2010

Low income and working poor parents protest the closure of Infant and Toddler Child Care Centers in the Bay Are and beyond

I am standing at the entrance of Laney College in Oakland where the excitement, anxiety, and thrill of first day jitters permeate the air. Right and left students swarm to class, holding their schedules tightly, backpacks swinging. It is almost a typical first day of school, bustling, hectic, and noisy. The only irregularity is a group of 30 student parents and their children holding an emergency press conference to demand the reopening of Laney’s Infant and Toddler Center.

Being a student myself, I understand the pressures of school. Often, I feel overwhelmed by the combination of classes, homework, work, and everyday life. I find myself with very little time, and unlike many students in this country, I do not have children. Surrounded by children and student parents I imagine how much harder my student career would be if I had children and no child-care. I can barely cope as is, how would I cope then?

“Good luck, Mommy,” chimes the voice of one of Mahasin Moon’s three children before she moved in front of the microphones to address a crowd of television cameras, new reporters, and photographers. Mahasin, a parent, student of Laney College, and organizer with the advisory council of the Laney College Children's Center takes the mic and introduces her three children. The two oldest are graduates of Laney’s toddler and infant center, her youngest who just turned 2, will not be able to attend the center due to it’s closure.

Last May 16 days before the end of the spring semester, the staff at Laney’s Toddler and Infant Center was notified that at the end of the semester the center would be closed, indefinitely. Although the staff was notified, many students were not and found out about the closure only 2 weeks before the start of the semester, leaving many student with little options beside dropping out.

Laney’s solution to the closure is to have parents use Merritt College’s child-care center. This solution is unrealistic to most parents. There is only one bus that runs to Merritt College and the time it would take parents in transit would leave many stretched. Also, Merritt’s child care center runs out a single room, leaving little space for new children and unlike Laney’s Infant and Toddler Center, Merritt’s is not sliding scale

The closure and under funding of child care centers and family resource centers is a crisis happening all over the state. In San Francisco, the City College’s innovative PEP program recently lost its only licensed child-care provider. The PEP program, operating out of the Betty Shabazz Family Resource Center, is a license exempt child-care program that provides parents 9 hours of class time in exchange for 2 hours of volunteer time. It also provides a computer cluster space where parents can bring their children and food for parents and their children. Until recently PEP had a licensed childcare provider on staff, who eventually the left the position. Afterwards, City College refused to replace her due to lack of funding.

"The Funding that the state provides to Community Colleges is no way enough to fund the cost of providing care to infants and young children. Most Campus Child Care programs have had to generate funds from other sources. A common source for these funds has been the General Funds of the sponsoring institutions. However, as the colleges' General Funds have had to cover more and more costs over the years, many college administrations have become reluctant to use those funds for child care that is why the Peralta College system has been gradually reducing the programs to only include older children," says Judy Kriege, technical facilities assistant with Bananas, a Child Care and Referral Service in Oakland.

Tracy Faulkner, welfare QUEEN, single mother, and director of City College of San Francisco Betty Shabazz Family Resource Center says about funding, “We shouldn’t be fighting for scraps. We should be growing, not going backwards.”

The event at Laney was organized by POOR magazine a non-profit, arts, education, and media justice organization, in a cross bay effort in collaboration with LIFETIME, California Tomorrow, Parent Voice, and poor parents and students. We gather at Laney asking that certain steps be taken so thousands of poor parents do not lose their chance at an education and a better life for themselves and their families. The most urgent demand is that the Laney Infant and Toddler Center be re-opened by the start of the Fall 2006 semester.

We also demand the funding streams for all the Community College Child Care centers be prioritized, stream-lined and strengthened and that there be transparency and inclusion of the parent leaders and directors of the programs in the funding of the centers. Finally, we want a full-time licensed exempt child care position be reinstated at The Betty Shabazz Family Resource Center at City College and formalized at ALL Family Resource Centers as they are a crucial aspect of their successful operation and stabilization.

Having the privilege of being a financially stable student who has little need for family resource centers, I often forget how crucial their role is in aiding student parents who are struggling to get out of poverty. It is when I meet students who rely of family resource centers to complete their education do I remember why it isn’t just parents who need to support these center, but also people like me.

As the press conference comes to a close, cameras and reporters disperse and children run to a nearby grassy patch to play. Students who had stopped to listen now begin their migration back to class and supporters congratulate parents on their speeches. With the close of the press conference the jitters of the first day come back, but for some students at Laney these jitters won’t be felt again until the toddler and infant center is reopened.

As of September 4th Laney has still not reopened it’s Infant and Toddler Center. If you are interested in working on this urgent issue please call POOR @ 415-863-6306.

I miss you.  They spat at you, called you ugly, said you were dark and dreary and needed to be torn down.  They called for your removal, your death.  Just the other day a guy was quoted in the Chronicle saying you were dirty and needed to be replaced by something new, something that would shuttle us into the current millennium.  The guy who said those words was an accountant—a commuter, as we all are—passing through this life that is so short and precious.  He spoke with an accountant’s mouth, saw with an accountant’s eyes, smelled with an accountant’s nose.  Someone once said, “it isn’t what you look at, it’s what you see”.  Dark and dreary—is that what the accountant saw when he looked at your face?

When I look at you I see beauty.  I see a kid running on your platform pulling away from his Grandma on the way to the circus.  We would board the AC transit bus, which was like a magic bus.  It would rattle and slam like a box of candy colored lights.  I remember the smoke rising from the tail pipe and the steam that seemed to come from under the ground, waiting to escape like laughter and tears kept inside too long.  I remember your eyes that were windows that could never be broken.  I remember your voice when you said, “Mind your Grandmother, boy”.  I remember your dark hands--hard hands.  Hands that said more than poets could, hands that reached into a pocket and pulled out a nickel or candy that kissed the palm of my hand. I squeezed my hands and eyes shut and never stopped dreaming of your face, your face of tears, of poems, of laughter, of jazz, of rhythm, of heartbreak, of community.

You are beautiful.  Your benches creak with stories carved with the marrow of our bones--strong enough to hold us, and sometimes cradle us when our fellow citizens, fellow human beings couldn’t.  Your benches gave our backs a rest; gave us a bit of warmth, a bit of time for us to dream, to connect with who we really were, and to see our mother’s face, our grandmother’s face again before being jolted awake and told to move on.  We steadied ourselves going up and down your staircases and when we fell, your banisters were within reach, pulling us back up.  On your walls were the poems that rise and fall like waves—travelling back and forth, ringing and echoing night and day, deep inside your belly of a million sounds. You are beautiful, a place when there was no place.

They are going to tear you down and replace you with a monstrosity that will resemble the federal building on 7^th street.  The accountants of the world are banking on it.  But I hear a rumbling; it’s coming from beneath. The lights are coming through the unbroken windows that are your eyes.  The trees that provided your benches have sprouted into a new forest.  The wind is stirring.  Your eyes are open and they are still beautiful and I am that kid again, following my Grandmother’s spirit as I walk across your platform for the first time.  I see you; your face is covered with the beautiful dirt of your life, the dirt of a poet’s hands.  They can’t wash it away—no matter how hard they try.

Indigenous peoples from San Jose to New Orleans who have survived and resisted eviction, gentrification and displacement joined POOR Magazine's First Annual TAKING BACK THE LAND CEREMONY

Be bop bebop..bop..bop

A slow mist rose from the ground co-mingling with candlewax, sage, and car exhaust. Bop..bop..be-bop..bop.. Warm breath weaving through the rhythm of a congo drum entwining with words of resistance from African Peoples, Raza Peoples, Celtic peoples, Pilipino peoples, Native peoples, indigenous peoples all.."One.... we are the people..Two....indigenous people...Three .. and we are taking back the land and ONE....We are the Scholars...Two... indigenous scholars and Three... we are taking back OUR land!..."

Citing the articles from the United Nations(UN)Declaration on Indigenous Peoples adopted one year ago by the UN General Assembly, displaced, evicted and removed children, mamaz, daddys, tias and tios, aunties and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, elders, ancestors, and spirits from all across Turtle Island; Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, New Orleans and DQ University gathered to pray, testify and resist on Market street at sunrise in a spiritual, political and revolutionary ceremony of resistance to out of control development, eviction, displacement and criminalization locally and globally.

"My whole family was displaced out of San Francisco," Xicana mama of three girls, welfareQUEEN and POOR Magazine teacher and staff writer Vivien Hain called into the crowd, her powerful voice joining the layers of sounds as she re-told her family's deep poverty scholarship of houselessness, welfare de-form, struggle and displacement. Vivien cited article 10 of the declaration as she described how her uncle, a life-long Mission district resident, was gentrified out of his home with his disabled wife and now is houseless on the streets of San Francisco. Vivien concluded her powerful speech: "Gentricide, that's our new classification for the murderous act of gentrification."

Since 1996, while on welfare and still dealing with the effects of over 15 years of homelessness as a child and mother, eviction and deep poverty in LA, Oakland and San Francisco, my mama, African- Irish- Puerta Rican, and indigenous Taino very poor single mother, and me launched POOR Magazine as an indigenous organizing project that actively practices eldership, ancestor worship and interdependence. We launched it as a direct resistance to the non-profit industrial complex, criminal UNjustice system, welfare systems, and the school to prison pipeline; that all work to separate, divide and destroy our indigenous systems of caring and community. As a poor people/indigenous people led organization the personal and organizational lives, dramas, concerns and struggles of the hundreds of co-leaders; poverty, youth, disability and migrant scholars at POOR Magazine are intertwined with the running, survival and thrival of ourselves, our families, our communities and our organization. Like many other poor people/indigenous people led organizations, there is no intention to untwine that real and honest core of truth, that is the indigenous organizational model.

In July of this year POOR Magazine (as well as many of the non-profits and small businesses in our building who we stand in solidarity with) received a notice that our lease would not be renewed by the new owners of the building. POOR Magazine's tenuous hold on stability was severed. As an organization we weren't planning to move until we had raised enough money to purchase a building so we could launch the revolutionary housing, arts and education project that acts as a long-term solution to homelessness: HOMEFULNESS; a sweat-equity co-housing and sustainable community that would house and give equity, support, arts education and economic development opportunities to homeless and formerly homeless families as well as house the offices and classrooms of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute and Uncle Al's Justice Cafe.

In San Francisco's Bay-view District there have been over 150 evictions reported in this month alone. In Oakland, 72 elder and disabled tenants face homelessness at the California Hotel due to mismanagement by a housing corporation given millions of dollars to "manage" their resident hotel. In New Orleans over 4, 500 people were evicted from public housing targeted for redevelopment. It was time, we thought, to employ another model for systemic change. It was time, we realized, to implement the very powerful UN Declaration on indigenous peoples.

Bop.. be-bop..bop..bop.. the drum beat wove through the voices, la tierra, our land- speaking for all the people who aren't here - who were already displaced, removed and destroyed, people like Jose Morales, a migrant elder removed from his land, his home of 40 years, by unjust laws put in place to protect property not people....

"Indigenous people shall not be forceably removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous people concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and where possible with the option of return," POOR Magazine co-editor, indigenous Pilipino, African, Irish and Native descendent poverty and worker scholar, Tony Robles, read from Article 10-28 of the UN declaration on indigenous peoples throughout the ceremony

"Our land is under attack, we are working under a deadline, the General Services Administration (GSA) is threatening to take back 1/3 of our land but we will not go," Steve Jerome Wyatt, Native Scholar and president of the DQ University coalition testified at the ceremony. The ceremony was opened with a prayer led by indigenous scholars from DQ University and United Native Americans who are currently fighting for their rights to keep the only off-reservation tribal college, DQ University, alive and strong. Steve concluded, "our spirit is with all of you, with the people always! DQ will never die!

"We cannot allow POOR Magazine to leave this land, POOR Magazine represents our collective resistance to exploitation, deportation, incarceration, eviction," Renee Saucedo, Xicana scholar and resistance fighter in the war on migrant peoples, representing one of the events co-sponsors, La Raza Centro Legal, testified, "Who is POOR Magazine?, it is poor people of color, particularly young people, who are fighting criminalizing legislations like the gang injunction, people fighting everyday for justice, for our communities" Renee concluded.

We poor will wear our courage, sorrow and innocence vividly as our burning rage, until Private Property bombs on the stage where for much too long it's been pissing on the people, and then at last human space truly will belong to all. Excerpt from the poem, EVICTION, by San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman.

The Taking Back the Land Ceremony was about resistance to displacement, it was also about cross-organizational, cross generational, and cross-cultural movement building. Over 20 organizations, from San Jose to New Orleans represented, including Delores Street Community Services, SOMCAN, Just Cause Oakland, DQ University, United Native Americans, Coalition on Homelessness, HOMEY, POWER, Justice Matters, League of Revolutionaries for a New America, Faithful Fools Street Ministry, The SF Bayview, P.O.C.C. BLOCK REPORT, First Voice Apprenticeship Program, Lumpia Project, San Francisco Living Wage, CHP, Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, CHAM, Axis of Love, All African Peoples Unification Party, Homeless Action Center and many more. Our lives, our communities, our organizations, our futures, are connected, shared and lived.

Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.(Article 26 of the UN declaration on Indigenous Peoples)

Two SF Board of Supervisors candidates, Eric Quesada and David Campos, were on hand to testify. Each one is vying for district 9 (the Mission) which is ground zero of out of control displacement and gentrification of communities of color. "We have been fighting this fight for 500 years," Eric Quesada galvanized the crowd by calling out the roots of the land theft, the original theft of indigenous peoples land on Turtle Island that happened over 500 years ago when the colonizers "discovered" our land and launched an onslaught of terrorism on indigenous peoples in the name of "ownership" that has continued through today making the connections between historical and current displacement in the Mission, the tenderloin, the Bayview, DQ University, New Orleans and beyond.

Eviction Victim
Eviction Resistance
23 times and counting
"cause without equity we all at-risk"
Born from three generations of poor women of color and countless generations
of
colonized others
Mama Dee..an act of resistance- by tiny

"My mothers mothers mother was a slave - she worked in tobacco and cotton plantations, my mothers mother cleaned the houses and mansions in San Francisco, our blood is spilled in the name of others peoples profit, we will not be moved - we should own these buildings " all of this is ours," Citing Article 28 of the UN declaration which states, "indigenous people have the right to re-dress", Laure McElroy, POOR Magazine board member, welfareQUEEN and poverty, race and disability scholar in residence at POOR's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute waved her hands to the land beneath and above our heads as she stated our collective right to reparations.

Bop.. be-bop..bop..bop..

"Any magazine named POOR, that's a magazine where Jesus would be".. proclaimed Sandy Perry street minister from event co-sponsor, CHAM in San Jose. Sandy began his solidarity message to the circle with prayer and a welcome from poor folks in San Jose who are struggling with displacement, eviction and poverty: "When Jesus said all of us can be rich, he didn't mean rich like these developers do, he meant rich with community, with love and with caring for one another", Sandy concluded.

Indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination. (Article 16 of the UN declaration on Indigenous Peoples)

"Hoy es un dia historico"(today is a historical day) because as of today we will no longer accept displacement, Gloria Esteva, migrant and poverty scholar and staff writer with Voce De Inmigrantes en Resistencia at POOR Magazine (the revolutionary bi-lingual media access and education project for migrant raza workers in the Bay Area) who along with POOR Magazine reporteras y reporteros Teresa Molina and Guillermo Gonzalez, connected displacement with the exploitation of migrant peoples locally and globally, Gloria concluded, "This is our land, we built it from scratch, we will be exploited no longer!"

Prensa POBRE reportera Teresa Molina added, "The reason we don't own land is because they don't let us own land so they can exploit us for cheap labor! That is why we will continue to fight until our voices are heard!"

Be bop..bop..bop..bebop

"Please stand up and fight..I am from New Orleans, I know about removal and displacement from the government, thousands of people were removed and displaced and much of that displacement came from the government," August Foreman, Katrina survivor here to speak on Katrina for events in the Bay honoring Katrina's tragedy on August 29, spoke to our circle, with his words creating a national lens to the Take Back the Land Ceremony.

Be bop..bop..bop..bop..the spirits of our displaced ancestors rose up with the drum beat.

Midway through the ceremony, I asked for a silence to be called for all the people who aren't here - who have already been displaced and following that powerful moment, on the wings of the very spirits we called out to for strength our allies and fellow poverty scholars from The California Hotel in Oakland whose 72 elder, disabled tenants have faced eviction due to gross mismanagement by private housing developers OCHI, and allies, Just Cause Oakland arrived at the ceremony.

"We didn't want to become homeless, we didn't want to be put on the street," Mickey Martin, poverty scholar, tenant and now co-manager of the California Hotel described their fight to stay housed even in the face of police raids, city and private funding cuts and mis-management of their housing, "So now our attorney is suing the City for 53 million dollars to keep our hotel open for the rest of our lives - we are going to run our hotel til we become old and gray!"

He was followed by the powerful voice of Robbie from Just Cause Oakland,"We are working now to prevent the eviction of over 215 families from public housing and along with the California Hotel evictions are hitting hundreds of tenants of other residential hotels as well as over 600 public housing units"

One"WE ARE THE PEOPLE and Two..INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!Three! And we are taking back OUR LAND!

Chris Durazo, from displacement fighters and allies at SOMCAN, spoke to the crowd " This "Take Back the Land Ceremony" is very meaningful for us at SOMCAN because they are re-zoning the eastern neighborhoods (in San Francisco) where our families and elders live and we are responding by demanding that they ( the SF Board supervisors) stop building unaffordable condominiums and give it back to our families, our diverse families."

Article 14 Indigenous People have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages and in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning

"I work with the children every Tuesday and Thursday in FAMILY project", Youth Scholar and POOR press author Jasmine Hain spoke to our circle about FAMILY, an on-site classroom which is a joint education project of POOR Magazine and ART and faces eviction from their classroom at POOR. FAMILY is cooridinated by co-madre, poverty scholar and welfareQUEEN Jewnbug, who is also a skilled early childhood arts educator. FAMILY provides intergenerational programming, arts, music , dance and social justice to children ages 2-14 and parents in the Tenderloin struggling with poverty. "I work in FAMILY so that the poor families and elders, mamaz and daddys, can learn to write their stories and become media producers and make change for their families and communities" Jasmine concluded.

If people really wanted to "solve" homelessness they would start giving poor people access to equity! Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia

"I stand here, the descendent of a stolen people in San Francisco, Mexico", The next testifier was welfareQUEEN and poverty scholar in residence at POOR Magazine, Queennandi, who wrote a poem in honor of the ceremony, "My house is not my home, technically I'm houseless and don't own nothing .serial land robberies.the landlord whipped me with an eviction notice cuz I resisted being whipped"

"Under article 22 of the UN declaration, I accuse the federal government of benign neglect of disabled people, women and children locally and globally", founding member of POOR Magazine and poverty scholar in residence Joseph Bolden cited the declaration.

"I want to take you on a journey, in the U.S. we have the fair housing act, it came down under the Reagan administration" locally we have proposition K and L put into affect by Willie Brown, ostensibly to create more offices for non-profits- under these laws we have right to the right to be housed, not temporarily but permanently. Illin and chillin columnist for POOR and founder of KRIP HOP also cited UN declaration 22 and the recent laws that were passed to protect housing but seem to mean nothing to our communities.

Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired. (Article 26 of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples)

Byron Gafford,Bayview resident of Alice Griffith who's family is facing pending eviction along with 150 others recently served with eviction notices in the Bayview thanks to government and corporate developers Lennar displacement efforts, testified with a poetic tribute to long-time girlfriend and recent victim of negligence at the hands of PG&E in the Bayview. "to rob, steal, and kill the good like shirley weston in order to claim the neighborhood of death for his own With the help from PG&Evil.."

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Aldo Arturro Della Maggiorra called on our spirits and ancestors with the conga drum, Joe Smooke from Bernal Heights Community Center spoke on media mis-representations of poverty, RAM from POOR Magazine led the power-giving chants, San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman spit his beautiful tribute poem, Eviction, allies from Homeless Action Center in Oakland testified on their collaborative work with POOR, Bruce Allison at POOR spoke a tribute poem to elder eviction resistor Jose Morales, Mrs Booy from the Bayview, Quanah Brightman from DQ university, Leroy Moore/Illin n chillin, Jewnbug repping FAMILY project and many others spoke, represented and testified. So many powerful voices rose up and honored the silenced voices of indigenous peoples who struggled before us, who struggle with us today and will struggle and resist this in the future.

"To all of the Newsoms, Guiliani's and Schwarzeneggers, we will never give up." Revolutionary legal advocate, poverty and race scholar in residence at POOR and staff writer Marlon Crump authored a poem for the event which began, "This is OUR land you seize from OUR hand,

be..bop..bop..bopbebop..bop..

Postscript: After the ceremony the new owners of 1095 Market street met with POOR Magazine staff and committed to helping POOR Magazine and the other tenants who face eviction make a smooth and safe and transition to another space that will stabilize your urgently needed youth and adult programming for the long-term.

Navajo Nation Council Tables Water Rights Settlement
Grassroots Dine’ (Navajo) Vow to Stand Against Oppression
 
WINDOW ROCK, AZ – Due to pressure from the community, the Navajo Nation Council decided to put off voting on the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement (NAIWRSA) and gave one week for public review but did not specify what the review would look like. The Council is set to consider the legislation again on Friday, October 8th but the date is subject to change.
 
Legislation No. 0422-10, also known as NAIWRSA, sponsored by Council Delegate George Arthur has faced increasing community criticism in the last few weeks.
 
More than 160 concerned Dine’ (Navajo) marched, rallied and then packed the council chambers to send the message for the council to “VOTE NO!” on the water rights settlement. Children, elders, parents, students and others from throughout the Navajo Nation joined together in chanting, “Water is life! Save our Future!”
 
NAIWRSA was created by lawyers including a non-native, Stanley Pollack, with the Navajo Nation as an attempt to resolve water rights claims of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe for water from the Little Colorado River and from the lower Colorado River.
 
Dine’ community members have raised concerns that NAIWRSA gives the Navajo Nation only 31,000 acre-feet per year of 4th Priority Colorado River water, which would not be available in times of drought, and would require more than $500 million of new federal funding to pay for pipeline infrastructure to deliver water to communities in need. The federal funding would have to be appropriated by U.S. Congress.
 
One pipeline would be built to send Colorado River water from Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border to the reservation.
 
During the special session Hope Macdonald Lonetree, Council Delegate from Tuba City, raised concerns on the council floor regarding the document as being flawed & different than what was presented to the Navajo Nation committees. Specifically, exhibit A was not located in the agreement and the issue of the agreement being distributed to delegates moments before the meeting. She motioned for the agenda item to be stricken from the agenda but failed to gain votes.
 
Delegate Amos Johnson motioned to table the legislation and to give one week for council delegates to take the agreement back to their communities for review. 49 voted in support, 32 against with 7 not voting.
 
“It is appropriate for the Navajo Nation to consider Hogan level family’s water rights and they have an obligation to do that, to take it to the communities for their input which has not been the case,” stated Milton Bluehouse Sr. former Navajo Nation President. “The more informed the people are the better the decision will be made, with respect to their rights.”
 
Hope Macdonald Lonetree asked, "Why would we waive our rights to the water for just a promise of federal funding, when we know historically the appropriations have not come to Navajo?"
 
“Why was there no deliberate and detailed consultation with the affected Dine' communities?” said R Begay a concerned Dine'. “Why has this process been so secret? What does Stanley Pollack have to hide? This is an extension of colonialism and genocide against our people. We will stand against this oppression.”
 
“The most important thing to show our leaders is that we are watching them, we are making sure that they are accountable to their communities and what we hold sacred as Dine’ people,” stated Kim Smith, resident of St. Michaels. “Water is an essential part of our way of life, our ceremonies, our livestock and most importantly, it’s our future. We are calling on all Dine’ people who value their future, their sacred water to join us when the council goes back into session and let them know we want them to VOTE NO!”
 
Concerned citizens for Dine’ Water Rights along with organizations such as Dine’ Care, To’ Nizhoni Ani’, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Council Advocating an Indigenous Manifesto, ECHOES, and others are calling for another rally and march at the next council session.
 
The date and time have not yet been set. Visit www.dinewaterrights.org for further details.
 
“This movement to oppose the Arizona Water Settlement is about our children, and we will not waive their water rights, not now not ever,” Stated Ron Milford, a concerned citizen with Dine’ Water Rights.
 
“Only one percent of the water in this world is water we can consume,” stated Daniel Tulley a Dine’ student from Phoenix who made the trip with a caravan of ASU students to Window Rock to voice his concerns. “Worldwide water shortages are facing us, we need to protect what we have here, because it is sacred and we need to protect it for future generations.” 

A letter from Mama Dee to the Poverty, Race and Media Justice mentees at POOR Magazine

We have read all of your applications. Many of you have had access and privilege beyond anything we, a poor, mixed race, single mama and daughter and many of our fellow poverty skolaz we work, advocate for and struggle with, have every known.

Many of you have had exciting extracurricular and postgraduate volunteer work. Exciting is the operative word here. Some of you have had well-paying and interesting jobs as well.

When I see that kind of race and class privilege experienced by people, some still in their 20s and contrast it with all of us poverty skolaz, in their 30s, 40s, 50s and more, who have never had the opportunities most of you have had, I am almost at a loss for words and thoughts.

You owe so much and yet I do not want to see people helping others out of guilt because it often becomes nothing more than positivism, something you can forget when you go back to the next interesting job or advanced education program.

We, the originators of POOR , have come from poverty and only because of our intelligence and an ability to organize our thoughts, itself a form of privilege, have we been able to take these experiences from poverty, racism and suffering and be at one with them, to create this grassroots organization that hopefully gives opportunity to others who have experienced similar backgrounds.

Do you have the ability, I wonder, to understand the nuances of your access and privilege? Your health, your optimism, your dental care and on and on and on

We need people who have the ability to understand the subtle and not so subtle differences between yourselves and the people with whom we work.

I wasn't impressed by your insights on your applications. I didn't get the feeling that you were in touch with what I'm talking about.

It is possible for you to learn. However, places like Global Exchange that provide exciting volunteer work for people with privilege to keep them stimulated and excited is not what we are here at POOR.

There is a lot, a lot, a lot of drudgery in poverty- very little intellectual or creative stimulation. Much sadness and much, much frustration and isolation.

What can you do about this?

Beyond all else you need to see those tiny differences that occur between yourself and those that exist in poverty. That is the beginning.

We at POOR need people like yourselves that can do the frustrating tedious chores like grant writing and other types of fundraising as well as other administrative work. You need to pay your dues with work that is not very exciting. Working with the political events and assisting impoverished and disenfranchised people in writing from their voice and their experience is the exciting part. Even copyediting for these folks is more interesting than some of the day-to-day frustrations of maintaining our vision.

If you are interested in being here at POOR, you will be required to help with both, whether or not, you are bored, annoyed or frustrated. It is part of running a grassroots organization and it is what we do.

You can benefit by using your strength and optimism and abilities that have come to you from privilege and access to help us and I hope that, at least in part, you experience some of the boredom, frustration that we have experienced. That, in fact, you do not feel intellectually stimulated. That you are annoyed and have a pervasive sense of hopelessness from feeling overwhelmed like us and the people with whom we work.

From these feelings you will learn about poverty. Be thankful if this happens to you. Include them in your resume. They are more meaningful than any travels in India, Africa or other faraway places with strange sounding names, Ivy League college degrees or honor's from the dean's list, Phi Beta Kappa or Magna Cum Laude, stimulating and informative college classes, books with new and edgy thinking or any of the cumulative warm and happy holidays that you've experienced with family and friends.

I did not see any mention of this kind of experience on your resumes. I did see a lot of near cliches about wanting to "help" people.

I suppose you have gotten in the habit of writing this kind of resume because it is what graduate schools and good jobs require, but if you work here at POOR I would want you to rewrite your resume including these feelings based on your experience here and then convince future employers that this is in fact the way a resume should be written.

If you want to work at POOR you can let us know in writing how you understand what we expect of you. Do tell us what you think you can learn here as well.

Debajo en Espanol

Our family of POOR Magazine poverty, race, migrant, disability, youth and indigenous scholars hold in our collective hearts the pain of Oscar Grant’s mama and all the mamaz and daddys and tio’s y tias, y abuelas y abuelos who have lost children to the culture of deadly force, abuse and murder called the Police in Amerikkka.

Brother Oscar Grant, along with Ayana Jones, Idriss Stelley, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, their families and so many more victims of Po’Lice terror are honored on our altar of ancestor heroes in resistance at POOR Magazine. We send our prayers of healing and deep love. And with the utmost respect for the mama and families, we also stand in solidarity with many thousands of families and community members who are collectively screaming Enough!. No more killing of our babies, racial profiling and harassment of our communities No more lies about protection, and service. No MORE po’lice terror EVER!.

So is a world without para-military occupying soldiers, rooted in white supremacy, trained to kill, armed with weapons of mass destruction and sworn to loyalty to each other's protection above all else, possible?

For the masses of corporate media propagandized, born and bred into the cult of independence, institutional and structural racism and the bootstraps mentality it might not be.

US dominant culture works hard to separate and alienate our elder’s scholarship and traditions from our youth’s minds, our cultures out of and away from our communities and our ancestors teachings crushed and replaced by lies of wealth and privilege for all. We are taught  that our own personal happiness is of the utmost importance, that everything needs to happen immediately, and simply and our happiness is tied to how much we have and own not how much we know and how many people we are caring for.  We do nothing as a society to truly care, protect and hold our women and mothers and children so there is NEVER abuse of a woman or a child by someone so lost in their own struggle and or addiction that they perpetuate violence on the people they love.

Can we envision ourselves collectively, interdependently, dreaming and holding our ancestors teachings?

How does this happen. It begins with us breaking through the hypocrisy of our own lives on the daily. Recognizing our own impulse to resort to po’lice calls in situations of struggle cause it’s easier and faster to solve a “difficult problem” But of course it’s much deeper than that

As an indigenous people-led, poor people led, family created, arts organization, launched by a landless, indigenous mother and daughter in poverty POOR Magazine practices ancestor worship, eldership, care-giving and interdependence with a mandate of no Po’Lice calls ever. We have implemented a Community Council process based on our indigenous teachings which includes a meeting of all peoples involved in a conflict meeting for as long as it takes to hear everyone’s perspective with ground rules of respect and love and care-giving and inter-dependence.

And this process is always lengthy and messy and sad and strange and revelatory and beautiful. It’s not perfect, and always extremely difficult. But why shouldn’t it be. Why would or should solving human personal and organizational struggles ever be easy.

As a mother of a young child, and a survivor of both domestic violence and child sexual abuse, I am most concerned about how women and children aren’t protected in this society and I realize that we have much to learn about caring and protecting all of Creator’s peoples.

POOR Magazine’s Community Council is only one humble, in-organization example of people-led accountability, there is much to learn from other people-led accountability projects such as the Audrey Lorde Project , Alwaysasafespace and CUAV, as well as revolutionary concepts and ideas from groups like Critical Resistance and Incite.

But it really begins with re-thinking all of these things and the ways in which so many of us have been informed, taught, racialized and lied to about the notion of  safety and security itself. And how security has been equated with guns and walls and batons and tasers and then this concept of so-called security is used by multi-national corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater to make money on the backs of our fear and our desire for a simple answer to that fear.

Finally it is most important to remember that we are people, with culture, spirit, love and care and protection hard-wired in us. We must work harder, think deeper, dream bigger, love stronger to care for each other inter-dependently. Always.

En Espanol

POOR columnist and police brutality survivor, Marlon Crump tells about his legal battle against the SFPD.

Marlon Crump

PNN Tuesday, November 20, 2007;

"There is nothing more frightening, more scary, more terrifying than someone opening and coming through your door..........unannounced."

Last year the San Francisco Chronicle ran a month long series entitled "Use of Force" in which they chronicled past events of misconduct by the San Francisco Police Department. At the time, my case was still being investigated by the police oversight agency, the Office of Citizens Complaints (O.C.C) so nothing was written regarding my own brutal encounter with S.F.P.D members.

Just last month, the two-year anniversary of my worst police encounter occurred. On October 7th 2005 a dozen members of the S.F.P.D. stormed the AllStar Hotel, single room occupancy on 16th/Folsom Streets, where I still live. It was almost midnight. I was in my room, preparing to leave to pick up some food from the store with my food stamp card when suddenly my door lock clicked opened.

The next thing I knew, I was staring down the barrels of numerous guns carried by a squad of officers yelling obscenities at me. This is an image that will be forever seared into my memory and one that still haunts me to this day. One of the officers was a young short Filipino man, with a receding hairline named Officer Angel G. Lozano, I would later learn he had falsely prompted his assisting fellow officers and their commanding personnel of his "possible location of a black male armed robbery suspect, wearing a long black leather coat" at the AllStar.

Prior to his "capture" of me, he was with another fellow officer, a short Chinese man with a dark crew-cut named Raymond Lee.

Both officers swore to the AllStar Hotel Resident Manager, Robert Williams that I was a suspect in a robbery and that they needed a spare room key for my unit. By this time, nearly a dozen officers had arrived onto the premises. Despite the protests by Mr. Williams, he finally relented and relinquished my spare room key to the officers.

All of this was occurring as I sat inside my room preparing to go to the supermarket, unaware of the near-death experience that awaited me and forever changed my life. After a negative identification by the witnesses and victims of the armed robbery incident that took place in the area, Officer Angel Lozano was ordered on his walkie-talkie to let me go, and he gave me back my spare room key.

The very moment the police stormed my SRO, I knew that every single police procedural protocol was shattered--civil and privacy rights. Everything in my life was torn apart in that instant, just like the rip inside of my long leather black trench coat. I needed to seek retribution from a legal perspective, as I wasn't the type to always march with a picket sign, or violently fight back.

Justice doesn't ultimately mean having to resort to illegal or violent means. I would speak out against the injustices I endured by speaking truth, even if it meant a long hard struggle. After making a complaint with the Office of Citizen's Complaints, I filed a California Government Tort Claim against the City and County of San Francisco, on October 14th, 2005.

An investigator named Sandra Garcia was assigned to my claim and about two months after the initial filing and the incident, it was denied. "I spoke to a sergeant of the Mission District Station and they stated there was probable cause to detain you and no officer did any damage to your coat. He recommended that your claim be denied, Mr. Crump." I really wasn't surprised by this initial denial.

Throughout my ordeal, I've learned that just about any city government agency and police department will go through any lengths, even if it's a violation of state or even federal law to conceal any of its member's wrong doings, and ultimately, to discourage a complainant from demanding accountability.

I began attending a weekly meeting at San Francisco City Hall held every Wednesday by seven members of the Board of San Francisco Police Commissioners, which governs the SFPD and the Office of Citizen's Complaints. I also learned that unwarranted intrusions into an S.R.O tenant's room happened frequently and I decided to raise this issue to the police commissioners.

During the next two years I frequently attended, my case of unwarranted action by S.F.P.D members was sustained last year, and I pursued a civil action against San Francisco as a pro se litigant this year. I was also anticipating some sort of disciplinary action to be brought towards Lozano, Lee, and the rest of the officers of the Mission District Station that took part in that course of action.

Unfortunately, because of last year's right-wing/patriotic U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Copley Press in San Diego, a ruling that prevents a citizen from accessing a police officer's complaint history, or being present at a police review hearing during an intended disciplinary action upon an officer accused of misconduct; I may never know what discipline, if any was ever imposed upon Officer Lozano and his assisting personnel officers. This very ruling still causes a great controversy. I did, however, discover that Officer Angel G. Lozano has a past history of misconduct.

After viewing an old archive last year on S.F.GOV website, I found out that there was possibly disciplinary action against him in May and December of 2001, but of course, with Copley Press and certain provisions in State Law and the Peace Officer's Bill of Rights, I was able to access very little.

It took me nearly seven months to even obtain a police report regarding the officer's conduct upon me. I received the practiced responses over and over again. "Oh it's a slow process", or it might be "privileged information" or "your case is still being investigated". It was only after constant complaining at the police commission hearings that I finally received a copy of the original from Hall of Justice.

After examining the document, I was even more certain of Officers Lozano and Lee's lying. A huge paragraph in the "Narrative" section of the report, regarding the dialog between Lee, Lozano, and resident manager Robert Williams was blackened out. Why? Because there was something of an improper procedural protocol and of an incriminatory nature they tried to desperately conceal, and this was confirmed after I received another copy of the same police incident report before the year 2006 ended.

This particular report showed the paragraph in which the "sworn" statements by Lozano and Lee were that the suspect was wearing a brown jacket, tan pants, he stood about 5'7-5'8 tall with a baseball cap, which was completely different of my description as I stand 6'3 wore a long black leather coat, white dress shirt and black slacks.

The report also failed to mention that the key was demanded repeatedly from Mr. Robert Williams. The common denominator between myself, and this robbery suspect was only the color of our skin. Officer Angel G. Lozano apparently has a history of brutality and misconduct according to insider sources. Lozano's lack of proper procedural protocols is a potentially dangerous threat towards every citizen, but particularly for those living in an S.R.O Hotel, or in a community that is considered "poor" or of "color."

The brutality I endured at the hands of a poorly trained, highly unprofessional, and possibly violent police officer could have happened to anybody and with fatal results. That is why I continue to fight against this injustice by representing myself. I cannot risk turning over my case and my humiliation to the City, state or some unconcerned lawyer. I urge all of those who have suffered a similar fate in our criminal injustice system to speak out and fight their own battle. We cannot continue to allow our safety, humanity and well-being to be threatened at the hands of law enforcement officials.

A single mother relates the horror story of displacement out of San Francisco Public Housing into Homelessness

The deep sounds of never ending, mind-numbing,headache generating traffic bombarded the weather-beaten glass of the 6 motel (not to be confused with the pricier Motel 6), as I sat with displacement survivor and former Valencia Gardens tenant Linda William.

Driving up highway 80 East I kept referring to my friend and fellow PNN writer's careful directions, " Its sort of near Vallejo" she had said quietly on the phone, the weight of her horrendous dilemma flooding her voice, " I couldn't actually afford a motel in Vallejo, they were too expensive and all the cheap ones were filled" , she concluded wearily

It had been almost two years since Linda took the "sweet deal" offerred by Housing Authority to move out of her long-time residence at Valencia Gardens in San Francisco, Valencia being one of many hundreds of public housing projects in the Bay Area and across the nation labeled "bad" and targeted for "redevelopment" which resulted in the massive displacement of low-income tenants from public housing to essentially "a piece of paper" i.e., these tenants were handed a section 8 voucher and alot of promises of available market rate or privately owned low-income housing projects but ended up, like Linda, homeless, or as those of us in the know say; public housing was better than no housing, "they gave me a section 8 certificate and said I could go anywhere with it, of course I had always had a dream of moving out of the city with my 2 kids and I thought this was my big chance"

As Linda spoke the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, I, too, was relying on a pending section 8 certificate to stabilize the ever unstable housing of myself, my mother and my 9 month old son, but from all the recent reports out of the Bush administration, this "stable housing" might remain a dream.

"So with that certificate I started the search for housing in Vallejo, Fairfield and Marin, "Linda continued her story unphased by my uh huhs and head nodding, "well whaddya know, I found closed wait lists on almost all the low-income housing units in all of those places and all the rest of the landlords wouldn't even return my calls when I told them I had section 8" As Linda continued to explain how she transferred her certificate to Alameda County hoping for better luck in Oakland, I remembered the hideously classist and racist experience of trying to find an apartment when I told landlords that I was on section 8, "Ohhhhh noooo, I don't think so" they would say, dreams of welfare moms dancing in their collective land-holding heads.

"Eventually, I found a place in the middle of so much gang-mess, that one of my babies almost got shot last month, so I gave up and moved to this motel and now my section 8 worker is telling me that it doesn't matter anyway, cause due to the Bush-inspired cuts they probably won't have any money left in the section 8 program to fund another apartment for me anyway…and I'll end up homeless….." her voice trailed off into sadness and the whoosh of the highway filled the rooms silence

Linda was referring to the very serious cuts that the Section 8 program is facing due to the Bush Adminstrations' cuts to the program of 1.6 billion causing places like New York city to lose millions of dollars for existing section 8 vouchers and Alameda County not having enough money in May to even cover the rents of vouchers already in use.

"and now I hear that people are being offerred more sweet deals by housing authority to move out of the Bayview so rich people like Newsom and his buddies can make big bucks redeveloping the Bayview…."Linda paused to hold back an onslaught of tears, " all I can say to those folks is; Don't be fooled.. Hold onto what you have… Valencia Gardens had its problems, but it was still my home…it was still housing…"

To tell your story of eviction or displacement call PNN at (415) 863-6306 , to get involved in fighting the redevelopment effort of the Bayview call Bianca Henry at Family rights and Dignity (415) 346-3740,

Marlon Crump reports for PNN on Victims of Covert and Electronic Terror Rally at City Hall for the first time.

Marlon Crump
Thursday, October 22, 2009;

“Stop Group Stalking!”

“Stop Electromagnetic Weapons!”

“Stop Defamation of Character!”

“Stop Electronic Torture!”

“Restore Human Liberties!”

The voices of victims resisting the above covert acts of terror took to the front entrance of San Francisco City Hall on a humid October 14th, 2009 afternoon. Their voices finally began to penetrate the voluntary deaf ears, from the above said protest signs, handmade.

One of the signs given to me by a fellow protestor spoke its own voice, in big black bold letters: “STOP ORGANIZED TERROR!” I was also given a button that said, “Freedom from Covert Harassment & Surveillance.”

There was a visibility from fear, anxiety, and isolation of resistance in the air towards the acts of terror; covertly occurring upon them by the steps of the very city officials, who have the authority to aid them.

“This event means to expose crime committed against humans, by U.S. Government Agencies.” A protestor stated to me. He later told me that he produced a documentary film regarding “brain implants.”

My presence at this rally was my duty, without question. Being a reporter for my family of POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, I’m committed like my comrades to re-port and sup-port for the unheard voices intentionally silenced by corporate mainstream media, locally and globally.

I’ve been on numerous marches and protests since living in the Bay Area of San Francisco, for the past five years. Many of them pertained to the issues of poverty, racism, oppression, police brutality, budget cuts, etc, etc. These issues are always at the root core for the resistance within our work at POOR.

Today’s protest rally, “International Alliance Against Covert Electronic Abuse Global Human Rights Protest” was the first of its kind that I’ve ever re-ported on, and sup-ported for, to date.

This was not just a local crisis call to end an injustice for T.I (Targeted Individual) victims in cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and here in San Francisco. This was also global crisis call to action from victims to end the terrorism that appeared to be “too far-fetched” for “media coverage.”

T.I victims currently have a movement to end this crisis in the United Kingdom, India, and three cities in Canada.

“We protested in front of the Legislative Assembly Building and near Medical Science Building of University of Toronto on the 14th of October. We started at 10.30 A.M. There were 5 people in front of the Legislative Assembly, and I, Galina Kurdina.” Galina, a T.I. said to me via email, in detailing “People approached us and we distributed about 10 fliers.”

Unfortunately, Galina also stated that a women attempted tactics to implement a scanda upon them. Eventually she was scared off when one of the protestors offered to take her picture, and she fled the scene. The rally continued on.

“One student of University of Toronto, sweet boy, said to us that, in his opinion, these experiments were disgusting, another person wished us to continue our struggle.”

In front of S.F City Hall, a C.B.S 5 News crew of two bypassed us, as we were numbered neared twenty. An undisclosed source later told me that they were told to ignore us. No corporate mainstream media coverage of covert terrorism intended to capture this event. “That doesn’t surprise me, everybody.” I yelled to them.

“That’s why we do what we do at POOR Magzaine because of them!”

In “Electronic Harassment” and “Targeted Individuals” (featured on www.poormagazine.org) many of the voices heard in both stories have often been covertly covered, ridiculed, discredited, harassed, with the end result leading them into fearful, faithless isolation.

An “Enough is Enough” stance from everyone at today’s rally was an awareness to the public regarding the categorical use of advanced deadly technology, organized stalking, microwave, directed energy, electromagnetic and mind control weapons often used against them.

This action was to be the first of many in the future. This one was the beginning to the demise of a bizarre seemingly invisible means of covert terror meant to control, harass, intimidate, and even experiment from persons or persons unknown. It didn’t matter to all of us who, what or where they were on this October 14th, 2009 Day.

It wouldn’t matter to everyone on whether or not any of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom would listen from the inside. I didn’t even matter if the organized perpetrators, themselves would appear to intimidate everyone in covert fashion, and “support” the cause.

The unheard voices of the International Alliance Against Covert Electronic Abuse needed to finally be heard on the outside.

After I was picked up by Anti-Organized Stalking Activist, T.I Organizer, Christine Lynn Harris a T.I, (Targeted Individual) and director of ISARC (Idriss Stelley Action Resource Center) mesha Monge-Irizarry, my comrade we soon found ourselves across the street from S.F City Hall before we knew it.

The three of us stood alongside of each other, as we awaited the arrival of the other unheard voices, victims of covert terror. For Christine, this event was nearly a year dragged into the making.

Hit with strange severe sophisticated technology. Stalked by suspicious individuals (some possibly S.F.P.D Officers) during her daily activities. Emergency hospital admission on numerous occasions for severe radiation damages to her organs. Individuals appearing at her home costumed as phone technicians.

Ignorant and disbelief from people questioning the level of her sanity, despite documented proof supporting her claims. Consumed with constant physical and mental torture, while being forced to be attentive to her surroundings anywhere she goes. (Tactical component covert acts used by what some are calling, “The Crazy Makers.”)

Not to say the least, her very life threatened with a marked C.D, and even her car illegally towed in retaliation for speaking out.

“All of this over a f!@## piece of paper!” Christine often exclaimed to me. She previously sent the attorney general's office a letter concerning misdeeds of the president of the homeowners association. A short time later, Christine received an ongoing onslaught of electronic attacks, and covert stalking after voicing her concerns.

The sun scorched us. It pushed away rainy clouds, but it failed to prevent T.I (Targeted Individuals) voices from joining the rally.

They arrived a short time later, eager to get their unheard voices underway. Some of them were from California cities, such as Modesto, Fresno, Marin County, Oakland, and Berkeley.

“This makes me feel that I am not the only one going through this.” A T.I protestor said to me. She began to explain to me, (while fighting back tears and showing expressions of hopelessness) the horrors of harassments by S.F.P.D Officers, false accusations made towards her, and the removal of her driver’s license and car. “My father died when I was eighteen from electromagnetic weapons.”

After some pleasant verbal exchanges with onlookers, passer bys, an S.F.P.D Officer, a media crew from S.F. VID (who interviewed Christine) and a couple of S.F Sheriff Deputies, during the first few hours, we all went to the side of the street curb, and waved our signs to oncoming motorists.

To our surprise, many of them cheerfully honked their horns in support. For four straight hours in the heat, some of us (including myself) wearing black, we received horn honking praises from the oncoming drivers.

“Today feels very exciting because this is groundbreaking from victimization of T.I.s, towards a proactive grassroots effort all over the world.” mesha explained to me.

“I think it was a mission accomplished because we had about twenty people show up for the protest, a reporter from S.F Vid, and the rain cleared up for us today.” Christine said to me. “I think that we got the acknowledgment we received.

"God sees everything!"
Revelations 18:21

A family in poverty, Larry, Bessie and Charlie, vs. the System and Poli-tricks

Marlon Crump/Poverty Scholar/POOR Magazine
Tuesday, October 24, 2006;

The walls are covered by a collage of pictures of people who have fallen as a result of San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) violence; mostly black youth and youth of color whose lives were stolen and cut short. Set within the walls is a feeling of revolution and liberation and also a deep sadness.

The Idriss Stelley Foundation (ISF) is a safe haven as well as an underground railroad for people who have been brutalized by the SFPD.

Idriss Stelley was shot and killed by SFPD at the Sony Metreon on June 13 2001, "48 shots, 9 officers, as he stood alone in an empty theater." A shrine to Idriss is set in one part of the room. Mesha Monge-Irizarry, mother of Idriss Stelley started the Foundation. Mesha is a phenomenal woman. She is truly a privilege to be around.

For the past month Mesha, myself, and many others have been meeting to plan the march on October 22nd against police brutality. It was at these meetings that I first met Bessie Berger and her two sons, Larry and Charlie Wilkerson. Bessie is 94 years old, Charlie is 59, and Larry is 57. They are living homeless in San Francisco. Bessie and her sons had come to the meetings to voice their concerns and tell their stories of harassment by the SFPD.

Like Bessie and her family, I have dealt directly with police brutality. This past Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of a traumatizing assault committed against me by the SFPD in my own home. On October 7th 2005 twelve armed police officers broke into my room at the All Star Hotel. The All Star Hotel failed to protect my rights as their tenant, which is a part of the long legal battle that I am currently caught up in. The SFPD wrongly accused me of a crime I did not commit and entered my room in the early hours of the morning. This is only one example of the kinds of police brutality that I, and many others, living in Single Room Occupancies (SRO's) have had to endure. The stories Bessie and her sons tell are all too familiar.

Mesha and Myself met with Bessie, Larry, and Charlie at the Idriss Stelley Foundation to hear their story.

Bessie is in a wheelchair and is in dire need of a new one. She has trouble seeing and hearing. Both of Bessie's legs are severely swollen. Bessie is a small, gentle woman of incredible spirit and she does not let her age slow her down. Bessie was well respected by the motorcycle gang, The Hell’s Angels, who referred to her as "mama." Bessie's family tree extends from a nineteenth century U.S. Navy Admiral named Allen Schley to Edgar Allen Poe.

Larry and Charlie are both silver haired men. Larry speaks from the heart and he has a stern voice. Charles has a more joking character and ads a comic sense here and there. Their voices contain anger and frustration. They are both tired.

Larry and Charlie are true examples of one of The Ten Commandments "Honor thy mother and thy father." Larry and Charlie's great concern is the well being of their mom. Bessie is bathed daily by her sons either from The City's resource facilities for the homeless or from a one night hotel room that they obtain from the little money they have. They continue to care for her even while under the pressure of the harshest of times economically, socially, and politically.

Larry and Charlie are both strong, capable men. They are able to care for their mom but they too are having health problems of their own. They are unable to care for themselves because most of their money goes towards the care of their mom. Bessie only receives a combined total of $800 a month, half of which goes towards her Medicare, she is left with only $400 a month.

Larry, Charlie, and Bessie have only been back in San Francisco four months. They briefly lived here in 2001 during the administration of Mayor Willie Brown.

Four months ago they lived in Palm Springs, California. Both Larry and Charlie worked industrial jobs to support their mom, each making $6.25 an hour. They worked opposite schedules so that while one was working the other one was taking care of their mom.

They lived in Palm Springs and faithfully paid their rent on time. They paid the standard cost of first and last months rent, and the security deposit that totaled over $1200. The building attendant took their move-in deposit and rent, never submitted a receipt, and never turned the money into the management. As a result of the building attendant's criminal conduct they were evicted by the property management. Bessie and her sons immediately brought a legal action upon the management, but they were unsuccessful and the case was mysteriously ruled out.

The All Star Hotel's handling of my situation on that fateful night last year was similar in its complete disregard for my wellbeing. Being evicted from your own home or having twelve unannounced police officers with guns burst into your room are experiences no one should ever have to endure.

Losing practically everything they had Bessie and her sons sought food and lodging from relatives. Bessie in the past had always welcomed family into her home and cared for them in their times of need. Now in need herself, Bessie asked her relatives for help. The same relatives she had always housed and fed would not take her and her sons in. Larry recalled their situation with anger.

"They did not care for one of their very own who had cared for them when they all had nothing! It really breaks our hearts but we've managed to survive this long. Someone will help us, I hope," Larry concluded sadly.

The family also endured a heart shattering loss of a loved one. In 2001 while staying in Lake County, Bessie's great grandchild, eight year old Tyler James was killed by a drunk driver, named Mark Shifflet. Shifflet struck down Tyler while driving at 70 mph. A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer arrived at the scene and astonishingly allowed Shifflet to leave the scene of the accident. The accident occurred on Highway 175 in Middletown. It was later discovered that Mark Shifflet had previous D.U.I arrests. But on this tragic night Shifflet was never given a sobriety test. The release of Shifflet was criminal negligence on the part of the CHP officer. The family lost the case in court and Mark Shifflet and the CHP officer walked away unscathed and unpunished.

I am also waiting for the day in court where I will see legal action taken on my behalf for the criminal conduct that was committed against me by the SFPD at the All Star Hotel.

Bessie, Larry, and Charlie have had to endure much harassment and abuse. In 2001, Bessie and her two sons approached Mayor Willie Brown, to seek his help in obtaining services. According to Larry and Charlie "We did nothing wrong, we didn't provoke him, we weren't aggressive. We just wanted him to direct us to the right facility to care for our mom because we were all homeless. He says he didn't like the way we looked and he immediately called security to escort us out. That really hurt us a lot, because we felt he could really help us."

Shortly thereafter, the family caught sight of Mayor Brown at an event in front of City Hall. They again asked for his help and Mayor Brown showed the same discourtesy towards them as he had done before. They have not received any different treatment from the current administration.

They recently tried to seek refuge at the Salvation Army but the director refused them entry because of Bessie and her age. Larry and Charlie told the director, "Look, she's 94 years old, ma'am. We'll be damned if we have to separate and put her in some nursing home. We know all about the evils of neglect in those kinds of places. She is our mother and we are not leaving her to be mistreated!" The director looked at all of them, with a cold and scornful glare, then replied, "I don't care, ok? She's not our damn problem or fault. She should be in a nursing home and not with her sons."

The response by the director of the Salvation Army towards Larry and Charlie is a prime example of the "Western" notion and belief in individuation. Dr. Wade Nobles, a tenured professor in the Black Studies Department at San Francisco State explains individuation in POOR's fourth issue, "MOTHERS" in the article "The Nature of Mama."

Dr. Wade Nobles says,

"I believe that capitalism and much of the construct in Western psychology emerge out of the same philosophical grounding, and that philosophical grounding is based on the idea of separateness, distinctness, domination, fear, and exploitation. So, capitalism is just the economic system that parallels individuation as a psychological system. It's not that it promotes it, it certainly does reinforce it and allows for it to exist, because individuation would never challenge some of the precepts of capitalism. Capitalism says I've maximized my profits, minimized my loss; in order to do that, I have to exploit others. I won't exploit others if I believe that others and I are the same. So if I believe in individuation, then I certainly have a free license to exploit others."

Larry and Charlie are committed to staying with their mom and caring for her themselves despite what the dominant response is,a committment which like my editor Tiny says, is supported and practiced in POOR Magazine's indigenous family organizing model for poor, and/or homeless families trying to survive and thrive in the US.

Bessie and her sons have been living out of their car. Their car has countless miles on it and they dread the day that it will no longer work. If their car breaks they would be forced to find storage for all of their personal belongings or lose everything.

Since our meeting an unfortunate event occurred. On Sunday October 15 their car was broken into, the registration, all their ID papers, and social security information is gone. This is an unusual theft and they are devastated.

They have continually been harassed in Golden Gate Park by the SFPD. The SFPD have intimidated, verbally assaulted, and insulted them. On one occasion an officer yelled, "No you are not suppose to know or do anything, but be like you people already are, poor and uneducated!"

Bessie, Charlie, and Larry have had to struggle to be triumphant against the criminalization of poverty. As Tiny Gray-Garcia at POOR magazine said, they are Poverty Heroes.

In closing the interview Mesha and I asked what they wanted San Francisco to do to aid them in their needs. Bessie replied, "I only want the city to please help me and my sons out. I also want the city and the mayor to order the police to leave us alone, because we are not hurting anyone. We just want to be helped and not disrespected."

Since the time of our meeting with Bessie, Larry, and Charlie on September 30th at the Idriss Stelley Foundation a short video was created of their situation, and can be viewed at

http://www.current. tv/studio/media/13670557?

You can view Mesha's article about Bessie and her sons at the Idriss Stelley Foundation's website:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/

The Idriss Stelley Foundation (ISF) will be hosting a benefit, after the November elections, for Bessie and her sons, which will help to purchase Bessie a new wheel chair.

You can make donations to Bessie and her sons by sending a check to:

ISF, 4921 3rd Street, SF,CA, 94124, attn:Justice4Bessie

ISF also donated a cell phone to the family. You can call Larry Wilkerson at (415) 368-2261 (415-DOT-CAMI). You can also log on to Justice 4 Bessie Berger, set up by ISF, to show your support, by emailing

Justice4Bessie-subscribe@yahoogroups.com,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Bessie.

A life-long Mission resident fights eviction for all of us

"I will continue to fight! I'll bring this all the way to the supreme court if necessary.." Jose Morales' voice was loud and clear, seamlessly moving between English and Spanish as he outlined his refusal to be illegally evicted from his residence of 40 years in the Mission district of San Francisco.

Jose Morales, is a Latino elder, a migrant, a Mission resident, a worker, an advocate. But, perhaps most importantly he is a human being. And the so-called laws that govern property in the US are inhuman. Jose has been fighting eviction for the last 14 years with landlords who use the laws with impunity. Their most recent tactic included an Ellis Act eviction, claiming they , the landlords, want to move in to his unit and therefore he must leave.

As I watched the powerful, almost superhuman Jose, speak at a vigil in his honor held in front of his residence on Sunday night, his voice and spirit moving effortlessly past his body which was almost completely bent over at the waist due to his disability,I realized he was speaking for all of us, moving for all of us, fighting for all of us; for the Salvadoran migrant elder who was recently evicted from his residence of 40 years on Harrison street in the Mission and who now cant even afford to take care of his disabled wife in Laguna Honda, for the families who right now face eviction from their homes in The Bayview due to Lennar Corporation removing people for so-called redevelopement, for the elders in the California Hotel in Oakland who were threatened with eviction when the housing developer mismanaged their property, for us, POOR Magazine, and all the small businesses and non-profits who work in our building and face eviction from the new developer who bought our building and three others down the street for the sole act of speculation and so-called redevelopment and for all the poor people of color who are endlessly displaced, gentrified and removed from our homes, our neighborhoods, our land.

As a houseless and evicted child, struggling with my poor mama in eviction court to stay housed and throughout our loca vida there was never a time that I felt strong like Jose. I was terrified, I was demeaned. I was tired. And I was only a teenager and young adult.

"Speculation is an act of urban terrorism," James Tracy, a revolutionary poet, researcher and housing advocate spoke at the vigil and went on to encourage the crowd of over 50 people huddled around Jose's rickety steps leading up to his small flat and papered with the "documents that prove Jose's landlords' guilt" to realize that it is necessary sometimes to "stand in the way" of the laws and systems like the Sheriffs department to ensure that our communities don't completely get destroyed and dismantled. He went on to describe seeing Jose on the bus in the City always talking optimistically, never considering giving up the fight and saying one of his favorite comments, " I have the best lawyer, God!

"Everyday Jose pushes us to struggle more," Eric Quesada, one of the organizers of Sunday's vigil, spoke about the struggle to encourage and fight for Jose's case Eric went on to explain that the advocates have gotten an extension but only for a week and they are hoping for more. He concluded with a request to people in the crowd to contact Sheriff Hennesey's office to demand a longer extension for Jose Morales's case

St Peters' Housing Committee, Delores Street Communitiy services, Mission SRO collaborative organized the vigil while other organizations like POOR Magazine and Planning for Elders committed to being there for Jose as long as it took.

Luscious tamales and chocolate were served by organizers with candles to the shivering but determined crowd. At 7:00 pm the Canal 14 (channel 14) truck arrived and the cameras zoomed in on Jose. He stood up again- his small frame rising up above the crowd in the twilight, "Sigue Adelante- Continue moving forward- i Will Not give up !" Jose's voice traveled up into the heavens, directly into his lawyers office.

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The long black gate  8/27/10

People are breaking in
And theres people trying to escape
Our cargo weight
Selling shit  sold  about
And contain shit that stakes place
It’s a see through wall
It ain't to far past you see those bombs
It’s a war I was told
The people, the cartels
And the border police are so cold
Driving downhill daily
You just see these clouds of smoke

Border Bros.  8/28/10

Back, black en la frontera
More cameras with droids
We like pizza slices
Capitalism is the noid
Classist people to me are hemroids
U.S. is a playgrounds for us toys
At the boarder searching to be free
Stopped again by sellout motherfucking police
They separate themselves, you and me
But the wealthy run through just vacationing

Crystal Rey    8/29/10

With all the bullshit at the front gate
The community still danced the Crystal Rey
Ninas y ninos took over the stage
Know one dared leave until it rained
You could feel the tension, seen in the face
Killing our culture on a daily base
And 600,000,000 more that they pay
Juarez, El Paso, soon all the U.S.A

La mujer obrera(the woman worker)  8/30/10

In the 40’s and 50’s industrial age jobs were shifty
We laced the whole boarder factoridly
Disorderly, historically
La mujer el trabajo, toda via abajo
Working the line with much unpaid overtime
From the fields to the factory
Puro pinche pecos ella stackidly
Bodies were shifted cog in the wheel
Made of wood, cotton and steel
There ain't so room to heal
Women organized as they always do
Mother abuelita y me tia too
 

In the second or third century when st Patrick was alive, the Roman Empire had just fallen. The people of the fallen empire did not know it had just fallen though. The Catholic Church ran the schools. At that time, Patrick was born into a rich family. He was the second born son which meant he had to go to the military or the church. Patrick chose the Church. The hooding ceremonies at school started at that time. Males were the only ones allowed to go to the schools so they became monks. This is why they got hooded.

Patrick was in the abbey when it got raided by Vikings. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery to a chieftain. The Vikings would steal the rich children and sell them into slavery wth their parents. The abbeys werte easy picking because they didn't fight back. The vikings grabbed him and the other monks adn sold him as farm serfvice to the other chieftains.

Immediately, St. Patrick got into converting all people to Christianity. This made the chieftains mad because Patrick was making fun of the indigenous people. At the time the religion was Wicca, presently known as witchcraft. It was a religion that honored mother earth on many levels. Male and female were in their priesthood. Due to the bastardization of Constantine,who hate women, they changes the Bible to suggest women's power was evil. Patric took that stand to ban Wicca in his lectures. He said Wicca was an arm of the devil. The chieftain wanted to execute him, but the chieftain's daughter talked him into exiling him form Ireland instead.

St. Patrick went to Gaul to find the bishop and tell him he found a new peole to colonize. He didn't follow the custom of hugging the captain to get a free ride. Instead he beat the captain up, stole the boat and whent to Gaul. The bishop at that time was impressed. He gave him troops and promoted him from a monk to a priest so that he could legally convert people and baptize them as Christians.

With a boat and about 100 mecenaries from the bishop, he returned to Ireland. With teh mercinaries, he went to ireland and converted people through force. All leadership of the indigenous religion was destroyed or exiled from the island. The new form of Christianity was bastardizd from the original Christianiy into a more COnstaninized version where women were inferior and men were superior. This was different from the indigenous religion where women had the equal right to vote. Some women were chieftains at this time too. And in some parts of their religion, women were considered superior, for example when speaking about mother earth.

The killing of these people were mythologized by saying the snakes were driven out of Ireland. If you do not believe this story, do your own research. This was the continuation of colonization that started with Romans.

Revolutionary Giving

POOR Magazine is proud to introduce a solution to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex and the exclusionary heirarchy of U.S. philanthropy; Revolutionary Giving. As an indigenous people led/poor people led non-profit, grassroots, arts organization we have long been critical of the classist, racist, model of philanthropy that perpetuates the deserving versus undeserving notion of caregiving, service provision and charity. This notion turns people's pain and struggle into a product, pits the poor against the poorest and ultimately inhibits, silences and detroys the spirit,culture, art, language, and voices of poor people, indigenous people, and cultures of color across the globe. This damaging notion is pervasive in instutions and systems in the US, from the Prison Industrial Complex to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, from the education system to the welfare System -it is how these harmful systems can continue to operate - it is how these systems can "profit" from our poverty without ever truly working towards change, access to equity, resources, civil, economic and human rights for all.

From POOR Magazine's perspective, we believe that giving and donating for the giver or donor is not a privilege, an option, or a nice idea , rather, it is a duty. A duty of people with class and/or race privelege, to give their time, their surplus income, their equity, and/or their support, towards change for people struggling with poverty in the US and across the globe.

Poverty Scholars as Co-Funders

In addition, Philanthropy which has its roots in the Slave/Master "plantation" model, operates from the premise that people with money and/or resources inherently hold more knowledge about money than people without money. Contrary, we believe that people who have struggled to survive, feed and clothe multiple family members and themselves in fact hold a deep scholarship about the use and distribution of resources.

Another mythology is rooted in the notion that a person receiving funding must be in a dire state of need to "deserve" the money. At POOR we believe that the roots of oppression and poverty is based on the separateness from our fellow human, the oppression of one peoples by another peoples, the theft of land and resources of indigenous peoples, and the truly harmful cult of independence (Bootstraps) that informs ALL parts of the Western US experience. Consequently, we believe that if we are truly going to bring about change it will be from the inclusion of all voices, all perspectives and from the collective leadership of poverty scholars working collaboratively with donors to inform a different and truly inclusive process that doesn't perpetuate the historical oppression of people of color living in poverty.

POOR's Supporters

POOR Magazine is a non-profit, 501(c)3, tax deductible organization. We have no current foundation or government funders, not for lack of trying and endless applying, but because of the policies held by most foundations and all government funding which is set-up to exclude very small, truly grassroots, people-led organizations like us. Currently our funding comes from our community of revolutionary donors, without whom their would be no us... Please consider becoming a member of our Revolutionary Donors Circle or contributing to one of our many important change media, art and education projects!

Become a Revolutionary Donor

Support our Multi-Generational, Multi-lingual, Revolutionary Media, Education and Art Programming for Youth, Adult, Elder and Poverty Scholars!

Please donate any amount you can to help.

$10.00 monthly
Poverty Scholars Transportation Fund: This contribution supports the public transportation costs of poverty scholars who come from all over the Bay to participate in Community Newsroom, Digital Resistance, and Voces de inmigrantes en resistencia at POOR Magazine
$15.00 monthly
Stationary Fund: This monthly contribution supports POOR's ability to buy paper and stationary supplies for the Digital Resistance Program
$20.00 monthly
Books and Materials Fund: This contribution supports the purchase of books and materials for the Poverty Scholars in Residence Program
$50.00 monthly
Poverty Scholars Freelance Fund: This contribution supports a stipend given to migrant and poverty scholars for their articles on issues of poverty, racism, disability, profiling, border fascism and much more
$100.00 monthly
Voces de Inmigrantes(Voices of Immigrants in Resistance) Stipend Fund: This contribution supports a stipend so migrant workers living in poverty can attend the bi-lingual journalism, multi-media training program, Voces de inmigrantes en Resistencia at POOR Magazine

Al Robles - Poet, Community Scholar, Revolutionary Teacher, Activist and Poverty Hero

The Al Robles Living Library Project honors the community literary spirit of Al Robles with writing projects, art and performance with the goal of inspiring future poets and community scholars like Uncle Al Robles 

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