2001

by Joseph Bolden

The pamphlets were in the following colors: yellow-red, purple-black
and florescent pink-black.

The first pamphlet, in yellow and red, says: "Are You Trapped In a Housing Crisis?" A smiling woman, Goldi Lox is her name, offers assistance. I read it and admired the nicely drawn pictures. But at the end I find that it’s NOT about earthly housing crisis, but about "Having a home with God".

Nice, kind sentiment Ms. Lox but working poor, homeless People who are alone, or especially those who are mothers with children need "Real Homes" to live in while we’re "STILL ALIVE ON EARTH."

The next two pamphlets ask: Why PDA’s? The drawing is simple, it looks like a hand-held palm pilot . But at the end of the pamphlet, I find out that PDA is Personal Divine Advocate. Folks, do you see a pattern?

My last pamphlet, in shocking pink, is called "The Ultimate Note Book". On its cover is a drawing of a guy wearing glasses who is opening up his laptop. Again great graphics. Of course "TUNB" is the Bible. At first I’m thinking Catholics. Wrong, it’s a Jews for Jesus pamphlet. Whatever.

I had to get these pamphlets out of my mind because they are Not helping people struggling to find housing, better education, jobs or healthcare. While they're punning homelessness and access they could also be placing much needed info on free computer classes and where to find "real" affordable housing in and out of San Francisco.

According to the pamphlets, getting what you want sounds easy: be good, pray, take this shit and when you die, Heaven will have everything you’ll ever need. I know religion is supposed to uplift people spiritually, but if you’re not eating, looking for work, moving from shelter to shelter, with or without General Assistance, Social Security Insurance, or on meager dwindling life savings…THE MESSAGES DON’T HELP…/>

Whatever you donate to Poor Magazine, others, or myself is a godsend. Thank you all.

What do you out there think of these and other religion-tinged leaflets? Do they help? Can they be improved upon? Please check our website for the address to send your comments to.[It's late and I'm weary. That's why the column is small and no donation address or private AJ box is here. Gotta go.]

by Homeless People's Network)

Seventy percent of homeless people in Tokyo lost their jobs
through restructuring, and 80 percent want to find employment,
according to a white paper released Friday.

The report by the Tokyo metropolitan government is the first
ever published in Japan on the homeless.

Tokyo government officials in March last year surveyed 1,000
homeless people who were living in temporary housing, parks or
alongside rivers.

The number of homeless in Tokyo is 5,700, which is 1.7 times
higher than five years ago and accounts for 30 percent of Japan's
total homeless population, according to the report.

Fifty percent of Tokyo's homeless are in their 50s, while 90
percent of the homeless people in the capital are in their 40s,
50s or 60s, the report said. Ninety-eight percent of the homeless
are males.

Two-thirds of the homeless had held stable positions either
as company employees or as operators of their own businesses.
Ten percent of these people were white collar workers in management
or clerical positions, the report said.

The major reasons cited for being jobless were: resignation
(30 percent); lack of day labor (25 percent); dismissal (13 percent);
and sickness or injury (9 percent).

The Tokyo government concluded that 70 percent of the homeless
had been dismissed from their jobs.

The government next fiscal year will pump more resources into
providing support for the homeless, including increasing self-reliance
support centers.

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

by Takuya Arai/PNN (edited by Dee Gray)

Currently, I share a house with four other students like myself. As well, on most days there are six or seven more people in our house at any given time because we invite our friends over. Mine is a large household. Since PG&E started charging more for their utility services, we have not been using the gas heater, even for cold nights. Our dishwasher has been unused for weeks. Despite our efforts, the energy bill has kept mercilessly increasing. Everytime I open the PG&E bill, I feel like I am receiving a graded exam from my professor.

For low-income people, increased energy costs pose the serious threat of losing access to the basic necessities of life. On March 27, as California residents’ discontent heightened, Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, protested against the approval of the 46 percent rise in electricity prices at the State Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco. Medea Benjamin ran for the U.S. Senate in the last election as a Green Party candidate. Although dealing with the energy crisis was not her agenda, she is now actively involved in it.

The office of Global Exchange is on Mission Street in San Francisco. Unlike the other parts of the city, the Mission District is filled with the liveliness and vitality of the Latino community. I noticed that there were more people on the street than in other parts of the town and there were different generations of people, such as little kids, young couples, people at work carrying stuff, mothers with babies, and elders on the street. Despite its geographical proximity to my house, I felt like I had come to Latin America.

The sophisticated arrangement in the office and the multi-racial working environment of Global Exchange impressed me. The receptionist told me that I could sit on the sofa to wait for Medea Benjamin, who was in a meeting. When she came out ten minutes later, I did not recognize her. She looked a lot smaller than the picture I’d seen of her in the New York Times. We both sat on a big comfortable couch and introduced ourselves . As a matter of fact, this was my first serious interview, and I think I appeared very nervous to her. People were walking by us, but it helped to create friendly atmosphere for me.

First we talked about the role of the PUC, which is responsible for providing California utility customers with safe, reliable utility service at reasonable rates. I read this in the PUC mission statement.

“It seems like what they are doing to us is the total opposite of what they are saying. It even sounds ironic and it is hypocritical. What do you think about this?” I asked as my first question.

“They are violating their own mandate.” Medea Benjamin replied in a soft voice. “If they continue on this path, this won’t even be the end of the rate increases. Companies are responsible for the crisis, whether it is the utility companies or the wholesale energy suppliers. And somehow, between the two types of companies, they’ve got to figure it out and pay for it.” Frankly , I was glad that she answered me with a sincere attitude as I was a little anxious that she might not take me seriously. Firstly, she does not know anything about me and secondly, I am just a reporter who has never done this kind of thing before.

Loretta Lynch, the president of the PUC, said that the light power users would face little rate increase compared to the heavy power users. But these power rate hikes will ultimately hit the residents of California. Those heavy power users, or the commercial power customers, will be forced to pass on their higher electricity costs by increasing the prices of their products or services.

Medea Benjamin agreed on this point. She said, “Businesses are going to pass on [the cost] to the consumers. So, if you buy food, if you ever go to a restaurant, if you go to the laundromat, if you go to Walgreen’s, wherever you go to make purchases, you are going to feel the increase in prices.”

The other thing that she pointed out is what is called the “baseline”. PUC and other utility companies determine who is going to get the rate increase depending on a certain baseline. That baseline is determined by region and by season but they do not set this baseline by how many people are in each house.

“If you are a poor family, living six, seven, or eight people in a household because you cannot live on your own, have extended family of grand parents, kids, you will use more energy. So you will be in a category of the “energy hog”. So, it actually discriminates against larger family or larger households.” Medea said the way that they are deciding who will get the rate hike is unfair and the PUC and other utility companies should change this way of looking at and trying to solve the problem.

There are many large families and large households, particularly in poor communities. Lorena, who works with us at POOR News Network, lives with 14 roommates in a two-bedroom apartment in the Mission District. She shares one bedroom with four other adults. Over the past three months, she saw the apartment’s energy bill increase by more than 60 percent. “My roommates do not have jobs. They are looking for a job. I do not know if we can afford to pay more for electricity.” Lorena said in English, which she does not use very often.

Although the PUC states that anybody who is low income can get subsidies for their energy, the program is very limited and only helps low-income people for three months. With one quarter of children in California living in poverty, it is impossible to cover all of them. In addition, how are they going to subsidize the majority of seniors who live on a fixed income?

“We should also remember the middle-class people.” Medea Benjamin said. “This can be very devastating for them because the middle class has really been hit hard by the cost of living. Many middle-class families are hanging on by a thread as well. They have high debts, high mortgage payments, high expenses related to child bearing, high cost of health care, so this does not just affect the poor. It also affects the middle class.” During the interview, somebody important called her and she had to take the call. She came back in less than one minute, but the telephone was ringing incessantly and I could hear many people in the conference room, where she had been.

In 1996, then-Governor Pete Wilson, a Republican, signed the bill that deregulated and dismantled California's electric utilities in the name of lower consumer power bills. I learned in school that the whole notion of deregulation is to promote free competition, so that companies that have the most efficient operations, and management can offer their services and products at the lowest price, which should be beneficial to the consumers. Advocates of Social Darwinism say that the winners in competition will bring the most benefits to the consumers and hence to the society. However, what is actually happening is the opposite. Those two utility companies have not been able to pay the energy wholesalers who raised energy prices after the deregulation. Those utility companies are now passing on the higher energy costs to the consumers.

“Do you think that the deregulation is the cause of the entire rate hike, or was this just a part of the scheme for them to get more money from the final consumers?” I asked.

“I think both. I think the deregulation has been absolutely disastrous. This was sold to the people of California as a way to reduce rates by at least 20 percent. We were told that the deregulation would lower consumer prices because of increased competition and we see it went from regulated cartel to deregulated or unregulated cartel. I think it is also a part of the scheme that the companies themselves have pressured the politicians to implement the deregulation as a way for them to make very obscene levels of profit.” She answered.

I kept thinking about things that I had learned in school, such as deregulation, lobbying, privatization, competition, etc. I was taught that those things bring prosperity to both business and the consumer. When we had discussions in class, I learned to use business jargon and got used to talking like a senior executive of a company. I remembered what I was studying and thought that my mindset was so one-dimensional.

Because of this rate hike, two utility companies are getting a lot of revenue, but at the same time, the wholesale price increased more than 10 fold last year. Even with increased revenue from higher prices, the two utility companies are unable to pay 13 billion dollars in months of outstanding debt to the wholesaler.

“What do you think is the best solution for all these rate hikes?” I asked, a basic question.

“I think the only solution is public power.” She replied right away. “We put both the generators of electricity and transmission and distribution of electricity in the hands of public entities.” She argued that privately owned utility companies have, “no incentive for conservation.”

Before the crisis, cities like Sacramento and Los Angeles had lower utility rates, better programs for conservation of energy, and better programs for uses of renewable sources of energy. Those cities that have their own public utilities have been sheltered from the crisis to a large extent. She insists that we should have municipal utility districts that are locally controlled and locally managed and they should be coordinated at the statewide level by a public power authority.

“If we have public power locally controlled where the interest is not profit for the shareholders, but the interest is providing precisely what is the mission statement of the public utilities, which is reliable sources of energy at affordable prices. I would add into that, reliable sources of clean energy at affordable prices. Then we can really make tremendous progress in cutting down our use of energy and getting off of our treadmill of using more and more fossil fuels.

She indicated that the company should, “divide themselves into the profit making and the non-profit making parts. There are certain things in modern day society that are too important to be left to the manipulation of the market place, things like water, energy, education and health care. These things need to be in the public sector.”

As we finished the interview, I thanked Medea Benjamin for her time and sincere responses to my questions. My hands were sweating but my tense mind was relieved. I stepped outside the building and thought it would have been great if I smoked a cigarette, but I decided not to because I quit smoking last year. However, and more importantly, I was encouraged to know that there was another person fighting hard for the public’s interest.

by Joseph Bolden

Quests range from drinking the mythological dragon’s blood to gain immortality and strength, to trekking into new lands, to sailing alone across an ocean. There have always been high costs to discovering, learning, and exploring. The cost of such hard won knowledge is paid in unknown lives and blood.

We Americans sometimes do not acknowledge the debts paid by the ancient world. We’re so young, new like scions of old money and we squander many a precious gift parents and relatives gave us to use with care.As a species, not a single one of our countries is on a quest. Quests await us. There are dangers to face and natural and technical laws to overcome.

Right now a pendulum swings toward a conservative movement. Conservatives are needed to balance too radical departures from the norm, as moderate and radical factions are needed so conservative mindsets does not keep a society stagnant. These opposing forces are always slightly out of sync.

With Church and State almost bound together today the Conservatives fight change as always. It’s their job. In the past there have been so many shocks to individuals by Conservatives that there is more of blend or joining of moderate and radical minds. Translation: rough rides are ahead for Conservatives. Their long-held theories and ideas will be put to the test.Paradigms will shift or fall away and new ones will form.

We have a strange unfamiliar challenge. We still quest outward, changing and adapting ourselves to new and deadly environments away from our natural and terra formed world. How do we make our people smarter, stronger, better, more inventive, more innovative, and healthier? How many of our people can speak, write, play, or know the others’ languages, cultures, stories, musical instruments? Pick your quest from health, space, biotechnology, cybernetics, neurology, exobiology, other sciences or other exotic elements.

Radicals, Moderates, and Conservatives will always be with us, it's just there is more room for all. This is not only one world dominated by three groups, in fact offshoots are forming and they too will have their worlds and their say…
AND OUR QUEST CONTINUES.

Please donate what can to Poor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
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by Joseph Bolden

p>I’m in my mom’s Fairfield apartment complex where I dutifully buy groceries, give money or borrow some, always paying her back soon as possible.

Yeah, I can hear both guys and women saying, "He’s a mama’s boy!" Not true. I’m a mama’s man. I believe most women like to know how men treat their mothers, sisters, their female friends, or if they have real platonic friendships, as guides to see how they themselves will be treated.

Ladies, full bodied, red blooded women... I LOVE MY MAMA, MOM, MOTHER and the MADONNA/WHORE COMPLEX is no problem of mine.

I wonder how many women love their father as I do my mom.

I FORGAVE MINE and hope he can do the same for me.

Back to Attorney General Ashcroft.
As I ate my chicken potpie, sipped a cool French vanilla-applejuice milkshake through a plastic straw, I saw our newly appointed Attorney General talking.

The redlined mute is on, but I have to hear what he is saying out of curiosity, not journalist objectivity.
"Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and all the king's horses and the king's men could put Humpty Dumpty together again."

I blink twice, turning up the volume. "Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee," or words to the effect. I’m paraphrasing Mr. Ashcrofs words.

My three pop-culture references were:a world war I ambulance driver; big game hunter, E. Hemmingway; Broderick Crawford’s corrupt politicians In All The King’s Men, a book, 1949 movie, and also a play.

As for the eggy fairy tale, it also sounds like faith based B.S. alluding to Government's helping less and increasing its right wing agenda more. I don’t know if Ashcroft’s a right wing God Squad cheering fanatic or a sincere politician honest in his views.

I am sure The Eternal would not like the God on or our side rhetoric that’s been spewed about of late.
That early morning political news can ruin one's appetite.

That’s my two day bit-o-freedom from work when I can get it, and it feels bountiful. Oh, to have five or more weeks of that bliss... But first get my life, work, words, to enable myself to... breathe.

Here’s the pitch. If you like any news items, columns, of Poor Magazine beside mine-Please do for them what Poor has done for me.

Send checks or M.O. to them or Joe c/o
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by Barbra Huntley-Smith

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your
teeming shores, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to
me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

These are the words engraved upon the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor. These words represent a symbol of welcome and hope for the immigrants who came to America during the years 1800 to 1954. These words have brought every known emotion of joy to all those immigrants who saw that gigantic monument, her torch held high to the heavens. I believe that to those arriving, Lady Liberty represented an endowment of Grace they had never known until the moment their eyes beheld her.

America! A land flowing with milk and honey! A land that held hopes of a new and different life! As history has recorded, these immigrants have been essential in the building of what is now the Superpower of the world, the great United States of America. Though Ellis Island was not without problems, what was accomplished there was a Herculean venture that no country in the world at that time had undertaken to help the assimilation of those entering a new land.

It is now two hundred years later. It was 5:15 A.m. on a blustery, cold Friday morning: January 5, 2001 at the Immigration of Naturalization Service (INS) in downtown Los Angeles. Before my eyes were "huddled masses." I was in a state of step-frozen, jaw-dropping sock as I viewed this sea of blanketed forms, huddled together all along the pavement surrounding the INS building. Regaining my composure, I walked up to one of the blanketed persons and inquired what was happening. "Is this your first time?" she asked. I said yes, and she pointed to the huddled masses and explained that they had physically been there since midnight. I asked what time she had arrived, and she told me 2:00 a.m. She was far from the start of the line.

I asked where I could find the end of the line, and she waved me forward to Aliso Street, then toward Alameda Street. I thanked her, and began to experience the new meaning of "your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

My first impression of this horrible picture, so early in the morning, will be etched in my memory for a long time to come. As I trekked down the sidewalk, negotiating my way through standing huddled masses, minding traffic, I accidentally stepped onto the lawn area and tripped. I discovered that the lawn had been sprinkled earlier, which explained why the masses of people were standing two feet into the street. This was the scene all along Aliso Street and down Alameda Street.

I joined the line three fourths of the way to the corner of Alameda and Temple Streets. By 6:00 a.m., the standing masses were rounding the corner of Temple Street. It was cold, even for a Midwesterner. There in the line I was schooled on the horrors of experience by people I will call the "Regulars." As they spoke, there was an air of fear, contempt, and loathing for "this place." The object of their contempt was "Room 1001." I reminisced about the events that had brought me to this place on this cold morning.

Many unforeseen events had invaded my life the past year, and time away seemed to be the most appropriate action to take in rebuilding my life. Travelling by train from the Midwest, I was treated to the glory and grandeur of this wonderful country. The view form the train at that mile-high elevation was prodigiously breathtaking. No two sceneries were alike. Overlooking one of the many great expanses were snow-capped mountains, and gorges that were awe-inspiring and frightening. Brilliant shades of changing foliage nestled beneath the silver reflection of the glistening snow. It was as though the four seasons had met, and in perfect union displayed their offerings. As I watched with wide-eyed awe the train's slow and deliberate negotiation of this rugged terrain as it descended into the plains, I introspectively declared, "Truly, humanity has had dominion over the earth."

I disembarked in Sacramento with hopes of a new beginning. However, my hopes would soon be dampened as I was informed that my credentials were not sufficient to secure a California Department of Motor vehicles (DMV) Identification, even though I had been verified as a Naturalized Citizen. The Sacramento County officials gave me the information necessary to reapply for a copy of my Naturalization Certificate, and the application was forwarded to the INS. The application was dated April, 2000, and I was informed that it would take from six to eight weeks for a reply. Hopes restored.

After waiting eight months, I came to Los Angeles, hoping for better success in obtaining this document. My experience with the County of Sacramento officials lulled me into believing that things would be manageable in Los Angeles. What I found was a journalistic thesis. After visiting a Traveler's Aid office, I was sent to the County of Los Angeles Aid office for assistance. They in turn sent me to the INS office for verification of citizenship status. It was near closing when I arrived at the office, where access was granted by ringing a bell and state one's purpose. I was admitted and surrendered my application from the County Social Worker and within five minutes I was declared an authenticated citizen. With the INS sealed document in hand, I commented to the officer, "My problems are now over, I can now get my California Identification." She looked at me with a smile that said, "Are you crazy?" and then replied, "No, Miss, you will need to go to Room 1001 for any identification." Her smile became a frightening grimace. It was late, so I decided I would take the challenge another day.

A week later I was at the Post Office and noticed information concerning American passports. I took out my INS authenticated form and asked if this was enough to reapply for my passport. The Postal worker looked at me with regrettable sadness and said, "You will have to go to Room 1001."

I left the Post Office wondering, "What is this place to inspire a kind of frightful, agonizing terror?" I was free for the day, so I headed to the INS building to investigate. I walked up the steps and strolled along the marble terrace. I noted the business hours, saw that there were few people present, and decided to return the next day, Friday, figuring that at the end of the week there would not be many people there. But something very sinister was at work here, unknown to me then. It was Thursday when the office is open only until noon.

My first visit was on Friday, December 1, 2000. I got to the INS building at 7 a.m. There was a line, and it would take two hours to reach the hallowed halls of Room 1001. It was this day I would be given valuable information on the horrors of the system of administration at the INS. People were relating how often they had been coming and had not yet been able to enter the front door. They explained that there are tickets issued for certain categories that are discontinued by 7:30 or 8:00. Therefore, it does not matter how early you get there if for that day the number of tickets determined is depleted.

I would be a witness to their story when at 8:00 a.m. there came a voice over the public address system. "You out there in my line, listen up!" I wondered whose line I was in. Then came a man of immigrant descent, strutting his way toward the entrance. I took notice of his massive deltoids, pecs, and chest, protruding a good six inches in front of him. There was a hush as the Regulars were silenced. Mr. Ax-man, as he is affectionately called, was has been given the dubious honor of reciting the categories that will not be issued a ticket. His list always begins with the Regulars. These are Resident Aliens who may have had their Alien registration card stolen, or need minor adjustments to protect their status. As the Ax-man read his list, just as an extended rubber band is released, so the line congealed. The Regulars stood there, dazed, waiting for some sign to say it was not so. Some defiantly remained in the line, hoping they might be seen, which is never the case. They are always booted out.

My category was viable, therefore I would make my first entry into Room 1001. My inquiry number was #102 for my category. By 11:00 a.m., seated in a large room, I once again witnessed the "tired." Most of the patrons were soundly sleeping. That morning a sleeping patron missed her number flashing on the leader board, which resulted in a most frustrating spectacle.

As I scrutinized this beaten group, my thoughts returned to one of the morning's episodes. While in line, there had been a loud thud, like a falling ton of bricks hitting the concrete. People began running in the direction of the thud. It was a man, very well-built, who had fainted. The security guard radioed for emergency, but nothing else was done. The man just lay there. Five minutes, eight minutes, no Emergency service. It was ten minutes before they arrived. By this time the man was beginning to regain consciousness, and was trying to sit up. The EMS Techs arrived and the most appalling medical emergency service I have ever witnessed was demonstrated. The fallen man was trying to stand, and was pushed forcibly to the gurney by an EMS tech with one hand, the other hand holding him in place. No pulse or blood pressure was taken. The man was strapped down and wheeled out to the ambulance. At that moment I hoped I would never have need of the EMS in Los Angeles County.

My thoughts returned to the present as the leader board announced #102. I was focused and ready to go. My inquiring officer greeted me with,"What do you want?" I explained my circumstances and offered my INS approved status... suddenly I was interrupted. "Where is your receipt? Without a receipt you will not be seen." The receipt she requested was for a fee I could not afford when I applied for the document: $135.00.

I was determined to be seen by someone. I demanded to speak to her supervisor, and with a condescending attitude she turned and walked to the next booth, where her supervisor happened to be listening to our exchange. Our eyes met and she summoned me over.

She asked me a few key questions, tapped on her computer and remarked, "Oh, your file is in Chicago." She said she would request a transfer, explaining it would take three to four weeks and that I should return for the response. Exhaustion had now set in, my mind was becoming jelly, and I could only be glad that I had been given some hope. I did not detect the flagrant psychological maneuver being perpetrated. I requested a letter of sorts that would exclude me from waiting in line again, and the supervisor looked at me and said, "That is the only was to get in here." Can that be the only way? I dare say, "No!" There must be a better way, and it is time that the INS at 300 North Los Angeles Street find it.

Four weeks passed and my second visit to the INS was in progress. I had arrived at 6:30 a.m. to circumvent a long delay, or so I thought at the time. There was still a long line ahead of me, but it seemed manageable. I would stand in line for four hours before I was positioned to enter the horrid halls of Room 1001. The Regulars had been dismissed, giving hope to those left standing that they might be seen. When I got to the triage where the tickets are issued, the officer told me, "There are no more tickets." I argued, "Why wasn't my category omitted from the line, instead of giving the false hope that I would be seen?" She just sat there with a "that's tough" attitude, and shouted, "Next!" Now I had experienced the hell that the Regulars endure every day, and I was fighting mad. I walked away, planning my third and final visit.

So there I stood, my third visit at 5:30 a.m. in my huddled mass, reliving my encounters at the INS. The words "Ventura County" interrupted my thoughts. I had been intending to travel to Orange County, and noticed the bordering county was Ventura, so I began to listen to what was being said. The woman in line ahead of me had traveled this distance to be at the INS office at this hour of the morning. She related how often she is forced to make this trip for a response to a simple question, to which no comprehensible answer could be given over the phone. How utterly disgusting! In an age proliferated by the best means of communication systems the world has ever known!

Six hours later- I was once again at the triage, and being seen by an Asian officer. I explained that I was to return to window #15 to meet with the supervisor, and with a shy smile he made the strangest request of me: "Please describe the supervisor, for there are many supervisors." I started to make a not-so-pleasant remark, but stopped my self. Here was someone who, being an immigrant, knows the pain, and was at least willing to give me a hearing. I decided I should at least try. My description was somewhat accurate because he was able to attach a name to it. He punched a few keys on his computer and said, "Your file is in Missouri." Without a response I took form him a form sending me back to window #15.

I went directly to this window and listed my name, behind four others. It was over two hours before I was called. However, this time my interview went well. I was given an application to complete, and told that within four weeks I would receive and answer by mail. So I waited.

Was my experience at the INS Ellis Island revisited? A resounding No! It was not. Ellis Island at its worst stages had officers who were courteous and respectful and treated the immigrants with dignity. Would an individual who fainted on Ellis Island have suffered the indignity that I observed that day? No! There were, on the island, many agencies equipped to render First Aid, and there was a hospital present. As a matter of record, in 1933 a committee reporting on the conditions of Ellis Island stated the medical care was exemplary. Why then in the new Millennium, when communication and medical technology is at its zenith, must a sick person wait ten minutes for deplorable service?

It is obvious that there are very few cases that are resolved in any given day at the INS. On Ellis Island, records show that daily an estimated five thousand persons were seen and cases resolved. This was an age when only the human capabilities of the officers were at work. Here in the new Millennium, when these officers can tap a computer key and receive information from around the world, they are unable to resolve these cases.

It was three days prior to the estimated time I was given to receive an answer when a letter form the INS arrived. This is the information I was given: "We have searched for records that relate to your request and determined that if such records exist they would be maintained under the jurisdiction of the INS office at the following address in Missouri..." Is that to say that I suddenly do not exist? Are they now telling me that the file the officers had been looking at was a figment of their imaginations? Here I am, a viable, certified citizen with degrees, qualified to work as a Medical Technologist, a counselor and now a fledgling journalist, unable to work because of a technicality. But the wonder is the Department of Justice's willingness to authenticate my receipt of welfare from the Department of Public Aid, and yet will deprive me of the identification necessary to work.

The INS have resorted to defrauding immigrants of the pride of being an American citizen, the pride felt by those immigrants of the twentieth century. In the words of Lee Iacocca, a first-generation American of immigrant parents upon dedicating "The American Immigrant Wall of Honor" on Ellis Island, "It is not just for those who came through Ellis Island; it honors all American immigrants who came to this great melting pot in search of freedom and opportunity." The pride that security officer felt, as he accomplished his job with excellence. The pride Tennessee Williams must have felt when he wrote the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and spoke through the lead Stanley Kowalski, "But what I am is one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it."

The County of Los Angeles and their immigrant descendant lawmakers need to fix the horrendous, deplorable black eye that exists at 300 North Los Angeles Street. The time is now to rekindle the pride and hope that their forefathers held dear. To all immigrants, especially those who have lived the atrocities of Room 1001, the Lady still lifts her lamp beside the golden door. That lamp lights the way to your empowerment through the vote. Contact your Congressperson, let your disgust be heard. Regain the pride of all the immigrants that have preceded you, the pride I felt as I raised my right hand twenty-six years ago and pledged my allegiance to the Flag of the Untied States of America.

by Nancy Muldoon

I was elated last week when I heard the news that Robert Downey Jr. had been arrested and finally fired. And, yes everyone, he really was fired!

He should have been given the pink slip a long time ago. But, Nooooooo, when you are
white, rich and male this somehow excuses criminal behavior.

If Robert Downey Jr. had been black and/or female he would have been thrown to the wolves a long time ago.

Or as my Irish Catholic working class grandmother would say, he wouldnt have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of!

Indeed!

Now dont get me wrong. I happen to like Robert Downey Jr. a great deal.
I grew up watching him in the brat packer movies and he kicked ass in, Less Than Zero and he was no less than brilliant in Chaplin.

However, there comes a point where, and assuming you dont have corn starch for brains, you grow tired of the well-worn Hollywood excuses. There is so much pressure... blah, blah, blah.

Its exhausting hearing about how the privileged few get a gazillion chances to screw up their lives while most of us only get one.

Then, to add insult to injury, every time his name was mentioned Iíd have to hear some variation of the But, hes just so talented monologue. Which by the way, YES he is talented, but, so what. So are a lot of other people.

I then wondered whether it was some strange Irish Solidarity thing between him and Alley McBeal creator David E. Kelley.

Irish Americans do have a tendency to by loyal. Primarily to themselves and whoeverís buying rounds of Guinness but thatís beside the point.

The worst thing you can do for an addict is to cater to their needs and manipulative ways. Traditionally, Irish males have long been known to be good humored, hardworking fuck-ups who use their handsome looks to get away with all kinds of unsavory behavior. Robert Downey Jr. is no exception. Our tolerance of him as it should have been from the beginning should be no less than zero. Iíll drink to that.

by Vlad Pogorelov and Harry Jones, PoorNewsNetwork

Harry Jones lies in his old, rugged sleeping bag on the concrete hill under the 280 freeway. It’s been raining for the last two weeks and though he’s tried to keep warm and dry by wrapping himself in newspapers under his clothes, after so many days of rain, it’s been of little help. Harry has been shivering for the last two days. He was feverish and was thinking of going to the emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital but is too infirm to walk. There is a big puddle of water next to him and rusty water from the leaky ceiling is dripping on Harry’s sleeping bag, but he is too weak to seek other shelter.

In addition to this sickness the longtime health problem of his injured back has been exacerbated. It has been hurting so much that even at night he has not been able sleep. He remembered how he recuperated from his back injury which he received while working at the warehouse in San Francisco Port. Back then, a physician who recommended him for disability told him, “Harry, remember if you don’t want your back to get worse, don’t do any heavy lifting or expose yourself to cold or humidity.” That was ten years ago.

Recently, at the age of 53, Harry was evicted from his apartment in the gentrified Mission District of San Francisco. Unable to find a place that he could afford on his S.S.I. income, he is resigned to living on the street. He has been living on the street for the last 9 months and his situation has been getting progressively worse. At first he tried collecting recyclables to supplement his income, but his injured back worsened and soon prevented him from doing this.

Harry tried sleeping on community park benches, but was cited by the local police on numerous occasions for 647(j)PC (illegal lodging).
Unable to continue sleeping on benches, he decided to seek cover under the bridges and freeways. There, he found a large number of homeless people as well as comradery. During the last month Harry found shelter underneath the 101 freeway. There were about fifty homeless people who were there with him. Harry had his little corner space separated from others by cardboard boxes. In his 4’x6’ “flat”, he kept all of his possessions—a cooking pot, a mattress, two blankets, a propane lantern, the Bible and a novel by Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle”. After a few weeks of living there, Harry started to relax. Even his back wasn’t hurting as much as it had been. When it did hurt, Harry was able to go to San Francisco General’s emergency room, since it was nearby. It was the rest that he needed so much.

But suddenly Harry’s relative peace of mind came to an abrupt end. One night a dozen police cars surrounded Harry and his homeless neighbors. One of the policemen in charge introduced himself as Sargeant Steve Balma—a notorious founder of H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M., which is responsible for citing, arresting and displacing homeless residents of San Francisco. Everyone was given a citation for illegal lodging. All of their carts and belongings were confiscated and a number of people were arrested and booked in county jail. Harry went to the local shelters but there was no slace for him. After a few days of sleeping on the sidewalk his health problems became severe.

A child of Sargeant Steve Balma and Captain Sylvia Harper of Southern Police Station, H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. was created in May, 2000. The acronym H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. stands for “Helping Offenders Maintain the Environment Thorough Enforcement, Accountability, and Management”. According to a memorandum of the San Francisco Police Department, the objective of this unit was to address “quality of life complaints involving people sleeping in doorways, encampments, and peddlers obstructing sidewalks, public drunkenness, drug activity, human waste and needles often left by quality of life code violators”. An excuse for creating this special unit was that “complaints received by members of Southern Station regarding quality of life issues has increased to intolerable proportions”, as was stated by Sergeant Steve Balma in his letter to Commanding Officer of Southern Police Station, Captain Sylvia Harper.

The officers assigned to H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. are paid overtime for performing this work. According to an SFPD internal memorandum “hours of overtime per day of operation would be 8 hours at sergeant’s pay and 24 hours at patrol officer’s pay.

The H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. concentrates on such areas as Stevenson, Jessie, and Minna Streets, between 4th and 8th Streets, Market Street at Jones Street, 7th Street, Duboce Street and Valencia Street. It also patrols Brannan Street between 8th and 10th, Beale Street between Howard and Bryant and areas adjacent to freeway on-ramps, off-ramps and overpasses.

Though created with an understanding that “this program was not designed to criminalize homelessness”, the statistics of H.O.M.E. T.E.A.M. convey just the opposite. During their first 15 days of operation they cleared 300 encampments, issued 44 citations and booked 10 individuals in jail. As they stepped up their campaign against homeless individuals, the officers of this notorious unit cited 391 individuals and booked 47 people in jail, as of February 2nd, 2001. The number of admonishments for 647(j) PC (illegal lodging) was 781. Their statistics also state that several subjects have been cited more than once on the same charge, 647(j)PC (illegal lodging), with many of them receiving two citations per week.

The median cost of operating this unit by paying officers overtime is over $7,000 per month. The team only operated 2 times per week for a period of 4 hours. It has cost taxpayers over $70,000 since the campaign of harassment of San Francisco homeless residents of San Francisco by Southern Station began. In the meantime, dozens of homeless have died due to exposure to the elements, lack of shelter space, hunger and insufficient health care.

On one rainy night, feeling very sick, Harry crawled through the hole in the fence surrounding the space underneath 280 freeway. He has been there for the last five days. There has been no one to help him. He has had no food or water, nor has he had any medications for his fever or back pain. At times, Harry has been loosing his consciousness, becoming delirious because of his high fever. He has been coughing and has had difficulties breathing most of the time. “If only I could get up on my feet, then I would walk to the hospital and ask for help,” he whispered through his cracked lips. At times, when he can think clearly, Harry has been thinking of death. He has tried to chase the thoughts about this subject away but his condition has only reminded him of how bad his health is.

Harry has been hoping that it would stop raining and after his clothes and sleeping bag dried he might be able to get up on his feet and seek help. While having this thought and staring at the rusty, leaky concrete above him Harry, heard two male voices talking to each other and a police radio, “I’ve had a complaint from our source in the neighborhood about criminal activity underneath the freeway. I am going to look for a suspect and you stay here and back me up.” In a few seconds a cop, who was a member of the H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M., was flashing a light into Harry’s face. Harry was ordered to get up and was searched, but nothing illegal was found on him. He was cited for illegal lodging. Harry tried to explain that he had nowhere to go but police threatened to arrest him if he didn’t leave. Harry was so weak that he had difficulties speaking for himself. The tears were running down his bearded face, but the policemen were merciless.

Harry crawled back out into the rain. Going to the emergency room was out of the question, since he could barely move. He remembered that there was a homeless shelter a few blocks away, although the last time he’d tried to check in it was full. But Harry knew that if he didn’t find a place inside he would not survive this night. The rain was starting to resemble Niagra Falls. Harry fell into the mud a few times on his way to a shelter. Somewhere along the way he lost his sleeping bag and his wallet. It took him 2 hours under the pouring rain to reach a homeless shelter.

Harry is only one example of thousands of homeless residents in this city who have suffered at the hands of H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. officers. In the second part of this report I will continue the story of Harry Jones—a 53 year-old former laborer with disabilities. In the meantime, there are thousands of homeless folks who struggle to survive on the streets, being criminalized by SFPD and the City. It is our civic and humanitarian duty to say “No” to the squandering of taxpayers’ money through supporting the operations of an inhuman unit H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M.. We should act fast, because for many homeless residents it may be too late.

Harry Jones was a staff writer through POOR Magazine’s writer facilitation program which aims to give voice to the insider expertise of low/no income Bay Area residents about issues of race and class oppression. Before his untimely death on the streets of San Francisco, Harry collaborated with POOR Magazine staff to create this story.

by Staff Writer

What if it were possible to truly end war?

How would our world, it's people react to eternal
peace?

My hypothetical, What-If scenario: If time travel became a reality, lost knowledge could be returned our skeptical so called modern world.

Besides observing historical events, people, and temporarily visits or living in those past times one priceless opportunity may arise."THE TOTAL END OF WAR"

Imagine. A joint venture across time! Historical figures dead in their own time or brought through time as special assistants for a global secret project of "OPERATION ZERO WAR".

From ancient civilizations to our time and beyond this ideal and idea fought to be realized.

>p>Many nationalities from scions of wealth and privilege, merchant business people, to poor though brilliant children, adults, and elderly sages.

Although women, minorities, participate where they had no voice many people stuck in their mindset and daily lives must be lifted out and shown the truth they would never see until now.

Complexities abound from different life experiences, expectations, languages, applied sciences, and philosophy’s.

One invention, many mothers, fathers, researchers, lend their time, energy, and spirit to the Global War Memories or G.W.M.

Some of the best minds know they will be soldiers, their son’s, daughter’s unborn, working beside them or as infants and young children whom fate chose to die as citizens in death camps in war’s conflicts; many are told their fates as compensation for working on the project.

Before the very first of many time paradoxes began with names, faces, births of people on the project.

Vacuum sealed time-proof bags are created so anyone working on this immense project vanishing out of exsistance will be honored for their contribution.

Paradoxes continue as whole generations disappear, alternative histories take place, people born of one nationality are now another, all of this is documented too because without proof individuals would not believe such things were possible.

Every part of our human destiny is-was, will be
affected.

Unbroken secrecy, discretion, enemies across oceans, continent, racial, religious lines, time become true brothers and sisters-in-arms.

An though war rages these bonds hold as others take fallen foes-friends places.

The struggle seems pointless but machines of microscopic size recording lives of wounded, dying, dead, and the survivors who can continue stealthily with this ongoing project, their own minds unshielded from refined nano-probes implanted from birth in their heads.

Millions to trillions of nano-sized audio-visual, conscious, unconscious eavesdroppers add human neural nets when war ceases to be.

At the end of this ultra-secret world wide endeavor memorials are set all over the world, in libraries, CD-ROM’s, audio books, and in all schools.

Being a global-time-venture, thought translators instantly made any language living or dead translatable to anyone on or off the earth.

The G.W.M. project succeeded in ending war because of many unknown people showing their varied life ending or life affirming thoughts and feelings during combat. But because most died horribly in many conflicts few human’s want war and sought alternatives to war’s bloody conflicts.

Timer’sTime Travelers visited some changing small bits of time by saving some of the fallen though their memories still show how they originally died.

In time certain periods are closed stopping paradoxes closing the most holy of holy’s in the Global-World Era.

How the ENDWAR saga began. Its only a fable, parable, tall tale, but given how our world works now does anyone really believe time travel will never be possible or war to be outdated made another dust heap as humankind grows up, giving up war.
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by Vlad Pogorelov

I woke up this morning to the sound of someone banging on the walls and windows of my house. My dog Marina did not like it, of course, and started barking violently at the intruder. I got dressed and walked outside, ready to face a teenage prankster, a street hoodlum or worse. To my surprise, I saw a policeman in a white motorcycle helmet writing down my license plate number. “How can I help you?” I asked him.

“You’ve got to move,” he replied angrily, and proceeded in filling out a “red tag”—a notice informing me I was parked illegally and would have to move or risk a $53 fine as well as having my motorhome towed.

“But I just moved here yesterday,” I told him.

“Too bad,” said the policeman. “The Captain wants everyone out of here. You’ve got to move,” he repeated, marking my tires with yellow chalk. Then he slapped a pink sheet of paper on my windshield, got into his police car and drove away.

I had a sour taste in my mouth as I studied the official document issued by Bayview Police Station. Despite beautiful spring weather, my mood was low. I had a new headache now, as I needed to find a new parking space for my 25 foot long motorhome.

To be clear, I am not a stranger to those “red tags,” which can be issued by the Police Department and DPT to any vehicle which, in their opinion, appears abandoned or broken down, or is not moving for an extensive amount of time. However, there is another category of vehicles being systematically targeted by police, regardless of how often they move or change parking spots on the streets of San Francisco. These are vehicles that serve as houses. Such are the motorhomes, the RV’s, the school buses, the trailers and other vechicles which have been converted to mobile residences. These types of vehicles are considered enemies by police, and every effort is being made by the City to ticket and tow vehicular houses in order to make it impossible for those who live in them to remain in San Francisco. But despite of all of the police efforts to chase the vehicularily housed away, many more such citizens continue to arrive. And it’s not surprising.

I am a vehicularily housed resident of San Francisco. I started living in a motorhome about a year ago after being evicted by the Sheriff’s Department from my house in Potrero Hill. Being unable to find any suitable living space that I could afford, I had no other choice if I wanted to remain in the City. Since then I have been parking my house, mostly in the China Basin area.

Since the 1960’s, vehicular housing has been an established tradition in China Basin and Central Basin. However, because of massive gentrification of Potrero Hill, Dog Patch and surrounding light industrial areas, the habitat of vehicularily housed residents is being destroyed. Within the last 2 months I have been “red tagged” more than 10 times, sometimes receiving an official threat of “house expropriation” immediately upon arrival to my new parking spot.

The threat of being towed by the police is not an empty one. Almost every day I see police towing away motorhomes, school buses, trailers and vans for variety of bogus charges.

Last Monday, one of my neighbors was towed from Potrero Hill. He had received a ticket for having his motorhome on the street, and the very next day police forced him and his dog out and then towed his house. I saw the poor man standing on the sidewalk and cursing the police: “Thieves! You robbed me!” It is almost certain that he will never be able to get his house back from the City Tow, a legalized racket incorporated into the corrupt bureaucratic machine of San Francisco. Isn’t it ironic that our City officials headed by Da’ Mayor worry so much about the homeless, yet they tow people’s houses away, leaving more people homeless?

The bottom line is: in this time of skyrocketed rents, thousands are being evicted and are not able to afford “traditional” housing. To live in a vehicle is, for many, the only alternative. But despite the affordable housing emergency, the City and the Police are practicing an illegal “ethnic cleansing” against vehicularily housed, exacerbating the crisis. And they are getting away with these unconstitutional activities. It is clear that our new progressive supervisors must interfere and instruct police departments to back off from their policy of harassment. The problem of homelessness in this city will only increase as vehicularily housed citizens are forced to park their tired bodies on a cement sidewalk.

Driving While POOR part I

By Tiny

I was living in my car at the time -as I had been on and off for many years. It was almost midnight. I was trying to inconspicuously park in a light industrial zone near 22nd and 3rd Streets… the late hour silence was filled with the cacophony of urban nature, the clicking of small waves hitting the Bay shore danced with the 2-2 rythem of a baritone foghorn… And then suddenly… a canon shaped beam of light tore through the black fabric of night. Three shimmering white vehicles circled first and then stopped. There was a heavy click-click of door handles..followed by the crunch of heels hitting asphalt, the deep wumph of doors slamming, faint police band radio yelps grew louder until a pair of thighs appeared at my window swathed in too-tight khaki polyester. Bits of arrest sounds came through a shoulder radio as the thighs slowly squatted to reveal a white mustachioed face - facial pores glistening in the pale moonlight." Can I see your driver's license and current registration? - and you are going to need to step out of the vehicle..NOW," the officer demanded, his voice had serrated steel edges that sliced through the air

Thirty terrifying minutes later the car which had acted as a "house" for my mother and myself off and on for the last several years was being towed because the registration was not current and we had too many tickets.

The mouth of the tow truck opened wide, consuming its late night snack of our beat up 1986 Ford Fairmont - starting its meal with the hind portion - the tired wheels refusing to spin, even in midair, just sat in place resigned to their seizure, bouncing one last goodbye to me before the car was dragged away to its own form of vehicular hell.

I stood there in the black night, illuminated by one lone street lamp, the distant ships providing accompaniment to my streaming tears. unsure of where to go - unsure of how to put one foot in front of the other, and think up another form of survival in a long list of survival strategies

Poor folks who are evicted from their homes due to gentrification, and/or become homeless because of other circumstances related to poverty are often forced to live in their vehicles, if they are lucky enough to have one. Often people are afraid of shelters and would choose living in their car over unsafe group living situations, such as many of the Bay Area shelters.

Vehicularily housed Bay Area residents are constantly harassed by the police - but in most cases the police harassment stems from continuous "nimbyism" from both businesses and residents, i.e., in neighborhoods - urban and suburban- the cops are swiftly summoned when anyone even appears to be homeless or vehicularily housed. And in most industrial or light industrial zones businesses will constantly call on local officials and cops to ticket, harass and/or change the existing parking laws to make sure that no one is allowed to stay and interfere with their " business"
The reality is that people in this situation are very conscious of their hygiene, their trash and their belongings and never interfere with people or businesses, rather they try to keep to themselves so as not to be noticed

The coalition on homelessness and POOR Magazine are working on this issue with the goal of addressing the unjust laws that criminalize homeless folks, and as well, we are drafting a vehicularily housed bill of rights -which will be presented before the board of supervisors in San Francisco.

We never got our "house" (car) back, even though I attempted to go through the very arbitrary tow "hearing" which people lose most of the time, based on how the man running the "hearing" is feeling that day. That experience led to a chain of events that sunk my mother and I deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty. And it also wasn't the last time that I would be confronted by the police for what I call "driving while Poor" (DWP).

POOR Magazine and The Coalition on Homelessness will be presenting a Vehicularily Housed Bill of Rights at an Art-Action-Rally on Wednesday, May 30 at 12:00 noon at City Hall in San Francisco- To get involved with the Action please call POOR at (415) 863-6306

To report Driving While Black or Brown harassment call 1-877-DWB-STOP toll free 24 hrs

by Jewnbug

mixed heritage

workin fo change

sellin mi food stamps

fustrated wit upperclass

who wanna save mi ass

sleepin in SRO

barely can relax

police harass

constant nightmares

peeling off dese lies

labeled

on mi back.

by Tom Gomez

I read a piece entitled “Come to S.F. for Hot Time Mayor Urges” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Mayor Willie Brown is quoted telling travel executives, gathered at what is described as a “posh Washington D.C. hotel” to feast on Alaskan crab and white wine, that in San Francisco, “You can lie, cheat, and steal…and we don’t ask you about those things. We accept you as you are.” The Mayor then says to the executives, “Those of you who wear white shirts and red ties, blue suits and regular shoes, all those kind of things for the public to see, but there is a different side of you. Well, San Francisco caters to you. We have places for you to go, where you suddenly become anonymous. You don’t have to give your name…where you will have experiences that defy description.” Am I alone in being glad this asshole is in his last term?
While the Mayor prostrated himself before yet another group of wealthy executives, I was sitting for coffee with an old friend who is disabled since a fall shattered her spine. Last year she spent nine days in our county jail for jumping the B.A.R.T. She was homeless and had no money. Apparently not all of us are “accepted as we are.” The Chronicle itself last year published an editorial by Debra Saunders that called the city’s homeless people “bums.” Yet no attempt has been made to characterize the “lying, cheating, and stealing” executives that way!
The Chronicle characterized the Mayor’s remarks referring to “experiences that defy description,” enjoyed in places where no names are required, as being “an uncharacteristically subtle reference to the city’s alternative lifestyles.” Let me be blunt. When a 50 year old insurance executive from Des Moines comes to this city for a 3 day convention and sneaks off to one of these places where no names are required, what is required is money. I know that, you know it, the mayor knows it, the paper knows it, and the audience knows it! So what is this bullshit about our city’s “alternative lifestyles?”
There is nothing new about predominately white, middle-aged executives coming through San Francisco cruising our streets late at night looking to buy sex, drugs or both. Unfortunately for those of us who live here, this city also has no shortage of seriously addicted, economically marginalized men, women and children ready to supply such needs.
It’s good to know Mayor Brown (who gave a similar speech in South America) is aggressively promoting economic opportunity for our poorest citizens around the world. Mayor Brown has been so unwilling to use public money to provide services such as shelter for families or replacement of the 500 SRO rooms destroyed by fire in the last 10 years, that I was beginning to think his administration lacked vision. Think of it that way the next time you see some emaciated and hollow-eyed person turning a trick or selling dope to a tourist in your neighborhood.

by Kaponda

Since August of 1988, Denise McCollum had dutifully navigated the 18-mile commute along the peninsula from her home in the Western Addition of San Francisco, to her place of employment in San Carlos City in San Mateo County. Her travels were sidetracked, however, on a Holiday of profound remembrance for African Americans and of great historic significance to all Americans.

McCollum was asked by her supervisor, Nancy Bailey, to work on the federal Holiday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Post Office in San Carlos, where she had functioned as a window/distribution clerk for more than a decade. During the waning hours of her shift on that January 15, 2000, McCollum carried out, in prescribed manner, her routine duty of checking for “leave slips.” She checked the box that she had designated and designed for employees of the San Carlos Post Office branch to deposit their paperwork for processing.

A pall of anxiety had overtaken the magnanimous spirit of McCollum as translucent moisture from her heated eyes revealed her reaction to the hangman’s noose that she encountered while looking into the leave box. After the single parent and grandmother had composed herself, she seized the veiled threat as evidence that a practice of ethnic intimidation, which had been vacated for more than 70 years, had been revived at her workplace on the Holiday of a distinguished civil rights leader.

Although the timing of the discovery of the nine-coil hangman’s noose by McCollum made it especially egregious, it was not an act conceived in a vacuum. The ominous signals of racial tension between colleagues and McCollum had been mounting over a period of time at the Post Office of mostly white employees in a city made up of over 22,000 whites and only 193 blacks. The memorandum posted in December, dated December 2, 1999, which stated, in part, “...material consisting of ethnic, racial, religious or sexual content are not suitable...,” was one visible signpost that the ugliest characteristics of humanity had been unleashed at the Post Office where McCollum was employed.

“I feel the Postmaster, Ezio Nurisio, my supervisor, Nancy Bailey, my co-workers, Eve Harmon and AnnMarie Bernal all played major roles that eventually led to my discovery of this symbol of hatred on that day at my job,” stated the gentlewoman as we discussed the chain of events that led to her current state of mind and the fears that have gripped the very soul of McCollum. “Ezio Nurisio, the postmaster, and Nancy Bailey have known each other since elementary school, and AnnMarie Bernal boasted to me about the dinner she and the postmaster shared at his house,” continued McCollum, as she had begun to recount a number of reason why she had clearly been made an outcast from the community at the Post Office.

I asked McCollum what reason she had to believe that a federal postmaster of the United States Post Office would be associated with an out-and-out atrocity like manufacturing a symbol used traditionally by hate groups as a means of ethnic intimidation?

“I think that this is the case because on January 18, 2000, I called the postmaster at his home to personally make him aware of my state of mind and what had happened. Later during the evening, I took the hangman’s noose to the San Carlos Police Department and made a formal complaint. I learned upon the completion of the investigation by the San Carlos police that it was the postmaster himself who created the noose,” stated McCollum.

I then asked McCollum, who was raised a Baptist in Kanas City, Kansas, who did the investigation by the San Carlos Police Department lay the blame on?

“According to the investigation” stated McCollum, “The official results of the investigation was that ‘the noose was meant as a joke between the postmaster, Ezio Nurisio, and Nancy Bailey,’” concluded McCollum.

The Post Office environment in which McCollum had worked had become festered with unvarnished hostilities, and the subsequent stress placed upon McCollum became unbearable, according to the peaceable McCollum, who described herself as a friendly person who used all her energy to maintain a “harmonious relationship” with each one of her co-workers. McCollum stated to the postmaster during their conversation that she had begun to fear for her life and asked for leave of duty. McCollum has not been back to work at the Post Office in San Carlos City for over one year.

Two days after McCollum talked with her postmaster and had learned that her postmaster fashioned the noose, Nuriso, the postmaster, wrote her a letter dated January 20, 2000, addressing her concerns of fear, although he did not admit in that letter that he was responsible for the outbreak of turmoil that had shattered relations at San Carlos Post Office. Also, on January 20, 2000, the same day of the letter by the postmaster, McCollum’s supervisor, Nancy Bailey, apologized to her for any misunderstanding that McCollum may have reached.

According to that same letter by Ezio Nurisio, dated January 20, 2000, addressed to Denise McCollum, Nurisio states that “...I conducted an investigation concerning your allegations that a hangman’s noose was purposely left on Supervisor Nancy Bailey’s desk as a direct attack to your person or ethnicity. The results of my investigation concluded that no such attack was intended or implied and that your safety at this office was never jeopardized or challenged....”

I attempted to contact the former postmaster and supervisor of Denise McCollum and to inquire how an objective and fair investigation could have been conducted by the very same person by whom the noose had been fashioned?

As I leaned next to the last of five windows for over 10 minutes waiting for Nancy Bailey to come out, I watched the three postal clerks as they provided service to customers with huge packages.

“Ezio Nurisio has been detailed to South San Francisco. He no longer works at this station any longer,” a woman in a black dress stated with a firm tone. As I asked Bailey which post office in South San Francisco he had been detailed, she stated that “The Postmaster is always at the main Post Office,” in a tone that seemed very hard on the ears. “Furthermore,” Bailey continued, “If you want any further information about the incident that occurred on January 15, 2000, you will have to talk with the Public Relations representative of the United States Post Office,” concluded Bailey.

The kind of hatred that existed at the workplace of McCollum is draped in centuries of bigotry and prejudice. It is not unique to any continent, country, race or ethnicity. I asked Reverend Shad Riddick of the Metropolitan Baptist Church, in whom Denise McCollum had confided when she had first experienced her ordeal, about his thoughts concerning the case of McCollum?

“I have noticed changes. One of the things I’ve noticed is that she has been sleeping more and more. Usually, when I call, if she was not in, then she would return my call right away. However, after the incident, she no longer returns my calls and daughter informs me that she always sleep. I am not a psychologist, but my opinion is that she is very, very depressed and afraid of something,” stated Rev. Riddick.

I asked Horace Hinshaw, the spokesperson for the Postal Service, if Ezio Nurisio had known that the hangman’s noose was a symbol used traditionally by hate groups, and did Ezio Nurisio believe that the fears expressed by Denise McCollum, after she discovered the noose, were real? Hinshaw responded that an administrative appeal by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pending, and he, therefore, was not at liberty to discuss the matter of Denise McCollum.

Existing federal law protects people like Denise McCollum from workplace harassment and violent acts based on race, color, national origin or religion. Federal Civil Rights statute 18 U.S.C.A. section 245 has been instituted in the United States Congress to safeguard people like McCollum from vicious attacks by inconsiderate persons. The Department of Justice considers noose incidents to be federal crimes of intimidation, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation annually reports and collects statistics it gathers annually on the number of bias-related criminal incidents from law enforcement agencies. In 1996, based on reports from law enforcement agencies covering 84% of the nation’s population, the FBI reported 8,759 incidents based on the Hate Crime Statistics Act.

by Terry Messman, (reprinted from The Street Spirit)

Sitting in the crowded, bustling offices of the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee (SHOC), Clifford Crooks gestures at James Gorman, an articulate homeless man working feverishly on the phones to try to convince churches in Sacramento to open their doors to street people during this rainy winter. Gorman has a vision of convincing churches all over California to wake up and realize that the bedrock principles of their faith compel them to become more actively involved in working for justice and offering sanctuary for the homeless poor.

Crooks watches Gorman working the phone lines in his one-man crusade, and says with satisfaction, “This is how SHOC works. When a person gets really ticked off, they have an office to come and fight… You find that an angry man gets a lot done.”
Fueled by that kind of dedication and outrage, the homeless organizers of SHOC have beaten all the odds and endured in their stubborn and tenacious defense of homeless people in our state capital for more than a decade now. Since 1987, SHOC activists have somehow kept up a remarkably creative drumbeat of protests and pressure campaigns in support of the human rights of the poor.

SHOC has persevered in its grassroots organizing for justice despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles and the limitations of a shoestring budget. This bare-bones, impoverished group made up of equally impoverished members somehow has found the heart to take on the powers that be in a very unequal struggle. For SHOC’s efforts to defend the defenseless are opposed by powerful forces: by a police force notorious for unleashing aggressive raids to tear apart homeless camps; by merchants who launch heartless campaigns to drive away the poor; and by a City Council which committed one of the most shocking acts of officially sanctioned bigotry in recent history by voting to sue Loaves and Fishes, one of the pre-eminent service providers in the state, in an abortive attempt to push the poor out of downtown Sacramento.

One of the reasons for SHOC’s survival in this climate of intolerance is surely their feeling that poor people’s lives hang in the balance. SHOC is now involved in an effort to end police brutality against homeless campers. Lillian Hanson believes that a systematic police effort last winter to demolish encampments, slash tents, and confiscate the blankets of homeless campers directly threatened the lives of her friends. “They were being robbed of their sleep and their life was being taken from them literally,” she said.
Mikeal O’Toole, one of SHOC’s founders, took part in past efforts to block bulldozers that roared up to demolish a homeless encampment. He quietly demonstrates the life-and-death stakes involved in this struggle by pointing to one of nearly 200 names inscribed in marble on a memorial built by Loaves and Fishes to honor homeless people who died on the streets of Sacramento. O’Toole points to the name of Gene Kulik, a founder of SHOC, who was his friend and a dynamic reason for SHOC’s very existence. Following a period of depression, Kulik died while he was still homeless. Now all that is left is a name etched on a marble wall.

Street Spirit: For the last several years, I’ve heard story after story from friends in Sacramento of police mistreatment of homeless people, especially raids on encampments by motorized cops they call “Bronco Billys.” What has the situation been like in your city this past year?

Lillian Hanson: I remember very clearly how last winter I came down to Loaves and Fishes and my homeless friends were not allowed to sleep in Sacramento. The police were raiding their camps consistently, every night or every other night, at two or three in the morning. Deliberately and with forethought, they would take the campers down to jail, and sometimes just release them, sometimes hold them in jail. But the point is the campers could not sleep anymore. They were robbed of their ability to sleep.

SS: Where were the camps located that were being raided by the police — in the downtown, sprinkled around the city, or mostly on the American River?

Lillian: The police were concentrating on the river camps. Definitely up and down the river.

SS: Was this random harassment or a deliberate effort to systematically tear down homeless encampments?

Lillian: It was a deliberate move on the part of the police. It was planned with foresight. The police during the day were scouting to find where the camps were. Then at night, they would wait till two or three in the morning and consistently go after the same camps and roust the campers.
The NSA security people were also making the rounds of the camps and waking the campers up — telling the campers that they were sleeping on ground that belonged to businesses and calling the police. Then the police would come and take them to jail and give them tickets and citations. Later on, we found out that the NSA was actually raiding camps on property that was not business property; they had no business being there.

SS: What is NSA?
Clifford Crooks: It’s their security in the downtown area — NSA Security.

Paula Lomazzi: They’re hired by the Business Improvement District in this area of Sacramento. They hired their own private security.

Lillian: Later on, SHOC was able to find out that where they were raiding the camps, they had no business being there because it was public property. It did not belong to the businesses, but they were doing that anyway, overstepping their boundaries.

SS: Did they arrest homeless people themselves or call the police?

Clifford: They would call the police and get the police to do it. But they did other things themselves, too. For instance, one of the guys here, they gave him three days to clean up his camp. On the last day, when he had his stuff sorted out and his sleeping bag and everything ready to move, the same guards that told him he had three days, took it and threw all his stuff in a pond.
What we did was Debbie and I went up and confronted each of the security guards, and we told them they were being watched now, and anything they do is going to be reported and documented. And it stopped right then.

SS: Debbie was a member of SHOC?

Lillian: She was a friend of ours who died of cancer last year. She was a homeless person who camped out along the river.

SS: That’s how you confronted the private security force. What about the police?

Clifford: As far as the police go, we had to do a lot of complaint forms about how people were being harassed in encampments by the police, and then it was taken before Don Casimere’s office.

Paula: Casimere directs the Office of Police Accountability.

Clifford: Casimere was brought in by the work of the NAACP. They had like 1,500 complaints against the Sacramento police brought into Internal Affairs, and only one was investigated in a year’s time.

SS: So the NAACP spearheaded the effort to get Casimere appointed to investigate all the complaints of police abuse?

Lillian: Yes, the NAACP negotiated with the city for about four years and they take credit for Casimere being hired, and the Mexican organizations also took credit. The police brutality to the Black community and the Mexican-American community was really quite horrible and they needed to do something to set it back.
This is aside from the police brutality to our homeless population. When we entered the picture, Don Casimere just happened to be appointed there recently and we were able to work with him.

SS: What happened with the complaint forms SHOC collected from homeless people harassed by the police?

Lillian: Casimere stated to us that the complaint forms that SHOC gave him were to his advantage and something he could really use. I remember many a night last winter coming down to Loaves and Fishes in the rain collecting these complaint forms; Clifford did it, Paula did it, we all did it.
My friends, the campers, they had long, dreary faces then. They were worn out, they were tired, they could hardly walk, there were no smiles, and it was raining hard. It was really quite ghastly, the sleep deprivation. Their sleep had been taken from them. You try going without sleep for one month and see how you feel. They looked like ghosts. They were being robbed of their sleep and their life was being taken from them, literally. After awhile you can’t focus and you can’t think and you can’t get a job.
Some of the ones I had spoken to had gotten jobs and saved money and they had their gear to go to work; but they were unable to do the jobs because the police would come in and raid their camps with all their gear. So they couldn’t show up at work. The police were constantly taking every blanket they had, and they couldn’t sleep at night.

SS: What were the police excuses for confiscating blankets in the middle of winter — illegal camping?

Clifford: Yeah, they’d use the camping laws.

Lillian: The camping laws gave them the right to steal people’s blankets. There was a terrible, horrendous lack of blankets last year — people were freezing. That’s when SHOC stepped in. We collected the police reports. Clifford created our complaint forms.

SS: What kinds of complaints did you document?

Clifford: Police abuse, and things like cutting their camping gear up. As a matter of fact, we have a sleeping bag right there with a complaint form on it that has been all sliced up. Police would cut up tents, sleeping bags, everything. They would either slash them up and leave them there or they would take them with them. Like underneath the overpass over here, people would camp under that. On a rainy night at about two in the morning, the police came in and confiscated all their gear, forced them out from underneath the overpass out into the rain, and left them defenseless to the elements.
This was all going on until we took our complaint forms to Casimere’s office. Then he called Internal Affairs and he drug them over the coals for all this abuse.
According to the NAACP, there were 1,500 complaint forms turned in from all over the city from citizens, and Internal Affairs only investigated one or two of them out of all those. That’s why they brought in Casimere; he’s above everything. He can drag the police over the coals and that’s exactly what he did.

SS: So he was brought in because the community found that there was nowhere to go with their complaints because Internal Affairs would not investigate. What did Casimere do with your complaints from the homeless community?

Lillian: Well, he called a meeting with himself there and members of SHOC and the police department. The first confrontation began and, of course, the police denied a great deal of this. Their position was, “We didn’t do it. We’re innocent.” Then, SHOC would bring forward the complaints.

Blake Smith was a homeless man who became involved in this. He later became the president of SHOC; but at that time, he was camped out on the river with his friend. One day he went to his camp after eating lunch at Loaves and Fishes, and there were two policemen hiding behind the trees with guns drawn. The police came out from behind the trees and said, “Get out of here now,” or something to that effect. They ran, because the police had their guns drawn.
Now Blake knew that was totally against the law, so he wrote out that complaint and we submitted it to Casimere, and Casimere was really able to go to bat with that. It was one of the outstanding complaints he had to work with.
Blake Smith was so angry over what had happened that he was willing to back up that complaint all the way. We had several meetings with the police after that, and we had meetings with Tom Clinkenbeard, the public defender. The outcome of all this was that Blake needed witnesses because the police, of course, were denying it. We went and found one of the witnesses and she wrote up a complaint. So we did back it up; but as far as I know, neither of the officers involved were punished in any way, and nothing was done. Blake Smith has since left Sacramento.
I just want to say Casimere was such a gentleman about this whole thing. He actually came to Friendship Park [the park for homeless people at the Loaves and Fishes complex] and he said that he wanted to meet everybody. I’ll never forget that day. This man who looks like a judge, all dressed up, very educated; he sat right down and homeless people came up complaining about what had happened to them, and he listened to them all. I thought it was really wonderful because he didn’t think of himself as better than us.

SS: What role did the public defender, Clinkenbeard, play?

Lillian: Clinkenbeard had witnessed last summer, when he came out with one of the people he was representing, and he saw helicopters, two cars, a jeep, and various policemen chasing the homeless down the river. He couldn’t believe what a waste of taxpayers’ money that was. When he saw this, he comprehended what was involved and he has since become a defender of the homeless, and he has a legal clinic he runs at Loaves and Fishes.
He represents homeless people in front of the judge with his lawyers. All the homeless have to do is to show up and he drives them there and he brings them back. He worked out an arrangement with the judge. A typical sentence for misdemeanors is four hours of cleaning up at Loaves and Fishes. Clinkenbeard has been a real help and a tremendous asset for us.

SS: What was the ultimate outcome of your work exposing police misconduct?

Lillian: After we made the complaints and had several meetings with the police — even though, as far as I know, the policemen themselves were not punished — Casimere was pleased because he was able to convince the police that something was wrong. And they did back down! They did back down without further ado; they stopped making the raids at two or three in the morning, which is what we were aiming for. They no longer do that. They were ID-ing homeless people and they’re still doing that and even taking IDs away. That continues; they are harassing the homeless now. But we were able to stop the merciless practice of waking up the campers in the middle of the night so they couldn’t sleep. That was so inhumane. That stopped.

For more on this story you can read SHOC The COPS By Terry Messmen on www.poornewsnetwork.org. For more information about SHOC write: SHOC at 1351 North C Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Phone: (916) 442-2156. E-mail: Homeward2@yahoo.com

by Kaponda

The conductor nosed the two-toned train of metallic coaches beyond the obscure perimeters into the lighted Berth of the terminal. I disembarked at the Berkeley station. Ascending the escalator, I watched as an image of a set of handcuffs loomed large as the words beside it informed the rider that whoever lifts a fist during a verbal dispute with a station agent would go to jai. As I went through the turnstile, I observed that Berkeley Patrol Car No. 596 was posted and prepared to enforce any allegations of assault by a B.AR.T.. agent.

I walked two blocks west on Center Street to the scene of a live assault that was staged at high noon on the front lawn of the Berkeley Municipal Court. A coalition of civil rights organizations had launched a full-scale assault on a California statute.

"Ain't no mistake about it, folks!" stated Lisa Gray-Garcia as she fired the opening salvo of a concerted campaign to repeal California Penal Code 647(j). "Challenging the constitutionality of the lodging law is to attempt to actually change the situation for poor and homeless people across the country. This is precedent setting. If we can make this happen, we are going to help poor folks who are victims of economic and racial cleansing all across this crazy nation....So, that is what we are her to fight," concluded Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine, under a bright, warm sun that lit up the faces of the activists, lawyers, elected officials, scores of homeless men and women, and the Sheriff's deputies with incredulous stares on that 12th day of April.

Cities across America are using lodging laws to declare war on innocent citizens who camp beneath the serenity of twilight. Over 23,000 homeless people were swept into oblivion by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani using its infamous statute.

In California, a law that has been on the books since 1872, California Penal Code 647(j), has been revived to force people out of sight. According to this statute, a person is guilty of disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor under this law, for lodging outside. The California Penal Code 647, section (j), reads as follows:

Who lodges in any building, structure, vehicle, or place,
whether public or private, without the permission of
the owner or person entitled to the possession or the
control of it.

The idea to challenge the old California statute was born out of the frustration of a denizen of the City of Berkeley. Ken Moshesh was given a citation for lodging outside on October 27, 2000. After three months, on January 18, 2001, Moshesh was again aroused from his sleep and arrested for the 10-27-00 citation that had gone to warrant. Ken Moshesh, a former University of California at Berkeley Professor, spoke to the crowd whose fury was expressed by raised fists.

"This is not just another homeless person railroaded through the courts and sent to jail," stated Moshesh, as the gapes of Sheriff's deputies were noticeably conspicuous for the first time. "But this time something different is going to happen. And the different thing will be that instead of [Berkeley police] challenging people outside in their cracks and crannies where they sleep, because there is no place else to sleep, instead of [Berkeley police] challenging them while they attempt to hide and get their 40 winks, we are going to challenge the antiquated 647(j) lodging law that gives law enforcement the authority to follow us around and declare us illegal when, in fact, there administrative personnel have not been able to deal effectively with the problems on homelessness here in Berkeley," concluded Moshesh as he was saluted by a person with a placard with the words "People are Sleeping in Bushes in the Richest Nation in the World"

The task to which Garcia, Moshesh and the coalition of agencies have committed is not only formidable, but, if successful, unprecedented. It entails a challenge to invalidate California Penal Code 647, section (J). The constitutional challenge will be lodged in the Berkeley Municipal Court on Thursday, May 17, 2001. Gregory Syren, the Public Defender who has agreed to represent Ken Moshesh.

Similar challenges to overturn this statute that is used to criminalize homeless people have been lodged in the past but were waylaid, I asked Pat Wall, an attorney with the Homeless Action Center, what the likelihood of a constitutional challenge was at the Municipal Court level?

"....Since the Public Defender has taken the case, it will set a powerful precedent for other homeless people who are cited for 647(j) violations and send a message to both police and the office of the District Attorney that they need to stop charging people with that lodging law....because its unconstitutional....We think the chances of this [overturning the statute] happening are very good," stated Wall.

Osha Neumann, of Community Defense Incorporated, an organization that advocates for civil rights issues of homeless people, explained to be that the war will be waged on two fronts. According to Neumann, who also directs a clinic for homeless street youths through the ecumenical chapter for the homeless,

"This is a two-pronged campaign," stated Neumann, as we walked away from the voices that blared spoken words about the atrocities of homelessness. "We are attempting to repeal California Penal Code 647(j) in Municipal Court and instruct the Berkeley Police Department to set low priorities in its enforcement of lodging laws..."

Just as Neumann had stated, the second campaign -- to instruct the Berkeley Police Department to set low priorities in its enforcement of lodging laws -- was launched on the front lawn adjacent to the Berkeley Municipal Court before the mayor of Berkeley and every member of the Berkeley City Council, on Tuesday, April 17, 2001.

An item was placed on the Berkeley City Council Consent Calendar by Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who, during adolescence, also experienced homelessness. The item, entitled "Compassionate Treatment of Homeless, calls for the City of Berkeley to adopt a resolution supporting compassionate treatment of homeless people in Berkeley (using the dictionary definition of compassion -- not the President's [definition of compassion]).

As I entered into the building for the Tuesday, April 17th, 7:00 PM, hearing on the Compassionate Treatment of Homeless, I was turned back along with scores of other people. When I flashed my press badge, the Sheriff's deputies pointed to the crowd atop the second floor that had been backed up to outside the hearing room. There were other reporters being turned back along with me because of the extremely large crowd that the Compassionate Treatment item on the agenda had attracted.

After a couple of homeless insurgents discovered the news agencies that I represented, they directed me on a course that circumvented the usual path to the Berkeley City Council hearing. As I entered in the session on the second floor, the executive director of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, B.O.S.S., boona cheena, had just begun to testify on behalf of the Compassionate Treatment item.

"We are asking for a resolution which includes homeless families and children and homeless single men in this city as a priority -- that their rights have to be protected," stated an emotional cheena.

If the second phase of the full-scale assault by the coalition of civil rights agencies, the Compassionate Treatment resolution, is successful and the City of Berkeley approves a low priority in enforcement of lodging laws, then the cops of Berkeley will no longer be authorized to issue citations to people who sleep in public. Instead, the Berkeley police will probably have to learn to issue citations to automobiles that exceed the speed limit or citations to people who bully other people. I asked the Berkeley City Attorney, Manuela Albuquerque, about the consequences of a successful Compassionate Treatment resolution?

"We have the power as a city to set law enforcement priorities and to determine that enforcement of lodging laws would be a low priority -- the lowest priority. There are a finite amount of law enforcement resources in the city. The city can determine what is the order of priority to utilize those. The police have discretion. They do not have to enforce every law every time and they exercise that discretion every day. So the city could determine as a matter of policy that certain laws would be very low priority to enforce.

I asked the City Attorney if the City of Berkeley is currently using high priority in enforcement in lodging laws?

"Lodging is not a high-priority item but my understanding from the police is that it is basically done on a complaint-driven basis. When there is some problem that is being caused," stated the City Attorney."

Item number 34, Compassionate Treatment of Homeless, did not get an opportunity for discussion on that evening at the City Council hearing because items like zoning appeal, regulation of street events and block parties, transportation demand management, and solar energy had been given a higher priority.

"It certainly appeared to many people in the audience that some people were trying to filibuster and just talk, talk, talk and not move on to the next items on the agenda....We could have easily finished two more items last night, but they talked so much that it was midnight and people wanted to go home," stated Councilmember Worthington about the disappointment of not having his item heard on that Tuesday afternoon.

I asked Councilmember Worthington who he thought was primarily responsible for the Compassionate Treatment item not being heard at the Berkeley City Council Meeting?

"Certainly, the Mayor has the most influence over controlling the Council meeting and pushing it in the right or wrong direction because she chairs the meeting. Obviously, if it were something that she wanted to get done, she would have pushed it ahead and made sure that it got done," stated Worthington, who has had an emotional connection with people who don't have anywhere to live for most of his life.

I asked Councilmember Worthington how he got involved with the coalition of agencies that have launched this two-pronged assault and, in particular, Ken Moshesh?

"I was visiting a student program called SHARE where they have homeless people come once a week. I heard there about people who said they had been getting arrested for lodging. Listening to that and hearing it from other people, I came to the conclusion that this isn't just happening to one person," stated Worthington.

Will the Compassionate Treatment resolution pass at the next Berkeley City Council meeting or will it be voted down? I went to the Mayor of the City of Berkeley to inquire about the chances of the City of Berkeley scaling back on the vigorous enforcement of homeless people.

The bright smile of the receptionist compensated for the absence of light due to compliance of the Governor’s conservation plan on the top floor of Berkeley City Hall. High above the problems of the common people in a renovated City Hall, I observed the bijou, fashioned from steel in the shape of a harp, mounted on the wall, as I entered into Mayor Shirley Dean’s office.

"I’ve fallen in love with it because its musical," explained Mayor Dean of the clock glossed over with oil and acrylic the small hand of which was on the five and the big hand rested on the three..

I sat in a chair next to the chair in which she sat at the conference table as I noticed the two impressive leather seats between the end table at the northeast corner of her spacious office. The mayor was of sober humor and maintained a strong face as she explained her concerns about the Compassionate Treatment resolution.

"A moratorium means you can't cite an arrest under section 647(j). That is a moratorium on the criminalization of sleep within Berkeley City limits and instructs the Berkeley Police Department not to cite or arrest any homeless individual for sleeping on public property in Berkeley and refers to the City Manager and to the budget process funding for detox, day time respite care, rainy day vouchers, share proposal and storage."

"That is what is before us. Now we have been sent some material from a group called The People's Rights Committee. They have sent us a summary for what is called 'Honoring the Right to Bed and Sleep.' There are also some other materials that are different from the resolution that is before the Council -- although its similar, it is also quite different," continued the mayor.

"So, one of the things that immediately needs to be clarified is, what is before us? They refer to the Resolution from Councilmember Worthington, as well. It is pretty unclear, for example, what are the:
1) Share Proposal -- It is not defined here at all. it just says, 'Share Proposal.' -- that we are supposed to refer this to the City Manager and the budget process;
2) Rainy-day Vouchers -- I assume this is a voucher to stay in a motel or a hotel during the rainy season. We already do that;
3) Day-time Respite Care -- Again, I am not quite sure what they are referring to; and
4) Storage Units -- I believe we already provide this," concluded the mayor of her concerns about the resolution set forth by Councilmember Kriss Worthinton for low priority in enforcement of 647(j).

I asked Mayor Shirley Dean how she had interpreted the proposal by Councilmember Worthington and her thoughts?

"Now if they are talking about increasing these services, then we should know what the proposal is. There is nothing here that talks about what those things mean. So, this is not a very well written 'thing' that we would just pass because there are so many questions about what does it mean. What are we doing if we pass it? So, I am surprised that it got put on the Consent Calendar. the Consent Calendar is supposed to be reserved for items that are 'non controversial,' if you will, and for which there are very few questions. There is likely to be a lot of questions about this simply because there is not enough material here given with the item," concluded a disappointed Mayor Shirley Dean.

I commented that based on her questions about the document drafted by Councilmember Worthington that a lot of information was omitted and that she was not satisfied with the proposal as it was written, but not dissatisfied with sympathizing or supporting a low priority in the enforcement of homeless people in terms of citations?

"I think that it is a sad situation when a person has to sleep outside, and I would like this city to provide sufficient services so that doesn't have to happen....I do not like the idea of a moratorium on 647(j), mainly because it is the State Penal Code and there are times when you don't want a big encampment of people," stated the Mayor about the attitude of her constituents of Berkeley..

Mayor Dean stated that 647(j) was divisive because it prohibits a person from sleeping in both private and public. I asked her about the public aspect of 647(j)?

"Well, again I think that depends on what the circumstances are. If you had an individual who falls asleep on a bench -- daytime or nighttime -- I don't think that that person should be arrested. But if you've got 50 people who are sleeping in the park or in the building that is afire -- we've had that in Berkeley -- then I think, again, the police ought to say 'move on, let's go to a shelter, let us bring you to a shelter, let's provide you with transportation to bring you to a shelter.' We can't have this. It upsets citizens. It makes everybody angry. It makes it very difficult to go to people and say we need your tax money to pay for services to provide to people. They get angry and will say, ‘No.’ I don't think that that is the way you solve this problem," were the language and theory that the mayor had used to impugn the proposed Compassionate Treatment placed on the City Council Consent Calendar.

I asked Mayor Dean how many homeless people are there in the City of Berkeley?

"I have always been told that at any one time there are a thousand people who are homeless in the City of Berkeley. We are not able to provide that number of beds every single night -- that's for sure. But we provide more beds in this community than any other community in Alameda County. I've always supported that, and I think that if we need to increase those services -- let's do it. We need to be humane to people; we need to be compassionate to people, but we shouldn't pass moratoriums on 647(j). I don't think that's the way to go. I think our Police Department -- when they find a problem -- need to be careful and sensitive towards people and offer them an alternative. Say, for example, if a person is sleeping in the park. They should say, ‘Look, we have a bed for you in the shelter or we have vouchers,’ or whatever it is that we have at that time."

I responded to Mayor Dean that the possibility of the police offering a homeless person an alternative does not exist since there are more people than there are beds, according to what I had just heard.

She responded by stating that, "Well, sometimes it is."

Over 100 homeless people and allies flooded Berkeley City Hall on the following Tuesday, April 24th, to express to the entire City Council their grievances over the lack of beds and services and the aggressive enforcement of 647(j) by Berkeley cops. Their signs and chants occupied every molecule of space in the chambers and hallways on that evening. It was a night on which the substratum of the tradition of Berkeley would ring loud. A night on which a victory would resound throughout Berkeley and the state of California. It was night on which the very fabric from which America had been built -- poverty and hope – would buck up and force a vote on the Compassionate Treatment resolution.

After every testimony was registered with the Council and a lenthy debate by councilmembers, the councilmembers provided the people of a gentle nature an oasis of the sort unique only to the City of Bereley.

Just as Lisa Gray-Garcia had stated at the outset two weeks earlier, the first part of the battle had been won. The victory on Tuesday night sets a statewide precedent in the compassionate treatment of homelessness. It requires that police make enforcement of California Penal Code 647(j) a low priority. Furthermore, it provides that people who sleep outside are given two warnings before being arrested for lodging, and that arrests must be initiated by a citizen complaint rather than the volition of a cop. The resolution also calls for a commitment to the human and civil rights of homeless people, and refers multiple programs for study by the city manager, including detoxification facilities, daytime respite care, rainy-day vouchers, increased locker space, and a legal advocacy clinic for homeless pepole – which Mayor Shirley Dean and I discussed during our interview.

Discussions of the resolution ended with a commendation by Councilmember Kriss Worthington of the courage and resourcefulness of the homeless people who organized themselves to support the resolution.

"….It has been many years since Berkeley’s City Council Chambers have been overrun and completely occupied by homeless people standing up for their rights," concluded Councilmember Worthington.

by Dee Gray and Richard Ransom

This interview first appeared in POOR Magazine, Volume 3. Titled "WORK," the purpose of this issue is to challenge our society’s narrow definitions of so-called "legitimate" labor. POOR maintains that "work" must be defined by the workers themselves, and is dedicated to presenting the voices of workers who too often labor unrecognized and unheard.

We’re examining the notion of panhandling or sparechanging as work, because at POOR magazine we consider it a form of Micro-Business, or work. The following is a transcript from the ongoing writer-facilitation dialogue between Dee Gray, co-editor of POOR and Richard X at his work site, located near Stockton and O’Farrell Streets in downtown San Francisco.

Dee: Let’s just start with…how many days per week do you work?

RX: Seven.

Dee: And what would you say are your hours of business each day?

RX: Well, I normally start anywhere from six to eight in the morning and go all the way through to nine or ten o’clock at night, with a couple of breaks in between that last maybe an hour each.

Dee: And those would be like a dinner break?

RX: Yeah.

Dee: Do you have to take any buses to work?

RX: No.

Dee: What happens at your work when it rains, or in very cold weather?

RX: It’s just another day…I’m still out here…rain or shine.

Dee: Do you live inside or outside? Do you live in a hotel sometimes or…?

RX: Basically inside…a shelter type situation.

Dee: Do you have to navigate between the shelter systems or are you stabilized for now?

RX: Stabilized as you can be within the shelter environment.

Dee: What hours do you approximately sleep?

RX: It depends, I usually get to sleep about twelve-thirty or one. I’m up at 5:30 am to start work again.

Dee: How does this job affect your health?

RX: It effects my health very seriously in that I have what’s called venous stasis ulcers, which are skin ulcers caused by poor circulation in the lower extremities, the legs. Ulcers are sores, if you didn’t know. And the fact that I’m on my feet for so many hours a day aggravates them.

Dee: Are the ulcers impacted or made worse by the work?

RX: Yeah, yeah.

Dee: I understand you also have emphysema?

RX: Yes.

Dee: And of course, the cold exacerbates that.

RX: Yes.

Dee: Okay, so when you health gets really bad, where do you go for health care?

RX: General Hospital, basically.

Dee: How long do you usually wait?

RX: Anywhere from 2 to 4 hours.

Dee: Are you well treated, would you say?

RX: Where, at the hospital?

Dee: Yeah.

RX: That’s relative to who’s treating me.

Dee: I heard that (laughter)…I know what you mean. And how about dental care?

RX: At the hospital, if I can.

Dee: What happens if you do get really sick? Do you ever take the day off?

RX: It depends on how really sick I am.

Dee: Have there been times that you’ve…been out here with active emphysema and feeling really bad?

RX: Well, there have been times I’ve been out here and not wanted to be out here, but my needs necessitate that I be out here. In other words, my health takes a back seat.

Dee: Let’s talk about harassment on the job. Can you tell us a little about that?

RX: Okay. There is a group or should I say, a team of people called the Ambassadors, whose job was primarily designed to help tourists out, by way of giving direction, just helpful hints about where to go, where not to go, who to talk to, who not to talk to.

But in fact, to my understanding, they are contracted by different stores, different companies, to keep undesirables- I guess I would be listed as an undesirable- panhandlers and drunks and so forth, off of their property, which brings about some interesting situations. For some reason, I have become the number one priority with this group of Ambassadors. And I can say honestly that I have brought some of this on in that this one particular company, the Ellis-O’Farrell garage, which is one of their contractees, I have been on their building site any number of times, because the flow of traffic into the garage is where I get my money. People are more apt to give money if they don’t have to change the direction that they’re walking.

Dee: So, that’s your work site?

RX: One of my work sites, one of my best work sites…I have a good rapport with the police officers in the area. They can attest to the fact that I have never been aggressive, never been accused of being aggressive.

Dee: I would agree.

RX: Okay, I came to the conclusion that because these people were hell bent on, to my way of thinking, destroying my livelihood, I said I’m going to get off their property, get on the curb side, city property, and continue my work.

Dee: Right.

RX: As you can see behind you, there’s a No Trespassing sign. That was put up primarily for me. So that they would have me or have the tools to hopefully get me arrested and out of the way. This is the way I look at it, and I believe that’s the way it is.

Dee: Have they called the police?

RX: Oh, yeah.

Dee: Many times?

RX: The police have been called 3 or 4 times. A couple of times were valid, a couple of times they outright lied and said I was standing on their property when I wasn’t, which brings me to another point. Because I am legal on the curbside, they have taken it upon themselves to lie to the police and say that I am on their property when I’m not. If some of the Ambassadors would tell the truth, they would attest to that fact, because the watch me. I’ve overheard them asking on their walkie-talkies, "Where is Mr. X?"

Dee: Here comes one right now…(a red jacketed Ambassador passes us, talking into his walkie-talkie about us and Mr. X)

RX: When the police have come, because my rapport is somewhat good with them, basically what they told me was, Mr. X, for the day or a couple if days, just kind of move on. Which I didn’t want to do and in one instance I challenged them, because I am legal on the curb. You know.

Dee: Right, panhandling is not illegal in San Francisco…

RX: As long as you’re not being aggressive and chasing people down the street and jumping on their back and all that.

Dee: Which you are definitely not.

RX: They want to get a court order to have me kept away 100 feet from any of their buildings…you know, kind of like a stay away order. I was told by one of the Ambassadors that I had to be 100 feet form the building. Now, this came from the Ambassadors, who in no way represent the law. I have not been told by any law enforcement officers. I have not received anything in print attesting to this fact, so as you can see, I’m not 100 feet from the building, nor do I plan to be, until I’m either told by a police officer, or in writing from a judge…you know.

Dee: Of course that kind of stay away order would be illegal as you are standing on city property, not on their property. Here comes another Ambassador talking into her walkie-talkie.

RX: Oh, yeah, she’s letting them know that I’m talking to somebody with a microphone. It all started when Karin Flood, the director of the Ambassadors, instructed her workers to take pictures of all the panhandlers and to label them as to what they either know or think that they do with their money. That is to say, if a person is a drunk, under his picture he’s labeled Joe Blow, Drunk or Joe Blow, Drug User. The lady had the unmitigated gall to come up to me one day and ask me what I did with my money. I in turn asked her what she did with her money. She didn’t take too kindly to this, obviously. But this is the extent that these people go to. Now, granted they do work with the police, because they’ve been told by the police to inform them of any crimes they see or so forth, but in my case I think- and this doesn’t involve the police, this is just with the Ambassadors themselves- they have somehow tagged me as the guy to watch at all times. And I cannot figure out why this is, because I’m really not doing anything wrong other than violating the building code by being up against the building, but I don’t do that anymore.

Dee: So now it’s becoming harassment…

RX: Well, I have to say in all fairness, in the last couple of days, it seems to have subsided somewhat.

Dee: Okay.

RX: But I do not think it’s over.

Dee: I want to ask you…do you think panhandling is a job, self-employment?

RX: I most definitely do. It’s probably one of the hardest jobs you can do.

Dee: What are your job duties? In other words, either you have to ask people to give you money or they just give it to you…or?

RX: There are different approaches…each panhandler has his own method, but there are a couple of things that have to be, that have to run true if you’re going to be successful and not violate any laws. Number one, you have to be courteous. Number two, you have to be polite. Your appearance can add or not add to what you get. I’m not too sure about that, but I know one thing, you have to be courteous, because nobody’s obliged to give you a dime. And myself, I try to have a kind word for everybody that passes. I speak…because I’m under the impression that I might not get a dime today, but if I’m courteous to this person, somewhere down the line I’m going to get something.

Dee: It’s a sales technique…but what’s going on with panhandling? Would you say it’s guilt? What are the dynamics?

RX: I think it’s any number of things. I think with some people it’s guilt. I think with others it’s a genuine concern. I think with some people it’s a "here, look at me" thing: I’m giving to this down and out person.

Dee: So, we’re thinking in long range terms, in terms of getting street vendors and panhandlers actual benefits, like health benefits, stuff like that- do you think you should get benefits, for all your hard work, like the regular City worker’s comp benefits, the whole thing?

RX: Sure.

Dee: And of course, retirement benefits, because, you know, the strength that you have to do this job I can’t imagine you having forever. Now then, can you open a checking account or do you have one already?

RX: No, I don’t.

Dee: Did you have trouble getting one, or don’t you care for one?

RX: I wouldn’t because it might raise some questions that I’d have to answer that I wouldn’t necessarily want to answer, namely form that agency that we all know and love that comes around every April.

Dee: With your permission, let’s cover a little bit of your history. Did you go to college? What kinds of jobs have you held in the past?

RX: Before my health got bad, I was a presser and tailor, dry cleaner, presser, tailor. I worked with clothes, in other words…I was employed by Brooks Brothers for about eight years. I’ve worked at any number of cleaners around the Bay Area. I have a year of college.

Dee: Were you a Union member?

RX: Yeah.

Dee: …and then your health got bad?

RX: Yeah, my health got bad, I got laid off, my wife came down with cancer. I kind of went off the deep end, which kind of led me to where I am now.

Dee: So, it’s an emotional and a physical kind of breakdown?

RX: Right, right.

Dee: So maybe self-employment or being an entrepreneur, if we look at it this way, is a way that you, Richard, can access employment. It’s your own hours, your own thing, but you work really hard; I can attest to that fact.

Two days after this dialogue, Richard was arrested in Union Square and told by a San Francisco police officer that, based on a letter received form the Ambassadors, "he should not come within 100 yards of Union Square" (a downtown SF shopping district). This police officer had no stay away order or Temporary Restraining Order. But a very intimidated Mr. X has now moved his work site to a low visibility area of Market Street where he hardly makes enough money for his lunch every day. POOR Magazine’s advocacy project is desperately attempting to attain pro-bono legal representation for Mr. X.

Richard X is a co-author of this on-going dialogue through POOR Magazine’s writer-facilitation project, a program designed to bring the POOR Magazine pre-publishing workshops, which include economic and legal advocacy, to outdoor locations for writers and artists who are unable to participate in structured or conventional indoor workshops, in an attempt to bring the "voices" and expertise of severely underserved populations into the media, while also providing much needed services.

Due to Business Improvement Districts’ (B.I.D.’s) corporate interests, urban gentrification and encroachment, several cities and states are currently attempting, or have already succeeded in, ejecting panhandlers and street newspaper vendors, even though this is an abuse of their First Amendment rights, and a further example of unfair harassment of the poor and powerless members of our society. In New York, Guiliani started with panhandlers and street newspaper vendors, forcing them out of terminals and subways, and has now moved on to all other outdoor business people, such as artists and vendors. In the Castro area of San Francisco, neighborhood businesses have launched a campaign, "Don’t give change, create change," advising people not to give change to panhandlers. In Atlanta and other parts of the U.S. they have made panhandling illegal altogether, furthering the criminalization and incarceration of the poor.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

To resist these abuses you must join forces with other organizations dealing with these issues; In San Francisco, please call Coalition on Homelessness at (415) 346-9693. In New York, call Street News at (718) 268-5165.

Fight Business Improvement District campaigns when they are launched, like the upcoming BID in San Francisco by the City Center Partnership, i.e., the corporation consortium that created the private security firm discussed in this article, the "Ambassadors."

Our advice for a citizen encountering a panhandler is, rather than be intimidated by the panhandler, you can choose to support him or her, just like anyone attempting to sell you a product. As well, you don’t need to be concerned with what he or she does with his or her "income," i.e., the support you give or whether their story is "real," anymore than you would be concerned what any other "worker" does with his or her income

by Dee

On March 26, 2001, I telephoned the Public Utility Commission to complain about the rate hikes presented by the P.U.C. First I heard a matrix but, having a rotary phone, I waited to speak to a real human being. Instead, I was connected with a woman who claimed that P.U.C. has no fax machine, and then hung up.

I called again and asked for the woman's name. She refused to answer, and promptly hung up.

I called again, listened to the entire matrix for the third time, and when the woman answered I requested the name of her supervisor. She refused to reply, and hung up.

A fourth time I called, listened to the matrix, and again reached this same woman, who would only identify herself as the receptionist before hanging up.

I called again and said to the receptionist, “I want to make a complaint to the Public Utilities Commission."

She asked,“What Utility?”

I explained, “I want to complain about the person in charge of the rate increase for energy. I don’t want to complain about a utility problem."

“That means nothing to me,” she replied.

I said, “Let’s speak to your supervisor,” and once again she hung up on me.

I called a sixth time to again ask the receptionist, “Can I speak to your supervisor?” Without reply she hung up.

I called again, this time from a push-button phone. I pressed #2, hoping to at least leave a message, but the matrix transfered me to the same receptionist!

I asked, “Can I speak to your supervisor?” This time she accused me of harrassing her before she hung up.

I called an eighth time and hit another number in the matrix, hoping in vain to leave a message, but I was switched once more to the receptionist. This time I asked her for the fax number at P.U.C., and she gave it to me reluctantly. I asked her, “Who gets this fax? Will the head of the PUC get it?”

She answered,“I don’t know who will get it,” and hung up again!

So the following is my public comment to the P.U.C.:

1)You are trying to control the behavior of California citizens by raising our rates in order to force us to conserve. What a lousy excuse to raise rates. Isn’t it really because the rate raises affect blue chips, oil and utility stocks?

2) I demand to know the identity of this receptionist and, more importantly, that of her supervisor. This woman should not be the only contact available for public questions because she and the P.U.C. have made it almost impossible for California citizens to address complaints to you immediatly oe directly.

3)I expect this rude, abrasive, undersupervised woman to lie about our phone calls to her, and so I recorded our words- I repeat, OUR words, not her words. I informed her of this at least once.

4) I expect a letter or fax from you immediately in response to this situation.

5)Finally, as you do indeed have a fax machine, I will use this fax to tell you that I vehemently disagree with your irrational demands for Californians to pay higher electric or gas bills.

by Joseph Bolden

In the near future people still die as always except our technologies may bring more of us back from the brink of death’s once sure grip.

How humans deals with literal "Lazarus" like returns from the grave by applied science will have unknown impacts through out religious, moral, ethical, worldviews across the world.

This could be that last straw that breaks our collective "Camels Backs" or create a resiliency humanity has never had.

Mortals, we know death is part of life it can happen to anyone, anywhere; but to suddenly have this burden lifted from mankind will come as a shock to many with mindsets fixed on the birth, adolescent, young adult, middle age, young-old senior, elderly and end of life death sequence.

The concept of young-old is a relatively new phenomena, its part of our new mindset.

Regenerative, rejuvenation, youthen-ning processes will become as widespread.

A time is fast approaching when each of us as individuals will
choose the old one-way path to the grave or split into a new Extended youthful humanity.

How we as a global species react to this opportunity as curse or blessing will influence our self directed evolution for centuries if not aeons to come.

Thantatologists, of the future will be as crucial to our well being as psychoanalysis, therapists, psychologist’s, physiol-ogists, and psychiatry was in the early 20th century.

The problem will be in living our extended life spans.How would someone 250 years old though looking and feeling 25 deal with so much loss after choosing their life extension plan and losing family, friends, loved one that chose the old fashioned life spiral to death?

Fathers, Mothers, staying young, vital outliving their children or son’s and daughter’s outliving their siblings? Life, living, death, and return to life – what will be true death?

Will it again be redefined from heart, brain, total cell death, or further from atomic to subatomic molecular strands of life when they shred apart will this finally mean total death?

If these subtle near invisible strands can be reconnected, strengthened,
regenerated, rejuvenated, improved over time, what sort of human does one become when they can no longer remember what mortal death is like?

One thing is clear in fifty years or more humanity will face a fascinating, terrifying, and exhilarating choice in our lives; human’s have never had before.

Will the stories we tell our descendants in centuries to come separate us or bring us together.

Beyond race, religion, nation, country, sexual orientation, all of it is nothing compared to how we as individuals chose how long we live.

Nations on the wrong side of choice will loose populations in immigration to other lands, riots, or simply dropping out of society.

Life, Death, and back to Life. The next two centuries will be…
ABSOLUTELY UNPREDICTABLE!

What Do You Folks Think?
Here I go again.

Please send donations to Poor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
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Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joseph Bolden

Their very lives show us that impossible is a word routinely changing its definition.

Like Mr. Dennis Tito who refused to give up on his desire to go to outer space. But why does our country have such a warped way of viewing his venture. Our government sees it as a threat rather than as another opportunity to further open space to every citizen rich or poor... What has happened? Mr. Tito is a former NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] engineer. He knew the risks and trained for his trip. Placing 20 million dollars in Russian and American hands was no problem for him, but personal risk to himself certainly was. This makes him as heroic as any of the Mercury 7 and Gemini Astronauts. "I'm already adapted." He will never be quite the same man that left Earth. Indeed he's a new man.

America, The Micropower, did not see fit to cheer Mr. Tito’s safe return to Earth from the International Space Station. Our government did its best to halt one man’s dream: To venture into space, visit a space station, experience weightlessness, and to see the blue sphere of Earth floating in vast nothingness. Shame on my country. May 7, 2001 in Kazakhstan, at 9:41 a.m. Moscow time, will not be a footnote in history but a small flame that will cresciendo into luminescence.

No more "Right Stuff" only deal. All of us should have the chance and knowledge to be astronauts, too. Come on, form groups for space businesses, have more space camps for children and adults who want to really go! Yes, I want to go. I’ll risk accidental death to be in space. I’ll be closer to the Eternal that way.

Is it possible that our government wants to expand space for everyone but cannot figure how to let go of their power? Let us help them share space with all people, not only a select few. I bet if my Internet column were translated and transmitted across the globe, every nationality could understand the longing for space travel. I also bet others at home or at their jobs or perhaps just doodling are thinking and writing about this as their governments say little or nothing about this event.

Look what is happening to California because one elected President was not trusted; we may have made a wrong step energy-wise but to be persecuted further by outside sellers of electricity; well it makes many of us in Cali want to go independent of the national grid and energy sellers.

A slogan comes to mind
"Alternative Energies Now."
"Cali's Get Off the Grid."

I say fight the power by outliving it as it dies trying to avoid change. I know, Joe is a few proteins short of being a full fledged egghead.Folks, think what Dennis Tito has done, and how our government reacted. Tell me do you sense their P A N I C of losing space to us regular folk?

Please send donations to Poor Magazine
C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joseph Bolden

My Housing Authority appointment had upset me so much during the four days leading up to it that I suppressed my anxieties,
went about my work.

When the day came, the asthma I control through exercise attacked, full
blown and sudden.

A gentle Housing Authority employee, saw my obvious distress as my room is inspected, tells me it's "A-1, to keep it that way.

I lay on my bed with a clean rating suffering from asthma that had to stay with me for a day or two for
internalizing the problem so long.

The thing is, I didn’t realize how losing my Single Residency Occupancy would affect me.

I get out of bed, wheezing down the stairs, rather than using the elevator, so the other residents wouldn’t see my physical discomfort.

In the drug store on the corner I see a New York Magazine with something on Woody Allen at the top.
A tastefully done Rodan-like picture of a male nude sits on a rock looking at himself in a mirror gets me like a visceral gut punch.

I’m thinking "Here we go again," and I think of a Murphy Brown episode.

Besides the Vice Pres. Quail/Murphey Brown televised fiasco, on another episode she invades an Iron John, Male Bonding ritual disrupting it, she explains she felt some fear, left out, criticizing it.

It’s funny the way men beat drums, sang, danced, dressed, excluding females, like little boys od in their club houses.

The women’s movement in the 1970’s had their W.O. [women only] categories in gyms there are still W.O.s supper clubs, gay bars, or other venues, including corporate structures.

Yet as men begin changing minutely, most women see whiny, girlish, wimps. Isn’t it strange that we have real women boxers, but if they fight a man win or lose fairly who suffers? [The man loses]twice whether he beats the woman in a fair fight or loses to a woman of equal weight and strength he will always seen as bully or P-whipped wimp.

Equal Rights is suppose to work on both sides not just one.

The "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" metaphor works in an idealized or futuristic world. Back to physical fights with the opposite sex.

There is a stigma to hitting girls, yet if they hit us, beat us, it's all right.

The biggest laugh is a woman or girl grabs, punches, throws objects, or the time-honored kick'em-in the-balls,as seen on a Saturday Night Live skit recently.

After Mrs. Bobbitt's slicing off Mr. Bobbitt, castration can be funny too, except for the lost lives in race ‘n sex issues.

Men do change gradually, not in huge spurts as woman have en mass. Could this be why we seem so far behind to them?

Think of grade or high school kids: the jocks, nerds, cool girls and boys, the weird outsiders. Eventually it's the weird outsiders and nerds and intelligent jocks who change the world!

Women gained some economic and sexual freedoms. They may marry later or not at all, as being a single woman is no big deal anymore.

I could be wrong, but I believe women are still slightly jealous of men. We have begun to take care of ourselves physically, and beautify ourselves women see this as the "feminized male" and get angry.

I really will enjoy a future where just as women can ware body slimming-flattering clothes, fake hair, boobs,
or surgergically altered appearance beyond medically need.

Women could not tell who is natural or cosmetically enhansed and this includes penis leanth.

Women have wanted men to change since Adam.
Now that he is changing, she does not like it and wants stop our evolution to becing mature, independent men who may marry, remain single,or have platonic friendships with women, who can live safe and long lives without women’s help.

This secretly outrages many women because it's not about them as it once was, but now lots of men have moved beyond the "get the girl syndrome."

As everything is not about men, everything is also not about women.

If I had the money, knowing that looking and feeling better would make me healthier and help me enjoy more female company, here are some of the things I’d do for myself:Body Scrub, e-facials, an executive shave, a flotation bed, a gentlemen’s facial, a hot salt bath and a mud bath.

The problem is, after looking and feeling fresh, I could get addicted to this, ignoring my woman while concentrating on my new-found Adonis' face and body.

The new male is not "womanized" or "feminized." He’s changing because you wanted him to, but now he can change his mind too.

Men will feel the same pressure women have for centuries. Maybe after they’ve gone through this they’ll say, "Been there without women’s constant harping on what’s wrong, always avoiding what we’ve done right.

Let’s look to our own council with our own emotions and feelings.
Let's be as free to marry or not only when we chose. Let's get to know our own souls."

I really think women don’t want men to change too much. And though women still have the "gift of bringing life," men do have a choice in semi or permanent male control of fathering.

Ladies:men's changing is not the problem females enjoying the ups and down turns of their free staus also not a problem, but now that men are learning better grooming, taking better care healthwise maybe a few guys
gay, straight, or bi go over
-board dosen't mean"Fem-men"
Its new it'll get old fast.

Your wanting us to stop short of our own search as you continue exploring your freedom is unfair and wrong. Women, you cannot have it both ways anymore.

.You want men to change, yet when it happens you say stop! At last its [to use your term] "Our Turn." Evolution goes both ways.

Women have their ongoing revolution, and now men are having theirs, also. I say, in the words of a famous song, "Get Over It."
If women hold up half the sky, who’s holding the other half?

If I angered feminists or men, well, fine and dandy. Maybe it's time to end the sexwars between men and women and get to more pressing issues, like:

Why are middle class white children going ape and shooting up their schools?

Please send donations to Poor Magazine
C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org