I met Delbert in front of Foggy Bottom Metro Station. It was well below freezing, and the windchill made it even more bitter. He was sitting on a plastic crate, asking for change as people hurriedly walked by. Every one else braced themselves against the wind, but Delbert seemed unfazed by it. When I asked him if he would share his story, he agreed, but said, "I've been sharing it for 30 years, and it hasn't made a difference!"
"I'm here to be civil - trying to keep people accountable. My house got destroyed by roto-whipping, you know, the helicopter blades? They said it was my fault. I came here to Washington to report what happened, but they won't even let me into the building. They do whatever they want, the big banks, the government, but if you speak up there's no life for you. It's true for all Americans. They destroy your life and then you just have to go back to work. They tell me I need to be medicated, go to a shelter, go to St. Elizabeth's, but who's the crazy one here?
I asked him what he does when it becomes dangerously cold outside, like it was going to be later that day. He said he would never go to a shelter. "Going to shelters is giving up on life. It's murder, having people being frozen to death, but its death to go in the shelters too. I won't do it. All the things that happen to the women there? It's not right. But there's murder all the time - Ferguson was murder, it happens all the time, every day, but they don't get held accountable for their crimes. We all have to be terrified of the sheriff, but why is that?"
