It's been sort of a weird day, kids. I woke up late this morning. I slept through my alarm, and woke up about 20 minutes late, in the middle of having some sort of apocalyptic dream about world war and the end of the world (it involved a bunch of us, refugees, cowering in some kind of large, darkened, damaged, high school type structure as bombs fell outside and the building periodically shook. Every once in a while one of the people hiding in the building would freak out and want to run outside, and they would start attacking the people who were blocking the doors. None of us knew who was attacking us or why, which added to the overall sense of horror. Someone wanna explain what's wrong with me that makes me have dreams like that? Maybe I don't really need to know...)
Anyway, I went from that dream to being late for work and running around like a madman to get to court on time.
I checked the news later on, and saw that Jennifer Gale had died. Jennifer Gale was a homeless, political activist and occasional mayoral candidate who was just one of those people who keep Austin unique. She hung around the courthouse and our office building a lot (our building houses the Commissioner's Court, which makes a lot of budget decisions for the county), and I've talked with her on several occasions while on the elevators and while hanging out waiting for people out in front of the courthouse. Whenever I spoke with her, she always seemed like a very friendly, courteous person, and she was typically quick to advocate a vote for or against some issue that was coming up during an approaching election. I know that she was sort of a regular at the Austin City Council meetings, and she ran for office a number of times. The newspaper noted that she sang "Silent Night" as recently as this Tuesday at a Health and Human Services Subcommittee meeting (she often performed music for the city council and board members, often before expressing some thoughts on a topic on their agenda). Anyway, I was saddened to hear of Jennifer's death, particularly by the thought that she probably died of exposure after sleeping outside over the last couple of nights (which were particularly cold) as the temperature in Austin dropped below freezing. She was found in medical distress outside of the First English Lutheran Church and died a short time later. Anyway, Jennifer Gale was one of those people that make Austin an interesting and lively place to work and live, and there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be sad about her passing. Via con dios, Jennifer.
In less somber news, they've opened up a Freebirds World Burrito right over near my house (in the Brodie Oaks Shopping Center), and last night I went there for the first time for dinner. I'm happy to have the place so close by. Freebirds is still fast food, but it's not really junk food (it's pretty straightforward- burritos filled with beef or chicken, beans, rice, veggies, cheese, etc. Not too unhealthy, at least compared to burgers and fries, and the burritos are really good). Not exactly earth shattering news, but kinda cool, nonetheless (I love it when things that I like move closer to my house).
And maybe that's it. Dreams about the end of the world, the death of Jennifer Gale, and tasty burritos. I've had stranger posts.
2 comments:
I was sorry to hear about Jennifer Gale, both for knowing Austin lost one of its quixotic crusaders, but also for the tragedy that the death of any person (let alone someone so high-profile in town) should occur on the cold streets of our town.
We do okay here. The Arch, etc... are out there, and we have outreach. But I guess what's doubly shocking is that Jennifer Gale had it together enough to be a part of city politics, but somehow she still slipped through the cracks. Cracks that seem far, far larger in light of her passing.
I agree. We have some decent services for the homeless here in Austin, but in the end, living on the streets is just an extremely tough way to exist. I've seen a lot of people voice some pretty harsh criticisms of the homeless in the comments section of the local paper, but over the last ten years in my job as a defense attorney and later, working on mental health issues in my current job, it just seems like the vast majority of the people on the street are just sort of paralyzed by mental illness, emotional problems, and/or substance addictions that they just can't work their way free of. It's just tough to see people slipping through the cracks, when so many of them are actually good people who just have some major problems in their life.
As an aside, they played an audio clip from a city council meeting this morning on KUT, and Jennifer Gale was speaking, proposing that the city fund the training, equipment, and execution of an Iron Man Triathalon race that all able-bodied people in the city would be encouraged to participate in. What an inspiration Austin would we be for the world, argued Gale, if our entire city could get in shape and complete a triathalon together?! Although I'm sort of terrified at the idea of trying to complete a triathalon, I loved the fact that Gale envisioned our entire city happily training and preparing together for such an event. Sometimes truly great inspiration lies a short distance away from what most people would call craziness. She'll be missed.
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