2011

  • Poem for a Brother who Tends to Overtalk me

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p Wersquo;ve known each/p p Other for a/p p Short time/p p nbsp;/p p But it seems wersquo;ve/p p Stuffed years into/p p That short space/p p nbsp;/p p He speaks of women, his/p p Military service, more about/p p Women, his health/p p Womenhellip;and women again/p p nbsp;/p p Takes 9-10 pills a/p p Day for as many/p p Ailments/p p nbsp;/p p Sometimes wersquo;ll speak/p p On politics or something/p p Heavier and his voice/p p Will rise/p p nbsp;/p p At times wersquo;ll start speaking/p p At the exact same/p p Moment/p p nbsp;/p p And his voice will take/p p Off, leaving mine stuck/p p In a series of stutters/p p And false starts/p p nbsp;/p p Nothing false about/p p Him, neither teeth/p p Nor hair or pride/p p nbsp;/p p He doesnrsquo;t overtalk/p p Me by intention, hersquo;s merely/p p Been talked over most of/p p His life/p p nbsp;/p p Hersquo;s a 57 year old black/p p Man from St. Louis who looks at his/p p Life and decries his lack/p p Of ambition/p p nbsp;/p p If I had a little more/p p Of this and a little more/p p Of that, he says/p p nbsp;/p p And I listen/p p And pour him a little more/p p Of this coffee and listen/p p Some more/p p nbsp;/p p And the birds outside/p p Hear his voice/p p nbsp;/p p And echo/p p His song/p p nbsp;/p p Ambitiously/p p nbsp;/p
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  • The Plantation Called Pelican Bay

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p I think back to my first time inside a cell. I remember my first time in prison as an inmate.nbsp;nbsp;I remember everynbsp;return to custody. The anger rises up. The pseudo-reality of incarcerated life threatens to sweep me into the past. I focus on the story and move on--abandoning the lost years to the past.nbsp; It wasnbsp;2002 at Arizona State Prisonspannbsp;/spanBuckeye.nbsp; We stopped eating and working to protestspannbsp;/spanpolicy decisions made regarding meals and vocational programs.nbsp;We felt the pressure of our mail being shorted but not stopped, visitors being refused entry, midnight shakedowns and increases in disciplinary reports and imposed sanctionsnbsp; A feeling of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="invevitable" data-scaytid="3"invevitable/span defeat was felt by everyone.nbsp; After 17 days we gave up.nbsp;The wheels of progress had rolled over us. I hope that doesnrsquo;t happen to thenbsp;incarceratednbsp;men innbsp;resistance at span class="il"Pelican/span Bay.nbsp; The years of losing battle after battle with prison officials does notnbsp;inspire much hope other thannbsp;that no-one is hurt in this clash of wills./p p nbsp;/p p The issues atspan class="il" Pelican/span Baynbsp;may not be the same ones as the hunger strike at Buckeye, but the manner in which the prison officials will deal with it are identical. Complete cessation of recreational activities, increases in disciplinary reports and imposed sanctionsnbsp;are some of the ways that the badge will fight the organization of prisoners in opposition to departmental policy.nbsp; I can hear the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="doubletalk" data-scaytid="5"doubletalk/span from here./p p nbsp;/p p The men at span class="il"pelican/span Bay State Prisonspannbsp;/spanin the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="SHU" data-scaytid="7"SHU/span (security housing unit) are labeled as the worst of the worst--the gang leaders, killers, threats to peaceful society--real bad men. We know that such persons exist so--we as free persons--accept this designation at face value, never looking closer at who can end up there and what kinds of evidence gives the department of corrections the right to give a man that kind of label. nbsp;These are the issues which are now under counter-attack by organized prisoners, their families and supporters./p p nbsp;/p p Notorious for inhumane conditions, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has in the past few years undergone a superficial dog and pony show type transformation, giving itself the extra designation of a lsquo;Rehabilitativersquo; agency.nbsp;Formerly known only as CDC, they are now the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="CDCR--a" data-scaytid="13"CDCR--a/span change in span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="acronyn" data-scaytid="15"acronyn/span only--giving inmatesnbsp;no more access tonbsp;rehabilitation than prior. I personally watched the closure of the education department at Tracy--the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Deuel" data-scaytid="17"Deuel/span Vocational Institution--as well as the final meeting of alcoholics anonymous, where we were informed that the unpaid volunteers--due to lack of funding--would no longer be given access to the prison for meetings which cost nothing, required no extra supervision, and helped inmates with alcohol problems gain tools to better cope with their lives upon release./p p nbsp;/p p The list of little things that prison officials and guards do to inconvenience prisoners is almost without limit. Mail gets slow. Visitors get turned away. Expensive collect phone calls are terminated at crucial points by guards who eavesdrop for security purposes.nbsp; These are what they do to the average prisoner every day in a General Population prison.nbsp; span class="il"Pelican/span Bay is not one of these yards.nbsp; span class="il"Pelican/span Bay is the place that the prison system uses to throw away human garbage.nbsp;nbsp;Anyone who goes as an inmate to this place is categorized exactly that way to discourage belief in the horror stories they would tell if they thought someone would credit them as the truth.nbsp; Most men donrsquo;t have that hope after a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="SHU" data-scaytid="9"SHU/span term./p p nbsp;/p p I barely believe that bringing to light the abuses by guards and prison officials is worth the time because emno one cares /emis the first lesson you learn in prison--they make sure of that. Part of the experience of incarceration--a huge part--is the intentional separation from family and friendsspannbsp;/spanthat the prisoner is subjected to.spannbsp; /spanI could write five of these papers and barely scratch the surface of the tricks and methods employed by prison workers to destroy the bonds which tie us to the society we were cast away from. The struggle to be treated fairly hurts to the extent that many men don#39;t try to fight anymore. Uprisings, strikes, and sit-downs are some of the methods employed in previous generations to combat prison policies which were unfair or inhumane . Today almost any cooperation between rival factions or gangs of prisoners is unheard of and so, conveniently for the prison guards and policy makers, they present no real threat to any decisions made or policy enacted./p p nbsp;/p p The hunger strike at span class="il"pelican/span bay is an exception to the rule as all reports make this out to be a multi-racial issue (unilaterally the prisoners have agreed). That makes this one different. The Worst of the Worst have gotten together to fight the oppressive conditions which they and others live in daily./p p nbsp;/p p emEditors Note:/em/p p emHunger Strike Reaches 6,600 Prisoners and is Going Strong /em/p p ema href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/" target="_blank"The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="CDCR’s" data-scaytid="19"CDCRrsquo;s/span own figures/a acknowledge strong6,600 prisoners/strong participated in the hunger strike across strong13 prisons/strong (out of a total 33) in California this past weekend. While the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="CDCR" data-scaytid="21"CDCR/span claims the number of prisoners participating has dropped to 2,100 people yesterday, we know this hunger strike is strong, and strongmany prisoners are in it for the long haul/strong./em/p p emstrongThousands/strong of prisoners have come together in solidarity with the prisoners at Pelican Bay span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="SHU" data-scaytid="11"SHU/span, while being locked up in brutal conditions themselves. This massive resistance and support is a testament to peoplersquo;s undying will and ability to build collective power in the face of disappearance and death./em/p p emstrongNowrsquo;s the time to really make the prisonerrsquo;s voices heard!!!/strong/em/p ol li ema href="http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/take-action/cdcr-and-california-elected-officials-contact-informaion/" target="_blank"Call the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="CDCR" data-scaytid="23"CDCR/span, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Gov" data-scaytid="25"Gov/span. Brown and your local representatives/a and urge them to negotiate with the prisoners and honor their demands!/em/li li emSign circulate a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/support-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-at-pelican-bay-state-prison" target="_blank"the online petition!/a/em/li li emMake sure to attend rallies and demonstrates in cities near you, and if there isnrsquo;t one yet planned, a href="http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/take-action/call-for-action/" target="_blank"get together/a with your friends, networks, communities and make some noise for the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers!/em/li /ol p nbsp;/p p emnbsp;For more information go to http://span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com" data-scaytid="1"prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/span/em/p p iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ifepv8s3nRE" width="480"/iframe/p
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  • Ode to an early morning cup of coffee

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Lola Bean
    Original Body
    div class="entry-content" p I await with hope yourbr / scent of smoky complexitybr / a bellows for my lungsbr / unbeknownst jet engine powerbr / you reached outbr / from poorest African junglebr / heated by campfirebr / to give me extra orchestra-nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; ted breathbr / which I would never havebr / otherwise./p p You are a dawn tongue twisterbr / a bitter New York Timesbr / crosswordbr / Plethora of sensual punches,br / dancing Ali stylebr / curing cancer (say some) andbr / sluggish confusion.br / A marionette for arms, legsbr / and craniumbr / just like the magic pillsbr / for Underdogbr / Resuscitated vitals to bio-br / rhythmic hullspeed.br / Grace and angstbr / meet my lips a second, third, fourth, fifth.br / Not addicted, ha! affordingbr / my simple ritual./p /div
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  • PNN North Carolina--Hoofer's Daughter

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p Well, I#39;m a hoofer#39;s daughter and that#39;s what I#39;ll be.br / I shuffled my way to Asheville, N.C.br / Up into the mountains and across the hillsbr / and byways.../p p I can hear him count, tap two, three, four,br / ldquo;Now that#39;s what I#39;ve been looking for.br / Practice your steps and you#39;ll go far,br / my dear.rdquo;/p p I went back home the other day;br / made my way back to the Frisco Bay.br / Daddy can you show me how you shuffle and slide,br / not too long and not too wide.rdquo;/p p And Daddy won#39;t you show me how Bojangles did It.br / You#39;d better hurry daughter, cause I only got a minute.br / Got to get back to work and drive that Muni Busbr / today./p p Cause I#39;m a hoofer#39;s daughter and I#39;m proud to be;br / Still shuffling my way through Asheville, N.C.br / And up here in the mountains where the bears roam free,br / I can still hear tap, one, two, three./p p Lyrics by: Florence R. Mayberrybr / Bat Cave, North Carolinabr / June 15, 2011/p
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  • The Real Truth: John T. Williams

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Lola Bean
    Original Body
    p emEditor's note: this story is written in response to the murder of indigenous elder John T. Williams by Seattle po#39;lice officer Ian Birk in Seattle, Washington on Aug. 30, 2010; the go-f-yerself response from Mayor McGinn and the City of Seattle; and the spit-in-your face final payoff of the Williams family. The chapter is NOT closed./em/p p PNN Washington: who are we?/p p We are a raucous group ofnbsp;Community Keepers, Media Truth Bringers, Vigilant Resisters of Truth-Decapitators and Unravelers of Media Mummies...and we're here to set the record straight./p p Two days before he passed away he gave me a couple DOLLARS, HE SAID ldquo;I BELIEVE IN HELPIN FOLKS OUT.rdquo; Yes those were the last words he spoke to me.nbsp; He handed me two dollars the last time I saw him.nbsp;/p p PNN correspondent, street and museum artist, loyal street vendor and friend of John T. remembers John T. Williams ashe was, transforming ordinary to extraordinary. He was a creator, red sun in the Montana sky, moon rising up from the eastern horizon, the sound of crashing water, brought things to life that appeared dead, resurrection, sound of justice/a cloud of rain.nbsp; He still rains down on us today and thatrsquo;s how we know hersquo;s still here/an eagle of art and justice. He carved the silence away from wood to set free stories.nbsp; Hisnbsp;knife brought beautiful things into the world./p p The city of Seattle remembers John T. Williams differently.nbsp; Seattle remembers John as a 1.5 million dollar pay offhellip;silencing families in exchange for a get-away-scot-free, stay-out-of-jail card for murdering one of our own.nbsp;/p p You would need 2 John T. Williams to buy one $3 million Victoria Secret diamond bra. nbsp;Theyrsquo;re sayin wersquo;re not even worth the cost of the fabric it takes to hold up one rich, food deprived Barbie wanna bersquo;s silicone tits.nbsp;/p p The cost of a Superbowl commercialnbsp; is 2.5 million dollars, so the life of one of our own isnrsquo;t even worth 10 seconds of tv time.nbsp; Time and money that apparently is better spent entertaining burger and beer pounding meatheads watching steroid pumped bodies on their giant flat screen tvs with surround sound as they order their wives around for more bean dip.nbsp;/p p We would have to hand over three of our own just to purchase one Andy Warholrsquo;s paintings of Elizabeth Taylor, sold for 25.5 million dollars, better described as thenbsp;fuck stain from a Studio 54 party that he gizzed onto a canvas after snorting some coke than something worth the entire lives works of 3 of our own artists.nbsp;/p p John T.nbsp;was a famous artist.nbsp; If someone had killed Warhol could they have paid off the murderers for 1.5 million dollars and, him a ldquo;chronic street inebriaterdquo; in the media, and ldquo;close the chapterrdquo; on his whole life just to let the murderer off the hook?nbsp; Nope.nbsp; But this is the shit that we have to swallow.nbsp;/p p And swallowing this settlement is like being force fed a milkshake emsip sip/em, drinking roadkill, maggot infested rotten meat emchug chug/em, vomit feces urine emslurp slurp/em, blood clots, snot, emglug glug/em, tapeworm, stank fish gag, gag. With barely a shot of hot sauce to cover up the taste emsuck suck/em!!/p p This is why WE ARE ON FIRE!!!!/p p How we see it they got two separate court systems going, one for the people and once for the police. In the realemPeoplersquo;s/emem Court of Gotcha/em when you kill someone on the job the least of your worries is getting fired, but you know yoursquo;re going to court no matter what.nbsp; In the emPolice Piggy Court of Oink/em you get paid leave for killing someone on the job.nbsp; Thatrsquo;s like a free paid vacation to their favorite mud hole, a prize for striking us down like wersquo;re another person like wersquo;re just another line of carnival cans thatrsquo;s what Ian Birk got. In fact they even get to keep their guns, thatrsquo;s like letting Jim Jones keep his killa Kool-Aid.nbsp;/p p In the emPeoplersquo;s Court of Gotcha /emwhere we get tried, itrsquo;s like happiness getting tried by the blues. Itrsquo;s like panthers getting tried by the KKK, its like Hatfield getting tried by McCoy, but in the emPolice Piggy Court of Oink/em you can claim self defense if you get scared by the look of a poor elderly manrsquo;s eyes then you donrsquo;t even have to go to court.nbsp; You get an internal investigation; you get to stick your dick in your own asshole, thatrsquo;s what Ian Birk got.nbsp;/p p In the emPeoplersquo;s Court of Gotcha/em when you#39;re found guilty you go to prison.nbsp; You canrsquo;t vote, get a job, sometimes you canrsquo;t even get out or get out alive.nbsp; In the emPiggy Police Court of Oink/em when youre found guilty you get to resign in your own damn time. Letting Ian Birk resign is like William Calley getting an honorable discharge after the Mi Lei Massacre in Vietnam, itrsquo;s like a Catholic Pedophile Priest getting relocated to another orphanage, it was like Hans Mehserle getting off for killing Oscar Grant.nbsp; This is worse than a pathetic excuse for ldquo;justice.rdquo;/p p Itrsquo;s like an over ripe, runny, slimy, fudgy, gooey diaper bitinrsquo; on a ldquo;guilty until proven innocentrdquo; babyrsquo;s bottomhellip;and it needs to be changed fasthellip;/p p hellip;unless you like walking around in your own shit, which Seattle seems pretty comfortable with.nbsp;/p p At least Mayor McGinn is honest about it, when he says, ldquo;This is the least we could do for the Williams family, to restore peace.rdquo; So far the City of Seattle has let Ian Birk keep his job, gun, badges and freedom.nbsp; They have allowed him to resign on his own terms; they have failed to prosecute him.nbsp; They have supported an Internal Investigation that has allowed him to avoid prosecution.nbsp; They have now broadcasted to the whole Seattle Police Department and the community at large that it is ok for a cop to kill us. And that our lives is $1.5 million if they decide they want to take it.nbsp; But at least there will be a John T Williams day of remembrance.nbsp; Yep, that is really the least they could do./p p What they should have done was immediately suspended or fired Officer Ian Birk.nbsp; No pay, no severance package.nbsp; No special treatment.nbsp; His gun and badge should have been taken immediately.nbsp; An external review board of the people and Johnrsquo;s peers should have been in charge of examining the case.nbsp; Upon the decision that Ian Birk murdered John T. for no reason, Ian Birk should have immediately been arrested and put on charges in state court.nbsp;/p p What they did was assume that John T was guilty and that Birk was innocent.nbsp; They engaged in an internal review that is clearly set up to protect the police and not the people.nbsp; They refused to punish Officer Birk in any way for the MURDER of an elder crossing the street.nbsp; They allowed Birk and other officers to hide behind a self defense claim that triggers a Washington law that prevents the prosecution of police officers if they claim self-defense.nbsp; Even if they are defending themselves from the back of a hearing impaired elderly man while he commits the crime of crossing the street while indigenous and poor. Then they allowed his to retire in his own due time and escape any punishment whatsoever for murder./p p The emPiggy Police Court of Oink /emis definitely working as planned./p p PNN Washington is calling for the removal of the laws that protect police officers from prosecution for crimes against the community.nbsp; We are calling for an oversight committee with the power to enforce punishments on the police officershellip;such as demanding the immediate firing and arrest of officers that kill community members.nbsp; We call for a new protocol demanding the immediate removal of pay, gun an badge of any officer that kills a community member.nbsp;nbsp; The community should not be proven guilty while the officerrsquo;s innocence is protected!nbsp; We demand that all police officers that kill community members be prosecuted in the real courthellip;not the emPiggy Police Court of Oink!!/em/p p If Birk was allowed to claim self defense because John T. didnrsquo;t turn around right away and had a emmenacing/em look in his eyes, then the porsquo;lice have the green light to kill anyone with a hearing impairment, or anyone living with a disability, or anyone that looks at them sideways orhellip;wellhellip;just fucking anyone they want.nbsp; For whatever reason they feel like.nbsp; Or for no reason at all.nbsp;/p p So PNN Washington further demands that dramatic changes be made in the training and protocol of the Seattle Police Department We demand that there be clear guidelines for the use of force and that these guidelines be approved by the community.nbsp; We demand that whenever force is used by an officer, a report be filed and made public along with the names and locations of the incidences.nbsp; No cover-ups should be allowed.nbsp; We demand that officers be trained to support and protect community members living in poverty, living with disabilities and mental health labels so that they donrsquo;t go around killing folks for not looking the way the police thing we should.nbsp; We demand that the police stop being allowed to claim they have a ldquo;tough jobrdquo; and that the media stop promoting this idea.nbsp; Lots of us have ldquo;tough jobsrdquo;protecting people in the community.nbsp; And most of us arenrsquo;t armed with bulletproof vests, guns, tasers, the media, Mayor McGinn and the city budget of Seattle.nbsp; But many of us should be armed against them.nbsp;/p p John T wasnrsquo;t armed with anything.nbsp; He was a small, gentle man.nbsp; A hearing impaired elder.nbsp; A loving friend and needed elder.nbsp; He was crossing the street with a piece of wood.nbsp; His carving knife was closed.nbsp; He was not threatening anyone.nbsp; Not Ian Birk.nbsp; Not anyone else.nbsp; And the video showed that./p p a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt1mFQG3tJg"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt1mFQG3tJg/a/p p So what in the hell is going on in Seattle?? Why does Seattle have a protocol in place to protect murderous police officers while at the same time it endangers the lives of Seattle citizens like John T?/p p John T. Williams was a rising eagle shot down out of the sky mid flight.nbsp; nbsp;He was a cherished man whose knife was a tool of love, not a weapon of destruction. He was an artist whose totems revealed legends.nbsp; He was a friend who gave the little he had to those around him.nbsp; He still soars above us with eaglersquo;s wings.nbsp; He still warms us on sunrsquo;s rays.nbsp; He still speaks to us in windrsquo;s breath.nbsp; And so in spite of Seattle, he liveshellip;and we will remember him. And we will continue the struggle for justicehellip;.real justicehellip;.in his real memory.nbsp;/p
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  • New York Uproots Private Crops in Manhattan Park

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p (Editor#39;s note: This story is reprinted from the New York Times June 24, 2011 issuenbsp;for educational purposes only.nbsp; Photos by Ozier Muhammad and Angel Franco)/p p nbsp;/p h6 class="byline" By Matt Flegenheimer/h6 h6 class="dateline" Published: June 24, 2011/h6 p nbsp;/p p If they squint, neighbors say, the farm tilled by David Abreu begins to look a little like home mdash; his cilantro is as green, his bean supply as tidy. And then there is the man himself: clutching his machete handle, pant legs stained black, surveying the soil like any farmer who takes pride in his land. ldquo;He could be my father,rdquo; said one neighbor, Joseacute; Rodriacute;guez, 52, originally from Santiago, Dominican Republic./p div class="articleInline runaroundLeft" div class="inlineImage module" div class="image" div class="icon enlargeThis" nbsp;/div p a href="javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/06/25/nyregion/FARM2.html','FARM2_html','width=720,height=514,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')"font color="#004276" size="2"img alt="" height="112" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/06/25/nyregion/FARM2/FARM2-articleInline.jpg" width="190" //font /a/p/div p class="caption" (Mr. Abreu managed to find some cilantro remaining after city workers dug up most of his crops)/p /div div class="inlineImage module" div class="image" div class="icon enlargeThis" nbsp;/div p a href="javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/06/25/nyregion/FARM3.html','FARM3_html','width=720,height=563,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')"font color="#004276" size="2"img alt="" height="127" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/06/25/nyregion/FARM3/FARM3-articleInline.jpg" width="190" //font /a/p/div p class="caption" (Peas grown at the park)/p /div /div div class="articleBody" sizcache="0" sizset="1" p nbsp;/p p But Mr. Abreu is not home, and his farm, alas, is on public property mdash; namely Highbridge Park in Upper Manhattan./p p Or rather, it was./p p In a city that is thinking more and more a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/nyregion/23mayor.html" title="Times article about green efforts in New York."font color="#004276"about being green/font/a, Mr. Abreu, 65, is one of a small number of immigrant gardeners who have plunged their shovels into what little surface soil there is. For about three years, Mr. Abreu says, his vegetable garden has thrived behind a playground on two plots near 193rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Washington Heights./p p Last week, a parks department crew uprooted Mr. Abreursquo;s crops, piling the leafy detritus in the back of a green garbage truck. A district supervisor, according to William T. Castro, the Manhattan borough commissioner for parks, stumbled upon the garden about three weeks ago. ldquo;Itrsquo;s an illegal farm,rdquo; Mr. Castro said. ldquo;Most people have common sense and know you donrsquo;t plant your own vegetable garden in a public park.rdquo;/p p Though Mr. Abreu has tended roughly a half-acre of land, it represents a small fraction of the soil lined with beans, corn and, occasionally, tomatoes, that has been tilled in a href="http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/highbridgepark" title="Web page about the park."font color="#004276"Highbridge/font/afont color="#004276" Park/font by area residents. When a visitor stopped by several times in recent days, however, the other farmers were nowhere to be found./p p The parks department is aware of the additional gardens, Mr. Castro said mdash; and some of Mr. Abreursquo;s less visible beans and cilantro were spared. Park employees may soon remove what is left, Mr. Castro added./p p ldquo;I donrsquo;t see the problem,rdquo; Mr. Abreu said through an interpreter. ldquo;I clean it. I take care of it.rdquo;/p p Before digging up Mr. Abreursquo;s plots, parks department officials informed Ydanis Rodriguez, the local councilman, that years of herbicide spraying in the area had exposed the soil to contamination, the councilman said. But the soil has never been tested, Mr. Castro said, and the absence of a permit, not health concerns, was the primary reason the crops were torn out./p p Mr. Abreu insisted neither he nor any friends or family members had ever gotten sick from eating the crops./p p ldquo;Try it,rdquo; Mr. Abreu suggested Monday, raising a fistful of cilantro. Mr. Abreu, like many in the neighborhood, immigrated from the Dominican Republic. Both Mr. Abreu and Councilman Rodriguez were raised on family farms, they say, in Santo Domingo and Santiago, respectively. Like many in the community, they have come to see the local gardens as extensions of their former homes./p p ldquo;Look how beautiful this is,rdquo; said Councilman Rodriguez, swatting away a tree limb as he cradled a bean pod. ldquo;It brings me back.rdquo;/p p Before the loss of his plants, Mr. Abreu spent as many as six hours a day looking after his plots. He and the other farmers share their crops with one another, Mr. Abreu said, and often offer some of their harvests to community members who request a taste. While he describes his motivation as ldquo;somewhat economic,rdquo; Mr. Abreu says his main interest is sustaining a lifelong hobby. His fight with the city was first reported on the Web sitenbsp;a href="http://www.dnainfo.com"font color="#004276"DNAinfo.com/font/a./p p Dragging his leather satchel of tools down Fort George Avenue, grinning through his wrinkles, Mr. Abreu is known endearingly in the neighborhood as el viejo: the old man./p p ldquo;Agriculture is the main thing in our culture,rdquo; Joseacute; Rodriacute;guez said, shouting over a fiercely argued game of dominoes outside the park. ldquo;I can bring my little girls to come water the plants. At school, they learn American history. But this is their background, their culture.rdquo;/p p Parks department employees who pulled up the crops last week noted the precision with which the plot was arranged. ldquo;It was all lined up, very neat, one row after another,rdquo; said one of the workers, Clifford Motley./p p The councilmanrsquo;s office said it had arranged a meeting between Mr. Abreu and parks department officials, and hoped the sides would meet soon to discuss alternative farming sites./p p ldquo;If he had come to us, we would have found a location for him that made sense,rdquo; Mr. Castro said. ldquo;We have hundreds of free a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/coming-to-the-defense-of-community-gardens/" title="Times article on community gardens."font color="#004276"community gardens/font/a exactly for this purpose.rdquo;/p p According to Mr. Castro, members of his staff last year confronted a man they believe may have been Mr. Abreu about his garden./p p Mr. Abreu says a park employee did approach him last year, but only to request he remove the wooden fence he had built around his beans. When he first decided to plant seeds three years ago, he said, he told a department official of his plans./p p ldquo;All they told me was I couldnrsquo;t cut down any trees.rdquo;/p p Since the uprooting, Mr. Abreu said, he has lost the desire to keep his regular farming hours, though he does maintain another garden in the courtyard of his apartment building, across the street from Highbridge Park./p p The circumstances have also produced consequences on the home front with his wife, Irene./p p ldquo;She loves it when I garden,rdquo; Mr. Abreu said, holstering his machete. ldquo;It keeps me out of the house.rdquo;/p /div
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  • YOUR IMAGINARY FRIEND (THE AMERIKKKAN BORDER) AND THE COST OF AMERIKKKAN CITIZENSHIP

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Redbeardedguy
    Original Body
    p img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/u26/money.jpg" style="width: 78px; height: 125px;" //p p nbsp;/p p emThe current fee of $330 to apply for citizenship would rise to slightly less than $600, an administration official said. Other fee increases are possible for green cards conveying legal residency, which now cost $325. Applicants also now pay a $70 fingerprinting fee in each case. Fees also are paid for things such as work permits, replacing lost green cards and petitions to adopt orphans from other countries/embr / --excerpted from 2007 newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/1/31/83607.shtml/p p emGreen card application fees will increase from $930 to $985, while certain temporary legal status application fees will go from $710 to $1,130. Most applicants have to wait long periods to actually enter the U.S. mdash; if they are allowed entry at all mdash; even after shelling out the $985 fee./embr / --excerpted from 9/27/10 story in washingtonindependent.com/p p emStarting July 30th {2011}. immigrant and non-immigrant applicants and petitioners needing paperwork must pay the new fees. Services affected by the price change is the application for naturalization which currently cost $330 will be $595...Green cards will cost $930 plus $80 dollars {fingerprinting goes up $10...}. The new total cost is $1,010/em.br / --excerpted from Wednesday, June 15, 2011 story on KBTX.com/p p Many who have gone to space have said the obvious:nbsp; there are no borders.nbsp; Coastlines don#39;t even count, not when you have people living on island nations close to larger land masses like North or South American,nbsp; Australia, etc.nbsp; Borders are imaginary friends, they don#39;t exist, and all attempts to label people from outside a line on a map as alien or illegal are cruel, ridiculous and stupid./p p Everyone tries to make the process of becoming a citizen as difficult as possible.nbsp; The French use their deep history and language as barriers and challenges to those simply seeking a better life.nbsp; Amerikkka is no different.nbsp;/p p Bet on kkkapitalists to make money making aliens into resident aliens and then into citizens.nbsp; The cost of becoming an Amerikkkan went up in 2004 as a somewhat direct consequence of September 11, 2001, when fear of foreigners hit an all-time high and anyone wearing a turban or any other religion-based head-gear got stared at or assaulted for being visibly different.nbsp; The cost went up again in 2007, when I first paid attention to the stunning true monetary cost involved in becoming a citizen of this crazy country./p p POOR Magazine#39;s Angel Garcia, speaking at the first 2011 Summer PeopleSkool Thursday afternoon class, said that it cost a total of $10,000 for him to help his family gain citizenship.nbsp; POOR Magazine reportera Theresa Molina said something similar./p p While looking up the information about the costs, which shocked me in 2007, I came across the June 15th, 2011 story quoted above.nbsp; There are other costs incurred, which are difficult to track down--unless you are someone who wants to be a citizen.nbsp; You find out about them all too quickly and painfully.nbsp; Citizenship should not cost so much.nbsp;/p p For sheer practicality, making citizenship a faster, less costly process makes the people going through the process happier about becoming a citizen--and it makes their official payment of taxes, from the work that they do and the things that they buy buy buy (like the rest of us stuck in this insane system) happen faster and last longer than it does the way things are done now./p p Whatever the green card costs, whatever the fingerprinting costs, whatever anything costs, the true cost is injuries to the soul of the person seeking citizenship, and damage to the souls of those of us who were born here and allow these things to be done in our name./p p nbsp;/p
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  • CELEBRATE JULY 4TH SQUATTING WITH HOMES NOT JAILS

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Bad News Bruce
    Original Body
    p font face="Helvetica" size="4"At 2pm. on July 4th, the San Francisco Mime Troup performs in Dolores Park.nbsp; At 4pm the bigger show begins, a take-over of a house taken from a family victimized by predatory lenders.nbsp; Homes Not Jails, the lead organization in the San Francisco political squatting movement, teamed up with The Brass Liberation Orchestra, Tenants United, the Tenants Union, W.R.A.P., and the Housing Rights Committee./font/p p font face="Helvetica" size="4"The location of the squat will be kept secret until the participants get there, which means some walking will be done!nbsp; There will be a cook-out (food provided by...Food Not Bombs!) and, inside the building, the First Annual Unorthodox Housing Conference will get underway and all squatters are welcome to attend.nbsp; This poverty skolar will be there.nbsp; There will be soap-box public speaking outside the building.nbsp; /font/p p font face="Helvetica" size="4"It is always a good time to aggressively resist the economical and ethical crimes of the predatory mortgage lenders, et al./font Because Holland now has a conservative government hostile to squatters, this action is considered a solidarity event in honor of Dutch squatters.nbsp;br / nbsp;/p
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  • Fukushima Mon Amour

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p San Francisco, June 2011 ndash; A big shout out to Dennis Bernstein and his FlashPoints team for their series, ldquo;We All Live in Japan,rdquo; keeping listeners updated on the latest developments on the emDai-ichi/emnuclear catastrophe in emFukushima/em, Japan. Yes, we do all live in Japan and Fukushima is right here in the Bay Area./p p Know that radioactive dirt that the Japanese moms poured onto the desks of government officials, telling them this is what their children were playing in as the sounds of geiger counters went through the ceiling? Well, our own children in the BayView Hunters Point play in radioactive dirt blown off from the Superfund site, Hunters Point Navy Yard. Piles of radioactive dirt, covered only by a loosely tacked tarp, are right next to a schoolyard where Nation of Islam children go out to play. And the clean up effort?/p p Our TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company)? Lennar, an exploitment (emi.e./em, development) corporation,given a sweetheart deal by City Hall to convert the former naval base to a gated-community of luxury condos. Now wouldnrsquo;t you think that such a corporation would not want a superfund site? Apparently not for Lennar who saw/smoozed /seized the opportunity as they already had one profitable exploitment venture on a Superfund site across the Bay at Point Richmond, a now gentrified/yuppified neighborhood of Richmond, Cali./p p Besides, since Lennar is not a Bay Area corporation, not even a Cali corporation, theyrsquo;re just here to take the money and run. So they donrsquo;t care what happens to us denizens of our SF Bay Area. Itrsquo;s not their families, itrsquo;s not their neighbors, it not their communities that will suffer from their exploitment. In fact, it is their families who will benefit from the exploitment! So, of what concern to them?/p p nbsp;I just wanna laugh, then cry when someone tells me they live in up/uuoint/u Richmond. So that I donrsquo;t get the mistaken idea that they live in Richmond. Donrsquo;t they know they live on or next to a Superfund site? Donrsquo;t they care?/p p But actually specific locality doesnrsquo;t really matter since all that radioactive dirt decomposes to radioactive dust that the wind carries wherever it wants, which we breathe everyday. So donrsquo;t we know? Donrsquo;t we care?/p p nbsp;Indeed, we all live in Japan. Fukushima is right here in the Bay Area./p p nbsp;All my love, Noh I.D.entity./p p nbsp;/p p Noh I.D.entity is a sometimes correspondent/blogger for Poor News Network, artist/poet with Po Poets Project, and yellow/disability/elder skolar on leave of absence from PeopleSkool./p
    Tags
  • Native Family Attacked by Skinheads

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    h1 span class="auth"By span class="redtext"font color="#b32417"Valerie Taliman/font/span/span span class="datentime greytext"font color="#7d7d7d" size="2"June 27, 2011/font/span/h1 div class="postmeta" div class="rgt" span class="st_facebook"span class="stButton" style="display: inline-block; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none"span class="chicklets facebook"nbsp;/span/span/spanspan class="st_twitter"span class="stButton" style="display: inline-block; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none"span class="chicklets twitter"nbsp;/span/span/spanspan class="st_digg"span class="stButton" style="display: inline-block; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none"span class="chicklets digg"nbsp;/span/span/spanspan class="st_reddit"span class="stButton" style="display: inline-block; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none"span class="chicklets reddit"nbsp;/span/span/spanspan class="st_delicious"span class="stButton" style="display: inline-block; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none"span class="chicklets delicious"nbsp;/span/span/spanspan class="st_stumbleupon"span class="stButton" style="display: inline-block; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none"span class="chicklets stumbleupon"nbsp;/span/span/span/div div class="clr" nbsp;/div /div div class="post" div class="article-photo" id="flashPlace" img alt="Johnny Bonta Hate Crime" class="attachment-large wp-post-image" height="411" src="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Johnny-Bonta-and-family_-e1309189122650-615x411.jpg" style="width: 476px; height: 346px" title="Johnny Bonta Hate Crime" width="615" //div div class="photocredit" Courtesy Johnny Bonta/div div class="clr" nbsp;/div div class="photocaption" Johnny Bonta, center, with his daughter Alyssa and mother Barbara Happy. Johnny was a victim of a hate crime on May 24 as he was attacked outside a gas station in Fernley, Nevada./div ul class="read-tags" li strongRead More:/strong/li li a href="/tag/hate-crimes" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none"emfont color="#b32317"Hate Crimes/font/em/a/li li a href="/tag/reno-sparks-indian-colony"emfont color="#b32317"Reno Sparks Indian Colony/font/em/a/li /ul div class="post-content" p Johnny and Lisa Bonta, a Native family from the a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/natives-targeted-most-for-hate-crimes/" target="_blank"font color="#b32317"Reno Sparks Indian Colony/font/a, became the latest victims of a hate crime on May 24 when they were attacked at a gas station along I-80 in Fernley, Nevada, a border town between the Fallon and Pyramid Lake Indian reservations./p p ldquo;I was pumping gas at Quick Stop on our way to Reno to look for another job when these skinheads in a blue car drove by real slow and checked us out.nbsp; The driver jumped out with a baseball bat, and I asked them lsquo;why you holding a bat?rdquo; said Bonta. ldquo;He said lsquo;letrsquo;s do thisrsquo; and tried to pick a fight. I donrsquo;t know how to explain what happenedmdash;we didnrsquo;t do anything to them.rdquo;/p p Bonta, a Paiute member of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, tried to avoid the confrontation by telling them he didnrsquo;t want to fight. He got back in the car, with his son-in-law Shane Murray at the wheel, and they quickly drove away with the carload of skinheads in close pursuit./p p As they approached the freeway ramp, they were cut off as the blue car swerved in front of them, then slammed on the brakes, causing Murray to crash into it.nbsp; Murray said he recognized one of the attackers as Jacob Cassell, a former classmate and son of retired Lyon County Sheriff officer Jim Cassell./p p ldquo;They all jumped out of the car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar, and we knew they were going to hurt us,rdquo; said Lisa Bonta, in an interview from Washoe Medical Center, where she was in treatment for seizures she suffers./p p The fight broke out on the highway after 1 p.m. and while traffic was passing by, no one would stop to help them. Lisa and her daughter, Alyssa, were terrified watching the brutal and bloody fight as her unarmed husband and son-in-law tried to fight off the three young men in their 20s./p p ldquo;I saw one of them hit my husband in the head with a bat, and the other one was trying to cut off his braid with a knife. nbsp;Johnny was covered in blood and they just kept hitting him with a crow bar.nbsp; They even tried to slit his throat,rdquo; she added./p p ldquo;Jacob Cassell had my son-in-law on the ground in a chokehold and Shane was turning blue. My daughter was sobbing lsquo;theyrsquo;re killing himrsquo; and somehow she found the strength to hit Jacob in self-defense so he would release Shane.rdquo;/p p It was then, Lisa said, that Cassell turned his anger on her and her daughter, jumping on the hood of their car while swinging a baseball bat and cursing at them./p p ldquo;Irsquo;m a 46 year-old woman with serious health problems, and I tried to defend myself, but he hit me across the lower back with his bat, calling us lsquo;niggers and river monsters,rdquo; said Lisa, who is Anglo. ldquo;He pointed at Alyssa and said he would rape her the next time he saw her in Fernley, where she lives.rdquo;/p p Meanwhile, Johnny Bonta was knocked unconscious with a bat, his nose and sinus cavities broken and bleeding, with stab wounds on his neck./p p Lisa said Jacob Cassell taunted the family as the sirens approached, telling them, ldquo;You hear those cops coming? Theyrsquo;re not going to help you. My daddy is a cop in this town, and nothing is going to happen to me. You fucking niggers are going to jail.rdquo;/p p When Lyon County Sheriffrsquo;s officers arrived, they took statements and began filling out police reports with Cassell and his friends, but they did not take statements from any of the victims. When Lisa asked why they were not being questioned for a statement, no one responded. ldquo;They ignored us,rdquo; she said, before she suffered a seizure and required medical attention./p p Three ambulances responded to the scene and took Lisa, Alyssa and Murray away for treatment; Murrayrsquo;s injuries included a crushed elbow and broken hand./p p Johnny Bonta, bleeding and barely standing after being hit in the knees with a bat, was arrested on the scene and taken to jail. He said he was not allowed medical treatment for six days while he was in the county jail, all the while uncertain about what charges had been filed against him./p p Assuming he was on his way to the hospital, Lisa Bonta had no idea her husband had been arrested. She finally located her husband in jail after calling other facilities repeatedly, and was very upset that he was not given medical treatment for his extensive injuries./p p ldquo;I asked them to tell me what charges he was being held on and no one would say. They said they gave him the information, but he canrsquo;t read or write, so I needed to find out. At first they said there was a bench warrant for an unpaid $367 fine, and when we made arrangements to pay that, they charged him with battery with a deadly weapon, even though it was those boys who had the weapons. The booking papers say we owe $30,367.00. rdquo;/p p Lisa Bonta is outraged that their attackers were all released at the scene of the crime and were not charged despite the fact they bragged about it on Facebook on May 24, the day of the attack./p p Two hours after attacking the Bontas, Josh Janiszewski of Fernley wrote, ldquo;Just laid the fists and boots to some 6prime; 5rdquo; tongan dude. what you got on little guys?rdquo; at 3:13 p.m. When asked if they gave them hell, Josh responded. ldquo;Oh we did. Thatrsquo;s for sure!rdquo; at 3:48 p.m. ldquo;Amen,rdquo; said Jacob Cassell at 4:07 p.m./p p Jacobrsquo;s mother Dee Cassell also commented, ldquo;Sohellip;who has blood? You guys need to come home to mom?rdquo; at 4:48 p.m. She later added that she gave them First Aid. ldquo;Better have ur asses at home after I did 1st aid. Donrsquo;t piss off women ndash; they r worse than men!rdquo; she wrote at 8:00 p.m./p p When asked if they got ldquo;some good licksrdquo; in, Josh said, ldquo;sent em to the hospital, they got fucked up man, thats for sure.rdquo;/p p Meanwhile, Johnny Bonta stayed behind bars while Lisa and her family called the jail each day, asking if Johnny had been treated for his injuries. No one would tell her his condition. One morning, she says a surly guard told her ldquo;hersquo;ll have to get his Indian doctor if he wants treatment,rdquo; then hung up on her./p p Lisa appealed to the Reno Spark Indian Colony and said she was able to get two Indian Health Service doctors to agree to visit Johnny in jail, but was told by jail officials that could not be allowed. It was not until tribal police pursued Johnnyrsquo;s release that he was finally released after six days and was able to see a doctor./p p The family also lost their car following the attack. The Bontas could not locate their car after the Lyon County Sheriffrsquo;s office had it towed from the scene. When Lisa called to ask about their car, she was told the police had no information. She found the car two weeks later in a small towing yard, tires flattened and in need of repair. Since Johnny has not been able to work, they cannot afford to pay the impoundment fees or have it repaired. They are now walking to all of their medical appointments in Reno. The situation has created great hardship for them and their children./p p ldquo;We lost everything as a result of this attack, and now wersquo;re homeless since we canrsquo;t go back to Fernley,rdquo; said Lisa. ldquo;The FBI took our statement last week and we know they got a copy of the video from the gas station parking lot. We are asking for a full investigation into this hate crime.rdquo;/p p The Bontas said since this happened, at least four other Native families have told them they too were harassed and attacked by skinheads in nearby border towns. But people told her they donrsquo;t report the incidents because they donrsquo;t believe police will help them. These follow an April 2010 attack on Vincent Kee, Navajo, in Farmington, New Mexico, where three men took Kee from a McDonaldrsquo;s and shaved a swastika symbol on the back of his head and branded him with the symbol using a coat hanger./p p ldquo;Someone could have died that day,rdquo; said Lisa, ldquo;and the only reason this happened is because my husband and son-in-law have brown skin. We have a 10-year-old daughter, and I have to speak out about what happened for her sake. I just donrsquo;t understand why these young boys think they have the right to randomly beat others. We have to put a stop to this kind of behavior.rdquo;/p p Lisa also said they are hiring an attorney. ldquo;I want the police to know they canrsquo;t deny people medical treatment just because they feel like it. Johnny could have died from a head injury, and they violated his civil rights. They should be held accountable.rdquo;/p p emIndian Country Today Media Network will continue to follow this story and is looking into any fundraising information there may be for our readers. The case has been classified as a hate crime and is under investigation by the FBI. ICTMN is currently waiting for approval for copies of the police report. Calls to the Reno office of the FBI were not returned./em/p /div /div
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  • Wisconsin's Union Busting Law Ok'd by the State Supreme Court--Unions file lawsuit

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p The anti-union law that was passed in March by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican dominated state senate has been given the stamp of approval by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.nbsp; On Tuesday the state#39;s highestnbsp;Court overturned a lower court ruling thatnbsp;invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the statersquo;s open meeting law.nbsp; In May, Dane County Circuit judge Maryann Sumi ruled that republicans had violated the statersquo;s open meetings law during the process that led to the billrsquo;s passage.nbsp; Republicans in the state senate passed the bill less than 2 hours after calling a meeting for the vote before democrats, who had traveled across state lines to block the vote, were able to return./p p nbsp;/p p The state Supreme Court voted 4-3 that the lower court judge had exceeded her jurisdiction and erred in halting publication and implementation of the collective bargaining law. The court was split on the issue.nbsp; Chief Justice Abrahamson wrote that the order seems to open the court unnecessarily to the charge that the majority has ldquo;reached a predetermined conclusion not based on the facts and the law, which undermines the majorityrsquo;s ultimate decisionrdquo;./p p nbsp;/p p The law prohibits state employees from collectively bargaining over anything except base pay increases not to exceed inflation.nbsp; Exempt from the law are local police, fire fighters and state patrol./p p nbsp;/p p Thousands of demonstrators converged on the state capitol earlier this year in response to Governor Walkerrsquo;s proposal.nbsp;nbsp;Walker has made the case thatnbsp;his proposalnbsp;is needed to address the statersquo;s 3.6 billion budget shortfall./p p nbsp;/p p The law requires workers to pay 12% for health insurance and 5.8% for pension costsmdash;which amount to an 8% pay cut on average./p p nbsp;/p p Unions filed a lawsuit on Wednesday on grounds that the law violated the US Constitution by stripping away union rights to bargain, organize and associate and illegally discriminates among classes of public employees.nbsp; Organizations challenging the ruling include Councils of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees, the Wisconsin state AFL-CIO, The American Federation of Teachers, The Wisconsin Education Association Council, The Wisconsin State Employees Union and the Service Employees International Unionmdash;Heath Care Wisconsin./p p nbsp;/p p The law is slated to take effect on June 29supth/supaccording to Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette./p p nbsp;/p p The start date of the law could have a major impact on any school district or local government that signed contracts with unions after March 25supth/sup.nbsp; There is talk that those contracts would be void if they donrsquo;t comply with the new law./p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;nbsp;/p
    Tags
  • Dear Greater Vallejo Recreational District- Please Don't Desecrate Our Ancestors' Graves

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9N68yVY3xjc" width="480"/iframe/p pstyle type="text/css" @font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman Bold"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } /style/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" emEditors Note: As a grassroots, non-profit, Bay Area, arts, media and education organization led by poor and indigenous youth, adults and elders, POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE is extremely concerned about the security of our indigenous ancestors at Glen Cove, Sogorea Te and we stand in solidarity with the occupation by indigenous peoples at Glen Cove and will offer media and resources until there is a peaceful conclusion that secures the safety of the sacred shellmound. /em/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" emThe Following are a series of letters, words and poetry for the Greater Vallejo Recreational District (GVRD) and the Mayor of Vallejo created by youth and adult media students in the Revolutionary Youth Media Education Program (RYME) and PeopleSkool at POOR Magazine/em../p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Taiyana, Youth Scholar, Aged 14/b/p p class="MsoNormal" Dear GVRD,/p p class="MsoNormal" I donrsquo;t feel you are making the right decision,/p p class="MsoNormal" tearing precious land from the Ohlone people. You/p p class="MsoNormal" wouldnrsquo;t tear the burial ground of soldiers and war/p p class="MsoNormal" veterans so why tear and dig up history that is as/p p class="MsoNormal" important as the resting place of soldiers. Fight the power!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Taiyana Jahnel/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 16pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" 14 years old/p p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Stacey Langley Watts, Disability Indigenous Scholar/b/p p class="MsoNormal" Dear Corporate (most likely) White Folks at the GVRD,/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Halito.spannbsp; /spanMy name is Stacey Langley-Watts and I am a Choctaw Indian.spannbsp; /spanMy people are originally from Mississippi but were removed from their homes during the Trail of Tears.spannbsp; /spanI moved from Texas to California for the summer, and in the Native tradition, when you come to someone#39;s house as a guest, you protect the house.spannbsp; /spanThis is my house for the time being, and I want to support my Ohlone brothers and sisters in their fight to keep their land from being turned into a park./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Our ancestors are very important to us as Native people.spannbsp; /spanWe want the city of Vallejo to stop their plan to build a park on this land, because it#39;s where our people are.spannbsp; /spanA cemetery is not a place to party.spannbsp; /spanIt#39;s a place to pay respect to the elders.spannbsp; /spanThe City of Vallejo doesn#39;t care one way or another about history. spannbsp;/spanAll they care about is money.spannbsp; /spanOnly 10 0r 15 shell mounds remain in the Bay Area, and we need to save them from becoming malls or places for rich white folks to shop at Victoria#39;s Secret or eat at yuppie restaurants.spannbsp; /spanThe land is beautiful and sacred just as it is.spannbsp; /spanYour corporate interests don#39;t need to change the shape of the land./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" We are going to fight this big money with our voices and our presence.spannbsp; /spanIndian people are strong people and you can#39;t keep us down./p p class="MsoNormal" Sincerely,/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" Stacey Langley-Watts/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Aminah Jalal, Youth Scholar, Aged 10/b/p p class="MsoNormal" bnbsp;/b/p p class="MsoNormal" I donrsquo;t think it is nice/p p class="MsoNormal" I donrsquo;t think it is right/p p class="MsoNormal" I donrsquo;t think you want/p p class="MsoNormal" To see the bodies/p p class="MsoNormal" You will probably/p p class="MsoNormal" Get a fright/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanAminah Jalal/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanAge:10/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom ldquo;Treerdquo;, Youth and Poverty Scholar, Aged 20/b/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Dear GVRD,/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanGod sent an idea to someone special. The idea was to protect the deceased. Before they were called burial grounds, they were called shell mounts as where the Ohlone people protected their ancestors. Now today we want to keep Glen Cove sacred burial grounds alive, for the colonial people. All we ask for is respect, peace, and that our land may be protected./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanSincerely, Tree Davis, age 20/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Yarsquo;mil, Youth Scholar, Aged 12/b/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Dear GVRD,/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" My name is Yarsquo;mil and I am 12 years old./p p class="MsoNormal" Why do you want to bulldoze the ancient Ohlone Indian burial/p p class="MsoNormal" Ground? How would you like it if we bulldozed your ancestors/p p class="MsoNormal" burial ground? If you had a heart you wouldnrsquo;t do this, let me/p p class="MsoNormal" know if you change your mind./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" `sincerely/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" ~YamiL/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Michael, Incarceration and Poverty Scholar/b/p p class="MsoNormal" Grandmother,hellip;.wake up!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Grandfather,hellip;. Shift your old bones!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Your rest is interrupted,/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Your slumber with the ancestors is ended./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Rise from the cool embrace of our cool dark mother./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" WAKE UP!!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" We need your bones to reveal their secrets./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" We need your eternal resting place for a restroom./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" A place for the worldrsquo;s thinnest toilet paper to reside./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" RISE UP!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Make way for the inheritors of the grave!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" There is no longer any place for you here./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" The land you abided in life./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Grandmother!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Grandfather!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" You are being evicted in death, by those who stole your land in life!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" WAKE UP!!/p /div p class="MsoNormal" bnbsp;/b/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Philip, Indigenous Youth Scholar, /b/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" To whom it may concern, (at GVRD)/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" My name is Phillip Standing Bear. I am Lakota Sioux from the plains/p p class="MsoNormal" tribes. I am concerned about what you have planned to build over the Glen/p p class="MsoNormal" Cove Burial Grounds. Do you realize that a park and bathroom area is not/p p class="MsoNormal" even across the city but in fact, just around the corner? If you believe that/p p class="MsoNormal" building a little park for the little boys and girls for the neighborhood, when/p p class="MsoNormal" it probably will not be used anyways./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" These grounds are sacred and our own ancestors who built these/p p class="MsoNormal" Shell mounds, would not even walk on those grounds if not to just pray, give/p p class="MsoNormal" thanks, give gifts to loved ones lost. These burial grounds are just like your/p p class="MsoNormal" cemeteries. Many things are the same while you still consider these grounds/p p class="MsoNormal" like they were yours. How many times a year would you go and dig up your/p p class="MsoNormal" grandmother, or your grandfather, for ldquo;examinationrdquo; and ldquo;detailrdquo;?/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Donrsquo;t do this to these people. If only just let us keep our sacred lands./p p class="MsoNormal" That is all that is left for us other than our daily lives. Just give it some/p p class="MsoNormal" consideration, that when you are used to having nothing, that the little things/p p class="MsoNormal" in life matter more to some than others./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Thank you for your consideration,/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" Sincerely, Phillip S.B./p /div p class="MsoNormal" bnbsp;/b/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Liana, Mama and Indigenous Scholar/b/p p class="MsoNormal" bnbsp;/b/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Blessings to the living!spannbsp; /spanMy name is liana. I know that the world will never end.spannbsp; /spanMy Grandma said so.spannbsp; /spanShe said itrsquo;s the people!spannbsp; /spanI believe that GVRD should do the right thing/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Respect the land . Do the right thing!/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" bnbsp;/b/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Rashida, Youth Scholar, Aged 12/b/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" The government wants that to happen because they know how powerful the Native/p p class="MsoNormal" American people were. So they wanted to know their DNA. They donrsquo;t want the people/p p class="MsoNormal" to know how creole they are. They donrsquo;t want them to know their true history. So They/p p class="MsoNormal" cover it up with stuff that donrsquo;t matter! And they think the people donrsquo;t now about it./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" my name is RASHIDA REED, I am 12 years old./p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Kamaria Shanndoah, Youth Scholar, Aged 14/b/p p class="MsoNormal" Dear GVRD,/p p class="MsoNormal" I donrsquo;t feel that it is fair for you to dig up the burial grounds of the Ohlone people. There are only a handful of shell mounds left, so why get rid of them, or build a park on top of them? Who would want to play on top of a burial ground? If a person wanted to dig up the remains of your ancestors and study them would you like it? I donrsquo;t think so. It is only fair to keep the shell mound there and not dig it up./p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp; /span/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanThank you,/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanKamaria Shanndoah/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Ayat,spannbsp; /spanPoverty Scholar/b/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" The ancestors buried one another here/p p class="MsoNormal" Among the empty lots markets and shops/p p class="MsoNormal" Under your parades planned poverty and sneers/p p class="MsoNormal" They lay without peace, grieving non-stop./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Does your laws for the land state;/p p class="MsoNormal" Show no respect, be a disgrace/p p class="MsoNormal" In Glen Cove there is no respect there/p p class="MsoNormal" I thought only devils torture the dead/p div style="border-bottom: 3pt dotted; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" bFrom Ayana Jalal, Youth Scholar, /b/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Ispannbsp; /spandonrsquo;t think its right that you want/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" to make Glen Cove in to a park./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" If you want to make a park or make/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" a mall make it some were else./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" spannbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /span-Ayanaspannbsp; /spanJalal/p div style="border-bottom: 1.5pt solid; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" span style="font-family: 'times new roman bold'"bFrom Youth and Indigenous Scholar Tiburcio, 7 years old/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p div style="border-bottom: 1.5pt solid; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" p class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; padding-top: 0in" Dear G.V.R.D,br / Why would you do this to our people?nbsp; Without them there would be no us.nbsp; You can kill us with nuclear bombs but do not take out the history of Vallejo to make a park.nbsp; I don#39;t know much, but i do know ancestors and they#39;re fragile with people who respect but they don#39;t respect people who don#39;t respect./p p Tiburciobr / nbsp;/p /div p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" span style="font-family: 'times new roman bold'"bFrom Tony, Robles, Co-editor and Revolutionary Worker Scholar @ POOR Magazine/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p To whom it may concern:br / I am surprised at the actions of the city of Vallejo in regards to the building of a playground and public restroom on an Ohlone burial site.nbsp; I have always felt a spirit of community in Vallejo--a city whose landscape is a story of the history of the land--from the Indigenous Ohlone to the Spanish to the African Americans who migrated from the south to the Filipino Community to Indigenous people from this hemisphere who have migrated here to escape poverty and other circumstances.nbsp; I would think that a city with so rich a community and history would see the historical and cultural importance of the shell mound site to the Ohlone people./p p I was taken by a story i read recently about the Russian consulate replacing gravestones of deceased Russian merchant seaman in a Vallejo cemetery.nbsp; The replacement of the gravestones was done out of respect to the legacy and spirits of the seaman.nbsp; I read that the actions of the consulate created a bureaucratic scenario amongnbsp;Vallejo city leaders,nbsp;underscoring the importance of honoring our ancestors/elders.br / nbsp;br / I urge the city council to honor the Ohlone people leaving the shell mound undisturbed.nbsp; Those in public office may be the representatives of political constituencies, but lets not forget that native people are the spiritual guardians of this land, a land that predates the name Vallejo./p p Sincerely,/p p Tony Roblesbr / Co-Editor POOR Magazine/p p nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" ________________________________________________________/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" span style="font-family: 'times new roman bold'"bFrom Tiny Gray-Garcia co-madre, co-editor POOR Magazine/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Dear GVRD and Mayor of Vallejo/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Ocama Ocama Ocama Pachamama/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Please listen when we speak/p p class="MsoNormal" We are only trying to reach/p p class="MsoNormal" A part of your soul/p p class="MsoNormal" Not bought and paid for/p p class="MsoNormal" By real estate deals and bank rolls/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Listen when we speak for ancestors who are not able/p p class="MsoNormal" To stand in front of your tall buildings and back-room deals/p p class="MsoNormal" But who spent years working the land you are now trying to steal/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Listen to our pleas before its too late/p p class="MsoNormal" And this all becomes a tragedy caused by the state/p p class="MsoNormal" Listen to your hearts which you also have/p p class="MsoNormal" From your ancestors now laid to rest in other parts of this same land/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Listen, Ocama , Listen to our/your ancestors and everyonesrsquo;s Mama (Mother Earth)..../p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" In prayer until our ancestors are safe/p p class="MsoNormal" Tiny/p
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  • The Peoples Press-POOR Press 2011 collection featuring revolutionary authors in poverty

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p emPOOR Press Authors will present @ City Lights Bookstore on Thursday, July 7th @ 7pm/em/p p emReview by Jack Hirschman/em/p p One of the most interesting publishing ventures in the San Francisco and Bay Area is the Poor Press project. This revolutionary bi-lingual enterprise grew out of the Poor Magazine, which is a journal of poetry, polemics and righteous articles created by the inimitable Tiny, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia,---that indomitable force and magnet of affirmation of the people on the street, the economically poorest section of this society---and her late momma who is always still close to Tinyrsquo;s heart and always evoked by her nbsp;in a continuous solidarity./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The Poor Press project is central to the struggles especially of the immigrants from Latino countries, of African Americans, Native Americans, Filipinos and the homeless poor of whatever color or ethnicity./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; In short, this is a peoplersquo;s Press, by which I mean that I would prefer reading the books of these ldquo;poorrdquo; poets and writers (and how ironically apt that word is because therersquo;s nothing poor about the Poor Poets: their expressive energies ARE what real poetry is all about), rather than what goes asnoot into the upper realms of litteratsure. Anyday./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of reading a poem I wrote in Tagalog about Al Robles, the late and great poet and community organizer of the Manila-town Filipino people. The Poor scholars (thatrsquo;s correct, these are scholar poets and scholar artists) were dedicating a room in their offices to the beloved Robles. So there is now the Al Robles Library as part of the Poor Magazine complex on 16supth/sup St. in San Franciscorsquo;s Mission barrio./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Itrsquo;s a small room, housing Alrsquo;s library, and other books as well, but itrsquo;s got his heart everywhere and anyone entering it cannot help but feel his presence./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; To give some idea of what the Poor Press is about: one of its biggest books is emLos Viajes (The Journeys),/emwhich is 180 pages of poetry, prose and art defining, manifesting and affirming immigrant life in the States. These are stories, images and sounds of people crossing borders all over Pachamama/Mother Earth./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Beautiful writings of Guatemaltecos Julio Chavez, Angel Garcia, Ingrid Deleon and Rafael Ramos; of the El Salvadoreno immigrant writer known as The Dreamer; of Bulgariardquo;s Stefana Seraphina; Filipino Tony Robles; and Mexicans Chispita, Theresa Molina, Sergio Guerrero, Martina Gonazalez and Roselia Jaramillo./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Herersquo;s an incredible line by Mexican poet Silencio Muteado from his poem in the anthology, ldquo;What is the Amerikkkan Dream?rdquo;/p p emnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; What dream got you in that car trunk, in the middle of the border line/em/p p emnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Is that the American dream?/em/p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Every aspect of immigrant struggle is manifested in this extraordinary book which ought to be read by all as a work that can really save onersquo;s humanity in a time of insane wars and chaos./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Ingrid Deleon, who is included in the anthology, also has a book of her own story, ofem One Immigrant /ememMother/emand her journey from Guatemala through Mexico to the United States./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; And therersquo;s the wonderful poems and stories of Tony Robles in his book, emFilipino Building Maintenance /ememCompany./emTony is the nephew of Al Robles and, raised in the latterrsquo;s shadow, he has developed into an important voice especially for the Filipino people and their familial continuity./p p Likewise, and with powerfully intense activist fervor is Dee Allen, whose book is calledem Boneyard----Poems and Songs of African Struggle and Survival in the U.S/em. Allen is a member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade and has written terrifically animated poems of both class and race issues. For examples, some lines from ldquo;Under Suspicionrdquo;:/p p nbsp;/p p emStanding at the front gates/em/p p emof Sorry Sararsquo;s/em/p p emat 10 am,/em/p p emI may have been guilty alright./em/p p nbsp;/p p emGuilty of being an/em/p p eminnocent piece of darkmeat/em/p p emlooking forward to an/em/p p emhonest dayrsquo;s toil./em/p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The poetry books of Poor Press are small editions (emLos /ememViajes/emis an exception) of about 30 pages each, and includes a book of stories by Marlon Crump, and the outrageously brilliant emLife, Struggle Reflection/em---poems by Queennadi, who writes blingo or black lingo, blango or black slang, and is ebonically ebullient on virtually every page of her book./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; These are poets and storytellers that are making hope get the hell up from the grave that this conniving and war-mongering government has sentenced it to, and pointing a way to a future that just might belong to all.nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p p POOR Press authors will read from their revolutionary books at City Lights Books in San Francisco on Thursday, July 7th/p
    Tags
  • WANTED (FOR DESTROYING THE ECONOMY): CALIFORNIA REPUBLIKKKANS

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Redbeardedguy
    Original Body
    p img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/u26/CA.ECONOMY_0.jpg" style="width: 109px; height: 113px;" //p p nbsp;/p p California Governor Jerry Brown#39;s attempt to keep expiring tax increases alive was blocked by Republikkkans.nbsp; Brown is praying that the economy is nice to him and makes those soon-defunct taxes moot.nbsp; If the economy doesn#39;t cooperate, $2.6 billion in extra cuts to education and other programs happen./p p The Rapture didn#39;t happen and the guy who said it would now says October is the 2011 sell-by date for Humanity#39;s souls.nbsp; When do we get sold down the river for that $2.6 billion (or more)?/p p State Controller John Chiang, who refused to stop the paychecks of state workers, as Governator Schwarzenegger wanted him to, cancelled the paychecks of state Legislators because THEY won#39;t play nice--to balance the budget.nbsp; Balanced budgets are nice in theory (who doesn#39;t want to bring in more money than they spend...?), but they are an old, tired Republikkkan tool in the anti-government weapons locker./p p What Chiang should be doing is cancelling the paychecks of enough Republikkkans that the Demokkkrats (if they have a clue...) can do what needs doing--save the state economy and the hopes and dreams of the state#39;s poor population (largely forgotten in all this smug gamesmanship), keeping those tax upgrades in place and finding other ways to get much needed cash in the coffers./p p San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener wants to pass a law that makes it okay to modify proposals put on local election ballots by Supes or voters.nbsp; Here you get into that crazy gray area of THE WILL OF THE VOTERS that Republikkkans most often like to chant like holy writ, except that sometimes it actually is kinda sorta holy.nbsp; If San Francisco does this, shouldn#39;t the State of Kkkalifornia do it too?/p p I mean, the FIRST thing that needs changing at the state level if something like that were done would be to severely modify or abolish altogether Proposition 13.nbsp; That would be a good start towards putting some healthy black back into the bleeding budget./p p Contact your state Legislator.nbsp;/p p Contact State Controller John Chiang to demand he take away the Republikkkans#39; power to destroy the state economy.nbsp;/p p Sacramento, Californiabr / (916) 445-2636 Officenbsp;/p p Los Angeles, Californiabr / (213) 833-6010 Office/p p nbsp;/p
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  • Liquid Candy--New study finds Soda consumption down among high school students

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p Poor Magazine has incorporated healthy eating among our youth, indigenous and poverty scholars by offering healthy, organicnbsp;food during meetings, community gatherings, protests, and, of course, as an act of resistance to the corporate attack on our health by agribusiness and food processors.nbsp; We are eating in a healthy way to honor Pachamama, our ancestors and our bodies.nbsp;/p p A new study by the Centers for Disease Control reports that high school students are drinking less soda and more water, juice and milk.nbsp; The study found that one in four students drink soda daily.nbsp; This figure is down from the figures in the 1990#39;s and early 2000#39;s when 3/4 of teens were drinking high sugar drinks every day.nbsp; The study was based on a survey last year of more than 11,000 High School students./p p Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser#39;s groundbreaking book, Fast Food Nation (2001) provides an historical, agricultural, political and human health perspective on the fast food industry--a mutli-billion dollar industry that has done much to transform the natural landscape as well as the eating and working habits of the nation.nbsp;/p p Fast Food Nation cited who isnbsp;emnot /embenefiting from the marketing efforts of the soda manufacturers: Children.nbsp; The fast food industry benefits heavily because soda gives the chain restaurants its highest profit margin--higher than burgers, fries or McNuggets.nbsp; McDonalds sells more coca cola than anyone else in the world./p p Schlosser wrote of a 1999 study, Liquid Candy by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.nbsp; It stated that in 1978 a teenaged American boy drank 7 ounces of soda a day; today it is 3 times that amount.nbsp; For girls the amount doubled.nbsp;/p p Each can of soda contains 10 teaspoons of sugar.nbsp; It also contains caffeine.nbsp; Excessive consumption of soda can lead to calcium deficiencies and increased propensity to bone fractures.nbsp; According to Schlosser, the adult soda market has waned; marketing soda to kids has been a vital yet easy way for the soda companies to meet their sales goals./p p According to the Centers for Disease Control study, for each additional sweet drink consumed per day, the odds of obesity increased 60%./p p POOR Magazine gives props to the youth scholars who have seen through the game of the soda companies.nbsp; We give props to the mamaz and fathers who take to time educate their children about healthy eating and about making healthy choices to not only honor their bodies, but to honor the ancestors and our earth mother./p
    Tags
  • New Orleans Police Violence Trial Begins

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    h3 Did New Orleans media contribute to police violence after Hurricane Katrina?/h3 p emstrongby Jordan Flaherty/strong/em/p div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-21380" style="width: 316px" nbsp;/div p Opening arguments begin today in what observers have called the most important trial New Orleans has seen in a generation. It is a shocking case of police brutality that has already redefined this cityrsquo;s relationship to its police department and radically rewritten the official narrative of what happened in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. Five police officers are facing charges of shooting unarmed African-Americans in cold blood, killing two and wounding four, and then conspiring to hide evidence. Five officers who participated in the conspiracy have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their fellow officers./p p nbsp;/p p The shootings occurred on Sept. 4, 2005, as two families were fleeing Katrinarsquo;s floodwaters, crossing New Orleansrsquo; Danziger Bridge to get to dry land. Officers, who apparently heard a radio report about shootings in the area, drove up, leapt out of their vehicle and began firing. Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged man, was shot in the back at least five times, then reportedly stomped and kicked by an officer until he was dead./p p His brother, Lance Madison, was arrested on false charges. James Brissette, a high school student, was shot seven times and died at the scene. Susan Bartholomew, 38, was wounded so badly her arm was shot off of her body. Jose Holmes Jr. was shot several times; then as he lay bleeding an officer stood over him and fired point blank at his stomach. Two other relatives of Bartholomew were also badly wounded./p p Danziger is one of at least nine recent incidents involving the NOPD being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department, several of which happened in the days after the city was flooded. Officers have recently been convicted by federal prosecutors in two other high-profile trials. In April, two officers were found guilty in the beatingnbsp;death of Raymond Robair, a handyman from the Treme neighborhood. In December, a jury convicted three officers and acquitted two in killing Henry Glover, a 31-year-old from New Orleansrsquo; West Bank neighborhood, and burning his body./p h3 From Survivors to Looters/h3 p In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people around the world felt sympathy for New Orleans. They saw images of residents trapped on rooftops by floodwaters, needing rescue by boat and helicopter. But then stories began to come out about looters and gangs among the survivors, and the official response shifted from humanitarian aid to military operation. Then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco, sent in National Guard troops, announcing: ldquo;They have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will.rdquo; Warren Riley, at that time the second in charge of the police department, reportedly ordered officers to ldquo;take the city back and shoot looters.rdquo;/p div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-21385" style="width: 199px" a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NOPD-murdered-Ronald-Madison-090405-on-Danziger-Bridge3.jpe"img alt="" height="299" src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NOPD-murdered-Ronald-Madison-090405-on-Danziger-Bridge3.jpe" width="199" //a div New Orleans police murdered Ronald Madison Sept. 4, 2005, on the Danziger Bridge./div /div p In the following days, several civilians ndash;nbsp;almost all of them African American ndash;nbsp;were killed under suspicious circumstances in incidents involving police and white vigilantes. For years, family members and advocates called for official investigations and were rebuffed. ldquo;Right after the hurricane there were individuals and organizations trying to talk about what happened on Danziger,rdquo; says Dana Kaplan, executive director of Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), a legal and advocacy organization based in New Orleans. ldquo;But their voices were marginalized.rdquo;/p p nbsp;/p p There is evidence that local media could have done a better job. Alex Brandon, a photographer for the New Orleansrsquo; Times-Picayune newspaper who later went on to work for Associated Press, testified in the Henry Glover trial that he knew details about the police killings that he didnrsquo;t reveal. ldquo;He saw things and heard things that proved to be useful in a criminal investigation. He didnrsquo;t report them as news,rdquo; wrote Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry after the Glover trial concluded./p p Former Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who led an initial investigation of the Danziger officers, believes annbsp;indifferent local media bears partial responsibility for the years of cover-up. ldquo;They were looking for heroes,rdquo; he says. ldquo;They had a cozy relationship with the police. They got tips from the police, they were in bed with the police. It was an atmosphere of tolerance for atrocities from the police. They abdicated their responsibility to be critical in their reporting. If a few people got killed, that was a small price to pay.rdquo;/p p Family members and advocates tried to get the stories of police violence out through protests, press conferences and other means. Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, an organization dedicated to justice in reconstruction, held a tribunal in 2006 where they presented accusations of police violence ndash;nbsp;among other charges ndash;nbsp;to a panel of international judges and members of parliament from seven countries. Activists even brought charges to the United Nations, filing a shadow report in February 2008 with the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva./p div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-21382" style="width: 319px" a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NOPD-accuse-Lance-Madison-brother-of-police-murder-victim-Ronald-Madison-of-shooting-at-police-090405-by-Alex-Brandon-T-P1.jpg"img alt="" height="205" src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NOPD-accuse-Lance-Madison-brother-of-police-murder-victim-Ronald-Madison-of-shooting-at-police-090405-by-Alex-Brandon-T-P1.jpg" width="319" //a div After police murdered his brother, Ronald, they accuse Lance Madison of shooting at them. ndash; Photo: Alex Brandon, Times-Picayune/div /div p But it was not until late 2008 that a journalist named A.C. Thompson did what the local media failed to do and investigated these stories in detail. ldquo;Itrsquo;s unfortunate that it took a national publication to really dig to the root,rdquo;says Kaplan, referring to Thompsonrsquo;s work. ldquo;In New Orleans the criminal justice system has been so corrupt for so long that things that should be shocking didnrsquo;t seem to be raising the kind of broad community outrage that they should have.rdquo;/p p nbsp;/p p In 2009, after years of pressure from activists and the national attention brought on by AC Thompsonrsquo;s reporting, the U.S. Justice Department decided to look into the accusations of police violence. This has led to one of the most wide-ranging investigations of a police department in recent U.S. history. Dozens of officers are facing lengthy prison terms, and corruption charges have reached to the very top of the department./p p The Danziger trial is expected to last two months. Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon, the officers involved in the shooting, could receive life sentences if convicted. Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, who was not on the bridge, is charged only in the conspiracy and could receive a maximum of 120 years. Justice Department investigations of other incidents are continuing, and it is likely that some form of federal oversight of the department will be announced in the coming months./p p emJordan Flaherty is an author, journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He is the author of ldquo;Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six,rdquo; and his award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and Argentinarsquo;s Clarin newspaper. He can be reached at a href="mailto:neworleans@leftturn.org"font color="#265372"neworleans@leftturn.org/font/a, and more information about ldquo;Floodlinesrdquo; can be found at a href="http://floodlines.org" jquery1309457558689="65"font color="#265372"floodlines.org/font/a. For speaking engagements, see a href="http://communityandresistance.wordpress.com/" jquery1309457558689="66" modo="false"font color="#265372"communityandresistance.wordpress.com/font/a./em/p
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  • DAILY OUTRAGES: DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH CHASE BANK!

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Redbeardedguy
    Original Body
    p img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/u26/BREAK.THE_.BANKS_.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 168px" //p p nbsp;/p p Bruce Allison and I recently reported on how many millions of dollars in taxes Chase Bank didn#39;t pay in California (due to a backroom deal with The Governator, Ahnold Schwarzenegger).nbsp; That isn#39;t the only unethical behavior from this particular bank./p p I#39;m a baseball addict.nbsp; I listen to baseball on the radio.nbsp; I hear far too many advertisements, but the one that stood out for me the most on June 11, 2011 (other than that horrible Kars For Kids charity ad that doesn#39;t say what they do or give any other important details a listener with a brain might want), is Chase Bank#39;s ad telling people about how they can earn money for more material goods for themselves (or luxuries) with a mortgage from them./p p The Sub-Prime Mortgage Bubble (SPMB) was growing while the Dot Com Bust sucked the air out of a piece of the Amerikkkan economy.nbsp; The SPMB started before George W. Bush was well established as President, but he allowed it (and Bernie Madoff, and many other financial monsters) to continue to grow because Republikkkans hate regulation of business.nbsp; They worship Kkkapitalism.nbsp; Demokkkrats do too, they just aren#39;t as obvious about it./p p The SPMB exploded in 2008 and Obama won the Presidential election in part because the Republikkkans couldn#39;t stop publically worshipping Kkkapitalism, trusting corporations to be honest without guns put to their CEO#39;s heads, etc.nbsp; Foreclosure became a household word./p p Foreclosure is still an important word.nbsp; Lots of them are still happening in CA and San Francisco (and beyond) and Chase Bank is running ads for people to buy their mortgage services and, apparently, create more potential victims of somewhere-down-the-road foreclosures as if that particular F-Word didn#39;t exist, doesn#39;t mean diddly, the world is everybody#39;s oyster, yadda yadda./p p I recently read a newspaper article about a bank that screwed a customer who paid for a foreclosed-upon house and got treated as if they had been foreclosed upon too.nbsp; The bank was dragged into court and lost.nbsp; The bank failed to pay damages.nbsp; The customer visited the bank with the Po#39;Lice to seize bank property so it could be sold to raise the money they owed.nbsp; The bank paid the money they owed very quickly after that!nbsp;/p p I have also enjoyed watching a YouTube video of San Francisco protestors, lead by The Brass Liberation Orchestra, performing one of the most amazing and funniest protests I#39;ve ever seen in a Bank of America branch (a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdxTcaCS65Y"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdxTcaCS65Y/a)./p p Chase Bank must pay those back taxes they owe in full immediately.nbsp; Chase Bank must stop advertising its mortgage services as if the Sub-Prime Mortgage Bubble and Bust didn#39;t happen and isn#39;t still wreaking havok in peoples#39; lives and creating more potential friends and allies for organizations like POOR Magazine./p p If you have accounts with Chase Bank--don#39;t!nbsp; Don#39;t do any business with them.nbsp; E-mail them, call them, snail-mail them (send their junk mail back full of, well, junk!).nbsp; Make them feel the pain, the rage, of the many people they and their industry havenbsp; hurt./p
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  • Hunger Strikers Protest Perpetual Solitary Confinement

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p nbsp;/p pSCRIPT function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en' }, 'google_translate_element'); } /scriptSCRIPT src="//translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit"/script/p div class="entry" SCRIPT type=text/javascript //![CDATA[ document.write('iframe id="nr_clickthrough_frame" height="0" width="0" style="border-width: 0px; display:none;" onload="javascript:nRelate.loadFrame();"'); nRelate.domain = "sfbayview.com"; //]] /![cdata[/scriptp iframe height="0" id="nr_clickthrough_frame" onload="javascript:nRelate.loadFrame();" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" width="0"/iframe/p div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-21396" style="width: 172px" a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/John-Martinez.jpg"img alt="" height="257" src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/John-Martinez.jpg" width="172" //a div John Martinez/div /div p The following letter from PBSP SHU prisoner John R. Martinez is addressed to:/p p nbsp;/p p Edmund G. Brown, Governor, State Capitol, First Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814/p p Matthew Cate, Secretary, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 1515 S St., Sacramento, CA 94283-0001/p p G.D. Lewis, Warden, PBSP, P.O. Box 7000, Crescent City, CA 95532/p p Re: Petition for redress; notice of hunger strike/p p Gentlemen:/p p On July 1, 2011, I and my fellow prisoners ndash; on their own free will ndash; will be commencing a hunger strike to protest the denial of our human rights and equality via the use of perpetual solitary confinement. The Supreme Court has referred to ldquo;solitary confinementrdquo; as one of the techniques of ldquo;physical and mental torturerdquo; that have been used by governments to coerce confessions (Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227, 237-238 (1940))./p p In regards to PBSP-SHU, Judge Thelton E. Henderson stated that ldquo;many if not most, inmates in the SHU experience some degree of psychological trauma in reaction to their extreme social isolation and the severely restricted environmental stimulation in SHUrdquo; (Madrid v. Gomez, 889 F. Supp. 1146, 1235 (N.D. Cal. 1995)). Not surprisingly, Judge Henderson stated that ldquo;the conditions in the SHU may press the outer bounds of what most humans can psychologically toleraterdquo; and that sensory deprivation found in the SHU ldquo;may well hover on the edge of what is humanly tolerable for those with normal resiliencerdquo; (Madrid, 889 F. Supp. at 1267, 1280). Four years later, a Texas federal judge reviewed conditions in isolation of a Texas prison that mirrored those of PBSP-SHU. He correctly held:/p p ldquo;Before the court are levels of psychological deprivation that violate the United States Constitutionrsquo;s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It has been shown that defendants are deliberately indifferent to a systemic pattern of extreme social isolation and reduced environmental stimulation. These deprivations are the cause of cruel and unusual pain and suffering by inmates in administrative segregation hellip;rdquo; (Ruiz v. Johnson, 37 F. Supp. 2d 855, 914-915 (S.D. Tex.1999))./p p Thus solitary confinement, by its very nature, is harmful to human beings, including prisoners,supa class="footnote-link footnote-identifier-link" href="#footnote_0_21395" id="identifier_0_21395" title="“Empirical research on solitary and supermax-like confinement has consistently and unequivocally documented the harmful consequences of living in these kinds of environments. “Studies undertaken over four decades corroborate such an assertion. (Craig Haney, “Mental health issues in long-term solitary and ‘supermax’ confinement” in crime and delinquency. Vol. 49, No. I, January 2003, pp. 124-156). See also, Amnesty International, Report on Torture, Penal Coercion, 1983."font color="#265372"1/font/a/sup especially for those of us prisoners whose isolation is perpetual based solely upon our status as an associate or member of a gang. In theory, our detention is supposedly for administrative ldquo;non-disciplinaryrdquo; reasons. Yet, when I asked one of the prison staff why is it we are not afforded the same privileges as those gang affiliated inmates in a Level 4 general population (GP), I was told that ldquo;according to Sacramento,rdquo; we donrsquo;t ldquo;have shit comingrdquo; and that it is the departmentrsquo;s ldquo;goal of breakingrdquo; us down. Thus, our treatment is clearly punitive, discriminatory and coercive./p p Further proof is provided by the fact that a member of a disruptive group ndash; i.e., a gang per CCR 3000 ndash; who commits a violent assault on a non-prisoner will receive three to five years in the SHU as punishment and then be released back to the GP. Ironically, we on the other hand receive way harsher treatment. We are subjected to the same disciplinary SHU conditions. Worse yet, for an indeterminate term solely for who we are or who we know. Not for violent or disruptive behavior./p p Most of us have been in isolation for over 15 and 20 years. In most cases, for simple possession of a drawing, address, greeting card and/or other form of speech and association./p h3 style="text-align: center" span style="color: #800000"ldquo;According to Sacramento,rdquo; we donrsquo;t ldquo;have shit comingrdquo; and it is the departmentrsquo;s ldquo;goal of breakingrdquo; us down. Thus, our treatment is clearly punitive, discriminatory and coercive./span/h3 p style="text-align: left" span style="color: #000000"Unfortunately, some of my fellow prisoners are not here with me today. The SHU has either driven them to suicide,supa class="footnote-link footnote-identifier-link" href="#footnote_1_21395" id="identifier_1_21395" title="As Kevin Johnson reported in USA Today: California, which has the largest state prison system in the nation, saw a total of 41 suicides in 2006; of those suicides, 69 percent were in solitary confinement. (“Inmate suicides linked to solitary,” USA Today, Dec. 27, 2006. Those numbers have increased since then."font color="#265372"2/font/a/sup /spanmental illness or becoming a Judas ndash; i.e., informer ndash; to escape these cruel conditions, which occurred after the findings in Madrid./p p style="text-align: left" An oppressed people always have the right to rise up and protest discrimination, oppression and injustice. The Martin Luther King era reminds us of that. So does the Attica prisoner uprising. Those prisoners in Attica acted out, not because they were ldquo;animals,rdquo; but because they were tired of getting treated worse than animals. There is no difference with us. The only difference is that our protest is one of non-violence. We are a civilized people that simply wish to be treated as humans and with equality. Not subjected to punitive treatment year after year, which is imposed with a desire to injure. As Justice Thurgood Marshall eloquently stated:/p p ldquo;When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality, his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. If anything, the needs for identity and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison environment hellip; It is the role of the First Amendment hellip; to protect those precious personal rights by which we satisfy such basic yearnings of the human spiritrdquo; (Procunio v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 326, 428 (1974))./p p Wherefore, I respectfully request that our reasonable demands attached hereto be honored as soon as possible and that the bigotry and persecution against us for who we are come to an end once and for all./p p Respectfully submitted,/p p John R. Martinez/p p ldquo;Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.rdquo; ndash; Hebrews 13:3/p p cc: Family, friends and supporters/p p emSend our brother some love and light: John R. Martinez, J-S2893, PBSP SHU, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532./em/p p emnbsp;/em/p div class="mcePaste" id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; top: 0px; left: -10000px" /div div class="nr_clear" nbsp;/div div class="nrelate nrelate_related nrelate_default nr_110" id="nrelate_related_1" h3 class="nr_rc_title nr_title" nbsp;/h3 /div /div
    Tags
  • Shaken

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body
    p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p Finally living back in the island/p p Domain that birthed you,/p p All you did was/p p Share the gift of medicine/p p And comfort the sick./p p nbsp;/p p The very thing you loathed most/p p And rose against on the daily/p p Found its way to you./p p nbsp;/p p There was no way to predict/p p What barged through that front door./p p nbsp;/p p Everything grew dark./p p Then you vanished from sight./p p Then you re-appeared/p p After six days/p p A whole new woman/p p nbsp;/p p Visibly shaken./p p nbsp;/p p Viciously bruised,/p p Thoroughly shaken,/p p Effects from the seed of terror/p p Your captors laid within you./p p The pain shows in far/p p More than battered, cyanotic brown skin./p p nbsp;/p p You wear it like an agonised/p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; tear-streaked shroud/p p In public appearances./p p nbsp;/p p Nevertheless, you move on./p p nbsp;/p p The fiends that left you/p p nbsp;/p p Visibly shaken/p p nbsp;/p p Were determined to break your spirit/p p Into millions of/p p Scattered, glittery shards/p p Across the interrogation room floor./p p Aggressive questioning/p p Linking you to what you/p p Have no tangible link to./p p nbsp;/p p Nevertheless, you hold your ground./p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; 1./p p You are Melissa./p p Melissa. Melissa. Melissa. Melissa./p p You are not ?aita/p p You are not with New People#39;s Army./p p You are not with the Communist Party./p p You are not the property of/p p The Philippines/p p The United $tates./p p Your human rights should be respected./p p You will not enter their fold./p p You will not let your faceless captors/p p Or any man overpower you./p p Your body is not theirs to smash/p p Like some hated plaything./p p nbsp;/p p Under torture, you died/p p Piece by piece/p p Thousands of times over/p p And resurrected from it all a woman/p p nbsp;/p p Visibly shaken/p p nbsp;/p p With a stronger resolve./p p Keep sharing your tragedy./p p Your voice is the new voice/p p For the disappeared still unsurfaced./p div p Justice shall be yours theirs./p /div p W: Kwanzaa 2009/p p [ For Melissa Roxas*.]/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p *On May 19, 2009, Melissa Roxas, an activist and poet from/p p Los Angeles who had been doing volunteer work in/p p Tarlac Province in the Philippines, was kidnapped along with/p p two other health volunteers for a non-governmental nationalist/p p group called Bayan./p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p [ From the new anthology book ldquo;uSparring With Beatnik Ghosts: Volume 2, Number 1/u edited and published by Daniel Yaryan. ]/p
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  • RAH! RAH! RAH! AMERIKKKAN SOCCER TEAM! SAY THE CROWS:

    09/24/2021 - 09:13 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Redbeardedguy
    Original Body
    p img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/u26/FUTBOL.jpg" style="width: 273px; height: 184px;" //p p nbsp;/p p WHAM!nbsp; BAM!nbsp; CLANG! span data-scayt_word="RRRRRRMMMMMMMMM" data-scaytid="5"RRRRRRMMMMMMMMM/span..../p p Ah! Ah! Ah! Mexico won!nbsp; Mexico won!/p p The crows woke me up again.nbsp; This time they were driving the garbage truck that empties the dumpsters of the non-profit feeding program (across the street) right outside my span data-scayt_word="window...at" data-scaytid="1"window...at/span span data-scayt_word="6a.m" data-scaytid="2"6a.m/span./p p What, did Mexico win?nbsp; I asked./p p Ah! Ah! they shrieked, a soccer game in the Rose Bowl stadium!/p p Who were they playing?/p p Ah!nbsp; You didn#39;t know?nbsp; America!/p p Really?? I said, I only pay attention to that sport every four years./p p Ah! Ah! Ah!nbsp; span data-scayt_word="KNBR" data-scaytid="6"KNBR/span sports-talk radio station talked about it.nbsp; One of their ESPN radio people said people are upset!/p p Why?/p p The Rose Bowl was full of Mexicans!/p p Ah! Ah! Ah! another crow yelled, the Mexicans in the stands were rude, they called the American team the Spanish word for Jack-Ass!/p p Maybe they just wanted them to know they like the span data-scayt_word="tv" data-scaytid="9"tv/span show?/p p Ah! Ah! People are upset!/p p People are always upset, I said, usually about the wrong thing.nbsp; One of the desk clerks at this SRO hotel said people were angry the span data-scayt_word="U.S" data-scaytid="3"U.S/span. Open Golf Tournament left out #39;One nation under God#39; in the Pledge of span data-scayt_word="Alliegiance" data-scaytid="11"Alliegiance/span.nbsp; No sports writer covering the golfers said anything about it.nbsp; span data-scayt_word="KNBR" data-scaytid="7"KNBR/span didn#39;t either.nbsp; I DID hear some crazy talk about people should always support the national team of the country they live span data-scayt_word="in...but" data-scaytid="4"in...but/span, they, nobody raised me to be like those crazy Oakland Raiders fans!/p p Ah! Ah! Ah! Now you span data-scayt_word="talkin" data-scaytid="12"talkin/span#39; smack!/p p Maybe, I said, but I don#39;t care where an athlete or team comes from, mostly, I just love to watch people who are good at what they do.nbsp; I mean, people want Tiger Woods to be great again.nbsp; The span data-scayt_word="tv" data-scaytid="10"tv/span people want ratings.nbsp; The talking heads say people need or want heroes.nbsp; They want Rory span data-scayt_word="McIlroy" data-scaytid="13"McIlroy/span to be the next Tiger.nbsp; Not span data-scayt_word="gonna" data-scaytid="15"gonna/span happen!/p p Ah! Ah! Why not?/p p Who needs that kind of pressure?nbsp; I said, not me!nbsp; Hey, 11 different winners in 11 straight major pro golf tournaments!nbsp; span data-scayt_word="McIlroy" data-scaytid="14"McIlroy/span has no plans to play a lot in America, so he#39;s not span data-scayt_word="gonna" data-scaytid="16"gonna/span be a hero to anybody but the hard-core golf lover who follows the sport span data-scayt_word="whereever" data-scaytid="17"whereever/span it#39;s played./p p Ah! Ah! You#39;ve got a point!/p p Only person I agreed with you called in to span data-scayt_word="KNBR" data-scaytid="8"KNBR/span, I said, was the one who said the Mexico fans forgot about good sportsmanship./p p Ah! Ah! span data-scayt_word="Talkin" data-scaytid="19"Talkin/span#39; smack again!/p p People do that all the time though! I said, screaming abuse at baseball players.nbsp; I did it to opposing soccer players at the games my hometown college team played--when I actually paid attention to amateur soccer--the opposing goalie got really mad once./p p Ah! Ah!nbsp; You too?nbsp; The crows sounded disappointed./p p I was young./p p Ah! Ah! Ah! We span data-scayt_word="gotta" data-scaytid="20"gotta/span go!/p p That garbage truck was really loud.nbsp; POOR Magazine makes noise too, in two languages (we#39;d love to do it in more).nbsp; The span data-scayt_word="post-futbol" data-scaytid="21"post-futbol/span game ceremony for the winning team at the Rose Bowl stadium also upset the same people pissed off about the other stuff, and, apparently, the American team too.nbsp; It was held in Spanish only.nbsp; An American team member was quoted as saying that if they#39;d won in Mexico City the ceremony wouldn#39;t have been English-only./p p This is a hard thing, so many in span data-scayt_word="Amerikkka" data-scaytid="22"Amerikkka/span want English to be the only legal language, and they complain and complain and complain that people from other countries don#39;t try hard enough to speak English; they (try to) make school really hard for children who don#39;t speak English the moment they arrive.nbsp; POOR Magazine#39;s newsroom and other meetings are held in English AND Spanish for a reason--that#39;s who we are, we don#39;t leave anyone out of the conversation, we don#39;t believe in English Language Domination over span data-scayt_word="whereever" data-scaytid="18"whereever/span anyone else came from in this diverse, troubled world we live in.nbsp; We are often convinced we are the ONLY people who care about this issue, though we know that isn#39;t (entirely) true./p p The crows?nbsp; I span data-scayt_word="dunno" data-scaytid="23"dunno/span.nbsp; They wake me up and we have these conversations--and then they fly off and see other stuff and, I know, think about waking me up for more early morning smack-talk.../p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p
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