2002

by Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin

"The Warden is not here, no one is in charge today!", the security guard barked at the protesters who gathered at the gate of the Skilled Nursing Facility of Central California Women Facility in Chowchilla (CCWF) CA. armed with a list of demands as follows:

*Stop the lockdown of women in the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)

*Compassionate release for dying prisoners

*Independent investigation of the Skilled Nursing Facility at CCWF

On April 27th, 2002 over seventy-five former prisoners, family members and advocates from around the state gathered at the gates of Central California WomenÌs Facility in the town of Chowchilla to protest the health care crisis and deaths of women prisoners. The town of Chowchilla is part of Merdera County in central California, north of Fresno. Chowchilla current population is 5,930 according to the 1990 US Census and the land is 10.3 sq. mile. The origin of Chowchilla comes from the nearby Chowchilla River named for the Chauciles Indian tribe that once lived on its banks.

However the quiet rural desert with its calm river has became home for one of the biggest correctional nursing facility for women in the nation. One of the activists told the crowd that CCWF was built in 1990 and is known to be the place where that state routinely sends seriously ill women inmates because it operates a hospice and skilled nursing facility. If CCWF is known for its skilled nursing expertise, then why over fifty prison activists, family members, grassroots organizations and media carpooled to this facility? The reasons are well known to prison activists, inmateÌs families, California Prison Focus, California Women Prisoners and Families with a Future who with others organized the rally at the gates of CCFW.

Karen Shain of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Organization in collaboration with prison activists and family members of inmates helped put the spotlight on the physical and sexual assaults against women at CCWF plus the denial of medical care that have lead to 17 deaths in the last year. Matter-of-fact two years ago the high death rate at Chowchilla reached the attention of Los Angeles Times.

According to A December 20th 2000 article in the LA Times, there have been 15 death in the year 2000, 9 in 1999 and 10 in 1998. Almost two years after the state corrections official investigation of repeated deaths at Chowchilla and a federal class-action lawsuit over shoddy health care, the death toll keeps on rising.

Ida McCray-Robinson, a formerly incarcerated poet, mother and organizer also Founder of Families with a Future shared with the crowd that17 women died in CCWF last year alone. Ida pumped up the rally as she told how she used to feel hearing protesters outside when she was incarcerated. ÏMake them hear you! We love you, we love you! we shout under IdaÌs commands. Speakers who represented a coalition of organizations, i.e. Critical Resistance, Out of Control, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, California Prison Focus, Queers United to Fight Israeli Terrorism, Prison Moratorium Project, Death Penalty Focus Amnesty International and Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization and community activists
took the mike to talk about what was going on inside.

As I marched with 50 to 75 other protesters young and my elders, my blood was boiling from the stories that were spoken about the way my disabled and terminally ill sisters are treated inside CCWF. For example one organizer talked about the death of a quadriplegic inmate because nobody responded to her medical emergency but the guards rescued a burning microwave in record time. After an hour or so marching and listening to speakers, a handful of activists decided to take our list of demands to the Warden. As we approached the gate, three security guards, one of them was a women, communicated to us through their body language which read clearly as Total Confusion.

After we asked for the second in command because the Warden wasnÌt in, the guards looked at each other and replied that nobody was in charge today! At that moment a common thought breezed into our heads and flew out of our mouths in a chorus, Ïwell if nobody is in charged the women prisoners should come home with us. We realized that we were talking to a wall with human like features so we decided to continue our rally outside the gate. The beloved activist,Yuri Kochiyama rolled her walker up to the mike and gave herstory about the racist, sexist and classiest prison industrial complex that is becoming homes for our diverse society. As cars started to pull off, I received some more history of Chowchilla. Come to find out the town of Chowchilla is mainly comprised of low-income Latinos and the push for CCWF in this area was a political move to one separate families from their love ones and to provide jobs in Chowchilla.

As the car turned onto the highway to the Bay area, I saw three more prisons all for women. Our mothers, sisters, mothers and grandmothers are joining forces with spirits of our ancestors, goddess, Mother Earth and Mother Nature to give birth to JUSTICE in the desert. I wonder would our Native American ancestors would agree on how the land and women are being treated? I don't think so!

For more information call California Coalition for Women Prisoners at (415) 255-7036 x4 or visit their website; www.womenprissoners.org
The Coalition meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7pm at 100 McAllister St., 3rd Floor in San Francisco.

You can also order their quarterly newsletter, The Fire Inside: Caring
Collectively for Women Prisoners. The Future issue of Fire Inside will look at the Americans with Disabilities Act & work regulation with a special focus on disabled prisoners.

Birth at Chowchilla

(For my sisters in the Skilled Nursing Facility at Central California Women Facility)

She gave birth

he is sleeping

while she struggles in his world

She gives him everything

he serves her a pink slip & an eviction

greed breaks up kinship

Men in Black & Blue

takes her away

a man in a Black rob

takes the verdict from the juror

who resembles her son, ex-boyfriend & father

the muscle-bound bailiff handcuffs her

I gave birth to all of you!

Without me thereÌs no you!

She finds sisterhood in prison

but his hands continues the abuse

from the GovernorÌs mansion

to skilled nursing facilities

men with no compassion

forgot who gave birth to them

He takes advantage of his authority

she used to breast feed him

now he force his seed in her

her blood is on his hands

can’t understand

why he canÌt make love to his wife or kiss his daughter

Umbilical cord tightens around the world

tossing & turning in his sleep

waking in a pool of sweet

screams echoing in his head

body covered with black buries, behind a black veil & black cell bars

Riding in a black Hurst to be buried in a black hole

Voices ring out

from Chowchilla

to Palestine

Grandmothers, mothers,

Sisters and daughters

join forces with

spirits of her Ancestors,

Goddess, Mother Earth & Mother Nature

to give birth to JUSTICE in the desert

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.

by Lisa Gray-Garcia and Connie Lu

"What will the very low-income participants do without their wages?"

"They'll be ok - they're still on welfare...?"

I didn't respond...I just looked up.. too tired to fight..to tired to resist this newest barage of accusations, assumptions, and requirements, "NO, I wanted to say "they " will not be ok, "they", like "us", are in fact trying to get off of welfare through POOR Magazine's innovative job creation program which pays folks a living wage to learn how to be journalists and multi-media artists, and due to the wages "they" have gotten so far "They" are no longer eligible for their cash grants and "we" are unable to pay "them" any more wages. But I said nothing. I just looked up and sighed, a new kind of weary entering my bones, a new kind of loss and confusion about our non-profit organizations' dilemma of recieving funding from the very system which continues to de-value everything we and our participants are attempting to do.

Today's meeting heretofore known as The Inquisition #2 began earlier that day with me and Scott, zen-admin volunteer at POOR, compiling and collating a massive set of documents which followed a memo from the Private Industry Council. Most of these documents were things we had already reviewed and submitted to PIC/DHS in The inquisition #1, a four hour meeting after which PIC/DHS reneged on their agreement to reimburse wages already paid by POOR for folks in the JOBS in the Media welfare to work internship and training program at POOR, we were aware that this whole process was probably futile and PIC would manage to find another excuse not to reimburse us or the interns, but nonethless we complied and collated.

At 2:20 a small crew of POOR staffers transported a one foot pile of paper to the offices of PIC and DHS, we were accompanied by Osha Neuman, civil rights attorney from Community Defense INC on behalf of POOR Magazine.

The meeting room was small, bursting at its stucco seams with the human overload of 7 people- San Francisco Deputy City Attorney, two representatives from The Private Industry Council (PIC) and one from the Department of Human Services (DHS) . We began right away after a cursory attempt at polite introductions. This Inquisition wasn't nearly as long as #1 and there were a few less redundant moments. We went over the "pile" and tried to re-explain a few of the same issues. We presented all of the proper documents, and then the perennial "outside of the box" question was brought up by PIC, "So what exactly do your interns do, we are questioning whether they were really working?"

I began to explain for the 20th time that the interns all did a creative variation of journalism, multi-media and creative writing production, but that wasn't enough, "if they don't come in to an office, sign in, and sit at a desk - how do we know if they are they really working?" They pressed on.

Dee Gray from POOR began to explain the different nature of the internships themselves, how POOR tried to tailor the internships and their work duties to the specific abilities and interests of the interns. Osha added that the duties are in fact "outside of the box" I continued that in the case of the journalism interns, the whole nature of journalism itself is not about sitting at a desk but in fact is done mostly out on the field, at the event, or at a computer finishing a story, ending with my statement, "let's define Staff Writer,(the job that is listed on PICS contract with POOR)

This kind of futile re-explaining continued for another hour until it was 5:00. After the blase' statement by PIC/DHS about how the very low-income participants were "all ok" cause they were on welfare, we asked them the same question we have been asking for the last three weeks, " This is an extreme hardship for our small organization and the participants in the program, " When will you reimburse us for the wages we already paid?"

"I can't say for sure.."

As of this publishing POOR
Magazine has still not received reimbursement from DHS and PIC for the
wages paid to the students in POOR's JOBS in the Media Welfare to Work
program, and yet, they will continue to speak, write and educate about
issues of poverty and racism as long as there is breath left in their
collective lungs...If you want to urge PIC/DHS to reimburse POOR's wages please call Pamela Calloway at PIC (415) 431-8700

Youth Commission Supports POOR

By Connie Lu/PoorNewsNetwork Media Intern

I am a few blocks from the San Francisco Youth
Commission at City Hall, but its colossal dome shaped
roof adorned with gold trim can already be seen from a
distance, as it sparkles against the fresh blue sky.
As I enter the commission hearing room I notice that
there are several lights hanging from the ceiling's outer edge that look
like delicately illuminated white tulips. The
ethnically diverse representatives of the Youth
Commission are seated in the front of the room in a
semi-circle, as they address the various issues of todays
agenda.

After several topics are discussed, the resolution
urging the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the
Private Industry Council (PIC) to maintain and
continue the funding of the JOBS in the Media Program
at POOR Magazine is introduced. The Youth Commission
is given information about the situation that POOR is
facing. The JOBS Program is a paid internship that
gives houseless and low-income people the opportunity
to gain writing and multi-media skills. DHS and PIC
are currently withholding desperately needed funding
from POOR due to trivial discrepancies in the
difference between class time and work hours completed
by the interns in the JOBS Program.

The Youth Commission then opens this topic to public
comment. The members of POOR Magazine approach the
microphone. As I rise out of my seat, I take a deep
breath in an attempt to somehow release the fluttering
anxiety in my beating heart. I had not planned on
speaking before the Youth Commission, but Isabel
Estrada, a Youth in the Media Intern at POOR, was
there to encourage me to represent POOR Magazine,
despite my fear of public speaking.

I move up to a seat in the front row and wait for my
turn at the podium. As I look over my notes, I am
unable to sit still. Suddenly, I realize that I am
next. Before I begin, I swallow the tight knot in my
throat. I feel like a nervous bottle of shaken
champagne with a cork that was inhibiting the use of
my vocal chords. As my mouth opens to speak, I could
hear and feel my voice wavering with the first few
sentences that were rushed through. However, I remind
myself to slow down. I force my eyes to look up from
my notes to the faces that were no longer intimidating
to me, as I finished speaking.

After the last public comment is made, several of the
representatives of the Youth Commission raise their
hands in favor of the resolution to urge DHS and PIC
to fund POOR Magazine, which will result in DHS and
PIC receiving a copy of the resolution. This matter
will also be brought to the attention of the Mayor of
San Francisco and the Board of Supervisors because the
Youth Commission are their advisors.

As I leave City Hall, I take another deep breath, only
this time it was a breath of relief. But at the same
time, I was also relieved that I was able to defeat
and break the tenacious grip of fear upon voicing my
support for POOR. I know that my brief comment to the
Youth Commission will not solve this entire difficult
matter, but I feel that through this experience I am
learning to strengthen voice.

Connie is a student in the New Journalism/Media Studies Program at POOR where she is learning how to speak her voice.

by Staff Writer

Krea

By Jewnbug

Warrior of justice

emergez from Aztlan, China, Philippines, Hawaii

long silky cocoa strandz

grow in overcrowded apartment on Bernal Hill

honey roasted almond handz holdz dreamz n beliefz

strugglin wit family borderlines poverty

extendz expandz

explorez

relyz on tha Lord

yearnz fo mo luv

undastandz elements b-low n above

economy suppliez n demandz

wit parentz n sibblingz n frenz strugglin 2 pay tha rent

ventz fistz wet tissue hissed

sentencez spoken wips

battlin state n church

she parted one day É missed

livin on streets hustlin

young run awayÉresistz

public skool system failed

she prevailed

high skool diploma

pursuin college

scholar of street knowledge

gives birth 2 rising sunset in Afrika

sacrificez university education

teachz n learnz across generationz

enrolled hard knockz skool

her experience iz da key openin doorz, cellz

breakin heart mendz wit frendship

sailin partnership buildin tribe

Seinna Charlie Leal Ajah

strugglin 2 make endz meet

mo den her feet walkin

mo den her voice talkin

her righteous spirit fightin

fo houzin, food, healthcare, livin wage

not jus fo self

fo da people

sheÕz a sizta, daughter, Mama, spiritual being

caged bird singin!

by Staff Writer

Each Po' Poet, "Resistors" in their own right, began the process of "writing" the award tributes in OUR weekly workshops at POOR. Each Poet chose an adult, elder, youth or ancestor that WE believed deserved OUR honor through WORDS and visual art.

As poor folks who have barely managed to Make it through OUR lives, the Po' Poets believe that the "Word" is healing and that one of the ways for all of us to survive is to use words and images to honor our collective struggle through life itself.

To get a copy of the Book Resistance published by POOR Press - $10.00 you can call poor at (415) 863-6306 or email;tiny@poormagazine.org

by Staff Writer

Lisa Shirley

by Mari

Trying to maintain her composure..

The plain, ivory, painted walls covered the exterior of the room,

Deep brownish wood decorates the glass doors.

The lowly dimmed light hits Lisa's blond streaks that are running through her light brown hair

her light alabaster skin smoothes her face, baby blue eyes are the centerpiece of her face,

her blanca shirt grazes her fertility and her corazon

Her azul shorts flowing on the legs she uses everyday to keep on surviving.

First she takes a deep inhaling type of breath,

she's trying to maintain her composure, letting her lips speak about her $65.00 in food stamps that was stolen,
That $65.00 was going to feed her mijo.

Trying to use her palabras, as our program director says.

"Someone stole my $65.00 in food stamps that was going to feed my son."

Then the room became so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Talking, speaking, & maybe almost crying

she still handles herself like the warrior she is.

She's fought against drogas, prostitution, alcohol, and her own worst fears.

Resisting, thriving, and surviving.

Always coming back to focus on the positives in her crazy life.

Her words speak realness, her brain thinks of her goals she wants to accomplish, her hands and her arms are how she shows you her love.

Working on family reunification, because her mijo is her heart and soul.

by Joe B.

George McDonald

Founder and President

The Doe Fund
232 East 84th

Street, NY, NY 10028

(212) 628-5207

Dear Joe:

It seems that you have misunderstood the information you read on The Doe Fund's web site.

Please allow me to clarify what our Ready,
Willing & Able program has done to find permanent solutions to homelessness.

Since the program's inception in 1990, over 1,200 homeless
men and women have transformed their lives through paid work.

Today they are
drug and alcohol free, living in their own apartments and working in
full-time private sector jobs.

Not one of them has gone on to become a
sanitation worker.

I invite you to re-visit our site and read the section
entitled "Success Stories."

I am sure that these program graduates' personal
accounts of transformation would challenge your demeaning characterization
of them as "wage slaves."

I would invite you to speak personally with Mr.
Doug Smith or Mr. Nazerine Griffin, both of whom can be reached at (718) 622-0634.

Since you suggest that our program does not provide our participants with the chance to "improve and grow," I invite you to also
read about the education component of Ready, Willing & Able.

You will learn that participants are provided with the opportunity to develop their literacy skills, obtain their GED certificates and acquire the computer skills necessary to succeed in today's workforce.

On March 21st, 2002, The Doe Fund celebrated its annual graduation ceremony.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker
Gifford Miller addressed the 180 graduates and praised them for their hard
work and determination to re-enter mainstream society.

Graduates' parents,
spouses and children were also there to support their loved-ones and welcome
them back to their communities as positive role models.

Graduates all obtained private sector employment, sobriety and their own market rate apartments.

Their average hourly wage was $10.

Again, I encourage you to contact Mr. Doug Smith or Mr. Nazerine Griffin and any other Ready, Willing & Able program participant you
wish. Our contact information is on our web site. I am certain that talking with them will clarify whether The Doe Fund is "real or hype."

Sincerely,
George McDonald
Founder and President
The Doe Fund

ASKJoe Responds;

To: Mr. George McDonald,
Doe Fund Founder and President.

Sir, I
received the letter from you urging me to look up your website, read it thoroughly for errors I could have made in describing it to others in my Ask Joe Column.

To be fair, I will browse the site after lunch at Saint Anthony’s.

Word to the wise, don’t ever go to St Anthony's free meals on the 1st or 15th of each month to lunch if you have pressing appointments afterwards. After eating four servings of a type of curie over rice, lettuce, donuts, with apple juice, and water.

The curry is working through both ends of me, making me dash to my SRO. (Single Room Occupancy) to sleep or be at work funny how this frequently happens and be constantly in the restroom. So discretion at home is the better part of bladder-uh, valor today.

First of all, it’s both surprising, gratifying, and a little disturbing to get responses to my article [Doe Fund Real or Hype 1/25/02] which I wrote way back in January.

As I look at the DOE web-site, I see the "WORK" works logo with long push broom and large garbage can. Then I browsed to the Events section of your site and I find The 3rd Annual "Sweep The Green" Golf Outing At Quake Ridge Golf Course in Scarsdale, NY. I find a listing for "Sweep The Green For The Men In Blue"

I hope its the Ready, Willing, And Able employees/people that are being honored.

The list of Employer’s are from small, mid sized and mega- corporations.Employee’s are working, some even have careers starting at $5.50, $6.50 even $10.00 an hour. My feeling; maybe it isn’t slave labor but its not much better.

I knock DOE Fund Inc's.-Ready, Willing and Able program because this dignity-in-toil works when companies did pay workers fair wages that matched cost-of-living.

These days most don’t, the same hard-working men, women, get less and less-the fair bosses, companies are distant memories, those that stay true to fair wage ethic are like secrets passed from worker to worker precious as gem stones to be guarded.

I got to say it, do you have ads with PC’s, programming schematics, architecture blueprints, test tubes, laptops, cell phones, or palms, (compact internet-machines) showing alternative ways of working in these high tech fields-along with custodial sweep-mop jobs?

Nothing wrong with street sweeping but many people with a second chance would like a chance in those fields too and if that’s part of the skills program then I stand corrected.

Program participants, Mr. Robert Wright, William Williamson, Vincent Moore, Al Johnson are sterling examples of Ready, Willing and Able (RWA) program.

What I’d like to know about is after RWA graduation, lets say weeks or months (I know you have a follow-up program too) still I’d like to know from them independent of DOE and RWA of what were the rough patches.

Are graduates taught some of the basic, midlevel, and advanced computer skills?

One more thing, Mr. Gavin Newsom visited New York a few months back, toured the
DOE program deeming it worthy. Problem: if your model works cloning it to San Francisco the way he wanted it won’t work unless modifications are worked out.

This centralized theme works only if people can get to without taking hours, taking into account "the human factor" of economic, family, and being in areas that do become danger zones for folks at certain hours of the day and night.

Another thing, the Past Alumni of the programs from 1999, 2001, if they are out there doing well or not so well, I’d like to know what they did or how the programs after graduation helped them.

This is a chance for New Yorker’s to tell me and Mr.George McDonald what’s up in old Gotham.

But mostly its for ‘Yorker’s from all over who may have left the city because of economic reasons.

I will not apologize for some of my remarks, though I may have been in error on some points, but this debate, it is no longer up to either of us not even ‘Cali’s and ‘Yorker’s but nation wide as house-less, joblessness continue.

Its not drugs and alcohol, our economy and technology has slowed but still changes so fast that no job or career is safe.

So folks as I said before email me at askjoe@poormagazine.org - but remember, I only answer ask questions.

by Staff Writer

Sarah Calhoun Thompson

Born in Houston, Texas
September 11, 1913 to 1963

layed to rest in

Bayview Mortuary

San Francisco.

At Cypress Lawn, Colma

I remember her

round face covered

with nut brown powder

red fox stockings, on her tall legs.

A woman of the real world

resisting stereotypes.

Sarah had goals, ideals, strength

and backbone.

A focused woman

driven by her desires for personal best

to be all she could be

Sarah was filled with savvy and smarts

And she wasn’t scared by far

She made her way to Cali

reaching for the stars

she knew a professional trade

would give her a new start

she resisted the Jim Crow Laws

a woman driven by her own goals

She believed in herself

Her heart was solid
as gold.

Nana Sarah would say
be true to yourself

things will fall into place

by Joe B.

It’s Monday, May, 6, 2002, I just got back from a two day brake away from the City.

What do I do when I’m not at work?

Loaf, sit back, watch the ‘tellie, listen to music, visit a fem friend and loaf some more.

Reading about news-rack law is way under my radar.

That’s what I was doing reading the Guardian.

20 year contract that Clear Channel can back out of anytime but the city is on the hook [Liable] for 3.4 million.

What kind of half jacked-up deal is that, what happened to mutual exit plans for both partners?

[The mega corps wanting to censor all kinds of songs in the aftermath of 9-11-2001 then said “It was only a trial balloon, oops our bad].

Lets see, Clear Channel after President B. Clinton signed the Tele-communications Act of 1996 made possible for C.C. to gobble up Radio, TV, and billboards.

C.C. is now into owning new racks which means what they deem not worthy they omit guess who has less choice if most of the news racks are owned by ‘duba-C?

I don’t know much but a 20 year deal with one company that bought out by ‘duba-C. [They fired Davy D because he and others spoke their minds about flag waving and what it still means in black ‘n brown-profiled while walking, talking, or driving in America].

Am I making sense people? This Corporate Entity not only wants to make profits but influence slightly or change your ways of thinking by controlling the newspaper(s) and by doing so the content of what is read.

Of course there are ways around this if the Supervisor’s are locked in for financial reason to make it difficult for Duba-C to lose revenue thereby making it more attractive to back out of they’re sweetheart deal.

Boycott, not a noisy one but an insidious quiet one where we leave the rack full of paper, anyone can total the racks or take papers an dump them in the trash - C.C. will replace them charging the City, but leaving them to yellow is more telling, ignoring C.C. will cost them much more that attacking them.

Freebies, this ghetto style is a slight redesign where no money is needed to buy a paper because the coin or locking mechanism’s been on the vending machine is now - lets say turned non profit.

This way the newsprint are read by those wanting to read it but C.C.’s has gained no profit and is constantly bleeding money because of their generous though unknown give-a-way.

A third way is a sarcastic parody of Clear Channel.

Your not harming them much because it is protective speech but one must be careful of slander.

Like in the TRUTH Anti-Cigarette ads on television where folks are telling the truth in funny yet factual ways all Clear can do is use humor too on the other side or bellow out angry which adds more fire to their already burning log butt.

Lastly but as important former Clear Channel employee’s who may have been fired or left on their own.

All employee’s should be treated with respect no matter their station, economic situation, because one can never know when an angry, bitter, former working employee(s) with nothing to lose can economically hurt former employer’s bottom line to the point of bankruptcy if said worker’s knew too much.

I don’t know which will work best but all three should be tried because a triple whammy is better than a single.

All I know is if Clear Channel wants to own multi media outlets to spew their slanted views let them but they should also know many people want other sides of the questions affecting their lives.

Oh, I forgot a 5th thing: That's stocking up and buying CD’s, DVD’s,
[Compact Disks, Digital Video Disks].
and rapidly out-of-date video tapes.

We can look at movies, tv, serials, cartoons and adult entertainment for years before paying or listening to Clear Channel’s drivel.

The very technology and laws that allows a Clear Channel multi media giant to rise also allows regular folks to also chose their own medium.

Clear needs our money but we don’t their one-way, one -point driven views.

Its up to each individual to chose their own content and not to have Clear decide for us.

Or maybe I got this whole News-rack law all wrong, what do I don’t know, I just want as many alternatives as I can even if I don’t like certain publications doesn’t mean I have any right to rid everybody else of the same choices.

Now I'll check out Cheney’s business deals.
...Bye

by PNN staff

What is the true color of pain…

Pain is the same color as rain…..

"I started writing a book on child abuse in November of 1999 – when I was appointed by god to write the book by two little boys who were my godsons. They were abused by a family member- I was also abused when I was a kid coming up."

Byron Gafford is a poet, a storyteller, a child abuse survivor, or like he would tell it, Appointed by God. When Byron contacted POOR a few weeks ago, he asked if we could help him get the word out about his book of poetry entitled "Through the eyes of a Child.. we were intrigued and invited him into Community Newsroom, when he opened his mouth to tell his story, the whole room became intrigued.. "God gave me the inspiration to write the book to focus on not just children, but adult victims who were once children"

Byron’s tall, lanky body draped over the Newsroom chair. As he spoke, his large deep brown eyes looked straight ahead, focused on his vision. His voice was deep and yet lyrical, like a soft wind traveling through the room, " All my poetry are testimonials… they came from my own experiences, my family and interviews I have done with people who are victims of abuse. I translate their stories through poetry.. I am 23 poems away from 1400 poems on child abuse….I am currently working on Volume 7"

" I was born and raised in the Double Rock Projects (in Hunters Point) – and in my community you don’t hear about the beatings- the issue of abuse is on the hush–hush noone wants to talk about it, people in my community are starting to come out on the issue, but just barely. I work in a drug treatment center and out of 800 clients that I deal with –from so many ethnic communities, cultures and nationalities – they all have shared the experience of abuse and they have never even talked about it – since I have started doing the interviews for the book, they have all started opening up to their own experience with abuse.

Byron was asked by one of the POOR staff if he had traveled to other areas, " When I first started writing the book on child abuse – I didn’t really need to travel because my soul was taken out of my body by God and God let me see around the world- He let me see the abuse of all children… and in my book I touch on issues from abuse in our communities to domestic violence, abuse from priests, teachers and other authority figures"

As Byron’s presentation came to a close Dee Gray from POOR summed up how the whole Newsroom staff felt about this inspiring young man, " I can’t find the words to describe how brilliant your book project is, as not just a work of literature but a work of art…"

What is the true color of pain

Pain is the same color as rain…..

Pain is the color so deep within.

Its not just the color, its the freedom of skin

Pain is the emotion of something that’s felt

Pain is the feeling that’s brought on by the belt

And when someone puts pain on you

The tears you cry has a color too-

Excerpt from Through the Eyes of a Child by Byron Gafford

Byron Gafford is looking for a publisher for his book; Through the Eyes of a Child. If you would like to get a copy of his book or have any ideas for him contact POOR at (415) 863-6306.

by Joe B.

Tuesday, May, 14, 2002. As the Late Gilda Radner said “It’s always 'somethin."

Here we go, they (abc-network waited few months now a good, thought provoking show is on its way out if we don’t stop this hissy fit, brainpan-on-stupid, old guard, knee jerk, reactionary, hysteria.

Don’t the viewer’s have a say in this decision?

Let me get this straight in my head first.

Mr. Bill Maher’s late-night show “POLITICALLY INCORRECT” is being cancelled?

Since 1997 the show has made people laugh, think, and many angry especially after Sept. 11/’01 referring to our country’s Military actions as cowardly instead of the high jacker’s using America’s own planes as flying firebombs with themselves dying in the process.[this from abc News.com]

Many American’s want the show gone along with Mr. Maher.

ABC Chairman Lloyd Braun said Maher's controversial comment had nothing to do with the decision to replace him. (Yeah, sure you’re right) and acid rain stays in one place.

Looks to me ABC News is showing YELLOW STREAKS, with its thin excuse of lowered ratings.

People, lets brainstorm, write the station, Congress, Senator’s, and all our representatives on keeping Bill on the air.

Remember what the show's name is “POLITICALLY INCORRECT not LOVE FEST AMERICA-RIGHT-OR-WRONG.

That show makes one think outside boxes.

I have nothing against Mr. Kimmel’s talk show but what’s next “The Man Show” with curvacious women bouncing on trampolines?

Maybe after millions of irate viewer right, left, and middle-roaders come together especially you right winger’s who really get steamed with the show; think.

Once this show is gone another show you don’t like may go or its your show that’s next.

I’m asking all real patriots to really think how this works.

I don’t watch Politally Correct that much but when I do it does make me think what’s going on and maybe that’s the problem the show stimulates the brain in positive ways and makes adults and children if their up late question what’s happening.

Who cares, its one show, so are the show’s on the other networks.

I bet lots of people don’t like Buffy, Angel, or the WB block of black shows or all the other shows that have a bit of bite and intelligence maybe “SNL” or “Mad TV”, Remember “In Living Color” or “Hype”?

Granted they may have gone because of low ratings but what if “politically correct” minority decided these shows were going out of bounds and had to go?

If I had more money I’d get all those shows on video or dvd when I don’t want to see regular boob tube fare.

It’s as if broadcasters and advertisers want total control of our minds so they can take money from our blank, glazed eyes, tv-glued minds.

If “PI” is cancelled maybe Mr. Maher’s can go on cable or for more independence then he can really let loose and not hold back like he must on network tv, or spawn more “PI” show’s there of every stripe so one show cannot be singled out to be axed.

At this time I want to appologise to New Yorker young adults and children for not getting back to them - some stupid glitch has prevented me from getting it or its been rerouted from my site.

But if you saved a copy just relay it again... please.

Addled Brained Crumbs = ABC or whatever acronyms you can make up for other multi media outlets for example ClearTrap, Crap, Crock, Cruel, or Crummy Channel Radio.

I’m sure folks out there came up with many more colorful renditions.

Well, its been nice writing hoped I’ve helped a bit... Bye.

by Connie Lu, PNN Media Intern, Facilitator, Dee Gray/Courtwatch

I am sitting face to face with Rebecca
Barraza-Aanestad in the common room of POOR Magazine.
The spicy aroma of empty jalapeno pizza boxes lingers
throughout the room, along with the resonating and
echoing sound waves of Rebecca's powerful voice
reflecting quickly off the high ceilings. My eyes are
focused upon her deep brown eyes filled with
frustration, strength, and anxiety, as they dart ever
so slightly back and forth in search of the painful
memories in her mind when she begins to share the
account of her children being taken away by the Child
Protective Services (CPS).

R-A: My name is Rebecca Barraza-Aanestad with Parents against the
Child Abuse Industry."

C: "Can you describe the situation you're facing right
now with your son?"

R-B: "My son recently filed a lawsuit in federal court
in the United States District Court for the Northern District. He doesn't
want to have his name printed in the paper; but I
wanted to talk a little about the lawsuit and how I
came to file the lawsuit, when my kids were taken
away. My son was taken away when he was 3 years old
in May 1987. And I got him back January 17, 2001 -
You look at all that time between those dates and
that's many years. He was in Foster Care for almost 14
years. I started going to college right after he was
taken away, and I studied law and came to know what my
rights are and my children's rights. I started a group
several years after my son was taken away and his
sister and his brother. But I don't want his name
printed in the article. You can just say Rebecca's
son."

C: "OK."

R-B: " Leave my 3 children's names out too. I started
a group called, "Parents Against The Child Abuse
Industry" after listening to KGO Radio. KGO Radio did
a talk show with Mary Pride who wrote a book called,
"The Child Abuse Industry". Right after my kids were
taken away in May 1987, I think it was July of 1987, I
heard this interview on KGO Radio with Mary Pride and
one of the KGO news casters or news people, the people
that do talk shows-a talk show host."

C: "Right."
R-B: "When I heard her talking about the child welfare
system I ran to the radio and turned the volume up
because I knew that I had just gotten back involved
with The Child Welfare System. Basically The Child
Welfare System is the Juvenile Dependency Court System
in the United States of America. It's a new court that
has been only developed in the last 20 years. Prior
to that, they did not have a Juvenile Dependency
Court. They've always had Juvenile Criminal Court but
this new court called The Juvenile Dependency Court is
about 20 years old, somewhere in there I would say. I
listened to the radio show and I was so excited. I
wanted to get a hold of her book, so I called KGO
Radio. They set me up with South West Radio Church and
I ordered a dozen of Mary Pride's books. This was many
years ago but today I still have her book called "The
Child Abuse Industry". And that's how I came to start
my group and name it "Parents Against Child Abuse".
That was in December of 1989. In 1994, I renamed my
group, "Parents Against The Child Abuse Industry"
because I was inspired by Mary Pride's book. I've been
to a thousand Juvenile Dependency Court Hearings - I
was not able to get reunited with my children."

C: "Let's go back to the lawsuit itself, can you tell
me what the lawsuit specifically entails."

R-B: "The lawsuit is based on the taking away of my
son and his brother and sister. The facts relate to
how and when my children were taken away..."

C: "How many children total?"

R-B: "3."

C: "3?"

R-B: "3-two son's and one daughter. So my son filed
the lawsuit. He filed it based on the C.P.S. (Child
Protective Services) Social Worker's-I need that copy
of that lawsuit back right now I don't why they're
keeping it?"

R-B: "Anyway the C.P.S. Social Worker - I need to back
up here, I'm totally disorganized now, this interview
is not going well now, I don't think."

C: "Can I maybe ask you about ?..."

R-B: "Don't - Don't -Don't do that to me because now
I'm focused and now you're going to throw me way off.
(Pause) When my children were taken away from me, it
wasn't all 3 of the children. There was only my
daughter. My daughter was taken away and placed with
her... Ok, let's start from the beginning. When my
husband died March the 3rd, 1985.
This C.P.S. Social Worker came out to the place where
I was living. All she did was knock on my front door
and ask me a bunch of questions. First of all she
wouldn't go away - see it's all on this document that
I have for you. She wouldn't go away and she kept
hounding me, interrogating me to come into the house
and I wouldn't let her in initially. She would not
leave. Then I let her in just so she could hurry up,
ask her questions and get out."

C: "Right, right"

R-B: "The mistake I made was telling her - Well, I
don't feel like living-my husband's dead, I'm really
depressed." I never should have told her that. With
that one damn statement she went back to her office
and typed up this report that made me look like such
an unfit mother. It was ridiculous."

C: "Did she have it recorded?"

R-B: "They go back to their office and they type up
their reports. They're like news reporters - that's
how they do their work. The end of March she served me
with a petition to go into court. I went into to court
on April the 1st, on April Fools Day. Whoa, what a big
fool I was right? I went into court April 1st and
Judge Gargano, of the Juvenile Dependency Court let my
daughter stay with her grandmother because initially I
let my daughter go and stay with her grandmother until
I could find an apartment to rent."

C: "Right."

R-B: "We were staying in a hotel at the time my
husband died. It was demoralizing, degrading. The
welfare system back in 1985, had a lot of families
staying in what they
called these "WELFARE HOTELS." There were rooms that
families actually rented.
It was very degrading to live like that. I had no
choice because my husband wasn't working. I was on
AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) back
then. That was 15 years ago-Man! I went to court. They
took my daughter. They let her stay with her
grandmother and then I moved to Sonoma County. Do you
know that the C.P.S. followed me?"

C: "They tracked you?"

R-B: "They do what they call a transfer - they
transfer your case to another county where we live so
they followed me. I felt like they were following me.
You know I was starting to feel paranoid. They
contacted the Welfare Department and they ended up
handling the case. They 'kinda like monitored me and
the boys to make sure we were all right."

C: "Yeah."

R-B: "OK, then I left because I got this letter in the
mail one day. I lived up there like ten months and I
was happy up there with my sons. And then all of the
sudden I get this letter in the mail telling me that I
had to appear in court. And my girlfriend, I showed
her the letter and she goes "Oh, Rebecca you better
move because it looks like they're gonna take you to
court on Monday and they're gonna take your boys
away." " I said "What?"
And I looked at this letter and I go "You know what,
you're right. This is another petition."

I rented a truck on a Saturday. I moved all my
property, loaded the truck up with all our furniture,
everything and we left on a Saturday. On Monday
morning I woke up at my destination. I went down to
live with my sister. Monday morning I left my sons
with my sister because my daughter was already staying
with her grandmother. I went to court. When I walked
into that courtroom and told the judge that I was no
longer living in Sonoma County- he said, "case
dismissed." He just threw the case out of court. I
looked over at the District Attorney and he was so
mad. You could tell he was just fuming. His facial
expression was kinda like "Oh, I'm gonna get you yet"
- like I had done something very wrong.

These people
are sick. The whole system is corrupt and sick. I left
the court house and moved to Santa Clara County. I
said thank God, they didn't get their hands on my poor
sons. They wanted to put my sons in Foster Care up
there - that would've fragmented all the children. I
don't want you to use their names when you write up
this article. My case remained in Santa Clara County
because I have not moved away. I've been living down
here all my life. What happened was I worked with the
system to get my kids back. I could've illegally
kidnapped my kids and moved to Mexico or France or
Italy and they would've never found me but I didn't do
that. I wanted to get my children back the right way,
the legal way. So what happened was, I've been to a
1,000 Juvenile Dependency Court Hearings and I was
never reunited with my sons or my daughter. My kids
were taken away when they were 4, 8, and 9. I didn't
get my daughter back until she was 14. I didn't get my
oldest son back until he was 15, and I didn't get my
youngest son until he was 17, and that was January 17,
2001.

Then what happened was I was living with a fiance of
mine, this man that I was gonna marry. We were
friends, companions. I was his friend then I was his
companion and then he asked me to marry him. And I
accepted his hand in marriage in February 2001.
Then on Friday, March 2, 2001, the District Attorney,
The Office of the Public Guardian and Conservators,
two sheriffs, three women from the Public Guardians
Office, a woman and a man from The Child Protective
Services, and two locksmiths came to my house. There
were 12 people. They raided my house where I lived
with my sons and my fiancÈe. Now mind you, I had just
gotten my youngest son back out of the Child Welfare
System on January 17, 2001. On Friday, March the 2nd,
my house was raided by all these government employees,
public employees, and the locksmith people changed our
front door, our back door locks, and they took away my
fiance. They flew him out to stay with his daughter
-I mean with his sister. My two sons and me became
homeless because my daughter's been living on her own
for a couple of years now.

I ended up sleeping in my car as a homeless person
last year. My youngest son who recently filed the 25
million dollar lawsuit, went back to where he
became homeless and my oldest son ended up renting a
room in somebody's apartment.

I recently got a house. God was very good to me last
year. He did not let me down because my heavenly
Father never lets me down; I'm very spiritual and very
close to my heavenly Father. With my footwork between
my Lord and me I was able to get my housing. My son
and I rented a two-bedroom house. We're in a house
now. I'm back on my feet. I'm trying to get well. I
ended up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, A
Panic-Anxiety Disorder, and a Manic Depressive
Disorder because our house was raided.

That's the last time I'm gonna be traumatized by any
'fuckin county officials - excuse my language, by any
damn county official. That's the last damn time I'm
gonna be traumatized in my whole life. This is what
happened - I talked to my youngest son who's living
with me and I advised him about his rights. I told him
what some of his rights were. As a Paralegal I cannot
give legal advice. I cannot practice before the bar,
and I can't charge outrageous sums if I help people
with their legal work. I cannot do legal work per se.
But I can handle my own cases and I do as a
Paralegal."

C: "Good for you."

R-B: "As a professional Paralegal I can handle my own
cases. I recently took a police officer to Federal
Court and they settled out of court, and I more or
less won that case through settling out of court. I
advised my son to file a lawsuit based on the fact
that he, that he's 18. These people violated his
rights in all three counties. They violated my
children's First Amendment Rights, free speech, the
Fourth Amendment Rights, their Fifth Amendment Rights,
their Ninth Amendment Rights, and their 14th Amendment
Rights. You have this book - by the way, one of my
distant relatives is a California State Assemblymen that's right, that's right, I've power behind my
family.

My son found the lawsuit based on the
Constitution of The United States of America and the
Constitution of the State of California.

He filed his lawsuit based on the fact that these
people The state of California Constitution which
states: Article 1, Section 1 which reads ["All people
by nature free and independent and have inalienable
rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life
and liberty; acquiring, possessing and protecting
property and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness,
and privacy. So my son, this right of his was
violated, his life, his right to enjoy and defend life
and liberty, protecting property, and pursuing and
obtaining safety and happiness and privacy. My son is
suing on that Constitutional Amendment - The
Constitutional of the State of California.
Article 1 - Section 1. And then he's suing under the
grounds of his First Amendment Right which is
[Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech.]

Now let me stop right there and tell you something. My
son never had a chance. None of my children ever had a
chance. My son never had a chance to go into Juvenile
Dependency Court and tell these people what he wanted,
how he felt. "No, I don't want to be in this system, I
want to go home with my mother." "He told the Juvenile
Dependency District Attorney for the Juvenile
Dependency Court, he told that woman; I'll say her
name too cause I don't care if she sues me and she
can't sue because this is a fact. Her name is Penelope
Blake. Penny Blake. My son kept telling her always
kept telling Penny Blake "I want to go home. I want to
go home. I want to be with my mother. I want to be
with my mother." And the last thing I remember of my
son every time I went to visit my son and when the
visit was over he would scream and cry and shout and
say "Mommy, Mommy, I want you back. Mommy, Mommy, I
want you back. I don't want to go with these people."

That was traumatizing for my son to have gone through
that. He's suing on that ground, he's suing on his
Fourth Amendment right, which is seizures, searches,
and warrants. The right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and affects against
unreasonable searches, and seizures shall not be
violated and no warrants shall issue but on probable
cause supported by oath or affirmation and
particularly describing the place to be searched and
the persons or things to be seized. Now let me stop
right there and explain something. When these people
came into our house in March 2001 they illegally went
into my son's bedroom. This was his private bedroom.
They stole my holographic will that my fiancÈe had
hand wrote for me plus they stole They didn't get
their hands on the grant deed because I still have the
original copy to the grant deed of his house. When my
fiance was diagnosed with lung cancer in the right
lung we knew he didn't have much time to live but I
was almost sure that he was going to live at least 3
to 5 years longer than what the doctor had diagnosed
him as living. They only gave him one year. I didn't
believe it because we were praying over him. I had him
on a good diet. He was eating fresh vegetables,
fruits. I didn't have him eating a whole lot of meat.
We were eating salads. I tried to get him to quit
smoking but he wouldn't quit smoking. When they did
this to us, when they raided our house, on top of it
all that they never had a search warrant signed by a
judge, and dated by a judge. They never showed me a
search warrant. So my son sued them on his Fourth
Amendment violations."

C: "Exactly."

R-B: "He sued them under his Fifth Amendment Violation
which states: [Criminal proceedings, and condemnation
of property. The Fifth Amendment is no person shall be
held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous
crime. Unless on a presentment or indictment of a
grand jury except in cases arising in the land or
Naval Forces between the militia. We need an actual
service in time of war, a public danger. Nor shall any
person be subject for the same offense to be twice put
in jeopardy of life or limb. This is where the catch
is:

"Nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a
witness against himself. Nor be deprived of life,
liberty, or property without due process of law." Let
me stop right there. He sued on the ground that says
"Nor be deprived of live, liberty, or property without
due process of law." One fault that the Juvenile
Dependency Court has is that they always violate
people's Fifth Amendment Right by not allowing them
proper due process of law and they deprive the
children of their life, liberty, and being with their
families. So my son sued under his Fifth Amendment
right and the Ninth Amendment and the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment reads:
[All persons born in the United States are subject to
the jurisdiction of the United States where they
reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of The United States. Nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property without due
process of law. Nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.] And
that's exactly what these counties have done to all
three of my children; was deprive them of their rights
- constitutional rights. Therefore my son found his
lawsuit based on Constitutional rights and State of
California Constitution, Article 1 Section 1."

C: "Now with this lawsuit what are you hoping to
achieve then?"

R-B: "My son hopes to get into a trial level. He wants
a trial where we can explain to the jury. All three of
my children are going to get up on the stand and
explain to the jury how they were treated in foster
care, how they went from satellite homes, then to
foster care and they ran away. All three of my kids
ended up running away. Do you know that, this is a
fact. My public defender that I had for over ten
years, same public Defender and I'm going to say his
name. Howard Siegel S-I-E-G-E-L. He told me "Rebecca,
your children are gonna eventually gonna run away" and
I didn't believe him, I said "Oh no, no, they're not.
I'm gonna get them back, before they even do that
Howard." I couldn't believe it. I never got my
children back the right way. They ended up running
away. As a direct result, all three of my children
never graduated from high school, and they all have
felonies on their records. That's right before the age
of 18, they all had felonies when they were minors.

So I have had it with this system. I advised my
children, that when they turned 18 they could file
their lawsuit. My daughter was all mentally deranged,
emotionally a wreck. So was my older son, he was
emotionally, mentally, and spiritually a wreck; both
him and her. The youngest son was my last hope to file
this lawsuit and by the grace of God we filed it on
April 4, 2002. In Federal Court, in the United States,
District Court for the Northern District of
California. I'm eager to find out this week about the
Judge's decision on whether or not he will accept the
lawsuit. If he accepts the lawsuit, then my son will
not have to pay filing fees for the lawsuit. Jesus
its 4 o'clock. They're gonna tow my car, why don't
you keep these"

After the interview with Rebecca, I realized that her
love for her children is simply relentless and
unconditional. The determination in her heart to be
reunited with them is the driving force and hope
behind her powerful spirit. The celebration of the
bond between a mother and her children will soon be
honored on Mother's Day, as it approaches. However, I
am encouraged by Rebecca to not only show my love for
my mother on a designated day of the year, but
everyday.

Email Contact :
Rebecca Barraza-Aanestad:
paca54@yahoo.com

by George Tirado

Wow what an impressive book! For
the first time in many years a book that finally
speaks to everyone on something as basic as our right
to protest. The best part is anyone from a disenfranchised
homeless person to a punk rocker to a grandmother can actually read and understand this handbook.

This is not the kind of book that you just want to
sit down and read for pleasure, no this is perfect
group read, great for communities, such as schools and
churches and beginning activists, anyone who wants to
make change either through the environment or around an issue of
injustice, just remember what Martin Luther King
said "in justice anywhere is injustice everywhere."

What we have here is a handbook that is stripped
of all political opinions and filled with practical
knowledge. For example how to plan a civil
disobedience action, from the start through the end, covering
every aspect from the press to arrest.

Yes I will admit there are chapters which get a
little heavy for example the Henry David Thoreau
chapter "On the duty of civil disobedience" but even
though it is rather long that's Henry David Thoreau
for you and it's a very important part of the history of civil disobedience. The
reasons these stories in the first part of the book
are important are to show us we are not alone. It
shows us to have courage, that if Rosa Parks can sit on
the front of the bus, or that a hand full of rich
Harvard students can sit-in long enough to help
cafeteria workers and janitors then we can change things
to.

With this hand book and a cool head just like
Malcolm X put it "by any means necessary we can win
the small battles which could turn into the war.

The Civil Disobedience Handbook
A Brief History and Practical Advise
For the Politically Disenchanted
Manic D Press Isbn 0-916397-76-9
U.S. $ 10.00 Now in Stores!! or go on-line to www.manicdpress.com

by TJ Johnston

Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, otherwise a courtly Southern gentleman, is mad as hell over the US Government’s handling of the still-unfolding Enron scandal. The South Carolina Democrat wasn’t anywhere near as maniacal as the fictional Beale, but that’s the sentiment behind Hollings’ description of a "cash and carry government."

Hollings, chairman of the Commerce Committee, noted that in the last decade, Enron contributed campaign funds to 186 Representatives and 71 Senators (including himself). In 2000, the now-bankrupt energy giant also filled Republican coffers in the presidential election. Inquiry of how the seventh largest corporation overstated profits, devalued their 401k to the level of Argentine pesos, peddled bipartisan influence and somehow went broke seems to be in order. But having the Department of Justice investigate, according to Hollings, would present its own problems, mostly conflicts of interest.

Attorney General John Ashcroft was an Enron beneficiary in his failed Senate bid, as was his campaign manger-turned-chief of staff. Next in line to sniff out clues would be Ashcroft’s deputy, Larry Thompson. The problem is that Thompson’s old firm represented Enron and their equally scrutinized auditors, Arthur Andersen. Also, Thompson already has his hands full countering terrorism.

Hollings submits it would behoove Thompson to appoint a special counsel. I modestly propose to tap Kenneth Starr for the job.

You would be right to say, "Haven’t we heard enough from Clinton’s persecut—er, prosecutor?" I sure had my fill of Starr and the pother principals in the impeachment trial. That said, his Lewinski-gate probe did provide the best selling soft porn in recent memory.

"Extraordinary circumstances" necessitates the appointment of a special counsel. If oral sex qualifies as such, so would sending for company airplanes to stump for Bush. And wiping out retirement plans. Ditto for the suicide of one of its board members (echoes of Vince Foster, maybe?). In concert with a Senate select committee (proposed by Hollings), Starr would get to the bottom. Such an investigation would reveal activity that transcends corporate chicanery. Starr could subpoena Army Secretary Thomas

White, Energy Regulatory Commissioner Patrick Wood III and trade representative Robert Zoellick. These federal employees were either on Enron’s payroll or otherwise sympathetic to their deregulatory needs.

Starr might need to cut a few deals with the executives who took the Fifth Amendment, but remember that he also granted immunity to Monica. What’s the harm in that? I’m confident that Starr’s skills in transcribing phone sex and girl talk would transfer to decoding book-cooking. By piecing together shreds of evidence, Starr would eventually find the smoking gun or semen-soaked blue dress. I could see CEO Kenneth Lay squirm as Hollings and Starr ask him point-blank, "Did you have political relations with that person?’

Starr couldn’t find a better opportunity to redeem himself. He could transform himself from witch-hunter to muckraker with the same prosecutorial zeal and acumen that made him a household name. May Starr Commission Report II make for equally enticing reading on our country’s nightstands.

by Isabel Estrada/Youth in the Media Intern

The houseless people in front of the San Francisco Public library made a busy contrast to the wide, endlessly lazy gray pavement that just existed to absorb the bright sun. They talked, some collected cans, and others let upbeat phrases roll off their tongues, tempting oblivious passersby to buy a smile, maybe a moment of happiness or a sense of satisfaction at dropping a few pennies into a paper cup. I knew I was supposed to be going to City Hall, the huge stone building with the intricate gold that stood out against all the gray. I finally walked across the wide expanse of grass up to the steps of City Hall and into the cool darkness of the building and found myself just another person in a huge crowd of people waiting to get into the Legislative Chamber.

I tried to squeeze through until the guard at the door let us know that only the people in the line were going to get through.  So I walked passed all the people until I got in line with an old high school teacher.  She was with her partner who was involved in the Mid-Market PAC (Project Area Committee) to redevelop the area spanning from 5th to 8th streets between Mission and Market.  At first I was a little uncomfortable because while working at POOR I have come to see re-developement more as socio-economic cleansing, relieving rich white folks of the plight of having to see defecation on the streets and having to feel bad about all the money they have when there are people with no food or shelter.  However, I was slightly comforted by the fact that my teacher's partner was actually in the PAC meetings to advocate for more housing, more space for non-profit organizations and to keep the pro-business interests at bay.

I was soon to find out in the discussion that in fact the PAC -with all its pro-business interests and plenty of people who wouldn't mind seeing the poor simply swept off of the streets- is only a small hurdle.  As many people would note, the PAC is somewhat willing to listen to the community.  However, the PAC is only an organization of developers hired to advise the Redevelopment Agency. The PAC can give all the advice it wants, but the Agency isn't required to listen, and it has shown that often it doesn't.  That is where the problem arises.

The discussion going on in City Council essentially consisted of public comment on Chris Daly's proposed ordinance of disbanding the Redevelopment Agency, which is made up of of 7 Mayoral appointees, and handing over its work to the Board of Supervisors itself.

The example of the case of the Plaza Hotel, which included the Bindlestiff Theatre, the only Filipino based arts space in the nation, was cited repeatedly.  Over the past year, the non-profit organization TODCO has been presenting the Redevelopment Agency with a plan to renovate the highly dilapidated building, creating more low income housing and providing a space for the Bindlestiff Theatre (as opposed to illegally kicking people out to make it into a tourist hotel, as could have occurred with the Empress turned West Cork Hotel).  The much needed plan is still being held up in the Redevelopment Agency.

After waiting outside the meeting for quite a while I decided to try to get in as press but because I had no press pass and all my business cards had run out, the guard said, "Sorry, can't do anything for ya."  On my way back to the line a young African-American man in a large group, they were all wearing hard hats, stopped me and asked if I was a reporter.  When I told him yes he asked me to make sure to include his opinion.  His name is Tyson and the group he was with was YCD (Youth Community Development).  When he told me that he was for the ordinance and against the Redevelopment Agency I thought he would be echoing the general opinion of the African-American community.  He said he thought that Mayor Willie Brown was trying to make life harder for the people before he left office.  However, if I 'm to base the general sentiment of the African-American community on who spoke in the City Council meeting then they were at odds with the young men outside.  I heard by chance that the meeting was being played on a T.V. in the North Light Court.  I was angry and disappointed to find that in the 3 hours I was watching, the young men from YCD who had had so much to say and who had been bursting with so much energy had never gotten a chance to speak.  Perhaps they hadn't even been alerted that the meeting was being shown in the room below or that they could still speak even though they weren't in the Legislative Chamber.  

After some discussion, mainly between Supervisor Yee and Daly, over the fact that Marsha Rosen, the Director of Redevelopment Agency, was not even present, Daly stated that the Agency had been alerted about the meeting with plenty of time to makeplan to show up and ended requesting a 5 week continuance.  Supervisor Maxwell asked the Board to consider that the Agency is "helping and doing things in neighborhoods that we don't even consider."  However, she also mentioned the movement of African-Americans out of the Western Addition: "They called it Urban Renewal, we called it Negro Removal."

John Vargas spoke in a quick, clever and indignant manner in favor of the ordinance and very against the Redevelopment Agency.  "The housing crisis today stands on those failed policies and misapplied capital expenditures that went into the redevelopment process...You can't do anything better than reform this agency; look at what housing, what jobs have been lost.  Why didn't you do this twenty or thirty years ago?"

Next spoke an ex-Supervisor, Amos Brown.  He wanted the board to get rid of the ordinance.  He didn't think that the Board of Supervisors would do a better job.  He stated, "You can't have it both ways, if you want to be mayor run for mayor."  Then he resorted to personal attack with his comment directed toward Supervisor Ammiano, "you sound like snakes and some of you act like snakes."

Geoffery Liebowitz mentioned the case of the Whole Foods proposal for Fourth Street that would allow a grocery store that would provide healthy food with discounts for seniors right next to a building that housed 600 seniors.  The Redevelopment Agency never let it happen.  Liebowitz proposed term limits for the Commissioners on the Agency.

Of the three hours that I watched the public comment there was one pervasive opinion that almost had the quality of conspiracy.  Almost all the African-American's from Bayview/Hunters Point were against the ordinance and very supportive of Willie Brown and the Redevelopment Agency.  One man commiserated that "what the mayor is going through is living hell."  A woman told Ammiano that this ordinance was not "using due process of law."

Another man stated, "y'all need to give us liberty or give us death...The only thing that's savin' us today is the Redevelopment Agency."  James Gardner, who is a member of the PAC, said that he had worked hard to maintain a good relationship with the Agency, "there are difficulties but we're working through them." 

Another woman working with the PAC is scared of becoming unemployed if the Agency were to be disbanded.  Many said that redevelopment had come to their aid and had helped to stop evictions.  Yvonne Dylan said that she felt threatened by the ordinance. Ironically, despite all the praise of the Agency and of Willie Brown coming from the community, it is still the people of Bayview/Hunters Point that are suffering from high instances of asthma and cancer due to the fact that there is a PG&E Power Plant and an old Navy Shipyard dumping ground in the neighborhood. Besides, when you think of it, throwing down some money to appease this community of color is a small price to pay for the Redevelopment Agency if it means that it will be supported when it attempts to sweep all the poor folks out of the mid-market area, which is a much more lucrative area than Bayview/Hunters Point. Just judging by looks it seemed to me that the majority of the people who had spoken were at least middle class. I certainly didn't feel that I was getting a full representation of all of Bayview/Hunters Point. I even heard some comments made about Willie Brown busing a bunch of people over to the meeting so that they could testify in his favor.

There was only one African-American woman from Bayview/Hunters point that was completely against the Redevelopment Agency.  She said, "I do not want what happened in the Fillmore to happen in Bayview...We as the people are not getting housed."  She thinks that it's the Redevelopment Agency that needs "to be evicted." A disabled Asian man from Bayview/Hunters point said that he personally had seen no improvements in his neighborhood except for a prettier McClaren Park.   

One Anglo man accused many of the previous speakers of using "race-baiting to attack this proposal."  He noted that it was mostly communities of color that were evicted and gentrified under Willie Brown when the Dot.Com boom occurred. 

Sam Dodge of the Central City SRO Committee was indignant at all the support from the African-American community of Bayview/Hunters Point, noting that though the PAC may be listening to the people, it didn't mean that the Agency would too.

Every person who lives or had lived on Sixth Street spoke in favor of the ordinance and against the Redevelopment Agency.  Delphine Brody stated that she and the other tenants of the Seneca Hotel had been promised necessary repairs -a working elevator (especially important for the seniors), a washer and dryer as well as a community kitchen- by the Agency for three years.  Yet while they have seen no repairs "police repression has doubled...arresting my neighbors for walking while black."

We heard from a deaf African-American woman, Adriana Taylor who was a single mother living in the Plaza Hotel.  She said that living in such unhealthy conditions and with no kitchen was very detrimental to her son's health.  She said in sign language, "I want to ask for your help in fixing the Plaza Hotel."
 

Allison Lum, a former Sixth Street resident of the Raymond Hotel said that after a fire that occurred, most of her neighbors were not able to relocate.  She asked: if the Agency is doing so well, "why are there vacant buildings when people are dying on the streets." 

Another man pointed out that neither he nor any of the Supervisors could understand what it means to live in conditions like the Plaza Hotel.  He thought it was time for the people to stop letting "Willie Brown run the city for his business buddies and bring the decision making to the communities."  Bruce Allison mentioned that all over South of Market there used to be low-income housing where now there is the Moscone Center and the Yerba Buena Gardens.  The ex-tenants were never provided with housing at anywhere near the same cost. It's surprising that people wonder why there are so many homeless people in San Francisco.

At the beginning of the meeting, one man said that this ordinance was "a dividin' thing."  And, its turned out to be true.  An African-American man from the Plaza Hotel stated, "It's not about race; it's about housing.  Please take over the agency."  Here we have a man who is both poor and of color which means that he is the one who never gets listened too; the one who never gets any easy breaks.  We'll see if he'll have his way and I will continue to be able to listen to Guajira Guantanamera being played by street musicians in Civic Center Bart station and continue to see people of such different colors and backgrounds who know so much more about life than I when I walk around my city.

"Everytime I come here everything happens to me.  I lose my man, I lose my
head, I lose my mind, feel like I'm almost dead...I been down so long that down
don't worry me."

                        -Stormy Blues performed by Billie Holiday  

by Joe B.

More things have happened in the past few days but that would be jumping timelines.

Some readers may not like that and though some might say its best to tell the tale from beginning to end leaving out some boring bits.

Reader’s are left with myself feeling hot-cold-luke warm and numb.

I’m gathering mental strength trying not to think of POOR’s possible demise and my personal loss of employment.

Last time the mini rant was on day off usually Wednesday [Saturday and Sunday too are taken away my fickle, finicky web-readers.

I’ve learned to save up quarters since I don’t have a phone the only reason I’ll get a phone line is for a PC and Internet connection.

If there must be a land based (home phone) very few people will have the number.

I believe in compartmentalizing work, play, but not friends and family.

Solitary endeavors should at times be apart not jumbled or mixed.

For example I do not date CO-workers [actually I cannot because most of ‘em are really really young!].
I’m older, and odd, quirky, or just too weird for them.

Women have always kept me guessing now its my turn, I know part of why they do it; pure power over the male gaze keeping us off balance.

The only way to negate this game is not to play, find your own center and lonely or not love who you are without judging either sex.

Having one girlfriend is my speed without adding trouble juggling extra girlfriends.

A portable digital phone on vibrate is what’s needed though most of the time it will be turned off [I like thwarting technology when possible].

I was thinking of P.M.S. (Premenstrual Syndrome)
women go through (I know, its not the same as Domestic Violence).

But to guys old and young its still an arcane mystery (Your not a woman, you’ll never understand - even if we explained it you’ll never get it, most doctor’s and women themselves don’t understand it either).

In days of old like the 1900’s on to the 50’s 60’s and 70’s most men would go fishing, hunting, or mountain climbing anything while wives, girlfriends, sister’s, or aunts go through “their moods, the troubles.”

Problem was women still wanted their husbands, boyfriends, brother’s, or uncle’s to be around if not near.

These days men and women may know more about premenstrual syndrome but there are times when the “STAY AWAY FROM ME! until its over” makes sense unless some women’s experience a heightened sex drive most men dream they can "handle it" in truth their are rare men that can but for most of us it would be too much of a good thing.

But men able to stand it will make the best of this gift demanded of them.

I Thought of the famous line in 1964's "Zorba The Greek" the late actor Anthony Quinn talks to his young educated nephew Alan Bates from America saying

"When a woman asks you to her bed you must go."

I don't think it was meant in a moral context but in shared humanity of release for both women and men share.

To deny one is like an automatic curse on the man who does this to any woman.

If Goddesses are still looking down on our world we men who do that are under a constant curse.

According to the law she can not serve the legal restraining order document someone else has to.

Someone told the guy which meant he could just get it over with and move on or delay the process - be an anus about it, guess what the guy does?

One whole day wasted with a friend going through the kinds of emotional hell that tares at the very fabric of sanity, spirit, and core of humanness.

I'm just another guy its bad for her going through this anguish because whatever I said pales in what she’s already survived not only in sudden rages, turning physical, brutal beatings, and mental torment of feeling she had no choice and up till recently has lost because the ex could always use to his advantage.

In my clumsy way I made it worse when knocking on the door and he says I’m tired could you wait awhile?” [he had just gotten a job and was tired after his first day at work]. I left for a few hours.

The young woman in her apartment is besides herself fighting hysteria wanting her ordeal to end once and for all.

Saying “Deal with this now, get on with your life, if the police come they like nothing better to jack-up young black men - just let it go.”

After awhile some of his friends try to no avail.

I try again this time banged hard on the wooden door telling him.

“Sooner or later he has to deal with this and why not do it now and have it over and done with instead of the police coming over because you know what they might do?” [At the same time the thought came to me:
Police dread domestic violence situations because the emotional volatility of this kind of situation can change in moments.

How many officers have died, when one or the other spouses turns the weapon a knife, gun, baseballbat, hammer or whatever onto the police to protect their spouse whom they were threatening before the police arrived]?

I really made him agitated and angry.

He threatened to call the police.

In the young woman’s apartment I said “I hope he does call ‘em, then I can hand him the restraint order with their assistance.”

She didn’t think he would “He’s bluffing.”

Work is tense and after work I at my CO-worker’s building sitting in chair waiting for him to come in.

“Do you remember what to say to him?”

She said calmly as she fidgets with her hair, thumb in mouth, and trying to calm herself.

“No, I don’t remember - wait, this is a legal docu...” She had to laugh in spite of the situation.

“You say, this is a restraining order and throw it at his feet it must touch his body.”

I really dread a confrontation with an ex-boyfriend and the young woman is mainly a CO-worker we joke around but nothing serious.

I say his name before saying “This is a Restraining Order.”

We wait and wait and soon he did come, saw me and flips out saying “I don’t want him near me, I’ve called the police; he said the police will jack-me up.

True I did say the police will jack him up (beat down) but the rest is pure paranoia - only hearing what he wants to hear.

He didn’t here - deal with this now or later, or get it over with and move on.

He only heard getting beaten down by police and not that he is causing the problem.

The police are called both by the angry young man and battered woman and they are the same ones called before in earlier times.

I didn’t give the restraining order another young woman helped.

I flubbed it by not taking the chance when he first walked but everything happened so fast I didn’t react quick enough.

It did get resolved, the young man cannot be within so many feet or he’ll be in jail the same holds for her too the police told her.

I don’t ever want to be a third party to any domestic violence ever again its too nerve wracking.

The young woman is going overseas for a while which sounds like going to the Foreign Legion to forget.

Hope she can finds new friends, she’s had real Trauma Drama in her young life.

I have to get my own business started but that will take time and I have my own problems to solve too.

I got to ask:

1)How does a guy get beat up by a woman?

2)Women, have you beaten up a guy, and how does it feel?

I’ll probably get no answers from either sex that’s ok but at least I addressed the problem, now its up to society to find answers. Bye

by Lani Kent/PoorNewsNetwork

We were in front of City Hall and the early February sunshine took off our jackets and scarves. News anchors squinted into the sun that seemed to come from the East and West and North and South. It was a beautiful day to be on the street celebrating the merging of ideas, and the merging of voices. On Monday, February 4, San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness joined forces with New York City's Picture the Homeless to announce "Housing Winter." This national action is designed to spotlight the national affordable housing crisis and provide positive solutions for it. Tired debates about quality of life will not take center stage in this movement. Organizers urge the swift passage of the federal National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Legislation, which will create 1.5 million new housing units over the next ten years. Grassroot organizations across the country support "Housing Winter" and will hold several events to demonstrate their determination to get this legislation passed.

"You can't just put a Band-Aid on homelessness," said Emily Gibbons of Picture the Homeless NYC, "so instead they have just thrown salt in the wound of our homeless existence." Her words were large and shiny, each syllable a statement in itself. Her salty wounds are fresh from New York City's successful campaign to drive homeless people off the streets and into shelters. Her East Coast organization, led by a passionately vocal Anthony Williams, was founded through the voices of homeless people. The principle of the organization is to recognize that resources to end homelessness do exist, and that those resources can only be found by listening to those that are homeless. Bright, shining homeless voices are necessary to educate the public and mobilize the political will.

These voices found an ally in the political will of progressive San Franciscan, Harry Britt. Two hours before the announcement of "Housing Winter", this District 13 Assembly Member candidate held a press conference that addressed housing rights in California. Britt recognizes and firmly supports the idea of creating permanent affordable housing. Like the Coalition on Homelessness, Britt advocates for California land trust acts and supports limited equity co-ops. A land trust is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that acquires and holds land, or interests in the land, which the community wants to protect. This land cannot be sold for profit, and therefore stays affordable to the community the land trust is created to serve. Britt supports this because it is an effective way to make housing affordable to everyone, not just investors and realtors. He also wants to repeal the Ellis Act to prevent eviction for profit, giving authority to local communities to stop uncontrolled commercial development. In addition, Britt wants to repeal Costa-Hawkins to give the ability to pass effective rent control back to local communities . Britt's agenda has much in common with the wishes of many homeless, poor, and low-income folks trying to live in San Francisco.

As "Housing Winter" builds steam, activists will try to convince local politicians to adopt the values and principles already held by Britt. "I want people to know that housing is an emergency, as in a crisis," explained Britt after the press conference, "We need to address the housing needs of the people who need housing." Concerned citizen Tommi Avicolli Mecca expanded on this idea further when he added, "We need to stop giving money to suburban sprawl. Let's give money to create housing, not to create parking." Besides the large group of San Francisco residents there to show support, Britt held stage with an impressive political crowd including Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly and Jake McGoldrick. "I want someone with his kind of vision and grit in Sacramento," said Supervisor Ammiano. His vision and grit will find an ally in many San Franciscans, as the energy from the press conference held momentum well into the afternoon and the announcement of "Housing Winter". Locals stood around and discussed Britt's campaign promises as the Coalition on Homelessness and Picture the Homeless NYC spoke golden words into curious cameras. Although Britt was not present, his words came out of each and every advocate holding stage. "Everybody has a right to a roof." "Homelessness is not a crime, it's just a situation, a situation we can change." James Tracy of Coalition on Homelessness summed up the voices when he said, "It is time to improve everyone's quality of life through ambitious housing construction programs that create living wage jobs." The voices started to melt into one and it seemed that there was a single movement of voice made up of various tones and various politics. Last Monday brought out this bright and shining voice, and it stood strong under the sun's large spotlight and squinted back at the cameras.

For more information on events pertaining to "Housing Winter", go to www.nationalhomeless.org.

by Jeffery Artist

I accept lashes. For out of African eye lashes my forefathers crafted

quilts beneath which I would later escape the weight of their guilt -

shivering helpless and haunted, daunted that"my people"have yet to say,

"WE are sorry."

WE (acronym)

white ethnocentric

wicked egotistic

would eye

sacrifice my sight in the present not to look at the past and

have to grasp the fact that i am the

alien seed

sewing oats of greed grown to feed the proliferation of the most

hideous institutions known to man

standing to this day as the corner stones of

freedom

free dumb

none but unteathered idiots weathered by,

"that all happened in the past, it's no longer significant."

With intuition's transition to denial, denial turns to paralysis.

Word becomes bond like the term "ghetto" as an adjective.

Vernacular is a jail cell in which we, like guilty children, are shackled

complacent pleading ignorance while bleeding from wrists slit reminiscent

of overcast nights that cracked for moonlight enough for the passive to

activate change, re-arrange the robery. All Americans should read

"Going to Meet the Man" before the "Celestine Prophecy."James

Baldwin called it inherent, Well, apparently, I'm a product:

odd duck white boy

decoyed by truth

proof of guilt

milk spilt in

world cup of coffee

awefully aware of how my q-tips were harvested

farthest thing from a martyr

i'm merely an artist but

when i dream it's like

i'm hanging from a tree

looking at myself generations ago asking

how could you not know

you are below human form

comsuming forms of life with no right to breath and

when i awake

it's under a knife

introducing my own life to

death

So maybe I'm not as passive asI thought. With lashes, I am

tought that karma is real. I feel the past like a salty tide

upon open wounds acknowledged in exchange for not hating myself, or

re-directing said hate upon someone else.  If I am dealt

penance, but one simple sentence will exit my lips; "I am sorry."

I am sorry for strange fruit pinyattas.

I am sorry that America may never have a Jomo Kenyatta.

I am sorry for odysseys of pop culture sewn of mockery.

I am sorry for slave master debauchery dispersing blood in forbidden

channels. I am sorry the animals were often the best dressed.

I am sorry that, if by writing this, someone feels as though I

transgress. I am sorry that ethnocentric universities are expected to be

the pedagogy of the oppressed. I am sorry that, for generations, apology

has been unimpressed, repressed and manifested

as night sticks shattering lights illuminating

the proclamation that a word is only as honest

as the man who scripts it.

I am sorry that I was a misfit on Flatbush Avenue where the little

black girls laughed telling me to go back
to the boondox and stop gentrifying cultural meccas where vulchers scoop

up cheap rent like meat stripped from bone. I am sorry

a poem is my only form of activism.

I am sorry for prison system demographics, affirmitive action and

designer brand shackles. I am sorry for laugh-tracks

applicable to black-face buffoonery. I am sorry for soon-to-be

martyrs.

I am sorry X marked the spot of progress stopped with a dissenting shot

because one man got too powerful for either side to trust.

I am sorry a King was thrust forth to bust confederate

whip grips echoing in the midst of air misted by

fire hose spray careening from a resistant pacifist's brow. I am sorry

now is not to different from then and men would rather be not bothered

than bridge ideology gaps bipassed by

their forefathers. I am sorry institutional measures for "equality" are

fodder for finger pointing, annointing one side

lazy and the other not sorry enough. I am sorry the stuff of

Spike Lee films is often taken as fiction. I am sorry that what

we hear is always conditioned by how we listen. I am sorry,

most of all, for black and white vision when neither color exists in a

prizm's definition.

I am sorry.

I am living.

by Joseph Bolden/PNN

My last dollar goes to the 14 bus on its way to Embarcadero.
I am traveling with Jewnbug, Tiny, Mari, Isabel Estrada and Charles of POOR Magazine.

My 7th day straight working and I’m not feeling as enthusiastic as the rest of the POOR staff but here we go....

We meet up with huge crowds at the Embarcadero, a multitude of signs, people, shape, sizes, creeds, sex, national origins.
Communities from so many cultures and colors are represented At this beautiful rainbow march, hopefully there will be less police.

This brother wonders where are the TV camera’s, digital camera’s etc, so if the police get rude it can be caught instantly on the web, sent globally before they can stop the evidence from being seen and have their stories of what caused the incidents.

As I record the array of voices and sounds on my trusty recorder, Mari, Jewnbug, and Charles are debating stuff I can’t hear because band music on a flatbed truck is playing and being in front of it guarantees an ongoing trail of salsa/banda

I will be way behind the march because I’m not walking fast

Charles talking a deep south or midwest dialect about the march sounding like an authentic, salt-of-the-earth farmer guy in solidarity with the march. My only critique of today is it doesn’t seem quite as well organized as last year. As we creep up Market Street, I am told by Tiny "The low wage workers" and other people are up the next block."

There is a split or section in the middle of the street where we’ve stopped in the shadow of a huge gray, granite, cement and steel buildings blocking the sun - there is a slight wind makes it colder.

At 388 Market st, The 1st Republic Bank on Fremont walking down Market Street. Supervisor Mark Leno appears and begins to join the march here. Then we are all guided to stop in deference to a trollycar containing Nancy Pelosi and other VIP’s. More children from Horace Mann Middle School and others join in the parade at 4th street.

At 6th street we walk by my tenderloin hotel and I run in for a restroom moment. I use the bathroom, clean up and return to the march still in progress.

Just like last year the marchers take the long way around 8th street before ending the Cesar Chavez March at the Civic Center where a great celebration ensues replete with a Hip Hop artist who is Cesar’s nephew rapping bout globalization and issues concerning low wage workers locally and globally

We set up the POOR Magazine outreach table (aka the Po’ table) at the festival, which has moldy green smudges on it but with a little creative use of our signs as a tablecloth it is serviceable.

All in all it was a beautiful day for us poor folks to celebrate what I like to think of as one of our own, a true hero de la gente, Cesar E. Chavez.