Blaze, Terrence Walkers dog, is very good at negotiating obstacles. He leaps over, crawls under, and yes, sometimes even digs himself out of tight spots. Blaze gets these coping mechanisms genetically, that stuff is just bred into Beagles.
A lot of Terrence Walker’s coping skills come from genetics also. I’ve written about his grandmother here.
As a child, Terrence lived in the Badlands of Philly, in a neighborhood with drug dealers and/or gangs on most corners.
Terrence’s grandmother sent him to the store one day with instructions to buy butter and bring home the change. He didn’t make it to the store, he was relieved of his money at the corner.
He came home with no butter and no change. Miss Josie wasn’t having any of that, she gave Terrence more money and told him he better come home with the butter and her change.
He took a different path to the store this time, dropping down and around the guys on the corner. He brought back the butter and change for Miss Josie.
Terrence took those same skills to college with him. Asked to buy very expensive books for his classes, books a first-generation college student couldn’t afford, he would buy the book, copy the pages he needed for the class and then return the book.
He did this for years. His brother swears that they changed the drop/add book policy due to Terrence’s clever work around. Now a days, you have to show a receipt showing you’ve dropped or added a class to be able to return a book!
Money, people in your way, those are common obstacles in life. Terrence Walker has a couple other obstacles that he is learning to work around in the world of politics. Morals, ethics and his personal faith can also get in his way.
At a recent community meeting, a church in the 81st district offered to let Terrence come in and get signatures for the petition he needs to qualify as a candidate. No, just no, was his response. As a child, Terrence watched politicians show up in church once every 2 or 4 years and take advantage of people who didn’t have a whole lot to begin with.
He didn’t like it then and doesn’t want to be a part of it now. He did finally allow that setting up a table in the church parking lot so that folks who wanted could come sign his petition, was not too much. No one would notice who signed and who didn’t, and no one would feel obligated.
He got a lot of that from his grandmother, Miss Josie, and it’s everything we want in a politician.