When I asked around about where I could speak to homeless people in Berkeley, multiple people pointed me toward People’s Park. When I got there, it was much like people described it. While photos from large community events grace the People’s Park website, it seemed like it was used more often by homeless people every time I visited.
Much of the center of the park where the sunlight hit was empty; under all the trees and shade and around the benches were groups of majority homeless people, either sitting, lying down or smoking. Next to the wooden stage, however, there were two benches with people playing chess and dominoes.
This was where I met Michael Dowdy, a homeless veteran who brings chess and dominoes almost every day so that he and various community members can play. My first impression of him was positive; it came from the fact he didn’t leash his dog. I admired this because it seemed like most people there keep their dogs leashed 24/7, even though the center of the park has so much space for dogs to run around.
I started talking to Michael and asked him about his story after I began to go to People’s Park to be beaten badly at chess every Wednesday. From interviewing Michael about his life, I learned that, in contrast to his friendly and passionate demeanor, he has suffered from more personal losses and discrimination than anyone else I have ever met, yet he managed to recover from it all emotionally, if not financially. He is the type of speaker who can make you feel like believing whatever he believed.
Up to four years after leaving the military in 1997, Michael was trying his best to live the American dream. He served in the Marine Corps for four years and was stationed in Camp Pendleton, San Diego. After this, he owned a home with his wife and daughter in San Diego and worked in everything from warehouses and retail to being a medical assistant. Like the vast majority of the homeless people I have talked to in the past, he was not always on the streets and was living a life very similar to that of students or any of the busy adults we see shopping and working each day.
In 2001, however, Michael’s misfortune began with his nervous breakdown due to the death of his father. When this happened, he found it difficult to work and lost his job and home as well as his wife and daughter, who both moved to Japan. Michael’s life had been going so well up to that point: he had a family, child and home and was pretty much on his way to achieving the American dream until the death of someone very dear to him.
Michael’s life had been going so well up to that point: he had a family, child and home and was pretty much on his way to achieving the American dream until the death of someone very dear to him.
After that, Michael “couch-surfed” in the homes of various friends across multiple cities including Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles and was kicked out of each place until he arrived in Berkeley in 2008. He decided to settle here because of the food provided by the Food Not Bombs program nearby People’s Park. The first thought that came to my mind when I heard that Michael used to “couch surf” was how one of my professors at UC Berkeley also used to “couch surf,” right before he got into teaching.
During the 10 years Michael was homeless in Berkeley, he began to pay more and more attention to the racism and discrimination he faced, observing that many wrongfully see Black people like him as threats. When I asked about the discrimination he faced, he told me that he and his dog were kicked out of every coffee shop they tried to go to and that now the bench in People’s Park is the only place where he feels comfortable.
“I woke up to realize my country is against me. My father fought in the Vietnam War, and when he got back to America, they asked him to sit in the back of the bus,” Dowdy said.
He also recalled a situation where he was charging his phone and trying to use the Wi-Fi on campus and got into an argument with a person passing by, who called the cops on him. According to Michael, they allegedly forced him to leave the area and purportedly put him in handcuffs publicly, apparently only letting him go after checking his ID. Because of experiences like these, Michael believes that God made him homeless so that he could fight against the injustices of racism.
“They put me in handcuffs in public when I didn’t do nothing and I knew I didn’t do nothing. I was charging my phone, some dude came at me, he said something to me, I yelled at him and then I walked away,” Dowdy alleged. “By the time I got to the corner, he called the police and said I did something.”
What I found most interesting was how Michael’s dog, Puppdaddy, a white-gray shaggy-haired dog that is one of the biggest I’ve seen, saved his life. In 2012, after Michael had been homeless in Berkeley for almost four years, his mother in Chicago called to tell him that his nephew was murdered and that he should come back home for the funeral. Once in Chicago, Michael spent days looking at the vase of ashes and thinking about how he could’ve helped his nephew.
Michael’s mother, tired of seeing her son in this depression, got him a puppy and told him to take care of it. As a result, the puppy helped Michael slowly recover emotionally as he started going outside to walk and feed his dog.
“And then one day, the elevator opens — there’s an elevator in my mom’s apartment — and then a puppy runs in and then she says ‘this is your dog you got to take care of him,’ and all of a sudden I got something else to do other than stare at this vase,” Dowdy said.
After nine months of raising his dog, Michael had a dream about going back to Berkeley and winning the lottery, which he saw as a vision of the future. He decided to go back to Berkeley as a homeless person again, and after two years his mom sent him Puppdaddy through the San Francisco International Airport. After this, his dog always accompanied him. I thought this was one of the most touching stories I’ve ever heard, and I honestly think it would make a good book if he wrote about it.
As if these two personal losses weren’t enough for Michael, fate was even more cruel to him in that he saw his good friend, Cal Kelley (Calvin Kelley) murdered in April this year right in front of him at the same place where I met Michael. According to Michael, just as he was returning to the bench after washing his hands, he saw Cal get shot in the head as he was sitting up after taking a nap. Michael feared for his life and subsequently took his dog and stuff to another nearby park. This incident was widely reported and is well-known in Berkeley.
“Can you imagine the misery in that house (Cal Kelley’s house) right now?” Dowdy asked.
Michael realized soon after running away that the best way to honor his friend was to go back to People’s Park and tell everyone what happened. He described Cal as a family man who had a great relationship with his four kids, worked hard to support them and was also a close friend who played chess and dominoes every day with Michael.
Michael realized soon after running away that the best way to honor his friend was to go back to People’s Park and tell everyone what happened.
Although Michael has lived through many traumatizing experiences, he said he doesn’t abuse drugs despite claiming to have tried everything. He said he tries to fight racism, come to terms with his past and improve People’s Park by spreading positive energy. He brings chess and dominoes for people to play in People’s Park to improve the attitudes toward and the atmosphere of the park.
Having positive experiences with others is what allowed Michael to recover emotionally. When dealing with personal tragedy, many people tend to shut themselves off from the world and reach toward unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol, drugs or overeating, but Michael learned to do the opposite, channeling his energy into taking care of his dog and trying to interact with people positively in a way that makes People’s Park a better place.
When I asked him, after all of these experiences, what he wished for, he told me about his ultimate dream of winning the lottery. He claims that after getting all that money, he plans to first help his mother in Chicago, who wants to relocate to Georgia, and then visit his daughter in Japan, whom he hasn’t seen in 13 years since she and his wife left him. Afterward, he plans to teach yoga and make movies.
I learned from Michael how big of a difference one’s response to unfortunate events in life can make.
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