Jay Berman: "Mayor of Town N' Country"

It was a mid-afternoon last week when the office phone rang. I picked up the receiver to hear an overly-anticipated graveled voice.

"Deputy Donaldson!" "Deputy Donaldson!"

I didn't have to ask - I knew it was Jay.

"I found a place - I'm off the streets. I did it for you!" Jay yelled.

When you live on the streets as a homeless person your fellow brethren know you only by a moniker that is your street name. Jay has been dubbed by others: "The Mayor of Town N' Country". I've come to realize that everyone knows your label except the person who wears its tag. Sometimes it's a term of endearment but most times its bestowed as a sharp ironical taunt. Life out on the streets isn't much different than every day water cooler conversations on matters both controversial and jaded. As the haggard card that's been weathered by the years Jay certainly proves the contradiction in jest.

Jay has become an affectionate soul however, to the same mortal entity that's been kicking him to the curb for as long as he's been Mayor of Town N' Country. He often stops deputies on the street just to praise me and to tell them that I'm his best friend. Early on, I wasn't placing much of a bet on Jay's rehabilitation from the street with his hypnotic fascination with the golden glow of Steele Reserve. The preferred brand of high gravity lager -- they know how to get the most bang for their cardboard flying bucks.

Almost a year ago Jay responded to the substation where a case manager was scheduled to pre-screen any homeless person who, maybe wanted to get off the street. It was on this day that Jay applied for disability benefits and health care for his lingering back injury. It wasn't much time later that he received both and for this he apparently feels an indebtedness that he can only repay in gratitude.

But the engagement on the street doesn't stop there if the initiative is to produce a quantifiable success in numbers. Because for Jay to repay his indebtedness to me he is persistently reminded with the bull dog presence of a bad-debt collector that he must get off the streets.

So I am proud to say that as of last week Jay has brought his account current and he has faithfully repaid his debt. You would be surprised to know that Jay receives less than four-hundred dollars a month in disability benefits. But, at this meager rung of the socio-economic ladder it's a much watered down life style where two-hundred dollars a month will buy him a room from a friend to the homeless and shelter from the ashen consequences of life out on the street.

For me, I am a dissenter against getting something for nothing because as the human condition has proven you will only return to the well for more until the well runs dry. If it is true that you reap what you sow, then Jay most likely hasn't been doing much, if any, sowing in his time. He might not have ever paid into a system that was designed to benefit those that do. However, in exchange for the four-hundred dollar benefit the community, county resources and the indigent health care system will undoubtedly be the benefactor in a diffusion of untold benefits.

Like I have said before, I can stay true to my principles or I can solve the problem. I choose to solve the problem because I can't do both.

Thank you.

Steve