LeNard Johnson, 47, has a job interview. He’s an IT guy who’s worked for the federal government, he says, sometimes with a security clearance. But it’s been hard to find work even after spending hours scrolling ZipRecruiter. He needs this virtual interview, at 5 p.m., to go well.
Washington, D.C
At a D.C. homeless shelter, two men face their demons in freezing weather
Johnson has been at the shelter every night since he got off a waiting list around Thanksgiving. If he misses check-in, he risks losing his bed. The sun is setting, and the first snow in more than 700 days coats the ground.
On a freezing night in a city with nearly 5,000 homeless people, Johnson does not want to be where he found himself last fall during his first extended bout with homelessness — riding the Silver Line from end to end to get some sleep.
Every liquor store is a temptation.
“I’m trying,” he says.
Robert Vaughn, 69, lines up for dinner at Central Union: Beef stew. Despite his labored breathing — Stage 3 emphysema — he’s jubilant. He says he’s been sober for 11 months, one of his longest stretches since he left home around 1967.
Central Union, founded in the 1880s to serve veterans of the Civil War, was a 14th Street landmark until about a decade ago, when it was replaced by boutique condos. Its current location — two blocks from Union Station and across the street from a luxury hotel — serves as a reminder of people in desperate straits who are stranded among policymakers, commuters and tourists at the foot of Capitol Hill.
After years living in other D.C. shelters — “hellholes,” Vaughn says — he’s in a long-term recovery program at Central Union. He lives in a four-man suite on the shelter’s third floor, having graduated from the second-floor dormitory. He’s made amends with his four adult children and agreed to a no-fault divorce from his wife. He says he no longer smokes crack. He is no longer, in his telling, a “hurricane” ruining women’s lives.
“I used to live a different way,” he says. “Now, I’m doing all the things I was told to do years ago.”
Johnson and Vaughn report to Central Union’s chapel, separated from the cafeteria by a collapsible wall. Johnson reports that his job interview went well. He was told he’s at the “top of the short list.”
“I try to remain optimistic about any opportunity,” he says. “If not, depression sets in.”
Ahead of a nightly ritual — the reading of the shelter’s rules — a chaplain welcomes guests.
“You’re making it in this cold,” he says. “Thank Him for heat. Thank Him for shelter. Can we praise the Lord tonight?”
A nondenominational Christian service begins. The service’s leader — the Rev. Norman Thomas of the First Baptist Church of Glenarden, Md. — gives a sermon about names. Johnson scrolls a job website as he listens.
The names God gave His creations have power, Thomas says. Those who carry these names must live up to them. In the film “Black Panther,” he says, Prince T’Challa defeated a formidable enemy by invoking the power of his mighty name.
“What is your name?” Thomas asks. “What does your name mean for you?”
Ahead of lights out, Johnson and Vaughn report to a lobby on Central Union’s second floor. The men have volunteered for housekeeping duties.
Johnson monitors the line for mandatory showers, making sure no one goes over the seven-minute limit. Vaughn polices the dormitory “tub rooms,” where residents stow personal items in plastic containers.
Vaughn takes the elevator down to a small lobby crowded with chairs and a TV. A handful of sleeping mats cover the floor. These are for “hypothermia” visitors — men who cannot be turned away during a hypothermia alert even though the dormitory is full. In the semidark, they huddle in their coats with their bags surrounding them.
At 7 a.m., it’s time to figure out where to spend tomorrow.
The lights are on, but it’s still a cold world.
To mark Gun Violence Awareness Month, residents in Southeast D.C. came together to search for a lasting solution.
The Trigger Project held a peace walk Saturday afternoon reflecting on lives impacted by gun violence
The Trigger Project decided to host the walk to give victims’ loved ones a chance to be among others who have experienced the pain of losing a loved one.
The agency said it prides itself on getting the word out about how to prevent gun violence through lived experiences, community leadership and partnerships. The group aims to uplift young people through healing, opportunity and connection while addressing the root causes of gun violence. Another critical part of the event was to ensure that young people have a safe space where they can hang out.
“We’re losing too many of our babies to the streets, you know what I’m saying?” said Darlene Williams, who said she has been a victim of gun violence and also lost her granddaughter to gun violence. “Like I say, the guns don’t kill, people kill. [..] Be around other people, you know what I’m saying, that’s going through the same thing that we’re going through.”
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Back to The Atlantic
(NEWS FROM THE STATES) – Visitors from across the United States traveled to the National Mall Thursday for the opening day of the Great American State Fair, a days-long event that is part of President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 celebration of the nation’s semiquincentennial.
States and territories showed off cultural and agricultural exports at exhibits stretching nearly a mile. Attendees snapped photos on the small Grand Ole Opry stage in the Tennessee booth, kids tried putt-putt at Indiana’s miniature golf course and cowboys rode horses at Montana’s rodeo.
A 110-foot Ferris wheel slowly turned at the center of the freshly manicured lawn, framing the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol in the distance on either side. Nearby stood a model of Trump’s controversial “triumphal arch.”
People collected swag from each state — drawstring bags from Ohio, stickers from South Dakota, snacks from Tennessee — and could receive a stamp on state fair passports.
The fair is part of the larger Freedom 250 programming and kicked off Wednesday night with a rally on the mall featuring a speech from the president that closely resembled his remarks along the 2024 presidential campaign trail. The festivities will continue over Independence Day, when Trump will deliver a second speech followed by what is promised to be an impressive fireworks display.
The president will visit North and South Dakota as part of his Freedom 250 tour for the opening of the Teddy Roosevelt presidential library and Independence Day eve fireworks above Mount Rushmore.
Freedom 250 then extends into August with a high school athletic competition in Washington, D.C., dubbed the “Patriot Games” and a Freedom 250 INDYCAR race around the National Mall.
The administration’s celebration is separate from the America250 commission, created by Congress a decade ago, and which has its own nationwide programming this year.
From Lake Erie to the Ohio River
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and first lady Fran DeWine greeted guests in Ohio’s pavilion. The couple posed for photos in front of a map of the Buckeye State.
“We wanted to see on the wall all the different things, from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, all the different fun things you can do in Ohio,” the Republican governor said, adding the state has local celebrations and initiatives planned for the 250th anniversary, including “Movies in Ohio” for community showings of films that feature the state.
Ohio’s first lady showcased a children’s literacy exhibit on the opposite wall and touted the roughly 427,000 participants in the state’s partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a program that mails free children’s books monthly to households with kids under age 5.
“We’ve mailed out 27 million books. We know that a child’s brain is 80% developed by age 3, so we want to get them those books early,” she said.
Reflecting on America’s milestone birthday, the governor said, “We’re always a work in progress, Ohio’s a work in progress, this country is a work in progress.”
“I think you know the thing we need to keep in mind, all of us, is there’s some essential core principles that we all believe in. … We may disagree about different policies, but the core principles are the same,” he said.
Cartwheels on the lawn
People from various states walked from exhibit to exhibit, while stopped in the nation’s capital during road trip vacations.
Tanya Geders, 43, of St. Louis, Missouri, did a cartwheel in the mall lawn, trying to persuade her son to join in. The family stopped at the state fair on their way to Virginia Beach.
“We’re like, well, if we go to the ocean, we can go to D.C. and what a better time to be here than the 250th anniversary,” Geders said.
Robyn Toman, 71, of Severn, Maryland, escorted her 12-year-old grandson Miles to meet DeWine and grab a photo with the governor.
Toman said she remembers the country’s bicentennial.
“I was a kid about his age, and I came in 1976. I said, ‘We’re gonna go, let’s go down to D.C. for a couple days and see this,’” she said.
“We’ve enjoyed it. We went over to the archives yesterday, and saw the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. And, oh, that was so nice, that was fantastic.”
Not all states are there. A spokesperson for Washington state’s lieutenant governor’s office told States Newsroom the administration declined to join because of “the costs to the state associated with participating.”According to news reports, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont did not contribute exhibits, though many are still represented by flags outside the individual booths.The state officials did not immediately respond to States Newsroom for confirmation.
All states that reportedly did not participate, with the exception of Vermont, are Democratic-led.
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