2001

  • The End Of A Lost Weekend Plus One Day.

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrong pbThis is Wedding Zone, Part 5.br / Here’s an end to it,br /br / Thank Heaven./bbr / /p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Joe. B./p pI’m worried about how my new suit, tie, shoe’s, socks, and shirt fitbr /the pants fit below not above the belt whichbr / I neglect thinking of at the time br / it rides up the crotch making me slightly uncomfortable. /p pAl’s wife told me how to adjust it with Al, br /Solomon, his fiance, and my mother looking on their bemused faces and./p pThe time is miscalculated for the wedding, mama’s, beautifully dressed in br /a Sari or Sarong of br /pastel green, and blue designbr / made especially for the occasion./p pWe are not late but an hour early. br /It makes me more nervous as I searched for a new belt and couldn’t find it! br / I only lost my nervousness with the universally known black folks code: W.F.I.T./p pb"Well Fuck It Then."br / /b This said under my breath so friends, bride and groom, andbr / especially my mother wouldn't hear./p pAs I said before the wedding began, ended without a hitch except for br /an unforeseen medical emergency. /p p Mama and I are again taking the br /trip back, we take the wrong way out of Nevada where homes are under construction and the highway blocked, dissected by bright yellow electricbr / arrows signs and large bright orange cones marking the way as we head towards Idaho or Ohio./p pAfter stopping for gas we found we are again br / profoundly lost. /p pCut a few hours nearing midnight, both of us br /sleep deprived tired, roaming through nightmare landscapes crossing Nevada, Mojave Desert again.br / Is a br /dangerous numbing exhausting experience no one should go through./p pI’m ready to take over driving even if I do not have br /a license but mama says "If police stop us out here, br /with you driving in this rented, toy of a car, we’ll be held up while they check.; and you knowbr / br / they’ll take their own sweet time checking what we say."/p p"You can sleep if you want to" mama says her eyes just as bleary./p p"I don’t think so, I can stay up, br /this was said with the road in our headlights br /phasing in and out of existence!/p pI see eyes looking at me, hear disembodied gentle voices whisper seductivelybr / br /"shut your eyes for a while… sleep"./p pIts worse for mama, she’s driving with little cat naps at the wheel!/p pEventually dawn come and once again we’re in the Mojave Desert./p pWe parked on the side of the road to rest but asbr / trucks rush br /by they honk their horns angry./p pThey're not beeping to warn or stopping to help usbr / br /but because our car is in their resting space and they are angrybr / we’re in their truck-only space./p pToo bad, we didn’t heed them being dropbr / dead tired./p pMore trucks roared by we take a 90 minute nap before leaving./p pWe missed a rest stop and three in a row were not inbr / br /use and by the time we finally reached rest area sleep br /had us but now we are in Bakersfield. br /We actually read the map correctly to follow interstate 5 and turnoff at br /Junction 12 all the way that for us is a br /little known long br /winding back road to Fairfield; I believe it was there long before the Fairfield sprouted up in front of it./p pOn the way we stop at Rio Vista,br / a quiet little gated community asking for directions./p pWe aren’t sure of the map but an elderly br /though spry female security guard pointed out the way./p pI ask mama hypothetically if "I made lots of money from writing;br /would she mind living in Rio Vista?"/p p"Oh-no, its a nice looking place, but Isolated and br /I don’t like bars; where I have to show my driver’s license or ID, I like to going anywhere I want to."br / br /We are home by 7pm. it is dark, both of our eyes are heavy with 24 hours of staying awake. /p pThe spare room with a fold-up bed calls to me.br / br /After mama’s finished in the bathroom I have a quick wash with br /clean washcloth, soap, brush my teeth, hair, then strip to shorts making br /sure mama’s in the living room warring an triple extra large sweatshirt./p pMaking sure the front door and windows are closed and locked securelybr / before stumbling tiredly to blissful, weary sleep pulling at me./p pThat was an adventure I don’t ever want to repeat and I’m thinking aboutbr / driving again but next time I might have a camper or van with a bed and bathroom inside./p pOn the positive side I really know how to read abr / br /map and know what interstate and junction signs meanbr / I’ll probably do this trip again just so I won’t have a psychologicalbr / br /fear of it I just don’t know when I’ll do it.br / br /What kind of weird, strange, harrowing road trip(s) have any of you had and br /what did you learn about it and yourself?/p pPlease send donations to /ppPoor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe /ppat 255 9th St. Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103br / USA/p pFor Joe only my snail mail:br / br /PO Box 1230 #645br / br /Market St.San Francisco, CA 94102br / Email:br / br /a href="mailto:askjoe@poormagazine.org"askjoe@poormagazine.org/abr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • We are armed... with pens

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongSeveral hundred very low and no income journalists, editors and economicbr / justice advocates convene in San Franciscobr / /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/427/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Lisa Gray-Garcia/POOR Magazine(PNN) /p p"I'm Marsha Rizzo-Swanson from The Homeless Grapevine", an older woman ofbr / Native American descent dressed in her Goodwill finest belted out herbr / presence to the crowd at the Friday morning introduction session of The North American Street Newspaper (NASNA) conference that convened this weekend in San Francisco. In one hand was her homeless newspaper, or "street Newspaper", The Homeless Grapevine from cleveland, Ohio, and a video camera in the other. The beautiful paradox of poverty and media resistance was a constant throughout the NASNA conference that I had the privelege to attend..just think.. Over 200 other people like myself, coming out of poverty and homelessness still caught in the so-called cycle of poverty, resisting that oppressed position everyday with their "voice", through their own form of grassroots media- publishing daily, weekly, monthly or bi-yearly..By Any Means necessary.No, we weren't the mainstream media - we were better, we were the People's Media. And I Was home./p pThe NASNA conference, co-sponsored by The STREET SHEET, POOR Magazine andbr / Media Alliance ran from Friday through Sunday (jul 27-29) and included workshops on everything from poetry to civil rights, but most importantly it included the sharing and networking between poor folks who are normally viewed as just trying to stay alive - which of course we are - but we are also creating hard-hitting journalism, photo-journalism, poetry and solutions./p p"So what do we do with those images of people sleeping on the sidewalk?"br / Anthony Williams, photo-journalist from Picture the homeless and Street Newsbr / in New York asked me after my lecture on the power of "the photographicbr / gaze" in a photo-journalism class POOR Magazine offered at the conference./p p"Its very simple", I replied, ask yourself if when you were therebr / (referring to our mutual experience of being one of those people on thebr / sidewalk) would you want someone to take your picture and publish it - "No"br / he replied "no I wouldn't ..his answer was echoed by two other formerlybr / homeless photo-journalists in the class. Our interchange was what was sobr / unique about the conference. I was privleged to be in a room with otherbr / people who really understood that question , who understood the differencebr / in being reported on rather than reporting, being talked with.. rather thanbr / talked about, given justice rather judged. This reminded me of anbr / incident three weeks ago where myself and fellow PNN journalist Kapondabr / encountered a photographer from The Miami Herald taking a picture of a manbr / sleeping out at City Hall. We asked him why he was taking that "shot" andbr / he replied, " Because I am trying to show the dichotomy between thebr / beautiful City Hall of San Francisco versus the situation of homelessbr / people in San Francisco. Both Kaponda and I thought that was a noble andbr / interesting story idea, but that it was not necessary to objectify the manbr / who was sleeping to prove his point, that in fact that "image", of an anonymous man sleeping on the sidewalk had been "seen" a million times and that if Mayor Brown found out that the Miami Herald was "seeing" that homeless man on the City Hall lawn- he would step up the police patrols so to be sure that not only were the benches removed from City Hall/Un Plaza but the grass as well. But most importantly, that "homeless" man had not given his permission to have his picture taken. He had not even been asked./p p"I am an armchair Revolutionary" Gordon Hilgers from Endless Choices inbr / Dallas, Texas recited his stream of conscousness style of spoken word atbr / Displacement, a performance at the Women's Building on Friday night in honorbr / of NASNA which featured The Bay Area's own Po Poets Project , Raising Ourbr / Voices, Peter Plate, Tanyica Simmons and George Tirado . The artistsbr / performed poetry/spoken word and prose on issues of racism, gentrificationbr / poverty, and homelessness. The conference also included talks by authors and scholars, Ben Bagdikian and Bruce Jackson/p pOn saturday night (july 28th) it was time to take our truth to the streets, or more aptly to take the streets to the mainstream media. First there was a "vend-off at POWELL and Market featuring - all the street newspaper vendors who wanted to participate including Ms.Rizzo-Swanson who won by a landslide with the sale of 63 papers. Then a group of at least 100 media activists began a rally and march to the San Francisco Chronicle building at 5th and Mission to address the lack of truthful coverage of poverty and homelessness by the mainstream media. We began our march with "Hey.. Hey.. We won't rest - til the Chronicle covers our protest" When we arrived at the Chronicle front door, Terry Mesmen from The Street Spirit Newspaper in Berkeley, in collaboration with several folks from the Independent Media Center and The Coalition on homelessness led the act of civil disobedience when they began wheat pasting artistic renderings of mainstream media stereotypes on the Chronicle building, created by the Bay Area Print Collective for NASNA. /p pThe police showed up after about ten minutes and threatened to arrest us so we retreated- sort of… but not really… and eventually we went around to the other side of the building.Several writers from PoorNewsNetwork(PNN) were present including PNN staff writer, Ken Moshesh who had won a victory in the courts just last week over the lodging (homeless) laws but was dismayed to find a small paragraph in the Chronicle placed next to a picture of a homeless sweep in the tenderloin, that barely even recognized the significance of that court decision as well as the fact that he was a writer/artist and former UC berkeley professor. /p pAfter much joustling and the eventual ejecting of Robert Norse from Santa Cruz and Terry Mesmen at the front door by Chronicle security guards when we attempted to enter the building, we got a commitment from the Chronicle to meet with some of us to address the flagrant lack of coverage of poverty and homelessness as well as the promotion of stereotypes about poor folks in the mainstream media and more specifically, in the "one hearst town" of San Francisco./p pIn the end, the people, the people's media.. were heard.. not only by the mainstream press.. but by each other.. because we were armed..with Pens!!br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Faith-Based Bonanza

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongWill the homeless have to pray for their supper?/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/389/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Bill Berkowitz/p pIn their day-to-day lives the homeless depend upon a bevy of government services including job training, shelters and food programs, to name a few. President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative, which aims to fund social services through religious organizations, is certain to effect delivery of these services./p pUnveiled in spectacular fashion just months ago, President Bush's faith-based initiative has hit the skids. Rather than being a potentially handsome payoff to his Right Wing culture warriors, it has instead become the nexus for an unorthodox alliance between the Left and the Right. The controversy Bush's initiative engendered has forced him to delay implementation. /p pFor the Christian Right, there are three contentious issues related to the initiative: one, how qualifications of eligible religious organizations will be determined; two, governmental regulations and scrutiny linked to funding; and three, the threat government grants will require to diluting their central, religious message. /p pFor liberals and progressives, criticisms of the faith-based initiative are centered on, but not limited to, questions involving separation of church and state. /p pbThe White House Office/b /p pOn January 29, amidst fanfare and surrounded by Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy, Bush issued an executive order creating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives./p pImmediately after Bush's announcement, the gold rush began as the White House switchboard fielded nearly 200 calls per day requesting information about the program. After the February 20 official opening the staff was slammed with phone calls looking for grant applications, writes the Associated Press' Sharon Kehnemui. /p pBush's faith-based initiative, trumpeted during the presidential campaign, is exemplar of his commitment to “compassionate conservatism,” has been on the agenda of Right Wing think tanks and Christian Right for a decade. “Charitable Choice” first came to light when Senator John Ashcroft (now Attorney General) inserted this provision into the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996 (welfare reform). The charitable choice amendment requires states contracting nonprofit organizations to provide social services to include religious organizations in the mix of agencies eligible for government contracts. Announcing the Whitebr / House Office, Bush remarked, “We will not fund the religious activities of any group, but when people of faith provide social services, we will not discriminate against them.” While religious organizations historically received government funding for emergency food programs, childcare, youth programs and the like, they were specifically prohibited from religious proselytizing. /p pAshcroft's provision, writes Cathlin Siobhan Baker, co-director of the Employment Project, removed “prohibitions regarding government funding of pervasively sectarian organizations. Churches and other religious congregations providing welfare services on behalf of the government may display religious symbols, use religious language and religious criteria in hiring and firing employees.” Bush's faith-based initiative expands thatbr / precedent, allowing religious organizations equal access to governmental funding for performing an array of social services. Bush has also appointed a group of true believers and seasoned conservatives to head up the effort and spread the word. /p pFor starters, the president appointed longtime criminologist and political scientist John DiIulio director of the new agency. In the mid-1990s, Bruce Shapiro writes in Salon.com, DiIulio “made a stir with what turned out to be one of the most dangerously wrong predictions in the annals of public intellectuals. Relying upon reams of supposedly irrefutable data, DiIulio predicted a massive coming wave of crime by children and teenagers, crime of unprecedented brutality.” He characterized these youth as a “generational wolf pack” of “fatherless, Godless and jobless” teens, whom he termed “Superpredators.” /p pDiIulio's rhetorically-charged prediction had at least two outcomes. His star rapidly rose within conservative circles, and politicians from both parties outdid each other staking out the “We're tougher on crime than you” turf. This unleashed an unprecedented war on America's young people, including punitive legislation such as California’s recently passed Proposition 21.br / Though DiIulio was flat-out wrong- in fact, despite highly publicized school shootings, overall juvenile crime has plummeted, DiIulio has been rewarded with appointment as director of Bush's new White House Office. /p pThe deputy director for the Offic of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is Don Eberly, who served as deputy director for the office of public liaison during the Reagan’s administration. Eberly is one of the intellectual pillars behind the conservative notion of building the “civil society.” In conservative lexicon, the civil society shrinks government by taking responsibility for the social safety net through the good works of faith-based, corporate and community entities, along with philanthropists. Eberly has written several books on the subject including: “America's Promise:br / Civil Society and the Renewal of AmericanCulture.” He is also founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative and author of “The Faith Factor in Fatherhood.”/p pbFaith-based Barnstorming Hits Augusta/b /p pWhen Cynthia Parr, wife of an Augusta, Georgia rabbi, showed up at a Saturday morning gathering in late February to hear Stephen Goldsmith, the president's top advisor on faith-based initiatives, she wasn't sure what to expect. According to Parr, Augusta's mayor invited some 200 clergy to meet Goldsmith, the former mayor of Indianapolis, so he could explain the president's new initiative. (Parr learned of the event from a blurb in the local newspaper andbr / showed up uninvited.) /p pHolding the meeting on a Saturday morning, the Jewish Sabbath, ensured limited participation from the Jewish community. This was troubling enough, but Parr was unnerved by what she heard. Goldsmith explained how religious organizations would now be eligible to receive government funds to provide a broad array of social services, and yet they could “continue to pass outbr / religious material and require prayer for their clients.” They could do anything short of billing the government for Bibles. /p pTopping off the event was an appearance by the mayor's special guest, Ralph Reed. Former Christian Coalition executive director, Reed now runs his own conservative political consulting operation. He played a key role in mobilizing the Christian Right for Bush prior to his do-or-die victory over the hard-charging Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) in the South Carolina primary. Reed is currently a spokesperson for the president./p pParr left the meeting wondering: How might Bush's program effect the separation of church and state?/p pbIn the Crossfire/b /p pBush's faith-based initiative has been the lightening rod for criticism and objections from liberal and Left groups concerning potential violations of separation of church and state. Also in question is the lack of professional credentials and competency of those hired to deliver services, as well as potential discriminatory hiring practices at faith-based organizations. The initiative is a solid blow against public service workers and may furtherbr / erode the power of labor unions. Seasoned observers note it will also be nearly impossible to ensure financial accountability. Liberal church officials who have provided social services for years are also wary this initiative paves the way for wholesale dumping of the poor and homeless on the doorstep of America's churches. /p pRecently, resounding criticism has come from an unexpected quarter: the Christian Right. Pat Robertson, founder and head of the Christian Coalition, was first out of the gate expressing his doubts about the initiative, which was quite surprising given Robertson's early and unequivocal support for Bush during the campaign. /p pOn his Christian Broadcasting Network's “700 Club” and in abr / mid-March op-ed piece in IThe Wall Street Journal,/i Robertson admitted to being deeply troubled that groups such as the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church and the Church of Scientology might get in on the action. /p pIn early March, the ubiquitous Jerry Falwell, founder of the now-defunct Moral Majority, called upon Bush to specifically exclude Muslim groups from eligibility for government funds. In an interview with Beliefnet.com, an interfaith Website, Falwell claimed, “There's clear evidence that the Islam religion, wherever it has majority control, doesn't even allow people of other faiths to express themselves or evangelize or to exist in their presence.” A few days later Falwell backed off, after U.S. Muslims reacted negatively to his comments./p pIn a curious explanation, seeming on its face to bar many Christian Right groups from government money, Falwell suggested any group that “steps up to the door bearing any bigotry toward any human being should be disqualified for federal funding.” /p pRichard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, wants no part of government money because he's concerned along with the money will come government intervention and regulation. He claims there are too many strings attached and he wouldn't touch the government's money “with the proverbial 10-foot pole.” /p pJohn DiIulio, speaking at the National Association of Evangelicals convention in Dallas, may have done more in one speech to alienate religious conservatives from the administration than liberals might ever hope to achieve. He told conservatives to “get real” and get out in the streets. “It's fine to fret about 'hijacked faith,” he lectured, “but to many brothers and sisters who are desperately ministering to the needs of those whom the rest of us in this prosperous society have left behind, such frets would persuade more and rankless if they were backed by real human and financial help.” He reminded them that the Constitution “requires the government to give equal access to all religious groups and non-religious groups seeking federal money.”/p pbDivvying up the Goodies/b/p pGroups such as the Hari Krishnas and the Nation of Islam have been receiving taxpayer dollars for years. Laurie Goodstein, in The New York Times, points out the International Society of Krishna Consciousness has “received millions of dollars in government contracts to run a network of services, including a shelter for homeless veterans, transition homes for recovering addicts and [a] halfway house for parolees.” /p pMose Durst of Berkeley, former national president of the Unification Church, told reporters: “You have to open it to all religions or no religions.” According to Goodstein, both the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology are preparing to stake claims on these funds. “You will see us involved in any area where we can partner in practical projects with the government,” the Rev. Phillip D. Schanker, the Unification Church's vice president for public affairs, told Goodstein. The Church of Scientology plans to apply for funds to support its drug rehabilitation and literacy programs./p pEberly responded to some of the program's critics, offering assurances they will do everything possible to make sure religion and social services are kept separate. While temporarily assuaging secular organizations, this is not what fundamentalist Christian groups hoped to hear./p pbAnswering the Bell for Round Two/b/p pIn late-April, a second round of advocacy and opposition began with a series of high-profile events. /p pOn April 24, according to GayToday.com, a coalition of religious leaders, organized by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, held a Capitol Hill press conference to “unveil a letter signed by over 850 members of the clergy expressing strong reservations about the main aspects” of the initiative. /p pThe House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution began holding hearings on “Charitable Choice” issues. /p pRep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) co-chaired an invitation-only, one-day Faith-Based Summit in Washington, D.C., for clergy. This Republican party-backed event drew several hundred clergy, many of them African-American. The event also resulted in protests from gay and lesbian organizations outraged over the appointment of the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, who is virulently anti-gay, and the equally controversial, anti-gay, former Green Bay Packer Reggie White as advisers to the White House-supported summit. /p pIn another development, the Associated Press reports the newly formed Good Works Coalition has plans to “spend $250,000 over the next two months lobbying for the Bush plan by airing a TV ad in Mississippi and South Dakota, home states of the Senate Republican and Democratic leaders.” The ads say: “ Good works are happening throughout America today - feeding the body and the soul, treating the head and the heart, fighting addiction with support of friends and faith.” It encourages viewers to contact their members of Congress. /p pbWhere's the Beef?/b/p pOne of the unasked questions in the debate over faith-based initiatives is, “Do they really work?” Thus far, there is very littlebr / Empirical evidence that they do. Moving into the second round of the battle, lack of empirical evidence is beginning to show. /p pThere are many groups such as the Good Works Coalition supporting faith-based solutions to social needs. While these organizations make all sorts of unsubstantiated claims of successes, in reality there appears to be no proof these programs are any more effective than secular ones. When the conversation turns from glowing anecdotes to empirical data, even John DiIulio, director ofbr / the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, doubts there is evidence that religious programs perform more successfully than non-religious programs. /p pByron K. Johnson, a University of Pennsylvania criminologist who works with the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Society, a think tank started by DiIulio, also has his doubts. In a report posted at the American Atheists website, Johnson told The New York Times: “We've created an office out of anecdotes.” Johnson has been an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, one of the conservative think tanks pushing a greater role for religion and religious organizations in civic affairs, and he had passionately argued that “Religious belief is a proven and powerful tool in combating community problems.” /p pJohnson now seems to be changing his tune: “From the left to the right, everyone assumes that faith-based programs work. Even the critics of DiIulio and his office haven't denied that. We hear that and just sit back and laugh. In terms of empirical evidence that they work, it's pretty much nonexistent.”/p pDr. David Reingold, of the Indiana University School of Public andbr / Environmental Affairs, is another researcher skeptical of so-called successes of faith-based programs. Reingold says, “It's an extreme exaggeration to say that religious organizations are more effective.” He compares the results of faith-based initiatives with school voucher programs in that both are self-selective. According to Reingold, religious institutions “are more likely to limit and filter the clientele they serve.” Will the homeless and hungry be required to profess faith before being allowed to sleep in sheltersbr / or eat at soup kitchens?/p pbMoney for Buildings, Not People/b/p pIn another troubling under-reported development, John DiIulio, in an early April speaking engagement in Philadelphia held by the little-known Partners for Sacred Places, called for taxpayer money to be used for rehabilitating thousands of churches and other religion-affiliated structures throughout the country. /p p “When these buildings crumble,” he said, “when the deferredbr / maintenance catches up, the preschool and the prison ministry and the day-care center and the after-school latchkey learning program crumble and go away, too.”/p pThe Philadelphia Inquirer reported that DiIulio hopes “to challenge a 1995 administrative ruling which banned the use of federal National Park Service preservation money for rehabilitating or maintaining any religious properties.” DiIulio also said President Bush wants to create a “Compassionate Capital Fund” to make grants to religious institutions for “infrastructure improvements.”/p pThe American Atheists website reports DiIulio is the first government official to attempt linking “public funding and the new faith-based initiative to the 'problem' of deteriorating churches and other houses of worship.” DiIulio has advocated governmental support for rehabbing churches since Partners for Sacred Places issued its “Sacred Places At Risk” study in 1997. The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported DiIulio has said the study’s findings “helped lead to Bush's faith-based agenda.” /p pRound two plunges Bush's faith-based initiative into yet more controversy. If these conflicts continue, the faith-based crowd might be moved to try a different set of tactics. Through the use of the community development block grant program, conservatives might add language into legislation allowing money for rehabilitation of religious buildings. The flip side for conservatives is this would once again be an open invitation to the Moonies,br / Krishnas and Scientologists to rehab their properties as well./p pMarvin Olasky, Bush's relatively unknown “compassionate conservatism” guru, summed up the Christian Right's concerns about faith-based initiatives during an appearance at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation last year. In order for any faith-based initiative to succeed, Olasky said the battle must be fought by Christian ground troops defying the heavy artillery unleashed by nonbelievers. For Christians to create what then-candidate George W. Bush termed, “armies of compassion,” who will transform America, they must maintain their most potent weapon: the powerbr / of prayer. /p pIResearch assistance by Greg Paroff.br /br / Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering conservative movements. He is a featured columnist at WorkingAssets’ Website workingforchange.com./i/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • No One Else Gets Arrested for this...

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongStaff writer Ken Moshesh Wins a precedent setting ruling for Homeless citizens/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/407/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Fiona Gow and Ken Moshesh/PNN /p p Activists and advocates from Berkeley's Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency,(BOSS) the Homeless Action Center, and POOR Magazine gathered at the Berkeley Municipal Court last Thursday hoping to witness a long-awaited ruling. They were there to see if California Code 647(j), the law that makes "lodging" on property without the owner's permission illegal, would be found unconstitutional./p pJudge Brosnahan ruled that in Ken Moshesh's case, use of Code 647(j) was unconstitutional and that it could not be applied to him. She stated that she, "did not find the code facially invalid, but that it was sufficiently ambiguous and as it applied to Ken's conduct, the statute was not constitutional. ì/p pIt had been no short battle for Moshesh to get to the point where his case was actually being heard. In October, 2000 Moshesh was issued a citation for sleeping outside, which police said violated Code 647(j). On January 18, 2001 he was arrested because his citation had gone to warrant. He decided to petition for a revocation of probation and to challenge the constitutionality of the code. /p pCivil Rights attorney Osha Neuman, of Community Defense Incorporated, said this is a very exciting ruling. ìSince this law is only applied to homeless people, it means that it canít be used to criminalize them.î He went on to say that, ìIf the prosecution appeals the case and the decision is upheld in appeals then the decision would apply throughout Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda and could set a precedent for the state.î If the decision is appealed, it would also be an opportunity for the defense to argue the constitutionality of the code./p pSyren said he didnít think the DA would appeal the decision, since the judge did not rule that the code was unconstitutional on its face, which would have had more resounding consequences. But, in effect it will make it illegal for police to cite any homeless people for violating Code 647(j). According to Syren, ìThere was nothing unusual in its application in Ken's case, and therefore others who are in similar situations will find protection from the ruling in Mosheshís case. "Though the judge didnít technically say this in her ruling, Syren said another reason for the judgment was the question of equal protection for homeless people, since, "No one else gets arrested for this."/p pMoshesh's case was originally placed on the Consent Calendar for cases to be heard on April 17, 2001, but was continued. In response to the postponement 100 homeless people and advocates stormed the Berkeley City Council, demanding that Berkeley deprioritize enforcing Code 647(j). Ken, along with Lisa Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine, led the fight that resulted in the courts deprioritizing the enforcement of Code 647(j). Since this ruling, Syren said that he had noticed a dramatic decline in the number of people booked and charged with violating 647(j). He was not willing to say if this was a direct cause of the deprioritization decision, but he said it could well be./p pSyren's arguments in Kenís defense included an impassioned statement criticizing Code 647(j). Syren argued that the law was vague facially and on application, because it was unclear what the term "lodging" really meant. He asked, "Did the legislature really mean putting a sleeping bag down for one night was 'lodging' or did they mean something more permanent?" He made the comment that if they did mean one night of resting your body, then the literary legend Jack Kerouc would have found himself in violation of the code on many occasions. He said such a code makes homelessness and poverty a crime./p pDeputy District Attorney Lance Kubo then made his very professional argument in defense of Code 647(j). He claimed that the law had been on the books since 1872 and was not written with the intent of invidiously going after homeless people. He went on to say that the fact that this law was impacting homeless people was incidental. The judge contradicted him strongly on this last point. /p pKubo continued his defense of code 647(j) by saying that if its constitutionality was to be questioned, then it would have to go through the strict process of being challenged either as it was applied or facially. It could not be challenged as applied he said, because there had to be a conviction first. A facial challenge would rest on examining the text of the statute according to previous or current authority. The judge did not seem swayed by Kubo's arguments and challenged him on several occasions, displaying an obvious interest in seeing that the DA defended his opinions./p pUnfortunately, the judge, in her decision stated that there were other options for prosecuting cases like Ken's. Code 602(l) is a law which states that if a person goes onto property that is clearly marked with a "No Trespassing" sign then it would constitute a violation. Syren said the thing to be on the lookout for now would be increased bookings of people under the 602(l) trespassing law. /p pThe judge's ruling was a great success for Ken and all of his supporters and opens the doors for further challenging laws that unfairly target homeless people. ìWhat this case shows us is that the challenge was worthy of a decision, either way.î When asked if he thought he was a visionary, Ken Moshesh replied, No, this has always been the vision of people who have come to this country, all of whom were homeless.î His main hope is that this decision will, ìhelp other homeless people to live with themselves and their situation to the point where they are able to protest and have expectations./p pbDECRIMINALIZING HOMELESSNESSbr / br /BY KEN MOSHESH/b/p pON THE F0URTH OF JULY 2001, THE NATION WENT THROUGH ITS USUAL RITUALS CELEBRATING ITS NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY --BARBECUE PICNICS, FIREWORKS, BASEBALL AND OTHER HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES. /p pWE HOMELESS PERSONS ALSO PERFORMED OUR USUAL HOLIDAY RITES OF LOOKING FOR REPLACEMENT SERVICES [(ESPECIALLY FOOD), SINCE OUR USUAL PROVIDERS OFTEN CLOSE FOR THE OCCASION] BEFORE THE NIGHTLY SEARCH FOR A PLACE TO SLEEP OUTSIDE, AMIDST THE FESTIVITIES./p pAN UNCONFIRMED RUMOR THAT A MEAL WILL BE SERVED AT PEOPLES PARK IN BERKELEY REMINDS ME THAT I COULDN’T ATTEND ANYWAY BECAUSE OF MY STAYAWAY ORDER FROM ALL UC PROPERTY AS A RESULT OF MY ARREST FOR SLEEPING HOMELESSLY OUTSIDE ON CAMPUS AT NIGHT./p pTHE RUMOR ALSO SERVES TO EMPHASIZE THE POSSIBILITY OF SERVING MORE JAILTIME (45 DAYS FOR PROBATION VIOLATION) FOR BEING CITED AGAIN FOR SLEEPING HOMELESSLY OUTSIDE, IF MY CHALLENGE TO THE 647J LODGING LAW UNDER WHICH I WAS ARRESTED IS DENIED./p pON THE 12TH OF JULY, HAVING ENDURED ANOTHER "HOLLOWDAY ‘, I AM THE FIRST TO ARRIVE UPSTAIRS IN FRONT OF DEPT 201, BERKELEY COURTHOUSE TO LEARN THE FATE OF MY REVOCATION OF PROBATION PETITION AND CHALLENGE TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF 647J LODGING LAW (FOR WHICH I WAS PLACED ON PROBATION FOR VIOLATING BY SLEEPING OUTSIDE)./p pMY NOW ACCUSTOMED ( OFTEN DESIRED) ALONENESS IS PIERCED BY A SALUTATION FROM A NEWLY ASSIGNED FELLOW POOR MAGAZINE REPORTER IN THE MIDST OF OTHER SUMMONED SEMI-VISIBLE PERSONS THERE TO LEARN THEIR COURTROOM FATES./p pWE ARE JOINED BY MANY OF THE CONCERNED PERSONS WHO HAD ENDURED THE COURT PROCEDINGS AND CONTINUATIONS FROM FEBRUARY 21, PRESIDED OVER BY THE HONORABLE JUDGE CAROL BROSNAHAN AND ADVOCATED ON MY BEHALF BY ALAMEDA COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER, GREGORY A. SYREN. THEY INCLUDED MICHAEL DIEHL AND DARREN NOY OF BOSS, PATRICIA WALL OF HAC, ALDO ARTURO DELLA MAGGIORA,VIDEOGRAPHER AND OTHERS. /p pIN THE COURTROOM, AFTER QUICKLY AND QUIETLY RELATING THE PREVIOUS ACTIONS AND CURRENT ISSUES TO MY NEW POOR MAGAZINE COLLEAGUE, FIONA GOW, THE QUICK DISPOSTION OF THE CASES AHEAD OF OURS BEGINS TO SLOWLY REMOVE THE LEARNED EXPECTANCY OF YET ANOTHER CONTINUANCE./p pTHE SCHIZOPRENIA OF THE SITUATION SURREALLY EMERGES AS JOURNALISTIC THOUGHTS AND WORDS SUBMERGE INTO INCARCERATION POSSIBILITIES FOR HOMELESS NECESITIES AS THE JUDGE CALLS FOR "THE MATTER OF KEN MOSHESH"...FOR HAVING TO SLEEP OUTSIDE../p pINSIDE, AS THE DAPPER D.A. PROFESSIONALLY PRESSES THE POLICE POSITION TO FURTHER INCARCERATE ME, THE EIGHT YEARS OF HOMELESS DICHOTOMIES MINGLE WITH A PERSISTENT AWKWARD REALIZATION: THE POLICE DEPARTMENT SHOULD NOT BE ERRONEOUSLY CALLED UPON TO SOLVE HOMELESS MATTERS IN THE FIRST PLACE./p pTHIS INCREASINGLY AMERICAN OVER DEPENDENCE ON FUTILE, EXACERBATING INCARCERATION PROCEDURES SHOULD ACTUALLY BE REPLACED BY JOINT RESOLUTIONS BY THE PARTIES MOST DIRECTLYAND ADVERSARILY INVOLVED, HOMELESS AND POLICE COMMUNITIES (WHOSE SOLITARY PATHS OFTEN CROSS DURING THE UNCERTAINTIES OF NIGHT)./p pTHEY SHOULD BOTH BE REDIRECTING HOMELESS COMPLAINTS BY THE BUSINESS AND PROPERTY OWNING/ DWELLING COMMUNITY TO THE GOVERNING COMMUNITY OF THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO CREATE SUFFICIENT AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND/OR LIVEABLE WAGES FOR "ALL THE PEOPLE"...THERBY MAKING LODGING LAWS MOOT./p pIN FACT, AS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LEADER OF THE FREE DEMOCRATIC WORLD WE SHOULD BE ENGAGED IN MODELING THE EFFICACY AND SINCERITY OF OUR STATED WAY OF LIFE FOR" ALL THE PEOPLE" BY EMBARKING UPON A CONSTITUTIONAL, TIME- DESIGNATED PLAN FOR ELIMINATING POVERTY(AND ITS RELATED ABUSES) FROM THE LAND, RATHER THAN "BAND-AIDING" ICE-BERGISH MANIFESTATIONS, LIKE CRIMINALIZING HOMELESSNESS. /p pTHE ELOQUENCE AND SINCERITY OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER’S PRESENTATION QUELLS ALL IN SUSPENDED SILENCE AS "THE MATTER OF KEN MOSHESH", ALLEGED HOMELESS LODGER, PERMEATES THE COURTROOM AND INVADES THE OVERLY MATERIALIZED SOUL OF AMERICA, AND THE HOMELESSLY ALMOST- NUMBED SOUL OF MINE./p pbTHE FINAL DECISION, METICULOUSLY AND THOUGHTFULLY DELIVERED BY THE CHARISMATIC PRESIDING JUDGE, WAS ESSENTIALLY AS FOLLOWS: THE 647J LODGING WAS FOUND TO BE CONSTITUTIONAL FACIALLY, BUT IT WAS FOUND TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL AS TO ITS APPLICATION (SPECIFICALLY TO HOMELESS FOLKS), SO MY REVOCATION OF PROBATION CHARGED WAS DISMISSED./b/p pALTHOUGH APPEALS TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES ARE PROBABLY LIKELY FROM BOTH SIDES, AND THERE ARE OTHER LESS VAGUE STATUES BEING USED TO REMOVE THE HOMELESS), THE 647J METHOD OF CRIMINALLY CITING AND ARRESTING HOMELESS PERSONS FOR JUST SLEEPING IS NOW NULL AND VOID IN BERKELEY./p pMORE IMPORTANTLY, A PRECEDENT HAS BEEN SET TO LEGALLY DETERMINE AND POLITICALLY QUESTION THE NATURE OF ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO REMOVE THE HOMELESS THAT OSCILLATES FAR BEYOND BERKELEY, AS MOST THINGS ORGINATING HERE USUALLY DO.br / IT MOVES US CLOSER TO NATIONALLY ACCEPTING THE SERIOUSNESS AND PREVALENCE OF HOMELESSNESS, AND DEVELOPING A PLAN FOR ITS RESOLUTION, AS WE HOPEFULLY MOVE TOWARDS ELIMINATING POVERTY ITSELF./p pMOST IMPORTANTLY, HOMELESS CITIZENS HAVE BEEN GIVEN ANOTHER ( THE APRIL 24 BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL DEPRIORITIZATION OF HOMELESS ARRESTS IS ANOTHER) REASON NOT TO GIVE UP ON THEMSELVES BECAUSE OF THEIR CURRENTLY DEPRESSINGLY DESIGNED HOMELESS EXISTENCE. /p pTHERE IS POSSIBILITY AND HOPE FOR SOMETHING BETTER AS WE CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE WITH A PLACE TO SLEEP EACH NIGHT. /p pA PLACE TO HOME/p pOH SAY CAN YOU SEEbr / br /SPARKLESbr / br /FLARESbr / br /BOMBS BURSTING AT NIGHT/p pGLEAMS OF GLEEbr / br /BUT NONE INSIDE FOR ME/p pSTARING UPbr / br /PRICED OUT.......SIDEbr / br /SCARRED BY STARLIGHTbr / br /SEARCHED BY FLASHLIGHTbr / br /ARRESTED SLEEPbr / br /DETAINEDbr / br /DEFAMEDbr / br /CLAIMS TO FREEDOMSbr / br /TO BLAME?/p pJUDGE CALLS MY NAMEbr / br /LAWYERS REFRAINbr / br /VERBIAGE RAINSbr / br /ON MY SLEEP- SEEKING BAGbr / br /ALREADY WET, WITH YEARS OF TEARSbr / br /OF STRUGGLEbr / br /FOR PLACES TO GObr / br /NOT INSANEbr / br /BUT INSIDEbr / br / OR AT LEAST NOT IN VIEWbr / br /JUST TO SLEEP/p pJUDGE DISMISSES THIER CLAIMbr / br /PERHAPS, NO MOREbr / br /MAYBE SOONbr / br /A PLACE TO HOME/p pKEN MOSHESH 7/01br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Tenant Victory In Oakland

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongEviction for Profit System Exposed/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/428/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Lynda Carson/p pbOakland,Ca/b Late last week, details started to emerge regarding a law suit that involved a number of African American renters of Oakland being evicted, only to be quickly replaced by Spanish speaking immigrants being charged double the rents. A jury trial decided in favor of the African Americans who fought the evictions, and that it was the opinion of the jury that the evictions were discriminatory and unlawful. /p pDuring the past year a landlord by name of Paul Maguire bought up a number of properties in Oakland totaling around 155-180 rental units, many of which fall under local rent laws. Oakland has a Rent Arbitration Program meant to provide a system that decides whether or not landlords are allowed to raise the rents above the 3% annual cap on rent increases. Allegedly to avoid Oakland’s rent control laws, Mr. Maguire chose to evict the renters rather than to allow them to fight the desired rent increases through a hearing process of the Rent Board. Apparently it was African Americans who were the victims of Mr. Maguire’s criminal activities. At least 24 units were involved in the suit. Oakland does not have a Just Cause Eviction Ordinance in place, which means that landlords may evict for almost any or no reason at all. However, evictions that are retaliatory in nature or based upon discrimination are unlawful. /p pKen Greenstein, a local tenant activist attorney with an office in San Francisco, is very excited about the jury decision protecting the renters’ rights. Calls to Phil Rapier and Bob Salinas, who represented the victims, confirmed the jury decision. A press release may soon be forthcoming with more details. /p pWhen I asked Phil Rapier why landlords of Oakland believe that they can get away with evicting for profit in Oakland, Rapier replied that it is because THEY CAN! The jury’s decision that this was a case of discrimination certainly puts a different light on the situation in Oakland. Still, as known by tenant activists involved in Oakland’s rental battles, this is something that has going on a long time. Landlord tenant disputes continue to erupt throughout the city as the landlords try to raise the rents to heights unknown in Oakland’s history./p pOakland’s rental battles are heating up to extremes lately, with landlord and tenant forces boiling over in the Rent Program last Thursday in City Hall. Mayor Jerry Brown had his henchmen unlawfully shut down the Rent Program in an alleged effort to remove Rent Board Member Andrew Wolff before his term expires in October 2001. Wolff, appointed by Elihu M. Harris back in 1998, is a pro-tenant Board Member under attack by the Mayor and landlords who want him out. He refused to comply with a July 24 fax notice from Mayor Jerry Brown dismissing him from the rent board, resulting in the lock-out on July 26. Oakland’s City Charter states that it takes a hearing and a vote of at least 6 Council Members to remove appointed Commissioners and Board Members before their term's expire. /p pWhen Mr. Wolff showed up at last Thursday’s Rent Board Hearing at City Hall to take his place among the other board members, the hearings were shut down after roll call. For now until further notice, renters and landlords are locked out of the process, thanks to the politics of Mayor Jerry Brown interferring with due process of law./p pFor more on that event, click onto the SF/IMC story "IPolitics Shut Down Oakland’s Rent Arbitration Program/i" by Lynda Carson: /p pa href="http://www.sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102452" title="http://www.sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102452"http://www.sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102452/a /p pTo contact the attorneys:/p pPhil Rapier 510/ 444-6262br /br / Bob Salinas 510/ 663-9240br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • The Quiet Storm

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongAbuse of Deaf Women and Children/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/390/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Greg Paroff/p pWomen often find themselves homeless when escaping situations of domestic violence. As difficult as such violence is for hearing women, Deaf women face additional challenges dealing with abuse./p pJulie Rems-Smario founded Deaf Women Against Violence (DWAV) to serve Deaf women and their children residing in the Bay Area. Rems-Smario, who has been Deaf since birth, taught at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont and saw the profound impact domestic violence has on the children of Deaf women. /p pSome of the Deaf children, Rems-Smario writes, were coming to school on Mondays, relieved to be on safe premises. These children started “acting out” on Fridays as they prepared to go home for the weekend. Rems-Smario realized these children were being abused at home./p pUntil the late 1990’s, there was only one organization in the U.S. dealing with Deaf battered women and their children, the Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Services (ADWS) of Seattle, WA. In 1998, Rems-Smario was five months pregnant with her third child when she was invited, along with representatives from four other cities, to attend an ADWS training seminar on how to organize a similar group in the Bay Area./p pIn March 2001, with the support of the Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA) and three years of grassroots fundraising, DWAV opened an office in Hayward, California, with Rems-Smario as executive director. Since the California School for the Deaf is located in Fremont, Alameda County has an especially populous Deaf community./p pDWAV provides services to Deaf survivors of domestic violence through its advocacy in medical and legal arenas. DWAV not only advocates for Deaf women and their children, it also trains public officials how to best serve the special needs of Deaf women and children./p pWhen abused, Deaf women seeking help from police and staffs of hospitals and shelters are often forced to deal with people who do not understand Deaf culture. Police seldom avail themselves of interpreters when called to scenes of domestic violence, wrongly assuming all deaf people can lip-read. This renders communication impossible./p pPeople working in shelters often misinterpret the behaviors of Deaf women and their children. For example, when hearing children want to get the attention of their Deaf parent, they stomp on the floor to create vibrations. At home, these children are used to speaking very loudly. These behaviors are often interpreted as acting-out, and women are asked to leave the shelters, which may return them to the cycle of violence./p pIn August, DWAV will be expanding its services and opening its 24-hour hotline for Deaf battered women. In order for the organization to thrive and further extend its services, it needs support from the community./p pCheck out DWAV’s website at a href="http://www.dwav.org" title="www.dwav.org"www.dwav.org/a. They can be reached by TTY at (510) 538-0107. Hearing people can reach them via California Relay Services by calling (888)877-5378 or (800) 735-2922 and giving the TTY number to the operator./p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • MuMia InsiDe....

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongMUMIA ABU-JAMAL'S 'LEGAL BOMBSHELL'br / Man Confesses to Cop Slaying, says Mumia is innocent. "I have personal knowledge that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not shoot police officer Faulkner..." /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/408/photo_2_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Teishan Latner,International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal /p pRevolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal is now in his twentieth year on Pennsylvania's death row, fighting for his life despite a mountain of evidence that he was framed for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia cop. Coerced witnesses, police lies, faulty ballistics evidence, inadequate and conniving legal defense, political card-playing and the denial of basic Constitutional rights are just a few of the ways that Mumia was railroaded to prison, but on May 4, 2001 his new legal team filed five new affidavits in federal court which further elucidate his case. Included are long-awaited statements from Mumia and his brother William Cook and, adding another roller-coaster dimension to the case, the confession of a man who claims he was the real killer of officer Daniel Faulkner, the cop whom Mumia is falsely accused of killing./p pAffidavit of Arnold Beverly: "I shot Faulkner in the face..." /p pWrites Beverly: "I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the Mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling and drugs without prosecution in the Center City area...I shot Faulkner in the face at close range. Jamal was shot shortly after by a uniformed police officer who arrived on the scene..."/p pBeverly has since passed a lie-detector test administered by eminent polygraph expert Charles Hontson. Beverly has also asked for the opportunity to make a court deposition (confess in court) but the Philadelphia District Attorney's office has opposed it in a virtually unprecedented decision, claiming the confession is "ridiculous." The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot yet guarantee the validity of Beverly's statement but is continuing its investigation. If admitted in court, the confession will likely be the most powerful evidential weapon yet in the struggle to release Mumia./p pAffidavit of Mumia Abu-Jamal: "I heard what sounded like gunshots..." /p pMumia Abu-Jamal was parked in his cab at 13th and Locust streets filling out his trip sheet when he heard gun shots, he writes in his affidavit. Recognizing his injured brother in the street behind him, he left the cab and ran toward him. "As I came across the street I saw a uniformed cop turn toward me gun in hand, saw a flash and went down to my knees...I had nothing to do with the killing of Faulkner." Mumia also explains his reasons for not issuing this account publicly until now. "At my trial I was denied the right to defend myself. I had no confidence in my court-appointed attorney, who never even asked me what happened that night...since I was denied all my rights at my trial I did not testify. I would not be used to make it look like I had a fair trial..."/p pAffidavit of William Cook: "When I first saw my brother, he was running..." /p pThose clamoring for Mumia's execution have long claimed that his pleas of innocence are undermined by the absence of court testimony from his brother, William Cook. Cook was indeed present at the scene, having just been beaten by officer Faulkner, but his affidavit maintains that Mumia had nothing to do with the shooting. However, Cook's silence until now was apparently motivated by a very legitimate concern: police retaliation. "When they had me in the police station they threatened to kill me and throw me in the river [if I involved myself in Mumia's trial]. I have been afraid for my life ever since that night. I have been afraid to tell anything about what happened" Cook also writes that he wanted to testify at the Post Conviction Relief hearings in 1995 but did not because of conflicting opinions from Mumia's lawyers, and because he did not receive protection from possible police retaliation. He disappeared immediately after and went into hiding, where he remains. /p pAffidavit of Donald Hersing: "I provided monetary payoffs and other considerations to various Philadelphia police officers..." /p pIn 1981 Hersing was an undercover FBI agent who was part of an investigation into the Philadelphia Police Department, the only federal corruption investigation of a police department in U.S. history. Hersing's testimony helped convict five Philadelphia cops of corruption of exactly the nature mentioned by Arnold Beverly in his confession to the Faulkner killing, and during the same time period. Hersing says that while working as an undercover FBI agent, Philadelphia police accepted his payoffs for the purpose of allowing prostitution and other activities to flourish in the Center City area. Hersing's testimony corroborates Beverly's claim of police corruption, something many in Philadelphia today say was "common knowledge" at the time. /p pAffidavit of Linn Washington: "The first thing that struck me was the absolute absence of any police"/p pCurrently a professor of journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia and an outspoken voice against police injustice, Linn Washington is also a former journalist colleague and personal friend of Mumia's. Washington says he inspected the scene of the shootings shortly after the incident and found it completely unguarded, enabling any bystander or cop to meddle with sensitive evidence. It was a circumstance he found "highly unusual," although not unprecedented: Washington had observed that Philadelphia police also suspiciously demolished the scene of the August 8, 1978 police attack on the MOVE organization, making investigations into the shooting death of a police officer there impossible, a killing that MOVE members were charged with. /p pThe affidavits are extremely compelling reading and should be reviewed by anyone concerned with the outcome of the struggle for Mumia's freedom. They are viewable on-line at a href="http://www.mumia.org" title="www.mumia.org"www.mumia.org/a, wwwfreemumia.org or by calling the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal at 215-476-5416. Organizations are encouraged to begin mobilizing now for the December 8, 2001 demonstration for Mumia in Philadelphia, as well as other actions. Contact the ICFFMAJ for more information.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • CARLO'S WAY

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongMumia Abu-Jamal comments on the shooting of the Italian protestor/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/429/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Mumia Abu-Jamal /p pThe recent police shooting of 23-year-old Carlo Giulianibr / in the riotous streets of Genoa has sent shock waves aroundbr / the globe./p pGiuliani, son of a Rome labor leader, was one of tens ofbr / thousands of anti-globalist demonstrators who fell on thebr / latest place where politicians and corporate representativesbr / gathered to insure their continued dominance of the world'sbr / economy. Carlo was part of a growing movement, unitingbr / the youth of many so-called first world countries with thebr / aspirations of many in the so-called third world. It was thisbr / movement that shook Seattle, and made the anagram, WTO,br / known throughout the earth./p pFor opposing the rule of capital, for opposing the Empirebr / of Wealth, Carlo Giuliani was shot by the hit-men of capital,br / and, as if this were not enough, a police vehicle rolled overbr / his prone, wounded body./p pWith the brutal state slaughter of Carlo Giuliani, thebr / message goes forth that anti-globalism is a capital crime.br / This is but the latest escalation by the armed forces ofbr / capital, which has utilized increasing levels of state violencebr / to intimidate the swelling hordes of anti-globalists./p pThe blood on the asphalt of Genoa did not begin whenbr / a cop pointed his semi-automatic into the face of a maskedbr / Roman anarchist. The blood of Genoa flows from thebr / streets of Goteborg, in Sweden, when the European Unionbr / was holding its summit meeting. There, police fired livebr / rounds at protestors, wounding three, one seriously./p pNow, an anarchist, anti-globalist lies dead./p pAs soon as the news hit the wire, came the wordsbr / of the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who oncebr / quipped, "Anarchism is a game at which the police canbr / beat you." Shaw, an ardent socialist, would perhapsbr / amend his comments in light of recent events (if hebr / could)./p pWhat is most telling is how the representatives ofbr / the state and their propaganda arm, the media, hasbr / reacted to this vicious tragedy./p pWhile politicians uniformly spoke with forked tonguesbr / about the "tragedy," not a single syllable was utteredbr / in criticism of the police, was it?/p pFor the media, however, a different game wasbr / played. In virtually every report, the coverage told ofbr / violent protestors -- and suggested that they werebr / uninformed, or simply stupid for daring to care aboutbr / the poor in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Examinebr / their biased, corporate-centered coverage, andbr / ask yourself one, simple question:/p pWhat would they have written if a Genoan copbr / had been shot, and run over with a Land Roverbr / driven by anarchists? Every corporate outletbr / would've blared about how "vicious" and "violent"br / the anti-globalist "terrorists" were. Of this therebr / is no question!/p pInstead, a muted silence./p pSilence, when the terrorists are the cops./p pSilence, when the killers are the cops./p pSilence, when the hitmen for the corporationsbr / act out./p pYou hear the fractured lectures of politiciansbr / talking about "assaults on the democraticbr / process," and the like./p pYet, how democratic is the G-8 (Group of 8)?/p pThis group, which is self-selected, is sevenbr / of the wealthiest nations on earth (plus Russia)./p pIf there are about 193 nations in the world,br / what's "democratic" about 4% of that numberbr / making all of the rules governing the rest ofbr / the world's economy?/p pLook at it another way: The G-8 consists ofbr / representatives for Canada, Japan, Germany,br / France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Unitedbr / States -- and Russia. If you were to count allbr / of the people in each nation, and add them up,br / you'd come up with around 824 million people.br / That's a lot of folks./p p But there are 6,000,000,000+ people onbr / earth! /p pHow can 14% of the world's population setbr / down the rules for 86% of the rest of the peoplebr / of the world?/p pCarlo Giuliani wasn't "assaulting thebr / democratic process." He was protesting abr / profoundly anti-democratic process. /p pHe was fighting on behalf of most of thebr / people in the world./p pCopyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamalbr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • In A Near Future, To Be All You Can Be... Is The Challenge.

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrong pbAs a global species,br / do we have the will to br /br / meld A.I. Technologies?br / /b/p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Joe B./p pWhat does Artificial Intelligence, Human Genome Project, br /Working poor families, Sheltered folk, or Homeless people have in common?/p pIt’s getting harder to ignore "them."/p pNot only that, but people who have nothing to lose tend to br / do whatever is possible to rise up be it legal, illegal, or quasi legal. /p pIts always a surprise to the general populace that the most br / downwardly mobile of us have the same aspirations, moral imperatives, forthrightness, br /spiritual, mental, strengths, and weaknesses as everyone else. /p pThe very idea of our own personal integrity, br / incorruptability doesn’t sound or feel right even to those with higher paying jobs, living in secure homes with their morgages paid off. /p pThough we all br /bleed red blood out of blue veins this logic is put on hold. /p pBecause we go against a so-called stereotypical roll of helpless, confused,br / drug/drinking, bums‘n hobo's called "the homeless" and "working poor." /p pHave people looked in the mirror lately? br / The real fear: that anybody can suddenly become "The Other" by jobloss or homeless./p p More individuals and families are not drunks, dopers, or anti socialbr / misfits but people with jobs, following the governments rules, went to school earned degrees, in college, and universities, also /ppin high tech businesses.br /Many are out of work through no fault of their own br /and are blamed doubly for their situation. /p pFirst by co-workers, family, friends, and finally themselvesbr / who could not have forseen orbr / prevented the situation only until after the facts./p pLots of these highly trainned, intelligentbr / people are out of work situations they never imagined or expected. br //p pTrapped in low pay, dead end jobs with homelessness looming ever closer./p pOn a lighter and more imaginative note.br / br /Scientists and researchers work on improving br /artificial intelligence made inroads there and the H.G. Project./p pPeople, are leery about intelligent appliances, homes, or the old upgraded talking toasters. /p pAs for genetically modified foods, its good to knowbr / which engineered microorganisms good or bad is in our food./p p We have qualms about Biotech foods, Pro Choice/Abortion, br /Artificial Intelligence, Stem Cell Research, Human Genome Project br /and Nanotechnology, Electronics also Cloning. /p pFolks will really be besides themselves (no pun intended) onbr / Life Extension to Immortality which churches have had abr / br /lock on for hundreds of years./p pThey held sway literally over our lives./p pIt was a dull deadly time, they may have delayed br /the age of Enlightenment by a few centuries!/p pThis is a time when all the se technologies begin to merge and blur.br //p pWhile we have our unique imageneering minds there are ways not br /to be surplanted by human created A.I.’s.bArtificial Intellegent Humanoid Machines./b/p pBuild them with a kill switch for instant off if they self-evolve too quick./p pDon’t build them.br /If you don’t build them,br / they won’t evolve and suplant us./p pUltimately we'll merge A.I. and our genesbr / creating self evolving humans./p pAlong with help from virus sized nanites or bacteria andbr / other formerly dangerous microbesbr / br /now used in the service upkeep, regeneration,br /br / rejuvenation and constant self-analyzing of itself and us bybr / every gene, cell, and brain in human’s./p pImagine, these ultra small nanites and chemical/gene modifed biochips br / not made of metal unless its amalgamated ones in fluid forms br /(there are no transistors, silicon circuitry),br / but liquid molecular watch dogs thatbr / oversee maintain, and improve our health./p pWe humans self evolve along with Artificial Intelligent systems br / rapidly shrinking A.I. into bacteria and viruses./p pTo molecular quantum strands that actually make it possible forbr / humans to further self evolve on their own asb Quantum Humans./b/p pIn the brain other modified systems may increase the intelligence by thinking or changing our very form, color of hair to whatever we choose./p pMorality is a changing construct take heedbr / in your life's choices, be flexible and open./p pThis is the place where, how and what we think can instantly br /translate our being into whatever improvements wanted or needed.br / br /Your own brain becomes a wish machine, its up to you on how far youbr / want to evolveb to better bodies and beyond or hover near pure mentality keeping your improved body. /b/p pFantasy, maybe but I no longer say what is possible and what’s not./p p It's not survival of the fittest but of those willing br /to go or at least visit a new world of AI-Humanity./p pIt begins from how we eat to what we think and other choices./p pAs individuals chose to live longer or die of tradtional old age./p pTo be an Immortal is the ultimate right to life/death br /choice each person will choose either type of eternity./p pIts all coming down the pike fasterbr / than most of us expect but on the lighter side we’re alreadybr / in the future, go figure./p pOnly some kind of mass Ebola, AIDS genetic mishap or gray bio-goobr /with no cures, prevention or human immune factors will wipe us out now./p pNext time I’d like to ponder what personality isbr / br /best suited to Immortality, just thinking out loud. br //p pAny pro or con ideas folks?/p pbr /Please donate what canbr / br /to Poor Magazine orbr / br /C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9thbr / br /St. Street,br / br /San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA/p pbr /For Joe only my snail mail:br / br /PO Box 1230 #645br / br /Market St.br / br /San Francisco, CA 94102br / br /Email:br / br /askjoe@poormagazine.org/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Legalized Terrorism

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongHundreds testify at Police Review Commission hearing about the shooting by the police of a young African-American man who suffered from mental illness . /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/409/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Kaponda/p pHer tears were hastened away by the gentle winds as warm rays from the sun dried the eyes of a weeping mother. The crowd whose hands were clasped ringed Mesha Monge Irizarry during a moment of silence to observe the senseless death of her beloved son. The spirit of Idriss Stelley had infused the people with the strength to walk into the presence of The Police Commission and demand that the five members stop the cover-up of his death, request an independent criminal investigation, and a top to bottom review of related police policies as well as concrete changes in police practice./p p “My son is having a party with his ancestors and the angels, so I know he is all right,” stated the courageous mother of Idriss Stelley before a standing-room only crowd and the commissioners at The Police Commission hearing. “But this is no longer about my son. I am not doing this for Idriss. I will now be the voice of the voiceless. I am going to do this for the community. I am not afraid,” stated Irizarry of her plans to enlist in the rank and file of activists who regularly protest civil and human rights violations./p pVan Jones, an attorney with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights requested the venue of the hearing be moved because the room lacked the capacity to accommodate the swell of activists from community-based organizations, friends and residents of the Bayview Hunters Point District where Idriss Stelley had resided, and many other concerned citizens of the Bay Area. But his request was immediately rejected by Sidney Chan, the president of The Police Commission because “logistics” makes a change of venue difficult. This verbal interplay between Jones and Chan set the stage for a long and emotional evening at The Police Commission./p p “We are here to put the command staff [of the San Francisco Police Department] on notice that the people here today will be joined by more people in the future [to protest civil and human rights violations by police],” stated Jones as Chan asked him to restrain the clamorous crowd which he led through the doors of the Hall of Justice to the threshold of open rebellion. “The people from the Bay Area community have come here to express outrage at the way Idriss Stelley was brutally murdered by the San Francisco Police Department,” added Jones amid the mean mugs of commissioners, police and activists that expressed the degree of hostility between the crusaders of justice and the San Francisco Police Department./p p “We are talking about the Metreon shooting,” stated a cordial Inspector Sherman Ackerson, Public Information Officer for the San Francisco Police Department, during an in-depth discussion about the death of Idriss Stelley. “Obviously, a very tragic incident, I think we all agree, about a person with some mental illness in a theater. I understand he was with his girlfriend and father-in-law, and, obviously, he was suffering with some sort of emotional problem. I understand he had a history of mental illness,” continued Ackerson./p pInspector Akerson stated that “we had heard [that Idriss Stelley had a history of mental illness] in the media,” when he was asked to explain the source of his information. “I am not releasing it from the San Francisco Police Department. I understand from the media that he had a history of some problems or maybe the family had mentioned it,” stated Inspector Ackerson./p pWhile in a theater on Wednesday, June 13th, Summer Galbreath, the girlfriend of Idriss Stelley called the police because Idriss Stelley had undergone a mental health episode or, as his girlfriend explained to the police dispatcher, a “5150.” Eight police officers arrived at the theater and shot Idriss Stelley to death, as he waved a two-inch knife./p p “The police investigator told me he might have been shot ‘to protect the community,’” stated the mother of Idriss Stelley. “Protect the community from whom?” Is the community in need of protection from a tutor at the San Francisco Day Labor Program, or a AIDS volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital? Is the community in need of protection from a chess instructor who taught kids the game, or a tutor at City College? Is the community in need of a graphic artist at the Fillmore Center or a spiritual teacher?” concluded Mesha Monge Irizarry./p p “I know there has been some talk about the size of the knife. I don’t know how big the knife was,” stated Inspector Ackerson when asked if the response by police officers was unusual when confronted by someone waving a small knife. “I think we should wait until all the facts are in. Wait until we find out exactly how big the knife is. Our officers are trained and it is the policy of the San Francisco Police Department to react when they feel that there is a danger of serious bodily injury or death to themselves or to another person, stated Inspector Ackerson.”/p pBut, opinions about the death of Idriss Stelley have already been formed by officers of the San Francisco Police Department./p p “It was a legitimate knife on a full-blown chain used as a weapon to kill,” stated a sergeant of the San Francisco Police Department who spoke with me on condition of anonymity. “This knife posed a threat to the police officers despite their bullet-proof bullets. I was not at the Metreon and did not see the knife, but I absolutely think that he posed a direct threat,” stated the sergeant./p pNinety two percent of the San Francisco police force are not trained to recognize a mental health episode. In fact, the San Francisco Police Department fought fiercely for years against any notion of a police crisis intervention training. The San Francisco Police Department was never clear on specific reasons why a police crisis intervention training was needed. The Department simply did not think training to recognize mental health episodes was necessary, even though one out of every four persons officers come in contact with a person that suffers with mental illness. In fact, a person who has a mental episode has a better chance of winning the Super Lottery than having a police officer dispatched to the scene of the episode because only 24 police out of 2,200 San Francisco Police Officers have completed the training program which was shoved down the throat of the Department by the Board of Supervisors. /p p “My son was diagnosed with depression and was seeking help. He was in therapy at Mission Health, located in the Portreo District,” stated Irizarry./p pThe value of the impact of the contributions that Idriss Stelley brought to his community may never be measured, since his life was denigrated by the bullets of overzealous police officers. But, the death of Idriss Stelley has already put the importance of recognition of mental illness in the spotlight and has begun to affect decisions of further funding of police crisis intervention training./p p “What I am saying is, Yes. We have problems,” stated Inspector Ackerson. “Every time an officer discharges a weapon. Every time an officer kills someone, that is a tragic incident. It is regrettable that officers have to discharge their weapons when they do. And we certainly don’t take any glee in this,” stated Inspector Ackerson. /p p “There is a pattern of abuse and, in this case, killings of persons with mental disabilities by the San Francisco Police Department. It is a long-standing pattern. We are out here because Our organization for the past four years has been working diligently to try to get the Department to deal differently with people who are mentally distressed. We had s huge uphill battle. We knew that what happened to Idriss Stelley could happen given the way that the San Francisco Police Department responds to people who have mental health issues. They respond with violence. Time after time after time,” stated Van Jones when asked about the attitude of the San Francisco Police Department./p pEven the stolid faces of the commissioners were softened during an emotional spoken-word tribute, titled “It was a Warm Night,” to Idriss Stelley by Lisa Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine’s Po Poets Project . The commissioners sat on the edge of their seats as they listened to a successive stream of representatives from many, many organizations who testified into the night and reminded them of their duty to provide an impartial investigation into the cover-up by the police department of the death of Idriss Stelley and the brutality that usually characterizes police response to a situation. Thaddeus Bordofsky, a medical doctor at the Alameda County Hospital spoke about victims of police officers after they are brought to him./p p“I’ve personally seen at least two or three patients who I felt were brutally beaten by police and qualified as victims of police brutality,” stated Dr. Bordofsky when asked to be more specific. “In particular, there was one patient that I saw who had been brutalized. He was in the custody of another police officer who stated to the patient, ‘You are lucky that I wasn’t there because you would not be able to speak.’ The persons who I have seen have suffered numerous injuries from police officers, including severe pain and emotionally from the terror,” concluded Dr. Bordofsky./p p “This is legalized terrorism as far as I’m concerned,” stated Mesha Monge Irizarry as she prepared to demand an end to the cover-up of the death of her son./p pThe circumstances of the two-inch knife blade, and the bullet-proof vests worn by the officers of the San Francisco Police Department are sufficient to support the claim by Mesha Monge Irizarry made to the commissioners that her son was “gunned down like a pig.”/p pThe testimony by residents and activists went on and on as the spirit of Idriss Stelley lingered in the room like the swish from a flawless shot that brings the crowd to its feet. The commissioners had finally begun to understand that they were no longer listening to the voices of mere mortal people, but the expressions of victims of years and years of police misconduct.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Just a Lucky So and So

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongA Former Cocaine Addict’s journey back to life and jazz/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/430/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Gordon Hilgers/Endless Choices PNN (Dallas Affiliate)/p pFrom all appearances, it’s the sheer, unmitigated sway of jazz. The way it soothes the heart like a mother’s touch and stills the soul which defines, rules and embellishes Victor Cager’s life. It’s an irremediable situation, he says, but at least it feels good. Real good. /p pIf you believe what Victor says, in fact, jazz literally swims in his blood. He claims he’d be nothing without it. It’s indescribable and odd, this feel, like noodling trout around your toes in an ice-cold mountain brook. It’s both ticklish and scary. Some of those staggering fish apparently just can’t stop dancing, wiggling, and cavorting, the sum of which, he says, transports him to a place where nobody does anyone any harm./p pYes, he’s played and sang with many of Dallas’ most precious musical legends: pianist Cornelius "Red King" drummer Saul Samuels, singer James Belk, and even Willie McDuff and the Jive Five. At the age of six, he began playing saxophone. Now forty, he unequivocally states, "I was a child prodigy." He’s probably right./p pIt’s Thursday night, here in the small universe of Dallas Jazz, and Victor is about to sing to both the knowing and the innocent. A murmuring crowd of some of Dallas’ most well-heeled socialites and avid jazz fans gathers to listen closely, as many of them do each week, as the Dallas Museum of Art’s "Jazz in the Atrium" gets underway./p pThe sound of wineglasses tinkles under the atrium’s high ceilings as the band pauses between tunes, waiting for Victor to reach the stage for another of many guest appearances. Yellow sunlight can’t help but streambr / through Dave Chihuly’s window installation, hugely delicate glass blossomsbr / that mirror flowers on a lake’s glassy surface. One woman hushes her table. It seems she’s heard Victor sing before. As the group strikes up another tune, it’s probably the last thing on anyone’s mind that this man, vocalizing the parameters that make jazz an exquisitely arcane experience only a few can truly fathom, spent the better part of a decade living on the streets of downtown./p p"Sometimes when I’m up there on stage, I’m thinking, God, look at how far you’ve brought me. Man, sometimes I just can’t believe it. All these people with diamonds on their fingers. They’ll probably never know I was a homeless crack-head. Whenever I sing, people come up to talk to me, and congratulate me," Victor says. "Yet, back then, when I was using crack, I remember when I didn’t bathe for a week. The contrast is really interesting."/p pVictor Cager’s tale of a journey from the sickening circumstances of an addict’s lifestyle to singing in prestigious nightspots like the Crescent Hotel’s Beau Nash may be an unusual one in the Dallas homeless community, but through Victor’s eyes, it doesn’t seem so strange. He wants people to know where he’s coming from. He wants his friends on the streets to know if he can make it off the streets, they can too. Also, he wants strangers to know that you really can’t make the measure of a man by his circumstances./p p"I don’t really go over my life that much, you know," Victor says.br / "But, I’ll tell you, I’ve really been blessed. I go around all day long, knowing that I’ve been given God’s extreme grace and favor. God’s grace would have to be extreme to free me from that ditch."/p pVictor knows he isn’t alone. In fact, it’s a small secret that Dallas’ homeless community is "home" to several present and former jazz musicians. Victor’s one of a much smaller group that has made if off the streets alive. /p pBy every measure, Victor knows he’s been on a long, difficult journey through the hardest circumstances. He’s known times when his voice wouldn’t work because of the effect crack cocaine had on his vocal chords. He’s seen things that he says numbed him to the spirit of jazz. He remembers moments when he smoked crack rather than eat. Even now, he says, there is always temptation to go back to that life. But, he says he remembers the gift he’s been given and his childhood, a blessed time./p pAlthough Victor is currently a jazz vocalist, singing to growing audiences in a number of clubs and lounges around Dallas, as a musician he actually started out as a saxophonist. He started early: He was already playing in churches at six years old./p pVictor credits his musical family for fostering his childhood abilities.br / "My grandmother was a vocal teacher. Although she was already dead before I was born, she left a musical legacy in our home. People still talk about her, about how great a vocalist she was."/p pAside from leaving behind a spiritual legacy, Victor’s grandmother also left one relic that really whet his appetite and his feel for jazz: the piano in the living room./p p"That piano got lots of use. All the big cats in the Dallas jazz scene in the 1960’s practiced at my house. My parents had opened their door to these guys. Through my dad was a barber, he owned a saxophone. Those cats would borrow his sax, the first sax I ever touched./p p"Listening to these great jazzmen was like being in Heaven," Victor says. "The way those guys would create jazz was something you can’t describe. I was listening to the masters. These cats loved what they did. It was also obvious many of them were involved with drugs."/p pVictor’s mother and stepfather, a man he came to call Uncle Jim, were deeply involved in a burgeoning, and relatively underground, West Dallas social scene. A vibrant confluence of neighbors that, while it didn’t make the social pages, left an impression on people, especially the children.br / Live music at every party./p p"I had to be only about four. I clung to those jazzmen. They were my heroes. Roger Boykins, Claude Johnson. Still living, and still my heroes. When they wasn’t playing, they’d tell stories about the real jazz giants. When those guys would get up from the keyboards, the keys were still warm from their fingers. I’d put my hands where theirs had been and play what they’d just played. It never worked."/p p"Music was already inside me," Victor says. "Like any kid, I wanted to play foot ball. I’ll never forget my old man coming up to the school and whipping me because I’d quit the band and joined the football team."/p pVictor’s Uncle Jim also left a musical mark on him. "He listened to the big bands: Jimmy Dorsey, and Woody Herman. He also knew the lyrics to every standard jazz tune. His singing was my first inspiration. Back then we listened to KFJZ, a big band station back in the Sixties, so even when I was a teenager I was steeped in jazz."/p pAnd so was the neighborhood. "There were some bootleg houses, but we were’t used to being prisoners in our own homes like people in some West Dallas neighborhoods are these days. In fact, back then, people used to sleep with their doors wide open. When I was playing in the street, I could hear music coming from those houses, mostly blues stuff: Lightning Hopkins and John Lee Hooker. The neighborhood might have been poor in some ways, but we weren’t poor."/p pLike many musicians who were born in South Dallas, Oak Cliff and West Dallas, Victor credits the church for much of his early training and inspiration. "Oh, yes. I remember the church," he says. "Sweet Home Baptist./p p"Reverend S.A. Armstrong. He was crippled in one leg, but man! He could really sing. He could tear a church up. I don’t know how many programs they had me playing in."/p pVictor remembers school, he skipped plenty of class, but for unique reasons. "Us guys who really loved music all skipped class to listen to Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery, Stan Kenton. We’d sit around the record player and commune with the really great ones." Even after his Uncle Jim transferred him from Pinkston to Thomas Jefferson, thinking the boy needed discipline, Victor continued playing jazz. "On weekends, I played with James Belk, a vocalist who imitated Nat King Cole, and with Willie McDuff and the Jive Five, the hottest RB outfit in the city. I also had a soul band, The Power House of Soul."/p pHe was smoking pot, too. "All the guys in the Pinkston band did it. I was 14 when I started smoking it. I didn’t know it would escalate into something serious." /p pAfter a brief stint in the Navy, Victor returned to Dallas and to jazz.br / "I played with Benois King at the Judge’s Chamber, a spot in Wynnewood Shopping Center. I also played The Main Event. I played at The Sunday Jam Session, too, at Tim Ballard’s club at Lemmon and Inwood. That’s where I hit my first home run. I was playing baritone sax at the time. I played ‘Misty’- Ion barry sax, man/i! I don’t think that crowd had ever heard something like ‘Misty’ on a baritone sax. They went crazy."/p pVictor tells us that anyone could see he had a rising star in the 1970’s. He was playing lots of the big clubs around town. But then, an incident he believes shot down that rising star turned all the good times around./p p"In 1985, the most traumatic thing that ever happened in my life happened. My mother had a stroke. Today I cringe whenever I think about it. Over the next eight months, I watched her deteriorate right before my eyes. She was the family matriarch. To see her completely depleted was devastating. She lost her mind right before she died. The family was just never the same. We stopped having gatherings at the house. People stopped visiting. Most important was the money I got after she died: with it, I bought and used my first crack cocaine./p pEven as late as 1985, Victor claims, very few in Dallas had learned the devastating consequences of crack use. Crack, he says, doesn’t just destroy an individual, it destroys entire communities. And when the cloud of cocaine rolled over West Dallas, not only neighborhoods were destroyed and turned into the haunts of criminals, an entire way of life vanished with them./p p"Initially," he says, "there was no crack in West Dallas. We had to go to South Dallas to score crack. There were these two streets down there: Myers and Jefferies. Down there was the first time I ever saw people stand right there on the street, selling dope. It was also the first time I saw someone carrying something called an Uzi. That was when the Jamaican drug possies were running the dope show down there. Those folks were treacherous. A lot of people fell victim to the crack they were selling. God always seemed to have a hedge around me because I’ve never been busted for drugs. But I did see people get shot and beat up. I saw young girls, not even out of junior high, going into prostitution. I have seen a lot of terrible things because of crack."/p pAnyone who has been involved in hard drugs like crack cocaine will tell you that, for awhile, it’s not all that difficult to maintain the pretense of a normal life. Before the compulsion to smoke the glass pipe gets so strong that you’ll do anything to keep your ears ringing, things seem relatively normal. In his fall from a life of relative happiness, Victor’s story isn’t all that unlike the stories of many men and women who have been reduced to homelessness because of crack cocaine. "Before I hit the streets, I was bingeing regularly, spending all my money. The biggest binge I ever had was a $1000 binge. When you’re smoking crack cocaine, you just keep on spending until you don’t have any money. It wasn’t uncommon to be in the dope house, smoking crack right alongside professional businesspeople. Some of the guys I got high with were lawyers, engineers and one of them was a minister. A minister, free-basing cocaine!"/p pAt one point during this slide down the dusty trail, I did get married," he says. "I even had two children. But because of crack, it just didn’t work out. When things got bad, my wife saw that it was obvious I wasn’t going to be the breadwinner she’d hoped I’d become. I was still in West Dallas, living with my wife’s family spending all my money on crack. But there’s one side to crack that I can’t forget: Crack teaches you who loves you and who doesn’t."/p pAs Victor sees it, the determining factor in love is need. He doesn’t refer to this observation as wisdom, possibly because he’s still so close to the realization that having a very real, tangible need tends to alter your relationships in odd ways. Once you’re in need, the fair weather friends simply vanish. If people can’t get anything from you, he adds, if they’re still for you, ready to go to bat for you, willing to do anything for you, then you can rest assured that they love you. "Like my father," he says. "My father never gave up on me. Some people might say my real father was crazy. But because he hung in there with me, I’m a better person for it."/p p"But, you know, my wife walked out. Other family members walked out. Friends walked out. I couldn’t even go back to the family house, either. My brother lived there, and he didn’t want me there. I remember I came downtown one day. Where else? I found the Stewpot. There was this guy named Big John. He was a police officer. He was one of the nicest people I ever met. He would always talk nice to people. He didn’t ever down you. When he laughed, you could see he didn’t have any teeth."/p pFrom there, the details of Victor’s life are all too familiar to those who really know the streets of Dallas. Like many men and women strung-up and strangled by addiction to crack, he rode the merry-go-round of moving from one emergency shelter to another. He lived in The Dallas Life Foundation. He livced in Union Gospel Mission. Even during this period of almost complete and utter poverty, Victor says he used crack cocaine./p p"I used, but it was off and on. I really didn’t have a lot of money passing through my hands. I wasn’t going on the $200 binges that put me on the streets. Still, many times, the dope house was the closest thing I had to a home. You ever hear the term ‘den of iniquity?’ You see a lot of lost souls in a crack house. You see every kind of immorality. You see people being beaten. People getting robbed. People selling their shoes. One cold day, I sold my own shoes so I could get a piece of rock, man. You see people selling the coats off their backs. You see prostitution, by both men and women. I’ve seen people whose skin turns to a pasty gray or a real dark black, and it tears women down faster than anything. It’s really sick. It’s not a glamour trip. Believe me."/p pOnce, Victor says, he was looking out the window of the Newland Hotel, a fleabag motel on South Akard, when he noticed a man running. "Suddenly, I heard gunshots. I mean, I’d seed guns. Anybody who uses crack sees guns. But I’d never seen them being used to try and kill someone. I don’t know what the guy had done, but he was really running hard. Thank God, he got away."/p pSlowly, surely Victor wound down to the very bottom of the barrel. Even if the only direction to go from there was up, he says, he wasn’t all that sure which way ‘up’ was. He was pretty turned around. /p p "Nobody wanted to have anything to do with me," Victor says , referring of course, to his slow approach to what addicts and alcoholicsbr / call hitting "bottom" Even old friends didn’t want to have their possessionsbr / stolen. "I had already been reduced to being broke most of the time. even when I was working." Victor decribes that, just as the most experienced "low bottom" alcoholics and addict will attest. At the bottom, he had a single, lucidbr / moment of utter clarity. Sometimes, he says, he wonders if that moment was a miracle. /p p I was at the Burger King on MockingBird Lane. I’d gotten my paycheck for the umpteenth time. I was on veteran’s disability because I fell off an aircraft carrier in the Navy., " he laughs, " and I’d already spent it all on crack. I was sitting outside when I was when I started crying. I started crying out to God, " If I’m going to have to go on living like this, go on and take me. Just take me" Then I got an answer. It seems like God was talking to me. He said, "No, I’m not going to take you" Then something really weird happened./p p"This guy walked up. He was an older guy. He sat down and when he saw me crying, he asked, "Hey. You got a quarter I can get?" All I had was a dollar. "Here. Take it" I said. He said, " Thanks, Victor" Man, I’d never even met him in my life. I still can’t figure out how he knew my name./p p "That really woke me up. I stopped crying. In fact, I started laughing. I slept that night at the Mockingbird train station. I never did crack again. Of course, that wasn’t an easy ride. There were a lot of hard times."/p p"When I got my disability check, I used it to rent an apartment. I slept on the floor for the longest time. My sister sent me a little food now and then. But once I got clean, I just sort of started to prosper" /p pAbout that time, Victor heard about the Dallas Museum’s "Jazz in the Atrium" programs. Feeling steadier than he had in a long time, he got a change of nice clothes from his sister, and simply walked into the museum’s atrium. Doubtless, after everything he’d been through, simply walking through that door took a lot of guts./p p" I heard about Roger Boykin playing there. Once the show got started, Roger saw me in the audience and invited me on stage to sit in with the band. Isn’t that weird? It all seems so easy. Since that Thursday evening about a year ago, I’ve been off and running"/p pVictor Cager, a really fine jazz singer, isn’t all that shy. When I asked him to put on an impromptu performance Victor began to sing what could easily be a signature song. "I’m just a lucky so and so" , he roars out, "The birds in the trees …they seem so neighborly…they sing to me wherever I go.." Jazz, he says, is his personal anti-drug. It’s a kind of feel inside the beat that keeps you alive.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Shhhhhhhhhhhh

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/392/photo_4_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Staff Writer/p pCan you hear himbr / br /Still Readingbr / br /His oval smooth brown facebr / br /In a square bookbr / br /Squirming through the pages of lifebr / br /His mother called him a bookworm/p pThere is no ending to his bookbr / br /To be continuedbr / br /Cause nobody can kill an angelbr / br /But they tried but Shhhh!!!br / br /Can you hear him/p pHis voice attracts animalsbr / br /It also tames the beast in humansbr / br /He is speaking and we need to listen/p pHe stood in an empty theaterbr / br /As they pulled their triggersbr / br /Picking up twenty eight bullets with his tearsbr / br /Smiling with no fearbr / br /Cause he knows he is bigger/p pIdris Stelley leading his people up in heavenbr / br /Margaret L. Mitchell and Errol Shaw have been br /waiting for a leaderbr / br /Now they are an army of spiritsbr / br /Returning to earth to organize the massesbr / br /To tell their stories that are shared by many/p pahoooo ahooo, the animal kingdom is howlingbr / br /Cause they can smell Idris Stelleybr / br /Exchanging messages with his girlfriend, family andbr / br /communitybr / br /He shouts, "IT IS NOT US Vs THEM BUT ONLY US!"br / br /Idris can't rest cause he sees no justice/p pSo his life begins todaybr / br /And he is reading along with usbr / br /But this is not a bookbr / br /It is real lifebr / br /That will never end/p pHe needs us to comprehendbr / br /The pain that lies in manbr / br /Makes them fear their own brothersbr / br /His enemies and comrades are cryingbr / br /They know that fear and hatred has blindedbr / br /Our hearts and clouded our minds/p pSo we react without thinkingbr / br /Causing death and injuries to many/p pEmotions are boilingbr / br /Shhhhhhhhhhhh do you hear thatbr / br /Buried voices are speakingbr / br /Idris is telling us /p pToday is a new beginning butbr / br /Don't get swept up in the momentbr / br /You got to see the big picture!br / br /Shhhhhhhhhh.. what Idris?br / br /People, the solution is in the silence!/p pBy Leroy F. Moore Jr.br / br /For Idris Stelley, my Black disabled brother I feelbr / br /you!br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • The Vehicularily Housed Beat

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongVehicularily housed beat reporter chronicles police harassment, citations and the struggles of people who live in their cars./strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/410/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Vlad Pogorelov/Vehicularily Housed Beat Reporter/p pI 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. /p p“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. /p p“But I just moved here yesterday,” I told him. /p p“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. /p pI 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 motorhome./p pTo 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. /p pHowever, 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 vehicles 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 making it impossible for those who live in them to remain in San Francisco. /p pDespite police efforts to chase the vehicularily housed away, many more such citizens continue to arrive. And it’s not surprising.br / I am a vehicularily housed resident of San Francisco. I started living in a motorhome about a year ago after being evicted from my home on Potrero Hill by the Sheriff’s Department. Unable to find any suitable living space that I could afford, I had no other way of remaining in San Francisco except living in my car. Since then I have been parking my house mainly in the China Basin area. /p pSince the 1960’s, vehicular housing has been an established tradition in China Basin and Central Basin. According to Joe Ann, a construction worker who has lived in her motorhome in the Dog Patch area of Bayview District for the last 20 years, and raised two daughters on the street, there were hundreds if not thousands of vehicularly housed residents living in that area. Jack, a writer, is another vehicular resident of Dog Patch, there since the late 60’s, had the same opinion. “It was really easy to be here. It was such a funky neighborhood back then!”, he recalls, a nostalgic look in his eyes. /p pBecause of massive gentrification of Potrero Hill, Dog Patch and surrounding light industrial areas of Central Basin, 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. /p pThe threat of being towed by the police is not an empty one. On a daily basis I see police towing away motorhomes, school buses, trailers and vans for a variety of bogus charges. Frequently, there is an anonymous complainer from the nearby neighborhood of expensive live-work lofts which sprang-up during the dot-com boom. It seems that the dot-com era has gone by, yet many of those live-work lofts are still under construction. The transformation of a semi-industrial area, which had many streets available for parking of vehicularly housed , into an upscale neighborhood for the rich is progressing at full speed. /p pAnd it’s not just an issue of Bayview Police Station versus vehicularly house residents. Because of increasingly gentrified environment the poor people who live in their run down vehicles end up situated next to the luxury Porsches and Alfa Romeos that belong to new loft residents. As a result, vehicularly housed people are being targeted by those who inhibit expensive lofts as well. /p pRecently a neighbor of mine who lives in his van and works on the ferry which transports people across the San Francisco Bay brought me a big poster which he pulled off a nearby electric poll on 23rd and Indiana. A 2x3 ft sheet of paper stated “Homeless people have more rights than you do!”. And then it accused those of us who live in vehicles in being a nuisance and encouraged everyone to call Bayview Police Station and complain. /p p An aim of such an attack against vehicularly housed is clear—it takes only one anonymous complaint to displace dozens of people from the neighborhood in which many of them lived for years, if not decades, without any due process. The gentrification of Dog Patch and Central Basin area is a clear cause of it. Developers have invested millions of dollars there, and now in order to attract the tenants into the expensive lofts they would like to eradicate the poor from the area. A number of loft buildings were built along 3rd Street and a few more are being built on Indiana, Mississippi Streets, as well as along other streets in that area. /p pIt seems that the opposite process of what is happening in the Mission is taking place. I would call such practices the “Vehicularly Housed Eradication Project”. A division has been drawn and the opposing forces, though completely unequal are facing each other before the final battle. While thinking of this sad situation, I remembered the words which were said by a Russian soldier facing the Nazi tanks during the battle of Moscow, “Russia is big. But we have nowhere to retreat — Moscow is behind us!” To paraphrase it is to say, “The Bay Area is big. But here, we have nowhere to go as we are being pushed over into the Bay.” We have to fight for our right to stay here or to disappear and let the forces global markets defeat us to the point of non-existent”./p p This week, a number of vehicles used as residences were “red-tagged” on 24th Street near Illinois Street. The inhabitants of those vehicles appeared to be very poor with very little resources to gas or a replacement tire which frequently needed in order to move to a new location. It is possible that some of them will not be able to move and will loose their houses to the City Tow which is located only two blocks away./p pRecently, I was driving by one of the lofts in Dog Patch near 3rd Street. I saw a message spray painted on the wall: “Bust the live work racket!” Well, not everyone is passively accepting the current situation, I thought. Some people are ready to fight back. It’s made me hopeful about the future, the fate of those who call our vehicles — home. Our struggles were the inspiration for this new beat report on PNN and column b They towed my home.. /b./p p PS: I would appreciate your feedback, your thoughts, suggestions, questions and stories. The struggle of vehicularly housed people is not limited to San Francisco. So, please e-mail your comments to: a href="mailto:nuthamsun@onebox.com"nuthamsun@onebox.com/a or contact POOR magazine: (415)863-6306. Peace and Love to you all!br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • To Evolve Or Devolve?

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrong pA Complete Cloning Banbr / br / Tuesday, July, 30, 2001,br / Is a really bad idea.br / /p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Joe B./p pFor the 162 House Reps. voting against Stem Cell Cloning ban./p pYou are not alone... This isn't over./p pIn Washington, D.C., between Select ‘Preident Bush, the House of Representatives vote 265 for - 162 against a Cloning Ban Tuesday night onbr /July 30, 2001 for me represents a continuing split in humanity./p pFirst five supreme court judges bSelect a president, women's right over their own reproductive lives is at risk,br / then oil and coal are new again,br / /b now banning all human cloning including limitedbr / br / Therapeutic cloning for research b[to gain knowledge of this "embryonic" science.]/b /p pThroughout human history there has been the activist,br / the conservative, and a third group looking at these two extremesbr / trying to choose which group to join./p pThank whatever divine spark Mr. Bush has to make a compromise Friday, August 10. 2001 that gives scientists and researchers a chance under federal guidelines to be proceed with extreme caution. /p pBut a complete ban should make one choose up sides, either we br / evolve further improving our species or die out./p pIts serious when Mr. Roger Pedersen, professor of biology, Stem Cell expert and UCSF researcher may leaves for Britain becausebr / br /of America’s br /political strangle hold over Federalbr / Funds for cloning research. /pp His work: using stem cells from human embryos andbr / learning to br /control their development into nerves, organs, or other internal organs is too hostile a work place here./p pOther research scientists are leaving or thinking of doing so. br /Didier Stainier, who’s recent discovered how stem cells develop in internal organs. /p p America has benefited from international brain drains from the past lets not reverse that process./p pAmerica’s Puritan streak and fear of change even as inventors improve our lives has br /always been diametrically opposed to each other./p p A growing schism of past and future is colliding,br / br / No congress, judges, should dictate how long we’ll live!/p p Folks, we have dodged a huge bulletbr / which target could have been another dark age!/p pI for one tell you now,br / br /its time to begin choosing how we want to live and not br /people in power fearing change. /p pWe cannot obey every law from on high especially br /if they are not in our best interests. /p pReady for a new kind of revolution?br / where the longer one lives br /the more you learn, the better your chances of survival?/p pWe cannot go through another near 10 year moratorium like President R. Reagan did in the 1980’s for Genetic Engineering - Not This Time!/p pUnless its no nukes, biochemical warfare or ethnic cleansing prevention.br / /p pI can understand safeguards, guidelines for cloning and other life saving, improving technologies, its not quite Aldous, Huxley’s "Brave New World" however if we speed to quick it could be./p pIn every era or epoch there is a moment when people make a stand br / in this one, it means literally a longer, healthier life span, going out among the stars or fall back into a evolutionary dead end./p pShould we continue on orbr / go back tobr /the socalled ‘good old days? br / Am I slightly paranoid, if I am then write me tell me what’s best. /p pWe are at a crossroad either direction is full of peril and promise. /p pI’ll take a few steps into a murky abyss; but having friends along the road will make this new journey less bleak and dangerous. /p pHow about you… readers - what fears, joys, dangers, safety awaits us?/p pI’ve many questions and would like to know a few answers, how about you? ... Bye./p pPlease donate what you can to br /Poor Magazine or C/0 Ask br /Joe at 255 9th St.Street,br /San Francisco, CA.94103 USA/p pbr /For Joe only my snail mail:br / br /PO Box 1230 #645br / Market St.br / br /San Francisco, CA 94102br / br /Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • 23 Years of Afrikan Royalty

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/392/photo_3_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Staff Writer/p pI couldn’t rite bout br /madness, da sadness.br / br /Until I cried, outloudbr / br /shoutin WHY?br / br /How can 8 cops go free br /after brutaly killinbr / br /23 years of Afrikan br /royalitybr / br /Basque resistance to br /Spain and France.br / br /Da devils wit a blue br /dress on, Idriss dancedbr / br /tango, modern, tapbr / br /in sweat shop slavery pants.br / br /But it ain’t his last br /dancebr / br /hís dancin hip hopbr / br /on da top of our domesbr / br /his spirit iz still in br /da homes of our heartsbr / br /he will not part./p pHe struggled 2 manifest br /his life.br / br /He wuz gonna take mi br /cousin Summer fo his wife.br / br /It ain’t ritebr / br /robbin him of wut he had br /2 sweat, slave fo 2 git.br / br /Killin people wit a br /badge on or not ain’t legit.br / br /Pump my blood 2 a boilbr / br /I go mad can’t stop bein br /sad.br / br /just wanna git high on bombbr / br /fight da pigs 2 da fatbr / ladeez laugh.br / br /Cuz dis shit ain’t gonna br /lastbr / br /Mi Comrade, Mi Frend br /wanted 2 stop da blood br /shedbr / br /he’s now dead in fleshbr / br /not in spirit./p pHis dream lives on mo den br /thru hearin itbr / br /We steerin dis car ( bout 2 crash)br / br /on 2 a new road, new br /approachbr / br /of police watch, cop br /watchbr / br /I am tired of watchinbr / br /we gotta du mo den br /marchin.br / br /Cuz marchin in October every yearbr / br /wit permission from City br /Hall iz notbr / br /combatin against da LAWbr / br /ordinances, policiesbr / br /dats compromisin yo br /beliefs/p pneed sum relief fo his br /mamabr / br /can’t close her eyes br /can’t sleepbr / br /she continues 2 weepbr / br /salty tears seeped down deepbr / br /in 2 canals no one dares gobr / br /not even "u" but intrigued br /"u" dubr / br /It’s mo den cigarette bein br /litbr / br /its mo den da movie br /"swordfish"br / br /symbolic meaninzbr / br /warnin signsbr / br /danger signsbr / br /symtoms of not bein able 2 br /restbr / br /cuz da oppressors pressin br /hard on skullsbr / br /childhood troublesbr / br /daily frustrationsbr / br /global crisis connected 2 da br /local newzbr / br /"Young man shot ova 20 tymes br /bi 8 cops"br / br /trained 2 kill 2 lock "u" upbr / br /Expandable mentalitybr / br /How many lives gotta go till br /da realitybr / br /helps us grip down titebr / br /git a handlebr / br /dey view us like we da br /vandlebr / light a candle fo b.dayz br /graduationsbr / br /light a candle fo da dead br /souljahsbr / br /dat we will continue 2 c br /mo clearlybr / br /cuz I luv all mi bradas br / sistahs dearly./p pComrades.. Warriors br /Attention:br / br /change up battle plan 2 b mo br /effectivebr / br /take it 2 a new levelbr / br /Cuz we gotta score 2 settle.br / br /1 luv 2 Idriss all his br /familybr / br /We will git justice!br / br /We will git FREE!/p pPeace, Jewnbug /p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • The People fight Back!!!!

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongThe "People" Protest for the right to be heard about a city budget that was created by the People, for the People..br / /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/412/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Dave McGuire (Observant Participant Project/PNN)/p pThe San Francisco Board of Supervisors got a shock at 2:30pm on Monday July 16 whenbr / chants from several hundred demonstrators (myself included) disrupted the weekly Board meeting /p pThe demonstration shut down the Board of Supervisors chamber for aboutbr / an hour while sheriffs deputies conferred with Board Pre. Tom Ammiano andbr / city fixer Bill Lee (Chief Admin. Officer) on what to do./p pThe protest was against the failure of the Board to pass the People'sbr / Budget which includes funding for health care, homeless services, housingbr / and jobs for poor folks These will now have to be funded by "addbacks"br / which is at the discretion of each supervisor./p pThe fifteen people arrested included representatives from PODER, Mission SRObr / Collaborative, Homeless Prenatal Program and other community based organization who are members of the Peoples Budget Collaborative. Including Rebecca Vilkomerson,br / Bill Sorro, Rene Saucedo, representatives from from St. Peters Housingbr / Committee, David McGuire of Mission Agenda, Carl Kramer of the Living Wage Coalition, comic Bruce Allison,br / Riva Enteen of the National Lawyers Guild.Several other grassroots organizations were present in solidarity with the protest, such as POOR Magazine, POWER, PODER, Network Ministries and many more./p p Five men and ten women weretaken away by sheriff's deputies with their hands behind them tied verybr / tightly with tie-wraps/p pProtesters had whistles and blew them. Most of the press was kept out ofbr / the actual chamber, but there was some press in the chamber, as well asbr / community videoactivists whose work can be seen at: a href="http://www.videoactivism.org" title="www.videoactivism.org"www.videoactivism.org/a/p pThe fifteen protesters were transported to 850 Bryant (Hall of Justice)br / and held for about five hours. The women were held an extra two hoursbr / because they were singing organizing songs. They were booked,br / fingerprinted, photographed, given an American cheese sandwich andbr / released; at 9 p.m. for the men, 11pm. for the women. Tuesday morning,allbr / but one of the protestors returned to 850 Bryant for arraignment andthebr / charges were dropped at about 11:30 a.m./p pThis was the first CD (civil disobedience) inside the main Board ofbr / Supervisors chamber since about 1955 when the House Un-American Activitiesbr / Committee held hearings there during the McCarthy era, and anti-HUACbr / protestors were washed down the main steps of the City Hall withbr / firehouses, in a famous tableau./p pSupervisor Gavin Newsom sat writing a letter during the one-hourbr / interruption while other Supervisors looked on with curiosity and apparentbr / disbelief./p pi editor's note: It is interesting to me that after 3 years ofbr / tireless press advisories, press conferences and media events , it took civil disobedience to get the two words;br / People's Budget, actually said together and reported on in mainstream print, radio and television media/i/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Tow Away

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
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  • It was a warm Night..

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/392/photo_5_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Staff Writer/p p/pPIt was a warm night -br / br /the kind that drips with pain/p p/pPIt was a warm night filled with whispers and screamsbr / br /you can peel that kind of night away with your fingernails -br / br /you can cry into that kind of night and noone will hear youbr / br /it was a warm night filled with you Idris... /p p/pPhe was depressed they say-br / br /I’ve been depressed like that- Idris-br / br /so dpressed that only hollywood can fix it/p p/pPthey say he said “i’m gonna die tonite”- -br / br /i’ve said that Idris-br / br /many times..many timesbr / br /poverty, conflict, confusion, and distress- it drips too...br / br /onto our collective foreheads...br / br /when we’re trying to thinkbr / br /it fogs our minds -/p p/pP “I just need to finish school - -everything will be ok - I can get through this... but I br /can’t” - I heard your silent screams Idris - I heard you being tired of feeling that pain br /and I heard it whispered in the halls of that gentrified palace that palace of mirrored br /glass and the blood of a thousand of poor elders who once lived on that earth - who br /died trying to stay there./p p/pP I heard you Idris through all that burgundy carpet, popcorn and glass-br / br / I heard you idriss - cause I’ve been there..I am there.../p p/pPand I don’t know you but I do cause I know that kind of pain - I know that kind of conflict-/p p/pPbut poverty and conflict don’t carry guns-br / br /confusion and distress don’t shoot you/p p/pP8 Big men who are hired to gentrify us out of theatres and concerts, houses and br /neighborhoods. .who are paid to not understand - 8 white men who have the blood of br /other brown men on their hands and the agenda of other white ones in their pockets- br /these people shoot us and take away our life and our breath and our throughts and our br /laughs and our time and our painbr / br /and and take it away...br / br /... forever- /p p/pp- Tinybr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • Youth @ POOR

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pstrongYouth in The Media Internships at POOR /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/413/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby PNN Staff/p p b pYouth in the Media/p/b Program; is an extension of POOR's b Youth Mentoring program/b and bThe Po' Poets Project/b. Each internship includes:br / extensive creative arts, and media training, media activism and advocacy focused on addressing and creating media on issues affecting low and no income youth such as police harassment, racial and economic profiling, gentrification, homelessness, the juvenile justice system, education, family restoration, and poverty. /p pWorking in print, radio, television and on-line media youth are able to voice issues that affect the communities from which they come. As writers, they would lead the discourse on issues of economic and racial justice, with a focus of using the media as an organizing tool to smash stereotypes and gain support and recognition for the expertise of the low income youth writers around issue of poverty and racism. /p pEach mentorship spans 10-16 weeks, and includes three components;.br / Section I; Basic writing, Newswriting, Investigative reporting, Community based Research, Media activism, and Advocacybr / Section II ; poetry /spoken word and live performancebr / Section III: Web based-publishing, print CD and radio productionbr / As well, each internship includes POOR #101 - a comprehensive investigation into the root causes of poverty and racism./p pTUITION; Agency scholarships provided for low income youthbr / Contact POOR for more information/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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  • The Plank

    09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    root
    Original Body
    pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby OTTO/p pComplete emptiness I breathe standingbr / br /fast and straight, hard and beneath me.br / br /Try self-walk the plank life ongoing,br / br /day after day, night overwhelms me./p pStraight I will stand getting harder.br / br /Harder to maintained thy stance./p pReady man I had foreseen the makingsbr / br /of this time, I exist with thyself makingbr / br /my mind go insane inside an empty holebr / br /of nothing and emptiness./p pI muster how do they comprehend all ofbr / br /this nothingness./p pStanding fast I Foresee blackness andbr / br /Death. Unhappiness will sure to comebr / br /and push me toward the plank again.br / br /It has been foretold and so it has been so.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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