by Mari Villaluna/PNN Youth in Media Washington D.C. correspondent

We are the children of the migrant worker…
We are the offspring of the concentration camps…
Sons and daughters of the railroad builders…
We will leave our stamp on America.

- a song lead by a Reverend Norman Fong from Presbyterian Church of Chinatown in San Francisco at the Washington DC May Day API Mobilization

When I was little, I knew nothing of how my mother came to this country. My guess was that they had just moved here. As I got older my Nanay and Lola would reveal to me their stories to carry on their voices of diasporia. My Nanay would always make it clear that first my Lolo (Rest In Power) came to San Francisco by himself. He lived in a house with many other immigrants, who were saving up money to bring their families over or to send it back home. My Nanay told me, " Your Lolo (Grandfather) was already waiting for us in San Francisco. Then I remember hearing on the radio that Marcos declared martial law. We were already trying to leave the islands, and now it seemed it would never happen."

These words rang again in my head when I was living in my ancestor’s homeland and then again when I visited Tagatay, and saw the vacation house that Dictator Marcos built for U.S. President Reagan. They were best buddies, and when Marcos was kicked out of our country he was given political exile in Hawaii. What a slap in the face to my People. This infuriated me to the very core of my soul. My family left the islands to escape political oppression only to have to survive another form of oppression in the United States, a country that caused and supported the oppression of my family and our nation.

So when it came time for May Day 2007, I knew I had to represent for all my ancestors and their struggles. I was born here, so to many I am not an Immigrant, yet to many others I am from the outside, an Immigrant. When asked by an Associated Press reporter why I was participating in the march even though I was a reporter and a U.S. citizen, I stated simply, " My mother immigrated to this country. If I don't support immigrants then I would be denying myself. It's important to be here."

On this May Day, the first day of the Asian and Pacific Islander History Month to support my ancestors and all immigrants, I participated in not only the May Day March, but also the National Mobilization of Asian Pacific Americans. This action was made by a coalition of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Raza organizations. This powerful action with interfaith leaders, US Representatives, API Organizations and Korean drumming circles, was made by a coalition of Asian, Pacific Islander and Raza organizations. In the few days before May Day, these organizations and many Asians and Pacific Islanders lobbied on Capitol Hill to speak out on the injustices of the current immigration policies that the U.S. upholds. First there was a press conference, in which Congressman Mike Honda stated, “" There is a stereotype that Asians are quiet, We aren’t going to be quiet about this right? "

I found it fascinating that there were so many preachers of color out supporting immigration reform. I spoke with Reverend Eun Sang Lee of Warren United Methodist Church, and asked him to comment what Christianity has to do with immigration, “" In God there is no border. This is a human right. We (Christians) have an obligation to care for marginalized and oppressed… There is a biblical mandate to protect the vulnerable." He went on to speak about third world peoples’ need, especially Christians, to stand in solidarity with each other, " We, as persons of color, we are playing into the politics of fear. Pitting one group against the other. We are getting played. In God there is abundance when we lift up each other."

After the press conference, a stage was set up for the rally. There was a moment of silence given in remembrance of the students and faculty of Virginia Tech. After the silence, someone shouted out " Go Hokies! " Throughout the rally there was one constant chant, “What do we want?” The answer was always, " Immigration reform! " Solidarity from other third world communities was shown when other immigrants came and stood beside the Asian Pacific Islander community.

The NAACP came out as an organization and spoke about immigration. Hilary Shelton, Director of the Washington Bureau, NAACP, stated, We " must move from the politics of scapegoating immigrants…Indeed we must move together." Later in the rally, Congressman Guiterrez commented upon immigration reform, " We have only begun the fight." After he spoke, many started to chant, " Si se puede!"

We started to march toward the Democratic National Headquarters. The Korean Drumming group led the March and provided the beat for the movement we were all a part of. When we all reached the DNC we encircled the front of the building, while chanting about Immigrant rights. The Chants never stopped. Even when the chant leaders took breaks, a Grandmother in the contingent would make sure that we continued chanting together.

People never stopped marching in that circle, even though the sun was blazing upon our backs. I felt that this march was part of and connected to all the other walks/marches/protests that had been taken place before. This was not a march that was separate from any other movement; it was one that was intertwined with all movements, especially the movement to have one’s human rights recognized, implemented and respected.

We started to march again. While heading out to march, I lead one of the chants. I chanted " We didn’t cross the border, the borders crossed us." As I chanted, I thought about this land. This land has always been and always will be First Nations land, and the first illegal immigrants were Europeans. One difference between then and now is that Indigenous peoples do not believe that a person can ‘own’ the land. It is ironic that the same people whose ancestors immigrated here are the same people who are against people they view as immigrants. They themselves are immigrants, yet they continue to scapegoat immigrants.

We finally hit the Good Old Party Headquarters; which is the home of the Republican National Party. We encircled the front of the building yet another time while chanting out " Are you tired? " The protestors always responded with a firm, loud, " NO” " It was around 3:00pm and the crowd was still strong and passionate about our voices being heard in the Capitol. I thought about my Lola and her diaspora to the United States. I remember the stories of shopping at the thrift stores, carrying bags of groceries on the bus, and everyone living in a one room bedroom with her husband and all her four kids. I remembered seeing the sign that said, " Positively No Filipinos Allowed " hung inside my Tito’s house as a reminder of the racism that Filipino immigrants survived. I was continuing this walk for my family, ancestors, and community.

As I left the march with my face covered in a rag that said "Who's the Illegal alien PILGRIM?" I crossed the street from the Headquarters of the Republican Party. I passed by two white men in suits, who I could feel were speaking about me. One looked at me directly and stated, " Don't worry darling, I won't tell anyone." I was reminded of my own Lola (Grandmother) and Nanay (Mother) and their stories of immigration to the U.S. and how they escaped the Martial law of Marcos's regime. I was reminded of how my ancestors struggled to live in this country. I looked at him, and stated " I am from this land."

by Joseph Bolden

Life’s Pit Falls And Promise,

Recently I emailed a dear friend not seen in months a few words Live Long,Be Happy,Gain Knowledge, Know Wisdom.

Not profound really its just that people aren’t really living for themselves.

I sure wasn't,since my birthday will be here shortly I've pondered a little.

Yes there’s work, small businesses,or multi national corporate structures,family groups, or even the first shy steps of two people [chose sexual orientation folks].

But most of us are not living our lives to their full potential or as the late Raymond Massy said in the 1936 film "Things To Come"From H.G,Wells 1933’s–The Shape Of Things To Come Science Fiction Classic.

Don’t know which character the great actor Raymond Massy played John or Oswald Cabal but one of them spoke of living life to "Its or "The Best Effect."

That they eliminated war because if needlessly maimed and killed people."

That wasn’t living life to Its Best Effect.

We still have people who if they’ve not been in war.

Want war to prove their own mettle using, spending innocent peoples lives, wasting our best resource Human lives!

In places other folks need to work out their own issues without numerous parties horning in.

Thing is I know my own false starts,ducking, avoiding has taken years until recently to finally do what I always wanted but self loathing and fear kept me away from.

Just sent a shout out to a friend because I too will be moving in other directions testing, surprising, myself in ways not thought of before.

I’ve gone through a few psychological changes I cannot even see yet (it isn’t going political) still apolitical however more grabs at life, collecting thoughts,seeing what I went through was minor to what so many folks have lived to survive through.

Let go of certain heart felt,soulful feelings freeing the self of past losses making room for current gains.

Don’t know where all this leads but it’s a better place to feel more lively.

It like living in thick fog which blocked the brightness of opportunity.

Now,a searing brilliance has cut through this fog and I can never let it cover me inside again.

Difficult explaining any of this if it hasn’t been experienced unless its an ongoing peak experience of illuminated insight permanently burned onto my psychic retina!

A great and good friend may not see me after a while because it may become years long a-questing I’ll be going.

I’ll not be the same either.

Its been difficult (so have I) but one lives, learns,discovers,cast aside certain truisms knowing that some astounding revelations arrive too late or early to have been known.

Such is life and the living of it.

Time to live life to Its Best Effect.

by Leroy Moore/PNN

Since Bush highjacked the presidency for the second time, our country has been at war not only aboard but also at home. Although we have heightened our Homeland Security to protect from " terrorism ", all kinds of State, City, and County police along with the growing INS and Minute Men have not made our society safer, but in fact have made American society unsafe and increased violence in our communities and homes.

Last year alone Florida had at least three, probably more, violent attacks on individuals who were homeless. In California a White racist group attacked and beat a Black man who uses a wheelchair and a Latina transwoman was found dead in March. All of these cases and more like them tell us, people who are disabled, gay, transvestites and homeless that we need to be protected in hate crime legislation. Bush, however thinks it is unnecessary.

One recent article criticizes the bill, saying it leaves groups out like the police! Examining the definition of a hate crime explains why the police are not included and why such a criticism is unfounded.

If we had a President that read the newspaper and was in any way connected to the public then we wouldn’t need to waste time explaining why this legislation is desperately needed.

Another criticism of the bill by Bush and the Republican party, as well as some Democrats, is that this law creates a special class. Once again the blame is on the victim and not the perpetrators. The outrageous fact is there has not been any new amendment to original hate crime bill of 1968 that only covers race, color, religion, or national origin.

Bush and the Republican Party’s reaction to this Bill is not surprising when you realize that this is the same guy who didn’t want to talk about the case of James Bryd, a Black disabled man in Texas who was brutally attacked dragged and beaten to death by a group White non-disabled men. James Bryd's disability was only a footnote in the case.

Bush’s reaction to this bill is unbelievable considering how hard he works to fight the " War on Terror " yet won’t protect his own citizens from violent attacks in this country. We are simply asking for Bush to prevent any more unnecessary deaths and injuries in his presidency.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.
www.leroymoore.com

by Joseph Bolden

Another Birthday

As readers can see I too think of Death's Loopholes

Find 'em expand 'em and the big sleep also gets further away.

If my words offend any readers, my apologies in my bid to be truthful and honest as I can.

It has gotten me in trouble or been called pornographic. (there was a time I had three women editors overseeing my columns)

The frank topics are changing dating patterns of men and women is part of the problem another was monetary gift from Catholic Charities their rule: No discussing anything on birth control.

Well dating sometimes ends with pregnancies, abortion,or ways women are no able to prevent birth.

I wrote of other topics instead.

Yes,I’m a Mid Boomer child,born 1954(9) years after the end of World War II (10) prior the last of the boomer crop were born.

In the middle of the great B migration swept up, cursed ‘n praised for that generation did in their lives while living, discovering,changing,and dying in the world.

Other than that I, like everyone on this globe look for my niche.

Taking care of myself with Omega 3 fish oil, multivitamins,nutrients, trace elements,exercise to improve any chance living longer healthier life.

Life has been thorns, thickets, and bushes. Yes, complained until ya’ find others who survived worse things than I could ever imagine.

No soldiering,police, only temporary security guard C.N.A./H.H.H. [Certified Nurse Assistant – Home Health Aide]. Construction, lots of side jobs along the way.

Some times we try stuff out before knowing what they want.

Its like kissing frogs (guys/girls) a pointed analogy about finding princes among frogs most women do not find them and these days those that do, let them go looking bad boys/men or girls/women.

My straight orientation on that score I thank my mother,two father’s both given name and step father, and father figures on the blocks of New York City, also to girls some mature beyond their years and women who’ve gave mental/ physical ego boosts good and bad.

Recently I’ve gone through a training again for work I’ve avoided for many years however this type of work helps me in endeavors that may finally get me to my niche wanted.

Educationally speaking school was fun except for testosterone fueled competitive drive.

The fights and injuries that only now can be taken care of.

Love, more difficult than sex in that the physical is easy once two bodies in motion they tend to stay in motion (Hold Up! Isn’t that Brownien physics? oh, well most folks know what its means if not read on) bodies with enough energy, stamina for enjoyment of it.

Sex changed me isn’t it suppose to change everyone? (I feel sorry for those who walk the planet not learning anything from their travels,what sort of life is that?)

Humor helped me more than money,cars, or materials.

Its why my clothes comes off,light on/off,doors locked,lotions,food,are near be relaxed taking slow time enjoying these moments with sacred feminine which I had no idea at
the time but its always seemed like that to me.

A friend said I’m intense didn’t know what she meant ‘til recently.

Don’t know how 5 to 30 minutes or less can satisfy a women’s complex body and mind so I take time they’re happy I’m happy,they’re not I’m not.

Times change,looked at pornographic films in movies with and without girlfriends always better with than alone.

[For an unvarnished, unedited version of this column go to Myspace.com].

Yes, my mug is there photo taken maybe as a joke I believe or her part.

Our brains,biggest sexual organ its has been said.

Bad times,good times, dull,or mundane doesn’t matter life,friends,love, travel,

I need ‘em all.

I'll be a work on my B-day later at some party,that's what I like balance.

I’m hopeful my life will go on a little longer continuing to enjoy its fruits.

by Sam Drew/PNN

" They have stirred up a sleeping giant. This issue has awakened the community, " said Minister Christopher Muhammad as he looked intently at his audience at the Grace Tabernacle Community Church. He was talking about the continual poisoning of the Bayview Hunters Point district caused by the redevelopment project at the Hunters Point Shipyard headed by the Lennar Corporation.

The sleeping giant is the organized and unified community that is confronting negligent city and county officials. The sleeping giant has had his peaceful sleep disturbed and is now seeking retribution from those who committed this dastardly deed.

In previous townhall meetings that I have attended olive branches have been extended to the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, the Health Department and the Redevelopment Agency to come and test the community's land and water to see if the claims are true. But those fair gestures were met with indifference and the community is moving on to the next phase, as Muhammad calls it "the direct action" phase.

" They have ignored the poor and now the poor are coming to their door," he stated defiantly. " Next Tuesday we need to visit Mayor Newsom in his office, Tuesday is our D-day, D stands for decision" Muhammad continued. " We call for the resignation of the Director of Public Health Mitchell Katz and if he doesn't resign the Mayor should fire him." Muhammad firmly stated.

He went on to speak about how Katz never sounded the alarms when known health violations occurred in the Bayview. Minister Muhammad was referring to the four months from April to August that the Lennar Corporations had no monitors on site to check the levels of toxicity being put into the air. Muhammad smiled as he told the engrossed audience how haphazard the monitoring system was. " Half the time they put the monitors out they didn't work," he stated forcefully.

The sleeping giant has a few more doors to knock on, besides just the mayor's office since his rude awakening. " Archeology needs to be terminated, Archeology is a non profit entity that is suppose to inform the community when they have been exposed to health issues. It is funded by the Redevelopment Agency to the tune of $600,000. Why do you need $600,000 to do nothing, " exclaimed Muhammad.

In the audience was support from Supervisor Chris Daly who received special kudos from Muhammad, "Anyone who stands up for this community needs to have the support of this community but anyone who doesn't stand up for this community should be recalled-all it takes is 10%. No one should be comfortable in a seat when the community is dying," he added.

To show the strength and diversity of this giant various clergymen spoke on behalf of this successful effort for environmental justice. Pastor Joe Niumalelega, who has been with the cause from day one spoke of the joy he felt seeing all of Gods people coming together as one. "God, I want us to come together one time. Let all nations know. Let's do this thing for our young for our community," Pastor Niumalelega said.

Reverend Victor Santana told of his problems attempting to explain to the Supervisors the importance of this issue, as he said, " The last time I went to the civic center to explain to the Supervisors the Supervisors didn't understand."

To reiterate the simplicity of what the community is asking for, Minister Muhammad once again explained the reasonable demands the community is demanding. " We're asking for a temporary shut down of the construction at the shipyard, so we can access the levels of exposure from arsenic and lead and we can't trust the Health Department under Mitchell Katz to do it.we want an independent party."

To put a human face to this story of toxic nightmares, I spoke to local resident Pat Thomas who lives close to the shipyard. She told me how her life has changed since Lennar began digging and showering the community with toxic dust.

" For the last six months my eyes are red and itching. I have headaches and I'm short of breath. I've been breaking out in rashes. Where I live at we had green stuff on the carpet. My husband had to wash it off," she said exasperated.

Host Pastor Ernest Jackson compared the movement for environmental justice to another famous and successful movement. " In the sixties I was too young to be involved in the civil rights movement. I've always regretted that [but] this movement has allowed me to be in a cause for humanity, at least I can say I was with them," he said.

The pastor added the final words to the evening's powerful meeting, as a call to all community members and anyone with principals willing to stand up for what's right.

" The doors will remain open at Grace Tabernacle Community Church."

by Joseph Bolden

B-Day, Whoop De Do.

Today is pre birthday.

Don't feel my years,am I to feel old because of a few decades of life I don't think so.excuse(?)glitch

Few aches or pains some Yoga helps,walks,sex is a great calorie reducer and relaxing,beats taking laxatives or drinking when depressed.

Food was my choice of self destruction now exercise in place of that.

I figure the more depressed I get the better I'll look.

At 54 life isn’t bad at all sure with aids or std’s [sexually transmitted disease] running riot it’s a wonder I didn’t catch anything especially being part of a floating population of what’s called houseless,transient,folk.

In this instance being negative is a good thing and I've always tested negatory thank God/Godesses
for small miracles!

Found transition housing and staid for a while.

Time to leave maybe find a place with apartments full of single ladies or share rent with a few.

With a new job, ideas of what to do next now possible.

I’m still working on chronological/biological matrix in that one does cancel the other.

Biological caps Chronological.

Here’s what’s meant if one can figure out true not cosmetic age reversal biologically then chronological numbers mean zilch.

Its as if an 80 year woman or man found ways of reversing their age 30 or more years.

They look,act,are younger chronology matters less.

So I’ll try that theory for a long time too bad governments are not testing this on people by gene manipulation or using new improved artificial genes.

I’d volunteer for slow or reverse aging therapies with a slight stipend for my time a guinea pig.

Thinking of more travel, besides Atlanta, or Hawaii (my family is helping with that).

Legal money making schemes, schools, for all kinds of stuff I’ll not mention.

Yeah,life has been exciting,ridiculously dangerous and odd at times but if I’d like a few hundred to a thousand years to contemplate and enjoy.

One thing would really please me and that’s living so freakin’ long unmarried that finally society says nothing is wrong with being a single man or woman.

I’d like to get dates because I’ve braved staying along.

Women are praised for it while are men are look at as strange short lived creatures!

To outlive the single guy,bachelor,image of someone in need of a woman or women.

The joke Married men live longer,single men don’t because they don’t take care of themselves has to be retired along with other so called truism 27 year old women as spinsters.

Imagine a world where because one has lived, loved,experienced, and continues to stay vital they get dates for my um, instructive experience.

For now society has its rules and its up to me and all of us to bend, loosen, stretch, or brake so rules that are arbitrary in nature except (bestiality, child molestation/rape or murder society is needed for the good it also does.

So lets see within a decade or two is society bends again.

In the meantime there are jobs, stuff to learn, friends to make, and lives to live.

How many isn’t know but wouldn’t be wondrous having a few centuries to take the time to find out?

That’s what I’m going for and if its against societies laws oh well, just call me an outlaw.

You I’ve never really been bad maybe this is my chance.

Got to go Life is Calling and Eternity Awaits.

by Dee Allen, Joseph Bolden, Queennandi Xsheba, Jewnbug, Luis, Vivian Hain, Dharma, Ruyata

The trip to Atlanta by Greyhound

By Dharma

I am here at the first U.S. Social Forum, a long journey away from home seeking out a justice among all.

I am glad to be here among my peers at a time of much social change in the world. Unlike many people who are here in Atlanta for the forum, I traveled by bus for 2 and a half days straight. I got on the greyhound bus in San Francisco and traveled through the nights till the bus reached Atlanta. The trip was non-stop for sixty three hours to what feels like the other side of the world.

I felt like I was traveling through time. I traveled by bus to get a feeling for what my ancestors went through during the great Black exodus to the West. I thought back to a time when my ancestors, African descendants traveled the underground railroads out of the South to escape slavery. My mind drifted to what it must have been like to find paths through the trees and land beyond the highways to escape the south. I imagined what early black Americans went through to find a better life.

I traveled by myself. The trip was long and drawn out. I kept my mind off of the long hours by reading and starring out the window. I read about the conditions of prisons in California. I was reading letters from women in prison. from mothers who are locked up while their children live without a family.

I stared out the window for many hours. The land was desolate with dark rainy skies. Thunder and rain pounded us in all five states. At the border of each state we hit thunder storms. I felt like I was traveling on another universe. The lightning struck and reminded me of our country's bloody history. We passed through hot, muggy dust storms. We passed ghost towns, abandoned buildings, empty, boarded up and burned. Nothing but cactus plants, desert flowers, barbed wire, and heat for miles. Single oil pumps dotted the landscape in Texas. The moons I saw are like none I have ever seen before with light shining out all around us. The skies, the land everything was new and frightening. Big skies I thought would never end. But I knew eventually we would make it here to Atlanta.

I leaned my face against the cool window and stared out at the long stretch of dry barren land. I was surprised by the ghost towns between New Mexico and Dallas. I could see the broken down houses in the light of the storms. A dust bowl of memories of leftover life. You can rename poverty but all across America it looks and smells the same. Small houses, trailers, shacks and old towns. One town in Texas the sign read Population 3. We stopped in towns and all the major cities on our route. Some historical and everywhere I went the American flag was flying. I can't imagine living in these small towns with nothing around.

We passed hundreds of McDonald's, Burger King's and Wendy's. They cater to Greyhound. Fast food joints sit waiting for buses and hungry drivers trying to get back on their way. I will not eat a burger again for a long time. The only good thing about eating fast food was I knew I would not get left. I never walked far from the station. The bus would leave without you. In some places there was only restaurants. Some people on my bus were left in the rain in Alabama. Every seat was taken on the bus. Extra buses were ordered.

In Jacksonville we stopped for a moment. I stepped out into the shade. I saw a disabled man ordered off Greyhound property they said for loitering. It was the heat of the day. He was looking for bit of shade, but he was on greyhound property. He told me he lost his legs in the Vietnam war. He said he can barely get by on his veteran benefits. H told me he has nowhere to live he cannot afford a house. I met one young man who was returning to Oklahoma to his father's house. He left about two months ago to escape the beatings from his father. He was forced to return because the landlord threatened to raise the rent because of him. I met one woman traveling with her ninety year old mother. They were coming from Vegas returning home to Atlanta. They befriended me.

After we crossed the border from New Mexico into Texas the driver pulled over. I thought maybe it was a weigh station. I heard the men's boots before I saw them. They wore green suits, I immediately knew they were border patrol. They walked up and down the aisles, asking each person, "are you an American citizen. If not get out your papers." Fortunately we were allowed to keep driving without further problems.

This trip has taught me humility. This trip has taught me to be ever more understanding of the hard work and dedication of the early Black Americans who traveled to California in an effort to escape the unjust and brutal treatment of the South.

by Joseph Bolden

Live A Life

My birthday passed last week,about to travel to Atlanta for the U.S. Forum learning/training how to set up a blog/web site, report while simultaneously being part of the news,lot of things are unknown to me at the moment.

A given challenge to myself is more travel and doing more which includes finding better low to higher tech ways to live longer,slowing my aging, enjoy its benefits.

Already have a head start because of good genes,not drinking, smoking,drugs,and protected sex.

The latter more difficult still not wearing,using prophylactics,dental dams, creams,jells,or electronic skin stimulation devices.\

I like skin to skin minus all the extra crap there are times to go that extra mile sometimes.

About life in general barring accidents,homicide.

I’d really like to change,improve,have better genes especially melanin for darker,silkier African Ancestor skin along with automatic vitamins, minerals,trace minerals, virus,and microorganisms in symbiotic not parasitic ways helping improve the overall health of brain and body.

If I had the money, time,and people needed for this creative endeavor that would be the best ongoing present to myself.

Yes,it helps me could help many folks.

Not a greedy guy its better to have more people living longer like me than being hogged by myself along so I don’t mind sharing whatever life extended science that emerges.

I this government stopped using its vast resources for killing and began healing everyone would be better off instead of being hated,seen as an obscene joke as Amerikkka now is the full blossoming of life extending technologies would make Americans envied,once again bringing the best and the brightest to her shores.

This is what we ought to be doing besides a return to the moon which to me seems a stand still if not heading backward.

This President will soon be part of an awful history of misery and death for oil and lost lives.

I’ll never be president at least in this life time but given a few centuries who knows what an ordinary man like me may accomplish but me,we,cannot wait for wars end.

I’m going my own way and if that means being a guinea pig for a super secret multicorp dedicated to having humans live longer in better health or renegade research scientists,students, professors who’ve found out some way to ward reversing of death by rejuvenation, regeneration,science.

Marriage probably isn’t on my dance card so I thought of Polyamory = Single or Multipartner friendships not sexually exclusive monogamous relationships.

I think why not have more friends who are married or not and lover’s without awkward sneaky, icky, betrayal factor.

My capacity to love more than one person is a given I want people sharing with me also.

Well,it’s a great way to solve loneliness and with enough friends over the years it won’t be a lonely life which means I must be as giving,helpful, and fully engaged as most if not all of my new found poly-friends to be.

by Staff Writer

by Laure McElroy/PNN columnist, welfareQUEEN, race, poverty and disability scholar

This is how we do it at POOR; using the " I ", the first person, we centerpiece our own knowledge. We choose to use who we are and what we’ve personally experienced as both the keystone narrative for any story we write, as well as the lens through which we interpret it. We believe that doing this is the best way to be honest about where one’s point of view is coming from, and that the journalistic cult of the third person in this country is not objective at all, but rife with hidden, mostly privileged bias. We also insist that those who experience it must create the news, rather than any non-participant journo, however formally educated; those who live the stories both interpret the stories and claim the byline at POOR.

The Ida B. Wells Media Justice center at the US Social Forum was an original proposal authored by POOR. Our vision was to create a space for non-hierarchical story generation, print, radio or blog. The USSF seemed like the perfect place to model a setup for media creation that was not elitist and that did not reflect mainstream hegemonies (powerful interviewer/passive interviewee; writer-outsider who interprets event, " expert " -outsiders who provide " facts, " and actual event participants or those affected by event relegated to pictures to give the article " color, " unheard) with its power relationships.

The National Planning committee knew what we needed because we told them, appealing to them in countless emails and exhaustive conference calls for a space that was accessible to everyone, including houseless people and physically disabled people. We needed a room that was big enough to have our Community Newsroom (which is at the heart of our process of non-hierarchical news making) with the usual suspects of big indymedia, the conference-goers, and the actual community of Atlanta involved: people like the residents of the inner city housing project that is about to be destroyed to make way for privatized " mixed use " (read: not for the poor) housing; people like the houseless folk and workers from the Task Force Shelter in Midtown Atlanta, which the city is threatening to close despite the fact that a disabled houseless man recently died from what appears to be negligence in the only other shelter (which, incidentally, is city-run). We needed a space big enough for the houseless folk who, by city ordinance, can be arrested simply for being anywhere within a five block radius of the Civic Center, to tell their stories, working with a POOR trained writing facilitator only if they chose to do so. Sadly, our media revolution was not to be, despite the fact that the USSF organizers claimed to accept our proposal.

It is my opinion that what went wrong started long before any of us grassroots independent media arrived at the forum. What went wrong first went wrong in the minds of the main organizers, the people who told us (and this was actually said to us) that maybe we could get a space to make our " little " media if there was one left, but that the " real " media would take place elsewhere. These were the people who subsequently told us that it was ridiculous to expect Pacifica Radio to broadcast out of a homeless shelter (the Task Force having been one of our early alternatives to the basement hallway that they ended up trying to put us in months later, when the forum happened). What was wrong was the idea that powerful elites, be they government, family, capitalist or NGO, would willingly share power with anyone without a fight.

by Olivia Colt/Race, Poverty and Media Justice Intern

Soft-spoken and determined, Lisa Washington is a loving mother of two and a devout follower of her faith. Like almost all mothers, her eyes brighten with the mention of her two sons, Franshat and Daylan, but the light goes out quickly and a dark cloud covers her eyes. Her expressive face crumbles with grief when she talks about losing her children.

Lisa is a victim of Child Protective Services (C.P.S.). She is just one of so many whose families have been torn apart by the C.P.S. system. Lisa hasn’t seen her eldest child, Franshat, in four years and is only allowed bi-weekend visits with her younger son, Daylan.

“I lost my children and was refused legal council because of my religious beliefs,” Lisa stated clearly and unapologetically in POOR Magazine’s Community Newsroom, where she had come to share her five year struggle with C.P.S. Lisa is a Jehovah’s Witness and has experienced severe religious discrimination firsthand in a country that claims to give all people the freedom to practice and exercise their own religious beliefs, as well as denounces and makes illegal discrimination of any kind based on religious beliefs.

As I sat listening to her painful story, I thought about my three cousins, Shaleena, Joseph, and Diamond. They are my Uncle Jackie’s children and live near Tacoma, Washington with their mother Ingrid. I saw them this past Easter holiday when I went to visit family in San Diego. Unlike the rest of my very Catholic family, these three cousins are Jehovah Witnesses, and like Lisa have struggled with discrimination and persecution for their religious beliefs.

Lisa’s personal struggle with discrimination and C.P.S. began on March 11, 2002 when Alameda County took custody of Franshat, placing him in foster care, due to a disciplinary action by Lisa: she pulled his ear. My parents have disciplined me very similarly while growing up—spanking, ear pulling, wooden spoons, and one of the most memorable: my mom took off her shoe and threw it at my head. I look back on these instances in my life and cannot imagine being separated from my mother for these occurrences; I misbehaved, therefore I was punished. Lisa acted in a way no different than most parents do. This does not make her a bad parent, an ill-fit parent, or any of the other labels widely overused by C.P.S. to rope in more children, more money, and break more homes.

Ripping a family apart detracts from the mission and stated goals of C.P.S., which are to “provide specialized welfare services that seek to prevent dependency, abuse and neglect of children.” They also seek to provide services that will stabilize families in crisis and preserve the family unit. Inherently, the original purpose of C.P.S. was respectable, pulling children out of homes where there is extensive physical, emotional, and mental abuse. However, as C.P.S. has grown, greedy and self-serving people have found a very lucrative and easy way to access a tremendous amount of money. FightCPS.com stated that in 2003 alone, bounty payments for adoption in 44 states and territories amounted to $17,896,000.00.

Lisa is not an unfit parent. She is a hard working woman who loves her children. He ex-husband even testified to that extent during a custody hearing in 2003 regarding the fate of her younger son’s custody. In fact Claiborne Sibley defended his ex-wife, until the council representing their children shushed him. Lisa has also willing undergone psychological and psychiatric evaluations and examinations to prove her sound mental and emotional health.

Over the last 4 years of her case, Lisa has had turn over in her legal council several times by her court appointed public defenders. Many of which had been advised to not take her case because of faith base—because she is a Jehovah Witness. In fact, one of her attorneys, Ernest Anderson, a long time friend of the family, was asked by Commissioner Sue Alexander if he was comfortable representing Lisa. In open court, he said yes. Several months later, Mr. Anderson removed himself from the case due to extensive harassment from associates and colleagues for representing Ms. Washington.

“My trails of injustice have driven me to this conclusion—that my defeat is solely based on a religious prejudice that resides in our judicial system within Alameda County,” Lisa stated adamantly. The C.P.S. has once again employed blatant intimidation tactics and persecution of mothers for something as simple as a tugging of the ear.

Eventually the case was settled. The court granted Claiborne Sibley full custody of their youngest child Daylan. Franshat is still in the clutches of the system moving from foster home to foster home, as Lisa desperately tries to piece her family back together. Living without her two children, Lisa’s life is filled with pain and sadness.

I couldn’t imagine not living with my mother because she tugged on my ear when I was bad or my cousins being torn away from their parents- caught somewhere in the claws of the system- just because of their family’s doctrine of faith. Religion and discipline are both personal choices and have nothing to do with how we love our families.

On Easter I sat with my cousins, we broke bread together and shared a meal. It didn’t matter that they didn’t celebrate this holiday the same way we did because we are a family that loves and cares for each other in spite of everything else. The same way Lisa loves and wants to care for her two children, but can’t because of a system that wants to separate, not support families.

For more information about COURTWATCH – you can call POOR at (415) 863-6306. or go on-line to www.poormagazine.org. To get in contact with Lisa Washington you can call her at 510- 300 7014

by Staff Writer

There are a lot of people here at the US Social Forum claiming solidarity, claiming alliance, claiming other people’s struggles for their own personal gains. At POOR, we are poor. We’ve fought through fire, illness, disease. Gunshots, poverty – you name it – to get here. To get to the US Social Forum. To this place that’s supposed to be filled wall to wall with people in “solidarity” with folks like us. And how were we treated by our privileged brothers and sisters? We were separated from the forum and relegated to a bathroom where it was impossible to share our skolarship. We were treated like an annoyance when we asked for an acceptable space. We were told we were fire hazards when we tried to actually work with what we were given. Our signs were torn off the wall because “tape is not allowed” when other organizations were allowed to keep THEIR signs on the walls.

The folks at the social forum, people claiming to be at the forefront of social change treated us no different than the folks they claim to be fighting against. We are put in basements everyday so we are not seen, not heard, not felt. Access is granted only to those with the pass of a certain color, respect is given only to those with resources and connections. If we can’t be treated like human beings at the US Social Forum, what hope do we have that these people are even capable of creating social change? What’s worse, if these people and organizations are working against us, what does that say about out chances – poor, abused, people with disabilities, people of color – what does that say about our chances of finding TRUE solidarity?

by Sam Drew/Poverty and Race Scholar/PNN community journalist

Let me get this straight. San Francisco has an unexpected surplus of $130 million in its budget. The Board of Supervisors voted $28 million for affordable housing in one of the most unaffordable cities on the planet and the Mayor vetoes the appropriation and refuses to spend the money! But wait, the story gets even stranger. This is the same city that wonders why working class families are leaving in droves and openly asks what it can do to maintain it diverse population. Doesn't make a damn bit of sense does it?

To fight against the senselessness and injustice in the mayor's decision, representatives from The Coalition on Homelessness, as well as POOR Magazine poverty scholars, Supervisor Chris Daly, State Senator Carole Migden and several other community organizations stood on the steps in front of San Francisco's ornate City Hall. These groups had merged together as one to collectively slap some sense into the mayor and to demand that the money that was earmarked for public housing repairs and services and affordable housing be restored.

John Avalos, aide to Supervisor Daly wasted little time getting to the
heart of the matter, as he said to the crowd, "We asked the Mayor for support" for the $28 million budget supplemental but all "we got was a back door veto."

The need for this money is painfully obvious in a city whose housing market has become increasingly unaffordable. The reason this money is needed, as Avalos simply stated, is "to keep San Francisco working people living in the city."

Housing in San Francisco is three times as expensive as the national average. In the Bay Area affluent housing markets are getting stronger, while the housing market in poorer areas is softening and hardly any lower income families can afford to purchase housing. The median price for an existing single family dwelling in the Bay Area hit a record high of $720,000 in April.

Jazzie Collins addressed one of the most vexing issues about affordable housing, which is the problem with the definition of affordability itself. "Let us take the lead in [making] affordable
housing under$100,000 a year...what we have [now] is only affordable to those that can buy a condo." The message was directed to the Mayor to let him know this is strictly business not personal, "To the Mayor we are attacking your positions not your character," Jazzie added.

This tug of war over appropriations and budget supplements goes to the heart of what this city stands for. Can San Francisco become a "family
city" or will we become a big museum with exhibits on 21st century working families? Do we try to decrease the number of people forced to live on the streets or do we do a Manhattan shuffle like Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York and play hide and seek with the problem?

Skyrocketing housing costs make middle and low-income families more vulnerable to homelessness if they lose their jobs. One of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population is children

Poverty scholar and POOR Magazine representative Jewnbug gave arousing speech focusing on her housing difficulties. "I was homeless at the age of 8. I'm still struggling to live in San Francisco. The
only way I can live in San Francisco is on Section 8". Jewnbug put a humorous touch on the dire need for housing when she said, "Housing is a right. It shouldn't have to be like buying a diamond necklace!" As she left the podium she was visibly shaken after her deeply felt oration. While she put her hands over her face the crowd and I clapped heartily at her emotional outpouring.

The percentage of San Francisco Bay Area households who could afford a median price house fell from a paltry 20% in July 2003 to under 10 per cent in 2006.

The question arises if the city doesn't assist those in need of housing. Then who does it benefit with its surplus?

"Who is getting housed in this city? - its huge corporations like Lennar," exclaimed tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia editor of POOR Magazine and poverty scholar. Lennar Corporation is the Miami based company in charge of the asbestos laden redevelopment project at the Hunters Point Shipyard. This billion-dollar company has had the red carpet rolled out for it while doors are being closed on the homeless, poor and working families.

SRO Collaborative Families with children living in SRO Hotels are
considered homeless in San Francisco. The Mayor's Budget includes a 25% cut to families living in Single Room Occupancy Hotels (SRO Families United). This will dramatically reduce peer-based services to the 527 families residing in SRO hotels in San Francisco. In addition, the SRO FU is in need of a $100,000 in funding from DPH to make up for budget cuts from Human Service Agency.

Homeless families are severely neglected by the Mayor's budget. Whiles there are over 2,000 homeless families in San Francisco, there is nothing in the budget to address this crisis. $5,000,000 is needed in operating subsidies to ensure the poorest families can move into City and redevelopment funded affordable housing units going on line next year.

All one has to do is look at Mayor Newsom's donation chart to see where the deep pockets are in San Francisco. The largest per person donation came from the Financial District at $388.57 per person on a population of 374. Next highest was Embarcadero/Gateway at$75.32 on a population of 3,335.

One way I can try to make sense of the whole mess is try to define it
in terms of the politics of glass and steel versus the politics of
flesh and blood. In city after city politicians toss money at developers, building owners and huge corporations in the hope of
increased revenues.

Sometimes cities hit the jackpot and revenues flow. But more often the
citizens have to clean up after the mess the politicians have made. But there always seems to be money left over for the next slick talking developer with promises of jobs and revenues. But flesh and blood politics deals with human needs like housing, food and education. There is always a shortage of funds.

When it comes to housing the poor, there always seems to be an excuse, whether deficit or surplus. If there is a surplus we have to save for a rainy day. If it's a deficit we have to slash funds starting with you!

Weighing in on the side of flesh and blood was Valerie Tulier District Representative for State Senator Carole Migden, who said, "Senator Migden absolutely supports the community and their demands for affordable housing in San Francisco... she also wants to ensure affordable means affordable. We have to understand the strategy to address different levels."

What makes this 5o'clock veto particularly galling is that last year's affordable housing supplemental passed without the political intrigue
and controversy. Last year's appropriation delivered on 170 units of affordable family housing, 184 units for seniors and people living with disabilities and 270 units of supportive housing for formerly homeless people.

San Francisco is missing out on a golden opportunity to follow
through on last years positive steps. I hope to return for future actions to report and sup-port on the struggle for affordable housing.
But we better hurry because average people who can afford to live in San Francisco are becoming extinct

Speak out against the mayor's new budget Wednesday June 20 at noon at City Hall.

by Staff Writer

Undress the media

Get POOR Magazine out of the dressing room
to yo stage

Reality combined wit art

We are castaways

To play restricted parts

We are fire hazards

trouble breathing, unfair air

Airtime to
5 minute commercials

To one hour away

4 public service announcements

We are news, accomplishments & blues

Nothing but the truth

So we help God

I crossed the border early Thursday morning

Without my US Social Forum Passport

I felt I made it to the stage

On the down low tip

Undocumented

Still chanted & sang

Story quickly told

And then put out
tha back door

Cuz I'm fire hazard

And I breath unfair air

So I took over the airwaves

For public service announcements

Security at every post

Decided what pieces of bread become toast

Youth in the media

On a positive note

Wut a joke?

We are in the attic

Thru static 2 fix antenna

So the perception is clear

U marginalized me

U made no room for

JUST US

U disrespected Ida B Wells no center

U can't find us

U can't have justice

Po folks struggling to obtain

Technologies that document

Stories to educate

Only a few found

Security doesn ´ t make me feel safe

They make my heart pound

We are sound beings

Beings of sound

we create safe events

When we can build

A circle to build a community

People ´ s news

Workshops, panels, resource tables

In this for everyone-

Not just a few

We are many

Struggling to be heard

So let me kick

People had to really search

We are here

We are there

Yet even amongst

These gatherings making differences

They had no space to spare

So we had to rise up and challenge

2 get a bigger hallway

2 have our story flow through the airwaves

Painful and precious

Learning goes beyond four walls

We are media

Dispite displacement

We didn ´ t fall

by Joseph Bolden

The U.S. Forum in Atlanta is Kickin’My Ass!

Ok,most people in the know or heard the buzz about POOR Magazine going to Atlanta.

OH,GOD! Between the preventable Katrina’s ongoing tragedy,panic from Black higher upper class, middle,or Bourgeoisie
[Not much use that word, besides being hard to say its harder to spell too]

A little history sorry ladies have patience.

Although Du Bois
W.E.D. Du Bois {Look him up when you can.}
had originally believed that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem,he gradually came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism, expressed in such evils as lynching,peonage, disfranchisement,Jim Crow segregation laws,and race riots,social change could be accomplished only through agitation and protest.

He clashed with the most influential black leader of the period,Booker T. Washington,who,preaching a philosophy of accommodation,urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and elevate themselves through hard work and economic gain,thus winning the respect of the whites.

In 1903,in his famous book The Souls of Black Folk,Du Bois charged that Washington's strategy, rather than freeing the black man from oppression, would serve only to perpetuate it.

This attack crystallized the opposition to Booker T. Washington among many black intellectuals,polarizing the leaders of the black community into two wings—the "conservative" supporters of Washington and his "radical" critics
From [www.pbs.org/whet/aaworld/reference/articles/w_e_b_du_bois.html]

There more to this in the early and late 1960’s this theme is repeated by two late 20th century leaders Brother Malcolm X and Rev. Martin Luther King both want the race to move forward Malcolm advocates self empowerment, protection arm yourself and "by any means necessary."

Martin Luther King advocates peace learning from Gandhi.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948).

King knew to have all out war would lead his people to slaughter by a still repressive white government power structure.
{Didn’t say it’s near history repeating itself?} This is from [http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/gandhi.htm] like Booker T. Washington both knew the power of bloody,savage, mob rule whether it be in the South or Northern cities his people were at mercy ofquick-to-anger- killers that actually protects perpetrators of violence not its traditional victims.
My deep emotion angst, anger,and duo personality as an American Citizen of African descent is why did both Malcolm and Martin have to die?

Malcolm X [B.1925–D. 1965)Martin Luther King [B.1929–D.1968]

After assassinating X why kill a peacemaker as well?

My conclusion at the time was Whites as a whole feared any voice and especially black voices who knew America’s underbelly of hypocrisy.

I still think they fear those and other voices but now there are other voices not only Black and Male, but Women,Gay Men/Lesbian Women/Bi Sexuals /Transexual/Youth who’ve been radicalized by their experiences.

In the 60’s it was so easy to kill leaders now there are so many no state, government can to there are just too many voices coming together.

The Upcoming trip to United Form in Atlanta as possibly history in all probability yes.

Between technology exchanging or for the moment loaned to those in the digital down slope craning our neck and eyes for continued not temporary borrowed ongoing educational access to ever advancing technology.

Why do you think I as a formally houseless, jobless,struggling writer/ life extension/Immoralist keep harping on tech?

Because the left out lot is the same that’s always left we’re just more of aware,the stakes are not only political,social, sexist,agist,its applied texism.

TEXISM or imminent fear of technological progress/change.

[Don’t try googling or Wikipedian it I made it up.]

I guess I’m worried that my apolitical self may not fit in with most of the people at the forum,my books not completed and I fear I have nothing to contribute.

Who personally worries about po’s folks living less while the rich find ways of staying on the planet longer.

I don’t its seem a logical next step to outlive the poor folks by denying these new life extending sciences.

Look at Bush with his Stem Cell limit to adult stem cell lines and now scientists have found ways around that problem to create stem cells.

This Presidential war for oil on the soil of Middle Easter countries who people are so ancient and wise that math,alchemy (forerunner of chemistry) and art, sciences dwarfs our supposed Americanized ways of learning,living,and life.

I don’t know,I’m going, but it scares me that I might not be able to contribute my share.

Besides my dancing sucks,have a one drink limit,no proof of my negative hiv/aids clean bill of sexual health how am I gonna get laid?

There's organizin'and fraternizin'.
Just being truthful and practical or pragmatic.

Hasn’t science came up with an insta-test where a prick of blood or scrape from tongue or mouth confirms my negative status?

Maybe that’s it the next breakthrough instant dirty/clean sexual status.

For those who invited us toGeorgia I thank you for inviting POOR Magazine to this momentous event and hope all us can exchange our knowledge and spread in across the globe.

Maybe I’ll try to be the 6th or 10th tourist in space.

Anyone have 20 to 40 million dollars to spare to take their place in line?
[maybe in case illness I'll take someone's place, yeah,right.]

And dear merciful ladies,I'm the lone black guy with a lazy left eye.

Not as sensitive about it as once before.

I don't bite (nibble a little) but a bit shy.

Lousy dancer however when playful muse whispers I move rythmicly in sheer joy of it.

Enchalla,may grace of angels guide us all.

by Staff Writer

Who is the superior? You?

Who is inferior? Us?

But who’s the one infectin’ nations with poverty, wounds full of puss?

Who let the people die? You?

Who was the people you killed? Us?

This ain’t a mighty nation

Hollin’ in God we trust

If that’s the case, why I see devil all over yo’ face-

Kids being murdered, prostituted-

And ya’ll praise that disgrace

In cali we got a terminator for a governor

Stand up fo’ youz, he ain’t gonna be back

Right then and there

He gone somother ya!

Send yo’ offspring to be amongst me claimin-

They understand my pain

Knowin’ damn well if they lived in our conditions

It’d drive they ass insane

I’m homeless & po’ while

Ya’ll organize ya hoity-toity committee

If ya down wit tha’ cause

Then why can’t ya sit down and have dinner wit me?

Nose all in the air- naw

Those people are dirty

All tha money you made off me-

Ya took tha profits

Gave me the finger

Then flee

That’s fuhked up, didn’t even

Give us a blanket and sheet

To sleep on tha streets

Who said you was superior? You

Who said we was inferior? Not us

You gave a donation, yea

Tossed me a penny that collected rust

While as a whole you said

You respected immigration, racism, colonization and hurricane Katrina

Could I get some help to find my aunt, cuz after Katrina I still haven’t seen her

Don’t march wit me

You don’t want equality

Perpetrating in tha rally

Left us to die-

But hurried up and restored

Semi Valley

Takin’ billions to bring hell to millions

All over tha world

Cut my grant

Objective was to starve my baby girl

While ya sleep in silk

But my baby survived

Off my breast milk

She got up age

Asked where’s my daddy?

Damn baby girl, he got kilt

A Queen by blood

I’mma tell you what’s up

Quit smilin’ in my face

I know you don’t give a fuhk

I’mma keep spittin’ shit at white supremacy

Mr. KKK- better duck

Destroy you’ beastial mentality

Cuz I’m sick of it runnin’ amuch

Who is the inferior? You!

Who is the superior? Us!

by Angel Garcia/Poverty and Immigrant Scholar and Sam Drew/Race and Poverty Scholar

Para espanol mire hacia bajo

On a sticky Wednesday morning in June, Sam Drew, fellow reporter from POOR Magazine and myself were invited to a wedding ceremony. The couple, greed and corruption (ICE and the Woodfin Hotel Company) were hitched at high noon under the hot sun while security guards kept the peace. This theatrical marriage was meant to symbolize these two organizations, one created by the US federal government, one from an extremely rich individual as a corporation, each full of greed and corruption, joining together to prevent the Woodfin hotel workers from asserting their right to a living wage.

A large crowd had gathered to watch the 'ceremony' at the Oakland federal building in protest of the Woodfin Suites owner’s recent action of calling ICE voluntarily against his own employees. The reason: the Woodfin employees had demanded a living wage and workers rights.

'I’m standing strong with Woodfin workers in the fight for back pay,' said Leslie Littleton, under the bright blue Oakland sky as the crowd cheered in agreement.

As an inmigrant worker, myself, I have experienced this kind of abuse and I know all too well how often this tactic is used against low-income migrant families. Families that simply want a better opportunity to provide a decent life for their children; something we can’t get in our own countries. We will do anything to survive and put food on the table. As Teresa Molina, an inmigrante reportera for POOR Magazine, said, 'I am not here to take away jobs from others…I’m here to help my children survive.'

To survive in this country, we need workers’ rights, a living wage and respect from our employers. We are simply asking to be treated as equal human beings and not like slaves simply because we are undocumented. Everyone at the protest had gathered to fight for these basic human rights.

I spoke with Senora Luz Dominguez, who told me that when the employees started asking for 2 weeks back pay, many were fired. 'We’ve been fighting very hard to get the money we are owed, ' she said. Her voice lowered to almost a whisper as she added, 'It’s very sad to see the way they are using immigration against us.'

Samuel Hardage, the hotel manager, did not seem to have a problem hiring undocumented workers until they demanded their rights. According to John Frieke, a city councilmember of Emeryville, unlike three other hotels, the Marriot, the Four Points Sheraton and the Holiday Inn, the Woodfin Suites have refused to abide by Measure C, a living wage and workers’ rights ordinance for all hotels in the area.

In addition, the Woodfin Suites did not ask for verification of their workers’ social security numbers until September 2006 after workers had complained to City Council that the hotel wasn’t abiding by Measure C. Many feel that the sole reason for the hotel’s actions was the workers’ complaints.

The hotel then started taking serious legal actions against workers protesting. Frieke said when he went with three workers to speak with the manager, for an unknown reason he wasn’t in the office. 'The next thing we know the Woodfin is seeking a restraining order against us. But the judge wouldn’t hear it. Thank God for an independent judiciary,' said Frieke.

A spokesperson from Barbara Lee’s office also spoke at the post wedding speak-out about her commitment to see justice for the Woodfin workers.

As I listened to the speakers, I began to wonder who the real criminals were, the undocumented workers surviving with pride and dignity or these companies who are working together to systematically abuse hardworking people? We are workers that are very important to the economy of this country and we’ve all been working hard for years, even decades with no rewards, no benefits and no rights. Like the Woodfin employees, I, too think its time we collect.

El matrimonio entre la avaricia y la corrupcion

Director de hotel en Emeryville llamo a agentes de migracion contra sus propios trabajadores para evitar un pago justo a los trabajadores- los trabajadores respondieron con un "matrimonio".
Por Angel Garcia y Sam Drew/PNN

En un pegajoso y aragan miercoles por la mañana el se ñor Sam Drew, un compañ ero y reportero de Prensa POBRE, fuimos invitados a una ceremonia matrimonial. Los novios, avaricia y corrupcion, los agentes de migracion y las companias de Woodfin Hotels, se casaron en la alta tarde debajo del sol mientras los oficiales de seguridad mantenian el order. Esta boda teatral simboliza a estas dos agencias, las dos llenas de avaricia y corrupcion que se union para prevenir que los trabajadores de los hoteles exijan sus derechos para un pago justo.

Un grupo grande de personas se unio para mirar la ceremonia en el edificio federal de Oakland mientra le protestaban al due ño de las oficinas Woodfin Suites por haber llamado a los agentes de migracion voluntariamente contra sus propios empleados. La razon fue que los empleados de Woodfin habian demandado una mejor paga y derechos para los trabajadores.

"Yo estoy parada fuertemente con los trabajadores de Woodfin en la lucha para que se les pagen sus pagos atrasados", dijo la senora Leslie Littleton, bajo el cielo azul de Oakland mientras el publico aplaudia en acuerdo.

Como inmigrante trabajador yo tambien eh tenido la experiencia de estos abusos y los conosco todos muy bien. Estas tacticas son communes y an sido usadas contra familias inmigrantes de bajos ingresos. Familias que simplemente quieren una mejor oportunidad para prover una vida desente para sus hijos; habeses estas oportunidades no las tenemos en nuestros paises. Nosotros hacemos todo para sobrevivir y para poner comida en nuestras mesas como la señora Teresa Molina, una reportera migrante de Prensa POBRE, dijo, "Yo no estoy aqui para quitarle trabajo a otros. yo estoy aqui para poder ayudar a mis hijos a sobrevivir".

Para sobrevivir en este pais, nosotros los trabajores necesitamos derechos, pagos justos y el respeto de nuestros empleadores. Nosotros simplemente estamos pidiendo que seamos tratados con igualdad y como personas humanas y no como esclavos simplemente por que somos indocumentados. Todos en la protesta se unieron para luchar por estos derechos humanos.

Hablé con la senora Luz Dominguez, quien me dijo que cuando los empleados empesaron a pedir sus dos semanas de pago atrasado, muchos fueron despedidos. "Nosostros hemos estado peliando muy duro para que se nos de el dinero que se nos deve", ella dijo. Mientras bajaba su voz ella agrego, "es muy triste ver la manera en que ellos esta usando a migracion encontra nosotros."

Samuel Hardage, el manager del hotel no tubo ningun problema al emplear a trabajadores indocumentados hasta que ellos excijieron sus derechos. De acuerdo a John Frieke, miembro del concilio de Emeryville, a diferiencia a otros tres hoteles, el Marriot, The Four Points Sheratton, y el Holliday Inn, las companias de Woodfin se an negado a segir la medida c. Esta medida aboga por los derechos de los trabajadores de los hoteles de la area.

Ademas, el empleador no pidio verificacion de numeros de seguro social a los trabajadores hasta septiembre del 2006 cuando los trabajadores se quejaron con el concilio de la ciudad que los hoteles no estaban siguiendo la medida c. Muchos sienten que las acciones de los hoteles fueron tomadas cuando los trabajadores se quejaron.

El hotel empeso a tomar serias acciones legales en contra de los trabajadores que se quejaron. El señ or Freike dijo que cuando el fue con tres trabajadores para hablar con el manager, por razones desconosidas el no se encontraba en la officina. " Sin que nosotros nos dieramos cuenta, Woodfin estaba consiguiendo una orden de restrincion en contra nosotros. Pero el juez no lo escucho. Gracias a dios que ay un magistrado independiente," dijo Frieke.

Mientras escuchaba a las personas hablar, yo empese a preguntarme ¿quienes son los criminales?, ¿los trabajadores indocumentados que sobreviven con orgullo y dignidad, oh estas companias que se unen para sistemáticamente abusar a los trabajadores? Somos trabajadores importantes para la economia de este país y todos hemos trabajado por años y decadas sin reconocimientos, sin beneficios y sin derechos. Asi como los trabajadores de Woodfin, yo tambien pienso que es hora de colectar.

by Staff Writer

Thinking back on my experience at the United States Social Forum with POOR Magazine, I feel many mixed emotions. First, when we (POOR Magazine) arrived at the Civic Center in Atlanta to set up our Community Newsroom meetings, an innovation by POOR Magazine that uses an indigenous organizing model to create media, we were allocated to an isolated, dank and damp confined basement hallway space with prison-like concrete walls painted in toxic oil-based battleship gray paint. Due to the extremely narrow hallway, we were told that our presence there was a potential fire hazard. We were marginalized and completely separated from the rest of the media and most of the USSF guests and participants.

We (POOR) were unable to access and work collectively with other media sources with whom we had hoped to collaborate with. We were also unable to get all of the USSF guests and participants into our Community Newsroom and media workshops, because they had to have a special media pass in order to get to the upstairs basement like dressing room. If they even had a pass and made it through the maze of confusion to the media center, they could just stand in the narrow, half blocked off hallway space were we were thoughtlessly put by the USSF planning committee to conduct our workshops and Community Newsroom. By the second day, a few of my fellow POOR colleagues and I developed acute asthma, unable to breathe properly, due to the toxic paint fumes and lack of fresh air in the media center.

I felt truly kicked to the bottom of the barrel, separated from the rest of the forum and hidden away in the darkness, not to do important media work but just to get sick with asthma. We had to literally fight for our right to be allocated to a more humane, healthy and open space that was accessible to all USSF guests and participants. We took it upon ourselves to find one that would not continue to segregate POOR Magazine’s community newsroom from reaching all people at the USSF.

In addition, there were no proper accommodations for people with disabilities, many being forced to use a freight elevator in the Atlanta Civic Center to access the basement area of the media center. This was a thoughtless and discriminating action of the USSF. By not providing access to those with special needs, the organizers ended up marginalizing even more people.

The media- made up of poverty, race and disability scholars- should have been the first thing that those who were attending and participating in the USSF saw when they entered arrived at the social forum, not just the vendors selling their cause. It is the voices, faces and words of the people that make a social justice movement, not capitalism with a 501c.3.

At the USSF, I was also very disturbed by the extreme paramilitary security presence, which totally contradicted the whole meaning of the forum itself. This was very unpleasant and unnecessary by all means for an event of such, one that is supposed to promote social peace and justice.

In addition to this, it was a social atrocity that there were no ‘real people’ from the local community in Atlanta representing at the USSF. Many houseless folks and low and no income people were kept out of the tall iron gates of the Civic Center, marginalized and cast away in extreme heat. They stood outside on the sidewalk surrounding the Civic Center completely ignored and disregarded. As a poverty scholar myself, I found this whole social dynamic very upsetting. Watching many young, privileged and educated folks mindlessly dance about to music without a care in the world within the confines of those tall security gates as if the USSF was some sort of progressive Disneyland, made my stomach turn.

The USSF is an event that should bring people closer together to form alliances and coalitions and to create solidarity collectively, not individually and certainly not by marginalizing and separating people through class and privilege. It is clearly imperative that the USSF planning committee changes its thought process when planning for the next US Social Forum. It is most important that the USSF provides an event that includes more than just privileged activists, but also the real people struggling with issues of racism, poverty, disability etc., as well as real media created by the people. I feel that human connectivity must be the true foundation of the next USSF if we hope to create ‘a new world.’

by Staff Writer

October

Saturday, October 6th 2 p.m.
San Francisco LitQuake
Gritty City: From the
Pavement to the Page
Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Main Public Library

www. litquake.org

October 23 @ 12 p.m.

welfareQUEENS performance

Diego Rivera Theater at City College

open to public

October 24-28
The Oral History Association's Annual Meeting: THE REVOLUTIONARY IDEAL: Transforming Community through Oral History.

http://alpha.dickinson.
edu/oha/org_am_oakland.html

Registration required.

by Olivia Colt/PNN Race, Poverty and Media Justice Intern

It’s about 8:30 in the morning and I am just about to begin my commute. I see the bus tumbling down the street full of people like myself heading downtown for yet another day of work. I numbly show my pass and shuffle along to find a spot in the midsection. I grab onto a pole and look up, the ad catches my eye, and I begin to read. Discover Neighborhood Treasures: BayView. Each letter pops out, calling to me, D-I-S-C-O-V-E-R the BayView. Will it be like uncovering hidden treasure? The smiling face, a man of color, stares at me, begging me to find the contradiction in his gaze. I look out the window as we lumber up a hill, then the city stands before me.

“There is little to no housing for people who aren’t rich… the idea of destroying the little housing [we have left] is crazy,” Mary Ratcliff, the co-owner and publisher of the Bay View newspaper, friends of POOR/PNN and fellow resistance journalists, relayed to me. Currently, the San Francisco neighborhood of BayView Hunter’s Point is experiencing the beast of redevelopment. It is the last threshold in the City that can allow for major construction, allocation of Federal funds, and has the largest amount of homeownership within city limits. BayView doesn’t get credit for this, however; what it does get credit for is the high rates of infant mortality, gang violence, drug use, and being a predominantly Black neighborhood. With the installation of the new T-Line and a possible stadium for the 49ers on the old Navy shipyard, the landscape of BayView Hunter’s Point is rapidly changing. “People in BayView Hunter’s Point are very cool people, we want diversification, not a re-peopling and pushing out of the current community,” says Ratcliff. I am a product of a gentrified neighborhood in the Western Addition, I agree with Mary Ratcliff, when redevelopment happens where do all the people go?

Bayview Hunter’s Point has been receiving a lot of attention since construction of the light rail began in 2000. Gavin Newsom has signed over two major housing projects for re-development: Alice Griffith (also known as Double Rock) and Hunter’s View. The City has this cowboy, caviler attitude towards the re-development. Instead of using the pool of funding that the Federal government has set aside for the reconstruction of public housing, the current administration has decided to go it alone, thereby allowing for what was once public housing for the poor to become private market-rate housing for the middle and upper classes of San Francisco.

John Stewart Company may be San Francisco based, but nothing about it screams S.F. The company itself is still fairly young, but has a reputation that far surpasses its youth. Started in 1978, John Stewart has had exclusive rights to re-build and maintain a number of housing projects in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. What they say they do is re-develop for the poor, but what they actually do is take the land, displace the people, and flip the project into mixed-income market rate housing. They create a process riddled with false promises, intimidation tactics, dehumanization, income thresholds, impossible deadlines, and discrimination. Vivian Hain, WelfareQUEEN and poverty scholar with POOR Magazine summed up her experience with John Stewart and their application process for housing at both Valencia Gardens in the Mission District and Adalaide Street Housing in Berkeley like this: “[John Stewart Company] set these standards when no one meets these standards they have to fill the spaces to do that they privatize the land and make market rate housing.”

Hain’s experience is one of many. She never did get into those housing projects and for that matter neither the Presidio nor Treasure Island. Laure McElroy, POOR Press author of SystemBitch, has a similar experience, “I was put on the waiting list for three years for Treasure Island before my number came up. They told me my credit wasn’t good enough. I have since been put back on the waiting list and nothing…not one piece of communication.” Both Laure and Vivien have interfaced with representatives of the John Stewart Company. They feel that they were denied housing because they were homeless or had very little money. The day Vivian went to apply for Valencia Gardens, her partner was told by the John Stewart Rep. that a family of five had to make at least thirty thousand a year to meet the income threshold (they made $700.00 a month) to be eligible to receive housing that was, ironically, already designated for low-income folk. Laure didn’t even have an opportunity to apply; the John Stewart Rep. said her federal subsidy could not be used to pay for rent at the new Valencia Gardens. She later found out she was lied to when the developer held a lottery for units specifically set aside for cases such as hers. Jewnbug, co-founder of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Project, a multigenerational school for children zero to one hundred, summed up her application processes with John Stewart with this statement, “…it felt like a corporation who was not there to serve the people on fixed income, not to provide housing for fixed income folk or people in dire need of housing. They partnered with H.U.D. to get the space but not to give it to the people who need access to housing the most.” John Stewart is exploiting their contractual agreements to make low-income housing for the sole purpose of garnering more profits at the expense, displacement, and lives of poor people.

“I tried to get housing for me, mama dee and my son in several properties owned by John Stewart, but we never passed their strident application process and ridiculous income and credit requirements that are all about whitening San Francisco and displacing poor folks of color,” said Tiny ( aka Lisa Gray-Garcia) poverty scholar, welfareQUEEN and editor at POOR Magazine.

The tentacles of John Stewart reach farther than the application process. Marie Harrison, a former resident of Geneva Towers—a property formerly managed by John Stewart Company—a community activist, environmentalist, and writer for the Bay View had a long conversation with me regarding living at Geneva Towers and her experiences with John Stewart Company. “I lived in the Towers for eight years; on the 17th floor in Tower B… it was during this time that I learned what the word astounding means.” The violations in human rights and decrepit maintenance of these projects are enough to make one’s heart break. The buildings, which were twenty stories high, have since been torn down and the population displaced. The elevators rarely worked and when they did were extremely dangerous: at one point a small child’s finger was chopped off when it got stuck in the door. The water mostly ran a dark brown and muddy color from the faucets; additionally the hot came from the cold and the cold from the hot. The Health Department told John Stewart to supply bottled water; they did so, and locked it up in the basement making it accessible to no one. Residents could not open windows; they experienced extremely low lighting inside and no lighting on the surrounding premises. After a major fire in one of the towers, where a black fireman was killed, authorities discovered the emergency exits were padlocked, which prevented residents from exiting the building safely and out of harms way.

John Stewart announced that they were appalled by the ramifications of their poor maintenance of the facility and vowed to make repairs and clean things up. They never did, and when the Federal government came to do an audit, “all of a sudden all these trucks came from Montgomery Ward with brand new refrigerators and stoves… boxes and boxes… we got so excited until we saw they were going into the empty units,” Marie described to me. The buildings failed the inspection and the company was removed from managing the site. They were, in fact, barred from ever managing a housing project again. “How can you be fired by the Feds, then get to manage low income housing, and then sit on the Board as the Director…” Marie demanded an explanation of the gross negligence that encompassed her stay at Geneva Towers.

Marie makes a great point. How does one get fired and barred from maintaining public housing yet sit as the Director for the Low Income Housing Board both in San Francisco and Washington D.C., then receive exclusive rights to redevelop Hunter’s View? Not to mention all the other housing projects in the Wharf, North Beach, and the Mission that John Stewart Company still manages, especially after committing such careless and flagrant human rights violations. Mary Ratcliff mentioned that at some point during the era of Geneva Towers John Stewart himself said, “ [he] had thirty-five thousand black people under his control in San Francisco.” Thirty-five thousand black people… seems like he was building an empire on the backs of the poor.

This all can not be put solely on John Stewart Company. Everyone has their finger in the pot and is snatching any little piece that they can. Marie Harrison said it best: “stop looking at the people and follow the money.” During the construction of the Third Street Light Rail the City spent upwards to 648 million dollars. Not one penny of that was used in employing people inside of the community, i.e. no local merchants, contractors, or businesses were utilized during the construction in their own community; in other words all the work was outsourced. To add injury to insult, the Federal Government provides subsidies to cities and counties to compensate vendors along major transportation construction, San Francisco did not apply for this money and as a result many businesses along Third had to close or suffered extreme hardship. Many in the community believe that this was part of the City’s plan to push them out because the majority of the businesses and properties are owned by Blacks.

This is not the first time the whole re-development team has gotten together and has tried to pull sneaky moves to reach their objectives. James Tracy, a former Organizer with the Eviction Defense Network, recalls what occurred in the North Beach redevelopment: “the development team (not just John Stewart) tried to negotiate a provision where any extremely low-income unit could be converted to higher income “affordable” units if vacated for any reason. This would have resulted in the supply of available ELI units shrinking over time.” Luckily this didn’t happen. Why? The community organized, got motivated, and beat the developers.

This is not a completely hopeless situation. BayView Hunter’s Point has been built on the foundation of community activism, organizing, and empowerment. This is not the first time the BayView has been threatened. In the 1940s—with racial tensions running high—the community forced the City to not take their housing. “The key to a thriving, but non-gentrified neighborhood is the same no matter where it is: organized communities able to exert power on both public and private entities.” James Tracy is right. Communities united are a much stronger force—stronger than government or big developers because they are the voice and the will of the people. I pick up a cup of coffee from the corner store and watch another MUNI, full of working folk, pass me by; this time the ad is splashed across the side of the transporter. Discover Neighborhood Treasures: BayView!

Come and join us at POOR Magazine’s teach-ins with the residents of the threatened housing projects in Alice Griffith and Hunter’s View in May and be part of the City’s hidden treasure: the thriving, striving, and surviving community that is Hunter’s Point/BayView.

by Joseph Bolden

Spoiled In America

It’s Memorial Day.God, Honor, and Country, and Family.

The latter gets the fuzzy stick.

Warriors who’ve fought, are wounded, return, or die are the ones that can with intelligence reason, emotion, can tell those of us that have had no experience of war how terrible it is.

War is obsolete. Yes, there are times when its needed how-ever we may not need war as much a new kind of para- military option that’s less public.

A United Nations UMF= Ultimate Military Force, a systematic offence/defense system where men women from young to elder with innate or genetic/ nanoteched abilities could work in groups or individually of when enough is enough they will leave because that’s what folks tend to do after awhile.

That’s one of many scenario’s may work as war ends forever.

Now the topic. Spoiled in America.

I mean when the poorest in America can gain weight because of all the soup kitchen, churches, and inexpensive eateries all over America.

We’re so blessed except for widening digital divide most of us aren’t sick, diseased, but were so into movies, tv, plays, or trivia actually forgetting what real suffering is.

Some guy has a private war, his buds are oil biz folk doing every –thing they can to keep their dying monopoly.

We’ve stumbled, lost our way but all is about to change.

I won’t waste time on it we’ve lost much of our luster but I do khow this country will come out stronger maybe with all the pent up frustrations over the years we’ll remerge wiser too and maybe just may be a little less spoiled Americans in America.