"We had to find every little bit of human."
"What was that like?"
"Dead bodies are just dead bodies."
Michael was a first responder when the Pentagon was hit. He shakes his head as he recalls having to make his peace with God in a matter of seconds. "I didn't know what I had gotten into - and now I've got tumors the size of a nickel." The walls of the Pentagon, he continues, had asbestos and he can't get treatment. His voice rises. "The banks pushed me out the door because I don't got no address. There's no check, no Social Security."
He hired a public defender but he hasn't seen anything come of it. He expects the lawyer just took off. When asked whether he would consider getting pro bono help, he smiles. "If someone's gonna help me, I'm gonna pay them."
He also tells me that he knows how to pluck a chicken without an axe and and how to disarm a warhead. "Me with my sixth grade education - I'm smart. I could take a car apart and put it back together and you wouldn't even know."
Guest Writer: Charmaine Runes
Charmaine Runes has a fluid definition of "home"; her heart stretches and surrounds Dubai, Minnesota, and the Philippines. Charmaine graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul with a degree in economics and moved to D.C. in 2015. She currently works as a research assistant at the Urban Institute's Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population. Her projects relate to immigration and income inequality; racial and ethnic disparities; risk factors for homelessness and family interventions; and disconnected youth.