I can say maybe but then I'd be a completely
different person.
by Joseph Bolden
Living A Life
Recently my age double five still alive.
It occurs to me I’ve missed opportunities, which may have saved my life at various crossroads in my life.
Nearly drowned at Orchard Beach at 5 or 6 years old I think a girl or young woman saved me.
Saw no bright lights, did feel calm floating around.
Volunteered for Viet Nam in 1972 or 3 at the age of 18 or 19 the usual reasons no job, leaving home,the military makes men, or to do something with my life.
Anyway I volunteered at four branches of the military plus The Air National Guard.
Was turned down because of a lazy eye
[told to drink plenty of carrot juice.]
All it did was make my stool orange and learned I liked carrot juice, cookies, and cake.
It could have been after being asked, “What if you are ordered to shoot a man?”
My answer was “Why, what reason to do that?”
I guess that's the wrong way to answer a direct question because in the circumstances when given an order one’s duty is to obey without question any or most orders when given by a superior or higher ranking officer.
Not being a perfect specimen because of faulty sight may have indeed saved me from that war.
Also while exercising that involves jumping up and down I may have been too enthusiastic jumping too high and across the floor.
Oh well I did volunteer so it’s one of those fateful choices that could change anyone’s life.
Before that bad times in summer camp sponsored by New York's Our Lady Of Mercy Church.
Bright yellow shirt green writing stenciled on.
Pain connected memories.
I'm fighting another kid.
With a fear churning belly, backed up for room to fight, then I’m stuck!
I had backed into a nail. impale or Impaled! don't which is right but I couldn't move!
A wooden box or pallet turned with the nails exposed.
Couldn’t move forward, back shoots shocks of pain through me.
Not knowing this as I fought girls are screaming and gasps from other kids.
Some bigger kids and adults separate us.
Blood drips from the wood on to the ground only then did I see the bent, rusty nail as I with help was pulled slowly forward
from the wooden structure.
My blood gleams seems to glisten in the morning sun.
Little girls scream, crying,touch my back, shoulders as if they feel my pain before I can.
Red seeps from me.
I was thinking its raining feel my back wet.
Girls crying make me sad is all I was thinking.
I’m rushed to the a nurse at the infirmary.
She says its not serious but gave me a tetanus shot.
I still have a jagged scar on my back.
I'm able to go to summer camp, the new hole in my back is no big deal.
Years later when my mother, brother, and I moved I thought it was because of the divorce looking back it may also have been because of that incident.
That wasn’t the only time I was impaled.
Also speared in the throat after giving two quick, hard rabbit punches to some guy thought if funny to take my gym shorts down in public while on a grassy field as everyone was jogging outside?
I rabbit punched him, bloodied his nose.
for me its over, wrong.
The next week was his revenge as I’m speared in the throat by a shopping cart weighed down by football equipment including two bars used to raise another bar to jump over.
The guy pushes the cart running with it, somebody yells."look out!"
Too late I'm speared in the side of my neck!
I'm on the grass holding my bleeding throat.
It looks worse than it really is.
I Bleed profusely from near the jugular vein is scary.
I always felt my voice had been changed because of that.
It is only now I’m trying to see if I have any singing voice at all.
Girls, women were and still are confounded mysteries always drawn to ‘em but not they to me so missed out on dances, social stuff, graduated danced a little.
Bummed around L.A. just when a psychopath who road the rails hunted and killed transients/ homeless now called houseless folk.
Safe in Mr. and Mrs. Joe’s church/house working for room and board in L.A.’s West End Skid row
before doing the same in The Salvation Army.
I could hear screams for help and wonder was it the railway killer or some guy getting beaten up or worse because they got caught by a gang or someone just wanting beat on someone who has less than they have knowing they’d get away clean because society didn’t care.
Was this the beginning of criminalizing transients, houseless, jobless, and youth creating or increasing more disposable people besides families or single mom’s or dad’s on welfare?
Eventually while learning a skill I did find a few women taking a chance on me.
As for the four letters word of L-O-V-E
I missed that call to me.
As an old movie line says, “What’s sex without love? “It’s Just sex, it’s just sex.”
Better the latter if the other isn’t meant for us.
Now I’m 55, there are still places to go, visit, people to know.
I know to go forward not backup and avoid sharp objects or persons with sharp objects and really before speaking listen to women most of 'em help too few to mention have hurt me.
So what If I missed some things as a single healthy black male I count myself as rare and lucky in the extreme to still be alive at this stage of the game each day is God/Goddess given gravy.
San Francisco is where I reside for now that may change its all right change is constant.
I’ve tended to go-with-flow, not let too many things up set me.
I pray to live a long vigorous, adventurous, life have many good fem buds and guy friends as well avoiding old grim reaper, faking out Mother Nature for as long as science and technology will allow.
Did any of our lives turn out as we hoped or is it less than we dreamed?
California Pacific Medical Center proposes to build a 1.7 billion dollar hospital in the Tenderloin..for who and at what cost?
by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia/PNN
"I wont be able to sit in Mama dee's chair anymore, " My six year old son looked at me as he spoke with his saddest puppy look. We were sitting in the Van Ness cafe at the corner of Van Ness and Geary. He was responding to the news that the Van Ness cafe was facing demolition by Sutter Health Corporation who is attempting to build a new hospital which will span the entire block of Geary to Post on Van Ness.
The proposal by Sutter Health is a classic example of the rampant over-development fueled by corporations and real estate speculators from San Francisco to South Africa.
"We dont know where we will get another job, this is a bad economy," said Oy, one of the several employees at the Van Ness Bakery, and a long-time friend of my Mama Dee, who frequented the Bakery often for its mild old-skool-non designer coffee and chocolate ice-caked donuts.
"We are doing a survey of the tenderloin and surrounding working-class communities to see how this 1.7 billion dollar health facility will really serve the working-class community it is planning to be in," said Robert Webber, community activist in the tenderloin.
When my son and I heard about the pending proposal to demolish and build, not only did we know that the spirit of my Mama dee, co-founder of POOR Magazine, who passed on her spirit journey in March of 2006, was very angry with the demolition of her favorite spot, but more importantly as someone who struggled with poverty, racism and gentrification her entire life, i knew my mama was also mad, like I was, at the lie of California Pacific Medical Center for proposing to build a hospital that isnt really needed in a community that it isnt really geared at, and in the process dismantling the jobs and livelihoods of poor workers and small business owners and putting more strain on a tired pacha mama with gratuitious building.
"The manager or someone came out here the other day and told us that maybe we have six months more in this place, but they were real vague,we dont know what to think or do. Then they told us not to bother coming to the hearing on the 15th, because it was alreadty decided on." Oy concluded.
After speaking with Oy i did some more investigation and the whole proposal is not a "done deal". We still have a voice. We can still be heard. And just like our brothers and sisters in South Africa facing demolitions of their homes so the World Cup Stadium can be built, the corporations would love to silence us, but we must continue to fight, for us, for our families, for our ancestors, for Mama dee.
The community gathers to celebrate ethnic studies 40th year anniversary at Corazon Del Pueblo in East Oakland
by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia/PNN
The blessings began the moment i walked in the magical path winding me through ropa y colores, jugetes y arte - each calavera whispered to me about rios and tierras stolen, remembered and dreamed about by indigenous peoples across pacha mama.
I was led into the palace of art y musica y ceremonia known as Corazon del Pueblo- House of the Heart- by mi hermana in struggle and resistance, fellow welfareQUEEN, Vivian Hain.
"You have to come tiny," her eyes shown as she spoke about coming to the store, a special kind of shine, Women, mamaz, revolutionarias, listen to each other when we see that kind of shine in each others eyes, because we know that our companeras have seen the light, the light of resistance, hope and power for our silenced peoples that we all seek on the daily.
As i walked down the path - color flew at me. I had been wondering lately where my mama dee was hanging out. My mama dee, an African-Boricua- Taina- resistance fighter who passed onto her spirit journey in March of 2006. As i followed the colors, i knew.
"We are here to celebrate the ribbon cutting of this beautiful space, we are here to celebrate our mothers, our children, our ancestors, we are here to celebrate Ethnic Studies 40 Years Later: Race Resistance and Relevance being held at San Francisco State University this week." Dorinda Moreno, life-long revolutionary, poet, teacher, mama and grandmother who had been one of the original folks leading the fight for ethnic studies at SFSU, led the circle of blessings through a ribbon cutting at a new room in the back of the store dedicated to Danza Azteca classes and other events in the beautiful store owned and operated by another powerful mama and teacher, Josefina Lopez.
Elders and speakers, ninas and babies filled the space with more color and music and then when i truly thought i had seen and felt everything to feed and care-give my soul, when i thought i had tasted every gift pacha mama and the ancestors had to give me today, the room became silent. People spoke in hushed tones, with a look of disbelief in their eyes,"That's pancho villa's son, Ernesto Nava, that's him, he is here!"
An elder wearing an old-skool sobrero de vacuero walked down the magical path where all light and color and cloth and sculpture dwelled. People whispered, "he is 92 years old".
As he stepped through the small entrance he looked up and before i could say anything he shook my outstretched hand, "Mucho gusto," I whispered through a breath of awe. His eyes shone with dreams still being done and work still being worked.
Other members of our POOR Magazine family were celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day and the deKKKolinzing of KKKillerolumbus at Berkeley's Pow Wow so in the middle of a serenade by mujeres mariachis myself and Vivian stepped out of the magical space back into a slightly brighter, slightly richer International Blvd, determined to come back as many times as we could, to keep dreams being dreamed, art made and ancestors properly honored.
To take your own tour and create your own magic go to Corazon Del Pueblo at 4814 International Blvd in Oakland. or call 510-532-6733
This was the 14th annual national day of protest against a plague of legal lynchings that if the Sssystem was true to its’ citizens, would never exist - po’lice terror.
This was the national day that fallen comerades & leaders such as Idriss Stelley, Cameron Boyd, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Bobby Hutton and Chairman Fred Hampton were remembered. For some of us at the march, it was an almost-new experience, but for those such as myself, It was a wound re-opener and a slap-in-the face fact that regardless of our heroes and sheroes waterfalls of bloodshed, The struggle continues. Painfully, I listened to the mother of our SBP (Slain By Pig) brother, choked up with emotions speak on her child. “He was a father, a brother-my son!” The pictures of Asa Sullivan, Idriss Stelley, Anita Gay, and many, many more shone away on this beautiful day as if the sun was their spirits, sending their warm blessings to inspire us to keep on fighting, and not to forget them.
All of us in the crowd jeered and booed when learned that the change of venue in SBP brother Oscar Grant’s Case was granted, for we all believe that if the crime was committed in Oakland, it should very well stay there. How is it that a pig like Johannes Mehserle can murder a man in cold blood, and his so-called right to be tried by a jury of his peers be handed to him on a gold platter? The foundation of the venue change is made of racism, cover-ups, political bootlickin’, back room shady deals, and of course, the pig’s right to a jury of his peers, so definitely the trial will be held on copland territory.
Fellow comerade, and “Man on the cross”, Brother JR spoke with fire:
“Wherever the trial goes, we will go! We will organize and educate the people ( in the area that the trial will be taking place) and enlighten them on the seriousness of po’lice brutality and murder!” Brother JR himself has been nailed to the cross for his souljah role in seeking justice for Oscar Grant. (JR’s court date is set for Oct 30th in Oakland) His unbroken spirit opened eyes and restored faith in the fact that the only way to justice is in the hands of Just Us.
I held back tears as I spoke on the assault I endured when I was seven months pregnant by SFPD’s “finest” officers Miller (ret) and shea. I was slammed viciously on my huge belly, and when witnesses began to gather around to protest, I was punished even more. One officer actually had the “beastly” nerve to put his knee on my back, using all of his weight and I thought for sure that my unborn cub wouldn’t survive. Po’lice brutality has become a generational experience in my family. My mother and younger brother did not survive this hateful wicked Sssystem, and it is up to me, and the rest of us to take a stand to demand of this murderous Sssystem that there will be NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!!!
With that said, I’d like to share a piece I wrote entitled “I AM TIRED OF BEING A SLAVE!”
La legislación esta propuesta por el Supervisor David Campos, del Distrito 9. Donde propone darles un tribunal básico a los jóvenes indocumentados de San Francisco cuando son detenidos para que solo cuando el joven sea condenado de un delito grave o después de que un gran jurado decida su caso, podrá la policía local entregarlos a la migración.
A Legislation proposed by Board Supervisor David Campos, of District 9, which would give basic due process to immigrant youth in San Francisco when they are arrested so that only after a young person is convicted of a felony or after a grand jury ruled on their case would local police notify federal immigration agents.
La legislación esta propuesta por el Supervisor David Campos, del Distrito 9. Donde propone darles un tribunal básico a los jóvenes indocumentados de San Francisco cuando son detenidos para que solo cuando el joven sea condenado de un delito grave o después de que un gran jurado decida su caso, podrá la policía local entregarlos a la migración.
A Legislation proposed by Board Supervisor David Campos, of District 9, which would give basic due process to immigrant youth in San Francisco when they are arrested so that only after a young person is convicted of a felony or after a grand jury ruled on their case would local police notify federal immigration agents.
by Gloria Esteva--Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia
Editors Note:
PNN recognizes that all peoples are impacted when any of our children are denied their basic human and civil rights.
PNN reconoce que toda la gente es impactada cuando cualquiera de nuestros hij@s son negados los derechos humanos y civiles básicos.
Scroll Down for English
San Francisco, una bella cuidad santuario. Ahora los es por todo lo que implica la palabra santuario y por toda la lucha que hizo la comunidad en los ochentas, para lograr este privilegio. En ese tiempo, grupos civiles, políticos y religiosos viendo cuanto sufrimiento estaba provocando las guerras en Centro América vieron la necesidad de dar refugio a miles de personas que se vieron empujadas y desplazadas, y que llegaron en grandes cantidades a este país.
La póliza de la ciudad santuario menciona que todas las personas en San Francisco tienen derecho a recibir servicios sociales en escuelas o refugios sin que su información de inmigración sea revelada—a menos que la persona lo autorice; o sea, que se respetaría su privacidad. Además, la policía no debe de cooperar con migración ni en investigaciones, ni a detener a los inmigrantes, solamente que haya delitos graves o exista una orden federal.
Esta la puerta abierta de nuestra ciudad santuario y muchos seres egoístas quieren cerrarla para dejar que este logro de nuestras luchas se desplome y de paso a al odio, la ignominia, violando este precepto que ha hecho que esta ciudad reciba a tantos seres que han contribuido con su trabajo artístico cultural y mano de obra barata. ¿Que la hace bella, especial y por esto mas atractiva?
Porque aunque no se reconozca, los sabios y los economistas saben de donde surge la riqueza de este país y esto surge en gran parte de los trabajadores inmigrantes de todas partes del mundo.
Y si somos productores de riqueza porque no se respeta nuestra vida y la vida de nuestros hijos y nuestros jóvenes? ¿Donde esta el respeto a la Justicia? ¿Existe esta para los trabajadores pobres inmigrantes y sus familias?
Por lo tanto, lo que propone el Supervisor David Campos es algo lógico y sencillo que hasta el mas sabio no puede combatir por lo que esta planteando, algo que ya esta establecido en la leyes de este país, que nadie es culpable hasta que se demuestre o lo determine un juez. ¿Y porque no se puede aplicar esto a las vidas de todos nuestros jóvenes documentados o indocumentados? Al permitirse que la policía entregue a los jóvenes a la migración sin previo juicio se les esta tratando sin respetar la calidad de nuestra ciudad santuario.
Ingles Sigue
San Francisco, a beautiful Sanctuary City. It is today, due to what the word sanctuary implies and for the entire struggle that the community in the 1980s fought through to gain this privilege. At that time, civil groups, politicians and religious organizations saw the necessity of giving refuges to thousands of people who suffered, were pushed and displaced by consequence of the civil wars in Central America.
The Sanctuary City policy mentions that all people in San Francisco have the right to seek social services, in schools or shelters, without having to reveal their documentation status—only if the individual authorizes it; this is to say that their privacy is respected. Even though, the police should not be collaborating with immigration in investigations, or arresting immigrants, only if there is a felony or a federal charge.
The door to our Sanctuary City is open, but many selfish people want to close it, allowing that the success of our struggle to dismantle; this leads to a path of hate, ignominy, where violation the perception that has allowed this city to have so much contribution from artistic and cultural workers, and cheap human labor. What makes this city so beautiful, special, and more attractive?
Although, it is not recognized, the scholars and economist know what are the roots of this country’s wealth. The roots stem in large part from the immigrant workers from all parts of the world.
If we are the producers of so much wealth, why is it that our lives and that of our youth are not respected? Where is the respect for Justice? Does this exist for all the poor workers and their families?
For these reasons, what Supervisor David Campos proposes is logical and simple, that even the most intellectual politician cannot compete with what he is tabling, something that is already established in the laws of this country, that “everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” Why can’t this stay consistent with the lives of our youth, documented or undocumented? If we allow the police to turn over the youth to immigration without due process, the essence of the sanctuary law is not being respected.
PNN Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia reportera Teresa Molina, Margaretta Ramos and Ruyata Akio McGLothlin interviewed Board Supervisor David Campos on the legislation he is proposing.
La reportera de PNN Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia, Teresa Molina, Margaretta Ramos, y Ruyata Akio McGlothilin entrevistaron al Supervisor David Campos sobre la legislación.
Protest Land Theft, criminalization, and the destruction of Nafta and Cafta!
Thursday, Oct 15th- 5-8:00pm
by Nestor Castillo/CISPES
Thursday the 15th, President Barack Obama will be visiting San Francisco for a private fundraising event, at the St. Francis Hotel. With tickets starting at $500 just to sit in the reception, the vast majority of the working class who voted him in, will be barred from attending.
That same day at Union Square Plaza, directly across from the St. Francis Hotel, a coalition of community organizations under the banner of Stop NAFTA/CAFTA will be demonstrating their opposition to neoliberal trade policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement as part of a International Week of Action campaign taking place from October 12th- 17th.
The coalition will be holding Pres. Obama accountable to keep his campaign pledge of renegotiating such policies that have further increased poverty and inequality. At the Cleveland Democratic Debate, Obama said, “I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA]…I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.” Since then, however, Pres. Obama has done nothing to change such agreements.
The facts are that these trade agreements have been the root of forced migration and loss of land rights in Mexico and Central America. In the first eight years of NAFTA the annual number of immigrants from Mexico increased by more than 61 percent (read more at: globalexchange.org) 2/3 of Mexican people living in the US have come after the passage of NAFTA (read more at: witnessforpeace.org).
Another example of just how unjust trade agreements are, is the way in which federally-subsidized U.S. corn is dumped on their markets therefore small farmers are forced off their land because they cannot compete with massive amounts of crops at a cheaper price. With no way to make a living, hundreds of people are forced to leave their homes and families every day to make the treacherous journey to the U.S.
The latest news of the injurious effects of CAFTA/NAFTA agreements come from San Isidro, Cabanas in El Salvador where gold mining companies, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. and Commerce Group, are suing the Salvadoran government for $177 million under CAFTA for loss of potential profits. The lawsuits come despite strong opposition of local communities to mining and reports showing devastating effects to the environment and water contamination of the country’s main source of clean water, the Lempa River.
Meanwhile, many anti-mining activists in El Salvador are being death threatened or being killed. There is strong evidence suggesting that Pacific Rim is involved in such atrocious crimes as a mean to intimidate those opposing the mining project. "We believe that the results of CAFTA demonstrate the failure of 'free' trade and justify a definitive split with this model by the incoming Obama Administration," said Burke Stansbury of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), a member of the coalition. "Not only should the Democratic Congress reject pending agreements such as the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, but the party in power should take this opportunity to introduce a new trade policy based on human rights, and economic, social and environmental sustainability."
The rally will have key-note speakers addressing the effects of NAFTA and CAFTA on its signatory countries, issues of privatization, sweatshops, the Honduran coup, the displacement of indigenous people, among other topics. It will begin at 5pm at Union Square Plaza on Powell St. in between Geary and Post.
This is only one of the events taking place during the International Week of Action against NAFTA and CAFTA. There will be various demonstrations in Vancouver and Milwaukee where Pacific Rim and Commerce Group headquarters are located.
POOR Magazine families in the Bay Area and beyond on Turtle Island are extending our love, corazons and tears to our family members on other parts of Pacha Mama who are struggling with survival in the face of flooding, tsunami's, earthquakes and violence.
by Staff Writer
As a poor people led/indigenous people led organization we are extremely worried about the thrival and survival of our brothers and sisters in South Africa, Samoa, The Philippines, Malaysia, amd beyond.
The loss/decrease of land, water, air and other dire impacts of Global Climate Change on poor communities of color is one of the most important issues we are concerned with as indigenous peoples in relationship with Mama earth and each other.
Many of our local indigenous staff writers and scholars have family members struggling in Samoa and the Philippines therefore we are gathering contributions and working with local grassroots folks to support their relief efforts.
To help Samoan folks POOR Magazine is collecting donations to give to a local Samoan congregation (Assemblies of God where one of staff writers is a member-) Please send your donations to POOR Magazine and make them in care of "Samoan relief" at 2940 16th street #301 San Francisco, Ca 94103
To Help Filipino folks - please donate to one of the following locations listed above. For more information go on-line to www.sfchrp.org
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!!!
"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.
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.
POOR Magazine's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute did one of our Hip Hop Youth workshops with the Sophomores of Erica Viray's Social Justice Academy at San Leandro High School- see the Beautiful Art - read the Revolutionary WordZ from the Youth Skolaz!
Editors Note: As a poor people led/indigenous people led organization practicing thrival & survival strategies By Any Means Necessary! while advocating and activating for our brothers and sisters in struggle locally and globally - we honor Matt Robeson's direct action to Take Back The Land stolen from us long ago and now thrown back at us temporarily in the forms of crumbs called Project Housing/Food Stamps and welfare....He is a resistance warrior and an example to us all! -
Scroll down to watch and listen to PNN-Radio and PNN-TV interview with Farmer Matt
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
PNN re-ports and sup-ports on Oct 22nd Day to end po'lice brutality!
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.”
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?
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.
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.”
