Smith: The homeless ask us to see them through lens of humanity

A concept for a piece of purposeful art simmered in Mario Uribe’s mind as he set out to ask people on the streets and at the Roseland homeless camp about their lives and hopes and fears.

Few showed much initial interest in talking with the Sonoma County artist and his assistant, Daniel Doughty.

“But once they opened up,” Uribe said, “they had a lot to say.”

The artists took notes. Uribe will write excerpts onto an 8-foot-by-8-foot sheet of paper.

It will be on display Saturday at the Matsuri festival in Juilliard Park and the adjoining South A Street district. Visitors to the festival of Japanese art and culture can write their own reflections on the state of being without a place to live.

Just before noon, Uribe will go onstage to tell of what he learned. A woman who is homeless has said she’ll join him.

About 4 p.m., origami artist Henry Kaku will fold the 64-square-foot paper into the shape of a bird, a crane that may tour the area, inviting discussion of homelessness.

One person told Uribe, “I’m not homeless. I’m just misplaced.”

Said another, “We need to have a place at the table. We are intelligent, viable human beings.”

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ECUADOR IS LIKE HOME to Lucas and Jasper Oshun, the Sebastopol brothers whose Global Student Embassy assists young people to burst their comfort zones and go to work for humans and the environment in that South American country and in Nicaragua.

Lucas is now in Ecuador, toiling to help people rebuild lives fractured by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on April 16.

He and the quake victims will be on the minds of all who gather from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Arlene Francis Center near Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square for a boogie with a cause.

Deadend Boyfriend and Trixie & the Skates will play, and the Raizes Collective will create live mural art.

The dollars raised will go at once to Ecuador.

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STEEP ASCENT: Sebastopol launched, too, the astounding Elyse Ping Medvigy.

She’s the army officer who’s just now setting out to summit Mount Everest, and hoping with each step to heighten awareness of the shameful tragedy of suicide by soldiers and vets.

Today, 1st Lt. Medvigy and her partners intend to arrive at the Advanced Base Camp that’s above 21,000 feet on the mountain’s Tibetan side. The 2007 graduate of Analy High and 2012 graduate of West Point climbs with retired Staff Sgt. Chad Jukes, who lost part of his right leg to amputation following a roadside bomb blast in Iraq in 2006, and 2nd Lt. Harold Earls.

Jukes could become the first combat amputee to reach the 29,028-foot summit of Everest, and Medvigy and Earls the first active-duty soldiers to complete the arduous, perilous climb.

In an email shared by Gary Medvigy, Elyse’s dad and a Sonoma County judge and Army Reserve major general, Earls wrote that a successful ascent “comes second to our primary mission of raising awareness for soldier mental health.”

Earls wrote Wednesday, with shaky fingers “due to frigid cold,” that already word of the attempt on Everest sparks conversation on post-traumatic stress and suicidal urges, and prompts tormented vets and active members of the armed services to speak up and to reach out.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.