2011

Editors Note: On Tuesday, April 26th over 200 people protested the Criminalization of Public Space in the streets of Berkeley. The fight against the criminalization of our public spaces  and poor peoples is just beginning. Please begin your on-line resistance by signing the petition to Stand Up for the Right to Sit Down

Cover Photo of Berkeley Sit-Down Protest by Will Steele

"Homelessness is that intersection for all oppression."

Teague Gonzalez, Homeless Action Center stated during her address in a recent forum panel. Gonzalez discussed the treatment of house less/landless people, via po-lice harassment, and the laws that criminalize them.

"Po-lice State of AmeriKKKa. It is literally a crime to be poor in the U.S.A!"

"Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia, in her book "Criminal of Poverty" chronicling her life experience of po-lice harassment while house/less with her mom. The po-lice officer denied her wishes, and proceeded to tow their car/home.

As a community, poverty, race, and class segregation via "policy proposals" is what we face every single second of our lives. We're profiled by politicians (with po-lice and military as their arm) who allege and “pledge” themselves as "public servants." Often, one is brainwashed to believe that the "laws" inked into implementation is aimed only for "order" in society.

Despite the unrelenting efforts of my family at POOR, and many of our community comrades to defeat its voter approval; Sit/Lie law "civil sidewalks" was passed here in San Francisco, last year. Its ordinance is expected to parallel a perilous precedent in punishing the poor.

If someone sleeps on the sidewalk, the first “offense” is a fine of $50-$100. The second “offense” within a 24 hour period is $300- $500 and up to 10 days in jail or both. The third “offense” within 120 days of conviction is $400-$500, up to 30 days or both. In of itself, it is spreading across the country to other cities.

The City of Berkeley, CA is next in line to lobby and legislate this "law." The "civil sidewalks" replicated, re-introduced into "sidewalk management."

Its history even ranges as far as to the 14th century under the guise of "settlement laws." The first was passed under Edward III of England in 1349; although these laws would not be titled as "settlement laws" until three centuries later. The Tudors was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of Ireland and its realms from 1485 till 1603.

They privatized church holdings beneficial for seniors, people succumbed to sicknesses, orphans, and veterans. Because there was an "epidemic of homelessness" the Tudors incorporated Edward's Poor Laws for "social control."

Myself, my mentor "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia (POOR co-founder) and fellow comrade Ruyata Akio Mc Clothin a.k.a RAM, have each experienced the consequences for the sole act of being poor. It is one of the key components at the core of why we re-port and sup-port in resistance to all injustices.

Tiny ticketed throughout her many grueling years for living on the street, while caring for her mom, "Mama Dee" Gray-Garcia. RAM racially-profiled by members of the San Francisco Police Department, on numerous occasions. Myself, while sitting in a single room occupancy hotel one night over five years ago, for a crime I did not commit. My very life almost stolen as a result.

Ironically, some things never change for others in similar instances:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/2011/03/cops-accused-bad-busts

http://www.poormagazine.org/node/3715

On March 17th, 2011 (Saint Patrick's Day) the three of us attended a forum panel at U.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. On the panel were fellow comrades in our struggle. Bob Offer-Westort, from the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. Teague Gonzalez, an attorney from the Homeless Action Network. Osha Neumann, supervising attorney for the East Bay Law Community Center.

The purpose for this panel was to prevent this "proposal" from passing, and displacing house/less people from sidewalks. How would this affect the most vulnerable house/less who're seniors and people with disabilities?

"We have 550 cases we're representing in court." Teague Gonzalez said. She would later describe her office's client capacity in court. "As we win cases, we take cases but our capacity is around 550." I then asked her how many of those cases involved homeless people cited for living on a sidewalk.

Gonzalez explained that their Berkeley office receives many cases of clients "cited for all sorts of living outdoors citation."

"Nobody has been cited with living on.........or lying that I know of." Gonzalez says. "But if the law passes (sidewalks management) I imagine we'll start seeing more of that." Unlike Municipal Police Code Sections 22-24, and California Penal Code Section 647c that addresses “sidewalk obstruction” Sit/Lie only addresses non-obstructive sitting and lying down. No other activities.

The unforgettable-era of the civil rights movement was pivotal in penetrating these injustices. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat led to the defeat of white segregation/supremacy on public transportation in 1955. The student "sit-ins" like the incident in a Woolworth's department store in Jackson, Mississippi on May 28th, 1963.

The students were viciously attacked by angry white mobs for their agitation to segregation.

In 1968, the Haight-Ashbury Merchants and Improvement Association lobbied the S.F. Board of Supervisors to pass a law that would remove all hippies in that district. In the Castro District, gay men were targeted by pol-ice officers for sitting outside bars. In 1979 it was repealed due to violations of the Fourteenth Amendment which cites a citizen’s right to Due Process and Equal Protection clauses.

Ironically, in a history repeating of sorts, the "Sit/Lie" proposal resurfaced last year in the Haight-Ashbury District. The perception from my mentor, Tiny, was this would start in this particular area (that's predominately white) then it would trend towards areas targeting house/less folks, and communities of color.

“In the wake of the proposed sit-lie law, which would make it illegal for poor people to sit or lie on any public sidewalk or street, the San Francisco is increasingly giving public streets and sidewalks away to large corporate festivals where rich, mostly white people stumble around with open containers, drunk and disorderly."

Tiny in her article, "When the rich can sit on sidewalks." http://www.sfbg.com/2010/06/09/when-rich-can-sit-sidewalks?page=1

Lobbyists lure the minds of the ignorant and/or supporters with covert corporate components: T.V. commercial ads, mainstream media, and bulletin board posts in communities. This can be said of so-called journalists. S.F. Chronicle writer, C.W. Nevius known for his homeless hounding editorials appeared arrogant and smug following the passage of “Sit/Lie” last year.

“If they want to mutter and grouse about the election, that's fine. They've been muttering and grousing about other, similar issues they opposed - Care Not Cash, the Community Justice Center - for years.”

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-06/bay-area/24817628_1_citywide-vote-...

Its unseen ulterior motives are often seen by us poverty scholars when we witness "sweeps." From po-lice officers "enforcing" city ordinances forcing house/less people from sleeping in doorways, parks, storefronts, and office buildings. In the case of Rhonda Patterson in 2009, a landless African Descent woman who slept in a storefront was falsely accussed of harassment by a lawyer.

“I’m not going to do anything about Mrs. Patterson. I have known her for many years and she has never hurt anybody.” Officer Chiu, a San Francisco police officer said to Tiny. She had witnessed the attorney yelling at Miss Patterson to move. http://sfbayview.com/2009/i-was-born-here/

"In 1994, the City of Berkeley passed a law against aggressive panhandling." Osha Neumann explained. Like S.F. Board of Police Commissioner, Petra De Jesus pointed out before a hearing held on "Sit/Lie" last year, Osha stated that "there is already a law in place against lying on a sidewalk."

Elsewhere in 1994, then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani created similar components of “Sit/Lie”. They would later generate to other cities (countries even) targeting poor people via "sweeps."

In his words for instituting this fascism model: "It's the street tax paid to drunks and panhandlers. It's the squeegee men shaking down the motorist waiting at a light. It's the trash storms, the swirling mass of garbage left by peddlers and panhandlers, and open-air drug bazaars on unclean streets."

In terms of these trends, other cities have proposed this law in the past. Bob pointed out that it failed "three times" in Portland. In the Los Angeles 2006 case of Jones v. Los Angeles (444 F.3d 1118 [2006]) the court prohibited pol-ice officers from arresting house/less people, who slept on the sidewalks when shelter beds weren't available.

Moreover, it violated the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Constitution citing "cruel and unusual punishment."

Recently, this Race, Media, Poverty (and Legal) Scholar attempted to contact the Downtown Berkeley Business Improvement District. "They're the primary mover on this." Bob later explained to me. When I called the office, a woman claimed that she "didn't have any knowledge" to this proposal, but would research this proposal.

She did, however mention in mid-sentence per my inquiry that the "sidewalks" should be clear for the disabled.

"The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship."

George Bernard Shaw

Above, always I hear your call, and cry out

"Without Mama Dee, whom there would be no me!"

Our journey began with you and me

At twelve, you gave me air to breath

Asleep side by side, in storefronts parking lots,

in our very car, resting our feet

Our journey began with you and me

Fully grown with community, collective voices, and cultures

Every "I" voice silencing every vulture

Smiling, proud, holding you as seen on our wall for all

Ashes alongside each ancestor above, pleased of your praises

Hold the line, share the wealth/health of communities below,

and have faith,

Homefullness heading your way!

Our journey began with you and me............from Mama Dee

"Lisa, I left............. but never departed from you.

Luminous light, spiritual sunset, sky no longer gray

You were always my day, still are my day. That's all I want to say"

"Mama Dee's spirit is an ethereal light to all dark tunnels around us, and within ourselves. It empowers our efforts to eliminate the inequities in our communities, locally and globally."

Marlon Crump

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack has directed the Forest Service to work with the USDA’s Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) to review existing laws, regulations, and policies and examine their effectiveness in ensuring a consistent level of protection for American Indian and Alaska Native sacred sites located on National Forest System lands. Secretary Vilsack asked the Forest Service to consult with Tribal leaders to determine how the Agency can do a better job addressing sacred site issues while simultaneously balancing pursuit of the Agency’s mission to deliver forest goods and services for current and future generations.

The Secretary has asked the Forest Service and USDA OTR to provide a final report and recommendations for sacred site policy changes and proposed policy language by November 2011, following the conclusion of Tribal consultation. Information on the policy review can be found athttp://www.fs.fed.us/spf/tribalrelations/sacredsites.shtml 

The following Sacred Sites Listening Sessions have been scheduled on Navajo Nation. 

March 14, 2011 - Navajo Nation Museum @ 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
Location: Navajo Nation Museum, 
Highway 264 and Post Office Loop Road, Window Rock AZ, 86515 

March 15, 2011 - Coal Mine Canyon Chapter House @ 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 
Coal Mine Canyon Chapter House 
Directions: West 139 miles from Window Rock on Hwy 264 to BIA Indian Route 6710 

From Tuba City go 15 miles east on Hwy 264 to BIA Indian Route 6710 
  
March 16, Shiprock, NM @ 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
Shiprock Chapter House 
Directions: East from the junction of Hwys 491 & 64 in the town of Shiprock, 500' east from the junction on your way towards Farmington. The Chapter House is on the north side of the Hwy. 

Noon Meal will be pot-luck style. 
In partnership with Dine Hataalii Association. 

Not able to attend?  You can still get your comments in. 

"Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior, and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return."
    -Article 10 of UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples

On Friday, March 25th, the United Native Americans(UNA) will be demanding reparations and accountability from the people whom they know need to do the repairing: The Hearst family, and their media conglomerate that has made a fortune off of Lakota and Sioux native lands. The UNA's battle with the Hearsts is relavent to the lives of all landless people, especially those who've fallen prey to the Hearst Corp's dirty lies about poor folks.

 I work amongst a small group of folks in POOR Magazine’s Solidarity Board to mobilize peoples with privilege to think about the role of reparations for landless indigenous peoples in poverty like the poverty and indigenous scholars who lead the art, media, land and equity sharing project called Homefulness at POOR Magazine. We are speaking about what exactly reparations are, and about all of the oppressions that Western, Euro-centric wealth directly or indirectly rests upon—i.e., all the reasons that stolen lands and resources need to be restored to indigenous and poor peoples. This includes US Imperialism in the South Pacific, underpayment of employees, stolen indigenous land in Amerikkka, and displacement of urban poor communities. Our work includes talking to our friends and family about why land ownership is central to the processes of colonization and imperialism, and why land ownership should be at the center of reparations for those who have been displaced.

Reparations need to happen to heal the wounds that capitalism has inflicted upon the people the mainstream media indicates are the least important: indigenous communities, people of color, children, people in poverty, disabled people, migrants, elders, and mothers. Daily newspapers are the media through which we consume ideas about what to do and who to be, and tell stories to make us understand where we come from. These newspapers, like the Hearst-owned SF Examiner, tell us stories about what sort of ideal human we should all strive to be. The problem is, most media in wide circulation has been taken over by corporate interests, and ignores atrocities against folks who need their land back, like the Lakota people of the Black Hills, because indigenous folks, we are told, are not the ideal humans we all want to be. "Very few people know about these facts," says Quanah Brightman, a Lakota/Sioux leader of the UNA with whom I spoke. Manipulation of the media is a strategy that kkkolonizers like the Hearsts have used throughout history, and indigenous people at POOR and the UNA are turning the tables with their own people-led media!
 
In 1877, George Hearst, a patriarch of the Hearst newspaper fortune, "purchased" the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota. When residents in nearby Deadwood expressed concern over his business partnerships' plans to mine the gigantic lode of gold in the Black Hills, George Hearst founded a local newspaper to influence public opinion on the matter. A local journalist wrote ciritcally on the mining operation in a different newspaper, and was beat up in the streets of Deadwood as a result. The company used media to attack indigenous opposition to the advance of Capitalism into their sacred land.

Just the year before, in 1876, Custer's Last Stand marked a moment of displacement for the Sioux and Lakota folks living in the Black Hills. US Army troops were sent there to drive indigenous folks farther out onto the Great Plains and farther from ancestral lands. Contrary to the fact that "the statute of limitations on the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty is forever," says Quanah Brightman, the US Government supported corporate prospecting in the Black Hills and broke the promise. "What are treaties made for if they're allowed to be broken?," asks Quanah. This is what paved the way for three white miners to "purchase" the Black Hills site from the Indians, and sell it the next year George Hearst and his business associates.

"Where would three white miners get a land title from Indians who couldn't read or write?," asks Lehman Brightman, founding member of the UNA, community elder, and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. At least $1billion is staked on the answer to Mr. Brightman's question for George Hearst's decendants and the media conglomerate that grew out of his early ventures into journalism in South Dakota and elsewhere. The Homestake Gold Mine is the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, and the Sioux and Lakota people who were kicked out of the Black Hills have not seen any of the profits. The Sioux and Lakota people have not seen any reparations at all in the aftermath of the Hearst Corp's atrocities.

The Hearst family has made a fortune off of similarly slimy acts of lying and betrayal throughout history, at the cost of poor people of color around the world. For the sake of bolstering profit and the interests of the white owning class in Amerikkka, they have combined military, journalistic, and ecological forces over the past century and more, consolidating wealth with the violent ownership they had stolen in the past.

William Randolph Hearst I, George Hearst's son, convinced George to buy the San Francisco Examiner after the family had earned millions from their silver mine in the Comstock Lode in Nevada and the Homestake site. The Hearsts envisioned the Examiner to be the first and only "populist" newspaper in US print. It denounced the corrupt deeds of Gilded Age corporate entities and advocated for fair prices and the security of poor farmers in middle America during the 1880s. However, the Examiner soon developed a character more akin to contemporary FOX News. William Randolph Hearst I found that low prices, color pictures, and big headlines could garner wider circulation of stories that reflected his personal political ambitions. Where the old "populist" kick served the family well in encouraging railroad construction and gold currency (at the expense of native lands in California, Nevada, and the Plains), the new "yellow journalism" trend solidified Hearst's position as a big-business politician, bringing him closer to power in government, while using his newspaper to "paper over" all the exploitation he used to gain it.

William Randolph I used fear-mongering stories to promote the Spanish-American War in 1896. In response to a photogaphers' protests that the photos he was asked to take in Cuba were too controversial and violent, William Randolph I famously replied, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." This man was basically a war profiteer, set to use media to alienate people from Congressional decisions, and to wreak havoc upon the people of Cuba and the Philippines without accountability. Here again, Hearst demonstrated no desire for transparency, and in fact waxed opaque while he used cheap dramatic tactics to gather support for the imperialist war. The power of media to smash native sovereignty in this set of incidents is incontrovertible.

William Randolph Hearst I also bought hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Chihuahua, Mexico, after the indigenous warrior Geronimo lost that territory to Mexican troops in the 1880s. To justify the land claims, the Hearst-owned Examiner simultaneously began to publish racist articles on Mexicans and the Apache resistance. Later, when Pancho Villa looted the Hearsts' giant Chihuahua ranch, the family hired one hundred private security personnel to chase off the revolutionaries. And still later, in the 1930s, Hearst used anti-Mexican images and language in their newspapers to promote the criminalization of marijuana. Here again, the Hearsts exhibited a sound disrespect for indigenous folks by not only stealing their land, but also by criminalizing their political and economic strategies in media. By calling the shots on the media circuit, the Hearsts got away Scotch-free of accountability and any publicly legitmized call for reparations.

In the 1970s, the Hearst family was presented with a unique opportunity to repair some  of the damage their activities have caused, but basically blew it. When Patty Hearst was taken hostage by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in the Bay Area, the SLA demanded that the Hearsts distribute $70 worth of food to every needy household in California, in return for Patty (which would total $400 million). The Hearsts gave up $6 million in food, but when they realized Patty wasn't going to be released, they closed up their pocket books once again.

In 2001, The Hearst-owned SF Examiner ran a series called "The Mess on Market," which used hygenic discourse to describe how folks in the TL needed to be "swept away," or at least under the rug. According to an archived article from POOR Correspondent Joe Bolden, the stigmatizing images that the Examiner used were a-historical, and strategically caused readers to forget what the neighborhood had contributed to the city, and to its low-income residents in particular. Article after article in the POOR Magazine archive, by Tiny Grey-Garcia, Joseph Bolden, Fiona Gow, and more, describe how the Examiner used words like "mess," "blight," and "clean up" to desribe what was going on in the neighborhood that people so dearly loved and could call their own.

Echoing what happened to Times Square under NY Mayor Giuliani, the Examiner worked in collaboration with the SF Redevelopment Agency and police forces to harrass, intimidate, institutionalize, and incarcerate folks out of the neighborhood and make way for the new Business Improvement District (BID) that Mid-Market is today. What a coincidence that the Hearsts happen to own real estate in that very area. What a coincidence that the Hearsts used the same exact tactics to steal land from the Lakota and Sioux people of the Black Hills; people of the Philippines and Cuba; people of Chihuahua Mexico; and many, many others.

Like the UNA resistors of the 1960s and 1970s, including elder Lehman Brightman; Geronimo, Pancho Villa, the victims of the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee and Custer's Last Stand; Cuban resistors; the Ohlone people of the San Francisco Bay; and countless others, people who have stood up to Capitalist land interests have been named by the police and the mainstream media as "militants," according to Lehman. Some were exlied, many were killed, and some of the UNA protestors who will be at the March 25th rally and press conference were arrested by the FBI.

Quanah and Lehman Brightman trace their lineage of reistance back through time and across all the victims of US Imperialism. Quanah says, "We support all indigenous people who are trying to reclaim their ancestral lands."

There is so much to be repaired. The Hearsts and others like them have taken so much from people by spreading lies about the beneficial effects of capitalist land grabs. People's ancestral lands have been swept out from under their feet. White families like mine have been told stories by the mainstream media about why this doesn't matter. While folks like me can live securely on our bought/stolen/inherited land, it's obvious that this isn't the whole story: that our comfort rests on the unwilling sacrifices of others, that the Hearsts "basically became rich off the Sioux Nation," says Quanah, just like us privileged colonizers. That needs to be addressed through projects for reparations like Homefulness and the calls to action released by the UNA. Someone lived here before. Someone is trying to cover the fact up. Newspapers like the Hearsts' bloated media empire are making the land safe for capitalism, but Poverty Scholars at POOR Magazine and our allies with the United Native Americans are trying to turn that around with better media, people-led media.

Just like with HUD and the San Francisco Planning Department, the policy-making entities with jurisdiction over the Black Hills are allowing lands sacred and foundational to poor folks of color to go to the corporate hounds. Agencies like the California [Indian] Native American Heritage Commission and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which claim indigenous leadership, have been "desecrated by their corporate interests" and "obviously, are co-opted," says Quanah. Lehman states that "the Interior Department have never been an advocate" and that "the BIA are supposed to act as a guardian of sort" but have shirked responsibilities in loyalty to US State interests. Native rights actually come under the sway of US law more than any other legal entity, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Quanah says that "Ohlone ancestors are not being allowed to rest in a proper way" because the Ohlone are recognized by the State of California but not by the Federal government. Therefore, many peoples such as the Ohlone cannot gain control over their sacred lands. At this juncture, for instance, they are trying to build a Safeway supermarket on an Ohlone burial site in Pleasanton.

What has the Hearst Corporation contributed to the struggling folks they have stolen land and culture from? Not much. Lehman says that the Hearst Family "has never tried to make amends with the Sioux Nation." The heir to the Hearst fortune, William Randolph Hearst III, has "not given one red cent to the Sioux Indians. He could have set up a scholarship or something." Upon review of the Hearst Foundation (the NPIC charitable branch of the Hearst Corporation) grants of 2010, some of the biggest recipients of cash include the Stanford University Medical Center ($2.5 million), the Guggenheim Museum ($350 thousand), and other Non Profit Industrial Complex scams. "Office visits are generally discouraged, and except in rare cases, a site visit to the organization is required prior to Board review." Not only does the Hearst Foundation website make it real hard to understand what it's all about and how/why granting decisions are made; it also specifies that organizations with less than $1 million are very unlikely to "qualify" for a grant. In addition, they will not consider grants for organizations outside the United States, or organizations intending to use grant money outside the US.... Does that discount the indigenous folks of North America?

Obviously, the charitable face of the Hearst Corporation is not at all committed to a project of redistributing wealth or repairing stolen land or damage done to communities. Rather, the Foundation gives money to high-profile organizations that serve wealthy cultural and educational interests.

We cannot wait for the charity of folks like the Hearsts, for them to hand out crumbs. United Native Americans is demanding reparations, and we must join them in helping to spur on a widespread movement for the rights of indigenous and landless people. I am proud to be part of a media organization that actively counters what the mainstream media has got to say about the people most vulnerable to imperialistic, militaristic, capitalist, racist State-sponsored action. POOR Magazine and the UNA are taking poor people's voices back to demand land reparations from privileged people like me.

Please join the UNA in protest at the gates of Hearst Castle on Friday, March 25th, and Saturday, March 26th, from 8am to 3pm. 750 Hearst Castle Rd, San Simeon, CA 93452.

Watch the UNA leaders speaking on this action in POOR Magazine's March Community Newsroom session

Today I left home agian and drove up north to the Unitah and Ouray Reservation in Utah. There I meet up with my Northern Ute Fam Bam and we drove up further north to Idaho. We soaked in the Lava Hot Springs, which was amazing. There I laid under the sky and felt the warmness of the waters and steam. Tomorrow is the day we drive back down to the Salt Lake City Indian Center to go to a rounddance and I am so excited! YES!

Tonight was an amazing time! I spent the night volunteering at (and enjoying) the Mamas of Color Rising benefit for the Sankofa Birth Companion Project I will be participating in. The mamas linked forces with Detroit based artist Invincible and organized an all women in hip hop showcase at Austin's historic Victory Grill.

The energy was fierce and full of serious love. A lot of information and consciousness raising went down. Paula Rojas my sister organizer with Mamas of Color Rising and studying midwife shared that "In the U.S., 2.5 times the number of black women than white women do not have pre natal care. " and "Infant mortality for black babies is twice the high versus white babies, that means the percentage in which black babies are dying is worse than poorer countries in the world".

Paula went on the share more about what they call "Womb to Prison Pipeline". We know that at an early age children of color are tracked in the school system in different ways for example,  to either go to college or prison in  what has been called the "School To Prison Pipeline."  What Mamas of Color is saying is that this sort of tracking of our children,  happens much earlier, it starts in the womb.

The line up was strong and powerful. The Line up included local artists DJ TKAY, Tiger Lily of RAS, Yoli of Public Offenders, T-fly of the Cipher, Queen Deelah, EMT, Gabi, Perseph One, Las Krudas Cubensi, and Detroit's Invincible.

What an amazing and magical event that I was honored to be a part of. What a declaration of community and solidarity and sisterhood!  And a personal affirmation that my path to becoming a birth companion and midwife is the right one for me...

 check out my youtube channel for more footage!!

http://www.youtube.com/rachelcaballero

The Anti-GentriFUKation Mural is an art in resistance project of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE

The Anti-GentriFUKation Mural was co-created by youth, children, mamas, daddys and elder poverty, migrant and indigenous scholars and gentriFUKation survivors in residence at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE in collaboration with revolutionary artists Asian Robles, Carina Lomeli, Muteado Silencio, Nube, Vivian Thorp, Tiny and Oji Eli.

This art was created as a resistance to the impending gentrification due to the Eastern Neighborhood Plan and out of control real estate development and government complicity of the Redstone Building- a historic landmark where POOR Magazine's PEopleskool classrooms, Al Robles Living Library and indigenous news-making circle currently lives as well as The SF Living Wage, CISPES/FMLN , WRAP offices and hundreds of other revolutionary groups maintain headquarters.

After a 9 hour drive through the night from El Paso to Austin, my new friend and carpool buddy Avina Gutierrez (from a long line of Chicano Activists, daughter of cofounders of Raza Unida Party in Crystal City and fierce student activist at UTEP) arrived just in time for the Rally at the State Capitol to Save Texas Schools.

As we approached the capitol lawn and building,  Kids of all ages,  Elders, Teachers, students, families, short, tall, bodies filled the lawn bearing signs of protest such as "Save Our Schools" and "Ignorance costs more than Education".

An estimated 11,000 people came through the Capitol to protest over 10 Million in proposed Budget cuts to Texas Education System. The Proposed cuts would cost teacher jobs,decreases in employee  pay (starting at the bottom), school closures and launch Texas schools into a deeper crisis for resources.

The energy was alive and unified in Austin. People from all over Texas were standing together in Declaration.  I was happy to be present at the event and in protest of gov. big Dick Perry. 

EDUCATION NOT INCARCERATION!!

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety"

Benjamin Franklin

Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, belongs in a padded cell, along with the rest of the state Assembly and Senate.  This poverty skolah has lived on social security for several years without a COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) raise.  The government of Michigan wants to double pension taxes, abolish the Earned Income Tax rebate, and pass the "savings" to the state and corporations.  They really want to be thought of as "business-friendly".

All inspections of dairy products (by state officials) have been cancelled, all philanthropic donations to state and local colleges and universities will be taxed, and city governments under extreme financial pressure will be dissolved by the governor and pub under corporate receivership.  This is the Robocop future of the city of Detroit, MI, owned by a mega-corporation.

Imagine Detroit being renamed Blackwater-ville (Blackwater changed its name to "Xe Services LLC"..imagine Detroit renamed "Xe"...).  The Controller of the corporation managing the receivership has the power to declare all contracts null and void.  The Board of Directors (especially the Chair) will have feudal power over citizens of their fiefdom, acting as Barons over serfs.

Get ready, people of Detroit, for the new. improved. feudal ages.  Your Barony of Neo-Detroit may well go to war with Amwayville over property and water rights.  The governor, your King, will sit back and watch the end of Democracy.

Snyder was probably inspired (in part) by Sandy Springs, Georgia, which voted to incorporate itself in 2005.  Incorporation isn't a bad thing, but what the leadership of the town did after that is questionable at best, even if they truly did want to reduce the cost of being a town or city in 21st Century America.

Sandy Springs signed a $32 million contract with CH2M-Hill, a multinational corporation, to perform "...all the public works, all the community development, all the administrative stuff, the finance department, everything is done by CH2M-Hill", the Mayor, Eva Galambos, said in a 2006 newspaper article written by Leonard C. Gilroy of the Reason Foundation.

The argument for doing this was couched as saving money ($32 million is just over half what Fulton County charged Sandy Springs in taxes for services rendered) and working to do the job of governance better and more efficiently.  Those are good goals to shoot for, but will everyone who sees this solution to the high cost of running a city be so magnanimous?  The citizens of the City of Oakland, CA, have endured years of poor management of resources, nepotism in City Hall, strong mayors (like Jerry Brown) who were more business-friendly than people-friendly, weak mayors like Ron Dellums (embarrassed by a nepotism-minded city administrator who appeared to be stronger, certainly more stubborn...), and more.

Michigan and Wisconsin are leading the way to the deconstruction of our communities--we thought California was bad!  
 
This nightmare has a solution.  Recall the entire government of Michigan.  To paraphrase one of the Founding Fathers of this country, freedom of speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent, you'll be led like sheep to the slaughter.  Don't be sheep.

(Photo taken by David Elliott Lewis)

"If, at 50,000 volts a zap five officers shoot their tasers at the same time, the subject gets 250,000 output. The electrical charge inside the death penalty (electric chair) chamber." Mesha Monge-Irizarry's explanation of the fatal functions for taser use by po-lice officers.

The Use of Force: Batons. Bean bags. Weight-knuckled (sap) gloves. Choke holds. Then of course, the gun. All of the said arsenals above commonly used by po-lice officers. Codes of conduct often used unlawfully, locally and globally. Notwithstanding, the use of an electrical controlled device, (taser gun) and its potentially deadly results.

"If your son was tasered instead of shot, would he still be alive today?" A reporter asked Mesha Monge-Irizarry. This was following the death of her only son, Idriss Stelley killed by eight San Francisco Po-lice Officers, in 2001 at the Sony Metereon Theater. Mesha replied, "No, he would've been fried to death."

An estimated total of 400,000 volts would've traveled into his body.

Before former BART Po-lice Officer Johannes Mehserle fired the fatal bullet onto the back of Oscar Grant, it was reported that Grant pleaded with him not to taser him. Theoretically, the outcome tragically could've been the same.

A Taser is an electroshock weapon that generates electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. It fires approximately 50,000 volts, and can drop someone from up to 15 feet away. Taser International is the chief developer, manufacturer, and distributor of taser guns.

The San Francisco Board of Police Commissioners held a meeting on tasers, February 23rd, 2011. A proposal to its possible passage caused chain reactions of outrage and fear, for many communities here in San Francisco, CA: People in poverty, youths of color, the elderly with immobility issues, homeless/landless, mental health crises, undocumented immigrants (migrant scholars), and for all system resisters.

Myself, and my POOR comrades, "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Gracia, (POOR co-founder) Tiburcio (her son) Bruce Allison, and Ruyata Akio McClothin a.k.a. RAM arrived a half-hour early at S.F. City Hall. The meetings are publicly held and televised at 5:30 p.m. Outside the meeting room were many of our community comrades waiting to oppose this deadly "proposal."

Our acts of digital resistance in re-porting and solidarity supporting were shockingly met with a resistance...........from the municipal administration, itself.

A San Francisco Sheriff Deputy barred our entry until everyone inside (the commissioners and command staff) were “situated.” Apparently, they (S.F.P.D.) were afraid that community members were going to prevent po-lice personnel from seating, in an act of civil unrest and resistance.

Forced to form a line as if we were in a soup kitchen, we each held up a sign:

COPS + TASERS KILLS!

Finally after nearly an hour's wait, we were allowed inside. The seats quickly became filled, in that S.F.P.D. and municipality members had now reserved their own. Throughout the duration of the meeting, the room became somewhat surrounded of po-lice officers and sheriff deputies. Inside, this public televised meeting was the item agenda anticipation everyone anxiously awaited:

Discussion and Possible Action Proposal for Modification of Use of Force.

When the meeting came to order, Thomas Mazzucco, the commission’s president requested that the item agenda be "taken out of order." Protocol or not, this is a common chess game tactic used by the commission and the Board of Supervisors. The purpose: To prolong presentations, as an attempt to discourage public opposition from their own self-influenced decisions.

Imposition to impatience. Mazzucco, nearly five hours later announced the item agenda we waited patiently (and impatiently) for. He even attempted to decrease our two minute testimonies, by 30 seconds. I would later criticize the entire commission for "not prioritizing the public."

The commission heard numerous presentations from the department, proponents and opponents of tasers. Discussions took place regarding ramifications, research, and even the costs involved. The reported estimated cost to overall arm the S.F.P.D. with tasers is two million dollars. Where was the city going to find gun funding, considering its current fiscal "shortfalls?"

Is it going to come from, in light of the recent reports of the city considering to layoff 500 officers in the department?

The S.F.P.D. claims that (tasers) are an "alternative approach to officer-involved shootings in death-related cases." Allegedly-aimed for "de-escalating situations" without using "deadly force."

Whereas there are optimistic proponents of this proposal...............

"The San Francisco Sheriff's Department has used tasers for eight years. I have found them to reduce injuries to citizens and officers when force is used." San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, himself, had explained his experience to me. Seemingly optimistic in his presentation of his support, he added, "They cause temporary pain, but do not cause physical injuries.........as do nightsticks, gas or guns."

there are surely opponents to this proposal.............

“Almost all situations designated as crisis scenarios here would be inappropriate and unsafe for taser use.” Jeremy Miller says, activist, and co-director of Education Not Incarceration. During his public testimony, Jeremy pointed out his health history of epilepsy. An encounter for him with a taser if unlawfully confronted by a po-lice officer could be deadly.

Even those who've had firsthand experience.

My comrade, Mesha informed me just recently regarding her experience of actually being tasered................as a volunteer. Much to my shock and surprise. "In 2004, Steve Tuttle of Taser International called me to fly two of his representatives to S.F. from Arizona, to do a promotional demo at Idriss Stelley Foundation." According to Mesha, "This was to gain a 1.2 Million contract with the S.F.P.D.

She laid out in detail of the medical aftershocks from being (no pun intended) shocked.

"One copper prong ended embedded in my right sciatic nerve, and the second damaged the conjunctive tissue between my right femur and the pelvic bone, aggravating my diabetic neuropathy. This is why I walk with a cane to this day."

On the display screens in the meeting room were draft drawings. They proposed alternative targeted areas, as opposed to a po-lice officers shooting at "center mass." One of the critical areas was the groin area. An officer presented a "less lethal force" weapon before the commission. It looked like an old fashion Tommy machine gun used in old gangster movies.

"It is a Penn Arms Forty millimeter multi-launcher." the officer replied when I asked him what it was. It is used in SWAT team situations. They can shoot a suspect at 250 feet per second with rubber bullets causing significant blunt trauma. A "less" lethal weapon? A blatant attempt to sway support from the commission, by inducting intimidation.

"It is also important to keep in mind that tasers are NOT non-lethal weapons. They are less lethal." Barbara Attard, stated in her address. She was a consultant for NACOLE, the National Association Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. "In San Jose, at least six people have died after tasers were used on them. In two of those cases, the coroner ruled that the taser was the contributing factor in the death."

In a disgusting display of entertainment/education via racism, two plain clothes officers engaged in a mock theater role play before the audience. One was a black male and a white woman. The act was he was the aggressor in a dispute with his girlfriend, in which he shook and screamed at her.

Two uniform officers of Asian descent "responded" to a domestic dispute call via a computer-voiced over 9-1-1 dispatch, weapons drawn. One had a gun drawn, the other a taser. The male suddenly pulled a knife from his back pocket and threatened them with it. Before he could advance further towards the officers, the "performance" was halted.

For viewing of video credited to The Bay Citizen;
http://www.baycitizen.org/policing/story/sf-police-commission-oks-taser-...

"I've been in at least ten-related cases involving taser-related cases." Civil rights attorney, John Burris stated briefly to me. He too was here at this hearing to present his opposition. "Tasers can be an abusive weapon."

There were testimonials from officers of the Mission District Station, of "life threatening" experiences they claim to have encountered. To me, it seemed as if this was another blatant attempt to blindside public opinion. Secret agendas to sway support from the commission.

"Let me be fair for a moment here. How do we know that a police officer's 'use of force' was really justified?" I asked during my own public testimony. "Police officers have lied, lied, and lied SO many times. Its difficult for anyone to determine if they're telling the truth or not." (Based on my own personal experience of observing cops, and their collective cover ups to their own crimes.)

Dr. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, presented his report and support for tasers. In his mid-presentation, Wexler argued that tasers "were not made to kill." His argument was met with mellow reactions of ridicule from the audience. Commissioner Petra De Jesus (a opponent to tasers) fired back at Wexler, regarding her concerns of serious ramifications, if this instrument were implemented.

This exact same "proposal" was brought before the commission, last year. Then-police chief, George Gascon (handpicked by Dr. Wexler) pushed for this proposal, but was narrowly defeated in a 4-3 vote. “I underestimated the political environment that I was operating under." Gascon later told reporters.

It’s rather interesting how quickly he was immediately appointed as District Attorney by Gavin Newsom, before Newsom left his mayoral seat for his elected position, as California Lieutenant Governor. Gascon contributed to Gavin’s campaign, as so did an employee of the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, attorneys for Taser International.

(Records of their contributions found at the following site.)

http://www.electiontrack.com/lookup.php?committee=1325415

Speculation surfaced recently that stun gun manufacturers will be contributing to Gascon's upcoming DA campaign. Time can only tell reality.

The commission voted to conduct further study and research on these "less-than-lethal" weapons. In 90 days, they will render a report to determine its decision for taser use in the community. If passed, elders, youth, pregnant women, houseless/landless people, protesters, Sit-Lie law victims (Prop L), migrant scholars, and people in poverty will literally be in the line of fire, via voltages.

Any weapon, advanced, sophisticated, and or "less than lethal" weapon they vastly equip themselves with expresses their desires to brutalize, criminalize, and marginalize communities deemed "undesirable."

From our own experiences, po-lice culture is a trendy terrorism attributed with fascism and imperialism for immobilization. Arming po-lice terror with a taser does not "modify" use of force. Rather, it ensures more cruel and unusual punishment, of future torture techniques from one device.

Silenced voices. Voltages to our voices in our villages.

Internet stories about a statue, dedicated to the dystopian science fiction movie hero Robocop, being built to stand somewhere in Detroit, Michigan, went all the way to the city's Mayor.  Despite being told there were no official plans for such a thing, a group of people raised $50,000 in less than a week (to have the thing designed and created) and pledged to continue to raise money until the end of March 2011.

Robocop: The Statue, created by a group of people with too much time (and too much access to money not-well-spent) on their hands, and not much political consciousness.  The Robocop future is one where Detroit is wholly owned by a mega-corporation and the Po'Lice are a private security force that protects the corporation and its executives and nobody else.

We are so close to this "future", or we live in it already, and anyone reading these words knows what POOR Magazine poverty skolahs think.  We know/feel this future in our bones, it is more true to reality than the pie-in-the-sky Gene Roddenberry fed us in the form of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, et al.

I liked a lot of the Star Trek stories, but Roddenberry's future somehow couldn't include gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender folk in his sci-fi paradise.  Star Trek fans got a few crumbs here and there, a lot like the crumbs Jerry the Gentrifier of Oakland, CA (now Jerry the Whatcha Gonna Do To Us NOW? Governor of California in 2011), licks his lips over while newspaper headlines help spread the "tough love" fear.

The truth of our reality is trumpeted from the offices of Congress and the Obama Oval Office in the Blight House.  The newspapers and on-line news dispensers can only ask the questions Who Will Blink First?  Who Will Lose If There's Another Government Shut-Down like back in the Bill Clinton Era.  "They say" the Elder Voters of the nation will be unhappy with the Republicans and Tea Baggers they voted for.

The Elder Poverty Skolahs of the Nation, and the Poverty Skolahs too, stand to lose a lot more than any political party or pol will, but, as POOR Magazine poverty skolah Gioioia Von Disterlo, stuck in the Akkkdemic Kampus of the University of Washington in Seattle is often told, the poor must be led by the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, which knows better than we do how to fix the problems we have.

Among other things, whither the Ten Year Plot To End Homelessness?  That is well more than half-way through its tenure in public policy of rat-racing many houseless and semi-houseless people into Poor People Housing that will cease to exist if the Federal Government goes all $100-billion-postal on us and the State of CA dances the Tango with them while the Robocop future becomes ever so much more painfully real.

The Robocop statue belongs to us.  It is a symbol that can't speak to any well-fed tourist who makes it merely a bullet-point on their Bucket List of Things To Do And See Before They Die.  "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen, wrote and sang "Born In The USA" as an indictment of Amerikkka, and had it's meaning culture-jacked by happy disco dancers and Ronald Raygun.

"They've Been Bought, We've Been Sold" is a slogan on a protest poster I used as an image attached to a recent article about Stage Three Child Care for poor mamaz in California.  The slogan has long legs, we get sold every day to corporations like Lennar (that own big chunks of San Francisco and are part of the dance of gentrification continuing to make this place less economically diverse), that write their own grafitti tags all over us.

This is our task--to make it harder for Them to steal things like Robocop and Slumdog Millionaire from Us.  Robocop belongs to the Poor.  Say it LOUD!

DJ Supalee Spinning

Monday, February 1, 2010;

Krip-Hop Nation & DJ Supalee Listen to Vibrations

When Krip-Hop was first launched we had The Helix Boyz on the radio. At that time The Helix Boyz were one of the first Hip-Hop duos that were and are Deaf in Hip-Hop Also I learned from Fred M. Beam of the Wild Zappers, a Black Deaf dance troupe from D.C., that Deaf people had their own music underground called Deaf Rave in the UK and DIP in the US. From there not being Deaf I continued to let Deaf musicians educate me and I found out here in the USA there are Def Familia Entertainment, Def United Edutainment and many more organizations/groups providing a stage for Deaf musicians including Hip-Hop artists. Through my continued research I found an article on DJ Supalee of Brooklyn, NY. He is a Deaf DJ and his father is also a DJ but not Deaf. I was so interested in his story that I decided to ask if I could interview him. Below is that interview and a song I wrote about his father and him.

1) Krip-Hop Nation – DJ Supalee tell us how did you get into Djing

DJ Supalee - I started out boxing with the influence of my stepfather. My parents were divorced and she was married to him. After a few stints fighting in school and coming home bruised, somehow my father got encouraged to get me into his hobby (djing).

2) Krip-Hop Nation – Knowing that your father is a professional DJ how did he react when you showed interested in Djing

DJ Supalee - Its not like I jumped in and told him "I want to be a dj". He threw some equipment at me and told me to try it, he taught me how to understand sound frequency by showing me how to use a crossover. I still remember it like yesterday, he was frustrated at first cuz I didn't know how to take the bass off the midranges. He improvised by telling me to put my hand on the speaker; if I feel no bass then I'm doing all right. The next step was blending the music and I normally practiced that with my hearing partners. We used make tapes in my bedroom blasting the music real loud. I had like 4cerwin vega subwoofers in my bedroom. Then I would listen to my own tapes and that's how I was able to improve.

3) Krip-Hop Nation – Tell us about Deaf Rave in the US and Deaf artists in Hip-Hop.

DJ Supalee - I've never formally met deaf rave in person, but spoke to them a lot online, we talked about doing something big together to spark it internationally but was never able to get the funding together cuz of the traveling expenses. With a little bit of sponsorship, we would be able to accomplish a lot. I've worked with deaf artist all over the USA: Sean forbes, locofunk, GHE, Helix Boyz, wild zappers, dancers, DJ, singers from all corners of this country. Our biggest struggle is trying to do what we love to do and be paid for it. These are some very talented people and just like me, we can be driven by support of our followers.

4) Krip-Hop Nation – Why did you start your organization, Deaf United Entertainment?

DJ Supalee - First off, let me put it on record that I did not founded D.U.E. I actually joined a group of deaf guys who founded the business in Texas. I've always known that with a group effort, were able to accomplish anything. I saw a group if young motivated deaf people with a dream of providing entertainment to deaf patrons worldwide. I joined and helped pushed the business national. Our first national event was in Las Vegas, then after that we did, New York, DC, Florida, Indiana, St Louis, Texas and so on. I felt that this country needed something for people like myself to get exposed. We needed more role models or at least a symbol to encourage us that there are things out there for people who are deaf, blind, crippled or disabled in any way. We had a great run without a single sponsor. At the end, the cost of a large event has just gotten too high and we had to slow down a little bit.

5) Krip-Hop Nation – Is there a movement of Deaf Hip-Hop artists? If so give us so history.

DJ Supalee – I hosted Supafest back in the year 2000 at Gallaudet University as a move to get myself known. Before that, there were small just deaf house parties. Back then there were no sidekick pagers or blackberries for us to keep in touch. If we wanted to reach another deaf person we would call with a TDD device or meet them at a social gathering to catch up. Victor Medina who founded Locofunk at NTID inspired me. This event was our "Saturday night fever" he showcased dance shows and had some sign songs and I was his DJ. When victor graduated I had dreams to do something of my own because I knew I had something that was rare. I took over and put together SUPAFEST at the most popular deaf college in the world during Homecoming and then followed up with my biggest event at NTID. That was the event that jumps started my solo career and sparked the movement of deaf entertainment. After that, everyone started doing his or her thing. Deaf rappers and more djs came out, more folks started performing and things were great. Then I started hearing about things happening overseas which got me real curious.

6) Krip-Hop Nation – It’s so hard to find disabled woman in Hip-Hop. Can you tell us your experience finding Deaf women that are Djs like DJ Star Baby?

DJ Supalee – Betina Washington a.k.a Dj Starbaby is a native from Chicago. She used to come to my events and watch me dj half the night. She became inspired and wanted to become a dj also. She started off by getting herself some equipments and music. When she put that together she told me she was trying to become a dj. I flew over there to help her learn the ropes and I even djed at an event with her in chicago, When she was ready I hosted "Deaf City" at Fur Nightclub in Dc. she came and did her thing. We had over 3,000 people in that building. She's the first female deaf dj in the world.

7) Krip-Hop Nation – I know there has always been a separation between the Deaf community and the rest of the disabled community, do you think we can come together in music like your organization and Krip-Hop Nation and how?

DJ Supalee - oh yes. Definitely, with deaf people, the only key challenge is understanding music and feeling that flow. I had visions of having hundreds or even thousands of people with disabilities being entertained at a club or some major event. It can happen and it WILL happen.

8) Krip-Hop Nation – What was your view on how the Hip-Hop community and media dealt with Foxy Brown losing and regaining her hearing?

DJ Supalee - Man, when I herd she lost her hearing, I was really trying to reach out to her, to talk to her, you know, let her know what I went through and wonder if she was willing to blend. Foxy Brown and me actually grew up in the same area in Brooklyn. When I herd she got that cochlear implant. I cant say that I wouldn't encourage it because she lost her hearing at a really late stage of her life so it seem more of a move out of desperation. I'm not sure if she would ever be the same. I've never met her so I can’t really say, but I noticed her music hasn't been out there lately. I hope she's reading this and will consider the opportunity to look into what were trying to do. When you loose your ability to do something you're used to, you have to learn to adjust. Even if you do, things wont be the same, at least for most of us.

9) Krip-Hop Nation – If you had a chance to meet with music agent, mainstream Hip-Hop artist or an editor of a Hip-Hop magazine, what would you tell them?

DJ Supalee – I would tell them this. "Instead of spending millions of dollars on a contract for some hot shot new artist that's going to give us the same thing, try putting half of that down on this movement and watch what happens. I'll bet my career on it, you will be impressed."

10) Krip-Hop Nation – What are you and your organization goals in 2010?

DJ Supalee - I have big goals for 2010. I'm hosting a summer bash in nyc. Will provide entertainment for people with disability this fall at south seaport in august and I have a deaf cruise coming up this November. I'm still trying to do that new years eve party in London. I’m also going on a few trips to California. I'm hoping this decade will be one of the biggest positive decades of our generation with so many changes going on. D.U.E is coming to DC in November and I got a feeling that's going to be HOT also. And last but not least, I'm hosting ASL poetry at busboys and poets on the last Friday of every month. This is a place where you can watch people do sign language songs, recite and create poems and even do a short Skit for those who want to write plays. Email me if you like more info on any of these events.

11) Krip-Hop Nation – How can people get in touch with you?

DJ Supalee – best way to reach me is my myspace and facebook page or my email address (djsupalee@aol.com). I check that everyday. Be sure to title your subject line cuz I get a lot of spammers.

12) Krip-Hop Nation – Last words.

DJ Supalee - I just want to tell those who are reading this to invest into our community by subscribing to i.d.e.a.l magazine. You don't need to be deaf to attend a deaf event. If you're disabled in any way, don't allow yourself to become the victim. There are millions of people out there looking for people like you. So come on out and make yourself known.

DJ Dad Deaf Son

Verse 1

Dad mixing son feeling the beat
Small hand in big hand
Both on turntables music fuses 2 generations into 1
ASL & spoken nothing like dad & son

Chorus

DJ Dad Deaf Son
Same blood
DJ Dad Deaf Son
Same blood

Verse 2

Older younger
Grooving off each other’s vibes
Flowing bodies music like blood
Pumping through veins like a bass drum

Chorus

DJ Dad Deaf Son
Same blood
DJ Dad Deaf Son
Same blood

Bridge

Son took off into Deaf Raves
One hand on the deck other in the air doing da wave
Till death do em apart
DJ Dad Deaf Son always be connected by rhythm in the heart

Keeps em alive
As they kick
A funky mix
At the club every night

Verse 3

Hear or feel it
DJ… DJ…Dad…Dad
Deaf… Deaf… Son… Son…
Same… Same… Blood… Blood…

Chorus

DJ Dad Deaf Son
Same blood
DJ Dad Deaf Son
Same blood

This morning we woke up and dropped off melisa at her job, Azteca, a mexican supermarket. It was the first time I heard party music inside a grocery store, which was awesome! Then we left denver since it started to snow... We sang lots of songs, talked, and had some deep conversations about life with many breakthroughs!

We had a pit stop at a thai food restaurant, and saw bout 30 deer while driving back down. When we got to my house, we watched What Bleep Do We Know?. An awesome film, and I cooked food for rachel. To find out more about the film, go to http://www.whatthebleep.com/

Friday, January 15, 2010;

Back when Hip Hop first started, radio, television and locals refused to play it. But soon after many determined aspiring artist started doing underground shows, radio and started selling hundreds of thousands of records themselves, the industry took notice. Leroy Moore finds himself in the same situation 3 decades later. Now the same thing is happening to disable artist. Leroy leads a world challenged artist into aKrip Hop Nation.

Hello aspiring disabled artists, I am looking to collaborate with anyone from, photography, poetry, modeling, drawing and whatever you're not letting disability stop. To make a 1 long video showing off your talents, organizations, products you're selling, whatever. I need you to send me any videos, songs, pictures of your work , that I can include in the production. I'm doing this because after hearingsimilar stories how it's difficult for us to break into the industry, I wanted to make a video about what we can do despite our disabilities. So gather up your videos and send me some vides, images or songs and you can also email me links to your video online like youtube . Email me for details of sending if you need help. March 1 is the deadline forreceiving your work so please tell your other comrades to be part of this projects.

Who was the woman who changed the bed sheets and bed spreads the last time I stayed in a hotel? I saw her pushing a cart that hid her face, a face darkened by the sun, moving from room to room, seen in glimpses then forgotten. She could have been in her 20’s or 30’s or older. When I checked out of the hotel, I left a few dollars on the bed with a note that said “thank you”. I thought about the woman’s hands—how many bed sheets had she changed, how many tears had she wiped from a child’s face, how many indifferent glances had she pretended not to notice, how many journeys were cut into the landscape of her hands and face?

I looked at my own hands, hands that write while working as a door man at a high end apartment complex in San Francisco. My hands are soft, yet feel the hard water running over them. I followed the lines etched in my brown hands that led me to the Hotel Frank in San Francisco’s Union Square. I saw her, the woman who changed sheets; I saw bell persons, desk clerks, maintenance workers and room cleaners, gathered in solidarity, boycotting the hotel for not honoring its contract with union workers. I looked at the woman who changed the linens. I saw her brown face clearly. Her hand was a tight fist.

“There’s a boycott here…Check out! Go somewhere else!”

Workers at The Hotel Frank—represented by Unite Here Local 2-- are boycotting the Management Company Provenance. Workers say that Provenance has not honored the existing union contract between workers and management. At stake are the worker’s medical coverage, pensions, sick leave and rights to due process when addressing grievances.

The Hotel Frank is in the heart of downtown San Francisco in Union Square. A Street bearing the word Union should have union workers, one would think. It is a place where tourists visit restaurants, enjoy live music and take in the sights of a world class city—a city that is increasingly hostile to working people and families. Walking the Hotel Frank’s picket line are those who have worked as many as 40 years at the hotel. Marc Norton, who worked as a bellman for 12 years, was fired in September after the hotel was auctioned off in a foreclosure sale in May 2010 by Wells Fargo bank. The bank then sold the hotel to a financial speculator called AEW Capital Management. The hotel is now managed by a company called Provenance.

The new management has not honored the long standing contract with its workers. The company has not contributed to worker’s medical coverage and pensions. Workers are now forced to work an extra half hour without pay. Housekeepers now work more rooms, skipping breaks and meal periods. According to workers, staffing levels have decreased since Provenance took over. The management company has been charged with violating Federal Labor Laws by the National labor Relations board. Both sides await the decision of the board.

“When Provenance took over, we became new, at-will employees who can be fired at any time” said Marc Norton, longtime bellman as the Frank who has been a local 2 member since 1976. A petition was circulated at the Frank requesting that Mr. Norton be appointed as shop steward—a petition every local 2 member signed. Mr. Norton was fired shortly thereafter.

Benefits are a crucial issue for workers. Under the union contract, workers contributed $10.00 a month for healthcare if they had dependents, no cost for those without dependents. Management now wants members to pay $150.00 to $250.00 a month for their health coverage.

Josephine Rivera is an organizer with Unite Here Local 2. She worked for 16 years at the Marriot, helping organize workers in a fight for representation—a fight that lasted 7 years.  She walks the picket line at the Frank, her face reminiscent of Filipino workers whose work and struggle helped organize farm workers into the UFW.  Ms. Rivera spoke of the challenges in organizing workers. “Some workers, such as the Filipino workers, work very hard but have the attitude that the company is being good to them so they do not talk, do not speak up. They have learned not to question authority but to respect it”.  Because of unity and organization, the workers at the Frank are united and speak their minds. 

Marc Norton spoke of the connection with workers in Wisconsin, whose collective bargaining rights are under assault.  "We feel a lot of solidarity with the folks in Wisconsin who are fighting for worker's rights.  We have to stand together.  It's the only way we've won anything".

Support the workers of the Hotel Frank by supporting the boycott by its workers. Urge others to support workers and their families—workers who have put in many years to reap the benefits and equity they have earned. “There’s a boycott here! Check out! Go somewhere else!”

Join organizations like the California council of Churches and the National Urban Alliance who have pledged to boycott the Hotel Frank. Call Provenance and tell them to give their workers a fair deal:

Bashar Wali, President—(503) 295-2122 x101
Maribel Olmeda, Human Resources Manager—(503) 295-2122 x110
Stan Kott, Hotel Frank General Manager—(415) 986-2000
Dayna Zeitlin, Hotel Frank Assistant Manager—(415) 986-2000

To Listen the PNN Radio interview with Marc Norton click here

June 10, 2000

When I heard Trent died it seemed both unreal and inevitable. I look at his picture and he looks so alive, so energetic so vital. So young.

Yet his death also feels like peace, rest at last. I remember my years and years of endless homelessness, homelessness with its wall-to-wall nonstop brutal reality with no time out. I just wanted off, to rest, for it to be over, to die. Heroin was not in my toolbox, but I have met many people who told me they were going to get some and OD because they just couldn't take it any more. It's a pretty easy way to die. Maybe that's what Trent was doing. Or maybe it was just a mistake.

He was having a hard time with his success, of getting the gig writing a column for the online Bay Guardian. Many street people can't handle "success", Food not Bombs has had a lot of people who can't. Perhaps because it is associated with such ugly behavior by those who have our society's definition of success. The flip side of failure and punishment, success and the right to fuck people over. The fear of losing it. Trent's drinking seemed to escalate after he got the job. I had rarely seen him drunk much before, once at a housing meeting he came really out of it. Periodic scabs on his face from some long night. He mostly seemed ok when he came to the ROV writing group this past year. He worked hard and he was a bit crazy, like the rest of us.

He was supposed to start writing a column about the world from his view as a homeless person. I think about that: having a job, writing: but did he have to stay homeless to keep it? What if he got housing with his salary, would the SFBG still find his edgy, sharp writing exciting? Then, what I remember that was so painful for me in my years of homelessness, was how could people with housing work with me politically, claim to believe that homelessness was politically wrong, claim to be my friends, and yet neither offer a time indoors nor help me find housing. Only those with the least shared it. It made me very crazy, and cynical.

And the double life of having to look meek and scruffley to get what I needed to survive, and to look neat and confident and together to get what I needed to get out of the trap. The situational insanity of poverty. Perhaps some of these things were going on with Trent.

At the same time other things happened. His good friend Tom Gomez left town a week before, apparently ran off with some people who wash feet; and his friend Max lost his housing which was a place Trent had been able sometimes stay indoors. Losses in a fragile support system can be the tipping point.

We may never know what was really going on for Trent, but we do know it's not all right for people to live like this in the midst of the great, obscene wealth of San Francisco, of the USA. So maybe it was murder.

Trent was always a pleasure to be around, his vitality gave me a lift, perhaps some hope. I am sad he is gone, but I still suspect he may be relieved to not have to work so hard and endure so much pain anymore.

I am touched by the outpouring of responses to his passing. I am charmed and saddened by the range of people's reactions, functional and dysfunctional. Death, our great companion and taboo.

I thank you great spirit that we had Trent in our lives while he was here. His family told people he died because he had a bad heart, but we know he had a good heart. Goodbye, Trent.

We loved the Ute Mountain Ute Pottery Factory so much that we had to do a special piece just for this...

Dexter showed us around the factory and how the Ute Mountain Utes do the pottery from start to finish. They have many molds for pottery, and a favorite part of our when a woman was explaining what the symbols on the pottery.

Needless to say we bought some pottery for loved ones and some Indian Country Maps for our Indigenous Peoples Highway!

After we went to the Ute Mountain Ute Casino and ate the frybread buffet! I made a Indian taco out of sopapillas! yummy!

Today Rachel left to go back home to do some organizing around childcare and pregnancy. She got home safely, and in two weeks we will meet in the east coast and do some Indigenous Peoples Highway work there, and might even go into Canada. We will both be speakers at a conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. Mari for the next two weeks will be at a round dance in Utah and go to Florida with her sister. 

Mari and Rachel will both be documenting their everyday lives the two weeks they are apart physically but spiritually unified. 

Here is their favorite round dance song they both love to sing... Red and White (Driving Me Crazy) by Northern Cree. Hope it drives you crazy...

Thursday, June 1, 2000

"Yeah its gonna be an opinion column, online for now but we'll see about print they said. They are trying to do more online stuff cuz it is cheaper than paper. I also found out that I got the internship as well, so I am super busy all of a sudden...Im going to work the internship on Mondays and Fridays so Thurs and Tues are open for POOR and ROV. Right now I am scrambled due to the first column, so forgive me if I have been flaking on the newsroom. As soon as my schedule gels into some amorphous semblance of rigidity, I will be more regular.

(I hear bran muffins help also) Peas, Trent