2000

by Marlon Crump, QUeennandi, RAM /PNN

I am tired of being a slave. A slave that has to work with a broken body that’s sacrificed

Just to put food on the table.

A slave who had to lay to rest a demised family, disrespected by tha world

Gone forever without justice.

I am tired of being a slave to the kourt Sssystem, where my terrible cries for help falls upon deaf ears

Life tampered with and tortured before leaving out, laughed at and ridiculed.

As my rights are stripped from me easily, like a loose fitting garment.

If I can’t protect myself and my family, WHAT AM I? WHO AM I? Nothing but a empty shell existing for profit, robbed of something that takes a LIFETIME to restore-


MY WOMANHOOD!


Don’t I sound like a female slave, captured centuries ago??? And they said HERSTORY doesn’t repeat itself…

I am tired of being a slave, who at 7 months pregnant was beaten by officers Miller and Shea…

If there were no witnesses, I’d be dead in my grave.

IS THIS THE LAND THAT THE LORD HAVE MADE?

Shot dead was my unarmed neighbor just the other day. Now Oscar Grant lies beside him in a King’s marked grave…

But… ALL THE UNJUST SPIRITS SHALL RISE!!! To tell their stories through US!

POSSESS MY VESSEL!!! I am tired of being a slave… I just want to be!!!


QUEENNANDI09- ALL POWER!!!

by Queennandi Xsheba/PoorNewzNetwork

"Yes, I called em' (cps) and reported abuse and neglect, because I didn't like her!" The voice of new SF resident Sherie Lewis still echos in my ears as she confessed to me her part in the separation of Christana Martel's family. As we further spoke, she also admitted that she called the calworks department (Alameda county) and falsely reported that Christana sold all of her food stamp benefits on her EBT card for in exchange for marijuana, (that accusation resulted in Christana paying a HEFTY price) which according to (then) neighbors Mertis Bowden and Michelle Howell was a "f-ed up lie!", and that Christana kept "plenty of food"- Michelle explained to me that she was a guest over for dinner often. Ms. Lewis boasted on with her vengeance against Ms. Martel, attacks ranging from "manipulating" Christana's family members just to cause dissent, and too in one case, to win a frivilous lawsuit against a former landlord.

I stood there in awe as I literally watch this sista take sadistic pleasure in tearing down another sista. When I asked Ms. Lewis why, the sad and simple answer was that Christana was a poor mama. Far as CPS goes, people like Ms.Lewis whom in this case overstepped her boundaries and abused it (the Sssystem) tend to do this to "get back" at someone who was either an adversary to them, or out of plain jealousy. Either way, what is more than always overlooked is the children and their feelings towards being torn apart from their families, for no ligitamate reason other than their mama wasn't very well liked, or "crossed" by a certain individual. CPS "stands" for Child Protective Services, indicating that if a child is in immediate danger, or if the child is being abused, there is a hotline number to call and report such actions- granted. However, there are mamaz like myself, tiny, vivian and jewnbug who strongly believe in "Tribal Intervention" and the "It takes us to heal us" theory, which is unfortunately not practiced amongst all of the members of our tribes (communities), thus the results are tribal dissent, and definitely reasonable (understatement) mistrust for the outside Sssystem.

The impact of being removed from the home affected baby girl Destiny a bit more than her brothers, Dalevon and Deshawn. She was depressed, withdrawn and suffered from massive hair loss, but has been improving since Christana was given more time to spend with the children, and to see about Destiny's mental well-being. Why is this type of CPS abuse allowed to continue? The question remains in the "smokeblower", while mamaz such as Christana and myself ponder on non-exsistent penalties for folks like Ms. Lewis who abuse the law and walk away laughing, taking high stride pride in helping to break up fellow black families.
"Looking back at the Hassani case, in my opinion, placing the children in foster care isn't always the best option." Ms. Martel said. "If a mother is able- bodied, mind and willing, she should be given more access to resources that would enable us to become indpendent caretakers, rather than just snatch our children away from us."

Christana Martel is a single mother of four now, who loves her beautiful, talented children dearly. Fighting and overcoming a heartbreaking situation like hers took alot of strenght, and we @poormag call for others to press on, at the same time we commend Christana on her perserverance.

Ms. Martel is currently a supervisor at a popular eatery and keeps in close contact with her children regularly, since the children are with family members, Christana should have all the love and support from the family to help her and children repair the temporarily broken bond.

by Joseph Bolden

Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009

In San Francisco’s City Hall, 4th floor, room 400 There will be public comment on C.P.M.C’s [California Pacific Medical Center’s] Institutional Master Plan [I.M.P.]

It’s a public hearing on the above pursuant to Planning Code Section 304.5 The IMP [supposedly] (italics mine) contains information on the nature and history of the institution, the location and use of affiliated buildings, and future development plans.

The IMP is available for viewing on the Planning Department’s website (from www.sfplanning.org click “Publications & Reports” and the Institutional Master Plans”).

Recommendation: No action required.

This is an informational item only.

From Agenda Packet on San Francisco Planning Commission Notice of Meeting & Calendar in City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place.

First let me say I strongly dislike to be in a where politics is spoken, deals made, brokered, bartered, otherwise conveyed, made where to compromise is key.

{why I gravitate toward women who's have mastery of past and present this art/science called politics I’ve yet to figure out}

1:28 pm one of the elevators is stuck on the 2nd floor while the 1:30 meeting is on the 4th floor in room 400.

Because of a 12a.or b.’s Deharo Street building codes, Planning Commission, neighborhood, and long, arduous process, along with public commentary.

Which is no fault of the diligent commissioner’s unraveling technical problems for the proposed removal or addition of laws of height, parking, safety of elders and children took up more than 3 hrs.

By 7 pm. It’s still going on.

I leave after 3 pm. amazed at arriving on time in the first place
I’m notorious for being late to these functions.

I go home to sleep deciding to return before 4 pm when supposedly item 13 will be discussed even though it supposedly was to start at 4 pm.

It wasn’t until 7:10 or after that it began.

A blur of people, doctors/nurses, pro/con currently working, about or already retired.

People of the community, woman with child poetically challenged the planning commission, CPMC/IMP to seriously rethink the plans as not fully realized and others equally impassioned to let the plan go on to build a new Hospital instead of rebuilding St. Luke’s, an neighborhood institutional People’s Hospital that has withstood 80 years of community service.

Filipino, Chinese, Mexican language's with interpreter’s spoke up for their neighborhood about the clear displacement if St. Luke's is replaced with CPMC’s Blocks wide centralized Monster-Has-It-All-Hospital.

“That decentralization is no dim in-future time thing; we’ve already arrived!”

Poor Magazine’s (“Bad News”) Bruce” Allison is here slightly agitated for a worker who has never spoken in public.

It took a lot for her to publicly speak to the planning commission.

Nancy may be her name? She informs the commission that she and her coworkers at St. Luke's fear not only job loss will occur but more families will be harmed if this plan of replacing St. Luke goes through.

Bruce had her speak than himself knowing she can speak more forcefully about current state of St. Luke’s and representing many more people than just herself.
“Don’t do this, rebuild St. Luke’s keep it running not replace it with some mega complex.”

When my name's called I hesitate, what I had written down was “Keep Sutter Hospital Corp Out!” Its not good for families, working folk, or children already caught up in the Hell-Care System!” But said:

Don’t build this huge monster until these plans are looked over carefully.

We know about the Titanic-let’s not build another one and make sure residents aren’t displaced.”

A centralized hospital? We know everything is decentralized.”

We can prevent this, read the plans, We need more hospitals, rebuild St. Luke.”

"Think this through we need not build this!”

Or words to that effect.

It’s all a jumble now my analog tape player stopped.

Its 8:20 pm. By the time public comment… oops I left so public comment still was going on.

I did my civic duty and the day before I voted by mail.

This is why I dread City Hall and politics.

Yes, its our public republic democracy in action but for me its way to slow and I cringe when even contemplate how people elected to represent all of us has to toil through some of the headache inducing, mind numbing stuff rises up as escaping gas from broken pipes endless bogging us down.

For comments go to www.poormagazine.org or

TellJoe.poormagazine.org

Oh, readers apologies for the late column I am getting back to writing a daily column and may be on a podcast too.

by Staff Writer

Yeah it's me Anjia the little black girl

that gets judged by my peers

Yeah I was born in the bay

but that doesn't mean dat everyday

I should pay

Being misunderstood just because

they feel that I 'm hood


by: Anjia Glover Age: 17

by RAM/PNN

Theres a garden in the ghetto on the Sunnydale track

Theres a garden in the ghetto that was grown by Matt

To feed his wife and four kids in fact

You couldn't believe unless you seen it yourself in fact

That is revolutionary, living off the grid

He learned from his grandma as an eight year old kid

Peas, beans and a real pumpkin patch

He has the main one in the front and another in the back

Sunflower seeds in San Francisco

About twenty more things I havent put yet on the list though

Cherries, strawberry and watermelon

Potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, carrots all up in the zone

Did it on his own with Sunnydale dirt

Been growing for five years putting in the work

My honor to have met this proud black man

Yes its time for change and yes we can

by Marlon Crump, QUeennandi, RAM /PNN

“I am unarmed, please don’t shoot!”

Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow!

(Eight shots by a po-lice officer, according to a speaker.)

“This our holocaust!”

A couple of giant black banners are brandished in the crowd, bearing names and pictures of young lives like unsolved cold cases:

Sheila Detoy, 1998

Idriss Stelley, 2001

Asa Sullivan, 2006

Sean Bell, 2006

Gary King Jr. 2007

Michael Cho, 2007

Anita Gay, 2008

Andrew Moppin, 2008

Brownie Polk, 2009

Oscar Grant, 2009

All of them struck down by dark blue uniformed figures who are sworn to “protect and serve.” A T-shirt is worn by numerous victims at this event, showing a stick-figured po-lice officer gunning down a man.

“DANGER, POLICE IN THE AREA!” it read.

“NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!” everyone yelled!

“My only child was gunned down in 2001 while he was having a psychological breakdown: 48 shots!” mesha Monge Irizarry emotionally exclaimed to the crowd. Since then, Idriss’s death is her daily drive to do the work that she tirelessly continues to do.

October 22nd, National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation, is certainly more than just a traditional methodical way for everyone deeply impacted (including myself) to combat po-lice terrorism. Physical and verbal visibility had to be everyone’s direct approach towards a universal, monumental change that has been long overdue from receiving justice.

No more injustice to be served to us from a just-us “system.”

No batons would be swung at us, no tear gas or water hoses would be sprayed on us. No dogs would be turned on us. No guns would definitely be fired at us. Just like the 60’s era, our struggle continues in the 21st century. Our silenced voices and visible stances would be the exchanged fire that guns us down each day.

I awaited for my family of POOR, outside our office at 10:30 a.m. Nearly a half hour later, my mentor, POOR co-founder, “Tiny” Lisa Gray Garcia arrived. Afterwards, my other comrades, Kim Swan (a.k.a Queenadi), Ruyata McClothin (a.k.a RAM) and Carina Lomeli appeared.

We then headed to the rally, which was at the Oakland City Hall Plaza, in Oakland, CA where we were joined with another comrade of ours, POOR comrade Muteado, and other comrades in our struggle against this endless oppression, which is the government’s arm of control.

Our march destination would be at the entrance of the very building that has had a wicked history of patrolling and controlling communities of color:

THE OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT!

Po-lice culture trained and militarized by governments consisting of men and women of all races and faces instructed to kill.

To serve and protect the interests of only the arm that pays their bills and fill their dinner plates.To oppress, depress, and repress, not to really service those in duress. That always being the primary case in poor communties of color, poor communities in general, and even some cases of the privileged.

“I think this rally is good because it brings different units in the resistance movement.” Minister of Information, Jr. who’s a columnist for the S.F Bayview National Black Newspaper Paper, and voice for the Block Report Radio, explained to me. “Against the police, the government, murder and terrorism. Together to come up with creative solutions.”

We were all centered together in the middle of the plaza, resisting the scorching heat beaming down us. We ignored the smug and stern faces from the very few Oakland Police Officers who surrounded, and observed us as they prepared to walk alongside of us for crowd control and traffic safety.

(Although we only marched on the sidewalk, and our march would only be an estimated six blocks.)

From the director of the Idriss Stelley Action Resource Center, mesha Monge-Irizarry, Rita Akayama of the October 22nd Coalition, Christine Lynn Harris, Anti-Organized Stalking/Covert Terrorism Activist, and my family of POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, numrous other groups and families of po-lice brutality; the true heatwave felt in the air was everyone’s anger aimed at the unrelenting injustice by po-lice and the “justice system.”

The recent ‘change of venue” motion granted by a judge in the Oscar Grant Case for his killer, Johannes Mehserle to possibly be held in a capacity of an ignorant uncaring jury, in an unknown California County greatly increased all of our feelings towards the system and its corruption.

“My life was stolen! I am Oscar Grant!” yelled a female speaker on the mic.

“This is a chance for everyone who have lost a loved one through police brutality to tell people.” Kathleen Espinosa, mother of Asa Sullivan had said to me. She gave an emotional address to us at what the aftermath has been like for her and her family after Asa was killed by two members of the San Francisco Police Department, as he hid in a 2 ½ ft attic in 2006.

“I could’ve been Asa” I stated in “Beyond Chron” article a short time later after his death. This was ever so true, when I sat peacefully in my Single Room Occupancy Hotel at the Allstar, on a cold dark October 7th, 2005 evening. I was preparing to go to the supermarket for groceries.

The thought of twelve cops illegally opening up my door, drawing their firearms, and snatching me out of the sanctity of my home in a “mistaken identity scenario” forever stays with me. It has been one of the main cores of what I do in my work for POOR.

My ears captured numerous emotional, tearful and angry testimonies from people victimized by what everyone has called “an epidemic.” Before we marched, my family of POOR began to perform………Po Poets style!

Educating and skating on police hatred in the bay.

RAM, “No More Stolen Lives.”

Is this the land that the Lord have made? Shot dead was my unarmed neighbor just the other day. Now Oscar Grant lies beside him in a King’s marked grave.

Queenandi, “I am tired of being a slave.”

The night riders are back.
And this time, they are not wearing white.
They are dressed in blue.
With handguns and a badge.

Muteado, “Another Brotha gets lynched.”
(dedicated to the memory of Oscar Grant)

“This is totally unacceptable that every year we all have to protest this ongoing problem in our society.” I said to the crowd. I concured Muteado’s poem by stating the history of the po-lice as being the original “slave catchers.”

I also brought to the attention to everyone in attendance regarding the seemingly invisible terror that existed, which is an instrument of “law enforcement” with the means of organized stalking via covert terrorism that uses electromagnetic weapons and destructive technologies against unsuspecting citizens.

I referenced my statements to Christine Lynn Harris who has been highly active around the un-reported issue in corporate mainstream media, as she held up a sign that said, “STOP ELECTROMAGNETIC WEAPONS!”

Fresh from an anti-covert terrorism protest that took place a week ago in front of San Francisco City Hall; Christine expressed to me, in a tearful interview of how horrible the entire year has been for her regarding senseless coverts acts that have resulted in the significant damages to her organs, courtesy of electromagnetic weapons. She continues to seek justice from covert culprits that involve members of the San Francisco Police Department Mission District Station.

Our march began after a few more testimonies from po-lice victims and survivors. Glancing at the onlookers, we chanted,

“No more stolen lives!

“Justice for Oscar Grant!”
(among other justice chants of stolen lives in unison to Oscar Grant )

“Join us!”

“Stop police brutality!”

Approximately 20 mins and six blocks later, we arrived to the entrance of the Oakland Police Department.

Standing in unison with my POOR family at the front entrance of with the hot sun beaming steadfastly, my mentor Tiny revealed a startling sign that was on department’s front door entrance:

“PATROL DESK CLOSED TODAY”

It was blantly clear to us that the po-lice refused to hear our voices.

“Our country's national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob.”

Ida B. Wells

by Staff Writer

My name is Francisco

I was born in Santa Barbara till I was three

Then I moved to Oakland to live closer to family

we all struggle together

some of us have moved out

but the rest of us are still here.

Supporting brothers, sisters

most of us are called "Immigrants"

but are we?

so tell me are we "Immigrants"

by: Francisco Javier Gonzalez
Age 17

by Bruce Allison/PNN

The Governor caused letters (one of several sent about various services to folks with fixed limited incomes) to be sent to folks with in-home support services, a deliberately confusing communication which will cause many to lose those services. It will create major hardships for them and home-care workers (independents and/or relatives).

Folks should call (Consumer Rights For Community Living) 415-703-0286 or (Bay Area Legal Aid) 415-982-1300 to get help understanding what to do if it is necessary to ask for a Fair Hearing. If you are a social worker or case manager at a SRO or senior housing, confused about the letter, you too can call those numbers. Anyone who wants to help Consumer Rights For Community Living as a volunteer can call
415-703-0286.

Fair Hearing appeals will help folks using in-home support hang on to 2 or more months of services. There are only 5 “Administrative Law Judges” for the entire state of California, the more appeals the slower the process—which is a good thing! This should be done immediately, Fair Hearings can only be requested 10 days after the post mark is stomped on the letter, a nasty little piece of the Governator’s “practical joke”.

Social workers and case managers with clients living in SRO hotels that still don’t have in-hotel mail box service from our “wonderful” U.S. “Probable” Postal Service—which still has hostility in its semi-corporate heart for SRO tenants—should energetically encourage them to check their mail EVERY DAY (which seems like every day…) that they are in the Governator’s crosshairs.

If the client is vision-impaired or doesn’t speak English or Spanish, this, too, must be mentioned in the Fair Hearing request because the letter is limited to those languages and was printed in very very very fine print that even challenged the eye sight of the writer facilitator of this article, and the trans-gender staff writer for POOR Magazine, sitting nearby kibitzing on the writing of this article.

Due to the limited number of “judges”, this elder scholar believes that if virtually everyone affected by this situation appeals the process it will take 9 months to slog through the case load, which will create a lovely end-run effect around the Governator’s horrible strategy.

by Gloria Esteva--Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia

Scroll down for English

Como tantas supuestas leyes y políticas aquí en los EUA, muy pocas de ellas son forzadas cuando se da a los derechos humanos, especialmente cuando se referían a la gente pobre y de color. La edad de la esclavitud demostró un heroísmo de muchos de los esclavos negros que descubrieron sus propios derechos para la libertad y la igualdad de sus propietarios de ninguna otra manera mas que:

Desarrollar una estrategia económica clandestina que se vino a conocer como El Ferrocarril Subterráneo.

En el día presente, la misma estrategia económica subterráneo todavía existe, manifestado como S-A-N-T-U-A-R-I-O; el derecho de ser libres de la eliminación por desear una vida mejor de la que fue provenida. La política de San Francisco “Ciudad Santuario” aparentemente no tiene ningún peso legal, ni como una supuesta legislación por el gobierno por la ciudad.

Aunque, la edad de la esclavitud y la edad del inmigrante son un pocos diferentes, en términos de situación. Los cazadores de esclavos todavía existen en la forma de la policía, oficiales de la frontera, la migra, y los políticos.

Muchos funcionarios del gobierno y mucha gente en este país se vuelven institucionalizados con la noción negativa que la objetiva principal por gente emigrante (cuales siempre son referidos con el titulo racista y delincuente de ‘ilegal’ es de derrotar a los ciudadanos americanos de las oportunidades de trabajo, ayuda, y recursos fundamentales. La realidad es que los inmigrantes indocumentados ayudaron construir la misma economía que los esta deportando, y es algo muy ignorante.

El castigo cruel e inusual siempre es inminente donde el gobierno corrupto y corporaciones gulosas siguen aunando a la gente en la pobreza y poniendo a la gente de color a contra de cada uno, quienes solo luchan para la vida, libertad y prosperidad.

¿Hay que preguntarse uno, si no existiera el racismo, la opresión o la pobreza, seria este tema un problema?

Ingles Sigue

Like so many so-called enacted laws and policies here in the U.S.A, very few of them are seldom strictly enforced when it comes to the rights of human beings, especially when they're pertaining to people in poverty and people of color. The slave age showed the blatant, bold heroism of many black slaves having to discover their own rights for freedom and equality from slave masters and catchers, by the only means possible:

An economic underground strategy that became The Underground Railroad.

In the present day, that same economic underground strategy still exists, manifested into S-A-N-C-T-U-A-R-Y; the right to be free from removal for wanting to have a better life that was not provided before. San Francisco's 'Sanctuary Policy' is apparently not legal and binding, even as an alleged legislation by the city government.

Although the slave age, and the undocumented immigrant age are somewhat different and reversed in regards to the situations, the slave catchers still exists; plastic surgerized into the form of police officers, border patrol agents, I.C.E (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and politicians.

Most government officials and many people in this country become institutionalized with the negative notion that the primary objective by migrant peoples ( always referred to as the criminalized/racist title of "illegals") are to overthrow American Citizens from employment opportunities, aid, and fundamental resources. The reality that undocumented immigrants helped build the very economy that wants to deport them while caring for their families, like black slaves and foreigners did is irrelevant from the minds of the ignorant.

The cruel and unusual punishment is always imminent where corrupt government officials and greedy corporations continue to pit people in poverty and people of color against each other, who only seek the right to life, liberty, and prosperity.

One can only ask themselves that if there were no poverty, racism, oppression, etc, etc, would this really even be an issue?

by Bruce Allison and Thornton Kimes

Sitting many hours, listening to the Planning Commission, is not an easy thing to do. Bruce did it for approximately 12 hours October 15th, 2009, I lasted less than 3. The CPMC hospital proposal for the Van Ness corridor, finally came up at 8p.m. after 4 hours spent on a project threatening Open Space on De Haro Street.

You can always tell when the Sutter Corporation people are around by the red folders and their unrelenting ability to be “on-message”.

This corporation has told many lies, done many interesting things (like sucking $1 million out of Marin General Hospital for who-knows-what), including their current hard and soft sell of transforming what used to be the Jack Tar Hotel—now the Cathedral Hill Hotel, mere blocks from Thornton Kimes’ SRO hotel—into a giant boutique for-rich-folks-only hospital, while draining the life, money, bricks and mortar from their other hospitals which have served poor people for, apparently, too many years.

This poverty scholar was not surprised (but the other writer of this article WAS…) to know that CPMC/Sutter doesn’t only want the Cathedral Hill Hotel, it wants space on the other side of the Van Ness and Geary/Post block for this Frankenstein’s Monster project lurching into our collective rear-view mirror. Many small business people, including the Vietnamese and other South-east Asian women who run the 24/7 doughnut shop that Tiny and Mama Dee loved and still loves, will see their dreams shattered and lose the source of their income. San Francisco will lose the tax money they have been paying into city coffers for years, for however long it takes to build this monster—if it is actually built.

They destroyed villages to "save them" in Vietnam. Now they want to do damage to the tax base of San Francisco to put in a hospital we don’t need (I almost quoted “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”, not exactly the definition of “automatic writing” but close enough). This other poverty scholar article writer wonders if the doughnut shop women, who I have also come to appreciate (and took their doughnuts to watch movies down the street instead of buying vastly more expensive corporate movie theater candy…), feel a bit of “burn the village…” déjà vu?

Ms. Nancy, one of the workers at the doughnut shop, spoke at the hearing, using this poverty scholar’s time for an extra two minutes. She said that as a person who speaks limited English CPMC/Sutter’s project will make it incredibly difficult for her to find another job.

The people selling the hospital project visited the doughnut shop and told Ms. Nancy and others they didn’t need to bother showing up for any hearings, it was a “done deal”. The truth is they don’t even have permits to tear anything down or build anything new up, haven’t done an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) or any other preliminary study the “Usual Suspects” do when they attempt dotting i’s and crossing t’s.

Among other truths here, the other poverty scholar responsible for this article experienced considerable construction of needed and unneeded stuff in the same neighborhood over the past 2 years—an “affordable housing” building at Hyde and Turk, a Community Housing Partners SRO right next door to his SRO--and a building on Van Ness between O’Farrell and Eddy. This is all part of the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan (ENP), the Cathedral Hill Hotel is on the far, well, frontier of it.

One of POOR Magazine’s alternative media allies/friends/partners, the Mission District-oriented El Tecolote monthly newspaper has run many articles about the ENP, so, please, readers of this space, check them and their coverage of it out, keep watching for more here, and, most definitely, we want your bodies sitting in front of the Planning Commission—and your voices talking to them about this and the need for more and better health care for those who really need it in this town: the poor.

by Press Release

On October 1, 2009, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe assumed management and oversight of the Southern Ute Health Center in Ignacio, which has been operated by the federal Indian Health Service (IHS) and provides health care to Southern Ute tribal members and other local Indians.

The Tribe had initially proposed such a transfer to IHS as early as in 2005 under the Indian Self-Determination Act, or ISDA, a federal law that seeks to “assur[e] maximum … participation [by Indian tribes] in the direction of … Federal services to Indian communities so as to render such services more responsive to the needs and desires of those communities.” The IHS declined the Tribe’s initial proposal, which led to protracted litigation. Recently, the Tribe and the HIS agreed to a contract under the ISDA that allowed the Tribe to begin management of the Southern Ute Health Center while still allowing for the resolution of the issues that led to the litigation.

“The Tribe has been looking forward to this date for a long time and many tribal leaders, including previous Chairmen, members of prior Tribal Councils, and numerous tribal members committed to improving our healthcare have brought us to this point,” said the Tribe’s Chairman, Matthew J. Box. “Unfortunately, it has taken us longer to get here than we had hoped but we are excited that we can now move forward with our plans for providing quality health care to our members and other Indians in the community.” Chairman Box noted that health care was a top priority for the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council and taking over management of the Health Center was an important accomplishment for meeting that priority. “Although the changes may not be immediately seen,” Box said, “the Tribe’s management of the Health Center will ultimately mean we can be more responsive to the health care needs of our members rather than relying on the IHS.”

by Marlon Crump

“Stop Group Stalking!”

“Stop Electromagnetic Weapons!”

“Stop Defamation of Character!”

“Stop Electronic Torture!”

“Restore Human Liberties!”

The voices of victims resisting the above covert acts of terror took to the front entrance of San Francisco City Hall on a humid October 14th, 2009 afternoon. Their voices finally began to penetrate the voluntary deaf ears, from the above said protest signs, handmade.

One of the signs given to me by a fellow protestor spoke its own voice, in big black bold letters: “STOP ORGANIZED TERROR!” I was also given a button that said, “Freedom from Covert Harassment & Surveillance.”

There was a visibility from fear, anxiety, and isolation of resistance in the air towards the acts of terror; covertly occurring upon them by the steps of the very city officials, who have the authority to aid them.

“This event means to expose crime committed against humans, by U.S. Government Agencies.” A protestor stated to me. He later told me that he produced a documentary film regarding “brain implants.”

My presence at this rally was my duty, without question. Being a reporter for my family of POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, I’m committed like my comrades to re-port and sup-port for the unheard voices intentionally silenced by corporate mainstream media, locally and globally.

I’ve been on numerous marches and protests since living in the Bay Area of San Francisco, for the past five years. Many of them pertained to the issues of poverty, racism, oppression, police brutality, budget cuts, etc, etc. These issues are always at the root core for the resistance within our work at POOR.

Today’s protest rally, “International Alliance Against Covert Electronic Abuse Global Human Rights Protest” was the first of its kind that I’ve ever re-ported on, and sup-ported for, to date.

This was not just a local crisis call to end an injustice for T.I (Targeted Individual) victims in cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and here in San Francisco. This was also global crisis call to action from victims to end the terrorism that appeared to be “too far-fetched” for “media coverage.”

T.I victims currently have a movement to end this crisis in the United Kingdom, India, and three cities in Canada.

“We protested in front of the Legislative Assembly Building and near Medical Science Building of University of Toronto on the 14th of October. We started at 10.30 A.M. There were 5 people in front of the Legislative Assembly, and I, Galina Kurdina.” Galina, a T.I. said to me via email, in detailing “People approached us and we distributed about 10 fliers.”

Unfortunately, Galina also stated that a women attempted tactics to implement a scanda upon them. Eventually she was scared off when one of the protestors offered to take her picture, and she fled the scene. The rally continued on.

“One student of University of Toronto, sweet boy, said to us that, in his opinion, these experiments were disgusting, another person wished us to continue our struggle.”

In front of S.F City Hall, a C.B.S 5 News crew of two bypassed us, as we were numbered neared twenty. An undisclosed source later told me that they were told to ignore us. No corporate mainstream media coverage of covert terrorism intended to capture this event. “That doesn’t surprise me, everybody.” I yelled to them.

“That’s why we do what we do at POOR Magzaine because of them!”

In “Electronic Harassment” and “Targeted Individuals” (featured on www.poormagazine.org) many of the voices heard in both stories have often been covertly covered, ridiculed, discredited, harassed, with the end result leading them into fearful, faithless isolation.

An “Enough is Enough” stance from everyone at today’s rally was an awareness to the public regarding the categorical use of advanced deadly technology, organized stalking, microwave, directed energy, electromagnetic and mind control weapons often used against them.

This action was to be the first of many in the future. This one was the beginning to the demise of a bizarre seemingly invisible means of covert terror meant to control, harass, intimidate, and even experiment from persons or persons unknown. It didn’t matter to all of us who, what or where they were on this October 14th, 2009 Day.

It wouldn’t matter to everyone on whether or not any of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom would listen from the inside. I didn’t even matter if the organized perpetrators, themselves would appear to intimidate everyone in covert fashion, and “support” the cause.

The unheard voices of the International Alliance Against Covert Electronic Abuse needed to finally be heard on the outside.

After I was picked up by Anti-Organized Stalking Activist, T.I Organizer, Christine Lynn Harris a T.I, (Targeted Individual) and director of ISARC (Idriss Stelley Action Resource Center) mesha Monge-Irizarry, my comrade we soon found ourselves across the street from S.F City Hall before we knew it.

The three of us stood alongside of each other, as we awaited the arrival of the other unheard voices, victims of covert terror. For Christine, this event was nearly a year dragged into the making.

Hit with strange severe sophisticated technology. Stalked by suspicious individuals (some possibly S.F.P.D Officers) during her daily activities. Emergency hospital admission on numerous occasions for severe radiation damages to her organs. Individuals appearing at her home costumed as phone technicians.

Ignorant and disbelief from people questioning the level of her sanity, despite documented proof supporting her claims. Consumed with constant physical and mental torture, while being forced to be attentive to her surroundings anywhere she goes. (Tactical component covert acts used by what some are calling, “The Crazy Makers.”)

Not to say the least, her very life threatened with a marked C.D, and even her car illegally towed in retaliation for speaking out.

“All of this over a f!@## piece of paper!” Christine often exclaimed to me. She previously sent the attorney general's office a letter concerning misdeeds of the president of the homeowners association. A short time later, Christine received an ongoing onslaught of electronic attacks, and covert stalking after voicing her concerns.

The sun scorched us. It pushed away rainy clouds, but it failed to prevent T.I (Targeted Individuals) voices from joining the rally.

They arrived a short time later, eager to get their unheard voices underway. Some of them were from California cities, such as Modesto, Fresno, Marin County, Oakland, and Berkeley.

“This makes me feel that I am not the only one going through this.” A T.I protestor said to me. She began to explain to me, (while fighting back tears and showing expressions of hopelessness) the horrors of harassments by S.F.P.D Officers, false accusations made towards her, and the removal of her driver’s license and car. “My father died when I was eighteen from electromagnetic weapons.”

After some pleasant verbal exchanges with onlookers, passer bys, an S.F.P.D Officer, a media crew from S.F. VID (who interviewed Christine) and a couple of S.F Sheriff Deputies, during the first few hours, we all went to the side of the street curb, and waved our signs to oncoming motorists.

To our surprise, many of them cheerfully honked their horns in support. For four straight hours in the heat, some of us (including myself) wearing black, we received horn honking praises from the oncoming drivers.

“Today feels very exciting because this is groundbreaking from victimization of T.I.s, towards a proactive grassroots effort all over the world.” mesha explained to me.

“I think it was a mission accomplished because we had about twenty people show up for the protest, a reporter from S.F Vid, and the rain cleared up for us today.” Christine said to me. “I think that we got the acknowledgment we received.

"God sees everything!"

Revelations 18:21

by Thornton Kimes

“It’s about the gentrification of all aliens
Humans and abroad
They look different to us but I bet we looking odd
About how humanity can just put you in a place
Even where there is no space
And even out of there
They still got chased…”

--District 9 Notes by Ruyata McGlothin

Sometimes I think Peter Jackson is God. I read “The Lord of the Rings” before going into high school, but didn’t really understand it until Jackson started directing the movies and I re-read the whole thing. Tolkein may or may not have understood eco-consciousness, but his Ents sure as hell did, and the Hobbits got theirs back when the Fellowship of the Ring returned from their adventures.

Jackson has struck gold, again, with “District 9”, an original science fiction dystopian present/future movie, a story about aliens crashlanding right in the middle of one of the most infamous poverty-stricken areas on Earth—South African shanty-towns (and places like Lesotho, which I think are still classified as “countries” inside South Africa) which, despite the “end” of Apartheid, haven’t disappeared into economic prosperity for all. Which happens to be true, as well as brutally displayed on the big screen.

There is so much to talk about here, whether or not you like/love science fiction/fantasy (my first love in reading, along with superhero comic books…which I can’t afford to buy anyway…). District 9 reminds me of “Alien Nation” (A. N.), the movie (1988) and the tv series (1989), but the D-9 aliens, nicknamed “Prawns” (replace that with “Wetback”, “Nigger”, “Redneck”, “White Trash”, “Fag”…) aren’t as cuddly and human-looking as the stranded A.N. ex-slaves.

One of the “Alien Nation” aliens became a cop, teamed up with a human. There have been numerous novels written based on video games, tv series (Star Trek, for one), etc. In one “Alien Nation” novel, SLAG LIKE ME (“Slag” was the nasty slang term for the you-know-who), a Black journalist became a Slag via plastic surgery—and was discovered to be a black-skinned human by a White racist…who murdered him.

Simple motives for devastating events like murders tend to generate unintended consequences and ricochet through peoples’ lives like old-school steel pinball game balls.
The last hit between the eyes in SLAG LIKE ME is a public poll, published in a newspaper and yakked about on tv, that reveals that Humans think “Slags” are, well, White People…because they look like White People.

The “Prawns” crash-land and their mother-ship hovers over Johannesburg, South Africa, for 20 years before the events of the movie begin. Anti-gravity anyone? The alien mothership and the alien ghetto have been getting on everyone’s nerves, and encouraging the local crime bosses to ever greater outrages, so the authorities decide to move their uninvited guests to “District 10”, much farther from the city and, at least on tv, “cleaner” and not chaotic.

So you get the idea nobody would hire one of these guys to be a cop. The lie-of-the-budget-cut that POOR Magazine frequently talks about, poor folks given only crumbs, forced to fight other brands of poor folk for the limited supply of crumbs, and then forced to endure things like San Francisco Mayors and California Governors dissing us and slashing the crumbs into ever smaller pieces…comes out brilliantly, and with a subtle visual twist of the knife—a poor Black South African talks to the television news media about hating and fearing the Prawns, because they steal their stuff and then kill them…as a Prawn digs through a dumpster behind the person being interviewed.

The aliens have human names, we never learn any others (echoes of American slavery). Did humans just decide this didn’t matter, or is there some other reason for this unanswered detail?

“Bad News” Bruce Allison, elder scholar and so much more at POOR Magazine, also saw District 9. “People were walking out of the theater, acting like they were looking for ‘Star Wars’, or maybe they’d left their brains at the candy counter,” he said in a conversation with me. “District 9” isn’t “Independence Day”, though I enjoyed that movie. It turned the aliens into the eco-nasties, instead of little ol’ us struggling with self-inflicted global warming, but did anyone notice?

District 9 forces you to take time to understand whazzup. A fictional documentary with bursts of “real life” events as the eviction/gentrification of the Prawns gets rolling, awkwardly and chaotically, the construction of the characters and how much we develop any sort of empathy, dislike, or hatred for them, is as skillfully done as in Slumdog Millionaire.

The Prawns’ language makes it even harder to identify with them. Imagine my shock at discovering how much I did as the movie went along, and the various heroes and villains get under your skin in so many interesting and disturbing ways. I even learned to like and/or respect the man appointed to “lead” the effort to move the Prawns (a man you could trust to maybe do your plumbing, or file your income taxes, but--), a character who I think is the best definition of “fictional love/hate relationship” I’ve so far encountered.

Walking a mile in someone’s shoes, or traveling light years that way, is a staple of magic realism and science fiction. Think Kafka and the man who became a cockroach. There are science fiction tales that take Kafka’s cockroach for a ride on that boobytrapped bus in “Speed”, but few better than this one. If it is difficult for you, the reader, to wrap your head around someone wanting to be a different sex, how about being forced to change species?

You think he’s the perfect man to take the fall for his boss when things inevitably go wrong, but when this gentrification-on-steroids goes bad, it becomes what POOR Magazine staff writer Vivian Hain calls “Wrongology”. You think he’s a really shallow,
evil person, then you find out he isn’t, then you find out he can be a good guy and a bad guy and somebody seeming to lose his mind so thoroughly he doesn’t believe he’ll ever find it again.

If Peter Jackson never makes a “District 10” sequel, that’s okay with me. The reverberations and what-came-next ruminations will be rattling around in my head like dice for a long time. The only thing currently moving in any sort of perceptible forward-like direction in my life is POOR Magazine and POOR Press—DISTRICT 9 came along at a good time, doing what art is supposed to do, kick (insert appropriate name or pronoun) in the metaphorical ass.

Ruyata’s poem does the same thing:

“We didn’t create them yet and still we put them up
In South Africa
After they torn down shanti towns
For the World Cup
How one of us slowly became one of them
And just how his value depleaded
All down to one limb
About change, and how ready for it we aint”

by Staff Writer

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."

Michael Jackson.

I thought Thursday June 25th, 2009, would be a typical day............or so I (and the rest of the world) thought.

I went to the San Francisco Main Public Library, at approximately 3:00p.m to check my email. Before my arrival, I noticed that wherever I went, a certain artist's songs were blasting on anything that had a radio broadcast. The stunning reason became apparent when I highlighted the internet site publication of Yahoo News.

Then I saw it, the headline that solar eclipsed the world:

MICHAEL JACKSON DEAD AT 50!

"Jackson was taken to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where doctors said he was non-responsive."

I quickly got up from the computer and walked around. That very headline would've put me in a great state of shock, had I known him personally. For the rest of the week, his music continued to blast everywhere. Everything, his life, success, music, controversies, and the legacy he would leave immediately came out, like an overstuffed closet.

Like the deaths of J.F.K, Dr. King, Bruce Lee, Elvis Presley, and Tupac Shakur, before him, Michael Jackson's death left a stampede of shockwaves that still have yet to be removed, from people's minds. Though death is an assured reality for all human beings, he was always viewed by millions across the globe as an angelic being, for inventing heart-grasping music, and presenting his dazzling performances, far beyond the human anatomy.

For everyone that followed his career since he was eight years old, Michael Joseph Jackson was just that!

"I was a veteran before I was a teenager, "he once said.

After Jackson pursued his own musical solo career away from his older brothers, the legendary "Jackson 5" he earned the non self-proclaimed title: "The King of Pop." His incomparable dancing, moves, singing, gimmicks, clothing, and world wide performances would forever earn him that uncontested title.

The King of Pop had weathered the entire music industry with a thunderstorm that continues to rage, even with his now dearly- departure from earth. During the 1980s, his greatest (and the greatest) album of all time, Thriller, along with many of his other past and present albums and songs had universally-transcended Jackson far above his very own success.

He single-handedly ruled the entire pop music industry during that era. "There's nothing that can't be done if we raise our voice as one." This was an infamous quote by him that was stated at his memorial tribute. My family of POOR Magazine/POOR News Network can identify with those words based on the work that we continue to do, with our own slogan:

"The Revolution begins with I and ends with WE!"

An icon's icon, a performer's performer, and a pop culture folk hero legend's legend earned him the spotlight among many, forever. I told everyone that came around me that he would possibly have the BIGGEST memorial tribute that anyone in the world has ever seen.

I was right.

July 7th, 2009, 18,000 plus fans attended Michael Jackson's memorial tribute, at the Los Angeles Staples Center. An un estimated thousands more fans paid tribute to him outside, while millions more watched the memorial (including myself) on T.V.

Wearing the crystal white glove, his red leather and black Thriller outfit, t-shirts bearing his face or name, posters, and everything associated with Jackson's gimmick were what his fans carried with them, in honor of him.

Myself, among many fans and loved ones knew that he had touched the world to such an unfathomable degree, that this memorial tribute could be held every single day, and no one would still believe that Michael Jackson was really gone.

Among the many speaking participants, celebrities, performers, and highly recognized activists were:

.Singer Lionel Richie

.Singer Mariah Carey

.Singer Stevie Wonder

.Singer Usher Raymond

.Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records

.Kobe Bryant, basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers

.Earvin Magic Johnson, former basketball player, and humanitarian

.Rev Al Sharpton, civil rights activist

.Singer Jennifer Hudson

.Actress Brooke Shields

.Actress Queen Latifah

.Rev Martin Luther King III

And as well Michael's entire family were there to say goodbye to him.

Queen Latifah recited a poem by famed poet, Maya Angelou, "We had him:"

He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.

Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that.

He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.

We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.

His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.

And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.

We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing. He gave us all he had been given.

Guitarist John Mayer, performed one of Jackson's greatest hits, "Human Nature" by the means of his electric guitar. "I’ll be there" (One of Jackson’s hit songs) was sung by Mariah Carey, "Gone too Soon" was tearfully sung by Usher Raymond, " Will you be there" (One of Jackson’s other hit songs) was sung by Jennifer Hudson, "Never Dreamed you’d leave in Summer” and “They won’t go when I go” was sung by Stevie Wonder.

At the O2 Arena, in London, England the "Queen of Pop" Madonna paid tribute to the "King of Pop." Ironically, this is where he was scheduled to perform his next concert dates.

Smokey Robinson spoke the words of legendary singer, Diana Ross, and former South African president, Nelson Mandela, in their shared grief with the world on losing Michael Jackson.

Brooke Shields, a long time friend of Jackson seconded those statements, in her emotional address of Michael. "To the outside world, he had unchallenged ability."

While the "King of Pop" was beloved by millions, there were always the negatives that attacked his career. Being subjected to scandals, allegations, public ridicule for his numerous skin transformations, and being a constant survivor of childhood abuse; only motivated Jackson to work even harder towards penetrating negative public opinions about him.....................by the means of his very own voice and art.

"People write negative things cause they feel that's what sells." Jackson once said. "Good news to them doesn't sell."

"There was nothing strange about your daddy!" exclaimed Rev. Al Sharpton to Michael Jackson's children, as they sat in the audience "What was strange was what he had to deal with!"

Two of Jackson's hit songs, "We are the World" and "Heal the World" were sung, which concluded the ceremony. Those two very songs by Jackson closed out the ceremonial memorial tribute; sung in unison by a community that quickly crowded the stage to be living testimonies, of what message these two songs by Jackson really meant.

"Ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. I just want to say that I love him so much."

These were the words of his daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson. Millions, (including myself) that watched this tribute had tears in their eyes. Hearing this little girl speak about how much she missed her father, in front of the whole wide world, could've melted the hardest of hearts to trickle a tear.

A flowered, golden casket of Michael Jackson lie below the stage, as he was prepared to be driven out and be laid to rest after the memorial tribute. Days following his death, a picture of him was placed on POOR's memorial alter in honor of all our comrades, elders, and brethren struck down in their struggle for survival.

"Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone." Marlon Jackson said softly, as he stood alongside on the stage with Jermaine Jackson.

A summer's disregard

A broken bottle top

And a one man's soul

They follow each other

On the wind ya' know

Cause they got nowhere to go

That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change,

yey

Na na na, na na na, na na na na oh ho

Lyrics from Michael Jackson’s 1988 hit song, “Man in the Mirror” from his album, “Bad.”

by Tony Robles

I’m at work sitting across the desk from my co-worker Solo. His eyes are tired and watery. He leans back in his chair awash in the overhead florescent light. “I want to go back home”, he says. He speaks of the tsunami that hit his homeland on Sept. 29th and the image he saw of a slipper floating on water on TV. Four 15-foot waves triggered by an undersea earthquake hit the island of American Samoa, waves crashing into everything in its wake a mile inland. We sat and watched the images together, images of wrecked boats, cars, destroyed houses. The reports indicated that the tsunami had destroyed all low-lying areas and struck too rapidly for a full evacuation. He pointed out places he knew, like the local fishery and parking lot. “I want to go back and help my people”.

I met Solo a few months ago. I remember when he walked through the door for the swing shift. I thought he was Filipino. He was about 6 foot 2, 220 lbs. I’m Filipino. Sometimes I wish I was 6’4”, 220. We work as security guards at an apartment complex in the city. Our uniforms are the same—jacket with fur collar, polyester shirt, badge and shoulder patch with some kind of Celtic symbol. We worked a few days when I asked him, “What are you?” “I’m Samoan”, he said. Some of the residents at the complex tell him he looks like the wrestler known as “The Rock”. That makes him laugh. I don’t respond. We spend our shift communicating on a 2-way radio. Lots of static on that radio.

A couple weeks ago I was drinking coffee. The TV was on and the coffee fumed as the images passed over the screen: people in water, neck deep; children and elders hovered together on buildings, people wading through mud and debris; elders and mothers looking up to the sky amidst the destruction of their communities, their homes. Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines on September 26th bringing a month’s worth of rain in just 6 hours. Manila was covered in water. I’ve never been to the Philippines. My grandparents left our indigenous homeland in the 1920’s. I speak no Filipino but I feel Filipino. I recall my cousin saying to me, “You couldn’t make it in the P.I.”. He used to be in the Navy.

Solo sits across from me, the light reflecting on a desk that cannot hide its scratches. We take our break in the guard office. On the wall to the left is a map of San Francisco; in back is a map of the world.

“Eat” Solo says in a way that reminds me of family. He brings food in Tupperware containers: ham, pineapple, chicken, rice and fish. “Eat” he says again, gesturing for me to take as much as I want. The way he shares is food is Filipino. He lets me take a helping first. Then he serves himself. He then walks to the soda machine and buys drinks for both of us. I tell him he eats like a Filipino. He puts the rice in his mouth and we share our laughter. I wonder if he thinks I laugh like a Samoan.

“Back home I go fishing”, Solo says. With a spear and snorkel and flashlight”. He talks about catching lobster and fish. He says that when the fish are caught, he first shares it with his neighbors, then brings the rest home to his family. Solo is from a big family of 8—5 boys and 3 girls. To share is part of Samoan culture. “Back in Samoa, if you walk in front of another person’s house, they call you in to eat. We are a sharing people, a giving people. In Samoa, people respect the elders, here they don’t care”.

We finish eating and walk around the apartment complex we are hired to guard. It’s time to close the swimming pool. Many folks in the pool are young, many are white and from Orange county, among other places. They sometimes sneak into the pool, their form of entitlement. We tell them that the pool is closed. Through the trees we can see the moon. Solo looks at the blue water of the pool. “Back home in Samoa, the water is deeper than this”, he says.

Solo works 2 jobs. He’s tired much of the time. He sends money back home to his wife. His other job is doing security at a hotel. He sees young girls, drunk, late at night during all night parties. Where are their mothers, he asks. Back home in Samoa, the young do not leave their parents. The families stay together.

Solo came to the US 3 years ago from American Samoa. His uncle is pastor of a church in the city. Solo came to help with the church. He is the Sunday school coordinator, plays guitar and serves breakfast to the elders in the congregation (oatmeal, hot bread and cocoa rice). He loves to sing. His baritone is rich. He’ll sometimes sing that old song, “The Green Grass of Home”. I asked him why his homeland is called American Samoa. He paused and said he didn’t know. There are 2 Samoa’s he says, Western (Independent) and American Samoa. Sometimes he and his friends ponder the question but those moments come and go. It is a legacy similar to the Filipino experience: colonization and displacement from lands. American Samoa is considered an American territory (it is the size of Washington DC), land that was divided between the Germany and the US. There was an indigenous resistance movement to the colonization but was suppressed by the US Navy. A committee was sent to “investigate” the status of American Samoa, a committee made up of the same people involved in the overthrowing of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

We sometimes sit in his car and he’ll play music from back home. The songs are in Samoan and praise the creator. I went home and found a Samoan radio station online called, “Showers of Blessings”. I think of the downfall in the Philippines, one month’s worth of rain in 6 hours. The music is beautiful like the music in Solo’s car.

We go back to the security guard office and sit at the desk. We talk about the typhoons that have hit the Philippines and Samoa, and Indonesia. He wants to go back home more than anything. On the radio a commercial for the California lottery comes on. “If I won the lottery, I’d take the money and rebuild all the houses”, he says. His family moved to high ground on the island. Many have died. The airport was shut down and roads and communication have been severely damaged.

He told me the story of an old woman in a wheelchair. The younger one’s were trying to move her to safety. The woman told them, “Leave me, just go. I know that it is God’s love. That water is God’s love touching me”. A field supervisor for the Security Company that employs us, also Samoan, told me that the Samoan people survive because of their love for and faith in God. Big people, big heart, she said. We sat for a while, not saying anything. Then we got up and went on our patrol.

To help our brothers and sisters in Samoa, send your contributions to POOR Magazine, 2940 16th Street #301, San Francisco, CA 94103

by PNN staff

“Immigrant children, like all children, are our children, our responsibility, our future. With his rejection of this legislation, Newsom condemns our children to ongoing abuse and unending criminalization, said Lisa Gray-Garcia, single mother and executive director of POOR Magazine.

Thousands of community members, advocates and fellow board members in an 8-2 vote on October 20th supported Supervisor David Campos Legislation to give due process to immigrant youth who face arrest in San Francisco before Immigration and Customs Enforcement is contacted. After the vote Mayor Gavin Newsom publicly stated that he would not follow the legislation and that it had no merit, which means their will be increased attacks and ongoing abuse of the basic civil rights of our immmigrant children.

In response to the Mayors statements, a cross-cultural coalition of mothers and fathers are publicly accusing the mayor and ICE of child abuse and criminalization of our immigrant children and youth as the impact of deportation and incarceration without due process is a serious form of abuse.

“Immigrant children are everyones’ children,” said Kim Swan, mother of three African-American children.

“Why do they continue to criminalize our babies, this is a form of child abuse,” said Ingrid DeLeon, mother of four immigrant children.

by Staff Writer

· Welcome M-1 of dead prez to the Bay Area – East and West Oakland, San Francisco, Sonoma, San Jose, Santa Cruz – for six days of sharing his recent experiences in Gaza, Cairo and Europe and comparing them with ghetto life in the U.S. – six events Sept. 24-29 benefiting the SF Bay View and Block Report Radio. Get ready for some explosive revelations! Get a foretaste with 24 hours in Gaza by M-1.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"It is heart-wrenching to realize that you have become a mind control experiment by your own government. It�s something that I am still putting up with and coming to terms with. I don�t have any drug history. I also have no criminal background and no DUI�s. (Driving Under the Influence) My background is very clean so I am guessing I was just unlucky.� (D. T.: Targeted Individual).

"They politics like ours profess, the greater prey upon the less."

Matthew Green, poet

�As for the so called protest, is it some lame ass conference call again? How is that going to get anything done let alone intimidate perps?�

Callous remarks from a discovered infiltrator name on a Yahoo Website safe haven for victims, called �Targeted Individuals.�

His objective was to discourage, disrupt, and dismantle any attempts by the T.I. victims towards organizing a protest crisis call to action. I informed him with a chronology of obnoxious remarks that he failed on all accounts in his mission.

An empty air drafts an individual when an invisible trouble follows them every where they go. People who drifting off into the day, the night to a lake, a wooded area, or simply down a hallway. The immediate uncomfortable feeling of an unknown danger of the covert persuasion places them into immediate heart-pounding fear.

When that danger is discovered, the individual quickly fetch the nearest pay phone (if they are without a phone of their own) or a concerned citizen who just happens to witness the situation.

They feeling of relief enters their heart them when a police squad car pulls up to assist them.

(Or are they really able or even willing to assist them?)

The individual turns to their local governmental authority to urge them to stop these acts from continuing. They are either assured that �an investigation will be underway� or they are simply told that there is nothing that they can do.

They then find themselves in more frightening situations where they�re targeted and stalked--by means of manufactured sophisticated technologies used for terrorism, conquering, and control.

A control wave of invisible psychological concentration camps, by an unknown Fuhrer (leader) continues its reign. Many victims have actually called this the �silent Holocaust.�

Covert stalkers often greet their victims literally right above their noses, some wearing smiles like wolves hiding behind sheep: Costumed as passer bys, people asking victims strange questions, police officers (the worst), doctors, and even a postal worker.

�On August 31st, 2009 at 3:00p.m., I approached the counter to have a piece of mail sent �certified.� A T.I explained to me. (she requested to remain anonymous.) The postal worker looked angry, and as I placed my letter on the counter she stuck her tongue out at me.� The T.I described, �in a very strong gesture, straight out of her mouth.�

Amidst the bizarre behavior by the postal worker, and the T.I trying to avoid an unnecessary situation that was getting uglier by the minute, the woman said something terrifying: �WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE!�

It becomes blatantly obvious that a person like T.I has unwittingly become A �Targeted Individual!�

The T.I later explained that she was on a �hate list� after inquiring to the F.B.I. Are the covert stalkers fully aware of that fact?

The family of POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, including me, are targeted 24/7, because of the work that we do.

Poor communities of color vs land grabbers, youths vs the police vs the legal system, poor single mothers vs Child Protective Services vs corrupt judges, and unheard voices vs corporate mainstream media gives a frightening detail of the word itself, and not only from a covert persuasion.

Origins of covert perpetrators and stalkers who participate in these "operations" are usually people who willfully engage or are brainwashed in a structured, hate-filled environment.

The acts (and especially weapons) in question, comes from methods invented, used, and abused by primary U.S. �law enforcement� agencies and not just holocaustic hate groups, like the Ku Klux Klan:

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I) (and its activist attacking operation program, COINTELPRO) Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) National Security Association (NSA) and the highly opposed warrant less use of numerous surveillance cameras �Big Brother.�

The weapons and devices of technological terror commonly used by the some of the above said law enforcement agencies and military armies are as follows:

Directed Energy Weapons (D.E.W.S) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon

.Satellites www.surveillanceissues.com

.V2K (Voice to Skull/Mind Control) www.voicetoskull.com/Perps.htm

.Microwave Weapons www.mondovista.com/microwave.html

(Among many others)

In my follow up article of, �Electronic Harassment� the voices of victims who are gang stalked, electronically harassed, attacked, and targeted in general, continue to echo into ears for help.

Sadly, many of those ears voluntarily remain deaf when it comes to their situations, particularly political figures who disguise themselves as �public servants.�

I stated in �Electronic Harassment� of the Age of Technology Terror, �These victim's voices are seldom taken seriously due to the ignorance, disbelieving, scrutiny, and even ridicule resulting from such acts actually taking place leading many governmental authorities and their counterparts to conclude that such mysterious acts are "absurd" or "preposterous."

Unfortunately, there are living testimonies that state otherwise.

�The people that do not know about this are the ones who help reinforce the notion that all of us are delusional.� Dr. John Hall, author of �A New Breed: Satellite Terrorism in America stated to me via email, �I am hoping to remedy some of that through education.�

Dr. Hall, a T.I, (Targeted Individual) himself, risked his entire career towards exposing this form of seemingly-invisible technological terror in his book. Unfortunately, these perpetrators covert themselves behind the ignorance of society.

"However, before one comes to that conclusion, you've usually told your boss, family or physician that you're hearing voices or being attacked with unseen weapons. They, in turn, start the psychiatric ball rolling and before you know it you've been diagnosed as delusional and are totally discredited. Victims organizing and educating the public will be our way out.�

Damien T., a T.I had a job with a multi-national aerospace manufacturer, global security, and advanced technology company. Consequently, he had to deal with a hostile work environment before he was laid off in 2007.

Things about his personal life were blurted out in conversations, even from his supervisor. This is what has been happening according to Torres�s account:

�My manager would talk about things that I would do on the weekend while talking with other co-workers.

He wouldn�t specify my name, but it was things he would blurt out for no reason; things that I would do on the weekends in my own home. These conversations were made close enough to my cubicle so that I would hear them. It�s obvious these incidents were intentional.�

Damien later began to experience things of the technological terror persuasion.

�I first realized I was targeted back around late 2008. From what I remember, it was around September. I noticed noise campaigns from my Asian neighbors. There were incidents such as constant door slamming, stomping in front of my bedroom window, trash thrown around our condo, graffiti on our garage door. Also, I noticed a lot of unfamiliar faces at restaurants and bars.

Groups of people would walk in and sit around my area constantly looking towards my way. I also noticed them talking about my habits there were personal. Some remarks were personal in nature. It seemed to die down around December 2008.�

But much to the surprise of Damien, they apparently had not.

�Towards the end of December 2008, I noticed odd noises throughout our condo unit, noises that followed me through my home.� he said. �I would leave my bedroom and I would hear thumps (in the walls/ceilings) as I walked through the hallway and into the front room.

These odd noises still continue to this very day throughout my mother�s condo unit.

All of her furniture, walls/ceilings, appliances, etc are constantly being hit with a sonic wave of varying frequencies. For example, the thump will sound louder depending on what�s being hit and how forceful the sonic wave is.

I learned that computers (or digital computers) can be used to send out ultrasonic waves for harassment purposes. I am guessing these computers are used in tandem with our own government satellites (NSA). I can�t imagine how some nut job in our government could come up with such an idea to specifically harass someone.�

Damien believes he is a victim of V2K (Voice to Skull). His is based on some odd noises he�s heard inside his head that sounded like a cheap-low frequency radio transmitter.

�The noises and voices also seem to be multi-directional.� He explained. �It turns out that the V2K were coming from my own next door neighbors. The voices seemed to have an Asian accent. They would say words in Asian which I wouldn�t understand or they would talk to me in English.�

What the apparent motive (and strange eviction tactic) by his neighbors was to force him to move out since he has been unemployed for awhile.

Another T.I, name Diana M. a housewife with strong religious faith has underwent so much technological terroristic trauma that she herself began to question the level of her sanity. She bombarded me with a variety of supporting documents indicating no insanity.

Diana believes that the people involved are members of the K.K.K.(Ku Klux Klan) What she is undergoing is a form of mental rape and/or control. This was an account of what happened to her, seven years ago:

�The first time I new something was wrong was the day I couldn't walk forward.� She explained. �I could walk backwards and sideways, but something was not allowing me to move forward at all.

I finally had to sit down and have an old acquaintance go get his car, walk backwards into it until I arrived at his home, then I could walk. Now trust me, I totally thought it was me.�

Then the V2K period came for her, about two years later.

�I was sitting in my kitchen and all of a sudden, I heard a baseball game out of nowhere. Now I don�t watch baseball or ever listen to it. I checked with my husband, but he had no idea. Every time I would turn my head a certain direction, I would hear a ball game.

This went on for I believe maybe � hour at the most then the talking began. They wanted to make it seem completely spiritual, like I was walking down a certain spiritual path (shamanism) to be exact.�

Ironically, this was during a period where Diana was on a path towards spirituality.

�I also remember in the beginning someone kept recording something that I said, or they said and switched it around. They completely started messing with my mind. The things that they do to a person, I know is something that my own mind would not make up.�

Diana has had sleep deprivation, body swelling, and other forms of pain because of these acts. She even states that her and her husband tried to retreat underground in mines, but to no avail, the sounds actually followed her there. These methods by the unknown perps were to also destroy her marriage.

�They fill you with absolute fear, a vicious fear to look at yourself or anyone else even my husband. Through all of these attacks, I have been baptized confirmed, and married within the last five years.�

To my knowledge and testimonies by the above T.Is, these attacks are ongoing.

In �Electronic Harassment� I listed a T.I as being anonymous, due to her fear for retaliation. Christine Lynn Harris, T.I and Anti-Organized Stalking activist decided to no longer be ruled by fear. She strongly believes her attackers involve a property manager, a law firm, and a member of the San Francisco Police Department Mission District Station.

All the attacks that occurred upon Christine, was after her �Notice of Complaint� was sent by her to the Attorney General Office, last year.

Her courage grew immensely when she took it really personal when her organs were hit with untold amounts of radiation. �I can handle the mental issue, but when you attack my body well now it�s personal!�
She was a constant E.R patient to a point where her organs have been significantly been damaged.

Although I originally listed Christine as being �anonymous� it did not take long for her enemies to figure out who story it was. They began to retaliate.

Her car was �towed� a short time after it was published, even though her parking didn�t violate any parking and safety laws. The S.F City Attorney�s Office reimbursed her the monies she paid to retrieve her car.

A C.D was placed by her car marked �murder� beside her car. Her computer has been hacked. A second attempt to �tow� her car took place, only to be thwarted by her upon discovering their weird activities outside. After taking their sketchy picture, she posted it online at YouTube.

The big question by us both was �Since when do tow truck companies ride around looking for expired license plates of parked cars? Isn�t that a job for a police or a traffic safety officer?�

Christine believes that her car may have some sort of tracking or listening device hidden in her car based on the unexplained events around her.

She�s outreached, spent her own money, and appealed to numerous politicians across the nation to put an end to these acts of terror and control. Very little has been done to eliminate the problem. Christine has even been on an online show regarding targeted victims, and told her story, but the problems still persist.

Not too long ago, I sent a letter (and published it online) to the White House, urging President Barack Obama and his administration to investigate these crimes. �Those responsible should be held accountable for these crimes.� I said.

Only time will tell if the Obama Administration will step up to the task.

Like many T.I.s who are gripped by fear, isolation, anxiety, discouragement, and despair; they come to realize that only they can take action. Reluctant, fearful, and emotional, the inner strength and rage is what collectively combines their voices to combat the covert terror they meet each day.

Today exists a wide T.I network ranging locally and globally plan to protest a nationwide crises call to action, (throughout the month of October) as a first step to end this covert terror.

Targeted Individuals� have decided to appeal to themselves for help by communicating and outreaching online on Yahoo, YouTube, Mind Justice (www.mindjustice.org/victims.htm, etc, etc. Their only hope to finally get society to see the covert hands that cover their voices.

�Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.�
2 Corinthians 4:9

by Anastacia, aka Stacey D. Langley/PNN Texas correspondent

Ingles sigue

I’m not currently homeless, but with the fickle stoner landlady that my partner and I have, that could change at any moment. We don’t want to be homeless again. If we lose our place here, we can’t afford another one here in Austin.

I’ve been homeless on and off since 1992, when I left home because my mom just refused to get along with me. At first I lived off my savings, but when that ended, I started crashing with friends and occasionally sleeping with guys to have a place to stay for the night. I smoked pot and dropped acid, so I don’t really remember much from 1992 to 1995. .

At the drop of a hat, if I ended up with some money from a little job, friends, or church, I’d decide to go off to Austin, Nashville, Dallas, or some other town. I’d work there for a while, but never could save enough to find a place. .

I met a guy with a lot of privilege and we dated all summer. I guess he liked having a little street girl to fool around with for a while, until his rich psychiatrist daddy freaked out after I got pregnant (I found out later that Daddy-O paid for my abortion.) Then my boyfriend literally dropped me off in front of a teen homeless shelter. Two months of depression and drug use ensued. .

I met a British space physicist and had a semester-long affair with him, once again ending up pregnant. This time, I was not going to terminate my pregnancy. I was able to find a supportive midwife who moved me to North Texas, where I gave birth to Maya in 1996.

I returned to college in 1997,but it only lasted a year. My parents and I had reconciled by that point, so I ended up moving in with them in El Paso. I was able to find a good job as a telephone operator, but once again, depression reared its ugly head, and I got fired. .

My parents told the State that I was not fit to care for my daughter because of my mental illness, so they took her from me, promising me that they would give her back when I was more stable. Then the State charged me with child endangerment because some anonymous asshole reported that I had left my child alone and didn’t feed her. I got probation, but pissed it away after my mom told me not to see my daughter. I ran off to Houston in 1999 after CPS refused to assist me in obtaining mental health services. .

I got pregnant again the next year after a fling with an eighteen year old. I went off to San Francisco, but returned to Austin after six weeks. I moved in with some friends from the LGBT community, and gave birth to Ethan in 2001. .

I had odd jobs and help from friends, and that’s how I survived with Ethan then. We traveled around the country, but the grass was not greener on the other side. We always returned to Houston. .

In 2004, we were living in a mentally ill group home in Houston when I met Todd, a fellow resident. We quickly fell in love and got our own place, but that didn’t last long, because I was so afraid of CPS and the State coming to get me. I left for Austin that summer, and Todd followed me a few months later. .

I became pregnant and we moved to Albuquerque, where we stayed until Zen was born in early 2005. We returned to Austin, where we stayed at the Salvation Army for six months until we qualified for a housing program. We moved into our own apartment in a nice area and Ethan began school. Almost immediately after moving, I once again got pregnant with Serenity, born in 2006. We spent that year moving from one apartment’s “$99 move in special” to another. .

Todd got a part-time job in 2007 and we moved into a house. Unfortunately, he became physically disabled in addition to his mental illness, so we lost the house. We spent most of 2007 going around the country trying to find him better health care for his neurological disorder, caused by the negligence of his psychiatrist. .

In September of 2007, we moved back to Austin and briefly stayed in the Catholic Worker house. Unfortunately, the woman there didn’t like Todd and threw him out, so the kids and I left the next day. Unbeknownst to us, she called CPS on us. .

We got help from the School District to move into an cramped apartment in a bad area of town. To help pay the rent, I started stripping, but fell back into drug abuse, so I just wasn’t able to take care of the kids like I should have. Todd was basically bedridden at that point. CPS came, but they saw nothing wrong, so they closed the case. .

March 2008 was when the shit hit the fan. Our apartment complex was sick of fixing our windows broken by the neighbors playing soccer, so they threatened to evict us. The next day, I received a call at work from CPS saying they were removing my children because of neglect. My house was a total pigsty because I was too depressed to care, and the police were called. They discovered my warrant for probation violation, arrested me, and sent me back to El Paso. They sent Todd to the mental hospital. .

After I was sentenced in El Paso, I was arrested for child endangerment again in Austin, and was transported back. The whole time I was incarcerated, I only got one visit from friends. I ended up serving my sentences concurrently, and was released from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in December of last year. .

Todd and I went to court and had our parental rights terminated and so our children went to foster care, then adoption. It is still very hard on us ten months later. .

I finally was able to access mental health services and chemical dependency treatment, and now I am receiving Supplemental Security Income as well as Todd’s. Unfortunately, it is hard to locate affordable housing in Austin nowadays, so we rent an RV month to month. We don’t know when our college student landlady is going to flake out on us and want us to move. I don’t know what is going to happen then, but I am a survivor, so I know I’ll make it through. .

by Staff Writer

from age six to sixteen

we shared the same styles

we both grew out of it

but he had it a longer while

I bought his jacket

'wit only one working pocket

his was red and mine was black-

and it didn't even zip

he had southern roots

before did the RAM

Both of us are internationally expanded

He sang everywhere

just I in the shower

both performed dancing

but he back-slid his power

he had a long curl

and I had long dreads

we both got bird chests

like we were raised just off of bread

he had gold records

and I wore gold chains

I don't know which one of both

our families is the most crazy insane

he was truly loved

as so am I

we both proved success is possible

if you just try

RIP to Michael Jackson