2008

by Sam Drew/PNN

"I'm trying to get my son back!" was Sandra Thompson's response to my mundane question about her well-being. Sandra has suffered through a series of emotional setbacks that would have crushed a weaker person. But her dogged determinism for justice and strong belief in God have kept her thinking positive

I first met Sandra at POOR Magazine's monthly Community Newsroom meeting in downtown San Francisco. She riveted the audience with her story of being made a pariah for reporting her sexual abuse to the proper authorities and the removal of her beloved son by Child Protective Services(CPS) and the judicial system.

She was attending San Francisco City College working hard to acquire her AA in Criminal Justice. "I wanted to get a degree in Criminal Justice to inspire the youth. I worked myself from homelessness," she said proudly. "But I have a past, I came out of the Foster Care System and later got into juvenile hall, I then got involved with gangs. I spent 6 years at Chowchilla Prison for involuntary manslaughter. I did not do it but I was convinced to take a polygraph test. I was young and wasn't educated about my civil rights . But I've changed my life,"? she said seriously.

Sandra exhibited pride, as she told me she was on schedule to graduate in the Spring of 2008 with a high G.P.A. But her mood quickly changed as she began describing what happened with one of the instructors. While she was working on acquiring her GED, a math teacher offered to tutor Sandra because as she says she "was weak in Algebra and Geometry."?

"He said we would have to go back to his place to study. That is where he attempted to rape me,"? she said her eyes filled with rage and sadness. Sandra did what people are told to do after this type of assault "I reported the incident to Affirmative Action and then I went to the Chancellor."? Sandra spoke with someone at Affirmative Action and then with the Dean and the Chancellors office, but her charges were dismissed. "They sent me a letter that they hired an investigator but they couldn't substantiate my charges,"? she added.

But this denial of justice didn't stop Sandra from speaking out. "I was put on Disciplinary probation because of my disruption of complaining to the chancellors office." Then according to Sandra she was suspended indefinitely for speaking out at the meeting of Chancellors.

Sandra is not only speaking out on her behalf but also for other students,"A lot of other students on campus mention that instructors have done this to them too. But there is no support for students on campus,"? she said.

With all this drama swirling around Sandra her thoughts remain focused on her seven-year-old son Emmanuel. Sandra smiled warmly as she told me, "His name comes from the Bible."

But her smile quickly disappeared as she continued telling the story of her son. After learning that her husband was giving Emmanuel medication behind her back and that he had threatened him, she took her son to the police station and she was given an Emergency Protection Order. On September 7th, Sandra arrived in court under the impression that she was attending a restraining order hearing.

She sighed as she continued with the painful memory. "But when I arrived [they] told me it was not a restraining order hearing but that it was my custody hearing for a CPS report that said I convinced my son to make false accusations against his father," she said.

At court that day Sandra was shocked to hear that C.P.S. would be removing her son because she was "withholding his medication"? and she was told that this was "not an open case."

Today Sandra's husband has sole legal custody of her son and she has no parental rights, as she is struggling with two court cases. Her current attorney will remove himself in the beginning of December and as of now Sandra, like so many other parents struggling with C.P.S. has no legal support for her next hearing on December 21st.

Yet with all the hardships Sandra has encountered she remains upbeat as she defiantly says, "I'm a survivor of domestic abuse, nothing will stop me from achieving my goals, I want to work with women in prison; I want to make sure what happened to me doesn't happen to other single mothers. I will not be intimated...If you do not stand up and speak out for yourself, things will never change."

If you can assist Sandra Thomsen call (415) 351.9988 or visit the website www.freewebs.com/comelooksee

by Peter Kenichi Yamamoto

What would Bill want us to say of his life? That he wasn’t larger than life but that he WAS life itself. As a devoted father and husband, a comrade and friend, a Brother, Bill was of and for “everyday people”. Bill was ALIVE and he provoked you to take part in being human. Bill cared genuinely about people. He laughed easily WITH people and not AT them. He questioned how people were doing and pointed out WHY things were the way they were.

Bill was always teaching about life in a simple and direct way. He was understandable yet he was deep. He saw things exactly as they were with an added dimension of humanness. Bill saw the warmth and the frailty of our individual lives but he wasn’t weak. He was strong and he fought like a tiger for the people he knew and loved. And who did he love? Not only his own Filipino community but also all Asians of the greater community and the African American and the Latino community. Bill was “just folks” and was OF and BY working people. When you thought of neighborhoods and communities you thought of Bill. Not stuck up or a snob, he was approachable. He came forward and MET you. Bill was contact and meeting. He was discussion and collaboration. Bill was THERE.

I remember speaking on a panel with Bill and Al Robles in front of Steve Nakajo’s college social work class about the International Hotel. Bill taught and demonstrated to the young students how the I-Hotel was part of the political movements sweeping the country in the late 1960’s and the 1970’s. He spoke of how the elderly Filipinos, the Manongs, quote “drew a line in the sand and refused to be pushed any further” unquote. They fought for the rights of elderly Filipino working people, housing rights and the very survival of Manilatown on Kearny Street. They were known and supported not only city-wide but nationally and internationally. Bill drew connections between the civil rights movement—the movement for Black Liberation and the I-Hotel. He also drew the connection between the tremendous anti-war in Vietnam movement and the struggle of the I-Hotel. He saw the whole picture.

After an activity in the community Bill and the gang would go out and eat in Chinatown. I remember him sometimes ending up at Woey Loey Goey to chow down. Food was no small thing for him. Bill was a lover of life.

I also remember traveling down to the Manzanar Pilgrimage with Bill, Al Robles, Bob Rosario, Tony Robles and Shirley Anacheta in a rented car. The car CD player was playing Curtis Mayfield, Nobuko Miyamoto and Sarah Vaughan as we drove the miles away.

We traveled along the winding American River and through South Lake Tahoe. We laughed and joked and reminisced about the old days. Bill and I would talk about how we just didn’t like George Bush. It was a personal dislike. Too many people were being hurt by him. And it was the SYSTEM. We talked about how we would be addressing all our problems if we had Socialism instead of the rotten Capitalism we live in.

Then on down Highway 395 to Manzanar. We stayed up late at the motel in Lone Pine laying in the all-night heated whirpool. Then we all did Tai Chi together in the desert before going to the Manzanar ceremony with folks like Sue Embrey and “Mo” Nishida. On the day we left we bathed in the natural hot springs just off the highway near Independence. Then we stopped overnight at South Lake Tahoe, played a little slots and ate at the buffet.

Bill and Al Robles and I also went on the Tule Lake Pilgrimage. The internment of Japanese during World War II was an episode that Bill was very aware of. He was an internationalist. On the bus ride from the Bay Area we rapped, snoozed and watched the videos about the Concentration Camps and the Japanese American experience.

Bill was quick and incisive. He really was a gentle guy. He was relaxed and lay-back but he was also alert and with bright-eyes and light on his feet: both literally and figuratively. He was quick and his comments and his observations were right there.

Bill understood the individual character of all our different racially and nationally oppressed peoples from the belly-up. He understood the music and the rhythms of life and the people. He understood that the fight for internationalism was key to the liberation of the oppressed people. Bill was an activist. He was always active in the community and worked in the ironworkers union and on housing issues. Bill was a Marxist. He was a Socialist. We shouldn’t be afraid to say that.

He was a revolutionary. I say that with the greatest respect and fondness because it is term that I don’t apply to just anyone. If anyone had “vision”, Bill had it.

Losing Bill shouldn’t freeze us into immobility, rather we should see his example as a light to guide us in this beautiful struggle we call life. “Goodbye” dear Brother and comrade!

by Queenanndi/PNN

I have caught more than enough hell being a woman- black, strong, and a proud independent freedom fighter- that's being punished for just being me!

This is my story

I was born black. I was born proud. I was taught to be strong by one of the strongest women in the world-Carolyn Brantley X. That is how I fought through and survived the mean, unmerciful streets of frisco. In a way, that helped me to know and grow into the person that I am today. Regardless of my youthful wisdom, I constantly find myself dodging the stones that are casted upon me. I'm sure many women can relate to my story, the story I'm about to share.

First, before I go further, I want to express great acknowledgement and love to all those who are at the mercy of the wicked elements, that's out on a daily fighting to see to it that we all live on our knees.

I didn't think for one minute that such a force would roam in my home. I am the head of my Queendom, and my family, my Po ridaz. These along with my God- given talent is all I have in the whole world. No money, no man and want to go somewhere, but can't. Faced with having to cope with the demise of my parents, and the suspicious death of my kid brother- all in less than a year, AND the left and right losses of many of my childhood friends, I pretty much got not a full plate, but a buffet to deal with on the table.

Even though it's hard as hell, I manage to hold down my job, be fierce at my writing, and raise my younginz' the best way I can-alone. Daddy's assistance comes 3 maybe 4 times a month (depending on availability) but even with so little contact, the home is not peaceful. We couldn't make it as a whole. Poppa's a Rollin' stone- I'm more settled.

After a messy divorce, I waited a long while before dating again, and then I met this man. First impression, this brotha was baadd! I mean sharp! People used to see us together walking like regal panthers together, calling us "Farrakhan & Ms. King." Well they called us that, due to the strong interests we shared when it came to the people. After almost two years of dating, I became pregnant, and six weeks into my pregnancy, poppa tha Rollin' stone rolled right out the picture. He didn't roll back in till massa' told him to. Egypt was almost eight months old by then.

The experience I had with this man was very traumatic for me. Arguing, pleading for his trust in the fact I carried his seed went in vain. Wanting him to be there when his child was born was not in his agenda. I made an appointment to terminate my pregnancy, because we were unwanted, but an angel intercepted- my mother! As she eased my pain, I can still hear her saying to me to this day: "Baby, imma tell you somethin' you are not the first single mother, and you won't be the last. Sistas have been raisin' children on their own since God gave us light. Hell, black women even raised Massa's children! Slight difference is that in dem days, more men were lynched, as compared to the men that walked out on their families. That is YOUR child inside you- a nation! You WILL NOT destroy the Queendom God has blessed you to birth!!! Once I felt Egypt kick, I knew this was my girl fo' life! I love her! Mama was right. So I had no choice but to go to the man to get info on this paternity test thing, cuz poppa was gone own up to his lil' Queen, one way or another! And sho nuff Oohh rollin' stone poppa She's yours! Take care!

It took a lot of prayer for strength and the ability to forgive, and before I knew it, here was this man back in our lives in the family way, but a stranger. Me bein' the woman that I am, I attempted to see if we can once again, bring back to life our relationship. I ended up compromising myself and allowing for him to build me up, just to let me down. Like I said- I allowed it, so sho nuff, he did it. That didn't make me feel like Queennandi AT ALL, and of course my spirit was uneasy. When I expressed my self worth, typically he'd make me feel like I done something wrong, puttin' me down n' stuff. I felt like he was all there was for me- until I looked into the mirror. I know my worth better than anyone else God put breath into. It seemed like every since my primary supporter (momz) passed, I have been under attack. I tell myself that I MUST stand strong! For me, and my children. MUST stay focused on the struggle! Poppa has gone maniacally wild, trying to fit HIS unstable friends into MY child's life and I'm not havin' none of that! Only QUEENNANDI'S hand rocks QUEENNANDI'S cradle!

I'm getting headaches from this man for my decision. I believe that whenever possible, a child should have both parents in his/her life, doing what needs to be done to keep things stable and peaceful. I love that more than anything. But when one parent goes buck wild it is the responsibility of the other parent to call the shots- and make judgments in favor of what's best for the child. Messy chicks and confused pregnant broads is something that doesn't fit into ANY child's life-period! Persecute me! What's right is right- wrong is wrong! I'll go thru the fire for my blessings, and that's what my kids are. They come first.

The sad thing is that the kids see mama & daddy's communication is shallow, and it's shameful that the babyâ's first words were War of the roses. Sometimes I think to myself “damn, haven't I been thru enough? This world is hell on my back already, now my so-called God given twin is gonna put more hell on me?! Then he is not my twin, but a angry soul in slumber. All I ever wanted was to make things right, and I got nothing for this, but a slap in the face! Sooo, as I handle this alone, keeping my queendom movin, I vow not to compromise myself no more! I refuse to fold! If centuries of spirit-breaking techniques didn't work, what makes a dormant man thinks HE can break QUEENNANDI?

I share this to say that I am an expert of everyday oppression, suffering, and resistance. I go thru this struggle, but I keep tha faith in my God to see me through the storms and on to victory. WOMEN OF THE WORLD!!! Your opposition will not last. Ya must learn to armor-up on your strength! You can do it! (Oh, yes you can!) Have faith in yourself! If I didnâ't believe in us, I never would've had the courage to uplift and motivate women NOT to sell themselves short, and to stand strong thru all persecution mentally, physically, emotionally. Also I would never have told my story.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"I just want everyone here in San Francisco to know that I do NOT support the gang injunctions," native San Franciscan and recent mayoral candidate Lonnie Holmes told me in an interview for POOR Magazine.

A juvenile probation officer and father of five, Mr. Holmes expressed his disbelief to me of the extremely secretive, racist and classist gang injunctions that have recently been implemented in San Francisco, as well as shared his views and opinions on many of the dire issues facing San Franciscans today.

I met Mr. Holmes on a relatively warm November morning at the Harvest Urban Market in the SOMA district of the City. A well-dressed African-descent man, Mr. Holmes greeted me warmly and asked if I wanted to take a ride with him while he campaigned.

We drove around his native neighborhood, the Western Addition Fillmore District, Grove and Hayes St, and just briefly at the Ella Hill Hutch, to greet his fellow colleagues and community members. A San Francisco Police Department squad car yielded to us as we passed the oncoming traffic, and Mr. Holmes gave a friendly acknowledgment to the officers, shouting out his run for the next Mayor of San Francisco, California.

Mr. Holmes discussed his passion to help the youth, his family background, and his plan towards reshaping the Redevelopment Agency of its plans towards gentrification of the Bayview Hunter's Point, as San Francisco had done to the Fillmore, many years earlier. I was shocked and saddened to hear that his father, his aunt, and eight cousins died during the Jonestown Massacre in the South American country of Guyana.

Mr. Holmes believes San Francisco is on of the verge of a governance disaster if there is no substantive campaign for the city's chief executive office. "If thousands of homeowners and renters are pushed out of the city by misguided policies and inattentive leadership, it would be just as big a tragedy as Jonestown," he said.

We both expressed our feelings of resentment towards the rampant violence that has targeted communities of color, the unquestionable lack of employment opportunities for the youth, homelessness, and the gang injunctions.

After about an hour of driving around, we returned to the Harvest Urban Market to continue our interview. Holmes stated that he believed in social economical change, and violence intervention by providing youth employment opportunities.

Earlier that day, Mr. Holmes was at the scene of a murdered 20-year-old male, at Garlington Court in the Bayview Hunter's Point District. Though he felt that the youth nationwide, and predominately in communities of color were on the serious path of destruction, Holmes also felt that the onslaught of gang injunctions was not the solution at all towards violence reduction, anywhere in the country.

He discussed the beginnings of the gang injunctions in Los Angeles and its spread all across the nation to New York.

"The San Francisco City Attorney's Office is using the band aid approach, rather than treating the entire body. This city has invested a lot money into surveillance cameras, instead of providing much more valuable resources and support towards every community affected with the highest arrest rates," said Mr. Holmes.

Mr. Holmes continued, "Crime can be a symptom caused by poverty, and people are being left out of the American Dream...San Francisco is a very wealthy town, being the Mecca for the wealthy, but it should be for everyone."

Lonnie Holmes stated, however clearly to me that "Corporate Media will not get the privilege of coverage of my opinions, or stories of the issues that we're currently facing within this city, today. Only grassroots organizations of alternative media like POOR Magazine will have that privilege to cover these stories."

My final question to Mr. Holmes was if he could have a face-to-face conversation with current Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, regarding these issues, what would he say to him. The eyebrows of Holmes shifted downwards, a frown on his face was formed, and the tone of pleasantry slightly changed, at the mere mention of Newsom.

"What, you're asking me what I would say to Gavin Newsom regarding these issues? Let me ask you something, Marlon, you ever talked to a brick wall? Newsom's Administration has been truly ineffective to all of these issues, so what's the point?�" he asked me, as I chuckled to myself.

Hearing Mr. Holmes speak so eloquently and openly about all of these issues made me realize how refreshing it is to finally speak to someone who listens and answers rather than continuing to try and talk to the brick wall of the Newsom administration.

by Joseph Bolden

9/11/Revisited Six Years And Counting

There’s nothing to add to this discussion except don’t let this President leave office without bringing all the troops home.

He’s a lame duck prez after all.

The lies,manipulations were set up to get up into this quagmire.

What’s with this administration,ok their international monetary types but Jesus H,Mother of God is this their bottom line,seize oil from an ancient country of wisdom, reducing a modern people’s to stone age because they fear the new paradigm shift of renewable energy, longer,healthier lives.

Prop up a dead,dying technology artificially squeezing as much dough delaying our countries advancement in applied sciences.

These people seem to me vultures living off the vestiges of dead technology.

I’m worried about martial law The Presidents emergency powers so the constitution can actually be suspended and he doesn’t step down to become an ex president!

I’ve haven’t traveled much but I sure want to see more of Europe than America these days,wonder what Japan,China,North and South Korea,and Taiwan are doing with Nano technology and tissue regeneration science, or human cloning?

This born again, cocaine addicted,self titled Decider has got to go.

Let’s not have other close or removed relatives take his place.

Maybe Amerikkka will become America again survive these dark gray times.

Be it Rabid Evangelicals,Religious Right,or Moral Majority we as a country cannot have these so called souls of righteousness dictate, proscribe,what our lives are to be especially in the privacy of the bedroom!

I do love this country but I am human enough to leave if for a while until America returns to its basic fundamental foundations and I don’t mean one nation under God but a nation of laws, checks,and balances.

Right now we are out of balance and I pray this illegal,fraudulent war created with lies doesn’t last a decade.

Bush Jr. should leave office,take "Decider War" with him to ignominious fame.

by Angel Garcia/PNN

I remember back in the day, when me and a couple of my homeboys would sit in Dolores Park. We would just relax, talk and soak up the shining afternoon sun.

It was during one of these peaceful afternoons that my friends and I would experience police profiling and brutality in one of the worst ways.

After my homies and I had gathered as usual in the park, the rest of the crew showed up and we began to organize a soccer game like always. One of the homeboys looked at me and said, "Hey what's going on little homie.do you want to play with us?"

I happily joined the game and took the position of goalie. It was then that the police rolled up to the park and one of the officers looked up, cracked a smile and said, "Hey look at the cripple playing soccer."

My newly acquired happiness disappeared quickly and the sunny afternoon abruptly turned dark.

A minute later the officers ordered my friends and I to get down on the ground. I was only 14 years old and could not speak English, so I didn't understand what he was demanding. Watching everyone else, I quickly got on the ground, when suddenly an officer came up behind me and kicked me on the back of my neck.

This was just one of the many incidents of police brutality that I faced living as a poor immigrant in California.

This particular incident happened long before the words gang injunction had ever been mentioned; yet the cops were already harassing us- just for being a group of Latino kids hanging out in the park. I can't even imagine the affects that a statewide gang injunction would have on people like me and my friends.

The proposed gang injunction won't even let young people stand on a street corner together and even worse will categorize almost any youth of color as a "gang member" or even "terrorist."

Yet again the government that we live under has found another way to discriminate against poor people and youth of color.

The government and police say they exist to protect youth, families and community members, yet this law gives them free reign to treat us like criminals.

Being poor and Latino, I am already suffering from constant police harassment and abuse and this gang injunction will only make me more of a target. It is just a way for our government to legally persecute people simply for being young, poor and of color.

Our youth need to be educated, not harassed and thrown in jail. Gang injunctions are simply not the answer.

Angel Garcia is a writer for PoorNewsNetwork and the author of Gangs, Drugs and Denial, a memoir exploring his life as a former gang member and drug addict on the streets of San Francisco.

by Bruce Allison/PNN

Around 8:00 am on a cool San Francisco morning, I walked into the Kaiser Hospital and met James Chionsini, a member of Health Care Action Team. We sat in the lobby and began speaking with Lionel Stanford, a formerly homeless senior from Honduras.

We were at the hospital for a meeting with the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California on the issue of hospital dumping of homeless and low-income patients into shelters and onto the streets in the City. State law requires that a meeting be held in order to address "homeless patient dumping" and we were there to make sure our voices were included in the report that would be sent to the state government. After the first meeting was closed off to service providers and advocates The Health Care Action Team (HAT) and the Coalition on Homelessness had protested and demanded another open meeting be held.

While we were talking in the lobby, the President of the Hospital Council arrived. I followed him closely, as he was acting suspicious. At the last minute, he changed the location of the meeting to a new place saying the first would be too small. He did not post signs about the change as required. Instead he posted notice of a change of an agenda item.

Then I yelled down from the mezzanine level to James where the meeting had been moved to, and he quickly posted signs.

With the help of James' last-minute signs, all people including, members of the Homeless Coalition, the chairperson of the Mayor's Disability Council, Anna Lolis and her service dog Henry, Lionel, the Head of HANK homeless outreach team, Buster's Place drop-in shelter Director Hank Williams, and all the hospital officials were finally able to find the meeting.

The President of the Hospital Council started the meeting. First the council wanted to know about homeless patient dumping happening in San Francisco and beyond. Being a poverty and disability scholar myself, I know all about the nightmare of hellthcare in this country for poor people and am extremely familiar with the illegal hospital dumping that's been occurring.

Since I was born, the City has gone from having 14 hospitals down to 7 while the population of San Francisco has not decreased. The issue of patient dumping is clearly connected to these hospital closures because there are simply not enough facilities to support the need. Hospitals are kicking out homeless patients and dumping them on the street with I.V.s still sticking out of their arms.

I told the council that out-of-City hospitals are also dumping to the shelters in San Francisco, mainly the Sheeton medical center, in order to side step the law and say they are not dumping in their own county. Then Hank Wilson brought up the fact that people from hospitals are dumped constantly at Buster's Place.

After listening to the presented information, the council adjourned the meeting and closed by saying that a record will be release next year after all the hospitals in the State have reported their problems to be looked at by the State Assembly.

There will also be another hearing on Thursday, December 6th at San Francisco's City Hall #263. All community members are urged to show up and testify to let the state government know about the problems with patient dumping in San Francisco.

Please stay tuned for a follow up report by poverty scholar and PNN columnist Bruce Allison.

by MariLuna/PNN East Coast Correspondent

Reprinted by the Washington Area Women's Foundation

"Get out of my room!" he screamed at me. I said nothing, except for knocking down his videotapes. It was at this point he charged me, and knocked me down to the ground. My head was constantly being bashed on his wooden floor. I realized that he was trying to kill me, and used my will and all my strength I used to fight back while at the same time trying to escape his apartment.

I finally escaped his apartment and walked down what felt like the hallway of shame. The walls seemed to be yellow, grimy, and it felt like one of the longest walks I ever took. I ended on the other side of the hallway and landed at my apartment. I closed the dark brown wooden door behind me, and walked towards my mirror. I stared into the mirror but a different image was looking back. It wasn't me. I saw a young woman with hair out of her head, blood on her face, and blue bruises upon her face. When I finally realized that image was me, I started to cry. I cried all the pain that was inside my past, and started to connect what had just happen to me with former abuse that was in my household.

Violence occurs in cycles, especially domestic violence. Domestic violence will continue until we, as a society, stop expecting that the victims should be the only people stopping this violence. Children and youth who grow up in domestic violence households are more likely to emulate this violence. Dating violence is more prevalent in Washington, DC than New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DC has the highest rate of teen dating violence in the country. Children who grow up in abusive households are more likely to repeat this pattern of abuse in their first dating relationships. The abuses in my household were interconnected to my domestic violence situation.

I cried for what seemed like hours, maybe even days. When I finally I came to, I remembered I had a meeting for work. I was so embarrassed to call my work to tell them what had happened, and was planning on saying that I was sick. I called, my co-worker picked up the phone. Upon her saying hello, an outpour of tears flooded my thoughts, and I couldn't speak. My co-worker kept repeating, "What's wrong?" over and over again. I just cried for several minutes. She listened to me, and I finally stated, "My boyfriend hit me." The next thing I knew, she was knocking on my apartment door to make sure I was fine. When I opened the door, she looked at me, and said, "Ohhhh, Mari."

I cried with her, and told her what I could verbalize. She supported me in doing whatever I needed. In fact, she told me about one of her friends who ran a Protective Restraining Order Clinic. She provided me resources and emotional support. When I was asked to do a spoken word piece based on my experiences with abuse and Intimate partner violence at V-day San Francisco 2002, she was there in the audience supporting me. On that day, I learned that the V stood for Validation.

That validation led me to call the cops and start filing my case. In 2006, the number of domestic-related crime calls in the United States was 29,000. In 2005, the Metropolitan Police Department received over 27,000 domestic-related crime calls - one every 19 minutes; an increase of 22% over the past three years.

Validation is very important to all domestic violence survivors and their experiences. Many times we are told by our police, workplaces, and families that our matters are 'lovers quarrels', and 'that it's our fault'. When we choose to speak out and decide to escape our situations, the most important thing is to be validated by the people and institutions we tell our stories to. That validation is strong enough to lead to a path to an abuse-free world.

Validation first starts with supporting our survivors' ability to take paid time off from work to take care of their security. Often times survivors need to take time off to get a restraining order, go to court, attend counseling, and for their very safety. Many survivors, frequently women, are not validated by their workplaces and have been fired by their jobs. In fact, 98% of employed victims of domestic violence encounter problems at work (including losing their jobs) as a result of the violence.

Most companies have no idea how to validate domestic violence survivors through their human resource polices. Over seventy percent of businesses in the United States have no formal program or policy that addresses workplace violence, even though seventy-eight percent of human resource directors identified domestic violence as a substantial employee problem. It is ironic that as a society we tell our survivors to leave their situations, but we don't provide them with the tools in which to do so, and we condemn them as they take leave to care for their safety.

After experiencing domestic violence I would have flashbacks of the violence, and would many times be scared to leave my apartment. I was not alone in this area: thirty-one to eighty-four percent of domestic violence victims exhibit Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms across varied samples of clinical studies, shelter, hospitals, and community agencies. It was important for me to take the time off to mentally and physically recover as well to look for a therapist.

In current proposed legislation, the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007, any employee in the District of Columbia would be able to take a paid sick and safe day. A 'safe' day would relate to a victim that has experienced stalking, sexual assault, or intimate partner violence. A victim of domestic violence would be able to seek out shelter, file a restraining order, or receive counseling without losing employment.

The U.S. General Accounting Office found that twenty-four percent to fifty-three percent of domestic violence victims lose their jobs due to domestic violence. This bill would enable all survivors to seek services and resources to keep them safe while sustaining their employment. Maintaining steady employment for many survivors is what prevents many from going back to their abusers.

If it was not for the understanding of my two part-time jobs of allowing me to take time off when needed, I might have gone back to my abuser. I might have never fought for my domestic violence case to get picked up by the District Attorney. I might have struggled to find food to eat. Implementing legislation that protects our most vulnerable victims by providing Paid Sick and Safe Days is crucial to not only a victim's health and children's health, but our society's health as a whole.

MariLuna works at the DC Employment Justice Center (www.dcejc.org), and they are currently working on on passing the Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007 in the District of Columbia. To contact her please email at mari@dcejc.org

To sign the Sick and Safe Days petition please go to
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JwyIwRGYV28rZayAkNn3ow_3d_3d

by Bruce Allison/PNN

"Be seen, but not heard." These words are often spoken to misbehaving children, yet this is what the Safety Security officer, Keith Troy (badge number 4810), patronizingly said to me and a group of fellow seniors, as we gathered inside the State Capitol in Sacramento. I remember him clearly, a young, tall, white man with blonde hair. He looked like an extra in an advertisement for the highway patrol, as he stood behind a velvet rope in front of the Governor's office, like some sort of dictator out of a cheap movie from my childhood.

About twenty of us, all seniors, met at Saint Mary's Cathedral, nicknamed the Lady of the Washing Machine, early in the morning on September 20th. We represented both Healthcare Action Team (HAT) and California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA). A charter bus pulled up and we all climbed aboard ready for the journey to Sacramento to meet with the Governor.

On the bus, Jodi Reed, the Director of CARA, reviewed the bills that we wanted the Governor to sign. One bill we were going to petition was to not condodize trailer parks and another bill would require all pharmacies to give out information on medications,

We arrived at the State Capitol around 10:00 a.m. and went to the Eureka Room for some coffee and bagels. There, Jodi announced some good news. The Governor had signed one of our bills. As we walked down the hall towards the elevator we began singing joyfully for senior healthcare. In the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic we sang, "Seniors all united we are standing here right now, we need your help to sign the bill. So we can get good healthcare, and no Ellis Act on trailers."

As we got to the Governor's office I turned around to see two cameras filming us, one from Channel 11, NBC, and the other from a local station, as well as a number of tourists taking pictures of us. At this point two Safety Security Officers approached us. Keith Troy said, "Be seen, but not heard." They fined us for singing in the hallway near the Governor's Office and told us we needed a permit. Jodi had specifically called earlier in the day requesting a permit to sing in the State Capitol. The secretary laughed and said there was no ordinance or permit to give, and we didn't need one.

At the State Capitol we were in fact fined under what the security officers called harassment and interfering with government business. Strangely the officers were part of the Highway Patrol wasting California money on fining a group of seniors for singing and expressing their First Amendment rights.

Jodi and some other people in our group were taken down the hallway and berated like children by several Highway Patrol officers. They said we were not allowed to draw attention to ourselves. They went on and said, "We can take you outside to do your 'Freedom of Speech'." We walked back down to the Eureka room to reconvene. The security officers escorted us downstairs reminding us each step of the way not to make any noise, as if we were back in the first grade. Once in the Eureka room, out of sight from the media, we were told our meeting with Governor was canceled.

We stayed at the Capitol and attended an Assembly meeting where we were invited to perform a play called, "To be discharged on a Friday Night." The purpose was to bring attention to hospital discharge policies and get a bill passed that would make mandatory rules about your rights to appeal discharge.

When did the United States become a dictatorship? As a Veteran, I am now embarrassed that I am a U.S. Citizen. We are living not in the free society the United States preaches of. Our civil liberties are being denied. We are living in an enslaved society.

by Dale Ray/PNN

I remember waking up each morning to the strong stench of piss all around me and the cold ground beneath me. I would awake with my mouth feeling like cotton, as I tried to lift myself up off the hard concrete.

I lived homeless in San Francisco for many years. I was addicted to crack for 20 years and alcohol for just as long. I still remember my many sleepless nights on the street. Sometimes I would go to the Transbay Terminal just to get out of the cold and there would be twenty or thirty men beside me trying to sleep and stay warm.

These painful memories crept back into my mind, as I read about the future plans for a new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco. I thought about all those homeless men, women and children whose only safe refuge is the Terminal. What will happen to them if the new Transit Center is built?

The proposed plan for the new Transbay Transit Center is being called the Grand Central Station of the West Coast. They say it will be a transit hub for a metropolitan
“New York City style San Francisco,” but how will this city look, and whom will it be for?

In the discussion around the new Transbay Transit Center no one is talking about what will happen to the many homeless people that walk through the current Transbay Terminal doors to find a safe shelter. It is a story that the mainstream media and corporate developers are ignoring.

C.W. Nevius attempted to address the issue in his September 18th article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Guards, homeless form odd kind of community at Transbay Terminal,” yet he failed to make any connections or see the issue for what it is; a human rights issue.

He did not critically address the issue of what will happen to the homeless people who take refuge at the terminal, as he wrote, "If all goes according to plan, by 2014 a glittering, towering Transbay Transit Center will be erected in the heart of San Francisco. Designers say the tower will not only be a transportation hub, but send a message as a symbolic gateway to the city."

The message San Francisco and the new Transit Center’s supporters, like Nevius, are sending is that this City cares more about its appearance and attraction to wealthy visitors than it does for its own people. Rather than providing what’s necessary for those here to survive the City will be catering to rich outsiders.

The new Transit Center will set the tone for a new generation in the City that will increasingly view homeless people as a problem to push away rather than a symptom of much more rooted problems, such as the lack of services and resources in this city. San Francisco has a reputation as being a liberal minded city, yet its 2007 and San Francisco still considers poor people a problem that need to be cleaned up and out to make way for the rich.

Many people wrongly believe that all homeless people can find sleeping space in shelters if they simply try and that there is no need for people to seek shelter in places like the Terminal. From my own experience I know this is not true.

When I was desperate I would stop in at the McMillan Center on 39th and Fell Street. People go in there to get off the streets but you can’t go to sleep. They only have chairs. When I would start falling asleep someone would come around and say, "You can't sleep in here." All I wanted was a little rest, "I'm tired," I would say to them. But it was always the same. Shelters are no place to live. I preferred my spot in the alley near the corner of Seventh and Market. I along with many other people prefer the streets or the Transbay Terminal to McMillan or other shelters. As a recent Coalition on Homelessness article stated, "While the City no longer officially tracks “turn-aways” from shelters, one Coalition survey of shelter reservation sites found an average of 50 individuals turned away a day from shelter."

San Francisco does not have enough resources and safe places for homeless people to turn to and therefore, many are forced to sleep outside and in public places, like the Transbay Terminal. And often, in lieu of safe housing, houseless folks are cited and arrested for the sole act of being homeless.

In his article, Nevius quotes Charles Drew, a man who frequents the terminal. Drew calls the security guards there his family. In response Nevius ends the article with, "I've been trying to decide, is that the saddest thing I've ever heard, or the most uplifting?" Nevius does not conclude with any kind of analysis of the situation and certainly does not address the deeper question of why in the richest country in the world people are forced to create spaces to sleep and homes where none are provided?

Like Drew, I lost my family when I started living on the streets and when my addiction was at its worst. I lost everything. I lost my sense of integrity and morals. I did not have many people looking out for me on the streets and I was down and out every day.

Once after a night of heavy drinking, I met a couple of officers while I was singing the Nat King Cole song Mona Lisa. After that night they came around three to four times a week and started looking out for me. They became like brothers to me and often brought me food, and clothes, and once a pair of boots. Those two cops kept telling me I could do better, I could leave the life of an addict. They told me I was killing myself on the streets. They were my only constant source of encouragement. "You can do this," they kept saying to me.

I was lucky to have met those two cops. This city needs more people who are empathetic to those struggling on the streets. This city is in dire need of more places and resources to help the homeless instead of sweeping the problem and the homeless out of the streets and under the carpet.

I know what its like to have no where to go and to have to sleep on the street or in a place like the Transbay Terminal. Too many times it was my only option. The people who are still sleeping in the Terminal will be displaced and swept out of the City if the proposed plan is passed. These people will be forced out of their only shelter for a new glittering, towering symbol of the City’s wealth.

Dale Ray, has been living clean and sober for the last five years and has just graduated from Session 1 of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR Magazine. He will be releasing his book To Hell and Back published on POOR Press in February of 2008. For more information on his book or to order a copy, please call 415-863-6306.

To view Nevius' full article go to:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/18/BAOBS820J...

To learn more about the Redevelopment plans for the New Center you can visit the Transit Transbay Center Website at:
www.transbaycenter.org/transbay

The Transbay Join Powers Authority Citizens Advisory Committee (TJPA CAC) meets monthly on the second Tuesday of every month at 5:30 pm at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street (at 3rd Street), San Francisco, CA, in the 2nd Floor Conference Room. TJPA CAC meetings are open to the public. Send an e-mail to cac@transbaycenter.org to be added to the CAC mailing list to receive copies of upcoming agendas.

Currently TJPA CAC has no voting members who represent the homeless community.

by Brother Y - Poverty and Race Scholar & PNN staff writer

I have been

I have been where coyotes walk dare you walk the walk?

I have been where coyotes talk dare you talk the talk?

I have been where coyotes die

I have been where women die

Dare you shed a tear?

I have been where it never snows but it snowed when I was there!

I have been from north to south from east to west

I have been.

Dare you dare?

Part I: Quality of Life, Recyclers, Needles and Golden Gate

It has been estimated that 30% or more of homeless people not only in the Bay area, but throughout the entire nation are disabled American veterans. Regardless of whether the disability is a physical impairment, mental impairment or substance abuse issue, this fact is an indication of America’s many double standards.

One such journalist who’s recent writings exemplify these double standards and uses severe hate speech against poor people is San Francisco Chronicle reporter, C.W. Nevius. In support of “cleaning up” Golden Gate Park, Nevius has written outright false statements about recyclers and needles

In several of his articles, C.W. Nevius mentions “ the march of the junkies,” when referring to those headed into Golden Gate park each night. But what about the driving of yuppie winos? What I mean by this is the many yuppies who after having wine with their dinner get behind the wheel of a car. Or how about prescription junkies who get behind the wheel of a car after ingesting their mood and mind altering prescription drugs? Or even worse those who ingest prescription drugs and alcohol and then get behind the wheel of a car?

Also completely false and unfounded is Nevius’ strike against needle exchange programs around Golden Gate Park.

It is quite obvious to me that if someone is discarding needles on the street they are not interested in exchanging them, and it is quite possible that they did not receive them from the needle exchange program to begin with. The whole point of a needle exchange is to exchange used needle for new ones. All who use the services of the needle exchange are not illicit drug users, some actually have a legitimate medical need for their use.

Closing the needle exchange program would cut off many from this vital and needed service. There are many other possibilities as to how so many discarded needles wind up in the park. A few other possibilities are as follow.

1. Housed junkies who shoot up in the park and discard them there so their roommates and loved ones don’t know.

2. Housed junkies who shoot up at home and then dump their used needles in the park out of fear of someone digging through their trash and finding them.

3. People who have a legitimate medical reason for their use but are otherwise slobs.

4. A stingy doctor or dentist in private practice could discard them in a dumpster only to be pulled out by one of the local gentries all to spoiled dogs. Trust me this is not that remote a possibility, I have practically wrestle meat out of the mouths of dogs who’s owners did not appear to be homeless.

5. An ambitious reporter who is determined to “Do something about the homeless.”
It wouldn’t be the first time someone in mass media has tried to tweak a media event.

Remember the video footage of Palestinians joyously dancing and waving flags sometime after September 11th? We found out a short while later that this was old footage shot years before the events of September 11th even occurred. Or how about the young reporter in New York who fabricated 90% of what he wrote? Quite frankly the possibilities are endless.

“Quality of Life”

The so called “quality of life” violations that Mayor Newsom uses as an excuse to conduct raids at night on the homeless are nothing new. Often when governments want or need more money they create an internal enemy. A good example of this is the government of Nazi Germany taking away the property rights of Jews and then conducting house raids to support their actions. Of course most folks don’t realize that the Nazi’s got their blue prints for apartheid from none other than the U.S.'s treatment of the “savage Indians” and “subhuman.” African slaves.

Quality of life laws were made popular by Rudy Giuliani former mayor of New York, passed long to Shirley Franklin the mayor of Atlanta, Ga., and are now being passed along to Newsom here in San Francisco.

The truth is these so called quality of life laws are simply a revised version of the fugitive slave act of 1854. In an attempt to be appear to be a champion of the homeless Newsom created the care not cash program. Every slave master through out history has known that he must feed and house his slaves if he expects to get any work out of them. Good massa’ Newsom works his slaves by indentured servitude in the courts and through workfare.

As you may recall workfare was created by former president Bill Clinton another, so-called “champion of the under dog.” But workfare is set-up from the get-up. The small amount of cash that workfare recipients receive after paying rent in their run down roach and bed bug infested slave quarters is not enough to prevent them from committing a crime but rather it is just about enough to inspire them to commit a crime.

During the original American Slavery the only thing it was illegal for a slave master to do was teach his slave how to read and write. The ability to read and write empowers people and takes them one step closer to independence.

Recyclers as micro-business people rather than criminals of poverty

Recyclers are independent business people and C.W. Nevius’ attack on them is unforgivable. To suggest that the recycling supports illegal activity is ridiculous. At worst it may or may not support low-level drug usage.

Should large corporations that employ drug users be shut down? If the answer is yes please begin with the Chronicle.

Recyclers provide the city with an invaluable service, without which our city’s landfills would be more than overflowing. Not only should recyclers be thanked, they should be subsidized with everything they need to make the job cleaner and safer for them. In addition they should receive a stipend for providing the city with such an invaluable service. They should not be scoffed at and scorned.

In point of fact all recyclers are not homeless many of them are immigrants, disabled folks or ordinary people trying to make ends meet. Some of the most compassionate people I have met in my life have been homeless.

Part II: The Summer of Love

Something that I feel is important for me to mention at this time is my experience during and after The 40Th anniversary celebration of the summer of love. I have no idea how many people Speedway Meadows holds but if it’s 100,000 then 150,000 were there!

Believe it or not the majority of the crowd were not just longhaired hippy types. Not that this contingency was not properly represented but there seemed to be far more clean cut middle aged white people than any other group. There did not seem to be an overwhelming amount of alcohol or other drugs there, but there were definitely plenty present. Also present were blankets, picnic baskets as well many other items that would get the owners of such items arrested if they were homeless and the mayor gets his way.

I personally had a wonderful time sitting and enjoying the music and occasionally walking around looking for exotic food, catching snippets of others conversations and simply reveling in how great a multitude was present. As far as I could tell there was not a single violent episode that took place, nor did I hear a single disagreement take place.

After the event was over the crowd slowly dispersed again without any arguments or physical altercations taking place. This is a perfect example of how much good can happen when people are willing to police themselves, and how little we really need the police in our lives.

It was getting close to dawn when I left but it wasn’t quite there yet. My ride met me at the corner of Fulton and 24th avenue. There was a substantial crowd there but again it still seemed more like a bunch of people leaving a Sunday picnic, rather than what one might stereotype as a great big free outdoor hippy concert.

While riding down Fulton chatting with the driver I couldn’t help but notice a huge dome of monolithic proportions. The dome was none other than city hall itself. At first I did not realize this until I noticed the gun metal gray coloring with gold gilding down the sides, making city hall appear to be in conflict with itself. After all, the city’s motto written in Spanish is “Gold in peace Iron in War.” These facts not with standing, at first glance the dome appeared to be the tip of a giant fountain pen ready to lay ink to the sky.

After riding down the road a bit the dome appeared to disappear behind one of the many hills that make up Fulton again metaphorically reshaping itself this time taking on the appearance of a giant hypodermic needle. When I noticed this the first thing that came to mind was not a homeless junky, But rather the apostle Paul’s first and only encounter with Jesus. I suppose some of us are better at keeping the focus on ourselves rather than on others.

Insofar as so called “quality of life” violations go it has never been a question of quality so much as it has been an issue of equality of life or equal right to live ones life as that individual sees fit to live it.

Upon finally descending the hill completely the shape shifted back to city hall, the center piece of the crookedest street in San Francisco in spite of Lombard being the crookedest street in America. [actually the crookedest street in America is Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington D.C. but that’s a different story altogether.]

Despite the fact that the majority of the board of supervisors is supposedly progressive, they are after all the ones who penned the so-called quality of life laws. The laws that the mayor uses to give marching orders to the police to swarm on the homeless in Golden Gate Park like so many storm troopers in the same indecent hours that real storm troopers would. This is the 40th anniversary of the summer of love, but apparently no one has told this to the mayor or the board of supervisor. Apparently no one has told them that 40 upside down is oh but I guess it all is in how you choose to look at things.

I thought it would be cool to end this aspect of the story with an interview of the most famous homeless person in the history of the world that would be none other than Jesus of Nazareth.

Brother y: So Jesus it has been quite a while since we have spoken how about telling us about your present housing condition?

Jesus Christ: The birds of the air have nests and the foxes have holes but the son of man has no place to call his home.
Brother y: Boy you said a mouthful there! Tell me Jesus has anyone ever accused you of being a drug addict?

J.C: They call me gluttonous wine bibber.

B.Y: I suppose that’s bad enough! Have people mistreated you or persecuted you because of their own misunderstanding of you?

J.C: Well there was a gentleman by the name of Saul who I encountered while he was en route to Damascus, Syria. As you may or may not know Saul was a high ranking Roman official and a Jew who some how believed that myself and my followers were somehow committing blasphemy by speaking the gospel in Palestine and the surrounding territories in the way in which we did. I felt the best way to encounter him would be in the form of a vision; boy did I scare the bejesus out of him! Anyway he changed his name to Paul, became a follower himself and wrote a bunch of letters known as the epistles.

B.Y: So Jesus can you give us your thoughts on homelessness or poverty in general?

J.C: Blessed are the poor for they shall be with us forever!

B.Y: So what about your personal thoughts and hopes for the future?

J.C: One day you will see me on the right hand of power on the throne next to my father who is in heaven.

B.Y: Thank you Jesus!

Ironically just as I finished my “interview” with Jesus and stepped out of the office to get a bite to eat I ran into my friend Riot, who was arrested last year in Golden Gate Park roughly around the same time that I was, his true crime on the day he was arrested apparently was the same as mine: being a compassionate human being.

Apparently a narc asked him to sell him some weed, Riot told him that he did not have any weed for sale but did offer to smoke a bowl with him after this good Samaritan did his good deed of offering free herbal relief to someone who appeared to be in need the cops were alerted and as far as I’m concerned planted several bags of heroin on him. He was charged accordingly and spent three days in jail.

I on the other hand after attempting to provide herbal relief to someone who I believed at the time was experiencing a mild seizure. I was arrested and held for 6 weeks without the benefit of proper medical treatment the only major differences between myself and Riot as far as I can see is that he is white and I am black .

At the time I was told that it was easier for a housed person as opposed to a homeless person to get out of jail on his own recognaces, yet I was housed and sat in jail for 6 weeks while Riot was homeless and was out within three days. By no means is this to suggest that either one of us deserved to be there but rather it is an observation of just how abusive and corrupt the judicial system is and how much skin color matters even here in the so called liberal west.

Rest assured as long as there are Uncle Toms and Aunt Janes like Kamala Harris willing and ready to assist the white power structure in denying people of color their rights the onslaught will continue.

“War, huuh, what is it good for? absolutely nothin’!”

-War

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"I felt the cop's hard boot hit my neck, I heard the wind pass as he lifted back and swung his foot onto my neck and upper back, I tasted the warm blood drip down my mouth..."This gripping passage from Angel Garcia's recently published memoir, Gangs, Drugs and Denial is just one of many where he shares his life's pain, stories and struggles openly and honestly.

In his powerful, candid memoir Angel confronts his struggles with immigration, disability, drugs and gangs. Angel tells his harrowing life story, one filled with sexual abuse, rejection, trauma, addiction and police brutality- things no human should ever have to experience.

Yet, Garcia has succeeded in defeating these demons by gracefully reconstructing his life story. Angel joined POOR Magazine's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute earlier this year in his own pursuit of happiness and peace, as he overcame overwhelming odds, trials, and intense tribulations to write and publish this memoir.

Just reading the first couple of pages of this intense, attention-grabbing autobiography, the reader becomes immediately engulfed in Angel's life story. He begins by describing how at age 14, he gained the courage to flee his native country of Pe'ten, Guatemala to escape the inhumane abuse he suffered at the hands of relatives.

Through the pages of his book, Angel re-lives the pain of losing his mother at a very young age, the abuse he suffered and the brutality he witnessed on the streets in San Francisco's Mission District. He tells how he was schooled by OGs (Original Gangsters) and the veteranos (veterans) about life on the streets.

During the struggle to save his very life and sanity, Angel desperately sought soul salvation, reunion with his mother, and support in his later years, as he overcame drugs, violence, poverty, rejection, system oppression, callous characterization, and police brutality.

Though there are millions worldwide that have lived through similar heartbreaking stories of violence, rape, and trauma, unlike most Angel was able to resist self-destruction and suicide. In the end his strong determination led him on the road to his own recovery and self-healing. And, ultimately made him into a positive role model for others.

Despite being born with Cerebral Palsy and continually told that he would "never be able to succeed in life," Angel’s unseen strength and Catholic faith in the Virgin de Guadalupe of faith, luck and protection- a work of artistry in the fantastic tattoos on his arms and the cover of his book- helped him recover.

Angel's story is truly an inspiration to anyone who’s battled or battles the demons that Angel continues to conquer today.

This autobiography is far more than just a mere title. It's a journey into a life of inspiration, of voice that refused to go unheard, a tortured spirit that refused to remain unseen, and one man who ultimately needed Gangs, Drugs, and Denial to be re-born into the man that today is Angel Garcia.

For more information on Angel Garcia and to order Gangs, Drugs and Denial, please go to http://www.poormagazine.com/static/angel/index.html, call 415-863-6306 or write to POOR Magazine 1095 Market Street #307 San Francisco, CA 94103

POOR Press is a non-profit publishing project of POOR Magazine that is dedicated to publishing the books, cds and zines of very low income and or houseless youths, adults and elders in the Bay area.

by Joseph Bolden

Noel Niches

It’s a Sunny,brisk weather in San Francisco, I’ve just come from C.H. P.’s [Community Housing Partnership] Enterprises Launch.

After years of vocational job training and retention skills they found the so-called public & private business sector had major conniption fits over patchy,sketchy missing spaces in employee’s work his/her-stories.

I know from personal experience if you’ve lost, were fired,voluntarily left the for force,or through a nervous breakdown drifted for months or years…

That’s what’s they want to know about the missing parts.

Whether ex convicts who’ve paid in time for their crimes,traveled a bit,or was in college, university or undergraduate school it’s a pesky thing most employer’s like to know.

Sometimes many of us cannot or refuse to reveal personal facts because most likely its the very thing used against us to become gainfully employed!

C.H.P. filled positions with people trained who had doors constantly civil or not closed in their faces.

November 5th a few people were being hired that when it began.

November 29th makes it official publicly.

Meanwhile I’m working in one of these places but thinking of transferring after a time haven’t decided when yet.

Christmas music plays on a radio station,I’ve been invited to one Christmas party and have a guest or two in mind.

The radio show I’ve not been on in so many months I feel I should get back on before the year is out.

My own little business is slowly starting all that’s needed is help with uploading my image to another web site.

Still haven’t set up my own site because my pc is connected to phone lines
(I know,that’s easy get some orange box to get connected.)

But folks,to be smurfing [talking on the phone while on the internet simultaneously] will place me in the multicolor light speed of technology which I refuse to do!

No Friggin’ multi tasking for me {My apologies if I’ve offend any of my readers with what I’m about to say below}
[All my clothes are off,no watch,socks,in gritty equalized,give to get situations.]

Because concentrating on her,I want no distractions except slow rhythmic music.
The Slower The Better.

That will cost me readers or I’ll get a few serious invites on email or myspace pages either way I’ve told my truth and the devil is shamed.

My two niches may just keep me more mellow and alive.

First is House Sitting.

Second is Massage Therapist.

Curiously in either professions one has to be honest,have personal integrity.

A spotless reputation for placing others at ease so people have no fears.

That professionalism is a gold-platinum standard.

If I can do these two - job/career it would be ever so rewarding and relaxing to finally do two well paying professions where leisure,time,patience,is appreciated and not seen as wasted productivity.

I would’ve loved to have been an air courier escorting diamonds, cadavers around the world, or an anonymous…
Ok,here I go again now I understand why I needed 3 females editing my work.
Lets resume.

Let’s say body parts in those skin flick commercials you see before the feature films begins or at the end.
[It’s what I thought of to get off the streets and be paid doing it pun intended.]

But it was not to be so do with what you’ve got.

I’ve been thinking about a book lately when I met Mr. R. Gaule,former owner of "Soups" a nice,cozy,diner I use to frequent and where this stories origin begins.

I wanted to ask only two questions of him but may become more.

There have been errors, mishaps,misadventures,and mistakes in judgements made so what perfection is boredom all neat,clean,and waiting to die it just doesn’t know when.

May everyone find their niche or small pocket in life that works for them and not worry about other opinions.

Just live their lives however long or short they want and do what works for them and be at long last peace within their own souls.

Again for those not use to my writings I do apologize for anyone feeling offened in what I've honestly written.

by Joseph Bolden/PNN

It has been years since delving into recent past. Like an archeologist’s utmost care, they lightly dust off bones, metal, scrapings off objects most of us would toss as nothing. Here are my scraps from years past.

Covert Racism

In 1994 after moving out of a shelter on Geary and Polk Streets in San Francisco, I worked for Goodwill Industries. I learned computer operations and Goodwill’s system of processing donated items. I don’t remember my exact job title. Before leaving Goodwill to work at Poor Magazine, someone assigned to me, who probably had university and graduate training, assessed my skills. We talked about what I wanted most at the time. I said, “To be a columnist writing for a magazine or newspaper”. “Well Joseph” they responded, “You must deal in reality. It takes 4 years of journalism school for most people to achieve that. You need a job now”. “Ok” I said, not wanting to dispute or argue with her. What she didn’t know about me was my back story. I was a natural storyteller. As a child, I told stories and wrote them. I was beginning to write poetry and short stories. I turned down a job where I’d be doing photography—filming weddings—while being paid a janitor’s wage. Working at Poor Magazine in 1998 gave me the opportunity to write columns. Although my first efforts were marked with errors, I was finally able to hone my work down (although I still make errors from time to time). Moral of tale told: Don’t assume anyone cannot do what they desire because of circumstances they are in at the moment. I know the woman was trying to help. If I had been younger I may have given up. Being older, however, I didn’t listen and did what I had to do. I followed what was in my heart. This is an example of class racism on a micro level. It didn’t kill my spirit because I was old enough to know better. But for younger folk it could deter a dream and its possibilities. Sad thing is they don’t know the psychological harm this does. This class/racism is so covert that it’s hidden, even from the person doing the deed.

Overt Racism

The second is when I’m walking anywhere. I notice my hands out of my pocket swinging as to assure society that I have no weapons. As an observer I’ve seen people move faster in a hurried fashion when crossing streets or turn corners, especially when groups of rainbow folk are behind them or facing them when walking in their direction. I have purposely made noise so as not to frighten or scare white women; or I look past them, not into their eyes.

So as you can see, I’ve seen overt racism as a black male American citizen. This is all I can think of on the subject

by Angel Garcia/PNN

"We Latinos and African-Americans have more similarities than trumped up differences," said Sam Drew, as we sat elbow to elbow in the classroom at POOR Magazine’s Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute. This was a revolutionary discussion because we, a Guatemalteco man and an African-American man, were getting to know one another como personas humanas without the peleas on the calles.

Sam use to be employed como un agente de seguridad. "I think they were messing with me, because I wasn’t going along with the program," said Sam as he began to describir his descend en la probeza. That's why el senor Sam got fired from his job.

El Senor Sam, born in Oakland, California in 1957, talked about la historia Africana and how it was forgotten. He spoke about the connections he sees between our two cultures, which he believes are not so different after all.

After talking to El Senor Sam, it inspired me to do some research en our historias. From 1825 until the end of the Civil War in 1865, Mexico consistently repudiated and forbade the institution of slavery in its territory, while U.S. officials and Texas slave owners continuously sought ways to circumvent Mexican law.

What follows is the little known history of Mexico serving as a refuge for fugitive slaves and a provider of job opportunities for Blacks immigrating from U.S. to Mexico. Mexico was a haven for fugitive slaves.

Today it seems as if the once strong alliance between Blacks and Latinos has been forgotten, lost to the violence on the street. Much of this violence happens because there is a false sense of competition between the two groups according to Angelica Salas executive director of the coalition for humane immigrants rights. She says the problem is that minorities face discrimination directed at anyone who is not considered the traditional American, meaning White and protestant.

In South Central L.A. she says long time Black residents see Latinos as newcomers taking their jobs and giving the community a worse reputation. She blames this misconstrued fact on demagogic politicians. El centro de accion social told EFE that tension generally occurs in poor communities due the lack of work opportunities and low expectations for high school graduation.

According to the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), "Immigration to the United States is driven by an unjust international economic order that deprives people of the ability to earn a living and raise their families in their home countries…through international trade, lending, aid and investment policies, the United States government and corporations are the main promoters and beneficiaries of this unjust economic order."

The BAJI also writes, that "African Americans, with our history of being economically exploited, marginalized and discriminated against, have much in common with people of color who migrate to the United States, documented and undocumented."

During the past year, Los Angeles has witnessed conflicts between African American and Latino students in its schools and armed clashes between Black and Latino gangs on its streets. Throughout my research, I found many examples of violence between Blacks and Latinos. I became upset as I realized how much the government is benefiting from this false division between our two cultures.

I believe it is time to take the power from the big businesses and corporations, but to do so we need to learn how to communicate with each other and dialogue about unity. We must break the circle of hate and tension between our amazing cultures by realizing the similar pasts we all share.

by tiny/PNN

"Peddlers, panhandlers and prostitutes, they all need to be cleaned out [of Manhattan]." The first time I heard Rudy Giuliani speak was on a NBC nightly news broadcast. It was 1996. I was living in Oakland, Calif., at the time -- 3,000 miles away from Manhattan, where, as mayor, Giuliani was implementing his "clean-up campaign." But the sting of his speech still scared me.

It was the first time I had heard hygienic metaphors to describe poor people like me who were surviving in an underground street-based economy. Rudy Giuliani had become mayor of New York City on a campaign that constructed a new scapegoat for all of America's crime problems: "the squeegee man" (aka a person who cleans car windows at stop lights).

Giuliani was emboldened with "the broken window" philosophy, which claimed that if broken windows remain unfixed for a period of time the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

The theory was promoted by the hyperconservative Manhattan Institute and was already litmus tested by N.Y. Police chief Bill Bratten. In his now-infamous statement, Giuliani publicly linked three street-based economies and communities with dirt or trash: They were something to be cleaned up as a means to create the perfect U.S. city.

Under his rule, ridding Manhattan of the newly designated and oxymoronic "quality of life" criminals such as panhandlers, recyclers, window washers (aka squeegee men), sex workers, hot dog peddlers and street artists was the way to have a crime-free, user-friendly, corporate dollar-fueled city.

All of these memories came to me as I watched the little-seen but important documentary Giuliani Time. The two-hour-and-20-minute feature, produced and directed by Kevin Keating, uses a series of in-depth interviews with policy makers, advocates, sociologists and urban planners to reveal how Giuliani's policies during his reign from 1994-2001 led to extreme and dangerous police empowerment and subsequent decimation of human and civil rights of poor people and communities of color. The film shows how he created a template for criminalization that would be eventually emulated and implemented by mayors across the country -- from Atlanta to San Francisco.

The movie begins with a look at Giuliani's family roots with crime and vice: His uncle Harold was a loan shark out of a bar he ran in Brooklyn and eventually did hard time in Sing Sing. It then follows Giuliani's ambitious rise from state attorney general to a mayor who appropriated as his own the "quality of life" crime campaign from then-police chief Bratton.

The film shows a somewhat dense series of interviews outlining Giuliani's draconian strategy of using New York police to attack and manipulate the short-lived mayoral run of David Dinkins. Once he achieved his position as mayor, Giuliani began an onslaught of race-based profiling and harassment of African-American communities in New York by the NYPD.

Simultaneously, he launched a campaign to cut people off welfare en masse, regardless of its impact on poor families, to have homeless people considered criminals, and to have the simple acts of sitting, standing and sleeping outdoors and surviving on a street-based economy designated as crimes.

His welfare policies succeeded in making Giuliani the mayor best known for getting 600,000 welfare recipients off welfare and into a new form of slavery, "workfare." Workfare, is the hard labor (that isn't considered real work by the welfare system and most of society for that matter) one must do to get the minimal cash aid distributed by welfare. This includes doing previously union-held jobs like crack-of-dawn street sweeping and public restroom cleaning, and other forms of menial labor, for much less than minimum wage.

As this documentary revealed, Giuliani's police policies resulted in the specific profiling, abuse and arrest of men of color. The film shows the horrors that resulted from a newly emboldened police force -- including the brutalization of Hatian immigrant Abner Louima and the murder of Liberian immigrant Amadou Diallo.

As the daughter of a poor, homeless woman of color who worked on the street to survive in L.A., Oakland and San Francisco, I have felt the direct impact of locally implemented Giuliani-derived criminalizing policies over the last 10 years such as the Business Improvement District (BID), which in San Francisco was based in Union Square but modeled after Giuliani's BID in Times Square. Each BID includes a squared-off area that is policed by a private police force that cites, harasses and profiles everyone selling, sitting or standing who appears to be "poor." With the BIDs come the so-called "community courts," which are courts dedicated to the adjudication of "poverty crimes," i.e, selling without a license, trespassing, sleeping, urinating and other low-level crimes of poverty.

After viewing this documentary, I became even more terrified of Giuliani's impact. Rarely has one man so successfully harnessed the hatred and ignorance of the U.S. public for poor people and people of color. And rarely has the connection between race, class, xenophobia and ableism been so clearly played out in legislative actions such as the BIDs, community courts and overall police harassment of poor people that reverberate today in cities across the United States and is referred to by economic justice organizers as the "Manhattanization" of a city.

Quite by accident I was able to witness firsthand the impact of Giulani-like policies in action in Georgia. As a member of a delegation to the U.S. Social Forum, I visited Atlanta. Upon entering one of their business improvement districts, aka a Disney-like mall "town" that included chain stores and restaurants, I was met with a small corporate-logo covered police car filled with "officers" who wore cartoon-like bounty hunter hats. When some of my group and myself attempted to lean against a light pole and make a cell phone call we were asked to move because our leaning created a "perception of loitering."

As a low-income resident of San Francisco, another one of thousands of U.S. cities following Giuliani's model for "cleanliness," I grapple every day with the new science fiction-like world of where to sleep, sit, stand or dwell in a public place as a poor person when all of those things can be a crime. Where, even if you don't "look homeless," the mere perception of loitering is a citable offense.

Like some of the worst and bloodiest horror movies, you want to cringe and look away from Giuliani Time, but hold on to your seat, watch, look and listen carefully, because this man is running for president, and we must act now or his new form of fascism masked as "cleanliness" will be the norm for the entire United States.

by Tony Robles/Special to PNN

CW...i'm wondering what this stands for? Perhaps, "Can't Write?" At any rate, your article is filled with reactionary rhetoric and loads of manipulation. A homeless man who sees security guards as his family? Who are you kidding? Where are the homeless supposed to go? Are they at fault for the ills plaguing society--the wide gaps between rich and poor and the lack of accountability of big corporations? I guess it's the homeless that have gentrified San Francisco to the extent that they cannot afford to live here anymore.

Ironically, many of the homeless folks i know are native San Franciscans. One friend is a 6th generation San Franciscan who was sent to Vietnam and kicked around from job to job after bombing villages. He couldn't live with what he had seen and done and became homeless. I guess this was his fault as well.

The problem with you guys who write for the papers (and I’ve seen you on TV as well) is that you don't look as though you've missed many meals. You look exactly like the guys who got their asses kicked in high school. And now you run around with your positions and smug air of superiority while the real San Franciscans, the one's who've actually done something in this city, are having a very hard time or can't afford to live in this City at all. The folks in government and the press who represent us do not represent us at all. That's the problem.

So next time, point your righteous finger at the people who are really at fault--the politicians and developers and judges. If you call yourself a responsible journalist, then this should go without saying.

by Logan High Po' Poets

..................................

I rock Jordan. I rock Nike.

Peer pressure, livin' as a �type beast�

Naw, naw. Not me.

I rock what I want.

Won't give a penny for your thought.

But don't like hearin'

Another battle bein' fought.

Listen to the music.

Dream to the song.

Why can't we be friends?�

Let fighting end, let the gun wounds mend.

Don't make me pretend

To be something you want.

-Jasmine Ventocilla

.................................

I am a yellow person, I feel the same at Logan. But Logan is a school of minorities. I hear "nigga this, nigga that" but they don't know where the word comes from. The struggle many people have fought for culture has been raped. I truly am an American in the melting pot.

The Bay Area is home. It is home because it is the home of minorities. If I moved to the South, I'd be dead.

New World Order. All them seek it. America has been stolen from our eyes. The figureheads like Bush. All they do, they strive for a facist government. Instead of the pledge of allegiance, it will be the pledge of death.

-Vinh Thai

....................................

I'm Shawn, oldest son of Mike and Val.

People think of me as bitten but I�ve been through hell.

I do ok, my parents love me, but I've got a flaw.

Autism made me dumsy, not the strongest guy.

Then there was last year's PE class, the popular crowd dubbed me a Nazi.

I moved across the states when I was small.

I write stories and have many dreams.

I am German, French and who knows what else.

My life has been loud, but at times calm.

-Shawn Perry

......................................

I am one who sees violence in the streets.

The one who hears nothin' but lies behind the deepest fears.

I feel the pain to all that's in danger.

Can't we all get along as if we weren't strangers.

It's hard to believe now what we do impacts

the actions we do tomorrow.

If I can share the peace within my dreams.

I'll let you borrow.

Once we the people see all race as one equal community.

Humans is what we are in need of equality.

We needa accept each other.

Before we go back to being ashes.

-Krisandra Santa-Isabel

.......................................

Sight. How I look around people is a person who is like everyone else, just going where I need to be going, just walking by, nobody knowing you with just a blank mind.

Smell Things I smell would be freedom, freedom to walk, freedom to see, freedom to do something, something great for society or just fooling with it. The smell of life passing by seems to be slow but actually going fast.

Struggle We all have struggle, one may be easy, just like going to bed, or hard like someone hammering you right on the head. Life comes in fast like a bullet, most people get hit and that's when it hurts, deep wound that never recover unless you do something before it gets to you. That�s what I think about life- it's an unexpected thing but I guess that is life's meaning- life and dream.

Dream. Dream is what you do everyday whether its nothing or something. Dreaming something great or what's your fate. Dream to do anything, wishing that is reality. Dream is something u earn and get.

-Anthony Villegas
................................

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"Unfortunately, as of today Thursday September 27th, 2007 we have just received notice from the General Services Contracting Department, that our final day of service will be Friday September 28th, 2007. We sincerely apologize for the sudden and unexpected notice..."

This "special notice letter" from the American Building Service was an interoffice memorandum unexpectedly firing eighteen S.E.I.U. Local janitorial employees with less than 24-hours of notice right before the holiday season.

On the evening of November 20th at POOR Magazine's Community Newsroom, Andrew Solis from Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U) Local 87 told the poverty scholars and staff at POOR about the evils of a new kind of employment gentrification: "being semi-bought, sold, told, and literally left out in the cold."

"When the new San Francisco Federal Building, located on 7th St was built here in San Francisco we were the first to clean it up. On September 27th, 2007, we were given less than a 24 hour notice of termination from these positions!" Solis explained, as we listened intently.

On the following day, of September 28, 2007, the employment of eighteen janitors from the SEIU Local 87 Union ceased to exist, without any reasonable explanations for their terminations and with less than 24-hour notice. The Union workers had been cleaning the new San Francisco Federal Building for its grand opening when they were notified of their termination.

The American Building Services (A.B.S), a janitorial service contractor, contracted the janitors for the work at the federal building. A.B.S has also contracted employees at other federal buildings, including one located at 50 Union Plaza, and the Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Services at 630 Sansome Street.

A non-union company based out of San Diego, California, called Exemplar Enterprises suddenly seized the janitors' contract at the federal building from the A.B.S. This company has no office or business license in the Bay Area. Its project manager, known thus far as only Daniela, the company's attorneys, Lewis & Rocca and its president, Martha Lutt, have refused to answer any inquiries into what seem to be illegal practices.

According to sources requesting anonymity, it is a possibility that Exemplar Enterprises President, Martha Lutt, is also an employee of General Services Administration (GSA), potentially causing a serious conflict of interest.

The 18 families of the 18 pink slipped janitors have now been deprived of a holiday season, courtesy of the U.S Federal Government of AmeriKKKa. A.B.S employed by the Government Service Agency, was ordered to wipe the ink off of the union contracts meant for many workers already struggling to provide for their families here in San Francisco.

The fired janitorial employees have many questions, all of which have been left unanswered. Why has Exemplar Enterprises been able to immediately obtain this janitorial contract from A.B.S.? Why was this particular non-unionized company exempt from having to comply with the Displaced Workers Protection Act?

The "special notice" provided by the A.B.S. has given no such information and has thus left its employees confused and in the dark about the abrupt loss of their jobs.

All that is currently known about this mysterious situation are the following facts. On February 10, A.B.S started their new contracted company with 4 out of 17 janitors. A.B.S was unaware of the new contract, so G.S.A decided to give Exemplar the contract. Exemplar proposed a contract that paid employees one dollar less than the Union workers, and reduced the amount of employees from eighteen to eight. They took over the contract, without the Union workers knowing that there was another contract proposed.

The Union employees that were fired were led to believe by federal managers that they would receive employment, by Exemplar Enterprises. It was requested that all the Union workers fill out a two-page application for employment, but employment was not extended to any of them. They were notified of their rejection for employment, in a letter signed the company's president, Martha Lutt. The only conditions for employment by Exemplar for the S.E.I.U Local 87 union members, was for them to sever all their ties to the union, itself.

The Union workers were primarily immigrant workers with families, of low-income status, and of color and are now fighting for the return of their jobs. The employees have been picketing outside the new federal building for two months, since October 1st, 2007. Since their protests, The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (I.C.E) have also arrived using tormenting tactics and deportation threats.

The new Exemplar employees have been overworked, even prompting Exemplar itself to recruit individuals in the vicinity, including workers from the Best Western Hotel, on Seventh St out of sheer desperation. Employees of the federal building have constantly complained of improper custodial work, by the new employees.

San Francisco Board of Supervisor, Chris Daly's office is writing a proposal asking other fellow Board of Supervisor members, to support the janitors' struggle. This might happen as early as next week, and many are hoping this will pass. Andrew Solis has contacted Mayor Gavin Newsom, asking for his support individually, in addition to the support of the entire Board of Supervisors.

"I think it's horrendous how these companies think they can sit back and play with people's lives. With the unions standing in solidarity, that's the only way we can fight them," said Teresita Cruz, Vice President of S.E.I.U.

Exemplar sounds more like "exempt from any and all liabilities."

Please join POOR Magazine on Thursday, December 13th at 12:00 noon for a protest at the Federal Building on 7th street between Market and Mission in honor of the workers and demand their employment back.