2003

by Joe B.

Real ‘Illin Pt 1

I am not feeling my usual chipper self these days.

Seems a flu bug is having its way with me giving me a head colds, aches, stuffed up nose, sore throat, and the various time dilation slow motion effects.

One positive side effect is finally able to do Tai Chi really slow except for a slight pant breathing through the mouth like a dog.

I didn't hurt myself when I had a slow uncontrolled fall to the floor.

Falling isn’t so terrible when everything slows to a crawl.

I stay on the floor take a quick nap.

This flu may have been in my system for a few days but last Friday it began to be felt.

Women say men are babies complaining when sick while women are always checking on themselves for the slightest twinge feeling about their bodies.

This makes them healthier in the long run.

Problem: men have been taught to suppress all kinds of pain from twinges, cramps, sprained, to broken bones and having the flu.

Maybe some of us do whine a bit but its better than being stoic and dying in silence.

I guess a balance should be made for those aches and pains.

One must do what we can do being careful not to over stress the body.

I don’t like feeling weak as a kitten, sleeping all day, drinking tea, soup, and sounding like a voice talking in a deep tunnel, underwater, or with marbles in my mouth.

I complain only when my equilibrium gets affected vision gone wobbly, unable to see straight, going through vertigo, and shaking uncontrollably also the damn flu exacerbates my asthma which I’ve kept under control until now.

Women like mothering guys fighting their illness without complaint, rest when they must and don’t ask a lot of their girlfriends or spouses to do things for them that they can do for themselves.

Somewhere a balance must be achieved where a guy is sick but not using it for sympathy and being waited on hand and foot.

And ladies, girlfriends, spouses too you know you do it too its not just guys.

When you’re really ill with the flu, common cold, or the big "P" you know you’ll milk it for all its worth especially being pregnant most men are so wracked with worry and guilt about doing this to her.

How is it the strongest men become weak and faint while average regular man turns into a tough-as-nails-take charge guy for the woman he loves?

Why do most become virtual slaves to their women’s health needs in that wonderous, still mysterious way women are always giving birth?

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by Paul Boden, Executive Director, Coalition on Homelessness

Sandwiched between a recorded address by Mumia Abu-Jamal announcing, “War is not inevitable. No to ‘Blood For Oil’,” and ‘Pentagon
Papers’ Daniel Ellsberg, urging “If the bombing starts, the marching should not stop,” Homeless Coalition Director, Paul Boden delivered this
vigorous address to a an estimated 75,000* strong, enthusiastic, and colorful crowd this sunny Saturday San Francisco afternoon on the
green lawns of Civic Center Plaza stretching out behind City Hall.

“I want to welcome you all to my home. Fifteen years ago I was part of the group of people who have been sleeping out here on our
streets across this country. We are the people that are funding this war that we are all here today to denounce.

Over the past 20 years, $14 billion dollars a year has been cut from the development of affordable housing for poor people in this
country. It has been transferred over to a hundred billion dollars last year in mortgage interest tax credit deductions for households making
$135,000 dollars a year, on average, that is being subsidized by our tax dollars.

That $355 billion dollar a year military budget you were all so disgusted about yesterday --- that is money that is coming directly from the
fact that poor and homeless people are dying in our streets, that poor and homeless people are being cut off of welfare, denied education,
denied treatment, denied mental health / substance abuse treatment, disability treatment. That is being cut.

Seven hundred families in San Francisco alone in December are going to lose either a portion or all of their welfare benefits because the
United States Government wants to put that shit into military spending to kill people in other countries.

Every time we allow the San Francisco Police Department to shoot and kill mentally ill young men in our movie theaters in this town, * we
are promoting George Bush’s agenda to shoot and kill poor people in South American, and Iraq, and throughout the world.

We have to build a connection!

How do you fund a military industrial complex? You fuck over poor people, and you take money from poor people to put it into military
spending run by corporations that are run by filthy rich white dogs.

If we can’t make the connection between Prop N and George Bush, we are living in a delusional world. The only reason that the City and
Country of San Francisco thinks that taking away money from poor people is good for poor people in an initiative being run by a millionaire is
because they have seen the Federal Government get away with it; they have seen the State Government get away with it. They have
watched us not have 80,000 and 100,000 people like we need to have every time they screw any of us.

We should all be here for each other. We should all be here, and we should be strong, and we should tell them, “An Injury to One Is An
Injury to All!” We are going to stop this shit. We are going to fight back, and we are going to win! “

*Crowd estimates vary from SFIndymedia's 200,000 to CNN 75,000.

**Reference to Idress Stelly, 23, fatally shot 27 times by SFPD during a psychiatric crisis at the Metreon Theater complex.

by Joseph Laqua Youth in the Media Intern and Tiny/PNN

Faces….. "This war is not now nor has ever been in our name"

Flow like rivers into Downtown Frisco, LA, Washington and NYC …..

thump..boom taca boom thump…. drum beats for peace in each and every cit-eee

"red paint smeared on unclothed protestors "

this is how war looks like

their faux blood says

And I breathe in resistance…

For I know now it is not only me

Exhaling for one moment

as I am surrounded by the possibility that everyone is not now nor has ever been ok

with an overwritten science fiction story penned by drug store tabloid authors and disgruntled
insurance salesmen by the names of GeeW.Bush and Mr. Chain-eeee

And the lies filter through corporate airwaves – licking the corners of an intentionally numb America –

Certain that oblivious imperialistic perfection will continue unfettered

Untouched - that money and capital will flow through the barren trees

That fish will swim through polluted waters

That humans will live, grow and BUY no matter if they can’t breathe

no matter if they die

Because, like I was told by a salivating capitalist; even in death you are a consumer

even in death

you can buy....

This has never been in our name by Tiny/Po’ Poets Project

Thousands of people swarmed into downtown San Francisco this weekend as part of the Not in our Name resistance movement, in tandem with several thousand folks in Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles. The turnouts in each city were large and powerful. Locally it included the sounds of youth from the Mission district with the amazin’ Loco Bloco, as well as scholars, activists, poets and artists; Rev Cecil Williams, DJ Malik, Yuri Kochiyama, Ismael Manur, Boots from The hip hop group The coup and many more amazin’ folks.

As I walked away from the minions of strong voices resisting this absurd call for"war" I wondered if these thousands of people would ever be properly "heard" through the corporate media filters, I remembered the voice of Davy D who had spoken at the rally, "Watch what the corporate media doesn’t show you..watch and listen"

by Mike Vizcarra/PNN Pilipino Community Journalist

A small, dark room is filled to capacity. People in the front
have the prime seats, sitting on the floor, right in front of the stage. A
few rows of chairs follow. I1m at Bindlestiff Studios. There are probably
50-60 people here; friends, family, and folks interested in the spoken word.
The air is thick with anticipation. This could be a scene from the 60s, as
Beat poets waxed lyrical on social issues. But no, this is now. This is an
urban, hip-hop crowd. This is predominantly a Filipino-American crowd, here
to support their friends and show their love and appreciation for their
poetry and message. The lights dim. 8th Wonder takes the stage.

8th Wonder is an 8-member group made up of 4 Pinays and 4 Pinoys
(Jocie de Leon, Irene Duller, Golda Sargento, Lillian Prijoles, Jason Mateo,
Isagani Pugao, Jeremy Bautista, and Allan Maramag) ranging in age from 22 to
27. On Sunday, though, there were only 7 (Lillian being in New York).
Named after the 8th Wonder of the World, the rice terraces in the
Philippines, the group expresses their experiences and perspectives through
spoken word poetry. This past weekend was their first performance since
April 2001, and they start off with a bang.

From politics to social conditions, from love to the corruption
of mass media (especially television), the members of 8th Wonder spit out
magical, intertwining lyrics that left me captivated and enthralled in their
spell. Each member had their own distinct way of delivering their words,
from the in-your-face rapid-fire style of Allan Maramag to the hypnotic and
melodic songs of Golda Sargento (similar to Telepopmusik1s song, 3Breathe2).
I couldn1t help but get caught in the powerful emotions they evoked. 3I
don1t need a television,2 yelled Allen during one of his pieces, 3I can TELL
a vision!2 Tears flowed down Jocie de Leon1s cheeks as she recited her
moving poem, 3Beautiful Reflection,2 showing the audience her conviction and
passion for the words she spoke. Jason Mateo1s story-telling style in his
poem, 3Big Boulders, Big Brother,2 held the audience as he voiced his
concerns and gave advice about the television and play-station world his
little brother lives in.

One of the most entertaining parts of the evening was a
free-style session, with each member taking turns on the mic or doing a
collaboration with another member. The poetic verses shot through the
microphone with such electricity I1m sure goose bumps ran through everyone
there. The crowd was also very receptive and would often shout words of
encouragement to their poets onstage. It was hard for me to take notes as I
was too engrossed with the messages these poets were delivering.

Formed on July 7th, 2000, this group has come a long way. 3We
organized to come in here, representing the Pilipino community,2 says Jason
Mateo. They1ve performed in Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles, to name a
few cities. Asked why they haven1t performed in almost a year and a half,
Jocie replies, 3Some of us are moms or dads, or have families. We1ve got
jobs or school to go to.2

So what1s next for this talented group? Besides going to Los
Angeles to perform in November, the University of Hawaii has invited them to
perform on their campus. The problem is they have to come up with the funds
to go there. Hopefully if they can raise enough money they1ll be able to
spread their message. They1re an amazingly gifted group who should be seen
by everyone, Pilippino or not.

by Connie Lu/PNN Youth in the Media Journalist

It was ten years ago when my cat, Cubby became a part
of my life. I am at home watching T.V. on a cool
autumn night when I unexpectedly hear the doorbell
ring. Feeling uncertain who it could be, I turn on the
light and move the curtain aside to see that it was my
grandma, holding a kitten in her arms. I flung open
the door with excitement, as I hovered over the small
kitten with adoring sounds of, “Aw, how cute!” Her fur
is soft under the palm of my hand, as I gently pet the
narrow white stripe on her head above her pink nose.
The rest of her body is a swirled mix of brown and
black, except for her legs and paws that are white.
Her eyes are a beautiful shade of dark green jade with
widened slits of black pupils.

As soon as my grandma puts Cubby down on the carpet,
my cat quickly darts underneath the closest couch. I
look under the dark couch only to find a pair of
glowing eyes filled with fear of being in an
unfamiliar place. As we wait by the couch for her to
come out, my grandma explains how she found Cubby that
night in a parking lot at church, where my cat eagerly
jumped into my grandma’s car. My grandma said Cubby
wasn’t wearing a collar and looked pretty skinny, so
we concluded that she was homeless.

My family and I were more than happy to have her live
with us. Later that night, I attempt to coax Cubby out
from under the couch with some food. I could sense
that she was still wary, as she cautiously approached
the light. But her hunger eventually overcame her fear
as she quickly swallowed the food on the plate, while
looking up at me with a little more trust.

Her trust in me grew stronger as weeks turned into
months and months became years over time. I would
always look forward to seeing her wait for me next to
the door and play with her right after school. We
shared a close bond with each other. I didn’t just see
her as a pet, but as my friend.

Clyde W. Ford, author of “The Hero with an African
Face” also expresses the strong intimacy that exists
between human and animal spirits through his book
about African folk history and myths. He refers to the
animals as being “master animals” that are deeply
revered and sacred. He also describes the relationship
between humans and animals to be extremely close and
interdependent. “Rather, a mutual relationship is to
exist between the two: the village takes care of him,
[referring to the buffalo] and he takes care of them
by assuring the supply of buffalo for the hunt. The
life of the master animal and the life of humans are
intertwined and dependent on this arrangement” (Ford,
p. 97). The life of the animal is truly valued by the
Africans. There is a certain sense of symbiotic need
between humans and animals for existence.

Through the internship program at POOR Magazine, I
have also learned the importance of depending upon one
another, as opposed to being independent from family
and friends. The American culture emphasizes
individualism and having your own car, house, and
phone. However, POOR has taught me the value in having
a sense of community and empathy for others, instead
of separating yourself from your family as an
independent individual.

The friendship I shared with my cat was also built
upon this same idea of interdependency. My cat depends
upon me to provide her with food and shelter, but we
depend on each other for friendship. I still remember
Cubby gently nudging me with her soft forehead on my
cheek to comfort me after I had fallen down in my
backyard. She would also keep my feet warm in the
winter at the foot of my bed.

These are just a few fond memories out of the many
that I have now of Cubby since she died just a few
weeks ago. The veterinarian said she had nose cancer.
My family and I decided that it would be best to put
her to sleep because the cancer had spread to other
parts of her body already, which would make it
difficult to treat. The morning before the vet came to
put her to sleep was spent on petting her frail, weak
body. I cried seeing her in so much pain, as I said
goodbye to her.

Later that day, my brother and I looked through old
photo albums in search of pictures of Cubby, which
brought on more tears of sadness. But at the same
time, it also gave me a sense of closure in seeing and
remembering what she looked like when she first became
a part of my family as a stray cat without a home.

The previous state of her homelessness and her old age
also reminded me of the elders who can’t afford
medical attention, let alone a place to live. As
their condition worsens, the pain that they endure
becomes harder to bear with each day that passes. I
also recall an article by Valerie Schwartz,
PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist and Poverty
Scholar, called “A Mama’s Love…”, which was about a
homeless African American elder named Lula Bell
Seymour, aka Mama, who passed away a few weeks ago in
the Tenderloin. Mama did not have much, but she
always shared the little she had and encouraged
everyone around her through prayer.

After Cubby was put to sleep, I felt like there was an
irreplaceable hole of pain in my heart because I had
lost a close friend that I literally grew up with for
over 10 years of my life. But I also felt relief
knowing that she did not have to keep suffering and
enduring the pain. I will always treasure our
memories together and remember her comforting purr
vibrating against my arms around her soft coat of fur.

by Alex Cuff/PNN Community Journalist

When I boarded at the 24th Street/Mission station, the BART was packed with folk decked in everything from jeans and khakis to mohawks and pink braids. The demographic seemed more energetic and possibly younger that the average Saturday morning crowd, and the train more full. As I had optimistically suspected, the train emptied at the Montgomery station as hundreds clogged the escalators, and the more restless of us ascended the endless stairs, to join the thousands of anti-war protesters marching from Justin Herman Plaza to the Civic Center. Once in the street I was surrounded by women, children, and men of all ages and races ñ some holding signs, some singing, some talking with neighboring marchers and some walking, silently, with heads held high ñ all participating in the great act of expressing disgust with the Bush administrationís conceivable war against the people of Iraq.

Among the thousands proceeding down Market Street, we were on bicycles, in wheel chairs, we were elders, we were anarchists, socialists, communists, mainstream liberals, and we represented a diversity of races. Just before reaching the Civic Center I ducked into a coffee shop on McAllister to use the bathroom where I unfortunately shared the idea with 50 others. During my twenty minute wait on line I began speaking with Bombay-born Maribel, a woman with soft features and sad brown eyes, who began our conversation by telling me it was her first rally. She had flown out from Houston despite the wishes of her husband and her circle of ìbourgeoisieî friends. After years as a dentist practicing in a conservative area of Houston, she quit her job and has dedicated herself as an activist against the growing pro-capitalist and militarist trends in the world.

The volume of bodies amassing before the stage on Civic Centerís lawn was astonishing. We poured off the grass into the surrounding parking lots to the front of the library. Being a modest five feet, there were times as I eased my way towards the amplified voices coming from the stage, that I couldnít tell which way was forward. When I finally emerged from the ocean of bodies, I was as close to the stage as I was going to get, I raised my hand over my eyes in a salute against the October sun and joined those around me paying attention to the speakers. At this point, people were still filing in - in fact the last marchers, many carrying ìRegime change begins at homeî signs, were still leaving Justin Herman Plaza as the first arrived at Civic Center.

The speakers included Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Barbara Lubin, Director of the Middle East Childrenís Alliance; Paul Boden, Coalition on Homelessness;  San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Mark Leno; Richard Becker, a member of the ANSWER steering committee;  Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran and author of "Born on the Fourth of July;" Richard Mead, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; Ramiz Rafeedie, Free Palestine Alliance; and a youth organizer from A.N.S.W.E.R whose name I didnít catch. Needless to say there was no absence of tax-funded cops surrounding us in case some of the non-violent, antiwar protesters decided to wield weapons of destruction upon one another.

Around 2pm I slid back away from the stage toward the library to use the pay phone in order to track down my sister and brother who I never managed to meet up with earlier in the day. As I was coming out of the Grove Street exit I caught the tale end of what I learned afterwards was a break away march which proceeded back down Market Street to the Embarcadero where the protesters, exercising a more radical action, stopped in front of the Recruiting Center where folks continued to speak out against the war.

When I did catch up with my siblings in front of the falafel place on Grove Street, my brother offered me a piece of paper he had been handed at one of the info tables. ìCan you believe this, Al?î It stated the statistics regarding the amount of Palestinian children murdered in the past year by US-funded Israeli arms. He has just moved to the Bay Area from Long Island where he has not been exposed to, nor has necessarily sought after, non-corporate media coverage. My brother reminded me that although our actions on Saturday are not changing the morals of the Bush administration nor helping them to move away from their profit-and power-based agenda, we are educating those who have a right to know. We are creating, through an organized popular dissent, a voice that canít be ignored by the corporate media, our government, by our politicians, or by those funding our politicians. We are demonstrating that violence is not the only form of power.

by Joe B.

Today, at work on Tuesday, Oct, 8, 2002 I’m
listening to Congressmen/women arguing for and against War In Iraq to take out Saddam Hussein.

I’m half hearing what’s said so I’m not real clear but this pro war drum beat with little few people on the other side is frightening.

Saddam Hussein has already been whipped, the country still in ruins and rubble, many innocent civilians killed, wounded, or maimed and homes destroyed – an entire country’s economic infrastructure completely wiped or barely there.

The old conflict rears his head and that love-hate of my country resurfaces yet again.

Home grown terrorists like the Klu Klux Klan and Para military organizations were let loose like so many vicious animals on people only wanting to participate in this country.

There are counterparts for us rainbow folks going through parallel.

No horrible Middle Eastern leader did not have a policy of systematic genocide for all types of rainbow folks.

Its good old apple pie ‘n’ ultra violent America and its still being done.

America is suppose to be superpower number 1
how come our economy is tanking?

Could it be that making bombs, guns, weapons of mass destruction is not conducive to economic growth?

PAC’s America is suppose make American citizens
safer, give them longer lives, and better education’s not set their children men and women, boys and girls, both parents in wars!

Maybe the ‘Prez and his cabinet knows more than we do but do we have to do war’s death dance.

21st century war over one leader who’s biggest victory was surviving America’s might by hiding in a fortified caves.

What happened to all the black ops secret monies that was expressly for these situations?

No power on earth can stand when smaller powers gather to combat it.

When a Tiger steps on red fire ants home in Africa, the tiger huge size will not help as its devoured, stripped from flesh to clean white bones.

If America, a standing colossus go unilaterally like a rabid, rampaging, red eyed beast.

In time smaller nations may think or do now "Rogue Nation" and could in time take us out by inches not in large gulps.

Any ideas people?

Please send donations to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN Community Journalist and Poverty Scholar

"Some have named it Bedbug Manor and it don't feel good to live in a place named that", I was listening intently to a very uncomfortable Fernando Robinson, President of the Altamont Tenants Association, a SRO (single room occupancy) in the Mission district of San Francisco. Fernando was a pleasant man with a very earnest demeanor who contacted POOR Magazine seeking some help. He came to discuss an ongoing problem with bedbug infestation in the Altamont Hotel that for some reason has not been able to be eradicated for the last year. The tenants are miserable. They are tired of the parasites and the health hazards it has created.

He was addressing the POOR staff at Community Newsroom, "The bedbugs are the tenants and we are the visitors." I asked Fernando , "How long has this been a problem?" He then explained, "This has been documented since December 11, 2001 and some of the tenants say it has been longer than that."

I researched the little "critters" that are wreaking havoc upon the tenants of the Altamont Hotel/SRO. This is what I have found: 1. Bedbugs need to feed on blood for their nutrition. 2. They primarily feed on humans but will also feed on rodents, rabbits, bats, and other warm-blooded animals. 3. Adult bedbugs can live for periods of 6-12 months and can survive starvation in proper conditions for a year. 4. They usually only feed at night in the dark, unless starving then they will come out to feed in a darkened room in daylight hours. 5. Each female will lay 2-3 eggs a day, during the course of its life, and these eggs hatch within 10-days. 6. Bedbugs may be a vector for Hepatitis B. 7. Bedbugs conceal themselves under the seams of mattresses, floorboards, and in the cracks and crevices of walls, paintings, furniture, and behind loose wallpaper. 8. Their movement is determined by the relocation of infected furniture and possessions and that initially small infestations will happen as a result of the transfer, but if left untreated or treated improperly, the population of bedbugs will increase dramatically. 9. The bite of a bedbug can facilitate a secondary infection such as cellulitis and impetigo. Bedbug bites can also produce considerable anxiety. 10. Bedbugs are 5-7mm, about the size of a lentil or small ladybug.

"I awoke at 3:15 this morning as I felt bedbugs biting my lower back and feet. Pesticide exterminators last treated my room on September 5, 2002. The bedbugs resumed biting me on the 15th of September. I have been bitten for the last year countless times and have accumulated a sampling of the bedbugs in a vial of alcohol. I have undertaken to buy at my own expense, pesticide fogging bombs for the last three-months. This, despite the fact that I'm on General Assistance and cannot afford to buy them every ten-days. I am also concerned about what all the insecticide poison in my room is doing to my body and health. Lastly, the friendships among the tenants has suffered badly during this bedbug plague, as people are afraid to visit with other tenants or receive guests: afraid of picking up bedbugs. This has severely affected morale among tenants." Letter from Bernard Schatzer, tenant of the Altamont Hotel.

This was one of many letters sent to the management of the Altamont Hotel, which is run by Caritas Management and Mission Housing Development Corporation. Many of the tenants have a wide range of medical and mental health issues that are aggravated not only by the parasites but also by the chemicals used by the exterminators to eradicate the bugs.

I then asked Fernando, "What has the management done to resolve this infestation at the Altamont?" Fernando said as he shook his head with a slight bit of resign, "They come to our meetings and we ask to close the building to properly handle the problem, but they won't. They just want to keep spraying chemicals from the same pesticide company and it doesn't work...it doesn't kill them. They use the cheapest spray, some of the tenants think its water. The Pest-Control man is a damn liar! He's milking the management, he's in it for the money."

I called the Building Inspection Department/Code Enforcement of the City and County of San Francisco. I asked them if I could speak to someone about a bedbug infestation in an SRO. I was told, "That is not our department, you will have to call the Department of Health."

I called the Department of Health, the number for Pest-Control/General Complaints and I received a message for a voice box that was full. I then called Epidemiology and was referred to another department, to Mr. Mel Ripman. I asked Mr. Ripman, "Could you please define to me exactly what kind of parasite/pest a bedbug is?" Mr. Ripman responded, "It is a an insect that lives in the mattress." I asked, "Does it refer to scabies, lice, mites, or fleas?" Mr. Ripman gave me a very short and serious answer, "No, they are a separate entity."

I am intrigued with the subject of bedbugs in SRO hotels because I, as a low income tenant have been bitten by insects/parasites in many of the hotels in the Tenderloin and in the Mission. I wondered... Why is there such a problem and how do the tenants of these buildings get the help they need? I think that somehow the health department and the property-owners should perhaps circulate pertinent an useful information to the tenants about bedbugs, parasites, and health hazards that apply to living in SRO's, hotels, shelters, and public housing. Also a way should be facilitated to have some kind of seminars, on site, with BI-lingual outreach workers, to educate the tenants of these buildings and facilities about what they need to know and what they can do about pestilence, general cleaning of their rooms and personal possessions, the use of pesticides and hazards of pesticides. I know this is not a solution but hopefully an incremental step in the right direction. People who live on a fixed income, marginal at best, should not have to fall victim to negligence that results in hazardous living conditions.

Another letter from a tenant:

"I have lived here in this building for at least four and a half years. There has existed a severe building wide infestation for the past one and a half years. I suffer from severe insomnia and chronic depression, fatigue and anxiety. My medical condition has worsened progressively with the extreme infestation. Building management has consistently lied and denied in regards to this problem since day one. I have actually been threatened with eviction by building management in regards to this matter! I strongly feel that this is a retaliatory action for constantly complaining about this problem. I can no longer have overnight guests because of the bedbugs. I feel that if I could afford to do so financially, I would have moved out of this place a long time ago. Unfortunately, I now realize that legal action in civil-court against Caritas Management Co. and their parent company Mission Housing Development Co. seems to be the only solution left for me and my fellow tenants to get this depressing and disgusting situation fixed." Frank Munoz tenant Altamont Hotel.

I called Mission Housing Development Corporation and spoke with Amy Fishman. I asked her what they were doing about the infestation and how they were dealing with the tenants in regard to the bedbugs at the Altamont Hotel/SRO. Ms. Fishman explained to me, "We have replaced all of the mattresses and box-springs, and also the wooden bed frames in the rooms that had the wooden frames. We have given the tenants new pillows and provided all the tenants with laundry and dry cleaning services, everything has been treated". Ms. Fishman told me that the problem "has been a challenge" and that they have instituted a "new aggressive strategy that is an intensive, building wide, unit to unit 100% treatment." The building was treated two-weeks ago.

"Does the Health Department have out-reach workers for the tenants of SRO's?" I inquired. Amy then relayed to me, "Jackie Greenwood of the Health Dept. has been very helpful with helping us to teach the tenants about the bugs. Says Amy, "She's the bedbug expert in the city." She then said that it was a "very challenging problem" and that it was hard to get some of the tenants to understand that they need to bathe regularly and to keep their rooms clean, but tried to assure me that they are trying very hard to accommodate the tenants so they won't be miserable and will have a safe place to live. Ms. Fishman told me that as we spoke the Health Department was doing a follow-up inspection at the Altamont from the treatment of the building on 10-07-02 and expressed her gratitude for the Health Department stepping in and helping them work with the tenants as a third-party.

After speaking with Ms. Fishman I talked with Fernando Robinson again. I asked him, "Do you feel that there is going to be a resolve with the infestation in the building?" Fernando sounding tired and worried said, "I really can't say. Some people now have larger bites than ever before and there are still big bedbugs. "Tenants have bruises from scratching and others have visible scars and scabs from the bites."

I asked Fernando if there was a great deal of concern among the tenants about being exposed to the pesticides, Mr. Robinson said, "Yes, its working on the tenants not the bugs." Fernando then expressed that he and many of the tenants do not believe that the chemicals they are spraying with are or will be effective, but in fact are very worried about exposure to the chemicals. Especially the elders and those tenants with Medical issues, Disabilities, Mental Health, and HIV issues.

Says Mr. Robinson, "We want it to be done with but I don't think it is going to work. The pesticide man still has to go down in the basement where the storage is and they said it is a tedious job. By the time they get done down there the bugs will just have moved back upstairs and it will start all over again. I still think that maybe the only way to get rid of the bugs is to close the entire building and move everyone out for the building to be thoroughly treated for however many days it would take."

The building is to be treated again in another two-weeks and Fernando and the tenants of the Altamont are waiting, trying to be patient, and praying for this misery to be over. I can tell you that parasite infestations are no laughing matter and as a person who personally lived through a few experiences such as the tenants of the Altamont that they can severely worsen morale, mental health and medical issues. It is no fun to have to hunker down and be vigilant all night every night while literally, trying to save your skin.

by Joe B.

Originally from Thursday, 10/11/02.

Today Monday, Oct. 14, 2002.

Well, its Indigenous People’s Day where a certain Captain Columbus gets lost at sea, "finds a New Land," with people living on it and says "its now discovered.

Calls the inhabitants "Indians" setting into motion bloodshed, disease, and death.

‘Yeah, he is sorry, he dies broke while descendents of the New World still go through colonizing hell.

Sure its not that simple but happened historically.

Now to what I wrote pre holiday.

I’m glad The House of Representatives are still arguing over going to war in Iraq Thursday, Oct. 11, 2002.

Yeah, I said Congress instead of House of Reprentatives oops by me also another error I made was talking about the WWW (World Wide Wrestling) WWO which is World Wrestling Organization instead of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).

For everyone within those organization the wrestling champion’s, challengers, wife’s husband’s, boys, girlfriends and fans supporting them and this venerable sport.

I sincerely apologize for my ignorance.

"Smack Down, Raw, and other events live, on television is an adrenaline rush I chose to indulge as a guiltless pleasure.

Finally there’s someone I haven’t spoken to in years and only now after four years my promise is kept.

Its 1998, my work in Goodwill Industry as a sorter 7 to 8 hours standing up, with gloves, saving, tossing out donated items from clothes, records and tapes to everything from a to z.

Mr. Scott Douglas, a 6 foot or taller, auburn haired man worked near where I am.

We conversed a lot over a few months before I my job at POOR Magazine freed me of the place.

Before I left he gave me a bit of brown paper after telling me about writing one or more screenplays and if my being an office manager could help.

If I can help send his name or contact someone in LA.

That was almost five years past with delays, assignments, losing Scott’s paper finding again.

I can finally pay a long dept I owe him.

This is a call to all director, producers, exec. Dir., Prod., and anyone able to help Mr. Scott Douglas who’s probably by now a successful Screenwriter in Hollywood by now.

Since I’ve no clue its all moot to me.

For Hollywoodscott@hotmail.com

415 –885-9692

575 – 2170
Goodwill.

These phone numbers may have changed over the years.

And if Scott has moved and any of the readers know how to contact him please do.

Tell him Joe wishes him all the best and have fun in Hollyweird but not too much.

Remember the couple in "The Eagles "Life In The Fast Lane."

Whew, that’s a lodestone gone now back ye old column again.

If anyone is offended by what I write next… Tough, life sometimes sucks, deal.

One guys are is another’s worthless junk.

In our new office on Pine Street Dee, Co creator, lead editor of POOR Magazine had place an old 1920’s or late 30’s photo of a nude guy on ice skates.

Its tasteful not gross.

At the same time in my SRO complex on 6th and Market Street another piece of art work is being displayed in the lobby of the building.

I’m not the most observant person on the planet so for a day or two.

I didn’t notice but hear lots of people having problems with the art work portrayed there.

Dee’s fuming about the photo being a rare photo set in a glass frame and wondering why someone would take it.

A few names came up and also the day before our office was full of people including the landlord and two air condition repairmen because that went on the blink.

New people sign up applications to learn about multimedia, Graphics Arts, or whatever they want.

There is a meeting while the "Show Time" is on.

One guy talking loudly while others begin same ruin movie time so before signing the petition.

"Joe, why you doing this, put that thing somewhere else."

I didn’t know what he was talking about which I simply asked.

There is another guy name Joe who also does photography but I haven’t been taking shots (photographs) for weeks sometimes months.

I know its not me doing it but could if I wanted shoots and frame it the way it looks.

But I’m into so heavy art look of the finished photo as the other Joe is.

At least not at this time.

I finally see what all the fuss is about.

The artwork is a picture in a clean if not new gold frame, its crisp white boarded sets off the color photo perfectly as light reflects of glass brightens it.

It shows our building in background, while in foreground a man in a dark dirty sweat shirt and jeans sleeping in the street.

The artist is next to men "What do you think?"

I better not tell him what I really thought being tactful is comes in hand sometimes.

"Nice beautiful gold frame."

Then I slip away, into the movie room to sign the petition to have the artwork taken down.

It’s a great piece art however placing it where people are daily struggling to be off the street, escape homelessness, drink, drugs, and or sexual addiction.

Some people do not wish have a daily reminder of where they are, were, and continue to struggle freeing ourselves over time and avoiding falling back or to relapse as its better known.

"I’m an artist." he said.

Well I go to the store by orange juice, ice cream
clean water and I return to see if the art photo but it has been taken down.

I guess the other Joe hears so much flack that he worries his art might suffer an "accident" so he quickly takes it down.

At POOR’s sleek new office the missing nude Ice-skating man is still gone I don’t who took it or why it was taken but I sure didn’t.

All I did is acknowledge its presence and go about my business.

I hope its found but if it stays lost – oh, well.

If anyone has rare framed photo’s they want to give away please send it if you can. Bye.

PS. We found the Leo Saxone as (Brth) Superman rare framed photograph circa 1939. (Brittish) above the small fridgidare on the left side scottch taped on the wall.

Either the repairmen placed it safely there while they fixed the air conditioning and was noy returned to its original place. -

Missing artwork was never lost just misplaced
mystery solved.

Please send donations to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by PNN Staff

A. Faye on the plight of the Haitian refugees….

A Massacre it was told…

Captives of the Caribbean from the African shores

Haiti has a bloody history

A Massacre it was told, under the whips and chains of the French

The French who flew to New Orleans

After the Haitian battles broke the chains bondage

Poverty sends its people knocking at United States door

Across the Atlantic just 27 miles away

People searching for food and freedom along the American shore

The Boat People are once again captured

But now they are not chained, but instead are sent away

But Lite-skinned and European immigrants cross these borders

So it is just blatant cruelty

That turn these Black People away…

The Written Word …

The Po’ Poet Laureate on "All the Other Poet Laureates and their needless
persecution..

The written word, passed on from ancestors to their descendants

From the beginning of conversation

Spoken words between lovers, family, and friends

Until hatreds begin, now your enemy, now your friend

The word, spoken as music and song, is magical

The swaying forms dancing in heat is a mystical song

Poetry is the Blues, is singing from your Soul.

Jazz blown, is a form of this

The written word, the meeting of minds,

Should never be denied

Slaves denied Liberty is tying up the Soul

When the freedom of speech is denied, It is tying up the Mind.

The Americas live under a Banner Of Lies

The United States, Constitution guarantees

The right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness

I guess I didn’t get a warranty

Slaves coming from Glory Island, were denied the freedom of Life

Mournful Souls, thrown over board

I am drawn to the Oceans

You hear them in the waves, they were denied all freedoms

The freedom of Speech

Listen to the Whales Wail, they are the witness to this flight to Hell

Too deny the Freedom of the written word

Is to deny my right to The Pursuit of Happiness

To take the Wreath upon my Head

To chop off my Tongue

They marry me to my enemy

They alienate me from my kinfolk

To murder the Truth!

Some folks like to write white lies, myths, and tall tales

I like to dance in the Rain, and burn with passionate Fire

I like to read, and write the truth

So may I read?

Some One, Blew up America

Hilter’s Nazi murdered the Jews

European Nations enslaved the Colored People of the World

The San Francisco Giants Lost the World Series

Can I read, Big Brother!!!!!

A. Faye Hicks on Prop N;

PROP N, MY FRIEND? …..NO

A Noose around our necks

Pressure

Political Prowess

Power

Tighten your belts, rise your taxes, a political blow

Blow-up Bomb, Iran, Iraq

All tied with homelessness, Yes

The Billions has to come from somewhere

Tighten the noose around our necks

Poor people are tough, They can with stand starvation

With our Shelter plus Care

Shit! They withstood slavery

Pressure

Power

We can’t have the Rich paying taxes!

Take the Loot from Welfare, Workfare

Take the Loot from Medicare

What is the Back Lash

Care not Cash

Political Prowess

No! Prop N! Is Not our friend

A. Faye Hicks on: The Thurgood Marshall "Incident"

Keepin’ your Mind off the true foe

School days, School days

Those happy, carefree days

This is a beautiful melody

But these days , you need to "bite the bullet"

These days Schools are shadowed in Terrorism

Youth power, student power! Is a threat to authority

Ancient History Authority

The knee in the back authority

With break your Spirit Tactics

Before you drop out or forced out; the powers to be

Are hindering your graduation

Hindering your future potential, as citizens of America

Racking up juvenile crimes

Racking up crimes of innocence

Gangs created, and age old tactic

Confusion created, to keep your mind off your true foe

The Po,Po!

A. Faye Hicks on: Homelessness, Halloween and Gavin Newsome

THE HALLOWEEN HOMELESS

Happy Halloween, Happy Halloween

Little children, Skeleton dancing, skate board, flashing

Up and down the stairwells

Shouting and laughing at the top of their lungs

Once a year the magic is clear

The black cat crosses your path

On all Hallow’s Eve

Eyes bugged out, All this for candy?

Our first addiction , Then alcohol, weed, and the drug of your choice

Trick or Treat, Don’t fool me

NO! This is all for "Monee"

It’s a Capitalist gain, a Commercial thing

Lites out behind many doors

Windows boarded up, Oh, so forlorn

Do we dare !

Tiny whispers; spooked, Is anybody home?

Little squeals in the Nite, Is any body home?

Where have all the people gone

Been herded out, locked out, locked in County Jail!

A Pumpkin Head, a wizard, a black witch, and a tattered sheet ghost

Safeway’s bag’s quivering in tiny little hands

Dressed up in Walgreen’s funnery, barely missing police man gunnery

Where have all the people gone?

Trick or Treat, It’s Halloween

And we want some Candy!!!!!

Yahoo, Yahoo

A piercing scream in the Twilight!

Beaded sweat on foreheads

Whew, what a relief

It’s just the Paddy wagon!

Rounding up the homeless drunks & and the drug addicts

Trying to get a Trick or Two, and some got damn candy!

A Celtic Holy Day, Transformed

People behind card board boxes , eating chocolate Mars bars

A wrinkled ole bag Lady, with a shopping cart, giving out some coins

And a pitiful amount candy, God bless her kind heart

Open your shopping bags and collect your Loot

Happy Halloween!

Running feet, black ski mask, purse snatch, your life trashed

It’s halloween, You crazy educated dope fiend

Liquor stores got their Candy Bowls ready

For the tricksters, the gangster, and the Buggy Crew

Now let’s go visit the haunted house

You mean this dirty old city is haunted?

Let’s take a ride on my witches broom or do you prefer muni

Let’s ride over that Black and Gold Dome

For within the hallowed hall, reside monsters, who don’t need mask

For they are Gavin Grusome and sidekick , the Mayor!

by Joe B.

What would happen to anyone with a few centuries under their belt?

How would any of us learn, grow, change given these extra years?

Yeah, I’ve been pondering if I myself had those excess decades or an century or two.

First given the extra time would have a calming influence.

I's start something mundane like saving money for a special trip to Nevada to pay lots of money.

The soul purpose: being taught how to really please 'n' pleasure girl friends or a future wife in oral sex.

To learn the best way both lesbians and straight women have it done, what they really, really, really want (shades of Spice Girls) on the subject.

Since they are the true foremost experts on such an intimate subject.

The ultimate test of graduation would be a pleasing a lesbian, bisexual, and straight women to the point of them tearing, sobbing, blitzed out in joy.

After wiping their eyes I’d thank them and leave with this hard won, difficult but ultimately pleasurable lesson.

I seems stuff like that gets stuck in my head somewhere in the back of my mind and is released when needed.

(This is why I have a 3rd. party reading my column for approval oh, well.)

Time to savor life, learn, love, have friends, cultivate hobbies, be at peace work out emotional, physical traumas.

Really get into Yoga, Tai Chi, The Karma Sutra, Tantra, Sex, all those mental constructs for two or three decades.

Relationships would not be fraught with is it me, is it her problems.

Take up dance, languages, travel, being more culturally aware.

Collecting music books, Erotica not pornography.

To open all those doors of perception in my mind, to change my physical appearance and perception of self over time.

This is the first fifty years in a two hundred year journey.

Would I be the same after the next fifty years?

I’d have full range of my emotional states.

Instead of wondering why my tear ducts still work when hearing new, old songs or movies that touch me emotionally.

As for sexual orientation I’ll probably stuck in my hardwired heterosexual mode but still able to nurture children which curiously I’ve found I have the capacity and patience for.

Now that’s odd and scary, knowing I could be a better nurturing mother than women who are more equipped to give birth but then be raised by a strong black woman and other female relatives it seeped into me. May be it helps explain why certain songs and movies make my eyes brim over.

After the first century I may have married or gotten divorced.

I don’t think my body and mind will be quite the same because of genetic manipulation of my bone structure, my small hands are stronger but less delicate looking and I might become a Masseur and learn to be a Chef and finally facing my math phobia.

The next century would be full of concerts, travel, love, adventure, astronaut training, writing, and lots of funerals of family, friends, and famous folks I never met. To be at home where ever I am and use to technology or able to leave it living a balanced life.

As for younger and older women knowing when and when not to bring baggage (experience) to the relationship and letting go of son’s and daughters lives though watching over them as a parents do.

If 250 year pass and I’ve regained some youth and perspective I would be able to be student, instructor, wondering philosopher.

As Ms. Margaret Chow’s show "I’m the one I want" I’d finally be the man I was suppose to be and though it takes a century or more it would be worth the wait to work out all my problems.

To live alone or with another soul without the worry of being alone or loneliness being the dread that it is to many folks women do it and thrive men are learning too.

I guess what I’m saying is while we live whatever time is left we must be good to ourselves first before having others in our lives.

An as for the oral sex instruction in Nevada fantasy this is doable; all I have to do is save money for the trip and really be healthy and ready to learn all I can and graduate with crying colors.

It may not change my romantic plight (I still have to relearn how to dance.)

But I’ll have hidden confidence in my new found abilities.

I might pick up other pointers beside the main lesson which is like extra credit.

This is the only time I’ll go for extra credit because the benefits out way the lessons learned.

Its your turns girls and boys what kind of person would you be in 250 years or more – I know, its hypothetical (humor me) what type(s) of person would you be?

Please send donations to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Staff Writer

Who is poor?

I think my cousin is poor because her dad tells her if she wants to live with them, she needs to pay rent to her dad.

I am

I am a Mexican who only wishes to have a good future. I am not rich or poor.

by Nelsy Suarez

by Joe B.

I’m over a flu virus or whatever made me sick for a couple days it feels like being in heavy dense fogged in cloudbank that has finally cleared.

There was thinking time in stuffed up, no sense-of-smell numbed taste buds, upset stomach, sore throat, and slow-motion reaction time.

Its great when people know not only what they are good at but also what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

The slow torture is either not reaching their goals or being so close they can taste it but not able to eat it.

It must put one in physical, mental ecstasy when finally achieving it.

I know when I finally saw my picture, a little of my believe system and finally all my words written down, over the intangible, invisible, cyberspace known as The World Wide Web.

I shortern Internet to I-net.

This was literally a century ago in the late 1990’s I’m still making grammatical errors but people seem to understand what I'm trying to say.

Of course there is one more goal that’s as author of various works of fiction, science fiction, adventure, maybe romance.

Some of my columns get published as a first dip into the pool of publishing.

I even thought of writing Pornography but I’m not real good at it I tend to write too graphically not being subtle when writing it.

Writing Erotica is more satisfying because it’s a slightly different genre from the other.

Both have to be handled gently, diligently, with feather touched care though many porn writers are consummate artists at their craft.

Maybe Writing Erotica can help me with other kinds of writing.

Besides I’m not a roughneck guy to me Pornography is way rougher than Erotica it does not mirror my personality as Erotic does at least in fantasy.

So I am near my first best destiny as author, novelist, whichever fits the art of composition.

Other pieces of destiny also tug at me.

Lately I’ve been humming notes,and lyrics; only problem is they are not on the radio!

I don’t think singing is in my future, oh God I hope pray its not.

One reason I cannot read music, don’t have a trained voice, don’t play an instrument.

But if this is an omen, an alternative part of my overall destiny because writing is involved then I should follow where the muse leads.

It would be sardonically ironic if I actually end up singing my own songs on some stage with people of all ages who love my songs if not me.

This also means I’d have to get into shape,dress in better clothes, and hide whatever self loathing I feel being on stage.

How do people do it as part of their daily lives?

Then go to the famous Apollo Theater New York City, where I was born before moving to California.

The audience there will tell me by cheers or jeers if I have "It"

For now its only nebulous thoughts in my head but like writing columns was in my head until I started doing it.

One roadblock is my age if a black guy in his late 40’s rapidly approaching 50 could be accepted as a new singer even if he does have a half way decent voice?

But it’s not up to the audience but the hapless scared guy on stage to give his best and hope the people in the dark like it or not.

I don’t think I’ll have groupies, I’d be more worried about how to keep the inspiration going and if it should come to sudden stop… Well, at least there won’t be regrets in that area because I not only tried but did the best I could while I was in that field.

That’s what I was thinking during my flu.

If I follow this muse to its end no one will be more surprised than me.

Isn’t that what life is about striving to do-be more?

Any readers follow or didn’t follow their inner drives, destiny?

I’d just like to know from readers after the fear, laughter of friends, family, lovers.

What happened when you did follow your own road to success or failure what happened?

Please send donations to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002.

The title of the column is
"RUTHLESS AGGRESSION"

Wednesday is a hectic day not only because of K P F A’s P N N radio show in Berkeley where I flubbed lines over and over.

Afterwards a Thi Chi class in San Francisco will not wait for me.

Being late for it is bad form though it couldn’t be helped this time.

It is a relaxing hour, relearning the forms from an instructor is much better than trying to learn from drawings in a book or video’s.

Relaxed, refreshed, and energized I began walking towards home.

Just as I’m at 7th street crossing over before stepping on the sidewalk I hear a loud "Move."

Still walking slow on the green light. "Get Out The Way!" Finally getting the message I look around saying "WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?"

"YOU’RE MY PROBLEM"
Gingerly I move aside saying to the ‘bro with nice but angry constricted face"YOU OWN THE STREETS, ITS ALL YOURS." While I’m thinking "what with this guy, whatever it is its not my fault."

I felt an old tingling of fight or flight butterflies in my belly I haven’t felt those feeling is years.
He is a handsome looking face that women like and this made me angry because he’s the kind of guy that has women or men falling all over him.

I wondered, if he does this to strangers when he’s angry as something else what does he do to women or male lover’s it that state?

That quip about him owning the street could’ve goaded him into a fight an I’m ready to snatch his ass off the bike and throw it across the street then bash his face in and break a few fingers for good measure.

All that anger as if he has some important life or death meeting and where is he headed?

To drop his bike on the street and meet up with a friend a few feet from me.

I am glad he had not gotten into my face because in my past anger management wasn’t my strong point it got me thinking back why I had taken up exercise and Martial Arts in the first place.

Years ago in New York City as many children did I rode in a yellow bus, had free milk which I asked and took home and repeating second grade didn’t help either.

As always there’s a kid harping on me riding on the bus, calling me retarded and making my life shit for weeks.

I had kept it in, not telling my parent’s holding it in until one time after school.

I decided that I’d rather get beaten up than go through the name calling and feeling my tummy churn in constant fear.

I still don’t know what made me do it but I hit this kid thin and skinny in the belly and as he held his belly I grab his neck, knock him down and began hitting his head against the steps.

It felt good to get all that fear out of me as his head thumped on the stone steps. Some adult or group of kids stopped me and by this time the kid is bleeding from his nose, lips, and was trying get his breath back. It felt good, I was still shaking, but he’d never bother me again.

Then I was chased all over my block, had to take secret way in and out until my mother told me to take a knife in a paper bag and my step father said

"You have to take them one at a time" I finally get fed up running away and did beat them up separately and I had no more ganging up me anymore.

Then I remember when another kid picked on me because of my eye and I had a wooden bat he ran and an adult said "don’t throw that bat!"

I didn’t throw it in the air but hard on the ground and I seemed to will the bat to follow the kid as he ran and as he turned away the bat hit a rock or something an it actually hit his back knocking him down.

I still don’t know how the bat could be thrown straight then slant catching the kid.

Some of the adults and other kids had this "What The Fuck" stricken look in their eyes but I didn’t understand it either but played if off like it was what I planned all along.

But when I move to Oakland, California in 1968
changing High School’s twice again doesn’t help one form lasting friendships.

In Frick High School some jerk guy pulled my gym shorts down in full view of everyone boys, girls, luckily I had underwear on but still embarrassing.

I didn’t care pulling my shorts and going off the field.

My brother and I were enrolled in a Martial Arts class for defense, self esteem and I think for me anger management.

I had without thinking rabbit punched the guy in the mouth and throat, I was trying to hit his mouth again and missed. He had been chewing gum and it was caught in his throat and he’s choking.

I didn’t care. Weeks later outside on Frick’s green lawn I running track or doing some group exercise and I’m tired so I didn’t see a shopping cart full of exercise equipment baring down on me.

At the last minute I see it someone yells "look out"! Its too late as I ran to avoid the cart that had yellow or red vaulting pole tied down like a spear.

And like a spear it got me when I tripped, and fell the end of the poll caught the left side of my throat just below the Adam’s apple.

I was bleeding feeling my throat leak. I’m helped up to the infirmary.

It wasn’t serious but that someone would go to that much trouble to get back at me is sobering.

I knew who it was and I had to heal before going after him but by that time girls, martial arts, weight training and swimming took over my time.

My mother hoped the Art Of The Empty Hand would help with self defense and self esteem and it has but that getting gored, speared, pierced in the throat tells me I hold this in and explode on the guy or let this go, give us both breathing room.

Letting it go is hard but I’ve learned control that inner rage.

Until this bike guy went ape at me being in his way.

I thought I the anger had gone but it was only dormant.

Why is it every time I learn better ways of relaxation someone else is hell bent on testing the limits?

The bad feeling I have is this guy and I will have another run in and I’ll play WWF’s/WWO’s [World Wrestling Federal/World Wrestling Organization].

"Ruthless Aggression" on him before he finishes his tirade, throw his bike somewhere beat his face or break fingers.

I’ve had control of my emotions for over 20 years but this guy seems to be the type that once they have a fit they’ll do it again if the same situation happens.

There could be a part 2 to his I hope not, Its been a long time since I went ape shit off on someone.

I might have to do so again just to teach him everyone doesn’t act the same way twice.

PS. POOR has recently moved and though we’re
still in a state of flux.

I will place email and private mail and phone numbers. (That reminds me, to get a automatic voice record machine so I can mail or talk to reader’s.

But this may take a few weeks. Please be patient folks.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Diallo McLinn

Now that society as a whole can reproduce anything, everything is being made for the purpose of the consumer market. Everything has become a commodity to be bought or sold. The personal meaning of events have become lost in the process of a buyer/seller type of society. Everything that is made or manufactured is sold. If we walk down most streets, we can find them jam packed with people buying gifts for friends, love ones, co-workers, and pets. Most people don’t even do it out of love. Or I should say that that fact has become secondary to the fact that we have been conditioned to buy simply for the fact that that is what we are suppose to do around this time of year. I make sure that every year around Christmas time that I say,"Happy Holidays," to as many people as possible. I have only heard that about four times this year. Twice the people who said it were trying to get change to eat with. Both people were trying to get money for so that they could make it through the holidays. I have though, seen so many ads advertising things to buy, things to say, and vacations to experience, if a person had the money or means. Now its not a bad thing that we have the ability to know what’s out there to buy for a loved one or whoever, but the things that are available to buy should in no way over-shadow the reason behind the holiday. We have lost the reason behind the holiday to the consumer.

"It is not just that the relationship to comodities is now plain to see-
commodities are now all there is to see; the world we see is the world of the commity...With the advent of the so-called second industrial revolution, alienated consumption is added to aliened production as an inescapable duty
of the masses....A cycle is thus set in train that must be maintained at all cost:
the total commodity must be returned in fragmentary form to a fragmentary individual completely cut off from the concerted action of the forces of production. pp111 reader

with the modern world here, the edges of a post-modern society begin to surface. We as a society are no longer blind. We have seen and have the ability to see all that any individual or organization can fathom. We are now in a time where images and experiences are everything; are bought and sold; are killed for in the outside world. Images are understood out of context and out of real events. The mystery is gone. The newness, and uniqueness of events can not be added into the matrix of experiences. The experiences are now weighted by other such experiences. The individual now lives in a world fragmented from everyday experiences. She or he is forced to look at their personal experiences in terms of their culture, and other such cultural experiences. Modern society has taken the individual out and away from the personal journey, separated the two, only to sell it back.

For, example, theirs the dead-head, drugged-out, hippie experience. In the past, a person would have to go live the dead-head life; have the dead-head beliefs and mentality. But now in a post-modern society, society knows and has rules to this identity. Everyone now knows what a dead-head is suppose to do, and think. This you can find by frequenting haight street. A person can buy shirts, and caps, and other odds and ends which are suppose to go with the identify of the dead-head experience; that go along with their preconceived idea of how such a experience is suppose to happen. Media has shown, or perhaps taught society how to view society. And yet media does not show us the dead-head, and say ‘this is a dead-head, look for the signs and remember.’ No, media shows us just the symbolic representations and characteristics that we know to be traits of dead-heads.
And then, media sells these ideas back to us, the consumer with the idea that we will transform ourselves into that idea. ‘I want that life I see. I want to have that experience, that knowledge, that whatever that goes with being a dead-head.’

Now if that’s not your thing. There are other things that society has made to sell back to you the consumer. There’s the pet rock, orange juice, apple juice, peach, pear, and banana juice too.’that cool refreshing taste. The taste of the next generation’ You can have a near-to-death experience by hand-gliding, rock climbing, swimming with sharks in Hawaii, buy a fire walk, or go on a Vision Quest with Outward Bound, or another group that does such a thing. Or if Travailing is not your thing, a person could sit at home and never leave. That person could simply ‘reach out and touch someone’ via the phone, fax, e-mail, regular postage mail, internet. We as single members of society can bring the words, images, objects, and ideas of all society to our doors instead of searching the world for such experiences.

Everything physical has been broken down. By this, I mean that modern day technologies can reproduce almost all images. Modern day society can reproduce almost all sounds that
are audible to the ear. Modern day society has put everything on a timeline. We wake up in the morning at 9:00 am. More precisely, the alarm that we bought at Cosco wakes us up
at nine-o’clock am. One hour til we have to be at work.( By we, I am referring to you the reader, and me the writer.) ‘let’s see,’ we say. ‘What can we do in the next hour before we have to jump in our car and make it to work?’ And yet, this is just an average scenario of an average person going to work In the morning. We know this routine. we know this routine through watch our parents, watching T.V., and Sunday morning cartoons such as the Flintstones or by reading Blondie. We too can see how the existence of white-collar working man, or blue-collar stone age man might live. We know because we see it, because we experience it.

And yet, are eyes truly windows into the soul? Can we trust what we see to be real, or at least any more real than a sound that comes from the closet of a melodramatic five year-old boy? Brian Swimme says in the forward to Thomas Berry’s THE DREAM or EARTH

"But Earth in an earlier time, some six hundred million years ago,
when the seas were rich with life, and the continents, after eons as storm
swept granite, now grew mossy and green.

"Around this time, the eyes come into earth’s life. Up until then life had developed, even over billions of years, without eyesight. We contemporary
humans identify so strongly with our visual elements of consciousness that we have some initial difficulty conceiving of a time when life proceeded without any eyes, but so it did...And nowhere was there a vision of waterfalls, nowhere the experience of the blue sky , or the desert colors awakening in their first rain." ppvii

Image is now everything. T.V. is everything too, right? I mean that if it can happen on T.V. it can also happen in real life? Now let us not look at the extreme situation, but one that could happen, but just never did. John doe walks to the corner store and sees a
beautiful all white poodle sitting in the entry way of the store. In T.V. land, John doe reaches down to pet the dog. The dog loves it. His tail wags to and fro and he barks out of enjoyment. The dogs owner ( ? ) hears and... the ending does not matter. What matters is that little Amber watching T.V. sees this to be true. She believes that what she has just witnessed on T.V. has actually happened when in reality that incident never existed except in T.V. land, a land full of words and images put together to communicate.

Since this incident has never happened, but still could, lets say it did. And let us say that it happened to little Amber who walked to the corner store for an afternoon snack. Now her conscious knowledge of what is happening has been drastically changed by the fact that she has seen what she is doing. Little Amber now has a choice of what do;Number one, go about her way and not enact this day as she saw it on T.V.. Choice Number two, pet the dog, and meet the owner. Though little Amber might be fully aware that T.V. is not real life, and that things do not happen in the same way as they do in T.V. land, many things do. Art mimics life, and life mimics art. Yet, in this case, art mimicked little Amber’s future experience. The walk to the store is no longer new, or unique. The incident is no longer sacred to the individual.

And what of sounds? What of the sound of the faint breeze rustling though an autumn morning in Portland Oregon? well, that can be recorded and played back faster than it would take to drive up there from San Francisco. Hey, and if its digitally mastered, the quality will even hold up forever; This is, if technology holds up.

Sounds are everywhere. From the time we are born- or even up to seven or eight months prior- we hear. For some reason we latch on, and begin to trust that first voice we hear while in mommies belly. We can sense that this voice is on our side, or at infant level, is us. Until the age of around one years old, babies consider everything self. They have no distinction between the Id and the everything else. Everything to them is the is the Id.
‘I’m hungry, where is my dinner "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"I’m hungry.’ Sounds help us locate ourselves and everything else; to everything else. sounds help use determine if what we see is true. They help us communicate with all that is not us. We can buy audio instruction tapes, and learn to knit, fix a car, learn a new language, or get rocked to sleep by a trance mix, put together to relax our minds, or bodies, or even shakra’s, so we’re told.

Groups like the Orb play with sounds which relate to the inner structures of the body, not necessarily the ear or ear drum. Base and drum beats are used to soothe the body, and the physical parts there of. Like the drum or heartbeat, people are moved and gain a yearning to move. Most Latin dances like salsa use drums and other base sounds to inspire dancers to move. Treble moves the mind and tends to take us into our heads. The tones tend to resonate with our minds, and not so much with our bodies.

When I was in Hawaii, my friend and I would play a little game. It was called." shall we stay or shall we go." When we wanted to leave the place that we were in, we would add more base to whatever music was playing. This tended to make people antsy and what to move about. If we were comfortable, we would put more treble in the music that was playing. This tended to relax the listeners who would usually get in a talking mood.

Smells are stored and sold too. Incense can be bought almost at any store a person might look. Perfume, deodorant, rose water, condoms, (some are now scented), and scratch and sniff stickers and just a few examples of smells.

Nothing is original. Fredric Jameson states:

There is another sense in which the writers and artists of the present day will no longer be able to invent new styles and worlds-they’ve already
been invented; only a limited number of combinations are possible.

There still exist some places in the world where commodity is not everything, like parts of Hawaii and Australia, but those places are commodities themselves. People buy their plane tickets hoping to find rest from this buyer/seller world that they helped create.
Places like Hawaii help people realize that there still exist a place untouched and unchanged by the human hand, but these places are numbered. Soon though with over-population and the fact the pollution will soon destroy what little nature we still have left, man and women must look elsewhere to find a little rest and recuperation from all that we cal civilization. So the question is raised;" where do we turn to now?" Maybe the answer lays in the technology that we have created to take the human condition to a brand new level. Enter the computer. And with the computer comes a new kind of reality, a cyber-reality in which everything that can be imagined can be created in this reality we call the computer.

Man and women can now weave their existences in and out of this virtual cyber world. She or he can communicate with people that are half way across the world. She or he can exist in this world and network out to thousands of people without leaving the comfortability of their homes. He or she can even talk to non real people if they like, or act out someone that they are not. My friend was on her computer and was talking to someone through her computer; she made a date with the person on the other end, and even found out about that persons life, if that person on the other end of the computer was telling the truth. what if that person never really existed? What if that person never really existed but in the mind of the person that created the persona?

Post modernism has fragmented the individual into pieces of that individual, into pieces of the id. Each aspect of a person can now be seen separate from the whole of that persons life. "This is Mike. Hear Mike’s voice on audio tape. the voice you hear is Mike’s right? See Mike on video tape. Looks like Mike. Must be Mike. Feel Mike’s pain through his poetry. Now you too can know what is going on in Mike’s head. Mike now exists even if the real Mike does not, or so a person might argue. In a way if that person thought that this was actually Mike, that person would not be entireally wrong, or right.

But what about the real person? What of the flesh and the blood which pump through Mike’s veins? What of the spontaneity and randomness, the uniqueness of Mike’s life which make his existence his and his alone? This is both good and bad. The good is that we can now trade facts and ideas without having to be present. The good is that we ‘can’ know Mike without ever having to cross paths with him. We as members of society can learn through watching and communicating with the ideas that he once put out.
But the individual is lost. The individual has surrendered himself to society, a society which wants to have and learn, but which has separated itself from nature.

We no longer live in nature. Man and women now cross the line, leaving the body behind, to pursue the mind, the id. We urn for the owning of and the knowledge of, but we have pasted the steps to truly understand that which we have obtained. Only a few of us have put ourselves on the path to understand how commodity relates to life inside and outside of this digital cyber-reality that is now present in almost all of our existence. And what of Mike?

Mike now is a representation of himself. His true existence has been broken apart, torn apart at the edges of his existence. Each instance and aspects of his life have been dissected and looked at not in the entirety of his life, but looked at in how it relates to a society which tries to categorize and understand. Mike as an individual has been fragmented from the unity which ties the existence of his life together.

Mike is not unique even in his fragmentation. All of us who choose to live in this Modern Society have been fragmented by our culture. We now live in and out of this Cyber-reality. Society and how it exists not takes it’s turn with the new cyber generation.
Each member of society weighs it’s existence against the existence of a virtual world that would and could not exist without technology. We have all been fragmented through this Cyber-reality.

What is Cyber-reality? Cyber-reality is a reality that tries to document and/or reproduce life, or aspects of it. Phones, fax machines, photographs, advertisements, postcards, computers, and maybe even fast food and proscription drugs can be put into this category. Cyber-reality is a reality which number one places human existence and consciousness on a linear plane. It places that fragmented parts of are lives and judges them not on the merit of the individual, but in relationship with the whole. The experience is now weighted against the other experiences. The maps have all been laid out. The instances and events have already happened. There is nothing new about what Mike or Ill Amber can do except experience the things themselves or not.

If in modern society all the scenarios have been played out and/or fabricated, the only option left is to play the scenarios over again, but this time as a different character. And why not? There is no reason that I can think of. Cyber-reality has given us the tool and the map to dictate where we go, and what ending our paths will carry us. We can go anywhere, do anything, and create it if we can imagine it. And yet with all of this, the only thing we cannot do is understand it.

What does all of this mean? Why would a person what to go through the motions? And can a person really understand something if that person does not actually experience it for real, in real life, not simulated or stimulated?

Enter the Creation generation. After post modernism, and after the wave of consumerism dies down; when all that can be bought and sold, are bought and sold; and everyone has as much as they can handle, people will begin to question the importance of what they have acquired. Man and women will begin to ponder the purpose these things create in their lives. Experiences will be weighted by their personal importance. for you see the majority of what we buy is not sold by the thing itself, but by the lifestyle that accompanies that object. Joe Smo who thought that he could become a hippie by buying the hype that was sold to him by advertisements, must realize the truth behind the image. He must realize the reality behind the myth that was sold to him by a society that buys, sells, and trades dreams as if they could be bought or sold. But something is missing. And that something is belief. That something is relationship to life. That something is the reality which exists even when the power has gone out because of a cold, stormy winters night.
Joe Smo must now give meaning and purpose to all that he has obtain. Joe Smo must now believe in all the things which occupy his humdrum life full of dreams and images of how he would truly like to live. It now becomes apparent that just having the objects and the knowledge are not enough. They are not enough unless they been something to the person who has obtained them.

Thus, at the end of this cycle of consumerism that the world now inhabits and embodies, comes a need to give "rhyme to reason." There will come a time in the near, or distant future to give purpose back to the things that we have.

Post Modernism is allowing us to fragment our identities.

by Dee Gray, M.S.W., M.F.T

I am the co-editor and co-director of a media organization, I am also a social worker and licensed psychotherapist in the state of California.

As a mental health professional I believe that Gavin Newsom's plan called Care Not Cash (Proposition N) is so very antithetical to help for mental illness, substance abuse, etc.

CARE, the word, implies empathy, help, reaching out. Gavin Newsome's use of the word CARE is cynical, cruel, distinctly the opposite of empathy, help, or reaching out.

To remove money from the San Francisco worker's paycheck (aka;the Cash Assistance Grant given to folks on General Assistance/Welfare who do Workfare) with the idea that mental health services and all needed services will be provided instead is cynical. These services do not exist and would require several years to develop. What really exists for poor people and homeless people is meager at best.

In my opinion instead of decreasing the amount of the paycheck to the (workfare) workers, (workfare, the work that people must perform to receive their monthly cash assistance grant) yes, workers, because that’s what they are – very low-wage workers (similar to indentured servants). Instead of decreasing the paychecks, these workers paycheck should be increased to $3,000 per month, at least.

The primary reason for the pay check increase would be to pay for mental health services which for "talk therapy" and "meds" would cost from $60 per 50 minute session to $300 per 50 minute session. 50 minutes being the usual length of time per session with mental health professionals.

The $150 to $300 per 50 minute rate is the cost that Gavin Newsome can pay for psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic pyschotherapy. This type of therapy usually takes from 2 to 5 days per week. Because there is a significant amount of mental illness and substance abuse in the worker population, that in some cases date back to early child hood experiences as well as abuse by the system that poor people live with every day, daily or almost daily therapy would be the most beneficial.

I personally believe a combination of psychotherapy, advocacy, and self help is the best way of helping folks in the population being discussed. Psychotherapy in the form of long term cognitive or "talk therapy" would be of great benefit in any treatment plan or, as I have stated, long term psychoanalysis. I also would recommend any therapy be based in cultural and ethnic awareness and not be based simply on eurocentric psychology that stresses the individual over the group. Eurocentric psychology - that is, the parallel of the economic system of capitalism –

At Poor we view all labor as work and all those that labor as workers – this includes unrecognized work such as recycling, panhandling, work fare, street cleaning, (etc.)

Workers in any system normally have, or try to have, work that includes health care, vacations, sick leave, etc. Yet in the eyes of San Francisco and under Proposition N (Care Not Cash), these workers performing unrecognized work, not only do not receive benefits but are now being told that they should receive a major cut in pay – thereby making it impossible for them to acquire the expensive psychotherapy that would benefit them immensely. Additionally they are scorned for the very work that they do by those with wealth and privilege (and higher paying jobs) such as Gavin Newsome.

If these scorned workers can’t have access to the type of work benefits that the wealthy folks like Gavin Newsome have access to because they do not receive high enough wages for their work or do not have inherited wealth, then it makes sense for their employer, the city of San Francisco, to provide benefits. One of which would be a really good health care plan that provides top-notch culturally aware mental health services – the expensive kind that Gavin Newsome has access to. I also recommend that each worker have a healthcare card that identifies them as an employee of San Francisco, similar to the cards that Kaiser and UC, etc. give to their clients.

These mental health care benefits combined with advocacy and self help programs already in existence, would be what I as a mental health professional, would recommend that these workers receive. And if the city of San Francisco refuses to provide the benefits for these workers like the rest of the city’s workers receive, than I would recommend a large increase, up to $3,000 per month, in monthly benefits for each worker so that they could buy their own private mental healthcare benefits.

Finally, This Care Not Cash plan put forth by Gavin Newsome, only perpetrates misery and poverty and most important, makes a mockery of the word CARE.

by Clive Whistle and Reginald Williams/PoorNewsNetwork

As very low-income black folk, who have historically sufferred from institutional racism and classism which manifests in Government and Corporate policies such as Redlining, Redevelopment and Police harassment, leave the Bay Area in droves, the mainstream media would like us to believe this is due to their desire to "move up and out of poverty". Unfortunately, that is sometimes the case for middle and upper class black folk, but for very poor people who are already close to the financial edge of stability and were houzed in recently demolished or "redeveloped" public housing projects and given a piece of paper (i.e.voucher) in exchange for their apartments - and/or were residing in gentrified neighborhoods like West Oakland, The Bayview and The Mission District and have now been evicted (such as POOR Magazine contributors; Mama aka Lula b. Seymour and The Sloan Family of Oakland) these folks have dropped off the face of statistics and counts and are now some of the poorest homeless and/or vehicularily housed Bay Area residents. In other words these folks are not being heard and are now at the mercy of new and exciting forms of racism and classism such as Proposition N. This is our response to this recent assault on our civil and human rights.

Prop N is racist – there I said it.. and I’ll say it again, Prop N is racist and classist – it is targeted at very poor folks SUB-sisting on welfare in San francisco and the reality is that most of us very poor folk are people of color – and the people bringing this legislation on are very rich, mostly white folks who have a racist,classist agenda to "clean" us out of town – now what’s different bout that? – that’s been happening in the country since the beginning of time – once poor folks are no longer "useful" we aren’t wanted – or better yet, once we are taking up space that rich folks want we are kicked out.

So let’s begin by shattering a few myths, first of all poor people like myself who receive that little bit of money from General Assistance are WORKING for every penny – I wake up at 6:00 am two days a week to do my street cleaning job to EARN that little bit of nothing, $320.00 per month, (which Newsome proposes to take down to $1.84 per hour). I used to clean Muni Buses til my arms couldn’t do it no more. These and other GA jobs are union jobs that used to pay union wages of $15.00 dollars and above until they were turned into this new form of slavery; WORKFARE,

Finally, people harass me cause I spend my Workfare wages on alcohol – well, like my editors at POOR say, its my business what I do with my wage- I mean did they take Michael Milkins’ wages away cause he spent most of it on cocaine? Do they question a ceo at Enron on what he does with his wages…I am a very poor worker with a low-wage job and what these rich folks like Diane Feinstein, Gavin Newsome and the CEO’s of the GAP and The Restaurant Association ( all backers of Prop N) want to do is put us poor folks in mini-prisons like the ones that that Mayor Guiliani of New York City helped to establish – where instead of a GA check you get a shelter bed, have to work 8 hours a day sweeping the streets and if you don’t check in by 6:00 pm every day with a clean piss test you are kicked out and you don’t get a second chance- I know, I was there. all I am saying is folks – there are many reasons that very poor people and people of color like myself are homeless, beat down and living on welfare and most of it has to do with Institutional racist, classist policies like redlining, redevelopment and downsizing that cause gentrification, homelessness and joblessness for very low-income communities this legislation which proposes to take even the little I get now and drop it down to $59.00 dollars per month is just another example of life in Amerikka for poor folk like me.

by Leroy Moore Jr./Illin and Chillin and DAMO

After five years of non-stop work to build Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO into a non-profit advocacy organization plus lecturing, consulting and publishing, Leroy Moore Jr. and DAMO closed their doors during the whole month of September 2002. Angela Davis once wrote that revolutionaries have to take care of themselves or the revolution will die. I had to take care of me and re-energize myself for the battles ahead. This realization lead to the decision to take a vacation plus I could not miss the birth of my first nephew in Bloomfield, CT. However I did bring along my notebook and grant applications. Also I was going to see Michael Manning in Pennsylvania for an updated article for my column Illin-n-chillin on PoorNewsNetwork(PNN)

From the sunshine state to the big apple to the state of brotherly love, I traveled across the country to see and talk to my new found brother, Michael Manning and his family in Pennsylvania. I Walked down JFK's airport aisle toward the baggage claim with a sign that screamed "looking for the Manning Family!" "Leroy, Leroy.. over here," a strong voice breezed through the crowd and softly landed in my ears. I saw a Michael Manning look-a-like, his mother, Diana Manning. Instantly I was engulfed in the feeling of home. It's been almost ten years since I've been home to New York City and Hartford, CT. The car drove onto the Brooklyn Bridge leaving N.Y.C. behind and entering Pennsylvania. Conversation spilled out of the car on subjects like wrongful incarceration to familiar foods and favorite places in New York.

"Welcome to Pennsylvania" the green sign scanned my eyes. At the same time the black pages of history flipped in my mind from the Declaration of Independence in which Black people were seen as 3\5 of a person to the racist, corrupt Justice System that has swallowed up Mumia Abu-Jamal, Michael Manning and many more innocent brothers and sisters of color all have happened in the State of Brotherly Love! Diana broke my trance while pointing at the gasoline station, and the first family house in the county of Pocono, where Michael's attackers waited for Michael to come out and get into his car. The small town's center whipped by. Streetlights faded in the background as the car dipped and dived around sharp tunnel dark corners. Appearing out of the darkness, was a driveway that parted the thick trees and bushes and behind laid the Manning's new cottage like house. This Brooklyn family left the concrete, hustle-bustle of NYC for the lush green and quietness of a small town in Swiftwater, Penn.

The Manning's family greeted me as I sat down on the couch in their living room Diana and I continued our conversation about Michael's case and our visit at Mahanoy State Correctional Institution on the following day, August 30th, 2002. Michael informed the prison's administrators that I would be apart of his mother's weekly visit that day. All I needed was some type of a photo id.. After a long needed good night sleep, Diana, Bobby and Malik, Michael's brothers greeted me at my hotel door with hot McD's breakfast the next morning. We continued our conversation and my breakfast in the car. Since Michael's trail in 1988 he has been tossed around the state to four different facilities. However the Manning feels lucky that the facility he is in now is close to them, about an hour or two away.

We finally pulled up at Mahanoy State Correctional Institution and the first thing I noticed was the American flag blowing in the wind. My heart started to pound. For me police and prison guards share the same yellow stained, corrupt bed. At that moment my body was a freeway of raw emotions i.e. anger, rage, fear and a little bit of intimidation as we entered the main building. Pictures of White men stared at me from the wall. None of them I knew. We signed in and a husky White man with a black or a blue uniform on, took our ids. Diana and Michael's little brothers were familiar with the routine. We went over to a machine that turned our dollars into tokens for food in the visiting room.

Diana told me that many local prison activists and family members are fighting for improvement of the facilities and the food. She goes on to say that it costs a lot on her family to keep Michael well fed and equipped with his daily needs. Michael is a tall and big man but the small, cold portion of food he receives in the prison are not pleasing to his stomach.

While waiting for the door to open, I noticed that the sky was gloomy with the turf-like grass evenly cut that clashed with the white\blueish clouds in the gray sky. The doorbell broke my concentration and families started to walk down this long corridor with a flat green office like carpet. Along each side of the corridor were windows that expanded from the ceiling to the floor. We came up to a glass door. The visiting room looked like a cafeteria with a dozen tables and chairs. This room had a children play area, machine for all types of food, a little area to take pictures and a huge lifted judge- like desk for a prison's employee who reminded me of an overseer on a plantation. Sometimes the media can shape your mind on some places because I thought Michael would be behind some type of thick glass or steel bars for our visit. I was completely wrong as Malik and Bobby took off when Michael walked into the visiting room with his cane. Diana hugged her son and then finally after almost two years of writing and advocating about Michael's case our eyes met. We hugged for a long time. Michael's brothers went off to play in the children's room, his mother went to go get some food with the tokens and Michael and I was left alone to talk. As we talked I noticed all the inmates wore a brown jogging suit with slip-on white sneakers and over 95% of the men were African Americans.

Michael and I talked about everything, for example his family, his strong belief in God, his music career, life in New York, his case, the inaccessibility of the prison towards inmates with disabilities, his plans when he gets out etc.. As time ticked away, we all lined up for pictures and Michael talked to his brothers. Diana made sure that her son had enough to eat. "Fifteen more minutes!" The guards shouted. I felt a collective thought floating around the room as family members, wives, and children kissed and hugged their fathers, husbands and brothers etc "We want him to come home with us!" We finally said our last good-byes. I grabbed my camera from the car and took a couple of pictures of the outside as the Red, White and Blue continued to flop from side to side. The car was quiet on the way home. I asked Diana if we could stop at the courthouse where Michael was sentenced and the gasoline station where Michael was attacked so I can take some pictures for POOR Magazine. She said yes.

Ten minutes into our conversation about new elements in Michael's case the phone rang, it was Michael. He was very grateful of the work that DAMO, POOR Magazine and the Bay view Newspaper have done on his behalf. Armed with my notebook, pen, pictures and Michael's buttons, I boarded the bus to my final destination, Bloomfield, CT. where my sister was ready to give birth. From Michael Manning to my the birth of Sasha Max Bernstein, my first nephew confirmed my theme I live with daily and that is "life is too short for bullshit!"

The Road to Freedom & Justice
Update on Michael Manning

Read Fighting to Stay Alive & My Brother on Illin-n-Chillin at www.poormagazine.org for background info on Michael's case. My visit to the Manning's family home in Swiftwalter, Pennsylvania and Michael Manning, himself on August 29th & 30th 2002 gave me the opportunity to talk to Diana Manning, Michael's mother, to get some update info on Michael's case and to see Michael in person. I found out that there has been a lot going on since my last article. Here is the news and it is all looking like Michael will soon be home. Keep your fingers cross and write to the Mannings at their website www.michaelmanning.homestead.com They needed letters of support.

In 1999, a year after Michael was sentenced in self-defense case of murder of Harry Burley to 12 to 30 years the Mannings organized a benefit. This benefit's main goal was to spread awareness about the unjust treatment Michael was faced with during the attack and at the hands of a racist justice system with an all White jury and to organized the community around his first appeal. This benefit attracted a big handful of people but only a small portion of the benefit mad it on the local news. According to Diana Manning the authorities are use to getting away with things that are not just. The authorities thought that the Mannings would go away and Michael's case would be swept under the dirty carpet but Diana has turned Michael's case into a international campaign with letters coming in from all over the world as far as Africa. However some town's residents are scared to speak out plus there are no Black newspaper like San Francisco Bay View to get Michael's case in the media but the Mannings kept on pushing for justice and it has paid off.

In March of 1998 the Mannings and their lawyer filed an appeal in the county Superior Court of Swiftwalter, Penn. but it was denied. The Mannings lost his first appeal to the Superior Court when he claimed President Judge Ronald E. Vican "abused his discretion" and assumed a prosecutorial role" at the trial by asking 80 probing questions of the defendant. Judge Vican also made racist comments in cases involving self-defense of Black men and has spoke about Michael's case in other court cases. The second appeal cited misconduct by the prosecutor, and Monroe County District Attorney, Mark Pazuhanich exercised "poor judgement which prejudice before the jury." So after all of that Judge Vican had the last say on Michael's first appeal and of course it was denied.

The second appeal was filed on June 18th, 2001 with new lawyers, Thomas Sundmaker and Jeffrey Valander. The appeal was shipped out of Judge Vican courtroom and into the diverse city of Philadelphia Superior Court. Since that move, Michael's case has exploded in the media, Black organizations are now getting involved and the above elements of the first appeal, the influence of Judge Vican and Mark Pazuhanich over the jury especially the removal of Ms Rowe who was pro Michael Manning has been uncovered. A few weeks ago Michael's appeal was granted on the grounds of misconduct by the prosecutor and Pennsylvania Superior Court has reversed the 1998 appeal granting a new trail for Michael Manning. Now they have to wait to see if the county appeals the decision, if so, the Mannings and their lawyers are taking their case to the Supreme Court. In the mean time the lawyers are working towards bail for Michael.

STAY TUNE FOR MORE DETAILS or go to Michael's website at:

www.michaelmanning.homestead.com

by Carol Harvey, Street Spirit/ POOR Magazine October 2002

"Some of our opponents are pretty smart - smart enough to figure out that if you change who lives here, you change
who votes here, thus you can change the politics." - Chris Daly, S.F. Supervisor, D6

I stood holding groceries in the parking lot of the California-Fillmore Pacific Heights Molly Stone’s. I was
chatting with a man who was gripping a clipboard and fashionably dressed in a green L.L. Bean jacket. He was
collecting signatures for Care Not Cash, the homeless stipend reduction proposal.

A blonde woman in a gray coat buttonholed me, assuming I too was a petitioner. Inches from my eyes, her intense
stare pinned me in place. She angrily announced, “On my low teacher’s salary, I can’t afford a house in San
Francisco. My only choice is to turn my apartment into a condo. I want HOPE.”

She turned abruptly and marched up the ramp into the store. Blind with high emotion, she assumed erroneously that
I was opposing HOPE, the condo conversion Prop. No time to respond. All I could give her was my respectful
attention. Then she was gone.

I turned to Mr. L. L. Bean. "I gather you are also getting signatures for HOPE, and she knew that?"

"Yes," he said.

"I've just been tarred (and feathered) with the same brush," I said.

My non-connection with HOPE was not clear to her, but the connection between
HOPE and Care Not Cash became crystal clear to me. 'There are a lot of people like her,' I thought. 'What will
happen when she, and they, learn the truth?'

So, Mystery woman who hopes to buy a home. I am writing this for you.'

The most magical, integrated and cosmopolitan population on the North American continent

Calvin Welch, an affordable housing expert from the San Francisco Information
Clearinghouse, wrote in May 2001, "San Francisco is a profoundly immigrant City with wave after wave of economic,
ethnic, racial, cultural, political and sexual immigrants washing over each successive wave, building the most
magical, integrated and cosmopolitan population on the North American continent... That's the San Francisco dream."

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/id236.htm

That dream began eroding when a high-rise boom changed the economy of San
Francisco in the 1970s. Blue-collar union jobs in shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing were replaced by
"new-collar" clerical, business support, and retailing jobs, "moving low-income people of color out of San Francisco
to make space" for corporate offices. The first wave of gentrification in the 1980s, then a second wave during the
1990s dot-com boom, roared in like tsunamis, leaving higher and higher rents in their wakes.

"The cumulative effect of these forces has been to make the stock of existing rental housing in San Francisco
ground zero for attack after attack," Welch wrote. "Desperation grips a wide section of the middle class, once content
as tenants, to transform their current unstable living situation and seek out the supposed security of home ownership
no matter what the social cost.

"The latest desperate round in this battle of property owners against renters and the poor is the deceptively named
HOPE proposal, championed by conservative S.F. Supervisor Tony Hall on the November ballot. HOPE allows a new
category of apparently tenant-initiated condo conversions, removes the 200-unit-per-year limit, and eliminates
restrictions on building size.

Currently, in a building with more than six units, landlords can't convert to condos. Tenants are protected by rent
control and have relatively secure housing. HOPE would remove those restrictions and put all tenants at risk of condo
conversion evictions, unprotected by rent control, with landlords selling off units one by one. Landlords can get 25
percent of the tenants to sign a paper saying, "I want to buy my unit." Once signed, the tenant can't rescind it.
Landlords can easily collect signatures, pay tenants to sign, and include themselves if they live in the building. If
you move out, your signature still counts.

San Francisco's super rich paid the Committee on Jobs to fund twin ballot initiatives to accomplish their ends.
Using mayoral contenders Gavin Newsom and Tony Hall to front the Care Not Cash and HOPE proposals, they play on the
two deepest fears of voters: "Will I lose my home? Will I end up on the street?"

Newsom, the voice of Care Not Cash, "guarantees" phantom services for the lost
souls holding cups outside Mollie Stone's, an upscale supermarket in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights. Tony Hall, the
mouthpiece of HOPE, promises a "Home Ownership Program for Everyone." The super rich hope that fear and prejudice will
influence voters so that San Francisco voting blocs will be changed and rearranged with populations more amenable to
their interests.

The Strategy of the Super Rich

Sharon Stone, Danny Glover, Madeline Albright (who comes to visit her daughter and buy antiques), and others at
stratospheric socioeconomic heights mingle and shop with the less rich and famous at Mollie Stone's. Donald and Doris
Fisher of the Gap with their $2.1 billion, reside in a Pacific Heights high rise three blocks away. Close by, the
family mansion of oil tycoon Gordon Getty, worth another $2.1 billion, overlooks the Bay from Pacific Avenue.

Other top ten San Francisco billionaires who shop at upscale stores are Robert
Goldman of Levi Strauss ($1.5 billion); Stephen and Riley Bechtel ($3.5 billion each); Susan Buffett of Berkshire
Hathaway ($2.4 billion); Robert Niafy, movie theaters ($1.7 billion); George Roberts, leveraged buyouts ($1.4.
billion). Housing activists say the super rich have an agenda. And they have hired the Committee on Jobs to carry it
out.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/1...
20251.DTL

Some San Franciscans with world-class wealth have multinational corporate connections that stretch to New York and
circle the globe. That these local big fish swim in national and international high seas becomes evident upon looking
at the New York City Doe Fund Board, the group Gavin Newsom visited in the spring of 2002 to investigate their Ready,
Willing, and Able program to get homeless people off the streets of New York.

Newsom is the new forelocked stallion in the Getty-Burton stable. He is backed
by their vast wealth and the considerable funding of the Committee on Jobs. He owns wineries and restaurants with
Gordon Getty's son.

The New York homeless activist, Anthony Williams, describes the Doe Fund as
one millionaire's (McDonald's) collusion with another millionaire (Giuliani's) to feed the voting public a program
which appears to get the homeless off the street, but simply exploits their work or runs them out of town.

Anthony Williams, is co-founder of "Picture The Homeless," which organizes unsheltered people on the streets of New
York.

http://www.gvny.com/columns/lamb/lamb01-11-02.html

In Spring 2002, Williams told me that RWA pays their laborers $5.50 an hour for jobs like “sweeping and bagging
garbage,” working next to city employees earning “quadruple for the same work. People untrained for living wage
employment later recycle back into poverty.”

http://www.poormagazine.com/index.cfm?L1=news&story=726

In the same way, Care Not Cash would reduce the wages of homeless San Francisco workfare street sweepers to $1.84
an hour while their DPW counterparts earn many times as much.

The Doe Fund's corporate and foundation sponsors include: Bloomberg News,
Bloomingdale's, Business Week, Canon, Chase Manhattan, CIBC World Markets, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Fannie Mae
Foundation, Forbes, Inc., Goldman Sachs, Kiplinger Foundation, Lehman Brothers, Newsweek, New York Junior League, New
York Times, People Magazine, Reader's Digest Association, Soloman Smith Barney, Charles Schwab, Time Inc., Toyota,
U.S. News & World Report, World Bank.

http://www.doe.org/

The Doe Fund website displays photos of the "generous donors" of their exclusively male Caucasian 11-member board.
Global banking and financing representative, Mike Gantcher, Director of Investments Middle Market Group, CIBC World
Markets, stands next to his blonde wife, Christina. ." All 'generous donors,’ their family members, and RWA staff are
repeatedly and fully identified under several photos that omit the names of all seven anonymous smiling homeless
partygoers standing beside them. RWA staff are named. RWA participants are not. “Generous Donors” are white. RWA
staff and participants are people of color. (Click on the invitation to view "two participants in the women's
program," and five "RWA trainees enjoying themselves at the University Club.) "The homeless," all people of color,
are merged into an undifferentiated mass of insignificant nonentities in these RWA photos.

http://www.doe.org/events/donors/

Other board members represent chemicals and biogenetic foods, Manhattan real
estate, media conglomerates, venture capital and corporate finance, and global
investment bankers like Citigroup.

CHEMICALS/ AGRIBUSINESS: Timothy P. Andree, Senior Vice President of Communications; BASF world’s largest chemical
company, agribusiness (biogenetic foods).

REAL ESTATE: Jeff T. Blau, President, The Related Companies, LP; Real estate; develops manages and finances “the
most desirable residences in New York City,” ”the world’s finest real estate developments.”

PUBLISHING: Richard Burgheim, Consulting Editor, Time, Inc.

VENTURE CAPITAL: P. Benjamin Grosscup, Senior Vice President, Munn, Bernhard & Associates, Inc.; investment
management company, corporate finance.

GLOBAL INVESTMENTS: Jon Harris, Alternative Investment Management; Global Investors who “wish to be part of the
global network;” sponsoring members: Citigroup; CIS, Euronext, Fortis.

MANHATTAN REAL ESTATE: Peter Resnick, Managing Director, Jack Resnick & Sons, Inc.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS IN SILICON VALLEY/ CALIFORNIA COMPUTERS AND INTEGRATED CIRCUITS: Craig Lucas, General
Partner, Zimmer-Lucas Partners LLC.

Board member Leslie Hawke has Hollywood and Eastern European connections. Her son is actor Ethan Hawke, married to
Uma Thurman. Her People Magazine story, "Mother On A Mission," recounts how she left the boredom of her life to join
the Peace Corps in Bacau, Romania, after John F. Kennedy, Jr's plane crash. Using her connections on the Doe Fund
Board, she set the mothers of gypsy beggar children to work in a Bacau Ready, Willing, and Able program. Perhaps
fellow board members from the corporate media like Richard Burgheim, Consulting Editor, Time, Inc., which publish
People magazine, made possible the presentation of this puff piece.

http://www.doe.org/news/articles/

Doe Fund board member Craig Lucas, of Zimmer-Lucas Partners, invests in
biopharmaceutical and computer firms in Tustin, Costa Mesa, Sunnyvale, and Richmond, which develop high-density
electronics, miniature cameras, and integrated circuits. And so we come full circle around the globe and back to
California.

http://www.doe.org/about/board.cfm

With so many high-powered business interests focused on homeless people, it
raises speculation as to why they haven't been rescued from the streets long ago
to affordable homes of their own.

The Broken Windows Theory

The conservative social policies of the super rich, represented by Newsom in San Francisco, are made clear by a
look at the ideas of the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank in New York City. Anthony Williams explains,
"During the Dinkins Administration, the Manhattan Institute developed the Broken Windows theory, a way to deal with
social ills which says, 'If you clean the dirt, the homeless will be swept out of sight, out of mind' - like shards of
glass from a storefront window after a riot.

"In his keynote address at the 1999 Livable Cities Conference in Washington, D.C., Giuliani said, "The Broken
Windows theory, probably our first big success... is being applied in cities across the country."

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_17.htm

Indeed. Besides Bacau, Romania, the RWA program has expanded to Harlem, Jersey City, and Philadelphia. What a coup
for Newsom if he can bring it to San Francisco!

Under Giuliani, the NYPD became a repressive force acting out the Manhattan
Institute's Broken Windows agenda. After a thief attacked a woman named Nicole
Barrett, and was falsely labeled homeless, Giuliani decided "to get those crazies off the street." Since 1999, police
hostility has been directed at homeless people for quality of life crimes such as sleeping, loitering, urinating,
obstructing benches. Giuliani claims the homeless have disappeared from Manhattan. Activist Anthony Williams says
they are hiding in plain sight, running in terror from the police and possible incarceration in shelters and upstate
prisons. Lately, however, homeless people are re-emerging from Manhattan shadows. Giuliani is gone.

Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash resembles the Manhattan Institute's Broken Windows theory. Homeless activists insist
the cash-reduction plan is void of compassionate caring services. They say the real agenda is to sweep the homeless
out of the city by making it too expensive to live here on $1.84 an hour, the workfare stipend reduction to be
presented to voters in November. Newsom's trip to The Big Apple to check out McDonald's Doe-funded Ready, Willing,
and Able program exposed the Getty-Burton New York connections.

Researching the right-wing Manhattan Institute and Giuliani's approval of McDonald's attempts to use the homeless
to "sweep" New York City clean, exposes the agenda of the equally right-wing San Francisco super rich to turn San
Francisco into a little Manhattan owned by the top ten percent of extremely wealthy people. They believe in the
Manhattan Institute studies that have claimed that discipline and punishment, not homes, are the solutions to
homelessness.

As Welch puts it that homeless and lower-income tenants alike are to be treated as supplicants, not full citizens
of the community. These victims, like newly jobless dot-commers, fall into a gap between lowered wages and soaring
rents created by the super rich, who victimize and judge them unworthy of having their fall broken by a social safety
net.

Welch called HOPE "a sugar-coated poison pill."

Welch and S.F. Tenant Union Director Ted Gullicksen concur that the super rich
wish to change the dream of the multicultural melting pot in which "separate and distinct immigrant populations can
first meet and settle and then mingle and mutate" in a city in which housing is as flexible as the population" -
meaning "both apartments and homes."

Said Welch, "Land use is the essence of politics in San Francisco."

Incredibly, Welch and Gullicksen say that the San Francisco super rich want this seven-by-seven-mile city for
themselves, transforming the City into the exclusive preserve of the affluent. Welch said, "Their definition of
multiculturalism is where you can go to any restaurant featuring a variety of the world's cuisines." They plan to use
HOPE to run the tenant population out of rental spaces in the City and change San Francisco voting patterns. They have
even figured out how many years this will take.

Just as they plan to use Care Not Cash to make homeless people disappear by
attrition or death, they have created HOPE as a condo-conversion scheme to control who lives here and who works here,
and to transform San Francisco to a City of the Rich in 25 years or less.

Committee On Jobs

Welch reported that he has heard Nathan Nayman say as much. Nayman is the executive director of the Committee on
Jobs, the organization funded by the San Francisco super rich and big businesses to lobby for their interests at City
Hall. Nayman and Mark Mosher, the main lobbyist for the Committee on Jobs, represent the interests of the likes of
The Gap's Don Fisher, Walter Shorenstein, Levi Strauss, Macy's, Bank of America, and various presidents and CEOs of
big corporations. Every high rise in the financial district is a member of the Committee on Jobs, as is every big
landlord in the city. The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), representing big commercial and residential
landlords, is notorious for low wages and for fighting tenant initiatives. "BOMA always puts a big chunk of money
against anything tenants put on the ballot," said Gullicksen.

According to Welch, the enormous effort currently under way by the Committee on Jobs, BOMA, the Golden Gate
Restaurant Association, and the hotel owners to get HOPE on the November 2002 ballot is explained by the November 2000
election of the new district-based Board of Supervisors. This election caused a major shift in political power in San
Francisco, dramatically reducing the influence of business elements.

"Corporate San Francisco's agenda is to remove the disparate, unruly, incredibly diverse, populist culture that has
given San Francisco much of its flavor and political history in the last 50 years," said Welch. These corporate
interests need the power of the Board of Supervisors to remove the "economically irrelevant" population from San
Francisco and replace it with businesses and affluent residents.

It is troublesome to Corporate San Francisco that the Board of Supervisors can
approve or disapprove million-dollar developments, and that they must go through
an election process that can be hijacked by this cacophonous crowd. Because the big-business interests lost in 2000,
they now realize they can't defeat each supervisor in their districts. Welch has actually heard Nathan Nayman say,
"What we're going to have to do is change the San Francisco voter."

Gullicksen confirmed Welch's view that "the reason the Committee on Jobs are the ones putting all their funding
money, a million dollars, on Proposition R, the HOPE initiative, is that they know they are stuck with district
elections, and initiatives that pass, and all they have left is to change the population of the voters. Their goal is
to displace and get rid of all the low- and moderate-income tenants in the City."

Commented Welch, "Care Not Cash tries to transform San Francisco by altering the way it provides services to poor
people. HOPE would dramatically increase the potential for renter households in rent-controlled apartments to be
displaced by people with more money. The super rich/ Nayman /Committee on Jobs position is that, ‘If we want to
change the politics of this Board of Supervisors, we have to first remove their electoral base. We do that by going
after rent control and social services.’

From this point of view, Chris Daly is supervisor because nonprofit service providers and low-income tenants in
rent-controlled buildings voted for Chris. Since we can't beat Chris with somebody else, we've got to remove his
electoral base. "The real connection between Care Not Cash and HOPE is precisely that both are aimed at changing the
City's electoral base by driving away low-income residents.

The essence of Care Not Cash is to break the solidarity and the equal footing between the person in need of a
social service and the person providing it. The
assumption behind Care Not Cash is that poor people are different because they
are needy; if they do not have money, they are not to be considered full citizens.

"That is the same line being touted by HOPE," said Welch. "There's this intense image of tenants as parasites." The
Committee on Jobs stokes the perception that
only homeowners give to communities and neighborhoods, and care about the future of our children.

Gullicksen agrees, saying, “Whenever Nancy Tucker, a landlord activist working for small property owners, or Joe
Capko, a tenant spokesperson for big landlords, have been at an event I attended, they look at me and the other
tenants there with absolute hate in their eyes. It's very odd."

"Welch said, "The vilification of tenants by the supporters of HOPE is really quite astounding. It is, in essence,
a denial of common San Franciscan citizenship." Their belief system is that if you're homeless, or if you're a
tenant, you're not a San Franciscan.

The Committee on Jobs is pumping up the emotion behind the reactionary
supporters of these initiatives.

HOPE seems to represent explicit class warfare. At the present legal limit of 200 condo conversions per year, it
would take many centuries to evict every San Francisco tenant. HOPE would allow landlords to evict tenants faster
because it increases the number from 200 to approximately 3,400 a year. That would enable property owners to sell off
the units to the rich, and San Francisco could be ethnically and economically cleansed.

"That's absolutely correct," stated Gullicksen. "In 25 years, this measure will get rid of half of the rental units
in the City. They will keep the 3,400 conversions. That's good enough. They don't have to get rid of every single
last tenant, just half of them. When you think of the massive change we are talking about - 25 years to completely
transform San Francisco into a city for the super rich - it's actually a very short time.”

Their sheer amount of money makes the Committee on Jobs formidable. Viewing their financial filings on the Ethics
website reveals a ‘bottomless pit of money.’ They paid a high price getting HOPE on the ballot, using paid signature
gatherers who earned $2.00 per signature and collected the bulk of them.

"But," said Gullicksen, "The Yes on R people fought the endorsement war part of the campaign, and lost. On August
21, 2002, the Central Committee for the
Democratic Party came out against HOPE."

So, the Committee on Jobs has gone a'courting by working on various interest
groups to subtly change their perceptions - Chinese voters in the Sunset/Richmond, select African-Americans with
business interests, the wealthy gay men of the Plan C. Board, the Fang's Examiner and editors Frank Gallagher and
Nancy Tucker, who has the double advantage to the Committee on Jobs of being an original member of the Small Property
Owners Association.

Welch explained, "The business community has courted the Chinese community as a natural ally... The Examiner, and
the Fang newspapers, including Asian Week, project the image of the Chinese as solidly middle class. Reading these
papers, one would not know that the overwhelming majority of Chinese people in San Francisco are tenants."

They have failed in their attempt to project the gay community as this upwardly
mobile, middle-class population with no political reason to make allies with people of color or environmentalists." A
look at voting patterns in the gay community reveals political support for common issues with lower-income people.

Supporters of HOPE and Care Not Cash, the Plan C Board of Directors is predominantly upper-middle-class gay men.
Plan C is of pivotal importance as a group that has narrowed its focus from sexual orientation to money. Thus, they
are able to support Tony Hall, a right-to-life proponent, in his class-war initiative, HOPE. Welch thinks that Sup.
Tom Ammiano must be full of consternation, wondering how it can be that, in the end, all politics is reduced to class
based on money.

The Committee on Jobs, along with Getty-Burton interests, appears to be using
both the Chronicle and the Examiner, with the Fang's blessing, to attack nonprofits like the Coalition on
Homelessness, which defends the rights of the homeless poor, and the Housing Rights Committee, which defends rent
control and the interests of low-income tenants.

Last fall, 2001, The Examiner hired Frank Gallagher, formerly employed by Solem and Associates, a public relations
firm that has represented landlords, developers, and PG&E. In an apparent attempt to get the Housing Rights Committee
defunded, Gallagher wrote articles suggesting the organization was misusing taxpayer money to work for ballot
initiatives favoring the interests of tenants.

(http://www.sfbg.com/36/43/news_housing.html )

According to Gullicksen, "The City did an audit and gave HRC a clean bill of health." A similar attack on the
Coalition on Homelessness has led to the loss of some of their funders.

The vociferous desperation in the fight to realize the dream of property ownership and control over San Francisco
housing stock is captured in the personality and behavior of one of the more colorful characters of the pro-landlord
forces: Nancy Tucker, founding member of the Small Property Owners Association. Tucker, who claims she has a 30-year
journalism career, mainly at the Army Times, edits the op-ed page for the Examiner, motivated by pure zeal. Housing
activists speculate she trades stories back and forth with Examiner columnist Frank Gallagher. Gallagher does hit
pieces on nonprofit agencies and progressive Supervisor Chris Daly. Nancy Tucker promotes HOPE.

Small property owners are landlords of buildings with two to four units, not impacted by HOPE. HOPE will impact
only the larger buildings. Gullicksen said he believes their difference with tenants on land-use issues is simply a
matter of "plain old conservative ideology." They want tenants gone. The SPOSF would vote conservatively on issues
like bonds and taxes as well as social issues.

Tucker has come to symbolize for me the high paranoia gripping San Franciscans who are searching for fool's gold in
a new rush to vote out rent control and convert their apartments to condos. A rent-controlled apartment would allow
them to save for a home, but when HOPE effectively repeals rent control, rents will skyrocket. The very wealthy know
that only they will be able to afford a space in San Francisco. The trick within a trick is that HOPE will do exactly
the opposite of what it says.

The SPOSF share with the super rich a vision of San Francisco as "the largest
gated community in the country." The Committee on Jobs promotes the SPOSF vision of San Francisco as a suburb with
suburban values, conservative fiscally and socially. Said Gullicksen, "People with lots of money. No homeless lying
on sidewalks. No poor people. Not even tenants. Just a nice place where you can raise your children" in a
freestanding house with a green yard and a picket fence.

Property owners are less inclined to vote for tax increases or bond measures. They vote against adequate funding
for homeless services or affordable housing, and in favor of measures that drive homeless people out of town because
their very existence brings down property values.

Tucker's career as a pro-landlord activist reveals a person obsessed with property rights and anger and hatred
towards marginalized groups she believes are stealing her little piece of San Francisco. This attitude is widely
shared by the pro-landlord forces trying to force low-income people out of the City altogether.

The case of Lola McKay shows the cruel extremes to which landlords will go in their vendetta against renters.
McKay, an 83-year-old woman, faced an Ellis Act eviction in the last days of her life. She received anonymous letters
saying, "Get the hell out," and "Go buy cat food if you can't afford rent." Greatly distressed, Lola showed these
letters to Raquel Fox, a lawyer for the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, who participated many times in pickets in front of
Lola's house and knew the elderly tenant personally. Fox said she believes this trauma contributed to Lola McKay's
death just before she could be evicted.

McKay's fate shows the inhumanity of this effort to drive low-income people out of San Francisco. Care Not Cash
would reduce homeless GA recipients to abject poverty and misery. The HOPE initiative would result in the eviction of
countless renters. Paired together, these twin initiatives threaten to recreate Lola McKay's tragic fate a thousand
times over. And so, Blonde shopper who buttonholed me in Molly Stones parking lot adamantly claiming your right to a
home, I fervently hope you will not be one of these.