2003

by Ashley Adams/PNN Community Journalist

The day was clear, fresh, the air smelled sweet and even clean after the bay’s first rain in 5 months. The sun was shining, and the sky was a crystalline blue with puffy white clouds that did not threaten rain, rather a friendly passing by. On a day such as this, I chose to spend it inside at the Green Festival. The festival was located at the Concourse Exhibition Center. When we got to the door I dodged the dude handing out a shopping bag with a free issue of the Chronicle. Although the shopping bag could’ve been handy later on, from collecting pamphlets, fliers, and brochures of useful information or products. The convention center was filled with booths and people and yummy smells and free samples of yerba mate’ , organic chocolate, and much more. There were booths that sold products, from sweatshop free hand made clothing, to hand crafted wood carvings from Africa, to herbal elixirs from extracted from the ocean to solar paneling for your home or business. There was an area designated for people to sit down and talk, or write ideas for discussion, or brainstorm. Also, three areas were created for speakers to be heard through out the day.

The speakers I listened to were Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now which airs 9am on KPFA, 94.1 FM, and Starhawk, a visionary, activist, and author. Both talks were packed with people. Amy spoke on corporate media during wartime and how they are silencing voices of dissent.
She believes strongly that the people need to take control of the media...and support independent media.

Starhawk spoke about several topics with the main theme on changing our systems to support the Earth’s natural ecosystem of which we are a part of. She began her talk with some facts and figures of how imbalanced we are in the present. She said that right now in this country, 13,000 of the world’s richest people have MORE wealth than 20 MILLION of this nations poorest people. It is that bad. So she asks us: "How do we change the story? We change the story by not buying into it’s framework." By the end of Starhawk’s talk my brain was buzzin with thoughts and ideas. I left the platform where she spoke and walked through the festival booths and started asking myself questions: How does poverty fit into this picture? Looking around I saw many cool companies and products that I wanted to support, but the truth is I only had five dollars in my pocket and if it wasn’t for the free pass that I was given, I could not have attended the event. The Green Fest was a fair price, $10 a day, and if you rode your bike, it was $5, but of course I drove to the Green Fest! Once I got on in was wishing I had more money to act upon the "I want..." impulse.

There were so many great ideas circulating under the roof of the convention center, but none that I saw that related to the many, many, people living in poverty and/or without houses. I do not expect any one person or group to have all the answers, we all need each other to build solutions.
We all deserve organic food, filtered water, and chemical free skin products, but overall, it seems like a movement for people with money. I did not visit every single booth, so I may have missed a place with information or ideas relating to my concern for a huge portion of people that were not being represented. As I left the event my concerns expanded...

A middle-aged woman asked if I would wait at the door, as she tried a $40 battery free flashlight outside where it was dark. I let her back in when she was finished... behind her was a man who could be stereotyped as homeless, with tattered clothes, a beard, a beanie, he was standing near the door, watching the festival wind down from the outside looking in. As the woman waked in, he tried to open the door, for him to come in, she pulled the door towards her, to seal it shut, while yelling "NO! NO! NO! YOU CAN’T COME IN HERE." In my mind I was hearing "NO! BAD DOG. BAD DOG." through her condescending and disrespectful voice tone.

The man just stood there, saddened, as did I. He stared at her for a moment, then made eye contact with me. I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what. I wanted the lady to know "THAT IS A HUMAN BEING YOU’RE TALKING TO." But I watched her walk off instead. When I went to the door to talk to the man, and invite him in, he was gone. I stood around for a moment dazed and teary eyed with some major questions on my mind. How can we take this movement to our sisters and brothers who live with poverty or who do not have houses? How can ‘green’ living be accessible to everyone? How can we make progress in a ‘sustainable’ way if life if we are not thinking about poverty?

by Joe B.

Tuesday, Nov. 5th is over I voted earlier on after the march from 24th and Mission to a long way around City Hall to have Tenderloin and other neighborhood’s who haven’t joined be part of the march.

Supervisor Chris Daly won his bid for a first four year term upsetting, negative voices not giving him a chance to win.

People counting votes live on screen hour to hour as happens in both state and national elections.

Newsom’s still around and as for the alphabet Propositions I’m not going into which one or lost look to newsprint for the hard facts.

What really tickled me was the crestfallen faces as they found out San Francisco lost the bid for hosting the 2012 Olympics.

I even heard there were tears in many a grown woman, and man’s eyes as the realization sank in.

They wanted it so bad, this would’ve meant money for rebuilding hotel, hostels, office rentals, and another removal or homeless, working poor and families out of sight and minds as the festivities of the games began.

To bad. Deal with reality of working poor and homeless folk with not enough work, food, money, housing while this city is afloat in hoarded money.

New York thinks it will rid the homeless by removing them from Olympic Games but all it will do is have a temporary shuffling of street to street, shelter to shelter near though not quite invisible.

If houseless, working poor families and individuals are driven underground into the subway system siphoning electricity, water, for themselves it will drive up prices for everyone not to mention health problems living like moles under the city.

If the words "Morlocks and Eloi" sound familiar its because they are from a classic work of science fiction.

"The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells in 1896, 106 years later it still resonates with readers young and old.

More of a parable of things to come (no pun intended of yet another futuristic movie by the same name).

What I’m saying is if people are driven to desperate for survivals sake to chose living underground rather than living topside then New York could be creating a real Eloi/Morlock situation.

I’m wrong in this far fetched notion right?

The way houseless people have been vilified, demonized is a familiar first step in "Other Creation" that is turning human beings into something less than human.

Look through his/her - stories around the world, whom ever does not fit so called parameters of what a society says is the norm is automatically wrong.

Child molesters, rapists, serial killers are, people that bomb, or assassinate are true monsters among us walking in suits, married with children.

They must be sought after, arrested, studied, and executed if not cured of their mental Illnesses.

Other so called monsters are made for economic gain; slaves, wild original people’s, or women, men defying societal convention.

Being houseless, working poor is for a few people an invitation to beat someone economically lower than themselves out of feeling superior.

We cannot go back to making poor folks seem evil or as a negative reward for drugs, alcohol not working hard when in truth most are not on drugs, have worked hard and for all their loyalty are laid off, fired, or downsized.

Either we all rise up warning, watching, catching, helping each other or we end up as two separate species of humanity of light and dark.

I want one species, we all should be of the light.

Readers with other opinions, tell me or others by snail or email, telegraph, or telepathic but get the word out, spread it far and wide in every language of every culture.

We have to break this seemingly Orwellian mindset that is happening now or never be free or help set other countries and people free.

P.S. I do think since young children 14 and up are more savy, connected, absolute with it.

They should be given the choice to vote also.

We need all those intelligent, sensitive, informed voices now not at an arbitrary age of magical maturity.

What do parents, young folks or anyone thinks about the idea?… Bye.

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 Mike Vizcarra/ PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

I was assigned to attend a reading and discussion by Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of New Jersey and and long time civil rights and reparations activist. Due to a recent poem penned by Baraka entitled "somebody blew up America" he has been at the center of a controversy, which involved the officials in New Jersey urging him to "step down" from his laureate title, and his stance that the "laureate title was only a compliment so how can they take away a compliment". PNN assigned me to go to this reading in light of the fact that POOR Magazine recently launched the "Po Poet Laureate, which attempts to break through the staunchy, mostly white and formally educated "literary" cirles that bestow the "laureate" title, and attempt to truly give recognition to unheard and unseen poor literary artists

Baraka held court at the African American Museum and Library on a Sunday in late October in
Oakland to address the current demand to recompense black people for a long
history of disenfranchisement and political and social oppression in the
United States as well as share some his literary works.

"Reparations is a very broad and deep issue", said Greg Morozumi
of the EastSide Arts Alliance, who introduced Amiri Baraka, "I'1s just not
dealing with the past, but deals with current issues."

At 68 years young, Amiri Baraka stepped up to the podium to
address the audience, his grey suit complementing his salt and pepper beard.
His diminutive stature was in contrast to the amount of respect he garnered
from the people gathered to hear him speak. Baraka has taken a lot of flak
lately for his poem, 'Somebody Blew Up America.' But this was not the topic
he would discuss today, at least not until later in the afternoon. Today he
is talking about reparations. Reparations for African Americans.

"The struggle for equal rights is a struggle for
self-determination, is a struggle to choose, the right to decide,"he says.

Baraka wants change. He wants reform. He wants unity from
African Americans. And he wants them now. It takes more than just words to
get these things done. And Baraka understands that. All these groups with
acronyms, he says, are just doing nothing.

"It's the purity of doing nothing," says Baraka. "The only way
you can get agreement is through struggle. We have to get our instruments
of struggle. We have to have a critical transformation of the African
American people."

During his hour-long speech, Amiri Baraka outlines the
objectives that are necessary for reparations. It's not about a monetary
number, he says, because that would be insulting to put a number on it.
It's about a relationship to America, of social, economic, and political
reconstruction. He wants reparations as a reform, not as affirmative
action, but as a Constitutional Amendment.

First and foremost, Baraka is calling for a united Afro-American
front. "We need to be raising our productive forces of African Americans.
The whole community needs to produce the instruments, needs to produce the
institutions, to raise one1s self," he says. The support must come from a
united Afro-American front, and must be an accurate reflection of African
Americans in the U.S.

Baraka also calls for a national black newspaper. "We cannot
leave any aspect of politics alone, you must be involved," he says. "We
need a direct focus, people do not know what to do," he continued. This is
essential to African Americans, he says. A national black newspaper would
bring solidarity and a focus for African Americans.

He also calls for a central African American bank with elected
officials. That way, the people who are running the bank would be people
that African Americans would want to be running the bank. Baraka is calling
for changes in the political system in America. Amendments. This is the
relationship he was referring to. Reparations is about reform and
reconstructing the social, economic, and political structure of America. To
go from the messed up stage we're in right now to socialism is the wrong
thinking, he says. He would rather argue that point than go in that
direction. Because even if you have reforms, you still haven't defeated
monopoly capitalism or imperialism. To have these changes in place would be
a critical transformation of African American people. It is the "unfinished
democratic revolution," as Baraka put it.

But Baraka wasn't just talking about African Americans. This is
true for any minority group. Reparations is also a major issue with Asian
Americans. To have reparations is to get at the roots of racism in America.
As mentioned earlier, reparations is not about money. It is about equality.
It is about justice. It is about having the right to do what we want to
with our lives. As Amiri Baraka stated, "We have to get our own instruments
of struggle."

He ended his discussion on reparations by reading the infamous poem,
"Somebody Blew Up America." It is powerful writing. And to hear him read
the poem was an experience I would not forget, i took this back to A. Faye, Po POet laureate at POOR which then inspired her to write her response, entitled: The persecuted Word

The Persecuted WORd
by A. Faye Hicks

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!!!!!

For more work by Amiri Baraka go on-line to tumis.com
for More by Po Poet Laureate A. Faye Hicks and all the Po' Poets see below...

by SouthPole/Youth in the media contributor

"All the Superintendent was trying to do was insure that the students had a second
chance"-Staff to Superintendent Ackerman.

Dr. Ackerman is in dire need of Politics 101. A
word of advice for any aspiring politicians: A politician or their staff should never make
a subjective statement about themselves or their boss. The fact is you cannot sign away
your rights, especially, without legal council present.

His Honor the Mayor Willie L.
Brown, Jr., Superintendent of Schools Dr. Arlene Ackerman, and several San Francisco
Unified School District lawyers met with students and parents of students facing
disciplinary action by the school district, in result of the October Eleventh riot, without
legal council representing the students, and offered them a deal. If the students promised
not to sue, they would have all charges removed from their record. Keep in mind "All the
Superintendent was trying to do was insure that the students had a second chance". It is
not likely that public officials would intimidate high school students, using titles,
numbers, and law degrees, to "insure that the students had a second chance". Not being
there, it is not right to say that this is a rat, but it smells like one, looks like one,
and certainly tastes like one.

__________

You may contact me at 'SouthPole@journalist.com'.

Is there deal over school brawl?

BY NICK DRIVER Of The Examiner Staff (originally printed on 12/09/2002)

Three of The City's most prominent political leaders intervened after October's cathartic Thurgood Marshall
High School police-student clash, offering to drop charges against four teenagers if they agreed not to sue the
Police Department, sources say.

Mayor Willie Brown, school Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and Police Chief Earl Sanders and their
representatives met with the four students and their parents at least twice.

"At one closed meeting, hosted by Mayor Willie Brown, possible agreement options were discussed," said
district spokesperson Lorna Ho.

"Dr. Ackerman felt compelled to find a compromise which would hopefully allow for the students, who were
facing possible charges, to get a second chance, since based on her inquiries, none of the students had any prior
offenses before Oct. 11," said Ho.

More than 200 students were involved in the fracas.

That morning, 70 police, many in riot gear, stormed the campus after a fight broke out and school
administrators panicked.

The resulting clash sent dozens of students to the hospital and caused the principal to resign.

"The Police Department, along with the African American Community Relations Board, is working with the
students' parents and the Board of Education to come up with a plan to benefit the students," Sanders said in a
statement Friday.

The meetings were held in a bid to convince the four students to avoid further public allegations of police
brutality concerning the melee at the heavily black high school in Silver Terrace.

One parent, a Spanish-only speaker with little knowledge of the law, may have already signed on to an
informal plan to sign the deal, defense attorneys said.

But the school district bristled at suggestions The City was trying to muscle through a deal to get the police off
the hook, with spokespersons saying everyone present knew this was no secret deal and was strongly in the
interest of students.

"It was the superintendent's goal for the students to move forward with their futures without blemishes on
their records," Ho said in a statement.

"It was made clear by verbal instruction that families should consult legal counsel before making any
decisions."

But early drafts of the Memorandum of Understanding, which were labeled drafts, not final agreements,
contained no legal warnings.

Ackerman and her legal staff are drawing up the final version "as we speak," Ho said.

The students' defense lawyers say whatever happened in the meetings should not have happened without them
present. Brown, a lawyer, should have known better, one said.

Another accused the police of arresting students to strengthen the department's position should the threat of
lawsuits arise.

"There is a lot we still don't know, but it certainly appears that the mayor, the superintendent and the Police
Department met with these students and their parents without their attorneys," said Whitney Leigh, an attorney
for the law firm of Keker and Van Nest, which is defending one student.

"They attempted to persuade them to waive their rights to sue in return for a dropping of charges, and that is
inappropriate on so many levels," Leigh said.

by Joe B.

Back to back storms hammering San Francisco last night and early today is another warning to get my act together.

Starting with dripping water on my bed and rug.

Living up four flights up is great when fleet week's Blue Angels fly high making sonic booms but other than that when it rains I always worry about leaks in my room above me is the roof.

Enough about that how about food and sex?

At this late date I’m learning do with less while the other I’m literally starved for.

Food and Sex are equated in different ways to me.

When eating I like the slow anticipation, smells, hint, and faint taste of the food.

To savor flavors taking time to sample each plate.

With sex its surpasses food because if correctly done it can be repeated, varied, each partner resting as the other gathers strength, stamina, endurance for longer slow heated session.

I don’t go bars unless they have a café too.

I’m a very quiet, tend to sit in a corner and write things, don't dance guess I can relearn that again.

Then there’s the lazy eye problem which throws women off meaning I’m counted out as date material.

Food is substance and learning to eat healthy is the best I can do while trying ease or break out of my shell of constant feminine rejection.

After a few women did take a chance on me I feel finally I am not an Ogre, troll, or frog that will never be taken home.

Still I’m starved, hungry, parched to be touched and touch sometimes just staying in afterglow in wordless communication or with words is worth it for a lover’s peace of mind that she's there for him, him for her or whichever lover that stays long after sex is done.

Since I don’t smoke, drink, or take drugs it seems my endurance is notched way up.
And I don’t mean that long march from 24th and Mission Street to City Hall.

I dislike looking at sports all day and porn flicks pale in the face of fleshy reality.

For me there are quieter, slower, more pleasant ways to spend lazy Saturday or Sunday mornings - endurance helps with that too.

My aging process isn’t sped up as many of my contemporaries and I’d like outwit entropy more in future.

Because of earlier experiences with cars,(got hit by 'em) girls,
(got beaten especially if they like you but express it with punches in the face, mouth, and stomach) it could've be worse,
and sports(hit in my good eye by yellow indoor hockey puck).

Later in high school (getting speared, gored in the neck by a guy using a shopping cart as ramming device,because weeks before he pulled down my red gym shorts had regular shorts on in public outside in gym class.

For that I rabbit punched him twice in the face busting his lip open.

Like everyone else growing up I go through stuff get over most of it except the lazy eye thing.

I didn’t listen and kept taking the patch off.

So I either scare children or they now tell me "You should’ve listened to your mother like I did."

I guess I’ll ware a black patch so women won’t automatically do a zoom in zoom out seeing my minor vision flaw.

Recently I was reading the back of a S.F. Guardian, you know all the dating section for people getting together or mixed signals.

I see the "Safe Sex Get Paid" Men!

Usually after reading the paper I give it to someone else to read or don’t pick it up refusing to place an ad out of fear of rejection and self loathing.

Then there’s the no-car-SRO kiss of death.

I’ve even thought of going to one of those men’s club like Hustler’s, Crazy Horse, or Big Al’s.

But even if I dressed well, saved money and enjoy the food and conversations with a few lovely ladies.

Still the women working there or there with or without dates have scoped the place, men/women out and already unless I ware a patch will certainly be passed, overlooked, or talked to as a joke, I know its happened before and need not be repeated.

Back to the Safe Sex Get Paid Ad.

I thought why the hell not, ware a damn patch, make a call, check it out and if something happens and I’m paid too that’s enough revenge for me.

women are blameless for rejection it was my error as a child causing a visceral physical revulsion they have seeing a less than perfect man we all do it to some degree.

I do have someone across the bay and when I go it is heaven for a few days and hours I just cannot go everyday and both our work schedules do not coincide.

Then I return to San Francisco and purgatory now you know why I feel empty, starved, parched, always hungry.

There is sexual addiction, hyper sex drives, low to no sex drive.

My problem:I don’t get enough of it its like breathing in half breaths, or being half asleep the whole you were sleep you really didn’t get enough sleep and you wake up groggy and still tired.

Am I being more practical in receiving sexual gratification and getting paid for it, giving up regular girl friend(s).

I’m like many guys in that if marriage, family is not in the cards I might as well be as good as I can to all the stray women not necessary into commitment.

Until I find one that is.
One poor slobs sad story granted but I’m gonna check this Safe Sex Pay thing out and if something or someone comes out of that’s fine but will I expose this?

Hell no, if I’m having sex getting, paid for it I’ll say nothing about it.

I’ll be more happy, less on edge, feeling less pressure, and more release and free.

As you can see and hear I’m a nerd about sex to the point like food I know it should be savored, enjoyed not rushed and one should improve upon.

As for Yoga, Transcendental Medication, Karma Sutra, and Tantric, Tantric arts since I’ve been starved and like any child of light I’d like to make as many female people as a few have made me.

Women, got any ideas how I can improve my odds of meeting some of you without being dorkish?

In San Francisco. I’m a nice, timid, horny but not horn dog guy.

Any help will be appreciated.

PS If guys or ladies tried the ad, got into it.
Could you folks tell me good and bad stuff about your experience.

You folks know what happens I'd like to be warned what I'm getting into... Bye.

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 By Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin and DAMO

From New Jersey to Cali there has been an ongoing funding crisis for community services and support for people with developmental disabilities. This year’s additional budget cuts and even more massive cuts next year means the entire system could be eliminated. The New Jersey Minorities with Disability Coalition forward DAMO an article in a local newspaper entitled ‘Unkept promises to the state disabled.’ New Jersey’s Governor, McGreey inherited the problem of the underfunded, crowded, aging, understaffed of developmental centers and services. Federal inspectors found a bushel of problems and threaten to cut off $73 million in federal funds to the already starving system. California is in the same situation. The state Bureau Audits reported that California’s obligation to people with developmental disabilities can’t be met because of inadequate funds once again.

The California Legislative Analyst Office projects massive budget shortfall of over $20 Billion; predicts current year deficit at 6 billion. According to Marty Omoto, Legislative Director for United Cerebral Palsy Association, Gray Davis administration is reportedly considering the possibility of closing down a least one of the five state owned Developmental Centers for the purpose of saving. The same reason is now used by the LA County Supervisors who are trying to shut down Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey saying that it is too costly. The implication of this decision on people with disabilities, especially those of color are drastic. Rancho is dedicated solely to the treatment of disabling condition and is the only source of quality rehabilitation services for southern Californians who are impoverished and on Med-Cal many are Latino and Black. Rancho also treats pediatric conditions, which makes it an important link in the Developmental Disabilities system of care. The Supervisor final vote will be made in Jan.

Although this is drastic times, DAMO and disabled people of color are still not benefiting from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Individual Disability Education Act of 1975 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. On top of that our neighborhoods have been gentrified leaving a huge number of poor disabled people of color homeless. Many of us can’t afford institutional care or can’t understand and move in the red tap bureaucracy that wraps around developmental centers and other institutional settings leaving us and our family outside in the cold. The National Council on Disability has reported that over 70% of people with disabilities live under the poverty line. However if you add race to the picture it rises to over 90%. In communities of color there are a lack of organizations serving people with disabilities whose fault is this?

I do believe we need to come together in this budget crisis time but we also need to make some fundamental changes to the disability services system. For one we need to look at the funding stream that funnels into traditional disability organizations and leave our new organizations of and for disabled people of color struggling to serve our own community on shoestring budgets. The key problem of the constant lack of funding for our services and implementation of our laws is that there is no radical grassroots activism on a large scale with diverse players inside and outside the traditional disabled movement. Thus giving states the red carpet to walk on our needs. We need an organizing leadership school to train our disabled youth about advocacy on a local and state level to increase new leaders with revolutionary ideas.

The disabled community has never really dealt with race or poverty and the unmet needs of disabled people of color and poor disabled people thus not keeping to the vision of the disability rights movement. So if the states are not keeping their promises to its disabled whose fault is it? Is it time for new leaders? Is it time for local advocates to pull down our leaders in our states and show them reality in our neighborhoods? Is it time for the disability rights movement to splinter into women, race and homosexual sectors to educate our leaders and political leaders. I know one thing it’s time for a change not only because we are in budget crisis because if we don’t let other voices speak than we will continue to be underfunded limiting our growth.

Now there is a call for a statewide advocacy network to do grassroots organizing and advocacy to save our disability services, programs and benefites in the California budget crisis this year and next year. In the early part of December, 02, DAMO will be in Sacramento to make sure the voice of people of color with disabilities and our families are heard. This is only the beginning!

Please contact Marty Omoto
(916) 446-3204 email: martyomoto@crip.com
or DAMO at:
(415) 346-3740 Or (510) 649-8438 or sfdamo@Yahoo.com

Stay tuned for more info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leroy F. Moore Jr.
Executive Director of DAMO

by Father Louis Vitale (A STREET SHEET exclusive)

Greetings from the Nellis Federal Prison Camp in North Las Vegas, Nevada. I
am spending three months here for protesting at Fort Benning, Georgia last
year. The protest was to bring a closing to the School of the Americas
located there. The graduates of that school are notorious for torture and
assassination of thousands of people in Latin America. These include such
notables as: Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador; four American nuns who
were raped and killed; seven Jesuits and their female associates from the
University of El Salvador; numerous other bishops, clergy and religious
leaders; and union and social workers in Latin American countries.

My short sentence of three months is almost a joke within the federal prison
system. Most of the 600 men here are here for many years. Federal mandatory
sentencing guidelines have given most of these inmates as many as ten years
or more for non-violent crimes -- mostly drug activity and some business
crimes. There is also no parole from the federal prison system.

Most of the men here are young, typically in their twenties. Most are also
fathers. Thus, this system robs young men of a great part of their young
manhood. It also robs children of their fathers during childhood and teenage
years.

Further, there are almost no vocational or educational programs here. What
future will these men have when they leave this system? A recent article in
the (November 26th) Los Angeles Times about homelessness pointed to the very
large numbers of those released from prison who end up on skid row in Los
Angeles. Surely this is true in every city. What other options are there?

One might not dispute that there are criminal laws for drug dealing. But
when one hears of these very long sentences -- basically taking the best
years of someone's life and the years needed by their children, for activity
that might in other places or times be legal, something seems out of kilter.
As I first heard of some of the sentences here in Las Vegas they were
holding elections, and one of the ballot issues was legalizing possession of
marijuana. It didn't pass, but might next time. What impact would that have
on the man with a ten-year sentence for growing marijuana in Humboldt
County? Someone will be creating the supply. These are some of the questions
I ponder.

The camp here is located on Nellis Air Force Base. Each day we see planes --
B-2 bombers, Stealths -- preparing for war in Iraq. The cost of these
weapons and the military runs into the many billions. The prison system is
also a billion dollar industry. I think of our homeless in Las Vegas and
elsewhere. The numbers are becoming astronomical.

The major problem is a lack of housing. If only we could put the money used
for military and prisons into housing, what a difference it would make. We
could be saving lives instead of destroying or wasting them. Surely that
should be in our thoughts as we celebrate the Christmas season and begin a
New Year.

I miss very much being in San Francisco and the Tenderloin. I miss the
people at Saint Boniface and in our shelter. I miss being with the many
activists who are trying to make a better community and world.

My fellow inmates ask me if I'll be back. That is... back in the criminal
system. They look at me and say, "I don't think you are going to give up on
the causes about which you are so concerned." I don't know how to answer
that question. I know I will not quit speaking and acting for justice, in
San Francisco and other places. Hopefully we will have more opportunities to
have a voice. But if it is necessary for me to risk prison again, then we
will have to consider that.

For now I look forward to my return. Some ask me if I'll be going to a
halfway house first (the usual end of a federal prison sentence). Actually,
there is one at 111 Taylor Street, right around the corner from Saint
Boniface. But my sentence is too short for that. Besides, I already have a
place to live and work after prison.

On January 12th I will be released and will work my way back to San
Francisco, the Tenderloin and all the people I miss so much. I do give
thanks for the numberless people who have supported me in so many ways.
Especially I am grateful to continue to work for justice and compassion for
those in need.

I know I will be adding to my list more activity for prison reform, joining
with such groups as Families Against Mandatory Minimums -- the mandatory
minimums that force judges to give such very long sentences. We also need to
find the way to reinstate parole at the federal level. Perhaps Congresswoman
Nancy Pelosi can help to reintroduce that at the next congress. These
actions can come to the rescue of so many spending much of their lives in
prison and away from their families. I am reluctant to leave Nellis Prison
Camp, and leave so many of my new friends behind, without doing something to
help them return to normal and productive life.

Originally Published in STREET SHEET
A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco
468 Turk Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
415 / 346.3740-voice o 415 / 775.5639-fax
streetsheet@sf-homeless-coalition.org
http://www.sf-homeless-coalition.org

by Staff Writer

Dear Indigent litigant: I was in a San Francisco Walgreen's. The employees followed me around. I put my things down and left. The employees surrounded me and pushed me to the back room. I was searched. When they found nothing one of their employees got batteries from the floor said I damaged store property. One called me a racial slur and tried to stab me with an envelope opener. I left the property called the police and got arrested for theft. The police said I was not welcomed back there. What should I do?

Sincerely, Mr. Shopping while Black.

Dear Mr. Black: it is my opinion that in this case I would have done the following. First I would have made the police department charge me with the petty theft. I would have demanded a jury trial (invoking the Duran test -fair racial cross section) and forced the police to show proof that I had actually taken any property by ordering the public defender to subpoena copies of all videotapes of surveillance security from the store. I also would have made the District Attorney press charges against the employees for assault-240pc, battery-242pc, False imprisonment-236pc, lying to a police officer, filing a false police report148.5pc. And a few other charges to make it more interesting. I would have also notified the corporate office of the incident and pressed charges against the store "entity" for violations of my civil rights. (There are federal criminal charges for civil rights violations). I would do this only as a last resort if the store refused to remedy me for the actions of their employees.

Sincerely,

I.L

by Joe B.

As Axis America or –Ameri-corp with Jr. Bush as
‘Prez , Commander and Chief bangs silverware for a dead oil based Middle East War.

I worry about a X-Mas, New Years date.

Just bringing things to a manageable, scale down
situation.

I hope people are wising up quickly and know that America cannot go rogue to long.

For all our superpowers its been proven we’re as vulnerable as any nation.

Which should make one
pause, think, and grow up, mature and have wisdom wielding power balanced with mercy, justice and love.

That’s it for me.. Bye.

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/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

I remember living in an old International Harvester Moving Van. It was a 1948 that had been painted purple and converted into a R-V. I t had wooden planks for the floor and the walls were made of plywood. We had a sink, cutting board/counter adjacent to it, there was an old claw-foot bathtub and a wood burning stove. There were little porthole windows that had been salvaged from old washing machines, and a stained glass window. Even the roof above the bed opened up as a bed-sized skylight, a window to the heavens. No one, who lived and traveled in the truck was on any kind of assistance; we worked and bartered for everything we needed. Anyone could live in the truck, there was only one catch: you could not use money. I considered it a great learning experience... to live without using money and survive. Since then I have lived in my van , cars, and trucks through various times that I haven't had housing. I have lost all of my possessions because of being towed: all of the things I had left that were truly important to me... and things that could not be replaced. Unfortunately, there are folks out there right now, still trying to survive that are being harassed, having their homes ransacked and towed by the police for being homeless and accused of bogus charges that supposedly justify the means of the officers actions.

"There were officers in full fledged riot gear, shields and full faced helmets and shotguns. There were officers sporting snipers rifles with bullet proof vests...they even had a S.W.A.T. team deployed in addition to all the officers in uniform. Add to those plainclothes officers, detectives, inspectors and the like. I believe we can safely place the number of officers somewhere upwards of fifty." Frank Ryan, self employed metal recycler and vehicularly housed citizen of San Francisco.

"As a vehicularly housed person, I have the right to live in my vehicle, including: the right to sleep, eat, and rest in my vehicle." Vehicularly Housed/Towed Person's Bill of Rights, Coalition on Homelessness.

Frank P. Ryan and Bill Payne are partners in metal recycling. Frank and his girlfriend Trish had been living in a lot on Selby and Innes, that they oversaw, kept clean for the owners (Cor-o-van) and also kept their yards/lots secure and free of people who tried to stay on the property for extended lengths of time. In return for their work they were allowed to live on the lot and keep their vehicles that they lived in, worked out of, and kept their tools for work stored and parked in the Cor-o-van lot. Bill kept his motor home parked across the street from Frank and Trish on Selby St. Having been homeless and living in their own legally registered vehicles for several years; these friends forged a partnership in the recycling business. A business that many people depend on for their incomes. Let's call them an unrecognized workforce that is larger than one would imagine...

You can easily recognize them as very hard workers. Their hands are calloused and blacked from grease, dirt and metal. Their clothes also have the dirt of labor, the odor of grease and oil, and their faces wear the expression of disheartened, weary warriors tired of battle. These are definitely not men who do not idle their time away, it is easy to see that they work very hard for what little they have.

"They towed and impounded my vehicle for being eighteen-inches away from a non-existent curb." Bill Payne, vehicularly housed metal recycler and victim of harassment.

For the last year more so than the previous two, Frank and Bill have had ongoing problems with harassment and having their vehicles and property taken away by City Tow via the SFPD. Their bane has been Officer Swatco and his partner from the Bay View Police Station who according to Bill and Frank, have been harassing them and other vehicularly housed people in the area for quite a while now.. I believe this because I have spoken with other vehicualrly housed persons who have told me of their harassment by the same officers in the Bay View area. Frank and Bill both recounted numerous incidents to tell us at POOR, about the hostility and discrimination they have experienced at the hands of Officer Swatco and his co-workers.

"All lawful owners, possessors, or operators of vehicles shall be free from discriminatory enforcement of the law and shall enjoy freedom from harassment and discrimination in towing." Vehicularly Housed/Towed Persons Bill of Rights, Coalition on Homelessness.

On September 30, 2002 a search warrant, was said to have been served at Frank's home/lot. He was not present at the time and to date still has not seen the warrant. The first time he was aware of it was on October 2, 2002 when he had been released from county jail on a different warrant that he had been picked up and detained on September 29, 2002. This was the day before the warrant was to said to have been served along with the raid.

What happened was that SFPD in a commando style raid on September 30, seized the lot under the guise of bringing an "International Ring of Tool Thieves" under arrest and confiscating the alleged cache of tools. The way Frank and Bill described the scenario as it unfolded sounded like a war zone and rang of so many unnecessary police actions that in the end, after investigation: turn out to be no more than hype, but nonetheless frightening, cruel and without merit. There were no gangsters, thieves, Viet Cong, or terrorists: just homeless folk trying to stay off the dole. "We work for every dollar we get." -Frank Ryan

What happened to Frank and Trish's motor home and possessions was happening to Bill's at the same time across the street. The same kinds of damage and disregard. I wonder how much it cost the city to pay all those specialized forces for a humbug? Bill was present at the time and taken to jail along with his neighbor Trish, his dog impounded, and his vehicular home towed. Bill and Frank have both told me of how the officers were verbally abusive, sarcastic, and unprofessional in their behavior to Trish and Bill. The police kept making innuendo's and remarks that referred that they, the people whose lives they were razing didn't have anything coming because they were "tool thieves." The warrant was dismissed and all charges dropped. Except now they had to pay to get their vehicles back, repair the damage, and try to get their property back. This meant to once again start from the bottom, with next to nothing.

Yes , you may want to draw a parallel here because I am speaking of the same Bay View police station that was responsible for the police action that took place at Thurgood Marshall School not long ago. One might ask, who is terrorizing whom?

When Frank returned home, all he found was the aftermath of the unnecessary damage, and the indifference to his life, business. Bill and Trish were now in jail. All of their dogs were impounded too. According to Frank... although the keys were given to the police upon demand for all of the vehicles and locking compartments when asked for them: the doors were pried open, tool boxes on the truck were pried open, his motor home damaged that he used to repair computer systems and store tools, their trailer door was ripped down and folded in half and the other entry ways broke down and the floor torn up. His truck was damaged : the hood, fenders, doors, tool carriers, and both bumpers. After doing all of the aforementioned damage and finding nothing there, no 'International Ring of Tool Thieves" the police then towed and impounded his truck.

Frank said about his truck, " I have no explanation as to why they wanted it, there wasn't any stolen merchandise in it, it hasn't been used in illegal activities, it was legally parked, no tickets have been issued on it, but tow it they did."

"We are not thieves, we don't steal tools", Bill and Frank stressed while telling us of the ordeal that they have been through. They both explained that they have bought, traded and bartered to help get the tools they need for their work and to keep a back up in case one broke. Many of the tools that were taken in the raid were hand tools and their bicycles: the warrant was for power tools. The police also combine d Frank and Bill's tools into one pile without making note of what came from where.

I spoke to Mara Rader at the Coalition on Homelessness about the vehicularly housed folk in the city, and in particular the Bay View area. I asked Mara, "Have you seen a noticeable increase in the harassment, towing of the vehicularly housed recently?"

Mara said, "No, there has been pretty consistent harassment of people living in their vehicles since they moved them out of China Basin." Mara then relayed, " There is a particular focus in the Bay View neighborhood."

"Do you feel that Prop N has anything to do with this?" I asked.

Mara says, " I think Prop N added to a nasty growing sentiment of the citizens of San Francisco against the homeless."

While listening to the rain outside I was thinking of Bill and Frank and I empathized. I thought about when my van was towed with all my tools, ladders and everything else I owned. I had been a house painter/building maintenance for a long time and was temporarily houseless but not without work. I lost everything I had in that van. Without transportation, my tools, and a place to sleep...I couldn't work. It was only a matter of time before my life eddied into the gutter.

I remembered how I myself had worked until I was speckled like an Easter egg with paint, plaster, dust, and sweat. I paid for some, bartered for some and worked for many of the tools I had gotten for work which were not stolen. I knew the people I bought, traded , or worked for to get them (just as I believe Frank and Bill did). The tools were always used, but in good shape from people who upgraded by buying new ones for themselves. This enabled me to be more efficient and productive on my jobs.

I feel a smoke screen is being blown in the whirlwind disguise of catching crooks when all that is going down is an exacerbation of the war against the poor , homeless, vehicularly housed, people of color, and immigrants in San Francisco. The economy is faltering, jobs are hard to obtain, housing is simply not adequate, affordable, or accessible in San Francisco. Many people in the Bay Area are what we at POOR refer to as "vehicularly housed." Many of these people are self employed, or recyclers. They are living in vans, motor homes, old buses, trucks and cars so they may have a space. This adds to a persons margin of safety, not to mention keeps them out of the elements thus upgrading the odds against ill health and gives them access to self employment as a means of survival.

IF YOU ARE VEHICULARLY HOUSED AND ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH TICKETS, TOWING OR HARASSMENT: PLEASE CALL THE COALITION ON HOMELESSNESS
AT 468 TURK....(415) 346-3740 ...ASK FOR MARA OR JIM.

Update: five days after Frank and Bill came to newsroom at POOR: On Wednesday December 11, 2002 the DPW, Cal-Trans, and the SFPD arrived on Selby St. and razed the camps, tents, shelters, and towed vehicles of the homeless who have been camped under the 280 Freeway. There were even bulldozers and alot of manpower to ensure this action took place. Frank and Bill where there and now literally have no where to go. People were ticketed for being homeless, and also for living in their vehicles... those who had vehicles left. The City Council is meeting this afternoon at City Hall to discuss making some kind of legislation to protect the rights of the vehicularly housed in S. F. 12-16-02.

by Mike vizcarra/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

Looking at Willie Warren, I find it hard to imagine anybody
wanting to start a fight with this man. He stands over 6 feet tall and
weighs around 250 lbs. This is a big and intimidating looking man. But
after speaking with him, I realized he1s one of the nicest men I1ve ever
met. But this past Labor Day September 2, 2002, Willie Warren, with his
imposing figure, was beaten by two men, two white men, in the Tenderloin.
What was Willie doing? Nothing. He was just walking down the street.

It was around 8 o1clock at night and Willie was walking east on
Turk from Van Ness. He turned onto Polk and was heading for Kentucky Fried
Chicken to get something to eat. But he never made it there. As he passed
the Wooden Horse Bar near Polk and Eddy, two men started harassing him.

"They were two white guys in their mid 20s to late 30s with
well-groomed haircuts," said Willie, "and they were both about my size with
one guy taller than me."

Willie tried ignoring their taunts and continued walking up
Polk. But one of them looked at him and yelled, "Hey nigger mother fucker!
Hey nigger, I1m talking to you punk!" This made Willie stop momentarily.

He asked them, "Why are you saying this when I don1t even know
you?"

Their response? "Fuck you."

The two men started to approach Willie, with one of the men
blocking his way. Willie walked around the man and continued up Polk. But
the two men started to follow him. Sensing some kind of danger, Willie let
the men pass while he turned around and started heading back towards the
bar. This time the men were upon him again. One of the men got in front of
him while the other stood behind him.

"What problem do you have with me?" asked Willie. "I'm a
Homeless Advocate and work around the corner."

This made the man blocking Willie's path even angrier. 'You
represent those sorry ass people. You should agree with Newsome and his
plan, you fuck," said the man.

This response surprised Willie. "Do you work for Newsome or
something?" he asked.

But the man was already in some kind of boxing stance. Willie
started taking off his backpack but the man behind him grabbed his pack.
Willie pushed him away and as he turned to face the other man, he was
greeted with a club-like object (about a foot long and 2-3 inches in
diameter) to his head. As Willie fell to the ground his head hit another
hard object that was lying on the ground. Blood was rushing down his face.
He turned to look up and another blow of the club came crashing down on his
head. Willie blacked-out after that, knocked unconscious from the repeated
blows.

When he finally gained consciousness, he was looking into a
paramedic's face. He was inside an ambulance heading for General Hospital.
Once again, Willie blacked out. He regained consciousness once he was at
the hospital. A doctor had thoroughly examined him and Willie was able to
remember what had happened that night. Thankfully, he did not sustain a
concussion, although he would have headaches the next few days. He was
released from General Hospital at around 3 A.M.

When Willie was explaining to a nurse what had happened, he got
an interesting response. "Since the introduction of Care Not Cash and other
policies," said the nurse, "there has been an increase in violence." This
prompted Willie to write about his experience and to increase awareness of
these senseless acts of violence.

"Hate crimes" are exactly what that term states, crimes of hate.
It does not matter whether it is motivated by race or gender or social
status or otherwise. It is a crime. Willie Warren was walking down the
street minding his own business. But he was targeted for two reasons: first
and foremost because he is an African-American, and second, because he is a
homeless advocate.

"This is part of the behavior that we see on the streets, on the
bus, or in the shelters in response to the fear from both sides on
Proposition N," he says.

It is bad enough that hate crimes happen, but it gets worse when
people are motivated to do such crimes because of a Proposition. Willie
Warren was minding his own business and was violently attacked by two white
men because he was black and for what he stood for. The same thing happens
and goes unnoticed everyday in this city to people of color, of low-income,
to poor folks, and to the homeless. With the passing of Proposition N, I
wonder how many more attacks will occur.

Read Willies first person account and poem ( willie is a Po Poet) "You represent those sorry ass people" on this PNN column -

by Alex Cuff/PNNews Brief Editor

Elders in a Pakistani town told the founders of a school for girls that they were ‘opening the gates of hell.’ Graduates are now breadwinners.

20 years ago the Jalal family went door-to-door impelling reluctant parents in Mand, Pakistan, to send their daughters to a new school for girls. Initially the town elders rebutted the idea of girls getting an education which might for example empower them to write letters to their boyfriends. Some parents, mostly those working as servants, enrolled their daughters in the Zobaida Jalal School.

When the school began, the Jalal family guest house doubled as the classroom. Today there are over 30 classrooms and over 140 girls have graduated. The school has brought jobs to Mand and is bringing economic independence to its graduates some of who hold the best paying jobs in town. The girls learn English, Urdu, and Arabic, science, and social sciences. The also learn about Islam, women’s rights under the Koran, and they keep current event journals. They also learn that they can refuse to marry undesired partners proposed by their fathers.

What does this mean for the town once the graduates pursue college and careers outside of Mand? It isn’t evident that the girls are permanently moving away, abandoning family and mimicking the ways of the west where many leave home after gaining an education (not benefiting the home town in which they were given the opportunity). 20 years later some of the elders lament not sending their children to school.

Many of the graduates are employed as health workers at a maternity hospital who travel to outlying villages to teach health, hygiene, and birth control and provide sterilization kits to traditional midwives. This staff accompanies doctors to the homes of 300 women each month facilitating the communication between the families and the doctors. A dozen new schools have opened in surrounding villages because graduates are now available to teach.

by Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

Andre Rucker waits patiently for the rally at the Human Services Commission organized by members and staff of POWER, (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) POOR Magazine and Coalition on Homelessness on Thursday, December 12 to demand from Trent Rhorer, the head of San Francisco Department of Human Services, affordable housing, living wage jobs and protest the installation of a fingerprinting scanner in shelters. "The issue of fingerprinting, it violates the 4th amendment and what it says is that it creates an aristocracy," Andre said to me as more people gathered outside the offices of POWER. The implementations of the board are to have a Fingerprint Image Machine for everyone residing in shelters by June 1st. "People who are poor are of color are losing their rights as citizens of the United States," he stresses to me while waiting for the #14 Mission bus to take him and about 25 other folks to the rally.

Jason Negron-Gonzales, one of POWER’s organizers is all pumped up and ready to face Trent Rhorer. They want to add pressure about the implementations of Proposition N, "We’re keeping the fight going on (over Prop. N). The Department’s are taking a disgraceful approach of trying to implement Prop N. through forcing the people into shelters," he said to me as the bus approached. "It’s great to be out here fighting for justice in the morning!"

POWER and other organizations want to face Trent Rhorer and other politicians about the truth over Proposition N. They want to meet with Trent Rhorer in January 2003 to discuss in length the effects of this proposition. This initiative was passed by voters in San Francisco in early November 2002. It cuts GA payments of $390 to about $59 a month.

Larry Lattimore, from POWER led the outburst on Mr. Rhorer during his update to the board of what was to be discussed and put into plan. "Trent Rhorer we heard enough and we’re tired of your lies! We just found out that you’re going to buy some fingerprinting equipment and force us into shelters and we know that’s not right!" Larry Lattimore shouted. As Trent Rhoehr stumbled and fumbled and looked embarrassed, shifting papers, he couldn’t look in our direction. Mr. Lattimore continued with his tirade, "We’re not criminals and we don’t need poor shelter beds and fingerprinting!"

In a display of courage and faith, the members of POWER chanted:
"DHS can’t you see
What fingerprinting will do to me
You say you wanted to give us care
But we all know the CARE’S NOT THERE.

…and in Spanish:
DHS no puedes ver
Que sus mentiras me van hacer
Nuestras huellas quieres tomar
De esta ciudad no nos van a hechari.

Both Julie Browne, POWER organizer and Andre Rucker wanted to confirm with Trent Rhoehr the importance of a meeting in the Tenderloin for January 2003 to discuss better ways of implementing Prop. N. Trent Rhoehr said this was not the proper time to set up a meeting. He couldn’t commit to a date at that point and wanted us to call his secretary. What is he afraid of?

Upon exiting from the Department we we’re still chanting loudly and proudly:
"Trent Rhoehr – Trent Rhoehr
We’ll be back
We won’t forget
Your last attack!"

Indeed, Mr. Rhoehr hasn’t heard the end of us yet. This is just our fightback and it’s time for him and other elected city officials to listen to what the poor people of this city want. It’s time for a change!

by Joe B.

About Power And Women Pt. 1

If most of you haven’t read my columns over the past 3 1/2 to 4 years other people will say either it’s a hoot, Hetero or Homophobic, misogynistic, against Lesbian’s and women in general or the guy writing is a rotten columnist with misspellings and errors in most if not all of his work.

I’m not anti any of the groups mentioned in fact like is the optimum word used to describe than love because too many women hide so much from me its really be difficult using love.

In my travels being P-whipped is what happened over and over after estrogen overpowered me it taught me to rage, laugh, hide, ignore, and embrace the fem part of myself.

I’ve suppressed it as women have hembra or Cooperation, the fem version of Machismo.
Conflict and cooperation.

Why is it males are cursed with conflict as our natural due while women are blessed?

What are women’s equivalent of female conflict? Is there such a thing?

I wish I didn’t get the significance of his search between him and Ntozake Shange's 1983 play "For Colored Girls Who
Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Isn’t Enuf,

The last act of the play was so true-to-life devastating for me to see that as with roots tears flowed more publicly in a theater than in high school.

I did not want to want to feel it that deeply, learn be open yes but it emotionally flooded over me.

It’s a great play on how Black Women have suffered at the hands Black Men but I also found that certain Movies, TV shows do it to me also.

Which is why I really avoid shows with all kinds of touchy feel stuff I still don’t know if anyone saw my emotional reaction probably not they were into to the play as I at the time.

Because of my own housing instability, lack of fashion sense, lazy eye which I am preparing to get fixed.

Its been difficult if near impossible to believe in any person be they straight/gay women, men, trans-sexual individuals.

Whatever bag people are in it seems we all have similar problems in that our friends, lovers, mates, spouses have secrets they feel must keep from and share with others who won’t judge them.

End of Pt 1


PS As much as I like hearing from 'Bro's doing, surviving
tomb time. Are there women.

I'll not say young girls because girls have always turned into women damn quick.

But I'd like to be written to so I can write them back.

I just don't know how to go about it.

Like brothers I'd write to all women but prefer rainbow women especially, I believe they have more of a need that's my take on it.

I'm so blind to how they to live through their days.

I won't pry and won't make and public private pains as I've done to myself and others.

That's it Men, Fem's
Live, Learn, Survive, Trive
and reproduce - some of us are Dying To Damn Young!!

People's Stay Alive, Strong.
Bye.

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 Alex Cuff/PNN News Brief Editor

In 1969 a clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs dropped the Samish Indian Nation off the list of recognized tribes, for no reason known today. For 27 years the Samish did not exist in the eyes of the US government. Without federal recognition, tribes are not eligible for health care, low-income housing assistance or money to meet educational needs.

The Samish are demanding reparations for tribal damage caused by this gross mistake. "For some of us, it’s less about the money and more about continuing to set the record straight about the contemptuous way in which we were treated" says Ken Hansen, tribal chairman. In May 1996, after years in court, the Samish were officially (federally) recognized as a tribe. The Samish are also filing a lawsuit to restore their treaty rights, such as fishing and hunting.

Although the Samish have regained some of their long lost benefits, not that much has changed with in the BIA. "Regrettably, some of the same people who caused this problem for us in 1969 are still at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, still doing damage to other tribes," commented Hansen. "I’m thinking about Duwamish, Chinook, Snohomish." Those three tribes are in the same position as the Samish found themselves for 27 years. Support is also missing from other tribes. The Samish face opposition from 7 or 8 out of 22 western Washington tribes in regards to regaining their tribal rights. These tribes would have to share Puget Sound’s fishing grounds with the Samish if they regain treaty status.

Craig Dorsay, the tribe’s attorney filed a separate suit against the BIA because the Samish has been waiting three years for it’s constitution and membership role to be approved. Plus they are still being funded as a new tribe, which provides the minimal amount of funding. The Bureau has still not submitted the tribe’s budget to Congress. Dorsay explains, "When a tribe is recognized, the bureau is supposed to meet with the tribe, determine their needs, and submit a budget to Congress. But the bureau has never done it." Hopefully the Samish, by demanding justice will speed up the process for the other tribes waiting for federal recognition and bring attention to the short comings of the BIA.

by Connie Lu For CourtWatch (with Dee Gray)/ PNN

"She wants to come home so bad. Her first foster mom said that Omani would cry for 3-4 hours. She would cry for so long that she would just have to put her into a room and close the door, and let her cry herself to sleep," says Johnny Brown as he and his wife, Lisa describe their experience with Child Protective Services (CPS) taking their five year old daughter, Omani away from them. I listen closely to the complicated background behind the difficult situation Johnny and Lisa Brown are facing. I am amazed by their calm demeanor, despite the stress and frustration swelling within them. The room that the three of us are sitting in is also calm. It is softly lit from the warm lamp standing in corner. Their eloquent voices are gentle, yet filled with strength and passion as they proceed to give further details about how their daughter was taken from them by CPS.

This complicated situation revolves around a series of three accidents that Omani experiences over a period of time, none of which any child abuse was found. The first accident occurred when Omani fell when she was jumping on the bed at home. She hit her head on the floor and began experiencing seizures. Omani was taken to the hospital and CPS was also contacted to conduct a full investigation. Lisa was accused of kicking Omani. However, Lisa explains that two doctors "confirmed and clarified that her mechanism of injury was consistent with a fall from a bed and NOT being stuck". The doctors also warned the parents of Omani experiencing possible future seizures and other side effects of her head injury.

The second accident took place in the bathroom at home. Just as Lisa was about to come into the bathroom to help Omani off the toilet she heard a loud "bang" and Omani was found seizing on the floor, face down. She is taken to the hospital and once again, CPS investigates but "no child abuse was found." However, later that afternoon Lisa goes to see Omani at the hospital, but she was gone! Lisa explains, "CPS had taken Omani into protective custody without even telling us". Fortunately, "There was no child abuse. It was a mistake. The investigator from the Solano County CPS apologized and returned her home after two days."

As Johnny and Lisa describe their separation from Omani, I begin to think about how scared Omani must have felt and how much she missed her parents. My experience of separation from my parents cannot even begin to compare to the degree of anxiety within the Brown family. But I remember the first time I was separated from my parents when they dropped me off at my babysitter’s house and how worried I was of not being able to see them for what seemed like forever to someone who had never spent time away from their parents and left alone with a stranger. I could feel the relief in Lisa and Johnny when Omani was back in their arms again after the two long days.

However, after another seizure incident and fractured arm, Solano County CPS contact Lisa and Johnny to tell them that a child abuse report had been filed against them by Dr. Torres, who claimed to be Omani’s Pediatrician. Johnny and Lisa are very confused at this point because Lisa explains, "Omani does not have a Pediatrician named Dr. Torres". Later, they discover that "Dr. Torres was actually Michelle Torres, a Vallejo Kaiser Hospital Social Worker, who impersonated herself as a medical professional to have Omani removed".

As a result, Omani was taken into protective custody by CPS based upon the false report of child abuse by Dr. Torres, who deceitfully committed fraud. Johnny and Lisa appear in court and Lisa is charged with four counts of child abuse. They are still in the process of trying to get their daughter back, but it is incredibly frustrating and exhausting both physically and emotionally for them and Omani because CPS is
such a closed and difficult system to crack and defeat. However, the love that Johnny and Lisa have for
Omani is what fuels their motivation to persevere against CPS.

After, talking to Lisa and Johnny I begin thinking back to the other mothers I met from before who told me about their painful experiences of CPS taking their children away and realize the many consistent
similarities each case shares. With each incident, the facts are first twisted into lies of accusation. I
remember a mother who was wrongly accused of being suicidal, which resulted in her son being taken into
custody by CPS.

But the hardest realization I came to was that throughout all these instances of separation, it is always the children who end up suffering the most. I feel happy when parents bring photos of their children to share with me because they usually show the photos of their smiling children first. But as I continue looking at the photos, the children are suddenly filled with sadness and pain after they are taken away from their parents. There is no longer that sparkle of joy in their innocent eyes, only the glistening of tears.

The trauma that these children have experienced cannot be simply forgotten because they are scared, which is why parents like Johnny and Lisa Brown strive to keep "Omani’s best interest in mind," says Johnny as he and Lisa continue to try to reunite their family.

If you are a Child Abuse Expert, Forensics Expert, lawyer or Advocate and are willing to help the Brown family please contact them at (510) 965-1209

by Joe B.

There is suppose to be a part 2 and 3 "About Women, And Power.

I already did honor women for putting up with men in all our sometime clueless glory and the ultimate trump of creating life within them.

While men destroy and can only try extending life a bit longer.

An Open Letter To Women In Prison.

Wrote more stuff in anger, intelligence, and just because wondering aloud.

At the end I ask for women of color behind bars to also send letters if they wanted(Don’t think I’ll get one letter)but if it helps out a few brother’s maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do.

If it Allah’s will, who am I to ask comely fairer sex also imprisoned from free skies to be written to and write.

I really have no proper gage as how a woman’s reaction will be.

My voice should be fashioned out the utmost respect for single or married mother’s, young teen girls.

Young and mature women too many going, have gone through so much, too young, that life is bare, raw, ruthless, at times precious and cheap.

Please send 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 Alex Cuff/PNN News Brief Editor

For the first time in the history of Brazil, a leftist candidate of the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been elected President. Lula, a former factory worker, won Sunday’s presidential election with over 60% of the votes defeating Jose Serra of the ruling Social Democratic Party candidate. Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), is a political formation that has grown from municipalities to state governments. The celebrations in the streets on Sunday by PT supporters prove the popular discontent with unemployment and inequality in Latin America's most populous nation.

Lula won by promising social reforms for the poor and working people. Most voters in Rochina – Brazil’s largest favela, or slum in Rio – voted for Lula. “Lula promised me a raise, and I'm expecting to get it," said Leila Maria Oliveira, 48, a fare collector on Rio's buses who makes about $125 a month. "If he doesn't give it to me, I'm going to have to go to his office and collect it." Including an increase in minimum wage and more employment, Lula has promised Brazil food subsidies, and more spending on health care and education.

Since Lula formed alliances with groups traditionally hostile to his Workers' Party, including business leaders and evangelical Christians, some are questioning to what extent the politicians will compromise the proposals of the PT party. Hope lies in the fact that the PT is deeply rooted in Brazil's social movements, particularly the Landless Movement (MST) and the CUT (Brazil's trade union federation). The questionable alliances and a highly sophisticated media campaign, helped guarantee Lula a huge show of support -- more than 50 million votes in all -- on his fourth attempt at the presidency.

The fact that this is the first time in forty years that an elected president transfers the government to the president-elect of another party reveals the previous lack of democracy in Brazil, a country immersed in social and economic problems. “The responsibility of governing will be very great," Lula said late Sunday. Although there are promises of economic growth and social justice advances, the next government faces serious challenges: external debt of US$216 billion, a social welfare deficit, and 8 million unemployed Brazilians. Workers' Party officials said last week that they might draw on public pension funds in an attempt to pay for social programs until Brazil recovers from its economic slowdown.

This election and the new government’s decisions regarding national and foreign policy, will not only affect Brazil but the rest of the Americas. Fifteen days after assuming the position, Lula will have to make a decision regarding the FTAA. Lula has said the current proposals amount to an "annexation" of Brazil by the United States. The Workers' Party has said it will push to seek better terms for Brazilian producers in negotiations with the Bush administration over the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

by Mike Vizcarra and Mary McAdams

Police brutality has been one of our major concerns ever since I started writing for POOR Magazine. We have always written about it and have had countless interviews with poor folks, people of color and/or houseless folks who have experienced these acts first hand. But it is very hard being homeless or of low income and/or of color to get our voices heard and justice done. Mary McAdams, a Berkeley resident, lost her son last year because of police brutality. Mary is homeless and so was her son. But no one has heard her story.

Mathew J. Murphy Jr. (Jimmy) died June 1, 2001. The cause of death? The official police report lists it as a homicide. The real cause of death?

"They let him die," says Mary, Jimmy’s mother.

Jimmy was born on June 5, 1969. He was born with jaundis. When he was nine months old, his father hit him so hard that it left an imprint on the boy’s head. From that point on he suffered from head injuries. He suffered from coordination problems because of it. Jimmy was also diabetic. To say Jimmy was a sickly kid is an understatement.

"Anytime you have an injury to the brain, there’s a lot of change that happens to that person," says Mary. "Growing up, he would embellish stories because the logical part of the brain was damaged. People couldn’t understand what the head injury and diabetes did to him."

Mary ended up leaving her abusive husband, who repeatedly beat her, took her money, and used heroine. She also blames him for killing their first son, Matty. In 1995, Jimmy traveled cross-country and moved from the east coast to the Bay Area. He wanted to be more self-sufficient. Along the way, he stopped in New Mexico and got a security job. He also had a job as a cashier but "he didn’t understand the concept of money, couldn’t handle the responsibility," says his mother. Mary also moved to the here to the Bay Area around the same time.

Jimmy would occasionally live with his mother in Oakland and Berkeley but started living and working out of his truck. Mary found a job as a live-in caregiver, but lost the job a few years later and therefore lost the home she was living in. She had nowhere to go and neither did her son. She moved into the Berkeley Women’s Shelter on January 21, 2001 and Jimmy continued to live out of his truck. She last saw her son on May 23, 2001.

Jimmy was working odd jobs here and there. He started taking methamphetamines so he could work ‘round the clock. Soon he became addicted to meth and was not eating. He was working constantly trying to make ends meet. He was also having small heart attacks and seizures and his diabetes was getting worse because he couldn’t afford the medicine.

On June 1, 2001, Jimmy was sitting in his truck with his girlfriend in an alley in Richmond. He was tired and wasn’t feeling very well. He lay his head on his girlfriend’s lap and that’s when his girlfriend knew something was wrong. The police came, four officers in squad cars, but they didn’t do anything to help him. They dragged him out of the truck and down the road and were actually laughing at him. Jimmy’s girlfriend was restrained from helping him, helplessly watching Jimmy die. He was pronounced dead at 12:58 p.m. As mentioned earlier, the police ruled it a homicide. Mary estimates that at least a half hour passed between the arrival of the police and Jimmy’s death, and nothing was done. Mary’s watch actually stopped at 1:00 p.m. that day, her belief that it was the exact time of death of her son.

Jimmy’s girlfriend was charged with homicide but was later released. Mary could not even see her son, the police would not let her see the body. She wanted to file a report but a Detective Valley told her, "We did what we had to do and that was it." Had the police not been so heartless Mary would still have her son around. Jimmy was ostracized for being homeless, for living in his truck. He didn’t receive the same treatment like any other person would have received because he was homeless. It makes me mad to think that the police can get away with these crimes against the poor, the homeless, the minorities. The only time the mainstream media and the police listen is when an affluent neighborhood gets "victimized" by these cops. Take for example what happened in the Marina District here in San Francisco: A 911 call for help against police officers who randomly beat a couple guys from a bar all of a sudden gets all this attention. This type of abuse by the police has been going on in our neighborhoods for years. Only when it affects the rich, the privileged, does it make news.

Mary still a lot to deal with. But she found closure with her son after getting together with family members and scattering Jimmy’s ashes. "It was a beautiful, peaceful moment," she told me.

Ode to the Child in You and Me

You can’t see inside of me

If you could you’d know

What a tender child lives in there

Where others cannot go

You can’t be inside of me

If you could you’d see

That I’m struggling on the inside

Just longing to be free

inside I’ll always be that child

Doing all I can

With a heart that longs to be loved by you

Can’t we be just friends?

You look upon the outside

And judge by what you see

But you can’t see the dreams inside

I just want to be me

So many things about me

Are hidden from your view

As there are myrid’s of things

I’ll never know of you

Could we just love each other

In spite of what we see

I’ll love you no matter what

And you can just love me

This world will be better place

If we will blind our eyes

To shut out all those dangerous things

Like anger, hate and lies

So look upon your brothers

And on your sisters too.

And remember inside each of us

There is someone just like you.

Mary E. Mc Adams

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN Community Journalist and Poverty Scholar (with Alex Cuff/PNN)

As a person who has been incarcerated in two different California Prisons a total of 7 trips, in and out of the California Department of Corrections, done a lot of county-time, and Lord only knows how many court appearances: I have experienced and lived through the importance of client attorney privileges and also the devastating results of what we con's call a "dump-truck", this saying refers to an attorney who does not have his clients best interests at heart and unfortunately, as well as some public defenders and court appointed attorneys who basically work in the DA's framework and thus do no more than prepare the client for a plea bargain in many cases.

Therefore, legal rights and the civil rights guaranteed by our constitution are important to me: especially when it seems as if the way is being paved to take them away. I went to hear Lynne Stewart speak at the Bay Area Women's Building about her case and what is happening with our First Amendment and Sixth Amendment rights in the age of new witch-hunts against "terrorism" by our Attorney General and the Department of Justice. Heretics beware, this is some scary shit.

"Whatever I did, I did as a lawyer" said Lynne Stewart. Who is Lynne Stewart some of you might be asking? Lynne Stewart is an attorney from New York who is an activist attorney who has represented many clients that other attorneys would not, especially as a court appointed lawyer, not private. Lynne Stewart has been indicted by US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, under the Patriot Act for making a press release on behalf of her client Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in May 2000. She has been accused by Ashcroft and the Department of Justice for allegedly "materially aiding a terrorist organization" by making the press release on behalf of the Sheik. The Patriot Act did not even exist in the May 2000, but nonetheless: she was arrested at her home in 2002, and given a four-count indictment. (Lynn was first arrested under the 1996 Anti-terrorist act and served with a warrant under the guidelines of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)

"Okay, I do think I was targeted", Lynne responded when I asked her if she felt Ashcroft specifically targeted her. Lynne then said, "I think he needed a scapegoat in that instance and he picked me out because of my long time activism and I think he miscalculated and thought I would not garner too much support." "I think he thought he could get away with this. I don't think he ever expected the amount of support I've been able to get."

Lynne started working at age twenty-two in Harlem. She described her self as a "nice-white-girl" from the suburbs. Lynne said, "I'd never known that Harlem existed, that Black people were ghettoized in this way. I started asking questions, was very unhappy with the answers--which were basically racist answers--and got some of my own answers out there." She met her husband Ralph Poynter, forty-years ago, and they worked together. Lynne says, "He of course had been Black for along time and active for a long time." Then they together became very deeply involved in the community control of schools in New York and she relayed that Ralph was leadership in that --which became co-opted--and they moved on. By 1971 she was "active" and went to law school, Ralph was forced out as a teacher and opened his own business and they went on from there.

Lynne has a history of advocating for and representing people whom other lawyers were ambivalent about or had no interest in defending. She has defended: David Gilbert, member of the Weather-Underground, Shakur Odinga who was from The Black Liberation Army and a former Panther, Richard Williams who was a member of the Ohio 7 and accused of being a member of the United Freedom Front which had basically conducted political acts which they considered as a group to be non-violent. This including bombings that they forewarned about, as so no one would be hurt, against South African Airways. Lynne also said that she had defended, "Numerous others, countless demonstrators in New York who were against the Gulf War or against Rockefeller's drug laws."

The Sheik is now serving a life-sentence for planning to blow up New York City landmarks in 1993. While counseling the Sheik, Lynne and the Sheik both had to sign what is called a "Special Administrative Measure", or referred to as a SAM. "Which lawyers and people we represent must sign to say that you will not communicate with the press on behalf of your client, thus making it impossible for any First Amendment right to be protected." Lynne Stewart during interview with Mumia Abu Jamal.

After Lynne's press release through Reuters she waited for six months to find out if she would be allowed to go back in the prison to see her client and finally they allowed her and an interpreter to go back in to see the Sheik. They had set up tape recorders and cameras to listen in on and film all the attorney client privileges, i.e. all of their legal visits for the purpose of counsel. Now she is on trial and fighting for her own freedom as the press release she made on behalf of her client was done in "contravention" of the SAM. Lynne says, "All we have when we represent political people... all we have is truth , honesty, and integrity."

Susan Dorton who emceed the event for Lynne's Defense, which was sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild, and the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee said, "This is about the loss of civil rights for all of us" and relayed, "Lynne's case is about Lynne's liberty." After Susan was finished another guest speaker, Luis Talamantez (Bato), a former member of the San Quentin 6, spoke about the importance of client/attorney privilege. Bato then said, "We need 10,000 lawyers like Lynne Stewart for our prisoners in our system" and followed it up with, "disenfranchised prisoners and the poor people consider Lynne Stewart the advocate of the people."

When Lynne was arrested at her home, not only did they take her but they also took her computer, and her files and along with that, the attorney /client privilege of her other clients as well. It was hard to look at the grandmother of seven children, an older woman, speak of our rights and loss of them, because I know very well how it feels to lose your freedom. Then after a pause Lynne said, "Not only do I face forty-years, for forty-years I've been a critic of the government." It is beginning to feel like a new Mc Carthy era is coming around. I am more than sure the blacklisting has already begun.

I asked Lynne, “Does the Sheik have wealth and privileges?

“ No, well no he was a blind child that was left at the mosque and he was left at the Mosque because he couldn’t work and those children of third world countries dressed like black blind people in Mississippi were often discarded…He has very little resources, his family is in Egypt and in the traditional Moslem household his sons of course support his wife and their younger brothers and sisters but he has virtually no resources. We did the case, I think we earned a pittance compared to what the people appointed by the state in that case earned.”

“I have a personal question”, I asked, “as an ex-convict myself and a person who has done time. I read in your interview with Mumia, that the Sheik was only allowed to correspond with his wife once a month, was this via the mail or by phone call?"

“He was given a phone call but it was listened in on and when he…actually his son got on the phone and he spoke to him for a few minutes probably nothing much more than greetings. They then suspended those phone calls for the next three months to punish him for speaking to someone other than his wife on the phone. He was also allowed to call his lawyers, no great thing I guess but it saved him from being completely cut off.

The reasons why I wanted to know about whether the Sheik had privilege, wealth, and ability as to how he was able to correspond: was because when I was in prison I couldn’t even call Child Protective Services, the Juvenile Court or the social worker appointed to deal with my parental rights. The only calls I was allowed to make were collect so you can very well imagine how separated you are from resources when incarcerated and even calling your attorney is not always possible and by the time you hustle up a stamp and get something mailed off… it is too late. The mail is tediously slow in prison.

The other reason I asked about wealth and privilege is because I believe most Americans relate the word “Sheik” to wealth , power, privilege and prestige and that it was important to have clarification, not that it invalidates his case, but I like to have a better sense of the information I am trying to convey.

I asked Lynne how people in poverty would be affected by the Patriot Act. Sounding very sure she said, “ The heel of government always falls harshest on those who have the least resources to resist it. So, I think that then when they start targeting people who may have an affinity for let us say Muslim causes or they have attended a lecture and now they’re looking to say, ‘you were part of it’; they will have the least ability to resist this kind of thing. I also think that of course people with less resources are least able to get out there and do the kind of work to oppose this kind of law that really touches every one of us. When they start asking the librarians what books we take out - ya know, who uses the public library more than people of low income? So I think that of course it always cuts harshest against those with the least resources because this is a nation that worships the almighty dollar and has very short thrift for people who don’t have those dollars”.

I then asked Ms. Stewart, “How will clients who have dealt with racial profiling be affected?

With what I determined was a sigh combined with a quick and very frank answer Lynne replied, “ Well I think actually 9-11 did more to affect racial profiling than anything else because it sort of made it acceptable: in other words the government is now doing all manner of racial profiling. As Bato (Luis Talamantez) said - he’s Mexican - he gets stopped at the airport every time, because he looks like what they consider a terrorist a terrorist to look like. So, I think that racial profiling will continue bigger and better and will be granted a free passage by most Americans because it doesn’t ever effect them: It only affects people of color.”

I asked Lynne, “Do you believe that most of the corporate media’s policies back the Patriot Act?"

“ Well I think so, they pretty much know that this is something that they don’t need to be afraid of. I said to someone once, I said you know the attorney client privilege is used more—by like—guys from Enron who are planning to file bankruptcy than it is by criminalized poor, or the clients we represent. But they know they are never going to listen in on their conversations because they are part of the people who are doing the listening. So, it doesn’t effect them at all in the same way… and the fact that it doesn’t… means that: we are not really getting any support from the corporate sector of the legal profession.”

Alex, my colleague from PNN questioned, “Were they listening in on your conversations before 2000, before the Patriot Act?”

Lynne responded, “Before. They did the initial five I believe soon after I made this press release, which is the focus point of my indictment. They got a wiretap to listen in on all our phone calls and all our client visits and that’s why they allowed me to go back and visit. They wanted to gather evidence and of course they really didn’t gather evidence, they just listened in."

This to me is very spooky and rings of George Orwell's 1984 and Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, both novels that were written about futuristic fascist governments, which ruefully seem to be coming true. Why? Because people are fearful: fearful of talking on their own phones, using their email and afraid anything they say or do can be construed as a "terrorist act." So one can only imagine the impact it will have on our legal and judicial systems, meaning attorneys will be intimidated to represent people and many clients will question if they can trust a lawyer when all their conversations are recorded. This will do nothing but precipitate fear and mistrust and most of all it violates the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

This means what all this insanity is about, is the context of the First , Fourth, and Sixth Amendments. The Patriot Act which is being revised and expedited by Ashcroft, as I type this, to abrogate these rights, which are: 1st Amendment rights to freedom of speech, right to freedom of the press, right to freedom to peacefully assemble, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 4th Amendment, the right to be secure in person, home, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. 6th Amendment the right to counsel and the client and attorney privilege, meaning the right to discuss their attorney/client business between the two of them privately and in confidence.

When the government starts taking these rights away, by wiretapping, taping and filming, and denying people the right to speak and use the press to make their voices heard-- rights which are supposed to be upheld by our government and our Department of Justice--and using it as a means of intimidation something is very amiss with democracy, justice, and the tenets that we hold and revere as a nation.