p a href="http://animoto.com/play/nHRxpWaYSix0E632vr5BSg"http://animoto.com/play/nHRxpWaYSix0E632vr5BSg/a#/p

p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Take out what you can carry,rdquo; said one of the officers who responded to my wife#39;s 911 call.nbsp; ldquo;We#39;re not going to stay here all span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="day.”" data-scaytid="37"day.rdquo;/span/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;I#39;m not going to leave without my span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="cat.”" data-scaytid="39"cat.rdquo;/spannbsp; My wife was adamant.nbsp; Her glasses hung crookedly on her face.nbsp; The person we thought was our friend tore them off and tossed them into the yard after Holly refused to be shaken down for five bucks./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I missed the whole thing.nbsp; I left the day before.nbsp; The person we considered our closest friend became a mad tyrant after we moved into a room in her house.nbsp; I am physically disabled and she constantly demanded that I do work I am incapable of doing.nbsp; I hurt myself repeatedly because I didn#39;t want my autistic son tossed out in the street with us.nbsp; Now my hands are so wrecked from psoriatic arthritis that I cannot hold a hammer or use a paintbrush.nbsp; My ability to contribute financially is severely curtailed.nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Worse, I had a mini-stroke when she forced me to haul gravel.nbsp; Inbsp; became so weak I could not stand or breath.nbsp; My legs trembled.nbsp; I gasped ldquo;Asher, I can#39;t breath.nbsp; Help me!rdquo;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Stop snapping at me, Bill!rdquo; she screamed.nbsp; She walked away as I fell to the tarmac.nbsp; After a few minutes I managed to crawl inside the truck.nbsp; Too weak to dial 911, I hit two on my cell and got my wife.nbsp; She called Asher who refused to do any first aid until her truck was filled with gravel.nbsp; My wife got the ambulance when we got home.nbsp; By then the worse was over.nbsp; Tests show I had a mini-stroke./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Get out of my house, you piece of shit!rdquo;nbsp; the madwoman screamed.nbsp; Her girlfriend, a hospice nurse added, ldquo;You#39;ve been free loading on her too long!rdquo;nbsp; It#39;s a good thing she was a hospice nurse because her patients aren#39;t expected to recover.nbsp; She is one of the stupidest people I ever met./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Shut up, or I#39;ll arrest you,rdquo;nbsp; The second cop added./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"They made the nut stay outside while Holly grabbed what she could.nbsp; We scratch out a meager living through her clowning and by selling her handcrafts on Telegraph Ave.nbsp; She left $1,500 worth of merchandise behind as well as well as $2,200 worth of materials.nbsp; We also had to leave our vending license.nbsp; Between the two of us we had $55.00.nbsp; Holly can buy more balloons and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busk" data-scaytid="41"busk/span.nbsp; That will bring in about thirty to forty dollars.nbsp; There are going to be some disappointed kids.nbsp; The puppets are still with the nut./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"This was actually the second time I walked out of that mad house.nbsp; The first time was a few days after I came home from the hospital.nbsp; It was less than five days since I was released from the hospital.nbsp; She decided to have one of her temper tantrums over the flies./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Her back yard is entirely gravel, and she has a huge dog who is not allowed outside his run and severely underfed.nbsp;nbsp; Of course he craps in the run, and the lunatic has fits if anybody tosses out the soiled gravel with the feces.nbsp; Along with the dog, she has two cats and a neurotic span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="french" data-scaytid="45"french/span poodle that pees on everything including our bed and my shoes.nbsp; So of course there are flies.nbsp; My wife is allergic to insecticides.nbsp; The Landlady went, if you will pardon the expression, fly shit at me, because she couldn#39;t spray Raid and pretend she was doing something about the fly infestation.nbsp; Even though Holly was coming back with $40 worth of fly traps, she yelled and screamed in my face and kept at it until I yelled back.nbsp; She left crying and I collapsed on the porch with chest pains and yelling, ldquo;The flies, the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="flies.”" data-scaytid="47"flies.rdquo;/spannbsp; That was my second trip by ambulance in five days./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Holly was supposed to show up at eight to get the stuff we needed immediately.nbsp; She met Holly at the door and demanded a percentage of our General Assistance checks and five dollars out of pocket.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; When span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="tHolly" data-scaytid="49"tHolly/span told her that we were not giving her one more cent, she freaked out and attacked her.nbsp; She ripped the glasses off my wife#39;s face and threw them into the yard and struck her repeatedly on the shoulders.nbsp; The nut grabbed Holly#39;s hand when she took out her cell to call 911.nbsp; Holly#39;s Tai Chi training came to her aid.nbsp;nbsp; Holly kept the cell phone and called the cops without having to hit her back. She took several punches to her shoulder instead. A victory for pacifism./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"With nowhere else to go, we went back to Berkeley and did what we could to get our property back.nbsp; Next week, we will have a storage locker and a place where we can store our stock and clothes.nbsp; Our son is in a program for autistic people.nbsp; All we have to worry about is ourselves and the dog.nbsp; My brother put me up for two days, and that is all he dares do.nbsp; He has a rent controlled apartment in San Francisco, and his landlords would love to get rid of him so they can jack up the rent.nbsp; Holly and the pets stayed with a friend who cannot stand having too many people around her.nbsp; After two days, we were screwed./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I came back two days after the fly incident, and renegotiated our deal.nbsp; Originally it was work for room, helping her out with her bills, and letting her join us for dinner.nbsp; I had been working 35-45 hours a week, mostly doing stupid things like hauling flower pots from one side of the yard to another.nbsp; My favorite was when she had me use a scoop to empty her compost bin into another container and then scrub out the bin.nbsp; Two days later, she decided she liked it better in the original bin and I had to put it all back./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Little real work got done because the madwoman compulsively collected stuff from the Craig#39;s List free section.nbsp; She came back with the damnedest garbage from giant balloons to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="hydroponic" data-scaytid="51"hydroponic/span gear.nbsp; It didn#39;t matter to her.nbsp; If it was free, she would grab it.nbsp; I spent weeks clearing the bedroom and porch so my family could use them.nbsp; In a matter of weeks they were a worse mess than before.nbsp; Plus she had the front entrance blocked with the most incredible garbage.nbsp; More of my time was spent trying to stack the shit so people could move than in any actual work.nbsp; Then I got hissy-fits when the actual work wasn#39;t done as well./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Since I couldn#39;t haul anymore, my new job was selling hernbsp; garbage on Craig#39;s list, which I did.nbsp; In three days I sold about $175 which was brilliant.nbsp; (Better than I ever saw her do in the 7 years we knew her.)nbsp; All it got me was more bullying.nbsp; I also let her know that I wasn#39;t working more than 25 hours a week.nbsp; I clocked 70 hours in the next two weeks.nbsp; Holly and Colin also contributed quite a few hours of work.nbsp; Not only did she ignore our new agreement, but she continued to verbally abuse me./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"There wasn#39;t much we could do once we were in Berkeley.nbsp; It was July 4supth/sup and the police and legal aid were all doing Independence Day stuff.nbsp; So we hung out and I went to my brother#39;s.nbsp; I don#39;t know what I would do without my brother.nbsp; He provided the money so I could keep my phone on.nbsp; The phone was a bone of contention between the madwoman and me.nbsp; My brother-in-law helped me get a smart phone so I could take credit card payments while vending.nbsp; She felt the money should have been given to her.nbsp; In her mind, everything is hers, including our general assistance and food stamps.nbsp;nbsp; She was constantly haranguing us for money.nbsp; She claimed she had no income.nbsp; She freaked out about the unpaid electric bill.nbsp; Her house in the East Bay was mortgaged for more than it was worth and she claimed they would foreclose.nbsp; We were there for two months, and I saw no sign of foreclosure, but being a former mortgage salesman, I recognized the refinancing paperwork that came in the mail./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"It was the electric bill that first warned me what anbsp; dangerous nut bag she was.nbsp; After bullying us about it for two weeks, she realized that if we had it, we would have paid it just to make her span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="STFU" data-scaytid="53"STFU/span!nbsp; In the middle of Junenbsp; she claimednbsp; that she paid the bill out of the mortgage money and now she would be foreclosed on.nbsp; Two weeks later, I had the money and paid the new electric bill with my ATM card.nbsp; I ended up paying the electric bill for April, May, and June, and we had only been there since the beginning of May.nbsp; The mortgage was another matter.nbsp; I found a program that could renegotiate the loan.nbsp; She said she was too overwhelmed to call the number.nbsp; By the paperwork I saw in the mail, that was a lie.nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Just before I left the first time, we scraped up $1,000 to put towards the mortgage.nbsp; The next day she came back from one of her Craig#39;s List expeditions with two chickens, a coop, fencing wire, and two day laborers from Home Depot to assemble the coop.nbsp; She told us the stuff was free.nbsp; I guess since she thought we fell for everything else, we would be stupid enough to believe her./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Yesterday, things got really tough.nbsp; Our son was finished with one residential program and there was going to be a few days gap until the next one.nbsp; Our friend, the surrealist poet Lee span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Gerstmann" data-scaytid="55"Gerstmann/span, was kind enough to take him for a few days.nbsp; Thank you, Lee.nbsp; You repaid every favor we did for you and left us in your debt.nbsp; Holly and I love you. Our welcome home dinner for Colin was in the park.nbsp; I got some charcoal and some span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="vegibergers" data-scaytid="57"vegibergers/span, chicken sausage, and salads.nbsp; It was the happiest family meal we had since losing the apartment in Mountain View./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"My son is of the opinion that the madwoman was deliberately trying to kill me.nbsp; That#39;s why she extorted me into do things that hurt me, and why she walked away from me while I was having my stroke.nbsp; That#39;s why she screamed in my face over the flies, and why she sent me to the emergency room the third time./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The madwoman tried to horn in on Holly#39;s clown span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busking" data-scaytid="59"busking/span.nbsp; She called herself span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Meshugah" data-scaytid="63"Meshugah/span the Clown, but it should have been Downer.nbsp; She was always bitching about everything.nbsp; Either there span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="weren'tenough" data-scaytid="65"weren#39;tenough/span kids in the crowd or her legs hurt.nbsp; It was always too far to drive, and we owed hernbsp; gas money.nbsp; Once she almost got them kicked out of a farmer#39;s market by demanding a set price for Holly#39;s balloon sculptures.nbsp; She never learned that span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busking" data-scaytid="61"busking/span isn#39;t about the tips, it#39;s about giving.nbsp; The more you give the more the crowd puts money in the tip box.nbsp; The more you love to give to others, the more others love to give to you.nbsp; Human beings are generally good and kind.nbsp; She is an exception that tests that rule.nbsp; Now that Holly ditched her, we have permission to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busk" data-scaytid="43"busk/span at even more farmer#39;s market.nbsp; The manager is a really nice person./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I think that our sudden eviction and lockout was planned.nbsp; We insisted that Aug. 31supst/sup was our last day at her house.nbsp; She knewnbsp; she was not going to get all the cash she hoped she could extort out of us.nbsp; In the past two months we gave her $1,284 in cash or consumer goods.nbsp; ($50 in flytraps alone.)nbsp; She also extorted $384 in food stamps.nbsp; Mostly in expensive coffee and whipping cream to add to it.nbsp; Between the three of us we did 317 hours of unpaid labor.nbsp; I sold an extra $175 for garbage she got off Craig#39;s List and she took $30 from the clown disaster at the farmer#39;s market.nbsp; Rather than pay bills with the clown and Craig#39;s List money, she decided to take a five day trip with her girlfriend.nbsp; We were all over that.nbsp; We planned to be out of that hellhole before she came back./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The day before, she threw tantrums and threats until I bought her two bags of coffee, (making it three bags in under three days.) cream, two jars of tomato sauce and a yam. I told her that was it for the month./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The next morning she started her usual morning temper tantrum with a twist.nbsp; First she did it in front of Holly.nbsp; She never pulled that crap in front of my wife before. This time it was over a list of the stuff I was selling for her on the web.nbsp; I told her I would do it as soon as I did span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="poo" data-scaytid="67"poo/span patrol, fed her big dog, and had my breakfast so I could take my pills.nbsp; She wanted it now.nbsp; I told her to fuck off.nbsp; I was leaving and nuking her Craig#39;s List ads.nbsp; She went nuts and screamed in my face and physically blocked me from getting my computer.nbsp; She kept at it until I found myself screaming back.nbsp; Then she ran into the bathroom and broke her own mirror.nbsp; She ran out and yelled, ldquo;see, asshole, now I have you on domestic violence!rdquo;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The joke#39;s on her.nbsp; My rheumatoid arthritis is out of control, I am debilitated from a mini-stroke and the doctor#39;s report will prove that I am not physically capable of doing what she claimed.nbsp; I abandoned trying to get my computer and tried to leave, and she wouldn#39;t let me out the door.nbsp; She kept screaming in my face and blocking me.nbsp; I had to threaten to break her china cabinet in order to get her to lay off.nbsp; Not cool, I know, but I was a little crazy myself by then. nbsp;She got out of the way and I was out the door.nbsp; I got about three feet away from the house when the chest pains hit and I fell to the ground.nbsp; That made it three times I was taken out by ambulance./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I have a lot to do today.nbsp; First I have to wait until my phone charges.nbsp; Next I have to call legal aid to get our stuff out.nbsp; Then I have to call the humane society about that poor dog.nbsp; I love that big goofy mutt.nbsp; He#39;s been a prisoner since the chickens came in.nbsp; He doesn#39;tnbsp; get the hour of run around time I used to give him, and he#39;s too dog aggressive to take to the park.nbsp; Now that we are no longer there, he#39;ll go back to starvation rations.nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I have learned that there are worse things than not having a roof over your head.nbsp; I just escaped from it.nbsp; After I took Colin to Lee#39;s, I went back to the park. Holly and I found a secluded spot.nbsp; We talked and held hands until she fell asleep.nbsp; It was a little too cold for me, so I lay down and looked at the sky.nbsp; Zack the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Wonderdog" data-scaytid="69"Wonderdog/span was with us.nbsp; We figured we would have her between us to keep her warm.nbsp; She#39;s 13 years old and used to a warm house and a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="snuggy-bed" data-scaytid="71"snuggy-bed/span, but Zack is a by-the-book type of doggie.nbsp; She understood her ancestral duty.nbsp; She took point and kept watch for us all night.nbsp; That#39;s how we rested until the sprinklers went on./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoBodyText" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p

p emComing back to/em/p p emspan class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="1"Manilatown/span is like/em/p p emcoming home to a/em/p p emfresh crop of rice/em/p p nbsp;/p p --Bill span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Sorro" data-scaytid="5"Sorro/span/p p nbsp;/p p Honor the elders who fought eviction and displacement from their community and homesnbsp;on August 4th/p p span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="530pm-830pm" data-scaytid="7"530pm-830pm/span/p p I-Hotel span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="3"Manilatown/span Center/p p 868 span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="9"Kearny/span Street/p p San Francisco, CA/p

p emEditors Note: span data-scayt_word="Giancarlo" data-scaytid="1"Giancarlo/span is a resident of the span data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="3"Bayview/span/em/p p nbsp;/p p span lang="EN"span lang="EN"strongTo the SF Police Running for Your Life is Probable Cause/strong/span/span/p p Two single dollars are worth more to them than our lives.br / The very existence of the police clearly endangers all of usbr / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;wbrnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; -Anonymous span data-scayt_word="Indybay" data-scaytid="5"Indybay/span writer/wbr/p p On Saturday July 16supspan data-scayt_word="th" data-scaytid="6"th/span/sup in the span data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="4"Bayview/spanbr / The rocketrsquo;s red glare at 4:40 in the afternoonbr / A 19 span data-scayt_word="yr" data-scaytid="7"yr/span old black man is shot deadbr / Running from policemen/p p It all started with him not havingbr / Money the lousy 2 bucks for span data-scayt_word="MUNI" data-scaytid="8"MUNI/span so he attemptedbr / To dodge a history of reprisalbr / For being a black man with or without money/p p In the end forced by the first blow he laybr / On the asphalt with numerous bullets in himbr / And blood mixing into the uneven groundbr / Of the entrance to the Opera House parking lot/p p He cried for help he tried lifting himself to safetybr / But none came for him his family in another statebr / People rushing to defend begging for his lifebr / Crying for his life to wash back in/p p The police surrounding guns drawnbr / Pointing span data-scayt_word="wouldbe" data-scaytid="9"wouldbe/span casingsbr / At them like hunters to their killbr / They closed the circle/p p The manrsquo;s body depleted of its potential for growthbr / Depleted the body breaks beneath the bulletbr / It breaks against the force of moneybr / Worth more to the controllers than life itself/p p Depleted of any doubts forming another questionbr / To a young black man in the US under the bullet a questionbr / To a populous so riddled so pained so in turmoil so over beautifulbr / With unformulated rebellion/p p font face="Times New Roman"font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt;"strongemspan data-scayt_word="Giancarlo" data-scaytid="2"Giancarlo/span span data-scayt_word="Campagna" data-scaytid="10"Campagna/span/em/strong/font/font/p

p emEditors Note: Community Newsroom is POOR Magazine#39;s Indigenous News-making circle. This is the poor people-led , indigenous people-led process where we produce all of our radio, video print and written media. It is open to the whole community who respect this sacred space and desire to get heard about issues impacting youth, adults and elders in poverty locally and globally. John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="5"Avalos/span came through as a community member. As a no-profit, very grassroots,arts organization all candidates are welcome to come to Newsroom and we are not endorsing any candidate running for office in span data-scayt_word="Amerikkka" data-scaytid="21"Amerikkka/span./em/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p strongScroll down for English/strong/p p strongJuan span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="6"Avalos/span span data-scayt_word="visita" data-scaytid="22"visita/span a la span data-scayt_word="sala" data-scaytid="23"sala/span span data-scayt_word="comunitaria" data-scaytid="25"comunitaria/spanbr / span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="27"por/span Ingrid span data-scayt_word="DeLeon" data-scaytid="37"DeLeon/span/span data-scayt_word="Voces" data-scaytid="38"Voces/span de span data-scayt_word="inmigrantes" data-scaytid="40"inmigrantes/span/span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="42"PNN/span /strong/p p span data-scayt_word="Estuve" data-scaytid="44"Estuve/span en la span data-scayt_word="sala" data-scaytid="24"sala/span span data-scayt_word="comunitaria" data-scaytid="26"comunitaria/span de la span data-scayt_word="Prensa" data-scaytid="45"Prensa/span span data-scayt_word="POBRE" data-scaytid="46"POBRE/span, span data-scayt_word="cuando" data-scaytid="47"cuando/span mire a un span data-scayt_word="señor" data-scaytid="48"sentilde;or/span y me span data-scayt_word="almire" data-scaytid="49"almire/span al span data-scayt_word="verlo" data-scaytid="50"verlo/span con span data-scayt_word="traje" data-scaytid="51"traje/span de span data-scayt_word="vestir" data-scaytid="52"vestir/span y span data-scayt_word="corvata" data-scaytid="53"corvata/span. Me span data-scayt_word="asuste" data-scaytid="54"asuste/span y span data-scayt_word="dije" data-scaytid="55"dije/span y el span data-scayt_word="quien" data-scaytid="56"quien/span span data-scayt_word="es" data-scaytid="58"es/span? Se span data-scayt_word="veia" data-scaytid="61"veia/span span data-scayt_word="amable" data-scaytid="62"amable/span y span data-scayt_word="sonriente" data-scaytid="63"sonriente/span y al span data-scayt_word="poco" data-scaytid="64"poco/span span data-scayt_word="tiempo" data-scaytid="65"tiempo/span de span data-scayt_word="estar" data-scaytid="66"estar/span span data-scayt_word="reunidos" data-scaytid="69"reunidos/span se span data-scayt_word="presento" data-scaytid="70"presento/span, y span data-scayt_word="supe" data-scaytid="71"supe/span span data-scayt_word="quien" data-scaytid="57"quien/span era./p p Se span data-scayt_word="trataba" data-scaytid="72"trataba/span nada span data-scayt_word="mas" data-scaytid="73"mas/span de Juan span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="7"Avalos/span/p p span data-scayt_word="Yo" data-scaytid="75"Yo/span no span data-scayt_word="podia" data-scaytid="77"podia/span span data-scayt_word="creer" data-scaytid="78"creer/span, span data-scayt_word="pues" data-scaytid="79"pues/span me span data-scayt_word="parecia" data-scaytid="81"parecia/span span data-scayt_word="increible" data-scaytid="83"increible/span span data-scayt_word="ver" data-scaytid="84"ver/span span data-scayt_word="su" data-scaytid="85"su/span span data-scayt_word="rostro" data-scaytid="87"rostro/span span data-scayt_word="sonriendo" data-scaytid="88"sonriendo/span con span data-scayt_word="todos" data-scaytid="89"todos/span span data-scayt_word="como" data-scaytid="91"como/span span data-scayt_word="si" data-scaytid="94"si/span nos span data-scayt_word="conociera" data-scaytid="96"conociera/span, span data-scayt_word="desde" data-scaytid="97"desde/span span data-scayt_word="muchos" data-scaytid="98"muchos/span span data-scayt_word="años" data-scaytid="99"antilde;os/span span data-scayt_word="parecia" data-scaytid="82"parecia/span span data-scayt_word="estar" data-scaytid="67"estar/span en span data-scayt_word="familia" data-scaytid="100"familia/span, span data-scayt_word="yo" data-scaytid="101"yo/span lo span data-scayt_word="senti" data-scaytid="106"senti/span span data-scayt_word="como" data-scaytid="92"como/span span data-scayt_word="uno" data-scaytid="107"uno/span de los span data-scayt_word="nuestros" data-scaytid="108"nuestros/span. Le span data-scayt_word="hicieron" data-scaytid="109"hicieron/span span data-scayt_word="algunas" data-scaytid="110"algunas/span span data-scayt_word="preguntas" data-scaytid="111"preguntas/span y el span data-scayt_word="las" data-scaytid="112"las/span span data-scayt_word="respondio" data-scaytid="117"respondio/span a span data-scayt_word="todas" data-scaytid="118"todas/span. span data-scayt_word="Dijo" data-scaytid="119"Dijo/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="121"que/span se span data-scayt_word="esta" data-scaytid="135"esta/span span data-scayt_word="postulando" data-scaytid="137"postulando/span span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="138"para/span span data-scayt_word="alcalde" data-scaytid="148"alcalde/span span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="139"para/span la span data-scayt_word="ciudad" data-scaytid="149"ciudad/span de San span data-scayt_word="Fransisco" data-scaytid="150"Fransisco/span span data-scayt_word="su" data-scaytid="86"su/span span data-scayt_word="proposito" data-scaytid="151"proposito/span span data-scayt_word="es" data-scaytid="59"es/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="122"que/span span data-scayt_word="esta" data-scaytid="136"esta/span span data-scayt_word="cuidad" data-scaytid="152"cuidad/span sea span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="140"para/span span data-scayt_word="todos" data-scaytid="90"todos/span./p p ldquo;Las span data-scayt_word="comunidades" data-scaytid="154"comunidades/span y span data-scayt_word="las" data-scaytid="113"las/span span data-scayt_word="familias" data-scaytid="155"familias/span de span data-scayt_word="una" data-scaytid="156"una/span span data-scayt_word="cuidad" data-scaytid="153"cuidad/span span data-scayt_word="prospera" data-scaytid="158"prospera/span y span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="123"que/span la span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="159"gente/span span data-scayt_word="puedan" data-scaytid="166"puedan/span span data-scayt_word="sobre" data-scaytid="168"sobre/span span data-scayt_word="vivir" data-scaytid="171"vivir/span en span data-scayt_word="paz" data-scaytid="173"paz/span y span data-scayt_word="tranquilidad" data-scaytid="174"tranquilidad/span, span data-scayt_word="aunque" data-scaytid="175"aunque/span span data-scayt_word="ahora" data-scaytid="176"ahora/span soy el supervisor span data-scayt_word="estoy" data-scaytid="177"estoy/span span data-scayt_word="luchando" data-scaytid="178"luchando/span y span data-scayt_word="ayudando" data-scaytid="180"ayudando/span a la span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="160"gente/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="124"que/span span data-scayt_word="realmente" data-scaytid="181"realmente/span lo span data-scayt_word="necesita" data-scaytid="182"necesita/span span data-scayt_word="hago" data-scaytid="183"hago/span span data-scayt_word="esto" data-scaytid="184"esto/span span data-scayt_word="porque" data-scaytid="186"porque/span span data-scayt_word="mis" data-scaytid="188"mis/span raises span data-scayt_word="vienen" data-scaytid="189"vienen/span de span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="161"gente/span span data-scayt_word="trabajadora.”" data-scaytid="1"trabajadora.rdquo;/span span data-scayt_word="dijo" data-scaytid="190"dijo/span Juan span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="8"Avalos/span./p p Y a span data-scayt_word="pesar" data-scaytid="192"pesar/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="125"que/span span data-scayt_word="estudie" data-scaytid="193"estudie/span en un span data-scayt_word="colejio" data-scaytid="194"colejio/span .Para mi la span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="162"gente/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="126"que/span span data-scayt_word="trabaja" data-scaytid="195"trabaja/span y span data-scayt_word="lucha" data-scaytid="196"lucha/span span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="141"para/span span data-scayt_word="sobre" data-scaytid="169"sobre/span span data-scayt_word="vivir" data-scaytid="172"vivir/span, span data-scayt_word="yo" data-scaytid="102"yo/span la span data-scayt_word="admiro" data-scaytid="197"admiro/span span data-scayt_word="dijo" data-scaytid="191"dijo/span span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="9"Avalos/span span data-scayt_word="yo" data-scaytid="103"yo/spannbsp; span data-scayt_word="pongo" data-scaytid="198"pongo/span span data-scayt_word="las" data-scaytid="114"las/span ideas span data-scayt_word="sobre" data-scaytid="170"sobre/span la mesanbsp; y span data-scayt_word="trabajo" data-scaytid="199"trabajo/span en span data-scayt_word="las" data-scaytid="115"las/span span data-scayt_word="cortes" data-scaytid="200"cortes/span span data-scayt_word="luchando" data-scaytid="179"luchando/span span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="28"por/span la span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="163"gente/span ./p p nbsp;Y span data-scayt_word="eso" data-scaytid="201"eso/span span data-scayt_word="si" data-scaytid="95"si/span span data-scayt_word="es" data-scaytid="60"es/span span data-scayt_word="cierto" data-scaytid="202"cierto/span span data-scayt_word="porque" data-scaytid="187"porque/span span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="29"por/span span data-scayt_word="ejemplo" data-scaytid="203"ejemplo/span la span data-scayt_word="Policia" data-scaytid="206"Policia/span en span data-scayt_word="vez" data-scaytid="208"vez/span de span data-scayt_word="ayudar" data-scaytid="209"ayudar/span span data-scayt_word="hasta" data-scaytid="211"hasta/span span data-scayt_word="matan" data-scaytid="212"matan/spannbsp; span data-scayt_word="segun" data-scaytid="213"segun/span span data-scayt_word="ellos" data-scaytid="214"ellos/span lo span data-scayt_word="hacen" data-scaytid="217"hacen/span en span data-scayt_word="defensa" data-scaytid="219"defensa/span span data-scayt_word="propia" data-scaytid="220"propia/span y span data-scayt_word="yo" data-scaytid="104"yo/span he span data-scayt_word="visto" data-scaytid="221"visto/span span data-scayt_word="como" data-scaytid="93"como/span span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="30"por/span span data-scayt_word="una" data-scaytid="157"una/span span data-scayt_word="cosa" data-scaytid="222"cosa/span tan simple span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="31"por/span span data-scayt_word="ejemplo" data-scaytid="204"ejemplo/span la span data-scayt_word="Policia" data-scaytid="207"Policia/span span data-scayt_word="ve" data-scaytid="223"ve/span a span data-scayt_word="algun" data-scaytid="224"algun/span span data-scayt_word="borracho" data-scaytid="225"borracho/span span data-scayt_word="tirado" data-scaytid="226"tirado/span en la span data-scayt_word="calle" data-scaytid="227"calle/span llamanbsp; a span data-scayt_word="sus" data-scaytid="228"sus/span span data-scayt_word="compañeros" data-scaytid="230"compantilde;eros/span y span data-scayt_word="aparesen" data-scaytid="231"aparesen/span span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="32"por/span lo span data-scayt_word="menos" data-scaytid="232"menos/span span data-scayt_word="tres" data-scaytid="234"tres/span span data-scayt_word="patruyas" data-scaytid="235"patruyas/span con dos span data-scayt_word="policias" data-scaytid="236"policias/span span data-scayt_word="cada" data-scaytid="238"cada/span span data-scayt_word="patruya" data-scaytid="239"patruya/span span data-scayt_word="cuantos" data-scaytid="240"cuantos/span span data-scayt_word="policias" data-scaytid="237"policias/span son?solo span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="33"por/span un span data-scayt_word="borrachito" data-scaytid="241"borrachito/span./p p span data-scayt_word="Yo" data-scaytid="76"Yo/span span data-scayt_word="entiendo" data-scaytid="242"entiendo/span de span data-scayt_word="Jovenes" data-scaytid="243"Jovenes/span sin span data-scayt_word="oportunidad" data-scaytid="244"oportunidad/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="127"que/span no span data-scayt_word="ven" data-scaytid="245"ven/span el futuro, ynbsp; span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="34"por/span span data-scayt_word="ellos" data-scaytid="215"ellos/span y span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="142"para/span span data-scayt_word="ellos" data-scaytid="216"ellos/span quiero span data-scayt_word="luchar.El" data-scaytid="2"luchar.El/span dinero span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="128"que/span gastan en span data-scayt_word="las" data-scaytid="116"las/span guerras deberian ser span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="143"para/span la span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="164"gente/span span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="129"que/span lo nesesita y span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="35"por/span lo span data-scayt_word="menos" data-scaytid="233"menos/span span data-scayt_word="puedan" data-scaytid="167"puedan/span pagar span data-scayt_word="sus" data-scaytid="229"sus/span rentas. Quizas hacer span data-scayt_word="mas" data-scaytid="74"mas/span grandes los taxes span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="144"para/span los span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="130"que/span tienen mucho dinero span data-scayt_word="yo" data-scaytid="105"yo/span creo span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="131"que/span span data-scayt_word="esto" data-scaytid="185"esto/span va span data-scayt_word="ayudar" data-scaytid="210"ayudar/span y span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="132"que/span la span data-scayt_word="gente" data-scaytid="165"gente/span tengan voz./p p Tenemos span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="133"que/span empujar span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="145"para/span hacer el cambio span data-scayt_word="por" data-scaytid="36"por/span span data-scayt_word="ejemplo" data-scaytid="205"ejemplo/span tenemos dinero span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="146"para/span la guerra en Irak pero sin embargo se span data-scayt_word="hacen" data-scaytid="218"hacen/span recortes de escuelas y a donde se ba ese dinero? span data-scayt_word="pues" data-scaytid="80"pues/span a la guerra y no se hace nada span data-scayt_word="para" data-scaytid="147"para/span cambiar./p p nbsp;Hay razones de span data-scayt_word="estar" data-scaytid="68"estar/span en el City hallnbsp; hay cosas span data-scayt_word="que" data-scaytid="134"que/span quiero hacer y ya tengo planes. span data-scayt_word="Dijo" data-scaytid="120"Dijo/span Juan span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="10"Avalos/span./p p strongEnglish Follows/strong/p p John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="11"Avalos/span Visits Community Newsroombr / By ingrid De Leon/span data-scayt_word="Voces" data-scaytid="39"Voces/span de span data-scayt_word="inmigrantes" data-scaytid="41"inmigrantes/span en resistencia/span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="43"PNN/span/p p I was at POOR Magazine#39;s monthly Community Newsroom in July whennbsp; I noticed a strange man wearing a suit and tie. Fightened I asked myself who is this man? He looked sincere and happy, in a few moments later after the newsroom had begun he presented himself and then it became clear who it was./p p br / It was no more or no less than John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="12"Avalos/span./p p br / I couldnrsquo;t believe it,nbsp; it was incredible seing his face in happiness as if he had known us for many years, he appeared to be around family, I felt him as one of our own. We asked him questions and he answered all of them. He said that he was running for Mayor for the city of San Francisco his goal is that this city should be for everyone./p p br / ldquo;The communities and families should be together for onenbsp; prosperous city, so folks can survive in peace and tranquility even though today I am the supervisor I fight and help everyday those people that really need it, I do this because my roots come from a labor hardworking background, said John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="13"Avalos/span to all of us/p p br / He continued, Even though I went to college. For me the people that work and fight to survive, I admire span data-scayt_word="them.”" data-scaytid="3"them.rdquo;/spannbsp; Said John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="14"Avalos/span. ldquo; I put ideas on the table and work on the budget cuts fighting for the span data-scayt_word="people.”" data-scaytid="4"people.rdquo;/span/p p br / And this is true because I have seen for example the police instead of helping they murder, supposedly in self defence. I have seen how for simple things like seeing a drunk man on the streets, they call their comrades and suddenly three cop cars are there with two cops in each vehicle, how many cops are they? Just for one drunk. In reality its better to have a school for the children of the future./p p br / I know youngsters without opportunities, they donrsquo;t see the future for them, and for them I will fight. ./p p br / ldquo;I want to have new projects and I will push to make a change. For example we have lots of money in Iraq but we make lots of cuts to education and where is this money going? To the wars and nobody does anything about thisrdquo;./p p br / I felt that he was being honest and I wait to see his support because we really need him.br / nbsp;/p p br / strongLess Double Talk- A reflection on John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="15"Avalos/spanbr / nbsp;by Stacey Langley-Watts, Poverty Scholar/strong/p p John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="16"Avalos/span of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (representing the Outer Mission and Excelsior) visited us at POOR Magazine#39;s Community Newsroom last week.nbsp; I had heard a little about him from some friends on Facebook, but it was interesting to meet with him in person.nbsp; Though I am involved in party politics in my home state, I still don#39;t feel that most major candidates really give a shit about what#39;s really going on with the common people.nbsp; I didn#39;t get that impression with John span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="17"Avalos/span.nbsp; He#39;s been involved in activism since his days as a labor organizer with the Justice for Janitors Campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877, which won union members affordable health care and wages to support their families.nbsp; span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="18"Avalos/span comes from a working-class background himself, though he was among the first generation of his family to attend a four-year university, graduating from UC Santa Barbara and then receiving a masterrsquo;s degree in social work from San Francisco State University./p p br / He seemed like someone that had a real concern for better community conditions, and he told me that he wanted to fight a war on poverty, increase opportunities for San Franciscans, and make San Francisco a more livable and sustainable place.nbsp; He said that power, money, and access create laws, and that it takes a lot of organizing for change, because people are resistant to it.nbsp; He also believes in the inside/outside strategy of working in politics, to which I can relate./p p br / In his term as Supervisor, span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="19"Avalos/span has been involved with passing the countryrsquo;s strongest local hiring legislation.nbsp; Coming from a state that doesn#39;t give a crap about job creation, I was impressed when he discussed that.nbsp; He has also fought to save city programs affecting elders and children from the budget ax./p p br / He also seemed concerned about the immigrant community.nbsp; He told us, They have an ally in me.nbsp; In response to a question regarding squatting, he mentioned that he could not legalize squatting, but said I could see not doing anything about it./p p br / We asked him about gentrification, and he seemed like he didn#39;t want to answer the question.nbsp; I didn#39;t really understand his answer, being unfamiliar with San Francisco geography, but I got the impression that he was dancing around the topic.nbsp; He did discuss how some communities are improving and that we need to look at the conditions that lead to violence.nbsp; He added that he wants the police in his district to get out of their cars and get on their feet./p p br / It seems to me that span data-scayt_word="Avalos" data-scaytid="20"Avalos/span cares about the local community, and uses less double talk than most politicians I have met over the years.nbsp; Nobody#39;s perfect in politics, but he looks like someone with whom our community can sit down and discuss the issues important to us.br / nbsp;/p

p nbsp;/p h1 font color="black" face="Arial" size="2"font class="Arial10" face="Arial"Thousand police attack community in north London/font/font/h1 p font color="black" face="Arial" size="2"font class="Arial10" face="Arial"font class="Arial12" color="black" face="Arial"img src="http://www.informationliberation.com/space.gif" vspace="2" /br / img align="left" border="1" hspace="10" src="http://www.informationliberation.com/files/policePA_468x311.jpg" /iOver 1000 police officers head towards span data-scayt_word="Blackstock" data-scaytid="3"Blackstock/span road in north London to carry out Operation span data-scayt_word="Mista" data-scaytid="7"Mista/span/i/font/font/font/p p Police today smashed gangs dealing in class A drugs and stolen goods in a series of span data-scayt_word="�unprecedented�" data-scaytid="8"�unprecedented�/span swoops./p p In one of the Met#39;s biggest operations, more than 1,100 officers stormed 40 addresses and 19 firms in Islington./p p Investigations focused on a network involved in heroin, cocaine, stolen goods and fraud./p p In one raid, police stormed span data-scayt_word="Blackstock" data-scaytid="4"Blackstock/span Road, hitting 19 businesses from butchers to internet span data-scayt_word="caf�s" data-scaytid="9"caf�s/span and fast food outlets./p p A stretch of the north London road was barricaded as more than 40 vans ferried in officers in riot gear./p p Police hope to pick up at least 70 suspects./p p Hours earlier, 40 warrants were executed in dawn swoops in north and north-west London. Other addresses in Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire and Leeds were also targeted./p p Officers from the Met, the British Transport Police and Immigration Services were involved in the operation./p p They recovered forged documents, including passports and span data-scayt_word="licences" data-scaytid="10"licences/span./p p They also found stolen goods including laptops, cameras, iPods and span data-scayt_word="sat-nav" data-scaytid="11"sat-nav/span systems./p p span data-scayt_word="Blackstock" data-scaytid="5"Blackstock/span Road has long been on their radar say police sources./p p In the morning raids, 35 people were arrested. Commander of Islington Police Bob Carr said: span data-scayt_word="�The" data-scaytid="12"�The/span area that we have focused on has always been in our span data-scayt_word="sights.�" data-scaytid="1"sights.�/span/p p He said that more operations will be ongoing, adding that because of the span data-scayt_word="�relatively�" data-scaytid="13"�relatively�/span sophisticated nature of the network span data-scayt_word="�we" data-scaytid="14"�we/span had to do it at one time and all in one span data-scayt_word="hit�" data-scaytid="15"hit�/span./p p He added: span data-scayt_word="�It's" data-scaytid="16"�It#39;s/span something that needed to be done for a long span data-scayt_word="time.�" data-scaytid="2"time.�/span/p p He explained the numbers of officers were needed to storm span data-scayt_word="Blackstock" data-scaytid="6"Blackstock/span Road because of the scores of businesses they were targeting and the possible threat of violence./p p He said that police will be out in force working with and reassuring the community.br / /p

p/p

p/p p bPOOR Magazine re-ported and sup-ported on The Justice for Raheim Brown Rally and March in Oakland,August 10th, 2011. No Mo Po#39;lice Murder!/b/p piframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pJRSm4JJqV8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe/p

p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"strongWe Claim the Soil/strong/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"By To/spanMy uncle, the poet Al Robles, often wrote of the need to ldquo;take back our livesrdquo;.nbsp; He wrote of the lives of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="1"manongs/span, the early Filipino immigrants whose lives of struggle in America allow those of us in the communitynbsp;who write the privilege to do so.nbsp; I seek to write with laughter, fire and spirit--qualities that allowed the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="3"manongs/span to survive American society.nbsp; Part of taking back our lives includes celebrating the life we do have.nbsp; So often we forget ourselves, our creator, our eldersmdash;the land.nbsp; We go after wants that are not only span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="dispensible" data-scaytid="41"dispensible/span, but are, as Henry David Thoreau said, ldquo;Positive hindrances to the elevation of mankindrdquo;.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p I remember my Uncle Al walking across the face of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="45"Manilatown/spanmdash;a wandering poetmdash;breathing the fish and rice smells of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="5"manongs/span, walking with themmdash;every breath a lifetime to cherish, remember and honor.nbsp; Every bowl of rice, every grain was a year, a season, a story to be told again and again.nbsp; The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="7"manongs/span living in the small rooms of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manilatown" data-scaytid="53"manilatown/span on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="57"Kearny/span Street breathed resistance into the hearts, minds andnbsp;lives of poets and activists who were--what my uncle called--the seeds of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="47"Manilatown/span that were planted long ago.nbsp; The poets were the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="9"manongs/span and the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="11"manongs/span were the poets who stood against the developer, the police, the slumlord.nbsp; The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="13"manongs/span had much to teach us about struggle but also about community.nbsp; Looking into the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manong’s" data-scaytid="61"manongrsquo;s/span face is to see our reflection in a river.nbsp; The stones in the river hold stories.nbsp; We become wet with the lives, words and poetry of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="15"manongs/span.nbsp; We become drenched in spirit, community and life.nbsp; We become caught in the flow of life, the movement, the direction of our ancestral past.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p At my present job I often think, emthere are no span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="17"manongs/span here/em.nbsp; I work at an apartment complex that houses the affluent, where the anthems to gentrification are sung in hushed tones in the halls, corridors, restrooms, elevators and, of course, the property management office.nbsp; Many residents are young, some elders.nbsp; The lobby smells of eucalyptus one week, pine the nextmdash;shipped in by a aroma/fragrance manufacturer from the great state of Florida./p p nbsp;/p p Therersquo;s a coworker I have whose presence is like fresh air.nbsp; Hersquo;s half-Filipino, half white.nbsp; The Filipino is written in his facemdash;thick features that reveal a Filipino heart.nbsp; Many miss the Filipino written in his skin as he swings his mop and pushes his broom.nbsp; We talk and try to maintain a level of professionalism, which means pretending that anything that resembles who we really are remains beneath the surface.nbsp; We are trained to nod and repeat mantras such as, ldquo;Nice day outsidehellip;isnrsquo;t it?rdquo; and ldquo;Yes sirhellip;Irsquo;ll get to it right awayhellip;no problem, emno problem at all/emrdquo;.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p One of our duties is to raise the American flag each morning at span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="8am" data-scaytid="65"8am/span.nbsp; I carry the flag, tightly folded into a triangle.nbsp; He snaps the flag to a rope and pulls.nbsp; The flag slithers up the pole.nbsp; When it reaches the top, we gaze into the sky.nbsp; We see ravens and crows.nbsp; We hear them cry out.nbsp; We once saw something we thought was a rainbow.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p One day I say, ldquo;We should get a Filipino flagrdquo;.nbsp; ldquo;And do what with it?rdquo; he asks.nbsp; I tell him we should raise it.nbsp; Hersquo;s quiet for a moment, then says, ldquo;Yeah, Irsquo;m down with thatrdquo;.nbsp; We walk back and slip into our jobs, our roles, our routine./p p nbsp;/p p We take back our lives.nbsp; We claim the soil for our ancestors, our elders, our mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers whose stories live and breathe in the landscape of this country.nbsp; We claim the soil of our skin, the soil of our blood, the soil of our poetry, the soil of our journey.nbsp; We claim it for our children.nbsp; We pass it to their hands to plant the seeds of poetry, fire and struggle.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p My coworker and I will raise the Filipino flag one day.nbsp; But we honor the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="19"manongs/span and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manangs" data-scaytid="69"manangs/span every day by turning over the soil that covers the landscape of our hearts and minds./p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p copy; 2011 span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="RWS" data-scaytid="73"RWS/span/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"My uncle, the poet Al Robles, often wrote of the need to ldquo;take back our livesrdquo;.nbsp; He wrote of the lives of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="21"manongs/span, the early Filipino immigrants whose lives of struggle in America allow those of us who write the privilege to do so.nbsp; I seek to write with laughter, fire and spirit, the qualities that allowed the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="23"manongs/span to survive American society.nbsp; Part of taking back our lives includes celebrating the life we do have.nbsp; So often we forget ourselves, our creator, our eldersmdash;the land.nbsp; We go after wants that are not only span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="dispensible" data-scaytid="43"dispensible/span, but are, as Henry David Thoreau said, ldquo;Positive hindrances to the elevation of mankindrdquo;.nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"I remember my Uncle Al walking across the face of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="49"Manilatown/spanmdash;a wandering poetmdash;breathing the fish and rice smells of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="25"manongs/span, walking with themmdash;every breath was a lifetime to cherish, remember and honor.nbsp; Every bowl of rice, every grain was a year, a season, a story to be told again and again.nbsp; The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="27"manongs/span living in the small rooms of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manilatown" data-scaytid="55"manilatown/span on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="59"Kearny/span Street breathed resistance into the hearts, minds, lives of poets and activists who were, what my uncle called, the seeds of span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="51"Manilatown/span that were planted long ago.nbsp; The poets were the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="29"manongs/span and the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="31"manongs/span were the poets who stood against the developer, the police, the slumlord.nbsp; The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="33"manongs/span had much to teach us about struggle but also about community.nbsp; Looking into the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manong’s" data-scaytid="63"manongrsquo;s/span face is to see our reflection in a river.nbsp; The stones in the river hold stories.nbsp; We become wet with the lives, words and poetry of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="35"manongs/span.nbsp; We become drenched in spirit, community and life.nbsp; We become caught in the flow of life, the movement, the direction of our ancestral past.nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"At my span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="presentjob" data-scaytid="77"presentjob/span I often think, there are no span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="37"manongs/span here.nbsp; I work at an apartment complex that houses the affluent, where the anthems to gentrification are sung in hushed tones in the halls, corridors, restrooms, elevators and, of course, the property management office.nbsp; Many residents are young, some elders.nbsp; The lobby smells of eucalyptus one week, pine the nextmdash;shipped in by a aroma/fragrance manufacturer from the great stare of Florida./span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"Therersquo;s a coworker I have whose presence is like fresh air.nbsp; Hersquo;s half-Filipino, half white.nbsp; The Filipino is written in his facemdash;thick features that reveal a Filipino heart.nbsp; Many miss the Filipino written in his skin as he swings his mop and pushes his broom.nbsp; We talk and try to maintain a level of professionalism, which means pretending that anything that resembles who we really are remains beneath the surface.nbsp; We are trained to nod and repeat mantras such as, ldquo;Nice day outsidehellip;isnrsquo;t it?rdquo; and ldquo;Yes sirhellip;Irsquo;ll get to it right awayhellip;no problem, emno problem at all/emrdquo;.nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"One of our duties is to raise the American flag each morning at span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="8am" data-scaytid="67"8am/span.nbsp; I carry the flag, tightly folded into a triangle.nbsp; He snaps the flag to a rope and pulls.nbsp; The flag slithers up the pole.nbsp; When it reaches the top, we gaze into the sky.nbsp; We see ravens and crows.nbsp; We hear them cry out.nbsp; Once we saw a rainbow./span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"One day I say, ldquo;We should get a Filipino flagrdquo;.nbsp; ldquo;And do what with it?rdquo; he asks.nbsp; I tell him we should raise it.nbsp; Hersquo;s quiet for a moment, then says, ldquo;Yeah, Irsquo;m down with thatrdquo;.nbsp; We walk back and slip into our jobs, our roles, our routine./span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"We take back our lives.nbsp; We claim the soil for our ancestors, our elders, our mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers whose stories live and breathe in the landscape of this country.nbsp; We claim the soil of our skin, the soil of our blood, the soil of our poetry, the soil of our journey.nbsp; We claim it for our children.nbsp; We pass it to their hands to plant the seeds of poetry, fire and struggle.nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"My coworker and I will raise the Filipino flag one day.nbsp; But we honor the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manongs" data-scaytid="39"manongs/span and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="manangs" data-scaytid="71"manangs/span every day by turning over the soil that covers the landscape of our hearts and minds./span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"copy; 2011 span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="RWS" data-scaytid="75"RWS/span/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p p span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none"nbsp;/span/p

p (Editor#39;s Note:nbsp; I met span data-scayt_word="Kilusan" data-scaytid="6"Kilusan/span Bautista several years ago in San Francisco.nbsp; He had an enthusiasm for poetry and community that was infectious.nbsp; I had an opportunity to see him perform spoken word poetry, including a benefit performance for victims of Hurricane Katrina.nbsp;nbsp;He is truly an artist who puts community above all else. The brother is for real,nbsp;putting himself on the line for what he believes in--cross cultural unity, personal healing and resistance tonbsp;thenbsp;displacement and removal of poor communitiesnbsp;andnbsp;communities of color. His solo theater span data-scayt_word="prodcution" data-scaytid="11"prodcution/span UNIVERSAL FILIPINO is span data-scayt_word="Kilusan's" data-scaytid="12"Kilusan#39;s/span artistic vision of Filipinos across the span data-scayt_word="diaspora--weaving" data-scaytid="14"diaspora--weaving/spannbsp;elements of hip hop, martial art, spoken word and dance to convey a message of strength and resistance to colonization.nbsp;nbsp;The production has been performed in many parts of the country and willnbsp;be featured at New York#39;s legendary span data-scayt_word="Nuyorican" data-scaytid="15"Nuyorican/span Poets cafe in September.nbsp;The name emspan data-scayt_word="Kilusan" data-scaytid="7"Kilusan/span/emnbsp;truly represents his spirit, a spirit of movement, a spirit emof the /emmovement.nbsp; Through his work and commitment, he embodies the spirit of my uncle, the poet Al Robles, for whom the Al Robles Living Library Project is named.nbsp; It is fitting that we highlight span data-scayt_word="Kilusan's" data-scaytid="13"Kilusan#39;s/span work, for he is a son of the city, the Mission and South of Market--places that were close tonbsp;Uncle Al#39;s heart in his passion for community and tirelessnbsp;fight for social change--emTony Robles, Co-Editor Poor Magazine)/em/p p nbsp;/p p strongWho gave you the name span data-scayt_word="Kilusan" data-scaytid="8"Kilusan/span and what meaning does it hold for you?/strong/p p In 1999, I was part of a Philippine study abroad program for Filipino Americans known as Tagalog On Site.nbsp; I was given the name span data-scayt_word="Kilusan" data-scaytid="9"Kilusan/span, which means active movement, by community activists and artists who encouraged me to continue the movement for social justice and human rights in the United States of North America.nbsp; The name span data-scayt_word="Kilusan" data-scaytid="10"Kilusan/span is more of a reminder that as a Filipino American I am connected to a global struggle and I have a responsibility to live consciously and to live for social change!/p p nbsp;/p p strongWhat is your relationship to poverty and how has it informed your work?/strong/p p I grew up within a working class family in San Francisco.nbsp; Most of my youth dealt with the domestic struggles of having a father addicted to drugs.nbsp; I also have family in the Philippines who either live in urban slums or rural provinces.nbsp; As an artist and humanitarian, I create my work from these places because they molded how I see the world.nbsp; I work from the ideal that transformation comes from immense pain and struggle.nbsp; Therefore I look at poverty as a foundation that informs my work because it was a part of my identity as a young Filipino American and it was a huge push factor that influenced my family to immigrate to the United States of North America.nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p strongOne of your favorite quotes is span data-scayt_word="Rizal’s" data-scaytid="16"Rizalrsquo;s/span ldquo;Those who do not know from where they came shall never arrive at their destinationrdquo;.nbsp; How important is it for youth to learn their history and incorporate it in their art/writing and every day lives?/strong/p p Knowledge of onersquo;s history connects us to a rich legacy of wisdom and it helps us see the world with a broader perspective.nbsp; It is so important for American youth to study their unique history because K-12 public schools can only tap into the surface but it is our own responsibility to do that work/research to understand our historical roots.nbsp; I can only speak for myself in addressing the importance of history because I personally have always loved listening to the stories of elders, family members and others who simply wanted to share their stories with me.nbsp; As a result, I am blessed with a wealth of knowledge that helps me make better decisions in my life and it offers me an abundance of rich material to create art from./p p nbsp;/p p strongHow did UNIVERSAL FILIPINO come into being?/strong/p p I began writing Universal Filipino in 2005.nbsp; But it was not until the summer of 2009 in which I began to create a movement that would allow me the personal drive to complete me script and be brave enough to bring my script to life in a full production.nbsp; Universal Filipino is my artistic offering to the world as well as an opportunity to reveal my personal experiences as a Filipino American growing up in a multicultural reality.nbsp; I wanted to push my performance abilities in order to bring out the best in me.nbsp; As a solo performer within a full theater production, Universal Filipino has proven to be my most difficult artistic works to date.nbsp; What started in my living room, evolved into a community performance in a small arts warehouse and now it has toured on a national level at universities and other cultural arts venues.nbsp;nbsp; I have my eyes set on a near future production run on the stages of a Broadway Theater as well as a world tour./p p nbsp;/p p strongAl Robles often described mixture as being ldquo;Halo-Halordquo;hellip;different but the same.nbsp; How is UNIVERSAL FILIPINO ldquo;Halo Halordquo;?/strong/p p I have shared Universal Filipino in front of practically all audiences: Filipino/Filipino American, African American, Chicano/Latino, Caribbean, White, Graduate Law students, Life-Serving inmates at an adult prison, High School and college students, etchellip;.nbsp; I titled this production very strategically because it is a political statement acknowledging my roots as a Filipino but possessing the characteristics of a ldquo;Universal Identityrdquo; as a result of being a child of Diaspora.nbsp; Universal Filipino is my personal story but my goal is to make it relate-able to just about anyone because we are ldquo;different but the span data-scayt_word="same.”" data-scaytid="1"same.rdquo;/span/p p nbsp;/p p strongHow were you able to connect with your indigenous roots?/strong/p p I was able to connect with my indigenous roots through my Lola (grandmother), my uncle and Hip Hop.nbsp; My Lola brought me to the Philippines at first through her stories and unconditional love.nbsp; But she also brought me back to the Philippines for the first time ever when I was 14 years old.nbsp; That experience whooped my Americanized teenage mind with an eye opening introduction to the immense realities of Philippines./p p At the age of 12 my uncle introduced me to Kali or the Philippine martial arts of the span data-scayt_word="Visayas" data-scaytid="17"Visayas/span.nbsp; We studied in a garage with all of my other younger cousins in San Francisco.nbsp; I remember my uncle always encouraging us to be strong like the ancient Filipino warriors who also knew Kali.nbsp; I loved it because it gave me not only discipline but also confidence as a brown skinned youth in North America.nbsp;/p p Lastly, Hip Hop helped me connect with my indigenous roots.nbsp; I fell in love with Hip Hop as a dancer which meant that I was always encouraged to represent my dance skills in circle or cipher.nbsp; I did not know it at the time but the improvisation that Hip Hop dance brought out of me also allowed me to bring in my martial arts movements and instinctual movement patterns that connect with Philippine folkloric movements.nbsp;/p p Universal Filipino combines these stories of what influenced me to be proud of my Philippine culture and how I express myself as a Filipino American span data-scayt_word="Diasporic" data-scaytid="18"Diasporic/span artist./p p nbsp;/p p strongOne of the things I saw in the UNIVERSAL FILIPINO video clip was that it incorporated the Filipino martial art of Kali.nbsp; My father is an instructor in the art and recently went to Cebu.nbsp; What should people know about the art of Kali?/strong/p p Kali is both beautiful and deadly.nbsp; I have seen it used to break bones and I have also seen it choreographed into a breath-taking performance.nbsp; I incorporate Kali into Universal Filipino because it is a part of my personal history and I want the world to be exposed to a traditional martial arts whose origins are traced back to the Philippines.nbsp; For many Filipino Americans who do not speak Tagalog or other languages of the Philippines, Kali is also an opportunity to connect back with the Philippines through martial arts and movement./p p nbsp;/p p strongAre you seeing any similarities between New York and the Bay area in terms of gentrification and span data-scayt_word="criminalization" data-scaytid="19"criminalization/span of poverty?/strong/p p Irsquo;ve been living and working in New York City for 3 years now.nbsp; For 2 years I worked as a teacher for young adults striving to obtain their GED.nbsp; And as an independent artist, I have worked with independent artists, collective and organizations that pro-actively address issues of justice for the most disenfranchised citizens of NYC.nbsp; The issues of gentrification and span data-scayt_word="criminalization" data-scaytid="20"criminalization/span of poor and immigrant communities are very much similar between New York City and the Bay Area.nbsp; For example, there are places in Harlem that once had a strong ethnic diversity are now filled with white collar professionals or college students who do not know that they are part of urban redevelopment policies known as gentrification.nbsp; These areas of Harlem in Manhattan are very reminiscent of whatrsquo;s happening in my old neighborhood of the Mission District in San Francisco.nbsp; My family was asked to leave our apartment in 1998 when the landlord took advantage of raising the rent to higher paying renters, leaving my family to bounce from apartment to apartment for many years./p p As a teacher in Brooklyn I found it extremely disheartening to see the poor conditions for disenfranchised youth and young adults.nbsp; Many of my students were influenced by gangs, drugs, prostitution, harassment/ racial profiling by the local police and violence in general.nbsp; I felt as if I never left the streets of West Oakland where I worked as a violence prevention educator and community organizer for 3 years before I moved to NYC.nbsp; Despite these realities, what stands out the most are how the youth, young adults and the larger community are resilient in not letting these high risk circumstances stop them from achieving their goals.nbsp; I still receive emails, phone calls or lunches with my former students informing me that they are moving forward in life./p p nbsp;/p p strongHow has UNIVERSAL FILIPINO been received in the various places it has been seen?/strong/p p I am grateful to have received some amazing responses to Universal Filipino.nbsp; I performed as the closing performance for a youth empowerment conference in span data-scayt_word="Watsonville" data-scaytid="21"Watsonville/span, CA.nbsp; The majority of participants were of immigrant Latino background.nbsp; I wasnrsquo;t sure how they would receive my story considering that I am Filipino American.nbsp; During the performance I noticed that they were loving it, laughing at relate-able parts or quiet during intense dramatic moments.nbsp; Many students approached me afterwards to talk more about the playrsquo;s themes or simply to show off their dance styles such as the span data-scayt_word="Dougie" data-scaytid="22"Dougie/span.nbsp;/p p Another interesting moment was when I performed in San Quentin State Prison.nbsp; There were about 15 male inmates taking an Asian American Theater course, all of different ethnicities.nbsp; Despite the intimidating feel of the prison, I reminded myself that true art transcends all borders and inmates need pure art just as much as college students because rehabilitation and education go hand in hand.nbsp; I saw hard faces change into regular people having a good time at a theater performance.nbsp; I ended my performance with a brief discussion where practically all of the inmates had something to say about how they could relate to Universal Filipino./p p Another unique performance worth mentioning was at span data-scayt_word="CUNY" data-scaytid="23"CUNY/span Law School.nbsp; I shared Universal Filipino with graduate law students.nbsp; I received a standing ovation and a few students came up to me in tears because they were able to connect with my story on a personal level./p p What stands out the most was performing in front my family, especially my mother and father.nbsp; The play is about them just as it is about me.nbsp; They are both extremely proud of me and I realize that if I can touch my family, I can touch the world.nbsp; My younger sister elbowed me and said, ldquo;Damn, now I got to read more about Filipino history.nbsp; Thanks span data-scayt_word="Kuya.”" data-scaytid="2"Kuya.rdquo;/span/p p nbsp;/p p strongHow can people get more information about UNIVERSAL FILIPINO and your other work?/strong/p p a href="http://universalfilipino.wordpress.com/"http:///aspan data-scayt_word="universalfilipino.wordpress.com–" data-scaytid="3"a href="http://universalfilipino.wordpress.com/"universalfilipino.wordpress.com/andash;/span electronic press kit/p p nbsp;/p p a href="http://kilusan1898.blogspot.com/"http:///aspan data-scayt_word="kilusan1898.blogspot.com–artist" data-scaytid="4"a href="http://kilusan1898.blogspot.com/"kilusan1898.blogspot.com/andash;artist/span blog/p p nbsp;/p p a href="http://urbancrazes.com/"http://span data-scayt_word="urbancrazes.com" data-scaytid="5"urbancrazes.com/span/anbsp; -online magazine/p p nbsp;/p p strongLast question, if you had to face boxer span data-scayt_word="Nonito" data-scaytid="24"Nonito/span span data-scayt_word="Donaire" data-scaytid="28"Donaire/span (Current WBC and span data-scayt_word="WBO" data-scaytid="30"WBO/span Bantamweight Champion of the world)nbsp;in a spoken word battle, who would win?/strong/p p Only the crowd could judge that one.nbsp; I know span data-scayt_word="Nonito" data-scaytid="25"Nonito/span to be extremely talented as a span data-scayt_word="wordssmith" data-scaytid="31"wordssmith/span.nbsp; He puts just as much heart and concentration in boxing as he does as a role model in the community.nbsp; The best spoken word artists are those who use their art for the good of humanity.nbsp; It was an amazing experience to open up for span data-scayt_word="Nonito" data-scaytid="26"Nonito/span span data-scayt_word="Donaire" data-scaytid="29"Donaire/span in 2008, at Mandalay Bay.nbsp; My spoken word skills along with span data-scayt_word="Nonito" data-scaytid="27"Nonito/span span data-scayt_word="Donaire’s" data-scaytid="32"Donairersquo;s/span punch makes a powerful combination/p

p iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ijAAuj-d3Ds" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe/p

p Riding the bus in our Community is Getting Dangerousbr / By span data-scayt_word="Dell’Trianna" data-scaytid="2"Dellrsquo;Trianna/span Davis/span data-scayt_word="PoorNewsNetwork" data-scaytid="6"PoorNewsNetwork/span Youth Media span data-scayt_word="Skolar" data-scaytid="8"Skolar/span/p p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; On Saturday, June 16th a 19 year old young man, Kenneth Harding, from Seattle, WA, came to San Francisco at the wrong time. He rode a transit vehicle, to Bay view hunters point span data-scayt_word="palou" data-scaytid="10"palou/span station, only to exit, and have an encounter with a police officer, about paying his two dollar fare. Harding ran from being detained, and was shot from the back multiple times, causing him to bleed to death and die at the scene. This shooting took place in broad day light by span data-scayt_word="sf" data-scaytid="12"sf/span police, in front of kids, family, and friends at the Joseph Lee Community Center, and sadly, this is not the exception, it happens all the time to residents of the span data-scayt_word="Bayview" data-scaytid="14"Bayview/span like me./p p Police say Harding fired at them first ( and now maybe even shot at himself!), which they say justified their shooting at Harding. What we hear and read says that the officers were fired upon, but people of the bay view say that was a no-go, Harding only ran from the transit station, to resist citation inquiries./p p As Harding laid there at the scene, there was no emergency ambulance treatment for as long as 30 span data-scayt_word="mins" data-scaytid="18"mins/span. Police stood there for several minutes with guns on Harding, only to watch him bleed to death./p p Lately, the public transit inspectors have been taking their jobs a little to seriously, but only in the poor communities, causing public humiliation, to those short on fare. Once I was short of fare, and had no transfer to show the inspector, which lead to me receiving a citation.nbsp; While facing off the ticket public, authorities, ignored my voice, and searched and rambled through my belongings, only to find no span data-scayt_word="I.d" data-scaytid="1"I.d/span., which I had said I didnrsquo;t have in the first place./p p In the end riding public transportation is getting dangerous, I#39;m afraid for the residents of my community, because of how the police mobbed the span data-scayt_word="buses" data-scaytid="20"buses/span supposedly looking for people short on fare../p p The police are unaware, that we, as a black community, do see the way they view our young men. Viewing them as slick dressed boys, which is why the police must hear, stop Killing Our Brothers and Sisters Because Being Poor is not a Crimerdquo;/p p span data-scayt_word="Dell’Trianna" data-scaytid="3"Dellrsquo;Trianna/span, a span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="22"PNN/span student reporter, chef, cheerleader, confident, counselor, encourager, co-pastor and span data-scayt_word="Ceo" data-scaytid="24"Ceo/span, has just graduated from the span data-scayt_word="ReVolutionary" data-scaytid="26"ReVolutionary/span Youth Media Education(span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="28"RYME/span) program at span data-scayt_word="PeopleSkool-She" data-scaytid="30"PeopleSkool-She/span will be performingnbsp; a span data-scayt_word="theatre" data-scaytid="32"theatre/span presentation as part of the Off-Plantation Plays span data-scayt_word="Theatre" data-scaytid="34"Theatre/span for span data-scayt_word="PeopleSkool" data-scaytid="36"PeopleSkool/span graduation celebration on Thursday, July 28th @ span data-scayt_word="5pm" data-scaytid="101"5pm/span- at POOR Magazine - 2940 16th span data-scayt_word="st" data-scaytid="40"st/span #301 SF , Ca 94103 - for more information call POOR at a href="tel:415-863-6306" target="_blank" value="+14158636306"415-863-6306/a/p

p nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"As this is my first assignment for Indigenous Peoples Media Project on span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="17"PNN/span, I feel extremely honored to capture the heartfelt resistance that is hellip; span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="18"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="25"Te/span. I was blessed to be invited to the closing ceremonies, as an easement has been made between the City of Vallejo and officials of span data-scayt_word="GVRD" data-scaytid="32"GVRD/span and the span data-scayt_word="Yochina" data-scaytid="34"Yochina/span Dine and Cortina Tribes./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanFirst I would like to introduce myself. My name is Phillip Standing Bear and I am an enrolled member of the span data-scayt_word="Oglala" data-scaytid="35"Oglala/span Lakota Sioux Tribe. I would like to say that I feel like it is my duty to protect what is sacred to, not just my peoples, but to all indigenous peoples. I say that with the up-most humility and humbleness in my heart and mind./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanNow letrsquo;s get into a little bit of the 3500 years of documented history of span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="19"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="26"Te/span/Glen Cove. Glen Cove was a large village and ceremonial grounds that was used by many different tribes throughout the Bay Area. This area has been deemed, declared and even federally recognized as sacred to indigenous peoples. Many natives alive today have ties to ancestors buried there. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanAs I was taking pictures of span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="20"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="27"Te/span, I was on the west hill over looking most of the cove. A lady behind me in one of the expensive homes overlooking the span data-scayt_word="Carquienez" data-scaytid="36"Carquienez/span Strait, said to me ldquo;Excuse me, do you know that this is private land and that you are trespassing?rdquo; I turned to look at her to see if she knew what she was really talking about, it was an old white lady. Maybe in her 60rsquo;s or early 70rsquo;s. I looked away, not wanting a confrontation here of all places to have confrontations, and then she asked ldquo;Excuse me, can you speak English?rdquo; I looked back at her and told her ldquo; I can speak perfect English, and your backyard is private land, I am not in your span data-scayt_word="backyard.”" data-scaytid="9"backyard.rdquo;/span She tried telling me to tell that to the police when they get here. I then told her that they probably wonrsquo;t even bother coming, because they have to follow the law like you and I have to./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanBut span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="21"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="28"Te/span is so much more than an area of land being occupied by indigenous peoples, rather than that of a sacred place where the peoples within, felt so lost during the colonization period of the Bay Area, that they knew that they had no more sacred spaces to perform ceremonies and traditions with their ancestors who are buried there. During the span data-scayt_word="mission-ization" data-scaytid="37"mission-ization/span of the indigenous peoples of the area, the native span data-scayt_word="“christians”" data-scaytid="38"ldquo;christiansrdquo;/span were sent to the Mission area of San Francisco. There they lived their Christian lives, as to where they were ldquo;permittedrdquo; to visit their homeland twice a year./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"ispan style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanAccount from Mission San Francisco:/i/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"inbsp;/i/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"ispan style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanTwice in the year they receive permission to return to their native homes. This short time is the happiest period of their existence; and I myself have seen them going home in crowds, with loud rejoicings. The sick, who cannot undertake the journey, at least accompany their happy countrymen to the shore where they embark, and there sit for days together, mournfully gazing on the distant summits of the mountains which surround their homes; they often sit in this situation for several days, without taking any food, so much does the sight of their lost home affect these new Christians (span data-scayt_word="Kotzebue" data-scaytid="39"Kotzebue/span [1816] 1932:63). [p. 219]/i/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"inbsp;/i/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /span/spanspan style="font-size: 14pt;"This happens everywhere in the United States of America. Corporations and organizations everywhere ignore the fact that these lands are under federal protection. According to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Part II, Article 10; The Right to Traditional Space, States ldquo;/spanspan style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"iIndigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of /i/spanspan data-scayt_word="return.”" data-scaytid="10"span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman Italic;"ireturn./i/spanspan style="font-size: 14pt;"rdquo;/span/spanspan style="font-size: 14pt;" This Article alone proves that span data-scayt_word="GVRD" data-scaytid="33"GVRD/span and the City of Vallejo are ignoring federal law by trying to incorporate the land with their Re- span data-scayt_word="devil-opment" data-scaytid="40"devil-opment/span plan to add a park with span data-scayt_word="porta-potties" data-scaytid="41"porta-potties/span on top of a sacred burial site./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanI was honored to be introduced to some of the main warriors of this fight. Those included are span data-scayt_word="Corrina" data-scaytid="42"Corrina/span Gould, Mark span data-scayt_word="Anquoe" data-scaytid="43"Anquoe/span, and a many of other fighters of this land./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanAs Tiny, span data-scayt_word="Muteado" data-scaytid="44"Muteado/span, and I pulled up onto Shoal Dr and parked there, we had already noticed how full the area was of people headed to span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="22"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="29"Te/span. As we gathered the equipment out of the back of the snazzy, Cherry Red, 4-Door, 2011 Ford something rental, I could already feel heads turning, looking at the cardboard sign saying ldquo;Poor Magazinerdquo;. The three of us laughed about it later./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanThere was actually a lot more to span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="23"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="30"Te/span than I imagined, since it was my first time there. It was exhilarating just walking towards the grounds, almost like there were more people there than I saw with my eyes./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"There were many other things that I noticed throughout the ceremonies, I noticed that almost after every song or dance that was performed, an eagle brother called out. He spoke, loud and clear ldquo;CAWrdquo;, like he was cheering or acknowledging the performers./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanAll in all, the ceremonies were held in good hearts and souls throughout the community, other than the ldquo;Rude onerdquo;, as I like to call her now. I had the honor of interviewing some Hawaiian sisters that came out to give their blessings, as well as having an interview with Wounded Knee, you can check both interviews out on our website at http://span data-scayt_word="www.poormagazine.org" data-scaytid="75"www.poormagazine.org/span/indigenous_media /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"span style=""nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanWhen we left, I, at least felt better and more informed about the lifestyles and mindsets of the rich and how it affects the poor. I hope that the public will support Poor Magazine, as well as keep up with me in many more future stories to come.nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt;"To the braves and feminine braves in the fight for span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="24"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="31"Te/span, I hope to meet and correspond with you in the future for fights over more lands that are being stolen by the industrial complex./span/p

pobject height="345" width="420"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-1pjWU9WKag?version=3hl=en_USrel=0" /param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-1pjWU9WKag?version=3hl=en_USrel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420"/embed/object/p p strongSoul/strong/p p By Tony Robles/p p nbsp;/p p I miss soul music/p p Soul soul music/p p Sticky radio/p p Ash tray music/p p Miss thenbsp;twists/p p voices and hips/p p Burning lips/p p Spinning dials/p p Miss the air conditioner/p p Exhaling hot air/p p I miss husky soul voices/p p In the thick soul air/p p I miss my music/p p I miss my grandfatherrsquo;s scarred scuffed/p p Leather shoe music/p p I miss his dark night club/p p Memories served on a/p p Vinyl platter/p p Flowing likenbsp;rusty pipes/p p In his skin/p p I miss grandpa/p p I miss the soul of/p p His voice/p p I miss soul music/p p I miss thick legs/p p And thighs/p p I miss the organ/p p the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="neckbones" data-scaytid="3"neckbones/span/p p I miss the burning/p p Throat of notes cast/p p In and out of the fire/p p I miss the sounds tearing/p p Up the seat cushions/p p I miss soul/p p I miss soul music/p p I miss soul radio music/p p I miss soul rain/p p Soul clouds/p p Soul dreams/p p Soul streets/p p Soul pots/p p Soul pans/p p Soul faces/p p Soul people/p p Soul claps/p p Soul laughter/p p Soul spirit/p p Soul trees/p p Soul movement/p p Soul fire/p p soul love/p p i miss soul music/p

p Revolutionary Youth Media Education (span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="1"RYME/span) Youth span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="2"Skolaz/span report on action by span data-scayt_word="PODER" data-scaytid="4"PODER/span Youth span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="3"Skolaz/span for Equal Access to Health in the City-/p

p class="MsoNormal" When does displacement happen? For my mama it happened everyday. When she woke up without a known living relative, terrorized to live in her own brown skin ndash;to walk outside the house, to be alive. My mama was the orphaned daughter of a landless indigenous span data-scayt_word="Taino" data-scaytid="1"Taino/span, span data-scayt_word="Afrikan" data-scaytid="2"Afrikan/span father and a displaced indigenous Roma (gypsy) and Irish mother. Removal, displacement, eviction, and colonization happened to her indigenous ancestorsspan style=""nbsp; /spanand yet it also happened to her, everyday she spent never knowing and yet always longing, for her people, her culture, her language and her homelands./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" ldquo;We have reached a victory, for the first time, a precedent setting case for our people, for our ancestors,rdquo; said span data-scayt_word="Corrina" data-scaytid="3"Corrina/span Gould, a 21supspan data-scayt_word="st" data-scaytid="6"st/span/sup century span data-scayt_word="Ohlone" data-scaytid="7"Ohlone/span warrior span data-scayt_word="womyn" data-scaytid="8"womyn/span who was on the frontline of the struggle for our ancestors at span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="9"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="14"Te/span (Glen Cove). span data-scayt_word="Corrina" data-scaytid="4"Corrina/span was talking about a 106 day encampment by indigenous peoples to stop the desecration of a 3500 year old ancestral burial ground in Vallejo, California/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" ldquo;The Greater Vallejo Recreational District wanted to put parking spaces and span data-scayt_word="porta" data-scaytid="19"porta/span potties on our burial grounds, thatrsquo;s when we began a sacred fire and we werenrsquo;t going to leave until we knew our ancestors were safe,rdquo; span data-scayt_word="Corrina" data-scaytid="5"Corrina/span concluded. She went on to explain that through a complex easement agreement reached between the two tribes in control of the sacred site and the city of Vallejo, the burial grounds were now officially safe from development and desecration./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" From Vallejo to Mexico, from Zimbabwe to Hawaii, indigenous peoples have been systematically removed, displaced, bulldozed over, red-lined, evicted, and span data-scayt_word="gentrified" data-scaytid="20"gentrified/span for hundreds of years. Our sacred burial grounds have been desecrated and our farm-lands and rivers and medicine have been stolen, sold, poisoned and co-opted, leaving us dependent on Governments, NGOrsquo;s and the Non-profit Industrial Complex to scatter a few crumbs of ldquo;aidrdquo; our way when it is politically convenient. The majority of us post-removal, post span data-scayt_word="disaporic" data-scaytid="21"disaporic/span, and without land, resources, safety and even cultural identity like my mama, end up suffering different forms of post-traumatic stress, abuse, economic instability, disability and homelessness/span data-scayt_word="landlessness" data-scaytid="22"landlessness/span only to become criminalized, incarcerated, and/or lumped into the collectively span data-scayt_word="un-solveable" data-scaytid="23"un-solveable/span problem known as ldquo;povertyrdquo; so we can be studied, researched, written about and deconstructed by the industry of Academia./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" The final act of displacement is the removal and desecration of our sacred ancestral burial grounds. In California alone, we have lost countless sacred spaces to shopping malls, parks and museums. Our ancestors desecrated so people could sip lattes, buy computer parts and watch Hollywood movies, tragic losses like the Emeryville and Presidio and span data-scayt_word="Yerba" data-scaytid="24"Yerba/span Buena span data-scayt_word="shellmounds" data-scaytid="25"shellmounds/span located in San Francisco and Oakland. Sorrow-filled, valiant battles were waged by indigenous peoples but in the end, big money and real estate speculation prevailed as it often does in this capitalist society./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" But as the rivers and oceans across span data-scayt_word="Pachamama" data-scaytid="26"Pachamama/span flow with our spilled blood and stolen resources, we have also reached an extremely important moment in span data-scayt_word="herstory" data-scaytid="27"herstory/span. A moment when centuries of resistance movements brought by threatened, displaced and removed indigenous peoples are prevailing/p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" ldquo;We have been fighting removal for hundreds of years, and now another speculator is trying to turn our sacred burial grounds at Rattlesnake Island into a summer vacation home,rdquo; said Jim span data-scayt_word="BrownEagle" data-scaytid="28"BrownEagle/span of Lake County span data-scayt_word="Elam" data-scaytid="29"Elam/span people. He went on to explain that his tribal nation has collected extensive documentation of the historic theft of their peoples resources and will proceed with a law suit against the government for reparations./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" In San span data-scayt_word="Sabastien" data-scaytid="30"Sabastien/span, span data-scayt_word="Bachajon" data-scaytid="31"Bachajon/span, Mexico, after a deep struggle by indigenous peoples to control their land and natural resources from government land grabs and destructive ldquo;eco-tourismrdquo;, a struggle which included false accusation, arrest and incarceration of seven of the indigenous warriors who protect the beautiful waterfalls and rivers of the land, the indigenous peoples prevailed, the political prisoners were released and the truth is circulating throughout international media channels The fight is definitely not over, but the world is watching and responding and not letting up the pressure on the ldquo;bad governmentrdquo; attempts to steal the original peoples lands ./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Like their brothers and sisters in span data-scayt_word="Chiapas" data-scaytid="32"Chiapas/span, the span data-scayt_word="Huicholes" data-scaytid="33"Huicholes/span in span data-scayt_word="Jalisco" data-scaytid="34"Jalisco/span fought the governmentrsquo;s plan to build a road through their village by coming out and standing in front of the bulldozers and refusing to leave. Now thespan style=""nbsp; /spangovernment has conceded to the indigenous peoples and are building the road around the village./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Other powerful landless peoples and poor peoples movements that have successfully resisted government span data-scayt_word="politricks" data-scaytid="35"politricks/span and corporate domination recently include the span data-scayt_word="Shackdwellers" data-scaytid="36"Shackdwellers/span Union in South Africa, The Landless Peoples Movement in Brazil and The Peoples Parliament in Zimbabwe./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" Aligned with indigenous people-led and poor people-led movements across the globe POOR Magazine has been working on our own form of stolen land resistance we call a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/homefulness"span data-scayt_word="HOMEFULNESS" data-scaytid="37"HOMEFULNESS/span/a ndash; a sweat-equity, co-housing project practicing equity-sharing and land distribution led by us ndash; the peoples whose voices are continually silenced and repressed. The poor, the displaced, the removed./p p class="MsoNormal" nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" As me and my fellow indigenous reporters, span data-scayt_word="SIlencio" data-scaytid="38"SIlencio/span span data-scayt_word="Muteado" data-scaytid="39"Muteado/span and Philip Standing Bear from our family at POOR Magazine stood in front of the sacred fire at span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="10"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="15"Te/span, celebrating the last day of this revolutionary victory for the ancestors, I reflected on the countless fights of indigenous peoples that have come before this one and the ones currently being waged. Fights that have a renewed strength now./p p span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"span style=""nbsp;/spanldquo;We are part of a pan pacific coalition of Samoan, Hawaiian, span data-scayt_word="Tongan" data-scaytid="40"Tongan/span and many morespan style=""nbsp; /spanPacific Islander social justice organizers who came together to work on the Free span data-scayt_word="Rapa" data-scaytid="42"Rapa/span span data-scayt_word="Nui" data-scaytid="43"Nui/span project,rdquo; said, span class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb"Loa span data-scayt_word="Niumeitolu" data-scaytid="44"Niumeitolu/span, a span data-scayt_word="Tongan" data-scaytid="41"Tongan/span revolutionary who with her sister, span data-scayt_word="FuiFuiLupe" data-scaytid="45"FuiFuiLupe/span spoke tospan style=""nbsp; /spanus about the work of the span data-scayt_word="Oceana" data-scaytid="46"Oceana/span Coalition of Northern California (span data-scayt_word="OCNC" data-scaytid="47"OCNC/span) to support the indigenous peoples of Easter Island. A Coalition of Pacific Islanders were one of many nations who came out to stand in solidarity with the span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="11"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="16"Te/span resistance in the occupation. The work of span data-scayt_word="OCNC" data-scaytid="48"OCNC/span is based on the fact that so many pacific islanders are currently incarcerated, displaced and/or in poverty through so many forms of indigenous removal and theft. /span/span/p p span class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"Other indigenous nations like the /span/spanspan style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"span data-scayt_word="Winnemem" data-scaytid="49"Winnemem/span span data-scayt_word="Wintu" data-scaytid="54"Wintu/spanspan class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb", came with medicine and prayers on the 52supspan data-scayt_word="nd" data-scaytid="57"nd/span/sup day of the occupation at span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="12"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="17"Te/span/span/span span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"The homeland of the span data-scayt_word="Winnemem" data-scaytid="50"Winnemem/span span data-scayt_word="Wintu" data-scaytid="55"Wintu/span is centered around the span data-scayt_word="McCloud" data-scaytid="58"McCloud/span River in Northern California, which for thousands of years was one of the most fertile salmon spawning rivers in the West. In the span data-scayt_word="1940s" data-scaytid="60"1940s/span, construction of the Shasta Dam resulted in the flooding of span data-scayt_word="Winnemem" data-scaytid="51"Winnemem/span villages and sacred places, and effectively wiped out the span data-scayt_word="McCloud" data-scaytid="59"McCloud/span Salmon by blocking their upriver passage. The span data-scayt_word="Winnemem" data-scaytid="52"Winnemem/span are currently battling a proposal to a href="http://www.winnememwintu.us/journey-to-justice/shasta-dam-raise/"further raise/a the Shasta Dam, and are working passionately to a href="http://www.winnememwintu.us/mccloud-salmon-restoration/"restore/a their ancestral relationship with span data-scayt_word="Nur" data-scaytid="61"Nur/span, the Salmon. /span/p p span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"The span data-scayt_word="Winnemem" data-scaytid="53"Winnemem/span span data-scayt_word="Wintu" data-scaytid="56"Wintu/span peoples have committed to standing their ground no matter what even if the Dam is raised. Even if the water comes. /span/p p nbsp;/p p span class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"ldquo;We won this fight because we as indigenous peoples, as all peoples of all colors and cultures came together, thatrsquo;s what we have to do at all of the remaining sites to ensure that they are safe,rdquo; said Wounded Knee span data-scayt_word="DeOcampo" data-scaytid="63"DeOcampo/span, a span data-scayt_word="Miwok" data-scaytid="65"Miwok/span elder who has been fighting for the preservation of ancestral burial grounds for years,span style=""nbsp; /spanldquo;now that we won this powerful victory we need to focus on the San Francisco Peaks located in Arizona, another sacred site that must be saved, span data-scayt_word="DeOcampo" data-scaytid="64"DeOcampo/span concluded./span/span/p p class="MsoNormal" As the smoke from the sacred fire blended with the sweet smell of sage and tobacco offerings, I placed my Mama Dee and Uncle Al Robles pictures at the entrance to the span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="13"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="18"Te/span prayer circle so their revolutionary indigenous spirits could be part of this important victory. A quiet softness brushed past me and then I knew.span style=""nbsp; /spanI heard her in the deep beat of the drum and felt her in the soft grass in the wind. Mama was there. Smiling from the deepest place in her wounded heart, as she rarely did, when she saw justice finally done for displaced peoples, like her./p p class="MsoNormal" bnbsp;/b/p

p nbsp;/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"I arrived here nervous, but Lola looked nice when I got off the bus.spannbsp; /spanWe went to her apartment and I took a bath and a nap.spannbsp; /spanThe next day we continued POOR Magazine#39;s tradition of poor people/poverty span data-scayt_word="skolaz" data-scaytid="1"skolaz/span#39; infiltration of span data-scayt_word="Akkkademia" data-scaytid="2"Akkkademia/span as Tiny calls it or span data-scayt_word="makkkademia" data-scaytid="3"makkkademia/span as Lola span data-scayt_word="sez" data-scaytid="4"sez/span, this time it was the University of Washington.nbsp; /font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"nbsp;/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"Lola teaches span data-scayt_word="skolas" data-scaytid="5"skolas/span.spannbsp; /spanHer class is a class full of geniuses.nbsp; Cat is an elder and artist span data-scayt_word="adn" data-scaytid="9"adn/span personal friend of John T.nbsp; She is 10 times more intelligent span data-scayt_word="thant" data-scaytid="10"thant/span span data-scayt_word="hte" data-scaytid="11"hte/span majority of university students with IQ#39;s of a span data-scayt_word="cumquat" data-scaytid="12"cumquat/span, but big egos and degrees.nbsp; Reggie was another span data-scayt_word="skola" data-scaytid="13"skola/span.nbsp; A gentleman that worked as a fisherman up in Alaska.nbsp; He is a fantastic writer and writes span data-scayt_word="Reggies" data-scaytid="14"Reggies/span Corner Rap for span data-scayt_word="PNN-WA" data-scaytid="15"PNN-WA/span.nbsp; Lola wouldnbsp;smile at me and Reggie when we would talk forever about how many friends we have on span data-scayt_word="facebook" data-scaytid="18"facebook/span.nbsp;E span data-scayt_word="Duplessis" data-scaytid="19"Duplessis/span is anbsp;musician and formerly homeless and his girlfriend Leah who was a privileged woman that was assisting the class.nbsp;nbsp;Andnbsp;the spirit of John T.,nbsp;community elder that was an eagle shot down from the sky by the Seattle span data-scayt_word="Po'lice" data-scaytid="20"Po#39;lice/span departmentspannbsp;was with us.nbsp;/spanWe all went together to the Seattle Campus in the University district.spannbsp; /spanIt looks a lot like downtown Berkeley or any other cloned university area with coffee shops and bars and other colonizer span data-scayt_word="accoutrements" data-scaytid="21"accoutrements/span. I was sweating bullets from being nervous at this big institution that looks like Hogwarts as span data-scayt_word="lola" data-scaytid="22"lola/span calls it, on steroids.spannbsp; /spanIt was the University of Washington and POOR Magazine was about to span data-scayt_word="skool" data-scaytid="23"skool/span the hell out of it.spannbsp; /spanWe got there as students slowly filed in.spannbsp; /spanPeople of color were not looking at each other.spannbsp; /spanThere were two African descent people that looked so opposite.spannbsp; /spanOne looked like a colonizer.spannbsp; /spanOne looked like he wanted to be somewhere else./font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"nbsp;/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font size="3"font face="Calibri"Lola opens the class with the span data-scayt_word="PNN-WA" data-scaytid="16"PNN-WA/span slam bios. spannbsp;/spanThen I told the class the history of span data-scayt_word="PNN…tellin" data-scaytid="24"PNNhellip;tellin/span how a poor mother and daughter , Mama Dee and Tiny started a media and art revolution out of welfare, span data-scayt_word="houselessness" data-scaytid="25"houselessness/span and strugglespan./spanspannbsp; /spanAfter I told the history of POOR Magazine, we watched a video about POOR Magazine.spannbsp; /span/font/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"nbsp;/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font size="3"font face="Calibri"Then Lola went through span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="26"PNN/span WA rules.spannbsp; /spanTheyrsquo;re a little different from span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="27"PNN/span SF rules span data-scayt_word="cuz" data-scaytid="30"cuz/span the people there are so square, they wouldnrsquo;t know what a circle was.spannbsp; /span/font/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"nbsp;/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font size="3"font face="Calibri"We watched a video of the murder of John T Williams.spannbsp; /spanHe was killed for crossing the street with a piece of wood in one hand and a supposed open knife that was actually later found sheathed.spannbsp; /spanIt was the instrument of a woodcarver that tells the stories of pieces of wood.spannbsp; /spanThe cop was so untrained as an officer that when seeing a person with a piece of wood and a folded up knife in his hand thatrsquo;s old enough to be his grandfather, he sees that as a threat. He called out to John, ldquo;Hey!rdquo; but did not identify himself as an officer. spannbsp;/spanAnd 4 seconds later you hear gunshots.spannbsp; /spanThe class was horrified.spannbsp; /span/font/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"nbsp;/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font size="3"font face="Calibri"Later she broke the class into two parts.spannbsp; /spanHalf the class was taught about Core-prick (corporate) news by the span data-scayt_word="PNN-WA" data-scaytid="17"PNN-WA/span span data-scayt_word="skolas" data-scaytid="6"skolas/span and the other half of the class deconstructed the span data-scayt_word="Progr-Ass-have" data-scaytid="31"Progr-Ass-have/span (progressive) media.spannbsp; /spanspan data-scayt_word="Skolars" data-scaytid="32"Skolars/span were taking their proper place as authorities and privileged kids from the university listened and learned from them.spannbsp; /spanReal span data-scayt_word="skolaship" data-scaytid="33"skolaship/span ndash; span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="28"PNN/span spannbsp;/spanstyle.spannbsp; /spanWhen they came together, the core-prick part of the class was hearing what the span data-scayt_word="Progr-ASS-haves" data-scaytid="34"Progr-ASS-haves/span heard.spannbsp; /spanAnd vice versa.spannbsp; /spanThen span data-scayt_word="PNN" data-scaytid="29"PNN/span WA span data-scayt_word="skolas" data-scaytid="7"skolas/span read their article about John T Williams to the class.spannbsp; /span/font/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font face="Calibri" size="3"nbsp;/font/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" font size="3"font face="Calibri"The class started asking questions and the teacher from the next class had to come and kick us out because we had gone overtime but nobody wanted to leave yet.spannbsp; /spanThe students from UW said they loved the presentation and even stayed in the hall to talk to the span data-scayt_word="skolas" data-scaytid="8"skolas/span. spannbsp;/span/font/font/p table cellpadding="0" class="cf gz" id=":a4" tbody tr td div class="cKWzSc mD" role="button" tabindex="0" img alt="" class="mL tk3N6e-I-J3" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif" / span class="mG tk3N6e-I-J9"Reply/span/div /td td div class="K98VUe mD" role="button" tabindex="0" img alt="" class="mK tk3N6e-I-J3" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif" / span class="mG tk3N6e-I-J9"Reply to all/span/div /td td div class="XymfBd mD" role="button" tabindex="0" img alt="" class="mI tk3N6e-I-J3" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif" / span class="mG tk3N6e-I-J9"Forward/span/div /td td nbsp;/td td nbsp;/td /tr /tbody /table

h5 span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"Brother can you spare me a crumb? /span/h5 h5 span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"iThe Following reports on budget genocide were written by the Revolutionary Youth Media Education (span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="2"RYME/span) span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="3"Skolaz/span at POOR Magazine who attended the Bake Sale for Critical Services at City Hall in San Francisco and interviewed David Campos, SF Board Supervisor./i/span/h5 p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Kamaria" data-scaytid="4"Kamaria/span, 14/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; I am span data-scayt_word="kamaria" data-scaytid="5"kamaria/span span data-scayt_word="shanndoah" data-scaytid="6"shanndoah/span and I am 14 years old./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Do you think that the budget cuts are okay? Before you answer that question Irsquo;d like to explain what budget cuts REALLY are. Budget cuts effect the whole economy in many ways. 1000rsquo;s of people are being laid of from their jobs because of budget cuts. More than 8 million dollars have been cut during budget cuts. On Thursday June 23suprd/sup 2011, there was a bake sale titled ldquo; Brother, Can You Spare Me A Crumb? ldquo; on the city hall steps/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; On that day I got the chance to ask David Campos , a progressing supervisor who represents district 9 on the board of supervisors , what he felt about budget cuts . He feels that ldquo; budget cuts are effecting the whole economy because span data-scayt_word="stoping" data-scaytid="7"stoping/span people from doing certain things that they like. ldquo; he said that dependingnbsp; on what is cut, it could really hurt the economy and our city.nbsp; /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Examples of the cuts are that there was a 1,993,969 dollar budget cut from the human service agency , a 3,643,718 dollar reduction from the heath department , 579,264 dollars was cut from the department of aging and adult services, and 2,308,414 was reduced from the department of children family and youth. Now why would the government want to take money from the health department? There are millions of people who need health services every single day. If budget cuts keep being made to areas like health , children and family , schools , and elders then are whole economy will continue to decline slowly. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp; In conclusion, now what do you think about budget cuts? span data-scayt_word="Im" data-scaytid="8"Im/span pretty sure you changed span data-scayt_word="yout" data-scaytid="9"yout/span mind now that you know what budget cuts REALLY are. I donrsquo;t think that budget cuts are okay and they never will be. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Tatyana" data-scaytid="10"Tatyana/span, 15/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"These budget cuts are terrorizing people in many ways. People who are tired of being in the governments choke-hold. /span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"On 6/21/11 me and my fellow poverty scholars had the chance to interview big men in suits, one was named David Campos, he is a progressive supervisor,who kept things going for the poor people in poverty, but he couldnrsquo;t say so much for his fellow supervisor friends. He helps the people of district nine well./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"The way I feel about budget cuts is in schools is less opportunities. I am span data-scayt_word="Tatyana" data-scaytid="11"Tatyana/span, span data-scayt_word="im" data-scaytid="12"im/span 15 years old and span data-scayt_word="im" data-scaytid="13"im/span in high school. I have not yet seen the massive budget cuts at my school yet because there wasnrsquo;t much to begin with. In schools, budget cuts are hard on students and parents. To have budget cuts means no bus rides, no free lunches, no art, cooking or band class, and sometimes its down to pink slips to teachers./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"The budget cuts at the brother can you spare a crumb protest were abouthellip;./spanbr / span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;Senior services, span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="14"houseless/span services, health services, children services./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"In senior services they are cutting $122,419 cut from senior centers and activity for adults with disabilities. In housing they are eliminating funding for eviction prevention and other legal services for over 1,000 public housing span data-scayt_word="tenants.In" data-scaytid="1"tenants.In/span health services they are proposing 16% reduction from the homeless. In children health services both childcare and after-school centers including beacon centers reduced. And the violence prevention efforts reduced to 54 programs serving at-risk youth by over $1,000,000./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"I learned that if we donrsquo;t start taking these budget cuts seriously and start standing together to the board of supervisors and the mayor, then we will lose the true value of school, learning, and lose our future to make good memories./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Rashida" data-scaytid="15"Rashida/span, 12,/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"I am span data-scayt_word="Rashida" data-scaytid="16"Rashida/span span data-scayt_word="Talibah" data-scaytid="17"Talibah/span Banks Reed and I go to public school and I am 12 years old./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; How Budget cuts effect me in a way because teachers at my school are getting laid off and more children are trying to get in my school and they cannot because the teachers are getting laid off, and now there are less teachers./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Me and my posse went to a bake sale at city hall in San Francisco on June 21supspan data-scayt_word="st" data-scaytid="18"st/span/supnbsp; and there was people that were protesting about the budget cuts./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"The cuts include/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"$900,000 in cuts to supportive housing takes money out of SSI retro checks for span data-scayt_word="CAAP" data-scaytid="19"CAAP/span recipients to cover shelternbsp; costs/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Elimination of two job training programs for homeless and formerly homeless people /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"A variety of cuts to transitional housing for youth and families /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"As you can see budget cuts can make you lose your job and may lose your housing and many other things. So donrsquo;t Mess with budget cuts/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Times;"!/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Ya’mil" data-scaytid="20"Yarsquo;mil/span, 12/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Budget cuts are just excuses for not getting people off the streets.nbsp; The government wastes the money killing people in other countries. the government lays people off butnbsp; they donrsquo;t put the money to a good cause like getting people off streets or giving people money who needs it for homes./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; I am span data-scayt_word="Yamil" data-scaytid="21"Yamil/span Chambers and I am 12 years old. I am a student in middle school. budget cuts affect me by cutting classes in school. When budget cuts interact with schools it also takes books from classrooms/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The event was a bake sale at city hall. the bakenbsp; sale was donenbsp; to prevent cuts to critical services. Some examples were a cut to the Department of aging and adult services of this money $579,264 reduction /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"As you can see that budget cuts or the government shows no mercy for anyone not even your children the people the government cares for nobody but them selves. This should provoke people to take budget cuts more seriously .now heed my warning be cautious how you deal with budget cuts./span/p

p Revolutionary span data-scayt_word="Legos" data-scaytid="1"Legos/span is an ongoing series by span data-scayt_word="Tiburcio" data-scaytid="3"Tiburcio/span and Tiny using span data-scayt_word="Legos" data-scaytid="2"Legos/span to teach on acts of repression and domination to poor peoples of color and span data-scayt_word="indigneous" data-scaytid="4"indigneous/span peoples across span data-scayt_word="Pachamama" data-scaytid="5"Pachamama/span/p p This first one is dedicated to all victims of the nuclear lie from Fukushima to Hiroshima to Lawrence Livermore in Berkeley on this, the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki/p

p The Following span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="3"RYME/span Youth span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Skolar" data-scaytid="5"Skolar/span Reports were written by the Youth span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="7"Skolaz/span for the Poison on Our Plate Project after their extensive research, strongWe-Search /strong(as we call it at POOR Magazine) and interviews with Eric Mar who proposed a legislation to prevent San Francisco restaurants from including a toy in their meals./p p nbsp;/p p strongOn span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Air--Kamaria" data-scaytid="9"Air--Kamaria/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Shanndoah" data-scaytid="11"Shanndoah/span, 14/strong: I am span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kamaria" data-scaytid="15"Kamaria/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Shanndoah" data-scaytid="13"Shanndoah/span and I am 14 years old. ldquo;Poison on our platerdquo; taught me about all the pollution and radiation in the San Francisco air. I learned that some of the chemicals in our air are Sulfur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, and Hydrocarbons. I also found out that the radiation in our air has increased in the past 20 years. Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particle matter or biological materials that cause harm to humans or other living organisms. Air pollution can also damage the natural environment, and atmosphere./p p ldquo;Poison on our platerdquo; also taught me about Eric Mar. Eric Mar was elected in November 2008 to represent District 1,nbsp;San Francisco#39;snbsp;Richmond District. For over two decades Eric has been a dedicated and responsive advocate for working families, youth and seniors, small businesses and all the diverse residents of the Richmond District and San Francisco. Eric Mar is a legislator. On Tuesday, July 19, 2011, I got the opportunity to ask Eric Mar questions about his legislation. Eric says that if the fast food industry would change their menus to have healthier options then he wouldnrsquo;t have made an effort to have the toys removed. Eric says he feels that that fast food places use toys to lure children into eating fast food and that toys are only the problem when they are used to make children eat unhealthy foods./p p In conclusion I would like to say that poison on our plate taught me important facts about our food, air and water, I also got the opportunity to meet Eric Mar and ask him questions. It is important for the youth to knownbsp;the facts about the food they are eating. ldquo;Poison on our platerdquo; taught me a lot about different toxins that are in our food. I feel that more schools and programs should teach us about the food we consume every day./p p strongOn Air-- span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ya’mil" data-scaytid="17"Yarsquo;mil/span Chambers,12/strong: nbsp;In the lsquo;poison on our platersquo; project we learned about the sources of air pollution. Some of these are tobacco, cars, and acid rain. Combustion of coal is also a source of air pollution. Coal combustion is the burning of coal in a power plant for electricity. Coal is also used in powering trains. I am span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yamil" data-scaytid="19"Yamil/span Chambers and as a 12 year old, I am concerned about coal combustion, which causes air pollution. Every day an average adult consumes a total of 3,000 gallons of polluted air. This represents thatnbsp;simple coal combustion causes health problems. This means that we donrsquo;t care about what goes into our air. This also means that if we care about our lives, if we donrsquo;t pull it together,nbsp;manynbsp;willnbsp;succumb to health problems because ofnbsp;the pollution in our air./p p On July 19th I went to city hall to meet with Eric Mar. Eric Mar isnbsp;a San Francisco city supervisor and I asked him ldquo;Do you think fast food places just put the toys in to provoke children to get the meals?rdquo; And he replied that McDonald#39;s and Burger King just use the toys to lure children into pestering their parents to get the unhealthy foods for them for the toy. I learned that food can taste good but they can be a threat to your bodyrsquo;s digestive system/p p strongOn span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Food--Tatyana" data-scaytid="21"Food--Tatyana/span East, 15/strong: My name is span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Tatyana" data-scaytid="23"Tatyana/span East and I am 15 years old. I am currently associating with POORnbsp;News network. In the ldquo;poison on our platerdquo; project, we learned how many teaspoons of sugar are in a can of Coca cola. My fellow poverty scholars and I also went on a field trip to Burger King and McDonalds. We interviewed children, a boy and a girl, who were hooked on the fast food. We asked if they knew about how bad McDonalds food was, and they said, ldquo;hey, Inbsp;know how bad it is.nbsp; But they liked it so much that they eat there pretty often. We also learned that at Burger King, when they donrsquo;t use the burger patties that they make that day, are put in the freezer. We learned that the beef burger patties are made of different parts of the cow, and that they mush all that junk together to make their patties./p p Me and my colleagues from POOR magazine were doing research on Eric Mar who is a supervisor of the Richmond district and his legislation on banning kids meal toys out of restaurants in San Francisco. We asked him questions on the situation and he responded, rdquo;the fast food restaurants use the toys to taunt the children to buy the fast foodrdquo; He also said that his daughter was a big part of his motivation and drive to end the issue of childrenrsquo;s obesity. And he talked about the food dessert. What I learned from Eric mar was that his whole reason for legislation was to keep children healthy and away from obesity. And making sure that each fast food restaurant had a health chart showing how many calories were in the food./p p nbsp;/p p strongON FOOD--Rashida Talibah Banks Reed,12/strong:nbsp;At Poor magazine, we did a project called ldquo;poison on the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="plate.”" data-scaytid="1"plate.rdquo;/span We learned about how many calories are in a whopper and how much sugar is in a Coca-Cola can. It#39;s so much I can hardly say. Itrsquo;s too much for humans to consume. Then we went to city hall and we interviewed Eric Mar. He was amazing. The Poverty and youth scholars and I asked a whole bunch of good questions. I asked ldquo;what was your motivation to take the toys out the happy meals?rdquo; 1: I got some quotes from him too. he said they called it the toy ban. 2: He wanted to remove the toys from unhealthy meals to fight obesity. 3: He said we should go to the produce market. I learned a lot of stuff about food and other things I told you every thing in ma intro. Every thing was important. I really enjoyed it. As you can see everything we do here is FUN!/p p nbsp;/p p strongON FOOD--Rukiyah Mayfield, 12/strong: My name is RUKIYAH MAYFIELD and I am 12 years old. I am from POOR News Network. In the ldquo;poison on our platerdquo; project I learned that a woman should only have 5 teaspoons (20 grams) of sugar per day, and a man should only have 9 teaspoons (36 grams). lastly, little children should have no more than 3 teaspoons (12 grams) a day. I also learned that we as society have too much sugar. When I went to City Hall I met Eric Mar, and we talked about the legislation that Eric Mar proposed. His legislation was not allowing restaurants to give a toy with their food. Also we all asked Eric Mar questions, but I asked what will he do if people start to protest for the McDonalds toy ban and he said he will encourage it because thatrsquo;s how you make change. After this project, I realized that as a young woman of color my idea is that I should eat healthy every Monday and Tuesday to help me stay strong./p