‘Palmer panhandler’ holds to Constitution

I spotted Daniel Bennett a few weeks ago at the heart of downtown Palmer - the corner of Evergreen and South Alaska, across from NonEssentials. 

Bennett is known around town as “the Palmer panhandler” but I’d never seen him before. 

I walked over. We chatted.  

Turns out Bennett, who works the corner from a wheeled walker with a seat, is disabled. He’ll tell you that a drunk truck driver hit him in 1968. He lives on disability payments. A caretaker drives him around in a beat-up Grand Marquis. 

He can always use a little help, he says.  

But the 57-year-old Bennett also enjoys a little conversation. 

This self-described “Minister of Humor” knows a lot of jokes. G-rated jokes. Why don’t anteaters need much in the way of veterinary care? Anty-bodies. They’re full of ‘em.

He also considers his pursuit of street-corner donations a constitutionally protected right. 

Bennett displays a laminated sign. The front says, “NEED CASH PLEASE GIVE THANKS ALOT.” 

The back features a mish-mash of personal affirmations including “We cannot condemn each other for misunderstanding one another’s separate realities.” 

It also bears language from what Bennett considers the most pertinent section of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech ... or the right of people peaceably to assemble.” 

Speech that solicits funds is protected by the First Amendment, he says. The protections afforded by the First Amendment are nowhere stronger than in streets and parks. 

He’s argued that point during a 2007 public hearing in Juneau on a new panhandling ordinance (it clarified where and when people can panhandle, replacing an outright ban). 

He also brought up the First Amendment in court - multiple times. 

A Wasilla police officer arrested Bennett at the Crusey Street McDonald’s in August 2010, one of several arrests he experienced at that location. The code he violated: a pedestrian on a highway may not solicit employment, business or contributions.

Bennett, representing himself, argued his constitutional rights before Palmer District Judge John Wolfe. 

Wolfe ultimately found Bennett not guilty, but not because the arrest was unconstitutional. Bennett’s solicitation occurred on the sidewalk, not the highway. Wolfe handed down another not guilty when Bennett was arrested later that year. 

Magistrate Craig Condie found Bennett not guilty the next year.

Bennett remembers the magistrate saying something about the arrests being a waste of time.

Magistrates can’t comment on such stuff. Notes from that 2011 hearing weren’t available at the courthouse. 

Bennett, who showed up as “Stone Eternal Love” on one court filing, said he leaves his fate up to the universe these days. Ask and ye shall receive, he told me. 

“It’s an act of faith,” he said. Then he raised his sign as another car drove past. 

-- Zaz Hollander

Fundraiser benefits paralyzed Palmer outdoorsman

Maybe you’ve seen the flyers at businesses around town or spotted one at Turner’s Corner on the way down from a spring trip to Hatcher Pass. 

The flyers describe fundraisers for a young guy named Bradley Johnson, a 24-year-old from Palmer who broke his back in a February snowmachine accident. His family hopes to pursue aggressive stem-cell treatment that could help Brad walk again.

The Post doesn't know about the rest of you, but it seems like this winter was especially hard on people who play in the snow. We heard about Bradley from friends with a broken back in their family, too. 

Here’s the rest of Brad's story, and ways you can help him get on his feet again.

Johnson knew his back was broken as soon as his snowmachine hit the windblown snow -- hit way too hard -- while landing a cliff jump at Hatcher Pass on Feb. 4. A helicopter flew him to Providence Alaska Medical Center. Doctors fused five vertebrae in his back and held his spine together with pins and screws. Brad stayed at the hospital through the month of February. 

He’s paralyzed from the waist down.

Before the accident, Johnson spent most of his time outside, hunting, fishing or riding something - snowmachines, four-wheelers, dirt bikes. His aggressive personality and gumption earned him the nickname B-Rad. His mother, Annette Johnson, makes no apologies for the way her son got hurt. 

“He’s a very aggressive snowmachine rider. He was jumping off a cliff like he had done hundreds of times before. But this one was bigger,” she said. A heavy avalanche backpack didn't help, either.

Now his gutsy attitude is serving Brad well. Generally, with a T-12 fracture like his, paralysis starts at the rib cage and includes the abdomen, leaving a patient struggling to control his torso. But within a few days of the accident, Annette said, Brad could feel his abdomen. A little while later, he could feel his hip. 

He never gave up, and always talks about what he could do rather than what he couldn’t, Annette said. That picture up top? That’s Brad -- after the accident. With his doctor’s permission, he scrambled back onto a fourwheeler, strapped on his legs with bungie cords, and got back out there. 

Brad worked construction for ASRC and CH2M Hill. He can't go back to that job, his mom said, but plans to get trained up in something involving engineering starting this fall. Most of their basic medical costs are covered or will be.


But the family needs about $50,000 for a stem-cell procedure. They don’t expect to raise it all in one fundraiser. They’re holding a taco dinner at the Elk’s Lodge on Saturday, and they’re also selling off some really cool prizes.

Johnson's parents Annette and Johnnie, with help from a remarkable array of supporters, are selling tickets for a snowmachine, a queen-size handmade quilt and a framed Fred Machetanz print, "Fishing Rights." Tickets for the snowmachine - a 2006 Skidoo Summit donated by James Bracker - are $10 each and $50 for six. Tickets for the quilt donated by Fay and Al Zimmerman are $5 and $25 for six. Tickets for the Machetanz print, with framing donated by The Gallery in Palmer, are $5 and $25 for six.

"Fishing Rights" by Fred Machetanz

Bingo Mania owner Trudy Visker is sponsoring the fundraising drawings.  The drawing will be held at Bingo Mania on Sept.1; you don't need to be present to win.  

Tickets for the fundraising drawings are on sale at the following locations: NonEssentials and Black Dog Java Joint in Palmer; Alaskan Crafters Gifts & Souvenirs and Bingo Mania in Wasilla; and Turner's Corner on Palmer-Fishhook Road. For tickets and information, call 745-3430 or 232-5180. 

The family also set up two benefit accounts:

Wells Fargo

Account Name:  Annette Johnson for the benefit of Bradley Johnson

Account Number:  9766718184

Matanuska Valley FCU

Account Name:  Annette Johnson for the benefit of Bradley Johnson

Account Number:  135887-FB

-- Zaz Hollander