2007

by tiny

Homeless mothers
and poor mothers

Low-wage mothers
and no-wage mothers

Welfare mothers

And three job working mothers

Immigrant mothers

And incarcerated mothers

In other words

This poem is honor of

INS-ed with,

CPS-ed withed and

Most of all

System-messed with

mothers

This poem is honor
of all those poor
women and men

And yes

I said men

Cause don’t sing
me that old song

About gender again

Who fight and struggle

And steal and beg

In every crevasse

And corner

to keep their kids in a bed

Who dress and feed

with tired hands

Who answer cries

over and over again

This poem is in honor of all those Mothers

who deserve to be coddled

And loved

Fed and protected

Instead of criminalized,

Marginalized

and rarely respected

Who can barely make it but always do

And still raise all the worlds' people

Like me

you

and you

Can I get a witness?

This poem is honor of mothers

Who can barely make it

But sometimes do…

And still raise all the worlds' people

Like me

you

and you

by David Kelly/LA TIMES

Reprinted for educational purposes from the LA Times

THERMAL, CALIF. � Like most of their neighbors in the sprawling, ramshackle Oasis Mobile Home Park, the Aguilars have no heat, no hot water. On cold nights, the family of eight stays warm by bundling up in layers of sweaters and sleeps packed together in two tiny rooms.

Bathing is a luxury that requires using valuable propane to boil gallons of water. So the farmworker clan spends a lot of time dirty.

Jose Aguilar, a wiry 9-year-old, has found a way around the bath problem. He just waits until dinner. "My mom makes frijoles," he said, "then I take a bath in that water."

Jose and his family live in a world few ever see, a vast poverty born in hundreds of trailer parks strung like a shabby necklace across the eastern Coachella Valley.

Out here � just a few miles from world-class golf resorts, private hunting clubs and polo fields � half-naked children toddle barefoot through mud and filth while packs of feral dogs prowl piles of garbage nearby.

Thick smoke from mountains of burning trash drifts through broken windows. People � sometimes 30 or more � are crammed into trailers with no heat, no air-conditioning, undrinkable water, flickering power and plumbing that breaks down for weeks or months at a time.

"I was speechless," said Haider Quintero, a Colombian training for the priesthood who recently visited the parks as part of his studies. "I never expected to see this in America."

Riverside County officials say there are between 100 and 200 illegal trailer parks in the valley, but the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition says the number could be as high as 500.

California Rural Legal Assistance says as few as 20 parks are legal, and they are often as dilapidated as the illegal ones. When county inspectors locate a park without permits, they prefer to let owners bring the place into compliance through loan and grant programs rather than evict the tenants.

Some of the largest and poorest parks are on the Torres Martinez Indian Reservation where they are not subject to local zoning laws and the county can't monitor safety, hygiene and building standards. The reservation is also home to the worst illegal dumps of any tribe in California, Arizona or Nevada, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The federal agency has closed 10 of the 20 most toxic dumps and cited four of the largest trailer parks for health violations.

Despite the conditions, park owners say they are providing a vital service in an area where housing prices have soared.

"Before the parks, they were living in their cars, in the desert and bathing in the canals. Five guys would pay 50 bucks a month to share a camper shell," said Scott Lawson, a tribal member and co-owner of the Oasis park on the reservation. "Nobody cared when they lived like that, only when they moved into trailers. You can't expect the poorest to live like the wealthiest. They feel comfortable here; it's like being back in Mexico. They tell me that."

Lawson's 300-trailer park has been cited by the EPA for clean-water violations and was recently ordered to stop pumping raw sewage into the nearby Salton Sea.

"We had some citations about water but it's because we didn't know how to test it," he said. "I'm not ashamed of my place. There are a lot worse places than mine."

Exactly how many people live in the trailer parks is unknown, but social workers estimate tens of thousands. The biggest park, Desert Mobile Home Park, or "Duroville," has more than 4,000 residents and can be seen off California 195 near Thermal. Others are on private property and virtually invisible to passing motorists.

The tenants are almost entirely Latino farm or construction workers. Many are in the United States legally, but plenty are not. Their average income, according to county officials, is about $10,000 a year. Many parents rent out their children's rooms for extra money, leaving kids to sleep on floors or in sheds. Many families keep warm by burning grape stakes, which fill their trailers with toxic fumes.

In one nameless park on the reservation off Avenue 70 in Thermal, trailers with broken windows and unhinged doors sit against piles of trash. Box springs, tires, car parts are stacked 10 feet high. Sewage runs behind the trailers, and wild dogs yap and howl.

"This place has some of the worst conditions I have seen," said Sister Gabriella Williams, who does community outreach in the parks and is raising money to build a learning center for residents. "And it's actually gotten worse since I last saw it."

She picked her way through a yard that doubled as a trash heap.

"The park owners have to look into their own conscience as to why they run these kinds of places with these kind of conditions," she said. "They wouldn't want this in their backyard. They wouldn't tolerate it. We all need to recognize the dignity in each other."

Former resident Conrrada Valenzuela said she went three months without electricity, living by candlelight.

Maria Renosa, 35, from Guatemala, lives in the park now. She makes $7.25 an hour picking broccoli and shares a battered, sparsely furnished trailer with six other adults and her children, Edith, 2, and Frank, 3.

Renosa's husband was recently deported for being undocumented. "It would cost him $5,000 to return," she said. "I am not going back. What am I going to do there? I'd love to live somewhere else, but here it only costs $360 a month."

The EPA has cited park owner Robin Lawson for clean-water violations; Lawson could not be reached for comment. He is Scott Lawson's brother. Another brother, Kim, operated a vast, illegal dump for more than a decade that was shut down last year by a federal judge.

The presence of the parks on the reservation has frustrated Torres Martinez Tribal Chairman Raymond Torres.

"The owners started off with good intentions, then I think it overwhelmed them," he said. "I have a real problem with it. Someone is going to get hurt. I'd like to see the parks gone and the owners start over again."

But in the complex world of tribal sovereignty, Torres cannot close the parks; only the Bureau of Indian Affairs can. The bureau said last week that parks on the reservation are illegal because they do not issue bureau-approved leases to tenants. They are now threatening legal action against Duroville and said other parks could be next.

Trailer parks began springing up on Indian land largely because of a county crackdown. In 1998, after several fatal accidents caused by faulty wiring, Riverside County began closing parks that did not have permits and threatening to sue others not up to code. Faced with outrage from farmworker advocates and the Roman Catholic Church, who feared thousands could be rendered homeless, officials backed off, but not before many panicked park dwellers had moved onto the reservation.

"We wish we could wave a magic wand and make them go away," said County Supervisor Roy Wilson. "But we can't."

Adding to the misery is Kim Lawson's dump. Since 1992, it has burned paint cans, car batteries, plastic pipe and treated wood and other waste, throwing so many toxins into the air and soil that EPA said the dump represented an "endangerment [that] can be considered imminent and increasing over time."

And the dump, its smoke blowing for miles up and down the valley, sits right beside Duroville. A 2003 EPA memo reported some areas of the dump contained levels of dioxin 20 times the national average. Dioxin, a carcinogen, is one of the deadliest manufactured substances.

According to agency documents, soil samples revealed dioxin, PCBs and asbestos in Duroville itself. Citing the risks of cancer and other illnesses, the EPA urged the dump's immediate closure. The park remained open because the danger to it was not deemed "imminent," said agency attorney Letitia Moore.

Four years after the EPA recommendation, a federal judge in Riverside closed the dump in August. On Thursday, the judge ordered Lawson to pay $46.9 million to help clean up the mess. Since the facility was padlocked, there have been 20 fires � most the result of spontaneous combustion, said Ray Paiz, battalion chief with the Riverside County Fire Department. One fire in November nearly forced the evacuation of Duroville and nearby schools.

Smoke in the parks is as common as wild dogs and swirling dust. Health workers report that children suffer high levels of pulmonary illnesses, coughs, infections and skin rashes.

"These are almost Third World conditions," said Rosa Lucas, a nurse who runs the Oasis Clinic, across the road from a trailer park. "It's unbearable out there when there is burning. You literally can't go outside."

Although poverty is endemic in the parks, nothing rivals Duroville for sheer blight.

The 40-acre park is a grim, colorless warren of dirt roads with more than 300 trailers tightly packed inside. It's often hard to tell an abandoned scrap heap from a home. There are start-up businesses � car dealerships, a small taco stand and a restaurant specializing in Michoacan food � squeezed in amid the clutter. Trash blows here and there. Toddlers, some naked from the waist down, wander around in fetid muck. A wall surrounds part of the place, a thin barrier separating it from the dump.

What began as occupants of a few trailers seeking refuge from the county has turned into a vast slum bearing streets named after members of park owner Harvey Duro's family. Duro declined to comment for this article.

Efforts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to close Duroville fizzled in 2003 when the owner agreed to make basic electrical and sewage improvements. Still, officials said, he has failed to provide tenants bureau-approved leases defining minimum living standards.

"He will have to come up with an approved lease or we will shut him down," said James Fletcher, the bureau's superintendent for Southern California.

Fletcher said all the parks on Indian land could be closed if they don't provide leases. "If that happens, where do the people go?" he asked. "I don't know."

Duroville is a bastion of poverty divided between the poor and the desperately poor. Among the most destitute are the Purepecha, an indigenous people from the Mexican state of Michoacan who speak neither Spanish nor English but their own language, Purepechan. They are often mocked by other Latinos who consider them backward.

In their culture, girls often marry young and drop out of school to have children.

Anjelica Serrano, a Purepechan, watched her children play in the dirt. "I got married at 15," she said through an interpreter, "and have five children."

She is 24.

At night, the dark streets come alive with thumping rap and mariachi music pouring from cars. Ice cream vendors work the narrow streets. Because there are no sidewalks, pedestrians keep a wary eye on traffic. Men gather in front of trailers, some drinking themselves into oblivion. Others have hard stares and watchful eyes. Residents say drug dealing is rife.

Theresa Argueta, 42, would leave if she could afford to. She lives in a two-bedroom trailer with her husband and eight children. The four boys sleep in the living room, the four girls in a tiny bedroom. Inside, the trailer is festooned with rosaries and statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"The smoke has affected my children's health," she said. "When the smoke comes, they get bloody noses and have difficulty breathing."

On the other side of the park, Cesar Rafael, 17, a Purepechan, lives in his parents' trailer. He and several other students at Desert Mirage High School in Thermal made a short video about their world, "The Contaminated Valley," which was shown at school.

"I wanted people to see another side of life," he said. "Everything is poisonous here, even the water is poisonous. And nobody really cares about it. We are invisible."

david.kelly@latimes.com

by Staff Writer

by Angel Garcia/Reportero para POBRE Prensa

Para espanol mire hacia bajo

On May 1st, 2007, I awoke at five o'clock in the morning to catch the first bus to San Francisco. I arrived at Dolores Park just as the march for immigrant rights was beginning. I was there to report and support with Prensa POBRE (POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork).

May first is historically the "workers day". Last year the immigrant rights movement appropriated that day and we made it our own; we called that day “un dia sin immigrantes", which means, "A day without immigrants".

At the march, many signs read, “Amnesty for all. We are America. We made America!” The names of our cities and barrios tell us parts of our history. La Mission, San Francisco, and Los
Angeles are just a few names that signify California’s history as a part of Mexico.

The park was filled with various people of different nationalities and age groups. I saw families that brought their babies with them. I saw people carrying signs, which read, “We are all illegal.” If anyone should be labeled illegal than we, as
Americans, must all be illegal. We are all immigrants, even our own governor. On my back, I wore a sign reading, “We are here and we ain’t leaving. Reportero para POBRE prensa is against all false borders!”

I am an immigrant myself. I believe the march united us. I realized the power we have when we all come together and unite regardless of our different nationalities. As immigrants in this country, we have the privilege to demand our rights, our equality, and our stability. A lot of people think that we as immigrants are animals and criminals. Immigrants and people of color are being pitted against each other. But we are all the same. We deal with and live in the same system.

As we made our way down Guerrero, towards Civic Center, the sun shifted back and
forth between the clouds. People were carrying flags from different countries that swung back and forth in the gusty wind. We were a group of
non-violent marchers representing what we hope for in the world. We hope for a
world without false borders and a place where we can all walk peacefully.

The police were present on every corner. The marchers chanted, “la migra la policia la misma porqueria!", which means, "The police and the border patrol; they are all the same!”

I saw some people carrying coffins. People are dying in vain in Iraq, and people are also just dying crossing the border. False borders create separation that in turn creates more violence. False borders not only separate but also strip us of our culture.

This was the first march I ever participated in. I was excited to be part of the change. I believe that, as immigrants, we represent America. As immigrant workers, we still have to work and pay taxes, like everyone else, and we are often denied services and rights. I saw many families marching side by side. It is hard to imagine that the police and the immigration laws are breaking families like these apart everyday. My body grew tense as I imagined parents being taken away from their kids.

So many of us were marching; we were marching to keep our families whole. We were marching to stop the unjust detentions, to stop the criminalization of immigrants and to unite.

My hope is that the unity that was created on this May Day is carried along for the rest of our lives and passed on to our children.

Todos Somos Iquales

El primero de mayo, del 2007 yo me levante a las 5 de la mañana para poder alcanzar el primer bus hacia San Francisco. Yo llegue al Parque Dolores cuando la marcha empezaba. Yo estaba allí para reportar y apoyar a Prensa POBRE (POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork). El primero de mayo es un día histórico, por que es el “día de las trabajadores/as.” El ultimo año el movimiento de los derechos de los inmigrantes tomo ese día y lo hizo el suyo; nosotras llamamos ese día “un día sin inmigrantes.” En la marcha, muchas pancartas decían, “Amnistía para todas. Somos América. Construimos América!” Los nombres de nuestras ciudades y barrios nos cuentan parte de nuestra historia. La Misión, San Francisco, y Los Angeles son solo algunos nombres que enseñan la historia de California como parte de México.

El parque estaba lleno de varias personas de diferentes nacionalidades y grupos de edades. Yo vi familias que trajeron a sus bebes con ellas. Yo vi a personas cargando pancartas que leían, “Todos somos ilegales.” Y si alguna persona es clasificada como ilegales, entonces nosotras como Americanos, también somos ilegales. Todas somos inmigrantes incluyendo nuestro gobernador “El Terminador.”

Yo soy inmigrante también. Y pienso que la marcha nos ha unido. Ahora entiendo el poder que tenemos cuando todos nos unimos y no nos preocupamos de nuestras diferentes nacionalidades. Y como inmigrantes en este país, tenemos el priveliego de estar demandando por nuestros derechos, nuestra igualdad, y nuestra estabilidad.

Muchas personas piensan que nosotras como inmigrantes somos animales y criminales. Inmigrantes y gente de color están siendo puestos uno contra e otra. Todos somos iguales. Todos pasamos y vivimos en el mismo sistema.

Cuando pasábamos por la Guerrero, hacia el Civic Center, el sol se metía y salía de las nubes. Y la gente cargaba banderas de diferentes países. Y cuando el viento se levantaba, las banderas piloteaban en el viento. Nosotras éramos un grupo pacifico de marchantes representando nuestra esperanza para el mundo. Nuestra esperanza es de tener un mundo sin fronteras falsas y un lugar donde todas puedamos caminar en paz.

La presencia de la policía estaba en cada esquina. Y las marchantes gritaban, “la migra! la policía! la misma porquería!” Yo también vi algunas personas cargando ataúdes. La gente esta muriendo en vano en Irak y la gente también esta muriendo cruzando la frontera. Estas falsas fronteras crean separaciones que después se convierten en mas violencia. Estas fronteras falsas no solo separan sino también nos quitan nuestra cultura.

Esta fue la primera marcha en la que participe. Y estaba emocionado que tome parte de este cambio. Yo creo que como inmigrantes, nosotras representamos América. Y como trabajadores/as inmigrantes, nosotras también tenemos que trabajar y pagar impuestos, como cualquier otra persona.

Yo vi muchas familias marchando de hombro en hombro. Es muy difícil imaginar que la policía y las leyes de inmigración están separando familias. Mi cuerpo se tensa cuando pienso de los niños siendo separados de sus padres. Muchos de nosotras estamos marchando; estamos marchando para mantener a nuestras familias.

Nosotras marchamos para poner un alto a las injustas detenciones, para parar la criminalizacion de las inmigrantes. En mi espalda yo cargaba una pancarta que leía, “aquí estamos y no nos vamos!”

Este Reportero para Prensa POBRE esta en contra todas las fronteras falsas!” Y la unidad que se creo el primero de mayo tiene que ser cargada por el resto de nuestras vidas y seguirla para nuestros hijas.

by Angela Pena/Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia Reportera

For English scroll down.

El alcalde no les abrio la puerta a los nino's!

Una marcha dirigida por nino's trato de reunirse con el alcalde Newsom- El no abrio la puerta.

"Ciento que el Sr. Alcalde no nos escucha�, dijo Katia de 10 a�os, una ni�a que lucha contra la falta de vivienda en San Francisco, con su familia mientras se encontraba parada enfrente de la oficina del alcalde Gavin Newsom el jueves 10 de mayo del 2007. Ella toco: ella grito, canto y espero. Y aunque esper� con 35 otras personas y ni�os que tienen necesidad de vivienda para dialogar con el alcalde sobre la situacion de viviendas y soluciones a la falta de viviendas y no abrio la puerta.

�Quiero ver a Newsom� declaro Jobani, de 10, mientras se encontraba afuera de la oficina de Gavin Newsom, �Lo unico que queremos es viviendas�.

El 3 de abril del 2007, la Coalicion de Desamparados, pidio a Newsom que reconociera la necesidad de viviendas para familias de bajo recursos. El 10 de mayo del 2007 la Coalicion regreso- esta ves, el grupo fue dirigido por ni�os, ni�os de familias Latinas, Afro-Americanas, Blancas y Asiatiocas que estan en busqueda de vivienda justa.

Las familias mandaron un llamado a la ciudad para que realmente implemente la polisa de �Vivienda Primero Para Familias Desemparadas� que eliminaria el proceso de espera y de vivienda transicional, que es requerido para familias que buscan vivienda. Las demandas incluyen crear viviendas acesibles para familias desamparadas y pone un limite a la cantidad de tiempo que una familia deve de esperar para recivir una vivienda. Un reporte de la ciudad del 2002 encontro que familias esperan un promedio de 3 a 5 meses para espacios en refugios y cuatro a�os para recivir vivienda de seccion 8.

Mientras esperabamos afuera de la oficina del alcalde, los oficiales de seguridad se asomaban para ver si nos habiamos marchado. Como inmigrante y reportera con Prensa POBRE, estoy presente para reportar y apoyar la accion y me impresiona ver como se re�nen tantas familias desamparadas con ni�os que sobreviven las condiciones de vivienda en esta ciudad.

En el 2004, durante la conferencia del alcalde sobre desamparados, que se expuso que el gropo y numero de ni�os desamparados esta incrementando en San Francisco y que estan en riesgo de tener problemas de corto y largo plaso. Estabamos alli demandando un alto al impacto negativo que tiene al ser desamparados estos ni�os y sus familias; la solucion es viviendas estables y permanentes.

Nuestra primera bienvenida nos fue dada por el Sherif que nos informo que no podiamos tener pancartartas y r�tulos por que estorbavan una gran alfombra roja que se habia puesto para una fiesta de lujo en la alcaldia. Esto sucedio mientras nos reuniamos en las gradas de la alcaldia.

Platique con unas de las madres y abuelas que se encontraban presentes como Silvia Rivas que me dijo, �Estamos aqui por que queremos viviendas y ya no queremos vivir en albergues y hoteles�

�Queremos un hogar donde podramos vivir mejor. Tenemos ocho meses peleando y ya hemos venido como unas quince veces pero no nos dan una bienvenida,� dijo Maria de Rodriguez.

Tambien platique con Angela, una organizadora representante de las familias Asiaticas, �Estamos apoyando esta accion por que estamos en la misma situacion; muchas personas viven en un solo cuarto�

�Newsom, reunete con los ni�os� decian los peque�os con sus familias mientras marchaban por la alcaldia, pidiendo justicia. ��Que queremos?�, gritaban las madres de familia mientras otros contestaban, �Viviendas�.

Despues de unos minutos el Sheriff se acerco a nosotros y nos dijo que nos mantenieramos silencio ya molestamos el trabajo del la alcaldia.

Unas de las madres tocaron la puerta del alcalde denuevo mientras los ni�os expresaban lo que sentian. Leslie, que tiene siete a�os nos dijo que �Si el quisiera los ni�os saldr�a a hablar con nosotros�

El Sheriff se acerco con los adultos y a intimidar a los ni�os con su precencia. No conformes con esto, les piden que desalojen la Alcald�a, los presentes caminamos por los pasillos diciendo le al Sr. Alcalde que recibiera los ni�os. Newsome no salio, aunque sabiamos que estaba en su oficina no sedio cinco minutos para los ni�os.

La respuesta dada a esta situaci�n fue algo incre�ble, alguien incendio la alarma de fuego para poder sacar a todos los presentes y seguridad hizo su trabajo, sacando a todas las personas. Lo extra�� es que las personas que preparaban la fiesta se quedaron trabajando. As� evadieron que la protesta efectuada y el Sr. Alcalde nunca salio de su oficina.

Angela Pe�a es una intellectual de pobresa, estudiante y reportera con la clase Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia, Projecto de Prensa POBRE.

Article in English

�I feel that the mayor does not listen to us, � Katia, 10, a child struggling with homelessness who is living in San Francisco with her family said as she stood in front of Mayor Gavin Newsom�s office on Thursday, May 10th. She knocked. She chanted and she waited. And although she stood with over 35 other homeless and poor children and families who had gathered on this day to speak with the mayor about housing and solutions to homelessness, he did not open the door.

�I want to see Newsom,� Jobani, 10, declared as he stood outside San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom�s office, �All we want is housing.�

On April 3rd, 2007 the Coalition on Homelessness asked Newsom to recognize the dire need for housing for low income families. On May 10th, 2007, they were back � this time led by the children, children from Latino, Black, White and Asian families who only want some justice, housing justice.

They were calling on the City to truly implement a �Housing First for Homeless Families� Policy, eliminating the �readiness process,� such as waiting periods and transitional housing, that is now often required for families seeking housing. Their requests included creating more real affordable housing for homeless families and putting a limit on the amount of time a family must wait for housing. A report by the City in 2002 found that on average families wait 3-5 months for space in a fulltime shelter and 4 years for Section 8 housing.

As we stood outside the mayor�s office, while his security officer peeked out from time to time to see if we had left yet. I, as an inmigrante reportera with POOR Magazine, present to re-port and sup-port on the action was shocked to see the amount of families with children that are struggling with housing and homelessness in the City.

In 2004 at the Mayor�s conference on homelessness, it was found that homeless children are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in San Francisco and that they are at risk for numerous short and long term problems. We were there to demand an end to the negative impact of homelessness on these children and their families; the solution is stable, permanent housing.

Our first welcome as we gathered on the steps of City Hall was by the Sheriff�s who told us we couldn�t hold our banner because it got in the way of a large red carpet they had laid down for a fancy party they had planned for that night at City Hall

I spoke with some of the mothers and grandmothers present such as Silvia Rivas, �We are here because we want housing because we do not want to live in shelters and hotels,�

�We want a home where we can live better. We have eight months of fighting and we have come here fifteen times but we are not welcomed,� said Maria de Rodriguez,

I also spoke to Angela an organizer representing the Asian families present, �We are supporting this protest because we are in the same situation; many people live in one room.�

�Newsom, meet with the kids� The children and families marched in City Hall calling out for justice �What do we want?� yelled the mothers while others responded, �Housing�.

After several more minutes the Sheriff came up to us and told us to be quiet- that we were disturbing the �business� in the building.

Some of the mothers knocked on the Mayor�s door again while the children expressed their feelings to us. Leslie who is seven told us that �If he likes children he will come out to talk to us�.

The Sheriff came close to the adults and intimidated the children with his presence. Not satisfied with this, they ask us to leave city hall, those of us who are there walk through the halls calling out �Meet with the children�. Newsom did not come out, he was in his office, he did not have five minutes for the children.

The response to the situation was a bit incredible, someone turned on the fire alarm so that everyone would leave the premises. The people who were setting up for the party stayed inside working. The Mayor stayed inside his office.

Angela Pena is a poverty scholar and student -reporter with Voices of Immigrant Resistance Project at POOR Magazine.

by Leroy F. Moore

Back in 1999, I started writing for POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork. I had been desperately trying to find a media outlet that would listen to and publish my stories on the struggles, talents, and rights of disabled people of color. At that time there was very little in any form of media about disabled people of color, and although there have been some positive changes recently, the mass media still in 2007 has a laissez-fair approach when it comes to issues in the disabled community and they are still individualizing not connecting our issues and news to the larger social justice picture.

Although mainstream and, yes even some of our progressive media outlets still have a laissez-faire approach when it comes to disability, it doesn’t mean that people with disabilities are not creating newsworthy headlines. From the political arena to music studios and even in Hollywood people with disabilities are starting to play a major role in politics, music, art and much more; however the mainstream and a lot of progressive media have chosen to not cover our groundbreaking stories. And, if they do cover a story about the disabled community, they almost always use out-of-date terminology or worst talk to experts in the field about disability not to the people living with the disability. How many media outlets reported on the record amount of disabled candidates who ran for political office in last year°¶s election or the recent police shooting of a disabled elderly woman in Atlanta?

The June US Social Forum in Atlanta will provide the groundbreaking opportunity to change how the media is portraying the issues affecting the disabled community by producing stories in the Peoples Media Center and The People Press Room controlled by grassroots journalist\activists. Atlanta is not only the home of CNN but is also the birth place of a new media network
EF.TV, which is not only for people with disabilities but also completely run by people with disabilities. POOR Magazine has worked with grassroots and disabled media outlets like EF.TV throughout the entire U.S. for many years.

In the Peoples Media Center and The Peoples Press Room at the US Social forum (USSF) slated to happen in Atlanta in June, a radical form of media production will take place. Launched by poverty, race, disability and youth scholars at POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, a non-profit media, arts and education organization, The Peoples Media Center will educate, facilitate and set up collaborations between established corporate, independent, ethnic and alternative media producers and global and local poverty and race scholars. These radical collaborations will result in the production of several forms of media (radio, TV, on-line and print) about a multitude of issues, events, and actions, but these stories will be told through the voices of the real experts, those experiencing the issues being written about.

As well as, we will work to build long-term collaborations between established corporate, independent, ethnic and alternative media and the race, poverty and disability scholars to create ongoing channels of media access, syndication, and new reporting models. These will provide sustainability to new media voices and society at large with long-term real and actionable solutions to poverty, homelessness, police abuse, gentrification, displacement, incarceration, violence, immigration and much more.

I remember in 1992 when POOR Magazine and the Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization held a press conference and a veteran disabled Latino organizer looked at the small crowd and noticed once again that the mainstream media was not there. He shouted, "If they don't come to us, we will go to them. Mainstream media, you're going to get your ass picketed!" Almost fourteen years later we, POOR Magazine stand alongside people with disabilities at the US Social Forum and demand an end to the mainstream media's Laissez faire approach to disabled issues and lives!

by Staff Writer

by tiny

Para espanol, mire hacia bajo

Blue chards of San Francisco sky blinded our eyes as we emerged from POOR
Magazine’s tenderloin office and headed underground to the BART station.
Our cru consisted of my son tiburcio, a seasoned marcher at the ripe age
of almost four, driving the infamous Si Se Puede Chariot ( read: hooptie
stroller), myself covered from head to toe in pobre gente resistance
signage- and Angel Garcia, one of POOR’s newest inmigrante reporteros and
soon to be published POOR Press author. Our powerful grupo was small but
we were on our way to meet up with more folk from POOR, POWER, La
Collectiva de Mujer, and thousands of others in honor of inmigrante
workers at Delores Park on May day

“I think the “J” train would work better than BART”, said Angel gazing
into the rivers of tunnel in front of us. After several minutes of
confused wrangling with schedules and underground possibilities Angel and
I decided that taking the J train on MUNI would be better than the BART
and cause Angel is living with a physical disability, he needs to take the
elevator – so down we went.

Upon reaching the muni platform, Angel, tiburcio and I continued on with
moments of spacial confusion. Although I travel almost every day on the
multiple trains that run through the arteries of this City, we
collectively lost site of our direction. Which must be the reason that I
forgot my own rule that you NEVER ask the po-lice for ANYTHING!

“Is this the right way to Delores Park” I casually said to a BART/MUNI
po’lice officer stationed oddly right at the mouth of the escalator

“Do you have proof of payment?” she said, her triangle- shot gun legs
stiffening in tandem with a bullit proofed vested chest.

“Excuse me,” I stumbled, “I just asked you for directions”
“Do you have proof of payment”, she continued without blinking
“WHAT!?, activist tiny yelped, “I asked you for help, why are you
harassing me?”

“Are you resisting my inquiry, Do we need to have you arrested?” She began
talking lovingly to her shoulder radio, “Officer 3256 requesting
back-up….”

“Here,” Formerly incarcerated, system trained, tiny began desperately
searching through my stuff for a ticket.

“Cancel Back-up,” the words were terse, and loaded with disdain. She
pulled out her citation book and began to write.
“Are you giving me a citation?”
She didn’t answer.

Several more minutes of targeted harassment followed until she finally
“allowed” us to leave. No-longer-remotely-activist-tiny felt as though a
giant knife had been twisted and turned through my insides. The grueling
moments of –losing-my-son-going-to-jail-terror clung to me like dried
vomit.

“Mama, where would I go if they took you away,” As we all numbly rolled
over to the J train, my son completed the sorrow of the moment with his
plaintive request. Feelings of empowerment and resistance, consciousness
and pride that should belong to this important day fell away from my mind
and soul like petals off of a sunflower.

The day was filled with multiple voices of inmigrante scholarship, which I
was blessed to see and hear, but later that day when I heard about the
brutal attacks on all the gente pobre, and poor families at LA’s May Day
Marcha, my still adrenalin wrecked mind shuddered for all the brutal ICE
raids on immigrants, po’lice harassment of all poor people of color
locally and globally and border fascism which remains stronger and more
frightening than ever.

Resistiendo (Arresto!)

Las miembras académicos de POOR Magazine fueron abusadas por la policía el primero de mayo.

Cardos azules de San Francisco nublaron nuestros ojos al salir de nuestra oficina de POOR Magazine ubicada en el barrio del Tenderloin y nos dirigimos hacia la estación subterránea de BART. Nuestro equipo consistía de mi hijo Tiburcio, un marchante ya con mucha experiencia a sus cuatro años de edad, manejando la infame Carriola de Si Se Puede (lean: hooptie stroller) yo cubierta de pies a cabeza con resistencia de gente pobre- y Angel Garcia, uno de los nuevos reporteros y muy pronto publicador y autor de Prensa POBRE. Nuestro grupo poderoso era pequeño pero estábamos apunto de reunirnos con mas gente de POOR, POWER, La Colectiva de Mujeres, y miles de otras personas en honor a las trabajadores/as inmigrantes en el Parque Dolores este primero de mayo.

“Yo pienso que el tren “J” será mejor que el BART” dijo Angel mirando a los ríos de túneles enfrente de nosotros. Después de varios minutos de confundirnos con horarios y posibilidades subterráneas Angel y yo decidimos tomar el tren J en MUNI por que seria mejor que BART y por que Angel esta viviendo con una deshabilitad física, y el necesita tomar el elevador – entonces empezamos a bajar.

Llegando a la plataforma de MUNI, Angel, Tiburcio y yo continuamos con nuestros momentos de confusión. Y aunque yo viajo casi todos los días en múltiples trenes que corren por las arterias de la ciudad, nosotras perdimos nuestra dirección. Y es por esa la razón que se me olvido mi regla de NUNCA pedirles NADA a la policía!

“¿Es esta la manera correcta de llegar al Parque Dolores?” le pregunte casualmente al policía de BART/MUNI estacionada extrañamente en la boca de la escalera. “tienes alguna prueba de que pagaron?” dijo ella, sus piernas triangulares se atiesaron fuertemente con su chaleco anti balas en su pecho. “discúlpeme” empecé a decir “yo solo le pregunte por direcciones.”

“Tiene alguna prueba de que pagaron,” ella continuo sin moverse “¿QUE!?” dijo con vos alta la activista Tiny “Yo te pregunte por ayuda, ¿por que me estas abusando?”

“Estas resistiendo mi pregunta, ¿necesitamos arrestarte?” ella empezó a platicar muy despacio con su radio en su hombro, “oficial 3256 requiriendo ayuda…” “Aquí tiene” anteriormente encarcelada y entrenada por el sistema, dijo Tiny desesperadamente buscando en sus cosas por un boleto. “cancelen la ayuda,” las palabras fueron mencionadas, y pronunciadas con desden. Ella saco su libro de citaciones y empezó a escribir. “¿me estas dando una citación?” ella no contesto.

Varios minutos abuso escogido continuaron después hasta que finalmente nos dio “permiso” de irnos. No-mas-remotamente-activista-Tiny sintió como si una navaja gigante avía sido metida y volteada en mis adentros. Los momentos horrorosos de perder a mi hijo por ir a la cárcel se quedaron dentro de mi como vomito seco.

“Mama, ¿que hubiera pasado conmigo si te hubieran llevado?” mi hijo completo el dolor de este momento con su pregunta, cuando empezamos a caminar hacia el tren J. Sentimientos de poder y resistencia, conciencia y orgullo que deberían de haber permanecido en ese día tan importante se fueron de mi mente y alma como pétalos de un girasol.

Ese día estuvo lleno de muchas voces inmigrantes, que yo me sentí bendecía en escuchar y ver, pero después ese mismo día escuche de los ataques brutales hacia la gente pobre y familias en la marcha del primero de mayo en Los Angeles, mi mente todavía llena de adrelina se estremeció por todas estas redadas brutales en contra las inmigrantes, el abuso policial en contra toda la gente pobre de color localmente y globalmente y por el fascismo de la frontera que continua mas fuertemente y espantoso que nunca.

by Joseph Bolden

Spanish Inquisition, Again?

Remember Monty Python Flying Circus skits about the Spanish Inquisition?

Their doing their bits and at some point out of nowhere dramatic music then dressed in historic costumes they announce "No One Ever Expects The Spanish Inquisition."

KQED’s 4pt. Show on The Spanish Inquisition is a testament to how much vice there is in so called redemption.

When one’s beliefs are so narrow minded that nothing penetrates.

from the suffering of separated families, jealousy,and death plus plundering of coveted lands by greed using religious fever as contest to confiscate valuable lands.

All for the sake of saving souls.

Recently The Honorable Reverend Jerry Falwell died May 15, 2007.

I won’t dwell on his legacy that’s for greater minds to phantom.

What I’ll say as a Roman Catholic raised in the religion is because of him and others Ronald Reagan was elected President and Reagan placed a ten year moratorium on Biotechnology.

Another current Born Again Christian slows the science of Therapeutic Stem Cell science because of his personal belief system it’s the same with his (Yes, His) Middle East War.

The guy doesn’t bend, reflect,or expand his thinking process about what damage he and his cronies continue to do.

What I’m getting at truth is already a casualty of this war and ideas to use diplomatic means is seen as a sign of weakness.

What the Spanish Inquisition and today’s Fundamentalist stranglehold on Government has is the cutting off of dialog, questions,ideas,and that is what lead Europe into The Dark Ages of an Church Control.

One must remember all the horny priests,nuns, women,and men,in those time when being monk,brother, nun, or of any holy order literally conferred the power of life and death over individuals.

Though the morals of priest’s are questioned lightly it was no contest Jews,Islam, Buddhist,and other religions were seen as less than or no religion at all and people’s of those faiths as others were routinely tortured,burned, at the stake even if one finally confessed to whatever they were accused of most were still killed to cleansed their souls.

Women, especially because of the awesome power of giving birth were constantly seen as an evil, wicked,profane presence.

Being either strikingly pretty, beautiful,and or having full figures is a near death sentence for those refusing to lay with monks, priests,or high ranked officials.

Those that did some still paid with torture and or their lives because of guilt some of those higher ups had.

Imagine beautiful women, devastatingly handsome men because of lust of mainly men or a few wealthy had to pay others projected lusts.

Not too far removed from Slave days when blaming the victims for seemingly animalistic qualities when master or mistress forced their desire on a people condemned to labor and bred to continue enforced labor.

When they are forced to reproduce,from strangers to incest unknown to those separated from birth on the whim of masters then blamed for the condition was always the hidden hypocrisy of that peculiar institution who’s legacy follows this nation to this day.

Now most if not all of us understand the separation of Church and State so leader such as one we have now cannot tie religious belief to politics or make policy from it.

See what has happened the religious right wants one way of thinking, living, as long as it their way there is no problem.

The country is secular not a monastic monastery of religious rules.

It may have worked for Middle East in their history but its not ours it also means we don’t invade nations under flags of truce,protection and in the guise depopulate them in the guise of freedom and democracy.

It’s a mockery of America stands for.

I don’t trust church, state,governments, municipalities,and few people all have erred as I have sometimes but that does not mean one cannot learn and do better from lessons learned.

Didn’t the world learn anything from The Spanish Inquisition?

Are really heading from gray,to dark yet again brought on by a new set of Inquisitors?

Lets not repeat His/Herstory and keep all of us free of religious intolerance.

The only people who know how to defeat the Evangelical Religious Right or so Moral Majority are the religious folk knowing psychologically devastating religious dogma can be if not stopped,turned around and countered with the truth and not use for gaining political power and changing laws into repressive dogmatic codes.

That’s my opinon.

Guess I’ll go in church and pray on it.

by Mari Villaluna

While I was in middle school I fell in love with writing, and at the same time I fell in love with teenage girl magazines. I would read Seventeen, Sweet Sixteen, and Teen. I kept a magazine collection and for hours would gaze at all the clothes, makeup, shoes, and models. I never once saw anyone who looked like me or any articles written by girls like me. The same girls, who bought these magazines were not even shown in the pictures and many of the models were well over seventeen. Looking back many years later, I realized that most magazines that portray teens hardly ever publish teens. I dreamed that one day my writing would be published in one of these magazines.

I spoke with Emmanuel Anguiano, a Cal State Eastbay student, about the role of youth in the media industry and he stated, "Even magazines that are catered to youth, like Seventeen are run by adults. Why doesn’t the corporate media let youth write the articles?" Anguiano went on about the role of student media, "Many youth participate in their student newspapers, and anytime they speak from their truth they get censored."

The media industry not only censors youth, but takes it a step further by portraying youth of color as criminals. In fact, out of 13.3 million youth, 59.3%, volunteer an average of 3.5 hours per week, versus 49% of the adult population volunteering an average of 4.2 hours. (Independent Sector/Gallup, 1996)

Youth place a priority in being there for their communities, even though many adults see them as non-contributing members of society. In 1997, Public Agenda Survey for the Ad Council and Ronald McDonald House Charities ran a survey that showed 61% of American adults are convinced that today's youth face a crisis in their values and morals, look at teenagers with misgiving, and view them as undisciplined, disrespectful, and unfriendly. Youth see this truth and feel this perception of them. Only 20% of young people perceive that adults in the community value youth. (Search Institute Survey of Youth 6th to 12th Graders, 1997)

When it comes to changing society, youth have stepped up to the plate and died for what they believed in. Youth are the ones who see truth and speak up about systemic injustices. Youth have always brought hope and vision to society and have founded and led many major social justice movements. Until we as an organizing community value youth of color as media journalists, we will continue to lose vision and truth in our movements.

by Anna Kirsch/PNN

I can almost picture myself there; cutting across the well-manicured drill field surrounded by the hazy purple-blue southwest Virginia Mountains. Walking to class and cursing the sharp, icy knife-like wind as it cut into my well-worn brown scarf and tan jacket.

A walk I begrudgingly made time and time again to attend my classes at Virginia Tech over three years ago. I spent my university life on the tree-lined streets of the town of Blacksburg. It was the place where I had the privilege, the time and the space to think, to read and to write. The place where I found solace, support and friends. And now the place that will forever by synonymous with April 16th, 2007 and the deadliest shooting rampage in modern history.

Today these memories of Virginia I carry with me are haunting, not comforting as they continue to painfully seethe from the corners of my mind to the surface. The gray, almost cobble-stoned buildings, the massive lecture halls, the bright yellow walls of my first apartment off-campus. And now, the breaking news headlines, pictures of candlelight vigils, old photographs of the victims’ faces and video footage of an isolated, desperate, young man.

There is no separation between then and now for me and I am acutely aware of my connectedness and familiarity with this place and this tragedy. My memories feel desecrated, bloodstained and tender to touch. I knew those hallways, sidewalks and classrooms in a way most didn’t.

I tortured myself by watching the news over and over again. As painful as it was, I couldn’t stop blankly staring as pictures of my old town, school and home were splattered all over the papers, T.V. and radio. I watched because I felt I had to. I watched because I was desperately trying to understand. I watched because I wanted an answer.

Watching the tragic events unfold from over 3,000 miles away through the corporate media lens, I began to feel isolated and truly alone. I looked on as different “experts” casually debated the “issues,” gun control, immigration, and campus security less than 24 hours after the killings. Seeing the place and community I had considered home for so long invaded by news cameras and hounding journalists felt like a knife in a fresh wound. The media was once again determined to ignite a debate and bombarded us with forced rhetoric and framed questions. But for me this time it was different, it felt personal.

“The media did what they always do,” said Mari, a YouthinMedia journalist for POOR Magazine who is now an organizer in Washington D.C. “They didn’t look at the roots of the real issues and they didn’t listen to the people.”

Mari saw this first hand as she watched the Korean community of D.C. become the target for attempted hate crimes, racist remarks and threats. Many Korean people remain scared that they will all be typecast as violent. One Korean woman, a colleague of Mari’s, said soon after the killings “I hope that people won’t think that every Korean person is a killer.”

As I flipped the channels and heard over and over again “A Korean man…” I began to wonder why the media was focusing so intensely on the fact that the parents were immigrants, not born in America, as if that made them not part of this country. Was this the media’s way of convincing us that this unspeakable act of violence came from the outside?

I watched as fingers were pointed at the campus police and university administrators, and gun sellers and lawmakers, but never once did I hear a serious critique of the mental health crisis in this country or a deep analysis of the race and class struggles that plague so many.

I, myself, see these struggles everyday on the streets of San Francisco, watching as so many struggle with racism, classism and disability. This pain, this struggle exists everywhere- even in the hazy mountains surrounding Blacksburg, Virginia.

As Rev. Sang Jin Choi, of the Action for Peace through Prayer and Aid (APPA), recently stated, “It is a person’s immoral crime in an immoral society…there are no offenders in an immoral society only victims.”

Our pain, our crisis is universal but we are led to believe that it is not, that we are different, a race and class war rages on, false borders separate and we are taught to sympathize, not empathize, disconnect, not to relate to. Selectively grieving, never universally mourning.

Anna Kirsch is a graduate of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR Magazine and is currently working as an assistant teacher and community journalist for POOR/PNN

by tiny

‘Maaaaaaaaaaa Maaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!" my stroller-bound 12 month old baby and I were walking up the sheer cliff of the Hyde Street hill. As I strained my almost-broken thumbs caused by too much diaper-changing struggles to hold on to the last appendages of my hell-ghetto, broke-down stroller, my son began wailing and flailing his arms and legs for no apparent reason.

He had just eaten, been changed and had his nap. In other words, I had done everything I could to make him happy and healthy, but on his journey from the Tenderloin to the wealthy area of Nob Hill where the supermarket lived where I was able to get his lactose-free milk with my WIC check- his unspecified crying almost caused me to lose it. I am not sure what that would have looked like or what I would have actually done, but I was completely overwrought, immobilized, and every time he screamed my overtired, not properly fed or housed body would quake with a lethal mixture of public humiliation and fear for my son’s safety.

Several of these frightening moments of poverty-stricken, homeless motherhood and temporary insanity flooded into my brain when I heard about the mother who threw her babies off Pier 7 in San Francisco. La-shuan Ternice Harris, 23, mother of three small children, had had a lot of those moments in her young life- moments, that no matter how great of a mother you are, can drive you to utter insanity. La-shuan had a few more elements to add to that already precarious position, including homelessness and the fact that she was suffering from serious postpartum psychosis, which is rarely properly recognized or treated as a mental illness that specifically impacts women.

I also spoke with PAMPAM Gaddies, from SF Peacemakers, who added that there is a dire need for culturally competent mental health assessment created for black people suffering from mental illness.

"Why does that matter?" my City College media teacher pointedly asked me when I complained that neither her homelessness nor her diagnosis were mentioned in the "above the fold" first day coverage of the story by the San Francisco Chronicle (even though that information was available at press time). To which I could only repeat to him in utter desperation, "I guess you just don’t understand."

As the details of La-shuan’s family’s intervention come out, people are quick to blame them or the authorities, including Child Protective Services to gain more power over mothers who are mentally disabled. This isn’t the answer any more than any other to criminalize low-income people is. In fact, in my opinion the only "answer" lies in changing the conditions that exist for poor parents in this society- providing real access to housing, childcare and preventative mental health services, the way other privileged Western societies, such as Canada and most of western Europe do. That way more of us won’t get so close to losing our sanity, our resources, and our children.

"Poor mothers of color never get access to preventative mental health services," explained Mesha Monge-Irizarry, director of the Idriss Stelly Foundation.

After an extreme struggle, I, as a working poor mother, finally received a child care subsidy that allowed me a little more time to think and then seek more work hours, which helped my family stabilize economically. But I will never forget that proximity to the terror of almost not making it. And I only made it because I resist western society’s criminalization of poor mothers and corporate media definitions of what it is to be poor and homeless…and a mother.

Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia is the coeditor of POOR Magazine and POORNewsNetwork.

by Tiny

Perhaps another world that REALLY hears unheard communities...

Another world with another kind of media production...

Another world where the media is led, used and driven by people who are usually only talked about rather than talked with...

Another world that views the voices of poor folks, poor workers, disabled folks, folks of color, youth and elders as scholars, leaders, and media producers...

This is the kind of world which would stop perpetuating lies about my family and my neighborhood, lies about displacement, lies about homelessness, lies about police brutality, lies about workers, lies about women and children , lies about me.

This is the kind of world that would hear real solutions to poverty, racism, homelessness, the criminal Un-justice system.

This is the kind of world that would embrace, engage and realize another world vision, rather than silencing, criminalizing and marginalizing all the worlds peoples

As a working poor, formerly homeless, previously incarcerated, mixed race single mama dealing with the struggle to care for myself, my children and my disabled mama, I have been thought of as lazy, stupid, ghetto, or at best, loud, but a writer, a media producer, a scholar, never.

When a story is written or reported about poor mamas and welfare de-form, I and other mamas like me are lucky to be quoted, scanned in a �stock� shot from the welfare lines, once or twice, and then lost in a sea of census figures, social workers and formally educated �scholars� on poverty.

In the Ida B. Wells Media Justice Center at the US Social forum (USSF) slated to happen in Atlanta in June, a radical form of media production will take place. Launched by poverty, race, disability and youth scholars at POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, a non-profit media, arts and education organization, The Media Justice Center will educate, facilitate and set up collaborations between established corporate, independent, ethnic and alternative media producers and global and local poverty and race scholars. These radical access collaborations will result in several forms of media (radio, TV, on-line and print) about the multitude of events, actions, arts and education that will happen at the very exciting USSF.

As well, we will work to build long-term collaborations between established corporate, independent, ethnic and alternative media and the poverty scholars to create ongoing channels of media access, syndication, and new reporting models, which will provide sustainability to these new media voices and society at large with long-term real and actionable solutions to poverty, homelessness, police abuse, gentrification, displacement, incarceration, violence, immigration and much more.

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

Taxation without Representation. This principal is taught to every young person formerly educated in the US, in other words, political voting representation is granted to those who pay taxes. But what about the thousands of so-called “undocumented citizen’s” who pay taxes, yet they can’t vote, and the thousands of poor people of color who are incarcerated, and can’t vote?

As a young voter of color who has been oppressed by our unjust system I headed to the Washington DC Voting rights march, which is the same day as DC’s emancipation day. I saw thousands of people rallied around the right to vote in their Congress. As I moved closer to the stage, I saw Mayor Adrian Fenty speaking about the right to vote. I also saw several other things that were important to voters, promises made to constituents that were casually being reneged on by the recipients of our votes. On the side was a contingent of people holding signs saying “Save Affordable Housing”, “Save Temple Court” and chanting, “Practice what you preach.” I quickly scurried over to find out what was happening.

I found out that the contingent was from Temple Court Apartments in Northwest 1. Temple Court apartments were on the eviction block, and to subsidize the tenants the district planned to give them section 8 vouchers. I spoke with April Hall, a tenant at Temple Court about their demands and what they wanted for their community, “We will not be moved. We voted for him (Mayor Fenty). He said he would stick to the original plan… We want Mayor Fenty to stick to the original plan, no displacement, no relocation, and no vouchers. We want housing to be built for Northwest 1.” I was reminded about the same city planning that happened in San Francisco during the dot com boom, out with the poor, in with the rich.

Soon after, I saw youth marching and holding up signs that read, “Save Youth Court.” I asked Ariana Benjamin about her sign and what Youth Court is, she stated quite simply, “It gives youth a second chance. If we didn’t have youth court we would be in jail.” She stated further, “Youth court is so additive… It saves lives.” I was then directed over to the founder of Youth Court, Professor Chan who teaches at the District of Columbia Law School. I found out that the Youth Court in D.C. was the largest teen court in the nation, and has been in place for 10 years. Youth Court gives many of D.C.’s youth a chance to have the same right every adult gets, a chance to be judged by a jury of their peers. 100% of youth offenders that are tried in a youth court volunteer in Youth Court. After 50 hours of volunteering they receive a recycled computer, and after those hours they will receive Safeway gift cards to provide for their nutritional needs.

This reminded me of my own experience with Teen Court while I was in high school. I had previously been tried as an adult for a low-level shoplifting crime, and spent a night in adult jail. Not one person in the adult criminal system asked me why I stole those clothes. If they had asked me why, I might have been able to tell them that I was severely tortured, abused, and neglected. Stealing was the only way I could provide food and clothes for my sister and me. Instead I was treated as a criminal, a criminal of poverty (as I have since learned from www.POORmagazine.org). After being reunified with my mother, I started to get involved so that other youth would have a chance. My hope in joining Teen Court was that other youth would get that second chance that I never received from the adult criminal system.

Professor Chan stated what motivates him to do this work, “I don’t get paid to do this, I do this because I believe in justice.” He explained further that they take 60% of the youth justice non-violent cases, and that many in the district government believe that this is a great program that should continue. He then explained to me, that they had just run out of funding today, and were promised funding by the Deputy Mayor but is not currently being carried out by Mayor Fenty. They are being told by the Mayor’s office, “We are actively looking for the money for this program.” This was after three months of calling the Mayor’s office and reaching nobody. Professor Chan left me with an important question commenting on the closure of this program, “How will this advance justice in this city?”

I noticed Mario Cristaldo speaking to Telemundo talking about the vote and how it relates to building equity for Latinos in the District. Mario was demanding representation from Congress but not just through a vote. I spoke with him further to comment upon what he was talking about with representation, “We demand representation… We clean the buildings, cut the grass, cook the food… We demand to live and stay here.” He then further went on to talk about all marginalized people living in the district, “There is a class war going on, all must work together, Black, Latino, Asian to end the gentrification, the incarceration and displacement of our communities.”

It has been 206 years without a vote in Congress for D.C. residents, even though Congress requires its residents to pay taxes. Within the protest, D.C. residents wanted full representation that does not stop with a vote. Representation includes immigration reform, youth justice, and housing for all.

Taxation without representation is a value that is said to be upheld in this democratic state. Yet thousands are left voiceless within this voting system. Youth who are under 18, immigrants, incarcerated folks, and District of Columbia residents pay taxes but yet are denied participation in the U.S. electoral system. When marginalized folks are even allowed the right to vote, they very rarely have an opportunity with participatory representation in this government. Recently, the D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton stated, “As one southern Senator put it, "The Negroes . . . flocked in . . . and there was only one way out . . . and that was to deny ... suffrage entirely to every human being in the District." To deny the vote, to deny representation, is to deny people of color in this country.

Finally, thousands of people like myself marched on the Capitol, not for a right to vote but for a right to have our human rights met. In the same tradition of resistance carried onto us by our ancestors, we marched. Marching alongside the Temple Court tenants who were organizing to keep their housing, the youth who are fighting to keep their Youth Court program open, the immigrants who are speaking out the right to amnesty to live upon this stolen land. It has always been and always will be about the institutional marginalization that my ancestors and I have gone through. Being evicted from our lands, our own supportive systems and languages attacked and attempted to be stolen from us, and often being treated as an immigrant even though our blood runs through this land

On April 19, 2007 The U.S. House passed the D.C. Voting Rights Bill, it is now introduced the Senate. The current legislation will not only give DC one vote but also a new vote for the state of Utah.

by Joseph Bolden

Ugly Guy,A Life.

I’ve been reading articles on the web about men,women,attraction mysteries of beauty and ugly.

I’d consider myself a good looking black male if not for a glaring detail of a lazy left eye that wasn’t corrected by age four (kept peeking) out of the flesh colored patch in ruined any chance for good sight in both eyes.

Now my vision is fused the best that can be done is an operation to permanently straighten the left eye.

I’ve played sports from hockey, to base/basketball, football.

Hockey,is particularly terrifying.

In my youth a yellow plastic puck flew hitting me in the left eye hard!

I tried to block the shot but missed the force lifted me off my feet.

I learned what depth perception meant,I had none.

From High School through college there has been cruelty because the flaw like I’m a hideous creature from a cave,
a group of young women actually took time crossing streets if I was too close behind them I only noticed them when they did that after a while I began to cross before them they seemed ugly to me!

Only a few times have women when I was in school said behind my back "he’s cute" in a loud enough whisper for me to hear.

Maybe I wasn’t a complete frog.

Imagine people who had Elephant Man disease, from wars with missing limbs, or scarred faces but my problem could’ve been prevented theirs weren’t.

Wondering the country, meeting people,sex from strangers told me that I’m an ugly guy and more than that.

It’s a good thing that in my lonely times between schools in New York, Berkeley and Oakland now San Francisco read lots of Playboy,Oui,Hustler, Penthouse,player's,Gent,Gem,Ms. Magazine,and Cosmo.

Those pictures, articles,and anything pertaining to sexually pleasing women included did give me some perspective.

When a few mature women took pity on me all I did was listen, learn, and given repeated lessons improved.

But now I knew my body (me) was desired loved. Maybe family wasn’t for me so every women, young girl wasn’t a conquest but people to learn from, listened to sometimes I didn’t.

Yes,did feel like a stud but not in positive ways I began feeling like a secondary, substitute, stand-in for women who are just horny and need to sexing up.

Skip a few years, false careers starts and I’m houseless in San Francisco.

Platonic love was bewildering to me.

A woman friend, emotionally tied, but not physically?

It took time because I got beaten up by girls, bullied into kissing them. Being small, skinny, guy only later did older women become instructive lovers.

Not psychologically healthy feeling to know your exercise but at least… while I’m with them they are what!

I concentrate on. Seeing, not having women feels like prison but I won’t be around women well not to many without cash on hand.

Lets just say because I’m straight I like women but also being creative there are other outlets besides porn.

It isn’t real or alive as real women are.

I have a healthy respect.

I’ve trolled web sites in different personas but its not the same as face to face dates.

All that can be said is ugly or not women do look deeper than skin and I’ve benefited immensely.
So called ugly or regular guys be yourself, stay neat clean, have other interests, and though women do tease we men don’t know what their thinking most of the time just remember most women like guys the ones who don’t think about ‘em concentrate on the ones who do and mainly listen, learn, repeat.

As for platonic relationships they’re tricky but my advice is do not collect too many of ‘em.

My rule of thumb is: if you have 10 female platonic friends it’s way too many!

2 or 4 platonic which leaves 8 or 6 lovers it’s a better balance for men and who knows one or more of those platonic relationships may change suddenly.

One never knows what’s in women’s mind even if we ask we may not get answers wanted but are to be.

Its from many smart, patient,good,kind,sexy, sensual girls,and lovely mature women that beauty and ugliness is fluid.

All guys must think a bit before saying or doing things that turn women off.

I’ve made my errors of judgements and so have a few women about me.

I’ve learned that contradictions are to be lived with not understood.

by Staff Writer

On Wednesday, April 4, our beloved Bree Gutu passed away due to heart complications. As some of you may have known, Bree struggled for a long time battling this condition, but never lost her determination to fight it.

She was the matriarch of the Student Union and embodied everything that we at SCube are about - cultural pride, education for all poor and oppressed people, and community. She will greatly be missed, but never forgotten.

She was a Peer Mentor at SCube for the last six years, the founding President of the Polynesian club, graduate of the School of Unity and Liberation's (SOUL) 2005 Summer School, and was recently accepted into the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) program. As a long time student at City College, she participated in a multitude of student-led campaigns to demand education for low-income students of color, culturally relevant classes, and increased services for underrepresented students at
City College.

Bree had a vision for making City College a home for students historically neglected by the educational system. One of her most proudest accomplishments was the creation of IDST 45 - the first and only course focusing on the Pacific Islander experience in the U.S. at City College. Bree was an important advocate for the Asian Pacific American Student Success (APASS) program. And most recently wanted to create a program designed specifically for addressing the needs of Polynesian students at City.

Most of us that knew Bree, cannot imagine City College without her bold, warrior spirit. She had a natural ability to command the respect and attention of many in a gentle, yet powerful way. She is the heart and soul of the Student Union and gave so much of her life in order to create a community for others. Despite her many accomplishments, there was still so much more that she wanted to achieve. Her vision is carried out in every single one of us and we know that she has left us with a responsibility to continue the work that she started.

We, at SCube are still in great shock over this monumental loss and would like to open up our office for any of her friends, family, and loved ones who would like to share memories of her. We will be building an altar in her honor in the Student Union, and welcome all of you to join us.

Our deepest condolences go out to the entire Gutu family, and to Alesana -her soul-mate, partner, and "love of her life".

We will post information regarding upcoming events to commemorate and celebrate our beloved Bree as soon as it becomes available.

Mabuhay Bree! Long live Galoma Bree Gutu!

Manatua Pea Oe! We will always remember you!

Your struggle continues through everyone whose life has been transformed by you. We will never forget.

In love and solidarity,

The SCube Staff –

Jeanne, Claudia, Nelly, Gene, and Mariana

by Staff Writer

For English please scroll down

Angela Peña, Reportera Prensa POBRE

“Si se puede” gritaba la gente. Todas las personas inmigrantes respondieron al llamado de marcha del 1o de mayo.

La concentracion de mas de 5.000 personas empeso en el Parque Dolores a las 12 de la tarde. Todos estabamos en “La Gran Marcha” en honor a los derechos de los inmigrantes y trabajadores pobres, tanto locales como globales.

La gente se concentraba en el parque mientras otros se unian a la marcha desde las calles.

Era una multitud de gente que caminaba de forma ordenada por las calles con una sola idea en mente: que se escucharan nuestras demandas, que no solo son justas pero son el derecho que toda persona que vive y respira.

“Lo unico que demandamos es el respeto de todos para que podamos trabajar tranquilamente para sostener a nuestra familia”, gritaba la gente. Yo se que fueron escuchados.

Teresa Molina, Reportera de Prensa POBRE

“Estoy aqui por que mis padres son inmigrantes y los estoy apoyando”, declaro Miguel Rosas mientras se encontraba en un mar de gente y organizaciones en la “Gran Marcha” en honor de trabajadores/ras inmigrantes y para la admistia general.

La gente estaba presente. Las organizaciones que estaban presentes eran Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Collectiva de Mujeres, Programa de Jornaleros, Prensa POBRE, Vivienda San Pedro, Power, Carecen y el Centro Comunitario Filipino. Todos demonstramos nuesto descontento de varias formas. Cantamos, gritamos, teniamos pancartas que demostraban que estamos contra los ataques hacia nuestra comunidad, no oponemos a las redadas, y estamos encontra de la separacion de nuestras familias.

La mañana era clara y fresca; escuchabamos los zumbidos del aire y sentiamos lo fresco como si estubieramos enfrente de las olas del mar.

“Estamos aqui protestando y demostrando nuestro descontento por que estamos cansados de tantos ataques contra la gente pobre y trabajadora y estamos cansados de las redadas”, dijo Renee Saucedo de La Raza Centro Legal.

Cuando llegue a casa escuche sobre los ataques de balazos de goma que sufrio mi gente en Los Angeles. Me puse triste. Pienso que nos atacan para darnos miedo, para que paremos de reclamar nuestros derechos.

Gloria, Reportera Prensa POBRE

“No a la separacion de familias” decia un enorme rotulo impulsado por Patricia Morales, miembra de POWER, ama de casa, estudiante y trabajadora mientras se encontraba entre miles de personas que se habian reunido en el Parque Dolores para celebrar el Dia Internacional del Trabajador/a. Patricia estaba orgullosa de su creacion y con la conciencia muy en alto cargaba la manta que vitoreaba las cosigna junto con las demas miembras de la organizacion.

Es recomfortante observar como poco a poco la comunidad trabajadora va tomando conciencia de su fuerza al organizarse por sus derechos. Tanto esta mujer que es representativa de la fuerza que viene surgiendo en las mujeres latinas que trabajan tanto en sus hogares como fuera de ellos.

En esta marcha del mayo 1,del 2007 tuvo menos contingentes pero las personas mostraban en sus rostros y en sus voces mucha disposicion de lucha. Hubo un grupo numeroso de jovenes de todos colores y culturas que cantaban y bailaban al mismo tiempo y asi nos mostraban que no son ajenos a lo su comunidad que ha estado sufriendo, desde hace muchos años, el razismo, la deshigualdad, y la injustica en los empleos. Estos jovenes portaban una pancarta que decia “Irak no abrio sus fronteras y sin embargo fueron inbadidos por nuestro ejercito y ellos tambien nos llaman delincuentes”. Otro cartelon decia “nosotros estamos aqui pero antes ustedes nos invadieron alla”

Era importante que se sepa que todos los que estabamos alli marchando tuvimos que sacrificar una vez mas nuestro trabajo, nuestra economia, y nuestro valiosisimo tiempo para seguir con nuestra lucha.

Angela Pena/Reportera Prensa POBRE

"Si se puede", yelled the people. All the immigrant people answered to the call to march on May 1st.

The concentration of over 5,000 people began in Dolores Park at 12pm. We were all there at The great march in honor of the rights of immigrants, and poor workers locally and globally people .

The people were concentrated in the park while many others joined when the march took to the streets.

So many people walked in an orderly fashion through the streets with one unifying thought: to have our demands be heard, which not only are just but are the rights of every person who lives and breathes.

All we want is respect from everyone so that we can work in peace and earn the survival of our families, the people shouted. I know were heard.

Teresa Molina- Reportera/ Prensa POBRE

I am here because my parents are immigrants and I am supporting them, Miguel Rosas declared while standing in a sea of people and organizations present at the Marcha in honor of Inmigrante workers and for amnesty for all.

The people were present. The organizations that were present are Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Collectiva de Mujeres, Day Labor Program, POOR Magazine, Vivienda San Pedro, Power, Carecen, Filipino Community Center. We all showed our dissatisfaction in various ways. We sung, we chanted, we held signs demonstrating that we are against the attacks on our communities, we are against the raids, against the separation of our families.

The morning was clear and fresh; we could hear the humming of the air as if we were in front of ocean waves. We could feel the cold of the ocean waves

“We are here protesting and demonstrating our discontent because we are tired of so many attacks towards poor working people and we are tired of the raids.”, said Renee Saucedo from La Raza Centro Legal

When I arrived home I heard about the attacks on my people in Los Angeles with rubber bullets. I was very sad. I think they attacked us like that to give us fear so that we can stop reclaiming our rights.

Gloria Molina/Reportera Prensa POBRE

“No Separation of Families” said an enormous sign held by Patricia Morales, member of POWER, stay at home mom, student and worker as she stood among the thousands of people gathered in Delores Park to celebrate International Workers Day. Proud of her creation and with a high sense of consciousness, she carried and waved the sign along side other members of the organization.

It is comforting to note how the working-class community is taking up consciousness and strength to organize for its own rights. Just as this woman is representative of the strength that is surging in Latina Women that work just as much in their homes as they do outside of them.

In this march of May 1st, 2007, there were less contingencies but almost all the people showed through their faces and through their voices showed a feeling of resistance. There was a significant presence of youth of all colors and cultures chanting and singing demonstrating that they are not isolated from their community that has suffered racism, inequalities and labor wages injustices for years. The youth carried a sign that read “Iraq did not open its border but were still invaded by our military and they also call us criminals”. Another said, “We are here but you invaded us there”.

It was important just to know that everyone of us who was there had to sacrifice one more time, our job, our economy and our precious time, and this and more was our resistance.

by Lola Bean/Race, Poverty and Media Justice Intern at POOR Magazine

"You're a thief!" The words came crashing down the staircase and slammed against a poverty scholar at the Roxie Theater. The large man with the wild dreadlocks and warm, buttery voice at the bottom of the stairwell had been sitting two seats over from me in the front row of "A Dialogue on the Criminalization of Poverty." Taken aback by the force of these words ringing through the air of the lobby, my eyes traveled up the stairwell to see who could have possibly hurled these words through the air of the lobby after the event we had just experienced. A young man with a crisp dark shirt, lily clean skin, and indignant down turned eyes looked down at this gentle giant and took aim, "You are stealing! You have to pay for that!"

I arrived at the Roxie at 16th and Valencia just before the 7pm dialogue began. I approached the ticket booth of the Roxie and told the ticket taker, a sandy-haired man with thick black-rimmed glasses, that I was with POOR Magazine and I was looking for my folks. He told me that the event was 3 doors down and pointed up 16th street. I made my way up the street and through the front door. The lobby was bustling and the tables were lined with books and informational packets. To the left I saw Laure McElroy, a welfareQueen and Poverty Scholar at POOR Magazine. She was standing in behind a counter right near the entrance where cans of soda were balanced. My tongue was cotton and the drinks were a welcome sight. I picked up a can and Laure said, "I think you have to pay for those, but I'm not sure." I asked her if any Roxie employees were nearby, but we didn't see any. I put the drink down discouraged and made my way inside the theater.

The evening was opened by the welfareQUEENS, a revolutionary group of mamaz struggling with poverty, welfare, racism and disability creating art with the goal of resisting and reclaiming the racist and classist mythologies about poverty and the criminalization of poor people in America. They performed their respective and collective stories. A poem posted in large print made clear their purpose:

This poem is in honor of

Homeless Mothers and Poor mothers,

Low wage mothers and no wage mothers

welfare mothers and THREE job working mothers

in other words INS-ed with

CPS-ed with

and most of all System messed with

Mothers

who fight and struggle and steal and beg in every crevasse and corner to keep their
kids in a bed....

Tiny, aka, Lisa Gray-Garcia at-risk mama of Tiburcio, daughter of Dee and co-founder of POOR Magazine set the tone for the discussion. In a clear and penetrating voice, she cut the silence in the auditorium with her scholarship and her story of survival. Tiny spoke her truth and described, "When we hear those hygiene metaphors we need to be conscious that the human beings who are being �cleaned up� and �cleaned out� are people of color, poor, homeless, youth, elders, someone functioning with a substance abuse problem, living with a mental illness or other disability, living in a car, migrant day laborers, etc. Or they could be people whose work is not recognized as work, such as panhandlers, street newspaper vendors, recyclers, and/or workfare workers. These people, if they happen to be dwelling, sitting, sleeping, and/or working or soliciting work in a neighborhood that�s undergoing gentrification/redevelopment, will be targeted for harassment, abuse, arrest, and eventually incarceration." Tiny knows. She was incarcerated for crimes of poverty, has a PhD. in poverty from the school of hard-knocks, and speaks with the unapologetic force that accompanies true scholarship.

I was there to learn from Tiny, Leroy, the welfareQUEENS and all of the folks engaged in the daily struggle against the criminalization of every day life. As an abuse and poverty scholar at POOR Magazine, I was also there to report on the discussion. In addition to Tiny and Leroy, Renee Saucedo from La Raza Centro Legal, Juan Prada from the Coalition on Homelessness, Dr James Garrett a founding member of the Black Students Union, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi and Ross Mirakarimi were all present to share their thoughts and solutions on the criminalization of poverty. Following the performance of the welfareQUEENS and Tiny�s powerful words is never an easy task, but the challenge was posed to a worthy scholar, Dr. Garrett

Dr. James Garrett, who is a teacher at Berkeley City College and poverty and race scholar, walked us through the history of the gentrification and criminalization of everyday life. He described how we, people of color, poverty, and radical politics are communities historically attacked by the government, pacified by nonprofit organizations, and incarcerated for not only acting to secure our basic rights, but for the simple act of voicing a demand for them. For over 60 years, we have been denied the basic things we need to survive and then turned into criminals for trying to access these things. It is now a crime to want to be heard. He concluded his powerful discourse with the searing statement that in the attempt to criminalize more and more of us, they, the criminalizers, the oppressors, the powers that tighten the rope around our collective necks, have made us ALL criminals.

The packed theater was not short on people that wanted to be heard that night. The audience was filled from lifelong scholars of race, poverty, disability, and abuse. We were there to open our mouths and make our voices hear, but we were also there to see if anyone was really listening.

Renee Saucedo, a tiny, clear-eyed mujer took center stage and let loose the struggle of a thousand immigrants from her mouth. She belted cries of fear from mothers confronting helicopters and uniforms when trying to take their children to school. She connected the dots between US policy and how US corporations force immigrants to seek work in the United States. And she reminded us why immigrants are willing to risk death and incarceration day after day and time and time again. She speaks for the rootless and impoverished brown multitudes. Ask an immigrant what they will do if they get deported and they will tell you, "If I get deported, I'll come back tomorrow. Why? Because my children's survival depends on it." But is anyone asking? Is anyone willing to listen to the answer?

"Repeat after me three times. People with disabilities! People with disabilities! People with disabilities!" POOR Magazine�s own race and disability scholar Leroy Moore took the stage next. A captivating and brilliant public speaker, he described how his voice and the voices of other people with disabilities have been silenced. He described the high crime rate against, the segregation of, and the silencing of people with disabilities. He reinforced the importance of language and language�s connection not only to how people are perceived, but what history they are connected to. People with disabilities share an amazing and rich history of struggle. Leroy reminded us that people experiencing the struggle have the answers; it is the people physically and societally able to implement these answers that need to start listening.

I saw the faces of many community activists in the room. Mostly people of privilege, white middle class folks dressed in clothes too casual to be recognized as someone that works for profit, but characteristically lacking the couture of daily struggle. Their eyes, purposefully calm to the point of unconscious condescension, have created blinding barriers between them and those whose struggle they have claimed. Their faces tell few stories but their lips keep flapping as if their long words make up for their short sightedness. Still, many of them were there to attend the dialogue on the criminalization of poverty. I wondered who they were there to hear.

I had no doubt that they listened intently to the words spoken in the language of politics. Jeff Adachi, the public defender of San Francisco, was among the experts invited to attend the dialogue. He wore a dark suit and a blue tie. He spoke with the consistent smile and slow clear cadence of a politician, yet his actions have continuously backed up his speech surrounding issues of race and poverty in the Bay Area. His legal work has clearly been rooted in the struggles of low and no income communities of color and he has fought against the system that continues to criminalize those living in poverty. To explain the crisis of the criminalization of poverty, Adachi spoke numbers and statistics. The California Youth Authority spends $220,000 per child per year to keep them in incarceration. Over 40% of prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. 200,000 young people are doing time in adult prisons. 85% of judges are white. Incarceration of poor people, according to Adachi, is about more than just crime. He explained, "It�s now become a way of dealing with poor people."

After Adachi�s words, I began to think about the idea of dealing with poor people. The fact that poor people are being incarcerated for the simple fact that they are poor is an unacceptable way to deal with poor people, but is there really an acceptable way to deal with poor people? When my legs lock in pain from cleaning houses for 12 hours a day with broken bones and twisted joints and I still can�t pay my bills, I deal with it. When the welfareQUEENS struggle to feed and house and clothe and raise their children on next to nothing in one of the most expensive cities in the world, they deal with it. When people without homes are denied time and time again the bare necessities that humans need just to keep living and breathing, they deal with it. Poor people are not problems to be dealt with. Poverty is the problem that needs to be dealt with.

Juan Prada of the Coalition on Homelessness reminded those in the dialogue that when society chooses to see poor folks, we are demonized and public wrath is directed upon us. People with homes are especially targeted. According to Prada, 48% of people in incarceration are homeless, and the San Francisco Police Department has designated 32 police officers to act as "homeless outreach workers." It is a crime to be poor.

As the Dialogue on the Criminalization of Everyday Life continued, I began to get a little restless and uncomfortable in my chair. My mind started to drift through time after time when I was violently silenced because I was seen as less than human. Fists and words flew at me and I was locked in my chair. My brows lowered and my muscles grew tight. I thought to myself, "Am I really supposed to prove that I am human?" I know that I am human. My folks from POOR Magazine feel me and see me. I saw the other humans in the room. I even saw the activists and the politicians. A burning nausea in my stomach and water pooled eyes reminded me why I long ago resolved not to beg for scraps of humanity from anyone inhuman enough to claim that I have to.

I thought about my struggle, my language and their language; the language of the politicians, spoken with a similar accent as the community activists. Community activists speak in a similar form of emotional monotone. They paint struggles with numbers and statistics mistaken for black and white. They tell stories of people in the emotionally barren language of ideas. Seeking solidarity with struggle but fearing the depth of struggle�s experience, they speak with a loftiness reflecting both their desire to be heard and a fear to hear. But they truly believe they are fighting the good fight and they have access, albeit limited, to the eyes and ears that see them as people and us as numbers.

"The first failure of this government is it doesn�t see its people," explained San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirikarimi. Politician primped and rhetoric clad he admitted, "We don�t recognize poverty in San Francisco." To illustrate his point, he defended his recent vote to in favor of building the new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers. He exhibited the same failure as many other activists and nonprofit workers. According to these often well meaning individuals, there are conditions in which it is acceptable to act as if we don�t exist. There are condition in which it is acceptable to treat us as numbers and statistics. There are conditions that they - activists, politicians, and so-called community representatives - willingly accept in which their humanity is assumed and ours must be fought for.

As the dialogue wrapped-up and again the voices of Tiny and Leroy and other people engaged in the most profoundly human struggles filled the room, my shoulders relaxed a little and my focus returned. I was grateful for the scholarship of the poverty scholars I had heard that evening. Tiny reminded us that they fact that such a dialogue was able to happen was a victory in and of itself and my fists began to unclench. As I walked out of the theater and into the lobby, I passed a number of people enthusiastically continuing the dialogue on the criminalization of poverty. My mind returned to the words of Tiny, "In our pathologically self-centered modern society, where we are all expected to survive and prosper in a cut-throat economic system that does not provide child care, housing, healthcare or a good public education, mine is not only a story of survival but of triumph. And above all it is a call for vision and clarity: the denunciation of the oppressive system that drives people into poverty and keeps them there, and the recognition that first and foremost all people deserve whatever help they need."

"You can�t just steal that! You have to pay for it!" The Dreadlocked soldier, whose name is Johnnie, a member of the POOR Magazine family had made the same mistake I made and taken a soda from off of the counter. The young man in the button up shirt didn�t see a man with a PhD. in poverty, he saw a criminal. He didn�t see how easily one could mistake these sodas as complimentary; he saw an opportunity to put a poor man in his place. From his place high on the stairwell, he shot thunderbolts of false righteousness at a respected resister � demanding he exchange his self respect for a one dollar soda pop.

"How much is this?" Johnnie pulled out his wallet to pay the man. He is NO thief. The self-proclaimed hero at the top of the stairs told him his dignity would cost him a dollar. Johnnie pulled out two green Washingtons and handed them to the man. "One for the soda and one to buy yourself some class." Johnnie was invited to listen to a dialogue on the criminalization of poverty. What he got was another taste of the disrespect that brings about the need for such a dialogue.

The nausea in my stomach returned and I left wondering who was heard that night. Whose scholarship was heard and respected? What was learned by our progressive "friends?" When will we stop being criminals for being thirsty and reaching for something to drink? When will we stop having to convince people that being thirsty is not a crime?

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.