by Jasmine Syedullah/PNN Media Intern (Facilitated by Dee)

One morning in February I was roused from dreaming, as I am every morning, by the hypnotic drone of NPR. Between reports of Bush’s preparations for war and North Korea’s preparations for the production of nuclear weapons, came an announcement that penetrated my half-asleep dozing and made me bolt right up from my warm sheets and comforter. Mr. Rogers had died. I listened to the report fighting sleepiness to catch every word, “at age seventy four… of stomach cancer…”. I leaned slowly back into bed.

At four and fives years old I was not lacking in positive adult role models or affirmation. My father was the only preacher in our small church in Tulsa, and I was his only child, which put me smack in the middle of a whole congregation full of adorations and watchful eyes. The report on the radio ended with one of the bright piano melodies and smoothing voiceovers that had become like icons to me. At the end of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, he’d reassure me that he liked me “just the way I am”. That there is no one in the whole world like me. I came to expect and perhaps even depend a little bit on these small daily words of appreciation. Mr. Rogers had surpassed the status of mere children’s public television host and became, for that moment in time, my personal hero.

After stirring myself out of this wistful land of memories, drying my eyes and making motions to get ready for my day, I continued to think about heroes. Where had they all gone? A class of middle school students over at King Estates told me last week that a hero is someone who helps you out when you’re in danger, helps to keep you out of danger, flies around town in tights and helps old ladies cross the street. This was cute, but not exactly what I had in mind. When I was little I needed someone who told me to love myself and other people. Who helped me find helpful ways to deal with my anger, confusions and concerns and explained to me some things about the way the world worked that I was not yet aware of. Not much has changed. But now, here I am at 24 and I sense my childhood heroes are dying with no adult ones to stand tall in their place. Are heroes things of comic books and make believe? Where can we find them when we really need them? Without the aid of a weekly show-time and theme song, how am I even supposed to know one when I see one?

On May 17th I met George Tirado on assignment at a community organizers meeting in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, “The War on Terror”. Met might be a strong word, witnessed may be more appropriate. George spoke for about twenty minutes about how Bush’s “War on Terror” was affecting him at home. “We live in a police state. Face that… The politicians have politicized homelessness. It doesn’t have a face, its an issue now…”. This man is straight up keeping it real, no pretentious motivations. No sugary song and dance to convince you he’s right. There is no neatly coifed and parted hair or bright green cardigan that are gonna make you trust this guy. He certainly didn’t seem like someone I’d want to intentionally piss off. He’s gotta stand at least a head and shoulders taller than me tipping on my toes and thick and round as an old red wood. My first instinct was skepticism. Who is this guy and why is he so adamant about the limitations of our freedoms? I can do basically whatever I want. Right? Well, there was that time last Summer at JFK when I was asked to unravel my head wrap and explain to security that my grandfather had converted - had converted to Islam and that’s why my name is Arabic. And just the other week one of my youth from the YMCA got arrested during a dance for being too big, black and at the right place at the wrong time. There was nothing I could do. Is this what George meant by police state?

“What we have to do is look where we’re at right now… over in my neighborhood, in the Mission, people are dying in the streets. I see mothers crying, but no protectors, no activists”. As George says, “this is a war of attrition..”. Over the next couple weeks, though I got laid off from both my after school jobs, I wasn’t the only casualty. Twenty or so more displaced youth of color became youth at risk of becoming POWs of a system that doesn't give a fuck, or may be would even prefer if they’d fail. I was definitely going to need a battle plan.

A couple of weeks after the meeting I was fortunate enough to speak with George over the phone. I was tired. The prospect of being forced to deal with the Employment Development Department people was depressing. I had been reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X on the bus ride through the Mission to Bay View to work, getting worked up at eight in the morning about Child “protection” services and the racial exploitation that’s been going on in this country since before my great grandmother’s great granny was branded and whipped until she died. It was Tuesday, executive board meeting day, providing me a whole hour with no one in the office to interrupt my call to George Tirado for an interview and maybe some clarity and direction. I tried to sound gracious and not too nervous when he picked up the phone. “Hi. George? How are you, this is Jasmine. Is this still a good time to talk”?

He said it was a good time and mentioned that he had a stomach ache. He was taking the day off work because he’d been under a lot of stress lately. Mr. Tirado works at Hospitality House in the Tenderloin. He explained that it’s a one stop agency for homeless services, job placement, harm reduction etc. I learned that as of July 1st the 60% of the drop in center’s budget the Department of Public Health is responsible for will not be going to fund the center which was responsible to 10,000 folks last year. George wouldn’t be the only person feeling ill.

I only worked in the TL for nine months, but I know for a fact there are not enough services in that neighborhood for everybody. Before last summer I had only been in this time zone once, when I was four to visit my godparents and Mickey Mouse, the later of whom I ran away from traumatized and in tears. When I lived in New York, full of adolescent cynicism, California still maintained that same image, a place full of larger than life, fake stuff that was supposed to be fun but was really just scary. I interviewed for a job in the Tenderloin YMCA within the first week I was out here. After the interview, I walked out of the Y and turned to walk up Leavenworth towards Ellis. I felt like I had walked through a time portal and ended up in 1986, smack in the middle of the crack epidemic. It was larger than my life. It was scary. But not because it was fake. It was scary because it was please don’t reach out and touch me real.

George moved to the Bay from Huston, Texas via L.A and Flagstaff, Arizona. His education was found on the streets and in the books. He graduated with a BA in English and Philosophy. He toured with a punk rock band, got into drugs, lived in shelters and just “stewed for a long time”. “There’re a lot of cats like that. We’re the most dangerous ones… because we chose to be there… We could stay where we were or chose to get out”.

Everyone has their personal heroes and for George, it was James Tracy who flew in with the tights and cape. Tracy turned George onto his own culture. He led George to re-educate his mind and re-orientate his life through the stories, mythologies and poetry of his ancestors.

“Revolt of the Cockroach People, Chicano writers, Mayan and Aztec myths… friends like James Tracy brought me back to poetry.. I spent a lot of time reading Che Guevara in shelters… I started volunteering at Coalition on Homelessness and Tracy taught me how to organize”.

We continued to talk right up until the end of the board meeting. Our conversation picked up later on that afternoon. I think what impressed me about everything George was saying was that his philosophy, his identity, his poetry and politic are one- the way of the warrior.

“A solider is a paid mercenary. A warrior does what he does because he has to”. Warrior, hero sage. This guy is pretty powerful. He models for me what it means to truly reject this culture of oppression, not just in theory, but in practice.

“I’m anti-US, anti-colonialization… for 515 years they have been doing this in the name of democracy and freedom while the CIA and FBI have total access to all our health files, therapist visits, clinics everything”. The statement he’d made earlier about this being a police state no longer sounded like the rantings of a far fetched fanatic. It sounded like an emergency. I was beginning to feel like every moment that we don’t protest this progression is a moment of consent. The boat is sinking and eventually everyone’s going to get wet. I asked George what resistance looked like to him.

It came as no surprise to me that George Tirado rejects passivism. “I will not allow myself to just get beat by the cops. Cops come with real tear gas, real clubs and real rubber bullets – they come to hurt you. If you want to just stand there, be my guest. But if they hit me, I’ve gotta hit back. You’re not hitting a man, you’re hitting the state”.

I told George not many folks would be down to take a risk like that. “You have to know the right time to take that kind of action… that’s why I don’t agree with all direct action”, he responded.

He went on to recall the actions of some of the more radical protestors during the anti-war protests in late March, just after the US started dropping bombs on Iraq. While the Black Block was provoking the riot ready and armed cops, “thirty feet away you have a big group of pregnant women. Now that makes no sense…”

I asked George what he does when he feels the way I did at the time, that things are too big and that hope is hard to cling to. “I look to my elders” he said, “to Luis Rodrigez, James Tracy. I look at myself. If I don’t have hope I don’t believe in my cause.”

And there it was; the nihilism that constantly keeps me in the land of but what ifs. What if, like Tupac said, things will never change. What if nothing I do really matters? I had thought that George was going to say, If I don’t have hope I don’t have anything or something cliché like that, but if loosing hope means that you have no more faith in the cause you’re fighting for then that’s spiritual suicide. Maybe, what feels like loosing hope is really just feeling afraid to act on the hope you do have. Maybe.

“If we didn’t have politicians, we’d have a free society”, George’s voice took on that sense of urgency I remembered from the community meeting.

“You mean we could govern ourselves?”

“Tribal life in the third world was self-sufficient”, he responded. Its amazing how quickly we forget lessons they failed to teach us in school. George blames a lot of the anxiety we experience as a culture today on colonialization’s necessary break down of community. Without the support of our peers elders and collective stories, hope faith direction and purpose have to come to us by other means. In his neighborhood, the Mission District, this break down results in gang violence.

“All these guys are dying for land, if they were smart, they’d turn their guns n the landlords…” The concept of ownership is another mental disorder of colonial takeover. George explained that before land was a commodity it was a gift.

Truth is like cod liver oil. Tough to swallow, but sure to keep you regular, just like your daddy said. As I sailed home on my bike through the Mission, George’s words echoed around in my head. I was still freaking out about finding another job and battling the folks at EDD for a check before the 1st of the month. But I was 600 years of oppression filled cells waiting to explode. I felt reinvigorated. “It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive/ such a hap-py feeling you’re growing inside…” I have to laugh when I find myself singing good old Mr. Rogers tunes, like some people find themselves reciting prayers.

This search for heroes is really just boiling down to a search for faith. So some of my faith comes from a TV show. So what! These are desperate times. Faith is faith, wherever it comes from is sacred. George said that it one of the wholly personal things we take with us to the grave. And you just can’t touch that.

The Narrative Essays on PNN are created by Interns in The Poverty Studies/Media Activism Institute at POOR. The class is co-facilitated by Dee and strives to attain journalistic excellence on issues of poverty and racism by combining literary art with journalism.

by Joe B.

Disclaimer:The views here are by the author himself Not POOR Magazine.

If some of it offends readers send letters to Joseph Bolden /CO
askjoe@poor magazine.org

I thought I was done with the Cryonics (freeze after death stuff).

But it occurs to me having organizations to help me ease back into society after being revived after death is one way of coping another is gathering past memories.

This can be a combination of books, records, tapes, CD’s,(Compact Disks) video’s, dvd’s (Digital Video Disks)
old radio, TV, personalities and shows.

Its not living in the past but having things of the past from your era or era’s.

Of course some people with way to much money and nostalgic longings for the so called good old days can end up living in a Village, City, where time literally stops.

I don’t want that just to have memories of my personal time as I gradually learn how to live, work, and survive in my new future.

While dead then after my brain is being renewed, rewired like that film "Demolition Man" I’d like to have languages, updated applied sciences, art, mathematics, civilian and military knowledge of how to training and self protection that could be hardwired into "sleepers" as an added benefit.

Physical, mental, social living and writing in-field (outside of hospital/clinic facilities).

A test for being close and detachment will be when Sex Surrogate/Psychologists themselves or their assistants physically interact with patients most likely ready to rejoin the living.

For those not ready it may take longer to detach from their surrogates and if possible a surrogates truly loves his or her patient their jobs won’t be lost just docked a years pay and will be on indefinite leave pending outcome of inquiry.

Fame for the very first revived human being can be a traumatic ranging from world love, hate, indifference, to individuals fascination with making out with a formally dead person akin to Star F___ing.

This could be a similar form of F.F.F.Fornication with Formally Frozen

C.C.C.or Cadaver/Corpse Copulation.

More euphemism’s can and will be coined but imagine being the object of such intense lurid attentions from a few weeks to years because you literally embody people’s fear of sex and death?

The world will have changed in 60, 80, or a century and for any individual stepping back into life from death will be a challenge not only to themselves personally but to the world at large.

What happens if psychopaths, child molesters, or serial rapists or murder’s are brought back how will society deal with these looming issues?

I do not know the answers to these serious questions.

But I do know humanities longing for life extension and immortality won’t be stopped by politicians, corporate interests or religious organizations.

If I am the first eyewitness to this technological breakthroughs

I hope to be able to bare up to what happens if I am reanimated after what would to me seem a long sleep instead of real death.

Maybe someone else, a woman, child, handicapped person given new body, limbs, or anyone coming back from death could fare far better than I that would make everyone coming behind have a smoother way in their second life.

You already know my answer, death is part of life but death can be has been delayed, slowed, reversed, and some people have been brought back.

I’m itching to find out that between the deity, human, artificial intelligent guided technologies a way will be found to revive people not only back to life but also made younger, their biological/chronological clocks also rewound for better and longer lives.

In my humble way I hope to be one of many beneficiaries of the life extension emerging sciences.
Not to try is to give up and human’s rarely give up or give in.

I guess I’m part of 1 to 2% that never say die. Bye…

Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Tricia Ward/PNN Media Intern (Facilitated by Dee)

I leaned against the wall outside of City Lights Bookstore in North Beach. It was a gray, misty day in San Francisco, but mood of the crowd that surrounded me was one of celebration.
I had come to join a group of several hundred at the 50th anniversary celebration for one of the few remaining independent bookstores in the city, if not the nation, City Lights. As the celebration began with an introduction of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the former Navy Skipper, turned poet, turned literary crusader, I glanced through the window into the bookstore and noticed something that took me back to my own childhood. Inside the store, oblivious to the hubbub outside was young girl probably about age nine or ten who reminded of myself back when I was that age.

She was in a chair with her head bent down over the book in her lap, her long brown hair hiding her face. She was in deep concentration over whatever she reading, and neither the celebration taking place outside nor the customers inside brushing past her took her eyes away from the novel. As Lawrence began telling the tale of the bookstore that has spent 50 years resisting mainstream culture and censorship, I watched the girl inside reading and was reminded of the way books framed, shaped, and developed my world.

Books! I can’t remember a time when I didn’t devour them. I come from long line of great readers. My entire family mom, dad, sister and brother were all certified bookworms. I wasn’t allowed to watch much television growing up, the exception being any show that appeared on Channel 9, the local public television station. “TV makes your brains mushy” my mother always said. So while my friends’ brains were turning into Jell-o Pudding from too much Scooby Doo and The Bionic Man, I was immersed in my own world between the pages of books.

As Lawrence and the other speakers at the celebration talked about the legacy of City Lights as a “Literary landmark, where people from across the country come to browse, read and just soak in the ambience”, I could relate to exactly what they felt. Books were my outlet while growing up. Books took me away from what a considered to be a painfully normal existence and created a whole new world for me. Through books, I could visit a mysterious and wonderful chocolate factory run by impish and seemingly mad man, I could travel to the Emerald City to see the wizard, I could hang out with Raymond as he hung out after bedtime in the land “Where the Wild Things Are”. While turning their pages I could become a princess, a warrior, a sassy little French girl named Madeline cavorting through Paris with her sassy group of friends.

Near my house was an independent bookstore, not unlike City Lights, called Little Professor. It was close enough for me to walk to it on my own, something I did quite frequently growing up. I could spend an entire afternoon tucked away in that musty-smelling nook, in the corner between the massive shelves stacked from floor to ceiling with pages and pages of prose. This was before the days of the mega-bookstores with built-in Starbucks. Hanging out in bookstores was not yet considered mainstream cool, but those who were really in the know, like the so-called beatniks that frequented City Lights in the early days, knew it was cool to hang in the bookstore. I indeed, felt very cool perusing novels amongst the grown-ups.

As I passed through my childhood I left the land of fairy tales and began to read all the teenage staples such as Judy Blume and V.C. Andrews. I also read anything else that looked even remotely interesting regardless of its ‘suitability’ (another mother-ism) for my age. I read “Helter Skelter” about the vicious murders committed by Charles Manson and his followers, and spent an entire month sleeping with my light on. I couldn’t even tell me parents why I suddenly developed a fear of the dark, for my greater fear was them censoring what I read.

Censure was the topic up on the speakers’ platform outside of City Lights, as the infamous court case regarding Allen Ginsberg’s supposedly obscene poem “Howl” was being told. Throughout the trial in 1957, City Lights continued to sell the book that the court wanted banned, and even had it prominently displayed in the front window of the store. Lawrence’s victory at the trial blazed the trail for many great works of literature that might otherwise have been labeled obscene and been censured or banned outright.

“That trial marked a literary revolution” a man standing near me commented. Revolution indeed. My own literary revolution of sorts happened one day in the bookstore sometime in my pre-teens. For some reason, my otherwise strict parents gave me free reign to roam around the bookstore. I would explore, wandering unsupervised through the aisles outside of the Childrens and Young Adults section. On this particular day I got the perfect opportunity to educate myself in a way that I felt my parents or my Catholic-school teachers never would. There it was - the large white book with the bright red title letters that had been making headlines and talk shows throughout the nation. Here it was right in front of me, my opportunity to gain insight to all the mysteries of the world! After making several trips up and down that aisle, pretending to look be interested in any other book but THAT one, and making sure at least ten times that the coast was clear, I quickly snatched it off the shelf and hurried to a corner, held the it flat on my lap, with my legs up hiding the cover of the forbidden volume; “The Joy of Sex”. I took a deep breath, opened the cover and began. …

I numbly left the store two hours later surely with more knowledge than I had when I entered but most certainly more confused than ever. Perhaps my mother was right that certain things were ‘unsuitable’ for me at that age.

In college when the boy, the only boy I was convinced I would ever love broke my heart, books overflowing with poetry and mournful tales of love lost forever became my bible, these authors understood, they knew my pain! I read and re-read these melodramatic tomes until the pages where worn thin or at least until the next only-boy-I-would-ever-love came along.

Bookstores like City Lights allowed me to continue to read into adulthood without censure. Back in 1989 when the ‘Satanic Verses’ was published and promptly earned it’s author Salman Rushdie a death sentence, the chain bookstores rushed to pull the book from their shelves. City Lights, however, like my own local independent bookstore, refused to remove the condemned novel. Thanks to bookstores like City Lights I was able to read it and form my own opinions without corporate America attempting to form them for me.

Books have taught me to think, to analyze, to criticize. Recently a friend of mine raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw that leftist, liberal me had a copy of “Bias,” a decidedly right-wing criticism of how liberals are ruining the media, on my nightstand. I shrugged. “You have to keep your enemies close” I explained.

In front of City Lights, prizes were being given to children who had read a book and written an essay about the meaning of the book to them. The children walked up one by one to claim their prizes. Many of the books they had read were the same ones I devoured page by page over 20 years ago. Probably the same books that the little girl, with the long dark hair inside the store poured over now.

The Narrative Essays are created by Interns in The Poverty Studies/Media Activism Institute at POOR. The class is co-facilitated by Dee and strives to attain journalistic excellence on issues of poverty and racism by combining literary art with journalism.

by ADRIEL HAMPTON AND EVELYN RUSLI/San Francisco Examiner

To deliver on campaign promises, Care Not Cash will cost millions more
than The City currently spends on homeless welfare recipients,
supervisors heard Monday.

According to Board of Supervisors Budget Analyst Harvey Rose,
providing housing, food, health care and mental health treatment for
homeless welfare recipients will cost far more than the $13.9 million
budget for cash welfare grants.

Supervisors used Rose's findings to batter absent mayoral candidate
Supervisor Gavin Newsom, who authored the measure.

Supervisors Tony Hall, Chris Daly and Matt Gonzalez were particularly
wary of the Department of Human Services' estimate that in the initial
12 months of the program's implementation, 50 percent of participants
will drop out.

"We either add more money or we have to accept the claim that 50
percent of the people will walk away," said Hall. "I'm having a rough
time believing that 50 percent of the people will walk away. Neither
option is what the voters voted on. No new tax dollars will be spent
... I just fail to see how that's possible," Hall said.

Trent Rohrer, executive director of the DHS, supported the 50 percent
figure by explaining that it is based on compelling data and reflects
a slow, steady dropout over 12 months. In response, some supervisors
voiced concern that even this figure was financially troubling because
the DHS further estimated that half of the dropouts would still be
dependent on The City if they move off the homeless rolls but still
draw welfare checks. They can do so by claiming a residence that a DHS
caseworker will then confirm.

"Half of the dropoff is not exactly dropped off. They are still
getting cash disbursements," Gonzalez said.

Supervisor Chris Daly estimated that the cost would be at least $3
million greater than what The City now pays in welfare grants to the
homeless, just for housing and food.

"The details were not thought out. It's almost embarrassing," Daly
said. "We need to get back to the basics and get some things done but
this model right here is not getting things done and the math doesn't
add up."

Gonzalez said it seems that a working Proposition N -- with new
housing and treatment programs -- would look more like Proposition O,
a Care Not Cash rival measure that mandated a specific number of new
housing and treatment slots before cutting cash to homeless people. It
failed at the ballot last year.

For more than three hours, supervisors hammered away at the
legislation without the presence of Newsom or a DHS representative,
and committee chair Hall repeatedly criticized their lack of
attendance. The meeting agenda, however, clearly stated that there
would be no action on the item, and that Newsom and Rhorer would be
unavailable. Both came to the hearing after 1 p.m.

At issue for Hall were "thousands" of e-mails demanding that he stop
slowing down implementation of Care Not Cash. After Newsom arrived,
Hall called for a Tuesday hearing to take action on Prop. N.

Newsom stridently objected.

"To throw this on tomorrow without any notification to thousands of
San Franciscans is to me wholly inappropriate and absolutely unfair on
the basis of process and the basis of principle," Newsom said. "This
is absolutely wrong."

Pointing a finger back at Newsom, Hall replied, "Your office was
notified about the hearing, how long do you want to delay this?"

After more heated words, Hall recessed the meeting. Reconvening
without Newsom, Hall explained they had agreed to schedule action on
Care Not Cash for next Monday. That could put the legislation before
the full board for action as early as July 8.

The issue of time and the program's stalled implementation was a
constant topic of debate throughout the hearing. As the July 1
deadline looms overhead, there has been building pressure to turn out
results. However, Rose concluded that Care not Cash will not even be
fully implemented by the spring 2004 deadline promised to voters in
November.

The courts have thrown out key provisions of the measure, but Newsom
has pushed the board to pass those provisions. Newsom says the reform
will take a good deal of time to run smoothly.

by Alex Cuff, Newsbrief Editor

From the San Francisco Youth Commission

The San Francisco Youth Commission is in opposition to the war on Iraq . We believe that peaceful solutions are always the best way to
solve a conflict, whether it be in a fight between friends, a domestic violence situation or in conflict with another country. Innocent people will
die in this war for which there was seemingly no provocation. By ignoring the largest peace movement in the history of the world, our
government has decided to use our young people to play police of the world, a job that they neither signed up for nor are prepared to play.

We as the Youth Commission are in a better position than any other governmental body to relate to and feel compassion for the troops
fighting in Iraq . They are our contemporaries, our peers, and our friends. The Youth Commission fully supports our troops by demanding
that they be taken from harms way immediately. There is no reason that Iraqi and US youth should be killing each other; not for oil, not for
pride, and not for revenge.

We are proud to see the millions of youth around the world participate and lead the anti-war movement. As youth, we must create the vision
for what we want to see happen in our society. With our combined hope, vision, and other talents, we are unstoppable. We know that
throughout history youth have always been at the frontlines of making social change happen. In the late 1960s, young people organized when
they saw their friends, their brothers, their husbands and their boyfriends being sent overseas to fight in the Vietnam War, a conflict that many
of them did not understand or support. Today our young people carry on that tradition by volunteering in higher numbers than in any
previous generation.
We are out protesting more than our parents, the baby-boomer generation, did. We are crafting a vision of a world where resources are spent
on education, healthcare and housing, not on military action that results in death and destruction. Students have organized demonstrations
against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq , including students at Hampshire College who passed a resolution condemning the civilian death toll
in the war on terrorism. More than ever before, we as young people are demanding that our voice be heard. We refuse to stay silent while our
contemporaries are being ordered to attack a country in which 50% (9 million people) of the population is under 17 years of age.

As Ghandi said "Strength does not come from physical capacity." Our greatest leaders, the people who have helped our society takes leaps in
moral sobriety have been peaceful. People such as Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and Henry Thoreau have strengthened our social
consciousness and made the world better without relying on physical force, by instead letting their strength manifest itself in the power of
conviction and an unwillingness to stoop to the level of violence. Our strength and courage as a nation does not come from killing, it comes
from our kindness, love, and our compassion.

The Youth Commission hopes that our congressional leaders and the president will reconsider the implications of this war and stop the
invasion of Iraq before more blood is needlessly shed. We pray for the lives of all the participants in this war, whether they be combatant,
civilian, American or Iraqi.

by Dee/PNN

In the Sunday, June 15th edition of the SF Chronicle, Representative Ellen Tauscher, "one of only two California democrats", is quoted as saying (regarding the war in Iraq) "I was certainly misled about Iraq being an imminent threat."

Why don't we believe this? Perhaps because Congresswoman Barbara Lee was not "misled". Why is that? Is it because she is so much smarter than Ellen Tauscher and the other North California democrat Diane Feinstein?

We don't think so - we think it is because Ellen is a stenographer; a Republicrat; a stenographer for the Bush the administration - As is that other Northern California democrat Diane Feinstein.

And now after the war, after these two gave a Blank Check to George Bush to destroy Iraq (in order to protect Israel and get control of the middle east, etc.) the only two Northern California democrats step back and say, "the devil made me do it."

Isn't this a similar scenario to WWII - didn't the germans say "we didn't know there were death camps, we were misled by the government."

Do you really believe we are fooled by your protestations of innocence - of being "misled"?

It's obvious that "the only two Northern California democrats" want to be re-elected and they want the votes of the voters who were against the war in Iraq. They want those votes so that they can return to Washington and spend more of our time and money supporting the policies of the George Bush administration.

by Staff Writer

By Paul Krugman

By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as antiwar rallies, but they have
certainly
been vehement. One of the most striking took place
after
Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks,
criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in
Louisiana to
watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of
Dixie
Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those
familiar with 20th-century European history it
seemed
eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair Lewis
said, it
can't happen here.

Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The
answer,
it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key
players in the radio industry - with close links to
the
Bush administration.

The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of
Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the
Dixie
Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war
demonstrations around the country have, however,
been
organized by stations owned by Clear Channel
Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that
controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly
dominates the airwaves.

The company claims that the demonstrations, which go
under
the name Rally for America, reflect the initiative
of
individual stations. But this is unlikely: according
to
Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory articles
about
Clear Channel in Salon, the company is notorious -
and
widely hated - for its iron-fisted centralized
control.

Until now, complaints about Clear Channel have
focused on
its business practices. Critics say it uses its
power to
squeeze recording companies and artists and
contributes to
the growing blandness of broadcast music. But now
the
company appears to be using its clout to help one
side in a
political dispute that deeply divides the nation.

Why would a media company insert itself into
politics this
way? It could, of course, simply be a matter of
personal
conviction on the part of management. But there are
also
good reasons for Clear Channel - which became a
giant only
in the last few years, after the Telecommunications
Act of
1996 removed many restrictions on media ownership -
to
curry favor with the ruling party. On one side,
Clear
Channel is feeling some heat: it is being sued over
allegations that it threatens to curtail the airplay
of
artists who don't tour with its concert division,
and there
are even some politicians who want to roll back the
deregulation that made the company's growth
possible. On
the other side, the Federal Communications
Commission is
considering further deregulation that would allow
Clear
Channel to expand even further, particularly into
television.

Or perhaps the quid pro quo is more narrowly
focused.
Experienced Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!"
when
Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war
rallies, because the company's top management has a
history
with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear
Channel is
Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of
this
column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr.
Hicks was
chairman of the University of Texas Investment
Management
Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel's
chairman, Lowry
Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco
placed much
of the university's endowment under the management
of
companies with strong Republican Party or Bush
family ties.
In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a
deal
that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.

There's something happening here. What it is ain't
exactly
clear, but a good guess is that we're now seeing the
next
stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy.
As
Jonathan Chait has written in The New Republic, in
the Bush
administration "government and business have melded
into
one big `us.' " On almost every aspect of domestic
policy,
business interests rule: "Scores of midlevel
appointees . .
.. now oversee industries for which they once
worked." We
should have realized that this is a two-way street:
if
politicians are busy doing favors for businesses
that
support them, why shouldn't we expect businesses to
reciprocate by doing favors for those politicians -
by, for
example, organizing "grass roots" rallies on their
behalf?

What makes it all possible, of course, is the
absence of
effective watchdogs. In the Clinton years the merest
hint
of impropriety quickly blew up into a huge scandal;
these
days, the scandalmongers are more likely to go after
journalists who raise questions. Anyway, don't you
know
there's a war on?

by Eric Wason/PNN Media Intern

I walked with a shopping cart to the Safeway entrance. There, a young boy was

starting sentences with, "Excuse me...," and "Hello...," but he wasn't given chances to

finish them. From a few feet away, I stopped to witness swarms of people look at the

ground, scan their receipts, or keep tight hold of their chatter as they strolled past the young

boy. Feeling called to stop the aloofness, I beamed an encouraging smile to him and

handed him two dollars.

The candy smelled rich and inviting as I unraveled its wrapper. The crunch of

hazelnuts with the chocolate did not take me away from reflecting on the encounter with

the young salesman and its connection to a mental health forum that I attended earlier that

day.

The open doors of Everett Middle School in the heart of San Francisco welcomed

me to the "Freedom Forum: An Alternative Mental Health Conference". The site was a

joining of Mental Health Activists and the Community for the advocation of dignity in the

Mental Health Field.

Electroshock, one of the many examples of forced medical treatment, is given to an

estimation of 110,000 Americans each year, according to the National Institute of Mental

Health. Jeff Cohon and Norman Solomon of Creators Syndicate report that "some are

pushed through legal loopholes and subjected to electroshock against their expressed will"

or "forced into bogus 'agreement' in the midst of coercion or confusion."

I sat in the school's auditorium to hear the open discussion. Having aided at-risk

youth with emotional issues, I was both alarmed and proud to see dozens of forced shock

treatment survivors raise their hands to identify themselves. I applauded their courage and

strength with the audience. At the same time, my mind imagined their past struggles

against their wills as I looked at their many faces.

The stories of the survivors point to the future challenge of our world to strive for

dignity above all things. Diane Kern, founder of the Insight Center, profoundly alluded to

how major points of world change have taken place throughout history because of

emotions labeled as symptoms for Depression in the Psychological Handbook, DSM. She

went on to say, "Where would we be if the Civil Rights Activists of the 1960's like Martin

Luther King took anti-depressants?" All of the survivors were present to make change and

positivity out of the failure of doctors to be sensitive to their unique life histories and

wishes.

Drug companies are also failing to see the dignity involved in emotions and their

uniqueness in each human. Their plan to globalize drugs is steered by their perspective of

reducing humans down to our chemical make-up for the purpose of higher profits. This

view is being shown in the industry's drug tests, which has been cited by the FDA with the

drug Resperadol, for example. According to Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America:

Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, an FDA

test result for the drug Resperadol concluded in multiple deaths to subjects after it was

falsely touted by its drug company as having no side effects. He went on to say that the

praise for the drug was even backed by company-payed doctors whose work was quoted in

leading scientific literature. Besides the health dangers, these false hopes are keeping

people from the value of love, support, friendship, healthy food, proper rest, and human

connections in healing. When I think about the many people on our streets who

are suffering mentally, homeless or not, that are either forced or led to believe that a pill

will answer their hopes, I fight harder to believe in the importance of respect, sensitivity,

and engaging others. The Forum has helped me see that the world is in not only in a

struggle for dignity, but also in a struggle to appropriately honor our emotional gifts. I

wonder how a society targets pills as cures for our emotional pains rather than the authentic

feelings that stand waiting on the other side of ourselves to comfort our uncontrollable

weaknesses.

They say that chocolate is an anti-depressant. From the Safeway check-stands, I look

at the young salesman again and the spools of disengagement that roll past him. I wish that

there is something inside the people that will help them acknowledge him. I hesitate to

manufacture their responses out of decency for their feelings. If I had the resources, I would

hire the young salesman and others to stand in front of drug companies to sell something truly

valuable. This time their boxes would be empty of chocolate, with true engagement serving as

the only product.

by Joe B.

Mama’s 21+ birthday over and it is always restful to be in her home and because she’s a good cook its only that I really get away from City politicking and view swirling about all the time.

Before leaving I check one of many intimate cyber date sites finding five listed and judging by the first cute, petite, cuddly little sassafras frame leaning upon a tree.

Rose_ Pedal is a the name given.

I may have made errors in emailing back along with five other person’s also but here is a sample of how I tried to quickly answer emails to me.

For Rose_ Pedal, Thank you for a sensuous view (I would never peek, stare, or ogle but a long careful, eyeful would be appropriate.

I'll be with my Mother in Fairfield Ca.

Because its her birthday so if this does not find you I'm having it copied to send again.

I just made a few inches past five feet.

May we both find one another or if not the one we both seek.

Yes, I wrote that way with a little tongue-in-cheek poetic, romantic imagery.

All six I uniquely tailored to them individually.

Then the postmaster site informs me none of it went through so I publicly apologize to each person beginning with the lovely Rose_Pedal.

Sometimes I think the web is another frustration waiting to swamp me.

I’d like to cut out the middle man/ woman date site and email directly to them or they to me then it goes beyond cyberspace and into real time, place, and seeing each other physically after people.

I guess its because I’m still not use to all this stuff.

At some chat sites I find so much chatter except for the over 50 or order ones they help neophytes online but the other way under 50 to 40’s folks chatter on sometimes ignoring or blocking new people on the site as if it’s a private club.

I don’t chat in other sexual orientations due to dialog differences, syntax, lingo, and slang for example "Cool doesn’t only mean in-with it, but dislike; as in "I’m cool on her/him/them now."

Also there’s historical context of heterosexual discrimination, now seemingly the discrimination is on the other foot because if straight folks do stray into the cite one of three things are likely to happen either they are called to get out or talked about in slang not easily understood.

Told to get out, or ignored until they leave c-room.

That’s why I go to the adult site because I’d like to date and romance but ultimately to just cut all the bush beating around and get to wall-to-floor, wet and dry, body rock.

Good or bad both people can meet others or stay together maybe have swing parties.

Personally, I’m strictly one on one with the opposite sex.

If that’s being dull, old fashioned that’s fine with me because when I look at
"The History Channel’s" History Of Sex.

I’m glad my taking too long to finish isn't as abnormal as a few women have said its give and take.

Some take it, some don’t, and a few do outlast me.

Now that’s the kind of battle-of-the-sexes-I’m talking about.

Anyway, I have to figure out these intimate web sites, making money online, cheap air fare’s, and free gifts also.

Next week I'll write about the so called perfect man/wymyn
as mortal and immortal also in this brave new world of the genome how possibly a both may indeed be lucky enough to transition from mortal to extended life or Immortal and how such a change could free him/her of many of the anxieties, complexes they now have.
[Yes, I may have to spend time in Poly/Sci, women’s herstory, literature and psychology after the irate letters, mash notes, video, dvd’s or color photo’s of women alternately saying

"You A-hole, A genius, An oddball, or I know where you live, Your Screwed."

The last statement is problematic; I just hope she’s a nymphomaniac with short term memory and to her its always the first time she’s hunted me down.

Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Alex Cuff, Newsbrief Editor

Oakland - March 5 marked the day for the National Student Strike against the
war. High school and college students from San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley
and around the Bay Area walked out of classes today in support of peace.

Instead of protecting this peaceful protest, however, Oakland Police marred
the day by brutally attacking the youth and several elderly people
accompanying them.

Gathering in downtown Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza, the
protest began peacefully with police looking on. As 300 to 400 students,
most from local high schools, marched peacefully down Broadway toward Jack
London Square, carrying a banner, singing and chanting in the tradition of
nonviolent protest, members of the Oakland Police Department began following
the protesters, and the number of officers steadily increased.

Once the students reached Jack London Square, police began attacking them,
running into the demonstrators with their motorcycles. Ra'shida Askey,
managing editor and staff writer for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper,
asked officers why they were running over the young marchers. In response, a
black female police officer grabbed Ra'shida by the neck and placed her in a
chokehold. The Bay View's associate editor, JR Valrey, who was also covering
the march, came to his colleague's aid. At this point, several officers
swarmed both JR and Ra'shida, knocking them to the ground and beating them
both. Ra'shida sustained the most injuries.
JR and Ra'shida were placed in a paddy wagon. When another arrested
demonstrator, Kelly Duncan, joined them, the Black woman police officer
holding her remarked, "It was three of them! I should have been able to use
my gun."

The two Bay View journalists are currently being detained at the Oakland
City Jail and have been refused release on their own recognizance. They are
being charged with obstructing and battering a police officer and resisting
arrest. The extent of their injuries is unknown.

These unprovoked attacks are yet another example of the out of control
conduct of the Oakland Police Department and police departments across the
nation. The ferocity and severity of the attack on these two Black
journalists, representing a Black newspaper, and on young demonstrators -
predominantly Black high school students - looks suspiciously like a case of
racial profiling. In the Bay Area, known for racial diversity, political
activism and overwhelming opposition to U.S. plans for war, such attacks on
freedom of speech and of the press are intolerable.

In a show of support, please share this information widely and make your
opinions known to the Oakland Mayor's Office at (510) 238-3141 and the
Oakland Chief of Police at (510) 238-3365.

by Tiny

Brown paper leaves bounce against an asphalt sky

Send me your love…love..love…love…

I stumbled down my street in the heart of the Tenderloin last night. It was 1:30am and the street was soaked in that odd California-night-quiet. I had been searching for at least 20 minutes for a legal parking space, giving up only when I was too tired to look any longer and almost ran into a police car in the process. In the end, out of pure exhaustion I settled for the least conspicuous illegal space that I could find, silently computing the addition to my long list of community service "time" I already owed for previous tickets.

Send me your love…yeah yeah

As I walked further down the street I heard music…well it wasn’t music exactly – more like derivative electronic drum beat ala 90’s gym music reaching out of a very small radio speaker. At first I just heard it, a small smile creeping into the corners of my mouth, thinking it was really somehow floating through my mind, attached to a passing car or out of someone’s apartment window, and then I saw him

Fingers extend up- pushing wind and sky aside
Back bend…left leg extension…..back and then over…
Arms up up and then again ….fly….

A man moving his limbs through the cold, black night. With each thin strain of rhythm there was a sweep of pink flesh –barely visible- Back bend..right leg extension Up – step ball change…arms uP – up

When you’re walking in the sky heaven’s holding hands with me…..so you better learn to fly - I’m happy just to be…
..

I watched for only a second – my tired eyes feeling his pure unbridled hope if only for a second that everything is fixable if you can move to it… remembering my own ability to dance my way out of anything, eviction, homelessness, a bad day at the low-wage job – remembering that magical power of rythm itself as it rolls through your discouraged body – the rush of endorphins – the thrill of the crowd – tonite would be your night – everyone would be watching you –

…Step ball change Up Fly.

And then I saw them – the Florescent beams cutting through the darkness. The most dangerous kind of stage lights a dancer could feel -

I’m happy just to be……..the music continued to scream

Step ball change..curl…step UP…fly…..

But you know something just wasn’t right

The lights lingered too long – slicing his body in half, "POLICE – YOU NEED TO MOVE NOW , THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY" the machine-like voices boomed out of a black unmarked ford sedan

When you’re walking in the sky heaven’s holding hands with me…..so you better learn to fly - I’m happy just to be…

The lights moved into the small doorway of the abandoned office, encompassing the movement, squashing the hope, breaking the rhythm, covering the light

so you better learn to fly

by Dee Gray - with editorial assistance by Alex Cuff

Dee: Your platform was “The Federal Government Has Gone Stark, Raving Mad.” Could you talk a little bit about the basis of that?

David: That was just a portion of my platform – And it was more like a slogan, that particular saying and what I said was “the federal government has gone stark, raving mad,” and therefore What that means is that if we’re concerned about sustainability, if we’re concerned about our civil liberties we need to build them locally and that was what I pledged to do as a cabinet for city council.

You know i fully believe that the federal government has gone stark, raving mad. The executive branch is wielding power that the founders of our nation, of the constitution didn’t envision...the system of checks and balances is just not working right.

Dee: Yeah, I thought that too. The interesting thing too is that this ordinance had near unanimous approval for the people of Arcata and what do you think that is, something in the water maybe? Or that the community is all ex-patriates from San Francisco or from some other politically involved place or what?

David: I would say that “near unanimous” might be a slight exaggeration. At the meetings where we discussed it – we had a town hall meeting and we also had 3 council meetings where public comment was invited... And I’d say that 80% of the people who spoke, favored the ordinance and 10% didn’t favor the ordinance but were opposed to the Patriot Act and thought there was a better way to address the Patriot Act and then there was a good solid 10% who thought the Patriot Act was necessary and a good thing. But I think the reason you can get such a large percentage favoring something like an ordinance against a set of federal laws is that this particular issue bridges the spectrum, the political spectrum because you get obviously progressives that are opposed to the act and have been since the beginning and also libertarians and people on the far – there are a lot of people who think our freedom is at fault, one way or another, and who would like to defend the constitution.

Dee: Well you said about 10% thought that we needed the Patriot Act? Did you ever talk to any of them? What, why would they say that? Do you know what their thinking is?

David: Well if we’re to believe the poles, probably 30% or 40% (of people) across the country favor the Patriot Act, nationwide and I think the Patriot Act was passed right after September 11th, it was passed in a moment of incredible fear and to the extent that it promises to make terrorist attacks less likely, certain people will favor it even if they’re losing civil liberties, they’ll say well it’s the bad guys who are losing their rights it doesn’t affect them. I think most people, once they realize it does affect them, and that it does infringe upon our privacy that they will tend to oppose it more but I think that’s a process of education; to let people see what the patriot act really does.

Dee: And your ordinance is...? What specifically?

David: Um, the ordinance...first we passed the resolution back in January where we were the 26 of cities to even do that and then we thought we’d take it a step further and do an actual ordinance which has the power of law. And our ordinance does several things. First of all, it instructs city management employees, the heads of our departments, to not participate in any sort of profiling or arrest procedures that are unconstitutional, targeting certain ethnic groups of any kind. And secondly it instructs management employees to not voluntarily cooperate with federal agents under the Patriot Act or related act like the Homeland Security Act – to not cooperate in any unconstitutional requests like search and seizures or arrests or surveillance and finally it instructs the employees, that if they are approached and asked to do this that first of all they refuse to do it and then they report it to the city manager who reports it to the city council so that the council can review the specific case. Because of course we have no problem with cooperating with federal searches under standard warrants with the standard checks and balances in place.

Dee: Have any city managers or council members had any trouble with the feds since you’ve come up with this ordinance?

David: No, the FBI did drop by to pick up a copy of the ordinance at one point. We don’t really expect to have requests by the federal government – it may not happen at all. What we see this as is a preemptive attack, to protect the constitution, a preemptive attack to kind these kinds of things. But this one is a non-violent preemptive attack in defense of the constitution and of our civil liberties.

Dee: I love your use of the word “preemptive” considering that was used in Iraq, it’s just great, you through it right back at them. I noticed that you had a different chief of police when I was reading the news. Why does he no longer hold that position? Does that have something to do with the Patriot Act?

David: It has nothing to do with the Patriot Act... he was kind of on his way out way quite a while before this whole Patriot Act revolution came up. An interesting fact is that our police chief was in total support of passing this ordinance - he said it just reinforces what he does anyway which is to respect the constitution and after all, all public officials, myself included take an oath of office in which we pledge to uphold the constitution and to protect it from all enemies, domestic and foreign, and right now we feel the constitution is under attack from a domestic enemy ...

Dee: such as?

David:...the executive branch of our government.

Dee: Are you thinking in particular Mr. Ashcroft when you’re talking about that or all of the above?

David: I certainly blame Ashcroft. As far as President Bush goes I tend to think he is really controlled by the same folks who have been after the power for the last 30 years; Cheney and Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell, Brajinski, the crew that has been working their way up in structure of our government for the last 30 years and now find themselves on the top and want to stay there and i think that’s the most scary thing really for all of us. There’s been this coup and we are now being controlled by folks who have a world view that includes invading countries out of greed and lust for power.

Dee: Have any other cities attempted to talk to you about incorporating this into their city council and so on since you’ve passed this ordinance?

David: There are now 127 resolutions. To my knowledge there haven’t been any other ordinances, I think several cities are considering it – I think both San Francisco and Berkeley would be prime candidates for that.

Dee: Isn’t that true? I know...and they don’t...they only go just so far with it.

David: The number of cities passing resolution has been exhilarating – it’s quite exciting that Hawaii and Alaska have passed resolutions and I think that once the budget gets dealt with in California we may be working on it in our own state.

Dee: You have a new chief of police. Does he support the Patriot Act or in favor of the ordinance opposing it?

David: I know for a fact that the chief of police (Randy Mendoza) supports our ordinance protecting the people of Arcata from the effects of the Patriot Act.

Dee: So you know his feelings about it?

David: Well he helped write the ordinance...he participated in the process.

Dee: Is there anything you think that i’ve left out, that you want to add? And I want to get your name and that you are from Aracata.

David: The main point I really want to get across is that to fight despite things like the Patriot Act. I believe one of the best ways to do it is through the municipal government – they’re our most accessible, our most local, kind of our friendliest government and they give power to our voices over just writing letters and emails. And so I certainly help that more cities continue to pass resolutions and that those involved think that we should all be working on our representatives across the country to get more state resolutions passed. I think the sort of publicity that is out now abopuit the Patriot Act has already assured us that there will at least be a lot of discussion before they pass Patriot Act 2. We need to make sure that there’s not only discussion but that it gets voted down.

Dee: Have you come up with any ordinances or are there any in the planning stages for the Patriot Act 2?

David: Our ordinance actually includes the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, related executive orders and any future similar legislation. So we covered ourselves.

Dee: So the Patriot Act 2 is a done deals, it’s over as far as Aracata goes, it’s not gonna happen there.

David: We will not be a part of the chain of command between the federal government and the people.

Dee: When do you have your council meetings?

David: First and 3rd Wednesday of every month as city hall at 7pm.

David Meserve

City Council Member, City of Arcata (elected in 2002)

Makes a living designing and building houses

greenarcata@hotmail.com

by Joe B.

Exsiltensialism, long word, many great philosopher’s have studied on the problem racking brilliant minds or it.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s meaning of Existentialism: A philosophy centered on individual existence and personal responsibility for acts of free will in the absence of certain knowledge of what is right and wrong.

As in Nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Gave the so called civilized world shocking news when he pronounced in 1892 "God is dead, we killed him."
[I must thank Ask Jeeves. com for providing the answer for me].

All the high sounding blather above is another problem people being revived after the cryonics freezing process will become slightly more complex.

Its not researcher’s, scientist’s, or now new undead people’s fault but will cause all sorts of mental spins from Bio Ethics and Existentialism folks will have really bad days as more and more people return whether they’re elder returned to youth, handicapped given new limbs, or diseases cured.

The whole Existence business will be full more questions than ever and some of the undead might be around to answer those age old questions of existence and not being.

A minor aspect is jobs, what one did before dying may not translate in the new life they’d lead now.

PC Programmer’s, business folk, or engineer’s may have to be retrained or try various jobs, careers, or niche that pays them enough to live on for the time being.

Me, I make up stories, write, do columns, and have written copy and spoke on radio and may have difficulties it technologies have drastically changed so much I can hardly recognize them.

Like others I may need retraining in other fields the good thing if youth is returned along with a flexible brain skills might be easier to pick up from Micro Electrician, Assistant Cryonics Lab Technician watching gauges making sure "sleepers" aren’t in danger of being defrosted before their time, or in space as pilot/mission specialist on
true milk run routine shuttle-tug spaceships.

I could chose jobs, careers that I couldn’t before in my past life like architect, physicist, chemist, pharmacist, surgeon, or artist in metals, glass, ceramics, painting in multiple mediums besides oil, even obscure fields as photographer in film, home repair, or video show host.

There are many ways to go wrong when returning from a dead cold corpse to warm living person.

People will come back, struggle, find, friends, marry, have children, raise families, and hopefully not die for a long time if ever.

I’m ready to become re-addicted to life after a short or long dead freeze. Are you really ready to face that future?

Next time my delayed muddled thoughts on last Sunday’s Live Music Venue in "The Make Out Room" Folks, That’s the name of the place I’m not being funny. Bye.


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine
1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Dumb stuff happen sometimes for example making up arbitrary arguments to be hurtful and not knowing why even while your doing it.

Odd, how brains work because this stupid stunt I dreamed of Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket in buck skins and coonskin caps with long rifles in the crook of their arms.

Four children are between them three young boys and a girl.

Crocket say’s to Boone "We don’t time for this lets go."

Boone is talking with two tears in his eyes, his cheek smeared with blood.

I know one or both died defending the Alamo in Texas.

I’m thinking both men are frontier roaming free spirits ranging far from the taming of civilized living.

The children could represent past aspects still holding on as the two warriors safely guide them out of the settlement into the wild areas and I had a feeling that the children will be protected, nurtured, and are extremely safe their capable hands.

For me it means an ending and letting it go naturally not artificially speeding that end.

Today is the day before my birthday I will be 49 maybe its clinical depression, a dip in bio rhythm but whatever happened was uncalled for attack and when I heard a honey-butter sweet voice talking to someone on the phone it’s a signal to leave knowing the fool should leave no dignity at all.

Later the next night called, returned with food that couldn’t eaten and returned home what little repair tried with bad food offering its my inept way of apology.

It all it boils down to temporary insanity, less blood to the brain, or clinical depression.

There are reasons why men compartmentalized and now women now too.

Women’s Pineal Gland are larger than men possibly because of a woman’s more complex 28 day menstrual, pregnancy, and menopause cycles

At this point I believe People-kinds future doesn’t depend on women’s stronger bio/sociological or mentally balanced work in tandem brains or men’s logic, tool making, stronger bodies but a perfect blend both sexes.

Also through all the "S" orientations, you know ‘em all by now all are included isn’t it curious that all the "S-O"s are from only basic male and female.

both same sex males/women need each other’s embedded chromosomes from each female and male.

Unless through a blend of science and technology women and men can change into each others sex .(from an old science fiction book.

Only then will men know the power of a woman’s complexity of emotive landscapes life giving/taking/protecting.

Women can experience complex and simple ways men can just be power automatically a given or men with out power and how they can finally understand the pressures male go through forever losing their surety of false superior species as most men already have.

Oh, and as for the woman or man who so loathes Poor that they must email their bored hate of it there is for him/her–A kind of lonely purgatory half life.

Here is what PM wants for her/him. A long, loving, healthy life of joy. Bye.

by SAPPHIRE/PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

SAN FRANCISCO--Millionaire Supervisor Gavin Newsom is trying to win the race for mayor of San Francisco at the expense
of elderly, disabled and homeless county assistance recipients. City officials across the nation who are truly seeking
solutions to the homeless crisis won't learn a useful thing from him.

Obsessed with what poor San Franciscans like me do with their trifling $320 to $394 per month cash grant, Newsom is
still trying to ramrod Proposition N, his "Care Not Cash" legislation, through the city's Board of Supervisors.

T

he slick language of Prop. N convinced voters that medical care, housing, meals and shelter would be provided to the
2,400 or so individuals and families, in place of the county assistance they now use to survive.

The reality, however, is that there is no infrastructure in place to support such a broad and monolithic county
expenditure, as City Budget Analyst Harvey Rose concluded in his June 9 report to the Board. Rose's office, which
oversees all budget expenditures considered by the Board, issued a scathing 28-page indictment of Newsom's political
shell game.

Rose estimated the city could wind up spending more money on providing services to those cut off welfare than the $13.9
million it currently spends on cash assistance. He also found little evidence of widespread welfare fraud by
out-of-town homeless people; catching those cheats was supposed to fund the "care" part of Newsom's program. Already,
some $1.5 million have been squandered on biometric laser fingerprinting and photo technology designed to catch an
imaginary army of double-dippers.

Judge Ronald Quidachay's recently struck down Care Not Cash on grounds that only the state, not the voters, can
regulate welfare recipients. Unfortunately, his ruling applies only to 1,000 of the 2,400 homeless County Adult
Assistance Program (CAAP) recipients. The other 1,400, including disabled people, the elderly, working mothers and
mentally ill residents were still slated to have their checks cut to $59 by July 1. (the cut-off date is now in limbo;
the supervisors will meet again to consider Prop. N). If implemented as currently crafted, Prop N will expel at least
610 current shelter residents.

No more than .025% of the families, workers and disabled people in San Francisco are homeless and currently receiving
General Assistance in the form of cash grants. Yet, Board members (including Newsom) just voted themselves a 66 percent
pay raise. So even though there will be no care, we do know where the cash will go.

Those of us who have personally experienced how San Francisco treats its poor have no illusions that anything less than
stepped-up police violence, alienation and the curtailment of our human and civil rights is on the way.

I've never heard Newsom talk about freedom of choice. For example, as a cash grant recipient under the CAAP programs, I
may want to attend a trade school or rent a space on a friend's sofa with my monthly stipend. I may want to put an
outfit together and look for work as a bar back or waiter. I may even choose to (God forbid!) join a young lady for
dinner or a movie. Under Ordinance N, my personal choice in these matters is completely stripped from me. This is about
human dignity.

As a young homeless man in San Francisco, I have a few pragmatic suggestions for helping homeless men and women meet
the challenges they face:

--Close all shelters, thereby removing from the equation fat cats and parasites who, entrusted with the well-being of
tens of thousands of human beings, often have little or nothing to show in return for the astronomical amounts of
money, resources and commodities they receive.

-

-Utilize existing housing and urban development funds as matching funds to assist private, non-government groups such
as Homes Not Jails in opening up empty building and units to squatters, students and low-wage workers.

--Create a liaison between the city and squatters to enhance squatters' rights at a time when housing will be most
crucial.

--Streamline funding to prevent extensive bureaucratic expenditures and cronyism.

--Be pragmatic and real about freedom of personal choice; it's often the only real way poor people can improve their
lot. For example, two, three or more individuals or families should be able to pool their resources to make ends meet
or pay rent for a living space.

--Waive San Francisco City College tuitions for homeless students so that those willing to try to improve their lot can
do so.

--Phase out traditional institutional entitlements with Habitat for Humanity-type models encouraging self-sustainable
and long-term success.

Homelessness, because it involves human lives, is far more complex than glib and simplistic "solutions" like "Care Not
Cash" make it out to be.

(06262003) **** END **** (C) COPYRIGHT PNS

by Joe B.

A long time ago I griped about the perfect man or woman syndrome.

Well, these hypothetical perfect people have to have parent’s, grand parent’s or friends that at critical moments tell these perfect people to be when their being foolish, too stubborn, to fight, or when to give in.

Think the Mickey Rooney "Andy Hardy" films of the past where his father, a gentle, soul of a father who happens to be a judge in a small town helps his son out over the rough patches of adolescence, his mental anguish dealing with girls and later young women.

It seems to me perfect men or women are flexible in the give and take of relationships between the sexes.

Yes, both sexes have survived all types of terrible traumas.

Others may not know of and when closeness or intimacy begins some may react inappropriately from screaming, total catatonia, or violence while the person not knowingly triggered whatever outburst that has occurred.

These days so many of us have inner demons hidden from others trying "to be-stay strong handling it."

Myself I am leery of women because not only are the so called normal in semi angry moods but those suffering from family abuse, childhood to date rapes and may be "handling it" until a poor slob like me accidentally triggers mental/physical memories long hidden.

I personally know of two or three woman who suffers survived through these brutalities.

What has always struck me is why tell me and bind me to secrecy?

I cannot tell anyone, I dare not embrace them because of what too close a man’s touch means to them unless they’ve had months or years of therapy I understand the rage father’s, son’s, brother’s, and boyfriends have to kill another man who has hurt women in their lives.

Some of the rage is from "she’s mine" or "I must avenge her/myself." But its also that we as men couldn’t protect them from this terror.

Now matter if we did find, torture, kill, or put them behind bars the crime and damage is done.

I don’t know if I or anyone man can ever be perfect all men can do is be the very best male for the women we love or who love us.

As for the women telling me their deepest fears, hurts, dreams, and nightmares… I keep their council sometimes it takes women a long time to trust anyone let alone males when their person has been so violated.

Maybe that’s part of being a perfect man to be keep secrets and only reveal them when it no longer helps them.

I’m no perfect guy, my one room apartment is always a mess, I like skin flicks even though I don’t watch them alone I’ve found out it hurts to not hug, embrace someone in pain as for them to except it.

To me perfect men are already here, its up to their mates to make that choice that way we all can be perfect for the men or women who loves us and not try living up to some hypothetical man or woman not existing at this time.

I must as women who’ve gone through that lonely hell and have been helped later or their males in their lives.

How can I help my sister’s without causing them anymore stress than they’ve already suffered?


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Tiny and I to race City Hall by van.

Today people are mostly held their anger at Mayoral hopeful Supervisor though there are shouts, signs, loud murmurs about Gavin Newsom.

One good thing I didn’t bring my backpack so the guard and metal detector didn’t take long going in this time.

A few of the speakers are Mr. Darrel Walker, regular citizen, Comedian/Political Activist Bill Anderson (is that right) and Mr. Abdullah Megahed/Homeless Activist and Legally blind who also will speak to Care Not Cash debate.

All I do is take photo’s as directed by Tiny and hoping some are worth a newspapers insert and I get a film credit.

Folks, I’m also available for commercial, voice over work, and already have a Ask Joe. Holding Up The Sky.

Also currently working on short stories – I’m need of a Literary Agent also.

That’s enough personal plugging.

The crowed are full of so many people against N and vocal about it the place could’ve been adjourned it didn’t come to that as people saw it would defeat the purpose of having a public hearing on the subject of leaving people with $59 monthly many sheltered or not with the care or services curiously in suspended.

Mr. Newsom, listened with patience, asking question, poised showed professional care with all at the podium.

The man is polished, awake, and ready with both questions and answers.

After more shots of people, asking if the wish to decline being photographed which is the right of every citizen though most people don’t mind.

I myself wouldn’t want media in my grill either. Big media is there from KRON News, ABC-7, KCBS, and CBS-5.

I’m sure there are other news-feeds but since flashing folks with a throw-away camera I could not be sure which but I know it wasn’t all English Telemundo –14 (if I’m in error)

Excuse me, running around with paper, pen take pictures, getting names is a slight distraction.
Note to self by digital recorder next when I can.

Later the van heads back to POOR Magazine headquarters. 5 years later, I’m still not use to quickie "Guerrilla Journalism" That’s the media biz for you.

Donations C/0 Poor Magazine
1448 Pine Street #205
San Francisco, CA 94103

For Joe only my snail mail:

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Hectic pre holiday almost got away from me.

A few days previous mama emails me about sister-in-law and brother visiting for a short time because of a test he must take before heading back Chicago Illinois.

Hoping to be there for a day or two as June 30th and July 1st came and went only delaying my trip out of the City.

Picked up check, saved some, then to check cashing for money order to pay rent, phone, buy soap, bathing, and cleansing items getting for late night light meal across the bay getting out of the City for a few hours.

Then fouled up a meeting at least though I had before finding out later that the person in Berkeley went to L.A. unexpectedly so quickly they hadn’t time to leave a note, or email me about.

I blamed myself I'm really late and know what its like to wait and wait for someone.

Luckily all the trains, busses, are late giving me time to catch each one in turn arriving 11:35 or so.

Bed for me is a self-inflated mat with sleeping bag atop it, won’t matter I have entered z-land.

Early dawn loud bangs wake me sounding like gunfire.

My brother say’s "Stay down."

I’m not going anywhere to experience a raining bullets.

He called the police, explained what is happening but remembers it’s the 4th of July and called the police saying he realized what all the noise was about.

He later told all of us he was just one of 30 callers on the same night they had patrolled the area making sure no guns were being fired.

With friends, families, and a private Bar-B-Que and James Bond/Planet Of The Apes Marathon on a wide screen TV its all good.

All too soon on Saturday I had to return to San Francisco.

Leaving Fairfield early or midday would get me back to the City in time.

On the road by 12:26 noon bright midday I slept most of the time until I at my apartment by 2 am.

After watching them drive away I go home, dial mama to wake me up at 4:30 p.m., tell the Front Desk to wake me by 5 p.m."
"Son, 4:30."

"Thank you, Love you."

"Love you too." A long leisurely cleansing of body, floss, brush teeth, underarm deodorant.

Its convenient having a bus pass even if it costs 35 dollars and is about to go up.

By 6:28 I’m clean and ready with a few dollars to offer $5 to 10 or whatever I can pay.

Skipping the walking, looking and again the sinking feeling of being inappropriately late to a live theater happening.

Ms. Jazmine, one of the performer’s of Colored Ink And Brava! Present


WOMEN.

ALL PRAISE GIVEN WE’RE THE REASON WHY YOUR LIVIN.


A NIGHT OF SELF-LOVE AND EXPRESSION THROUGH SPOKENWORD AND OPEN INSIGHT.

I cannot judge art though one below to my right shows a woman of green I interpret as Gaia, a heart of gold for pure love another ahead of me is a black woman who’s full breasts invite she, nurturer, feeder of nations, and yes entices to feast if she chooses.

They first honor ancestors gone, living, and contemporaries they portray themselves and other
women as lesbian, straight.

Whatever orientation are shown as fierce, brave, strong, brittle, hurt, yet rising above all and despite cruelties, selfishness, deadly, cowardice, of both white, black and rainbow men.

Amazingly, love is still there though it is now tempered and men have to prove it in every action and deed.

If men let go of their on inner fears, false masculine machismo.

I cannot single out singers from poets, poets from dancers, and story tellers of heart churning tales of death, love, hate, survival, happiness, and yearning.

There is too much for me to absorb I pray these women were recorded for posterity as they did their live shimmering magic.

Ms. Dvorah Major, Poet Laureate (2002), Novelist, Essayist as featured guest speaker shatters the audience by sheer force of her wordsmith voice.

In the end there are questions/answers and Lisa who had come near the middle of first acts end is way more eloquent in her capacity as audience/journalist.

I thanked Ms. Jazmine and all the players on stage in my studious, stuttering, quiet, deference of their talents in slight fear and total awe.

Drinking tea, eating cookies I am ready to depart feeling weary ready for sleep literally rung out emotionally and slightly shaking from the deep performance what keeps standing isn’t stalwart male strength but the deep feminine in me that has from time to time scolded, laughed, cajoled, and kept me balanced when the male in me runs retreating from strong emotions it couldn’t handle so my female half holds me steady until
I safely arrived home.

Someday maybe balance can be between fem and male
but it must start from within each of everyone of us before becoming a normalized process just because one’s orientation differs from others does not negate our dual selves.

Donations C/0 Poor Magazine


1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Lynda Carson

Berkeley's Suitcase Clinic was founded by undergraduate pre-med students from the UCB-UCSF Joint Medical
Program and the UCB School of Public Health in 1989, and according to it's mission statement it exists to
promote the health and overall well-being of homeless and low-income individuals. Most of their donations
come from fund raising, grant writing, and the City of Berkeley helps out with around $4000 annualy to help keep
their legal clinic operating.

Some of the much needed services being freely offered to the homeless are urgent care medical services,
social services, dental services, veterinary services, chiropractic care, optometric services and free eyeglasses,
acupuncture, food supplies, haircutting, foot washing and massage, legal services, meals, clothing and a
limited number of vouchers for hotels.

It's that little oasis of a crossroads where the young pre-med students and the local homeless population have a
chance to spend an evening together on a weekly basis, and for a brief moment the cultural barriers of American
life seem to momentarily disappear. This clinic helps to serve all of those involved no matter which side of the
human spectrum they may be coming from.

Rich or poor, young, old, or middle aged, the clinic itself serves the needs of those being served as well as
those offering their volunteer services as a means to share their humanity with one another.

For the weary eyed road traveler coming in from out of state or out of mind, nothing can compensate the
homeless wandering unfortunates who may have lost all of their possessions, jobs, friends or loved ones while
believing that they really have reached the end of the road.

A lonely road that finally leads them directly to the services of the Suitcase Clinic in Berkeley for a Monday or
Tuesday night if they happen to enjoy playing basketball, or just want to watch tv, need a chiropractor, or are up to
having a foot massage and footwash, haircut, need a legal clinic, or the services of an optometrist. Any, or all of
the above and other services are provided at no cost to the clients that show up at the various clinics.

Affectionately known as "The Clinic" by it's student volunteers and the homeless who spend an evening together
on a weekly basis to interact with one another, it is a happening all unto itself as a case-working model that is
quickly spreading to other university towns across the nation.

So many of you are out there who can really grasp what it's like to reside at locations without running water,
electricity, environmental controls, or a place to dump a load on a cold lonely night while you stare up at the stars
until your mind wanders off into a restless slumber.

Others know what it's like to be lonely on a cold winter night sitting alone in their truck or car all night long
listening to the pitter patter of the rain drops hitting the roof above until dawn and beyond. That is of course, if you
are lucky enough to even have a vehicle to protect yourself from the storm or other hazards of life lurking about on
a dark cold lonely night.

You are or may have been known as part the homeless collective, and you know what the challenges are that
you face on a daily basis in order to survive or maintain some semblance of dignity and humanity. It's the little
things in life that count.

You may be down on your luck, and you may be down to your last quarter as your mind maps out a survival
routine for the day to get you from here till tomorrow without landing at Santa Rita Jail for some trumped up
charge meant to enrich the fatcats feeding off of the criminal un-justice system.

But, you made it through for another week, and your ready to enter this oasis of compassion to join the human
race for that magical evening to fulfill your human needs so that you can keep on trucking just a little bit longer.
Maybe for just another week, until the clinic doors open up again for all of our brothers and sisters, as they are
lovingly embraced by the Suitcase Clinic.

The Tuesday Night General Clinic

Julia Wildwood an attractive homeless woman from Seattle who needs glasses has good vision, but, needs
reading glasses, and showed up for an evening at the clinic on July 15, 2003. Julia was pleasantly surprised
that her input for this story was requested and offered her consent the moment she heard that it was for Street
Spirit. I love that paper, Julia said, as she quietly sat at a table taking an eye exam being offered for free by one of
the volunteers in the general clinic at the First Presbyterian Church located at 2407 Dana Street, in Berkeley.

Wearing a lovely purple top with a tan colored vest and black pants, Julia looked stylish in her own way as she
described how the clinic has been helping her out as of late. Not only has Julia sought the optometric services
the clinic offers, but, attorney Osha Neumann has been her guardian angel lately to defend her from the Berkeley
cops who have arrested her for sleeping upon the steps of Berkeley City Hall.

I landed at Santa Rita for sleeping outside, but, was never charged, said Julia. The Berkeley cops arrest people
and lock them up as punishment without ever charging them for an offense, and it appears to be a big racket to
make alot of money for all of those involved in the criminalization of the poor, said Julia.

I spent 30 hours at Santa Rita for sleeping on the steps of City Hall, said Julia in exasperation, and it was all for
nothing, and just aint fair. The Suitcase Clinic is a safe haven for me to go to for services that I no longer can
afford, said Julia.

Thanks to the clinic, Osha Neumann joined me in court to defend myself after I landed in Santa Rita Jail from the
sleeping offense, said Julia, and when we went to court for the hearing it became apparent that the cop who
arrested me never bothered to show up to press for charges or for a prosecution. This all smacks of a hustle on
the poor, and people like me get locked up for no good reason other than to provide the corrupt system with
fresh new victims, said Julia.

While being tested for the eye exam by a woman I will call Anon because she wants to remain anonymous, Julia
states that she last had an eye exam back in Seattle during 1991 while her job was to work with homeless
people in that part of the country. I am long over due for an eye exam, said Julia.

Julia made it through the eye exam and lottery process to get some new eyeglasses, and is luckier than the
fellow I observed who tried to sneak his way through the process. He was told to come back and try it again next
week, and being a gentle natured type of guy he wandered off without a fuss to another section of the clinic
before heading back out upon the streets.

Meanwhile, Julia was given a time and date for an appointment at the University Eye Center located on the
Berkeley Campus in Minor Hall, and she left with some documentation from the Suitcase Clinic plus a map and
appointment schedule to bring along with her to the University Eye Center.

According to Christopher (Toff) Peabody a volunteer coordinator at the clinic along with Lauren Wu; the clinic
pays for the glasses and the business donates the time for the eye examinations, Toff said. The lenses for the
glasses are the most expensive item the clinic has to deal with during it's annual budget, said Toff.

Toff had that look of serenity and sure footedness about him as he kept a keen eye on the proceedings at the
clinic, while he gracefully helped the volunteers to maintain a process that allowed the clinic to function at a
smooth operating level. If a crisis arose while I was there to observe the clinic in motion, I certainly could not spot
it, and it all seemed so casual.

After four years at the clinic, Toff has the experience to keep the clinic running smoothly without making it look
like he was over exerting himself or acting like a big shot to control every movement of the volunteers or clients. A
whisper here and a whisper there among his staff/volunteers, and people were moving about in a friendly
manner to where they were needed to offer the services being sought by the homeless.

According to Toff, on any given Tuesday evening at the general clinic, the 1 chiropractor may see at least 12-13
clients a night, the hair stylists may have 10-15 clients a night, the legal clinic see's at least 3-10 clients per
night, and at least 4 clients were with the optometrist's during my brief visit with them if that's any indication of
normalcy at the clinic.

We have 1 chiropracter a night and 4-5 vollunteers on a rotating basis with two that are female, and there is
normally about 10 optometrist appointments a night, said Toff.

Students also run a class sponsored by Health and Medical Sciences, so we are responsible for the training as
well, which is also part of the magic of clinic, said Toff.

Lester of Lousiana, is a homeless fellow that has been a client at the general clinic for the past 13 years and
states that everyone should have a home to live in. Lester was having a footwash when I met him at the clinic,
and he says that out of all the services they offer at the clinic that this is his favorite. To me this is a social visit to
see my friends and a chance to have a good foot massage at the same time, Lester said.

On average, theres around 4-6 foot washers per night at the clinic to serve around 16 clients each evening, and it
takes around 10 minutes to offer someone a good foot wash and massage says, Jenifer Stitchman of
Washington State. Erica, Bernard, Kripa, and Andrew also had their hands full washing peoples feet while other
clients patiently waited their turn for what many claim to be the favored service offered at clinic.

Being one out of 5 footwashers in motion this evening to gently rub the kinks out of peoples tired and tender feet,
Jenifer stated that we do this out of our love for humanity. I am a volunteer here 3-4 nights a month, and it's our
way to express our love of humanity in a safe way while interacting with others that may be feeling abused by a
society that treats them like criminals just because they are poor or homeless, said Jenifer.

An ancient tradition, footwashing was also popular among the followers of Christ as a means to express their
love of humanity and fellow human beings back during the so-called biblical times in the far east and elsewhere.

According to Toff, the staff and volunteers get their training from the Health and Medical Sciences Department at
the University before joining the Suitcase Clinic. I counted at least 23 volunteers and staff at the debriefing
meeting after the clinic closed down for the evening on July 15, 2003, and they all sat in a circle to discuss what
they had experienced that evening in the clinic. In addition, it looked like at least nearly 50-70 clients that showed
up earlier for the clinic services and this was a quiet evening compared to other nights, said Toff.

Theres plenty of volunteers said Toff, and the students and church donate everything here that you see to make
this all happen. The 13 year old clinic is a model used in other university towns and is spreading across the
nation to break the barriers that have criminalized the poor and homeless, said Toff. Most of the student
volunteers have not been homeless, but, this does not mean that we cannot relate to the social and medical
needs of the homeless community, said Toff.

The medical students of UC Berkeley years ago realized the need to help offer services to the poor, and with the
support of U.C. Professor Allen Steinbach, they first opened their doors to the poor back in 1989. We now proudly
have attorney Tirien Steinbach from the East Bay Community Law Center to help run the Legal Clinic who is the
daughter of Allen Steinbach, Toff says, and with Osha Neumann and Tirien Steinbach to run the legal clinic, we
have been able to help out many homeless people having legal problems.

According to Toff, the clinic is a case-working model which appeals to student learning to treat the whole person
rather than just a single illness. The clinic is also a social experience with boundaries, said Toff, and it's a way
for everyone to be a part of something that breaks down all class and cultural barriers while serving the needs of
the community at large.

The Suitcase Clinic is presently divided up into 3 different locations. The General Clinic, the Womens Clinic, and
the Youth Clinic, with each having similiar mission goals to reach out to the various members of the community.

The Monday Night Womens Clinic

Jen Troia of Maryland works with the Eastbay Community Law Center and as a volunteer helps to operate the
Suitcase Legal Clinic at the Dwight Womens Shelter on Monday evenings. With 2 advocates and one attorney
they serve at least 4 to 8 women per evening at the Womens Shelter. Having two years of law school already
behind her, part of her internship is being accomplished by working with the clinic for 2 hours per week on a
weekly basis plus a followup on the cases she works on, said Jen.

I love this job because I feel like I'm helping people, and someday I would like to do civil rights work, said Jen
Troia.

Being an extension of the General Clinic, the Womens Clinic operates on Monday nights from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m., in
Berkeley at the Dwight Womens Shelter as a working model with the same mission and goals as the Suitcase
General Clinic.

The Monday Night Youth Clinic

The Youth Clinic run by Ryan Houk is also known by some as the Punk Music Clinic and is open from 6-9 p.m.,
on Monday evenings at St. Marks Church in Berkeley. It may seem to be loud and chaotic to the casual observer
listening to the music and video games blasting away, but, behind the scenes it is actualy very well organized
with a doctor in one corner, an accupuncturist occupying a different corner and in yet another corner of the room
a veterinarian has set up shop to help out those that bring in their pets from off of the streets. The youth help out
to cook the food for that evenings dinner, help to do the foot washing and even produce their own magazine
known as The Zine. It took alot of work to gain the trust of the youth, Toff said.

SHARE-Searching How to Achieve Respect & Empowerment

Share is basically a focus group of people who get together at the General Clinic on Tuesday evenings from
7:30-9 p.m., to brainstorm ideas and the issues of the day faced by the clinic, it's volunteers and clients. Some
believe that SHARE is the heart and soul of the Suitcase Clinic. The idea for the legal clinic came out of SHARE
when it became obvious to the volunteers that homeless people have many legal problems so-called normal
public defenders do not have the time or funding to resolve. Many other great ideas for the clinic came out of
SHARE, and they wish to stay focused on civil rights issues.

At the end of each clinic session Toff, Lauren, Jen, or Ryan along with the other volunteers sit down for a final 15
minute debreifing before heading home, as a means to check in for the evening with one another and to discuss
security issues or any other issues that may arise during the course of the clinic sessions. On any given evening
there may be as many as 20-25 volunteers showing up to assist at the General Clinic, and it really helps to
process what they experience each session, said Toff.

Christopher (Toff) Peabody who has been very gracious in sharing his experience with me about the clinic
emphaticaly states that the biggest problem that the homeless face on a daily basis is the lack of low-income or
affordable housing. No matter what we can do to help out the homeless, it is clear that they all need some kind
of housing, and this is the only place around that the homeless can drop in on where people are ready to ask
them; how are you doing?, said Toff.

Special thanks to Toff for helping to bring this story alive. Toff mentioned that Lauren Wu has been doing some
amazing work at the clinic along with all of the rest of the volunteers who give up a few nights a month to spend
some time with the homeless population.

For more information about the Suitcase Clinic, call; 510/643-6786