2006

by Ace Tafoya/PNN

In the early waking hours of a crisp May sunshine in the heart of the Mission District in San Francisco, United State Federal Officials stormed and raided the Hotel Sunrise on Valencia Street this year. Looking for a "deportee", the agents terrorized and scared residents just getting ready for a days work. When all was said and done, the representatives from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, formally INS), had coiled up seven Mexican Nationals and two East Indians. This story was virtually ignored in the daily presses. But it happened, and it’s continuing to happen, here and across this so-called "free country."

On Tuesday, July 27, the midst of the financial district was turned upside down
when a protest march and rally disrupted dozens having lunch in the outdoor breezes.
About a hundred people from The St. Peter’s Housing Committee, La Raza Centro Legal, SF Day Labor Program, Heads Up Collective and other local foundations treaded towards government land to speak up and speak out against these current seizes.

"We are here to call for the raids to stop," demanded Juana Flores from the Mujeres Unidas y Activas organization. "We want them to stop nationally, we want them to stop here in our state, and we want to make sure they stop raiding our brothers, our sisters and our companions!"

On daily radio stations throughout this country they tell of the Democratic National Convention, missing women in Utah and a husband on trail for killing his wife and unborn child. With all due respect, why are the missing ones all white on television and the radio news? Why don’t we hear about what’s happening in the inner cities? Why don’t we hear of things like this?

"I stand here to charge them (the ICE) with these crimes," Sunaina Maira of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action voiced. We were spellbound as she told about an immigrant man being locked up for six weeks – for no reason. "We are not the ones who are guilty. They are the ones who are guilty of terrorizing our communities!"

Denizens dressed in suits, street length dresses and mini skirts adjusted and fumbled their cell phones to tell their friends what the ruckus was about during their afternoon break.

When explaining a connection between globalization and immigrant issues, Marisol Ocampo from St. Peter’s Housing Committee said, "We work degrading jobs…We’re exploited at our jobs everyday…We have to live in secret, in clandestine situations because we don’t have a right to papers."

At the rally outside 630 Sansome, we heard issues regarding how the raids have impacted the Day Labor Program and how the immigrant community as a whole have been impacted. And we heard a heartbreaking story of a mother with a young son, who’s a citizen of this country, are being deported. "We have 14 days to rent our house, get our belongings together," Veronica Orozco cried through translation about their departure. "My son doesn’t even speak Spanish properly…We’re gonna have to go to Mexico and start our lives over again."

"We unequivocally demand immediately that you (the ICE) stop the raids in San Francisco," yelled Renee Saucedo, a candidate for Supervisor in District 9. Miss Saucedo had just met with the ICE moments before. "The community demands that they do not collaborate with other law enforcement agencies including the San Francisco Police Department, the FBI and other federal law enforcement."

The ball is in their court now, what will they do is anyone’s guess. As others voiced their concerns that echoed off the Immigrant’s Attorney Offices from across the street, I thought of my Grandmother Tona, an immigrant from Mexico, and wondered if she ever had to go through trouble like this in her life, like these people are now?

by Elizabeth Aguilera /Denver Post by way of Roll back the Rents

Domestic violence shelters across the country are balking at a new federal directive requiring homeless shelters to provide client information for a new national database.

Advocates say the database, set to roll out in Colorado in January, would jeopardize the safety of abused women and children.

Several Colorado shelters are opting out of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Homeless Management Information System, even though they risk losing future federal funding.

Although the money is desperately needed, advocates say, the funds aren't worth giving up the anonymity of those they are trying to help.

"They are asking us to go to a woman who has been traumatized enough to flee her home with her children and the clothes on her back, and grill her over a few days for information we are not going to use but that the government wants," said Carol Hollomon, executive director at Alternatives to Family Violence, a safe house in Adams County. "It's not going to happen."

In Illinois, all the domestic violence shelters under the state's "umbrella" have refused to participate in the program, risking its share of $1.3 billion of federal support that is available nationwide.

The new information system was created to get an accurate count of America's homeless so the government can streamline services and make sure the right programs are in the right places, said Brian Sullivan, HUD spokesman.

"Without this information, you don't get a full and complete picture of homelessness, specifically in rural areas where a domestic violence shelter might be the only game in town," Sullivan said.

HUD will require a birth date, Social Security number, veteran status, race, ethnicity and family background. The department also urges shelters to inquire about HIV status and mental health.

Advocates worry that such probing will scare the most vulnerable people away from services, including those who are HIV-positive, undocumented immigrants and runaways. More worrisome, advocates say, is the fear of security breaches, access to the database by law enforcement and public- records requests.

"We thought there was no way they were going to require us to breach confidentiality," said Vicki Lutz, executive director of the Crossroads Safehouse in Fort Collins. "The laudable purpose is to track homelessness to provide better service.

"But if one woman dies in the name of data collection, that is one too many. Do we really want to give batterers another avenue of tracking?"

Currently, housing providers are the only groups required to participate, but the system will expand to other homeless services such as food banks, soup kitchens, street outreach programs, mental illness treatment facilities, HIV/AIDS clinics and human services departments, said Tracy D'Alanno, manager of the homeless and resource development program for the state department of human services.

In August, the National Network to End Domestic Violence formally asked HUD to exempt domestic violence programs from the regulation. The department has not responded to the petition.

"This violates our core value of confidentiality for victims and puts them in danger," said Cindy Southworth, director of technology for the National Network to End Domestic Violence in Washington, D.C. "We are happy to help get an accurate count in a less invasive way."

In Colorado, the state department of human services is overseeing the creation and implementation of the program, which will be administered by three nonprofit agencies. It is expected to roll out in January.

According to HUD standards, the system security guidelines are based on those in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Once the data is collected regionally, HUD will receive aggregate data, including the number of homeless, how many are veterans, what types of disabilities the homeless have and racial, ethnic and gender breakdowns.

HUD officials say personal information will not be linked to create the national database. Still, Jennifer Lynch, information and technology director of the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence, is leery of data creep, when information begins to bleed into other systems.

"It's nice to have easy access to information, and it's tempting for agencies to share that information," Lynch said. "But it's going to undermine the ability for people to protect themselves."

Lynch is referring to victims like Ronni, who says she is on the run from an abuser in another state and hasn't told anyone where she is. Not her mother. Not her closest friend. And not the federal government.

The 37-year-old woman said she would never have checked into a Jefferson County shelter if the new system was in place. She traveled to Colorado to get away from her abuser, seeking a haven and anonymity.

"I wouldn't stay if they were tracking," she said. "Just thinking that someone is tracking me makes me feel that potential employers, the community or the schools would know my business."

And, she added, what if her abuser is still trying to find her? "That scares me."

Tough choices ahead

In Colorado, some domestic violence shelters are prepared to give up federal funding and pump private donors, foundations and other sources to make up the difference.

Lutz decided to bypass the $26,000 annually that comes from HUD. The money is nearly 5 percent of her yearly budget.

While such a loss won't close her facility, Lutz worries for rural shelters that rely on HUD for more than half of their funding. Such places have two choices, Lutz said - comply or close.

Hollomon has worked around the federal government for her Adams County shelter. She returned her HUD Emergency Shelter Grant funds to the county to use as part of another community block grant. In return, county officials are helping her find an alternative source for the $22,000 she gave up.

Finding the loopholes beats the alternative, Hollomon said. "They (HUD) are asking us to violate the constitutional rights of folks who come to us for help," she said.

Participation in the new HUD system is listed as an eligibility component on the application for assistance and is part of the grant agreement, Sullivan said.

The only providers that may become exempt are those in states where privacy laws are extremely stringent, including Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, Sullivan said.

Said D'Alanno: "If they want to continue receiving funding, at some point in time, domestic violence agencies are going to have to participate."

HUD, in an effort to get shelters to accept the system, is offering grace periods and delayed implementation.

In Colorado, the system will be based on a unique, confidential identification number, created by a complicated mathematical formula based on personal data, and only that number will be submitted.

by Clive Whistle/PNN

The black-brown steel felt soft beneath my feet. Almost like velvet. And if I closed my eyes I could imagine the solid steel of the ancient West Oakland railroad tracks to be the plush velvet lining of a proper coffin for my murdered brother, African Descendent Houseless elder Dalrus Joseph Brown.

Dalrus or DJ , as some of us called him, was 55 years old and kept to himself and we only spoke a few times when I too, not so many months ago was staying "on the tracks" in West "O" . He was a decent man who really bothered no-one. Some people said he was a vet and I wouldn't be surprised, he had a silent courage which could have faced any situation. Inside that silent countenance was also loss, perhaps the loss of a man who somewhere along the railroad of homelessness and racism in Amerikka lost his soul..

When my editors at PNN asked me to write about the brutal beating and murder of Dalrus Brown on Saturday July 17th at the very place that he lived, the railroad tracks of West Oakland, I winced back tears of shame. I already knew about DJ's murder but something inside me just couldn't touch it It was common knowledge between folk who were homeless in Oakland that there was a "gang" of young folks, race not clear, roving the areas in West Oakland peopled by Houseless folks and beating them mercilessly.

In that story there are so many troubling things to examine. First of all, how could these "youth" as the police and corporate media referred to them become so hateful and disconnected from humanity to do such things. Perhaps, in a capitalist society that actively encourages the separation of youth from elders, Black from white, and most importantly rich from poor, these "youth" could act with no supervision from adults and have absolutely no respect for these poor elders. Or perhaps, the constant lies and myths promoted by mainstream media, policy makers and pop culture that "homeless" people are a tribe of worthless people who were born that way, rather than the kind of root cause examinations that POOR/PNN tries to do when they break down the connections between houslessness and eviction, gentrification and redlining of poor folks and communities of color. Or perhaps, the extreme violence promoted in Army-sponsored video games, the most recent being one that I saw set-up at the UA theatre in Oakland that points a "gun" at street people and animals and allows the game player to "shoot". Or maybe more likely it is all these things with some random kid tendencies thrown in.

And lest readers think that his murder was racially motivated, you're wrong. Homeless people of all colors in the West Oakland area have been violently attacked for the last several months with no regard for each persons race, age or gender. And in fact these attacks follow a national and international trend of attacks on homeless people, In June a white 54 year old man in Louisville, Kentucky man was brutally beaten, sodomized and murdered, In July two homeless men (one Native American, one white were beaten and stabbed in GRANDVIEW, Mo and in Japan (another highly competitive consumer economy well-known for its contempt of homeless people) four teenagers were arrested for beating a houseless man, dousing him with paint thinner and setting him on fire

Perhaps the saddest part of attacks on folks like Dalrus is that if these kinds of attacks happened in other neighborhoods peopled by homeful residents, folks might get bars on their windows or locks on their doors, but in Dalrus' neighborhood we all still dwell, unprotected and helplessly ready for the next attack.

In the end, very few people will miss Dalrus, but I will, forever seeing him sitting quietly, gracefully, by the soft strong steel rods embedded in the earth in West Oakland

by The Hospitality House Art Studio Skolaz

Move With cloud

To remain silky

To kiss Babies cheeks

Solidify Our Grin

Wonder and Waunder

Many Times around

Like Money paved streets

Stuff the Alleyway clean

Wave go-bye to cloud

covering

feel blood dripping

from a tarnished
hand-shake

by Byron Gafford and Tiny/PNN

"On July 23rd I walked into a group home for foster care youth in the Bay Area and took a child out of that home… I was not related to the child.. and I was not asked to show ID, permission or anything… this was wrong.. real wrong"

Byron Gafford, poetry journalist, child abuse survivor, poverty scholar at POOR Magazine and author of the book; Thru the Eyes of a Child Vol 1 and 2 released on POOR Press ©2003/2004 was focusing his dark brown eyes on the window above my head in the PNN office as he told and re-told this horror story of "systems abuse" of a child who has like many young folks become lost in an often uncaring, unchecked system called Foster Care.

"Not one person came to the door to see who I was that was taking the child away, and "the Foster Care system" claims group homes are safe. But how safe are they if an unrelated adult male like me can go in and take out a child without being checked
Out" As Byron I reflected on all of the horror stories reported to POOR's COURTWATCH project, a project which aims to document the stories for families abused by CPS and Foster Care systems. Almost every family that has lost their child to the black hole of CPS and The Juvenile dependency Court, then loses their child to the even deeper hole of The Foster Care System, often not seeing their child for many years or in some cases never again.

It took the death of Florida's Rilya Wilson in the Spring of 2002 for the issue of children "missing" from foster care to garner national attention. It first came to light that the state of Florida had managed to lose track of nothing less than 500 of its foster care children. Some time thereafter, the body of 17-year-old Marissa Karp was found in Collier County Florida. She had run away from her state-designated foster family in April. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office explained that she had been murdered.

Since August of 2002, officials in the states of California, Tennessee, and Michigan have disclosed that hundreds of children are similarly "missing" from their foster care systems.

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services reported in August that 740 foster children were missing from its system. Shortly thereafter, Michigan foster care officials announced that 300 foster children were missing from their foster care system.

Many critics of these broken systems point to the privatization of foster care which has led to spending even more money to take and keep children away from their families rather than to support restoration of the children's families.

In the private foster care agencies that oversee most of the children, some executives receive up to $310,000 a year in salaries and benefits and spend millions of taxpayer dollars for posh offices, expensive furniture and luxury cars, according to tax returns and county audits.

Aggressive reforms have been under way in Los Angeles County since one young boy died of Asthma in Foster care because the "system" refused to listen to the directions about his medication given by the mother. Starting in November of 2003 The LA Board of Supervisors voted to negotiate with the federal government for a waiver that would allow DCFS to use $250 million of its $1.4 billion budget on services to help keep children with their families, instead of placing them in foster care.

Under the current "buck-a-head" payment structure in place across the nation, the private agencies lose revenue when children are reunified with their families or put up for adoption, child advocates say.

"Children like this young man living in group homes and foster homes are really
not safe at all" Byron continued, pointing out the fact that not only was he not questioned for ID but that there used to be a strict fingerprint clearance expectation of any unrelated adults who wanted to visit or meet with a child who is in "the system" and nothing like that was expected of him.

"The next day, a full 24 hours later, the child's mother and myself brought the child back to the home, once again as far as they were concerned, No big deal," Byron took a breath concluding with his mission to get this horror story out to the world by any Means necessary in the hopes that it will make some people make some real changes to this broken system which endangers the very people it is supposed to protect, "One of the saddest things of all which is all too common the case, to this day the child doesn’t know why he was put in the system and nobody will not even tell him why. "

To get a copy of Thru the Eyes of A Child vol 1 & 2 click on POOR Press or call (415) 863-6306

by The Hospitality House Art Studio Skolaz

I just heard about it

we knew it already

not really

You know how we all thought that we lived in a democracy

where every vote counts, get out the vote

polls of likely voters

vote,vote,vote

early, absentee,

it will be a disaster if we don't get out the vote.its an emergency. Can you imagine what the next four years will be like?

Its the bringing down of America

its the letting terrorists win.
its stem cells and abortions

its more tax breaks for the rich

its children left behind on their door steps

its ..its...

like never before

and then...

what do we find out?

I heard it on the Today show today

No Matter who wins the popular vote..its the electoral college vote that counts..last year

this year..

by Leroy Moore

A Week of Partying No It’s Not College Spring Break!

College students go to Dayton Beach or other warm places to party. Politicians go to political conventions to do the same, party.

The night was sharp to my half-awake half-asleep stance as the car hummed toward the Oakland Airport July 23rd, 2004. This non-responsive stance to the massive endeavor I was about to jump into summed up the last two months, May & June, since I received an out-of-the-blue call from a member of the disability caucus of the California Democratic Party requesting me to be a delegate at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston from July 23rd -29th. I bust out laughing! Me, a radical, independent, son of a Black Panther, activist and politically hungry for anything except the same old two party system be a delegate of the California Democratic Party? I was so used to being outside protesting past conventions like Sojourner Truth did the late 1800. My mind couldn’t express how would it feel wearing that custom of the party system being inside of the beast! I once again thought about Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech she delivered at the Women’s Convention and her strength and Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony at the 1964 Democratic convention as an alternative to the Democratic Party. After some time of thinking about it I told myself, I will wear this custom for only one reason and one reason only and that is to help get the voices of people of color with disabilities onto the political table nothing more and nothing less. Like Fannie Lou Hamer once said,

Although I sounded calm during May, June and most of July when congratulation cards, donations and info about the Convention started to jammed my mail box, my political & networking mind was running with excitement with opportunities to network. You see I was a political science major, was president of student government and have been active in the local political arena. So as I a delegate of the Democratic Convention to help take people of color with disabilities issues inside like Mrs. Truth is not so strange. By showing up to the airport a day early by mistake was a sign that I could not hide my excitement.

Now it is Saturday July 24, and I’m in my hotel room downtown Boston checking out the schedule for the Convention. This moment reminded me of my trip to Atlanta, GA. couple months before the Olympics. The other side of Conventions or big events make my blood boil like the increase of police appearance all over Boston and how the media are playing on the hype, and stories of how certain people are and have been swept out for appearances. So I went out and saw the other side first hand. I passed through the upscale hotel at ease with my credentials I.D. clipped on my shirt. However I was stopped when I entered Credentials Committee meeting. My name wasn’t on the list and the people kept looking at my delegate I.D. After an hour I decided to go back to my room. You see the real deal starts on Monday July 26th. Before retiring for the night I talked to an activist for people who are homeless and he educated me on what had happened months before. He knew twenty people that were swept from the area next to the high-class hotel and the Fleet Center where the Convention will be hold. Anybody has a video camera because this is real reality t.v. Back at the hotel I looked at my schedule for Sunday and found out that Sunday night is the California Delegation Party. On my ticket for the "party" says I’m allow one guest and I wonder if everybody took one person that was swept out of their place because of the Convention maybe it’d be a great party. By the way why would you have a party at the beginning of the convention? I guest I’m learning in this new arena!

As an African American, I know we are excellent in entertaining- singing, dancing etc and I found out on July 25th, 2004 that the California Democratic Party knew it too! Sunday July 25, 2004 is the last day to party for the Democrats and they pulled out "The Best in African Americans!" Before the California Democratic Delegation party at 5pm East Coast time, I took a walk around the neighborhood where the Westin Copley Place Hotel is. As I walked around Boylston, Newbury, Commonwealth and Beacon streets and avenues it was clear to me I was center in upper class central. Cafes, bars, clothing shops and record stores it did bring me back home to Berkeley, no more like Piedmont area. If that’s not enough, I hit Berkeley St. on the way back to the hotel. There was a demonstration of Falun Dafa, Falun Dafa is a traditional Chinese self-cultivation practice that improve mental and physical wellness through a series of exercises, meditation and development of one’s ‘Heart/Mind Nature. Yes I sat down and did some Falun Dafa. I recommend Falun Dafa to all activists, delegates, politicians and others. The exercise led into a march against the genocide and torture in China. One of the demonstrators told me that the "Falun Dafa Movement was founded by Li Hong Zhi, in recognition of our teachings of peace and spirituality and for our courage and perseverance in the face of oppression by the People’s Republic of China." I was happy to be among the people. He also told me over 1,000 were tortured in mental hospitals last year alone.

I ran back to the hotel to get ready for the Democratic Delegation party at the Franklin Zoo in the Roxberry District, a mostly African American district, of Boston. In the van, I noticed I was under dress and I also noticed that the van went silent when we drove through the hood, the inner city of Boston. There were talks about Organ County in LA, the fund raising that they did for John Kerry and the tension broke when we pulled into the zoo.

Inside the white tent I noticed that there was a group of African Americans dressed in traditional Africa attire. A quick look around I realized that there was a big Latino turn out and a modest African American turn out but only saw one other person with a noticeable disability. Another thing that rang my activist’s bells was the number of police, U.S. Army and other guards that surrounded the tent. I saw some familiar Bay Area political faces like Willie Brown etc.. The speeches began with local Senator who is African American. About the time I got out my mini-disk recorder Dick Patterson CEO of Time Warren who spoke about the diversity of Boston and the hard work that went into bringing the Democratic Convention to Boston, I manage to get some speeches recorded. The African traditional dancers began to tear down the tent with their bare feet dancing to drumming. One of the dancers took my hand and led me to the dance circle.

After dancing I saw a person that I’m on a board with back home. He and his family were standing in line to speak and take a picture with Governor Gray Davis. Yes I got into the picture but when I ask Davis about disability issues he suddenly became busy signing autograph. The party featured African traditional dancers, an African American DJ; some of the waiters and waitress were people of color and yes an African American local Senator and the Chairman of the CA Democratic Party and Senator, Art Torres who is Latino. Is this diversity or window dressing? To put the icing on the cake on the way to a concert downtown Boston featuring the O Jays, I had an opportunity to talk to another delegate from San Francisco who seemed cool. She worked on the SF DA campaign but in the same breath she thought Mayor Gavin Newsom is doing a good job. Got to the concert and once again African Americans were on stage entertaining us, The O Jays.

It is official the clock struck 12 midnight and the real deal starts. Can African Americans turn entertainment into political hob knobing on the convention floor? And where are my people I respect like Maxine Walters, Barbara Lee and David Patterson? On the first day that’s all I saw was Bill Clinton on the local Boston news? Where are other Black disabled delegates or protesters? Will the Democratic Party give a mike to the left side of their party? What is going to be talked about in the Caucuses? This morning July 26th the California Delegation will have breakfast with Nancy Pelosi. Are we going to have time to question her on her stands on many issues? Please, tell me why do we've Conventions?

Wednesday, the third day of the Democratic Convention, and what I’ve found out throughout this week so far was Conventions consist of speeches, parties and a lot of media. I thought I would hear details of Kerry's plan but I got only a general vision. Is that good enough to win my vote? In the last two days, I’ve experienced first hand this thing called the Democratic Convention. But before I go on and tell you what happened and how I felt about this Convention, let me give you some local news from mainstream news. On Saturday July 24th The New York Times Newspaper front page had an article entitled, "Bush Urges Blacks to Reconsider Allegiance to Democratic Party." Bush was actually talking to the National Urban League in Detroit, MI.. I laid out laughing from reading this article. Also in the same newspaper had a feature article on the raising star in the Democratic Party, keynote speaker, soon to be Senator of Illinois, Barack Obama. This should rise red flags about how both parties treat us, people of color, like we are toys to play with once a year. Even Obama said in the article to "don’t believe the hype, I’m only doing my job." How Ms. Clinton joked at the Women’s Caucus at the Convention on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 about how others mispronounced his name sounded offensive to me.

The days went like this: California Delegation breakfasts at
9am-10: 30am. Before breakfast, everybody has to resister and received an I.D. for entry in the Fleet Center where the "official Convention" is held. After breakfast listening to California politicians and other leaders the Caucuses meet from 10-2pm. Some times there is special meeting after the Caucuses but more likely people are getting ready for the evening speeches at the Fleet Center, downtown Boston. If you have the energy then there is parties at night with celebrities, politicians and others.

Back to the breakfast! The breakfasts had all political leaders speaking about how we need to get out the vote for Kerry & Edwards and other Democratic candidates running for the Senate and House. A couple speeches stood out for me. During these breakfasts, I noticed that California is lacking African American political leaders at least who spoke during our breakfasts. Another thing that struck me was the positive outlook on California. I understand we have to put our good foot forward but we can’t forget the struggles we have been in! Yes, a couple of our political leaders mentioned the budget crisis, our new governor and the energy crisis but it was very glossed over. The biggest shocker was when somebody form the state school board or education department got up and gave a glowing picture of California’s schools. As an activist my mind shouted "most of our school districts are so poor that the state had to bail them out like Oakland, Richmond and Compton to name a few.

The Caucuses were the best part of the Democratic Convention because in many, Latino, Elders & Veterans, Youth, GLBT and Disability because you got to hear about your issues, mingle with advocates and in some gave opportunity to ask questions to the panel. The Women & the African American Caucuses were the best in my view because of the real dynamic speakers that spoke on domestic issues and took some not a lot of questions from the floor. As a disabled advocate I attended the Disability Caucus both days, Monday and Wednesday, and I had very mix views on what I saw and experience. Let me first start out by saying it must have took a lot to organize and pull this off. As an organizer I understand all the glitches and last minute items to pull some as big as a national Caucus. So I tip my hat to the organizers.

As I left the African American Caucus on a high from recording, talking to some panelists and hearing some core issues from Black Democrats and advocates, my high crashed when nobody had a clue where the Disability Caucus was being held. After walking back and forth, I found the room. First thing I noticed the room for the Disability Caucus was a lot smaller than the others and had a lot less people. The panel consists of two people and I heard John Kerry’s voice talking about FDR’s disability and his record on disability issue like his involvement of the passing of the ADA. Kerry’s voice came out of a video about FDR’s disability. The main talk was about the Americans with Disabilities Act, the celebration of the ADA later on that day, voting accessibility and Karry’s platform in general terms on disability issues. The good thing that happened in the Disability Caucus was the open mike for our concerns which I took advantage to ask questions about Kerry’s platform on fully funding Individual Disability Education Act, the homeless, the rights of disabled prisons, the high unemployment rate among disabled people of color etc. I realized I should have brought Kerry’s plan because everything was redirected to his plan. I also notice a handful of disabled African Americans mostly women. After the Monday’s disability Caucus, there was a celebration of the birthday of the Americans with Disability Act however I didn’t have a need to celebrate.

At the Fleet Center, the speeches started at 4pm even earlier and lasted till 12, 1, and 2 in the morning. I never lasted to the end on any night. The Fleet Center looked like a place to hold big concerts. There are police, guards, helicopters and a tank surrounding and inside the entrance of the Fleet Center. Media swarm all around the Center. I had a floor pass so I was on floor most of the time interviewing, passing out my business cards and statements from some Bay Area advocates. After two hours of listening to speeches I realize almost everybody that took the stage sounded the same.
It was basically a cheering section for Karry with little on details. To tell you the truth that sums up the Convention. My head was about to explode into pieces if I heard another speaker praise Homeland Security! Check this out one day the Mayor of LA took the stage and just guest what he talked about? Public safety and increasing police presents! I had to go outside to catch my breath after that speech!

I needed some relief so I went to the Boston Social Forum and got the medicine I needed to go on with the rest of the week. I also called upon my disabled activists for relief. Tuesday July 27th a couple of Black disabled advocates and I had lunch to discuss how we should work together during and beyond the convention. Safi wa Naiobi from Oakland, CA., Keith Jones, his wife and a friend of Boston sat down to have lunch and to talk. At that moment I felt so relax until we saw Mayor Jerry Brown at a table across from us. Safi & I wanted to see how Jerry Brown would act in taking a picture with us. By the way Safi is on the Oakland’s Commission of the Disabled. A Mayor appointed position! Jerry was so rude to us by saying "hurry up, hurry up!" He didn’t even notice Safi or me. Safi & I just shook our heads. The lunch was one of the major highlights of the whole week.

The last day, Thursday July 29th, of the convention completed the circle with more speeches at breakfast, in the Caucuses and at the Fleet Center and African Americans entertaining the crowd. The window display was pretty to look at the Fleet Center but before the main man, John Kerry, was the regular delegation breakfast. Today Jessie Jackson took the stage, one of the few African Americans that spoke to us at breakfast. His speech didn’t sound like it came from an editor matter-of-fact he talked outside his boundaries by mentioning President Bush efforts of getting Africans Americans to question their loyalty to the Democratic Party. When Jackson made his way to leave a youth stuck a microphone out with some
hard hitting questions. I gave Mr. Jackson my card and asked him about his thoughts on issues facing Black disabled people. However he kept on walking. Even the Disability Cause grew on Wednesday and had some politicians and movie stars that spoke. Our little African American disabled group sat together in full force.

After speech after speech most of them about their personal stories dealing with a friend or family member who are disabled, somebody in the crowd started to fire some questions about Kerry’s platform on disability issues and wanted details. All the speakers became nervous but went on with their speeches. The facilitator shut down the lady’s questions. Then the movie stars came in to talk about their experiences with disability and Kerry’s Platform. Keith Jones sat down with Ben Affleck and talked about the inaccessibility issues in the Black disabled community in Boston. Keith made sure that accessibility at the voting polls goes deeper that just accessible equipment especially in the Black community. Another Black disabled attendee didn’t understand why we needed to hear from movie stars. A first time Convention’s Caucus attendee who is African American told me that she got to the Disability Caucus early on Wednesday so she asked if she could sit in the Asian Caucus to listen and observe until the Disability Caucus start in that same room. The lady at the door to the Asian Caucus told her no and that she needed to sit in the hall and wait for the Disability Caucus to start. It just tells you how much work we still have to do even among people of color.

I guess it was the day of stars at the Caucuses! The Disability Caucus had Ben Affleck, the Youth Caucus had P Didly and the Women Caucus has Mrs. Clinton. I know Clinton is not a movie star but America treats her like she is a movie star. Even in the July 24th issue of the New York Times it had an article on talk show host Jerry Springer who is considering running for Governor of Ohio as a Democrat. Movie stars are taking over politics in both parties! The highlight of the week, John Kerry, was making his way to the convention floor but before that in the last two days I got to hear from four of my political idols, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee and David Patterson and Eleanor Norton. Just listening to them almost made the whole week worth it, almost!

Back on the convention floor I bumped into President of the NAACP. I gave him my business card three times but he dropped it all three times. I realized that the floor is packed but damn his reaction to me was not pleasant and I wonder what happen to his hand. Did he have a disability or did he just wanted to escape the whole encounter? On the convention floor I interviewed disabled delegates from all over and all were strong supporters of Kerry. Many talked about the lack of accessibility of the Fleet Center. Some disabled delegates got stuck in the elevator for hours and others were almost turned away because of their equipment they use to walk and get around. Some delegates hide their disability when I told them about the disability radio show that I work for. One major theme throughout all the interviews was the need to get reed of Bush.

I left before John Kerry delivered his speech. As I was getting read to pack my stuff, I heard a choir singing on the Convention floor "We Shall Overcome!" I couldn’t believe what I was hearing in a place like this. That took the cake! I shouted out loud in the Fleet Center hallway "you are capitalizing on a song that express the oppression of my ancestors in slavery, Reconstruction era, of the sixties and on and on. That song means something!" With all of my experiences at my first and probably my last political convention I come to realize that a political convention is a weeklong party, one sided speeches and window dressing! I agree we need to get Bush out of office but it should not mean we couldn’t question other candidate. From July 23rd to the 29th I have heard the same message from African & Latinos, Gays & Lesbians political leaders, movie stars, youth and disabled spokespersons that have shared the stage at the Fleet Center in Boston. Is this diversity? Yes many different people shared the stage but it sounded like everybody had the same speechwriter and editor. What happen to Free Speech? Are homelessness, racism, police brutality & Haiti bad words? They are reality!

I want to thank the California Democratic Party for opening my eyes wide open to this two party system. I want to say that some political leaders in the Democratic Party I hold closely to my heart and have restore faith in the system from Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Al Sharpton, David Patterson, Dennis Kucinich, the late Ron Brown and Paul Wellstone and a few more that keep it real and speak real and stand 24/7 with the people. These are the people that should be president. We must continue to support them and put them on our shoulders. The other thing that was special about the convention that didn't happen in the Fleet Center it happen on the streets and in the caucuses. All the people that I had a chance to meet from my disabled brothers and sisters of color struggling with racism institutionalize roadblocks, but who are beautiful with talent and ideals and radical solutions. To my walk around Jamaica Plains where I discovered a Black book store and bought the book,

The Black Timeline of Massachusetts: A History of White Supremacy in the Bay State where I found some shocking racist true stories about Boston, the home of the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

I am so glad I shared this experience with Safi wa Naiobi a talented visually impaired sister from Oakland who covered the convention for KPOO Radio and took photographs for the City of Oakland’s Art of Disability event coming up in October 2004. I want to thank Free Speech Radio and Radio 504 of San Francisco for interviewing people whom had different views of the convention. I want to thank all of you that supported my trip here! I've made great connections and new allies and with a few of my independent disabled brothers and sisters of color we've let some know that Democrats or Republicans that we will continue to push the whole political system to be diverse in not only race & sex but also in disability and more important in
Many parties!!!

Yes, right now we have only two choices and if you push us we must make a choice, but in the near future we won't and refuse to be in this situation. As I head home to the San Francisco Bay Area I still wonder why we have Conventions for any party. Just think how much money has gone into this event. How many people can afford to take a whole week off just to celebrate? All of the police, media coverage, corporations funding? I wonder if my x non-profit and other struggling non-profit had the resources that poured into this convention what could we do.

I love my activists who will never be inside or want to be inside a political Convention but continues to break down the system to restore something that our ancestors died for justice, freedom and speaking the truth.

Thank you for your support and lets make our own party, convention, system............................

One more thing! The only one who sounded like he had his own speech was Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich. Speaking on police brutality and homelessness etc. This made my week!

Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Live at the Democratic Convention in Boston

*************************************************

Post Convention Thoughts by Leroy

Poet Politician

"I’m a poet politician

No party for me

I’m not independent

Cause I’m fighting with my brothers & sisters

Cracking the capitalist & two party systems

Ending racism, sexism

And all other ism…………………."

My poem Artist/Activist(Poet Politician) sums up how I felt about the two political conventions that we witnessed this Summer as an artist\activist. The two parties that make up the US mainstream political system can learn from political poets. From Phillis Wheatley to KRS One, poets have spoken and wrote politics in a form of a poem. Many were and are activists for their people but to this day the two party system have not really taken on the messages of political poets or poets in general. Now that both of the main political parties had their national conventions, the question of a Bostonian poet, that I had a chance to hear while I was in Boston attending the Democratic National Convention, still remains. In Larry Roland’s 2001 spoken word CD, as time flows on, he has a poem entitled, WHO SPEAKS FOR ME, this poem should be the question we all reflect on now through election day 2004 and beyond.

After attending the Democratic National Convention as a first time delegate (and probably my last time) in Boston, I have to say very few who shared the stage at the Fleet Center could speak for me as a Black disabled revolutionary activist. A few came close like Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee and David Patterson. I guest the poet, Gil Scott-Heron, was right when he read his poem back in the 70’s, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised because at both conventions in Boston and New York the revolution that took place on the streets outside the conventions were not televised where record breaking numbers of activists showed up from across the country and even some outside of the US to practice their first amendment right, freedom of speech and freedom to assemble. However in this Patriot Act society we’re force to live in, the Bill of Rights and The US Constitution has been slain in 2001. I saw this in Boston where activists was restricted to a cage to protest and even one activist was escorted off the floor of the DNC and out of the Fleet Center. Almost the same story happened in New York at the Republican National Convention where activists couldn’t get a permit to protest and where over 11,000 activists were arrested etc..

Although the real story of Boston and New York didn’t make it in the mainstream media the people’s history in both states, way before the conventions and September 11, 2001 poets and activists has and did put what happened in their own artistic way. Some of that history was read on the 1970 album of the Last Poets with their poem entitled, New York, New York or read The Black Timeline of Massachusetts: A History of White Supremacy in the Bay State, a book I bought in the heart of Boston Black community, Jamaica Plains, MA. I also noticed that the Hip-Hop conventions and tour received very little media and political attention. Hip-Hop artists, poets and activists came together to write the book, How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office published by Soft Skull Press and what I saw this book is truly needed. These hip-hop artists/poets/avitists are following in the shoes of their elder’s collectives and movements like The Black Arts Movement, Chicano Movement and now Poetry for the People and even in some sort Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry. They are creating a social justice message in a form of popular art to be delivered and digested in the publishing and political arenas. Some candidates in the past and now used these platforms in their heyday to get their agenda out. But the question is have they, political candidates, from both parties really listened to the messages in:

On Being Brought From Africa To America by Phillis Wheatley, I Too by Langston Hughes, icon\i have a dream by a Puerto Rican Bay Area hip-hop artists\poet, Aya de Leon or Here I Am by Boston’s own Black disabled Hip-Hop artist, Fezo da MadOne.

The words and messages of these and more political poets\artists\activists have been and are way more deeper, real, powerful, concrete and provides a road map to the future compare to any speeches that took place in both political conventions this year! So really who speaks for me?

As the two candidates fight over what happened almost twenty years ago, we are heading closer to November 2nd and many are still trying to answer Larry Roland’s question. Like Fannie Lou Hammer, I also believe that we need more parties in our political system. This year and my attendance at the DNC has reinforced the dedication to the work of the late Fannie Lou Hammer, the radical life of Helen Keller and yesterday and today’s political poets like KRS One, Wanda Coleman, Piri Thomas, Los Delicados, Gwendolyn Brooks, Molotov Mouths and Po’ Poets, Roque Dalton, Roxanne Sanna Ware etc. So for November 2nd, my birthday, I will give myself a present by writing in a poet politician for President! I heard that Aya de Leon is running for President!

"Join the arts & politics campaign

Speaking truth through oral history

Poetry n politics

Poet politician at the ballot and in the community

Walking to the Capitol

We are the People

Taking our rightful sits in the US Congress"
excerpts from The Artist\ Activist by Leroy Moore Molotov Mouths: Explosive Writing publisher, Manic D Press 2003

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.
9\04

by The Hospitality House Art Studio Skolaz

I wonder if this downpour I got caught in today with no protection will be a sign of November 2nd promises blowing over my homeless body. Soon someone will win and I don't give a damn who wins who wins cause its hard for me to focus on Bush burning or Cash and Kerry.

I live under the bridge while someone lies in a White House. All I want is to stop living the force fed educated american dreams and start living my own, where I can help my fellow human being instead of worrying with dark grey paranoia eating me when I pass by your love addicted need to feed stares

When you have a home where you can paint the walls any color you choose then I will feel safe to just let my happy smile shine out on a grey day

by Staff Writer

1)From James Tracy The reaction to Leroy's criticism (of the Democratic Convention) illustrates why the Democratic Party
is in the trouble it is in. Let's face it, the Dems have had a choice for
a longtime. They could have re-alinged themselves awhile ago to speak to
the issues of the mass yet they have chosen to rely on our fear of
Republicans to keep the folks docile and on the receiving end of the Donkey's ass.

But guess what? It will take a long time, but eventually people will
move beyond fear and build real political alternatives. During this time,
voices like Leroy's will be valued and considered, instead of marginalized.

James Tracy

2) From Keith Jones

Leroy-

I received your forward and I must say that as a disability rights
advocate and a progressive, i am surprised at the response you
received. The Democratic National Convention here in Boston had very
few specific disability related events other than the caucus and an ADA
celebration across town virtually at the same time as its caucus. As an
African American with a disability, I was not overly impressed with the
lack of minority representation within the disability leadership of the
DNC, nor the lack of disability representation at any of the other
minority caucuses.

I have worked as an activist related to disability and civil rights
issues both locally and nationally and there is a clear disconnect
between the Independent Living Movement and communities of color. For
anyone to assume that people of color with disabilities have been fully
engaged in issues such as: Olmstead, MiCASA, HAVA or any other topic;
that is simply not the case. I can assure you that in working to
ensure access to basic rights for people with disabilities, neither
party has disability issues as a high priority. REMBER it was a
republican who signed the ADA into law and it is a current republican
president who has offered close to $300 million in grants for community
access via "The Freedom Initiative"

So, regardless of party affiliation we need to keep focused on the real
issues. Unemployment for people with disabilities - roughly 65 - 85%
add a gender, ethnicity, or low level of education add an additional 7
to 10 percentage points. Keep yelling in the hurricane, there are
those of us who hear you.

Keith P. Jones

3) From Marvin Wasserman

Leroy-

I'm sorry, but this listserv is for those who support the Democratic
Party. It is not a platform for those who oppose it.

We are also a forum for disability activists. Although you are
disabled, you don't speak about the oppression of persons with
disabilities. You don't even relate the oppression of persons with
disabilities to the other struggles you espouse. It is significant
that in your listing of the convention speakers who most spoke to
you, you didn't list Marca Bristo, who gave the strongest disability
rights message among the speakers.

There are many other African-American disabled activists who would
have had far greater appreciation for the opportunity you were given
to attend the Democratic National Convention as delegates.
Unfortunately, you aren't relating to them!

-Marvin Wasserman

4) From Joe

I certainly understand why people are upset. As I said folks really need to pay their dues in an organization. And if some get an opportunity short of that than they have a responsibility to at very least report accurately what happens and to lobby and be knowledgable of the wants and needs of those who have been active over the years.

I am a bit conflicted though not at you or others on this list...

I am concerned that elements of the Party overall take those with
disabilities for granted.

And I can honestly say that many Party members here in Michigan still
discriminate against PWD.

That goes to Democratic clerks who select inaccessible polling places and do
not have accessible voting systems. Thus they violate the ADA and 504.

This may sound like a digression but I have filed ADA complaints against
My Republican Secretary of State and my local Democratic Township Clerk.

Our civil rights in this society begin with the franchise.

When I see entire state's that don't have one single fully ADA compliant
polling place like New Hampshire (re: state survey) or one accessible voting
device like here in Michigan I am outraged.

Now getting back to the topic...Smile...I'm wondering if delegates like
Leroy even brought this sort of "Jim Crowetization" of PWD up at convention?

He talked about the plight of the homeless and indeed much if not most if
not all of our nation's chronically homeless people are disabled.

But did he bring up the fact that many if not most of our homeless shelters
in America are not accessible in whole or part to PWD with severe physical
disibilities?

Did he even mention the gross attack upon all of our civil rights under the
sovereign immunity banner?

Did he even mention the hundred of thousands of our brothers and sisters who are incarcarated against there wishes and often without due process in
institutions and nursing homes around America?

Did he encourage people of color to see how our civil rights struggle
coincides with theirs in so many ways that an alliance would be surely
productive and that sensitivity is in order?

For example Al Sharpton rightfully mentioned several times the assault upon
civil rights by Bush....

The civil rights of African-Americans, gays, women, Hispanics, etc.

But I never heard a mention of the 53 million Americans with disibilities.

Now even when election reforms come into play our rights are second if
included at all in reform schemas like HAVA; And many of us had to fight
like hell for the provisions in HAVA for PWD.

These are things that the Party needs to be attentive to. And the role of
disabled Democrats was to bring attention to these issues and more.

So regardless as to the inequities in the nomination of these two the real
question here is: "Did they do their job?"

By the looks of things they did not.

Regards and Solidarity,

Joe

5) From Francie to Joe (and Leroy)

Joe,

What bothers most of us from California is that Disability Caucus
members were deliberately ignored and passed up. We were told to tell our
people to learn how to run for delegates positions by August Longo. When the ones who had, were ignored only to have the ones who had not (August and Leroy) were picked as delegates and sent to the convention. Then August does not do reports and the reports Leroy does do talks about the need for a third party, and puts down the democratic party. Does not speaks about disability issues, and speaks about someone who attended for the purpose to speak about the needs of minority issue more. Had Leroy ever worked with the Disabilities committee members and community within the party he would have found that many of the issues he is concerned about are being talked about, are being worked on, and many many more issues. It is to bad that people are sent to meeting who do not really know what is going on in their own state, never mind their own back yard.

And for some one to complain so much, they should do their homework first.

Francie
Take a look at some of Leroy's reports

6) From Mr. Toy

I actually thought it was a fairly reasonable response, considering some of
Leroy's reports from Boston, but I got this from a friend of his, which I
haven't replied to. I'm not sure I want to get into a pissing match, but I
think this is worth sharing. I like this person's anger and I certainly
appreciate his defense of his friend. He also writes very well. Some of his
(and Leroy's) points about the need for change in the Democratic Party are
absolutely on point. I think we can all agree with that, and many of us
have worked to achieve some of those needed reforms.

But my irritation with both of their approaches is that Leroy went as a
Democratic delegate from California. There were many in this state who
tried very hard to be representatives of the Democratic disability
community, who had a lot of serious and specific platform points regarding
disability that they wanted to advocate for in the DEMOCRATIC party. (Have I said Democratic - as opposed to "independent" as Leroy refers to himself - enough times?) They weren't invited. I don't know why and at this point, it is moot. But the process needs to be revisited before the next
convention, for sure.

And Leroy asked us all for our financial and other support of his trip to
represent us. I think he may have squandered that opportunity and so many
of us felt let down, by the system that denied hardworking party members a
chance to represent us in general and by Leroy's caustic missives in
particular.

Maybe some of you out there would like to join this discussion. I feel as
though I've made my point to Leroy. I applaud his friend for his vigorous
response, but I don't really feel like putting more energy into this aspect
of the election. I still recommend Leroy's poetry to those of you who don't
know his other writing. But I still don't think he served us very well, or
even fully realized his role as our community's only representative to the
Democratic convention from California.

Here is his friend Ali's letter to me:

Dear Mr. Toy,

I am a disabled activist and a long time friend of Leroy Moore. I, too, read
all his reports from the Democratic Convention. He allowed me to read the
e-mail you sent him, and it angered me, so I am writing in his defense.

How dare you be so patronizing to my friend?!
For example, what makes you think Leroy has not read the Constitution? What makes you think he is not going to vote for Kerry? You ask him to take some time to understand why Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich are Democrats. I think he gets it, and as I recall, he spoke highly of them. All Leroy is trying to do is take U.S. politics and the Democratic Convention to an even higher, more progressive level, one that takes more direction from the grassroots, one that has more transparency and integrity and one that
doesn't pander to the center to try to get votes. You may not agree with his
politics or his confrontational style, but give the man some credit for
having done his research and arrived at his views in a balanced and
intelligent way!

I have been friends with Leroy for the past eight years, and I know he has
read books that you probably never dreamed existed. He has done incredible
research on people of color with disabilities world-wide and enlightened me
and many others on various disability issues. He is not an "embittered
side-liner," but a very energetic and dedicated grassroots activist who is
quite involved locally.

Every time I talk to Leroy, he is going or coming from some meeting or
other; he sits on several boards and committees, and I cannot walk a block
with Leroy on the Berkeley streets without him running into a fellow
activist. Leroy is very skilled at examining the connections between racial
oppression and able-ism and their combined effect on disabled people of
color. He has researched and spoken up about many instances of police
brutality against disabled people of color, and he has advocated for housing
rights and social services reforms. His work always exposes society's lack
of understanding and prejudice against all disabled people. He is also
involved nationally and internationally with activists doing similar work in
their own localities.

In the context of main-stream American politics such as the Democratic
Convention, he may seem like an outsider, but that is only because he is
much more radical than most people who attended. Just like you, Leroy has
been fighting for disability rights - his own rights - all his life. His
views stem from his direct life experience and his extensive research, and
they are not arrived at casually. Leroy is in no way a political novice.
He could have expressed the reasons for his views more clearly, but I can
assure you that his views are well-researched and well-considered.

Please understand, I am not criticizing you for simply disagreeing with
Leroy; you have the right to your opinion. I AM criticizing you for your
patronizing assumption that Leroy doesn't know what he is talking about.
Leroy is now working on a news article on his experience at the Democratic
Convention, and I hope you will ask him for a copy and consider what he
says.

If you do choose to write him again, I hope you will write him from the
point of view of an equal and sincerely ask him how he arrived at his
opinions and what he suggests disability rights activists should do from
here. Have a REAL debate with him instead of assuming his point of view
comes from ignorance. He might be able to teach you a thing or two, and if
nothing else, debating with him will help you back your ideas up with facts
and logical assertions instead of assuming that you automatically
win the argument because you know more.

Personally, I plan to vote for Kerry because I understand that Bush is a
threat to the civil rights of everyone in this country and to people's basic
human rights world-wide.

However, I agree with Leroy that we must constantly question our leaders,
call them accountable, and expect more of them. I would actually like to see
Kucinich in office because he has a lot more integrity and responsiveness to
his constituency than Kerry, but I'm willing to vote for Kerry to get Bush
out. I don't think Kerry is all bad, he's infinitely better than Bush on
many counts, but I do think he'll need to be closely monitored and pressured
by activists to institue truly equitable economic policies (domestically and
internationally) and truly sound and fair international policies. I believe
Leroy feels similarly. I don't think he is saying "don't vote for Kerry."
I think he is expressing frustration and lament that there is not as much
difference between Democrats and Republicans as there should be and that
there is not more of a choice of Democratic candidates who stand a chance of defeating Bush in this conservative political climate. I agree with him
completely. I think all disabled activists - regardless of race or class -
have more to gain by working with Leroy Moore than denouncing him or feeling threatened by him.

Again, I hope you will consider these points and some day enter in to a
conversation of equals with Leroy. To my mind he has a unique and refreshing point of view, and through his research, he constantly forces me to question my assumptions.

I hope this letter finds you well, and I hope you enjoy your semester. I
also whole-heartedly hope that Kerry wins the election because I do agree
with you that we cannot take another for years of Bush or his cronies.

Sincerely,

Ali Smookler

7) From Alan

Well, I'd like to give Leroy the benefit of the doubt and not dis him for being idealistic. This was a learning experience for him too and he's made a lot of new friends who will help him understand a practical approach to politics is often far more effective in the long run than a purely dogmatic one.

The really sad people are the ones who still, after all we've seen as a
nation, will vote for George junior no matter what.

alan

8)Francie Moeller wrote:

Alan, Leroy and All,

As I read Leroy's reports my first response was to write to the party and
say this is what happens when we do not send Caucus members. I was still
angry about the Caucus being ignored and dismissed in the process.

However, As it turned out for me at least I had a ring side seat with
c-span, and my doctor grounded me anyway. And Maybe having Leroy write the articles he did write, helped me to understand that no matter what, we must fight on, as hard as we can. We must change those who are in control of Washington D.C.

We can not for any reason allow Bush and his regime to stay in control or we all will lose more than anyone of us can imagine. We have only seen the
beginning of the damage this man and his friends can inflict. And the sad
part is that there are far to many people like Leroy out there who still can not see the difference.

So as Al says we ride the Donkey and we fight on...........Yes we did see
disabled spoken about, no it was not in prime time, and no we did not see
disabled all through the audience. Infact the only time I saw disable was
when Stem Cell Research Finished CNN spanned the audience and found 3 people in wheel chairs and when Max spoke. Other then that I did not see one person with a walker, crutches, a Signer nothing. I know Marva spoke,
however I missed the speech. And I wish At least one of the speakers would have mentioned disabled but I guess we did better than we have done in the past.

We are going ahead with the formation of the national Disabilities Caucus,
and yes I still need help and a new membership chair, and yes I am still
going to have surgery for my nerve damage and they have also found out that I have two herniated disc's that they will try and take care of at the same
time. The next Caucus meeting will be in Oakland Sept. 10 and 11th
Disabilities Caucus will meet Friday the 10th at 6p.m. Hilton Oakland
Airport. The call will be sent out in two weeks.

More to come. Francie

9) From Marvin Wasserman July 30, 2004

I just returned from the convention and had what amounted to the experience of a lifetime. I also had the chance to meet and talk to Leroy.

Yes, there is some degree of partying that went on at the convention. Yet I
am tired, but not from the partying. We fought hard for the past four years
so that people with disables like Leroy would have the opportunity to be
representing greater diversity in the party. I was pleased that so many people with disabilities cared enough to attend, both as delegates and visitors. It was empowering to meet and talk with them. I met the county Democratic Chair from Nebraska, a former Congresswoman from Florida, and Councilmember from New York City, all wheelchair users, who proudly put on our Kerry disability pin. I met my old friend from college, whom I haven't seen in 35 years, who, as a result of my contact with him at the convention, will do outreach for Kerry to other parents of children with disabilities (his son has a spinal cord injury). I had the rare opportunity to talk with many of my local elected officials about the 504 Democratic Club and disability issues.

It was thrilling to see Marca Bristo deliver her address on the anniversary
of the signing of A.D.A. It was thrilling that the highest ranking disabled
elected official in New York State, David Paterson, Senate Democratic Leader (who is also African-American), had the opportunity to address the convention. It was thrilling to hear and see former Senator Max Cleland introduce John Kerry on the final evening. It was thrilling to be at the convention with the four Executive Committee members of the 504 Democratic Club, all wheelchair users, who were part of the New York Delegation.

People with disabilities have far to much at stake in this year's election.
Read Senator Kerry's disability platform. As President, he will not appoint
judges to lifetime appointments who will destroy the A.D.A. He will
substantially increase employment opportunities for persons with disabilities on the federal payroll. With a Democratic Congress, he would strengthen the A.D.A. and I.D.E.A.

We still have a long way to go to increase our representation within the
Party. We need to get pollsters to no only include persons with disabilities in their polling, but to measure their attitudes as they do African-Americans, Hispanics, women and other significant groups. They need to target people with disabilities for voter registration and GO-TV. The candidates need to reach out to people with disabilities as they do other groups, particularly in the targeted states.

I agree with Alan Toy that Leroy is far too young to be so cynical. I, too,
have been involved in disability issues over Leroy's entire lifetime. There
is far greater diversity in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. We
can make a difference in this year's election and we will!

-Marvin Wasserman

10) from Alan Toy

July 30, 2004 Leroy,

I'm glad you had a chance to attend the convention. I know who you are and
have your poetry book, which I enjoyed and have shared with others. I
believe there is and should always be a place for your voice at the table
of discourse over politics and other issues facing us all.

But I am not sure you did us or yourself justice in your reports back from
Boston. Perhaps you misunderstood that you went representing us all as a
Democrat to a Democratic convention. If you are and were attending as an
"Independent" then you essentially denied someone who identifies as a
Democrat the chance of a lifetime.

As for John Kerry's plan, I hope you were in attendance last evening when he accepted the nomination. He laid out some of his vision to us all. I
wish I too could have been in the Fleet Center to experience the moment. Is
he the answer to all of our historical issues of discrimination and
neglect? No, of course not. No candidate for president could be that and
have any chance of getting elected. But there is a HUGE difference in the
Democratic party's plan for America and the Republicans'. And we MUST
reelect a Democrat this year. The Supreme Court and our very Constitution
with its Bill of Rights hangs in the balance.

You ask, "Do we need a President?" You should be asking, can we survive
under a regime that is looking more and more like a dictatorship intent
upon becoming the bully of the world?

Please take some time to read our Constitution. It is the only thing that
keeps us from a chaotic spiral towards totalitarianism. The desire to
protect and preserve that precious document in letter and in spirit is what
united the diversity of "African American, Latinos, Gays & Lesbians, movie
stars, the disabled and others" that you mentioned. Let me include Jews,
Arab Americans, Catholics, Sikhs, Latinos, Native Americans, families of
men and women in the armed services, and a slew of others to your mix. We ALL fear the consequences of another Bush administration.

We have a lot of work to do ahead of us. And you are far too young to be
so cynical. It is the easy way out, to be a critic. I challenge you to be
better than that. I have been struggling for disability rights for
probably your whole lifetime, but I'm still hopeful, and still very
committed . And as tarnished as it has been, like Reverend Sharpton, I'm
still riding that old Democratic mule. Why? Because it is our last best
chance to save our nation from its baser tendencies. And because, as Al
said, it is under Democrats that we have accomplished many of those
revolutionary reforms that have made our nation better and stronger.

Yes, even Democrats succumb to those base tendencies. Last night, for
example, was far too jingoistic and militaristic for my liking. But if we
don't grab that tendency from the Republicans, they'll do it their way,
which scares the hell out of me. There are very deep reasons why the folks
you admire, like Obama, like Al, like Maxine and like Dennis are
Democrats. Please take some time to understand why for yourself.

Leroy, I look forward to meeting you someday. I hope it is as an active
and engaged social change agent, not as an embittered sideliner, taking
cheap shots at your friends, which by the way DOES help our enemies..

And don't forget to vote.

Best regards,

Alan Toy

11) From Bird

July 30, 2004 Yo, Leroy!

While I agree entirely that from the standpoint of popular opinion the political scene looks like a cultural wasteland, when we dig a little deeper though, we find the compelling Human Drama. In truth, it isn't that choices do not exist. A more compelling and difficult question remains: How are choices made? What are the underlying axiomatic assumptions?

Many world leaders are now engaged in a Dialogue of Civilations.
We should take heart in this!
In these challenging times, we find the culmination of a number of socialogical phenomena.

The paradigms are comin' home to roost! Upon examination of the very criteria by which choices are made, we immediately transcend popular opinion. We walk in the footsteps of great thinkers throughout history. Upon adoption and practice of this method, born to Socrates with Egypt as midwife, we can say that we are on the road to making original discoveries of universal principles

The Schiller Institute, named for great poet and philosopher Freidrich Schiller, is dedicated to the creation of true political freedom.

Economist Lyndon LaRouche has run in every Presidential race since 1976, yet many have never heard of him. The Blacklist lives! In this day and age! Who'da think it!!

Nary a day goes by without some intervention from Lyn LaRouche on behalf of what FDR called "the forgotten man".

I am honored to have Lyn and Helga LaRouche as teachers and coleauges. They have dedicated their lives to creating a Global Rennaisance the likes of which has never been seen. We should take moments of reflection. We may have lost the body of the great Willaim Warfield: and we may no more experience in person the virtuosity of Sylvia Olden Lee, but they indeed live on. The Euphoric "Eureka!" to which they treated us over and over again, etches them in the firmament of history.

So, choices do indeed exist, my friend. We must be brave enough to take the"road less travelled", to coin a kinda corny phrase. The media has not been our friend in this quest for broader horizons. I find my senses bombarded.

Thank goodness for you, Leroy, and others like you: ready to shake things up a bit! Let us begin the adulthood of the Human race.
Let's have some fun!

Bird

(12) From unknown:

July 28 , 2004 Hello,

I live in Boston and am a member of my neighborhood civic engagement
committee. I decided that I would like to see what goes on at a Caucus
meeting. As a result, I took two hours off work and went to the DNC
Disability Caucus meeting. I had a chance to introduce myself to Leroy
Moore and asked him if I could follow his lead and send you a brief message.

Even before this meeting began, I had a curious experience. I arrived early
and was told that the Asian-Pacific islander Caucus was meeting. I asked if
I could go in to the room and sit and listen. I do not know if this is
policy or just the response of one person, however, I was strongly
encouraged to find a seat outside and to wait for the disability Caucus
meeting. Surprised and a little disappointed, I pulled out some reading
material and waited.

I love politics and was looking forward to being at the Disability Caucus.
I have never attended another convention and perhaps my expectations were
out of line. I thought the Caucus was a forum in which delegates and others
would have the opportunity to voice their concerns and issues and to ensure
that these are heard by the Party. I also thought it was the forum in which
the Party would share its position. I thought the Caucus was the forum in
which the Party would inspire its supporters by giving us information, which
we can use to motivate others.

Today I learned that a Caucus meeting does not necessarily do any of these
things. We had a chance to hear from politicians and movie stars who all
encouraged us to get out the vote. They all talked about the importance and
need to elect Kerry and Edwards.

Because I am not a delegate, I may have missed some materials, which were
distributed earlier during the week. However, I wish this time had been
spent telling me specifically what Kerry and Edwards will do for people with disabilities. The good thing is I am now even more committed to reading the entire Platform Document. Watching the Convention, I am energized and inspired by the speeches. but, I still want to know that all this talk of inclusion really does extend to me a Black woman with a disability.

13) From Kim July 25, 2004

I'm on the BlackDisabled mailing list, but I haven't figured how to add information. Just want you to know that we (that can't reply) are listening to you and look forward to your reports. I'll also look out for you on the floor when they show the California Delegation on CSPAN and all the other channels as well, to be honest :-)

Thanks for the representation.

Kim from Richmond, VA. Black, female, disabled wheelchair user since 1

by Tiny/PNN

“Yerba Buena, Barbary Coast, Bagdhdad by the Bay. San Francisco. This unique Northern Californian city is a city of neighborhoods. From Chinatown to the Mission to Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco’s strength grows out of the diversity of its many neighborhoods. But the spector of change is looming over many of San Francisco’s neighborhoods”… an excerpt from There Goes the Neighborhood- A demographic survey of San Francisco’s Eastern neighborhoods

After I finished reading the 184 page wire bound book entitled; There Goes the Neighborhood meticulously researched, compiled and published by People Organized to

After I finished reading the 184 page wire bound book entitled; There Goes the Neighborhood meticulously researched, compiled and published by People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in collaboration with Urban Solutions, I looked out of POOR Magazine/PNN’s office window. Our office is located deep in the Heart of the Tenderloin (TL) district, one of the neighborhoods included in the book’s thorough demographic analysis of San Francisco’s Eastern neighborhoods which includes low-income communities of color such as The Mission, Bayview and Visitation Valley.

The funny ( not funny) thing is, our office window gazes upon the exact same image that is splashed across the book jacket; a gigantic mile long crane extending above the entire span of 7th street. In its jaws, in a permanent freeze frame of impending danger are 7 1 ton steel pallets poised precariously over the street itself (not the worksite) and the very low and no-income mostly houseless residents who hang out on the 7th street corridor. Ostensibly, these pallets are there for the building of one of the largest Federal building projects I have ever seen, complete with an Alamo-esque base that juts up from the earth later to be used for a 007 maneuver by Homeland Security troups. But, the joke between those of us in the hood are, those pallets are just a threat in case any of us Tenderloin citzenry get to uppity and don’t leave when we are power washed and po-liced away.

Bring on your Army of Bull-Dozers!

Bring on your Engineers.

You Travel from Here to There.

Creating Poverty Everywhere.

Enjoying your destruction.

Enjoying your reconstruction.

Not bothering about replacement.

Only working on displacement…..

Excerpt from Bring on your army of Bulldozers by A. Faye Hicks – from the Houzin Project – words, art and resources on Eviction, Displacement, Gentrification and Homelessness published by POOR Press

In the introduction to There Goes the Neighborhood POWER points out the very critical need for a demographic study of this scale which breaks down the impacted populations into tables and maps for each neighborhood investigation such as
African-American, Asian American, Latino, Female headed households, Residents below poverty level, linguisticly isolated, youth and seniors to name a few. "This study coupled with our anecdotal experiences of these neighborhoods, should give us a better idea of how to move foreword as we look to build vibrant community organizations fighting for economic, racial and gender justice in our communities and in all of san Francisco...They go on to outline the fact that there are several very large development projects planned for San Francisco in the upcoming years and studies like this one can be used to fight the big money developers like Lennar Corporation set to overwhelm, overbuild and overtake The Hunters Point Shipyard with huge, unsafe and unhealthy developments like this reporter wrote about in the November 29th issue of The SF Bayview and PNN

According to POWER, San Francisco has a history of displacing poor communities of color, a process POOR Magazine likened to a modern day Diaspora in the 2003 book; The Houzin Project. They also point out that San Francisco does not have a good track record for sustaining working class communities of color and that indeed due to this fact San Francisco has in fact become more white, more professional and more exclusive. Perhaps the reason our new Mayor is so solidly pro-demolition and anti-homeless using the New York model of homeless policy to lead to what POWER and other grassroots investigators call; The Manhattenization of San Francisco.

As POWER takes you through extensive studies of each neighborhood with colored maps and statistical examinations of the numbers of folks displaced and the people still holding on, I am reminded again of the federal building project set right in the middle of the so-called "Mid-Market district" which is on the development fast track hence the sudden rise in the police harassment of homeless folks in the TL. The thing about those kind of huge kolinazation projects, like the federal building, The shipyard and MUNI is, not only do they displace folks and make life more miserable for the existent communities, as well, unless you keep up a constant, time consuming resistance and vigilance, the Kolinizers don’t even make good on their false promises to bring "jobs" into the community. In the case of the federal building I know first-hand that there is no local workers on that site, in fact, it is a lot of Halliburton-like workers flown in for the multi-million dollar job, sounds like another kolinazation effort on the other side of the world….

Perhaps POWER chose their cover image cause they, too, are located right in Ground zero of the TL, on 7th street directly across from us, or perhaps, more likely to bring home the message that, unless we investigate, report and organize we, the working class folks, families of color, youth and elders who actually "live" in Frisco won’t be here for much longer.

To purchase a copy of There Goes the Neighborhood, contact POWER at (415) 864-8372

by Dee

Is anyone bothered by the 24/7 coverage of the hurricane which should’ve been named
Osama Bin Francis, and before that Osama Bin charley, and after that Osama bin Ivan,
And so on, and so on, til FEMA has spent all our money for the evacuations, and the surf
Damage, and the wind damage –that became, after all, a tropical storm for the most part-
Except in the Bahamas where FEMA doesn’t pay for any damage,

Hurricanes have been raging in Florida and the South as long as I can remember, Why NOW do they require so much help from the federal gov? Perhaps because jeb’s brother
Is in the White House and wants to help folks get a lot of money so they will think
Well of him in the November election? Scare them real good, then pay them off,

Those Darn Hurricanes. They act jus like Those Darn Terrorists; I know a lot of surfers
Who would be happy in surf that big like when they surf in surf that big in California?
Storms,

And isn’t there an election coming up, and a new addition to the Patriot act, that might
Be more interesting and newsworthy?

by PNN staff

We are opposed to the transfer of parcel A of the hunters point shipyard,"
I watched the slight body of Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, valiant fighter for environmental justice and coporate responsibility tremble as she outlined the serious toxic and radiologic problems of the land parcels at the Bayview hunter Point shipyard slated for Kolonization by The Redevelopment agency and Lennar development Corporation , " we are asking the health department to conduct further reviews to look more closely at the potential health effects of the proposed transfer and we have questions about the adequacy of the health and environmental docuemtns that have been generated related to the transfers. Let me start by showing you - this map is part of historical radiologic assessment. With that Dr. sumchai, unfurled a huge color coded map which overwhelmed her small frame.

As my eyes gazed upon the map with its codified lines of red, green and yellow my body became numb and I was transported back to a conversation I wished I had never had to have, "my body can’t withstand more radiation, I am already too weak already and as things are going now I would rather not go on.," By ‘go on’, my good friend and poet, Barbara G. born and bred "on the hill" as she put it, meaning the Bayview hunters Point Hill, was telling me why she didn’t want to ‘go on’… living…, without both of her breasts due to the breast cancer she definitely related to her life next to the very toxic and environmentally dangerous Bayview Hunters point shipyard. I spent the rest of the conversation telling her why this was nonsense and why she needed to be there for not just herself and her family but all of us as a community, I went on to say so much more but inside my heart I was screaming expletive after expletive at all the corporate entities, government slaves and their masters and anyone else covertly or overtly involved with the kind of ongoing environmental racism and classism that happens and has happened in BVHP for way too many years

Dr. Sumchai pointed to the locations on the map as she spoke,
"Parcel E is the biggest and dirtiest parcel on the shipyard , about 174 acres and parcel A landlocks parcel E - the city , federal government and the developers plan to develop on parcel A and the radioligical and other toxicological issues that are on parcel E have not been addressed,"

Perhaps it was the lines that cut through the map which resembled the MRI of my friends cancer wracked body, the depth and glaringly obvious danger of those lines and what they mean to the huge number of children and adults who as the chronicle reported in their Oct 3rd issue from a 10 year long study, "Babies are 2.5 times more likely to die in their first year in Bayview Hunters Point than those in other areas of San Francisco, citing the fact that they lived in homes "overlooking the contaminated remains of the now-closed naval shipyard … a Superfund cleanup site where the military once experimented with radiation.

Dr Sumchai continued, "Under the Circla Act there has not been any significant steps taken of the ten steps required on a Circla process for a federal superfund site. One of the big issues related to the transfer - is the fact that there is 46 acre landfill on parcel E immediately adjacent to Parcel A- this landfill is partially capped and in the year 2000 it was on fire, by 2001 there were a series of fires on the base, there were a series of 50 fires in four months and the Navy attempted to conceal the fires,"

Fires!, I screamed inwardly, that kind of serious contamination is present in third and fourth world cities like Bophal, India, well-known for its massive 1984 Gas Leak incident caused by the negligence of Union Carbide which killed thousands and has yet to be properly cleaned-up and in much the same way as the Bayview continues to poison its poor residents who have no resources to go elsewhere.

And lest you have doubts about the connection between this contaminated land and my friends cancer consider a new report, "State of Evidence 2004: What is the Connection Between the Environment and Breast Cancer," published Oct. 7 by the Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Action, details evidence from 21 research studies published since February 2003 that link toxins in the environment, including chlorinated chemicals and radiation found in nuclear fallout from 1950 to 1991, to the 90% increase in breast cancer rates in the U.S. during that period.

After Dr. Sumchai was finished speaking she introduced Willie Ratcliff who specifically brought up the current kolinizers/aka developers Lennar Development Corporation from Florida who are instrumental in the sudden fast track approval by the City of the obviously dangerous parcels which are unfit to build on because they stand to make millions of dollars if they build, sell and poison 1600 more families who they hope will buy their contaminated homes.

There were several other community members who spoke about the frightening experience of living around this kind of danger and their ongoing fights with the Navy and the City to really clean this up and make it actually habitable including supervisor elect Ross Mirikarimr who has been to Iraq and witnessed similar contamination of the land by Amerikkan coporations only interested in kolinazation, Kapitalism and destruction.

As I walked away from the press conference my friends last words on that phone call kept ringing in my ears, " I am tired of fighting, for my ..life"

by Leroy Moore

As a Black poet, researcher, activist, and writer
with a disability, I have studied many disabled people
of color in history and today and I noticed a common
factor in many cases i.e. the treatment they face in
our society in the past and now. Many had turned or
continued with their arts for expression, to adapted
and survival in their harsh situation. Many have
found or were force to create their own community,
language and techniques of surviving all through the
arts. In the last three years I have written on many
disabled artists of color in the past and now from
painter Hoarse Pippin during WW1 to Hip-hop artist
Keith Jones. It is sad to read about the struggles
Hoarse Pippin, the first Disabled African American
self-taught painter, to know that the same struggles
are happening to disabled African American artists
today.

A couple of incredible true real life
struggles and achievements of disabled artists of
color who shares a common story of facing
discrimination, segregation but used the artistic path
to change their situation, opened up gates for other
artists and to reach incredible fame in their field
must be told. All the artists that Ill be writing
about are in the same medium of the arts and that is
music. The main reason why I picked these stories
that you are about to read is to showcase the
international struggles, commonality and talents we
have as Black disabled people and to give written
documentation of these experiences in one essay.
The four groups of musicians are from USA,
Brazil, Jamaica and Africa.

This essay will also
create a thread of commonality of Black disabled
people around the world. These four groups have
changed the face of music from gospel to reggae to
world jazz but havent in my view gain the mass
recognition that can offer more in writing i.e. books
& articles etc. like Elvis, the Beetles and even
rapper Emminem. The four are the Blind Boys of
Alabama, Israel Vibration of Jamaica, Tribo Da Jah of
Brazil, and Amadou & Mariam of Africa. As youll find
out three of the four are blind. Israel Vibration is
the only group in this essay that has a physical
disability; Polio, but all have a common beginning.
All were sent to institutions in their countries
because of their disability and or poverty. All have
found each other in these institutions. And all have
found or improved their musical talents in these
institutions that formed their early music careers as
we know them today.

Most have experienced raw
discrimination based on their race and or disability
in these institutions, in their early days in the
music industry and from the general public.
Lets start with our elders, The Blind Boys of
Alabama, who grew up around the 1930s. The four
original members of the group are blind--singers
Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter, George Scott and
drummer Eric (Ricky) McKinnie.

From their website,
it says that The Blind Boys of Alabama have spread
the spirit and energy of pure soul gospel music for
over 60 years, ever since the first version of the
group formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro
Blind in 1939. They were born into poverty in the
rural south of the 1930s. Six boys, all about 7 years
old and all blind, arrived there in 1937 with little
more than the clothes on their backs. Throughout my
research on the early days of the Blind Boys of
Alabama Ive found very little on their experiences in
the institute. The Alabama Institute for the Negro
Blind opened in 1892 but was not integrated until
1968. Separate but equal was the law of the land in
the South including Black disabled people who received
no services, no or a second class education compared
to their White disabled counterparts. To get to know
how the Blind Boys of Alabama and other Black blind &
deaf people lived and were treated back then I
recommend Mary Herring Wrights book, Sounds Like
Home: Growing Up Black & Deaf in the South.

The Blind Boys were lucky they were helped by
sighted friends to focus on their musical talents and
all of them left the institute that offered only a
career in broom making to make it as gospel singers.
Although there is very little written that I know of
about their early days, I can just imagine what they
went through as African American, blind, young men
down south at that time. I used the book, Brother
Ray, written by late Ray Charles to judge what the
Blind Boys of Alabama went through in the 1930s down
south because Ray Charles went through almost the same
treatment. Plus it has been documented from disabled
and race scholars that the South had its own why of
dealing with Black disabled people. Authors like
Steven Noll has written about the treatment of Black
disabled people in the south from 1900-1940. Although
Noll concentrates on Black people with developmental
disabilities, we can use this as a model of how other
disabled Black people were treated i.e. the Blind Boys
of Alabama at that time. However they did learn how
to read Braille and got to practice their singing
while attending the institute.

Now, today The Blind Boys of Alabama is on top and
are known as the grand dads of gospel music. I still
wonder where is their book & movie about their lives?
It took Ray Charles almost a decade to find a right
market to introduced his ideal about a movie of his
life. Can you imagine being Black blind and poor down
south in the thirties and to come almost full circle
and still be able the kick out albums today? So far
I found a video entitled, The Five Blind Boys of
Alabama. Im not sure but I think this is a concert
video with some interviews and hopeful they talked
about those days.

The fathers of reggae started out poor, homeless and
were taken advantage of during their early years.
They were even shunned by other reggae groups because
of their disability. Although there is a lot written
on the incredible story of Israel Vibration on the
internet, in reggae magazines and in their box CD
collection, there is no book about their lives and
their struggles and accomplishments as of yet. I
recommend reading an article of Dread online entitled
RASTAMAN VIBRATION: Israel Vibration by Jason Levy if
you really want to get known Israel Vibration. Just
like the Blind Boys of Alabama, Israel Vibration,
Lancelle Bulgin, Albert Craig and Cecil Spence, known
as Skelley, Apple and Wise were separated from their
families to be institutionalize for education and to
receive what doctors at that time called medical
treatment for their disability, Polio. Although the
three members that make up Israel Vibration lived in
Jamaica, millions and thousands miles away from
Alabama, more than their stories of segregation,
discrimination and their saving grace, music, has a
shockingly common threads that links the two together.

The members of the Blinds Boys of Alabama and Israel
Vibration both were born in poverty and parents had to
put them in institutions\ boarding school far away
from them as their only choice. Both grew up in a time
and area that didnt have the services and medical
treatment for their disability, down South in the
1930s and in Jamaica in the 1940s where Polio spread
through out the land with no cure in sight. Both
found each other and discovered their musical talents,
both were discriminated in their institutions and both
had no choice but to leave and follow their dreams.
However the similarities end there. As some of
us know the Blind Boys of Alabama had two sighted
friends that helped them when they voluntarily left
the institution to pursue their music career. While
Skelley, Wise and Apple were all kicked out of Monia
Rehabilitation Center in Kingstown because of their
strong faith in Rasta and their new look with
dreadlocks and with no support they became homeless.

Another difference between the Blind Boys of Alabama
and Israel Vibration early years is that Skelley, Wise
and Apple all were badly abused while they attended
Monia Rehabilitation Center. They were not given
opportunities like singing in a choir or working on
other skills like the Blind Boys of Alabama had back
in the US. There are more similaries between the two
bands in how they survive those harsh years. The one
common thread of all the artists in this essay
especially the Blind Boys of Alabama and Israel
Vibration is their faith in a higher power. The Blind
Boys believed that God brought them together and
continues to bring them glory, awards and inner
strength. They are wrapped in spirituality and
teaching of the Black Christian church. This is the
same for Israel Vibration but in another form as
Rastafari and of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile
Selassie I of Ethiopia along with Jah and the Rastas
culture gave them the spiritual and a foundation of
support even with their disability. Both also sing
about this incredible support that literally saved
their lives.

Israel Vibrations story is well known to their
fans and in the reggae arena but I wonder if people
really understand what they survived and the
foundation they created as not only musicians but as
Black disabled people being the one of the first all
Black physically disabled band. They turned to their
gift, music, in the face of physical abuse, poverty,
homelessness and segregation. For more on Israel
Vibration buy their video and DVD, Israel Vibration
Reggae in the Holyland, that has interviews and
concert footage. They even talk about their early
days in Monia Rehabilitation Center and how they dealt
with their disability.

To stay on this reggae vibe and travel to Brazil
well find a similarly story as the ones above. I was
recently drawn to the story and music of a Brazilian
roots reggae group, Tribo da Jah. From their wesite it
says that The Tribo of Jah is composed by Fauzi
Beydoun, Zi Orlando, Achiles Rabelo, Joco Rodrigues,
Neto and Frazco. But for Fauzi, all the others are
blind Even Fauzi has said in many interviews that he
is partially blind. Reggae in Brazil have deep roots
which many say started to grow in Sco Luis a town in
the state of Maranhao that is why its called the
capital of Brazilian reggae. This was where Maranhco
School for the Blind is located and where the five
members who make up Tribo da Jah met. Like The Israel
Vibration all the members of Tribo da Jah, came from
separate families that were poor and had no choice but
to send their sons to this school far away from home
for education and medical support.

The beginnings and growth of Tribo da Jah have
commonalties of the Blind Boys of Alabama & Israel
Vibration. Like the Blind Boys and Israel Vibration,
the five members met in the school for the
blind\disabled in Maranhco and shared like the above
artists difficulties and discrimination in their early
days. However like the Blind Boys of Alabama, Tribo
da Jah was eagred, supported by a soon to be close
friend and lead singer of Tribo da Jah, Fauzi Beydoun.
It was reported that he really adopted these
youngsters with a vision of forming a band. On Tribo
da Jahs website Fauzi Beydoun wrote that "they were
poor kids, and were awoken to music improvising toy
instruments before they started to play in school
parties. He bought the instruments and hired the boys
to create a band what we now know today as Tribo da
Jah.

So far in my research there is very little
details of their experiences at the board school for
the blind. The members of Tribo da Jah passed their
time making, playing instruments and singing and like
Blind Boys and Israel Vibration, the members of Tribo
da Jah left the school to focus on their music. The
common thread continues to sew all these musicians
together i.e. their music, their strong religious
beliefs and their social political messages in their
songs. Although Tribo da Jahs thread has kept them
together for more than ten years, it was hard in the
beginning because nobody liked their instruments that
the band members made by hand themselves in their
school. Also many didn't like their new style of
reggea that is now known as Brazilian Roots Reggae.
Through all these years the band has remain an
independent group with their birth of roots reggae
that was over shadow in the past by Jamaican style of
reggae.

Once again we see a common story amongst the artists
which is some times but not often though an
environment that can seem to be a form of segregation
among the general public can also be a garden of
creativity, artistic growth & expression. Although
instruments making day in and day out might seemed
boring after a while, it did set the stage of their
success in the Brazilian reggae industry and beyond.
Like all the musicians I mentioned Tribo da Jah left
the school to pursue their career. As of now, there
is very little written information in a form of a book
that is out there on Tribo da Jah. However you can
check their DVD entitled Tribe of Jah - Tribe of Jah -
to the Living creature 15 Years which has interviews
and live concert footage.

I cant see no better way to end this essay with a
story of relationship, love and of course the power of
music. Im talking about the talented blind married
couple from Bamako, Mali, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam
Doumbia. I found many articles on the internet about
this incredible love affair and their extraordinary
musical talents. Unlike The Blind Boys of Alabama,
Israel Vibration and Tribo da Jah, Amadou & Marian
found and crafted their talents before they attended
the Institute for the Young Blind of Mali in the 50
and 60s. Another difference that Amadou & Mariam have
compared to the above artists is that both have been
apart of other bands before they decided to make their
career together.

Just like Skelly, Apple and Wise of
Israel Vibration Amadou wasnt born with his
disability. He contracted at an early age that
qualified him to attend the Institute for the Young
Blind of Mali where Mariam was a rising star for her
vocal and songwriting talents. Her first song she
wrote translates to What Did I Do God to Deserve
This? The title of this song brings up a lot of
question for me. Is she talking about her disability,
or her schooling or is it bigger to discuss her
country etc? So in this situation the Institute was
the place that nurture this early love affair, respect
and what led into the first blind couple to step in
the international music industry. Like the other
musicians in this essay, Amadou & Mariam bonded
through their music and past the time practicing their
art. Like the musicians that make up Tribo da Jah who
were also gifted in playing instruments, Amadou is not
only a vocalist, he is also a plays an instrument,
guitar.

As you have or will read, all was not rosy for Amadou
& Mariam. Living under a military dictatorship was
hard to find opportunities to grow as artists singing
in their own countrys language. Being blind their
parents and others did not approve of their
relationship at first that led to marriage and three
children. This and the urge to blossom their talents
internationally made them to decide to move and leave
their country to live in the Ivory Coast and Paris but
like James Baldwin, Amadou & Mariam returned to their
home after they reached international fame. It seemed
like Amadou & Mariam had their own way of seeing,
hearing and living their lives and perfecting their
career from the beginning. From early on they were
influenced and experiment with the pop of the
Seventies, electric blues, reggae, Cuba and played a
key role in what is Malian music today. As the common
thread continues Amadou & Mariams music has socially
and spiritual message to their people of Mali.

Like Ive been saying all along there is very small
amount of written material out there on these artists
including Amadou Bagayoko & Mariam Doumbia in a book
form or even articles. I can say that all these true
stories of: disability, struggle, discrimination,
artistic expression, finding each other in an
environment that separated them from their families
and friends to change the face and sounds of the music
industry in their own countries is an attractive story
for an explosive book. Wow, disabled people of color,
we have so much strength, beauty, talents and stories
that need to be displayed and told. There are many
more disabled people of color in all arenas of life
that have similar stories that have grown to share
their talents and have changed their societies. I
realized that institutionalizing and segregation of
anybody is not the way to encourage any kind of growth
but the above stories should remind us today, Black
disabled people and other people of color with
disabilities, that we have a history of struggle that
led to incredible achievements. As a Black disabled
artist these stories are more than encouragement its
my history that needs to be acknowledge and shared in
our communities, institutions and in the publishing
arena!!

by PNN staff

"We are here to present hundreds of postcards signed by people in the community to demand a federal investigation into the shooting death of my son…" Marylon Boyd, mother of Cammerin Boyd who was murdered by police in May of 2004, held her head high as she called out for justice into the morning wind whipping through the shadows of the federal building on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco

Marylon was surrounded by family and friends holding several stacks of postcards addressed to US attorney Kevin Ryan. In response to the delayed and biased investigation into Cammerin's fatal shooting, the Boyd family, friends and community activists began a postcard campaign calling for intervention from the Department of Justice. The postcards demand that the US Attorney Ryan launch an investigation into the SFPD and specifically, Cammerins' death.

"It has been over 7 months since the death of my son, we have presented ample evidence and still nothing has been done," Marylon continued to explain the flagrant evidence that was presented in this case including the coroners report that corroborated the reports given by eyewitnesses to the shooting proving that Cammerin had his hands in the air, i.e., not in threatning position to the cops arresting him. Additionally on the Dec 1st meeting of the San Francisco police review commission it was revealed that the police commissioners' request for information on the investigation was denied again

"Using lethal force in arresting suspects is unconstitutional in San Francisco and since the death of my son there has been six more shootings and nothing has been presented to the police commission about these shootings either" Marylon went on to explain that she hoped that an investigation by Kevin Ryan would send a message to the police that these unjust police shootings will be taken very seriously and must stop.

After she spoke, her small group, which included Malaika Parker from Bay Area Police Watch, walked into the tower of Homeland Security itself, replete with a smiling picture of the CEO of corporate terrorism himself, GW Bush, to present these cards directly to Kevin Ryan.

"As she walked through the multiple glass maze of doors she called out to those of us in the press who weren't allowed in to the building, " We will get justice!"

by Lynda Carson/Roll Back the Rents

This latest batch of news includes the latest info
from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. See
below...

The Feds/HUD have been restoring funds back into the
severely damaged Section 8 program due to the
April/May 2004 budget cuts that took place, at the
same time HUD has just lowered the Fair Market Rents
which means another whole set of cutbacks are taking
place around the nation in the Section 8 program. See
the Fair Market Rent stories below from Cape Cod &
Stamford.

San Diego Housing Agency has HUD funds restored but
fails to restore full funding back to voucher holders.
See below story...

Charlotte public housing tenants face displacement
from the privatization of public housing in their
city... See below story...

The VA-HUD Appropriations Bill which includes the
funding for the Section 8 program which the Bush
Administration opposes is taking a backburner to avoid
political fallout that may occur before the November
election.

Legislation: The $92.9 billion FY '05 VA-HUD
appropriations bill.

Floor action: Possible this week, though Democrats do
not expect the bill on the floor until after the
November election.

Quick House floor action on the FY '05 VA-HUD
appropriations bill appears unlikely this week as
lawmakers return to Capitol Hill from their summer
recess.

Democrats are anticipating Republicans will keep the
VA-HUD bill far from the floor before the presidential
election to avoid a politically risky debate.

b>Nationwide Protest Against Funding Cuts to
Housing & Homeless Programs

WASHINGTON, DC The National Coalition to Save Section
8, a broad based diverse group of over 150
researchers, service providers, advocates, people
experiencing homelessness, people who live in public
or subsidized housing and people of faith are
coordinating a day of action across the U.S to demand
full funding for Section 8 and all federal housing
programs.

. The Section 8 housing choice voucher program
currently serves two million low-income households,
the vast majority of who are working families with
children, senior citizens, and people with
disabilities.

The Bush Administration has continued its efforts to
cut up to 60,000 existing families from the Section 8
program this year through cuts to local Housing
Authorities. This was done in spite of Congress
voting for enough funds to renew all Section 8
contracts this year. If the administrations Section
8 budget for Fiscal Year 05--still before Congressis
passed as is, Housing Authorities around the country
would be forced to drop an estimated 250,000 families
from Section 8 next year and/or institute significant
rent increases within the program.

A diverse group of individuals from around the country
have been fighting these cuts for several months.
Advocates scored a major victory when the House
Appropriations Committee voted to add $1.49 billion to
Bushs Section 8 request. However, the Committee did
this by cutting all other HUD programs by
4.3%--including McKinney Act federal funds for
homeless programs, Housing for People with Aids,
Public Housing, and Community Development Block Grant
Program and HOME grants to cities. Garrick Ruiz of the
National Coalition to Save Section 8 said Existing
federal housing programs are not solving the massive
affordable housing crisis in this country, to talk
about cutting Section 8 or funding it by cutting
housing programs for people with AIDS, homeless people
or senior citizens is unconscionable

The proposed cuts to the Housing and Urban Development
Programs (HUD) programs would have a devastating
impact on the current 3.5 million homeless people in
this country.

CONTACTS: National- Donald Whitehead 202-737-6444
ext 14; dwhitehead@nationalhomeless.org

************

FY04 VOUCHER FUNDING CRISIS - WEEK 19

New England Groups Warn HUD On Housing Cuts

On August 20, the Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire
Interagency Councils on Homelessness sent a letter to
HUD warning that cuts in housing voucher funds will
lead to an increase in homelessness. The letter was
addressed to Philip Mangano and Veterans Affairs
Secretary Anthony J. Principi, director and chair,
respectively, of the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness.

The letter warns that, if proposed cuts sought by HUD
for the Section 8 program are implemented, the ability
of the Interagency Councils to address homelessness
will be severely curtailed. The letter points out
that New England states are experiencing a severe
housing shortage and housing costs have escalated
dramatically over the past decade. The New England
states are looking for your help in restoring the only
lifeline most of our clients have, the letter
concludes.

Cathleen Voyer, Chair of the Vermont Interagency
Council, said in a press release that without basic
mechanisms for affordable housing, like Section 8
vouchers, the many efforts to keep families housed
would be negated. As many as 740 low income families
in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are at risk of
losing their vouchers.

In addition, Burlington, VT, Mayor Peter Clavelle has
written a strongly worded letter to HUD Secretary
Alphonso Jackson arguing that there is a fundamental
contradiction in federal housing policy between HUD's
initiative to end homelessness and HUD's recent
Section 8 voucher funding policy for FY04.

Mr. Clavelle says that he previously wrote to
Secretary Jackson on June 30 to alert HUD to this
contradiction, but the response he received from
Assistant Secretary Steven Nesmith "is a boilerplate
response, one that does not even address the concern
that I raised." He went on to say that without funding
to support all authorized vouchers, "the City of
Burlington's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness is a
meaningless document."

Vouchers Still an Issue in MT. Montana Governor Judy
Martz (R) has written to the Montana Congressional
delegation noting the importance of Section 8 and
questioning changes to the program in both FY04 and
FY05. Earlier in August, Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT)
sent a letter to HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson
expressing concerns about the proposed changes to the
voucher program (see Memo, August 13).

In a letter to Senator Burns, Senator Max Baucus
(D-MT) and Representative Dennis Rehberg (R-MT),
Governor Martz said, For over 30 years Montanas
disabled, children, elderly and poor have had roofs
over their heads with help from the Section 8 voucher
program. The Governor points out that Section 8 has
been the cornerstone of national housing policy since
the Nixon years, and that it is being wrongly
targeted.

The letter states that Montana housing authorities
have appealed to HUD to have their funding restored
for FY04. If successful, the appeal will keep as many
as 400 families from losing their housing assistance.

The Governor also wrote that additional families stand
to lose their homes if proposed voucher budget cuts
for FY05 are implemented. She urged Congress to
intervene, calling the voucher program good for
Montana and good for the nation.

Advocates Prepare for Next Congressional Action.
Advocates are preparing for further advocacy on FY05
HUD appropriations, including the voucher program,
upon the reconvening of Congress the week of September
7. Before adjourning for the August recess, the House
Appropriations Committee considered the FY05 HUD
appropriations, restoring the cuts to the voucher
program proposed by President Bush, but continuing
harmful Section 8 language and proposing cuts to all
other housing programs by more than 4%. The Senate
has not yet considered the FY05 HUD appropriations.
Additional information is at www.nlihc.org.

************

Montana Update

* The Associated Press reported on September 2, 2004
that the HUD decision restores partial funding to
voucher programs in Montana. However, according to
George Warn, manager of the Montana Commerce
Department's Housing Assistance Bureau, "They [HUD]
told us that this was a one-time increase and that the
funding would not be included in our base in 2005."
According to the Billings Gazette, 150 families are
still at risk of losing their vouchers.

************

San Diego Housing commission to get back $3.3 million cut by HUD
in April

San Diego Daily Transcript

The San Diego Housing Commission is having $3.3
million restored by the U.S. Housing and Urban
Development Department for Section 8 voucher
financing.

The government will restore approximately $156 million
to housing authorities nationwide. The money will be
distributed to 379 of the 398 housing authorities that
appealed.

Despite the restored funds, the commission said it
wouldn't reverse two changes it implemented earlier
this year after learning in April that HUD had changed
its funding formula. As a result of the HUD change,
the commission reduced its voucher size and the
maximum subsidy level. HUD's change was retroactive
and based on average rental rates in August 2003.

The voucher size dictates the number of bedrooms per
unit, depending on how many people live in the
household.

In the city of San Diego, approximately 5,000 property
owners rent to 12,000 low-income, voucher-holding
households in the housing commission's rental
assistance program. Households include families,
seniors and disabled people.

When renters who are affected by these changes are
recertified annually, they must either pay more rent
or move to a home with fewer bedrooms.

"The housing commission has been on a program trying
to reduce the cost of the Section 8 rental
assistance," said Elizabeth C. Morris, president and
CEO of the commission. "Even with those cost saving
measures it's likely we would not have had sufficient
funds to continue to help all 12,200 families."

Between 75 percent and 80 percent of the families earn
30 percent of the region's median income. For a family
of four, that would be $20,550. The total household
income allowed for a family of four to qualify for
Section 8 assistance is 80 percent of the median
income, which is $54,000 for a family of four.

When landlords rent to families, they enter into a
lease agreement with both the housing commission and
the tenant. Under the agreement, tenants pay
approximately 30 percent to 40 percent of their gross
monthly income for rent.

One or two people in the household qualify for a
one-bedroom rental. The maximum rental subsidy is
$962. The level may vary from neighborhood to
neighborhood. Households with three or four people
qualify for a voucher for two bedrooms, and up to
$1,204 in rental assistance.

"Our budget is still not healthy by a long shot," said
Bobbie Christensen, director of the commission's
communication and strategy department, in a prepared
statement. "We had to use our commitment to voucher
holders and rental owners. We (still) need to make the
voucher size change to keep us financially viable so
we can continue to help all those we do."

************
Fair market' may not be fair - Cape Cod Story

Cape Cod Times - Sep 06

Affordable housing advocates criticize federal
calculations of Cape rental rates. Are Cape rents
going down? The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development seems to think so, say advocates for
affordable housing.

They are protesting a HUD proposal to decrease what
the agency considers a "fair market rent" for
subsidized housing on Cape Cod.

While HUD set a fair market rent for a three-bedroom
house or apartment in Barnstable County at $1,202 this
year, it proposes the rate be reduced to $1,094 as of
Oct. 1. That's a decrease of 9 percent in what federal
officials consider a fair price for people who receive
subsidized Section 8 housing.

Housing advocates say federal officials will end up
forcing low-income renters on Section 8 to spend more
of their income on rent and may alienate the private
landlords who participate in the Section 8 program.

************
Stamford Housing officials call for fairness in rents

The Stamford Advocate

Several housing authorities in lower Fairfield County
think a proposed change in rent standards set by the
federal government won't be fair. Fair market rents,
published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, represent the average rent for an
apartment and utilities in an area.

This is the first time HUD is calculating the rates
using 2000 Census data and new Office of Management
and Budget geographical definitions. HUD establishes
new fair market rent benchmarks every 10 years based
on the Census.

Fair market rents, or the amount HUD says it will give
Section 8 landlords for rent subsidies, will be $787
for an efficiency apartment; $950 for a one bedroom;
$1,100 for a two-bedroom; $1,316 for a three-bedroom;
and $1,725 for a four-bedroom.

About 1,000 families in Stamford and 770 in Norwalk
rely on the affected programs. Greenwich housing
officials did not return calls last week.

************
North Carolina Public housing to get a makeover

The Charlotte Observer - Sep 05

Tawana Shannon sat with neighbors playing Monopoly
under a shade tree to escape her sweltering apartment
at Live Oak public housing complex. Outside, the
community of 32 apartments seems a peaceful,
tree-lined enclave in the shadow of Phillips Place
near SouthPark mall.

Live Oak, behind Phillips Place off Fairview Road, is
one of six valuable properties the Housing Authority
owns and wants to put to different use, either by
building mixed-income communities or selling the land
and using profits to build affordable housing
elsewhere.

To do it without depending on huge grants of federal
money, the authority will partner with a private
developer to demolish Live Oak and replace it with
mixed-income apartments, condos and perhaps detached
homes and offices.

Such a plan would renew concerns that not enough
public housing would be rebuilt or would be too
expensive. The same concerns arose when Earle Village
public housing complex was transformed into
mixed-income First Ward Place in uptown Charlotte in
the 1990s.

"We looked at our portfolio and realized we have some
of the choicest real estate in the state of North
Carolina," authority CEO Charles Woodyard said. "We
started thinking that we are underutilizing these
valuable assets, and we've got to convert them into
cash flow or housing that makes more sense for
low-income families."

Gentrification a concern

Housing advocates worry that redeveloping public
housing in prime locations opens the door to
gentrification, where neighborhoods are redeveloped
for well-paid professionals as low-income residents
are squeezed out.

Fear of displacement

Yet some public housing residents are nervous after
years of hearing stories about residents at HOPE VI
redevelopments being displaced.

************

Washington State Housing money restored

JASON HAGEY/ Tacoma News Tribune

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
has agreed to restore nearly $1.3 million in funding
to the Tacoma Housing Authority's Section 8 rent
subsidy program and an additional $650,000 to the
Pierce County Housing Authority.

Officials from both housing agencies say they now have
enough money to run their Section 8 programs through
the end of the year without making additional cuts.

This summer the Pierce County Housing Authority mailed
letters to 229 Section 8 voucher recipients notifying
them they would be cut from the program, and Tacoma
was making plans to borrow money from the City of
Tacoma.

At the same time they found ways to cut costs, many
housing authorities appealed HUD's calculations.

Nationwide, HUD agreed to restore $156 million in
funding to 379 of the 398 housing authorities that
appealed, said Donna White, a HUD spokeswoman.

**********

B>VA-HUD SPENDING BILL LIKELY HEADED FOR HOUSE
BACKBURNER
Environment and Energy Daily
September 7, 2004

Darren Samuelsohn, Environment & Energy Daily senior
reporter

Legislation: The $92.9 billion FY '05 VA-HUD
appropriations bill, which includes $7.75 billion for
the U.S. EPA.

Floor action: Possible this week, though Democrats do
not expect the bill on the floor until after the
November election.

Quick House floor action on the FY '05 VA-HUD
appropriations bill appears unlikely this week as
lawmakers return to Capitol Hill from their summer
recess.

According to a spokesman for House Appropriations
Committee ranking member David Obey (D-Wis.), sharp
spending cuts for many of the bill's most popular
agencies, including the U.S. EPA, NASA and the
National Science Foundation, have pressed GOP leaders
into holding off on a debate on the overall $92.9
billion spending bill. Democrats are anticipating
Republicans will keep the VA-HUD bill far from the
floor before the presidential election to avoid a
politically risky debate, Obey's spokesman said.

The White House Office of Management and Budget
criticized the VA-HUD bill when it passed the House
Appropriations Committee in late July, offering a veto
threat because of the 7 percent NASA cut. The space
agency's budget also drew the ire of House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), whose home district next
year will include all of the Johnson Space Center in
Houston. DeLay called the NASA budget cut
unacceptable.

A spokesman for House Appropriations Committee
Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) said the FY '05 Labor,
Health and Human Services spending bill is the only
appropriations measure scheduled for floor debate this
week, with no set schedule for VA-HUD or the
Transportation spending bills. Floor action on the
Labor-HHS bill is expected tomorrow and Thursday.

Just prior to the summer recess, Young shifted his
plan for the FY '05 appropriations process, saying he
would try to complete all of the outstanding bills
when lawmakers return after Labor Day. Previously, he
had said his goal was to pass all 13 spending bills
individually before the start of the August break,
wrapping them together after that into a year-end
omnibus for conference with the Senate.

But with a short calendar leading up to the November
presidential election, it remains unclear if Young
will need to change his strategy again. So far, the
Senate has debated and approved only the FY '05
Defense appropriations bill, and Senate Appropriations
Committee markups for VA-HUD and eight other spending
measures have yet to be scheduled. The outcome of the
White House race is also considered a major factor in
determining the direction of the appropriations
process.

The House VA-HUD bill that advanced out of committee
includes $7.75 billion for EPA, which is a $605
million cut from the FY '04 enacted level of $8.37
billion. The House's EPA mark is also just below the
administration's $7.76 billion request. Within the
larger VA-HUD bill, spending on veterans health care
and low-income housing take top billing and are the
only major programs to receive a significant increase.

At EPA specifically, the Clean Water State Revolving
Loan Fund takes the largest spending hit with a
funding total of $850 million, the same level in the
administration's budget proposal. Congress last year
approved $1.35 billion for the catch-all water
infrastructure account.

Democrats criticized the CWSRF cut during the House
committee markup but refrained from offering any
amendments. Obey's spokesman said a CWSRF amendment
could be offered if the VA-HUD bill comes to the floor
on its own but noted that it would be more difficult
to try to increase funding for it if the legislation
ends up in an omnibus.

Both the Bush and Clinton administrations recommended
limiting the CWSRF only to see lawmakers add money
back during the appropriations process. Rep. Jim Walsh
(R-N.Y.), chairman of the VA-HUD panel, said during
the July markup he hoped the funding cut would be a
one-time event spawned by tight overall budget caps.

"This is not something we should or can do again next
year," Walsh said. "This is something we're basically
forced to do this year."

EPA spending other than the CWSRF would fall by an
average of 2 percent from FY '04 levels in the House
VA-HUD bill, Walsh said. The agency's science and
technology account nets $729 million under the VA-HUD
bill, a $53 million cut from FY '04 levels but a $50
million increase over Bush's request. The EPA's
environmental programs and management account receives
$2.24 billion in the House bill, a $39 million cut
from current levels and a $76 million reduction from
the administration's request.

The Superfund cleanup account receives $1.26 billion
in the House bill, status quo from current levels. And
the House bill also includes $845 million for EPA's
Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund, the same
level as FY '04.

At this point, the House bill does not make any major
policy recommendations or advance controversial riders
addressing EPA. In the event VA-HUD ends up in an
omnibus, Obey's spokesman said Democrats will be on
the lookout for such language.

On the issue of EPA enforcement, the House VA-HUD bill
does not spark controversy this year. For FY '05, the
panel funds the same full-time employee level of 3,471
that Democrats were able to include in the FY '04 EPA
budget. The Bush administration has proposed slight
personnel increases in past years but has still faced
pressure from Democrats to boost environmental
enforcement staffing even further.

A tight budget has led the House VA-HUD bill's authors
to limit spending on several of Bush's proposed new
spending priorities. The administration requested $65
million for the expansion of EPA's Clean School Bus
USA program, which aims to upgrade the nation's entire
school bus fleet to low-emission vehicles by 2010. But
the House bill included only $10 million in grants for
local school districts.

The VA-HUD bill also includes $3.28 million for the
White House Council on Environmental Quality, the same
total from the Bush budget request and a $65,000
increase from current levels. Report language in the
bill calls on CEQ to complete a report by March 2005
examining existing federal water reuse, recycling and
reclamation programs.

For the latest in tenant/housing news, join Roll Back
The Rents!
Just send an e-mail to;
rollbacktherents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

by Jessica Blanchard/Seattle Times staff reporter

A study of some homeless deaths in King County showed most of those people died prematurely and suffered from numerous treatable health problems.

The average person died at age 47 and had three medical problems, according to the study released yesterday by Public Health — Seattle & King County, which reviewed 77 deaths from 2003.

Some homeless people had as many as eight health problems, the study says. Roughly two-thirds had a history of alcohol or substance abuse, more than half had a cardiovascular disease and a quarter had a mental-health problem, the study says.

The most common cause of death was acute intoxication, followed by cardiovascular disease and homicide. More than half of the deaths occurred outside, according to the study.

While those findings are not surprising, they are disturbing, said Janna Wilson, a lead author of the study and a program manager for Health Care for the Homeless, a community-based program associated with Public Health — Seattle & King County.

"This study really sheds light on the complexity of health issues that homeless people face," Wilson said.

She cautioned that the study was not a comprehensive review of all homeless deaths in King County because it included only deaths reviewed by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, meaning the person either died without being in the presence of a physician or died under suspicious circumstances. She said it's difficult to determine the total number of homeless people who died, in part because some received medical services at the time they died.

In a letter accompanying the study, a Health Care for the Homeless advocate recommended several ways to reduce the number of deaths, such as expanding outreach programs and continuing annual reviews of homeless deaths in the county.

The study drives home the importance of the county having a holistic approach to helping the homeless, because it's common for them to simultaneously suffer from medical problems, mental-health issues and substance abuse, Wilson said.

Homeless advocates have seen a rise in the kinds of health problems that require constant monitoring, such as diabetes, Wilson said. As diabetes diagnoses have increased dramatically in the general population in recent years, the rates have been even higher among homeless people, Wilson said.

But few homeless people have the means to treat such chronic illnesses, she said.

"And they often have other priorities," she said. "When you're homeless, securing a shelter bed for the night is going to be more important in many cases than getting to the doctor."

The King County findings mirror those of studies from other cities, which indicate that nationally, at least 47 percent of homeless people have at least one chronic condition, Wilson said.

Homelessness continues to rise, with an estimated 7,980 people homeless each night in King County, according to the Seattle-King County Coalition for the Homeless.

But ever-tightening county and city budgets and rising health-care costs mean the county isn't able to do much to expand programs that try to coordinate health-care services for the homeless, Wilson said.

"We absolutely struggle to maintain services," she said. "We know there's a lot more need out there, but we're doing everything we can to maintain what we have."

Health Care for the Homeless has had some success with getting federal grants to do "targeted expansions" of services. The program recently joined with the YWCA and Harborview Medical Center to get a federal grant to increase health services for the homeless in downtown Seattle. The result, the Opportunity Place Wellness Center, is set to open in January.

Also, the Committee to End Homelessness, a regional advisory group of representatives of government, United Way, churches and local businesses, has been studying ways to eradicate homelessness in King County within the next 10 years. It is expected to release its report later this month.

by Tiny

" I am here and I won't go away", A deep heat beat down on the alabaster concrete steps of City Hall on Thursday, while the melodious voice of Isabel (Mother) Boyd, Cammerin Boyd's grandmama began filling with tears of unjustified grief, " In May my grandson, Cammerin Boyd, was shot down like a dog in the streets, he was murdered." With each tear she brought everyday sounds and movements at City Hall to a complete stop.

"The mayor won't even talk to my daughter - his mother" Mother Boyd was addressing a crowd of extended family, community members and activists gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall to demand that Mayor Newsom make good on his promises to meet with the Boyd family and call for discipline of the police officers involved in the shooting of the 29 year old disabled brother of color, Cammerin Boyd killed in May.

"My grandson was a good boy, Mother Boyd continued, calling on generations of Black mothers and grandmamas who lost their kin to the bullets of brutal police forces across the country acting on the false pretense of "To Protect and to Serve."He was gonna be a football player, so what happened?.. One night before he graduated the CHP ran him off the road and crippled him, took his legs from him. Now this May they finished him off and they aren't doin anything about it," Mother Boyd gave the tragic background of Cammerin who less than ten years ago had had another brutal "run-in" with police which resulted in him being permanently disabled and left with prosthetics and mostly relegated to a wheelchair, " and please I beg you to look into this case, not only for my grandson- but for the 26 other cases (of people shot by police) who were shot for what? Just because they are poor minority and Black."

Mother Boyd concluded in a tearful plea, " This boy had his hands in the air"- this boy was crippled- and they just kept shooting him and shooting and shooting - Its Wrong wrong wrong.."

After Cammerin was shot near a housing authority complex in the Western Addition there was community outrage about what really happened and as is always the case with these invasions of police into poor communities of color their were multiple contradictions from the people versus the so-called "official" versions of what actually happened. Including the fact that Cammerin had his hands in the air in surrender when the cops started shooting and then that after the cops had killed him they kept on shooting into his already dead body.

"It fills my heart to see you here today-to know that other folks are involved in this battle for justice - but the battle is just beginning, Marylon Boyd, Cammerins' mother spoke to the crowd about the shifty tactics of Newsom in dealing with this case and police accountability in general who due to community outrage about the shooting in May had given multiple assurances that the case would thoroughly investigated, but in the last four months since the shooting nothing has happened.

"I came to City Hall just two days after my son was killed because I heard that he (Newsom) had called a special meeting where he invited everyone in the community to hear what happened to my son, but he didn't invite me Once again today I came to Mayor Newsoms office because he is holding a press conference about this case - I asked if I could be involved and get some information - once again I was turned away because I didn't have a press press, " Marylon's description of the Newsom media shuffle of this case was typical of his dealing with several complicated issues affecting poor folks and communities of color always setting the public stage to make him look good while he doesn't actually have to do Anything

"We are here today because Mayor Newsom can find time to meet with press corps of SF but not the people of San Francisco, " the action was Emceed by organizer and community activist Jakada Imani who also called out SF police Chief Fong for her complicit inaction in this issue, "Chief Fong can't find time in her busy schedule to sit down with Marylon Boyd - even though she promised to - so we have come here today to demand that they meet with the Boyd Family like they promised."

The police department actually had the gall to close its investigation into this matter. But we in the community all know that's just another government inspired "cover-up" to protect and to serve its own. The police investigation ignored key witnesses and crucial information and found no failure in the police's action.

"We are out here today because this police department has failed the community over and over again- and then worse the mayor and chief Fong has washed their hands of it," Maliaka Parker from lead organization Bay Area Police Watch addressed the crowd about Newsom's failure to hold the police accountable at all, "He (Newsom) has a responsibility not just to play basketball with some black kids but to make hard decisions, and for those of you all that don't know, Newsom has given more money to get 50 more cops on the force" Malaika was talking about Newsom's recent decision to grant the police department more money to "fight crime" i.e., send more cops into poor communities of color like the Bayview and the Mission

"We all want peace and to be safe- but recently this city has failed to keep us safe- my cousin Cammerin 's life was taken from him by the SFPD" This day was all the more powerful as it included so many family and extended family dedicating their time and energy to see this issue come to justice including Cammerin's children's mothers, his anties, uncles and even Cammerin's cousin , Patrick Taylor who spoke so eloquently to the crowd about why justice must come to this case, " it is now time for freedom from this pain and all this grief, truth and justice will release that peace we all need"

" I can't rest -my disabled brothers and sisters are being shot dragged and beaten to death, One of the last speakers at the action was POOR Magazine/PNN's own columnist and revolutionary poet, Leroy Moore, long-time advocate and national organizer for issues affecting disabled people of color, who opened his shout out with the first line of his poem Can't Rest " For ten years I have traveled around this country protesting police shootings of people of color with disabilities, but we aren't asking no more, we are taking justice - I am sick of seeing my black brothers and sisters killed by police - if they won't let us in the press conference we'll push the doors open"

Leroy provided the perfect ending to this powerful day, because the truth is, if Newsom and Fong continue to refuse this family and our whole community the justice we all deserve about yet another young man of color who was taken down by brutal police action we won't take it - and we all Can't and Won't rest.

by A. Faye Hicks/Po Poet Laureate

What is this World coming too

I say what is this World "Coming" Too!

People protesting

Police politiking

Riots every day

Job cuts!

Clinics closed

While the "Heads" of this situation get Richer and Richer

Robbing the Poor to pay the Rich

A "Modern Day "Robin Hood" is Our Mayer

Job Cuts

Health Cost Rising, Clinics Closed

Nurses overworked, they can’t get arise

And they are closing our clinics

Medi-Cal funds deducted from our funds

More Rough Riders Hired, aka, Police Officers

I am tired, shoved aside

You can’t side here, you are taking up space

After mid-night when the cops slow down

Do they never sleep

Off duty they will pounce

I am a "Cop" I doo"s what I wants to do!

I wondered I can you sleep on cold hard cement

I found out

I just dropped where ever I was at

After mid-night when the cops slow down

I find a soft spot, on the cement walk

My Purse my Pillow

Believe me if you wiggle and squirm long enough

You will find a Soft Spot

After mid-night

The Tourist are a bed

The Night Clubs closed

The Rough-Riders stop roughing us up

Sleep in heavenly peace

No more sirens now just snores

But ready or not here they come

At the break of dawn

Engines start up, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

Paddy Wagons, police cars, Trucks, Vans

They will be riding "Limo’s Next

The Police swinging their Poverty Stick

It is no loner just a "Negro" Stick

Cars Zooming Up!

Ready or not here they come

Snatched up out my ‘cement Bed"

When the commuter come!

Trespassing on the sidewalk, when morning come

by Dee

"My son was murdered." The clear voice on the other end of the phone was Kathy Tyson. A single working, African descendent mother and grandmother of many children. As well, Ms. Tyson was the mother of a 25 year old African Descendent man who was murdered by gun shot.

I called Ms. Tyson last week after I read an article written in the SF Examiner about African descendent mothers who take out life insurance on their own children. First we contacted the author of the piece, Alison Soltau who as a police beat reporter seemed to believe that the reasons for the insurance was because of the rise in homicides of Black youth in Amerikka.

"In the black community most people have always had life insurance policies for their children. My mom had insurance policy for us and I had for my children." Ms Tyson explained.

"Black (families) automatically insure their children cause you never know what the future here is. I think this tradition was started in the time of slavery because (The death of our children) is something that we always fear.

She continued, "how many parents are going to have 30 or 40,000 dollars just laying around." Ms. Tyson elaborated that $30,000 was in fact the going rate for burial costs.

We asked Ms. Tyson if she felt protected by the increased police presence in the Bayview Hunters Point community where she resided and she was clear on the fact that they (the police) are in fact the perpetrators of the violence against the community in many cases rather than the protectors.

The origin of this report occurred when Ms. Tyson told her multi-racial co-workers in her Redwood City office that she had life insurance on her children, and they were shocked as they had never dreamed of saving or spending money on the "death" of their children and rather were saving money for their own children’s college fund., "this got me to thinking, why aren’t we (Black families) saving for college funds for our children?"

by Tiny

"(A) host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment," President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the nation in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933.

Although that statement was made more than 70 years ago by a rich white man steeped in extreme wealth and privilege, as far as Amerikkkan politicians go, he wasn’t too bad. FDR, the architect of welfare, social security, jobs programs and other measures known as the New Deal, enacted during the Great Depression, when millions of people became jobless, homeless and hungry, made it possible for poor people and workers to survive in the U.S.

The not so well known reason FDR was so radical in coming to the aid of poor folks was that at the time he was running for president in 1932, the hungry and jobless American citizenry were becoming increasingly radicalized; 60 percent of voters were registering as Communists.

"People think that Roosevelt is the reason that Social Security was started in this country – actually it was because of the mass mobilization of millions of workers in this country. In the ‘30s, there were national demonstrations led by working people all over the country," labor activist and working class scholar Steve Zeltzer told a crowd of over a hundred elders gathered at the temple of Amerikkkan wealth and capitalism, the Pacific Stock Exchange, in San Francisco’s Financial District last Tuesday to protest Bush’s dangerous plan to dismantle this nation’s Social Security system. The Gray Panthers, who organized the demonstration, chose this location because the intended beneficiaries of Bush’s plan would be stock brokers, venture capitalists and huge investment firms that do millions of dollars of business every day in this building.

"In 1934, there was a general strike by workers in San Francisco and Minneapolis. People said, ‘Enough is enough; we’re not going to take it anymore!’ That’s what needs to happen now." For this statement, Steve got a rousing cheer from the crowd, as the elders were simultaneously being pushed off the steps by the guards of property and privilege and abusers of poor people of color, the San Francisco police, at the behest of some very bothered looking stock exchange men in expensive suits with tiny state-of-the-art cell phones peeping out of their ears.

"Almost 80 percent of Blacks 65 years or older depend on their monthly Social Security checks. Without those benefits, they would fall below the poverty level," Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio, a member of House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security, told reporters during a Dec. 15 conference call.

"We want him (Bush) as well as all Americans to understand that his plan for privatizing Social Security would adversely affect the minority population of this country." In fact, she said, the Bush privatization plan would increase those numbers of Black seniors living in poverty from 23.9 percent to 58.2 percent.

So what is Social Security and why do we need it? First, if a worker becomes temporarily disabled – that includes pregnancy leave for women – they can draw on their disability insurance, which all workers pay into every month out of their payroll check, to help them survive. As well, if a family member dies, their Social Security benefits will go to their surviving family members.

Elders 65 and over are entitled to monthly retirement benefits. Many have little or no other income. Elders of color, despite having worked hard for years, typically remain low-income in this racist, classist society that makes the attainment of wealth and security almost impossible for the majority of lower and middle income families, notwithstanding the "work hard and you’ll achieve the Amerikkan dream" myth.

Privatizing Social Security retirement benefits is key to the Bush plan. This is what Bush-Cheney Inc. – read Halliburton, Bechtel, Merrill Lynch and their related posses – intend to make bank on by forcing elders to invest their Social Security in the stock market. The scheme looks ok on paper for middle class retirees, but a loss in stock value or a stock market crash could wipe out an elder’s investment, and there’d be no further benefits coming.

Contrary to the scare tactics being promoted in the corporate media by Karl Rove and his puppet, G.W. Bush, predicting the program’s imminent collapse, Social Security IS there for future generations. It has over a $1.5 trillion surplus that is growing. By conservative estimates, it can fund current benefit levels until at least 2042 and 73 percent of current benefit levels after 2042. And current benefit levels could be funded indefinitely by applying the existing payroll tax to incomes over $88,000. These projections actually underestimate Social Security’s strength because they assume that the nation’s gross domestic product will grown at roughly half its historical rate.

Finally, for low-income disabled folks like my very poor, mixed race (African-Puerto Rican) grandfather, who has suffered with disabilities all his life and exists solely on yet another form of Social Security known as SSI, the consequences of Bush’s proposed Social Security theft are dire. The claim by Bush that this program would remain untouched is another flagrant lie.

The ultra rich, poor people hatin’ Amerikkan power brokers who perpetrate all the real welfare fraud – corporate welfare, that is – have been trying to figure out how to get rid of the whole social security program since FDR instituted the New Deal. Then, after they rob the coffers of the retirement fund, they will conveniently run into "a budget deficit" and find a means to do away the "burden" of SSI, the lifeline for millions of poor Americans, including hundreds of thousands of disabled homeless people, leaving folks starving and hungry yet again.

And all you anarchist leaning readers, please don’t shake your head and say, well, that’s good ‘cause then people will be desperate enough to "do something." The state of being that desperate is terrifying for those of us who have actually been there, and it is only a privileged person who would say that letting folks become "that desperate" to cause action is ok.

"Kenneth Lay is a friend of Bush, and he stole all the pensions from the workers at Enron. That’s what Bush wants to do with all of our Social Security pensions," Steve Zeltzer continued. "We need to organize millions of workers in this country to stop the privatization of social security, to fight against this war in Iraq. And we need to stop the war on the working people.

"In California, Arnold wants to stop the guaranteed pensions of city, county and state employees, telling us that in place of pensions we need to put our money in the stock market," Steve concluded, adding, "On April 28, workers memorial day, thousands of disabled and injured workers will march on Sacramento for our right to benefits."

"If there is no crisis, this administration creates one so that they can instill fear in the American people," said Howard Wallace of Senior Action Network, one of the last speakers to address the crowd before they marched to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office. "So it’s not only the New Deal they are trying to repeal – it is enlightenment itself."

As I stood next to these determined elders holding signs that said, "Don’t Enronize our Social Security system," I felt hopeful that maybe, as in the ‘30s, we could wage a war against the lies perpetrated by a few that affect so many. But all marginalized communities will need to come together, and unfortunately I saw only a small smattering of youth and people of color at this rally. So as you read this story, valiant PNN and Bay View change makers, make a commitment to get involved – or they will steal yet another one of our meager remaining rights from us again.

To get involved in the Gray Panthers’ fight against these cuts, call them at (415) 552-8800 or go on-line to http://graypantherssf.igc.org/index.html.