Chance

  It was the Fall of 2012.  There was going to be an election that year for a lot of things, but one in particular interested me.  It was the vote on a penny increase on the sales tax in Richland County.  It had failed in 2010, and it was on the ballot again.  The penny would go to improve roads, public transit, and bikeways in Richland County.  I had heard that there was going to be a voter registration table at the Transit Station in downtown Columbia, and I felt that I needed to help.

 I got down there and found an old friend from my anti-war days.  It was Brett Bursey.  He was in charge of a group called the Progressive Network, and they wanted the penny tax to pass.  Brett had been very active in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era.  He had a group of people going around the station to sign up people to vote.  We started talking about the old days, and he said that he wanted to start a group of activists to represent the bus riders in Columbia.  I told him that I was interested in that project.  He said that there was no one on the Central Midlands Transit Authority Board of Directors who rode the bus, and he felt that a grassroots group could affect the needs of the riders.  It sounded like a good idea.

 We worked that afternoon and got a lot of people registered to vote.  We explained the need for a penny increase for the good of all.  I had planned to just be down there for an hour.  I spent all afternoon talking to people and getting a sense of why they rode the bus.  Most didn't have a car, like me, and some only had one car in their family.  I remembered what I heard God say to me three years before, as I was in the midst of killing myself.  He said, "Stop!  I have more for you to do."  I now knew what He meant.  He and I were going to work to get the bus system in Columbia to a better level of service.  At that moment, I didn't know how we were going to do it.  But on the way home from the Transit Station, I talked to God and asked Him to show me what I could do.  I saw the need.  I had been seeing the need, while I was homeless.  I realized that He had been preparing me for this moment.  I could use my skill sets of public speaking; knowing people in the community who could help; and being able to speak the language of the politician.  I knew about cause and effect.  I knew what I had to do.