Ranger Tack sits on a gloomy sidewalk beside the hurried rush of honking BMWs competing with swerving Mercedes to pass under a yellow traffic light. The clamor doesn’t affect his placid demeanor as he rhythmically strums his self-fashioned, four-string guitar. Car tires splash through wet potholes and horns honk out-of-time, but the cacophony does not break Ranger Tack’s musical concentration. His focus was forged from his time as a field soldier in the military. What images pass through his mind’s eye that drive his upbeat tempo: his estranged family, a mission in the jungle, a military target, or maybe a home? No one that I have met has more time on the homeless streets than Ranger Tack. He prides himself on never having a roof over his head for over ten years. In fact, he puts himself through drills and deprivation to maintain a hard exterior.
This is a true friend. While Ranger Tacks usually shuns most people, we talk at length when we cross paths on our perspective missions. The driving rhythm of his music launches me into a hearty greeting and a question.
“MedStreet would like to provide backpacks. Would that be useful to you?” I notice that he is wearing a smallish backpack and the two medium handheld bags beside him. All bags have many open holes despite the duct tape atop frayed threading straining not to snap. Previously, he carried a large, canvas military duffle that could double as a backpack.
Ranger Tack gives an answer that I have heard many times before, “I would love to have your backpack,” he responds while eyeing my bulky, comfortable backpack.
“Why this one?”, I ask.
“Yeah. This one. It’s big. It’s the size. I could put most things in it. Maybe everything in it. Or on it. Military straps for attaching things like a sleeping pad, a tarp, or a sleeping bag. Yeah, it’s great.”
Someone requests a blood pressure check, so I open the bag.
“And the compartments. Yes, very useful. Big compartment to haul many things. Small compartments in the front to stay organized. Yeah.”
I ask, “What about that duffel bag you carried? It was a little bigger than this one.”
“It could hold stuff, but it was a pain. Only one opening at the top. You have to pull everything out to get to one thing. And it’s always buried in the bottom somewhere.”
As I move off to check the requested blood pressure, Ranger Tack continues to look at my MedStreet bag. That look was telling.
While I keep my backpack to continue the MedStreet mission, MedStreet wants to bring providing backpacks into the mission. Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to click the Donate button to provide backpacks, medicines, food, and toiletries to the homeless. Then, Share this post on your social media to recruit other agents to this mission of Love and Hope to Neighbors in Need.
Welcome to the 2022 MedStreet Love Thy Neighbor Campaign.
Gratefully from the streets, Happy Valentine’s Day.