2000

by By JENNIFER STEINHAUER (reprinted from the NY Times, courtesy of The Emergency Coalition to Save Public Health)

The city's Health and Hospitals Corporation, strapped for cash and
desperate to find new income, has begun charging a universal fee for
prescription drugs at the pharmacies of all its public hospitals and
community clinics.

Under the new policy, which was quietly introduced last month,
patients are charged a $10 "processing fee" for each prescription
filled, with a cap of $40. There are also some exemptions.

The policy has already come under criticism from health care experts
and doctors, who say the fees will discourage the poor and uninsured -
the most frequent users of the pharmacies - from getting the drugs
they need. The critics say such patients will end up in the hospitals'
already overcrowded emergency rooms as their untreated conditions
become serious.

Previously, the corporation allowed its 11 hospitals and 6 clinics to
decide whether or not to set a fee, and what that amount should be.
Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, for example, charged $10 per
prescription with a cap of $30. At Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment
Center in Lower Manhattan, there were no fees at all.

Dr. Luis R. Marcos, president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation,
said the systemwide fee was just one of many measures being taken to
stave off the $313 million deficit the corporation expects to face
this fiscal year. "The corporation has reached its limit of providing
health services for which no one is willing to pick up the tab," he
said. "I believe it is fair to ask patients who can afford it to pay
for prescriptions."

The new policy does not affect those who obtain medication during
hospital stays or during an emergency room visit. Also exempt are
those in public programs for AIDS or prenatal care, those with
tuberculosis or teenagers who receive oral contraceptives.

Patients with insurance, including Medicaid, are to pay their
prescription program's lowest co-payment, which in many cases may be
lower than the $10 fee. Dr. Marcos said he hoped this would encourage
uninformed or reluctant patients to apply for Medicaid, which has
become the corporation's main source of steady income. Some patients
and advocates for the poor say there have been problems with the new
policy, including a shortage of financial counselors who are supposed
to help patients enroll for Medicaid or negotiate for lower fees.

"We did an observation at seven hospitals and two treatment centers
and observed long lines to see a counselor," said Judy Wessler,
director of the Commission on the Public's Health System, a health
care advocacy organization.

Several patients said they were told that they must pay amounts above
the $40 cap, and were turned away when they said they did not have the
money - even though the policy states that no patient is to leave
empty handed because of inability to pay.

Celeste Almonte, for instance, left Gouverneur a week ago without any
of her medications, including those for diabetes and asthma, because
she said she was told her fee was $50. Ms. Almonte, who is 55 and on
Medicare, has no pharmacy benefit. She has a month of drugs left and
said that she had no idea how she would get her next batch. "What a
pity," Ms. Almonte said. "It is too much money for me."

Confusion over the specifics may spring in part from the way hospitals
are informing patients about the policy. At the clinic at Gouverneur,
a sign in the waiting room explained that a $10 fee would be imposed
and that financial counselors would be available. But it did not
mention the medical conditions and drugs that are exempt from the
policy, or other payment options. Other patients learn of the policy
only at the systems' pharmacy counters.

The corporation said it was working to inform patients better. Each
hospital is now sending out explanatory letters, and is working to
improve waiting-room communication. Dr. Marcos said that he had not
heard about centers overcharging or turning patients away empty
handed. He also said that financial counselors were available during
all hours that clinics were open.

For the past five years, the corporation balanced its budget through
cost cuts and other moves, but has been hammered with an increasing
load of uninsured patients, coupled with reduced payments from
government and private insurance programs. In 2000, 564,476 uninsured
patients came through its health care centers, a 30 percent increase
from 1996. In the same period, Congress reduced Medicare
reimbursements to hospitals, while Medicaid reimbursements to primary
care clinics remained basically unchanged, and drug costs increased 16
percent between 1999 and 2001.

But others argue that the new policy may compromise public health,
citing studies that show that the poor often forgo medications and
health care when costs increase. "Almost all the research that has
been done suggests that the health impact of a drug co-payment policy,
particularly for poor and elderly people, is adverse," said Dr. Jan
Blustein, an associate professor of health policy and management at
New York University. Dr. David Stevens, a doctor at Gouverneur, said
that some patients with chronic illnesses have run out of medicine
since the policy was introduced, and may end up in emergency rooms as
their conditions worsen.

Some health care policy experts suggest that the corporation seek
other options, like drug formularies, which limit doctors to
lower-cost brands. Others believe payments should be made on a sliding
scale, as clinic visit fees are. Dr. Marcos said the corporation was
developing a formulary system, but added that doctors and drug
companies frequently put up considerable obstacles.

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 David Rosenzweig, Erika Hayasaki

A federal judge said Friday that she plans to issue a temporary
restraining order barring police from harassing the homeless on Los
Angeles' skid row.

Officers would be prohibited from stopping homeless people at random,
demanding their identification and threatening them with arrest,
according to a draft of U.S. District Judge Lourdes G. Baird's pending
order.

Police would also be prevented from seizing homeless people's
belongings, which are sometimes left unattended on sidewalks, and
discarding their possessions.

Baird circulated a copy of her proposed order during a court hearing
Friday attended by lawyers from the city attorney's office and the
American Civil Liberties Union.

In remarks from the bench, the judge also indicated that she would bar
the police from forcing the homeless to keep moving from place to place.

After soliciting comments from both sides, Baird said would consider
their arguments and issue a final ruling on Monday.

The ACLU filed a civil rights suit last month on behalf of 26 homeless
residents and social service workers who complained that a recently
launched crime-fighting drive in the 50-block skid row area had turned
into a campaign of harassment against the homeless.

Police officials deny those allegations.

"I don't think the homeless won today," said Lt. Paul Geggie of the
LAPD Central Division, which patrols skid row. "What's going to happen
is, it's going to be more dangerous and dirtier."

Joann Barnes, 46, who has lived on the streets of skid row for two
years, said Friday night that she didn't believe police were harassing
the homeless in the first place. "I think they are concerned about the
welfare of the people," said Barnes.

But Dominique Cholon, 41, said he was glad police would be prevented
from giving him and other homeless people tickets for blocking the
sidewalks, or from confiscating their possessions.

"They've been . . . harassing folks for little things. They might be
doing their job but they overdo it," said Cholon, who has been homeless
for four years.

In her 23-page draft, Baird wrote that she was obliged to weigh the
city's needs against the rights of the homeless.

The injunction, she said, may slow down the Police Department's
initiative to reduce crime and clean up the streets and sidewalks in skid
row. But she added that the homeless face a greater harm: loss of their
constitutional rights.

She said the police actions, unless checked, "are likely to displace
homeless individuals and threaten their ability to access charities for
food, shelter and assistance in skid row."

Douglas E. Mirell, a plaintiffs' attorney, said he was gratified by
Baird's tentative ruling. "The decision to grant a [temporary restraining
order] is particularly important at this time of the year because the
weather is getting colder and the conditions that the homeless have to
live will become much more extreme." Deputy City Atty. Deborah L.
Sanchez, who represented the police at Friday's hearing, said afterward
that Baird's tentative order would cause no substantial changes in
official department policies.

In her 23-page draft, Baird wrote that she was obliged to weigh the
city's needs against the rights of the homeless.

The injunction, she said, may slow down the Police Department's
initiative to reduce crime and clean up the streets and sidewalks in skid
row. But she added that the homeless face a greater harm: loss of their
constitutional rights.

She said the police actions, unless checked, "are likely to displace
homeless individuals and threaten their ability to access charities for
food, shelter and assistance in skid row."

Douglas E. Mirell, a plaintiffs' attorney, said he was gratified by
Baird's tentative ruling. "The decision to grant a [temporary restraining
order] is particularly important at this time of the year because the
weather is getting colder and the conditions that the homeless have to
live will become much more extreme." Deputy City Atty. Deborah L.
Sanchez, who represented the police at Friday's hearing, said afterward
that Baird's tentative order would cause no substantial changes in
official department policies.

"Stopping people without reasonable suspicion or searching their
possessions without probable cause are things they're not supposed to be
doing in the first place," Sanchez said. "The only issue I would have
with the court is that the [restraining order] is unnecessary."

At the hearing, however, attorney Carol A. Sobel, representing the
ACLU, told Baird that police have been seizing homeless people's
belongings, which they must leave on the street before entering feeding
halls.

;She said the items are thrown into city trucks and discarded in
violation of a state law requiring authorities to hold on to abandoned
property for at least 90 days.

The ACLU has also asked Baird to certify the suit as a class action on
behalf of Los Angeles' entire homeless population, a move the city
attorney opposed.

Although the judge did not rule on that issue in her tentative order,
she indicated that class certification was likely.

Officials estimate about 11,000 people are living in transient hotels
and on the streets along skid row.

So far this year, at least four homeless people have been killed in
the Central Division area and 32 others were victims of rape or sex
crimes, said Geggie. About 40 homeless people are robbed, assaulted or
victimized each month, he added.

Since September, Capt. Stuart Maislin of the Central Division has
ordered his officers to cite the homeless for occupying sidewalks and
other public nuisances. Arrests, citations and drug arrests have gone up
while crime has decreased, police said.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, however, Central Division officers said they
would temporarily stop citing or warning people for blocking the
sidewalks; they also suspended the confiscation of abandoned personal
property.

"So a community that is 50% mentally ill, a community that can only
marginally care for itself is going to be forced into the traffic because
we can no longer issue tickets for blocking sidewalks," said Geggie.

by HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK

NEW YORK (AP) _ A class action lawsuit has ended in victory for 198 formerly homeless people who won back wages of $816,000 from two powerful business improvement districts.

The plaintiffs won the money from the Grand Central Partnership and the 34th Street Partnership in 1998 but received no funds because of an appeal. A settlement this month cleared the way for the plaintiffs to receive the money at last.

Tommy Washington, who was to collect money owed him for more than 1,000 hours of work, told The New York Times, ``It has nothing to do with the money. It's the principle.'' He added, ``They were dragging this on, because they figured, addicts, people in and out of the prison system, sick people _ how many were going to be around to collect?''

Officials with the two business districts said in a statement Tuesday that they were ``gratified that this matter has been brought to an amicable resolution.''

The homeless people performed jobs like security and cleaning for the business districts for $1 an hour and promises of a path out of homelessness. They filed a class action lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in 1998 that the business improvement districts had violated minimum wage laws, had used the cheap labor of so-called trainees to undercut competitors and had contributed the resulting profits to hefty executive salaries.

Corporate lawyers from Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton assisted advocates from the Coalition for the Homeless and the Urban Justice Center in the case.

``To be on the side of the angels and then end up getting what people deserve is very, very satisfying,'' said Jennifer Kroman, 30, an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb. ``Reaching the settlement was one of the most joyful moments of my career.''

The coalition was to distribute the money at a celebration Wednesday evening.

AP-ES-10-25-00 1102EDT
Received Id AP1002991754CA49 on Oct 26 2000 21:23

by Leroy Moore

Buried Voices

The next generation
Is being plucked off one by one
On the streets, in schools and in prison

Little ones snuggled
In small coffins
Buried voices have many stories

Voices from down under
Crying for their mothers and fathers
Had a lot to say but no one bother to listen

Buried voices speaking in harmony
Tossing and turning in the grave
They want their justice

Hunting the soulless
Young spirits creeping in the minds of the old and wary
Their hit list is endless

Years of abuse
Caught up in the system
And can't get loose

Black, young and disabled
Always been labeled
Home was not stable

Elders set in their ways
They want to lock us away
Can't teach old dogs new tricks

Christopher, Seth and Dion
Blacks disabled boys can't grow up to be Black disabled men
I'm one of the chosen few
Buried in mainstream news
Buried in the community
Can't breath, can't hear, can't see

Layer after layer
Ism after ism
Wrapped up like a mummy

Buried voices are singing in the cemetery
No rest for the restless
They are voicing their short and painful history

Buried voices rising with the sun
Young disabled corps walking the earth
Talking back and heading north

Now everybody is scared
Running in fear
Cause judgment day is here

Parents, teachers and politicians
Listen to the voices
They demand your attention

Buried voices
Are always with me
They are in my head guiding my pen

I write with the blood of disabled youth
I'm their agent
Writing and speaking their messages

And they told me to tell you
Many are still in pain
Bullets and fists falling down on them like pouring rain

Poems can't bring them back from the dead
Do you hear that, buried voices want me to speak the raw truth
This poem wants you to think with your heart first then your head

The truth hurts
But it also heals
We need to get real

But I feel the tension
Every time I mention the reason
Why I wrote Buried Voices

What the hell is going on? Can you answer me? First, it was disabled adults of color. Now, disabled youth of color are under attack in schools and on the streets. Do you hear that? Disabled youth are yelling and crying for help and attention. Are we going to go on like everything is o.k.? Well I'm here to tell you everything is not O.K. The next generation of disabled leaders won't be if we continue our silence on the street violence and abuse that has been a reality to many.

In November of this year I came across three cases in San Francisco mainstream newspapers dealing with street violence, rape and physical abuse of disabled youth. All three cases have similarities and differences. All three appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the victims were all disabled youth of color and all three victims were overpowered by more than one person or an elder.

The first case was the long-,awaited court case and verdict of a 1995 beating and stomping attack of Seth Woods, an African American, mentally disabled young adult. Seth Woods was attacked by five Samoan youths while walking home. After five years of waiting, the Woods family received their justice. On November 9th a San Francisco jury returned verdicts of second-degree murder, torture and sodomy.

The second case is recent and very heartbreaking. A twelve-year-old African American girl with learning disabilities was sexually assaulted at two different schools in Berkeley, CA. The first assault involved nine classmates and took place after school on October 25th. According to the news reports, a pack of nine boys allegedly dragged the girl to 11 different locations, sexually assaulting her for more than four hours. Then, on Nov. 8th, her second day at a new school in Berkeley, a 13-year-old lured the girl to a secluded area on the school campus and raped her.

I came across the most recent case when I confronted a headline at breakfast screaming "Police Probe, S.F. Boys Claim Teacher Threw a Yardstick at Him." At that moment I dropped my spoon in my oatmeal and screamed, "What in the hell?" The article said that a sixth-grade special education teacher threw a yardstick at a 9-year-old special education student. The stick hit the boy's face and caused scratches under his right eye and on his nose. Now the teacher is placed on leave, pending an investigation by the district.

The above cases are only recent cases, but this is not a new trend. In 1988 Tony G., a 13-year-old Samoan boy with Down Syndrome, was walking home with his favorite toy, a toy gun. A San Francisco police officer thought the gun was real, so he shot and killed him.

These cases are not only in California. The unbearable story of Marcus Hogg of Texas made me cry. In June of this year Hogg, an African American disabled teenager was approached by two white teens who proceeded to tie his hands behind his chair and his legs to the legs of the chair. Then the two teens placed a noose around his neck and joked about throwing the rope over the rail to hang him. Like my articles on the abuse and brutality toward disabled adults of color, the above issue has been hush-hush in the disabled communities and communities of color.

So what is the answer to the violence and brutality towards disabled, especially those of color? I have been hearing that disabled youth should not be mainstreamed with their non-disabled peers. Parents and people with disabilities fought for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other special education laws that promote and support the rights of parents and disabled youth to receive a free appropriated education along side their non-disabled peers. We have been fighting too long to return to "separate but equal," to be locked away in institutions.

What we need in both public and private schools is formal collaborations with grassroots organizations that have the skills and experience to advocate and educate the student body and the administration.

Teachers, students, school administrators and principals can all benefit from hands-on workshops, awareness trainings and classes on disability rights, history, culture, self-esteem building, role play etc. from organizations like The Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute that are led by disability scholars who have experienced these situations first-hand.

The issue of a lack of hands-on training is a common factor across the board, from police to teachers, on how to deal with people, students and youth offenders with disabilities. We need to adopt a proactive stance towards educating and training our youth, teachers, police force, politicians and our community at large about people with disabilities and our issues. Right now we have walls between our schools and the community. We can't afford to lose one more disabled youth.

by by Megan Say @yahoo.com>

Discussion of the rent crisis in Boston, how it is affecting the artistic community. The Fort Point Cultural Coalition's battle against big city property owners and related issue affecting San Francisco's similar crisis.

Over the past year I have seen and heard very little discussion about the state of the arts on a grass root/community level. The arts and support of the arts has had no mention in the large demonstrations that have been taking place in Boston and around the Country. Among all of these world difficulties and concerns, it seems like we have forgotten about one of the most imprtant channels for unified voice and consciousness. What about the arts?

Yes, there is a powerful undergound scene happening and the puppetry and demonstration circus has been leaving a tremendous impact on the public's impression of what anarchy produces; but what happens affter the barricades are dismantled and there are no longer clusters of masquerading protesters? Where do we all go to regroup and discuss for the next battle? Over-priced and most often tiny rooms (I looked at a 8ft by 6ft room renting for $380) are becoming even more difficult to find and maintain. Rents are outrageous and continue to bewilder those of us who have no hope of purchasing living accomidations or even are able to say we have in our posessession enough money to pay for more than one month's rent and bills?

Recently, over the last year, the artists living in the Fort Point area of Spouth Boston have been dealt a heavy hand as twenty-five artists were displaced from a well-known squat in an old yarn mill on Stillings Street. Currently ther resides a parking lot, that is never fulll while people struggle to find affordable housing and a corner to call a studio to continue working on their self-expression. Some residents were even promised relocation only to be evicted again a short time later.

The entire Fort Point area is under seige as one of the oldest Boston land management companies is selling off the entire area for more parking lots, market rate condominiums and dot com offices. To combat this gross raping of a major cultural stronghold, the Fort Point Cultural Coalition has begun the slow process of creating more publicity for this home town catastrophy with a syposium discussion set on a lot at the Market Street and Midway Street site on October 22, 2000. A "coalition of non-profit organizations and individual artists that seeks to preserve, promote and expand this unique cutral commmunity [and seeks to] affirm the cultural, econmic and social contributions that their neighborhood makes to the city of Boston..."

The Boston Warf company owns 95% of the area and seemingly does not care what happens to the 500 residents and many cooperatives such as Mobius and the Revolving Museum who are at risk of being evicted over the next 4 years as leases run up and rents quadruple. Within a week of meeting with agents from the Boston Warf Comapny representatives from the FPCC and the FPAC (Fort Point Arts Community) were told four brick factory buildings near Market street and Midway Street were not for sale, 14 buildings in the area were bought by Beacon Capital Partners. This is just one step closer to what looks like a clean sweep of the artists to make way for a "tourist attraction for engineers" and an expansion of the financial district. In preparation to start buying some of the buildings, the FPCC was promised $50,000 for a feasibility study but was denied the ability to gain site control by Boston Warf.

This hard ball dealing is what artists in San Francisco are also stricken with. Massive protests have already begun to gain national recoginition in the underground sceene as hundreds of artists,long-standing performance groups, galleries, muscians, clubs and co-ops of all flavors have no place to live or continue their arts. Instead are a plethera of .coms and their employees.

Joan Holden, the San Francisco Mime Troupe's playwright since 1967 was on the panel discussing the epidemic and toting warnings to be on the look out for more of this cultural cleansing as the battle in SF is leaving many scars in building rights. After finally being granted zoning laws that stated live/work loft spaces had to only house for artists working and living in their spaces it provided only to be an open window for land owners to get money granted from the city for cheap renovations for supposedly new artist spaces while they continue to rent at the quadrupled market prices to dot com's and their employees and silicone valley spin-offs.

Currently arts organinzations in the bay area are trying to instate propsition L to reorganize the loft laws and fix the invasion of "creative multi-media companies." Over the October 21/22 weekend the SF Mime Troupe performed their newest creation "City for Sale&" at the Strand Theater in Dorchester. The hillarious performance was a documentary about the artists' forced exodous from the industrial areas by greedy building owners and a slack government whose hands are so deep in the pockets of the city contractors it is rendered almost powerless to help.

Other representative on the panel discussion were Joan Leyton an affordable housing advocate from Veda Urban and Director of City Life, Jane Deutsch, Board President and a founding member of the FPAC, Ted Landsmark (moderator), President, Boston Architectural Center, and Cheryl Forte, A Fort Point business owner and founding member of FPAC and FPCC. All members of the panel pleaded to create better awareness of this problem as for 25 years they have lived and nursed the Fort Point area into a thriving community by keeping the area safe and in tact only to have gained the title of "caretaker community" by the developers and contracters who can't wait to see them leave.

Solutions presented by the audience after discussion included proposing percent funds from the MFA on all their donations to protect and subsidize struggling artists; creating new identities that will appeal to the suburbanites that treck into the city once a year to partake in the open-studios weekends; look towards cities such as SoHo, Providence, RI, and New Orleans as models for growth; and making sure while new developers come to the area they make a percentage of their remodeled buildings for arts and non-profit organizations as the new property owners of the "we were here first/should of been ours" buildings, Beacon Caital Partners have been graciously discussing.

Panelists suggested that an more humble attitude is in order as all smaller arts cooperatives should immediately begin a movement to gain publicity in their locality to emphasize to town council and local government orangizations the importance of a thriving arts communtiy, so that when talking to landlords the backing of the town is present and dropping exclusive personas to create wider acceptance of supportive public.

In summary, the symposium should pose as a warning to all artists to banish the shy introspective, univolved demenor that prevents us from dealing with these issues until they have escalated out of control.

"...and then they came for me and there was noone left to speak."

ADD YOUR COMMENTS http://boston.indymedia.org/comment.php3?top_id=1315

by Ken Moshesh, Anna Morrow

CIRCLE DANCE

…SO NOW,

THEY RENAME US,

TO

MEMBERS OF THE LODGING TRIBE,

AND

REMOVE US FROM THE LAND

FOR HAVING TO SLEEP

THERE…Ken Moshesh

I have been homeless in and around the Berkeley area for the past 7 years. I have managed to be a productive, albeit homeless, citizen despite the condescending and negligent attitudes of the society surrounding me. For the most part I have been able to conduct my life without incident, relative to my seemingly provocative status as a homeless person, until the past 2 months. Something happened recently and I find myself fighting for my life; drowning in the prejudice and discrimination of our society's laws and attitudes towards homelessness. I can think of several reasons for why this may be occurring.

It may be because of my political activities in the Bay Area during the 60's and 70's. It may be a consequence of my writings and media activities on behalf of homeless folks. It could be the numerous discussions about UC Berkeley homeless policies (or non-policies) which I conducted on the campus beneath the Juniper tree. Maybe it was my recent attempt to have the book I wrote and the 3 videos I produced considered for curriculum material in relevant UC courses. Maybe it was that one of my films was submitted to a recent Film contest.

Probably it is the summation of all of these individual truths. In any event, I was about to find out that my life's work and rights as a human being were under siege. And there would be much more injustice, profiling and harassment by the Berkley police and the university police, to follow. And that ultimately, would lead to the forsaking of my beliefs that positive solutions and human rights were being championed by the supposedly progressive thinkers of the University officials themselves.

It began on September 27, 2000 when one of the University Police Officers was giving me a citation, “for lodging on campus”. He very loudly insisted that I must have a criminal record if I was “lodging on campus”. I publicly rebuked his inaccurate assumptions. The officer was noticably embarrassed when his radio communications yielded my record: an undergraduate, graduate and teaching career at UC Berkeley; not the criminal record which he had assumed.

The next incident occurred on October 27th at approximately 7:30 in the morning. I had gathered up my belongings and was heading across campus towards the stairs enjoying the fresh air. Suddenly the light clean air left by the recently ended rain was polluted with an ominous whisper: “Hurry! Hurry! He's coming down. I don't want him to hear my voice.”

Looking in the direction of her informant, a Univeristy of California PD Officer hurried up the stairs towards me. “Oh, it's you”, she muttered. She ordered me to drop my gear and produce my ID. She told me to turn around and handcuffed me. She confiscated my bags, and then said, "YOU PEOPLE SHOULD SLEEP OUTSIDE THE CHURCH, NOT HERE." I told her that was not an option because of security guards there. We walked in silence to the police car.

We waited until one of her cohorts pulled up and she informed me that I have a warrant on my record. I’ve been expecting this because 2 weeks earlier I was told by Berkeley Traffic personnel that they could not find any computer information verifying any citations. They gave me an official letter indicating this absence and told me to SHOW THIS LETTER TO POLICE PERSONNEL should I have any need to before coming back at the end of the month to secure a court date. I would need a court date to deal with two previous lodging citations. In order to clear up this warrant business I asked to show the official letter to the officer. I got no response.

Instead I was whisked off to Berkeley City Jail. I was jailed so quickly, no one read me my rights, declared me under arrest, or formally charged me. I wouldn’t receive formal charges UNTIL THE FOURTH DAY OF my INCARCERATION...CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK.

I was told to take out my shoelaces if I wanted to keep my shoes with me and the drawstrings from my jacket to keep that (they wouldn't come out). During the electronic fingerprinting the UCPD officer commented on my layered clothing and told me that my sleeping bag was too big to fit in the milk crates where they store our property. She told me it would be held at the university police station. She then took my other bag which contained my self-published book and said it would go to the station as well, even though it would easily fit into a milk crate.

I recall some of my experiences in jail:

FRIDAY - I'm dubbed AFD483. SLOW HOURS AFTER 7:30 A.M. YIELD: A BAG LUNCH AND A SWANSON DINNER, A CALL TO A DISTANT RELATIVE. I am denied access to and not allowed to take my Berkeley Free Dental Clinic prescribed abcess medicine because, "It's improperly labeled".

SATURDAY- 24 hours pass in stony silence punctuated by occassional prison guard 'etiquette'.

SUNDAY- A jailor erroneously tells me that I am charged with tresspassing and have a warrant. Bail is set at $3500. I won't be allowed to make any phone calls. Nothing is presented to me in writing.

MONDAY- We leave Berkeley's City Jail for Processing at Santa Rita, the Alameda County Jail. I am finally allowed consultation with the public defender where I am informed of the following:
The official charges are 2 counts of Lodging (647J), not Trespassing, and I have no warrant outsatnding. I recieve this in writing, though it is lacking the ussual court date. That afternoon we return to Berkeley for court. We are taken to the holding cell, chained together 13 strong, where proceedings are put over until Tuesday morning.

Back at Santa Rita we are crammed into an overcrowded holding cell, like rush hour BART passengers marooned in a sealed off tunnel, waiting for proccessing. The proccessing takes all night long. There are TB shots and a medical interview. WHAT IS YOUR SEXUAL ORIENTATION? DO YOU HAVE ANY ENEMIES IN HERE? HOW DOES THE PHONE WORK? WHAT ARE YOU IN FOR? SLEEPING OUTSIDE ? DAMMN!!... Until it’s time to board the morning bus back to court in Berkeley, without chains this time. We line up to go to the various city jails. A near-skirmish breaks out reminding us all of the danger of our surroundings.

TUESDAY - The Judge's decision comes down on 10/31/00. I plead guilty to two lodging citations. Negotiations through the public defender results in the following conditions:

Probation for 24 months

Credit for 5 days served in jail

A 1OO dollar fine payable in a year

Be of good conduct

Report any change of address

Stay away form all UC buildings and the UC campus. ('unless on lawful business' was crossed out during negotiations)

Retrieve property from campus at UC Berkeley with civil standby only.

The next day at my official homeless address, I am given two envelopes containing the same warrant(#165844). They are dated the 26th and 27th of October. The 27th was the day of my so-called arrest.

When I call the UCPD to inquire about my property I am told by the arresting officer that I will be fingerprinted, booked and probably released if I come in for my property because they are not sure if the warrant is still in effect.

So I decide to go to the Berkeley courthouse first to obtain a copy of the Official Clerk's Docket and Minutes. I am told that the warrant has been taken care of as customary, by the court proceedings of the 31st.

The official minutes confirm my recollection that the judge orally agreed to my being able to conduct lawful business on campus. That stipulation had been manually crossed out on the official court probation document that I recieved, leaving me totally banned from all activities at the university. The docket from the Berkeley courthouse does not mention anything about a warrant; it contains only 2 counts of lodging and a 2000 dollars bail.

There had been so many “interpretations” regarding my warrant situation that I was unclear about the final result. I decided not to retrieve my property from UCPD as they had threatened me with further incarceration.

The entire ordeal had left me so frustrated and exhausted. Still, I was determined not to give into the anger. Right when I’m thinking that things can’t get much lower I learn that I have received an award of excellence for my video "Endangering the Species"! The Berkeley Film Festival 2000 has chosen me to be the recipient of the award in the Ethnography category. This feels like high praise and just in time for my battered dignity.

Ironcially, my latest video, "Primal Urban Sprirt Pulsating" which I began at the Associated Students of the University of California Art Studio will now have to be completed somewhere else.
The people who have honored my work with an award of excellence have just banned me from stepping foot on University property!

Subsequent to my arrest I would be interviewed by a reporter fromn the Daily Californian for a story she would title “HOMELESS ARTIST ANGRY OVER ARREST (11/21/ 2OOO). Bill Cooper, UC Police Captain and spokesperson, responded saying, "Ken Moshesh, who is currently homeless, had incurred numerous citations that led them to ban him from campus."

I have recieved three citations over seven years for being homeless in this area. The last two and the "arrest" occured within a two month period. One could then assume that having three citations is grounds for banishment from campus.

Capt. Cooper continues: "Miranda Rights do not have to be read in all circumstances. He was arrested under warrant for lodging. Miranda Rights only have to be read if there is a question about the crime. But there was already enough evidence to establish the fact that he was lodging. People aren't supposed to sleep in building."

Not only was I not read any rights at all, I was never declared to be under arrest.
I was stopped walking down the Dwinelle Annex carrying two bags, not inside a building. I was not, as they have alleged, found lying in a sleeping bag.

Apparently walking down the stairs with two bags at 7:30
in the morning was not sufficient grounds for establishing my guilt. They had to say that I was "lying in a sleeping bag" and "in a building" to substantiate their lodging claim so they could rush me to jail.

Their embellishments also serve to protect society's rampant denial of the fact that too many Americans have to sleep outside of buildings; on concrete, wood and dirt in this land of plenty.

Article 25 of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself (herself) and his (her) family including food, clothing, housing and medical care..."

I carry on, still homeless,
but now I’m on probation, I’m banned from my place of work and I have a criminal record.

My life's work has been about helping to bring this country closer to it’s own Declaration of Human Rights by sharing the experience of homelessness and engaging others in positive solutions. Why, I’m wondering, has a university that prides itself as being a cradle for civilized discourse made it so unneccessarily dificult for me to share my work?

This university should not emulate the uninformed portion of society by attemptinmg to hide, disguise and incarcerate homelessness. The UC's elitist Not-In My-Backyard policies turns a public campus into private property at night.

What the university should do to validate itself as an institution of higher learning is rally to the forefront of the issue. It could marshall its vast public and private resources to help develop a humane, viable solution to homelessness consistent with their avowed politcal prinicples. They would, with their reputation and history, present a leadership role worthy of the new millenium.

12/12/0O

Also by Ken Moshesh:

Books
* Cobblestoning Quicksand Mazes

Videos
* Homeless to Hollywood
* Endangering the Species
* Primal Urban Spirit Pulsating

I HAD PLANNED TO USE THE EICHORN DECISION OF THE FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COURT WHICH SAYS IN PART,”AN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS NO REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE TO SLEEPING IN A PUBLIC PLACE IN SANTA ANA NEED NOT TRAVEL IN SEARCH OF STREETS AND OTHER PUBLIC PLACES WHERE HE CAN CATCH HIS 40 WINKS.”-THE NECESITY DEFENSE [‘EICHORN DECISION UPHOLDS SLEEP AS A HUMAN RIGHT,”MARCH 1999, STREET SPIRIT ] AT MY TRIAL.

I HAD STARTED EDITING THE MASTER FOR “PRIMAL URBAN SPIRIT PULSATING” AT THE ASUC ART STUDIO JUST A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE “ARREST’AND A WEEK AFTER OUR PRO-HOMELESS CONCERT ON THE AMANDALA SHOW BROADCAST ON THE UNIVERSITY RADIO STATION KALX ON THE 15TH OF OCTOBER 2000.

by J.R. Johnson and Tiny

Lola Mckay’s body lies at rest now after a long battle against eviction. On Sunday Oct. 29th, 2000, The protest crowd against evictions, of nearly 50 people, in a way presented a requiem to honor Ms. Mckay.

It all started in January of 1999. Not the beginning of someone’s life. But the slow, vicious journey to someone’s untimely death. The death of an elder in our community. A death by eviction.

In January of last year, 83 year old Lola McKay was served an Ellis act eviction from her home of 40 years by a real estate speculator associated with Vanguard Properties.

After a life frought with crisis and tragedy which left Lola with no living kin, she had only hoped to live the rest of her life in her own home. Now she faced eviction and homelessness. She decided to fight.

With legal representation from Raquel Fox at the Tenderloin Housing Committee and the organizing efforts of the Tenants Union, a rally was planned at the courthouse at 100 McAllister where her court hearing would take place. This would be the first and last time that Lola Mckay would appear in public. They lost in court , and rather than face a lengthy, strenous battle that she might not win Lola and her attorney accepted a settlement offer. Twelve more months in her home. Twelve more months to live...I think that’s how she saw it. In March of this year Lola Mckay died in her sleep...of natural causes they say....

The postscript of this story is the live eulogy to Lola - and the thousands of tenants like her who are being evicted from their residences ....

The sun was glistening on a carmel colored door in the middle of a four unit flat. 55 Alvarado street. This was Lola Mckays home. An open house was planned for today. Her unit would be sold for 1/2 a million dollars as a “new” and improved unit. In the middle of the carmel door was the only ray of hope for this reporter; OPEN HOUSE CANCELED

“What do we want? - to stop evictions..When do we want it? Now!!!” As I studied the small white cancellation notice scotch-taped to the glistening front door, protestors marched in front of the building in a rally organized by The San Franciso Tenants Union and Housing Rights Committee to protest the selling of Ms. Mckays unit as million dollar condo. They canceled the open house because of the protest. Some part of Lola’s misery would be vindicated.

“Twenty apartments per week are being sold empty- with no record of eviction on file” Ted Gullickson from the Tenants Union explained, “the Ellis Act has too many restrictions, so most landlords try to avoid actually filing them and send out notices to evict or inform the tenants about their plans to evict and then the tenants respond by leaving. We track all the vacant apartments sold each month and who is actually selling them, we will continue to protect these illegal sales...” He took a breath.. “Lola Mckay was a very healthy woman and she would have lived for several more years, this eviction killed her ..there’s no doubt about that.

by Chris Barrett

People are dying to make towels. 45 workers were killed last week in Narsingdi, Bangladesh in the latest catstrophe involving a garment factory. 10 children were among the dead in a fire sparked from an electrical short at the Sagar Chowdury Garment Factory in an Industrial Area near the capital of Dhaka. 900 workers were on duty making towels and the situation could have been far worse considering the state of the building. Obserevers claim that the collapsible gates of the building were locked, as they were routinely, and had to be broken down by local people and firefighters. (From a report by The Bagladesh Observer, Dhaka ,Sunday November 26,2000) No number of death has been attributed to stampede, but it is assumed that many were trampled trying to escape.

This latest and worst incident of the year comes scant months after workers rallied to protest dangerous conditions following a similar fire in August that killed 12. A one-day strike was carried out by the National Garment Workers Federation in Bangladesh on September 4th to demand better working conditions improved safety measures and compensation for the families of the dead.

Over 150 garment workers, mostly women and children, have died in fires in the last 10 years in the Dhaka region. Many of these fires take places in factories where workers live in the building that houses the factory and warehouse. The 12 that died in august had no means of escape. They were on the third floor and the only staircase was out was blocked off.

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. If you visit the government website you will find out that the city has a history as a "Centre for fine silk and muslin". It's current standing in the garment industry is as a new player. It's economic standing as a Least Developed Country means that it must produce garments at the cheapest possible prices in order to compete with other developing countries. It competes with such third wave Asian economies as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam to undercut garment producing exports that face higher

MFA (The Multi Fibre Agreement is a set of quotas introduced by importing countries to protect their own garment industries and give them time to adapt to the racing pulse of globalisation) regulations in Indonesia and Thailand. The MFA tends to benefit retailers who search out new developing countries to exploit. Factories in Bangladesh have a competitive advantage only by being the cheapest.

Women are disproportionately represented in the garment labour forces in these LCD's. A recent research study conducted found that workers in a factory in Bangladesh earned half a percent of the sale price of Nike jackets they were sewing. The same study found that garment workers in Bangladesh could hope to earn about 3% of the hourly wage of garment workers in the U.S. The study was conducted by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development.

Factory conditions are deplorable in Bangladesh. The three tier factories that support living areas for workers are there to mandate longer hours. They increase exposure to toxic chemicals used in the factories. Most factories have one exit and no emergency exits. The exit was locked in the latest fire and the results were tragic.

The situation seems dire considering the need women have for these jobs. The families that these women support surely benefit with better medical care, education and housing accesible with money from outside the country. The women themselves don't see these benefits as they are offset by the health hazards, debilitating working conditions and imminent deaths promised in the factories. Local efforts by garment workers need to be supported through import country efforts to hold exporters and retailers accountable. Media attention is necessary as are efforts to publicize retailer histories of the clothing they sell. The Clean Clothes Campaign at www.cleanclothes.org is a good source of information on current issues

It is difficult to find mention of these fires in U.S. news sources. The New York Times had a three line mention the following day in their ghettoized world news section. Worker attempts to generate interest, like the August protest are ignored by the mainstream media, though they are the best hope for changing working conditions in the region. Sweatshop news from the U.S is also underreported. Articles on globalisation tend to have a top to bottom bias focusing largely on a monolithic US economy with its day to day health as primary focus. Stock Prices of retailers are highly reported. Labor issues in the United States are marginalized to a large degree and tend to find only local coverage, if that. Preventable tragedies among communities of women in Bangladesh are not newsworthy aspects of the world economy.

by Aaron Salter

The battle for a piece of San Francisco's budget began Saturday when
members of various social organizations met in the Mission as the People's
Budget Collaborative. The main concern the group discussed was the amount
of support they could expect from the new Board of Supervisorís, who help
determine how the cityís funds are distributed.

"We are identifying the needs," Riva Enteent, a member of the National
Lawyers Guild, said.

The Peopleís Budget Collaborative, in its fourth year, is an umbrella group
of over 40 community based organizations who are fighting for an acceptable
share of the cityís tax revenue and the elimination of waste from the
budget. Since the Collaborative has no actual money, their power comes from
their ability to convince politicians that certain issues should be funded.
Seniors, immigrants, homeless, and disabled are an example of the many
sectors of the population the Collaborative represents. Housing, health,
economic justice, and civil rights are the areaís the group highlighted for
this fiscal year.

The budget is important because a resolution can be passed, but if it does
not receive funding from the city the integrity of the bill is lost.
Rebecca Vikomerson explained that a few years ago the Homeless Family
Resolution was passed; the intention was to provide shelter to homeless
families. Since the passing of the resolution, a minimal amount of action
has taken place due to a lack of funding.

The San Francisco budget, $4.2 billion for the past fiscal year, is divided
into two categories; money that is received from taxes and funds that are
received from the state and federal government. The government payments
make up 70% of the budget and is dedicated for specific programs. This is
unwavering. The other 30% comes from taxes paid by individuals and
companies. This is what the cityís departments and programs are fighting
for. This year the money raised from taxes in the city is approximately
$1.2 billion. Public health programs receive about 20% of these funds. In
comparison, social services receive about 10%; yet approximately 40% is put
towards public protection such as the police and fire department.

The Collaborative feels that areaís such as public protection are
necessary, but are receiving to a double helping of the pie. The group used
the issue of police overtime as an example. They stated that a great
amount of money is being taken away from social programs to make unnecessary
payments to other departments. In addition they would also like to see
greater accountability as to how each city department manages their budget.

The corporate community is another target of the collaboration. Robert
Lehman, a member of San Franciscans for Tax Justice, explained that the city
is currently involved in a lawsuit with the Committee on Jobs; a group
representing the rights of corporations. If the city loses the lawsuit it
will be forced to pay approximately $100 million dollars to the
corporations. A move which could strip the city of its economic reserves.

The Collaborative is encouraging to city to expand its thinking to a future
that reaches beyond a single year. Their position is that money spent now
to help individuals will save the city money in the future.

"Our proposal is just the tip of the iceberg," Enteent said.

If you would like additional information about the Peopleís Budget

Collaborative contact Riva at (415)285-1055.

by Tiny

The tall shade trees swept down, almost touching the tops of cars and sides of houses, the street was short, lined with clapboard houses with an occasional apartment building looking out of place. I never liked this street when I lived here because I never felt like I belonged. From the first day my mother and I moved in, we were told by the landlord that he wanted to get more for this place - I nodded in agreement, like I understood, like I agreed, empathized in fact, about his plight as a short changed apartment owner, getting a bad lot in life - but as we spoke, I tried desperately to cover the terror in my eyes with a cheerful glaze of excitement at all he'd done for the place and how much I admired his efforts. I tried to keep my voice light and extract all possible traces of the screams and tears that proceeded that one Wednesday afternoon in July when we begged that apartment owner for a chance.

We had looked at over thirty places and found absolutely nothing, we had called apartment after apartment but if we did find something we were summarily rejected because of an eviction on our credit record for a previous place we had that had attempted to fight . No, he could not know how much we needed that place and who we really were….

Yesterday I was there again, two years on that street, on 36th street, near Telegraph in Oakland. My body shook with the lingering terror of that day and the days to follow - the second eviction, the second fight, the threats of violence from the landlord, the never ending danger. But it wasn't mine alone anymore….

"I lived in this apartment for 11 years, I was a good tenant “ Oakland resident Ron Curry was talking to me on the sidewalk outside of one of those bright white clapboard houses on 36th street, he continued, “ I raised three children as a single parent in that house, my son asked the realtor why they were evicting us, she said the landlord wanted to paint the place and raise the rent – they evicted all five families - and now when I look for an apartment, there are six people in line trying to get the same place- or I am turned down due to this eviction which appears on my record” As he spoke – members of JustCause Oakland stood near – holding signs about eviction and profit.

“People are being evicted from their houses for no reason at all- this is the only city in the Bay Area that allows tenants to be evicted for no reason” a spokesperson for Just Cause Oakland –was outlining the current situation for Oakland renters.

“What if you can’t find a place-will you give up and leave the Bay Area?” I nervously asked Mr. Curry, hoping the answer would be no

“I’m not giving up – I am going to fight- and I am not leaving the Bay Area”
I nodded, slivers of the last ten years of my life - eviction on top of Oakland eviction circled above the trees and through the wood panels and landed on that narrow messy street in the form of resistance- we could fight and we would. That’s why my mother and I are still alive – because we never stopped fighting – and we didn’t leave!

To get involved in the resistance against the eviction of low income people, communities of color and elders in Oakland call Just Cause at (510) 464-1011 or email them at: justcauseoaklnd@yahoo.com

by Joseph Bolden, staff writer,

My problem with this old then new news item titled: The Body Brokers
to me is so vast that even reading and down loading some of it was
a chore. I first hear of this stuff Saturday on KFSO1s Barabara
Simpson. As she in-terviews Mr. Mark Kathches of Orange County Register.
It began in No-vember of 1999 with interviews of people in diverse
medical fields, rela-tives of the deceased, documented laws and
loopholes to them - real inves-tigative reporting.

As Ms. Simpson said 3This is important.2 I did go on the web the
next day and saw those stories getting paranoid by the second. Please,
I urge everyone on the web whether you1ve read my columns or not,
if you can... down load every last bit of 3The Body Broker1s2 at
the Orange County Register.com . Look for yourselves.

Imagine if your spouse, brother, best friend, a parent, or any
beloved relatives dies suddenly or had a natural death usually they
are buried, cre-mated, or if they dicide to take one last chance
on science and techn-ololgy signs up for Cryonics, the after death
freeze choice where they might be back among the living while you
do the old, reincarnation through womb, or test tube birth. Others
may want to donate their bodies, organs to peo-ple, science or both
this is where trouble begins.

Some companies not all make millions of dollars off skin, heart
valves, veins, bones, and tendons. One cadaver can be worth $220,000.
Here are a few names of those companies some are non profit some
are for profit:University of Florida Tissue Bank a spinoff of a
private firm Regen-eration Technologies Inc. 1998 (dosen1t
it sound like a life giving, rejuve-nation, revitalization company?)
Osteotech Inc., Intermountain Tissue Center, a Salt Late City, a
non profit bank.

There are others all over California, New York, Chicago, where
every people die these places are they have to be where the bodies
are. Cadaver skin plumping the lips of fashion models $1,050. Ground
bones dentists use to treat patients 200,000 times a year and glossy
catalogs ad-vertise 650 products made from body parts. Do you know
a single dead body part (raw material) is worth tens of thou-sands
of dollars. Its stock is even traded on Wall Street. Folks this
looks like it is international!

Grieving families are not told their Œdonated1 gifts (loved
ones) fuels and industry predicted to hit 1billion within three
years.

Again, I say LOOK THIS UP, THEN DIG AROUND AND BEYOND OUR
COUNTRY THIS I S ALREADY QUIETLY GONE INTERNATIONAL.

The National Organ Transplant Act approved by Congress in 1984,
banned Profits from sale of Tissue. But no Tisssue Bank has been
prose-cuted. 3The law has never been tested in court2 Jeanne Mowe,
Executive Director of The American Association of Tissue Banks.
100 of millions of dollar selling products crafted from donated
human bodies even though its illegal to profit from parts.

Like space we1re back in it again supplying material for the
interna-tional space station. The Orange County Register1s story
is not just timely its a warning that the future is not through
with us even after death we be-come another valuable product.

Bye.

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by Tony Harris

A large coalition of housing advocacy groups organized a rally for affordable housing in downtown Boston today. The speakers called for more units of affordable housing, stabilized rents, and a moratorium on profit-motivated evictions.

A large procession of puppets and chanting housing advocates marched through downtown Boston on its way to Government Center and the State House today. Rally organizers, such as the Boston Tenant coalition, the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone, Homes for Families, and the Fenway CDC, brought together a diverse group of activists which protested rent gouging and profit-based evictions. Their demands at City Hall included 10,000 units of affordable housing.

The Boston Tenant Coalition claims that nearly 700 thousand households in Massachusetts must forgo food or health care necessities in order to pay rents or mortgages. The median income earner in Boston cannot afford half of the advertised median rent.

The Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance encourages Boston residents to attend a city-wide meeting on November 15th. (St. Mark's Church, 1725 Dorchester Ave, 7pm. 822-9100)

Courtesy of HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK 9000+ articles by or via homeless & ex-homeless people Year 2000 posts INFO & to join/leave list - Tom Boland Nothing About Us Without Us - Democratize Public Policy @earthlink.net>//projects.is.asu.edu/pipermail/hpn/>//aspin.asu.edu/hpn>

by Joseph Bolden, staff writer,

2000 is as important a year as 2001. In November of 2000 its time
to get out the vote. I didn1t see the MTV Awards on Thursday and
I1m hear-ing the usual adult (Oh Damn, I1m One) blab on its coverage,
inart-iculate guests, too much T Œn A on stage. Give Me A Break,
MTV was and is made to shock people and its done its job again splendidly
remember it was cre-ated expressly for shocking grown folks and
is a creative outlet for a younger generation - to angry, shocked,
adults single or with children Get Over It as for Rap/Hip Hop
Its Here and Won1t Go Away.

Deal With Reality. Rap and Hip Hop is INTERNATIONAL, GLOBAL,
PROBABLY INTERGALACTIC SPEEDING THROUGH SPACE.

If you can1t stand the message or music don1t listen. Rap been
disre-spected, Œdissed, banned, and people have been arrested for
selling it, the powers that be tried to overide market forces, that
didn1t work either so now what? If rap still pisses people off because
of messages they don1t want to hear then it too still does its job
as informing, warning inner city folk and those that care enough
to listen that we1re all are being are getting fucked over! If my
phrasing is raw this is as bad as it gets - darn it.

MTV folks, your turn to voice your opinion, views, likes, dislikes,
out-right hate too. Many adults believe you won1t go to the poll,
do your civic duty. 3Actually they don1t want you to vote so
prove Œem wrong show Œem your generation and ones coming behind
you that your Œgen knows the game.2

We will leap forward or stumble backward. Me, I want more political
parties like Life Extension Party, Immortalist Party, or L5-Spacer1s
Party. The L5 or Lagrange Point between earth and the moon and spacer
is for people who are willing to go into space to live on asteroids,
planitoids, or H.O.M.E.1s (High Orbital Mini Earths) yet another
future political party. How about independant asteroid mining for
fun and profit.

.

Had a good laugh, well this could be our future if a couple of
guys get elected and there are seats open for the Supreme Court.
Call all Grrrrls, Girls, Women, and Wimmin think of your choices.
Doc-tor1s being maimed, killed because of the abortion debate, embryo,
or stem cell research and medical benefits of cloning. (grow brainstem,
nervous system separate from bodies) then you have parts that cannot
be rejected and not another human being and no creepy moral dilema.

Think of homosexuals being beaten up, killed for sexual orientation
alone. There is no Gay/Lesbian/Transexual/agenda, the only agenda
is to stop killing for being slighly different from so called 3normal
heterosexual lifestyles. The Eternal made all of us without errors,
the only Biological Errors are in Peoplekind none of us are perfect,
genetically speaking hu-manity are full of flaws.

In Coeur D1Alene, Idaho a American Mother and child attacked and
beaten in 1998 by Aryan Nations guards outside the white supremacist
group1s North Idaho headquaters is awarded $6.3 million thusday.
Richard Butler says 3You can1t stop us, This is nothing.2 3We have
planted seeds.2 Butler1s chief of staff, Michael Teague said 3This
does not stop the message.2 (Mr. B. the message is dying, its been
heard too many times its old, ugly, filthy, untrue and twisted most
people know you are wrong - GET OVER IT., IS THAT REASON ENOUGH
TO VOTE!!

BYE.

by Dee

Well, well, well, imagine me, Lester the cat, writing about pigeons- whatever
I know about pigeons could go in a cook book, along with all of the other
tasty things that I¹ve eaten.

Hands tells me secretly, "Why don¹t we invite those pigeons over
for dinner sometime soon?"

"Good idea," I tell him.

The reason I¹m writing about pigeons is that this guy named Joe sent
me something that he wrote about pigeons taking over the world (not with
us cats around, someone should tell him). This Joe wrote to me and Hands:

"Pigeons and cats mostly run Planet Earth!" Human¹s destructive
capacities are their own traits. Let the humans believe that they¹re in
control, stumble on to discoveries that we drop in their minds. Their
hidden control continues: These are Birdview, Pigeon mind(s). Are
You Sure That What You Think Is You Or Are They P-Minds?"

And he also sent us some photos- I¹m including a few. Don¹t notice if
they¹re a little spotty: me and Hands had a little trouble with our spit
the day that we looked at them. We had a drooling problem for
some reason.

As soon as I finish this column, which is now, I think I¹ll send this
guy Joe a Hands-written invitation to dinner with me and Hands- for him
and for his pigeons. We¹ll talk Joe (humor him) into going out
and taking many more rolls of film of many more pigeons, lots and lots
of pigeons. We¹ll give him categories: most beautiful pigeon, most happiest
pigeon, and so on- whatever takes him the longest.

Meanwhile me and Hands will amuse ourselves, discussing with the pigeons
this plan for taking over the world, and how "Pigeons and cats mostly
run Planet Earth", and the Delicious Dinner we will make OF, for,
I mean, the pigeons that this Joe guy leaves with us.

by Joseph Bolden, staff writer,

Joe welcomes your letters, comments and advice 

write to him at: poormag@sirius.com 

Henry Pellum writes from Hollywood,Ca 

Dear Joe, 

I wish to know more about IPO's, how do I begin to invest in them, also
if you are so poor how come you know so much about Mutual Funds? 


Anyway, I work as a Rent-a-cop, its boring work, I gotta get out. At 35
my life seems set in this rut. Someday I'd like to be married, can you
help me? 

************************* 

ASK JOE responds; 

Dear Mr. H. Pellem, 

Thirty-five is young these days, just feed your body and mind the proper
nutrients, vitamins, minerals-trace minerals and exercise regularly, cut
down or out on smoking, drinking and be careful with sex partners. Please
get tested regularly too. All these precautions may help you live longer. 

I bought a Mutual Fund for $300 I was unable to place $25 each month
due too homeless and sleeping in shelters but the fund (Bless 'em) didn't
close my account.  Visiting their office one day, surprised me the
money had increased slightly. 

DON'T demean your job, so being a Security Guard bores you, read financial
magazines, Wall Street Journal, bone up on companies you'd like to own
stock in, or quiz your buddies. Save money, open a savings account, go
to free seminars or paying ones. THIS SAME BORING JOB CAN HELP YOU. 

I.P.O (Initial Public Offerings) is new to every one. 

One problem is if it's heard on radio, TV people buy the stock quick plus
if your thinking of Day Trading you must   have $50,000 to start,
it must be fun win/lose money not savings, pension money. You heard a
psychopath killing his whole family then goes to Day Trading building
to kill more people because of a $250,000 loss. Personally I believe he
was unhinged to begin without the money loss. 

Research Day Trading, go to a free seminar or pay. 

I've read 70% of Day Traders lose money. 

While E-Trade(Electronic Trading) is slower paced. You can begin with
a broker as your guide through trading on the internet. When you safely
learn how to navigate economically then find your stocks, research then
buy, sell or keep and the rest is up to you. Any you won't loose your
mind on each transaction on the web. 

Mr. Pellem, relax. People want your boring job don't be too quick to
trash it, set a time table, be frugal, use that job and your time wisely.
Good by, Mr. HP. 

by Dee

BY HANDS, THE CAT. AND DEE.

During a Just Cause Eviction meeting, I, Hands, had the misfortune of
meeting a Puppy... A Shameless Puppy.

This pup felt so comfortable in his surroundings that he exposed all
his parts to anyone looking his way. Iwanted to scratch him and teach
him a lesson. For this shameless behavior, he got the most attention from
everyone in the room; way more than me, I might add.

Not only was he shameless; he was happy about his indecent behavior,
and everything else as well.

Happy to be on the couch, happy to be in the room, happy to be alive.

The night I had to see him was the first night he was in this place,
the place where they had the eviction meeting.

One of the occupants had bought him from a guy pushing a shopping cart.

Apparently the little pup had been riding around on this guy’s shopping
cart for some time, and I guess that’s why he would easily fall asleep
in odd places.

The occupant that bought him felt very proud of himself because
he had "saved this poor pup from a hellish existence riding around on
a shopping cart", he said. And everyone at the meeting was happy as well
that this happy pup was saved from such a dire existence.

Of course, I could see this pup’s future: loved and admired by all.
Hand-fed delicious morsels from the plates of the occupants. Bathed in
special soaps and perfumes.

I wasn’t envious. I had my own happy life to go back to. And I thought
maybe this pup would learn some manners from these people that saved him
from his shopping cart owner, and not have to shamelessly expose himself
all night in front of everyone again.

So, being curious as I am, I listened to the conversation the next day
of the gals I live with. I found out that the occupant who had saved this
pup from the horrible existence of a shopping cart home had taken the
pup to the pound. The occupant decided the pup would be lonely when the
occupant went to work.

Besides, it would just be too much trouble to care for the pup; therefore,
he said he would do the humane thing and take the pup to the pound, and
maybe someone would adopt him; and if not, he’d be put out of his
misery by the pound.

What luck, for this shameless pup to be rescued by such a caring person
as this occupant. Just think what a terrible life it could’ve been
for this pup; to ride around, alive and cared for, in a shopping cart,
for the rest of his life.

by Joseph Bolden, staff writer,

On December 10, 1948 the
General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (U.D.H.R.) This Declaration
guarantees the rights of all people and encompasses a broad spectrum
of economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights. The Human
Rights USA Steering Committee.

That was 52 years ago, 6 months more or less. Tell that, to Mr.
Mumia Abu-Jamal Geronimo Pratt now known as Geronimo Dijaja
and other falsely accused, wrongly convicted, faulty eye witnessed
individuals in prison or anyone that has been stopped for no other
reason than "reasonable suspicion." Dust off your old books, pamphlets,
or papers; you know, your Bill of Rights. Its: The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

I keep hearing America's economy is breaking records, creating
more wealthy individuals while at the same time people, families,
and single adults on fixed incomes, struggle with two or three jobs
because their low wages does not keep pace up to this "miracle market"/
economic boom. People are working longer, harder without a living
wage. As science and technological innovations place more people
on the unemployment line. One of many bright spots in this bleak
picture is we're living longer, are healthier, of course no one
wants to be a healthy, lusty individual at 80 without the means
to forfill those urges.

Imagine, being retired with little or no savings and though your
65, 70, 80 or more and your brain, hormones and you act and feel
10-20 years younger and though your at an age when your not suppose
to be working you may have not saved enough money or none at all
now you must work another 15 years. This cuts down on your personal
pleasure principle drastically. The elderly should be knowledgeable
sages about banks showing life is a process in motion,we don't just
grow older but change, improve, keep on growing wiser, stronger
more independent.

 top of article 

WE ARE THE PEOPLE, ELECTING PEOPLE TO BETTER
OUR LIVES NOT LINE THEIR POCKETS, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE MORE OF US
THAN THEM - PLEASE REMEMBER THAT. Folks, take a rest, nap, walk
outside, do other life affirming things... and when you're ready
read on... Our government, Yes our government needs to change too.
It doesn't have be drastic but in incremental fundamental ways.
Now that there is a surplus of funds built up by the I-net, Dot-
Com, real estate, foreign, and domestic investments created by Global
Capitalism shouldn't all the people benefit?

What I'm proposing isn't new, it has been said, written, thought
of two or more decades ago by brilliant, creative, and thoughtful
people and if by chance some readers know what I'm writing about
and want to contribute to the discussion please go to e-boards,
e-mail, each other, Congress, both President and Vice President
and on down the line so there is a ground swell of support.

Sounds radical, could be, all I'll say for now to excite your neurons
is:

When corporations have economic downturns our government supplies
extra cash we regular working stiffs call it a subsidy or
bailout. When people are out of jobs, strapped for cash, in need
of temporary or long term assistance or being-on-the-dole- its Welfare.
Think a minute or two ECONOMIC INCENTIVE, or WELFARE, THE ONE DIFFERENCE
IS THE WORDING, yet both need cash replenishment. Next time Part
2: The N0-WORK-SOCIETY. Bye.

(back to top) 

WE ARE THE PEOPLE, ELECTING PEOPLE TO BETTER
OUR LIVES NOT LINE THEIR POCKETS, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE MORE OF US
THAN THEM - PLEASE REMEMBER THAT. Folks, take a rest, nap, walk
outside, do other life affirming things... and when you're ready
read on... Our government, Yes our government needs to change too.
It doesn't have be drastic but in incremental fundamental ways.
Now that there is a surplus of funds built up by the I-net, Dot-
Com, real estate, foreign, and domestic investments created by Global
Capitalism shouldn't all the people benefit?

What I'm proposing isn't new, it has been said, written, thought
of two or more decades ago by brilliant, creative, and thoughtful
people and if by chance some readers know what I'm writing about
and want to contribute to the discussion please go to e-boards,
e-mail, each other, Congress, both President and Vice President
and on down the line so there is a ground swell of support.

Sounds radical, could be, all I'll say for now to excite your neurons
is:

When corporations have economic downturns our government supplies
extra cash we regular working stiffs call it a subsidy or
bailout. When people are out of jobs, strapped for cash, in need
of temporary or long term assistance or being-on-the-dole- its Welfare.
Think a minute or two ECONOMIC INCENTIVE, or WELFARE, THE ONE DIFFERENCE
IS THE WORDING, yet both need cash replenishment. Next time Part
2: The N0-WORK-SOCIETY. Bye.

(back to top)