by Jocelyn Y. Steward/LA Times Staff Writer

In her fight for the dignity of homeless people in downtown Los Angeles, Donna Valiente chose two methods: direct confrontation and prayer.

By day she was a firebrand, speaking out at City Hall, and during demonstrations, making her voice heard to officialdom. At night she made her voice heard to God.

At an office on Main Street, between 4th and 5th streets, she and other skid row residents gathered each Wednesday to pray for their community, for the day when those who are now homeless will be able to stand at an apartment window and say, "I used to sleep on those streets."

"Donna had that vision," said Brother James Upshaw, a friend and downtown resident, and she believed both methods would help her achieve it.

On Feb. 13, Valiente was found dead in a skid row hotel of what is believed to be natural causes. Her death comes at a time when the 48-year-old had increased her presence at City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Commission.

"She would come wheeling up the aisle in her wheelchair, I'm sure they were expecting some very quiet voice," said Pete White, executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a nonprofit group that works on behalf of the homeless and poor in downtown Los Angeles, of which Valiente was a member. Instead "you have this lioness roaring from her wheelchair."

As an activist she joined an anti-domestic violence campaign for downtown women. She also pushed to keep downtown hotels — such as the one she lived in — as affordable housing.

An artist and a poet, Valiente sometimes used her art to express her concerns about the homeless. Earlier this month at a meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission she "denounced police abuse and mistreatment of downtown residents," White said. She read her poem "The Shackles Must Come Off":

What if by some odd chance it was all happening to you?

Would you not stand up for what you know is right and true?"

Born July 8, 1958, in Santa Barbara, Valiente grew up in Ventura and graduated from Santa Paula High School. An entrepreneur, she operated several businesses, including T. Liberty Rose Maid Service, said her daughter, Barbra Marquez. In addition to Marquez, Valiente is survived by her mother, Carolynn Klouse, of Bend, Ore.; a son, Christopher Rader; a daughter, Liberty Rader, and five grandchildren, all of Los Angeles.

About 15 years ago she was driving on the freeway when she collided with a jackknifed truck, leaving her seriously injured. A surgery years later didn't alleviate the problem and "finally she had to be put in the wheelchair because she couldn't walk without being in excruciating pain," Marquez said.

Unable to work, Valiente lost her apartment and ended up in a skid row hotel. Faith had always been important in her life, but sometimes she would fall into drug use, her daughter said. While living downtown she gained sobriety and stayed in the community.

"She felt that's where her calling was, she needed to help people downtown," Marquez said.

On the streets she handed out her poetry or handmade crosses. And when people marveled at her work, she would say, "If I can do it, then others can do it also," said Montgomery Garnett, a friend and resident of downtown Los Angeles. "She would have made a great motivational speaker."

Speaking up on behalf of the homeless was not a matter of radicalism but a by-product of Valiente's simple belief that things could be better. The weekly prayer meeting that she organized at the L.A. Community Action Network office on Main Street stemmed from that belief as well.

"There's a lot of blessed people on skid row," Upshaw said. "Where there is darkness, light that much more abides. It was proven in the life of Donna."

*

jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com

by Staff Writer

* Illin-N-Chillin Editors note
Last year filmmaker, Anthony Lover, of Liberty Inc. in New York gave the public the first film with two African American actors with developmental disabilities in leading roles, "My Brother". I had a chance to visit his studios in New York and conducted an interview about My Brother with one of the actors who had a small part in the movie and was chosen for Lover's new film "The Promise". Lover was also looking toward the sequel of "My Brother". Last week I received this shocking email.

email from Anthony Lover;
Dear friends and supporters,

Number of reversals has beset me since we last talked to each other, both personally and professionally. Marlene, my wife, had to have major spinal surgery (10 plus hours). She was hung and cut, both through the stomach and the back to accomplish a difficult but seemingly successful operation. It takes up to 9 to 12 months to fully heal to really know.

I went out to purchase food for my wife's dinner and took the opportunity to buy lunch for three of the kids at the studio who had been helping me. Returning after lunch we were on the sidewalk at 26th and Second Avenue when all of a sudden, one of the kids cried out- "Oh, my God!" I turned quickly to see what he was looking at. Everything happened so super-fast while at the same time in ultra slow motion it's hard to describe. I saw this van coming straight towards and I instinctively shoved two of the kids out of the way saving their lives. They were in front of me. I shoved them so hard, one had to be checked out of at Bellevue. A second later I received the full blow of the van's bumper crashing into my legs. I later learned the driver was speeding, struck a cargo van and careened off and was out of control.

The bumper shattered my legs and knee. The blow sent me flying in the air, my head (with my glasses on) crashing into his windshield. Luckily the destroyed lenses didn't go into my eyes. The forward motion of van or his braking then sent me flying backwards through the air onto my back with my head hitting the sidewalk. The driver jumped out of the van abandoning it (Later to find out he had no insurance as well as his complete disappearance to police).

Amazingly I never lost consciousness from being hit. I was very calm. Maybe I was in shock. I don't know, but I seemed to be in total control of my facilities. One of the kids, kneeling over me, kept putting his hand on my heart and saying- "Don't diez'. It was very surreal; I kept thinking why should I die? Why does he think I'm going to die?

An EMS ambulance with techs arrived and immediately cut the clothes off of me. I guess to look at my physical wounds. When they put me on a wooden stretcher board I felt my first shock of pain. They asked me- "From one to ten, how severe is the pain?" I remember telling him I had a high tolerance for pain and saying- "I guess it was a five."

The EMS tech laughed and that seemed strange to me. Over his protest, I pulled my self up onto my elbows and looked down and saw that my legs where busted up and my feet where in the wrong direction. It was clear visual to the seriousness of my plight and I began think what was going to happen to me.

Everything seemed surreal about the event. They took my blood pressure and it wasn't far from being very normal (130 over 80). While they were doing this I was giving instructions to one of the kids to tell my Marlene calmly that I was in an accident and not to panic her; then to get my medical records out of my computer and give it to Bellevue.
The police arrived and asked questions as the EMS techs strapped me in to take me to Bellevue's trauma center.

It was God's will or I was lucky to be alive and taken to Bellevue. It's "the place" to go if you are in a serious or in a life threatening accident. I found out later that it's a standing order for the police, firemen, the President (If he's in New York) or dignitaries that they are to be taken to Bellevue for any serious trauma.

Bellevue didn't operate on my legs for days because my bust up legs produced blood clots and they found one in my lung. The surgeons felt there would be more embolisms and if they went to my brain, it would kill me. They operated and put a net inside to catch other blood clots along with thinning my blood.

They put me on Morphine for the pain. I suffered severe physical side effects from the Morphine drip, being delusional was the least of it.
When I could talk to my surgeons (I had eight of them) I said- "Take me off Morphine, I'd rather deal with the pain then be on it." They did, but the withdrawal with its side effects took five days before it dissipated.

I have been in the hospital and rehab since March 4th having survived death a number of times. Been in my apartment for a little over a week. I just started emotionally being able to e-mail people who probably didn�t know what took place (although a number saw it on the news). I'm still a long way from walking and being normal again, if ever. I move around in a wheelchair with pain. I have been very depressed about my physical condition and the financial circumstances I find myself in now. I most likely am facing the loss of Liberty and being forced to sell the building under duress. My doing that, dashes the dream of making change (over seven years of work) creating Liberty product (like "My Brother") and to be "a place" for young people to be given the opportunity to reach and change perceptions and forge new understandings. I fight the depression with trying to be positive and to look to the future with new eyes.

Leroy, I hope you and your family are well. I look forward to hearing and seeing you again.

Love always
Tony

240 East 27th Street
Apt 4J
New York City, NY 10016
anthonylover@gmail.com
Cell: 1-917-403-1650

P.S.

I finally got past much of my depressed state to work on the rewrite of "The Promise" screenplay (which I think I told you about). I think it's going well (I'm a little past half way now). A few months before the accident I met with a financier/producer person for a company that produces and distributes feature films and TV shows (they have a deal with Time Warner). He really liked the extended treatment (60 pages) and is awaiting the script rewrite for us to have another meeting. Among other elements, I down played much of the Iraq war, focusing on the main characters and the battle as just the catalyst to extracting the promise. It seems to be working well.

by Joe B.

Words,Women,And Men

Last time I explained what metrosexual meant and how to me its like an elaborate economic scam.

Before KPFA's radio show in Berkeley I had cleaned,bathed myself in a comfortable shower get properly spruced up for the outside.

The first order of business is withdrawing money from the bank for travel to Berkeley.

While the radio script I hear a young females voice say "I hope they don’t shoot him."

My reaction was to ignoring it because most times except for a few women in my life I’m not praised much then it occurs to me maybe they were talking and loudly about me!

For what? Being clean, intent on something other than leering a young girls and older women? I know the woman speaking is a young black woman.

Women in general don’t praise men it takes time and getting to know them before they say anything positive or negative.

I’ve been on sixth street for a long time going about by business, minding my own business and many people congregate so I like they are like fixtures here.

They must have seen me so many times say a polite though respectful no to those selling weed,crack, or other drugs on the street no use making enemies its like a game they ask I say no and its alright.

Do women know how powerful their voices of praise and derision are?

Some time ago I was with a woman in Berkeley before I had become homeless I tried keeping it from her but eventually told her even before that she offered me the key to her house but I didn’t take it I wasn’t raised that way my mother warned me to always have your own space.

I didn’t know the slang words for what we were doing except "shacking up and booty call" and later from a "Girlfriend’s", a t.v. sit-comedy another not so nice term ending in "friends or buddies"

Men are called lumbering slow witted ox’s,dogs,dumb sticks, generic,and excess fleshly with mostly small weapons attached.

If our ego’s were all that fragile men would’ve stayed hermits or turned mostly gay.

We may laugh publicly and things said to us, water,wine,hot soup,meat, and fish dishes in our faces,heads,on our shirts, and pants but it’s a public display hiding inner turmoil just as you do.

Women have taken a lot of stuff off men and visa versa but women have support system of friends men are diametrically opposite having no such support few men see others as shoulder’s to cry on, sounding boards,but as potential rivals for girlfriends or spouses affections.

What you say to us do impacts us greatly we try not letting it show bottling it up inside us.

We cry differently where as women shed tears, throw objects,scream and really let their emotions range out in healthy bursts – men rage with fists,go in bars, pick fights,or leave for days on end until anger subsides to a hoarse roar.

Personally for me if I’m praised I keep it close inside because there so many more negatives aspects are pointed out that good aspects are kept like brilliant diamond drops of gold.

Now for a friend who suffered much,given more to help others let those who can help you in their capacities.

Its Payback time from them to you,you are beloved by many,never forget that!

I cannot say love but extremely well liked but they you are a very likeable person I hope you are flooded with love –love bombed by those near and dear to you.

Rest,be calm,regroup, relax,deep dreamy sleep, and eat healthy troubles may still lay ahead but for now take time out and reassess where you are and pause before getting up and running; you don’t want fall scrape knees, hands,or head.

Take time for grief, cry,bawl,wail,don’t be dammed up whatever is there no matter how small or insignificant
identify it,see it,face it,and then let it go.

In the past year lots of obstacles have been placed in my way many of them from being stubborn, not listening,talking when mouth shut should’ve been tacit and understood.

Men’s saving grace is we keep striving to understand but sometimes act like dumb hulks when we’re really not.

Women deep down know why men are slow to change its not cowardice or limited one-track brains its when we finally do some of us go to far in either being sensitive, hard core with nothing in-between.

We’ve changed many times over the decades but the basic nature of males is to love the opposite sex at least that’s how I see it.

But after hearing so many negative portrayals no matter what we do many of us who are not homosexual,BI,trans- gendered or having sex changes and are biologically,if not socially conditioned to like,love,and marry women from other countries or emigrate to other countries for that express purpose.

Some if not most women say good riddance however I believe they are a loud minority hurting their sister’s who are as biologically,if not socially conditioned to like and love,and marry men.

It’s the same sin of men crippling their girlfriend’s,wives lives to feel empowered themselves.

Women,like men must close ranks,fight their sister if their sister’s mild or deep seated hatred not only blinds them to female/male relationships but goes to the radical step of fatherless daughter’s,son’s because its technically feasible.

Worlds without Women or Men are possible and people do adopt but would really be living or a long,slow,dreary half life limbo.

If most men wanted to live without women it would be a living hell I’d rather not live to survive in and I am sure most women giving true answers would agree and for those who wish it so let them build their woman-less/ anti male only starship separating themselves from we who like and love women and men don’t want to join their crusade.

What do you think reader’s think?


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

Trying to find a way readers can write(talk back)with comments (please no nude photo's,video or DVD clips here. When I get a postbox then load it up.

kidding ladies (yes,women only-not that I'll find any in said box only wishful thinkin on my part. But readers please continue to write I need all your input.

Tell Joe:

Tell Joe:

by Joseph Bolden

OH,Noooo,Fandom?

For Six or more I’ve written my Ask/Tell Joe Columns in the humble knowledge that even though supposedly online that no one’s really reading.

I think the same on radio in the Castro District and Noe Valley.

Haven’t been on air for awhile and have forgotten call letters, numbers I’m bad remembering names, dates, address, and areas on maps.

So,in Poor Magazine’s early days I got lost a lot lucky the women interns didn’t mind my gross sense of direction especially when

I’d say "I know where we are I’ve been lost here before."

Now Alexander Book Co. on 50 Second Street good luck to me finding a place I’ve never been to before.

I’ve been known to get lost at places that I have visited before how Darwin Award Winning is that!

What will I read, say, something short and to the point then listen to others while I eat.

As for pornographic work I only did stuff on my experience in dance bars, strip joints or and if I expressed an impossible dream of being in a porn film or a few.

That doesn’t hurt anyone but me or the female actress under me or I’m under.

As most dreams go its something I can at least accomplish because one has to have either a great face or banging body.

I don’t have either but endurance for the act itself while ignoring camera and people around me seems doable.

Some of those guys on film look awfulall I need is an eye patch and few months as a gym rat and concentrated bodywork.

It may never happen so what it’s a worthwhile goal and being writer could also help me write scripts, direct, produce, or have a distribution/marketing company and don’t forget the many friends (mostly women) especially director/ producer, actress-writer ones.

So what to say to my readers.

First my apologies to you all for my atrocious written works of bad syntax, spellings, and sentence structure but hope you understood a few of the applied science delved into.

Why should the very rich have extended lives when all our lives are equally if not as important.

Once in a while there are neuron misfires in my brain and it turns to life, sex, the eternal not necessarily in that order.

My dislike of technology isn’t fear its seeing it bundle up remember the clock/radio? Well, that’s what going on now.

Texting in cell phones, pics on pc’s is not person is virtual and virtual isn’t real.

It's why I love sex skin to skin not screen to screen one is undeniably real while the other always pails in comparison.

No porn alone, have fems and men and share it.

Send mail to deeandtiny@poormagazine.org and or to

jsph_bldn@yahoo.com for feed back (I might get some this time).

by Marlon Crump/PNNFriday, October 3, 2008;

From the literature given out by the FCC

FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO GET READY FOR THE DTV TRANSITION:

1. GET YOUR COUPON! GET IT NOW

2. TELL OTHERS! KEEP YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY & NEIGHBORS CONNECTED.

3. SPREAD THE WORD! BE A RESOURCE TO YOUR COMMUNITY......................"

In response and interruption to that ad that was posted on www.civilrights.org/DTV, regarding the upcoming television transition;

POOR Magazine/POOR News Network has this to say:

"DIGITAL RESISTANCE AGAINST DIGITAL DIVIDE!"

Technology has arrived to a new age: The age of DTV. DTV stands for "digital television" and/or the broadcasting of digital television by local TV broadcasters. These signals are sent from local transmitters, over the air, to homes, by modern digital techniques, rather than the use of older "analog" methods, which are deemed as ineffective.

Since the mother and daughter team of the late great "Mama" Dee Gray, and her daughter, "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia formed POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, in 1996; one of POOR's ultra-primary mission(s) is DIGITAL RESISTANCE against local, global, and media oppression who target people prone to poverty, every single day.

On February 17th, 2009, anyone in possession of a T.V set nationwide will be forced to watch all of their television broadcasting shows, by means of a digital converter box, as is the edict by U.S Congress. Without a DTV converter box, people will be unable to watch T.V, at all.

This digital "divide and conquer" quest is literally just around the corner. Every T.V station in the U.S is expected to switch their transmissions from analog T.V signals to digital signals. Wilmington, North Carolina became one of the first cities in the U.S to establish this digital transition, on September 8th, 2008,

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the nation's most foremost regulating authority on broadcast channels, and media toured three major neighborhood districts here in San Francisco, CA on September 11th, 2008: Chinatown, Mission, and Bayview District.

I attended the two of the hearings, starting with the one in the Mission District, since it was literally right up my alley of where I currently reside, on 16th/ Folsom St. As a digital resistor, I had a duty to "digitally resist" this action, by re-porting this news of a tremendous universal change to those who would be the most impacted!

I awoke in the very early morning of 4:45 a.m, and realized it was September 11th. (National Patriots Day) Many people here in the U.S. were going to be mourning the loss, and hold memorial services for the loss of the many casualties and loved ones of the tragic 9/11 Terror Attacks, back in 2001. As my heart went out to all of those families, back then, I got ready to re-port and su-pport in my usual POOR fashion..............right now.

The F.C.C/ DTV presentation in the Mission District, took place at the Mission Neighborhood Centers, at 3:00 p.m. The DTV reps were Jonathan Adelstein, a commissioner of F.C.C, Roger Goldblatt, also from F.C.C, Rachelle Chong, from the California Public Utilities Commission, Marcella Medina, Johnnie Giles of Comcast (cable television company), and San Francisco Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, of District 11.

Among the near-large capacity of people in attendance, were primarily Latino families, community members of the Mission, numerous media broadcasters, Eloise Lee and Tracy Rosenberg from Media Alliance, and myself from POOR Magazine. The DTV presentation was opened up by Maria Bermudez, Director of Operations for Mission Neighborhood Centers, welcoming everyone for their attendance.

"We are trying to spread the word of this transition to the communities that are going to be the most impacted." explained Rachelle Chong, of the California Public Utlities Commission. "The minorities, the elderly, and the disabled."

Jonathan Adelstein, of F.C.C presented a detailed summary of the offer of "coupons" by the U.S Government to its citizens for a discount of the DTV Box. (Despite the ailing economy's great financial losses, at the hands of the Bush Administration.)

"To help you with this program, the government is offering two coupons." Adelstein addressed. "However, they will expire in 90 days." He also pointed out that, "The converter boxes are costing from $50-$70 each. With these coupons, you can receive these boxes cheap." (The coupons look just like a credit card, even bearing the same shape.)

.

GET THE COUPON!

.

GET THE RIGHT BOX!

KEEP YOUR TV!

The DTV converter is similarly structured to a cable box. Un-coincidentally, Comcast has advertised for the F.C.C to the public, regarding the DTV transition. Adelstein also hopes that the DTV will allow Spanish language.

As he and the other DTV reps continued their presentation, Sofia Avala of Comcast, translated for the non-English speaking Latino community members, throughout the entire presentation.

The greatest concern(s) by communities struggling in poverty, low-income, and disabled folks at POOR Magazine is how this will ultimately affect them, since many of them barely have access to T.V in the first place?

"DIGITAL RESISTANCE AGAINST DIGITAL DIVIDE!"

"My point of view is that they (U.S Government) want to have control," a concerned community member had argued. "The manufacturers are profiting off of the coupons. The coupons are $40 for everyone in the U.S. The boxes are $48, so the $8 are coming out of pocket."

"The commissioners are basically saying "tough" they're just going to come out of pocket. Its not fair, I work with the community, and they're saying that they shouldn't have to give out of pocket." (The actual price for the DTV converter is $70.)

"I understand that that there will be some hardship, but that is just how its going to be." Adelstein stated, in relation to that concern. "Congress set up these rules, a couple of years ago."

"DIGITAL RESISTANCE AGAINST DIGITAL DIVIDE!"

In a website located online at http://www.ceretailers.org/dtv-flyer2006.pdf, the site informs "consumers" that the digital broadcasts on February 17th, 2009 for the consumers, will be free (or advertiser-supported) to people who receive them via antennas are expected to remain free.

"Come on, let's be realistic. There are some people who still use clothes hangers for an antenna." I explained to them, regarding the affordablity of the DTV converter box, regardless of the offer of any coupons.

I even wondered what the boomerang effect would be against Corporate TV and mainstream media.This site also indicated, that it was possible of additional "pay" services might be launched in the future, but these are not expected to replace the free services offered today.

I asked Adelstein an alluded question, regarding DTV and the U.S Government's issue of control to many people here in the U.S: The use of spy devices and wiretapping into U.S American citizen's lives, allegedly for "terrorism purposes."

"My concern, which I'm sure is a concern by some, is that with everything going on nowadays with wiretapping from the U.S since 9/11 into people's phones, do you think that some are wondering what the government's true intention from wanting everyone's T.V to be switched to digital broadcast?"

Adelstein was somewhat evasive of that question, and didn't seem to answer much to the concern, other than an "I understand the concerns by many community members of this transition" speech. I noticed a slight smirk on the right side of his mouth, following my "wire tapping" question.

In the DTV presentation that occurred at the Bayview Opera House, in the Bayview Hunter's Point; I was joined by my fellow POOR comrades, Tony Robles, and POOR co-founder "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia. Upon our arrival, there was a display demonstration taking place in the back, between a portable T.V, and another attached to a DTV converter.

The DTV reps were demonstrating to the Bayview community members just how better the picture quality, and reception would be once this transition comes into effect, on February 17th, 2009. Just like the presentation in the Mission, everyone was urged to register quickly for the DTV Discount Coupons, before the offer expired in 90 days.

Adelstein also mentioned that there was a shortage of these coupons, during the presentation. Malkia A. Cyril, from the Center for Media Justice, in Oakland opened up the presentation. Jonathan Adelstein, and Rachelle Chong were the only two DTV representatives on the panel.

"The government wants everyone to transition its 1950 model into DTV." Rachelle Chong explained to community members of Bayview Hunter's Point. "Wireless companies will have a part in the transition. Beneficial to the transition will be law enforcement and emergency E.M.Ts." ("Beneficial to to law enforcement?")

"DIGITAL RESISTANCE AGAINST DIGITAL DIVIDE!"

Chong infomed everyone the amount of money that Congress would be putting into the DTV program:1.5 Billion Dollars!

Someone raised an important question of "What if people have really old television sets?" Adelstein replied, "You don't have to have a brand new T.V to have a converter box.

The dialogue then took to a heated temperamental turn (for the better) when questions were raised to Adelstein, about F.C.C, and Congress's outreach to the communities (especially those in poverty), nationwide.

Adelstein and Chong suggested to members of the Bayviewcommunity that THEY should be the ones to take up this responsibility. "We hope that everyone who are here on behalf of the community, who have concerns can help."

“This is digital Aparthieid, certain people will get access and thousands won’t,” Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia form POOR Magazine/PNN spoke directly to the small group of commissioners, “there are literally thousands of elders, disabled folks, adults living in Single Room Occupancy Hotels and incarcerated folks who will lose access to a life-line and not be able to go through the hoops of technology, resources and information to get these boxes or afford cable, not to mention thousands of incarcerated folks who aren’t going to get access for years at best.”

Gray-Garcia concluded by turning to the Comcast representatives in the room, “What are you doing here? Why is your literature all over the chairs? Are you going to help the thousands of poor folks cut out of channels of access to get access?”

The mood shifted to a heated 360 degree angle, from both Adelstein and Chong, after Tiny began her near-expletive address to Adelstein, Chong, U.S Congress, and Comcast's"inablity" to outreach more thoroughly into poor communities of color, nationwide.

"DIGITAL RESISTANCE versus The DIGITAL DIVIDE!"

"Outreaching to people with disabilities, seniors, non-English speakers, fixed income households and low-income families is a concern we share with the Federal Communications Commission." said Eloise Lee, of Media Alliance, following the DTV presentation.

Eloise concluded, "But we must also educate communities and each other about what can happen, once the digital transition takes place. A tiered system of communication and access to information is being set up right before our eyes. We must safeguard our airwaves and our right to information from corporations and broadcasters that seek to make a profit out of this transition."

"And that no one may buy or sell except he who has the mark or name of the Beast, or the number of his name" (Rev:13:16-17)

by Joe B.

Sacred Bonds/Long Lives

Looks like Conservatives have their hackles up about same sex marriage,New Mayor Newsom Didn’t brake laws getting folks married it just seem way to radical but then again we’re in San Francisco to the tune of $50,000 which is not bad for one day and this week that record can easily be broken.

But this is serious being Roman Catholic taught in New York I’d to have qualms about the same sex issue except it came to me:If the institution of marriage is so strong why would two men,women joined in the holiest of binding ties weaken the institution? Doesn’t the fact that two people deciding to love,cherish,protect in sickness and health prove that marriage is still strong?

To the very though of President Bush’s bull for a constitutional amendment restricting or banning same sex unions while making Man/Woman unions the only legal standing in America tell me more about his personal view than the countries.

Face it people Same sex marriages will take place it may be slowed for year but it will happen and this country will be better for it.

There was a time not so long past that Blacks could not marry Whites, Chinese,and were not respected as couples themselves.

Imagine a country where because of myths,tales, and tragic events happen not because of one race choosing to honor clandestine back alley torrid emotions by finding a minister to be honorably married in the creator’s eyes.

As a child I though don’t white folks get enough lovin’ everywhere they go they have women of other races when I learned of consensual sex it made me wonder,if I found a plain Jane white girl or women of any race and we loved each other the very thought of our not sneaking around but being open could get us(mainly me) killed for something as private and intimate as peck on a woman’s cheek.

It still goes on this insidious sexual jealousy, projection onto victims.

Now one the last taboos gay men and women in committed relationships demanding equality of marriage.

The Bible says its wrong but its wrong thinking impure thoughts, Civilization didn’t begin with marriage but children had to know who their mother’s and father’s were and for the longest time women we’re child baring chattel.

Like it or not you cannot stop a determined people and for a President to carve in stone and enshrine that only man and woman constitutes a family is arrogance of one man in a high office whose personal preference, bigotry,belittled the office makes him not the office small.

Between birth and abortion two of the most powerful engines of creation and destruction literally rests in the hands of and wombs of women and men may believe they have power over them as President B’ think using religion and his own belief system on how women should behave means nothing to girls with too many children,girls too young having them or those wanting to keep their child.

And of mature young women knowing what they want getting abortions-on -demand silently suffering emotional,psychological turmoil punishing themselves long after they’ve achieved their career goals even marrying and having children.

Most men don’t acknowledge this power of life and death and as friend said to me once: There’s A Reason Why Men Can Not Give Birth!

99% cannot take the physical,emotion, pain of it constitutionally.

In South Korea cloning of embryo breakthrough shows too that therapeutic is not in some dim future but here as for whole body cloning – that’s up to people who can afford the failures until either or both therapeutic and whole cloning is here.

Lost body parts, nerve regeneration,even brain cell replacement alleviating the lonely curse of Alzheimer.

Could it be that by the time 2020 or 2030 rolls around America may not only have same sex marriages legalized and be normal as like so called traditional family raising children of their own but therapeutic cloning and nanotechnology in our clothes and in us keeping us alive,youthful, healthy,and free of disease and minor ills aches and pains?

This coming election is about which way America will go.

Will the big-A lead the world into a new dawn of a bright future or will it falter,fall back like a preverbal ostrich its long neck in the sand while new countries take the bold steps into the glittering, shining future with all the perils,pitfalls,joys, and agonies it takes to stay Phoenix like renewing themselves as America stagnates behind?

Its not up to politico’s but we the people to elect bold leaders from our ranks to herald us past the dawn into a new day.


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Bruce Allison/PNN; Writer Facilitator: Lola Bean

For the last 40-Years Jose Morales lived at 572 San Jose Ave. For a decade he has been fighting his landlord. Ten years ago, the landlord took Jose’s backyard access away. Jose filed a petition with the rent board and they told the landlord to cut his rent by 50%. The landlord and the company that owns the building, ABT, LLC, retaliated against Jose by trying to use the Ellis Act to kick him out of the apartment entirely.

The Ellis Act gives the landlord the right to get out of the renting business without selling his property. The landlord just has to go to court and say they want to stop renting. The judge OKs it and the landlord is then allowed to bypass the tenants lease agreements and give out eviction papers. This is how Jose Morales ended up in a battle for the home he has lived in for 40 years.

At 9:13am on Aug 22 of this year Jose stood his 78 year old body outside the San Francisco Courthouse. He was dressed neatly in a green and blue jacket and wore a blue baseball cap. Behind him was a small shopping cart filled with fliers. He gave a flier to anyone and everyone that would take one. I took one of the fliers and read the horrible story they told. Printed in black ink was a brief history of Jose’s battle to save his home and a brief history about my friend Jose. It was sad for me to see him in that position outside the courtroom.

At 9:30 we made our way into the courtroom. Jose, a fine gentleman, took his place in the front row. 20 supporters and friends from St. Peter’s Housing and the Bernal Heights Senior Community Center and this reporter from POOR Magazine were there to bear witness to the proceeding.

At 10:45 the battle began with the judge hitting the gavel. Each party had 15 minutes to state their cases in front judge.

The advocate for the evil landlord opened the debate by saying that the Ellis Act gives him the right to evict people I don’t like.

The judge decided to let the jury decide his fate.

His jury case is scheduled to end this week. Please come out to show your support for a cherished community elder.

After five years your soul enters your house. After 10 years it enters the neighborhood. 15 years you become an Icon of the neighborhood, after 40 years, they ask you to leave.

Currently the Ellis Act is one vote away from being eliminated by State Assembly Members. Please stay tuned to PNN for more reports on the Ellis Act.

by Tony Robles/PNN

I was riding Muni the other day. An African descendent sister sat nearby. Suddenly she said aloud, "God don't like ugly". I thought about those words. I wondered who first uttered them. Perhaps a poor person, a person removed from their land or perhaps it was a person wrongly incarcerated. I glanced at the other passengers. They stared straight ahead. It was as if the woman's words met deaf ears. I heard them. They touched my heart and mind.

Senior Action Network (www.senioractionnetwork.org) recently honored Mission District elder Jose Morales for his long fight against displacement and gentrification. Jose was evicted from his Mission District home courtesy the Ellis Act--a place he had called home for over 40 years. Jose fought for more than a decade to keep his home while his landlord fought to take it off the market for the purpose of converting it into a condominium. Folks from the community sat in Jose's kitchen listening to this elder describe his long struggle--the clock ticking in the background. Jose talked about the harassment of his landlord. The weight of the fight and the struggle and the harassment could be seen in Jose's bent back. We waited for the sheriff.

And what of the countless numbers of tenants, elders, people with mental and/or physical disabilities who have suffered from the physical and emotional stress of landlord harassment? Cases of harassment are well-documented--residential burglary, severed phone lines, sawing holes in floors, stalking, mysterious fires, etc.

San Francisco currently has no laws protecting tenants from harassment. The rent board does not involve itself in such cases. Presently the only thing tenants can do to fight is to document harassment, which might be over a period of months or years. Once the abuse has been documented as being so egregious as to cause physical, mental or financial damages--can the tenant then file a lawsuit.

Proposition M will add an important section to San Francisco's rent control law a section that will define and ban harassment. Prop M would give tenants a rent reduction when harassed. It will also give tenants attorney's fees to fight eviction attempts. Longtime tenant advocate Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee (www.hrcsf.org) sees prop M as necessary. "Prop M gives tenants a tool for fighting landlord harassment. Currently, we don't have much that we can do when a landlord is tring to pressure us into leaving our apartment or is making it extremely uncomfortable for us to live there. Putting this in the rent ordinance makes perfect sense, its where most of our rights as rent-controlled tenants are already stored. This is a very important proposition--particularly for elders on fixed incomes who should be honored and cared for,not harassed. As the sister on Muni said, "God don't like ugly".

Author's note: To see a video of Senior Action Network's 17th annual convention, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuuIA-MMUSI

by Tiny/PoorNewsNEtwork

POOR MAgazine's ReViEw cru had the pleasure of attending the SNAG (Seventh Native American Generation) release party at Oaklands Black Box last Friday night.

"in this issue we explore rites of passage - life changing experiences that have made us who we are today. Whether it be a coming of age ceremony, a rough year in high school or a moment shared with grandfather... we have all lived through times that have shaped us as people...excerpt from SNAG's 3rd issue

I first met Ross Cunningham, who is Pomo and African and Shadi Rahimi who is Bahrani and Kurdish , founders and editors of SNAG in 2002 when they approached POOR to help them get their first issue of SNAG published through our publishing arm, POOR Press - which sponsors work of poor youth and adults of color. We were thrilled to be part of the project and many months of slaving over a hot computer by everyone involved- SNAG volume 1 was borne.

A year and a half later Volume 3 of a glossy and very beautiful SNAG entitled "rites of Passage" which also includes a very phat CD has officially hit the streets. SNAG, based in Oakland is the only native youth magazine in the whole US and is totally self-sustaining. They make the money to publish by selling the magazine for $5.00 and they have contributors from native youth all over the US

I went to the release party with my 5 month old son and my friend and fellow POOR staffer Jennifer Navarro and her young son (2). I had some reservations about going to a "show" that purported to have hip hop, dance and art with my baby only because the volume can be too loud for him, but when i asked Ross about it he said, "NAw,,, this is an all ages show" Well the interesting part of that statement is it in fact was an all ages show, there were elders, grandmothers and grandfathers, babies ( even younger than mine) and children ranging from 4 to 18. and they weren't just there - all these folk from all these different generations performed, spoke out, danced and chanted.

The evening began with a traditional dance including Ross' grandmother leading a traditional song with Ross and several other men and boys dressed in traditional Pomo gear dancing to bless the event and launch the resistance. After that Ross spoke to the crowd bout SNAGs humble ( hella ghetto aka POOR PRess) beginnings, the mission statement of SNAG and what would happen that night.

We were blessed with traditional dance performances by children and adult Pomo dancers accompanied by the famous drum sounds of The All Nations Drums, B-Boys from New Mexico and the Dine Nation; The FOFcru and Hound Dog Truckers, Oakland Rapper Tico , spoken words and B-girls from TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More- a youth group that spoke truth about the criminal Unjustice System and the necessity to resist through raising our voices together.

The next part of the night was framed as an "open mike" which was truly an open mike - ie folk of all ages and colors came to the mike and spoke, sung and chanted on all issues ranging from the incarcerations of native brothers to the haunting sounds of a native man playing an electric bass guitar as though it was a sitar .

Finally, much later in the evening the night became about some deep sounds of Native Hip hop including Ras K'Dee, PRophet, PRofound, Blessed I, Foreign Legion and Casper Lomayesva- it was at this point that we and the mama/baby cru from POOR had to make our exit feeling full of cross cultural and multi-generational knowledge and positivity.

The SNAG folks are working on developing a website which would allow them to publish weekly. TO do this they need to raise some funds - to make a donation or get a copy of their current Issue contact Ross at (510) 535-4492- x 157 or email them at snagmagazine@yahoo.com

by By Brother Y /Poverty and Race Scholar/PNN ReVIewsFOr The REvoLution

I, Brother Y, poverty scholar, casualty of the war on drugs, and career criminal of the crime of being a black male in Amerikkka, recently saw Transformers, the movie, and give it two black power fists up!

Right on! Right on! Finally the truth about the Ameriklan criminals dispensing the unJustice system, the military industrial complex and the mass media onto its citizens. Although this movie is science fiction, there is much truth told in it about big business, the war on drugs and the war on the poor in Amerikkka.

Usually the way things go in marketing movies made for children is the movie comes first and if it is successful then come a plethora of paraphernalia related to the movie including action figures, comic books, games and any other children’s items one might imagine; not so with Transformers.

Transformers is a movie based on a comic book that is based on a cartoon that is based on a popular children’s action figure. The Transformer’s movie gives the basic history of where the Transformers came from what divided them into separate camps and what item of importance they are both trying to gain control of. I do not like giving away movie plots but as my friend Josh Zeide the big successful entertainment lawyer in Atlanta would say there are only three universal stories. Even I must admit this is one of them. Suffice it to say this war is of power like all wars in human history regardless of the lies or excuses given.

Just as the Autobots and their archenemies, the Decepticons, rapidly change shape to go into battle as robots, they also rapidly change from robots to non-threatening vehicles to blend into their surroundings. Actually the Decepticons rapidly change into robots and threatening vehicles, such as police cars, tanks and other vehicles of state condoned violence to blend in.

One of the first instances of a dramatic transformation is shortly after the Autobot Bumble Bee is purchased by the father of the main human character as a graduation present from a used car lot. Bumble Bee appears to be just another beat up old hoopty, but after a chase scene and subsequent battle the boy is told who and what Bumble Bee really is. The response of course is one of disbelief and questioning, if he truly is as claimed, why does he masquerade as a beat up old piece of crap? Bumble Bee’s feelings are hurt so he pimps himself out. (No, not like a hooker, like a car!).

In the ironic way that children often make innocent yet profound statements that appear to be wise beyond their years, The Transformers movie does the same.

For anyone willing to look at life, as it truly is not just the way they want it to be, such an example is the ironic way that art can imitate life. “Transformers” metaphorically exemplifies the fact that big business and big government is the established enemy of the poor and working class masquerading as a friend or helper.

The writing on the wall can be no clearer than the motto inscribed on the side of the
Decepticons “police car” - “To punish and enslave.”

This brings the harsh reality of life as those of us victimized by big business and big government know the” war on drugs,” ”the war on terror” and” the war on the poor”
(so called “quality of life violations”) are all one and the same. Big business and big government fit together like hand and glove.

The mainstream media, of course, are their willing co-conspirators and propaganda machine. Revolutionary media, guerrilla vendors and anti-establishment activist
are of course on the other side of the line drawn in the sand. To completely
clarify things, mainstream America is the proverbial war-like Decepticons,
whereas the counter culture is the peace loving proverbial Autobots.

Down with the establishment! Join the revolution; transform your life and the world around you!

‘nuff said.

Brother Y

by Bruce Allison/PNN Elder and Poverty Scholar

The increased criminalization of poor folk in San Francisco and across the nation is alarming. San Francisco has called for and will be implementing a community court in the Tenderloin at the behest of Mayor Newsom. There are reports of citizens, poor folk, houseless folks--ie, human beings being hosed by high power water hoses by DPW (Department of Public Works) trucks performing the noble job of cleaning the sidewalk. Hygenic metaphors such as dirt, blight, and "cleaning up the neighborhood" when referring to poor and houseless folks are dangerous because they ultimately cease to be just metaphors--they manifest into brutal attitudes that say that incarceration is the answer.

DPW has been driving down the streets with water canons, hosing people without warning. Those being hosed are elders, undocumented people, and people whose work is unrecognized--such as recyclers and street sheet vendors who can't afford a home. This is a direct result of limited beds due to Newsom's Care Not Cash policy. I personally talked to a DPW worker who said of the hosees, "These are just crackheads".

The Coalition on Homelessness plans to expose this ridiculous scenario to the public. They have cameras and are collecting more information. For the safety of the coalition, I cannot disclose the location of the cameras.

Using water hoses on human beings will cost the city money in medical costs as a direct result of illness such as pneumonia brought on by being hosed. This is not helping the city's economy--it's actually hurting the reputation of San Francisco. The city and DPW should be ashamed of their gestapo tactics-- hurting people whose only crime is not having any money in their pockets.

Mayor Newsom, I am tired of you using these cruel tactics on people who cannot fight back. And to the Chief of Police, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are hurting innocent people who are just trying to get a little rest.

by Joe B.

Race To The Stars

Folks,you know my views by now.

Primarily my non-profit work with POOR Magazine is to help find solutions to this one way drain-money- from-poor folk, which I am, still a part.

PM with other organizations and individuals believe bottom-up from families and persons struggling through these situation are the ultimate experts because they’ve lived or are living through still.

You know going from student to,full time worker,being laid off, fired,houseless,in shelters,G.A.(General Assistance),from odd jobs, case management,to work fare – and have I forgotten being ill with little or no medicines?

Seeing how one becomes a cipher in the eyes fellow citizen’s think "stop drinking,drugs,being lazy, begging,unprotected sex.

(yeah, like young women really look to pick up penniless guys to screw cause they have nothing better to do than to raise fallen men turning them in prospective husbands.)

But Monday, July, 22, 2004 Pilot,Mr. Mike Melvill 63 and his topflight team helped him get his private funded rocket plane.

62.2 miles straight up eating atmosphere until Melvill saw the blue blackness of airless space.

He safely lands with a few glitches to be worked out that he and the team must solve before repeating the feat twice more with 3 more people.

I’d like to train, go up and experience seeing earth, see the moon if visible.

But I’m so far below the economic scale.

The only way I could pay back Mike Melvill and his team is if I became a celebrity hero.

I could be a spoke’s person for products, guess spots on public radio or Steve Harvey’s Big Time.

I something goes wrong and I survive it Maxx Extreme would be the show to be on.

I’m so far down on the economic latter that it would be a stunt for me a non profit low wage worker to be one of three to ride a rocket up through the stratosphere for a few minutes returning as a bona fide astronaut.

That’s fine even if I never go up again I’d be forever in history books as a footnote.

My one great contribution would be not as a POOR M staff writing reporter but as regular average guy using my skill as columnist with a personal viewpoint.

Even If I was picked for this by Poor Magazine for this once in a lifetime unique story.

I’d have to write a separate version(1)what PM wanted as its theme.

Version(2)My private, real deep down soul feeling that could not ever be part of PM being too private an experience that would be for public consumption other than PM’s political view.

I’ll say this now if by some miracle I am picked to go for free.

I would be honored, gleeful,simultaneously terrified and awestruck at being chosen.

All I have is the balance presence that the holy trinity gave humankind free will,evolved us to imagine,explore possibilities undreamed of.

We are not the paragon of animals,we are feeling, thinking,beings, with a belief in a divine spark.(soul)

Maybe this can help fuel becoming a success beyond mere money so I can be one of the few to break the bonds of earth and sky if only for a moment.

(of course my personal bias is immortality first along with space travel.)

This is but a small step but will lead others and as they are built on with hard won knowledge,sacrifice, science,and technology we as a species will be in space, turning asteroids into homes, landing sites for personal space ships.

Artificial homes floating in space, moon bases, seed-ships on generation long journeys, resorts, robot factories, make ships-to-order for those able to afford them.

Finally,more people will be among the stars terra forming worlds, or as restless (spacers), asteroid miners looking for room to grow.

We might find other beings or that we are truly alone which ever is true our first best destiny is the immensity of space and stars.

In a few decades,if life extension into immortality becomes reality and I’m still alive,in better health than I thought possible…

Then I too will be either a spacer (flying, landing of worlds,flitting across galactic maybe intergalactic space) or a ground-ling settled on a world to live but not necessarily die on.

(That’s what immortality is for more time and choices).

Hey! Reader’s what do you think about our Government and Private Sector unofficial space race?

More importantly do you really "Wanna Take A Ride?"

Please send donations to Poor Magazine

1095 7th & Market Street,

S.F. Ca.94103

Snail or Email Joe at:


PO Box 1230 #204

by Sam Drew/ReVieWsForTHeReVoLutioN

As a staff writer at POOR Magazine, I proudly claim the title of poverty scholar since I’ve suffered through low wage and no wage security jobs at some of the most prestigious buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. This life experience informs and infuses my journalism. Not only do I report the news, but I use media to support the community. At POOR Magazine we are not just media voyeurs but media makers.

Sitting in a half empty movie theatre suffering through trailer after trailer of bombastic summer blockbuster films, my senses were suddenly awakened as I saw Don Cheadle on the screen decked out in polyester and plaid with his 1970’s style butterfly collar shirt open to his navel. "Oh, no” I thought to myself, “not another movie about a street smart Black man who says outrageous things and wiggles out of difficult situations by fooling uptight whites and saves the day by spreading peace, love and SOUL to America.”

If you’ve seen one of these movies you've seen them all. Eddie Murphy, Eddie Griffin, Chris Rock, Chris Tucker and the Wayans Brothers excel in this type of standard Hollywood fare. I almost gave up on this movie just by viewing the trailer. But something said give this movie a chance. Don Cheadle’s body of work has been stellar and Director Kasi Lemmons has shown a sensitive and powerful touch in movies like “Eve’s Bayou.” This is one of the few times the small voice in my head was right.

Don Cheadle portrays Ralph “Petey” Green an ex-con who becomes a mainstay on Washington D.C. radio during the turbulent 60’s. His tell it like it is disc jockey style makes him a hero to the average joe in chocolate city. He has no fear calling Motown’s head honcho Berry Gordy a pimp because of his exploitive contracts with young people. He routinely undresses crooked politicians over the radio without fear. It is his relationship with the community that turns him into a folk hero.

A watershed moment in the movie occurs when Petey gets his chance to perform on “The Tonight Show” in New York City. For Petey’s former radio director and now career advisor, The Tonight Show is a slice of assimilated heaven; a crossover dream realized.
Sitting across from Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon as a black man was almost entirely unheard of before than and to many signaled that the entire race had risen.

When Petey is about to perform his comedy routine he is hit with an epiphany. These well heeled white folks have come to laugh at me not with me. As he walks out on the Tonight Show, Petey also walks out on his career as a disc jockey. His personal demons catch up with him and his career comes to a grinding halt. There are ramifications for not falling in line with societies pressure to conform.

But what made Petey a hero to the average person was his willingness to take on power and privilege, yet remain true to his roots. For him to become mainstream would require him to turn his back on what made him popular to begin with.

I can totally identify with Petey’s dilemma. At POOR Magazine what separates us from the mainstream is the fact we embrace our disabilities and poverty and incorporate them in our journalism, poetry and books. To turn your back on this would be like turning your back on what makes you unique. This would be turning your back on your community. The motto at POOR Magazine is that not only do we report the news but we sup-port too. Through his unwillingness to change and conform to society’s wishes, Petey did just the same.

by Dale Ray Smith and Tony Robles/PNN

The ancestral winds blow us across oceans and onto streets; the trees shed their leaves and return with the coming of the seasons. How many ancestors have the trees seen? How many times have we walked past the trees without looking, without honoring their presence? People appear and disappear, come and go in and out of our lives. I hear my father’s voice in the bamboo forests of Hawaii saying, life isn’t promised, we are all on our journey. Each person in our life serves a purpose, each with his or her unique heartbeat and way of laughing; each with a gift that is given to be given and given again in the cycle which is life.

I remember the day I met Mary Ann Smith. Her father Dale Ray saw me at the coffee shop on the corner of 6th and Market little more than a month ago. We greeted with a hug. “Hey, come outside for a minute” he said, “I want you to meet my daughter”. We walked over to the front of Jack’s Bar, that great place recently shut down due to gentrification. Mary Ann was with a group of friends in front of that closed down, boarded up bar. I could still hear the music and the lights inside Jack’s--black faces and black voices swirling with lights of all colors—men in slacks and women in thick makeup and the bathroom door with its loose hinges. Jack’s was my church and many people’s church. I know Mary Ann heard that music and felt the life of that place. Now it was boarded up and she was outside with the trees.

“This is my girl” Dale Ray said. Dale Ray hugged his daughter and said things that daddy’s say to their little girls, even when the girls aren’t little anymore. They hugged a hug that lasted a lifetime, a hug that said all the things that went unsaid through the seasons. Things like “Baby girl, I’m sorry for the times I wasn’t there but I’m here now”. Mary Ann took her father’s hand then let go. “I’m tired daddy”, she said, “I’m tired”. I watched and the trees watched as father and daughter embraced. Slowly the leaves of houselessness, gentrification, substance abuse, the death of her mother, the death of her boyfriend, foster homes, lost leases and many other things fell from the trees and onto the street. “It’s ok now”, Dale Ray says to the woman who is, was, will always be his little girl. Mary Ann looks at her daddy, the loneliness and anxiety between them melting in each other’s arms but knowing that it comes back like weeds—it’s hard, very hard to make it go away.

That was the only time I met Mary Ann Smith—poverty scholar and daughter of POOR Magazine’s author Dale Ray Smith. He informed me of Mary Ann’s death a few days ago. She passed away on January 3rd at the age of 36, a poverty scholar and native of San Francisco. “She was in and out of foster homes during my addiction”, says Dale Ray. “Her number one priority was getting back into her kid’s life. She was mother to Sharonda, Laron and Shalonte. Dale Ray’s voice cannot cover his sadness. “She was a beautiful person with a good heart. She would give you her last dime”. Mary Ann lost her mother to a car accident 5 years ago. Her sister Carmen remembers. “She drank but not heavy until her mom passed”.

I walk past Jack’s on 6th street. I see the trees dance to the voices of those whose spirits sing in the Market Street wind. Mary Ann Smith’s voice sings and is not forgotten. Her voice sings with her mother who are finally reunited singing the sweet mother-daughter song that was meant to be sung without pain as the trees dance the ancestral dance honoring their lives.

Editor’s note: POOR Magazine is asking the community to help the Smith family at this time. Contributions can be made by Contacting Tiny at (510)435-7500

by Tiny/PNN

The war on the poor is in full Ef-fect!!

The war on the poor is in full Ef-fect

From frisco and Oakland to

The phillipines and iraq

But Now theres a new from of house to house

Com-bat

The soldiers are social workers, police and politi-shuns

Creating deadly legislations, and

con-tracts

Speaking from the knowledge of a poverty skolah

born from the endless struggle to hold onto a dollah –

I must re-state

The war on the poor is in full ef-fect

otherwise,How can a man backed by Gettys harass people who barely have a bed to

con-nect with

…..Excerpt from The War on the Poor by Tiny/Po Poet

How do you define help? If you provide someone with help does that mean you have the right to take it away?… The Day after the second hostile corporate takeover of Amerikka by BUSH/Cheny Inc. and the Haliburton boyz these questions floated through my mind as I spit my poem the War on the Poor at a protest and march for healthcare, economic justice and voter justice that began at Justin Herman Plaza at 9:00 am on Wednesday, November 3rd and wove through the streets of San Francisco throughout the day and into the night

As a very low-income, formerly houseless Bay Area resident who has lived homelessly in the streets of San Francisco and Oakland since I was a child, and was now marching for justice with hundreds of folks through the soon to be "cleaned-up" tenderloin ( read; all the poor and homeless folks kicked out, locked out and starved out through displacement , redevelopment and incarceration) stopping at the soon to be closed Tenderloin Self Help Center, I was reminded of our original thesis at POOR Magazine which attempted to raise awareness about the very real connection between poor peoples all over the world. How we as poor folks, indigenous folk and communities of color have been so successfully sold a bill of capitalist goods about where we should get our "help" i.e., our food, shelter and services that we are unable to establish them for ourselves or when we try to create innovative models of food production, land use and health service provision we face a struggle just to maintain what we manage to create.

"In some kind of way, The city managed to shift the administrative body that ran this center from the Department of Health, which is what it should come under seeing as it provides very important health services for people, to The Department of Human Services, and then before we knew it they put the contract out for bid and we lost it and now the new version of this place will be a resource center", Poverty Scholar, Self-Help Center board member and lead organizer for the Civil Rights Project of the Coalition on Homelessness LS Wilson outlined the most recent example of this kind of political shell game to hit a very innovative, very grassroots, community based drop-in center known as the Tenderloin Self-Help Center established 19 years ago to provide everything from free lunch, a safe place to sit out of the cold, telephone use, bi-lingual employment services, housing advocacy, counseling and substance abuse services for homeless and/or disabled folks in a non-invasive, peer-based, anti-institutional model which is sometimes referred to as Harm reduction.

" This is the third time in the last three months in which the City has taken a health based service center and turned it into a "resource center" and its all to support Care Not Cash initiative to make the author of that initiative (Newsom) look good" LS went on to explain that people had to fight the same bait and switch with Conard House, which caused two people to die in the process.

LS concluded, "When you are turning everything into a resource center what is happening to the people on the streets that you are pretending to help " LS was speaking about the highly problematic legislation known as Care Not Cash brought in to being as part of Gavin Newsoms' anti-poor people Mayoral platform which has done much more harm that good in its troubled implementation.

Readers of PNN and The Bayview will remember PNN's intensive media organizing and resistance of the legislation in collaboration with POWER, The Coalition on Homelessness and many more organizations, which reduced the welfare grant from the already meager $345.00 Per month to $59.00 a month and prioritized the City's shelter beds for welfare recipients leaving disabled elders and the working poor without a bed. In fact, the main point of this legislation is to make it more difficult for poor and homeless folks to reside in San Francisco which once again is part of the class supremacy agenda that pits poor against poorer and eventually makes it impossible for anyone but the very wealthy to exist in San Francisco at all.

"It’s a place for those of us who have nowhere to go, to come and talk to people, to get some lunch, to get some counseling, cause if you have somewhere where people can go it’s a way they can stay away from drugs", Francis Terry, a 67 year old African Descendent woman explained the reasons why a harm reduction model like The Self Help Center which was created by the community itself, works so well

" The Self-Help Center is where people can go if they want to make a change, a common ground, a place where we can change our lives," Myra P. Wilson, a disabled young African Descendent woman spoke over the sounds emanating from the Center on the middle of Womens' day at the Center

"When people ask what we do, I answer, whatever people need us to do" I spoke to Vicky Johnson, the soft-spoken program manager for the Self-Help Center about what the Center provides for the community. She continued, "they want to turn this place into an invasive medical model where they collect peoples' fingerprints, ID, and blood tests, rather than our model of meeting people where they are and giving them what they need, a model that empowers people to help themselves"

How do you define help? And when we create it for ourselves are we gonna let the system take it away?

To fight the wrongful closure of this very important center which was done without any community input please call, fax or send a letter to Mayor Newsom @ 554-6141! And tell them to keep the peer based, drop-in center Tenderloin Self-Help Center open For postcards or more information: Contact Hospitality House - 290 Turk Street - 749-2113. To read more work on Care-Less Use of Cash written by the poor folks directly affected by it go on-line to www.poormagazine.org and click on Care Not Cash Resistance

by Dale Ray and Tony Robles/PNN

Editor’s Note: Dale Ray’s article was facilitated by Poor Magazine columnist Tony Robles. It Reflects one man’s experience with the burden of trying to overcome the injustice and stigma of an accusation of molestation. POOR Magazine understands the severity of child molestation upon its victims and families. It is POOR Magazine’s position that a person who commits this crime against children should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. POOR also realizes that the system by which individuals are accused and incarcerated—at The same time is flawed—incarcerating and stigmatizing innocent individuals. This article is written to inform the public of this situation.

by Leroy Moore/Illn n chillin

Diversifying Hip-Hop 2

In 2006 I asked the Bay Area’s Hip-Hop community and media with a mono microphone were they ready for diversifying Hip-Hop event. Through this event Hip-Hop artists and Poets with disabilities took the stage at LA Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley CA and at San Francisco, CA main library. This event pulled together some diverse voices in the spoken word and Hip-Hop arena, however the Bay Area at large didn’t embraced our voice and work on a large scale with only a handful of people showed up. Looking back on it, the foundation that was laid in 2006 helped spring to life further work and now there is another chance to complete the full vision of Diversifying Hip-Hop in 2009 on April 11th at U university of California at Berkeley.

The vision of the 2006 event was to crack minds locally that there are Hip-Hop artists and poets with disabilities by hosting a performance. In that same year, for the first time I shared a microphone at a radio station and had a chance to co\produced a three part sires on Hip-Hop artists with disabilities. However, the radio sires that lead to producing mixtapes featuring Hip-Hop artists with disabilities from around the world still left the vision of Diversifying Hip-Hop not complete. Being in the Bay Area, I found out that the stories of rejection to Hip-Hop artists with disabilities was shared by another group of talented Hip-Hop artists that had been speaking out since 2001 and formed their own movement, Homo-Hop, music and culture created by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people in the Oakland, East Bay Area.

To think back on it now I must of used without noticing it at the time, Homo-Hop like a map for what has now become Krip-Hop Project. It feels so good when you know that there are people that can relate and has provided a path of support knowing that we have our differences but share the same goal. Just attending PeaceOUT Homo-Hop Festival in Oakland, CA Homo-Hop events/ and reading articles on the topic reinforced the dedication to complete the vision of Diversifying Hip-Hop of 2006.

In 2006, Krip-Hop Project was born in Berkeley, CA. Krip-Hop Project’s mission is to educate the music, media industries and general public about the talents, history, rights and marketability of Hip-Hop artists and other musicians with disabilities. Krip-Hop main objective is to get the musical talents of hip-hop artists with disabilities into the hands of media outlets, educators, and hip-hop, disabled and race scholars, youth, journalists and hip-hop conference coordinators. Krip-Hop Project has put out two mixtapes, has a column on Hip-Hop Journalism Association website and Poor Magazine. Recently Krip-Hop project began an internet radio show on alltalkradio.net and will be in an upcoming documentary on Halfasouljr. I also continued to let my mind grow and learned about and attended the 2007 PeaceOut World HomoHop Festival in Oakland, CA.

PeaceOut World HomoHop Festival was an annual festival of hip hop music and culture created by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people and held in Oakland, California from 2001 to 2007. One of the creators of this festival, Juba Kalamka is most recognized for his work as a founding member of Deep Dickollective (D/DC). Juba knew about my work and I knew about his band, Deep Dickollective, and his writings on music for the magazine, Colorlines. During the 2007 PeaceOut Homo-Hop Festival in Oakland, CA, I talked to Juba about Hip-Hop artists with disabilities and he was down. Things always come back around! In 2008 Juba wrote a review of Krip-Hop Vol. 2 for Colorlines Magazine. Last year I was blessed to meet nyla moujaes of NaR, a queer San Francisco bay area hip hop crew hailing from the mountains of Lebanon and also met Galen Paterson who has worked with Homo-Hop artists and trying to bridge the Hip-Hop community to all different voices in Hip-Hop including Homo-Hop artists like NaR and DeepDickCollective to name a few. Recently I got to know one of the outspoken voices, more like his untamed pen, for Homo-Hop artists and just got finished reading his book, Hip-Hop Homophobes….., Khalil Amani.

All of the above and stories from artists in both communities, queer and disabled, has led to the completion of 2006 vision behind Diversifying Hip-Hop event. And that will be bringing the two communities together in a panel/performance event to go deeper then identity politics and screaming at local Hip-Hop community to open their doors but to first realize each other communities, history, talents and to lay groundwork for systematic chances in not only the music industry but other media avenues.

Planning and now advertising this event has brought some shocking responses and at the same time strong support. By placing disability and queerness together in the Hip-Hop arena has stripped some people from their customs. Krip-Hop Project would like to thank Art In Action, University of California at Berkeley, all the artists, Khalil Amani and the Homo-Hop movement for their support. I can go on about the negative attitudes I received but lets not go there for now! In short this event and the planning of it could be a very juicy book. Ummmm! Stay tune for more articles on Diversifying Hip-Hop: Krip-Hop Homo-Hop event. So we will see if the Bay Area is ready for our second try of Diversifying Hip-Hop…..event.

“Diversifying Hip-Hop: Krip-Hop Homo-Hop” is sponsored by the Disability Studies Program, the Division of Arts and Humanities, and the Departments of Art Practice, Theater Dance & Performance Studies, and African Diaspora Studies at U.C. Berkeley. The organizers also acknowledge the support of Poor Magazine, Turf Unity, Homo-Hop Radio and the Doreen Townsend Center Working Group for Hip-Hop Studies at UCB.

April 11th Saturday 11/2009 1-6 pm FREE Admission

Worth Ryder Gallery 116 Kroeber Hall

Contact: Leroy Moore at (510)) 649-8438

kriphopproject@yahoo.com

by Leroy Moore/Illin n Chillin

A leading Muslim jurist of Spain in the twelfth
century, Ibn Hazam, advocated that disability should
not be an impediment to becoming a leader. And indeed
the history of Islam is full of people living with
their disabilities who have served their communities.
For example:

Akbar The Great was a king of but he
had dyslexia and could not read or write.

Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum, a blind man was put in
charge of the city of Madinah by Prophet Muhammad more then ten times. Every time the Muhammad left town he relied on Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum to run the city.

In the last ten years, Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, was a
spiritual leader, teacher and founder of Hamas. His
ideas and leadership sprung from his involvement with
the Muslim Brotherhood religious organization.
He was the second most important Palestinian leader after PalestinianAuthority (PA) President Yasser Arafat. Sheikh Ahmed Yasin was killed on March 20th 2004 by The Israelis Airforce.

Although many Muslim scholars have written that the
Quran offers very little on disabilities, the Quran
outlines example of inclusion, and because of that
Islam is welcoming, opening and accessible to people
with disabilities. The insight on the role of people
with disabilities within the Muslim faith, the Quran
and Hdith Prophet Muhammads Tradition, recorded
statements, includes at least one example of the
practice of inclusion of an individual with a
disability in Muslim daily duties. The story of
Julabib tells how a physically disabled man who was
one of the Prophets companions fought in battle. The
Prophet saw Julabib as his equal. The Prophet granted
Julabib the right to marry.

In addition to the teachings of Quran, some
contemporary Muslim scholars have given their
interpurtation that the Muslim faith is inclusionive
of people with disabilities. . Sheikh Isse Mosse
wrote in his article, Disability: An Islamic
Insight, (Islamic Council of Victoria website, 2002)
that Islam sees disability as morally neutral. It
is seen neither as a blessing nor a curse. Clearly
disability is therefore accepted as being an
inevitable part the human condition. It, disability,
is simply a fact of life which has to be addressed
appropriately by the society of the day.

The above examples of how disability is viewed in the
Muslim faith and history can bring together the life,
struggles and activism of Sheikh Ahmed Yasin in an
Islamic disability paradigm if the above practice,
theories and faith are really carried out in today's
society. Many disabled Muslims today would argue that
the day to day reality doesn't match their teachings
of inclusion.

However if we only follow the practice and teaching of
inclusion in the Muslim faith and way of living, it
gives a disability platform for the reader to look and
study the life and work of Sheikh Ahmad Yasin of
Palestine in a disability scholarly view. The hows
and whys of the growing power and leadership of Yasin
have been tossed around in the media since his
assassination on March 20th 2004. On many written
accounts by reporters about Yasins evolution of his
revolutionary activism and his thinking of the
Palestine people have linked his rise in status to his
personal experiences of his youth. For example, the
stripping of the land in the Israeli war of
independence of 1948 thus living in a refugee camp,
his football injury that left him a quadriplegic at
age 12 and the injustice of the justice system that
imprisoned him twice in his early fifties. All of
these experiences have formed what Yasin was.

In 1984 and 85 Gill Sedan, a journalist, also talked
about Yasins disability as one of his key components
that placed him as one of the most powerful figures in
Palestine in her March 22nd, 2004, article on
Cleveland Jewish News.com detailing her interview with
Yasin. She wrote, Yasin was a classic example of an
Islamic leader who derives his political power due to
his disability- like the Sheik Omar Abdul Radman, the
blind Sheik from Egypt now in prison in the US.
Although Sedan didnt go on to explain how Yasin used
his disability as a tool to power, we can come to the
conclusion that his disability like his poverty drew
him closer to his people and gained their trust.

Many reports concluded that the 2000 break down of the
peace talks and outbreak of new Israeli-Palestinian
fighting, Hamas and other groups were linked to an
upsurge of suicide bombings. These reports go on to
say in 2003 in response to suicide bombing, Israel
intensified targeted killings of militants and
declared top Hamas leaders marked for death. In
one recent article from www.Reuters.com wrote that the
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie accused the
United States of giving Israel the green light to
assassinate Hamas leaders. The focus solely on suicide
bombings and violence of Hamas from the Israeli
government and armed forces has put a target on all
Muslims from ordinary civilians like the killing of a
deaf, mentally disabled man, Sameer Sady Sababn, in
GAZA to the assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yasin.
Their disability didnt play a role in their killings
just the fear of Muslims and Hamas has triggered
Israelis military, to shoot without questioning
leaving even the disabled in the crossfire.

Also we, as advocates, scholars of revolutionary
movements and disabled activists have to remember that
Yasin was a true advocate that didnt filch on his
stands of a free Palestine, and independence from
foreign influence through economics. As a true
revolutionary he knew his days were numbered so he
worked to put his plan in place on what to do after
his assassination. This reminds me of the late
hip-hop artist & poet, Tupac Shakur, because he also
knew his days were numbered and he was up front about
it in his messages in his music. Yasin also worked
tirelessly on the poverty that has stricken his land
and also gravely increased his poor health. Yasin was
quoted many times in saying that freedom is earned,
not granted on a silver platter and that which is
taken by force can be only recovered by force!

Whatever the controversy that hangs over Sheikh Ahmed
Yasin of being involved with the execution of suicide
bombings, his work and how he did it as a disabled
Muslim at that time must be studied by disability
scholars, revolutionaries and activists all around the
world. How did he, as a disabled young man in the
early fifties, get into college, became a well know
and highly respected preacher and then formed a
militant group, Hamas? It also tells us a lot about
Muslims Brotherhood and their acceptance to have a
disabled participate who is in a leadership role.
Hamas at the time of its creation was the strongest
political rival to mainstream Fatah movement of
Palestinian leader Yesser Arafat. Many only know the
arm struggle and suicide bombings that has been linked
to the Hamas by the US and Israeli government. Very
few have given recognition to how the Hamas provided
an effective social welfare system of schools, clinics
and hospitals that provided free services to
Palestinian families that Shaul Mishal and Avraham
Sela points out in their book, The Palestinian Hamas,
Vision, Violence, and Coexistence.

The fear of suicide bombings has lumped almost all
Muslims in one category for Israeli army and law
enforcement even disabled ordinary Muslim civilians.
The case of Sameer Sady is a good example of the fear
of Israeli army on Muslims and the assumption of being
a suicide bomber. On March 17th, 2004, three days
before Yasins assassination, Israeli army shot Sameer
Sady Sababh in GAZA City. According to Islam Online
News Service, Sameer, a deaf and mentally disabled
man, was walking home from work on March 17th when
Israeli troops ordered Sameer to raise his hands. He
just stood there stunned, silent and scared but it
didnt keep the soldiers from shooting him and then
caring his body into a Palestinians house where they
proceeded to set the house on fire. An eyewitness
told IslamOnline, I told one of the soldiers who
speaks Arabic, Sameer was Deaf. They ordered me to
shut up, then shot him in the legs, belly, chest and
head. Then the soldiers dragged Sameers body into a
Palestinians house and set the house on fire.

In both cases Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and Sameer Sady
Sababah were Muslims accepted in the Muslim faith and
the Hamas movement but were only seen as dangerous and
connected to the violence in Palestine. Although at
the time of their death both were walking home unarmed
according to witnesses, Israeli military say both were
involved or planning to execute suicide bombings. I
wonder what would the Shariah (Islamic Law) say about
the killing of Sameer and the assassination of Yasin
and other disabled Muslims? As I read the Quran, I
look outside and Im scared of this world!

by RAM/PNN

Since the time I was nine I have had regular suicidal thoughts. I started smoking marijuana regularly when I was fourteen. I smoked as a way to stay alive and to stay focused on the things that mattered to me in life. I smoked to be happy and get rid of my negative internal dialogue. Smoking also helped me stay away from hard drugs and excessive alcohol. Currently marijuana is my only positive outlet for daily anxieties about my past. I don't want to let go of my past, but I need a positive and productive way to deal with it and continue towards a healthy future.

In San Francisco and all over California the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has threatened to close Cannabis Clubs. This horrifies me because I need safe access to marijuana to help deal with my depression and my emotions. I am now the father of two daughters and I am constantly trying to move ahead in my life. I want to be as positive a role model for my daughters that I can. I want to create a home environment where they can come and stay with their father and feel a stability and consistency that I never really had.

Growing up in a trauma riddled environment I had to constantly remind myself there was light at the end of the tunnel in the distance that I couldn't even see yet. One of my first memories when I was only eight years old has stayed vivid in my mind.

"Take you're ass in the living room NOW!" My father's voice boomed through the house almost knocking me over.

It was all basically over a bill that was either not paid or paid a little late. I came home from school one day to my parents arguing or better yet pops yelling at my mom who was sitting on my bottom bunk weeping like a child. He was screaming at the top of his lungs about something I did not understand.

"Boy, take your ass in the living room now, before I whoop you too."

I sat there not knowing what was going on only hearing the screaming and screeching of my moms voice feeling helpless and powerless. I thought to myself as I heard my mother's cries, there is nothing I can do and how could my father do this.

Thinking back on memories such as these in my life, I end up with waterfalls running down my face. Marijuana calms and relaxes me so I can process and deal with these memories without the desire to do something that would end up hurting myself. Although I use marijuana for emotional support for some people with illnesses such as HIV and cancer medical marijuana offers an alternative to heavy medications or acts as a supplemental treatment. Many rely on marijuana to stay alive.

As Reverend Randi Webster recently said during a visit to POOR Magazine, "If Cannabis Club dispensaries close, I am worried that I will have to attend many more funerals."

I don't want to buy marijuana off the street risking jail or even worse. I also don't want to risk being sold laced drugs or running into old people, places or things. I don't want to risk starting my old habits again. I need 'safe access.' I know many people are in my position.

Jewnbug from POOR Magazine said, "350 Divisadero Cannabis Club saved my life. It's a place where I can medicate and incorporate artistic expression."

Similar to Jewnbug and many other people who have had to deal with trauma, marijuana helps me focus in all parts of my life especially in music, poetry, and acting. Marijuana helps me through the trauma of my past and present and keeps my mind positive.

California and the eleven other states that have compassionate use laws are being intimidated to end safe access. The DEA has sent letters to property owners who rent to dispensaries in San Francisco- and all over California- threatening them with property seizure. The San Francisco safe access community has unified behind a resolution to include the landowners in the city's sanctuary status for medical cannabis. The Board of Supervisors vote was postponed until Tuesday, February 26th. Axis of Love is calling for support at this meeting. The safe access community is calling for Mayor Newsom to join with Mayor Dellums of Oakland in support of the resolution.

The resolution sets the tone for political resolve and directs action from all local and state legislators to oppose intimidation measures lodged by the DEA against sick, disabled, and dying Californians seeking medical cannabis as a treatment. So far, San Francisco has been resilient and no medical cannabis co-op has closed its doors because of the DEA intimidation. The resolution was introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly and co-sponsored by Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi, Jake McGoldrick, and Tom Ammiano. The Harvey Milk Democratic Club, the San Francisco Green Party, and local patient advocacy Group ASA SF have endorsed the resolution.

I fear that if people who are in need of medical marijuana like myself, and other people who are sick and/or disabled lose their safe places to medicate we will be subject to the streets, violence, more police harassment, and other drugs. I fear, like Reverend Webster, that if Cannabis clubs are forced to close there will be many more funerals to attend.

RAM's second POORPress Publication, Another Broken Heart Mended is about the trauma Ruyata went through as a child which lead to his drug abuse and his recovery. For more information on his book or to order a copy please call 415.863.6306.

by Staff Writer

Two revolutionary media and art projects of POOR Magazine's Race
Poverty and Media Justice Institute in its new classrooms in the
Mission District have forged a powerful collaboration with
Intersection for The Arts and Mission Community Council to create
Mission Resistance! - Mission Voices SPeak up on issues of poverty,
border fascism, unrecognized work and micro-business, migration/immigration, homelessness, gender,
disability, racism, police brutality, and survival by any means necessary!

Digital Resistance a revolutionary media & arts education project for
youth, adults and elders in poverty locally and globally

Los Viajes a bi-lingual Audio, Literary and Performance anthology of
peoples migration/journeys to the United States from their homelands.
Los Viajes also introduces a new lens on migration/immigration that
resists the criminalization of false borders and the introduces the UN
Declaration on Indigenous Peoples

This event will also be a preview to the Los Viajes Anthology Project
which will be released in September of 2009 (at the anniversary of
the signing of the UN declaration of Indigenous Peoples)

Translation will be provided

The welfareQUEENS will appear for special guest appearance
The welfareQUEENS are a group of mamaz , daughters, grandmothers and
sons speaking up about the poverty and criminalization of poor
families locally and globally.

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