To: District Attorney Jill Ravitch

From:CA Statewide Coalition Against Police Brutality A California Campaign to STOP Police Brutality Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB)/POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE

Re: Murder of Andy Lopez

Dear Ms. Ravitch, We demand that Erick Gelhaus is charged immediately for the murder of Andy Lopez.

It is an abomination that the police are allowed to investigate themselves. When Santa Rosa PD investigates the Sonoma County Sheriff & then the Sonoma County Sheriff investigates the Santa Rosa PD those 2 departments are not conducting “independent” investigations. When there is no 3rd party doing an entire investigation then the people cannot rely on the information being complete or untainted.

We are aware that there were witnesses that the police never interviewed, there have been witnesses that have been harassed after speaking to the media and there are other citizens stepping forward about the mental state of Erick Gelhaus.

Additionally, with Erick Gelhaus’ obsession with guns and preparing for “war zones”, we have a plethora of information that suggest that he premeditated killing in the line of duty and knew the importance of being able to “articulate” to his superiors how he felt he was in “fear of his life” in order to get away with murder if need be.

Andy Lopez was given LESS than 10 seconds to understand what was happening and comply, no reasonable person believes that he was fully aware of the situation.

Andy Lopez is dead and we are disgusted at law enforcements tactics of demonizing this boy. He was a boy being a boy, playing with toys, walking in his own neighborhood. Our efforts to protect this child and his family from this slander will not cease. This behavior by the Sonoma County is terrorism.

We will not allow blatant murder to happen at the hands of law enforcement, a badge is not a license to kill and it does not grant extra rights.

On February 1, 1960 four young black men took seats at a Woolworth’s segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, NC – by July of that year Woolworth’s integrated all of its stores. Like Rosa Parks resisted and like Cesar Chavez organized. So will the movement behind Andy Lopez. We will not allow this murder to go unanswered for. If an indictment of penal code 187, murder is not filed against Erick Gelhaus those responsible will answer to the people.

We await you doing the right thing,

CA Statewide Coalition Against Police Brutality A California Campaign to STOP Police Brutality Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB)/POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE

My hands caressed the edges of the Coors can – it was softer than the 211 can, almost like velvet.  And unlike the Coke, Pepsi, or Sprite cans, they were always empty when I found them. Tonight as I sorted my cans and bottles, one of the many ways this po’ displaced mama has survived through harder times, I prayed for all my brothers and sister poverty workers/ recyclers on the racist, classist streets.

“Cans not Condos, Cans NOT Condos!!! Cans Not Condo-Bill Gandy, Community Housing Partnership organizer

The most recent attack on the already broken and trying to mend backs of us po’ folks in what I am now affectionately calling GentriFUKation City is Safeway’s move to close all of its recycling centers that have been housed in their giant parking lots for years, providing a dire service to elder and disability worker-recyclers and mama, youth, and daddy recyclers just trying to bring in a few extra dollars to survive. (more after the jump)

Safeway reasoning: You only need glance across the street on Market near Church to witness the terra cotta encroachment of Whole Paycheck embedded in the ground floor of a new luxury condo being built, so nervous Safeway management deduces they need to look more bourgeois or die. The sad thing is, like my mama always said, trying to be something you are not will only result in your not being at all. The working-class population who relies on Safeway won’t change, but if Safeway joins the hater minions like Tech monsters Greg Gopman and Peter Shih who think we are all trash, and effectively helps to kick us out, they will just be killing their last grasp on a market-share, displacing their potential customers.

These insane and wrong-headed moves by Safeway follow closely on the heels of the closure of beautiful people-led, truly green HANC (Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council) which prompted me to write a piece I called the new color of gentrification is green. 

What people never understand is, no matter how much they have embraced corporate statehood, or been numb to it and just signed up with the local corporate trash company, pseudo-corporate trash companies do not care about Mama Earth, your trash, bottles or your cans. It is a business for them, just like any other business. Whereas us poor peoples who meticulously sort through your corporate recycling can, trash cans, and waste bins, or the just clean up the streets, actually take pride in our work, actually, separate what is can and what is bottle, what is compost and what is landfill and do it very well. Which is why us Po’ workers and poverty scholars have led an ongoing campaign for years to recognize recyclers as independent contractors.

As a houseless child of a houseless poor, colonized Black/Indian mama, I have little or no regional loyalty. I am just humbly here, in the Bay Area, because this is where mama brought me as a child, and like most poor folks, I cannot afford to be anywhere else. I cannot and would not — like so many of these 21^st century tech colonizers and corporate carpet-baggers — move somewhere else even if I could, and with my uninvited presence displace the peoples who are there, creating laws, legislation, and commerce built to displace the peoples of origin.

So I remain, barely, holding on by a thread, post-evicted, post-gentrified, hoping to not get pushed out of the last corner of mold-filled, substandard housing me and my little family live in. I will fight to the end cause that’s how mama raised me and I will, along with my fellow revolutionary poverty scholars at POOR Magazine and the San Francisco BayView, tell the story of poverty, in my own voice, without the filter of middle-class academics, researchers, poltricksters or media-producers. All while trying to find a place that will redeem my CRV.

Please sign the petition to save the recycling centers-

Us, the Public, the Evicted— the Displaced, the Poor, The Working Class, — Speak Back

To The Tech Billionaires as They Release Their IPO (Initial Public Offering)

(Co-Editors Note- WeSearch© is poor people-led research created by POOR Magazine)

(English Follows)

“Yo pienso que eso del Twitter es solo de los ricos. Dia a dia crecen mas en sus bolsillos y por eso se estan aduenando de las casas de los terrenos que los pobres y los indocumentados no podemos comprar por que cada dia nos cierran las puertas. Pues como dice un dicho, el dinero es raiz de los males. Twitter dice se va a habrir una oportunidad para que investe pero no es verdad para nosotros los pobres. “

“I believe that Twitter is only for the rich. Day by day the money grows in their pockets and because of that they are taking ownership of the homes, the lands that the poor and the undocumented can’t even buy because everyday they close the doors on our faces. It’s like the saying goes: money is from the roots of evil. Twitter suggests it’s an opportunity to invest but that is not true for us poor people.”

-Ingrid de Leon/Poverty Migrante/Mama Skola

“November 7th I went outside the Twitter office. They are starting to incorporate their thing. One of the lies that the public relations person said is, “we have helped this City. As a poverty scholar, I know personally, that is not true. For the next ten years Twitter will not have to pay property taxes and they have been given an exclusive bus line. At the same time they are cutting bus lines in my community and other poor and elder communities. ”

-Bruce Allison/Poverty. Elder Skola

“Twitter will be offering IPOS for $17-$20 when the bell rings on the stock exchange the morning of November 7th. I, Braden Johnson, houseless youth dealing with poverty in the streets of San Francisco would like to know— where’s my IPO?? Twitter should just keep the stock options but use their extensive wealth to provide resources for the people in the community who cannot afford an IPO no matter how reasonably priced.”

-Braden Johnson/Youth Poverty Skola

“As a current low-income student who relies on public transportation to commute to San Francisco State University, I am appalled at the idea of a guaranteed bus line that ensures that twitter employees have a route to work during a time where the combination of an underfunded public education system and Bart strikes make it so students can barely get to school. If Twitter has truly “given the community incredible gifts”, they could share the wealth and take some of the millions they saved in tax breaks to give back to our schools. “

-Corinne Stricker/Poverty Skola-Mentee

“The economic boom continues in San Francisco and may further destructive practices that put profit over people. Today Twitter announced their release of an IPO on the Stock Exchange November 7th.. As a Mentee at Poor Magazine, I am not alone in feeling a fresh wave of fear from this news. As a recent transplant to San Francisco I am experiencing the high cost of living and witnessing the displacement of elderly and poor peoples. Perhaps creating public forums to address concerns and challenges is trivial on this timeline but voicing public response is critical.”

-Sasha/Mentee

“I have just heard the news that Twitter has received a 34 million tax break.  I sit in the Poor Magazine computer room, mulling over the news.  As a native New Yorker and recent college student, Twitter was merely a part of my internet life and lexicon, but today, studying under the tutelage of the Poverty Scholaz at POOR Magazine in San Francisco, this announcement takes on a whole new meaning. As a billion dollar corporation, whose headquarters are on Market Street in the City of San Francisco, Twitter’s actions have a severe impact on the city’s inhabitants. Twitter has been a major cause of recent evictions and rent raises for people in San Francisco.  And those hit the hardest are poor families, struggling to make ends meet.”

-Maia Nikitovich/Mentee

#ThrownOutByTwitter

Krip-Hop Nation (KHN) – You are from the birthplace of Hip-Hop, South Bronx and you are a Hip-Hop artist with disability. Tell us what was the Bronx like for people with disabilities when you were growing up.

Namel TapWaterz Norris - First off one of the things that I'm most proud of as a hip hop artist is the fact I was born and raised in the Boogie down Bronx the Bx, the birth place of hip hop. It's an honor for me and something that can never be taking a way from me. The thing about being a artist with a disability from the Bronx is that I wasn't born with a disability so I know the best of both worlds as an artist and Bronx native. And given the fact my injury happened in the BX as well as my partner Rick's and then we met after the fact living in the same neighborhood in the Bronx. So essentially the Bronx is the birthplace of Hip-Hop and 4 Wheel City. With that being said we had to go thru and still going thru a lot of the struggles that Hip-Hop went thru itself when it started. We had to become very independent, record on our on and do a lot networking on our own because a lot of people didn't believe two guys in wheel chairs could do anything or be accepted or successful no matter how talented we are. Hip-Hop went thru the same struggles when it first started out. Now it’s all over the world and accepted by all ages and races similar to us now. We are getting accepted and traveling all over the world with our music and disabilities and it started in the BX.

KHN: Tell us about the mission of 4Wheel City in your community and beyond.

Namel TapWaterz Norris - The mission of 4 Wheel City in our community is to inspire, educate, advocate, and entertain. We have several communities we do that for first and for most are our fellow people with spinal cord injuries and with all types of disabilities. In addition to that we also try to serve as advocates for Hip-Hop music, the Bronx, New York where we come from, minorities and young black men as well. Our whole goal across the board is to inspire people to never give up, and break down barriers for all the communities and people we represent.

KHN: What is the difference in the Bronx now compare the golden days of Hip-Hop in the late 80’s and 90’s?

Namel TapWaterz Norris - I think the biggest difference now is the essence of Hip-Hop has changed or disappeared. When I was growing up in the Bx and wanted to be a rapper it was about having the skill set and the enjoyment of sharing and building with your peers. Now a days most rappers just want to rap cause they think its cool or want to be on TV and make money. Which is nothing wrong with that but back in those days rappers were more iconic like super heroes and had their own identities and were respected for their lyrics not how many records they sale. I remember when in order to say you were a rapper back then and to get in the studio you had to be good and prove it in a cypher or battle. Nowadays with the progress of digital technology and social media it's not like that anymore. Now anyone can say they are a rapper and go thru the motions and put them self out there. There are no more cyphers or development of the skill set or respect of the history.

KHN: Do you think Hip-Hop history includes disabled history/artists?

Namel TapWaterz Norris - Not really and not yet, but I can say that it has come a long way with the Internet being a big reason for that. Since my partner Rick and I have started 4 Wheel City like 7 years ago we have seen and met a lot of disabled artist. And have been recognized by several Hip-Hop entities like The Source magazine and XXL magazine. And have also been nominated for a Justo's Mixtape Award and the Underground Music Awards twice. Haven't won yet but it feels good to be recognized and paid homage to. However we are still waiting and working towards our big break in the industry. So the struggle still continues for all artist with disabilities.

KHN: The South Bronx today is it better for people with disabilities and from your viewpoints what needs to work on for people with disabilities?

Namel TapWaterz Norris - The south Bronx is getting better for people with disabilities as is every place else in the world. A lot of new transportation, construction and more places being built in compliance with the ADA. But still more work needs to be done. There are still no accessible taxis in Bx or the other boroughs like there is in Manhattan. Still a lot of curbs that need cut outs. And those are the things we are fighting for and speaking about in our song "Welcome to 4 Wheel City". It was created born and raised in Bx just like our movement.

KHN: What is your feeling on Hip-Hop Journalism as a Hip-Hop artist with a disability?

Namel TapWaterz Norris - As I stated earlier we been featured in XXL and the Source magazines two of hip hops most biggest and popular publications. That was a big deal for us just as artist period aside from being disabled, because they came looking for us. For that fact I'm a lil bias toward those magazines. But overall most Hip-Hop publications and journalism are like any other news media outlets, they are looking for the next story that will catch their readers attention or ready to hop on the band wagon of what's hot. We don't take it personal, we just keep rolling and making our own moves and hopefully they catch up with us. But can say overall I can't complain personally because 4 Wheel City story has been written about in many other news papers, magazines, and online publications and the majority of them respect our talent as Hip- Hop artists as much as do our disabilities.

KHN: What is next for 4Wheel City

Namel TapWaterz Norris - More shows, more videos, more music, more money, more changing people lives for the better. I have a solo mixtape coming out, we have our latest mixtape Motivation Music popping right now, touring high schools to promote a new song we made for Peer Mediation programs, have performer at James Madison coming up, the clothing line and still working on the documentary and new website

KHN: Any last words?

Namel TapWaterz Norris - Not much just want to thank everyone who has been following and supporting us since the beginning and believe in us. We do this for y'all and won't stop so stay tuned! 4's Up!

They sat there. Eyes ahead or faced down, digital symbols from phones, I-pads and laptops scrolling across their eyeballs in the tinted light of their luxury transport bus.

It was an “Apple” bus. And it was filled. Every seat occupied by tech employees, the majority of whom were earning anywhere between $80-150,000 per year and up, recent transplants to a town they weren’t born, raised or invested in. and with their very presence, were displacing hundreds or possibly thousands of very poor, working poor, and even middle-class elders, families and children who could never begin to pay the increased rents now being asked, demanded and evicted for by greed-filled, landlords, and real estate spekkkulators.

There are mildly distinct differences for the buses of tech companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo and the Bio Tech giant Genentech. They form a collective of companies providing 21^st century carriages to shuttle the too-delicate for public transportation feet of  what I am now affectionately calling the gentryTechNation

For the last three weeks activists from many walks of life, including elders, disabled folks, communities of color, working poor and many white middle-class activists have begun stopping the buses at their illegal, non-paid for, “bus” stops, conveniently located in front of coffee houses or near BART stations or just in the neighborhoods they already gentriFUKEd.

But this is where it gets downright surreal. The protests and protestors aren’t abrasive or angry. In fact, they say things like Join Us – Get off the Bus! They are filled with the humble stories of elders and folks who will have nowhere to go once they are evicted, and yet, today in front of a booshie San Francisco coffee shop, in a MUNI bus stop, I witnessed not only complete disinterest from the passengers of the filled to capacity bus, but two more people right in the middle of the protest, pushed past the protestors and… Got On the Bus!…

All of which made me realize I need to write a simple guideline for the gentryTechNation who have obviously been built and made from the deepest message of race and class supremacist values, are so completely engaged in the pursuit of the mighty dolla and the subsequent hegemony of disinterest and the prestige of their trendy tech job that they have become completely bereft of even trace aspects of spirit, empathy, culture and consciousness. 

And for this you truly can’t completely blame them. They are told that they have achieved the ultimate in success in the stolen indigenous land called Amerikkka. Most of us are taught at the youngest ages to succeed means to make the most money, by any means necessary, no matter who gets hurt, how it lands on other peoples and who gets left behind. Throw in race and class privilege and unseen, multiple benefits, from this race, class privilege. Fear and hate of everything you don’t know or never knew and lies about security and safety created by the plantation, prisons and po’ lice and you have built a gentrytechnator. Peoples of the US and all of the places we have colonized with our media, wars, land and resource theft are also taught a whole gaggle of lies about the non-profit industrial complex savior complexes (give away some money every year at tax time or volunteer at a soup kitchen over the holidaze, or donate some of your old, broken down laptops or not cool anymore clothes to the Goodwill and you have “given Back”

So for all confused, befuddled, knowing in their gut that this just isn’t right, for all the tech CEO’s who are open to some real decolonization,  for all the peoples on those buses who entertained, if even for a minute, that they needed to in fact, Step off the Bus.. here is a short excerpt of Guru Tech-Decolonizers’ guide to Getting off the Google-Bus for Dummies:

1)    In a protest, and on any day, Get off the tech Bus- pick up a protest sign and begin saying your humble sorries for your oblivious role in the displacement of so many communities of origin of San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont and San Jose

2)    Take public transportation – no matter how “inconvenient” it is

3)    Send a text, email, tweet and pinterist, google+ msg and old skool phone call to the company you work for and ask them to stop running the buses.

4)    In the same digital streets listed above-ask your company to pay the several million dollars in tax breaks they stole from this city back to the city and that you will even take a $1,000 a year pay cut to support this give-back

5)    Spend a large percentage of your hoarded wealth (after you support your own family and parents if they are working class and need your help) to buy back the buildings so many of us poor peoples who have been evicted, so the thousands of elders can slowly be re-housed. Begin with the support and re-housing of Rene Yanez

6)    DO NOT MAKE AN APP to do any of this – just do it and tell your friends and family everything you do and ask them to support and join you in this walk of decolonization and change.

7)    Get involved yourself with financial support and as well ask your company to financially support the efforts to stop the genocidal Ellis Act.

8)    Ask your company to pay the City for the use of the Bus Stop and streets that it colonizes.

9)    Buy a Street Sheet or Street Spirit everyday and Read it

10) Give your bottles and cans to houseless peoples and elders who are recycling and ask Safeway to put their recycling centers back in

11) Ask Whole Foods to put in a public recycling center

12) Support the poor people-led, indigenous people-led grassroots media, art, and organizing movements that support the work and resistance of other poor and displaced people below is a short list

-The San Francisco Bay View Newspaper - & their work to ensure that African-American residents of the Bayview are employed in ALL housing construction

-The Kenny Harding Foundation

-Peoples Community Medics

-Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the I-Hotel

-Healthy Hoods

-Black Riders Liberation Party - Oakland

-WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project)

-The Coalition on Homelessness

-the Brown Berets

-POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE

-Idriss Stelley Foundation

-City College of San Francisco

-PODER

-Save Sacred Sites

-Longest Walk 4

-Reparations Movement for African Peoples in Diaspora

      10) Give Financial Support to landless peoples movements in taking back land locally and globally to house houseless peoples and support poor folks of color

-United Playaz- San Francisco- buy a building for their power-ful youth programs

-Homefulness in Deep East Oakland- build straw bale homes for houseless, poor families in struggle

-ShackDwellers Union in South Africa-

13) Invite the Tech-Decolonizer Guru into your company for some important Tech Decolonization Action Steps

14) GET OFF THE BUS

For a consultation with the Tech Decolonizer guru call 510-435-7500 or email us at deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

                   COUNCIL STATEMENT

This statement reflects the wisdom of the Spiritual People of the Earth, of North and South America, working in unity to restore peace, harmony and balance for our collective future and for all living beings. This statement is written in black and white with a foreign language that is not our own and does not convey the full depth of our concerns.

The Creator created the People of the Earth into the Land at the beginning of Creation and gave us a way of life. This way of life has been passed down generation-to-generation since the beginning. We have not honored this way of life through our own actions and we must live these original instructions in order to restore universal balance and harmony. We are a part of Creation; thus, if we break the Laws of Creation, we destroy ourselves.

We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the Original Instructions, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. We warned that one day you would not be able to control what you have created. That day is here. Not heeding warnings from both Nature and the People of the Earth keeps us on the path of self destruction. This self destructive path has led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Gulf oil spill, tar sands devastation, pipeline failures, impacts of carbon dioxide emissions and the destruction of ground water through hydraulic fracking, just to name a few. In addition, these activities and development continue to cause the deterioration and destruction of sacred places and sacred waters that are vital for Life.

Powerful technologies are out of control 

and are threatening the future of all life

The Fukushima nuclear crisis alone is a threat to the future of humanity. Yet, our concern goes far beyond this single threat. Our concern is with the cumulative and compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of human beings around the world. It is the combination of resource extraction, genetically modified organisms, moral failures, pollution, introduction of invasive species and much much more that are threatening the future of life on Earth. The compounding of bad decisions and their corresponding actions are extremely short-sighted. They do not consider the future generations and they do not respect or honor the Creator’s Natural Law. We strongly urge for the governmental authorities to respond with an open invitation to work and consult with us to solve the world’s problems, without war. We must stop waging war against Mother Earth, and ourselves.

We acknowledge that all of these devastating actions originated in human beings who are living without regard for the Earth as the source of life. They have strayed from the Original Instructions by casting aside the Creator’s Natural Law. It is now critical for humanity to acknowledge that we have created a path to self destruction. We must restore the Original Instructions in our lives to halt this devastation.

The sanctity of the Original Instructions has been violated. As a result, the Spiritual People of the Earth were called ceremonially to come together at the home of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle. These Spiritual Leaders and those that carry great responsibility for their people from both North and South America came together with the sacred fire for four days at the end of September 2013 to fulfill their sacred responsibilities. During this time it was revealed that the spirit of destruction gained its’ strength by our spiritually disconnected actions. We are all responsible in varying degrees for calling forth this spirit of destruction, thus we are all bound to begin restoring what we have damaged by helping one another recover our sacred responsibility to the Earth. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, offer our spiritual insight, wisdom and vision to the global community to help guide the actions needed to overcome the current threats to all life.

We only have to look at our own bodies to recognize the sacred purpose of water on Mother Earth. We respect and honor our spiritual relationship with the lifeblood of Mother Earth. One does not sell or contaminate their mother’s blood. These capitalistic actions must stop and we must recover our sacred relationship with the Spirit of Water

The People of the Earth understand that the Fukushima nuclear crisis continues to threaten the future of all life. We understand the full implications of this crisis even with the suppression of information and the filtering of truth by the corporate owned media and Nation States. We strongly urge the media, corporations and Nation States to acknowledge and convey the true facts that threaten us, so that the international community may work together to resolve this crisis, based on the foundation of Truth.

We urge the international community, government of Japan and TEPCO to unify efforts to stabilize and re-mediate the nuclear threat posed at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. To ensure that the Japanese government and TEPCO are supported with qualified personnel and information, we urge the inclusion of today’s nuclear experts from around the world to collaborate, advise and provide technical assistance to prevent further radioactive contamination or worse, a nuclear explosion that may have apocalyptic consequences.

The foundation for peace will be strengthened 

by restoring the Original Instructions in ourselves

Prophecies have been shared and sacred instructions were given. We, the People of the Earth, were instructed that the original wisdom must be shared again when imbalance and disharmony are upon Mother Earth. In 1994 the sacred white buffalo, the giver of the sacred pipe, returned to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people bringing forth the sacred message that the winds of change are here. Since that time many more messengers in the form of white animals have come, telling us to wake up my children. It is time. So listen for the sacred instruction.

All Life is sacred. We come into Life as sacred beings. When we abuse the sacredness of Life we affect all Creation

We urge all Nations and human beings around the world to work with us, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, to restore the Original Instructions and uphold the Creator’s Natural Law as a foundation for all decision making, from this point forward. Our collective future as human beings is in our hands, we must address the Fukushima nuclear crisis and all actions that may violate the Creator’s Natural Law. We have reached the crossroads of life and the end of our existence. We will avert this potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster by coming together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths.

We are the People of the Earth united under the Creator’s Law with a sacred covenant to protect and a responsibility to extend Life for all future generations. We are expressing deep concern for our shared future and urge everyone to awaken spiritually. We must work in unity to help Mother Earth heal so that she can bring back balance and harmony for all her children.

Representatives of the Council

Chief Arvol Looking Horse

19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe

Spiritual Leader The Great Sioux Nation

Bobby C. Billie

Clan Leader and Spiritual Leader 

Council of the Original Miccosukee 

Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples

Faith Spotted Eagle, Tunkan Inajin Win

Brave Heart Society Grandmother

Headswoman & Ihanktonwan Treaty Council

Ihanktonwan Dakota from the Oceti Sakowin

7 Council Fires

I’m not sure which knife-point of ancestral trauma in the new movie 12 years a slave based on Solomon Northrup’s autobiography, caused me to crumble into a paralyzed ball on the floor. I am not sure when I became unable to breathe or even see straight while watching the continuous acts of graphic genocide, racist hate, hegemony, brutality and oppression filter across the movie screen. And I’m really not sure how I made it through the entire movie. But I did. And I need to issue a solemn warning; In my humble opinion, this movie is not for the descendents of African peoples sold into Chattel slavery in Amerikkka.

As the daughter of a Black/Indian orphan who was in struggle her whole life due to the post traumatic slave- syndrome of her family, the torture of her black-native, orphaned and un-protected child body and the struggle of her to raise me as a disabled single mama of color in amerikkka, I heard the brutal stories of this movie in graphic detail and many more from her all the time, but perhaps more importantly I lived through her hell, my own subsequent hell, and still walk and pray and try to activate change through the daily hell of our collective, un-healed and un-resolved ancestral and present trauma living in amerikkka.

But what I do know is this movie is for ALL peoples who are descendents of slave-owners and all peoples who have benefited from and continue to benefit from the wite-supremacist kkkorporate structure of racism and colonization. From the Wall Street stockkk market (where African peoples bodies were “sold” in addition to other “property) to the bankkks and real estate markkket which continues to buy and sell stolen, indigenous land, devil-op and displace poor peoples and peoples of color, to the corporations who move across Mama Earth, stealing, using, profiting from and committing genocide on indigenous peoples from Africa to Brazil to the new slavery which includes all these false borders, plantation prisons and killer corporations and finally to the lie of US philanthropy and the Poverty Industry. In fact from our perspective at PeopleSkool, this movie will be “required reading” for all of our mentees with race and class privilege as part of an ongoing and living curriculum on what we call Community Reparations.

At POOR Magazine we teach and deconstruct the many layered and deep hypocrisies of philanthropy in amerikkka, which can trace its roots back to some of the original benevolent slave-owners, plantations and eugenicists. We are blessed to be in solidarity with activated young peoples with race, class and formal education privilege who own their spaces of privilege and don’t try to save us, teach us or pimp us. But rather they step up and walk with us in revolution and liberation activating true reparations.

Slightly better wite-people, Bad wite-people and other acts of amerikkkan hypocrisy.

“Please don’t take my baby away,” One of the hundreds of terrifying moments of this painstakingly real horror movie, that articulates the genocide of slavery so well, was the broker, who was also an insurance agent (many of the same insurance companies we deal with today can be traced back to the earliest US “insurance companies who insured slaves) selling mothers away from their children. The utter destruction of everyone, including the “benevolent and not so bad slave-owner” was terrifying. And then the desperation that you feel with the mama to convince the wavering “not so bad” slave-owner to just “splurge” and “buy” her  children along with her, their mama. And then when he doesn’t you watch her babies be literally sold to pedophiles and pimps knowing/ feeling/ seeing all of the genocidal consequences of that act in its most graphic detail.

Then there is the hypocritical, “not so bad”, benevolent wite people, who “notice” Solomon Northrup’s talent on the violin and then give him praise and a violin while selling the now crying mama away to an even more brutalizing slave-owner because his wife doesn’t like “her depression” And this same “not so bad” slave-owner who also employs the most racist, sick, brutal cracker overseer so he can make a profit on his cotton field and yet take no responsibility for his actions or the actions of this overseer. How many of us know these kind of folks today?

And as Solomon revolts and beats up the cracker you feel a terrifying happiness and then the sick fear that settles in your gut at what awaits him, making you run out of the theatre, screaming for Nat Turner.

The bizarre, sick and twisted relationship between the brutalizing slave-master who he ends up being “sold” to and the brutalizing slave-masters own sick, hater wife and how their dangerous insane dynamic lands on the humans who they think they “own”.

The weird almost classism of Solomon and another “free” man who were both “free” before they were kidnapped, against some of the other slaves because they see themselves as more evolved, educated or aware and in the case of Solomon who until much later in his torture doesn’t empath with the desperation of Patsy, one of the brutalized,  raped and endlessly tortured members of the brutal slave-masters plantation.

There are many other lessons of hegemony, corporate profit, brutal Christian hypocrisy, US imperialism and genocide in this terrifying movie, that make it required reading for all people un-packing the lie of capitalist, racist amerikkka to help them realize why they need to activate direct and complete reparations immediately.

The Brad Pitt character is not a benevolent slave-master, just a conscious wite person carpenter of the time. In my opinion, he does nothing brave, he only uses his wite privilege to activate justice among so much racist in-justice that counted on people doing what most people tend to do, Nothing. This is something more wite people in Amerikkka need to start doing. Which is why more peoples with privilege in amerikkka need to run, don’t walk, to see 12 years a slave.

Im the residue that sticks to the bottom of the melting pot

My culture is 7-11, winchells donuts and whatever lie Hollywood taught

I am born from five generations of stolen, displaced, evicted, despised & colonized  – Taino, African, Roma, & Irish

Hidden under the wite-man’s blue eyes

Hated orphan Mama of color oppressed by kin

derivative eugenics within

gets wit my colonizer dad to birth the racist genocide

out of her skin

I am born. Raised on 7-11, Winchells donuts and corner Sto’s – Hollywood myths of family, wite-culture lies of happy

I don’t got no beans or rice, lumpia, tamales or collards, I don’t got no fireplace memories, or *capitalismas candies, I don’t got nothing except the .99 styrofoam cupped coffee.

I don’t got no loving aunties, tias, abuelas or sweet grandmas. It was just me and a very sad, depressed, disabled single Black/Indian mama.

Every year at this time, a terror would seep into my gut,

knowing what was ahead, how poor we were or how out of luck

A fake smile with our “free” turkey meal after a three hour line at a shelter. Handed out by nice wite people getting rid of their hoarded wealth guilt one day a year

A Capitalismas toy giveaway by an annoyed fireman or po’Lice officer who smiled at me now and put me in jail later

I aint gonna lie, this time makes me wanna die, sometimes makes me so sad I can’t even cry.

But I try

I try to change this all for my sun, teaching him and me bout all our stolen cultures- un-packing all the lies of our stolen traditions – holding my ancestors & creator and spirits close and never for granted.

And as I do-I Never forget the other parts of me, the broken peoples in my her-stories,

the alonenesses, pain, struggle that so many of us Po’ mamaz and daddyz alone feel, in silence in these times of so much fake colonizers lies about the African revolutionary called Jesus.

the comfort of- that 7-11 .99 coffee as it goes down my lonely throat, washing so much cold-ness and loneliness away until I feel nothing but mama’s love nestled in a free warm coat.

Capitalismas Def: Holiday created by capitalists who appropriated multiple pagan and indigenous celebrations and "changed" the birthdate of a revolutionary who cared for gente pobre (Jesus Christ) all in pursuit of consumer-based profits- (Created by tiny for the POOR Magazine colonizer language re-mix glossary 2007)

Prayers and Financial Help are Needed for our Brothers and Sisters in the Philippines

Beautiful and kind hearted San Francisco tourists, visitors, employees and residents reaching out to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda and donated to Nafcon Us.

On Monday November 11, a group of us will be at Powell and Market 11:30am until 3pm.

We will be singing Filipino songs and sharing the current situation. If you or someone you know will be in the area please feel free to stop by and donate. A dollar goes a long way! www.nafconusa.org

La Pesadilla Americana/ The American Nightmare 

Scroll Down for English

Lamentablemente ocurre casi todo el tiempo en la frontera de Mexico y los

EE UU.

Mueren mas del 50% de migrantes a manos de los agentes del patrulla fronteriza.

La mayoria son personas de Mexico y Centro America  y paises de sur America.

Nos Venimos a este pais  dejando nuestras familias en nuestros paises para darles una mejor vida  a nuestros hijos aunque algunos de nosotros venimos uyendo de  la violencia  domestica o simplemente por la pobreza en la cual se encuentra nuestro paiz por culpa de este paiz que a devaluado nuestra moneda   y  por eso es que algunos logramos pasar todas las difilcultades del camino y aunque otros mueren en el camino por falta de comida o agua, tambien y algunas de personas  les quitan la vida alos migrantes sin razon y sin motivo y los  entierran en fosas cladestinas para que nadie sepa y duele el corazon saber que todo esto es por al migracion en la frontera Mexicana.

Los agentes se sienten dueños de la vida de la gente

 Buena y indefensa que no trae nada mas que su mente llena de iluciones. 

Les disparan con la intencion de matarlos  y desaserse de los cuerpos de ellos.

cual es la respuesta de la migra?

Esque ellos nos estaban tirando piedras  oye ni que fueran locos Como es el caso de el joven de 14 años que que mataron en el Puente Cuando intentaba cruzar  la frontera,Sergio Adrian Hernandez fue baliado por un agente fronterizo.

Tambien Anastasio Hernandez fue asesinado en la frontera  y mucha mas Gente han sido asesinados y como no hay camaras su muerte queda inpune.

Bueno  apesar de que hay camaras y testigos  la muerte de estos jovenes Mexicanos no se resuelve.

La migra ellos se lavan las manos que los jovenes no murieron en este lado o sea en Estados Unidos a mi me parece realmente una falta de respeto a los seres humanos que les quitan la vida como si fueran cucarachas, murio punto y se acabo.

Me duele y me da coraje que el departamento de justicia  de Estados Unidos Dijo que no presentaria cargos a los elementos  de la patrulla  fronteriza Porque segun la Justisia  declaro que no se encontraron pruebas sufisientes y que ademas ellos actuaron en defensa propia.

Mmm pero si fuera uno de los ajentes que hubiese muerto  estubieran peor que tigres para casarlos y acabarlos pero como son gringos  pore eso se lavan las manos pero por eso nunca se acaba la inpunidad,  nosotros somos personas igual que ustedes  no lo olviden.

Tambien le pido al govierno  de Estados Unidos,   las politicas y  que appliqué vien las leyes  federales y que entrenen bien a los agentes antes de entregarles un arma porque no estan entrenados, por eso no maten esa no debe de ser la manera de defenderce de una simple piedra pero como los tapan las mismas autoridades entonces siguen perdiendo la vida los inmigrantes  basta ya.

English Follows

The American Nightmare

It is unfortunate but, injustice & impunity happen all the time in the border of Mexico and the United States.

 More than 50% die at the hands of the border patrol.

 The majority of people are from Mexico and Central America and South America. We come to this country leaving behind family in our homelands with hopes of giving our children a better life even though some of us are running away from domestic violence or simply running away from poverty that exists in our homeland because of this country’s (United States) fault for devaluing our money. Some of us are capable of successfully surviving the many obstacles on the path and others die in the attempt due to starvation or dehydration. Others kill themselves before their journey is over and others are killed and their bodies dumped in unmarked graves so that no trace is left of them. My heart hurts to know that all this still happens as people travel to reach the Mexican-US border.

The Border patrol feels like they own the migrant’s lives. Migrants are in defenseless people that do not have any valuables except for their minds filled with hopes and dreams. The Border Patrol shoots at people with the intention to kill and get rid of their bodies.

 And what is the response of the Border Patrol?

 They throw rocks at us as if they were crazy. Just like in the case of the young 14 year old man that was killed at the hands of border patrol on the bridge on the Mexican side of the border.

 Sergio Adrian Hernandez was shot by a border patrol. Likewise, Anastasio Hernandez was killed on the border. Many people have been killed in the border since there are no security cameras and witnesses to the crimes and thriving impunity since they were killed in Mexico and not in the United States. 

 But United State’s citizens shot them.

 But their hands are washed from crime.

The Border Patrol wash their hands by saying that the young man die in the Mexico side of the border, is disrespectful to human life that their life is taking like they are cockroaches, and they die.

It hurts and angers me that the justice department of the United States, will not press charges to the border patrol, stating that there is not enough evidence and the border patrol were acting in self defense.

Mmm but it was the other way around if one of the Border Patrol would get shot and kill, they would start a manhunt, they forget that we all are human beings.

I would also like to ask the United States politicians to apply federal laws, and to train their agents how to use weapons and how to respond to emergency calls, taking someone’s life should not be they way to deal with things. This will continue because the authorities cover up for the and migrants keep been kill…Enough is enough

Google Bus
By Tony Robles

White blight
Light sweeping
Across sacred skin

Impersonal hum
Of a drone

Scarring the eyes
Searing the skin
With words:
Eviction and displacement

Behind tinted glass,
Digital colonizers
With eyes that are neither
Half full or half empty look
For vacant space

Back and forth,
Up and down

Cutting across
Our skin and into
Marrow and bone

Our Epitaphs written in
Invisible digital ink
On the steps and walls
And floorboards and
Pots and pans in the
Murals of our bones

Songs
Crying out from
The soil

Not to be seen
In the drone of white
Blight light

Or in
An app

© 2013 Tony Robles

(Picture by Harvey Castro Photography)

Kick Out Internalize Tactics!

Verse 1

Strip to the bone

Leave you all alone

Can’t build back up

Cause they got your soul

Chorus

Internalize  tactics got you blind

No not physically but mentally

Eats wholes in you like chemotherapy 

Kills the good and the bad leaving nothing but doubt

Verse 2

Ouch, open wounds

Twisted organs

Need to begin again

Slate clean get to know the real u

Chorus

Internalize tactics got you blind

No not physically but mentally

Eats wholes in you like chemotherapy 

Kills the good and the bad leaving nothing but doubt

Bridge

So sad that we can’t sing our song

We’ve come so far still so long

when we internalize society’s bullshit

And don’t realize that we turned off our own music

Can’t communicate making each other sick

Holding our true selves in

Lets dance to our personal political lyrics

Verse 3

Words can hurt but they also heal

Peal back popular culture

To know you stand on shoulders

Who resisted by renaming so we can go deeper & feel

Chorus

Internalize tactics got you blind

No not physically but mentally

Eats wholes in you like chemotherapy 

Kills the good and the bad leaving nothing but doubt

Verse 4

Don’t fall into the pit

Display all of it

Write it sing it dance to it

Celebrate you  connect to your roots

Outer  Verse

So when society turns on its internalize tactics

put on your steal boots

Like you are in a mosh pit

Sing your song and kick kick kick

Say it again

So when society turns on its internalize tactics

put on your steal boots

Like you are in a mosh pit

Sing your song and kick kick kick

Sing your song & kick kick kick

Leroy F Moore Jr.

12/21/12

Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom has come to an End

Climate Change is Mama Earth in pain…Homefulness is Climate Healing...Gratitude and love to you all for helping us get this far  Please help us take the next humble step towards self-determined,landless peoples  liberation with your Revolutionary Donations

Message from Muteado Silencio, Poverty, Migrante/Indigenous Skola; Prensa POBRE/POOR Magazine......
Because of all of your revolutionary donations and community reparations, every Thursday at Homefulness, come rain or shine, us poverty skolaz set up what we call the Street Newsroom and the Sliding Scale Café, which is us providing and sharing free, healthy, non-GMO-filled hot food and organically grown greens from the newly built community gardens at Homefulness called the Pachamama Garden & A Garden for Trayvon with our fellow Poverty Scholars in East Oakland. This is at a time when major cuts have been made to many public assistance programs and resources which we depend on and need such as food stamps, for we know and understand how critical it is to support our community to have healthy hot meals.

We have also launched the Community Building Circle, which led a multi-racial, multi-generational Revolutionary Work Day grading the land for our first straw bale house. We launched the Revolutionary Summer Camp for East Oakland youth, our second Healing the (Neighbor) Hood event and so much more (see the below list of 2013 activities). 

These are only a few examples of the decolonized, self-determined, landless peoples movement known as Homefulness activating deep interdependent, off-plantation change for all of us.  Now we are trying to keep going with the vision and build our first home, which will house houseless families and elders. Can you help us?

Message from Lex Horan, Inter-dependent Community Reparator and Good Son/Solidarity Family at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE
Building Homefulness is exquisitely beautiful, but it isn’t idyllic or smooth. To anyone like me who isn’t in daily struggle to get by, let’s hold that close and try to remember it. There’s desperation, like there is in every fight for survival. Homefulnesss is bringing us closer to a world where land, food and housing are for all of us, where they aren’t stolen from the hands of poor people to be sold at a profit. And until that day comes, those of us who have cash, land, race privilege or access have the honor and responsibility of making reparations to poor-people-led movements. 

Homefulness is possible, it is moving, it is urgent, and it’s what we all need. Please do what you can to match the courage of Homefulness with the resources you have.

We are on the verge of creating the first homes at Homefulness. With your help, we can lay the foundation for several houses and begin building straw-bale homes early in 2014. At this exciting and important moment, one of our longtime donors has offered a $10,000 matching grant. With your community reparations, we can make homes at Homefulness a reality, literally any day now. 

From all of us to all of you: Ase-O, Ometeotl, Semign Cacona Guari, Aho… 

2013 Activities 
Throughout the year, poor youth, adults and elders in resistance created radio, video and online media in the midst of all of our core poor-people-led projects, actions and advocacy below is a small sampling of what we did in 2013.

January/February 
• Bed Bug Flash Mob at the Travelodge Motel.
• PeopleSkool Spring 2013: 14 youth and adult poverty skolaz & 5 mentees graduated from Revolutionary Radio, On-line Journalism and Theatre of the POOR with good daughter & Sun certificates from PeopleSkool
• Co-sponsored, supported Krip-Hop festival for Black Herstory Minute (Month)
• Launched a multi-layered media-organizing effort in coalition with student leaders to fight the corporate takeover of the City College of San Francisco, one of the largest people’s colleges in the nation 
March/April 
• Created several ongoing WeSearch investigations on gentriFUKation
• Media-organized against Po’Lice brutality of the Rapada Family
• Homeless Bill of Rights 
May/June 
• Born N Raised in Frisco: Words, Art & Herstory from a Displaced Colonized City (POOR Press): Book release and seed planting
• Launched the Poor Peoples Plate, a poetic organizing project to center food justice and the anti-GMO movement in the voices of us poor folks who are the most impacted by corporate poisoning
• Healing the (Neighbor) Hood @ Homefulness: Art, Movement, Ceremony and Medicine: A power-full two-day event that rooted healing in poor communities of color 
July/August 
• Revolutionary Youth, Arts & Permaculture Summer Camp at Homefulness: 15 students in poverty ages 7-21 learned about permaculture, GMO poisoning and how to grow their own food in their own communities
• Garden for Trayvon launched by the youth skolaz who were participants in the summer camp
• Cooking Our Cultures: Youth skolaz in poverty in San Francisco learned how to decolonize their own diets through their own youth-led Wesearch and hands-on cooking projects.
• Prison Hunger Striker Correspondents: Re-launched our “Notes from the Inside” column by our brothers and sisters incarcerated in plantation prisons 
September 
• PeopleSkool Fall 2013: 15 poverty skolaz, 5 youth skolaz and 4 mentees
• Revolutionary Work Day at Homefulness: A huge and beautiful intergenerational construction day preparing the sacred land at Homefulness  
October/November/December 
-ThrownOutByTwitter- Theatre of the POOR action in collaboration with over 10 CBO's against tech billionaires displacing poor folks one tweet at a time
• First Herstorical Inter-Generational Council at Homefulness: A powerful meeting of community leadership and accountability that will be our template for a no-Po’Lice zone and decision-making at Homefulness
• Mercado de Cambio/tha Po’ Sto
 

(Scroll Down for English)    

Tomando Muerte

En la invasión de la tierra de Guatemala se repite la muerte y destrucción aparecen disfrazado  de desarrollo y progreso, este es uno de los  casos de muchas de las minas que están tomando el oro  de territorio guatemalteco con el apoyo del gobierno de turno.

Mis ancestros mis abuelos dicen que la historia es también un circulo un ciclo de vida y en este círculo de vida la historia se repite de nuevo.

Invasores disfrazados de (conquistadores) vinieron del mar y destruyeron a la civilización Maya.

Hoy invasores   bajaron del aire y toman posesión de la tierra ofreciendo regalos y desarrollo con una lista que parece buena y bonita pero esconde la muerte de la vida y del medio ambiente y lo más grave la muerte de la madre tierra.

La lista dice así:

Mucho comercio por la mina, mas oportunidad de trabajo para todos, Ayuda a agricultores, Ayuda y para la mujer, jóvenes y niños, incluyen a todos y todas en su lista. Y como una promesa o eslogan dicen cosas bonitas como ejemplo              “Lo mejor está por venir”

Lentamente como una neblina de polvo y contaminación surge la muerte de bacas caballos y toso ser viviente que utilice el agua que está en los alrededores de la mina que utiliza en su proceso de explotación del preciado metal grandes cantidades de agua que contamina con cianuro, que es un veneno altamente dañino para las fuentes de agua y el medio ambiente, peces aves animales y humanos.

Somos agua

El agua es un vital liquido para la vida sin oro podemos vivir pero sin agua podemos morir.

San Rafael las Flores  a la llegada se los invasores

La vida y paz y belleza del lugar fue cortada al momento que llego la compañía minera Gold  corp  Muete, brutalidad, represión y amenazas  contra la población que en manifestaciones pacificas han sido brutalmente atacados por guardias privados con que les disparan con escopetas  y además cuentan con el apoyo del Ejército de Guatemala y policía.

Las plantas de tomate y otros vegetales mueren o desarrollan enferermedades por el agua contaminada con cianuro y metales pesados.

Los niños y niñas  presentan enfermedades de la piel y enfermedad de pie negro.

San Rafael antes del arribo de la mina Escobal, que pasara después

Lo peor está por venir

 Las tierras de san Rafael son altas y todas la venas y mantos acuíferos están conectados como las venas de un cuerpo humano, Cerca de la mina se encuentra una de las reservas de agua naturales mas importantes del area se llama laguna de Ayarza que es un bello lugar de agua cristalina con abundancia de peces y vida acuática.

De continuar la mina la contaminación la muerte a la madre tierra el agua, que pasara con los habitantes del lugar.

En el futuro algunos antropólogos y académicos encontraran vestigios y ruinas del lugar y comenzaran a estudiar y a formar teorías sobre la desaparición de los habitantes de san Rafael, San Juan Bosco, Casillas, El Rinconcito, Nueva Santa rosa pues toda el agua que baje de las tierras altas de San Rafael con cianuro bajaran a todo el valle de Santa Rosa y Barberena llegando a la costa y finalmente a Ciudad de Guatemala con agua contaminada por cianuro.  Cuéntale a tod@s

Que t@dos lo sepan que nadie se quede en silencio.     

English Follow

Drinking Death

In the New invasion of Guatemala death and destruction repeats its self, It appears disguised as development and progress, this is the case of one of the many mining companies that are mining out, the gold in Guatemala  with support of the Guatemala Government.

My ancestors and my grandparents said that history is a cycle of life and it always repeats itself.

The invaders disguised as Conquistadores came from the ocean and destroy the Mayan civilization.

Today the invaders came from the sky and took over the land, offering gifts of development and progress, with a list a good things they will accomplish, but behind is hiding the truth about the death and the harm to environment and the death to mother earth.

The list States

More commerce for the mine, more opportunities of labor for all, help to farmers,woman, youth and children, always promising the best is yet to come.

Slowly like the Dusthaze and contamination that slowly kills the cows, horses and anything that uses the water that surrounds the mine, the mine uses the water to extract the precious metal in high quantities, after the water is use, is contaminated with cyanide which is poison that contaminates the water sources killing theenvironment, fish, birds and humans.

We are Water

Water is a vital liquid for life, we can live without gold, but without water we can die.

San Rafaelde las Flores the arrival of the invaders

Life, peace, and beauty was cut down the moment that the mining company Gold Corp that brought death, brutality, repression and threats against the population that after peaceful demonstrations the protesters were been attack in a brutal way by private guards that fired against them and with the back up of the Guatemala Army and Police.

The tomatoes and other vegetables are dying and are been contaminated by the water with cyanide and heavy metals.

Children have shown sickness in the skin.

The worst is yet to come.

The terrain of San Rafael are high mountains and the rivers are all connected like the veins in a human body, close to the mine you can find a naturalwater reserves, which one the most important in that area, Is call Ayarza is a beautiful place with crystal clear water with plenty of fish and aquatic life.

If the mine continues the contamination will bring death to the earth and the water, and will happen with the habitants Ayarza.

In the future some anthropologies and academics would gain access to study with theories and lies of how the People and Nature disappeared from San Rafael, San Juan Bosco, Casillas, El Riconcito, Nueva Santa rosa which are places where fresh water comes down from the highlands down to the coast to arrive finally in Guatemala already contaminated by cyanide, Tell everyone about the truth, let no one be silence..

Back in August I Wrote an article about Peter Shih, the founder of trycelery.com. Shih unleashed an anti-San Francisco rant, decrying the city's homeless population, condition of its streets, and the weather--among other things. At any rate, my "Open letter to Peter Shih" was an appeal to Shih to consider his insensitive remarks, in light of the fact that the tech industry has been the main cause of evictions of long term San Francisco residents. To see the letter to Peter Shih, go to: http://poormagazine.org/node/4892 My letter to Shih was a polite entreaty, an olive branch of sorts, to start a dialogue with him as a result of what I perceived as his sincere apology for his remarks and to make amends in some kind of way. My letter was written back in August. To date, 113 days have gone by with no response from Shih--no Tweet, no email, no post--nothing. I tried to reach him at trycelery but his name doesn't appear on the site, no email address, and no physical address.

I started to ask myself if Peter Shih ever really existed. So, I have decided to post a new article called "Shih is missing". So far, he has been missing for 113 days. Will he ever appear?

We interrupt your regularly

Scheduled program to bring

You this Ellis act alert

Mom and pop are missing,

Pry open your eyes

Let your ears hear

Mom is 79 and pop

Is 82 and have lived

In San Francisco all their lives

Mom and pop–unplugged,

Displaced in a city of wireless wires

Where friends that never were are

Flung into heaps of the unfriended,

Replaced by holograms that begat

Other holograms who slither behind

Tinted glass bus windows

In kitchen pot silence

In floorboard splinters

In the skin of torn rugs

We search for stains like

Maps for clues, traces

This is an Ellis alert

And mom and pop are gone

And with them the smell of

Adobo

Gumbo

Black eyed peas

Malunggay

Bitter melon

We looked for mom and pop

In the book of landlords

And that book, whose edges

Were a knife, whose pages were

Not stained by a single memory,

Read only one name:  Ellis

Ellis cover to cover

Ellis front to back

Ellis open and shut

Case closed

And we searched for

The book of the evicted

Whose pages and spines multiplied

And were strewn on street corners and

Garbage bins and the names of the

Evicted were written in the streets by

The shrill talon of the raven to be

Paved over by the machinery of

No memory

This is an Ellis alert

And mom and pop

Are out there somewhere

Pry open your eyes

Let your ears hear

With the click of the

Tongue, and not the mouse,

Pop made the birds come and bring

Together philosophies from every

Corner of the world

And

Mom is your mom,

Is my mom, is your skin,

Is my skin, is my memory

Is our memory

Pry open your eyes

Let your ears hear

Mom and pop

Are missing

We now return

To your regularly

Scheduled program

© Tony Robles 2013

Dear Peter,

I read your blog post about my city.  I am a 4^th generation San Franciscan whose family has seen many changes.  I am sure your remarks were fairly typical of newcomers such as yourself to the city.  Rather than respond to you by using words such as entitled, obnoxious, self-absorbed, insensitive, oblivious etc., let me just say that you did the right thing by removing your post.  It is like the old saying about the guy walking around with his fly open: everybody knows it except him.  Fortunately, in your case, you had sense enough to zip up.

You cited many things you deem unpleasant and inconvenient about my city: the homeless, traffic, bikes, the opposite sex and the social scene.  I'm not sure if you are aware of this but the tech boom has meant evictions for many elders and people with disabilities in the city.  People are literally being intimidated out of their homes because real estate speculators want to rent to—you guessed it—folks like you.  So, the elderly woman on a fixed income who has lived in the city for 40 years or more, gets evicted, and as a result, gets sick and ends up in substandard housing.  Talk about being inconvenienced.  Or imagine if a family is evicted, the effect it has on children.  So Peter, in regards to being inconvenienced, don't feel bad, you are not alone.

It is important that you do not fall into the gentrifier trap that many newcomers to San Francisco do.  You have to know where you are at, because you obviously don't know. San Francisco is the epicenter of the Asian American movement in this country.  Perhaps you have never heard of Manilatown and the International Hotel.  Manilatown was a neighborhood adjacent to Chinatown that was demolished to make room for financial district expansion.  Our friends from the financial district just could not bear to see elderly Filipino and Chinese folks obstructing their views so a campaign was put in motion to rid them from the neighborhood.  What an inconvenience to those elders who had worked all their lives whose only wish was to live with dignity in their community. 

When the International Hotel, the last remaining vestige of Manilatown, was slated for demolition (to make way for a parking lot), the elders and community fought back and delayed the eviction for 10 years.  Tenants were pulled from their units and dragged down staircases. Elders, most of whom were Chinese and Filipino, were left with no place to go--again, another example of inconvenience.  After decades of sitting empty, the site of the old I-Hotel was replaced with a new I-Hotel, providing elders with 104 units of affordable senior housing.  Perhaps you didn't hear about this, or didn't take an Asian American history class.  If you did, you would have seen Curtis Choy's excellent movie documenting this event called, “Fall of the I-Hotel”.

Some of the things we learned from the International Hotel struggle were honoring our elders, that the road we travel and the advantages we enjoy was a result of somebody paving the way, paying the price for us though sacrifice and eldership.  As an Asian man, you should know this.  Some things, such as humility and respect, cannot be gleaned through an app, the click of a mouse or through the tinted glass window of a google bus. It is not without irony that your blog post came in August, the 36th anniversary of the historic eviction.

You're a newcomer here and you must realize that the city doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around us all.  The city didn't just come about the day you arrived.  I urge you to be a part of the solution to the city's problems by coming with respect.  If not for the Asian American movement—which owes much to the African American movement—you wouldn't be where you're at right now.  I urge you to look into organizations such as the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, SOMCAN, United Playaz, the Chinese Progressive Association, Jobs For Justice and the Bill Sorro Housing Program—just a few among many community organizations--to get a better sense of the city you now call home.  Perhaps you can embrace the community with humility by contributing to the very real, very hard work and missions of these organizations.  It would be looked upon as an act of good will.  Being here makes you a part of the city's Asian American community, and speaking on behalf of the historic International Hotel struggle of San Francisco that involved both Chinese and Filipino seniors--a struggle that received worldwide attention--we look for accountability from you to the community you are now a part of.  Whether you like it or not, whether you want to accept it or not, you are now a part of San Francisco's Asian American Community--which includes the poor, the homeless, those with little or no resources, elders, children--many of who are being evicted from their homes.  The question is: Will you be accountable?  How will you help us?  How will you show your maturity?  How will you show humility?  We will be watching.

The branding of our city as the playground for upwardly young tech workers and real estate speculators breezing by, carefree, while the rest of us subsidize their lifestyles, has persisted long enough.  We too, are being inconvenienced. 

So Peter, take a look at yourself and the place you find yourself in.  Ask yourself, who's being inconvenienced by your presence?  When you look around, what do you see?

Ps: You won't find it in an app

Sincerely,

Tony Robles

4^th Generation San Franciscan, Board Member of Manilatown Heritage Foundation and Co-Editor of POOR Magazine

Listen to this interview with Jake Technique, Sound Producer & Musician who worked with Public Enemy and more.  He said that musicians with disabilities have to be more professional for the industry and talked about his experience as a disabled music sound engineer back in the 80's and now.  His Cousin is now a lead manager and does production for Public Enemy.  Listen!

We talked about:

His work with Public Enemy, Coalition for Disabled Musicians, a Band of disabled musicians called Range of Motion back in 1990's, his recording studio back in the 80's, music today compare to back in the day, disabled women in the music industry, his work today in movies, the changing of the industry and what it means for him now-a-days and more...  Below is his bio on http://www.candomusos.com/profile-jake-rinaldo.php.  Listen to the audio interview.