More About AJ.

More About AJ.

By Uncle Monty.

Photos By Alex Albion.

Part 2 of 3.

***

AJ and me - your's truly Uncle Monty - would

oftentimes go off together to find breakfast at one

of the various charities providing such to the large

homeless population at Washington, D.C.

***

One of our favourite places was at St. Margaret's

Episcopal Parish on Connecticut Avenue. Not

only were the 6:00am breakfasts excellent, but it

was also so civilized unlike some other places that

seemed to attract the most troubled homeless folkz

with all kinds of mental and emotional problems that

would give rise to personal violence and confront-
ations, and even mini-brawls, between breakfast

staff and/or other equally off-the-wall

 homeless guyz and galz.

***

At St. Margaret's we weren't treated like prodded

cattle, but with dignity and respect by the wonder-

ful volunteers and clergy helpers along with the

superb food and a spacious setting to breathe

easily. The Episcopal (Anglican) Diocese of

Washington, D.C. under Bishop John Chance,

actively supported and fed the homeless with

great care and open arms. Although AJ was

himself a non-practising Southern Baptist, he,
 too, acknowledged the good work of The

Episcopal Church at the nation's capital.

***

On a more personal level, AJ was always

poking fun at me for using a knife and folk

instead of my fingers like so many Americans
do at meals. He also poked fun at me at the way

 I talked, which he thought was so funny and
very English despite having lived in America for
almost 38 years. However, when I finally got back
 to the UK, alot of the English folkz thought I was
so American in my twang as they twigged on to

 my Yankee words and unEnglish speech. Al-

though my great-grandfather was from Lexington,
Kentucky, and my grandfather from Alberta,

Canada, I have always considered myself

to be English first ...

***

Much like AJ, the falsely-convicted murderer, the
vast majority of the homeless at America's capital

were not native Washingtonians. Rather they came

from else where from across the American heart-

land of so-called "Land of Milk & Honey."
Many were also foreign born much like myself

as an Englishman in America. A similar picture of

homelessness is also found in London thesedayz

at where the vast majority are not native London-

ers but come from else where across the UK.
and like Washington, many of the homeless inside
London today are foreigners of one sort or another
 now crowding in on the local British or native home-
less. Globalization has also brought global homeless-
ness of the like that will get much worse with world

wide strife always growing and major natural

disasters hitting the world left, right, and centre.

All the money in the world will not eliminate

homelessness only stem the tide here and

there for awhile. And for many who conquered

homelessness in the past years will find them-
selves homeless and on the streets again due to

the present economic ills and growing unem-
ployment and lack of marketable skills and im-
moral and greedy landlords pricing rent out
of the reach of those least able to pay such rip-
off rents, especially in London and elsewhere
in the UK. Landlords and landowners are by

nature usually rather unreceptive to those who

 by circunstances are beholden unto them.

***

Back to more about AJ.  I saw the fight coming

and I knew that AJ was agitated from the start

after a new tough arrival had made repeated
dirty remarks about AJ at the night shelter, which

was a new one located across from the all-black
Howard University. To provoke AJ even more, he
called AJ "trailer park trash" and that was insulting
enough aside from saying that he, AJ, needed a good
 bath!! I braced myself for the clash as AJ told me
 that if the guy opened his dirty mouth again he was
 going to whip his ass and make him clean out
 his mouth for once and for all.

***

It was about 8 on the winter's evening at D.C.
that saw the two of them come violently together 

and it wasn't a pretty sight although the rest of 80
or 90 homeless seemed to be eager for a fight be-
tween  them. I was tempted to ask AJ to forget the
 insulting guy yet I knew such would be seen by him
 as interferring with his made-up mind to teach the

 guy a lesson and to settle the matter by force.

***

AJ slipped as he went for the guy. He rolled on

 the floor as the angry guy then kicked him in the
stomach and like a wrestler tackled him on the

concrete floor. For a moment I thought AJ was
finished and was about to lose the fight he'd
started and be degraded as a loser by those

watching him still on the floor. But none of us
had reckoned on the power of AJ's unmerciful
 grip around the throat of his sworn enemy.
Soon screaming like a wounded animal, the 
come-twenty-something guy tried to loosen

AJ's almighty grip and he started to gasp for
breath and soon turned pale white and struggl-
ing to plead with AJ to stop. "I warned you, you
 mother fucker that I'd whip ya assssss," said
AJ, who now smelt victory within his grip. And,
 that he sure did!! Shelter staff  and security guards
 finally arrived, but too late. AJ and the provoking
guy were promptly thrown out into the cold bitter
night. I remonstrated with the man in charge and
told him why the two of them had come to blows.

 Much to my surprise the man in charge then ran
 after AJ outside and found him still standing nearby
 there and then let him back inside to the cheerz
 of all the other homeless at the night shelter ...
 I never told AJ what I had done, but I was glad
he was let back in by the shelter manager, who
 told me his own late mom and dad had come

from, I think, Aberystwyth in North Wales and
 that he had spent summer holidayz there
during his parents visit back home to see
old family members.  Bravo!!!

***
When I left Washington to return to the UK, AJ
had already suddenly disappeared about 10 dayz
before I finally left the country. I have no idea what
had happened to him and I missed him and our
open friendship between us. He never told me he
was leaving and I'm not sure why but anything
could have happened to him. I pray he is alright
at wherever and however he is. Thankz AJ for
standing by me and doing all you could to ensure
I didn't become a cropper among the violent and
vuglar scenes of homelessness at America's
 national capital ... God Bless U, AJ!! And, no
matter what others folkz might think or say
of you, I will always remember you well and
always with kind and glad words about you
from me! Peace be unto you, my friend!!
***
What I discovered was that almost all homeless
friendships and relationships are tenuous and
ephemeral at best, be they either at Washington
or at London or at anywhere else among the
rootless that are the homeless of today. Even
The Big Issue is a perfect example of the dub-
ious and shallow relationship it has with most
of its own homeless street vendors under
 the vile and greedy Bird Brothers.
...
In Part Three, I will tell you more about what it 
was like being homeless inside capitalist and ever-
violent and, even at times, simply deadly America.
***
Truly, Uncle Monty. +St. John, 2011.
.
Feedback & Comments
allaboutthebigissue@britain.com
.
.

Coming Soon By Uncle Monty:

"Those Were The Dayz At The Big Issue."

But, lo and behold, they are now made to be all
dead dayz due to the ilk of Prickhead Peter Bird

and his brother Pigface Anthony John Bird.  They

have little or no sentimentality or care for others.

Compared to AJ, the Bird Brothers are darkness

itself to me and to many others who have had the

 misfortune to be treated so badly by them. Their

coldness and soullessness never melts away ...

.

Prickhead Peter Bird of The Big Issue.

...

Pigface Anthony John Bird of The Big Issue.

...

Those Were The Dayz At The Big Issue.

.

Black Night Stalker:

The Immigrant Sex Monster Delroy Grant.

By Uncle Monty.

 THEBIGGERISSUE.ORG: Black Stalker. 

.

.

.

{ To Enlarge any image, just click on it }

.