2000

by Richard G. Hall, Jr./PNN prison Correspondent

Recently I turned on my TV to participate in my favorite show on the boob tube, "Jeopardy." Much to my dismay, it had been postponed due to a charity fundraiser. At least as far as I was concerned, it was well worth it, particularly with the holidays approaching, and old man winter sparing no blows, with countless numbers of homeless men, women, and children at the mercy of the elements, on America's often degrading and dangerous streets.

I noticed a few large barrels in the background, placed there obviously in the hopes of encouraging the American public to "Stand United", as it had been proclaimed they were after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. "Wanted: Donated Food, Toys, Clothing and of course Cash." And, true to American form, there were those who did not hesitate in rushing to the aid of their fellow Americans and children in desperate need.

Suddenly, one of the promoters of the fundraiser announced that one of the main goals of the function was to acquire six hundred turkeys so that the homeless could be provided with a good meal on the day Jesus was supposed to be Born. It was obvious that since they, the homeless, had no place to call home, they had no place to erect Christmas trees. So, Santa Claus was not going to bless them with a visit, let alone gifts.

Once more one of the promoters made an announcement. He said that they had just received a donated turkey, as he proudly held the frozen gobbler up for countless viewers and participants to behold. Taking away nothing from the wonderful Americans who rose to the occasion, and gave from the heart to those down on their luck, I was still hit with an awful moment of clarity!

After the horrific attacks of September 11, almost immediately following the tragic catastrophe, America was pronounced to "Stand United," for once in its long racial and class divided history. Billions of tax-dollars were reallocated in a matter of days, without the usual political tug-o-war, for the alleged purpose of disaster relief, and a proposed long and extended war against "The Global Terrorist Network", except here in America's own backyard, obviously.

As the weeks passed, and pied piped public ultra patriotism responded to the prompted tune of ambiguity, Anthrax suddenly covered the national news, and the public fear spread like the Snow Storm of the Century, from sea to shining sea.

While the American public's paranoia rose sky high, U.S. planes took to the air over Afghanistan—a country of poverty, devastation, and utter destitution, and utter desolation—to drop billions of dollars worth of bombs, and supplies of dollars worth of food and supplies on a poor people America had both vicious contempt and empathy for. It was later discovered that hundreds of New Yorkers dropped false death claims in the mailbox, and several American companies sold fake Anthrax tests.

The over sensationalized plot thickened as "God Bless America" became the national theme song, for a nation that appeared to be plagued with disaster at every turn. This tune was prompted by a cabal of "Seize The Moment" politicians on the nations capital steps. As the choir sung, thousands lay crushed under tons of sky scrappers, hellish heat and smoke. How appropriate to sing such a contrary song at such an instance. American Flag manufacturers didn't waste any time brandishing their "Free Enterprising American Spirit" either, by raising the Stars and Stripes... in price. Some even invented an unheard of "God Bless America Flag," to show their true colors.

Yet, as reflections of the September 11 disaster are rubbed, like salt, on the open wounds of this nation by the print and electronic media, American's are starting to seriously wonder, what really happened, and what is really going on? Just recently New York disaster victims finally received the relief they deserved. Prior to that, they were put on a back burner because they were not "Heroic Public Servants" like New York's firemen and police. You've yet to see anyone
wearing a baseball cap in memory of the everyday citizens who lost their lives in greater numbers. This in itself shows that the "American Spirit" is still selective when empathy is at stake.

Long before September 11, 2001, and the names Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or the Taliban were ever heard of, Americans suffered extremely, from various tragedies, which were, and are to this day, nothing short of terror. Too often these matters which affect, and threaten more Americans than any terrorist from Middle Eastern lands, or anywhere else on earth, are facts of minimal national focus, and back page scoop. These are tragedies that worsen each and everyday, with no massive American resources and public ultra intervention to bring a significant end to them. One of which is Homelessness, which millions of poverty-stricken American's suffer from.

The fundraiser I began speaking of, ended as a smash success, as far as the promoters were concerned. Tons of can goods, clothing, and the 600 frozen gobblers had been acquired and 7,000 dollars in cash donations from millions of better of "United American" who at least showed what they were truly made of. Nevertheless, when you expand this picture, it doesn't look too good. Particularly when you consider that American society just sanctioned spending billions of tax-dollars for the purpose of revenge and mass destruction. How many bombs missed their targets?

How many millions of dollars went down the drain in vain? One thing is for certain, we could have fed all of America's homeless and then some for the price of the bombs that missed their targets. Yet, Americans must beg other Americans in order to acquire basic essentials. While at the same time, billions of dollars are given in aid to other nations, with the same social ills to uplift their people.

Maybe one of these days the TV network moguls will sponsor a "Homeless Month" on America's countless game shows. Then many homeless contestants could instantly win thousands of dollars and other costly prizes in thirty minutes.
Not only would that help many get on their feet, they could spread their wealth with other Homeless Americans, to uplift them as well. Who knows, many of them could even win one of those "Keep America Rolling" cars, with zero down and approved credit to sleep in it with their families.

That would save millions in the tax-dollars spent to lock them up in jail for sleeping on the cold, degrading, and often dangerous streets. There would be extra money to buy all the turkeys and canned goods next holiday season, to feed them, so that neither they nor anyone else will have to beg

You can write to R.G. Hall C-07278

P.O. Box 70S-LB 339

Soledad, Ca 93960-0705

by Gordon Hilgers/PNN Texas Correspondent (Endless Choices)

It wasn't all that difficult to see that sooner or later Santana from Havana, as he called himself, was going to get into trouble with the people who ran the homeless shelter where he lived. It couldn't have been more than a week from the time that I met this wide-smiled, homeless man that I first noticed the problems he was causing. I really hadn't noticed that there was all that much wrong with the guy.

Of course, I treasure my eccentric acquaintances. It doesn't bother me if one of my friends seems a little off the rim, or seems to be operating a couple of French fries short of a Happy Meal; mainly because some of the most accomplished people I know—artists and poets in Dallas' burgeoning creative community—could, with a push and a shove, look quite a bit like Santana from Havana at his very best. Or worst. Judgments like these depend upon how you look at these human aspects of God's own best judgment.

Like many who suffer from depression, I have trouble sleeping soundly. Sometimes I'll wake up in darkness, fully awake. But if I'm patient with my own behavior, I know I can relax and let the once-disorderly aberration of the norm slip by as I slide back into oblivion. This particular night, however, the night Santana's disease revealed itself to me, I rose up off my cot, wended my way through a literal sea of sleeping men and pulled up a chair in the shelter's smoking area. It was there that I found Santana from Havana, holding court, if you will.

Since it was late, and dark, most others at the huge round table sat quietly, half-asleep, the majority sucking on roll-up cigarettes, each one alone with his own aching thoughts. But Santana was neither smoking nor keeping to himself. Instead, as he fractiously sorted through hundreds of wrinkled and dog-eared papers, he seemed to be acting. Indeed, Santana was conducting a private theatre of the absurd and talking louder than necessary, doing his stand-up routine from a sitting position. If he caught you listening, he'd start gesticulating more eloquently than the conductor of the New York Philharmonic would.

"What's up, Santana? Besides you?" I asked.

"Man! I was thinking of that monster movie on TV tonight. I used to just love them monster movies. I used to watch monster movies all the time when I was a kid in Los Angeles. I'd get so scared I left the room. But I always came back," he answered.

"Me, too," I replied. "I used to sit in the front row at the Casa Linda Theater, and when the monsters came on the screen, I'd get so scared I'd scrunch way down in the seat. Sometimes I was so scrunched up I could barely see the movie. But at least those monsters couldn't get me."

All of this seemed pretty normal as far as conversations go. Aside from Santana's loud voice, I neither saw nor heard anything out of the ordinary about it. At least until Santana got up out of his seat and began acting out Frankenstein. Not just one movie scene. The entire movie.

But out of his seat Santana was, walking stiff-legged across the floor, his sticklike arms flailing left and right, his face contorted, and his mouth yammering a mile a minute, a sort of play-by-play summary of the film's classic climactic scenes. As something like 250 men slept like corpses around us—tired men, frustrated men, simple men who rarely seem to understand episodes of stark individuality or abnormal behavior other than as an affront—Santana began bellowing as if he'd been set on fire. It was an apt scene. Some of the men at the table seemed to me to be just the kind of man eager to persecute those different from themselves. In fact, I had almost no problem at all imagining these men marching up a mountain to torch an outcast's home. And Santana was the outcast du jour. A pariah. An idiot.

If it wasn't the monster noises that were grabbing the attention and ire of the others at the table, it was Santana's exaggerated and abnormal movements and expressions that, for whatever reason, seemed to be literally rocking the worlds of men who seem to like to cultivate reputations of callousness, hardness, imperviousness to the circumstances they don't like. Several at the table, however, were amused. They rolled their eyes. Others laughed silently to themselves. The unspoken verdict at the table that night was that Santana was crazy as a loon. There were no accusations of narrow-mindedness or intolerance among the members of this self-appointed judge and jury, either. But what's important were the reactions among the ignorant and uneducated to aberrant behavior. Everyone knew Santana was due any day to be accused of being disorderly. Everyone knew what happens in emergency shelters when people are so branded.

One of the shelter's longtime characters—a really together guy who'd been living on the shelter's dole for three years going on four—spoke up, "Why don't you shut up, you—." And, no, the man's language was not nice. But it didn't deter Santana at all. For the next several evenings, or so it seemed to me, Santana went out of his way to annoy and undermine the man who'd collared him that night. Aside from his bizarre behavior, Santana was angry. And hurt. Anyone could see that.

Santana is like many homeless people who suffer from mental illness. He simply appeared at the shelter's door one day. Soon, once Santana learned that his exploits weren't considered acceptable—especially to the emergency shelter's longtime victims of long-term and extended stay emergency—he began a campaign of instigation. The more he was called on his behavior, the more he caused trouble for the shelter's rulemakers and enforcers.

Of course, Santana wasn't really a troublemaker. He was, and is, mentally ill. Sure. It seemed at times that he was intentionally making himself unwelcome. But could it have been that he was drawing attention to himself to get someone to notice that he was asking for help? What really bugged me came in the form of other questions. How many situations like this had Santana already endured? How many towns had he gone through? How many shelters kicked him out?

More worrisome to me, however, was how casually the shelter's supervisors handled Santana's disorderly conduct. When he was kicked out, he was kicked out as if he was any other personally responsible and supposedly adult troublemaker: drunk, stoned, violent, whatever. Despite admonitions that Santana see a doctor and adhere to treatment plans and regimens of medicine, when the time came to give Santana the boot, the shelter's supervisors treated him as if he were suddenly normal. No other steps were taken to help him. He wasn't referred to a clinic. He wasn't taken to Dallas' Parkland Hospital for observation or treatment. He wasn't interviewed by mental health caseworkers who might have been able to agree that the streets are no place for mentally ill men like

When I asked one of the shelter's security staffers why such a thing had been allowed to happen in a supposedly Christian institution—and many area shelters are quite vocal about their faith-based mission and moral diligence—I was told the directors simply don't believe it's their responsibility to go any further than offering residents a bed, a bath, and a meal for the night. Everything else is considered the responsibility of the inmate—I mean, resident. While most of the shelter's residents agree that the streets are no place for mentally ill men like Santana, many simply don't see the glaring misconnection between punishing normal people for rule violations and punishing the mentally ill for behavior they just can't control.

Worse, shelter directors—and, as personal experience shows, every shelter in Dallas misbehaves like this—rationalizing their often misbegotten decisions in order to protect the bottom line, tend to wash their hands of the matter in unconscious imitations of Pontius Pilate.

Santana, of course, isn't alone on the streets of downtown. There are plenty of pariahs just like him—men and women who were not rational enough to obey rules they probably couldn't comprehend anyway. Many, like Santana, live on the streets. They've been kicked out of all the shelters. They've been oppressed by tough policies that were never designed to accommodate them.

But this is how the homeless/industrial complex actually operates. While there's plenty of talk about creating a continuum of care that links troubled shelter residents with effective treatments and appropriate care—plenty of compassionate prattle about the victimhood of the homeless—the proof is in the pudding. Nearly every homeless man and woman with an obvious behavioral problem—these are the people we see living on the streets every day—more than likely has been thrown out of shelters simply because they are mentally ill. No one can deny this. Where does the responsibility for this actually lie?

by Joe B.

As I read the S.F.Guardian, you know the one with the clean 'shavin, homeless 'looking guy with the bright blue eyes carrying a poster.

He reminds me of someone but I degress. It seems Sup.Gavin Newsom is looking at former Mayor Giuliani's New York Model of helping homeless folks lead better lives but as I read further SF"G" informs me of flaws in the model.

Minor flaws such as working poor and homeless people sent or outside of Manhattan in centralized areas for Doe Fund (after a unknown nameless homeless woman) Mr. George McDonald, founder, former business exective.

He said "That people have to except personal responsibility and require regular drug testing."

Also known the Ready, Willing, and Able program where men, women trade welfare benefits for shelter beds and a street-sweeping job. Sound good but look below there is a kink or two in this yarn.

Dow Fund workers are paid $5.50 to $6.50 an hour, it also charges them $65 a week for room and board.

I don't doubt Mr. Mcdonald's heart is in the right place but don't know about this $65 weekly thing which seems like a locked-in, closed-in deal.

Another thing is Centralization.

In New York with its grid upon grid streets though most of it is flat it is still spread wide.

It reminds me of Malls,Supermarkets, Warehouse Stores, and neighborhood grocery store debate - in that Malls and giant supermarkets have nearly everything you'd need or want which is fine and good execept when it does not have an item such as food, medicines, or desserts
you are fond of; they tend to say "If its not here, you won't find it anywhere."

That's a false statement because the odd little one-person grocery or family run store may have that item.

Centralizisation in New York is only works if it way out of the way of businesses, neighborhoods, the only problem is people in need of help come from all over.

Unlike San Francisco it could help but here too people being people are not all able bodied mentally alert or willing to walk, take, busses, or cars to place way out of the way when multi service centers can be even scattered to where people are.

I distrust all-in-one-places it reminds me of killing fields or grounds (pick your own metaphor's) where everyone is gathered in one place to... Die.

Melodramatic?

Think Sup.G. Newsom is looking at New York as a model supposedly to help homeless folks off the streets but in The Old Apple homelessness has increased they not seen on Time's Square but hidden away from public view.

Could that be the game plan:

1. One centrilized location peope have to go to.

2. Banned from where they cannot be seen (did I say they?)

3. High fines working poor and homeless folk cannot be paid so
jail time is impossed plus working free for the city to pay off their dept.

4. Finally out of sight, out of mind and problems LOOK Like its solved meanwhile homelessness increases but John and Jane Public doesn't see people urinating, doing number-2, or aggressive panhandling which they did in the first place
BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO PLACE TO GO BUT THE PUBLIC STREET. How come there are more homeless folk on the streets.

Try asking City Mayor's all over the country about developers, landlords and real estate co.,[should I mention the honest folk of Enron or is it End-Run?] speculators and other business cronies in both Oakland, San Franciso, New York and anywhere else the homeless population is rising.

I was thinking of an old thought picture.
Four or five men, women, or young folks are artistic they draw or can render pictures of animals, objects or humans perfectly in wood, glass, plastic, metal, clay, or using light and in ice.

They all have work spaces to concentrate, and create, then cell their works. They are hard working bonafide artisans.

Now Imagine those same persons without homes...
finding nitches to do their works but always told to move on.

The told exact same artwork mind you is worthless junk.

Are the homeless people with the exact same talents when done on the street worthless?

Decentralization seems a better model that will help more people than one huge bureaucracy getting people hung up in more rules, regulation, red tape instead of higher education, technicals skills journalism, or higher income so people become more productive.

This New York "Magic Model" isn't working and I don't think 23-28 or a hundred "Get them out of sight and mind will help unless both noprofits, business, schools, and the jail system come together to prevent a problem and create more by keeping it out of sight.

That's all I can think of maybe other folks have better ideas.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine or in C/0
Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

As a House-Care Watcher Professional or [H.C.W. P.]
I'm a non drug user, smoker, drinker, pill popper - drug test me
anytime. Light vacuum, no windows or laundry.
Pets have their routine - make a list of walking times, foods, and
moods. INFORM FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, POLICE; IN FACT
INVITE THEM TO PERSONALLY SEE ME, ASK QUESTIONS
THEN NO MISUNDERSTANDING, MISHAPS OR ACCIDENTS
OF IDENTITY CAN HAPPEN.

Prices: $25 a day apartments/flats

$50 a week for 2 to 4 bedroom cottage.

$2000, or $3,000 a month depending on home not area.
$50,000 to $100,000 monthly for certain homes with
7to10 room TO BE TRUSTED EVEN A LITTLE BY THE COMMUNITY MAKES EVERYONE MORE SECURE AND LESS LIKELY TO JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS.All prices are negotiable.

by Fiona Gow

Last April, after several hundred very low and no income folks and organizers
stormed Berkeley City Council demanding that
homelessness not be criminalized, the City voted to
deprioritize enforcing penal code 647 (j). Code 647
(j) states that it is illegal to "lodge" on property
without the owner's consent. Because there is only 1
shelter bed for every 10-12 homeless people and
Berkeley has a homeless population of approximately
1200 people, this law was unfairly targeting homeless
people.

Last Wednesday, Berkeley's Commission on Homelessness'
met to hear reports on how the city was deprioritizing
enforcing 647(j). Though shelter space has not
increased, homeless people are not being cited or
arrested for "lodging" without permission. According
to Captain William Pittman of the Berkeley Police
Department, only four citations have been issued to
homeless people for illegal lodging since April, as
opposed to 20 citations between January and April.

What is the City doing instead of arresting and citing
people? According to David Wee, of the Health and
Human Services Department, the focus is on providing
outreach and asking people to "move along." "We are
not going out looking for people to arrest. Everything
is complaint driven. If a citizen has complained, then
we are put in the position of having to do something,"
said Capt. Pittman. According to Wee, police are only
brought in when there are repeated complaints made
against an individual.

As an example of the complaints, Wee said that the
colder months bring more cases of bronchitis among
homeless people and the police get calls about people
coughing, "They have a perfect right to complain if
someone's coughing outside their window," he added,
without batting an eyelid. Other complaints he
receives are about people defecating in public. When
asked if public bathrooms could be put in, he
responded that there was no guarantee that the
homeless people would actually use them.

Ken Moshesh, staff writer with POOR Magazine, videographer and artist was recently appointed to the Commission on Homelessness,incidentally
the only homeless person on the Commission at this time. Moshesh
has been the main proponent of changing how 647(j) is
enforced-he recently won a court case in which he
challenged the constitutionality of the code. The
judge in his case stated that she, "did not find the
code facially invalid, but that it was sufficiently
ambiguous and as it applied to Ken's conduct, the
statute was not constitutional." The hopes were that
his case would be appealed at the appellate level,
whereby it would become a binding precedent. At
present, reported Deputy City Attorney Matthew Orebic,
there is no written decision on the case and therefor,
the code is still enforceable. Moshesh would like to
see it ruled unconstitutional in all cases, but at the
moment "deprioritization" of the code is as far as the
City will go.

In regards to the "deprioritization" reports, Moshesh
stated optimistically that this is the beginning of
the challenge, that this process will bring together
groups who historically have been pitted as
adversaries. According to Moshesh, advocacy on the
part of the entire situation is still what is needed,
"What is being done so far is not a solution, it is
merely a rotation." The real problem here is the lack
of safe and affordable housing. "Berkeley may be the
best place to be if you're homeless, but it doesn't
make the nights any warmer or the streets any safer,"
Moshesh said.

by R. G. Hall, Jr./PNN Prison Correspondent

When I turned on my TV on September 11, 2001, I couldn't believe what I saw, when the TV screen focused the picture, and a devastated Federal building, smoke, and flames encompassed my vision.
It was bad enough to witness a jet stuck in the top of one of the World Trade Center Towers. The horror was further magnified by the sight of a second jet coming out of nowhere and crashing head-on into the second tower. Suddenly, I reflected on the TV images of madness during the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and came to the sorrowful revelation, how ignorantly destructive some people turn out to be without conscious.

I watched one skycrapper collapse, then the other. I was stunned in utter awe. Then I realized that a whole bunch of people were in the inside and around the outside of the crumbling catastrophe. It was later reported that was indeed the case. Hours later I was hurled for yet another moment of disbelief when a choir of politicians on the steps of the Nation’s Capitol appeared on the TV screen singing "God Bless America." Just when you thought they say the damndest things, they proved they can sing such oddities as well. I'm sure if all the innocent people holding on for dear life, under unimaginable tons of concrete and steel, heat and thick smoke, had heard them, they would have seriously wondered where their empathy was. One thing that God knew, and all the victims and public servants at the scene knew ... This was hardly a blessing. Nor was it something to sing about.

As the days and weeks passed, like most Americans, I awaited the chaotic plot to thicken. The national media and press made damn sure everybody stayed glued to their seats in utter paranoia. As they assured us all, "Stay tuned for the next terrorist attack..." From sea to shining sea, they had no clue from where it would come. Then out of nowhere, Anthrax hit the screen like "the snowstorm of the century." Just when folks thought they were far from harms way, they looked at their mailbox and ate crow.

Before you knew it America went about its normal business... in a way, and the Major League play-offs started up again. And then the World Series was under way. They sure said it right: "Life would not be the same as we knew it."
It all started on a Major League baseball field. Neither God, American History, or anyone living on the planet today have ever read about or witnessed Americans so patriotic. Ultra -patriotic at that. You don't see that many American flags on the 4th of July, or Flag Day. A whole lot of folks brandished a flag for the first time in their lives.

If only they had been hit with super-duper patriotism a few a few months earlier, they could have bought a flag, or stars and stripes apparel for a cheaper price. The symbolic American bald eagle wasn't the only feathered friend sensationalizing the prompted hoopla. A whole lot of free enterprising vultures were flying around, too. And you can bet your jacked-up dollars they are not on the endangered species list.

We also discovered that tragedy does in fact bring folks together. It also gets the heat off people for awhile. Congressman Gary Condit, Rudy Guliani, and certain brutality mongering New York policemen will attest to that. Suddenly because all hell broke out and countless innocent people came up on the dirty end of the stick, others became stars as they basked in the heavenly glory of moments of fame and horror.

Nevertheless, they should all reap our utmost respect and highest regard for so valiantly rising to the occasion, like true champions of humanity for others. I am sure that no member of the New York City Fire or Police Departments had a publicity stunt brainstorm and went out of their way to make sure countless heads wore department caps for all to see. It just happened, and without question, they all deserved to be remembered and shown the utmost acknowledgment and appreciation.

But somewhere in the midst of the sensationalized ceremonies, the new threats and war developments, many people were buried under more than tons of rubble. They were overshadowed by the direction the media’s cameras turned, by the direction the journalist’s pens rolled. They are the everyday John and Jane Doe citizens who, like New York City public servants, were injured or killed. Many of these brave souls, some untrained, some uniformed, valiantly rose to the occasion and risked their lives to save others.

It would have been nice to hear one of them sing the national anthem during the World Series. It would have been truly noble if only a few people wore a cap in remembrance and in honor of them. Hopefully, someone in the near future will unveil a statue in their honor and memory. Most important, people need to start recognizing the suffering and efforts of everyone, without exception, with equal momentum. It seems that the whole root of the evil is that we too often demonstrate selective empathy for our fellow human beings. This is the root of racism, injustice, and disunity. And without a doubt, it is the motivating seed of criminality, and terrorism as well. The most effective national and global security starts with how we think of, acknowledge and treat each other ... without exception.

by Tiger Walsh

my eyes is on the horizon
waiting for the African sun to rise
shining truth dispelling lies
I spread my wings to fly
my eyes is on the horizon
watching the African sun set
my strength is from experience
to all I must connect

my eyes are on the horizon
as the moon rests in our chests
we spill our lives onto rotting pages
vomiting diseases of a colonial nation
we've been poisoned
but we glow stardust from our wombs
and our ancestors' tombs bleeding readily
to nourish the soil of our souls collective
Afric is our mother
and we are returning home for our lessons
ready for our schooling and our scolding
we are curious children always asking why
we fly half way across the world
to remember who we are
before
beofre when our breath beat to the rhythm of one
before my ancestors joined white supremacy and capitalism
into a holier than thou matrimony
detaching all of our spirits from our bodies
forcing nations of people
to either fill gravesr dig them
I am a product of 500+ years of genocide and colonization
born to profit off the enslavement
and broken backs of people of color
I made a choice
to expose
the truth of my ancestors the beautiful and the brutal
to fight
with every breath every day
with the people who are my true family
for the justice and freedom we all deserve
so I fly half way across the world
to remember who I am
today 21 years old
irish-american
high femme
queer
poethealerrevolutionary
together we weave
our stories into the fabric of resistance
creating a new generation of living heroes
with the moon in our chest and
the stars on our breath
we be watching the African sun set

by Staff Writer

Who is Poor?

Living in a hotel

Latinos,

men,

little child,

sadness in their face.

I am

I am Peruvian

I am happy being who I am

I am not poor, nor rich.

I am strong

when I see some injustices going on

I do something about it.

by Leroy Moore

The night was crisp and the red sun was about to set as the radiant moon covered the star filled sky. The crowd hovered inward, to share body heat and shelter each other. A warm, respectful and supportive family-like crowd of twenty to thirty friends, family members and supporters of Idriss Stelley and his mother gathered outside the Sony Metreon Theater on September 13th to pay respects and to remember the colorful life of Idriss. More than fifty people shed their own light on the Metreon, where Idriss was shot more than twenty times by police officers of SFPD on June 13, 2001.

The warmth and light that beamed around the circle came by many creative outlets. Some fifty candles were lit as artists, activists, family and friends called on Idriss’ spirit through Congo drumming, with spoken word from The Po'Poets of POOR Magazazine, stories and personal comments and songs. Food Not Bombs nurtured our stomachs with French bread and soup. The beautiful words gave strength to our souls. Mesha’s candle was lit as she spoke about her son and what it meant for her and other poor people to be standing at the mouth of a symbol of capitalist corporate culture. Candle after candle illuminated the altar, handmade from pictures of Idriss and people’s healing and gorgeous words and artwork.

A rainbow of supporters, youth and elders, all shared the mike to reflect on the life and the endless fight for justice of Idriss and other people with mental illness. The candlelight ceremony closed with a traditional salute to our ancestral spirits as we faced North, South, East and West. The last words came from Sam, Idriss’s soulmate, who encouraged, “Don’t give up the fight.” He also announced a hearing at the Board of Supervisors on the shootings of people with mental illness, such as Idriss Stelley.

When the crowd dispersed, I stared at the Sony Metreon Theater. A man pushed his shopping cart, heading away from the theater. The warmth left.

by JJ Colagrande/PoorNewsNetwork

It is Feb. 16 2002 and a heavy silence lingers in the air of the auditorium of the SF public library. It is a huge room filled with hundreds of seats and the weight of the silence is heavy because the room is almost empty; however, the silence is not tense, just hollow, as it waits for a life and a voice that would soon consume it.

I sit alone in the scarcly filled meeting room waiting for the conference on race and disability to begin and I start to dream. I dream about being a track and field star. Back in the day I used to run track. In my dream I’m jetting down a track, it is the track that surrounded the football field of my old junior high school in New York, the same track where I used to always lose every race I competed in. I was one of the only white boys in a class dominated by African-Americans and it was hard for me to catch up with some of the track stars at my school cause they were fast. In my dream I’m in a race and I’m running as fast as I can. In my dream I’m fueled with desire, loaded with determination, and I’m challenging every obstacle in my course. I’m leaping every hurdle, jumping as high and far as I can, and I’m about to cross the finish line victorious but I wake up before I win.

The silence of the auditorium is starting to make me uncomfortable. The conference was suppossed to start fifteen minutes ago. I look around and notice Samuel Irving sitting alone in the front row. He is a dark chocalate warrior poet, humble, calm, strong like a bomb. He has multiple scilrosis and is legally blind. He sits alone just as I do.

As an able white man I actually feel self-conscious in a room filled with disabled people of color. I feel different and I don’t like the feeling at all. I know I’m not different but I can’t help feeling that I am. I wonder how I can overcome my self-consciousness as I meditate on the uncomfortable silence in the room.

The conference at the library begins when Leroy Moore, the last minute substitute host of the event, strolls up to the microphone and gives the hollowed ghost of silence a soul. He fills the quiet air with a voice. He announces, "I have stories to tell and I won’t shut up."

Samuel Irving is soon introduced to the microphone and he steps up to recite a couple of poems. From his poem entitled Headway he said something that caused my self consciousness to evaporate like dew when the sun breaks through from the clouds. He recited "my structure is what you don’t see when you look at me."

Word.

Word up, Samuel.

The conference continues and Leroy introduces a wide variety of poets, disabled activists, and advocates of disability rights. I begin to hear these diverse voices, african- american, latino, asian, all within this community, all educated and eloquent, and I wonder why they are not being heard.

I think back to when I was a kid and how frustrated I was when adults would not take me seriously. It was like my teachers or parents did not listen to me. Like they didn’t talk to me. Sure they talked about me or through me or around me but never TO me. I had a voice, just like all those voices that filled the library hall with life, so why exactly wouldn’t anybody listen?

The conference at the public library was designed to help get a serious voice heard. Organized by the Disability Advocates of Minorties Organization, the conference presented the Breaking the Silence and Organize Campaign. The BSOC is a platform for disabled people of color. The main goal of BSOC is to build friendships and leaders through networking. The BSOC also strives to display the culture, artistic talents, and history of disabled people of color while advocating legal rights, services, and bringing to light issues that touch the disabled people community in San Francisco.

The BSOC was born because there is no platform where disabled people of color can come together to express themselves, feel empowered. It is a question of empowerment so that the disabled community can use their own abilities to facilitate change. The BSOC wants to increase public awareness about issues that face them. One such issue is unemployment. Disabled minorities have the highest unemployment rate every year.

I sit comfortably in my chair in the last row of the scarcley filled auditorium, even though I know things are crazy, hard, and just ill sometimes I’m at ease, and I listen.

If you whisper you may not be heard.

If you speak you still may not be heard.

If you yell you will be heard.

But will people listen?

At the end of an ispirational conference, Leroy Moore, when commenting on his desire to get the BSOC’s voice heard, says, "next year we want this auditorium full."

I have no trouble believing him.

by PNN Staff

The Hip-Hop Generation Can Call For Peace
by Jeff Chang

This past weekend, as we mourned the countless victims of 9/11 and built
with each other in passionate conversations on what to do next, President
George W. Bush finally and unequivocally declared war.

He ordered a call-up of 50,000 reservists—the first step towards
reinstituting the draft—while preparing Americans for a long, ground war
that could leave many innocent Afghanis dead or displaced. Reversing the
Powell doctrine to seize upon a desire for vengeance, he warned that there
may be no forseeable end to this war, and declared no specific enemy.

This does not bode well for the hip-hop generation. As STORM, the Bay Area
hip-hop activist organization says, "Increasingly, safety at home will
require justice abroad." Bush’s open-ended war could leave us increasingly
insecure, subject to more terror not less, with less justice for all in the
world.

Because of its history, the global hip-hop generation can play a crucial
moral role in the call for peace—peace on the streets where we live, and a
global peace free from terror.

At one time, others dissed our generation by saying that we were privileged,
that we had never been tested by war. [This was before Bush’s father opened
the Persian Gulf War.] The fact is that hip-hop was born under the
conditions of war. It grew and spread as a global alternative to war.

Before hip-hop, during the early 1970s, Jamaica’s bloody tribal wars
fostered a music and culture of defiance in roots, dancehall and dub reggae.
This music and culture—a safe space from the bloody gang runnings on the
street—immigrated to the Bronx—a space so devastated by deindustrialization
and governmental neglect that when Ronald Reagan visited in 1980, he
declared that it looked like London after World War II. In the Bronx, the
Universal Zulu Nation, hip-hop’s first institution and organization,
literally emerged from a peace forged between racially divided, warring
gangs.

As Reagan took office, immigration was rapidly browning the face of America.
The "culture war" was declared—a way to contain the nation’s growing
diversity. Culture warriors went after youth in their schools; they fought
multiculturalism, ethnic studies, and affirmative action. In Congress, they
sought limits on movie and music content.

Hip-hop turned out to be everything they detested—it was real,
truth-telling, unapologetic, and, worst of all, their kids loved it. Imagine
how they felt when Chuck D enlistened millions into the opposition by
rhyming, "They’ll never care for the brothers and sisters cause the country
has us up for a war."

In one sense, hip-hop won the culture war. By the end of the 80s, Public
Enemy and Spike Lee, John Singleton and N.W.A., and other brothers and
sisters had crashed the lily-white pop culture mainstream. Hip-hop became
the single most potent global youth force in a generation.

But the culture war had serious political consequences, too. Right-wingers
manufactured the conditions—moving drugs and guns into the ghetto via the
wars in Central America—for a resurgence of gang warfare. And they succeeded
in stigmatizing inner-city gangs—whose ranks, of course, were swoll with
young, poor people of color—as mindlessly, irredeemably violent and evil.

Hip-hop reveled in the young generation’s diversity. The culture warriors
taught other generations to be afraid of it. When the 90s came, they warned
of a coming wave of juvenile crime, one that would crest with the darkening
demographic surge.

Their apocalyptic predications began a dramatic shift in juvenile justice,
away from rehabilitation towards incarceration. 48 states made their
juvenile crime statutes more punitive. Dozens of cities instituted curfews,
anti-cruising laws, and sweep ordinances (which were ruled unconstitutional
by the Supreme Court but have reappeared in many cities).

Especially after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, as urgent gang truce work
forged peaces across the country, the new laws were implemented at a
feverish clip and enforced with a heavy hand. Juvenile arrests and detention
populations skyrocketed, even as juvenile violent crime rates plummeted.

Local police, the FBI, and private companies began compiling gang databases.
Every young boy or girl of color who fit the profile—sagging, baggy jeans,
athletic shoes, hip-hop swagger—became fodder for the gang databases. In
Cook County, IL, the gang database was two-thirds black. In Orange County,
CA, 92 percent of those listed in the gang database were of color. Angry
Black, Chicano and Latino parents in Denver, CO, learned that eight of every
ten young people of color in the entire city were listed.

Postmodern racial profiling was invented for the hip-hop Generation, the
most catalogued and surveillanced in history. Along with the "war on
drugs"—the only result of which has been racist sentencing and the largest
prison population in world history—what hip-hop activists called the "war on
youth" left a generation staring into a tense present and an insecure
future.

These are the reasons why thousands of hip-hop activists came out to protest
at the Republican and Democratic Conventions last year. They took courageous
stands against the massive profiling and imprisoning of a generation;
against the death penalty; for better education; and for stopping gang
violence. They linked these issues to global struggles for economic and
racial justice.

Now that President Bush has declared an open war with no clear enemy, the
global, multiracial, polycultural hip-hop generation can elevate beyond the
chant of "No justice, no peace"—a cry that, in truth, sounds much different
when uttered by Bush.

If we can understand the history of wars from Israel to Afghanistan the way
that we understand our own generation’s history, we can link what is
happening on our streets with what is happening in our world.

We can call for peace on our streets—to be free from profiling and
imprisoning, to be free from the cycle of violence that causes us to kill
each other needlessly.

And we can call for peace in our world—to be free from the kind of terror
that strikes our bodies and our hearts, to be free from the cycles of
violence driven by geopolitical posturing and economic greed that cause us
to kill each other needlessly.

Everyone deserves a better, safer future. Hip-hop has already survived many
wars. Time and again, we have learned how to react to crisis by forging a
principled peace. As we stand on the brink of the biggest war we have ever
faced, let us come together to find the most powerful, lasting peace yet.

[Reply to: cantstopwontstop@mindspring.com]

9-11 ATTACKS: STORM’S FOUR MAIN POINTS IN RESPONSE
TO THE BOMBINGS OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
& THE U.S. PENTAGON
by STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary
Movement), Bay Area activist group with deep hip-hop roots

1. Oppose terrorism, and build people’s power: We mourn the loss of life
and the great pain endured by those who have suffered as a result of these
attacks. Those of us who desire a world free from exploitation and
oppression must rely on the consciousness, capacity and confidence of
working class and oppressed people to carry out our own liberation. There
are no shortcuts in this process. Acts of terrorism against civilian
targets do not advance this process, but retard it. We oppose the use of
terror tactics - especially such tactics against civilian populations – as
destructive to the fundamental aims of the liberation movement. We must
organize our people to liberate themselves with the clarity of their own
minds, the courage of their own hearts and the work of their own hands.

2. Oppose the narrowing or elimination of the people’s democratic rights:
The U.S. government must stop using the suffering of the victims of these
attacks as an excuse to narrow and eliminate the people’s democratic rights.
We oppose any and all efforts to increase the funding and authority of U.S.
police and intelligence agencies as a "solution" to this crisis. We are
disgusted by the present attempts by the U.S. security and surveillance
establishment to use this tragedy to orchestrate a cynical power grab and to
cash in on the pain of the victims. We oppose any efforts to wipe out the
people’s fragile and precious privacy rights; we oppose any efforts to
curtail the people’s basic First Amendment rights to assemble, speak,
publish, protest and organize free from government harassment and
surveillance. We must now be extraordinarily vigilant against threats
directed against the people - not from underground cells, but from the
highest levels of government.

3. Rely on global justice to deter future attacks: The system, in the
United States and worldwide, has continually denied peaceful, "legitimate"
attempts by those seeking justice and freedom. Through its own reckless,
violent and oppressive actions against poor people and people of color, the
United States government has fueled frustration, grief and outrage here and
across the globe. Just as we mourn the pain and the loss of life stemming
>from these recent attacks on U.S. soil, we continue to mourn the pain and
the loss of life that U.S. military and economic domination inflicts on
people worldwide. Suffering under this oppression, people throughout the
world are becoming more and more desperate. Neither police repression at
home nor U.S. bombs abroad will ease this fundamental despair; to the
contrary, such actions will only continue this vicious cycle of frustration
and violence. Ordinary people in the United States can best deter future
attacks by insisting that the U.S. government abandon its oppressive role of
keeping down workers and dominating poor nations around the world.
Increasingly, safety at home will require justice abroad. Intensified
police crackdowns at home and military savagery abroad are not the answer;
the answer is justice. We must not allow the United States to respond with
bombs for Third World people and continued support for repressive
dictatorships and rapacious corporations. Instead, we demand that the US
respond to this crisis with efforts to meet the legitimate demands of the
majority of the human family.

4. Oppose racist, anti-Arab bigotry: The media is already feeding the
frenzy of anti-Arab hysteria. We cannot allow U.S. racism to blind our
minds or cloud our hearts. Stereotypes and scapegoating will not lead us
out of this crisis. Solidarity and compassion will. All people – and
especially African-Americans, Asian/Pacific-Americans, Latinas/os and Native
Americans – must stand in solidarity with our Arab and Muslim sisters and
brothers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL STORM/Standing Together to Organize a
Revolutionary Movement, 510.496.6094

*WHERE IS HIP HOP? RIGHT HERE!*

by Davey D

Over the past week, I've had a number of discussions and read a number
of emails with people pointing fingers demanding to know what the Hip
Hop community is going to do and where does the Hip Hop community
stand on the WTC Attacks? The questions have been asked in such a way
as to imply that many of us have removed ourselves from tragedy and we
have not been effected. It implies that even at this sad moment cats
are running around drinking crystal and trying to keep it 'gangsta'.
I wanted to take some time out to give props and perhaps set the
record straight.

First, many Hip Hoppers were upset, traumatized, worried and now
grieving like everyone else...When the attacks first occurred many
people were concerned about family and friends. 'We're they safe?'
'Did they witness the horror?' 'Was anyone they know missing?' This
drama was complicated by the fact that many in the Hip Hop community
were still grieving over the loss of Aaliyah who had perished less
than two weeks prior to the WTC attacks. Y'all recall seeing cats
like DMX break down? Others like Q-Tip and Damon Dash were
devastated. Candlelight vigils were being held all over the country.
Grief was in the air from coast to coast. Here in the Bay Area people
were not only dealing with that loss but also the sudden fatal car
accident that resulted in the deaths of two popular Bay Area artists.
This happened a week after Aaliyah died. The funeral for Cougnut was
scheduled the day of the attack. Cats all over the Bay had heavy
hearts. All this was being processed when the attacks occurred.

Shortly after the attacks, I saw an email circulating from my man Yoda
of the pioneering group The Crash Crew letting folks know his cousin
was missing. I'm not sure of the end results. Hopefully tragedy
didn't strike his family. Another email circulated indicating that
rap star Dana Dane who worked at the World Trade in the computer field
was also MIA. For several days people were concerned. Fortunately,
there was a happy ending. Dana Dane was found alive and well. He
wasn't at work that fateful morning. Many other artists and Hip
Hoppers found themselves on the road stranded from their home base.
If you lived in NY and was outside of NY it was damn near impossible
to get phone calls through. I know for myself I was on pins and
needles for several days as I waited anxiously to hear back from
family, friends and loved ones that were on my list who I couldn't
reach from 3000 miles away. It was mad hectic and continues to be for
many within Hip Hop.

With that being said I have to be honest when I say we have to give
major props to many in the Hip Hop community who have stepped up big
time in the aftermath of last week's terrorist attacks. First we have
Dr Dre who has dug deep into his pockets and donated 1 million dollars
to help relief efforts and rescue workers. His fat donation was done
in conjunction with a larger relief effort being put forth by Los
Angeles' Power 106 radio station. Other artists like Snoop Dogg,
Warren G, Shaq and Jay-Z who was stuck in LA for the past week have
also chipped in... Big Boy [another Hip Hopper] who hosts Power 106's
popular morning show set a goal of raising 1.6 million dollars. It's
an achievable figure if each of Power's listeners donate 1 dollar
each...

Wyclef Jean who recently lost his father a week or so ago, in a freak
accident will be participating in tonight's [Friday] TV Network
telethon 'America A Tribute to Heroes". Others like Busta Rhymes and
Run DMC are participating with the 'We Are Family' benefit project
which is being put together by producer Nile Rogers who is bringing a
number of other artists together to re-record the Sister Sledge
classic of the same name. The Wu-Tang Clan has donated 10 thousand
dollars to Hot 97s Hip Hop has a Heart Foundation. DMX and his Ruff
Ryders crew will be doing a special concert to raise money for relief
efforts.. There are dozens of others who are have been contributing
money.

P-Diddy stepped up and chipped in with his parent company Arista
Records to donate 2 million dollars to relief efforts. Other groups
like the Da Beatminerz have put on charity events like the one they
did last night [Thursday Sept 20th]. The Arsonists have pledged to
donate 50% of their album sales. FUBU clothing has donated 25
thousand bucks. Last week Michael Franti and Spearhead did not one,
but two free concerts to show support and solidarity with Arab
Americans who have suddenly become the victims of vicious hate crimes.

The day after the bombing, Bay Area Hip Hop organizations like Lets
Get Free, Youth Force Coalition, STORM, and Underground Railroad
teamed up with community based organizations and held the first of
several Anti-Arab solidarity rallies drawing more than 500 people.
They felt it was important that communities of color in Oakland come
together and make a statement. Everyone from local artists to poet
June Jordan came through and represented.

Dwayne Wiggins gathered up dozens of local poets and artists and had a
huge event at his Java House Coffeeshop where folks spoke out about
the recent attacks.. BET actually had a crew on hand to cover it.. I
have no idea when it will be shown. So many people came through that
folks wound up having to stand outside to listen.. Local artists
Company of Prophets, Underground Railroad and Loco Bloco are helping
organize a solidarity March and Rally Against Racism and this
Saturday, September 22 at Delores Park at 11 am..

Many Hip Hop writers and journalists have been stepping up and writing
compelling pieces dealing with this event from various angles. For
example, Hip Hop writer Jeff Chang has penned an incredible article
called "The Hip-Hop Generation Can Call For Peace". Author Ferai
Chideya of Popandpolitics.com has a number of articles on her website
dealing with before, during and after the event. Yvonne Bynoe of
Urban Think Tank which is a hip hop think tank and publishes Doula
Magazine, has a reflective essay about how she became 'more American'
after the attacks. Hip Hop photographer Ernie Paniccioli has also
penned some deep words in an essay which is being widely distributed.
Cedric Muhammed of Blackelectorate.com continues to drop all sorts of
knowledge on the ins and outs of Middle East politics and culture. He
clearly explains all the challenges that we as a country will be
facing.

Producer/ artist Kwame Anku and his Urban Campfire project which does
a lot of work with Chuck D has been traveling the country from
Connecticut to San Diego holding townhall meetings and providing young
people with an important forum to express their views. In a recent
radio interview he pointed out that a lot of people are being brought
to the table to speak on all these issues. What has been missing our
the voices of young people and the Hip Hop community. He noted that
whatever solutions are laid out, this audience should have some sort
of perspective out there being considered. He has been doing what he
can to ensure that happening. The Urban Campfire project will be
doing a big townhall next week during The Congressional Black Caucus.

All this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many are doing what they can
under what are some extremely stressful and mind boggling conditions.
I've witnessed Hip Hop and mixshow DJs taking time out to educate
themselves so they speak intelligently on the air about this
situation. Others have been launching projects ranging from blood
drives to on air fundraising efforts..

I thought I'd share some of this information because lots of people
who stay glued to CNN and MSNBC have arrogantly stated that they have
not heard from the Hip Hop community.... Mmmm Did they expect artists
to be sitting up there on CNN next to Chris Mathews? Did they expect
artists to be offering expert opinions alongside Katie Couric on the
Today show? There are many within Hip Hop who certainly could speak
on the issue. Many have traveled around the world. Many have
political perspectives. The question is 'did they get the call to be
invited on these shows?

I saw rappers speaking out at some of the solidarity rallies. I saw
cameras there. I saw newspapers there. I even saw some of them being
interviewed. However, when it came time to showing the final cut on
the evening news the artists were missing. It was like they weren't
even there even though they played a major part in both the organizing
and participating. Hence because of the narrow casting in news
coverage, the average person has no idea what Mos Def, Common, Talib
Kweli or KRS-One is thinking.

There are many Hip Hoppers with national name recognition who are of
Middle Eastern descent who stay abreast of international politics.
Why not get a guy like King Tech of the Wake Up Show or famed producer
Fredwreck to offer their unique perspectives on all this? There are
many artists within Hip Hop who are Muslim. Let's get their
perspective. Are they being attacked? Harassed? Accused of being
unpatriotic? Last week we had a number of local Muslims Hip Hoppers
on our airwaves talking about their take on things. It was a powerful
show in which they spoke about the true meaning of Islam. They broke
down how there were people from all races who practice Islam and they
also loaned critical insight to some of the political happenings in the
regions where were are about attack. I know our audience got a lot
out of it. Too bad we couldn't hear these same Hip Hoppers on some of
other news outlets.

We continuously make the mistake of thinking if they ain't on the
local TV show in the local paper or heard on the local radio station
then they don't exist. I always suggest to people, instead of asking
what have the rappers been doing. Ask local reporters have they
gotten a perspective and insight from the Hip Hop community. If I
can sit up here and watch TV shows go out and get opinions of actors
like Arnold Shwartznegger, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, then
certainly they can go out and seek the opinions of Chuck D, KRS-One or
even Ice Cube.

Also I'd like to add this for us to think about. Hip Hop is a lot
larger than the artists we see in videos and hear on radio. Hence
there are a number of people and organizations that people can get
insightful well understood perspectives. I'd love to turn on CNN or
even my local news show and see or hear sitting at the table a Kevin
Powell, Michael Franti, April Silver, Ferai Chideya, Jeff Chang,
Cedric Muhammed, Yvonne Bynoe, Harry Allen, Boots, Van Jones, Kwame
Anku, Cheo Choker, Raquel Lavina, Dominique Diprima, Adissa Banjoko,
Bas-1, Hodari Davis, Akiba Solomon, Will Power, Najee Ali, Kuttin'
Kandi, Christie Z Pabon, Bambaataa, Fabel, Crazy Legs etc. The list
goes on. There are lots of folks within Hip Hop who are out and about
organizing, speaking out and making things happen. Lets not act like
cats aren't around doing things. The Hip Hop community has responded
big time. From Dr Dre to P-Diddy to Company of Profits to Michael
Franti. Hip Hoppers have rose to the occasion. Lets make no
mistake. And the Hip Hop community does not need to be subjected to
some sort 'patriotic' litmus test.

Lastly let me say this.. There are dozens of Hip Hop radio shows and
publications all over the country. I would certainly hope our
'leaders' take advantage and use those mediums to reach out to that
large audience. I know for myself, my very popular Hip Hop shows have
been blessed with lots of insightful, heartfelt discussions.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee blessed our airwaves this past weekend as
did Boots of The Coup. Calls are out to Reverend Al Sharpton,
Reverend Jesse Jackson and Cornel West to name a few. The doors are
open and the opportunity is there for them to speak. Whether or not
they do so is on them at this time. I would encourage such leaders to
speak directly to our audience and provide the insight and expertise
they have worked so hard to achieve. To not do so is to widen the
communication gap and leave all of us scratching our heads asking
'Whats up"?

So where is Hip Hop and What has Hip Hop been doing? Hip Hop is
right here alongside you doing their part and trying to deal with what
was once seen as unimaginable. Now Hip Hoppers have to deal with not
only their grief, but also the the prospect of war that will change
their world forever and certainly involve them. It's a lot to
shoulder, but I'm certain we will do the right thing.

THE WTC ATTACKS

by Ernie Paniccioli

First, before anything keep in mind the loss of life pain and
suffering of the victims and the survivors. The impact of this day
will be felt for generations. No religion, political party, belief
structure, cause or grudge can justify or condone this beast like act.
Our lives will not be the same in America or any other place in the
world. The financial loss alone will be felt even in the poorest
shantytown in the Third World. Anywhere else in this world especially
Japan, the Presidents, and CEO s of the hijacked airlines would have
been on TV apologizing and offering to resign for allowing not one,
but possibly five planes to be hijacked. To my knowledge, this has
not yet happened.

A sad coincidence or irony is the airlines involved were American and
United and now every minute we hear the call for a United America.
Were the hijackers trying to tell us something like using 9-11 (911)
as the day to commit this crime? Many folks slept on prophecy and
when what they though was the millennium had passed they snickered at
scripture and prophecy. If the millennium is the celebration of the
2000th birthday of Christ, then it must be celebrated in 2001. Does
Revelation 18 refer to the World Trade Center; I for one suggest it
does and further it talks of New York City as well. We must now go
from the spiritual to the political and ask what does the future hold
for our youth and the so-called Hip-Hop generation. Try these on for
size to see who benefited from this crime against humanity.

(1) Forced induction into the military.

(2) A vast erosion of civil rights and civil liberties.

(3) Possible Martial Law.

(4) Widespread layoffs and financial hardships including a stand still
of the airline, hotel and tourism industries.

(5) Massive deportation of thousands of undocumented aliens who have
committed no crime being poor, hungry and having the desire to work
and feed their families.

(6) Racial and ethnic profiling, both by the government and misguided
"patriotic Americans".

Experience has taught me nothing happens in a vacuum, the week before
the horror America, Zionism and Israel were being skewered at the
Conference On Racism, America was being asked to pay reparations which
would amount to billions of dollars. All signs and the stock market
indicated America was headed into a recession and the tensions in the
Middle East were at the boiling point Americans were divided over
whether or not we had witnessed a Coup d etat and a stolen
presidential election. There are voices even now that suggest this
horror might be the second phase of that Coup d etat or another phase
of the activities of the establishment of The New world Order.

We must never feed into the Zealot mind set. Never believe as so many
do that we alone are the chosen people, that our religion our God is
the only valid form of worship. That our way is the only way or that
God has put you on this Earth to shame or civilize the heathens.
Fundamentalism, zealotry and racial bigotry will create wars and
hatred for generations to come. The worst enemies of peace on this
planet are the zealots and fundamentalists, they can be found in every
religion. They all worship some musty book and not the creator it is
supposed to represent. They all feel they are the chosen of God, that
they are somehow wiser, more enlightened more sacred, more holy, than
other people who share the Earth. They all have scapegoats, the
filthy Jews, the dirty Arabs, the dumb niggers, those honkies, those
stinking dot-heads, those porch monkies, etc., etc., etc. Remember
the words of Haile Selassie as sung by Bob Marley "Until the
philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is
discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war ."

Lets analyze this Osama bin Laden scenario carefully, he is an avowed
enemy and hater of America, and if he were to admit or boast about
having committed this horror he would become the terrorist "super
hero" and poster boy. If he did it, one of the most heinous act of
modern history why would he not take credit for it? A great rule of
thumb is that whenever anything important happens turn on the VCR and
record every news flash. I taped about 24 hours of events that
happened too fast to be filtered or censored. One amazing item I
"caught on tape" was "someone called the Secret Service on Air Force
One, had their phone numbers and secret codes and said we re coming
for you now" while Bush was in the air fleeing Washington. Either
these assassins had "inside" help every step of the way or else all
the money we have poured into defense and security has been wasted,
stolen or misused. If "angry, red blooded Americans" are seeking
justice by killing and beating up Arabs, Muslims and other "Middle
Eastern" types did they do the same when the Oklahoma City bomber was
revealed to be a blonde haired, blue eyed good ol boy ?

On a more personal note I visited the fantastic restaurant Windows On
The World at the top of the World Trade Center for my daughters
birthday just a couple of weeks before the explosions and felt sick
with dread, told my family we ve got to split and saw dead people
dancing in the club. I have been in those building hundreds of times
and never before experienced anything like that premonition. My
daughter saw the plane crash into the second tower and the buildings
crumble from her window at work.

Lastly I suggest those of you who read to please check out "Rule By
Secrecy" by Jim Marrs and to check out www.rense.com. These may help
you explore other insights into what happened and where we may be
heading in the next few weeks and months. My heart aches and I
suggest this is a powerful time for unity as human beings on this
Earth. We need reason, calm, hope and prayer to get through this
together. This is a good time to be kind and gentle to folks, you
don t know if the person next to you lost a love one, a friend or
their job or is just in shock or denial.

Peace Ernie Paniccioli

Send comments, questions and concerns to

mailto:misterdaveyd@aol.com

mailto:mrdaveyd@aol.com

The FNV Newsletter

written by Davey D

http://www.daveyd.com

http://www.rapstation.com

c 2001 All Rights Reserved

by Joe B.

I’m in Sudafed-non-aspirin haze as a gray, light to heavy drizzle began falling.

How would I know in a drug induced haze? I’m just getting over the flu.

I took those medicines at 6am with water while washing down said legally bought drugs.

Its Thursday, March, 7, 2002 my brain has gone blank... Oh yeah, The “2002 San Francisco Homeless Summit will begin at 8:15 a.m. in the Herbst Theater

Veterans Building 401 Van Ness Avenue.

Mrs. A. Fay, Lisa, and I meet up at POOR’s 2nd. Floor.

While waiting falling in and out of sleep the drizzle became louder and the sky from POOR’s squared-off picture window are grayer, darker, nearly night.

Unfortunately We, that is Fay, Junebug, Lisa and I arrived in this pandemonium in the Herbst Theater ruining my I-can-go-home ‘n’ sleep, visit girlfriend in Berkeley-staying undercover all-day because-of-rain daydream; it tingles and stimulates and is the only reason I like heavy rain or thunder showers.

Tiny’s gray car is hard to see in this monochrome gray environment.

At 8:27 I’m ‘thinkin we’re late so “The ‘PO Poets may not have time to do their stuff which means no Joe “Slam Bio” wrong.

Everyone’s slightly late it this important event Supervisor Chris Daly gently rushed us into “The Green Room” [The faded green carpet seems to be why its named though green isn’t the exclusive color] for our on stage presentation.

Leroy Moore, of (DAMO) [Disability Advocates Of Minority Organization].
With A. Fay, myself, Junebug, Poet/Low Income Housing Advocate, Tiny, half of the Co-Editor’s of POOR Magazine, Mari, on Youth Commissioner beginning around 1996 or 7 by Mayor Willie Brown as a way of having young people’s ideas and coordinate problems and solutions that young people face in society today.

I dislike being on stage, in public but once out there you don’t want to let others down and you do your best while being absolutely terrified.

I spotted Mr. James Tracy of “Right To A Roof” Its everyone is confused as their rushed this way or that, but confusion as my normal condition is like a drunk walking straight during an earthquake.

A woman with a stroller and child is having trouble entering the building because of the security guard which is a bad sign for a summit for poor folks and they are supposedly invited.

It might be a minor mishap or an indication that maybe poor folks are not gonna be help and this is another political publicity stunt.

Now safely seated at a POOR table to smooze, inform, and sell our wares we’ve created see George Smith, Amos Brown, Tom Ammiano, and Gavin Newsom some other familiar faces flitted by but their names escape me.

At 10:46 am. The drugs are beginning to ware off as the stuffy, congested throat fogged head and lowered reaction time turns crowds and individuals into movie-like slow mo freeze framed images and my bladder began asking why I drank some tea and water earlier in the morning.

Later Isabel arrived her face clouded and fuzzed at the edges her navel's what I my eyes see telescoped there “An outtie” nice navel I thought absently before looking at her face or may have said it aloud still in a half sleep/awake stupor.

Answering questions, collecting moneys, looking for change, explaining POOR’s mission, nodding off slightly missing time doesn’t feel good plus the one person-table works for short periods but not when.

Lunch is on the second floor in yet another green room. Time expands so does my bladder.

I had to go bad yet stay to watch over money jar and salable items.

Luckily a flu slows everything down, after placing most magazines, handbooks, flyers, and taking money jar with me I go the restroom, empty sun yellow liquid which means I need I’m dehydrated and must drink more water.

I impulsively decide to grab a lunch of my own on the second floor.

Supervisor, Chris Daly is outside and a suited man tells me where the room is.

Inside lots or camera’s, reporters, and people sitting chairs or pews and next to me a table full of white plastic bags.

“Is that a donation for us?” a photographer jokes.
“Just our own”

I say grabbing a white bag, exiting quickly to the elevator.

Walking back to the table slowly until I’m once again sitting still feeling the slow motion effects the flu.

Waiting for my nosebleed to signal an end to my illness.

I continue selling what items I can as the Homeless Summit continues.

While eating lunch I legally re-drugged myself with Sudafed and non aspirin; I’ve forgotten if you take those medications separate or together - thinking “oh-well I take them together as I eat a tuna fish sandwich and wash it down with a strawberry-kiwi soda.

It’s only then I thought “You’re not suppose to mix medcations together oh-well.

I began nodding off, missing gaps in time, going the bathroom, and suddenly talking to Lisa, Mari, Junebug, and Isabell unless the latter is a waking dream.

Time slowed, quickened, there is a heated discussion of John John Whane Bobbit, Lorraina Bobbit, partial castration, and a porn career, also Vagina Monologues, and being hit a lot for saying the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong person.

Soon it was nearly time and I gathered what it needed before leaving the building.

The whole day seemed like a floating gossamer wing with nothing attached.

I hope poor folks, their advocates, reporters and politico’s get the message that improved, better, higher 'tech skills, education, and alternative work situations are possible and feasible.

Low-income housing, is not Affordable Housing and the Minimum Wage should always be continually Cost-Of-Living Adjusted so alternative ways of work is no longer locked into one mindset.

As soon as I get this stuff safely at POOR’s office I’m going home that is if I don’t end up sleeping in Local 6’s Union Hall tonight which is looking better and better to me.

Joseph Bolden/Poor Magazine
Staff Writer

by Staff Writer

September 14, 2001

Dear " ",

I decided to take you up on your suggestion that I put some of the
opinions I expressed at last night's meeting on paper. I am by no
means an authority on military or foreign affairs and these are just
my personal opinions, but for what they're worth, here are some notes.

I believe the Sept. 11 attacks are ushering in a major rightwing
offensive, both global and national. It is likely to be sustained for
some time and become a historical watershed. The rightwing of the
ruling class and its ultra-right allies could not have asked for a
better opportunity to aggressively move to reshape the world in their
image. In the absence of a major countervailing force, they have
serious grounds to feel that they will be successful. Appealing to
the American psyche, which sees its relatively peaceful surroundings
as a birthright (when it is really a national privilege), the
rightwing seeks to capture the moral high ground, whipping up
patriotism and "anti-terrorist" fervor. Wielding its superior
military and financial strength, Washington will seek to rally its
First World allies into a world "anti-terrorism campaign," bring its
erstwhile and vacillating allies into line, and destroy or mortally
cripple its enemies, especially in the Middle East and South Asia.

In some ways, this is reminiscent of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
But this time there is no socialist camp, no equivalent revolutionary
national liberation movements, and little domestic left opposition.
This means the ruling class has much greater maneuverability. They
can exert powerful military force abroad when necessary; and sugar
coat the undermining of democratic rights at home under the notion of
national consensus and the defense of democracy and freedom.

Although progressives have been thrown deeply on the defensive, there
are also openings to be part of the public discussion, if we are bold
as well as very careful. We must be bold in building extremely broad
coalitions, bold in attempting to enter the biggest media and
political platforms. If we craft our messages correctly, we have many
allies, and we should aggressively pursue working with them. We
should not self-isolate. Peace, international solidarity, religious,
anti-globalization, student, and civil rights groups should be
approached. We should also use this opportunity to get labor,
women's, anti-racist, and community organizations that tend to eschew
international issues to get involved. This new situation will affect
everyone to the core. We should actively build broad coalitions, not
be content to hang on the left, hold "small but militant
demonstrations" and expect others to come to us. We should try to get
to the forefront of the fight for peace and basic democratic rights,
spearhead largescale education campaigns, and get government bodies
on record for peace and against unwarranted racist attacks on Arabs
and South Asians.

But we must be extremely careful about our public messages (and our
internal rhetoric), lest we isolate ourselves and even make ourselves
vulnerable to physical attack. We need to demonstratively express
deep grieving over the death, destruction, and loss of security felt
by most Americans. Most of us genuinely feel this, but sometimes we
do not express it properly. Almost everyone in the country knows
someone that was somehow directly affected by the attacks, and all of
us know in our hearts that life will never be as safe as it once
seemed. Symbolism and emotions tend to run higher than rationality at
times like this, and if we do not understand this, it will be
difficult to get a hearing on other issues.

We need to avoid leftwing rhetoric and revolutionary posturing, be
concrete and address actual issues on the public agenda and not make
premature anticipations or apocalyptic predictions. Internally we
need to try to see as far ahead as possible and try to go deep
analytically in order to be as prepared as possible, but externally
we need to speak to facts on the ground, avoid concepts or images
that are adamantly rejected by even peace loving people, and avoid
prematurely polarizing with potential allies. All this while still
drawing firm lines against the right.

I believe, at this time, we have two main entryways into the broad
public discussion. By far the most important is by addressing the
issue of why this attack happened and how to respond. Even the
mainstream media is increasingly addressing this question, in its own
ways. I believe our main message should be that U.S. life will become
increasingly insecure and dangerous unless this country improves its
international behavior. In the era of globalization, peace at home is
linked to peace abroad. And increased insecurity would likely result
in lost civil liberties. We need to oppose a precipitous response by
the government to the September 11 attacks and urge restraint. We can
no longer allow our government to make war on others withou expecting retaliation, whether one thinks that retaliation is fair or
not. Peace and freedom are increasingly globalized, or not. We need
to oppose U.S. isolationism and aggression. Our loss of life should
lead not to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but to join
others who have experienced war in the aspiration for peace.

In taking on these issues, we should studiously avoid leftwing
shorthands like "chickens come home to roost" (which will be read as
a justification for the mass deaths of innocent people) and "no
justice, no peace" (which will be read as a justification for further
attacks). Peace, No Violence, etc. are much more directly to the
point. What we are talking about is a new kind of peace movement.

The second main entry way is through opposing attacks on Arabs and
South Asians in the U.S. Such attacks are already underway, and are
even being widely addressed by political leaders, civil rights
groups, and the mainstream media. Again, building broad coalitions
and using popular language is key. We should appeal for peace,
fairness, and oppose violent racial stereotyping. I actually think
that the more farsighted sections of the ruling class will want to
stem these attacks so that their broader offensive does not lose the
moral high ground. Minimally, they must make a nod in this direction.
We should take full advantage of this opening.

While responding immediately to these huge events, we also need to
embark on deep thinking about the implications for the future.
Apparently, war, like capital and labor, has now been globalized. We
are into war without borders. New and readily available technology
means that very small groups, even individuals, can wreak mass
destruction. The U.S. may be relatively invulnerable to direct
assault, but it is eminently vulnerable to attack by small groups.
And it has aggressively alienated millions of people, at home and
abroad, some of whom will surely take advantage of the new means at
their disposal. Israel is making the assassination of opposing
political leaders a central part of its war strategy-others are
likely to respond in kind.

This is not an altogether new situation. Most of us have known this
for some time and expected some kind of significant attacks within
the U.S. But now the genie is out of the bottle-and in a most
spectacular fashion. It is no longer theoretical. What are the
implications of this new situation for our attitude and strategies
towards war and peace, how do we distinguish between the government's
overbroad definition of terrorism and actual terrorism? How will the
ruling class and public react and what platform can we stand on? What
about the copy cat lunatic fringe and ultra-right fanatics who until
now has confined themselves to comparatively small-scale shootings
(except for Oklahoma City)? How do we break the fragmentation,
disorganization and isolation of the left under these harsh
conditions?

Finally, we should all be prepared for events to move fast. In
particular, when the U.S. mounts its counterattacks (which I believe
is likely to eventually include the murder of Saddam Hussein), a wave
of jingoism (and racism) is likely to sweep the country. We need to
work hard ahead of this wave, prepare to weather it without getting
too terribly isolated, and smartly fight our way through it. We're in
for hard times, and our allies abroad even more so. We will all be
struggling to find our bearings. We will make mistakes. Let's be
tolerant of each other, keep our eyes on the real enemies, and seek
clarity and unity. Let's think big and get organized. Maybe we can
build something for the long run.

I hope this is helpful to you in some way. Feel free to share it with
others if you deem it useful.

In peace and solidarity,
Bob Wing
Editor of Colorlines

by Joe B.

To all Editor’s, Publisher’s, Literary Agents, and hard working industry people.

I, Joseph Bolden as a POOR Magazine’s columnist appreciate pos or neg comments on my work on PM’s-website.

If time permits to read and respond by email or snail me.
Please Do At.

askjoe@poormagazine.org or snail

P.O. Box #645 1230 Market St.

San Francisco, CA. 94102-4801
I’ve no phone but working on it.

Whatever help you can to a struggling scribbler is priceless.

Thank You for reading my works.

Life Extension APPROPRIATE AGED IMMORTALITYor Age Appropriate Immortality is the more correct wording.

What does that mean?

Unlike Kate Wilhelm’s "Welcome Chaos" or John
Wyndham’s
"The Trouble With Lichen" or other stories about humanity gaining immortality before they're able to deal with its ramifications is a scary concept yet its logical that our society will someday face this fictionalized scenario.

In ancient Rome and 18 or 24 or more was the limit any older like 34 or 40 and people were deemed ancient.

No wonder Alexander The Great did so much before he turned 35, his life span was so short and he had to pack so much in a short life.

To be 10, 15, or younger forever or 90 years old permanently is equally just as bad.

But if humans learned expertly to fine-tune brain, hormonal, metabolism, and biological from pre-birth adapting the pre-embryo to where minute changes so at various ages at each stage of life they become stronger, healthier, resistant to most illnesses, regenerate quicker from cuts scrapes, even broken bones that heal without scars.

For older adults their aging could be made to be slowed until their bodies are slowly replaced with newer improved flesh and metal parts.

Possibly the Electro-chemical memory residing in the brain was transferred to an exact though new and improved twin or clone of the original body upgraded from the molecular level.

What I am saying is if we became more precise in improving our bodies and brains we could have age stops from 22 to 90 or older but biologically slowed aging will make chronological aging meaningless.

With Age Appropriate Immortality from birth to grave, reversed, slowed, or stopped age becomes irreverent in that and 50 or 90 year old looking and feeling decades younger would be like looking at someone 25 or 35.

For example: a 170 year stunner of a woman could be throbbing the cradle with some 50 year old youth, to her a mere child.

Their ages would mean nothing, a quaint, old fashioned chronological tradition.

Age Appropriate Immortality should be life extensions new frontier before full-blown immortality arrives with all its dread and worries about what death means when people choose to live long as they choose.

Its just a few ideas to kick around on life, death, living, dying, and the possible avoiding of the long gray scythe of Grim reapers blade.

What do you budding Immoralists, Cryonicists, Eternals, and Neptune Society, and Death With Dignity folks think about it?

Talk among yourselves, form new political parties based on Life Extended to Immortal and Right To Die.

I can only be a conduit, a wilderness voice hoping other people are thinking similar or more advanced than I; be safe, live long, folks… Bye.

by Vlad Pogorelov

I stayed up all night before the eviction, listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony - “Ta-da-da!....” The sheriffs were supposed to come at 6 am. By 8 am I said to myself: “Fuck it”, and went to sleep. I woke up in a couple of hours, fixed myself a breakfast, had two cups of coffee. It was promising to be another decent day. I unlocked the gate and went outside.

There were 3 cars sitting in front of the house. A big sport utility vehicle, a locksmith’s van and a smaller car. A sport utility was occupied by a Filipino couple. The locksmith was in his van. When I walked out into the front stairs they all stared at me and stopped talking. There was something in their eyes, in their expressions which reminded me of vultures waiting for the dying animal to expire.

I came up to the SUV and asked the man if he was a landlord. He confirmed that. “Fuck you”, I said, “you gonna make me homeless. Fuck you”.

Then the locksmith came and asked me for the key. “Fuck you both”, I said and went back to the house.

My roommate Rob started to fantasize: “If sheriffs don’t come today then maybe they won’t at all, at least not before Thanksgiving...”
Poor Rob. He has been living in this little house for almost seven years. A long time , long enough to fill almost every square inch of it with hundreds, and hundreds of pieces of junk he found on the street -— TV’s, old record players, broken computers...you name it. And now he was about to loose his treasures. I saw this incredible sadness in his eyes. Just yesterday, upon learning about the inevitability of the eviction he threatened to commit suicide., and sheriffs department sent him to a mental hospital. They let him out ,however, so they can evict him properly.

“Maybe I can talk them out of it”, I told him. I went outside and locked the gate behind me. There was some commotion on the block — a few white official looking cars rolled in. Half a dozen of sheriffs with guns came out and joined the vultures. They all looked tense.

“What are you doing here?”, they asked me.

“I am here to watch you”, I told them.

“Do you live here?”. One of them pointed at the house.

“I was”, I told them,” until today”.

“Give us the key”, they demanded.

“I paid a dollar for my key. Have you got a dollar?”

None of them had a dollar. Greedy bastards. Or maybe they wanted to see the locksmith in action. Who knows...

A smooth voiced sheriff who called himself supervisor got on the phone and called Rob. “Come out Rob. We are not going to hurt you. We just want to do this eviction. It’s lunch time. The boys are hungry”, he said while looking at his troops.

“Come out with your hands up”, I joked.

The supervisor gave me a dirty look. “I would advise you to stay away”, he told me.

“Don’t do it Rob”, I screamed.

They negotiated with Rob for about half hour. Then I saw him emerging behind the gate. The sheriffs moved against the door. Skinny, little Rob—a strange Jewish guy who made his living by collecting junk—against 6 well fed, fat sheriffs with guns. He did not stand a chance. Suddenly, he became even smaller, as if he shrunk suddenly. He unlocked the gate. The sheriffs rushed in. “You have five minutes to get your papers, medications, etc. We will supervise you while you doing this.”

I went into my room and grabbed a female mannequin and a few books. I came out carrying the mannequin in my arms as I would carry a wounded comrade. “This guy is crazy”, somebody said. Then I saw Rob coming out of the house. He had a scarred cat in his arms. The cat really hated to be evicted. The sheriffs stood there in a circle, laughing. Fat, ugly bastards who are just doing their job and will go back to their families just like the Nazis did after torturing Jews at the camps.

Me and Rob shook hands. “Where would you go?”, I asked him.

“I don’t know”

“And you...?”

“I have no idea. Probably will sleep in my car”.

The sun just came out from behind the clouds. “A beautiful day to start a new life as a homeless person”, I thought as I was leaving a little white house in Potrero Hill— my home for the past 4 month.

Part Two

It’s only a few weeks later and I am already feeling like it was a few light years ago. My lifestyle has completely changed since I became an individual without address. For the first three weeks I had to sleep in my car, and later, thanks to a friend, I was able to move into a broken motorhome parked on a dead end street by the San Francisco Bay. Sometimes, I wonder if I am at a “dead end” myself. I was literally driven almost into the water and there is nowhere else to go but out of town.

Bad news for Rob—it is his last day to remove his belongings from “our house” as he calls it. And then almost immediately he would correct himself: ”Our former house”. It seems that he just can’t get over being evicted. Last night he started discussion about Sylvia Plath and her suicide. “I was thinking a lot about this subject”, Rob told me.

“You know Rob, I have a propane leak in my motorhome. You can smell it a block away. So, if you are contemplating to follow Sylvia—welcome to my place.” He only laughs: “I am too old for this kind of solution. After all I am almost 50. And Sylvia was this adolescent girl who never grew up.”

“It’s never to late Rob”, I am telling him while watching his reaction. But he only shook his head and doesn’t say much.

We drove to “our house” in Rob’s beat up van and started loading it in somewhat chaotic manner trying to save Rob’s treasures but he still had to loose almost ninety percent of his possessions after the deadline. About 4pm we decided to get some food and “recharge our batteries” for the final push. I volunteered to make a run to the local store and get us sandwiches. It took me about fifteen minutes. On my way back to the house I noticed that something was very wrong over there, There was a police car sitting outside the house and Rob was in the back seat of a cruiser, looking like a caged rabbit waiting to be used for some bizarre scientific experiment. I noticed two policemen and the landlords drugging a heavy garage door and trying to put it back on hinges. (We had to take the door off the hinges in order to move out some large objects.) After a collective of “real estate and law enforcement forces” finally succeeded in putting the door back in place they let Rob out. “You have thirty minutes to clear out”, the cops told Rob.
“We’ll check on you soon. If you are still here with your stuff on the sidewalk then you gonna loose it to the Street Cleaning Department.”

“You don’t have to do that”, he replied. “The landlord will call them for you.”

I saw landlords walking back towards their SUV and smiling with relief. Finally, they succeeded in shutting the doors of the house for good.

I helped Rob to load the remaining belongings into the van. “Why did they detained you?”, I asked him.

“They said, I was trespassing.”

“But you were not! You had until 5 pm. They cheated you of almost an hour, man!”

“They sure did. But I don’t feel like fighting anymore. I am about to give up and move far away from this nightmare, my friend. Maybe, even to the countryside...you see I am fed up with this city. This city is being sold to the highest bidder on a daily basis and I don’t want to be a part of this Sodom anymore. Count me out. I quit.” Rob was sounding tired and depressed.
“You see, I just was inside the house packing my stuff”, he continued,” and then the cops came and ordered me to come out immediately. Well, I invited them to come inside since I wasn’t trespassing but they only got angry and drugged me out of the house, searched me and took away my “Leatherman” tool.”

“Did you get it back?”

“No. But I am about to call Bayview Police Station and ask for it”. He got on the phone and called the police station. “...what do you mean, you don’t know who you send to harass people?...you mean you don’t keep records of which car was dispatched?...”, I overheard the pieces of conversation. “It is hopeless”, Rob conceded. “They told me, they have no idea who these policemen were.”

We sat on the curb for sometime, not talking much, contemplating our dim future. It was getting dark. We both looked at the house again as if saying last “Good bye” to the ordeal of the last two months, got in to the heavily loaded van and drove away towards even greater uncertainty.

by Ken Moshesh

THE TWO MILLIONTH PERSON
WAS INCARCERATED
THIS BLACK HISTORY MONTH,
WHICH IS SO MANY MORE
THAN COMPARABLE SOCIETIES...
AND HOMELESSNESS,
INCLUDING SO MANY WAR VETERANS
AND INCREASING NUMBERS OF
FAMILIES AND JOB HOLDERS,
IS RISING
IN APPARENT INVERSE SOCIAL PROPORTION
TO THE NATIONAL ECONOMY
WHICH IS SOARING TO RECORD HEIGHTS
PRAYTHEE
WHITHER "DOST" THE EAGLE FLY?

by Husayn Sayfuddiyn

To the poor - a

mobile home

has new meaning

Life’s Blood on Wheels

Fancier than the

shopping carts

of the ne’er do wells

until SFPD stopped me

as unlicensed to live

illegal necessities

unwanted baggage

to Tow Away

and I saw in his steel eyes

that I was next

on the Tow Away list.

by Staff Writer

To you, Mr. Stelley

a doomed young San Franciscan

Who is now one of my ancestors from Life

Taken down in your Prime

Before you could make your woman your wife.

Before you could procreate a child

Graduate from college

who had made no comittment to create a Crime.

To you who are now a memory

A bad boy memory to the coppers

who shot you down

without a cold-bloodied frown.

Who emptied their holsters

without a breath of hesitation.

Shot down, Like the animals you loved.

But you were her sacred Son.

I Salute You! Mr. Stelley

-Ms. A Faye

by NJ WOLLMAN

We are continuing our battle to get the TIAA-CREF (TC) higher education
pension system to do "positive investing" with a small portion of its
socially responsible "Social Choice Account" (SCA). It can mean up to $300
million going toward such things as loans for low-income area housing and
business start-ups, and venture capital for companies championing a new
socially/environmentally responsible product. Companies thus supported can
become stronger models for other new companies and the very prominent TC
could become a model for other institutional investors. A survey taken by
T-C revealed that 81% of SCA participants want this proactive, positive
approach for the fund.

TC does token low-income housing investment in a different fund of theirs,
and are using that as an excuse for not doing so in the SCA. But, first of
all, the Social Investment Forum (trade association) recommends putting 1%
of a fund's assets in such investment, while the Methodist pension fund
puts in 3-5%. TC's investment in low-income housing is pitifully below such
levels and you might ask them why. And there is no reason they can't do
such investing in the SCA, where it certainly belongs. Additionally, there
are other things we propose that are not being done at all in any of their
funds. A number of socially responsible funds are already doing what we
suggest, so why can't TIAA-CREF. ASK THEM WHY THEY REFUSE TO CONTACT THOSE
IN THE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT FIELD WHO HAVE VOLUNTEERED TO TALK
TO THEM..

Our original effort to get the SCA started took five years, so, after four
years, "We have just begun to fight." We have a long list of prominent
group/individual endorsers and media stories keep coming--Wall Street
Journal, L.A. Times, etc.. But with a group as large as TC ($300 billion in
assets; 2 million participants, etc.), the inertia and paternalism is
strong. We started a tactic that takes a few minutes weekly-- and your
involvement could really help. THANKS, Neil (mark your calendar or ask if
you want brief bi-weekly campaign updates and reminders about
calls--njwollman@manchester.edu)

PLEASE TAKE THREE MINUTES A WEEK TO LEND YOUR VOICE in support of the
proposal for "Positive Investing" for the Social Choice Account: (a)
positive screening looking for more socially responsible companies, such as
those with good labor practices (b) low-income area housing and business
startups, and (c) venture capital for companies championing a new
socially/environmentally responsible product. And ask them to dramatically
increase investment in low-income housing in their TIAA Account, where they
now do a token amount out of $100 billion.

Call John Biggs, their CEO, at.1-800-TIA-CREF (842-2733), ext. 4280.; or
212-490-9000. You'll likely have to leave a message with his secretary, but
do ask for a response if you can. We are creating a weekly "presence" that
will continually remind him of our concerns! And email Mr. Biggs, as well,
or instead of, if you can't make a call:(WWW.TIAA-CREF.ORG, then click
"Contact TIAA-CREF", then "General Information")

If you are interested in getting further involved in the effort, we do
everything from gather signatures for petitions, to "visiting" TC trustees
around the country, to demonstrating at TC headquarters in NYC or at their
local offices around the country. Contact us if you want to get further
involved at your local level or in national strategizing and organizing
(219-982-5346).

--more info:
http://ARES.manchester.edu/department/PeaceStudies/njw/disclaim.html
-PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

by Chance Martin

As part of the latest wave of human rights abuses directed at poor and
homeless people in San Francisco, Food Not Bombs(FNB) had their 5:30 food servingto homeless people in UN Plaza disrupted by San Francisco Police Department.

This is following the midnight removal of the plaza's benches Saturday,
April 28th in supposed "official reaction" to an investigative report on the
Hearst Corporation's KRON that aired on the previous evening's news. The
KRON newscast was slanted to portray all of UN Plaza's homeless residents as
violent drug addicts.

Subsequent FOIA requests made by the the Coalition on Homelessness revealed
that Mayor Willie Brown's office has been planning the benches' removal
since October, 2000 -- in callous and cynical disregard of the valid needs
and reasonable accommodations for disabled and senior citizens, homeless or
not.

FNB'ers at risk of arrest relocated the serving across Market St. from the
plaza, regrouped, then decided collectively to return to their regular
serving spot in the plaza. Two cops on bikes advised FNBers that they were
in violation of a court order and would be arrested if they did not stop
serving. They did not stop serving and the cops called it in.

Lt. McDonough, SFPD arrived shortly with court order in hand and simply
pointed and arbitrarily said, "you're arrested" to FNB servers and
organizers present. Soon after there were at least 8 police cars, a police
van, and 6 more bicycle cops.

A total of four FNBers were cited, two were cited and released, and two weretaken into custody for lack of proper identification.

FOOD NOT BOMBS NEEDS OUR SUPPORT!!!

THE NEXT SCHEDULED SERVING IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 9TH 2001 AT 5:30PM.
There Will be a press conference at 5:00pm

BE THERE! BRING A CAMERA! BRING A RECORDER! BRING A FEW FRIENDS!!!

EVERYONE TAKE NOTES, NAMES, BADGE AND VEHICLE NUMBERS!!!!

¡¡¡¡BE CREATIVE!!!!

It's time to end human rights abuses in the United States.

It's time to end ONGOING human rights abuses within spitting distance of a
monument to the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING...