I have never been so proud of my brother as the time he got arrested. Yes, you read that correctly.
My brothers grew up in rural Florida in the 50s and 60s and like most farm kids back then, they could and did mix it up with the best of them. My youngest older brother, Ed, grew up and became a man and struggled to rein in his ill temper. Over the years, he mellowed, pushed by God Almighty and his devoted wife.
But also because of life in a rural community, Bro had physical limitations. As he aged, he developed severe scoliosis and spinal stenosis and he had a lurching gate dragging his feet and legs that would not cooperate.
While the physical limitations grew, so did his heart for homeless people. The sleepy town where we grew up is no more and instead is a large place with the commensurate number of less fortunate.
Bro’s church started an outreach where they met and cooked gallons of soup and made hundreds of sandwiches then went to the homeless delivering meals. Of course, relationships were formed and one day my brother noticed one of the homeless people he fed handcuffed on a sidewalk at a strip mall.
He asked the police officers what seemed to be the problem. The officers said there had been a trespassing complaint, they had it under control and he should get back in his car. As the story unfolded, the bank across the way had complained and the homeless man wasn’t on bank property. The officers started quoting statute, prompting my brother to pull the statutes from his billfold and correct them on pertinent points. The officers offered to arrest him, and the bad-tempered teenager re-emerged. He tossed a couple of cop jokes about one bullet Barney and doughnuts and was promptly arrested.
The lawyer he employed took the case for free, both charges were thrown out, and the officers got a proper dressing down from the judge.
Since then, the group has stopped the meal delivery, operating through a soup kitchen instead. My brother can no longer walk reliably without assistance of a walker or scooter and can only drive the lawnmower now. But he still advocates for the homeless and we all talk proudly about the day he got hauled off to jail.
Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com