The summer after he graduated from high school, Wayne Moore went to Chicago for the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He didn’t have much of an idea what he’d do when he got there. In fact, he spent his first day trying – unsuccessfully – just to get credentials to get in.
What he did see were 100,000 people lining Michigan Avenue – police and demonstrators as far as he could see. And hundreds of National Guard members. He met the Chicago Seven.
Just a few months later, Wayne was at San Francisco State University during the student strikes of 1968-69.
“There were 50,000 people there ready for a riot,” he said. He watched when SFSU President S.I. Hayakawa agreed to the students’ demands, avoiding a confrontation.
“In the ’60s, we took it to the streets literally,” he said. “It was power to the people. I just got hit in the head by politics.”
In fact, Wayne was inspired by lots of things. After high school, he attended college classes at Stanford University, University of Michigan and Reed, auditing courses so he wouldn’t have to pay. He studied psychology, political science and creative writing.
“I did a lot of reading and then would take the test so I wouldn’t have to pay. I probably had enough credits for a degree,” he said. “But I was too busy picking and choosing classes to ever apply them to anything. I was just interested in learning.”
The learning came to a halt, though, when Wayne had a breakdown in his late 20s.
“I lost my academic ability,” he said, “the tools I used for learning, reading and writing. I had to relearn, and there’s no real way to do that. Now I have to take it as it comes.”
So Wayne found other interests. He moved into a trailer next to his friend’s video production business. Using income he applied for under the federal government’s Plan to Achieve Self Support, or PASS, program, he started buying used video equipment. He bought a copying device to run videotape and started a video duplicating business. Later, he taught himself digital applications.
“It takes a lot,” he said. “Phones, networking, systems integration, laser discs, VCRs. I never got it together so it was functional with the equipment. I understood it, and that’s really all I was after, keeping up with the development of the equipment.”
During those years, Wayne didn’t communicate much with people. But time heals all wounds, he said.
“The activities in my head have settled down somewhat. Now I can deal with it better.”
He’s been selling Street Roots since at least 2012, he said, and that’s helped more than anything.
“It’s going out and being with other people, being involved, not just worrying about yourself all the time.”
He loves the rapport he’s established with his regular customers. In fact, he’s such a regular at his longtime post at the First Unitarian Church on Southwest 12th Avenue and Main Street that he’s in the video they play every Sunday. He also sells Street Roots at the Starbucks at Northwest 21st Avenue and Lovejoy Street.
Wayne is moved to help others that have experienced mental illness, and his experiences, he believes, give him special expertise.
“I’ve been through the therapy,” he said, “and it wasn’t the doctors and it wasn’t the medicine. It was clients that took care of each other. It was other people with their own disabilities that helped.”
He’s been helping gather information to support the Portland Street Response initiative.
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Interviewing people on the streets about their needs, he said, “I learned that I was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.
“I want to help Street Roots as much as I can,” he said. “Twenty years is a long time for Street Roots, and I want it to continue.”