BlackRifle Co (not coffee)

“Brief is man’s life and small the nook of the Earth where he lives; brief, too, is the longest posthumous fame, buoyed only by a succession of poor human beings who will very soon die and who know little of themselves, much less of someone who died long ago.” ~Marcus Aurelius

Ten years ago today, the trajectory of my life was forever altered. My day began with an attempt to push through heroin withdrawals on my own by blowing off steam at the range, but as had happened so many times before, I ended up losing my resolve and went to the dope man. On my way home, still in withdrawals, and still with my firearms, a simple traffic stop turned into a raided house with the presence of five agencies and over thirty vehicles. I was just an addict, had never sold dope or committed any crime other than buying my own dope, but they descended on me like I was Pablo Escobar, and charged me as such (check comments to see). For any logical man in my shoes - married, five kids, a business owner and college graduate - this would have been rock bottom. But I was far from a logical man. My wife, and mother of five of my kids, filed for divorce. Employees whose darkest hours I had been there for, turned their backs on me. In short order, the only people I had to turn to were fellow addicts and alcoholics in South Memphis. Despite the best efforts of the Shelby County Drug Court program, who took a chance on me, I went on the run and the next five years were a repeating cycle of homelessness, arrests, bouncing back, and then crashing even harder than before - only this time I was doing it with somebody by my side (Jess) whose madness far exceeded that of everyone in my life prior, but was matched by my own. The pic on the left sums up those five years. The summer of 2019, after two heart attacks, being stabbed, losing more friends and living through more shootings than I can count, I found my rock bottom. The pic on the right sums up the next five years, and I’ll explain what you’re looking at in a minute, but it was a very appropriate moment to capture what “ten years later” looks like. In a little less than five years of sobriety, my wife Jess and I have rebuilt businesses, forged new friendships, made amends and found a partner in the very court program I made look like fools for believing in me once upon a time. We have saved lives on five continents, run safe houses overseas and sober houses in Memphis. We’ve responded to mass shootings, natural disasters, terrorist takeovers, riots and military invasions, bringing hope, unity and healing wherever we can. We aren’t special. We just got sober. We found recovery but we kept that “crackhead energy” and applied it to doing good deeds instead of getting high. We’ve got a seemingly unique ability to make friends in very bad places, very quickly, by building immediate trust and assessing/meeting needs - but if you think about it, that’s an ability ANY of us who survived on the streets has. The pic on the right…that’s me and the Chief Deputy of one of the agencies that tried to put me away a decade ago - taken a couple days ago at the grand opening of a veterans village that will provide housing to over a hundred vets walking the path I once walked. We DO recover!

Life ain’t easy, but at least I ain’t sleeping here anymore and don’t ever have to again…. This is a professional platform and I know most of yall have never been in jail, so let me put this in terms that will resonate with all of you. PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING. Be sure to keep your circumstances in perspective. There are people out there who would DIE to have the problems you do. People whose wildest dreams could never include having the things you have today and take for granted. Gratitude is the word of the day, folks. Use it.

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Helluva tribe here!!!

A t shirt that conveys the attitude of unity we should ALL have - and the ethos that’s mission critical for the work we do on the worst streets in America - grab yours here - https://lnkd.in/e-7UWcCy - all sales fund our work battling human/narco trafficking and housing the survivors in renovated dope houses that we shut down and acquire

Tunnel to Towers Foundation was started after the 9/11 attacks on our great nation to assist families of first responders who fell - then the mission expanded to helping veterans. Flanders Fields was started to help vets battling opiate addiction - then the mission expanded to first responders, and allied afghans abandoned during the disastrous withdrawal from America’s longest war. Yesterday, a bunch of worlds came together in Memphis TN where Flanders brought the daughter of an Afghan commando to the grand opening of a “veterans village” in Memphis. The stories that had to take place and the miracles that had to occur to make this specific moment in time a reality are mind boggling. God is great, America is still good, and it’s gonna take us all to make a difference.

A shirt that sports the attitude of unity we should ALL have - and the attitude that’s mission critical for the work we do on the worst streets in America - grab one here - https://lnkd.in/e-7UWcCy - all proceeds fund our work battling human/narco trafficking and housing survivors in renovated dope houses that we shut down