tell you nowhere to hate the immigrants.  

My preacher down at the church says if you give to help a person who is needy and can’t help themselves, the Lord will bless you for it. The good book says that. He says that the person what gives to the poor lends to the Lord and the Lord will repay you. You got to give to poor folks and help out those what needs helping. I marked it in my Bible right here so I could find it again. Got a piece of paper stuck in it. 

[Reading slowly and deliberately] “He that has pity upon the poor lends unto the LORD; and that which he has given the Lord will pay him back.” That is real clear. The good Lord wants us to give to the poor, not to the rich. And that is when God will bless you for helpin’ someone. When you give to the poor.

Tondeleo: And where is that in the Bible, Doc?

Doc: Let me find it again… that’s Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 17.
But God don’t bless you for givin’ to the rich. He said and I got it marked in my Bible… it’s right here. It is Proverbs chapter 22 and verse16. “He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall certainly come to poverty.”
 
Now guess who that first part is about? It is about the rich people, including those rich preachers who take money from the poor so they can get richer. Those TV preachers tell the poor people that they will get a hundredfold return if the poor people send money to them.
But God says if you give to rich people, whether it is rich preachers or rich politicians, you’re definitely gonna stay poor.
 
You can’t be on TV every day unless you’re rich. It costs millions! And you can’t get to be a politician on any kind of level unless you’re rich. All them people runnin’ for President is multi-millionaires. Every one of them. And God says if you give them money, you’ll end up goin’ broke. 

My mama use to send 10 dollars a month to her favorite tv preacher for more than 30 years. And she ain’t never got not even a one fold return, let alone no hundredfold return. That’s because she was givin’ to the rich. You ain’t supposed to give to the rich. You’re supposed to give to the poor. That’s what Jesus said. She shoulda been givin’ that money to help ohter folks that was havin’ money problems. 

These TV preachers mostly is livin’ like kings on the money what poor folks send in. They is livin’ in mansions and flyin’ around in their jet airplanes. They ain’t givin’ money, they are spendin’ money on themselves. When is the last time you heard of a rich preacher or politician givin’ to the poor? I mean giving their own money to help the poor? It ain’t happenin’ Tondy.
If you’re givin’ to them, you’re not plantin’ your seed in good soil, you’re feedin’ a rat or a pig. If you feed your seed to a pig, you don’t get a return. Well, what you DO get ain’t nothin’ you want to eat. 

An’ Jesus said don’t cast your pearls before swine. That means don’t give your money to pigs. He said they will turn on you trample you. After you helped them, they will not help you, and you will end up worse than if you gave them nothing. 

If you read that Bible, it’ll keep you from sendin’ the money to the rich an’ it will get you to helpin’ the poor, no matter where they come from. That’s what me an’ Marilyn tries to do. Help people.

Tondeleo: Whilst talking with Doc about the Occupy movement and the world’s economy, we got on the topic of the poor and how they for some reason feel compelled to support the rich, and those who are making their millions off of poor people.

I was surprised at some of Doc’s opinions on this. Even after knowing him for years I tend to think of him and his friends as socially naïve and uninformed. And, even though they do tend to be uninformed and naïve in some things, they still are able to come up with some basic wisdom and clear thinking on a lot of the current issues.

Here are some excerpts from one of our conversations about this:

Doc: OK, Tondy, here is what don’t make sense first of all. You got these rich politicians and the rich bankers and heads of the big companies who is all billionaires, an’ they also own the newspapers and TV and radio. They ain’t want to be taxed like the rest of us. So they tell us how we are communists if we ain’t want to pay more taxes than them. 

Well, guess what? I ain’t no communist. But if I gotta pay 30% taxes on what little money I make, and then try to live on the rest, why shouldn’t  a billionaire pay the same thing and live on the rest? This is America where we is all supposed to be equal. Aint supposed to be nobody better than the rest.

And then you got all these old people an’ poor people what believes everything these billionaire vultures tells ‘em and they start sayin’ the same thing! That s jacked up, Tondy! Jacked up.
Like a hound dog goin’ around supportin’ blood ticks. Even my dog, Dale Junior will pull off a tick if he can. He is smarter than a lot of these people what is livin’ on social security and sayin’ we need to give the billionaires a tax break.

Them billionaires and their litle brothers the millionaires has been blessed. More blessed than we’ll ever be. They ought to count it as part of their thanks to the good Lord what blessed them to give to the poor and the old folks. I mean ain’t that why the Lord blesses a person for? So that person can help those in need? God ain’t blessed no one so they can hoard it for themselves. I ain’t that smart, but I can read the Bible.

I know that the Lord’ll bless them even more if they help the poor folks and the immigrants. But these folks hate immigrants! That ain’t right neither, Tondy. The Lord tells you to look out for the strangers and the aliens – not space aliens from outer space, but aliens and strangers is what they was called in Bible days. The Lord says be good to them an’ he will bless you. 

But these folks says you should hate the aliens and immigrants an’ send them back where they came from. Well guess what? Most of these folks what is sayin’ it ain’t exactly American Indians! They all  came from immigrants themselves! Maybe they need to go back to where they came from too! 

What is it all about? I can tell you. It is about the love of money and greed, like the Lord said. He said it was really bad when you love money more than you love people.

Tondeleo: I apologise for the long lapse in posting. Due to the poor economy my travels have been limited. I finally made it back to the US to complete some assignments and I was able to spend some pleasant time off with Doc and Marilyn and some of their friends.

I made several hours of recordings and took reams of notes so I should be able to post regularly again. Also, I was given several vids of Doc and Marilyn and their friends playing music, so I should be able to post them on YouTube soon.

One thing that I’ve noticed is the very clear disappointment that Americans seem to have with their government and the economy. I had thought it was primarily a European phenomenon, but it is widespread in America as well.

A lot of Americans blame President Obama for it and also their Congress. From what I can read, all this didn’t begin with President Obama. A lot of what they are angry about was initiated under President Bush, and President Clinton before him.

I asked Doc why he and his friends feel that socialism (they call it “communism,” by the way) is getting the upper hand.

His answer was actually well thought out and surprised me. Here it is:

Doc: Well, Tondy, I know everybody wants to be happy and the government is s’posed to make sure everyone has the chance to be happy. We learnt that in school.

But not everybody is gonna be happy. For me, I want to work and make a few dollars. I want to play music and be left alone by the government. I just want to live my life.

Other folks don’t wanna work and want the government to take care of ‘em an’ pay all their bills. Well, I ain’t wantin that. And the government don’t really have any money, ‘cept what they take from the people, which is by taxes. So really it aint the government what is payin’ those peoples’ bills, it is me an the other folk what is workin’ that is payin’ for all that.

Tondeleo: I can see where that is a problem for you: You and your friends don’t seem to make very much money in the first place…

Doc: You’re right, Tondy, an’ it’s not only the people what’s on unemployment what we gotta help support but we got wars goin’ on what is also bein’ paid for by the common man. I heard that a bomb costs about 3 million dollars. I ain’t ever gonna see that much money in my life. An’ we are payin the salary of every soldier, every general, every contractor…

An’ we are payin’ for all the ships and jet planes an’ tanks an’ all the fuel what they use! Now how we gonna do that? That’s somethin’ I’m mad about. There ain’t enough people workin to pay for all the wars and bombs and soldiers and their families. No wonder we’re outta money. I caint even pay for the fuel in my panel truck!

It ain’t the immigrants what’s makin America broke, it’s the wars, if you ask me.  

Tondeleo: Well, that isn’t marxism, or socialism, or communism. That’s just part of living in a country with a huge military.

Doc: I don’t know about all those “isms.” An’ I gotta admit, we was trained from when we was kids to share with other kids. We had to share our clothes, our toys an’ all that.

But I learnt that some kids ain’t got no toys cause they broke their toys all up an’ now they want to take my toys so they can break them all up, too. And then they gonna holler for more toys to break. Well, they ain’t getting’ mine.

I gotta few nice guitars what I either made or bought cheap, an’ I ain’t givin’ ‘em to someone what broke his or tore it up. I would more likely give it to someone what took care of his own stuff.

In fact I done that a few times – give away guitars – to people what knew how to take care of ‘em but ain’t had one ‘cause maybe he just got outta jail or somethin; an’ he needed somethin’ to help him get started. But that’s it.

I’ll help ‘em get started but then it’s up to them. I found out this. When my stomach gets close enough to my spine, I’ll find a way to make some money so I can eat. That’s all I got to say about that.

Tondeleo: I am spending my free time going through old notes and recordings of conversations with Doc and Marilyn and their friends. Some of the things that are said are not quite worthy of a post, they are just little glimpses into the minds of these rural Americans. This is one of those brief little snippets that I felt was worth passing on.

Doc has strong opinions on people being allowed to come to America to work, and on the American Independence Day, I thought it would be appropriate to post some of his thoughts on immigration and the American dream.

Doc and Marilyn had been playing music at an outdoor barbecue and pig picking outside of Herndon, VA. A barbecue is of course where the meat is cooked over an open flame, and is marinated in a tomato sauce, mixed with molasses, peppers, onions, garlic and other "secret" ingredients. Nearly every American has his or her own recipe for making barbecue sauce. A pig picking is having an entire gutted pig on a large barbecue grill, with a lid on it, and has cooked overnight. The fat is mostly cooked out of it, and the meat is tender and seems to nearly fall off the bone. The pig in its entirety is on the grill, head to tail.

While they were coming back from Herndon, the first thing in the morning after the barbecue party, they stopped at a convenience store, where there were Mexican immigrants out in the car park waiting to be hired for day labourer work.

Doc and Marilyn know what it is to struggle and to attempt to earn one's own living rather than to depend on public assistance. It is particularly difficult for Hispanic immigrants, due to not speaking English for many of them and no documentation. They get taken advantage of by their employers and feel that they have no recourse. It is very sad.

If a Hispanic immigrant does somehow find a means of getting assistance, Americans get angry. But Americans also get angry of they want to work! As Doc explains it to me, all they want is a better life for themselves and their children, just like all Americans do (except those on welfare, Dc points out).

Doc said to me, "I seen a guy with that WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bumper sticker on his truck down there hasslin' the Mexicans and the people what was hirin' them.

He was cursin' them, tellin' them to go back to Mexico, and hollerin' at the people what was givin' them work. And he had this WWJD bumper sticker on his truck!

I'd like to see a bumper sticker what says WWJH. Who Would Jesus Hate. I'd give that guy one of those, if I had one. Jesus aint hate nobody.

I mean Christopher Columbus was a Mexican, well he was a Spaniard, immigrant without no papers. He was just like the rest of us. He had a dream and came to America and it wasn't even called that yet, but he came over to find his dream.

Most the people what's hatin' the Mexicans, their people was immigrants, too, and aint had no papers. So where do they get off just because Mexicans want the same thing?

As long as there is a place where a person can be free to work all he wants and to raise his children to have a better life, people is going to come there to try to make a better life. It really aint right for the first bunch to come over here for all them years without permission, without papers or nothing, and then say "ain't no one else allowed in!"

I say we ought to round up all the Americans what's on welfare and won't work, and what is sellin' drugs to their friends and neighbors, and send them to Mexico. Except guess what? Mexico don't want them!

Tondeleo: One of Doc's customers gave him a ticket to the Cirque Du Soleil show at the National Harbor in Washington, DC. They gave him the ticket and some money for snacks, in exchange for sitting with their teenaged son, Tommy. Tommy's father was too busy with work to be able to take his son, and he thought that Doc might enjoy a night out on the town.

Doc called me at my hotel in Flint, Michigan where I have been since Wednesday evening, enjoying the freezing winds of a Michigan winter. When I saw Doc's number on my mobile, I grabbed my recorder, because I knew it just might be a worthwhile conversation, since I had only been away from DC and Doc and Marilyn for two days. Doc was all excited about the programme, and immediately began giving a full review of the Cirque Du Soleil show that he saw, which is called, "Kooza."

Doc: Hey Tondy! I went to the Circus Olay last night! Roy bought me a ticket if I'd go up there and sit with his boy and watch that thing. I din't wanna go at first, because I aint never seen a Mexican circus afore and din't want to.

Tondeleo: Uh... Doc, Cirque Du Soleil isn't a Mexican circus. It's from Montreal, Quebec. French Canadian, actually, Doc...

Doc: No, it's Mexican. That's where the Olay part comes from, from bull fighting. That's what they say when they stab the bull. Olay. It's a circus what Mexicans come up with and it was pretty good, no REAL good. The Olay means that they stabbed the bull of coming to America and everything is going to work ok for them and for America.

Aint' had no bulls in it and aint had no elephants, lions or tigers or monkeys, but it was good even though all it had was Mexicans, except for some Chinese girls what I'll tell you about later.

The show is called Kazoo, but they ain't played no kazoos in it.[Actually it is called "Kooza."] They had a full band with drums and horns and guitars and two girl singers. A Mexican girl and a black girl.

The Circus Olay is really a story acted out by these Mexicans. It's about how hard it is for Mexicans when they come here alone and need a job and everyone else is rich they think, and how they slowly become Americans. It's like a hidden story, Tommy said. [the customer's son].

It had a some clowns and cops chasing them at the beginning, like real Mexicans go through when they come to America. And the cops didn't catch 'em, Tondy. Just like they don't catch them here most of the time.

It starts with a little Mexican in Mexican clothes coming to America. He doesn't know anything about where he is but tries to fly a kite, meaning he is reaching for the stars. He has a gold. Then a man appears and has evil powers and tries to change the little Mexican. I think he is like a drug dealer getting him to do drugs if he can or to sell them. He was like pimping that Mexican and getting him to do bad things, I think. Every time that little Mexican would get comfortable, something bad would happen.

There are more and more people coming on the stage and putting the new little Mexican through all kinds of trials and tests and he don't know who to trust.

There was two men what I think was supposed to be like folks from the government by the way they acted. They kept messing things up and could not get along with each other. They keep showing up from time to time.

Then some skeletons came out. People dressed like skeletons. They was showing how much death there is in coming to America to have a new life, because you could die getting here, or die by someone killing you, or maybe drugs or gangs. Rats came out too. Not real ones. But the rats like if you is living in the city. Then they ran down a manhole cover, like the kind of life you have if you are poor in the city, even though America is rich. You are not rich and rats are part of your life for a while but not forever.

They was Chinese folks in it too, Tondy because Mexicans ain't the only immigrants. One of them kept being given more and more chairs to sit on like they was hoping he would fall, but he did it safely. They stacked a whole pile of chairs and he kept climbing higher and higher. Like if you do more and more you will climb higher and higher, but you got to pay attention.

Then the Chinese girls came out. They might of been Philippines girls. These gals could bend over backwards until their heads hit they's backside and then they kept bending backwards till they could look at you from between their legs. I aint sure how they done it, but you aint allowed to go up close and look at them. You will get throwed out.

They will bend over backwards to get a good job and do it, if that is what it takes. They walked backwards on their hands and a man danced on their stomach on one of them. The Man will take a vantage of a Chinese girl or from the Philippines. But they beat him at it! Just like in real life.I would like to give one of them a job. I could not afford all three though.

Sometimes they brought in people from the audience and showed how even Americans get taken in if you don't know what the Man is up to. A girl was made to disappear and a man came up and got his pockets picked right there in front of everyone and nobody went to help him, not even me. I wanted to, but I didn't, so I am no better than the rest.

The Police kept chasing him, but they would mess up every time.

They was some guys on a high wire. It was to show how the Mexicans would take dangerous jobs but work together to keep each other safe. They were not only up in the air on a tight wire, they had to jump rope. They even rode a bike on the high wire, because those people will do anything just to have a job. That is like the dangerous jobs they take with no benefits or protection.

Another guy was like a dishwasher and every other kind of job that makes you do too much at one time. His woman would keep laying more and more things on him. He was trying to juggle to please her. She is in the best of Mexican clothes, but is like a American woman who would do the same thing. He did it all. He would juggle more and more things and never drop any of them. He did all he could to do to please his woman here in a strange country.

They had this thing like two wheels with two guys dressed like devils on it. It kept going round and round and they would jump on the inside of the wheels and then on the outside. They was like the Democrats and Republicans. Both of them was the devil and they didn't even like each other and what they did was scary, and made you not believe your eyes at what they could do. It was like the election, I think. You did not really like them but you did not want them to get killed or fall. One of them was no better than the other.

Them two guys really was like the Democrats and Republicans. Like they was out there putting on the show for the race, and sending out a lot of fear and doing things you know you couldn't do. But then, when the race was over you ain't really see them anymore, they was at work behind the scenes. That's because America aint about Democrats and Republicans.

The bad guy from the beginning kept showing up and every time there was thunder and lightning, and it shows that bad guys and con men are every where in this country, no matter who you are, there is someone trying to get you to do drugs or make a dollar off wrecking your life.

In the end, the new Mexican figured out how to make friends in America and all the people there found friends and love and even got along ok with the Man. At the end all of them came out together which is what America is all about. It brought a tear rolling down my eye.

Then we went home. Glad we are natural born Americans, Tondy, I tell you what.

Note: On my way back through Washington, DC on my way home for Christmas, I am going to try to get Doc to do a video review of the Circue Du Soleil programme, "Kooza," and put it here on the blog and on YouTube. I think people will enjoy his excitement and interpretations.

Doc took me crabbing on the Potomac River on Sunday. I have to confess I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I grew up traveling a lot which involved riding ferries and other public transportation, but I'm not used to going out in a small boat. I get afraid of capsizing. The other thing is just crabbing. Crabs scare me, because I am afraid they might pinch me or something.

The whole idea of handling rotten chicken necks disgusts me. Doc insists that's the best way to catch crabs, so that's the way we do it. We have gone out with bull lips before, that he gets from Chuck's Butcher Shop in Bryans Road, but usually he ends up with chicken or turkey necks, Rotten ones. He gets them from the dumpster behind Safeway or Food Lion.

Mostly Doc uses crab traps, and sometimes we just skim them out of the water using a net. I don't enjoy any of it very much. Doc chuckles at me and calls me an English girl. I am not English, but have lived in England throughout much of my life, but to him it's the same thing (He also thinks all Asians are Chinese and all Hispanics are Mexicans).

Putting them in the basket and having them crawl out scares me a bit. I am afraid a crab might sneak out and then pinch me or something I really can't explain.

The food poisoning issue is another one. Everyone says don't cook dead crabs. I don't like the idea of cooking anything alive, but that's how it has to be done, apparently. But I DO like eating steamed crabs and I've never gotten sick from it.

Here is some info about crabbing from Doc.

Doc: I ain't no professional crabber. I just catch a bushel or two for parties and get togethers. Tondy is always scared the crabs what we catch in the morning will die before we get 'em home and he'll get food poisoning. But healthy crabs can live out of the water for three or four days. Not jammed into a basket they can't, but if they is loose and they's gills stay wet they can live for days. He ain't got nothing to worry about.

You wanna keep 'em cool but not too cold or hot. Maybe 45 - 50 degrees, something like that. Too cold or too hot'll kill 'em an' you've just wasted your crabs.

To get 'em home, keep 'em in a bushel basket with wet burlap bags on 'em to keep 'em cool an' wet. Don't set 'em in the sun. I put one of them blue tarps from the Amish Market over them an' strap it down with bungee cords.

You can put crabs in a cooler, but you wanna keep the ice on the bottom and some newspaper over the ice so the crabs don't get in the ice water and drown. If you carry 'em in a five gallon bucket of water you'll kill 'em. Don't ever do that.

Tondeleo: Wait a minute, Doc - crabs are made to live in the water! How does ice water kill them or being in a bucket of water kill them? It seems to me that carrying crabs in a bucket of water would be better than putting them in a bushel basket.

Doc: That's cause you don't know nothin' about crabbin', Tondy. Crabs need to be in runnin' water which is why you don't find 'em in ponds. They need the oxygen in the water, and in a bucket, they use up all the air and then they drwon. Outta the water, all they need is for they's gills to be a little wet and they can breathe fine.

Now if you need to keep your crabs a couple days before cookin' 'em, you can take a drywall mud bucket an' poke a bunch of holes in it so the water can flow through, and keep it in the river tied up to the pier and they can live for near 'bout a week, if you feed 'em.

Tondeleo: Doc, I notice you throw back almost half of what you catch. Couldn't you just put them in cages in the water and feed them until they are big enough?

Doc: NO Tondy! They need to be in the river to grow. This is bout halfway through August. We throw 'em back an' then we come back an' catch mos' of 'em back when we go out in a month or so.

Tondeleo: Doc, I’m wondering if there’s anything else you can tell me about meeting women? How a out some smooth lines – can you tell me and my readers anything else?

Doc: “No. I don’t wanna talk about how you can find a girlfriend, Tondy. Not today. You’re in over your head now. Why you want a girl on each arm? A man can’t please ONE woman! So I aint talkin’ bout that for a while. Don’t even ask.

Ask me 'bout Mexicans. I can talk about Mexicans.”

Tondeleo: OK, Doc, what about Mexicans? Immigration, all that.

Doc: “Well, a Mexican is just like you an’ me. They want what we want. We just got here afore they did. Even black folks got here afore they did. Most of them din’t wanna come an' din't have no choice in the matter. Some of they’s grandchildren and great grandchildren is still mad about it and lots of them got an attitude. That’s the devil robbin’ ‘em of what COULD be a good life. Bein' mad ain't gonna bring nobody nothin' good. Black folks have a good ‘vantage over immigrants though.

First ‘cause they’s American.They is not HALF Americans, they is WHOLE Americans.They can speak English, they can work if they want; they got family here. Black folks ain't gotta run when the po-po comes! [Doc is being silly, referring to the Police - Tondeleo] They can go to school, get good jobs what pay a legal wage, an’ they have rights.

A Mexican don’t have to get minimum wage and can’t even work legal mos’ the time.

But a lot of Americans, red or yellow black and white lets their attitude stop them and they live like they ain’t no money to be made unless it’s to be made in dope or robbin’ folks. A bad attitude'll give you a bad life, no matter WHO you are. It’s just a attitude; but that attitude will kill a man after keepin’ him broke an’ miserable all his life.

But Mexicans, they’s here cause they WANT to be, so they’s attitudes different. A lot of them don’t speak the language, they aint got no people here, they left their people to come here, an’ they work hard as they can to make a good life, not for themselves but for their kids and grandkids. That’s called having a gold. They have a gold to work for. Not all them, but a lot of ‘em.

I respect anyone who will get out there and work. Specially if they work cheap, knowing they will make a life. I don’t respect a man who won’t work. That ain't no man. They should send a 'merican man who won’t work, send HIM to Mexico and keep a Mexican here who will work. That is a real man – a man who will get out an’ do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.

“Havin’ poor people workin’ for a little bit of nothin’ ain’t anything new. A hundred years ago it was the Chinese who was poor an’ buildin’ the railroads and doin’ peoples’ laundry to get the chance to make a life in America. Then there was the Irish an’ the people from like Hungary and Poland. They was hard workers who was willing to prove themselves an’ work for a little bit of nothing’ so their kids could have a chance.

They’s always gotta be poor people who work hard for a little bit of nothin’. It aint that bad. My people have been poor from way back, but each generation is less poor than they’s parents. My granddaddy worked the coal mines startin’ twelve years old. But he got out. That was down Scott County, VA. My daddy worked tobacco and share cropped in North Carolina.

I always been poor an' I always work. I done all kinds of work since I was a kid. Quit school in 10th grade, but din’t quit learnin’. I cain’t write too well, but I can think clear, I can play music, I can paint a sign if you write it out what you want to say, I’ll make it real pretty, an’ I got heart.

If a man is poor but will work, his life will be full. I have lived all over the south and over to Memphis. I have worked tobacco, worked in junkyards, fixed cars, been a bouncer, been a handyman and a sign painter. I still got my old sign paintin’ truck. It’s a '50 Chevy panel truck. You name it, I done it. I have slept in that truck, lived in that truck an’ done a lot o’ things in it. It is my old friend.

I have sat on the sidewalk playin’ guitar and singin’ to feed myself and my-brother-who-died’s girl, Marilyn. That’s what America is about. They say being American is about heart, not where your body been born. A man who will work hard and not steal is an American, no matter where he is born. A man who will not work and steals or sells drugs is not an American. He is scum and needs a good whoopin’. An' I have whooped one or two.

“Listen, one time, I was playin’ guitar out on the streets with Marilyn. Playin’ my telecaster through a battery powered amp. Some young punk came to take it away from me so he could sell it for drugs. I am trying to use that thing so we can EAT.

I know one thing. He picked the wrong American man to mess with. I'd had a bad week, I was hungry an' he was threatenin’ my existance. I grabbed that guitar by the neck and BLAM! I hit him upside the head with it and then I knocked him down an’ pulled his arm outta the socket. I said, ‘Don’t pick on poor people again! You ain’t no American!’ An’ he got up an’ ran off sideways, holdin’ his arm!

All you do is grab a man’s arm when he is knocked down and pull up on it, an’ stomp your foot into his armpit. POP! It’ll come right out! Then he won’t steal for a few days. No, I ain’t never killed a man with that guitar but I have hurt a few. And I am not proud to have been put upon to do it.

Nowadays I do pray an' ask the Lord to help people give an' to keep us outta them kinds of situations. There IS a devil you know, Tondy and he lives in people.