p (Editor#39;s note: This story is reprinted from the San Francisco span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="127"Bayview/span Newspaper, September 2011 issue.nbsp; To read other stories from the San Francisco span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="131"Bayview/span Newspaper go to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.sfbayview.com" data-scaytid="137"www.sfbayview.com/span)/p p nbsp;/p p With the current wave of uprisings across England ndash; after police murdered Mark span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Duggan" data-scaytid="9"Duggan/span, 29, Black father of four, and beat a 16-year-old girl at the peaceful protest led by Markrsquo;s family outside the police station when she asked police why they shot him ndash; and the insurgence of flash mobs across the United States, sparked by unrest in Black communities in cities from Chicago and Kansas City to Philadelphia, where Black youth face problems of unemployment, poor education and constant span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="demonization" data-scaytid="11"demonization/span and vilification from the police, media and wider span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="U.S" data-scaytid="1"U.S/span. demographic, it is appropriate to call on the history of rebellions by our people./p p nbsp;/p p As Dr. Martin Luther King span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Jr" data-scaytid="13"Jr/span. once stated, riot is the language of the unheard; and so it comes as no surprise that the language of our underclass is of the same dialect that it has been for decades and even centuries, as the socio-political issues that plague Black communities have refused to subside and the outcry of our people continues to ring a mere murmur in the ears of the power elite and our fellow world citizens./p p The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="15"Bayview/span community erupted in 1966, at the height of the civil rights movement, upon the unlawful police killing of 16-year-old Black youth Matthew ldquo;Peanutrdquo; Johnson. Police killings continue to haunt Black communities not only here in span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="17"Bayview/span Hunters Point ndash; rest in peace, Kenneth Harding ndash; or even the Bay Area ndash; Oscar Grant and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Raheim" data-scaytid="29"Raheim/span Brown, to name but two stolen lives, remain in our hearts ndash; but across the Atlantic too, in Black communities suffering the same injustices that burn fury in the consciousness of our people: a people of peace./p p Our people of peace, when provoked tirelessly by the evils of police brutality, gentrification and a near genocidal prison system, stand together and claim a united voice: the voice of rebellion./p p So to those young rebels fighting the oppression of Black people today in America, the United Kingdom and across the world, we stand in solidarity with your vision. The fight began long before the 1966 rebellion and continues to live on in the consciousness of every man and woman who has the courage to stand against the white supremacist state in which we live./p p The following interview, conducted earlier this year by span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Alka" data-scaytid="31"Alka/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Joshi" data-scaytid="35"Joshi/span, talking with her neighbors in span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="19"Bayview/span Hunters Point who lived here then, gives an inside look at the 1966 uprising. Those rebels are present today in the consciousness of our youth: Our plight necessitates the continuation of their fight./p p strongMan:/strong That chain of events ndash; [Nat] span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Burbridge" data-scaytid="41"Burbridge/span [president of the San Francisco NAACP] had to take a stand on something. And the issue was: murder./p p strongWoman 1:/strong I realized that it was just, they were fighting for the right to be enabled to walk down the street and be equal, just like anybody else./p p strongMan:/strong Irsquo;m not just span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gon’" data-scaytid="43"gonrsquo;/span let you get away with doing anything to me and expect me to like it. And my stand is, is to fight back./p p strongWoman 1:/strong We were span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="havin’" data-scaytid="47"havinrsquo;/span an Indian summer; it was warm that day./p p strongMan:/strong We were, you know, out in front of the house playing, like little kids do, and we heard tires span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="squealin’" data-scaytid="49"squealinrsquo;/span and saw a guy in a stolen car and hersquo;s just span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="wheelin’" data-scaytid="51"wheelinrsquo;/span around the schoolyard and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="doin’" data-scaytid="53"doinrsquo;/span doughnuts and stuff like this. At that time it was real exciting, lsquo;cause he was too young to be driving./p p strongMan:/strong Police cruisers came into the schoolyard. I can remember him doing a doughnut and heading towards the south end of the schoolyard and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="slammin’" data-scaytid="57"slamminrsquo;/span on the breaks; the car slammed into one of the school benches and he jumped out and took off span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="runnin’" data-scaytid="59"runninrsquo;/span. He went to jump off the top of this little hill and I heard the gun crack; and I saw the body contort. They shot him! But they shot him in the back./p p Mind you, I was a kid then. So I really didnrsquo;t understand all of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="grumblin’" data-scaytid="61"grumblinrsquo;/span and the anger and stuff like this ndash; I didnrsquo;t make the connection then. Well, he stole a car, he did span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="somethin’" data-scaytid="63"somethinrsquo;/span wrong; but, they didnrsquo;t have to kill him./p p strongNewscaster from 1966 clip:/strong It was as if a war had broken out on San Franciscorsquo;s city streets [the sound of people screaming in the background]./p p strongWoman 1:/strong I could hear my mom on the phone, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="talkin’" data-scaytid="69"talkinrsquo;/span about a riot; and, itrsquo;s like, you know, what is span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="goin’" data-scaytid="71"goinrsquo;/span on? And then my brother, he says, he goes down to Third Street and he said the National Guard is out there. I can still visualize all the helicopters; I remember the police cars and paddy wagons that was span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="goin’" data-scaytid="73"goinrsquo;/span back and forth./p p strongMan:/strong [inaudible] span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="comin’" data-scaytid="77"cominrsquo;/span from everywhere, a lot of police sirens and stuff like this./p p strongWoman 1:/strong Shots were fired around the Opera House, which was just down the street from my school./p p strongMan:/strong A whole lot of Black people gathered in the streets and they were span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="shoutin’" data-scaytid="79"shoutinrsquo;/span: ldquo;Piggy, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="wiggy" data-scaytid="81"wiggy/span! span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ooo" data-scaytid="83"Ooo/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="ooo" data-scaytid="85"ooo/span, you span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gotta" data-scaytid="87"gotta/span go now. Oink span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="oink.”" data-scaytid="3"oink.rdquo;/span/p p strongWoman 1:/strong It was really, it was just a mess, it really was. It really, really was a mess./p p strongWoman 2:/strong I have been in span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="21"Bayview/span for 48 years. My parents purchased a home here a month before I was born./p p strongMan:/strong My dad was in the Navy./p p strongWoman 2:/strong My dad was in the military. He was a porter on the Southern Pacific railroad. 1964, when they came here and bought the house, [there were] very few places that would allow Blacks to move [in]. But finally, I was someplace where I could run up and down the street and have a big back yard, and I was just so happy. I was just so happy in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="23"Bayview/span./p p strongMan:/strong Third Street was a beautiful place. We didnrsquo;t even have to go out of the community, basically, for anything. Everything we needed was right there. It was such a thrill to have a quarter and to be able to go to Third Street, to the candy store./p p strongWoman 1:/strong Half of the counter was full of candy. And it was so, it would just be so fun to go down there and just pick up all the candy you want!/p p Everybody would come home and do their homework; and if it was a nice day, somebody would try to talk their parent into span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="hangin’" data-scaytid="93"hanginrsquo;/span outside. If we had one parent outside, everybody was able to stay out. And sometimes one parent would fix hot dogs and chips, or one parent would fix French fries and maybe a sandwich; and we all shared it together./p p And we would get on somebodyrsquo;s stairs or we would sit in the driveway and just sit out and eat and have fun./p p strongWoman 2:/strong The demographics when we moved in rsquo;64 here was very diverse. White, Black, we had an Asian family that they still live down there./p p strongMan:/strong This was all Russian and Italian before we moved down here: Russian, Italian, a few Chinese, but no Hispanics./p p strongWoman 2:/strong Didnrsquo;t feel any type of racial tension, really didnrsquo;t at all. At least I didnrsquo;t. Everybody was just so nice. I can still look around and think about ndash; I probably went into everybodyrsquo;s house on this whole entire block./p p Things were so different: If you as a child was rude to someone, or another neighbor saw that you were doing something, they would go and tell your parents, but they would spank you!/p p strongWoman 1:/strong Then you went home and got disciplined. You got disciplined at school, [so] you walk down the street and somebody donrsquo;t know what happened [says], ldquo;What you span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="doin’" data-scaytid="55"doinrsquo;/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="goin’" data-scaytid="75"goinrsquo;/span home at this time of day?rdquo; You got in trouble with them; you got in trouble with who was at home; and then, you might even get in trouble when your daddy came home [laughs]./p p strongWoman 2:/strong The stores that were down on Third Street ndash; I didnrsquo;t even think anything about span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="walkin’" data-scaytid="95"walkinrsquo;/span down Third Street. We would go shopping down Third Street all the time, walk down there never worried about anything really happening. It was really a nice place to shop./p p strongWoman 1:/strong One family on the other block, they would get tickets for the Giants and we would pack up a lunch and we would go span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="walkin’" data-scaytid="97"walkinrsquo;/span off to Candlestick. And then, the thing about it, it wasnrsquo;t just African American children: We had all nationalities, all religions. But we had a good time./p p strongWoman 2:/strong You have to remember the shipyard was still open too. And you hear the Navy that was down there ndash; you could hear it in the morning, you could actually hear the trumpets with revelry, taps in the evening at 10 orsquo;clock and just sailors all over the place, just all over the place. You couldnrsquo;t even get a seat on the bus lsquo;cause it was just packed with the sailors! So I thought that was cool too, how we had the Navy hellip;/p p strongMan:/strong After the riots, most of the business started span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="movin’" data-scaytid="99"movinrsquo;/span out. Immediate. They got the glass back in the place pretty quick, but, as I can remember, [a] few places stayed empty./p p After the rsquo;66 riots, thatrsquo;s when the white flight took and people moved down to the Peninsula, mainly to escape from here. And thatrsquo;s when span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="25"Bayview/span really got a bad reputation. And it was that nobody cared; nobody cared at all and I felt it was so sad to walk down Third Street or drive down Third Street and see all these abandoned places and nobody cared any more. People just packed up and they left./p p Some of the places, theyrsquo;re still there but theyrsquo;ve changed over the years. Theyrsquo;ve changed owners. At Third and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Palou" data-scaytid="101"Palou/span, we had span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Rexall" data-scaytid="103"Rexall/span drugstore; we had, oh God what was that, it was like a five and dime store; it was just all these cute little boutiques and places you could go in and buy hellip;/p p strongMan:/strong With the riots and stuff, what the riots and stuff did was basically just highlight the injustices. Some of my best friends back then were white, so, you know, it really messed me up. All of that to me, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="kinda" data-scaytid="105"kinda/span liked shaped me as a child./p p strongWoman 2:/strong There was some Maltese out here and that was sad too, to see them leave. They used to have their social club on Oakdale./p p strongMan:/strong I remember one kid that happened to be a good friend of mine named Michael Wilson, ended up span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gettin’" data-scaytid="107"gettinrsquo;/span caught up in that mess and he was only 6 or 7, but he was down on Third Street with the rest of lsquo;em, you know. And I can only wonder today, if that had anything to do with him, you know, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="bein’" data-scaytid="109"beinrsquo;/span in and out of prison, you know, like myself./p p strongWoman 2:/strong People who wore uniforms, like even like mailmen, anybody that was in a uniform, they took it as like that they were the cops or something ndash; that you donrsquo;t belong here type of thing./p p strongMan:/strong Somewhere around here shortly after, they would bus in children from the other neighborhoods hellip;/p p strongWoman 2:/strong When I got old enough to move away ndash; I left when I was 17, soon as I graduated ndash; I was just so happy to get away from here./p p strongMan:/strong The mentality of the people is totally different now than it was back then. Wersquo;d look out for you. If we saw you everyday, then yoursquo;d have people span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="lookin’" data-scaytid="111"lookinrsquo;/span out for you. Now people, especially in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="27"Bayview/span, really donrsquo;t care. They see a crime span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="happenin’" data-scaytid="113"happeninrsquo;/span and they look the other way, ldquo;Oh span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="well.”" data-scaytid="5"well.rdquo;/span Thatrsquo;s the way it is, you know. So there is no, no genuine love and care and any more./p p strongWoman 2:/strong I hated this place so much, just hated it, because of everything that had happened in the past and all the violence./p h4 News broadcast from rsquo;66:/h4 p strongNews anchor:/strong ldquo;Is there going to be more trouble tonight?rdquo;/p p strongInterviewee:/strong ldquo;I donrsquo;t know if therersquo;s span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gonna" data-scaytid="115"gonna/span be more trouble and if I did know I wouldnrsquo;t say, because I donrsquo;t think, I wouldnrsquo;t trust a white man as long as I live ndash; never again. I know I span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gotta" data-scaytid="89"gotta/span go to him for a job. I know I span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gotta" data-scaytid="91"gotta/span go to a white manrsquo;s school and Irsquo;ll go. But if they donrsquo;t want to treat me right, I ainrsquo;t got to beg, lsquo;cause I wasnrsquo;t accustomed to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="beggin’" data-scaytid="121"begginrsquo;/span: I got pride./p p strongWoman 2:/strong I think that the kids that did it, they had so much anger anyway simmering inside of them. I donrsquo;t think that it was something that could have been avoided. There was just too many deep rooted anger. If it wasnrsquo;t that [the police killing] it wouldrsquo;ve been span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="somethin’" data-scaytid="65"somethinrsquo;/span else, I think, it wouldrsquo;ve been span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="somethin’" data-scaytid="67"somethinrsquo;/span else./p p But yeah, I kind of wish they wouldrsquo;ve found a more constructive way of going about things. I mean, didnrsquo;t they, I mean Martin Luther King was still alive at that time. Itrsquo;s like, didnrsquo;t they pay attention to, you know, anything that he said, you know? He would have never consented to that sort./p p So but what I would of hoped to happen is that it never happened./p p strongMan:/strong If you suffered some of the things that we suffered as a people, as a people, therersquo;s a lot of stuff ndash; we span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gon’" data-scaytid="45"gonrsquo;/span make you go on and we span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gonna" data-scaytid="117"gonna/span stand up. We span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gonna" data-scaytid="119"gonna/span support each other. I donrsquo;t think the law is always right, because therersquo;s an element of humanity there. I mean, what is morally right? Not according to the law, but by human beings./p p emspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Alka" data-scaytid="33"Alka/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Joshi" data-scaytid="37"Joshi/span, who recorded this interview, was born and raised in India until the age of 9, when her family immigrated to America. She graduated from Stanford and worked for 25 years, then in the advertising industry before enrolling in the MFA program at California College of the Arts. Earlier this year, she interviewed three of her African American neighbors to learn more about the lingering emotional and economic scars that stem from the Hunters Point rebellion 40 years ago. span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Joshi" data-scaytid="39"Joshi/span can be reached at /ema href="mailto:creativewiz@earthlink.net"creativewiz@earthlink.net/aem. You can listen to this interview at /ema href="http://www.samizdat.me/oral-history-san-francisco-bayview-1966-race-riot/" jquery16105522250723188635="67" modo="false"http://span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.samizdat.me" data-scaytid="7"www.samizdat.me/span/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="oral-history-san-francisco-bayview-1966-race-riot" data-scaytid="123"oral-history-san-francisco-bayview-1966-race-riot/span//aem. /em/p p emNatasha Reid, who transcribed the interview and wrote the introduction, is a writer of Zimbabwean and Scottish descent. She holds an honors law degree, though her real passion lies in journalism and political awareness. You can contact her at a href="mailto:tash.reid7@gmail.com"tash.reid7@gmail.com/a./em/p p br / emspan _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/em/p

p strongHipsters Desecrating an Altar/strong/p p nbsp;We began walking with span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ayat" data-scaytid="1"Ayat/span, Ram, and I heading to Clarion alley a narrow street or alley surrounded by murals, graffiti, art, debris everything you can imagine in an alley, we were heading to the site that has POOR Magazine mural, a mural created by POOR Magazine Family multi-generational, multi-Ethnicity, multi-culture, and mural that speaks about the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="GentrufuKation" data-scaytid="3"GentrufuKation/span, the displacement of poor, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="migrante" data-scaytid="5"migrante/span and ldquo;minoritiesrdquo; out of the Mission. The mural also speaks out of the resistance that people are living and are fighting in the Mission day by day./p p nbsp;One our span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sheroes" data-scaytid="7"Sheroes/span in the POOR magazine mural is Super baby mama she is a poet, writer, mother and she is on welfare, her words are her weapons, her voice is her power, she shatters stereotypes while protecting poor mothers and children everywhere. Her unborn child can detect police harassment at anytime from anywhere and she signals her mother. Super baby mama crushes the batons, guns and squad cars of the unjust law officers within 10 seconds.nbsp; El Mosquito is our span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="polylingual" data-scaytid="9"polylingual/span, multi-racial Superhero who speaks more than 2000 indigenous languages who are no longer spoken and he is a panhandler by day and fightrsquo;s for poor people justice by night./p p nbsp;Is privilege for Poor and oppress peoples to make and create art and be exposed, we are proud of the POOR magazine mural that was created by our family and community members./p p nbsp;As we talk of the mural we notice a group of ldquo;Hipstersrdquo; arriving from the other end of the clarion alley bumping disco music and looking as usual, nbsp;we didnrsquo;t care so we went back into talking about the mural and the message of it, we also admire a beautiful altar that someone had created, from flowers, posters, rare stones, and boxes that seems contain something inside, it was a beautiful Altar. As the nbsp;sun went down we decide to leave, as we pass by the hipsters we had no choice to walk around them to get by, as we pass them you can feel the negative energy they were given us, almost like ldquo;get out, you donrsquo;t belong hererdquo; but we kept quite and walk on. As we got to Mission and 16supth/supI realize I left my plastic bag containing my hot span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Cheetos" data-scaytid="11"Cheetos/span and Orange span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Jarrito" data-scaytid="13"Jarrito/span so I told nbsp;Ram to nbsp;wait for me while I went back to get my munchies./p p nbsp;As I was getting back I notice that two of the hipsters were close to the Altar and POOR magazine mural, as got closer I realize nbsp;what was happening, the hipsters were desecrating the Altar, dumping the small wooden boxes that seems they containing personal things and taking some of the posters with them and destroying the Altar I stood and watch as they continue to disrespect the altar, I wanted to say something but it was seven of them and I was by myself, one the hipsters notice that I was just there watching, he got up from sitting in the curb and start stretching like he was getting ready to fight, I watch until they finish disrespecting the altar./p p nbsp;I was sad and mad at the same time, and could not understand what I had witness, I told friends about the incident and my anger turn into sadness after realizing that those young man, they were product of the environment they were raise without respect, manners, without any culture, without knowing about their ancestors, just like span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Amerikkka" data-scaytid="15"Amerikkka/span was born. As I think more deeply of the ancestors of these young man ornbsp; ldquo;founding fathersrdquo; as they are know who were a bunch thieves, who rape and murder nbsp;who stole land and use slaves to build span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Amerikkka" data-scaytid="17"Amerikkka/span .I am not surprised how even their ancestors were weird in dressing too, wearing fake wigs and the weird clothes they wear, to show their ignorance./p p ldquo;They say that apples donrsquo;t fall far away from the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="tree.”" data-scaytid="19"tree.rdquo;/span/p p nbsp;Is sad to see the arrogance on these group of folks all over Valencia street, creating span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="GentriFukation" data-scaytid="21"GentriFukation/span and almost feels like they are entitle to do it../p p nbsp;I hope each of those creatures who disrespected the Altar get what they deserve and that our ancestors make justice./p p ldquo;You span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gotta" data-scaytid="23"gotta/span Give respect, to get respectrdquo;nbsp;/p

p A Panel on Hip-Hop Artists with Disabilities plus introducing upcoming CD span data-scayt_word="Mixtape" data-scaytid="3"Mixtape/span/Documentary entitled, Police Brutality/Profiling Against People With Disabilities.br / There will also be Live Performances/p p LOCATIONbr / Syracuse Universitybr / span class="text_exposed_show" Syracuse, NY 13244-5040/span/p p span data-scayt_word="Krip" data-scaytid="5"Krip/span Hop Nation Founder/Activist/Poet Leroy Moore will be in Syracuse NY for the October 22nd Event Disability in the Hip-Hop Mix with talks about an upcoming span data-scayt_word="mixtape" data-scaytid="7"mixtape/span/documentary Police Brutality against people with disabilities and more. He will be part of a Panel which will include Keith Jones, span data-scayt_word="Kalyn" data-scaytid="8"Kalyn/span span data-scayt_word="Heffernan" data-scaytid="10"Heffernan/span and others talking about the group#39;s work and the upcoming Documentary produced by span data-scayt_word="Emmitt" data-scaytid="11"Emmitt/span Thrower and span data-scayt_word="Wabi" data-scaytid="12"Wabi/span span data-scayt_word="Sabi" data-scaytid="14"Sabi/span Productions Inc entitled WHERE IS HOPE. span data-scayt_word="Wabi" data-scaytid="13"Wabi/span span data-scayt_word="Sabi" data-scaytid="15"Sabi/span Productions will be attending and filming events, performances and interviews for the documentary project./p p Documentary Website located at/p p a href="http://www.whereishope.webs.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"spanhttp:///spanspan data-scayt_word="www.whereishope.webs.com" data-scaytid="1"spanwww.whereishope.web/spanwbrs.com/wbr/span//a and/p p Fundraising Effort and more info at/p p a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/whereishope" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"spanhttp://span data-scayt_word="www.indiegogo.com" data-scaytid="2"www.indiegogo.com/span//spanspan data-scayt_word="whereishope" data-scaytid="16"spanw/spanwbrwbrwbrwbrhereishope/wbr/wbr/wbr/wbr/span/a/p p and CD span data-scayt_word="Mixtape" data-scaytid="4"Mixtape/span project produced by span data-scayt_word="Krip" data-scaytid="6"Krip/span Hop Nation 5th Battalion around Police Brutality and Profiling issues and it is called Broken Bodies: Police Brutality Profiling. Afterward there will be a Live performance./p p The Featured Performers will include Leroy Moore, span data-scayt_word="Kalyn" data-scaytid="9"Kalyn/span span data-scayt_word="Hefferman" data-scaytid="17"Hefferman/span, Keith Jones also Featuring MC span data-scayt_word="Dj" data-scaytid="18"Dj/span R Source/p p This event is Presented by The Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee./p p Additional support provided by SU Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies , The span data-scayt_word="Taishoff" data-scaytid="19"Taishoff/span Center, School of Education, Teaching and Leadership Programs, Nutrition/p

p emstrongEditorial by Willie span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ratcliff" data-scaytid="13"Ratcliff/span/strong/em/p div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-23554" style="width: 450px" div On July 12, when demolition of the old span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="21"Bayview/span Library was getting underway, all the construction workers were white. ndash; Photo: Natasha Reid/div /div p On the corner of Third and Revere, where the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="23"Bayview/span Library used to be, nothing is left but bare ground. One of the few places in the neighborhood where youngsters felt safe and enriched and everyone was welcome is gone./p p nbsp;If the City had allowed the low bidder to build the new library, it would have been at least halfway to completion by now. The youngsters who love the library would be watching their parents and older brothers and sisters build a beautiful new library for them to return to in a matter of months./p p Liberty Builders, my general contracting company, was that low bidder. If yoursquo;ve been reading the Bay View for at least a year, you know that the City awarded the contract, I signed and returned it, and then the City snatched it back. Their flimsy excuse was that my insurance broker was a day late submitting a certificate proving I had auto insurance, even though Irsquo;d given the City a certificate for that same auto insurance policy over four months earlier./p p On Aug. 18, a library activist friend called and suggested I check out the agenda for the Library Commission meeting later that afternoon. Item 2 on the agenda was described like this: ldquo;Branch Library Improvement Program Budget Transfers Action (Discussion and possible action to increase BLIP program reserve through transfer of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Visitacion" data-scaytid="53"Visitacion/span Valley Infrastructure fund revenue; and transfer of funds from program reserve to increase span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="25"Bayview/span Branch Library Project budget).rdquo;/p p They werenrsquo;t talking about transferring a little bit of money; no, the Library Commission that day approved a transfer of $1.7 million. On top of the $310,000 extra the City is unnecessarily paying span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="KCK" data-scaytid="55"KCK/span Builders, the second low bidder ndash; thatrsquo;s how much higher his bid was than Liberty Buildersrsquo; bid ndash; the ldquo;progressiverdquo; City of San Francisco is paying a total of over $2 million more taxpayersrsquo; dollars for choosing to put a white contractor in charge of building the new library instead of sticking with the low bidder, a Black contractor./p p I went to the Library Commission meeting that day, and Claude Carpenter went with me, even though he was recovering from surgery. Claude was the first president of the African American Contractors of San Francisco, and I was the second. He knows and I know and you know the good that an infusion of construction jobs would do for this community. Thatrsquo;s why I bid to build the new span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="27"Bayview/span Library./p p Construction workers make good money, enough to support an extended family, and a Black contractor who cares about the community will be happy to hire you even if yoursquo;ve been locked up, as so many have these days. The trouble is that because of hostility from City Hall, the number of licensed Black contractors in shape to bid City work can be counted on one hand with a few fingers left over./p div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-23555" style="width: 380px" a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bullet-hole-in-our-bedroom-window-051310-by-Francisco.jpg"img alt="" height="285" src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bullet-hole-in-our-bedroom-window-051310-by-Francisco.jpg" width="380" //a div When a .44 caliber bullet was shot through our window at 1:45 span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="a.m" data-scaytid="1"a.m/span. on May 13, 2010, from the roof of the bank next door, Mary span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ratcliff" data-scaytid="15"Ratcliff/span reported in the Bay View, ldquo;(Willie) span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ratcliff" data-scaytid="17"Ratcliff/span has a strong hunch it was fired by someone trying to scare him into withdrawing from the competition for the contract to build the new span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="29"Bayview/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Library.”" data-scaytid="3"Library.rdquo;/span The bullet was fired exactly one week before the City issued the final bid package for the library. Read more in ldquo;Bullet through Bay Viewrsquo;s window: Whorsquo;s afraid of Black power?rdquo;/div /div p We told the Library Commission that they could save that $1.7 million to buy more books and keep the library open more hours if the City would sit down with me and Claude and others in the community with decades of experience hiring our own people and work out a way to get construction of the new span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="31"Bayview/span Library back on track. Today, as you can see whenever you pass Third and Revere, our beloved library is nothing but a vacant lot./p p nbsp;/p p Ho hum, who cares? The long struggle for construction work by Blacks in span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="33"Bayview/span Hunters Point ndash; that was the other demand besides an end to police violence that kicked off the world famous Hunters Point rebellion 45 years ago, on Sept. 27, 1966 ndash; has been a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="snoozer" data-scaytid="61"snoozer/span at City Hall among the powers that be. But itrsquo;s not any more./p p This morning, the struggle over the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="35"Bayview/span Library literally woke people up all over San Francisco when it was a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/29/MN5L1KS0PR.DTL" jquery161046892778666693574="67"font color="#265372"the main story on the front page of todayrsquo;s San Francisco Chronicle/font/a. I applaud the Chronicle for taking the issue on, but I wish theyrsquo;d told the real story. The writer, Stephanie Lee, also attended the Aug. 18 Library Commission meeting. We talked then and she called and interviewed me later by phone. Not a word I told her made its way into the story she wrote./p p She wrote that the libraryrsquo;s price is up more than $2 million because subcontract bids are coming in way high, but she didnrsquo;t say why. Two main reasons were expressed at the meeting. White contractors complain about the workers, saying span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="37"Bayview/span Hunters Point workers will drive up the price, implying theyrsquo;re inexperienced ndash; and thatrsquo;s true for the younger folks; Blacks here have been locked out of construction since 1998 ndash; and hinting theyrsquo;re also slow, stupid and lazy./p p Black contractors know the truth ndash; that Black construction workers are the best in the business. What Black contractors complain about is bonding and financing, saying the City wonrsquo;t let them bid without it, when everybody knows that banks and bonding companies are racist to the core. Even the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="U.S" data-scaytid="5"U.S/span. Supreme Court has told cities over and over again not to exclude Blacks when banks and bonding and insurance companies keep them out of the game ndash; not due to their ability but due to their color./p p Irsquo;ve spent a lifetime ndash; and so have Claude and other veterans of the struggle ndash; figuring out how to put our people to work in spite of all that. I would have used those techniques if the City had let the low bidder ndash; Liberty Builders ndash; build the library. And itrsquo;s not too late. Irsquo;m waiting for a call from Mayor Ed Lee inviting us to the table to work out a plan using contractors and workers who live here to build the library our children are waiting for./p p And I know that when one of our two favorite candidates for mayor ndash; wersquo;re endorsing Public Defender Jeff span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Adachi" data-scaytid="63"Adachi/span first and Supervisor John span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="65"Avalos/span second ndash; replaces Ed Lee, wersquo;ll really put our people to work, not only on the library but year lsquo;round, year after year./p p Mike span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Hannegan" data-scaytid="67"Hannegan/span of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="KCK" data-scaytid="57"KCK/span Builders, who was given the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="39"Bayview/span Library contract almost immediately after the City snatched it back from me, even though his bid was $310,000 higher than mine, has no idea how to put our local Black contractors and workers to work. Hersquo;s not even from here./p p The Chronicle story claims that span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="KCK" data-scaytid="59"KCK/span is ldquo;a company in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="41"Bayview/span,rdquo; but I went to visit Mike shortly after the City gave him the contract last November. I went to the address on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Egbert" data-scaytid="69"Egbert/span that hersquo;d given the City./p p What I found was another companyrsquo;s office suite. The owner showed me Mikersquo;s office: a room that was almost empty except for a desk and chair./p p I agree with one person quoted by the Chronicle: Library Commissioner Larry Kane said regarding the extra $1.7 million, ldquo;Obviously, I would prefer not to have that money spent, to keep that money for hours and librarians and library span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="services.”" data-scaytid="7"services.rdquo;/span So would I, and so would you no doubt./p div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-23556" style="width: 248px" a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Dr.-William-Mason-president-Metro-East-Black-Contractors-Organization-MEBCO-atty-Eric-Vickers-St.-Louis-0811.jpg"img alt="" height="302" src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Dr.-William-Mason-president-Metro-East-Black-Contractors-Organization-MEBCO-atty-Eric-Vickers-St.-Louis-0811.jpg" width="248" //a div Dr. William Mason, president of the Metro East Black Contractors Organization (span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="MEBCO" data-scaytid="71"MEBCO/span), and attorney Eric Vickers fight for economic equity in St. Louis./div /div p The Chronicle reports, ldquo;So far, 10 of the 27 subcontracts are set to be awarded to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="43"Bayview/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="companies.”" data-scaytid="9"companies.rdquo;/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="45"Bayview/span companies, hmm. This is the ldquo;low rent districtrdquo; for office and warehouse space, and non-Black contractors are flocking to it. But a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="47"Bayview/span Hunters Point address doesnrsquo;t guarantee a commitment to the people who live here./p p nbsp;/p p If itrsquo;s any comfort, we in San Francisco are not alone. Blacks are fighting City Hall in other cities to put their people to work. Our old friend Eric Vickers in St. Louis, a lawyer whorsquo;s nationally known for fighting to stop the now nationwide lockout of Blacks from construction, made the news this week in a local Black paper, the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Rivercity" data-scaytid="75"Rivercity/span Examiner./p p He and Dr. William Mason, president of the Metro East Black Contractors Organization (span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="MEBCO" data-scaytid="73"MEBCO/span), want to shut down the Mississippi River Bridge construction. When the agency in charge, the Illinois Department of Transportation (span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="IDOT" data-scaytid="81"IDOT/span) wanted to meet anywhere but East St. Louis, the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Rivercity" data-scaytid="77"Rivercity/span Examiner wrote:/p p ldquo;What span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="IDOT" data-scaytid="83"IDOT/span obviously didnrsquo;t realize was that their refusal to meet in the very city of the citizens that they were depriving of opportunity further showed their racist perspective on Blacks. It was a continuation of their discriminatory principles and practices. They could make the arrangements for Whites, by the truckloads, to go into East St. Louis (a city which is 99.5% Black) to work on the bridge project and take the money back to their White communities, but they certainly couldnrsquo;t participate in a meeting to discuss the depth of the outrage of the Blacks who were affected by the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="deprivation.”" data-scaytid="11"deprivation.rdquo;/span/p p Theyrsquo;re fighting discrimination on the multi-million dollar renovation of the local library too. The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Rivercity" data-scaytid="79"Rivercity/span Examiner made a video thatrsquo;ll make your blood boil. Watch it below. It shows 97 workers walking onto the worksite one morning with their big lunch boxes ndash; so they wonrsquo;t have to spend their money at a Black restaurant ndash; and guess what? Every one is white./p p If we donrsquo;t intervene soon, that could be the sight that we and our children will see live every day that the new span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="49"Bayview/span Library is under construction ndash; if it ever gets started ndash; for the next year and a half. Sounds a lot like the five years we were locked out of building the light rail, the one the T-train runs on, the one Kenneth Harding was exiting when a couple of cops asked for his transfer as proof hersquo;d paid his fare./p p He ran, they shot him, he died hellip; just like Matthew ldquo;Peanutrdquo; Johnson 45 years ago this month, whose police murder sparked the 1966 Hunters Point rebellion ndash; or riot ndash; that made headlines around the world and showed the world that span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="51"Bayview/span Hunters Point is one fierce neighborhood./p p This time, letrsquo;s settle our differences with City Hall at the negotiating table. Mayor Ed Lee, wersquo;re waiting for your call./p p emBay View publisher Willie span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ratcliff" data-scaytid="19"Ratcliff/span can be reached at (415) 671-0789 or a href="mailto:publisher@sfbayview.com"font color="#265372"publisher@sfbayview.com/font/a./em/p

p nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Tahoma; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 1) span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="1"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="2"KHN/span)nbsp;Where are you from tell us about the Hip-Hop SCENE there./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="3"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/bnbsp; /spannbsp;isnbsp;Malaga, anbsp;city in southernnbsp;Spain,nbsp;but I live innbsp;Madrid/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 2) span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="4"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="5"KHN/span)nbsp;Tell us more about the song, nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="6"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:nbsp;/b /spanThenbsp;song talks aboutnbsp;overcomingnbsp;strugglenbsp;belongs tonbsp;Jake#39;s new albumnbsp;where she worksnbsp;andnbsp;T-Sonnbsp;span data-scayt_word="Juako" data-scaytid="7"Juako/span./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 3) span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="8"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="9"KHN/span)nbsp;Being disabled Hip-Hop artist what is the hardest thing for you?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="10"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/b /spanIn Spainnbsp;itnbsp;isnbsp;harder tonbsp;be seen,nbsp;no onenbsp;opts for anbsp;disabled person./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 4) span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="11"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="12"KHN/span)nbsp;What is your future goals/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="13"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/b /spanMynbsp;goal is tonbsp;get mynbsp;CD,nbsp;because fornbsp;various reasonsnbsp;I had to leavenbsp;the span data-scayt_word="labelbecause" data-scaytid="14"labelbecause/spannbsp;itnbsp;did not meet established in the contract,nbsp;and decided tonbsp;start from scratch./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 5) nbsp;span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="15"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="17"KHN/span) What do you think about span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="16"Krip-Hop/span Nation?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="18"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/b /spanI like knowing thatnbsp;we are many andnbsp;above all thatnbsp;we cannbsp;unite andnbsp;show the worldnbsp;what we do./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 6) nbsp;span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="19"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="20"KHN/span) Do you know any other disabled musicians in your country?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="21"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/bnbsp; /spanYes, butnbsp;many peoplenbsp;feel verynbsp;badnbsp;reputationnbsp;... we havenbsp;spokennbsp;a thousand times,nbsp;but since winningnbsp;annbsp;MTV Europenbsp;Award/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" forgetnbsp;all the friendship./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 7) span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="22"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="23"KHN/span)nbsp;How did you get into Hip-Hop?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="24"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/bnbsp; /spanI startednbsp;with albums likenbsp;The Predatornbsp;by Icenbsp;Cube,nbsp;span data-scayt_word="NWA" data-scaytid="25"NWA/spannbsp;then,nbsp;and started lookingnbsp;in my language, I foundnbsp;a groupnbsp;(span data-scayt_word="CPV" data-scaytid="26"CPV/spannbsp;violentnbsp;Poets)/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" I decidednbsp;that Inbsp;could do that,nbsp;tell a little ofnbsp;me ... andnbsp;so I startednbsp;...nbsp;in 1994/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 8) nbsp;span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="27"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="28"KHN/span) How do people react to your performance?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="29"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/b /spanInnbsp;concert, I gotnbsp;to dancenbsp;tonbsp;4 000nbsp;people, Inbsp;playednbsp;with greats such asnbsp;span data-scayt_word="Jeru" data-scaytid="30"Jeru/spannbsp;The span data-scayt_word="Damaja" data-scaytid="31"Damaja/spannbsp;ornbsp;span data-scayt_word="Masta" data-scaytid="32"Masta/spannbsp;Ace People alwaysnbsp;enjoy anbsp;show./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 9) nbsp;span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="33"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="34"KHN/span) What can we learn from your music?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="35"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/bnbsp; /spanIn my musicnbsp;there is struggle,nbsp;and farnbsp;exceedednbsp;message.nbsp;Althoughnbsp;you span data-scayt_word="canfind" data-scaytid="36"canfind/spannbsp;songs withnbsp;great force/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" and muchnbsp;hesitation/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 10) nbsp;span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="37"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="38"KHN/span) How can readers contact you?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Tahoma; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="39"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/bnbsp; /spanTonbsp;contact menbsp;has 2nbsp;media,nbsp;and on mynbsp;websitenbsp;a href="mailto:jakecrudo@gmail.com"span style="text-decoration: underline ; color: #234786"span data-scayt_word="jakecrudo@gmail.com" data-scaytid="40"jakecrudo@gmail.com/span/span/a/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #234786; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="text-decoration: underline"a href="http://www.lahainepro.tk/"span data-scayt_word="www.lahainepro.tk" data-scaytid="41"www.lahainepro.tk/span/a/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5; min-height: 18.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma" 11) nbsp;span data-scayt_word="Krip-Hop" data-scaytid="42"Krip-Hop/span Nation (span data-scayt_word="KHN" data-scaytid="43"KHN/span) Any last words?/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Tahoma; min-height: 17.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Arial; color: #333233; background-color: #f5f5f5" span style="font: 14.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent"bBenjamin span data-scayt_word="Villalobos" data-scaytid="44"Villalobos/span Gonzalez AKA JAKE:/bnbsp; /spanThank you fornbsp;these lines and excusenbsp;my limit English.nbsp;Andnbsp;soon mynbsp;CD will be onlinenbsp;for free downloadnbsp;on my website./p

style type="text/css"  !--{cke_protected}{C}%3C!%2D%2D%0A%09%09%40page%20%7B%20margin%3A%200.79in%20%7D%0A%09%09P%20%7B%20margin-bottom%3A%200.08in%20%7D%0A%09%2D%2D%3E--!--{cke_protected}{C}%3C!%2D%2D%0A%09%09%40page%20%7B%20margin%3A%200.79in%20%7D%0A%09%09P%20%7B%20margin-bottom%3A%200.08in%20%7D%0A%09%2D%2D%3E--/stylep style="margin-bottom: 0in" Asnbsp; I sat in the county jail scratching at the poison oak rash that seemed to redefine my genitalia, and most of my face, chest, and torso, it occurred to me that I might be on to something. I had contacted (and contracted) the vile bush on my way back into civilization from a journey that, if it did not actually take me back in time as it had seemed at the time, took me to a simpler society, with ldquo;basicrdquo; as the operative theme of day-to-day survival, reflecting the existence of the region#39;s denizens./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" I became suddenly aware of an American sub-culture which eschewed the major bone of contention in urban lives, namely Money. I reflected (scratching for all I was worth and gaining what would end up as very painful scratches in very sensitive areas) that this rumored root of all evil was hardly discussed during the four days I spent panning for gold and chipping away at river rocks, searching for pickers, plunkers, and nuggets of Gold. Gold as a means to an end was hardly mentioned, in fact most conversation had to do with things like the weather, firewood, daylight, supplies, and the ever-present river itself and the creatures which lived by its bounty. Which describes us all to a man (and a woman) who mine the banks of the American river for gold./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" I paused in my scratch to imagine how it would have turned out if I hadn#39;t come back when I had, to imagine life outside of cities and towns, in the wild lands of America... Mining gold-rich regions and amassing the means to live a comfortable existence, even if simply defined, until I reached the age when I no longer felt able to work./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" Many men sit in jails and wonder what might have been had they made different choices, and protest their relative innocence to the charges under which they are being held. Perhaps a million do so at this very moment, I donrsquo;t have the exact figures, but wouldnrsquo;t be surprised if it turned out to be more. This is not that story, so I will save that and return you to the world of mining for gold in the wilds of California in the 2010rsquo;s./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" After sorting out my legal issues I continued to research the phenomena of the gold trade, trying to learn as much as I could about the collection, sale and mining of the precious metal which once defined currency to more than just secluded pockets of society in America, as it does today. Our federal reserve used to back the dollar with gold, but this is not that story, either. The reasons behind the shift away from gold as a surety for our currency are as confusing to understand as the answer to the question of what it is currently backed by./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" Gold has a long and bloody history as the means of, and the reason for, the oppression of one people, by another. With my newfound respect for the difficulties people have faced extracting gold from the earth, the itchier facets of mining foremost in my mind, I resolved to find an easier way to amass precious metals./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" The most experienced gold digger will often spend long periods of time without seeing other people, as the most profitable strategy for mining does not entail sharing. Also, you can#39;t spend your finds in the wild lands (by all accounts bears are not impressed by gold), which gives a person time to amass more significant amounts to then exchange at the general store which caters to the needs of all the area#39;s residents, whether they be weekend hobbyist, local, miner, fisherman, or hunter of game. It is probably not much of an exaggeration to say that every dollar spent in Iowa Hill, in Northern California, is spent in the saloon, post office, and general store under the same name. I wouldnrsquo;t hazard a guess at how much of their custom is done in direct commerce with miners of gold for the product of their labors. Traded straight across for the supplies, which would then be hiked in to the respective claims which they supplied./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" The panning isnrsquo;t really rough once you get a technique you can live with, and chipping away at cracks in bedrock, paying close attention to existing cracks, sometimes will give surprisingly easy and substantive yields. The REAL work is keeping the chain of supplies uninterrupted for long enough to thoroughly exploit a region once you find color (gold). Less than five percent of the worldsrsquo; gold is in the nugget form. The remainder is processed from minute flecks harvested from the earth with a wide variety of methods in a number of places. Nugget gold is almost always sold for more than the actual weight to dollar value, because of the rarity and unique quality of each nugget it is a favorite for jewelry makers in its simplicity./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" As I researched gold as a medium of exchange, as it exists in our culture today, I also ran into the metal recycling industries which have of late made a common practice of recycling many electronic devices for the gold used in their construction. Gold is a conductive metal, which makes it common in processors and cell phones. Almost every person in urban America and suburban America has a cellular telephone and most homes have one or more of them sitting in a box or drawer that is no longer used. There are individuals as well as commercial interests who make the collection and reclamation of these items and others into a lucrative pseudo-industry./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" Seeing this trend grow and mature is likely in times to come. The price of gold has climbed to unprecedented highs, due to the demands of the industries which rely upon it, and investors see it as one of the safest investments in short or long term speculation. One thing is sure. Gold is making a comeback, and there is nothing to indicate it will ever lose much of its present value, unlike stocks or investments in currency, since currency isnrsquo;t backed by anything in particular, at least in the case of our bloodstained American dollars./p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" I got over the poison oak. I also got out of the county jail. But I am still afflicted by the bite of the gold bug. I see it as a reliable means to insure my future, if I am patient and wise in the acquisition of it. Being willing and able to work hard doesnrsquo;t seem to count for as much as it should in our society, and independence from the paradigm of fruitless labor and oppression which prevails in our society is an extremely attractive prospect, from where I sit. And so to all of the individuals, rebels and malcontents in our society I say this: Gold!!/p p style="margin-bottom: 0in" It represents a financial autonomy that most of America will never find. It isnrsquo;t an easy path to wealth, although there is always the possibility that you will stumble upon a substantial deposit, many miners nbsp;will work all their careers without seeing much more at one time than what they can exchange for the supplies to work another week or two. No worse than the subsistence slavery that most Americans live under, in urban and suburban jobs, sans the freedom and independence inherent in life outside of the grid./p

p I am a low-income, African-American mother of four. I have worked all my life.nbsp; 1 year ago after the all the rich people working downtown as bankers and investors were paid 7 billion dollars, my landlord was foreclosed on. I have never owned a house and probably never will, because i will never have that kind of money or credit. But i have rented a rent-controlled apartment which i was evicted out of because of the foreclosure./p p Now i am homeless with my children./p p When my sister Tiny (span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="1"PNN/span co-editor)nbsp; called me to ask me how I felt about the the Wall Street protests, I said. oh yea!!! that#39;s what I#39;m talking about. Finally some people speaking up to these legalized gangsters and bank pimps./p p Sadly, i can#39;t go to the protests. I don#39;t have the time. I am too busy working two jobs just to save money to try to move out of the shelter we are in to hopefully somewhere safe for me and my kids./p p But those folks are speaking for me and all poor peoples who don#39;t even know if we can pay for the rising cost of food much-less dream of getting a loan or a mortgage from these terrible corporate thieves./p p Tiny thinks that someday Capitalism will end and span data-scayt_word="po" data-scaytid="2"po/span mamas like me and her and all of the never thought about people will have the chance to take care of ourselves and our children and our land./p p I hope so. But right now i walk around my cleaning job with a smile on my face as i empty the trash of rich white people in a luxury hotel i work for. Someday, i dream, maybe these people will finally understand the struggle i have seen and maybe someday the poor people can run Wall Street./p p emMaria Lourdes is a poverty and mama span data-scayt_word="skolar" data-scaytid="3"skolar/span and span data-scayt_word="PoorNewsNetwork" data-scaytid="4"PoorNewsNetwork/span New York Correspondent/em/p

p Editor#39;s note: This review is of the 4th Annual Filipino American Jazz Festival that took place Sunday October 9th at span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi's" data-scaytid="5"Yoshi#39;s/span San Francisco)/p p nbsp;/p p emspan _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"object width=560 height=315span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="param" data-scaytid="7"param/span name=movie value=a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/TfjgRKkorzQ?version=3amp;hl=en_US/cke:paramcke:param"http://span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.youtube.com" data-scaytid="1"www.youtube.com/span/v/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="TfjgRKkorzQ" data-scaytid="19"TfjgRKkorzQ/span?version=3amp;hl=en_US/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="param" data-scaytid="9"param/spanspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="param" data-scaytid="11"param/span/a name=span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="allowFullScreen" data-scaytid="23"allowFullScreen/span value=true/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="param" data-scaytid="13"param/spanspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="param" data-scaytid="15"param/span name=span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="allowscriptaccess" data-scaytid="25"allowscriptaccess/span value=always/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="param" data-scaytid="17"param/spanembed span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="src" data-scaytid="29"src/span=a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/TfjgRKkorzQ?version=3amp;hl=en_US"http://span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.youtube.com" data-scaytid="3"www.youtube.com/span/v/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="TfjgRKkorzQ" data-scaytid="21"TfjgRKkorzQ/span?version=3amp;hl=en_US/a type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=560 height=315 span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="allowscriptaccess" data-scaytid="27"allowscriptaccess/span=always span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="allowfullscreen" data-scaytid="31"allowfullscreen/span=true/embed/objectnbsp;/span/ememspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Dahil" data-scaytid="33"Dahil/span Sa span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Iyo" data-scaytid="37"Iyo/span/emmdash;Lena Sundayrsquo;s voice weaved through the syllablesmdash;unfamiliar vowels and consonantsmdash;slowly becoming familiar and vibrant like the sweet fragrance of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sampaguita" data-scaytid="41"Sampaguita/spanmdash;blooming into the centerpiece of the 4supth/supannual San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival at span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="43"Yoshirsquo;s/span, located in San Franciscorsquo;s historic Fillmore District.nbsp; Sunday, a gifted singer and daughter of a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Filipina" data-scaytid="51"Filipina/span mother and African American father, shared with the audience that she did not learn Tagalog growing up, that her Filipino identity was something she was still embracing and claiming as her own.nbsp; Lena Sundayrsquo;s rendition of the classic Filipino love song span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Dahil" data-scaytid="35"Dahil/span Sa span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Iyo" data-scaytid="39"Iyo/span, dedicated to her mother, was one of many heartfelt moments for jazz span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="kababayans" data-scaytid="53"kababayans/span and community members to listen to, remember and celebrate in the month of Octobermdash;Filipino American History Monthmdash;highlighting the Fillmorersquo;s Filipino roots, Filipino Jazz performers and their contributions to the African American gift which is jazz.nbsp;/p p The San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival is in its 4supth/supyear celebrating and showcasing outstanding and world class Filipino jazz artists from both the US and the Philippines. The festival has featured artists including Mon David, Primo Kim, John Calloway, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Tateng" data-scaytid="57"Tateng/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Katindig" data-scaytid="59"Katindig/span, Sandra span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Viray" data-scaytid="61"Viray/span and Jo span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Canion" data-scaytid="63"Canion/span. The founders and organizers of the festival are Carlos and Myrna span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="65"Zialcita/spanmdash;2 musicians whose marriage reflects their love of sharing music and culturemdash;a love that gave birth to the festival. Being immersed in the music business they saw many talented Filipino jazz musicians whose gifts were not being exposedmdash;span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="underappreciated" data-scaytid="75"underappreciated/span in roles as side musicians, not being afforded opportunities to shine as headliners.nbsp; The festival is their effortmdash;in tandem with community educators, activistsmdash;to showcase these talented Filipino jazz musicians and vocalists to a wider audience.nbsp;/p p The journey to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="45"Yoshirsquo;s/spanmdash;a major jazz venue on the West Coastmdash;followed a year of events featuring Filipino jazz performers including a concert commemorating Jazz Appreciation Month, The Asian Heritage Street Celebration, the ldquo;People in the Plaza Concert Seriesrdquo; and various events throughout the Bay Area.nbsp; ldquo;It took a year for us to get the festival tonbsp;nbsp;nbsp;span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="55"Yoshirsquo;s/spanrdquo; said Myrna span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="67"Zialcita/span.nbsp; ldquo;There are so many Filipino musicians that are world classmdash;musicians that need to be heardrdquo;.nbsp;/p p It is befitting that the festival be hosted in San Franciscorsquo;s Fillmore District, home of many Filipino families that settled in the neighborhood in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="1920s" data-scaytid="77"1920s/span.nbsp; Among those families were the Robles and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sorro" data-scaytid="79"Sorro/span familiesmdash;large families whose lives were inspired by the sounds of jazz coming from clubs like span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Jimbo’s" data-scaytid="83"Jimborsquo;s/span Bop City and the Blackhawk.nbsp; Poet Al Roblesmdash;widely regarded as the Poet Laureate of San Franciscorsquo;s span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="85"Manilatown/span and who was honored by the Festival in 2009mdash;paid homage tonbsp;nbsp;span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Pinoy" data-scaytid="87"Pinoy/span jazzmen Charlie span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Abing" data-scaytid="91"Abing/span and Flip Nunez in poems such as Jazz of My Youthmdash;two musicians with deep ties to the Filipino community pavingnbsp;the way for Filipino musicians to follow.nbsp;/p p Bill span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sorro" data-scaytid="81"Sorro/span, activist and community leader who would later be a central figure in the struggle to fight the eviction of Filipino elders from the International Hotel, was inspired by jazz in his physical beingmdash;becoming a dancermdash;with a goal of joining the Alvin span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ailey" data-scaytid="93"Ailey/span Dance Company. nbsp;nbsp;The Fillmore was home to African American families, Filipino families, mixed families that were both Filipino and black, as well as Japanese American and other multiracial families.nbsp; One legendary performer who grew up in the Fillmore to Black and Filipino parents was Sugar Pie span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="DeSanto" data-scaytid="95"DeSanto/spanmdash;who Carlos span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="69"Zialcita/span has performed and toured with and has lobbied for induction into the Rock nrsquo; Roll Hall of Fame.nbsp; So inspired was Al Robles by this African American art form, this language that touched his life that he wrote:/p p emSometimes my heart is Filipino/em/p p emSometimes my heart is black/em/p p emAnd sometimes my heart is Filipino and black/em/p p emAt the same time/em/p p The language of jazz is the language of heartbreak, struggle, survival and resistance.nbsp; The Fillmore was a neighborhood under attack in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="50s" data-scaytid="97"50s/span and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="60s" data-scaytid="99"60s/span.nbsp; Slowly the neighborhood was demolished to make way for redevelopmentmdash;the idea being that the neighborhood was blighted and needed to be cleaned up.nbsp; Many families were forced outmdash;mostly low income families of color.nbsp; Beautiful Victorian houses were demolished.nbsp; The antique dealers with their affluent clientele from Marin County converged on those abandoned housesmdash;taking door knobs, banisters, and fixturesmdash;anything that could be sold.nbsp; The landscape was bulldozed and scarred but the sound of jazz remainedmdash;nothing could erase its memory deep in the soil and in the concrete canvasses where songs and scores were yet to be composed.nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;/p p The event was a homecoming, anchored by the music of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Pinoy" data-scaytid="89"Pinoy/span Jazz Quartetmdash;whose passionate playing and relaxed presence showed deference and respect to the audiencemdash;a multicultural gumbo of jazz lovers, friends, elders, youthmdash;a multiethnic Bay Area audience who came out en masse to support the gifts of our community within the spacious yet intimate setting of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="49"Yoshirsquo;s/span.nbsp; The quartet included long time musicians Ben Luis on bass, Rey Cristobal on piano, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Melecio" data-scaytid="121"Melecio/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Magdaluyo" data-scaytid="123"Magdaluyo/span on sax and flute and Richard span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Aguon" data-scaytid="125"Aguon/span on drums. Their range was impressive, expertly handling standards from the great American songbook, as well as classics and fusion.nbsp;/p p San Francisco born vocalist Lena Sunday wowed the audience with her vocal prowess on songs such as ldquo;Centerpiecerdquo; and ldquo;Throw it awayrdquo;mdash;showing why she was the featured singer in Lou Rawls#39; band for 4 years, as well as a session singer/songwriter for artists such as Stevie Wonder and Nancy Wilson.nbsp; Her self-effacing presence was engaging and refreshing in a world of self-absorbed lesser performers who are too often given the label of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="“diva.”" data-scaytid="101"ldquo;diva.rdquo;/span/p p span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Millbrae" data-scaytid="103"Millbrae/span based, world class vocalist Ann Marie Santos revved up the audience with classics such as ldquo;Love for Salerdquo; and ldquo;It donrsquo;t mean a thing (If it ainrsquo;t got that swing)rdquo;.nbsp; Santos, who started singing at the age of 6 and has toured and performed all over Asia, is a returning performer to the Festival, having appeared in 2009, performing a duet with Mon David, bringing down the house in the eventrsquo;s finale. Her passionate performance prompted host Carlos span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="71"Zialcita/span to declare, ldquo;Somebody call the fire department lsquo;cause itrsquo;s getting real hot in hererdquo;.nbsp; Her rendition of ldquo;What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Liferdquo; got me teary eyed (but Irsquo;m sure I wasnrsquo;t the only one)./p p Pianist Winston span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Raval" data-scaytid="113"Raval/span shared his giftsmdash;which include being a pioneer in the area of jazz fusion as well as a band leader and musical director.nbsp; His playing struck an emotional chord that somehow connects jazz with our indigenous past.nbsp; span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Raval" data-scaytid="115"Raval/span is a pioneer in connecting jazz with indigenous Filipino instruments bringing aboutmdash;what Myrna span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="73"Zialcita/span describes as ldquo;A redefinition of what jazz means.nbsp; You canrsquo;t keep peoplersquo;s influence from coming into the genre.nbsp; When you bring your culture into jazz, you add it to that span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gumbo.”" data-scaytid="105"gumbo.rdquo;/spannbsp; Winston span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Raval" data-scaytid="117"Raval/span is an extremely accomplished musician, having written the scores to 23 films in the Philippines.nbsp; During the evening, he was presented with a lifetime achievement award on behalf of the Festival.nbsp; His humor was not lost on the honormdash;in introducing the song ldquo;Who Can I turn To (When nobody needs me)rdquo;mdash;he changed the title to ldquo;Who can I turn to when your GPS is driving you span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="crazy.”" data-scaytid="107"crazy.rdquo;/span/p p Annie Brazil showed why she is called ldquo;Asiarsquo;s Queen of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Jazz.”" data-scaytid="109"Jazz.rdquo;/spannbsp; Her style and repertoire is classic and classymdash;her songs coming from the Great American songbook.nbsp; Singing since the age of nbsp;6, she grew up in the district of San Miguel near span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Malacanang" data-scaytid="137"Malacanang/span Palace and has performed all over the world.nbsp; She performed with bands led by span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Iggy" data-scaytid="139"Iggy/span De Guzman, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Pepe" data-scaytid="141"Pepe/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Merto" data-scaytid="143"Merto/span, Cesar span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Velasco" data-scaytid="145"Velasco/span and Ding span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yalung" data-scaytid="147"Yalung/span.nbsp; Brazil ran clubs and booked acts which brought her into contact with American jazz performers. She jammed with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, James Moody, Ellis span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Marsalis" data-scaytid="149"Marsalis/span and Sarah Vaughn.nbsp; When asked about Billy span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Eckstine" data-scaytid="151"Eckstine/span, she once said, ldquo;I bow to Billy span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Eckstine.”" data-scaytid="111"Eckstine.rdquo;/spannbsp;nbsp;Her unique voice nailed timeless songs such as ldquo;Satin Doll,rdquo; nbsp;ldquo;Smile,rdquo; and a medley of Tagalog songs.nbsp; The 78 year old Brazil recently released an album of classic songs with new arrangements, produced by her son, vocalist Richard Merck.nbsp; Currently based in New York, she continues to perform regularly./p p The festival honored Annie Brazil, Winston span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Raval" data-scaytid="119"Raval/span and Bob span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Parlocha" data-scaytid="129"Parlocha/span with lifetime achievement awards.nbsp; span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Parlocha" data-scaytid="131"Parlocha/span, a native of Vallejo and son of a Filipino father and Afro Filipino mother, is a musician and was music director for legendary radio station span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="KJAZ" data-scaytid="135"KJAZ/span, was affectionately spoken of for his radio programming and knowledge of jazzmdash;a genre that he celebrated on his syndicated program ldquo;Jazz with Bob span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Parlocha" data-scaytid="133"Parlocha/spanrdquo;mdash;a program that is aired in both the US and Canada.nbsp;/p p The close of the show featured the three vocalists on stage together, singing in the scatting style that is beyond words but is all feeling.nbsp; And the feeling was that we were at homemdash;in the Fillmore, in the heart of jazz, in the heart of our story that is in a big pot of gumbo and rice and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="adobo--that" data-scaytid="153"adobo--that/span pot of jazz in which Filipino musicians have added their own flavor to the many flavors that it is.nbsp; For more information on the festival, go to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.sfpinoyjazzfest.com" data-scaytid="127"www.sfpinoyjazzfest.com/span./p p nbsp;/p p copy; 2011 Tony Robles/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;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p

p Grateful for all the things that you have done..., I prayed in church, cried too and yeah it even span data-scayt_word="phsycally" data-scaytid="1"phsycally/span hurt, can#39;t do the span data-scayt_word="Chacha" data-scaytid="2"Chacha/span span data-scayt_word="cuz" data-scaytid="3"cuz/span I was a jerk, had a warrant on un span data-scayt_word="otra" data-scaytid="4"otra/span turf-but she just dropped all traffics; span data-scayt_word="wantin" data-scaytid="5"wantin/span coffee in her, I hate cops but not all judges. I span data-scayt_word="aint" data-scaytid="6"aint/span span data-scayt_word="sittin" data-scaytid="7"sittin/span in the span data-scayt_word="bink" data-scaytid="8"bink/span just holding grudges... RAMnbsp;/p

p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p (Editor#39;s Note: Dennis Gary is a student innbsp;mynbsp;memoir writing class, a collaboration between POOR Magazine and Senior Action Network.nbsp; Born in Chicago, he has lived in Bozeman, MT, Klamath Falls, OR and in Sacramento. He has lived in San Francisco since 1975.nbsp; He shares his experiences and poetic vision with his fellow students at Senior Action Network.nbsp; We will be featuring writing from studentsnbsp;in thenbsp;coming weeks.nbsp; For more information on Senior Action Network and its programs, go tonbsp;a href="http://www.sfsan.org"www.sfsan.org/a--Tony Robles, Co-editor, POOR Magazine and Memoir Writing instructor, Senior Action Network)/p p nbsp;/p p strongDark Streets/strong/p p For I have walked along dark streets,/p p And I have known peace and safety./p p I have walked through vast canyons of concrete,/p p And known the courtesy of a nod and the comfort of a smile,/p p When a twenty changes hands and we lie together doing close, intimate things./p p I have walked along dark streets,/p p Through vast canyons of concrete,/p p And known the excitement of a moment/p p And the happiness of an hour./p

p emspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Dahil" data-scaytid="1"Dahil/span Sa span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Iyo" data-scaytid="3"Iyo/span/emmdash;Lena Sundayrsquo;s voice weaved through the syllablesmdash;unfamiliar vowels and consonantsmdash;slowly becoming familiar and vibrant like the sweet fragrance of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sampaguita" data-scaytid="5"Sampaguita/spanmdash;blooming into the centerpiece of the 4supth/supannual San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival at span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="7"Yoshirsquo;s/span, located in San Franciscorsquo;s historic Fillmore District.nbsp; Sunday, a gifted singer and daughter of a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Filipina" data-scaytid="9"Filipina/span mother and African American father shared with the audience that she did not learn Tagalog growing up, that her Filipino identity was something she was still embracing and claiming as her own.nbsp; Lena Sundayrsquo;s rendition of the classic Filipino love song, dedicated to her mother, was one of many heartfelt moments for jazz span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="kababayans" data-scaytid="11"kababayans/span and community members to listen to, remember and celebrate in the month of Octobermdash;Filipino American History Monthmdash;highlighting the Fillmorersquo;s Filipino roots, Filipino Jazz performers and their contributions to the African American gift which is jazz.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p The San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival is in its 4supth/supyear celebrating and showcasing outstanding and world class Filipino jazz artists from both the US and the Philippines. The festival has featured artists including Mon David, Primo Kim, John Calloway, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Tateng" data-scaytid="13"Tateng/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Katindig" data-scaytid="15"Katindig/span, Sandra span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Viray" data-scaytid="17"Viray/span and Jo span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Canion" data-scaytid="19"Canion/span. The founders and organizers of the festival are Carlos and Myrna span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="21"Zialcita/spanmdash;2 musicians whose marriage reflects their love of sharing music and culturemdash;a love that gave birth to the festival. Being immersed in the music business they saw many talented Filipino jazz musicians whose gifts were not being exposedmdash;span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="underappreciated" data-scaytid="23"underappreciated/span in roles as side musicians, not being afforded opportunities to shine as headliners.nbsp; The festival is their effortmdash;in tandem with community educators, activistsmdash;to showcase these talented Filipino jazz musicians and vocalists to a wider audience.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p The journey to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="25"Yoshirsquo;s/spanmdash;a major jazz venue on the West Coastmdash;followed a year of events featuring Filipino jazz performers including a concert commemorating Jazz Appreciation Month, The Asian Heritage Street Celebration, the ldquo;People in the Plaza Concert Seriesrdquo; and various events throughout the Bay Area.nbsp; ldquo;It took a year for us to get the festival to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="31"Yoshirsquo;s/spanrdquo; said Myrna span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="29"Zialcita/span.nbsp; ldquo;There are so many Filipino musicians that are world classmdash;musicians that need to be heardrdquo;.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p It is befitting that the festival be hosted in San Franciscorsquo;s Fillmore District, home of many Filipino families that settled in the neighborhood in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="1920s" data-scaytid="35"1920s/span.nbsp; Among those families were the Robles and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sorro" data-scaytid="37"Sorro/span familiesmdash;large families whose lives were inspired by the sounds of jazz coming from clubs like span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Jimbo’s" data-scaytid="39"Jimborsquo;s/span Bop City and the Blackhawk.nbsp; Poet Al Roblesmdash;widely regarded as the Poet Laureate of San Franciscorsquo;s span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="41"Manilatown/span and who was honored by the Festival in 2009mdash;paid homage tonbsp;nbsp;span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Pinoy" data-scaytid="43"Pinoy/span jazzmen Charlie span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Abing" data-scaytid="45"Abing/span and Flip Nunezmdash;two musicians with deep ties to the Filipino community and who paved the way for Filipino musicians to follow.nbsp;/p p Bill span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sorro" data-scaytid="47"Sorro/span, activist and community leader who would later be a central figure in the struggle to fight the eviction of Filipino elders from the International Hotel, was inspired by jazz in his physical beingmdash;becoming a dancermdash;with a goal of joining the Alvin span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ailey" data-scaytid="49"Ailey/span Dance Company. nbsp;nbsp;The Fillmore was home to African American families, Filipino families, mixed families that were both Filipino and black, as well as Japanese American and other multiracial families.nbsp; One legendary performer who grew up in the Fillmore to Black and Filipino parents was Sugar Pie span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="DeSanto" data-scaytid="51"DeSanto/spanmdash;who Carlos span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Zialcita" data-scaytid="33"Zialcita/span has performed and toured with and has lobbied for induction into the Rock nrsquo; Roll Hall of Fame.nbsp; So inspired was Al Robles by this African American art form, this language that touched his life that he wrote:/p p nbsp;/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;nbsp; Sometimes my heart is Filipino/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;nbsp; Sometimes my heart is black/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;nbsp; And sometimes my heart is Filipino and black/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;nbsp; At the same time/p p nbsp;/p p The language of jazz is the language of heartbreak, struggle, survival and resistance.nbsp; The Fillmore was a neighborhood under attack in the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="50s" data-scaytid="53"50s/span and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="60s" data-scaytid="55"60s/span.nbsp; Slowly the neighborhood was demolished to make way for redevelopmentmdash;the idea being that the neighborhood was blighted and needed to be cleaned up.nbsp; Many families were forced outmdash;mostly low income families of color.nbsp; Beautiful Victorian houses were demolished.nbsp; The antique dealers with their affluent clientele from Marin County converged on those abandoned housesmdash;taking door knobs, banisters, and fixturesmdash;anything that could be sold.nbsp; The landscape was bulldozed and scarred but the sound of jazz remainedmdash;nothing could erase its memory deep in the soil and in the concrete canvasses where songs and scores were yet to be composed.nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p The event was a homecoming, anchored by the music of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Pinoy" data-scaytid="57"Pinoy/span Jazz Quartetmdash;whose passionate playing and relaxed presence showed deference and respect to the audiencemdash;a multicultural gumbo of jazz lovers, friends, elders, youthmdash;a multiethnic Bay Area audience who came out en masse to support the gifts of our community within the spacious yet intimate setting of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yoshi’s" data-scaytid="59"Yoshirsquo;s/span.nbsp; The quartet included long time musicians Ben Luis on bass, Rey Cristobal on piano, Melecio Magdaluyo on sax and flute and Richard Aguon on drums. Their range was impressive, expertly handling standards from the great American songbook, as well as classics and fusion.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p San Francisco born vocalist Lena Sunday wowed the audience with her vocal prowess on songs such as ldquo;Centerpiecerdquo; and ldquo;Throw it awayrdquo;mdash;showing why she was the featured singer in Lou Rawlrsquo;s band for 4 years, as well as a session singer/songwriter for artists such as Stevie Wonder and Nancy Wilson.nbsp; Her self-effacing presence was engaging and refreshing in a world of self-absorbed lesser performers who are too often given the label of ldquo;diva.rdquo;/p p nbsp;/p p Millbrae based, world class vocalist Ann Marie Santos revved up the audience with classics such as ldquo;Love for Salerdquo; and ldquo;It donrsquo;t mean a thing (If it ainrsquo;t got that swing)rdquo;.nbsp; Santos, who started singing at the age of 6 and has toured and performed all over Asia, is a returning performer to the Festival, having appeared in 2009, performing a duet with Mon David, bringing down the house in the eventrsquo;s finale. Her passionate performance prompted host Carlos Zialcita to declare, ldquo;Somebody call the fire department lsquo;cause itrsquo;s getting real hot in hererdquo;.nbsp; Her rendition of ldquo;What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Liferdquo; got me teary eyed (but Irsquo;m sure I wasnrsquo;t the only one)./p p nbsp;/p p Pianist Winston Raval shared his giftsmdash;which include being a pioneer in the area of jazz fusion as well as a band leader and musical director.nbsp; His playing struck an emotional chord that somehow connects jazz with our indigenous past.nbsp; Raval is a pioneer in connecting jazz with indigenous Filipino instruments bringing aboutmdash;what Myrna Zialcita describes as ldquo;A redefinition of what jazz means.nbsp; You canrsquo;t keep peoplersquo;s influence from coming into the genre.nbsp; When you bring your culture into jazz, you add it to that gumbo.rdquo;nbsp; Winston Raval is an extremely accomplished musician, having written the scores to 23 films in the Philippines.nbsp; During the evening, he was presented with a lifetime achievement award on behalf of the Festival.nbsp; His humor was not lost on the honormdash;in introducing the song ldquo;Who Can I turn To (When nobody needs me)rdquo;mdash;he changed the title to ldquo;Who can I turn to when your GPS is driving you crazy.rdquo;/p p nbsp;/p p Annie Brazil showed why she is called ldquo;Asiarsquo;s Queen of Jazz.rdquo;nbsp; Her style and repertoire is classic and classymdash;her songs coming from the Great American songbook.nbsp; Singing since the age of nbsp;6, she grew up in the district of San Miguel near Malacanang Palace and has performed all over the world.nbsp; She performed with bands led by Iggy De Guzman, Pepe Merto, Cesar Velasco and Ding Yalung.nbsp; Brazil ran clubs and booked acts which brought her into contact with American jazz performers. She jammed with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, James Moody, Ellis Marsalis and Sarah Vaughn.nbsp; When asked about Billy Eckstine, she once said, ldquo;I bow to Billy Eckstine.rdquo; nbsp;Her unique voice nailed timeless songs such as ldquo;Satin Doll,rdquo; nbsp;ldquo;Smile,rdquo; and a medley of Tagalog songs.nbsp; The 78 year old Brazil recently released an album of classic songs with new arrangements, produced by her son, vocalist Richard Merck.nbsp; Currently based in New York, she continues to perform regularly./p p nbsp;/p p The festival honored Annie Brazil, Winston Raval and Bob Parlocha with lifetime achievement awards.nbsp; Parlocha, a native of Vallejo and son of a Filipino father and Afro Filipino mother, is a musician and was music director for legendary radio station KJAZ, was affectionately spoken of for his radio programming and knowledge of jazzmdash;a genre that he celebrated on his syndicated program ldquo;Jazz with Bob Parlochardquo;mdash;a program that is aired in both the US and Canada.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p The close of the show featured the three vocalists on stage together, singing in the scatting style that is beyond words but is all feeling.nbsp; And the feeling was that we were at homemdash;in the Fillmore, in the heart of jazz, in the heart of our story that is in a big pot of gumbo and rice and adobo--that pot of jazz in which Filipino musicians have added their own flavor to the many flavors that it is.nbsp;/p

p A recent span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Cnn.com" data-scaytid="1"Cnn.com/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="op-ed" data-scaytid="11"op-ed/span piece asked: Are jobs obsolete?nbsp; To those who are unemployed, this questionnbsp;is a luxury.nbsp; There are those who, deep down, ask this questionmdash;fleeting asnbsp;it arrives on our mental landscapemdash;and ponder the existence of life without ldquo;a jobrdquo;.nbsp; We look at the unemployment numbers, we see images of people in linesmdash;multitudes who have been out of work in the large cities and in the not-so large cities. nbsp;nbsp;Black unemployment is twice that of whitesmdash;and factoring in the sub-prime mortgage crisismdash;most black people view the current climate as a depression rather than a recession. nbsp;nbsp;We see unemployment among black youth ages 16-24 at a staggering 31%.nbsp; Resumes are printed, job workshops are scheduled and we scan the online and offline sourcesmdash;as well as our personal circles--for job leads, anything.nbsp; Meanwhile, our people are more demoralized, depressed, sick and anxiety-ridden than ever./p p nbsp;/p p Many of our cultural and community educators and activistsmdash;such as Luis J. Rodriguez a href="http://www.luisjrodriguez.com/"font color="#222222"(/fontspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.luisjrodriguez.com" data-scaytid="3"www.luisjrodriguez.com/span/a)nbsp;and Nelson span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Peery" data-scaytid="15"Peery/span (a href="http://www.speakersforanewamerica.com/nelsonpeerydialogue2.html"http://span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="www.speakersforanewamerica.com" data-scaytid="5"www.speakersforanewamerica.com/span/span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="nelsonpeerydialogue2.html" data-scaytid="7"nelsonpeerydialogue2.html/span/a), among othersmdash;who have labored in the factories and in the military industrial complexmdash;have seen the shift from manufacturing to white collar, finance based jobs.nbsp; Industrial jobs that once provided decent wages have been sent overseas or have been diminished by corporate greed in collusion with government/lobbyists to undermine and break unions./p p nbsp;/p p The CNN span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="op-ed" data-scaytid="13"op-ed/span cited the rise of digital technology and its ldquo;Slow but steady replacement of working humansrdquo; as the cause of the problems plaguing the US Postal Service.nbsp; People are sending 22% fewer pieces of mail than they did 4 years ago.nbsp; According to the op span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="ed’s" data-scaytid="19"edrsquo;s/span author, the real culprit is email and other net-enabled means of communication such as electronic bill payment. nbsp;Other examples of jobs lost to emnon-homo sapiens /emare Google self-driving automobiles--rendering taxi drivers obsolete, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="EZ" data-scaytid="21"EZ/span passes replacing toll-takers and supermarketrsquo;s use of automated check stands.nbsp; The logical progression of this process was thought to be that the replaced workers would be trained to fix or program the robots that have replaced them.nbsp; But the people needed to make the robots are not as many as the people they replace.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p Henry Miller once wrote that making a living has very little to do with living.nbsp; Perhaps what should be asked is how we make a emlife/em?nbsp; The stuff that is made in our society is, presumably, to provide us the essentialsmdash;and often times non-essentialsmdash;of life and/or a standard of living that will make us comfortable.nbsp; But as humans are increasingly taken out of the production equation, where does that leave us?nbsp; With no job, we have no moneymdash;the bottom falls outmdash;and the effects reverberate through our livesmdash;shattering our health, relationships, self-esteem, and ultimately, the future of our children.nbsp; Is it a job that we really need when most of what we needmdash;food, shelter, health caremdash;given the countryrsquo;s productivitymdash;could be provided to the entire population with just a ldquo;fraction of us actually workingrdquo;?nbsp; As the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="op-ed’s" data-scaytid="23"op-edrsquo;s/span author stated, ldquo;Our problem is not that we donrsquo;t have enough emstuff, /emitrsquo;s that we donrsquo;t have enough ways for people to work and ldquo;proverdquo; that they deserve this stuff.nbsp; I have always admired the person with nothing to prove./p p nbsp;/p p One such person with nothing to prove is my father James Robles (a href="http://poormagazine.org/node/2965"http://span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="poormagazine.org" data-scaytid="9"poormagazine.org/span/node/2965/a.nbsp; He worked much of his life as a janitor.nbsp; He always arrived to work on time, always did a good job.nbsp; He started his own janitorial business eventually, where I, as his sole employee, was taught the virtues of never doing a half assed job (his preferred method of spreading this particular gospel was via putting a well placed ldquo;foot in my assmdash;hence my role as ldquo;solerdquo; employeerdquo;mdash;which I still, on occasion, feel to this day).nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p After living in San Francisco most of his life (born and raised), he moved the family to Hawaii 2 decades ago.nbsp; I left shortly after high school graduation; he stayed to raise my brother and sister along with his wife.nbsp; It is not easy to make it in Hawaii, the cost of living is high and housing is tighter than ever due to the influx of people from the so-called mainland.nbsp; He still worksmdash;now as a maintenance man in a condo on Waikiki.nbsp; His work is sometimes strenuous but not overly so.nbsp; He leaves the heavy lifting for the young guys./p p nbsp;/p p In his moments of pause, he looks out at the ocean, its movement, its blueness.nbsp; He reflects on time and life and how it passes and moves forwards and backwards.nbsp; A part of him never fully accepted capitalism.nbsp; As a family, we ate at McDonalds and drank coke with a smile; but my father was never disposable, his mind was not a blank slate for the branding of corporationsmdash;nor was his heart./p p nbsp;/p p He sought out the indigenous Filipino art of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Eskrima" data-scaytid="25"Eskrima/spanmdash;a beautiful art which Filipinos developed to defend their land from colonizers and invaders.nbsp; He learned the art from elders on the islands.nbsp; One elder asked, ldquo;Why should I teach you this art?rdquo;nbsp; My father replied, ldquo;This is my peoplersquo;s art, I have a right to learn itrdquo;.nbsp; It turned out the elder had waited years to hear those words.nbsp; The art is very old and is performed in styles using sticks, knives and open hand techniques.nbsp; He was a student then a teacher.nbsp; He visited the Philippines for the first timemdash;an ancestral homecoming--a few years back with his students to complete in a world span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Eskrima" data-scaytid="27"Eskrima/span tournament.nbsp; The team did well, garnering medals in multiple categories.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p My fatherrsquo;s life is located in the bamboo forests of Hawaii.nbsp; The sticks that he holds, that he honors in his martial art provide the sounds that give his life meaning, gives it life. The sticks are an extension of himmdash;his ribs, his limbsmdash;growing out of the soil of resistance to the colonization of his culture, his history, his mind.nbsp; My father has carved the poetry of his life onto his skin which is the skin of wood.nbsp; He finds pieces of wood, running his hands over each unique piecemdash;burning designs onto each.nbsp; He spends hours carving facesmdash;forming noses, eyes, mouthsmdash;that ultimately speak the story of his life.nbsp; He sends these pieces of art to his family.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p I run my fingers across the faces, each detail is unique, giving honor to our ancestral face, our ancestral blood.nbsp;nbsp; Each mark and gap carved into the wood is a story, a memory that cannot be erased.nbsp; The carvings are evidence of a life lived in resistance, in poetry, in oneness with nature./p p nbsp;/p p Carving is his lifersquo;s workmdash;greater than a job or vocationmdash;for he does it out of sheer love.nbsp; And in that love he shares it with our family and friendsmdash;and with the world./p p nbsp;/p p I see a world where wersquo;re not defined by a job.nbsp; A job is not who you and I are.nbsp; My father has written his own life in the faces, the skin of wood by carving his own life into it.nbsp; Hersquo;s still carving./p

p nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 24.0px Times" I wrote this poem in 2002 now its 2011 and I still cry out Brown Broken Bodies/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 24.0px Times" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 24.0px Times" bBrown Broken Bodies/b/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Here I stand!/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but Irsquo;m not Paul Robeson/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" surrounded by Brown Broken Bodies/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Brutality Bullets paints Blue on Brown skinnbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Bruises oozingnbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Brothers canrsquo;t run anymore/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Bones snap by the swing of Batons/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Four wheels equals wheelchairs/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Brown Broken Bodies are one thing/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but Brown Broken souls are deadly/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" No rehabilitationnbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" now he is weak physically and mentally/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Manhood has disappeared/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Heads hang down low/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" He is still youngnbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but he feels looks old/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Here I stand!/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" holding Brown Broken Bodies on my Back/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" while Broken souls fills up my heart/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" giving me a heart attack/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Wheelchairs, crutches, canes and schizophrenic minds/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" ex soldiers now are ex residentsnbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" living on the outskirts of their communities/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Picking up faces from the ground/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but for what!/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" to see more oppression/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" to hear racist comments/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" to feel systemic blows/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" to stare down the burl of a gun held by a black blue uniform/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" to beg for spare charge/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Mother nature looks better than manrsquo;s societynbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Here I stand!/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" with books entitlednbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Why We Canrsquo;t Wait Here I Stand/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but even on span data-scayt_word="MLK’s" data-scaytid="1"MLKrsquo;s/span and Malcolm Xrsquo;s B. day/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Brown Bodies are being abusednbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Going back in time so where is Harriet Tubman/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" cause wersquo;ve dug up Masta and now hersquo;s in the White House again/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Both George Washington George Bush are a lot in common/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Finishing the King Alfred Plannbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" James Byrdrsquo;s Broken Body didnrsquo;t create domestic war/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" But Broken Bodies in New York and Washington are being usednbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" to send more bodies into battle/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" creating more Broken Bodies and mindsnbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Here I stand!/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" shouting on an isolated island nbsp; nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" sending out an S.O.S. to the motherland/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Marcus Garvey I want to go home/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Even in Africa Brothers Bodies are Broken/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" A disabled world nation/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" and Irsquo;m their spokesman/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but the world wonrsquo;t give a mike/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" so I write with my brotherrsquo;s blood/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" They speak to me when it is quite at night/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" My book is a flood/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" of their wants, needs, anger and talents/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Brown Broken Bodies might be scattered all over the world/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" but their thought patterns are unified/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" fornbsp; a seamiest to sew together/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" creating a warm blanket, cradling and nursingnbsp; newborns/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" and covering cold Brown Broken Bodies/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" Leroy F. Moore Jr./p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'" 5\02/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 16.0px" nbsp;nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp;/p

p (photo: POOR Magazine family of span data-scayt_word="skolaz" data-scaytid="1"skolaz/span with span data-scayt_word="dignidadrebelde" data-scaytid="2"dignidadrebelde/span span data-scayt_word="artistas" data-scaytid="1520"artistas/span Melanie Cervantes and Jesus span data-scayt_word="Barraza" data-scaytid="4"Barraza/span and their revolutionary work in the background)/p p I used to be able to sleep there,nbsp; One of my street-residing poverty scholar of color brothers, Larry W.nbsp; looked up at me with confused eyes pointing across the street to the span data-scayt_word="Decolonize" data-scaytid="5"Decolonize/span (Occupy) Oakland site. In between talking to me he was talking to and with several hundred voices in his beautiful, traumatized mind. From a western psychiatric diagnostic perspective, he was a paranoid schizophrenic. From many different indigenous deep structure perspectives that i was raised with and actively follow, he was a listener and dreamer living with several forms of post-traumatic slave syndrome, racism and classism in span data-scayt_word="Amerikkka" data-scaytid="7"Amerikkka/span and we had been comrades since when me and mama were living on the span data-scayt_word="calles" data-scaytid="8"calles/span next to him./p p I cried with him, we talked about his mama and mine- and how they were both having some kind of time together and definitely would have some strong opinions about all the Occupations. And then I suggested that we talk with some folks across the street ( at the Occupation site) to get him one of the warm tents so he could sleep elsewhere in it. He vehemently refused, saying, I don#39;t trust those people, last week their help led to me getting arrested,/p p After a while Larry thanked me for listening and walked down the street away from Oscar Grant Plaza( formerly Frank Ogawa Plaza) shaking his head from side to side./p p I went to the Occupy Oakland/span data-scayt_word="Decolonize" data-scaytid="6"Decolonize/span Oakland with POOR Magazine family and saw many beautiful and transformative things such as food sharing, libraries and art-making bynbsp; Melanie Cervantes and Jesus span data-scayt_word="Barraza" data-scaytid="1050"Barraza/span from span data-scayt_word="Dignidad" data-scaytid="1115"Dignidad/span span data-scayt_word="Rebelde" data-scaytid="1339"Rebelde/span and others. We also had a very strange and disturbing series of encounters, where our family of poverty scholars ended up protecting/defending/ supporting the only elder of color who I saw that night from a physical and verbal attack on her person by several 20-something white span data-scayt_word="folx" data-scaytid="9"folx/span, because she had apparently said something insulting in a verbal altercation earlier that day in the camp. This was just one of many encounters we had that night rife with more span data-scayt_word="isms" data-scaytid="10"isms/span than i would like to mention.br / nbsp;/p p After still processing the experience with an unhealthy dose ofnbsp; my own Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), and hearing similar stories from the people of color caucuses that have been meeting at the span data-scayt_word="Decolonization" data-scaytid="11"Decolonization/span site in Oakland, i was filled with emotion and deep sorrow but i held back from writing anything about the situation because i was trying to honor the movement of peoples against the capitalist machine and i wanted to support the organic-ness of it all and not work to splinter or add stress to the fledgling movement. And then all of a sudden i realized that something else was happening. I was doing what people have historically done with and for people with race, class, gender or ability privilege, make excuses, not hold them accountable for their actions and by default, allow some very abusive actions to go un-checked, un-seen, and un-noticed. And by doing this, enable the abuse to continue, like me and so many of my sisters and brothers who have been abused by these kinds of violence for so long often do./p p Sadly , the actions of the majority of the white occupiers are to be expected ( not excused) as they are peoples born and bred on racist, span data-scayt_word="classist" data-scaytid="12"classist/span US media and values that teach the cult of span data-scayt_word="agism" data-scaytid="14"agism/span, separation, white supremacy,nbsp; angst and overall lack of respect for anyone who doesn#39;t look, act, move and talk like you./p p My brother span data-scayt_word="Muteado" data-scaytid="15"Muteado/span span data-scayt_word="Silencio" data-scaytid="16"Silencio/span, span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="17"PNN/span reporter, poverty and migrant span data-scayt_word="skolar" data-scaytid="18"skolar/span spoke on a similar encounter the other night in Occupy span data-scayt_word="Sf" data-scaytid="20"Sf/span, where a span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="22"houseless/span person who had normally been sleeping where the occupiers were now staying, had self-marginalized himself to the actual street where cars were span data-scayt_word="wizzing" data-scaytid="26"wizzing/span by. When one of the well-meaning occupiers tried to move the guy, he resisted their attempts, which then led to a span data-scayt_word="po'lice" data-scaytid="27"po#39;lice/span encounter and the span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="23"houseless/span guy ended up getting arrested and span data-scayt_word="po'lice" data-scaytid="28"po#39;lice/span abused./p p I know its all very complicated because there are some span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="24"houseless/span folks involved in the occupations, but there are span data-scayt_word="alot" data-scaytid="30"alot/span of peoples who are not. Who have never experienced any forms of racism, classism or span data-scayt_word="ablism" data-scaytid="31"ablism/span. Whose consciousness#39; are just being awakened and desperately neednbsp; scholarship on racism, classism, span data-scayt_word="eldership" data-scaytid="32"eldership/span, care-giving, and humility./p p And are we, the ones who can barely keep roofs over ournbsp; babies heads and suffer serious acts of span data-scayt_word="po'lice" data-scaytid="29"po#39;lice/span brutality, racism,wage theft, border fascism and span data-scayt_word="criminalization" data-scaytid="33"criminalization/span every day the ones to bring this to them./p p Our family and extended family of poverty and indigenous scholars at POOR held a discussion at our indigenous news-making circle last night. Some folks were very much about the Occupy movements. One of our newest span data-scayt_word="skolars" data-scaytid="35"skolars/span and reporters, span data-scayt_word="Ayat" data-scaytid="36"Ayat/span, remains one of the twonbsp; span data-scayt_word="African-descedent" data-scaytid="37"African-descedent/span members of Occupy span data-scayt_word="Sf" data-scaytid="21"Sf/span - believing that this is a very important movement and we as poor peoples need to be at the head of it./p p Another POOR span data-scayt_word="skolar" data-scaytid="19"skolar/span believes like many of us, that we as poor peoples of color in struggle have been fighting this revolution for a minute and we span data-scayt_word="dont" data-scaytid="38"dont/span need to get in front of any other peoples movement to become legitimate./p p I#39;m not sure if i believe any other thing or the other. What i know is, this movement is growing, and new in it or not, the folks caught up in the occupations are not getting any more passes or unbridled praise from me for continuing to act in racist, span data-scayt_word="classist" data-scaytid="13"classist/span, span data-scayt_word="ableist" data-scaytid="39"ableist/span, or span data-scayt_word="ageist" data-scaytid="40"ageist/span ways. For continuing to perpetrate an odd form of gentrification, if you will, of activism, of organizing, of resistance./p p The occupiersnbsp; default gentrification isn#39;t just of land from us already span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="25"houseless/span occupied peoples on the streets, it is of media, space and resources. So many struggles continue to rage on around and in the streets and barrios where peoples have suddenly setup camps, acting like their set-ups are somehow different and inherently more important than anything before or after, histories and span data-scayt_word="herstories" data-scaytid="41"herstories/span of struggle and resistance movements seem to melt away like butter in a skillet, barely informing the current occupations, making them somehow ahistorical/p p Bob from the Coalition on Homelessness who has worked tirelessly for years trying to fight ongoing span data-scayt_word="criminalization" data-scaytid="34"criminalization/span and incarceration of poor peoples in SF was vexed by some of the special privileges given to the SF Occupiersnbsp; when he noticed special treatment being given to span data-scayt_word="OCcupy" data-scaytid="42"OCcupy/span SF from Ed Lee#39;s office while Ed Lee#39;s office refuses to budge on the Sit-lie law which incarcerates and criminalizes poor peoples for the sole act of sitting or standing while poor in SF. The long-time organizers at Coalition on Homelessness resolved the odd disconnect by creating a flyer that they will be distributing at the Occupy SF site to members that talks about the other fights waging for years in SF against poor peoples movements./p p POOR Magazine, which has been creating poor people-led,indigenous people-led media, education and art with a mandate of no span data-scayt_word="po'Lice" data-scaytid="43"po#39;Lice/span calls ever is in the progress of creating a hand-book b span data-scayt_word="Decolonizers" data-scaytid="44"Decolonizers/span Guide to a Humble Revolution/b which we hope folks in Occupations can use as guide to learn about working with all peoples, each other and all the other movements in need of their support and resources .br / nbsp;br / Finally, at least in the case of the Oakland site, the Oscar Grant plaza (formerly Frank Ogawa plaza) is named after a young African descendent father killed by span data-scayt_word="Po'Lice" data-scaytid="45"Po#39;Lice/span in span data-scayt_word="Amerikkkka" data-scaytid="46"Amerikkkka/span at the span data-scayt_word="Fruitvale" data-scaytid="47"Fruitvale/span BART station. And was launched with a prayer from span data-scayt_word="Ohlone" data-scaytid="48"Ohlone/span 1st nation peoples through powerful span data-scayt_word="wobyn" data-scaytid="49"wobyn/span warrior span data-scayt_word="Corina" data-scaytid="50"Corina/span Gould. This is sacred land and it is sacrilege if elders and children and indigenous and disabled and peoples of all colors are not respected, cared for or thought aboutnbsp; . And sadly, we as poor peoples and peoples of color must be the ones to check it when it doesn#39;t happen. Or, i fear, it will, like this movement, grow and increase and become solidified as ok./p

p emSeptember 12, 2011/em/p p The people who control the first level of information available to us, through our TV sets, billboards, and radios, are a select few. Rupert Murdoch owns Dish Network. ATT owns Direct TV. Comcast (now known as span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="XFinity" data-scaytid="5"XFinity/span) is run out of a corporation in Mexico City that owns the majority of cable networks around the world. These are just the major ones, the heavy hitters. If I didnrsquo;t mention any of the others, thank God that yoursquo;re not controlled by them./p p There are four major television networks. Letrsquo;s start slow with NBC. NBC owns 16 major media operations in television, film, and radio. Their parent is Sony Corporation. Thatrsquo;s why span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Telemundo’s" data-scaytid="7"Telemundorsquo;s/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="telenovelas" data-scaytid="9"telenovelas/span are similar in style to Japanese soap operas. This is why TV is all interconnected, across the world./p p Second off the bat is CBS, is the biggest crook of the bunch. They not only own the usual suspects, like TV and movie studios, but also CBS outdoors, which controls 90% of all billboards across the United States. They own movie companies CBS Films and Showtime, the cable movie channel that broadcasts boxing and special-interest sports. Donrsquo;t forget the gossip magazine, where we can learn all the background info on our favorite CBS celebs! span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="And...an" data-scaytid="1"And...an/span ecological lobbying group called span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="EcoMedia" data-scaytid="11"EcoMedia/span, that works to harness the ldquo;vast untapped span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="resevoir”" data-scaytid="13"resevoirrdquo;/span of advertising space, to partner municipalities and NGOs with ldquo;ecologically-mindedrdquo; corporations./p p Thirdly: Disney owns ABC. Disney also owns ice shows, cruise ships, snack packs..., and a bunch of other things too long to list in this article. Letrsquo;s just say our computer crashed trying to conduct research on the Disney website. Letrsquo;s just not forget ESPN and the videogame Aaron Stone, as well as Touchstone Pictures, and Disneyrsquo;s affiliate, the all-encompassing Nestle. Thatrsquo;s all wersquo;ll name at this time, just a bit./p p Last but not least. FOX, owned by Rupert Murdoch, a man who claims three citizenships: Australian, British, and American. This is the scariest man of the bunch, the biggest of the monsters in the group. Rupert Murdoch owns large portions of all print media in North America, South America, and Australia; all the major British newspapers; financial news from Barronrsquo;s to the Wall Street Journal; a ldquo;diverserdquo; communications group known as SKY; and Dish Networkhellip;This takes up a lot of homes in the United States and the rest of the world. Murdoch also owns the usual FOX, Star Cable channel, National Geographic Channel, and several more stations that Irsquo;ll leave span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="unnamed...except" data-scaytid="3"unnamed...except/span of course the ultra-conservative FOX news, lest we forget Murdoch controls how our histories and stories are shown to the public. Thatrsquo;s all Irsquo;ll say at this timemdash;donrsquo;t span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="wanna" data-scaytid="15"wanna/span get arrested!/p p Now you know who owns you. If you own a TV or computerhellip;these are the people who own what you see, hear, and taste, from movies to candy bars./p p This is Bad News Bruce, signing out./p

pPresently in S.F., there are 30 thousand abandoned units of housing. From this amount, we only need ten thousand to house all the homeless in San Francisco County.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p p At 5:00 pm, on October 10th, Homes Not Jails are conducting a walking tour of these abandoned units that can be used to house families, elders and the down-trodden citizens who we call ournbsp; homeless population. This tour will verify, and bring to light, one-tenth of these, which cover a one mile radius.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p p Come out October tenth to the Civic Center Plaza at 5:00pm. Some of these units will be made available for your occupation upon inspection.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p p To you capitalists out there who say this will be a burden to you, It will not. This will give 3 million dollars back to the city of San Francisco, to be used for the growing list of needs being denied, due to the current lack of funding./p

p I was on the #5 Fulton bus yesterday, taking in the nuances of my race (span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="ie" data-scaytid="1"ie/span: the emhuman /emrace): the gratuitous and over modulated cell phone conversations, texting, bad perfumes/colognes and the incessant foot tapping of a guy a few feet away, occupied by music piped into his ears via a pair of white plastic headphones.nbsp; I looked at my fellow passengers.nbsp; How many were unemployed, looking for work, looking for something?nbsp; How many were barely surviving?nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p Some folks entered via the rear of the bus with clipper cards while others entered with or without proof of payment.nbsp; Many of these folks are newcomers to the city (How can I tell? Irsquo;m a native with 47 years in).nbsp; They get on the bus with the air that the bus never existed until they arrivedmdash;and they connect, somehow, with others like themselves, creating a nice warm, insulated sense of community or community as they see it (in their own minds)mdash;at least for the duration of the bus ride./p p nbsp;/p p In many ways the city bus is a metaphor for the state of humanity.nbsp; Many have been standing a long time while others, just getting on, manage to get an instant seat.nbsp; Who gets to sit and who is willing to sacrifice their seat is the question that settles and crystallizes in the consciousness as glints of sun pass through the window.nbsp; Then the realization sets in:nbsp; I am sitting with the 99%/p p nbsp;/p p I began thinking about the Occupy San Francisco Protests, and other occupy mobilizations that have taken hold across the country.nbsp; The occupy protestors call themselves the 99%, as opposed to the 1% who control most, if not all the wealth in this country.nbsp; I watched footage of the protests on the news and took part in the Occupy March that converged on the headquarters of Wells Fargo Bank last week./p p nbsp;/p p As I marched I thought about the protests that took place nearby on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="3"Kearny/span Street 30 years ago, when elderly Filipino and other elders fought eviction from the International Hotel.nbsp; The fight was against the destruction of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="7"Manilatown/spanmdash;which had fallen victim to unbridled capitalism, carving away at the Filipino community on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="5"Kearny/span Street until all that was left was the International Hotelmdash;which the owners wanted to demolish in favor of a parking lot.nbsp; And even before that, the Filipino elders, when they were young, organized actions and strikes such as the Delano Grape Strike and strikes against plantation owners in Hawaii./p p nbsp;/p p Itrsquo;s good that the Occupy SF movementmdash;part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the 99%-- are jumping on board and realizing what our elders realized long ago, that the economic system wersquo;re beholden to is unjust and out of control.nbsp; But, as in the case of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Muni" data-scaytid="9"Muni/span busmdash;just because yoursquo;re on board doesnrsquo;t mean that no one else has been on board before you arrived.nbsp; And why werenrsquo;t you on board sooner?nbsp; Could it be it was because you were occupied?nbsp; With cell phone, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="ipad" data-scaytid="11"ipad/span, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="ipod" data-scaytid="13"ipod/span, email, span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="cellphone" data-scaytid="15"cellphone/span, job?nbsp; Yoursquo;re not getting what yoursquo;re worth, you feel span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="gipped" data-scaytid="17"gipped/span out of that chunk of apple pie or piece of the stolen American rock that was on the horizon.nbsp; All this begs the question: What are you worth and who defines it?/p p nbsp;/p p Back to the #5 Fulton bus.nbsp; An elder in an electric mobility chair was on board with his 3 grandchildren and their mother.nbsp; It was a packed bus and the elder began the process of exiting, which was somewhat arduous because people on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Muni" data-scaytid="19"Muni/span are reluctant to move, and, if they emare/em apt to move, find there is no where to move emto.nbsp; /emJust as the elder approached the exit door, his chair malfunctioned.nbsp; The elder started pushing buttons to no availmdash;the chair would not move.nbsp; The bus was immobile and the passengers sat, some snickering, impatient at the delay./p p nbsp;/p p As we tried to figure out the workings of the chair, all the people on the busmdash;at least 99%--got off through the back door and boarded another bus approaching from the rear.nbsp; There we were, an elder in a chair that wouldnrsquo;t move, his 3 grandkids, their mother and the bus driver and me.nbsp; 99% of the passengers emptied itself from the bus like proverbial rats from the sinking ship.nbsp; ldquo;Stoprdquo; I said, ldquo;Wersquo;re part of the 99% toordquo;.nbsp; But nobody heard, they were on the bus that was moving./p p nbsp;/p p Finally, after tapping, turning and twisting this lever and that, we got the chair to move manually.nbsp; With a few pushes we got it off the bus.nbsp; While on the sidewalk, we struggled with the chair.nbsp; We finally called the fire dept., which was, ironically, 2 blocks away.nbsp; The elder was an immigrant, likely from Eritrea.nbsp; His grandkids were beautiful, so was their mother.nbsp; We waited for the Fire Department to come as the bus pulled away.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p It was amazing how quickly 99% of the passengers got off the bus.nbsp; Maybe it was because they were occupied./p p nbsp;/p

p/p