by by POOR staff

As part of our Media Studies Program at POOR, we provide extensive media and poverty training for visiting students and professional journalists. One such visitor is Jean McGeorge from New Zealand, who wrote to us to explain why she was interested in visiting POOR magazine. After she had visited our Community Newsroom, our Media Studies interns interviewed her to gain an understanding of her work and her dilemma with mainstream media coverage of poor communities in New Zealand.

Jean first contacted POOR via e-mail:

"Hello, my name is Jean McGeorge and I am a journalist from New Zealand. I became really interested in the media portrayal of poverty while working as reporter on a community newspaper in one of New Zealand's poorest areas. I got sick of reading headlines (in other papers of course) like 'Welcome to the Underworld' and 'Otara as Bad as We Thought.'

I am now putting together a proposal for a research grant to put together guidelines to help improve mainstream media coverage of poverty and poverty-related issues in my country.

The grant I'm applying for allows for travel to go to media organisations overseas that could provide useful models.

I would love the opportunity to come and spend some time observing at Poor Magazine and to talk with you about ways in which these issues can be reframed and addressed better in New Zealand.

If I got the grant, I would probably be traveling in February or March next year and imagine I would need to spend a week or two with you.

Please get back to me, let me know what you think and I can tell you more about New Zealand and the work I would like to do."

In further correspondence, Jean discussed the multi-cultural, and often poor, communities of New Zealand:

"South Auckland, where I worked, has a reasonably large Maori population, and also a high immigrant population. There is a large Pacific Island population (Samoan and Tongan communities) and smaller communities of Indians, Asians and the country's refugee resettlement programme is based here."

POOR asked Jean, "What, if any, writing groups are in existence with low income folks in New Zealand?"

She replied, "Pretty much none, I'm afraid. The only thing I have found so far is a newspaper in Wellington, our capital, called the City Voice. This uses a large volunteer staff and focuses on issues affecting inner-city people. It also practices advocacy journalism and is run as a collective.

Unfortunately, New Zealand is so small ( 3.5 million people) there is not the market for many niche publications, and most of the smaller community papers which could serve this function have been bought up by the two large multi-national publishing companies operating in New Zealand. Plus, the main media writes ABOUT, very seldom FOR, low-income communities."

An Interview with Jean McGeorge

by Vlad Pogorelov

I remember when, still a romantic young man, I watched the Australian film ìCrocodile Dundeeî a number of times. I had a big world map on my study desk, underneath the Plexiglas. Instead of practicing Algebra or Russian Grammar I would sit there for hours, dreaming of traveling to all those exotic places of the world. New Zealand was definitely one of them. As in the Moody Blues song, ìthinking is the best way to travel,î and so I traveled in my imagination. New Zealand was a place of dangers and adventure, where the native tribes are ready to ambush you at any moment and exotic prehistoric animals are roaming free in the wilderness.

Twenty years later I still havenít made it to New Zealand or Australia, but I am much closer to that part of the world than I was before. Yet after living here in America for the last 8 years and even becoming an American citizen, I eventually had to say good-bye to my romantic notions of the ìNew Worldî that were shaped by the books of Maine Reed and Fenimore Cooper. California turned out not to be the place of Wild West cowboys or Gold Rush miners. It is more prosaic, more regulated and at times inhumane. Keeping that in mind, I prepared for the interview with Jean McGeorge, who came to POOR all the way from New Zealand.

A woman in her twenties, Jean embodies an air of ingrained intelligence and a calm, but firm, self-confidence. For a second she reminds me of portrait I have seen of Florence Nightingale, just arrived at the battlefield of the Crimean War. Jean is sitting in her wooden armchair in POOR’s conference room and is facing a crew of interns, staff writers and other prominent figures of the New Journalism movement. With quiet determination she withstands an assault of curiosity and thorough journalistic inquiry into her life and work.

Having heard so much about her from co-editors Dee and Lisa, I finally have a chance to ask her the questions that Iíd prepared the day before. Knowing that I will not have enough time to satisfy my curiosity about her work and New Zealand, I settle on two questions. As other members of the interviewing group have questions as well, I am confident that we will gather enough vital information to understand the motives behind her mission of reporting on New Zealand’s poor.

Jean, who graduated with a degree in Journalism, could have a bright future as a young and promising journalist of the mainstream media. Instead, ever since her days with Papatoe Toe Otahuhu, a small but influential community newspaper of South Auckland, Jean has reported news concerning poor and underprivileged people. According to Jean, she was “inspired to cover the poor because there was not enough coverage on them in New Zealandís mainstream press.”

Currently, Jean is on a fact-finding tour about news organizations that cover poverty issues here in the US. She received her scholarship to research the broad subject of poor coverage in press thanks to her own energy and enthusiasm as well as the support of some representatives of New Zealandís newspaper industry. After an extensive search on the net, looking through dozens of different organizations that advocate and inform on the subject of poverty, Jean chose POOR Magazine and POOR News Network as the main place where she would learn.

According to Jean, New Zealand has a population of 3 million people, with one million concentrated in South Auckland. The poor and indigenous people are concentrated in the suburbs of South Auckland, areas formerly populated by white working class. Jean tells us of the segments of the population which are most at risk: the Pacific Islanders, the Indians, the Africans and of course the recent immigrant arrivals from variety of countries. Jean writes about the oppression and neglect suffered by these people under New Zealandís conservative Government. “The poverty is portrayed here,î Jean says with a sad smile, ìas if it is because the poor are lazy. And thatís what made me interested in this subject, made me write about them.”

Jean thinks that her Government betrayed her people when it privatized healthcare, reduced welfare or dole, as they call it, and abolished the trade Unions. She tells us that a few years ago her Government started a campaign of harassment against poor people, calling it “daubing dole bludger.” As a result, many poor and disadvantaged people were pushed into even greater poverty. Yet despite obvious class oppression, New Zealand is an apolitical country. “We donít like to make a fuss. Somehow, we see it as embarrassing.” Jean says.

As I hear Jean talking about all the injustices done to the poor workers and indigenous people of New Zealand, I realize how much needs to be done in the US to revert the current situation of unjust welfare reform, reduced social spending and private healthcare. The way Jean describes her now ìindependentî country is so similar to what is happening hereóin Uncle Samís backyard. The fact that a majority of Americans are as apolitical as New Zealanders is not a surprise. It seems that it is very symptomatic for the English speaking post-British Empire worldóespecially if the people who are running the show are not the oppressed, the indigenous, the descendants of slaves or the minorities.

Describing her journalistic work, Jean tells us that big businesses recently evicted seventy families from their homes, in order to expand the motorways. The homes were demolished and the evicted families had no money or political influence to get proper compensation. Despite Jeanís involvement, she was unable to prevent it from happening. ìA lot of dirty dealing was going on,î she says, shaking her head. ìAnd unfortunately there was not enough feedback from the community.î I am wondering if Jean knows about the housing crisis here in the Bay Area, and how thousands of San Franciscans have been evicted due to influx of high-tech money and enormous greediness of the landlords. I personally know a number of people who have been evicted, including myself. And some of them have been thrown out on the street more than one time.

Jean explains she eventually left her newspaper because the company that owned it was uninvolved with the staff and did not provide benefits for the workers. It reminded me my last ìreal jobî as a part time case manager in a chain homecare agency. I was fired for talking about fair benefits for the employees and the possibility of organizing a Union.

I ask Jean if there are other alternative newspapers or magazines in New Zealand writing on the issues of poverty and class oppression. To my surprise, Jean admits that that there are not. Apparently, the subject of poverty and class oppression is not covered very well in New Zealand, and that is why Jean is on her fact-finding tour. “Youíve got a lot of facts to gather, sister,” I think. “And one of them is that you can organize against the System, even if your number is small and you have holes in your pockets. POOR Magazine is a good example of that.”

For more information on POOR's Media Studies/Poverty Scholarship Program, please call us at (415) 863-6306 or email, tiny@poormagazine.org

A Journalist from New Zealand

Takuya Arai

Recently, I broke my rib. Since I do not have a health insurance and cannot afford to have a doctor, I was unable to get a proper medical care for my broken bone. Although I saw a doctor once right after I broke my bone, high medical expense, which was just an astronomical figure to my monthly budget, disqualified me for further medical care. I just needed to stay calm and depend on the natural healing ability of my body. It seems that my bone is healing this time, but I get scared when I imagine myself in a situation that requires more serious medical care, which I basically do not deserve because of the lack of adequate financial resources.

"Pacific Islanders, like Maori, have pretty bad health statistics." Jean answered. "We have a huge problem of communicable disease, such as tuberculosis, diabetes, measles, etc." Issues concerning health are more serious than any other threat to the poor community.

Jean has the same perception as POOR News Network does with regard to the point that issues concerning poverty are only the subjects of the news for mainstream media, which helps create a "sense of isolation" of poor community from the rest of the society. She was a journalist writing for Maori community newspaper called "Papa Toe Toe Ota Huhu" in Auckland, New Zealand, where she became interested in issues of poverty. With her New Zealand English accent, which sounded very fresh to me, Jean willingly answered our questions about the situations surrounding poverty in her country.

"Are minority people organized?" Joe, one of the POOR media studies interviewers, asked.

"There are a number of ethnic communities in South Auckland and very few white people. Pacific islanders, such as Samoans, Tongans, Indians, Muslims, and other Asian Immigrants do not really have political or organized voice." Despite the seriousness of the issues, she never raised her voice or became emotional when she was answering our questions. Her calmness and concise language reflected a sense of intelligence to me.

However, more importantly, what she told us reminded me of my own experience when I first came to the United States 9 years ago. I was 19 years old with full of hope and anxiety (fuan). People, culture, food, climate, everything was new to me. Living in a small city in Ohio and being Asian at the same time introduced me to a lot of unique and eccentric experiences, which I enjoyed so much.

However, being different from everybody around me also caused a lot of difficulties and hardships. (Toriwake) More than anything, my inability to speak English affected me the most in every aspect of my life. Sometimes I was being culled from the community. Stress accumulated when I could not say what I wanted to say when I confronted mean racists who consistently tried to make me the target of public ridicule, and when the same type of things happened a number of times a week over the period of 1 to 2 years until I became relatively communicable and capable of verbally fighting them back.

"In South Auckland, there are a lot of working class people. They do not have enough resources to fight. They have no money. Language barrier is a big factor." Jean explained. Their HAGAYUSA resonated in my mind. "Mainstream media like TV, radio and newspaper do not have consistent coverage of issues concerning poverty. People in poor communities are reluctant to open themselves up to the mainstream media because their experience with media was negative ones in the past." She added.

"How are minorities in New Zealand acting against threats from its government and society?" I asked this question because I was inspired by the news last week that Zapatista rebel leaders in Mexico are calling on the Mexican government to pass the Indian rights law. "A lot of people want their lands back." Jean answered. "Because of the land occupation, minorities are claiming compensation from the government."

by Kaponda

I sit in the nerve center of an underground movement in America that has created more talk than the wireless telephone. I observe the strategically placed compact disc turn and compact disc change, along with other elaborate broadcasting equipment, as gurgling sounds from the aquarium swim past my ears. The voice of the late El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcom X) permeates the airwaves with the legendary “Words from the Front Lines,” as he echoes the difference between the house and field niggers on plantations in the South. I see a man garbed in a brown dashiki come into the room, wearing a warm smile. He is Michael X, the latest person to join the micro radio movement, and the founder of Bayview Hunters Point Radio, 103.3 FM.

Bayview Hunters Point Radio, 103.3 FM, is the wings on which the voice of Michael X soars through the airwaves of his beloved community, urging the masses to escape the slave mentality seared in their psyche. As Michael X prepares to communicate with the only community he has ever known, I ask him what forces in his life brought him to the front lines of community activism and emboldened him to step out of the conventional outreach box into broadcasting without the sanction of the Federal Communication Commission or a license therefrom?

“Basically, I’ve always had the urge to do good in the Bayview Hunters Point community, where I was born and raised. I dabbled in micro radio five years ago with Stephen Dunifer in Berkeley. I had an opportunity to do a radio show. During that show, I thought to myself, ‘Hey! I can do this, too. I need to bring this back to the neighborhood.’ It was not until the death of my 16-year-old son, who was killed in a drug-related incident, that I was inspired to do something, you know, to honor him,” the 50-year-old revolutionary concludes.

Stephen Dunifer, to whom Michael X refers, is one of the first disciples of Mbanna Kantako, the sighted black man whom many people refer to as the father of micropower radio. In 1987, Mbanna Kantako set up a radio station in his home in the projects in Springfield, Illinois. Mbanna Kantako justified his right to set up a micro radio station as his right based on the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights and its guaranteed right for ordinary citizens to communicate with their fellow citizens. Today, 13 years later, Mbanna Kantako still broadcasts in Springfield, Illinois, and he is the benchmark by which over 1000 other members of the micro radio movement across America are measured. Stephen Dunifer later brought the knowledge he acquired from Mbanna Kantako to Berkeley and launched Free Radio Berkeley, the radio show from which Michael X acquired his insight into community radio.

As he burrows his body into the chair he reaches for one of the two microphones to began a passionate petition to the community residents. “You were listening to words from the late El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz...,” states the voice of the spiritual-minded Michael X who now embraces in his hands as if it were one of the many youth of the Bayview district to whom he cries out. He talks about the change that needs to occur in his community, and how its incumbent upon each individual to assume responsibility to effect change. As I sit beside him and listen to his broadcast, I can see how a slight shudder seizes him as he discusses the horrors visited on people in his community by forces within and without, horrors that linger in the mind like the swish of a basketball net from a flawless shot by an opponent that brought the crowd to its feet. His micro radio is a device that he uses to address those horrors. But it is like trying to even the score with a jigsaw.

As he honors his community with a selection from the album of Sly and the Family Stones, I ask him to explain some of the horrors that plague the Bayview Hunters Point district?

“The southeastern section, in particular, and most Black neighborhoods, in general, in San Francisco have long been neglected by City Hall,” begins Michael X as he ponders which of a litany of examples of governmental, environmental, and political abuses to begin. “There have been more than 20 deaths of young people in shoot outs, drive-bys and walkups within the last couple of years. There is a lot of children killing children in the Bayview and many of those deaths remain unsolved. In addition, the jails and prisons have become residents for more and more Black brothers and sisters, clear examples of political neglect,” states Michael X.

While the fact remains that African Americans make up only seven percent of the population of the state of California; in truth, the concerns of Michael X that an astounding 38 percent of the prison population is African American are worth examining. To get this disproportionate number of representation is like trying to draw a thousand aces in a single-deck pinochle game. The cards have to be stacked to defy these laws of probability. Michael X and others will argue that the hand dealt to the Black community in the Bayview district has been stacked. Or, another way to explain the disproportionate number of African Americans in prisons throughout California is that members of the African American race are evil savages, not unlike a Timothy McVeigh, who deserve wholesale incarceration -- or worse. A more logical explanation, of course, of why Blacks are disproportionately incarcerated is that the sentencing laws in California are stacked against African Americans. Rather than apply rigid sentencing laws to people who harm others through gross imprudence, the California legislature has targeted a particular drug and declared war on it.

I was one inmate, for example, out of over 2000 inmates in San Bruno Jail in the year of 1996. A startling 75 percent of the African American population of San Bruno Jail was incarcerated for drug-related offenses -- like possession of rock cocaine, the equivalent of a nuisance crime. Furthermore, these laws are framed to lock African Americans out of sight, forever, by including mandatory sentencing for a third felony, possession of a rock of cocaine, for example.

Conversely, while there are 12 percent of African Americans in America, there are less than three percent of Black owned and operated radio stations. Again, this disproportionate lack of ownership of Black radio stations in America has to be a result of a strategy designed by the Federal Communication Commission and National Association of Broadcasters to lock the voices of people of color out of the airwaves.

So, with the knowledge that there are less than three percent of programming by people of color, I ask Michael X How it feels to be a part of the micro radio movement and why has he taken on this mammoth responsibility?

“I am the Clint Eastwood of the Bayview community. I have ridden into a town of desperadoes. This is a town of outlaws and outcasts. Its a town where the imaginations of its residents are unrestrained It is a town that is besieged by a corrupt government that sells the land of the community to the highest bidder to empty its bowels and devour it with hazardous waste. Like Clint Eastwood rode through town and corrected the corruption, I’m riding through town to clean it up. My goal is to restore peace to the town of Bayview, and I’ll ride into the sunset after my job is completed,” concluded Michael X.

Michael X may successfully curry favor with the residents of the Bayview district, but he may find it very difficult to ingratiate the Federal Communication Commission, who recently shut down three micro radio stations in Berkeley for broadcasting without a license. The FCC has been inconsistent in terms of its eligibility guidelines for obtaining broadcasting licensing for less than 100 watts of power. For example, in January of 2000, it was legal to broadcast with less than 100 watts of power. “Now,” according to Michael X, who broadcast with 40 watts of power, “It is illegal, again,” states Michael X, as he continues. “A person can get a license from the FCC if the radio station broadcasts in rural areas, only. The FCC is not issuing licenses in urban areas because, according to the FCC, ‘there are no available frequencies.’”

I ask Michael X if he thinks the FCC will eventually upset his applecart?

“Yes,” utters the undauntable Michael X, as he prepares to surrender the airwaves to prepare for the next show.

On this Sunday, however, there was no FCC to fear. A special guest, who hosts a radio show on 103.3 FM every Sunday, Marie Harrison, of the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper, enters the room and prepares to take over the airwaves for the “Marie Harrison Show.

Clad in a soft white blouse with denim jacket and pants, Marie assumes control of the airwaves and begins her interplay with the community. Marie wastes no time with her report on the recent discovery of the black beauty sand and environmental issues in Bayview, issues on which she is versed. She continues her diatribe with an appeal to the community members to reach out to young people.

“I think we need to work with a lot of our young folks,” stated Marie. “They’ve got a lot of good ideas. We need to bring them up to par. We need to let them know that we are there for them. When I keel over the day after tomorrow or the day after that, somebody has got to be in my place, and somebody has to be there after that person. It is a never-ending battle for education, knowledge and the sheer will-power to get up and do something worth doing. We need to have me. We need to have you. We need to have your next door neighbor, and the folks across the bay to bring all of their knowledge to help us resolve some of these issues,” Marie continues as I prepare to walk out into the streets of the Bayview Hunters Point district.

by Leroy Moore

Leroy discusses the lack of financial
support and recogniton for small
grassroots non-profit organization.

Warning! Warning! To My Black disabled brothers
and sisters: Black traditional organizations from the
NAACP to the Urban League are trying to fix our
problems, empower us and protest in our name without learning
from us!

Only a Couple of years ago, Black traditional
organizations such as the NAACP, the Urban League,
ASPIRA and more made a commitment to work with
the President’s Committee on Employment of People
with Disabilities on the status of African Americans
with disabilities, and especially the issue of the high
unemployment rate. On April 6th the NAACP and the
President Committee hosted a conference titled "Employment
of Persons with Disabilities" in Milwaukee.

What is shocking about the new attention from Black
traditional organizations on African Americans with
disabilities is that it took a federal agency to get traditional
Black organizations on board when it comes to African
Americans with disabilities. For years many people,
parents, advocates and grassroots organizations
(including my parents and myself) have approached these
organizations, but received nothing. For example, in 1998 I
was working at the Youth Department of the Center
for Independent Living, and I and my supervisor, a
Black disabled lawyer, talked to the NAACP Oakland
Chapter about Black youth with disabilities, and how we
could work together. We never received a response.

ain the same year the Co-founder of DAMO, Gary
Gray, wrote to the NAACP National office about his work
and the lack of organizations run by and for disabled
people of color and their parents. This is why today you
have grassroots multi-cultural and Black disabled organizations

like Disability Advocates of Minorities Organizations,
Harambee Education Council and African Americans with
Disabilities Advocacy/Support Organization, to name a
few.

These organizations are grassroots, but are consistently
looked over when it comes to support, funding and
providing input.

I challenge the President’s Committee, a federal agency that has
little connection and knowledge what goes on every day
in the communit,. to contract out to
grassroots organizations that are for and by disabled
African Americans and their parents to conduct technical
education and disability awareness training to Black
traditional organizations.

by Ken Moshesh

UNSEEN
ARE THE DIVERSE FACES
OF MY HOMELESS AND AT-RISK
PEOPLE
STILL CLOAKED IN INVISIBILITIES
OF
SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL, COLD
WAR
DENIALS AND FEARS
PASSED DOWN THROUGH
PAEENTINGS AND NIGHTMARES
OF PAST AND POSSIBLE
DEPRESSIONS
VEILED IN PRESENT
INSECURITIES AND OBLIGATIONS
DEEMED NECESSARY TO PREVENT
THE NON-BEHOLDER FROM
BECOMING THE BEHELD.
STEEPED IN SELF-SERVING
NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES DEMOCRATIC PROCLAMATIONS
RATIONALIZING
LOFTY, POSITIVE,
FOR WHICH WE HAVE KILLED.

AND NOW, FAR TOO MANY
WHO RISKED ALL TO KILL
FOR THE CAUSE
ARE ALSO RENDERED
HOMELESSSLY MISSING IN
ACTION
BY THE UNNECESSARY
UNREGULATED GREED
OF A FEW.
BLIND ARE THE TUNNELED EYES
OF THE ABUNDANT SOLUTIONS
TO THE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN FACES OF
MY HOMELESS AND AT-RISK PEOPLE
WHO ALSO
BARELY SEE EACH OTHER
AS THE NATION STRUGGLES
TOWARD HOMELESSNESS RECOVERY

K MOSHESH 3/00

by Tom Gomez

Sunday morning I went out the door of my shelter at 6:30 am. I intended to go to sit on a bench in U.N Plaza and read my Sunday Times while waiting for the Quaker services I regularly attend to begin at 11:00 am. Sitting on those benches and reading my morning paper is a daily ritual for me. If I have an extra dollar I also like to enjoy coffee with my paper. My job (yes, I have a job, and so do most homeless people I know) doesn’t start until 3:00 pm and nothing opens until 9:00 am. I would stay in and sleep late like most of you probably do, but I live in a shelter. So I occupy a bench at my local park, reading my paper and watching the sunrise while sipping my coffee.

The city is offended by that. Channel 4 is outraged by it. On Saturday the City removed the benches. A bench removal that had been planned for several months. Channel 4, I’m told, portrayed the park as an open sewer where homeless people sell and use drugs flagrantly. I don’t have a television. I missed the report. I miss the benches too.

Does the city expect me to believe that with literally thousands of officers they are powerless to prevent a few dozen criminals from selling and using drugs in broad daylight? The crime the city has targeted here has nothing to do with drugs being sold or used. The city wants to purge its downtown of poor people and especially men of color. Throughout the whole weekend after the removal of the benches I observed police stopping black men exclusively, for no apparent reasons, demanding they produce identification and conducting random searches.

I am tired of being victimized for no better reason than my inability to pay $2,300.00 a month rent on my income from a $9.00hr catering job! Being a man of color is not a crime, and should not constitute “probable cause” nor invite forced warrant checks and random searches.

No one supports urban blight. But in this case the city is responsible for failing to enforce existing laws for years, thus creating public outrage, and then mounting an outright attack on the poor in response. If the city is tired of seeing desperately poor people littering the streets of this city, I have a fine suggestion: BUILD AFFORDABLE HOUSING! And instead of punishing all of us, forcing us off public benches and into the streets at dawn, how about the innovative solution of curbing crime by arresting criminals? What a concept. Someone should suggest it to Chief Lau and Mayor Brown.

A coalition of groups and individuals is organizing to oppose the city’s racial profiling and its attack on the poor and public space. Persons interested in getting involved in fighting this injustice should contact Adam Arms at the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, 468 Turk, San Francisco CA 94102. (415) 346-3740

The Camera’ s gaze panned across the landscape at San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza lingering at discarded bottles, crumpled paper bags, empty beer cans...and then....a face... a man...An African-American man....smoking something...a cigarette, perhaps.. we’re not sure..then another African-American man.. then an African-American woman...then an African-American child...then another....then another and..another..and another and...until one would believe that the entire population of homeless folks in UN Plaza was African-American and then a voice, the voice of truth, the voice of.....authority?..

“At the United Nations Plaza our hidden cameras uncovered the rampant drug use of Homeless People in UN Plaza...” This so-called “undercover” report by KRON-channel 4 (which incidently is owned by the Hearst Corporation) was followed by a “shocked” interview with Mayor Brown - who after viewing the tape I just described, commented that he “would have his office look into it and see what could be done”

Several hours later the Benches at UN Plaza were removed, or rather

by Joe B.

While looking a the last two hour Xena[Warrior Princess]
the emergency broadcast broke into the show explaining

that a major 7.9 earthquake off the coast of Peru, Chile,
and Bolivia killing many people and destroying buildings
is heading to toward
San Francisco
after hitting Los Angeles taking an hour to
get here at 2:39 am Sunday.

The show resumes as I watch it thinking of what
a
Tsumami looks like. Aside from a disaster show where
I saw people actually looking at one up close getting swept
into the sea as it hit them with terrifying force.

"Now that was a stupid thing to do" is my thinking when
it suddenly came to me, "I could check it out forgetting
what I just said about people doing the exact same thing.

When Xena ended I set my alarm for 1 am watching

"Saturday Night Live" with two Hilarious skits on the Bush Presidency
and later if Nader was President as pink pigs flew, devils playing with
snowballs with Nader shaking hands with them.

I awake before the 1 am alarm.
quickly washing up, get dressed, wore two shirts, a black sweatshirt
with a zippered front pouch inside is a notepad, pen, and taperecorder.
Its not cold but breezy, on the way I hear sirens, see police cars
people gather outside a bar as two more sit on the pavement
while three police write notes.

A purple van rode by inside are two pretty women,

both are well formed black woman. They call out "We're Prostitutes."

My peripheral vision saw them but being
so intent on not missing a rare natural event I say
"I have something else to see." I thought immediately what
they’d think, another gay guy walking up Polk Street.

I hadn’t walked up Polk Street to Fisherman’s Wharf
in years but I still walk all over the city so I’m
not out of shape.

Endurance seems to be my natural Wild Card power
however intelligence or plain mother wit
may not have been hardwired into my wetware.

The closer I get to the 900 beach and The Natural Historical Park
and Maritime Marine Museum I’m thinking what have I done?

"Going to the site of a Pacific Tsunami, in dawn’s dark,
without friends or a floatation device is nuts.

I go to check the water by the lit lamps I do not see much beach sand.

The wait is long when arriving at 2 am on a quiet
Fisherman’s Wharf and a few people walking the Wharf or

in the curved apartment building looking out at the waters.

When 2:39 am arrived there is a sigh of relief
from me as I now know if the
Tsunami had been a been heading at me I’d wouldn’t
be able to out run and having no bus fare only adds to my inspired idiocy.

I’m walking back home craning my neck just in case I might have to run away.

By 3:19 am. safe at home the minor non adventure over
I sleep thinking how stupid-curious I am and if we as a global civilization
can balance these and other drives
we as a species might survive our searchings and wonderlust to learn
from nature maybe all those horrible deaths will have meaning.

And as for myself on Sunday Gay Pride Day.
I am at my office sending a quick Darwin Award Story

to Art Bell because I must laugh at my gene defect and yet.

If there was a circular rip in time’s continuum that appeared in
front of me I’d probably jump in for the adventure of it
but that's just me.

I know we all do dumb things, but I
actually heard the warning and still went out to see what a Tsunami really looks like.

My adventure done,
I’ll go home and fix up my one room apartment.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine 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

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...

by By William T. Hathaway, william.hathaway@ewetel.net

After the savage denouement of Election 2000 we can look back on a campaign that saw Gore sacrifice his principles and Bush sacrifice our democracy, all to the great god Winning. The final debacle agonized but didn't surprise us. With grim inevitability it stripped away the last facade of red, white and blue idealism. Five weeks of political thuggery made it clear that our votes don't count. Bush didn't win this election; he seized power through a legalistic coup d'etat.

We may mourn for Gore, but he wasn't even outraged. A true son of the system, he'd rather sink than rock the boat. Despite some positive qualities, he's not a genuine agent for change. Like Bush, he supports capital punishment, genetic engineering of foods, corporate globalization, and a military build-up. Economically, the two men differ only in the size of their trickle down.

To find the reason for this Tweedledee and Tweedledumb pairing, we just need to look at their mega donors. The soft-money moguls don't want us to have a real choice. Campaign financing shows us that the major parties are just two sides of the same gold coin, two modes of control by the corporate oligarchy.

The economic power base of both parties lies in the business establishment, and they represent two tendencies within it. The Republicans support a fiscal orientation aimed at preserving the value of capital by keeping taxes and inflation low. To them, a moderate increase in the number of poor people provides an anchor on the economy by holding wages and thus inflation down. The Democrats support a mercantile orientation aimed at expanding public buying power. To them, a moderate increase in the number of prosperous people enlarges the customer base. Each party contains more than this, but this is their economic core that keeps their leaders from acting against corporate interests. The alternation of power between them ensures that neither tendency gets carried so far as to destabilize the very profitable enterprise. Given this structure, the changes we need can't come from them.

Through ballot-access laws, matching-fund regulations, and debate policies, the major parties try to shut out other approaches. They're the only game in town, and it's now obviously a shell game with no winners except them.

They and the corporate media have also avoided an open discussion of their economic interests by riveting public attention on the emotional sideshow, the battle of winners and losers. Politics, like the news, has become garish entertainment for an increasingly ignorant populace: we, the people.

Both parties are now calling for restoring harmony, for pulling the country together, for healing the national wounds. But what they really mean is healing the wounds to the establishment.

For the first time since our defeat in Vietnam, a major crack has appeared in our two-party but one-purpose elite. As they try to patch that crack and restore the cosmetics of democracy, we can expect a media campaign to create good feelings about America. Hollywood will get into the act, as it did after the Vietnam war with films such as PRIVATE BENJAMIN, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, and TOP GUN, designed to restore the charisma of the military. The studio execs are probably already conceptualizing a hip, "mock the system at the same time you reinforce it" version of MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. And George W. Bush will now play Mr. Nice Guy, dismantling only gradually and indirectly the few progressive measures that Clinton was willing or able to implement.
But the crack is there and it can be widened; a wedge can be driven into it and it can eventually be split apart, and this monolith of power can fall and something new and more humane can take its place. Otherwise the establishment wouldn't be trying so hard to patch it up and erase the memory.

Forty-five thousand ballots that antiquated voting machines couldn't read, most of them from poor districts, still remain uncounted in Florida. Paid Republican demonstrators interfered with the counting, Florida officials governed by Bush's brother refused to accept revised vote totals, and the Republican-dominated US Supreme Court insisted on enforcing a deadline that the law itself says is flexible. Due to this coup, Bush won Florida by 193 votes and assumed the presidency against the national popular vote.

We must not forget this! But most people already have because it's too painful.

If the Left can reach those who haven't and turn their alienation into radical engagement, we may yet see a ground swell of political activism that will force fundamental changes. Until that happens, we, the people, will continue to be the losers.

by Takuya Arai

( POOR Magazine released Volume #4 The Work Issue in 1998. In that issue we explored the concept of Unrecognized labor and specifically the idea that Panhandling was, in fact, work)

I was walking down Haight Street in the city of San Francisco with my roommate. After the consecutive cold days of rain and chilly wind, we finally had a nice, warm day. We were approaching Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shop on the corner, where a group of four teenagers with eccentric attire were begging for change from the pedestrians. When we walked across the street, I noticed that one of them looked at me and turned to her companions to talk about my MTV T-shirt, which I knew looked pretty stupid. They were laughing at me.

"Can you spare me some change?" she said to us with a sneer.

"I am sorry, but I am broke too," I replied, because my financial situation is getting really tight these days.

"No, you’re not!" To my surprise, she suddenly raised her voice, telling me not to lie to her. I think she was just trying to get some fun out of us because it seemed they did not have anything else to do. But I felt offended.

'That's none of your business. Get out of my sight." I did not say that, but I wanted to.

I just ignored her and went to a bookstore to buy my textbook. With the textbook in my hand, we passed Ben & Jerry's again on our way back. They were still there.

"Now you have some change because you bought something." I could not believe how she could have the nerve to say that.

"What the fuck!? I'll give you a penny if you lick the sole of my shoe." I did not say that, but that was my immediate response. Instead, I just stared at her eyes for about 15 seconds as we passed her by. She cast her eyes aside, so I stared at her other companions.

I am Japanese. Haight Street is introduced in the Japanese best -selling tour book "How to Walk the Earth" as one of the hottest spots to visit in San Francisco. Whenever I go there, I encounter several Japanese tourists wearing nice, fancy clothes with GAP shopping bags in their hands (although I have no idea what GAP has to do with Haight community). So I knew how she felt when I told her that I am broke, because I think she knew that I was Japanese and most of the Japanese people she sees on Haight Street can afford to go traveling and shopping.

If you live in a big city, you have a few chances a month to encounter people who ask for change on the street. The other day, I was driving my car and I stopped at a traffic light where a homeless person was standing. It was a cold, windy day. With a brown cardboard sign that said, "Homeless, even a smile would help," this disabled man in his 50's, wearing a torn shirt and ripped jeans, was bending forward and asking drivers in every car that was stopping at the traffic light for change. Although I did not know anything about this person, his shabby appearance immediately aroused a feeling of pity and made me want to do something for him.

At the same time, however, he reminded me of a teenage girl on Haight Street who was basically doing the same thing that this homeless person was doing. Instead of giving her some change at that time on Haight Street, I gave her a contemptuous look. While I was thinking about the difference between the girl on Haight Street and this homeless person at the traffic light, he came to my car. I opened the window and gave him eight quarters. With a big, warm smile on his face, he said, "Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. Now, you have a pleasant day." He had a hoarse voice, but I felt good. I gave him change because I thought it was worth more to him than it was to me. I guess I gave him money out of compassion.

I wondered if it was the right thing to do. I think I did the right thing because I helped him, even temporarily. But then I wondered if he deserved money that I gave him.

We live in a free-market capitalistic society where money is used as a means of transaction. Money is an officially issued coin or paper note that is legally established as an exchangeable equivalent of all other commodities. It is used as a means of storage of assets and as a measure of comparative values on the market. Therefore, whenever somebody pays money, they get something of equivalent value in exchange.

When I gave the homeless man money, what did I receive in exchange? It is true that I felt good when I gave him money, because I felt like I helped him and he thanked me. But does that mean that I bought conscience? Did I receive good karma? Was he selling misery? If so, is there any demand for the product or service he offers? When he spends money that he received from the pedestrians, how does he feel about it? Does he feel guilty? What if he lived in a society where barter is the main form of commercial transactions? Would he still be begging for food without giving anything in exchange?

According to a dictionary, "work" is defined as physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something. A "job" is defined as a regular activity performed in exchange for payment, especially as one's trade, occupation, or profession. It is a task that must be done, a specified duty or responsibility, and a specific piece of work to be done for a set fee.

Without any guarantee to secure enough money to get by, panhandling on the street for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week must be harder than any type of job we have on the market. But when people are standing on the street begging for change, how are they contributing to the good of the society? What are they producing? What are they trying to accomplish? Are they responsible for anything? Are they trying to give us a signal that the society is not functioning properly? I really do not know if we can call panhandling work.

One thing is true. When I gave him change, it was mutually beneficial. I felt good and he got what he wanted.

by Dee

Walking sticks appear, seemingly from nowhere to dine on tender leaves. The spindly insects resemble trees as they slowly creep up the tail and paws of Hands and Lester.

Hands and Lester look around to find themselves deep in the countryside of North Eastern Oklahoma, It is the year 1839.
Why, lands and Lester wondered, why have we found ourselves in Cherokee country and why did we have to travel the Trail of Tears?
In generations past the Cherokee people come to this area to rebuild their nation after the westward trek from their beloved homelands in the mountainous South - Herded by federal soldiers, the Cherokees took a path in 1838-39 that became known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Why, Hands and Lester wondered? Why have we found ourselves in Cherokee country? Was it to live on the hard scrabble farms dotting the region that many Cherokees continue to live on?

Was it to attend some of the first schools west of the Mississippi for the education of both men and women? Or perhaps it was to work on Oaklahoma first newspaper published in both English and Cherokee.
After all it was only 1839 and again lester and Hands were living another of their nine lives.

That nite Lester had a dream. He dreampt he and and Hands were ill. No amount of Medicine or prayers could heal Lester and Hands in this dream. A native American spiritual leader appeared to lester in Lesters dream.

He told Lester that Native Americans regard their names as essential parts of their personalities. A native persons name is as vital to his or her identity as the eye or teeth.

If prayers and medicine fail to heal a seriously ill person, the spiritual leader tells Lester, then the spiritual leader sometimes realizes that the patients name itself may be diseased. The spiritual leader then goes to the water and with the appropriate ceremony bestows a new name on the sick person.

The healer then begins anew with the patients new name in hope that these measures will bring about restoration and recovery.
Lester anxiously awoke from his dream. He awoke. “Hands, Hands.hands"Lester said, “I’ve found the answer in a dream as to why we have found ourselves in Cherokee County in 1839.” Hands listened excitedly, while quietly purring. Lester continued “We have to find a spiritual leader and most important, ask him to change our names!”
To be Continued.

by PNN staff

On Tuesday, January 16, 2001 the Mission Anti-displacement Coalition (MAC), Senior Housing Action Network and several other neighborhood groups held a rally to support SanFrancisco’s new Board of Supervisors. The rally will call on the new board to vigorously protect our neighborhoods from displacement and promote a progressive agenda that includes more affordable housing, environmental and economic justice, a people’s budget, and community control of city planning-- the spirit Proposition L.

Last December’s election of a progressive slate of district supervisors
culminated a year of community organizing and movement building by MAC, SAN and other community groups across the city. Everyday people tired of the

corruption at city hall won a clear mandate for an independent Board of
Supervisors, one that will enact a progressive agenda to safeguard San
Francisco as a city for working people.

The rally of several hundred San Franciscans will serve to celebrate our
electoral victory as well as to remind the supervisors that we will be
actively participating in the legislative process. Speakers from various
neighborhoods and constituencies will be present along with community
members, supervisors and their staff.

by Leroy Moore

Do Black disabled people have a history? You wouldn’t think so when Black History month comes around. For ten years I have been on a search for Black disabled people’s contributions to the mainstream society, as well as to Black and disabled communities, but it is almost as if we do not exist.

Black disabled people are beginning to tell their stories, but in writing our history, we must overcome many barriers. Under slavery, having a healthy mind and body was the key to survival. Masters viewed disabled slaves as a burden and usually killed them, so disabled slaves hid their disabilities to stay alive. Today, I wonder if we black disabled people are still hiding part of our identity.

There were disabled slaves who did survive on the plantations. The most famous was Harriet Tubman, who escaped and helped others to do the same. Tubman’s disability is part of our hidden history. I had to dig to learn about the brain injury that caused her to have seizures and blackouts. Perhaps this inspired her to found the Harriet Tubman Home, sheltering disabled and elderly slaves within her own home.

Black disabled people do have a recorded history in an unusual kind of profession. Books by Rosemarie G. Thomson (Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring physical Disability in American Culture & Literature) and Robert Bogdan (Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit) report that freak shows employed a high population of Black disabled people. Today we think of freak shows as disgraceful, but in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some Black families entrusted their disabled children and young adults to freak shows because they provided paying jobs for people who could not get other employment.

Among them was Joice Helth, George Washington’s nursemaid. Thomson describes her as an old, toothless, blind, crippled slave woman. Thomson goes on to explain that several physically and mentally disabled Black men were displayed as "What Is It?" exhibits in freak shows

At the other end of the entertainment spectrum, remember George Gershwin’s opera, "Porgy & Bess?" This first Black opera portrayed a disabled Black man as a main character. The story was based on DeBous Heyward’s novel about a real Black disabled beggar, Samuel Smalls of Charleston, South Carolina.

These are some of the stories that must be remembered if Black disabled people are to have a sense of their own history, and if everyone is to understand what has really happened.

Today, disabled African Americans are finding and using their own voices. Locally, disabled artists have exhibited their artwork in Oakland and San Francisco during Black History Month for the past three years. Last year, four Black disabled artists, poets and lecturers presented their artwork and talked about their lives at local bookstores. This year, Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO) presented "Breaking the Silence on Disability in the Minority Community," with a panel on issues that touch disabled minorities, spoken word and a video presentation on February 17th at the San Francisco Main Library.

There are a small number of recent books by Black disabled authors, including "Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black & Deaf in the South" by Mary Herring Wright. Idell Wilson, author of "Dream Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces" and Leroy Moore, author of "Black Disabled Man with Big Mouth & High I.Q." are two local Black disabled poets, activists and lecturers They read from their new books on February 16th at the Family Resource Network of Oakland.

We of the Black and disabled community are becoming more visible. David Patterson, a blind New York state Senator, has taken disability issues to the political arena. Curtis John Pride made history for being the first Black, deaf, professional baseball player. "Becker," a new sitcom on ABC, includes a Black blind character. Here in the Bay Area, organizations such as Harambee Education Council, a state wide organization of and for parents and advocates of African American youth and young adults with disabilities, and DAMO are looking forward to a bright future. To get involved with the second annual Harambee Oakland conference in June of 2001, call Sonia Jackson Ricks at the Family Resource Network @ (510) 547-7322.

Disabled African Americans have a rich history, varied talents, and fresh voices with which to chronicle rarely shared experiences that deserve to be heard. If we are going to celebrate Black History, lets celebrate the history of all Black people. For more information contact DAMO at (415) 695-0153

Black Disabled Trivia by Leroy Moore & Gary Gray of DAMO

1) This slave rescued other slaves and brought them to freedom. Who is she? What was her disability?

2) This famous soul singer in 1997 he wrote a book called Truly Blessed, about his life before and after his accident. Who is he?

3) This African American is the first deaf professional baseball player. Who is he?

4) This Black actor is an inspirational speaker who played in Boyz N in the Hood. Who is he?

5)A 1992 comedy show, ‘In Living Color’, introduced the first Black disabled hero. Who was it?

6)This Black amputee, 1984 Olympic skier and author was the first Director for President Clinton’s Human Capital Issues on the National Economic Council. Who is it?
------------------------------------

Black Disabled: Trivia Answers

1) Who was Harriet Tubman

2) Who is Teddy Pendergrass

3) Who is Curtis John Pride

4) Who is Reggie White

5) Who was Handiman

6) Who is Bonnie St. John Deane

by Joseph Bolden

According to Michael Welmer, a forensic psychiatrist and the creator of the "Depravity Scale", his invention is a scientific way for judges, juries, and others to measure evil acts.

Mr. Welmer’s Depravity Scale has 26 categories, divided into three subcategories: intent, actions, and behavior. Unfortunately I can’t go through these categories or I’d be plagiarizing Mr. Libaw’s work. Lets just say crimes committed based on race, sexual orientation or religion all have their place on the scale. Torture, murder, or harm with intent not to kill though seriously hurt and/or maim are all on the depravity scale, which someday all victims and jurors may use in court.

Mr. Welmer has worked most of the glitches ‘n gremlins out of his prototype, so when testing begins, he should be able to pass all the tests he’ll be given by various law enforcement officials.

To Know the Evil Deeds we are all capable of is a burden I don’t want, but if it forces us to examine and improve ourselves, then bring on this evil and depravity contraption. So far we’ve only been guessing at what constitutes pure evil or a bad seeds, leaving Old Nick to tell us if our souls are weak.

I hope there are also ways to measure goodness too, someday only then will Mankind have both weighed equally.

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by Suzanne Rostler (courtesy Homeless People's Network)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many of the programs set up to
help elderly people afford food are not reaching those in need,
results of a study suggest.

According to researchers, nearly one quarter of about 1,000
disabled women aged 65 years and older said they could not afford
food. But less than 3% received home delivered meals, less than
5% attended group meal programs and only about 19% were receiving
food stamps.

``Despite national programs targeted at reducing nutritional
deficits in the elderly, particularly the frail elderly, many
older disabled women still appear to be having difficulties
obtaining adequate food,'' Dr. Lisa M. Klesges, from the
University of Tennessee in Memphis, and colleagues report. Their
study is published in the January issue of the American Journal
of Public Health, journal of the American Public Health
Association.

Minority women were more likely to report financial barriers
to receiving food, the report indicates. Nearly 50% of non-white
women compared with just over 13% of white women reported
financial difficulty obtaining food.

The authors suggest that this
finding reflects ``the depth of
poverty in non-white women.''

In other findings, women who were depressed were more likely
to report financial difficulties, and those who reported
financial problems were more likely to be diagnosed with anemia.

``Given the high prevalence of nutritional problems reported
in older disabled women, especially urban blacks, nutritional
screening programs in health and social agencies need
consideration,'' Klesges told Reuters Health. ``Methods to increase
the availability and acceptability of nutrition programs to older
Americans should be considered to prevent potential ill-health
and early demise.''

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 2001;91:68-75

**In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.**

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