by Jewnbug

Poverty scholar, welfare QUEEN, mother, arts educator and co-founder of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Project, Jewnbug has authored a collection of metaphorical texts as well as drawn, painted and graphically designed images to raise a new level of consciousness in her readers.

Selected Wordz uses speech in a new, inventive way to address spiritual and emotional issues. A self-proclaimed wordsmith, Jewnbug says she is sharing these writings to heal and to encourage consciousness on an extremely deep level. She does not fail in her task to challenge her readers and provide a new, unique perspective on life, language and spirituality. This book has the power to change its readers way of thinking and living.

by Staff Writer

PROJECT PLAN

Populations served annually :

EQUITY "CAPITAL" CAMPAIGN BUDGET: 2.5 MILLION

I. The Site Proposal;

Permanent housing units for houseless and formerly houseless families following a model of co-housing which includes the following;

A site for F.A.M.I.L.Y.(Family Access to Multi-cultural Intergenerational Learning with our Youth) which is a revolutionary on-site child care and education project for houseless children and families which incorporates a social justice and arts , multi-cultural and multi-lingual curriculum for families and children 2-102

A site for POOR Magazine, The Race, Poverty, and Media Justice Institute, Community Newsroom and all of POOR’s indigenous community arts programming

A site for Uncle Al & Mama Dee’s Cafe; a multi-generational community arts and social justice eating and performance space

II. The Building

A Mixed Use/C3 Zoned, multiple units or Loft space that has space for all of the above

III. Funding;

Equity "Capital" Campaign budget: 2.5 million

Fundraising will occur through an Equity campaign launched by POOR Magazine.
As an act of resistance to the hierarchal and unjust distribution of wealth and resources locally and globally, POOR Magazine is formerly calling the fundraising effort for HOMEFULNESS, an Equity Campaign, instead of a Capital Campaign, as through equity sharing, not tied to financial resources, we will be creating permanent and lasting solutions to houselessness for families in poverty who have been displaced, evicted, gentrified and destabilized out of their indigenous lands and communities.

For more information on how to become involved with this project please call 415.863.6306.

To donate to the Homefulness Project, please send checks to POOR Magazine 1095 Market St. #307 San Francisco, CA 94103

by Joanna Letz, POOR Magazine Media Justice Intern

The lowering sun hits the top of my head and the wind licks my shoulders. We could be the ones making the wind, I think, as I look back and feel the people behind me, in front of me, and to my side.

On the loud speaker the names of those whose lives have been stolen by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) reverberate across the streets.

"Justice for Big O

Justice for Idriss Stelley

Justice for Julio Ayala

Justice for Asa Sullivan

Justice for Gus Rugley

No More Stolen Lives, No Mas Vidas Robadas."

The march on Sunday, October 22nd in San Francisco was part of the 11th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. Those who took to the streets included family members of those murdered by the police, people who have dealt with police brutality, and many individuals and organizations. Among the organizations represented were: The Answer Coalition, SF Coalition on Homelessness, Mothers with Murdered Children, Berkeley Cop Watch, Poor Magazine, The World Can't Wait, and The United Playaz. The march in San Francisco was organized by the October 22nd Coalition with the strong leadership of Mesha Monge-Irizarry founder of the Idriss Stelley Foundation, and Karen Martin.

It was not a huge march, but with it carried the signs, voices, and songs of people who have lost loved ones by the hands of the police. The march was filled with hope and a heaviness that comes from people who have dealt first hand with violence and police repression.

As I marched alongside people who had lost family members to bullets shot out of police guns I could not help but think of my family's experience in Europe during the Holocaust. My grandpa and grandma, Isaac and Adele Silber, survived the Hitler regime by hiding in a Christian family's basement. They both witnessed their family being murdered. My grandpa, who just passed away 4 months ago, was always reading the news and was always the first one to point to the many Holocaust's happening around the world. The speakers whose voices surged forth on Sunday also spoke of another Holocaust. This Holocaust is happening on our streets in San Francisco. The Holocaust, the executions, the murders of people of color in our houses, streets, empty movie theaters, and hotel rooms; this is happening in our city.

Chanting together on Sunday we took claim to the streets as we walked and made our way from Stanyan and Hate to Jefferson Square Park. Many protest chants echoed along the march.

From the loudspeakers to our responses in unison, our voices traveled,

"Whose streets?

Our streets!

Whose streets?

Our streets!"

From Golden Gate Park, at Stanyan and Hate, we walked, through the Hate, through the Fillmore, and onto Jefferson Square Park. Sunday afternoon shoppers stopped, starred, and took pictures. Mesha yelled on the loud speaker, "Come and join us in our fight against police brutality." I did not notice any of the bystanders join the march.

As I heard the wind approaching again I looked back and saw and felt a group of people taking back the streets.

The police walked along side the march all the way from Stanyan and Hate to the Park. I stood at the front and saw all along the spine of the march police officers in uniform carrying guns. Nowhere in the crowd were police represented as supporting the fight against police brutality. But the police were there in their uniforms and with their guns. There we were on the streets shouting, proclaiming and attesting to police brutality and walking alongside us were the police in uniform, silently, steadfastly moving, guns in holsters.

When we reached Jefferson Square Park the police officers mysteriously disappeared. Across the street loomed a big police station. Orange cones guarded the front and a police officer on a motorbike sat waiting. The police officers did not stay to hear the voices of those affected by police brutality.

At the park a memorial stood to those whose lives have been stolen by the police. The memorial, the wall includes names, and photographs of people whose lives have been stolen by police hands. The wall is a symbol of resistance, and of the harsh realities of police murder.

The wall was built by The Stolen Lives Project. The Stolen Lives Project also published a book in 1999, "Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement," which is available on Amazon.com and contains over 2000 cases of people killed nationwide in the decade of the 1990's. The Stolen Lives Project Update Booklet includes information collected since the 1999 book and can be viewed at their website, stolenlives.org.

As I write I think of my grandpa. He advocated for being aware of violence going on everywhere and not just listening to the stories of our own family, but knowing and listening to the harsh realities of violence and repression going on in many peoples lives.

Big Mike, the brother of Oliver Lefti "Big O" spoke on Sunday. "Big O" was killed on June 24th of this year. Big Mike said, "We pay…. And this is what we get. You pay for, I pay for the bullets that come out of that gun….In New Zealand police don't have guns…." As Big Mike so vividly pointed out, we are the ones paying for the bullets; the bullets that kill and steal the lives of loved ones.

With the heaviness of loss and struggle, comes a deep need to be heard, and a deep sense of where things are at in this country, and just how bad the institution known as the police department is.

Elvira Pollard, mother of Gus Rugley, who was killed by SFPD on June 29th 2004, said,

"June 29th 2004, loosing my son was a terrible way to get inducted into how bad the police really do people. Four different police units sat outside my house. They watched my son from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm. They don't come to ask questions. They come with heavy artillery. At the autopsy thirty-five bullets were pulled out of my son. There was no gunpowder on his hands. They said my son shot two clips…But there was no gunpowder found on his hands. Who told the story that day? The press and the police. They put me in handcuffs. All I said was he's my son. They have someone in jail, a 187 suspect for the crime. But now they don't talk about it…I wasn't wrapped so tight before, but they took something so valuable. I got to fight for my son now. An execution was perpetrated on my son. Get Gavin Newsom out of office…and Heather's too scared of her own troops. OCC (Office of Citizen Complaints) got broken into…We got to pull together and beat this shit at City Hall."

Mirna Ayala also spoke about losing her son, Julio Ayala who was killed by police on October 2nd 2005. She said, "He was in a hotel. There was a noise complaint. He was quiet. They came two by two. Thirty police. My son died. His neck broken. My son will never come back. The police stole his life."

The march and the rally was a call to listen… listen…

To listen to the stories of the mothers who have lost their sons, sons who have been murdered. To listen to community leaders calling for community boards, and community support. To listen to family members resisting and fighting for their lost loved ones. To listen to the stories of those affected by police brutality and to listen to the resistance and to the visions of change.

Minister Christopher Muhammad said, "The police are armed for military occupation. Youth of color are treated as if they are enemy combatants. Federal and local police become occupiers and relate to communities of color as if occupying." Minister Muhammad went on to say, "We must insist on enforcing a community model. They never want community control or community review boards. The Department protects themselves and serves their own interests."

In Berkeley on October 26th, Berkeley Copwatch held a march and rally to fight for the Berkeley Police Review Commission (PRC). The PRC was started as a civilian review organization to hold cops accountable. A recent California Supreme Court decision (Copley V. San Diego) cuts civilian oversight and closes police records to the public.

Khalil Sullivan, brother of Asa Sullivan who was killed by SFPD on June 26 2006, also asks for accountability. He said, "Why are police set free after they murder? Where's the accountability? God Forbid that they loose their families. We need to go to police commission meetings. And if someone can't go, send someone else. We need to create a network of people that speak... We are in control, they work for us." At the end, Khalil asked, "Are they peace officers?"

What are these uniforms that separate people? Why were there no police officers supporting the Stop Police Brutality March and Rally? But the police officers were there in their uniforms and with their guns.

In New Jersey police officer Delacy Davis has been fighting against police brutality for many years. In 1991 he founded the community-based organization called, Black Cops Against Police Brutality (B-CAP). He recently released a book titled "A Crisis Call to Action." B-CAP recommends the following courses of action:

-

civilian control and oversight of the police
-

Residency requirements
-

Community Based training for all police officers
-

Cash rewards for the exposure, arrest and conviction of corrupt cops
-

Congressional Public Hearings
-

Mandatory drug testing for all police officers
-

"Zero tolerance" for substance abuse by police officers
-

Integrity tests
-

Annual psychological evaluations

Delacy Davis says in his book, "Police brutality reminds me of the darkness in history when the master whipped the slaves just because he could. There can be no more blatant racism than that misuse of power by the police who have been entrusted to protect us."

Jewnbug, from POOR Magazine commented on the institution known as the Police Department. She said, "Why was the police system built? It was built on hate and racism…. I hear people talk about good cops and bad cops. There is a uniform and a human being. We need to change the structure. Police escalate abuse and violence. Violence doesn't stop. You displace it, put it in prison and make money off of it….To defeat an oppressive system you have to create a support system. It's more than fighting. In order to rebuild you must destroy."

As Jewnbug so articulately pointed out it is not about good and bad cops, but about a system of violence that puts people of color in danger, and leads to murder and stolen lives.

Jewnbug also related a story told to her by a friend from South Africa, "In 2002 a South African comrade said to me, in domestic violence cases, someone comes to talk with the people involved to talk and deal with the anger and where it comes from." Jewnbug and others say we need community support to deal with the root of the problems.

We are all implicated in this system of abuse and police violence, some people benefiting from the system and many people being abused and murdered.

As we chanted at the rally, we refuse to close our eyes to the system of violence and murder. To the many stolen lives, we say their names, and say, presente, in honor and remembrance.

by Byron Gafford

Another poverty scholar and child abuse survivor, Byron Gafford has taken his own painful experiences and shared them through poetry to educate the public about the numerous problems surrounding the system of foster care and the child protective services.

In his third book of poetry, Why Can't We Play in Our Own Backyard? Gafford uniquely addresses the problem of child abuse through simple, eloquent poems told through not just the eyes of a child, but also the voice of an adult survivor. These 34 poems are powerful and open the readers eyes extremely wide to the painful reality of child abuse that is occurring in our own communities everyday.

by Tony Pugh

A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period. McClatchy's review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn't confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas.

The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income of working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate since at least 1975.

The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades. But since 2000, the number of severely poor has grown "more than any other segment of the population," according to a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began," said Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, who co-authored the study. "We're not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population. What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty."

The growth spurt, which leveled off in 2005, in part reflects how hard it is for low-skilled workers to earn their way out of poverty in an unstable job market that favors skilled and educated workers. It also suggests that social programs aren't as effective as they once were at catching those who fall into economic despair.

About one in three severely poor people are under age 17, and nearly two out of three are female. Female-headed families with children account for a large share of the severely poor.

Nearly two out of three people (10.3 million) in severe poverty are white, but blacks (4.3 million) and Hispanics of any race (3.7 million) make up disproportionate shares. Blacks are nearly three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be in deep poverty, while Hispanics are roughly twice as likely.

Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, has a higher concentration of severely poor people - 10.8 percent in 2005 - than any of the 50 states, topping even hurricane-ravaged Mississippi and Louisiana, with 9.3 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively. Nearly six of 10 poor District residents are in extreme poverty.

'I DON'T ASK FOR NOTHING'

A few miles from the Capitol Building, 60-year-old John Treece pondered his life in deep poverty as he left a local food pantry with two bags of free groceries.

Plagued by arthritis, back problems and myriad ailments from years of manual labor, Treece has been unable to work full time for 15 years. He's tried unsuccessfully to get benefits from the Social Security Administration, which he said disputes his injuries and work history.

In 2006, an extremely poor individual earned less than $5,244 a year, according to federal poverty guidelines. Treece said he earned about that much in 2006 doing odd jobs.

Wearing shoes with holes, a tattered plaid jacket and a battered baseball cap, Treece lives hand-to-mouth in a $450-a-month room in a nondescript boarding house in a high-crime neighborhood. Thanks to food stamps, the food pantry and help from relatives, Treece said he never goes hungry. But toothpaste, soap, toilet paper and other items that require cash are tougher to come by.

"Sometimes it makes you want to do the wrong thing, you know," Treece said, referring to crime. "But I ain't a kid no more. I can't do no time. At this point, I ain't got a lotta years left."

Treece remains positive and humble despite his circumstances.

"I don't ask for nothing," he said. "I just thank the Lord for this day and ask that tomorrow be just as blessed."

Like Treece, many who did physical labor during their peak earning years have watched their job prospects dim as their bodies gave out.

David Jones, the president of the Community Service Society of New York City, an advocacy group for the poor, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee last month that he was shocked to discover how pervasive the problem was.

"You have this whole cohort of, particularly African-Americans of limited skills, men, who can't participate in the workforce because they don't have skills to do anything but heavy labor," he said.

'A PERMANENT UNDERCLASS'

Severe poverty is worst near the Mexican border and in some areas of the South, where 6.5 million severely poor residents are struggling to find work as manufacturing jobs in the textile, apparel and furniture-making industries disappear. The Midwestern Rust Belt and areas of the Northeast also have been hard hit as economic restructuring and foreign competition have forced numerous plant closings.

At the same time, low-skilled immigrants with impoverished family members are increasingly drawn to the South and Midwest to work in the meatpacking, food processing and agricultural industries.

These and other factors such as increased fluctuations in family incomes and illegal immigration have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate in at least 32 years.

"What appears to be taking place is that, over the long term, you have a significant permanent underclass that is not being impacted by anti-poverty policies," said Michael Tanner, the director of Health and Welfare Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, disagreed. "It doesn't look like a growing permanent underclass," said Sherman, whose organization has chronicled the growth of deep poverty. "What you see in the data are more and more single moms with children who lose their jobs and who aren't being caught by a safety net anymore."

About 1.1 million such families account for roughly 2.1 million deeply poor children, Sherman said.

After fleeing an abusive marriage in 2002, 42-year-old Marjorie Sant moved with her three children from Arkansas to a seedy boarding house in Raleigh, N.C., where the four shared one bedroom. For most of 2005, they lived off food stamps and the $300 a month in Social Security Disability Income for her son with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Teachers offered clothes to Sant's children. Saturdays meant lunch at the Salvation Army.

"To depend on other people to feed and clothe your kids is horrible," Sant said. "I found myself in a hole and didn't know how to get out."

In the summer of 2005, social workers warned that she'd lose her children if her home situation didn't change. Sant then brought her two youngest children to a temporary housing program at the Raleigh Rescue Mission while her oldest son moved to California to live with an adult daughter from a previous marriage.

So for 10 months, Sant learned basic office skills. She now lives in a rented house, works two jobs and earns about $20,400 a year

Sant is proud of where she is, but she knows that "if something went wrong, I could well be back to where I was."

'I'M GETTING NOWHERE FAST'

As more poor Americans sink into severe poverty, more individuals and families living within $8,000 above or below the poverty line also have seen their incomes decline. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University attributes this to what he calls a "sinkhole effect" on income.

"Just as a sinkhole causes everything above it to collapse downward, families and individuals in the middle and upper classes appear to be migrating to lower-income tiers that bring them closer to the poverty threshold," Woolf wrote in the study.

Before Hurricane Katrina, Rene Winn of Biloxi, Miss., earned $28,000 a year as an administrator for the Boys and Girls Club. But for 11 months in 2006, she couldn't find steady work and wouldn't take a fast-food job. As her opportunities dwindled, Winn's frustration grew.

"Some days I feel like the world is mine and I can create my own destiny," she said. "Other days I feel a desperate feeling. Like I gotta' hurry up. Like my career is at a stop. Like I'm getting nowhere fast. And that's not me because I've always been a positive person."

After relocating to New Jersey for 10 months after the storm, Winn returned to Biloxi in September because of medical and emotional problems with her son. She and her two youngest children moved into her sister's home along with her mother, who has Alzheimer's. With her sister, brother-in-law and their two children, eight people now share a three-bedroom home.

Winn said she recently took a job as a technician at the state health department. The hourly job pays $16,120 a year. That's enough to bring her out of severe poverty and just $122 shy of the $16,242 needed for a single mother with two children to escape poverty altogether under current federal guidelines.

Winn eventually wants to transfer to a higher-paying job, but she's thankful for her current position.

"I'm very independent and used to taking care of my own, so I don't like the fact that I have to depend on the state. I want to be able to do it myself."

The Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that, in a given month, only 10 percent of severely poor Americans received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in 2003 - the latest year available - and that only 36 percent received food stamps.

Many could have exhausted their eligibility for welfare or decided that the new program requirements were too onerous. But the low participation rates are troubling because the worst byproducts of poverty, such as higher crime and violence rates and poor health, nutrition and educational outcomes, are worse for those in deep poverty.

Over the last two decades, America has had the highest or near-highest poverty rates for children, individual adults and families among 31 developed countries, according to the Luxembourg Income Study, a 23-year project that compares poverty and income data from 31 industrial nations.

"It's shameful," said Timothy Smeeding, the former director of the study and the current head of the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University. "We've been the worst performer every year since we've been doing this study."

With the exception of Mexico and Russia, the U.S. devotes the smallest portion of its gross domestic product to federal anti-poverty programs, and those programs are among the least effective at reducing poverty, the study found. Again, only Russia and Mexico do worse jobs.

One in three Americans will experience a full year of extreme poverty at some point in his or her adult life, according to long-term research by Mark Rank, a professor of social welfare at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

An estimated 58 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 75 will spend at least a year in poverty, Rank said. Two of three will use a public assistance program between ages 20 and 65, and 40 percent will do so for five years or more.

These estimates apply only to non-immigrants. If illegal immigrants were factored in, the numbers would be worse, Rank said.

"It would appear that for most Americans the question is no longer if, but rather when, they will experience poverty. In short, poverty has become a routine and unfortunate part of the American life course," Rank wrote in a recent study. "Whether these patterns will continue throughout the first decade of 2000 and beyond is difficult to say ... but there is little reason to think that this trend will reverse itself any time soon."

'SOMETHING REAL AND TROUBLING'

Most researchers and economists say federal poverty estimates are a poor tool to gauge the complexity of poverty. The numbers don't factor in assistance from government anti-poverty programs, such as food stamps, housing subsidies and the Earned Income Tax Credit, all of which increase incomes and help pull people out of poverty.

But federal poverty measures also exclude work-related expenses and necessities such as day care, transportation, housing and health care costs, which eat up large portions of disposable income, particularly for low-income families.

Alternative poverty measures that account for these shortcomings typically inflate or deflate official poverty statistics. But many of those alternative measures show the same kind of long-term trends as the official poverty data.

Robert Rector, a senior researcher with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, questioned the growth of severe poverty, saying that census data become less accurate farther down the income ladder. He said many poor people, particularly single mothers with boyfriends, underreport their income by not including cash gifts and loans. Rector said he's seen no data that suggest increasing deprivation among the very poor.

Arloc Sherman of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues that the growing number of severely poor is an indisputable fact.

"When we check against more complete government survey data and administrative records from the benefit programs themselves, they confirm that this trend is real," Sherman said. He added that even among the poor, severely poor people have a much tougher time paying their bills. "That's another sign to me that we're seeing something real and troubling," Sherman said.

McClatchy correspondent Barbara Barrett contributed to this report.

BY THE NUMBERS

States with the most people in severe poverty:

California - 1.9 million

Texas - 1.6 million

New York - 1.2 million

Florida - 943,670

Illinois - 681,786

Ohio - 657,415

Pennsylvania - 618,229

Michigan - 576,428

Georgia - 562,014

North Carolina - 523,511

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

© 2007 McClatchy Washington Bureau and wire service sources

by Antonio William/PNN Youth in Media

"How can they talk about us standing on corners, using drugs, we are hard-working students trying to get an education," a Latina Richmond High School Student wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke into the corporate media lens. She was speaking outside a school board hearing in April on the California High School Exit Exam(CAHSEE).

Earlier this month two major legal challenges to the CAHSEE were heard and adjudicated on in California courts. The first one: Liliana Valenzuela, et al v. Jack O’Connell, which was fought by attorneys Arturo Gonzalez and Chris Young from Morrison and Foerster on the basis of the educational, due process and equal protection rights afforded to students under the California Constitution. We won this one. Alameda County Judge Robert Freedman decided on Friday May 11th to delay diploma denial for the class of 2006.

When issuing the injunction, Freedman said he was swayed by Gonzalez's argument that low-income of color students, English language learners in particular attend low-performing schools that do not prepare them adequately for the test.

Of the 46,700 seniors who have failed the test, 20,600 are designated as limited English learners and 28,300 are very lo-income. I am one of those 28,300 students.

We lost the second challenge. Brought on by Californians for Justice, represented by attorney John Afeldt from Public Advocates, It alleged that the California State Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell had violated a state education law which required them to study alternatives to the CAHSEE after initial administrations of the exam back in 2001 and 2002.

State education officials did not complete the study of alternatives
until March 2006, just a few months before graduation day and far too
late for the Legislature to have time to enact any alternatives in time
to benefit the class of 2006.

I am a 17 year High School Senior. I failed the Exit Exam. Due to the delay ruling of the first challenge I might have a chance to receive a diploma as I am in the class of 2006. But what about my younger brothers and sisters? This question brings me back to the April action in West Contra Cost County (WCCUSD).

The California High School exit Exam (CAHSEE) was being challenged by West Contra Costa School Board member, Dave Brown. The young woman I quoted and hundreds of other youth and community members who marched into the hearing that day were speaking to the media after the WCCUSD rejected a proposal which would have acted as an alternative to the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

Brown had worked for many weeks with members of the policy Institute, Justice Matters, who works on racial justice in education, as well as conscious youth activists from Youth Together, to create an alternative to the CAHSEE which included completing all of their high school requirements as well as presenting a “Senior Year Demonstration”.

According to Multiple Measures Approaches to High School Graduation published by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University, alternatives are currently being used by several states such as Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Maine. The Stanford Study stated that rather than being detrimental to student learning, alternatives such as the Senior Year Demonstration encourages an ambitious range of thinking and performance skills in students who participate.

So why can’t Jack O’Connell understand that? Or better yet why doesn’t Jack O’Connell listen to us, the students struggling with resource-poor, arts-poor and skilled- teacher poor schools. Struggling under endless test preps and no real teaching.

My editor, tiny, at POOR/PNN who also works as the Communications Director at Justice Matters encouraged me to watch, listen to and read all the Exit Exam coverage with a critical eye. Who is heard on this issue, and who is listened to, she queried, as those voices, as we have been taught at POOR, helps to frame the issue to society at large.

As I, a young African/Latino PoorNewsNetwork reporter watched the young Latina student of Richmond High School capture a corporate media minute in April and spit truth, I felt hope. As I, a young African/Latino high School student watched a young person of color question a stereotype to thousands of corporate media viewers, I felt possibilities. As I, a young brother of color who failed the exit exam watched resistance to the racist and classist Exit Exam. I didn’t feel like completely giving up. At least through the media lens, I felt like we were listened to. Maybe sometime in the future we will be heard.

by Anna Kirsch/Poverty and Media Activism Intern

"What do we want?"

"Education"

"When do we want it?"

"Now"

The voices of welfare mothers and their children boomed into the sky
above the Oakland Federal Building on Tuesday morning. Ten years after
the implementation of welfare these mothers, struggling to survive and
get an education, gathered to speak out to dispel all myths of welfare
reform

As I gazed at the colorful signs reading, "You Get an F" and "Welfare
Deform," my mind wandered to the past Saturday and the two young girls
who were adamantly coloring these posters. The sisters with matching
long brown hair, curious round eyes and bright lime green sandals
concentrated on their coloring while their mother Vivian Hain spoke
openly about her experiences on welfare. Above the chatter of
children's voices and the sounds of crashing wooden block toys, Hain
described her battle to come up and out of poverty through education.

She spoke on Saturday morning at a parent information meeting organized
by Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education (LIFETIME) to
inform parents about the upcoming changes to the welfare deform system
(as it's known to any of those who have experienced it). Wearing a
bright red tee shirt reading "Don't Target Our Children," Hain told the
attentive crowd about how her life fell apart when she broke her leg
working at Wal-Mart.

"I didn't know what to do, so I got on welfare and I became homeless
for three and a half years," she stated honestly and unapologetically.

Hain, like many mothers trying to survive on welfare and get an
education, has long days. Starting around 6:30 a.m. everyday, she
juggles getting her three daughters to school, feeding them, going to
class and studying to get her B.A. in multimedia at Berkley City
College. She does all this while clothing, feeding and caring for her
three kids and herself on a welfare check of just $723.00.

Hain is just one of many mothers who might be denied an education come
October 1st when changes to the welfare to work system take a hold at
the state level. These changes, which focus on work and not education,
could prove disastrous for many low and no income families.

The maze that is welfare deform just got messier and even more
confusing. Now the federal government will be defining what is counted
as work at the state level and apparently education isn't important
enough to make the cut. After just twelve months of education, welfare
parent-students will be unable to attend school full-time and still
receive funding.

"We know that education and training are the best ways to get off
welfare, but education is not valued," Anita Rees, LIFETIME's associate
director and former welfare mother, told the audience. "You all have the skills in life, but now you just need the piece of paper to prove you have these skills." Now it seems getting that piece of paper is going to become even more difficult for these already stressed parents.

"These new work requirements are going to screw everybody. Most
low-income people have more barriers, like financial aid, childcare and
housing that impede them from getting an education and who can get an
associate's degree in one year with no assistance anyway?" Hain said.

Good question. The honest truth is that it's pretty much impossible for
anyone, even with the best circumstances, to get any sort of
meaningful education in one year. It should not come as a surprise that
the average number of years needed to complete a community college
program ranges from 3.2 to 3.5 for parents shouldering significant work
and family obligations.

“The problem now is that states will be penalized if welfare cases
aren't reduced. So case reduction, not poverty reduction becomes the goal,” Hain said, echoing the message of Rees. "There is a bigger influx of people in poverty as a result of this and people are just slipping through the cracks," she stated, shaking her head.

Diamond Williams, another full time student and mother trying to make
it on welfare, faces the same dilemma as Hain. Williams, who lives in West Oakland, majors in Africana studies and education at San Francisco
State University and hopes someday to get her PhD to teach college.
There's a chance she'll have to drop out of school in October because
she's already completed her allotted 12 months of education.

"They want you working at McDonald's or Wal-Mart for the rest of your
life and this is putting the American people in a bad situation,"
Williams adamantly stated. "What I heard today makes me want to take
action. I want to be knowledgeable about my rights."

Williams' day starts at 6:30 a.m. when she wakes up to pump breast milk
for her six month old and doesn't end until 10:30 p.m. after two or
three hours of studying. She's active in school and has been on the Dean's list several times. Williams, Hain and these other student-parents don't really fit the description of lazy welfare moms. An all too common misconception the public and politicians readily believe in.

The truth is that welfare mothers "work more than anybody else. They
work before, after and during their time on welfare," Rees, who speaks
from experience, stated. "Now we need to raise public awareness to let
people know that this (welfare) isn't working and that the people in
charge have failed us," she added.

As Hain stated, it's time to let the government know that "they need to
value education first because it's a pathway to a career, not a job;
because we want careers, we want medical benefits, we want a retirement
fund, and we want a better future for our children."

For more information about the changes happening to the welfare system
and support for welfare families, see LIFETIME's homepage:
www.geds-to-phds.org. For more work on issues of poverty and racism by
the low and no-income youth who experience it first-hand go on-line to
www.poormagazine.org.

by Janak Ramachandran/ PNN Community Journalist

On April 12, 2006, the man some have dubbed the John Wayne of South Indian cinema passed away. Rajkumar, whose given name is Muttaraj, was born April 24, 1929 in the small remote village town of Gajanur. Proud fellow villagers boast of the boy from the village, born in a dilapidated hut on the side of a dusty road, who grew to become a superstar. Encouraged by the example of his father, who was a dramatist, Muttaraj joined his father’s troupe, where he learned his initial skills as an actor and singer. He entered the film industry at a young age and, as Rajkumar (meaning Prince), starred in his first ‘big break’ film in 1954. Considered one of the most versatile actors in Indian cinema and with over 200 films to his credit, his character depictions ran the gamut from drama to action to comedy to romance and he had a penchant for choosing films with social messages addressing societal evils. Also an accomplished singer, Rajkumar won a national award for one of the many songs he sang in his films.

But fate had more in store for the self-titled Prince. Less than ten years back, Rajkumar decided he wanted to live the remainder of his life with his fellow villagers in Gajanur. Lauded not only for his superstar status but also for a personality given to simplicity, generosity, kind-heartedness, and peace-loving ways, his fellow denizens were happy to welcome him home. But, as India’s John Wayne returned to the new house built across the road from the hut where he was born, he was paid an uninvited visit by the man many of the villagers in the area praise as a modern day Robin Hood. Veerapan, known for sandalwood smuggling and poaching and hailing from the same village as Rajkumar, reportedly conveyed to Rajkumar’s wife, Parvathamma, “Please do not worry. We assure you we will never harm Rajkumar but we have some serious demands (of the government). We are compelled to use these means to make ourselves heard.” Veerapan then kidnapped Rajkumar.

When the state police chief was asked about the Robin Hood image of Veerapan and if the locals see him as a criminal, he retorted candidly, “…he is seen as a do-gooder. He helps the locals by paying for their marriages, renovating temples, helping poor people, getting a poor widow a square meal, and so on…” In the same breath, he continued that, “Everybody is afraid of him.” Since the villagers see themselves as aided by Veerapan’s actions, it seems unlikely that the ‘Everybody’ to which the state police chief refers includes them. More likely he means the wealthier interests and their governmental comrades who send the police to enforce those interests. Indeed, Veerapan has supposedly killed a number of police and other government officials in his pursuit of justice. In addition to his political motives on behalf of the poor in his area, Veerapan may be motivated by personal experience. His brother and sister both died in police custody.

So the day that Robin Hood kidnapped John Wayne, all of South India came to a standstill: neighborhood shops closed, distraught fans worried, and Bangalore, the heart of India’s Silicon Valley, ground to a halt for several days. After 108 days in captivity, Rajkumar was released by Veerapan when he was assured through negotiations that atrocities committed by government police and its Special Task Forces would be pursued and that efforts would be made to release those innocents detained under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. One of the negotiators for the team that included human rights activists and journalists opined, “Everybody knows how Veerapan became a big problem…the socio-economic factors played a major role in his rise.” Of the crimes attributed to Veerapan, he added, “Why do you accuse Veerapan alone? The guilty are living happily in our society. Why do you pardon them? What we want first is action against all those who…have committed atrocities on the poor villagers.” Detailing the evidence of 90 people in jail without access to trial, 60 women subjected to sexual assault, and more than 300 men handicapped by police torture, he called for action against those responsible in the government and concluded, “Action against Veerapan can be taken after that.”

For his part, Rajkumar, on his release, reported, “Veerapan did not harass me.” And in an earlier message, he declared, “I am being taken care of with great love and they are behaving with great trust.” When referencing that Veerapan and his group have a point of view, with which he agreed in many ways, Rajkumar stated, “There is actually much that we have to learn from them. Having lived with them like an elder brother to younger brothers, I have had a lot of opportunities to…understand them well. It’s my fate that I was abducted by Veerapan.”

And so it was that Robin Hood and John Wayne became brothers. Two men from the same village with very different life paths yet with a common devotion to the local poor who protected them. For those curious, Robin Hood Veerapan was eventually found dead with a bullet in his head—the police story of how he was captured and killed appears to contradict the circumstances of his death—and the evidence of the possibly execution style bullet in his head would not have been found had the police not been stopped from prematurely cremating his body. In any case, both Rajkumar and Veerapan are no longer with us. The question remains though, ‘Are we with them?’ Are we committed to a world where a rich success can meet a poor bandit and see his brother…his sister? If so, perhaps Robin Hood and John Wayne together can topple the King.

by Janak Ramachandran

A debate is currently raging in India regarding ‘caste-based’ reservations or quotas. Certain castes have historically been unable to receive the needed education to advance into higher paying professions and so, the government has proposed a system of affirmative action to remedy the situation. The debate has an obvious analog in the United States in the issue of affirmative action for women, African Americans, Latinos, and others of color who have historically been unable to receive the same university education as their white counterparts.

I decided to investigate the Indian issue to determine what commonalities it might have with the US debate; and whether the arguments have a cross-cultural ability to inform each country’s struggle with the issue. One argument, from Bay Area Indians for Equality (a local organization), responds to the Indian government proposal to reserve places in India’s universities for the less privileged castes. Protesting with signs that read “Respect merit, not caste” and other similar pleas for equal treatment, they voiced their opposition to the affirmative action proposal. At a similar protest in the US, we might have seen “Respect merit, not race.” I found myself agreeing with the basic premise of the slogan and so, I planned to research why the other side of the debate insisted on these caste-based reservations or what we might consider quotas here in the US. What I found was groundwork for the quota system was laid in the Indian constitution to address the inequality created by centuries of caste-based oppression. In actuality, those who claimed a ‘higher’ caste status had actively deprived those they perceived as ‘lower’ caste from obtaining education and jobs that paid well. In effect, the so-called higher castes had, for centuries, ‘reserved’ that privilege for themselves at the expense of the poorer castes—castes made poor by caste-based favoritism and not as a result of merit. So the slogan “Respect merit, not caste” now seemed to me a disingenuous call for equality by those who now benefit from a system previously created to oppress others.

In the United States and other western societies, a similar claim can be substantiated whereby slavery, Jim Crow, ghettoization, and the assassination of leaders who make a difference (e.g. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, etc.) has created a legacy of depriving education and opportunity to those in the ‘lower’ classes. Those who have gathered more money at others’ expense can buy more education and more opportunity; the opportunity to display merit is a privilege given to ‘higher’ classes as a result of generations of oppressing others whether they be seen as lower caste, lower class, or inferior race.

When faced with this worldwide historical record, I wondered how those opposed to reservations and quotas might respond. A protester with Bay Area Indians for Equality provided the following comment: “What the country (India) needs is a lot more engineers, a lot more doctors—reservations aren’t solving that.” He pressed for the idea that government should focus on improving elementary education for all children. Though not a response to the historical record of oppression, the stated goal of equal treatment seemed laudable. Perhaps, I thought, a society bent on progress could allow the ill-gotten gains of the privileged to remain in place—rather than seeking social justice through the reapportionment of unmerited wealth—while currently setting in motion a system of equal opportunity for rich and poor alike. Further reading and reflection revealed that, though the privileged opposed to affirmative action quotas (both in the US and around the world) endorsed equal education for all children, they were unwilling with tax dollars and otherwise to actually fund all children’s schools equally. Those who now had wealth and privilege largely created by generations of oppression wanted to spend that money disproportionately on their children’s schools—more for Beverly Hills, less for inner city LA…more for Palo Alto, less for East Palo Alto…more for the Marina and Pacific Heights, less for Bayview and Hunter’s Point and so on. So the privileged, through the government disbursement of tax revenue and services, still seem to favor depriving one group to benefit another, namely themselves. With the combination of the circumstance of this present reality with the historical record of oppression, the disingenuous “Respect merit, not caste (or race)” had seemingly turned into “Now that half the game has been played in our unmerited favor, we, the privileged, are neither interested nor willing to right the wrong through affirmative action or even level the playing field via equal treatment into the future for all.”

But, another possible objection of those opposed to affirmative action programs, I thought, might be the seeming injustice and adverse societal impact of depriving the more educated, regardless of how they historically obtained their status, of completing that education and winning the higher paying jobs. So I decided to inspect the Indian government proposal to see if the affirmative action the government was planning would disproportionately favor the so-called lower castes at the expense of the privileged castes. In concept (that is, without reference to the historical record of oppression or the present reality of inequality), it seemed reasonable that the government not reserve more for the historically oppressed castes than the percentage of the population they represented, even though historical justice might allow for disproportionately depriving the privileged of access to education and opportunity. It turns out the proposal provides for an increase in the number of seats reserved in Indian universities for the underprivileged castes from its current 22.5% to 49.5%. The population of the combined castes includes working class people, farmers, and aboriginal groups as well as those previously labeled untouchables (because the work traditionally performed by them involved sanitation and the like and was thus considered ‘polluting’). So-called untouchables refer to themselves as Dalits (meaning “depressed”). In total, these various castes comprise nearly 80% of the population. So 49.5% of the seats in universities would be reserved for 80% of the population. In effect, this also indicates that prior to this proposal, 77.5% of university spots were reserved for the approximate 20% that are already the most privileged and that now, 50.5% would still be reserved for this 20% privileged group.

Despite this disproportionate favoritism shown to the privileged concerning educational opportunity, opponents of affirmative action might still counter that, regardless of the individual and class-wide injustice, society benefits from those best qualified performing these jobs and being rewarded with the higher pay that cements their elite status, unmerited as it might be. In other words, the question becomes, “Who should be allowed to become a doctor, an engineer, or a business executive?” Not only does this question and its supporting argument fail to grapple effectively with the moral issue of historically and currently oppressing the ability of people to equally benefit from education and opportunity, it assumes that the narrow hurdle of academic excellence in a system rigged in favor of the privileged is the proper criterion with which to answer the question. The test and grade results that are a function of a privileged education are inadequate in measuring a potential doctor’s, engineer’s, or business executive’s attentiveness to bigger picture implications, ethics concerning the treatment of others and the environment, compassion in dealing with those who suffer and are oppressed, and pursuit of excellence by which an individual assumes responsibility for an ongoing learning and understanding of how his or her job is well done. I would argue that we would all rather be treated by a doctor who displayed these characteristics while earning a C average in medical school than the doctor who graduated at the top of the class in the hopes of making money. But these characteristics are not measured by school grades or standardized tests and are essentially eschewed by academic institutions as meritorious subjects to develop as part of a curriculum.

So who should be allowed to become a doctor, an engineer, or a business executive? In the final analysis, the question devolves to something even more basic: “Who should be allowed to join the ranks of the privileged?” In the background of any conversation regarding equality for all is a contradiction of capitalism revealed. Even the most conservative capitalist economists will acknowledge that, contrary to political rhetoric, everyone can’t be a millionaire; the system would crumble in an endlessly devaluing inflationary upward spiral. It is one of the principal reasons that the economic powers that be attempt to actuate fiscal and monetary policy that strives to keep some portion of the population out of work. The bottom line: in order for some people to be rich or even middle class, a much larger number of poor must be created and maintained. If these poor and working class groups are allowed to legitimately compete, they would be able to win back through the channels of capitalism, even as a rigged system, some education, opportunity, and economic benefit for their families and communities. As a result, the privileged would have less and so, a little more competition for a rigged system that has served them so well frightens them.

Looking hundreds and thousands of years into our human past, we see a legacy of enslaving and oppressing a large portion of humanity for the benefit of a relative few. Often the only criterion for this systemic abuse is that someone doesn’t look or act the same way as those who sought the power. In the case of India, the caste system has functioned for thousands of years from its inception to assign certain types of work to certain groups. Quickly, those with more privileged jobs became the more privileged classes. But the basis used by the original conquering Aryans of long ago to divide people into different occupations is lost in the word caste, which is a Portuguese translation. Tracing the etymology of the word back thousands of years reveals its original meaning: skin color.

by Gretchen Hildebrand/PNN L.A. Correspondent

"The stories you will hear tonight are not supposed to happen.” Parent and CADRE (Community Asset Development Re-Defining Education) member Naomi Haywood stood on the low stage at the front of the packed meeting room. The parents and students from the South Los Angeles community that filled the room mirrored Haywood's frustration and outrage. They exploded into applause for her and co-facilitator Linda Sanchez as they set the stage for last Wednesday's People's Hearing on the institutionalized "push-out" of children of color from the Los Angeles public school system.

"This is a human rights crisis," continued Haywood, engaging the almost entirely African-American and Latino crowd in rhythmic alternation with Sanchez, who spoke in Spanish. "students and parents - have a human right to dignity, education and participation!" The crowd responded with passion. Each seemed to have their own story of how District 7 schools in South Los Angeles had pushed their children out of public school, through the systematic application of punishments intended to humiliate and suspensions and "opportunity" transfers that often exile students from their own education.

Many in the crowd wore CADRE's bright green t-shirts, and had already come to this community organization with their struggles to obtain a respectful and meaningful education for their children. Haywood herself was one such parent. When her son was in middle school, partial blindness in one of his eyes was slowing down his learning. Despite this, his teacher made him sit far from the board and insisted that he was "just lazy."

Haywood was only notified of the situation when her son had already been suspended, after he had been disciplined several times by the teacher for acting out. When Haywood brought in a doctor's note describing her son's disability, her son's teacher brushed her off, saying she didn't care. Eventually her son missed two weeks of school before the administration agreed to meet her son's needs. "It wasn't til I went to CADRE that I learned that I have a basic human right to participate in my son's education. The school just treated us like WE were the problem.

Luckily Haywood's son is still in school, although she still worries about the threats of suspension and discipline that are leveled at him because of his disability. Beyond her concern, she is also angry that her son could be so easily denied an education by a system that prefers to punish rather than educate low-income students of color.

CADRE was formed in 2001 by low-income parents of color in South Los Angeles who believed that decent education for their children was a basic human right that was being systematically denied to them by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). While working to educate parents in their community about their right to be involved in their children's education, CADRE parents found they all had stories similar to Haywood's and often worse. And the results of the discipline procedures are what CADRE calls a direct path to poverty or prison.

The hard data collected by CADRE supports this theory. Public high schools in South LA have the highest suspension rates in the city. These schools also have the lowest graduation rates. For every 100 ninth-graders, as few as 24 receive diplomas, with the average graduation rate in schools like Fremont, Locke, Jordan ranging from 24% to 42%. This crisis is happening in districts that are primarily African-American and Latino. In nearby Whitney High School, in a district where Black and Latino people made up less than 20% of the census tract, the suspension rate was 0%, and the graduation rate 93%.

Many from the audience were there to share heartbreaking stories of the pain they and their children have experienced at the hands of this system. A shy woman in a long a flowing skirt told in Spanish of how her daughter had been suspended 5 times because the school felt that they couldn't stop the other children from hitting her. Even though she was the victim of other children's behavior, her daughter received no help in making up her work and is now so far behind that she may not graduate. Worse was that her daughter, who once loved learning, has "turned into a person full of resentment."

Another parent told the story of a CADRE member who tried several times to arrange a meeting with administrators and teachers to discuss her son's suspension. After being stood up twice, finally one teacher showed up to a third meeting. Instead of listening to the parent's frustrations at this treatment, the teacher called security to have her removed from the school. "If they don't want to deal with angry parents, they need to give us the proper respect, to let us know when a red flag goes up.

All outrageous, the parents stories have common themes, the sense that their children are being humiliated by their punishments, one parent told of her child being subjected to taunts while picking up trash in a courtyard. Parents also find themselves excluded from decisions made for their children, while schools show little effort to address the problems that may be interfering in their education, whether they are learning disabilities, behavior issues, or a lack of safety and support available in the school. The commonality between all these students was that they lost access to education when punished, and not given a chance to catch up – and many of them are encouraged give up.

In CADRE's recent report, More Education, Less Suspension, data on school drop-out rates is backed up with a survey looking to find out why students leave school before graduation. In a study of 120 such former students, CADRE found a systematic pattern of suspensions being extensively overused in the absence of other disciplinary techniques, which were applied in disregard to the impact on the child's education. Many of the students who left school did so after a series of suspensions and many were advised to leave by teachers and school administrators.

Parents and students who had undergone school suspensions were also interviewed, uncovering the mistreatment that many felt subject to in the public school system. Their children weren't listened to or respected in the discipline process. One of the students at the hearing told a story of a classmate being dragged in handcuffs to the dean's office because he wouldn't pull up his pants. Angry at this treatment, he made the point, "The principles of behavior and respect that they want us to use should apply to staff, too." Tellingly, the report also found that African-American students in particular were subject to a higher proportion of suspensions.

The implications are clear: low-income students of color are subjected to a system that denies them respect, and in many cases, an education at all. The "drop-out" crisis in their community is really a "push-out" crisis supported by these institutionalized disciplinary practices.

The parents of CADRE were present to stand up for their children's right to an education with dignity, as well as their right to be a part of decisions that impact their children. "We do not have to accept this, and nor do our children," insisted Haywood, "as primary stakeholders of our children's futures, we deserve to be a part of the process."

Will the LAUSD listen? Perhaps. One Board Member-elect, Monica Garcia from District 2, sat through several hours of testimony and then addressed the crowd, saying,"I'm listening." While she gave respect to CADRE and the students present, no specific promises were made. And in the absence of more official power in the room, most media outlets passed over the event.

But CADRE isn't waiting for promises, they are urging the LAUSD to pass a resolution implementing a Discipline Foundation Policy, now a draft bulletin at the Board, that would reshape the principles behind the school district's policy and implementation. Their demands are simply that the LAUSD commit to a policy preserving students human right to dignity, a right to education, and a right to parent participation and monitoring in discipline implementation. CADRE is in effect, demanding accountability from the system that prefers to blame students and their parents for its own failure. They will be at the LAUSD's next meeting on Tuesday, June 27th from 4:30- 6:30 (333 South Beaudry Ave.) to present their demands with parent power.

An insightful note did come from Board Member-elect Garcia, who insists, "I got it." She does seem to, as she noted that urban education in America has been underserved for centuries. To make a goal of 100% of kids graduating from high school in LAUSD schools, she added, is nothing short of revolutionary.

As one parent led the room in the chant "Parent - Power!" it was clear that there was revolution in this room, in the righteous and insistent voices of parents who have seen their children suffer and be denied enough and will not back down. And in the face of such staggering educational inequities, their movement will only grow.

by Adriana Diaz/PNN Community Scholar

I could feel the hot piercing sun beaming down, transforming my olive complexion to a golden brown. The ever so powerful words, “SI SE PUEDE,” Yes We Can, rolled off the tongues of demonstrators. The day was May 1st, Un Dia Sin Immigrantes, A Day without Immigrants. I was marching with thousands of peaceful supporters to downtown San Francisco’s city hall to support undocumented immigrant’s rights.

The hot sun and lack of water brought me back to a day I never want to relive.

It was my last year of college and I was sitting in my room starring blankly at the computer screen trying to concentrate. I had to write my final paper for my Theories of Media class on Cultivation Theory. All of a sudden the phone rang and the alarming sound shocked me. I felt as if I was back in high school sitting in 4th period, daydreaming, while the bell rings snapping me back to reality.

My best friend, Josie who I worked with at our neighborhood summer camp, called. Her words were coming out so fast I could barley grasp what she was saying. Josie was hysterical. “The Romero family was deported yesterday to Mexico….,” she said.

At that moment my heart left my chest and I dropped the phone. I remember again starring blankly but this time I was looking at my Janet Jackson poster I got from her 98’ Velvet Rope Tour. I wished that this was a nightmare and I would soon awake.

The Romero’s are beautiful, faith based, and hard working people. Jose was a cook at an Italian Restaurant in North Beach while Marisol worked two jobs 12hour days as a nanny and house keeper. Both shared with me their same frustrations: under paid, overworked, and unappreciated.

Jose and Marisol left their four amazing children (Christina, Miguel, Dominique, and Letty) at San Francisco’s youth summer drop-in program and in the care of my hands while they went off to work. I grew extremely attached to them and their story especially the eldest, Christina. I admired her courage to initiate the responsibility of her siblings during the hours her parents worked. A drive and passion to succeed in life pumped through the veins of this fourteen year old.

All four children are US citizens and both parents crossed over undocumented. Their savings they managed to conjure up was working towards getting their citizenship. I remember helping Marisol with her paper work and translating everything for her and Jose.

“Hello…hello, Adri you still there?” I could hear a muffled voice from a distance. I looked down and saw the phone. Tears strung down my cheeks I could feel the blood rush to my face and I could not grasp a single breathe I began to cry uncontrollably and feeling my stomach turning I had to throw up. It was not a dream and Josie was still on the phone. The news about the Romero family was true. I felt as if I let them down. I had to go back to school and leave them in San Francisco to struggle and now they were gone.

I am relieved when discovering my parched tongue is refreshed with a cool glass of water. . I am reminded why I am here in this nation wide event surrounded by thousands of Immigrant’s Right Supporters.

“The Mexican immigrants are providing a fairly adequate supply of labor…While they are not easily assimilated; this is of no very great importance as long as most of them return to their native land. In the case of the Mexican, he is less desirable as a citizen than as a laborer,” said the U.S Congress Senate in 1911. Although a great deal of time has passed, many would say that people do not think like that anymore. And I would have to question that statement; you see that is why I stand in front of city hall today. It is because “last December 2005, the Republican-controlled U.S House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 4437) making it a felony to be an undocumented worker” (www.getactive.com/ United Farm Workers e-activism campaign) as well as aiding or employing undocumented workers.

For a long time I hated the system. But as the year progressed I transferred that negative energy of hate to anger, with anger grew a passion for equality. As I look around at the many women, men, and children who come here in front of City Hall to protest I see a fierce fire in their eyes that will not burn out and with that I am hopeful.

by Leroy Moore/Illin n chillin

In May, I got an email that the Berkeley Police Commission might have an opening on their board. I attended Berkeley Cop Watch monthly meeting to get more information and to see if it was worth it for me to put my name in the running. What I found out in that meeting was the serious case of police brutality against local disabled activist and founder of Disabled People Outside. I interviewed Danny McMullan about what happened on Sunday April 30th at People’s Park in Berkeley, CA. Danny McMullan is a wheelchair user and founder of, Disabled People Outside DPO.

DPO is a volunteer organization that supports disabled people on Berkeley’s streets and teaching them how to travel through the beaucracy to get what is respectfully theirs; services, housing, disability income etc. He started this project in 1995 after a motorcycle accident in 1994 that left him disabled. The hospital gave him a pair of crutches and sent him on his way. Before the accident, Danny had very little connections with people who are homeless.

With no money, no insurance, and no medical insurance, Danny was on the streets for eight years. He just wanted the government to respect their side of the contract because when he worked he paid taxes and was on his parents’ insurance but the government didn’t respect their side when he became disabled and homeless. Danny spent eight years on the streets of Berkeley piecing his life together relying on the free box in People’s Park for food and clothes. At the time of the police brutality against him at people’s Park, Danny’s struggles were almost a thing of the past. He slept in front of Social Security and Section Eight Offices and got his section eight and SSI payments.

His experiences on the streets led to the creation of Disabled People’s Outside Program, a volunteer group that receives no money from the city operating on fundraising and donations. He works on two levels in advocacy of services for disabled people on the streets and on another level DPO got Mayor Bates to sleep outside, got the rain shelters started and a transition plan for people coming out of ALTA Bates Hospital.

Today he is married with children and working but on April 30th Danny was entering People’s Park with his two sons and wife to meet about the conflict with the city over the Free Box, free food and clothing organizations and people leave for people in need. UC Police had stationed themselves in People’s Park to cite people who drop off food and clothing for people in need.

On April 30th, road signs were blocking the entrance to the park but Danny’s sons removed these barriers. As Danny rolled through the barriers two UC Cops were on him twisting his arm, asked him to show his ID and spitting on him in front of his wife and children. Witnesses and members of Berkeley Cop watch told me that UC officers were pushing/yanking Danny out of his wheelchair down to the ground where 6 UC police officers got on top of him including one who repeatedly beat Danny in the stomach. Although Danny and many others at the scene told UC officer, O'Connor, that he is disabled with a false leg O'Connor insisted Danny lean over the back of the squad car which hurt him.

This abuse placed Danny in the hospital but UC Police continued to cit him on destruction of a road sign, one account of resisting arrest and two accounts on battering of an officer. According to Danny, the UC police said that he kicked him with his right leg, however Danny is an amputee with no right leg and spit on him but Danny stated that the UC Police spit on him and he was trying to get the officer spit off of him by spiting on the ground.

The charges are still on Danny! He emailed me the latest on his case. On May 31st. David A. appeared for Danny at the Alameda County Courthouse. None of the charges against Danny were filed but the police decided to go ahead with a probation violation thereby denying him a fair trial by jury. The police also put a $10.00 dollar bail against him. In a police report police stated that Danny never spit on anyone or destroyed any property. Danny told me that he is a target by UC Police because he is a long time advocate of Peoples’ Park for the free box and human rights for activists, people who are homeless and disabled.

To get more info about Disabled People Outside Project and to donate to Danny bail fund call him at (510) 688-2342 or danmcmullan@comcast.net

Danny is advising residents of Berkeley to call Mayor Tom Bates (510) 981-6900 and asked him that something needs to be done about police brutality by UC Police and to restore the Free Box.

by Joseph Bolden

Crisis, G. A. And Truth Pt. 2
My one regret is that not once did I ever get to eat a Knish or drink an Orange Julius [light breaded baked potato of Jewish creation]. The other also New York City treat [Orang Julius: made with oranges, protein power with strawberries, an egg or honey mixed in].
Not once did I in during the whole time did I ever get a taste or even a whiff of them.
It made me so homesick and made that I vow to be a better at cooking so I can make my own treats by scratch whenever I wanted not dependant on vendor or store bought items.

Ok, a few days have passed, skipped out of town before labor day travel crunch.

That is signed up for G. A. again before taking a bart train for a family get together.
Blood bled news, sweet 16 parties, a famous, wacky, Conservationist Australian guy killed by a stingray, and the ‘Prez on television giving his low down on our eminent destruction of our way of life if certain factions in the Middle East have their way.


It sounds like scare tactics. Linking Lenin With Hitler shows the guy is mixing worker rights and communism with Hitler’s Mein Kampf [A blue print of Xenophobic Jewish Extermination].


When his revolution topples Russia’s ruling class but went into another tangent ending with Joseph, Stalin, a deadly, suspicious, smart, and cunning, leader who before, during, and after the second world war turns his country into a fearful land of death for decades before he dies in 1953.


It was creepy the way he says World War III as if that’s his job to "Bring It On." Anyway I enjoyed a safe space with one of my relatives sleeping most of the two days away until I had to take my butt back to the city.
And with that it’s the end of Crisis, G. A.

Gotta go folks and… I don’t know what to do next.

by Leroy Moore/illin n chillin

Although it is the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party and our community is celebrating Black History Month, I’m very worried about my Black Panthers who are reaching their golden years.

I recently wrote about Malcolm Samuel, a local Black Panther with a disability who, in 2005, was rounded up by Berkeley police for no reason and died in prison. Now, one of our queens has been dethroned by the state and left homeless. Queen Mama Khandi of Ohio is one of our living treasures.

The state has always tried to weaken our leaders, and although Malcolm and Queen Mama Khandi were thousands of miles apart, they shared many things in common. Both were Panthers, both disabled yet turned away from social service agencies and both were victims of police abuse.

Malcolm is with our ancestors, but we still have time to help Queen Mama Khandi regain her queendom. She is physically disabled, a diabetic and wears a full back brace. I was contacted by her friends, who reached out to me on her behalf, to help tell her story – one of oppression, discrimination and downright prejudice, committed by of the state of Ohio against a disabled Black Panther, activist, artist and entrepreneur.

Mama Khandi is a musician who joined the Black Panther Party early in her youth. This was the same time Mumia Abu Jamal joined. They attended the same broadcasting school. While disabled and homeless, she graduated magna cum laud from Central State as the first Black woman.

A supporter of the MOVE family Afrika, she played a key role in organizing the members after MOVE was bombed. At that time, her house was raided by police on horseback. They trampled three of her daughters and beat her until she lost the child she was carrying.

Queen Mama Khandi has delivered Black babies at her home for Black women for over 32 years. And she co-founded several independent Afriikan schools in Philly and two in Ohio. She is also co-founder of the Afrikan-Amerikan Cultural Center in Millville, New Jersey, the Church of the Afrikan Sons and Daughters of Sampson and COASADOS, which has given monetary, resource and material support to various freedom fighters, POWs and political prisoners.

So why has the state of Ohio completely destroyed her Afrikan queendom? Mama Khandi, who spent her days working with children, was accused of child abuse by two white ladies in her neighborhood.

On Jan. 13, 2002, Mama Khandi was asleep in bed when the police barged into her home with no search warrant and told her to get dressed. They threatened her, saying that they would pull her out of bed and take her to jail naked if she didn’t comply.

The cops would not wait till Mama Khandi got on her brace. She was not told what she being charged with and was taken to jail in her wheelchair. The arresting detective tried to trick her in signing her rights away.

Her bond was $850,000. While imprisoned, she was contacted by the housing authority, who told her that her housing voucher was being taken from her because “the head of household is not in the home� and that “being in jail constitutes (her) having somewhere else to live.�

It was very hard for me to read Khandi’s letters. She wrote about how she was consistently taunted and abused by guards and staff. She also went into details of the physical abuse she’s had to endure while in prison.

She came very close to following in Malcolm Samuels’ shoes – almost dying at the hands of prison guards and a lack of accurate medical care and access to a specialized diet. Being locked in solitary confinement – where she didn’t receive the physical therapy or medicine that would help to ease her pain – her disability worsened.

She was even denied her back brace, wheelchair and even warm clothes. Mama Khandi lost half her weight in the six months she was there.

Her health case manager explained to the judge that if something didn’t change soon, then they will have a dead prisoner on their hands.

In November 2002, Mama Khandi was released from jail on $40,000 bond and placed on house arrest. For almost three years, she has been trying to get her Section 8 and disability income back. She was staying with friends until she was forced to leave. These same “friends� decided to keep her personal belongings on March 10, 2003.

In November of that same year, the house arrest anklet was finally removed and her criminal trail began. The jury found Mama Khandi not guilty of kidnapping, not guilty of abduction, and they split 10-2 in favor of not guilty on the charge of child endangerment. However, she still is not allowed to see her son.

Mama Khandi is in the middle of representing herself in civil court, small claims court, juvenile court and criminal court and struggling with medical disability and financial crises. The pre-trial civil court case that she filed against the “heffas� who had her arrested was scheduled for Feb. 13. She also found out that she has to file another lawsuit, on her own behalf, against Section 8 because many disability law offices in Ohio can’t help litigate.

Mama Khandi called the local Red Cross about housing, but they had nothing. She received the same response from the Salvation Army. Despite her history of advocacy for African Americans, Mama Khandi wrote that no local African American agencies or organizations have come forward to assist her in any way! Not even those organizations of which she is a member.

It was sad, but not surprising, that the only agencies that have come to her aid, including the organizations that advocate for people with disabilities, are all-white or white-run.

As we celebrate Black History Month and the Black Panther Party’s 40th anniversary, let’s practice what we preach. Help restore Queen Mama Khandi to her throne. She needs your assistance, donations and love now.

To read her full story, view prison letters and her art and to listen to Mama Khandi’s music, go to her website at www.geocities.com/khandipages. Send donations to Rev. Khandi I.N. Paasewe, P.O. Box 6965, Columbus, Ohio 43205 or her PayPal.com account at khandipages@yahoo.com.

Leroy F. Moore Jr. is vice president of the National Minorities with Disabilities Coalition. He is a poet and activist and a race and disability consultant. Email him at sfdamo@yahoo.com and visit his website at www.leroymoore.com.

There is no summer in jail

by Queen Mama Khandi

There is no warmth behind cinderblock walls; leaks from the ceiling constantly falls; flooding solitary confinement jail cells; to make a change, deputies are not compelled.

Iron metal beds, upon which we sleep; concrete floors, inmates pace and creep. Metal ceilings, tables, benches and stools; deputies insult intelligence and condescend as if we are fools.

There is no distinction between innocent or guilt; upon corruption and oppression, this genocidal system is built. Inmates and deputies, to each other they cuss; fights, arguments, unjust treatment and fuss.

A paradigm most imperialistic and strange, this place is enough to make someone deranged. It’s cold in treatment and temperament alike. Lights on at all times, robs melanin battery at night.

Ceretonin/Melanin imbalance is thusly enforced; acid over alkaline, giving inmates no choice. Poor – nutrition, medical, rehab – a joke. All – so sickening, robbing body and spirit – to choke.

Nothing allowed that’s living can be, in anyone’s cell; considered contraband – not even a shrine with me.

I trust the Almighty, in spite of all, will prevail. ‘Cause truth be told, there is no summer in jail!

by Vivian Hain & Ingrid De Leon/PNN Digital Resistors, welfareQUEENs

Editor's Note;As a poverty scholar born in this stolen land referred to as the US, i have been intrigued by the so-called first world - third world paradox, how in fact, poor folks, poor mothers and fathers living in the dog eat dog capitalist US reality actually experience many of the same conflicts, struggles and crises as our third and fourth world sisters and brothers. Coupled with globalization, free trade, false border enforcement, the natural and unnatural disaster of Katrina and their effects on poor folks and finally, the push to have a larger and larger underpaid and undereducated class of workers on the move, it clearly points out that the differences between us as poor folks all over the world are under the gun of survival are getting fewer and fewer. All of these realizations spurred the launch of POOR's global/local poverty dot connection study in POOR Magazine's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute

Vivien Hain, from East Oakland

My name is Vivien Hain, originally gentrified out of Frisco then homeless for four years, then housed in the projects in East Oakland. I am a very low-income, xicana mother of three and this is my story of a move outta East Oakland to Berkeley.

It was five years after I had put my name on a waiting list for an affordable housing program in Berkeley…. I never thought I would ever see the day come when I’d get the call, telling me that my name had come up next on the waiting list. I thought to myself: “At last”, after being homeless then living in public housing for nearly five years in one of East Oakland’s most volatile neighborhoods where shootings happen almost daily.

For the next few weeks, I would go back n’ forth with the housing manager of the affordable housing program in Berkeley, yet I refused to get my hopes up that I would actually ever get housing there. I didn’t want to believe it. I was in total denial. Life itself had really beaten me down for the past eight years. So many terrible things had happened to me in the last two places we had lived in and every time there was an opportunity to get safe and clean affordable housing, it either wouldn’t work out or the waiting list was closed.

But this time it did… I got the affordable housing in Berkeley! I was so overjoyed! I cried in disbelief, but deep down inside, I still refused to truly believe it. Maybe I had some type of post-traumatic stress disorder from living in those two places where I had many bad experiences, including being a victim of crime and violence.

I was so happy, yet scared… I was scared of rejection after building up so much hope. I didn’t want to be let down again, forced to tell my children that we would have to continue living in timeless adversity inside of a sealed empty box, never to get out. I felt trapped inside a mental limbo, unable to realize that I was leaving 85th Avenue... The next day, I slowly began packing my life into several ‘unsealed empty boxes…’

Moving… Yes, moving can be tremendous for anybody, even those with material means to move, but try moving when you are very low-income… I sure found out quickly what an extreme hardship it was, as the next few weeks were a trying experience of my own sanity. At first, I didn’t realize how difficult moving all the way from East Oakland to Berkeley would actually be on a monthly welfare check of $723.00 with three kids. Most importantly, I didn’t take into account the immense emotional toll it would all have on me.

For the next few weeks, my emotional state went on a wild roller coaster ride, going up slowly and coming down fast. I began to feel extreme anxiety and a rush of adrenalin like a fleeing animal running through a windstorm. For the first few days, I drove throughout North Oakland and Berkeley, pillaging garbage cans for empty cardboard boxes. Then, I began endlessly driving packed boxes and small furniture in my little car to the new apartment in Berkeley. I must have made about 30 car trips moving items, because I don’t own a credit card, which prevented me from renting a moving truck. I also felt very vulnerable and alone, yet I persevered, kept going, kept packing… I wanted more than anything in the world to get my kids out of that sealed empty box forever...

The one thing that I couldn’t overcome so easily was the emotional trauma the move had upon me. For the first few days in the new apartment, I felt very anxious and paranoid. It was too quiet, too still… I couldn’t believe that a place could be without constant noise and disturbance. No more screeching cars… No more yelling and fighting… No more drug transactions outside… No more constant sirens screaming… No more helicopters reverberating overhead… No more loud music booming into my apartment… No more insane buzzing from the gamblers with their remote controlled cars outside… No more gunfire in the night…. three rounds, four rounds, sometimes six… Now, I lay at night in my new room only to hear the sound of trains and boats in the distance… Quiet footsteps passing by… Then, silence… Yet, I still feel nervous, anxious… Sometimes paranoid, as I unpack my life, leaving behind unsealed empty boxes and memories…

Vivien Hain, de East Oakland

Mi Nombre es Vivien Hain, originalmente desalogada de San Pancho, despues de estar sin hogar por cuatro años, despues estado en vivienda publica en el Este de Oakland. Tengo un bajo salario y soy una madre xicana de tres hijos y esta es mi estoria de mi mudanza del Este de Oakland a Berkeley.

Havian pasado cinco años, que avia puesto a mi y a mi tres hijos en la lista de espera para una vivienda accesible en Berkeley…. Nunca pense que el dia llegara cuando recibiriera la llamada, diciedome que mi turno en la lista de espera avia llegado. Y pense “por fin” despues de aver vivido sin casa por tres años y medio enfrente de una tienda vieja sin agua y despues estado en vivienda publica por casi cinco años en el Este de Oakland, uno de los barrios mas volatiles, donde hay disparos casi diario.

Por las proximas semanas, yo seguiria aquí y alla con el manager del programa de vivienda accesible en Berkeley, y no queria alzar mis esperasas que iva a recibir vivienda alli. No lo queria creer. Estaba totalmente negandolo. La vida misma me avia golpeado duro en los ultimos ocho años. Muchas cosas terribles me avian pasado a mi en los ultimos dos lugares que havia vivido y cada ves que avia una oportunidad para agarrar vivienda accesible limpia y segura, no funcionaba o la lista de espera estaba cerrada.

Pero estaves si funciono… y me dieron vivienda accesible en Berkeley! Estaba tan emocionda! Y llore sin todavia creerlo, pero dentro de mi si lo creia. A la mejor tenia un tipo de trastorno por estrés postraumático de vivir en esos dos lugares donde tuve muchas malas experiencias, incluyendo crimenes y violencia.

Estaba tan feliz pero tambien con miedo…. Tenia miedo de ser rechazada despues de tener tanta esperanza. No queria que me negaran otra ves, forzada a contarle a mis hijos que teniamos que continuar a vivir en una caja basia y cerrada por una eternidad. Me sentia atrapada, y sin realizar que iva a dejar la avenida 85…. El proximo dia, empeze a empacar lentamente mi vida en varias cajas vasias.

Mudandonos… si, mudarse puede ser tremondo para cualquier persona, hasta para esos con los materiales para mudarse, pero tratar de mudarse cuando tienes un salario muy bajo…me di cuenta que es una extrema difucultad y las proximas semanas fueron una experiencia tratando de mantener mi propia sanidad. Primero no me di cuenta que dificil era mudarse desde el Este de Oakland hasta Berkeley en un cheke de asistencia mensual de $723.00 con tres hijos. Mas importante, no tome encuenta el costo inmenso emocional que tendria en mi.

Por la proximas semanas, mi estado emocional fue como una loca montaña rusa, yendo despasio para arriba y rapido para abajo. Yo empeze a sentir anxiedad extrema y una infusion de adrenalina como un animal corriendo por una tormenta de viento. Por lo primeros dias, maneje por todo el norte de Oakland y Berkeley buscando cajas de carton basias en los basureros. Despues, empeze a manejar cajas llenas sin parar y muebles en mi carro chiquito al nuevo apartamento en Berkeley. Hice como unos 30 viajes en carro moviendo mis cosas. Por que no tengo una tarjeta de credito, que me prevenio de rentar una camioneta de mudanza. Tambien me senti vulnerable y sola, pero yo preserve y segui empacando…. Queria mas que nada en el mundo que mis hijos salieran de esa caja basia para siempre…

La unica cosa que no podia sobrepasar tan facilmente fue el trauma emocional que la mudansa tuvo sobre de mi. Por los primeros dias en el nuevo apartamento, me senti anxiosa y con paranoia. Era tan callado y muy calmado… no podia creer que el lugar podia estar sin ruido constantemente y disturbios. Sin ruidos de carros,… no mas gritos y peleas… no mas intercambios de drogas afuera… no mas sonidos de sirenas … no mas helicopteros por encima del techo… no mas musica tan fuerte entrando a mi apartamento…no mas ruido por los taures con sus carros de control remoto…no mas disparos en la noche…tres tiros…cuatro tiros…hasta aveces seis… Ahora me duermo en la noche en mi nuevo cuarto a escuchar el sonido distante de los trenes y botes en la distancia….pasos muy despacios…y luego silencio… pero todavia me siento nerviosa, anxiosa… y aveces con paranoia, cuando estaba desempacando mi vida, dejando atrás cajas basias y memorias…

Ingrid Deleon De Guatemala

Mi nombre es Ingrid de Leon. Soy de Guatemala y esta es mi historia. Es la historia de mi viaje a los Estados Unidos. Me vine por que fui abusada sexualmente en mi pais.

De Guatemala a Mexico todo estaba bien. Pero todo cambio cuando llegamos a un pueblo que se llama Reinosa. Ivamos a cruzar la frontera a McAllen, Texas y luego a caminar hasta Houston. Con el coyote y otra gente dormimos en los cerros y cruzamos el Rio Bravo en la mañana. Cuando finalmente llegamos a McAllen, Texas nos tuvimos que quedar en una trailer muy sucio. Durante el camino el proximo dia paramos para comer y tomar agua y un hombre de Veracruz me dijo, “quien viene contigo?” yo le dije que nadie. El se sonrio y dijo “hagamos el amor y yo te voy a cuidar.” Yo le dije que no necesitaba su ayuda.

y seguimos caminado

Habiamos caminado por una hora y los que salieron mas tarde los agaro migracion entonces tubimos que regresar. Salimos el otro dia en la noche y ese hombre de Veracruz me queria besar y un senor llamado Jaime dijo “no le hagas nada a mi sobrina” y ese hombre se enojo y dijo “me la vas a pagar.”

Y seguimos caminamos

Caminamos toda la noche al lado contrario de la luna y caminamos luego todo el dia. En la tarde dividieron la comida y el agua y a mi no me dieron porque el que dividio la comida era el hombre que me abuso. Yo le dije al coyote y el dijo “dale algo a la muchacha.” Entonces el agarro 2 tortillas, las escupio y dijo te dije que me hiba a vengar estupida y melas tiro, yo le dije “el estupido eres tu, tu cometelas” y se las tire en la cara y me puse a llorar y algien me dio agua

y seguimos caminando y caminamos esa noche

Y el dia sigiente ya no podia mas, yo lla no aguantaba caminar tenia mucha sed. Finalmente nos reuniremos con el otro grupo y yo me senti feliz y pence que ya abiamos llegado al final. Nos sentamos todos a descansar pero el coyote dijo “bueno senores lebantense porque todabia falta mucho” y muchos se pucieron a llorar y empezamos a caminar y yo sentia que mi corazon ya no podia palpitar. Y en la media noche vimos una luz el coyote dijo “miran esa luz?” todos dijimos “SI,” y el dijo “pues alli tenemos que llegar” pero esa luz estaba muy lejos.

Y seguimos caminando

Eran las 3 de la mañana y estabamos en una montaña cuando mis pies ya no se lebantaban de la tierra y mi corazon ya no aguantaba. Y yo les pedia a los que iban pasando a lado de mi “alludenme” y nadie me alludaba. Finalmente me cai y todos pasaban pisandome y el coyote decia “apurate pinche guera.”

Y ellos siguieron caminando

Ellos me dejaron, pero yo pense que dios me ayudaria y yo pedi ayuda, “ayudame, y dame fuerza; y no dejes que mis hijos se queden sin madre.” Despues vi la luna y eschuche una voz decir. “parate y corre.” Entonces yo me pare y ya no sentia dolor y corri y corri y hasta que los alcanze. Y el coyote me vio y me dijo “yo pense que los animales te ivan a comer” Y esa es la historia de mi viaje a los Estados Unidos.

Ingrid Deleon from Guatemala

My name is Ingrid de Leon. I’m from Guatemala and this story is my story. It’s the story of my trip to the United States. I came because I was sexually abused in my country.

From Guatemala to Mexico everything was going well. But everything changed when we reached a town called Renoisa. We were going to cross the boarder to McAllen, Texas and then walk to Houston. With the coyote and other people we slept in the hills and crossed the Rio Bravo the next morning. When we finally reached McAllen, Texas we had to stay in a very dirty mobile home. During our walk the next day we stopped for food and water a man from Veracruz asked me, “Who came with you?” “No one,” I said. He smiled and said, “Let’s make love and I will take care of you.” I told him I didn’t need his help.

And we walked on.

We had walked for an hour but the others were caught by the border patrol and so we had to go back. We left the next night and the man from Veracruz wanted to kiss me. But a man named Jaime said, “Don’t do anything to my niece.” But this made the man from Veracruz very angry with me and he said, “You’re gonna pay for this”.

And we walked on.

We walked all night against the direction of the moon and we walked the whole next day. In the afternoon they divided the food and the water, but I didn’t get any because it was the man that harassed me that divided the food. I told the coyote and he said, “Give some to the girl.” So, the man grabbed two tortillas, spit on them, and said, “I told I would get you back idiot”. And I said, “You’re the idiot—you eat them,” and I threw them in his face. I started to cry and someone gave me water.

And we walked on. We kept walking and we walked all night.

And the next day I couldn’t make it anymore, I couldn’t walk and I was very thirsty. Finally we met with the other group and I felt very happy because I believed we had come to the end. We all sat down relived, but the coyote said, “Well senores, get up because we still have a long way to go”. Many of us started to cry and we started walking and I felt that my heart would no longer beat. At midnight we saw a light and the coyote asked, “Do you see that light?” “Yes,” we all said. He said, “Well, that’s where we have to go”. But that light was very far.

And we walked on.

It was 3 in the morning and we were on a mountain when my feet would not move from the earth and my heart could not longer endure. I was asking the people that were passing by me, “Help me” and nobody would. Finally I fell and everyone was stepping on me and the coyote said, “Hurry up you fuckin’ guera.”

And they all walked on.

They all left me, but I thought that god could help me and I asked for help. “Help me,” I said, “and give me strength; don’t allow my kids to live without a mother.” Then I saw the moon and I heard a voice say, “Get up and run.” So I got up and I could feel no pain and I ran and ran and I found them. The coyote looked at me and said, “I really thought that the animals were going to eat you.”

by Leroy Moore/illin n chillin

When economist, sociologist, scientist and politicians predict the future of our society, we are thankful and continue to look for their advice. However when the messenger is outside of these professional sects, we question their motive and some times point our finger to the messenger when social conflicts happens. Many times the messengers for the young, urban residents and people of color are artists\activists. From James Baldwin, to Chuck D artists\activists have been predicting or warning about the social constrains in communities of color that have erupted into in civil upheaval but theses messengers have not been embraced by many professionals who are in a place of power to make the changes.

Matter-of-Fact when a messenger artistically communicate his\her’s message he or she is blame in starting protest or a riot. The LA riots and the riots in Paris France of 2005 have a lot in common. Both had prophets in the hip-hop arena trying to get their message to people in power about the situation that their neighbors are going through from unemployment, run down housing projects to police brutality. Before Rodney King beating and trail, LA Rap stars from Ice Tea to NWA were warning everybody about the tension in South Central and else where in LA. Even Movie director, Mike Singlter gave us a message in the 1998 movie, “Boyz-N-The Hood. Almost the same thing happened in Paris France. Rapper, Monsieur R, put his SOS out their but did the lawyers, economist, sociologist, and scientist and politicians listen?

Now hip-hop artists are the ones to blame for violence in their community. The same thing happen in the Blues when Blind Willie Johnson was arrested outside of Costume House in New Orleans in the 1920’s for singing his song, If I had My Way I’d Tear this Building Down. Police said by singing the song Johnson was trying to start a riot. Now in 2006 French politicians and lawmakers are using the same accuse against Monsieur R for his song, 'FranSSe' for starting the riots of 2005 that he penned almost a year before the riot. Monsieur R wrote the song after researching the living condition of his neighbors.

As a researcher\activist\poet I too have felt frustrated by the injustice of my disabled brothers and sisters of color. And like Monsieur R, Sister Soulter, Paris and many more, I too use my pen as a means of getting my message to my people and mainstream society. So am I going to be in front of a judge when my poems, If I Had A Gun, Hey Mr. White or Tell the Truth come out? No wonder I can’t find a publisher! Our so called political leaders are missing the meaning of our messages. If we can drag our artists\activists in court than why can’t we do the same with legislators whose ink has led many of us in prison, segregated schools, trapped in run down public housing and deported. These are the reasons why riots happen and today’s blunt disregard to some politicians, police and other so called “authority figure!” In this climate, Kanye West to Monsieur is what Audre Lord called “Truth Tellers!”

by Joseph Bolden

I saw a show on Children Of... no,won't complete sentence.

They know the date, time too well though time has passed-


enemy to memory of those suddenly taken.

Today is theday when the 'Prez will dig up memes to rally and garner political capitol.

Wrong as it is he and others will again without meaning to and

especially a willowy, sun haired writer of note has already spread acid venom as widow's greive,heal in ways unique to themselves.

Enough of said poison pennist.

A jealous self rightous harpy of greek legend [I see gray,dirty, sharp and jagged wings,twisted beak,deep black
slits for eyes.] That's my opinon whether real or not is anyone's guess.

For those grieving over this half decade please know to

move on at ones own pace let no one dictate because it is a distinctly
private matter that

happened to those individuals and families publically.

Everyone has changed somewhat either made stronger or weakend some.

Our future and generations unborn depend on this generation of adults and children forced to grow too soon

as were those of the 1860's Civil War,

Spanish American,
World War's 1 & 2,
Korean Conflict of the 1950's,
Viet Nam (1960's thru
mid 1970's and the beginnings of the Middle East confict

(1990's rested only to
continue after start of the 21st century).

Will we always be warring with ourselves until we end our species totally?

The youth, adults, and children of today's conflict know this cannot go on as it has and it saddly falls to them

whom memory will not cease of painful lessons learned on the terrible day of...
this day five years past.

The only way to stop these massive heart break, soul searing harm is to
be better conflict resolution solvers,
prevent national upsets, pride wounding so
peace, prosperity, innovations,

and love of living and lives are upppermost in our thoughs


than the life terminating means we have at our disposal now.

May this day/years be always remembered and celebrated as a time of renewal

and

re-embracing the end of war forever as young adults and children most hurt by these horrors become and are

ultimately the saviors in their own unique ways

ushering us into that unknown country...

PEACE.

For all time.
Only then can all of us breathe a collective sigh and be the people's we were always destined to be.

by Leroy Moore/Illin'n chillin

It is again Summer and Californians are holding their breath, hoping that it will be a cool Summer to avoid fires. Although it’s been cool here in California, a different type of fire has been spreading from the East to the West this Summer.

I’ve been writing about violence against people with disabilities for more than ten years. However, the recent cases are just shocking and sick! In June there were two cases from Florida to Oregon involving people with disabilities who were set on fire or had bleach poured on them that caught the media’s attention. These cases took place in Jacksonville, FL, Schenectady, NY, and Spokane, WA. However, before June there have been other cases of people with disabilities being set on fire. Last year during the Paris riots a disabled woman was doused with petrol and set on fire. And on March 6th of this year a disabled homeless man in Boston was kicked and set ablaze, according WHDH TV of Boston, MA.

Newspaper reports identified the victims in the above Summer cases of 2006 as three men and one woman so far. All had physical disabilities and at the time three were reported to have survived and one died from being burned. The March case in Boston and the recent case in Oregon both involved victims who were homeless. The New York case happened in a home and was perpetrated by a stranger; the case in Florida was also in a home of a disabled woman who was forced to drink bleach and was then set on fire by her caregiver. As you can see there are similarities and differences in the above cases. I point this out because the public has to realize that these crimes against people with disabilities are not isolated incidents, but the frame of a distributing picture of violence against people with disabilities from Coast to Coast.

Even though Congress passed the Crime Victims With Disabilities Act on Jan. 7th 1998, and the good work of the National Organization for Victim Assistance, which has a department on victims of crimes with disabilities has helped, the above cases continue to happen largely in silence. It is only July, the beginning of the 2006 Summer, and we must not only stop these fires, but bring them to the forefront in all of our work, advocacy, and organizations. We must voice our concerns and come up with programs and policies to deter the growing violence against people with disabilities!

Sources

1) The Guardian

Disabled woman set on fire as Paris riots spread,
11/5/2005

2) WHDH TV Boston

Suspects set fire to homeless man,
3/6/2006

3) Channel 3 News New York

Man accused of attacking disabled woman, trying to set her on fire,
6\30\2006

4) News 4 Florida

Caregiver charged with throwing bleach on disabled woman,
6\16\2006

by Joseph Bolden

The Good Old Quickly Dead Days Pt.

September 11th another infamous day adds to our expanding lists of really bad days to live through.
That day will dwell burned into adults as its already affects children will affect generations taught these horrific lessons
as generations before learned about World Wars I and II,Korea War-Conflict,Viet Nam and our latest Middle East - Desert Storm/Shield battles..


It kind of makes me feel a longing for the good old quickly dead days. You know those days when we American’s thought of
ourselves as the greatest experiment of mixed blood minus a few African Americans, Pacific Asiatic, South Border, or

Brazilian folks.
Food eaten were = eggs, bacon, sausages, red meat butter, and gravy with no worries on our future health.

Remember when history was simple without her-story and other people’s stories messing up the pure story of Manifest Destiny of America?


But reality shakes her ass pointing glistening perfectly polished fingers at telling us truth will out, unjust laws must-will
change, and everyone’s living reality is equally valid without destroying the frayed original work which is now a
weave many discordant colors, threads, and patches.


Now our stories are many not only one dominant theme but of many in miniature ones buried under
the dominant culture for decades unseen, forced joined but not celebrated by said culture.
The dams have broken, tears shed from its holding back too long.

End Of Part 1.

by Antonio William/PoorNewsNetwork Youth in Media

"The funded tree resembles me.." The powerful poetry of Tracy, a Castlemount High School student and member of Youth Together, cut through my down mood. Tracy was one of several students from across the Bay Area who was speaking out against the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) preceding a court action about to be heard in San Francisco last week.

I am a high school senior from Oakland and I did not pass the Exit Exam. Had it not been for my editor at POOR Magazine, I wouldn't even been here today, because in a lot of ways I have lost hope. And yet the challenge of this racist, classist law put into place by State Superintendent of schools Jack O' Connell, continues.

Attorneys for students attending the worst schools in the state asked the Court of Appeals on Tuesday in San Francisco to reinstate an injunction against the Exit Exam and retroactively award diplomas to as many as 42,000 seniors. This followed an Alameda County Superior Court judge who granted the injunction in May, which halted the diploma penalty for the Class of 2006 because he found many students had not had an equal opportunity to learn the material being tested. The California Supreme Court suspended that injunction on May 24th and the issue was transferred to the Court of Appeals.

The Lawyers from Morrison & Foerster who are representing the students suing the state over the Exit Exam argued that some schools failed to adequately teach students the material on the exam. “Denying them diplomas for flunking the test is an unfair punishment”, said Arturo Gonzalez, one of the lead attorneys for the students.

"You can't blame the kids”, Gonzalez said.

The funny thing is, if you listen to the words of Jack O'Connell's office you would think that in fact you can “blame the kids” because they continue to say that graduating seniors who lack basic math and English skills demean the value of the state's high school degree. I am not sure what they mean by that. I worked hard in school. I attended all my classes and I actually got good grades. How is that demeaning? I would argue that the people this test demeans are hard-working students who are trying to get an education.

I am also one of those kids who came from an "underserved school". Our school didn't have a lot of resources and we had teachers who were just out of school and didn't have a lot of experience in the classroom. However, we actually had a lot of art in our school and a lot of parent volunteers who really cared. The point is that everyone who does well in school isn’t always able to pass the tests. So the real problem here is the tests and the fact that that is how they decide whether a student should get a diploma, which is just wrong.

My mind came back to the powerful group of student activists from Youth Together who had gathered on the grass outside of the Superior Court in San Francisco last week. “If we meet all of the students requirements, don't we deserve to walk across the stage?", Jennifer, another high school student from Oakland and member of Youth Together, called out to the crowd.

Yes, I thought. Unfortunately, the people in control of our educational system in the State of California don't put any weight on what we, as students in the system, deserve.