2014

Years before a foot
of track was laid for
the Bart system

my father collected
record albums with
miles of tracks pressed
into the grooves

he had hundreds of them
and he always handled
them by the edges

he didn't want to
get fingerprints, scratches
or dust on them

said it would
ruin the sound

(not to mention waste his hard earned money from his trusted Janitorial
job over on Van Ness Ave)

But as much as
he tried to take care of those
albums, he couldn't keep some
of them from warping and getting
scratched

and those albums would
spin like a wheel going
east, west, north, ,south
or whatever direction our
minds took us

Miles, Monk, Lou Donaldson,
Sonny Rollins, Willie Bobo

My dad had 'em all
and many others

and over time my
father lost album after album
like leaves falling from a tree,
like a friend dying

and in the Bart station
in the morning those lost
albums and songs are found
among yesterday's newspapers,
wet cardboard and the footsteps
of those with places to go

a man with skin the color of
yesterday's coffee sits with his
horn in a florescent flood of light

his breath a husk
of a note

the fog lifts and
a new song is given birth,
warped, scratched

and we pass by
heading towards
the escalators, the
stairs

in a direction
of our own

(c) 2014 Tony Robles

October 7, 2014

Revolution begins with I, and many of our greatest victories are individual acts of defiance, independence, and determination [IDID]. Often we poor folks don't have food immediately available to us when we are out protesting. We miss the soup kitchens because they are closed by the time we get back.

We can, however, save up various condiments from some of them, piece together staples from various food pantries and procure other food items the best way we know how.

Last week I did just that, and built a pizza almost completely from scratch. Starting with the crust I purchased fresh pizza crust from “Hipster Bro's” (Trader Joes) for $1.29.

The sauce was a can of tomato sauce I had spirited away from a free food pantry.

The first layer of ingredients was sauteed mixed greens as well as sauteed zucchini and white summer squash I got from “poor peoples' free farm stand.”

Next I added green tomato and peppers from Pachamama Garden, and a jar of green olives from a potluck dinner thrown by the soup kitchen I volunteer at.

Next I added vegetarian pepperoni crumbles, vegetarian Italian seitan crumbles, and sauteed onions from a free food pantry.

The final ingredient of mozzarella cheese I paid $1.99 for at a discount grocery store.

My final cost was less than the cost of a slice of pizza at most pizza places, with more ingredients than most large pizzas!

I followed the directions that came with the dough and followed my own taste otherwise. I am not an experienced pizza chef so don't feel intimidated but if you have more experience making pizza than me, maybe yours will look a lot prettier!

My final creation I dubbed the beast from the east because a good amount of the ingredients came from the landless peoples movement in deep East Oakland known as “Homefulness.”

Who made my dinner? IDID!

Nov 6, 2014

It's tough being poor anywhere in the world, but here in the hypocritically wealthiest and hypocritically most racist nation on earth it is particularly challenging. When those with so much more wealth flaunt it and those with white skin privilege pretend white privilege doesnt exist: that's when it gets especially challenging.

One of the greatest challenges is when other people of color put that oppression onto us.

This happened recently while pricing several items at Rainbow Food Co-operative in San Francisco, including one of them cheeses that doesnt have artificial hormones that could be used to make my now famous “Beast From the East Pizza.”

The cashier was one of the employees who I had numerous run-ins with in the past, especially while I was homeless. They would mostly harass me about how much time I would use in the rest room or how the restroom was messy when I got done.

In my own defense, I must say often I had to clean the toilet just to use it, that's why I took so long and the bathroom was generally left in the shape it was in when I arrived on other occasions.

Anyhow, on this most recent occasion I noticed through the corner of my eye this employee making signals with his head, indicating he wanted security to keep an eye on me.

Everywhere I went, security went. Needless to say it made me leave without gathering all the information I wanted and looking for another source for cheese and other items.

In the same week, on my way to Poor Magazine on Bart, I sat next to a well dressed white woman in a business suit with several expensive looking parcels. When she saw me sit she clutched the bag nearest me as if I wanted to snatch it from her.

I looked at her in horror as she clutched it even tighter.

Shortly before my train arrived she actually got up a moved to the other side of the circular bench. My train approached and I got up while shaking my head, so I could get on my train and leave that ignorance behind.

I ran into the same stupidity while shopping at Home Depot with my brother and colleague at Poor Magazine, Muteado Silencio, after security watched the items that were purchased be scanned purchased and bagged. Upon departing the store security abrubtly demanded a receipt.

Then on my way back across the bay, again while getting on Bart, I noticed a Bart employee of color eyeballing my fresh unbagged produced that I aquirred from the people's produce stand. He really looked at me hard as if he wanted to say something but declined to do so.

I definenately got the vibe that that wasn't the end of it.

Then lo and behold several stations later after boarding my train, 2 Bart cops get on and eyeballed me for 2 full minutes, which can seem like a lifetime when 2 people with guns are eyeballing you!

Eventually one of them mumbled some words into his communication device.

The other officer, apparently his senior officer, signalled for him to walk ahead of him almost as if to say “this guy isnt doing anything wrong,” which quite frankly shocked me!

We shall overcome some day but apparently not any day soon!

On September 25, 2014, I was stopped by the San Francisco Police and given a ticket for fare evasion.

I and another gentlemen of African descent were stopped for this alleged offense while hipsters and yuppies enjoyed their privilege of not being cited by police presumably because it was assumed that they were going to work and therefore “contributing” to society.

Less than an hour earlier I received a transfer from the previous bus I caught that morning but apparently lost it.

Co-editor of Poor Magazine and fellow poverty skola/writer Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia has also been stopped for this alleged offense in the past and was told by the police in that incident that “the only reason we started enforcing this activity is Mayor Ed Lee wants to cut down on fare evasion.” I was riding the bus that morning on my way to SFGH because I am diabetic and apparently had an infection in one of my toes.

Obviously the seriousness of that situation outweighed where I put my transfer in the mad scramble for a seat on a crowded bus. My personal safety is important to me, and the prospect of saving a toe and ultimately my foot and leg!

When the bus stopped at Market and Fifth Street SFPD began to board. I had my headphones on and did not hear what they had to say, but my concern for my health was great enough that I decided it was best to get off and continue on the next bus.
As I got off, there was another officer who stopped me and asked if I had my transfer. I checked and realized it was not in any of my pockets. She asked where I was going. I told her SFGH.

She did not enquire as to whether I was experiencing a medical emergency and if she could assist me somehow, but instead asked for my ID and address. I complied.

When her partner was done with the other African descended person, he asked me “Why didn't you want to pay your fare?” To which I replied I had a transfer but apparently I lost it.

He replied “You're the fifth person who told us that this morning.”

I had to continue, injury and all, on foot to SFGH, where it was confirmed that I did indeed have an infection.

Thursday, November 20th - Action and March in Berkeley

From LA to Deep East Ohlone Land - Revolutionaries, Po Mamaz, Elders and Folks are resisting Devil-opers and real estate snakkkes trying to push poor peoples, working peoples and indigenous peoples out of our communities,

In this PNN-TV interview on the sacred Ohlone (Oakland) land we Po folks call Homefulness, revolutionary organizer Lydia Ponce speaks on the resistance to gentriFUKation in Venice Beach, LA, CalifAztlan

October 2014

This may seem like an odd statement coming from a proud US military veteran who earned a life long skill that has benefitted him greatly.

The first thing you need to understand is, why would I say this?

We as people of color have made as many contributions to the US becoming the powerful nation that it has become, but have paid the ultimate price here and abroad, sometimes more than our white counterparts.

First, one must understand the rich history that people of color have added to the US military.

The first casualty of the so-called Boston Massacre, the catalyst to the Revolutionary War, was Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American descent.

When the war began, blacks in the north were promised by the colonists that they would be freed from slavery if they helped fight the British.

In the south, blacks were promised by the British that if they helped fight the colonists they would be freed.

As history would have it the colonists won and for the most part kept their bargain by outlawing slavery in the north.

The famous Dred Scott case involved a slave named Dred Scott whose master moved to the north. Scott asserted that since slavery was not legal in the north he was therefore free.

His “master“ thought otherwise, a civil trial ensued and the final outcome was that since slavery was the law of the land he was still indeed a piece of property.

Free men who fought in the revolutionary war were assumed to have the very same property rights as whites but were not allowed to marry whites.

The fugitive slave act of 1854 changed all of this when congress penned a law that allowed any white man the right to claim any black person as his runaway slave with no recourse, even if it had been documented for generations that he and his family were free. {This of course excluded slaves that were already “property” of another white man.}

Even in the conflict that allegedly ended slavery {and it has not really ended- now it is known as the prison industry}, free blacks who enlisted in the Union Army were not treated as equals to their white counterparts, and many of them did not get the wages they were promised.

Ironically even the Confederacy kept its promise, and awarded a black soldier in the early 20th century, who fought for the Confederacy during the civil war.

Blacks fought in every major war or conflict that the US was involved in, and even during WWII while black soldiers helped liberate Europe from the tyranny of Nazi occupation, blacks themselves were being maimed tortured and murdered by whites while the government turned a blind eye. Indeed the so-called civil rights act was not signed into a bill until nearly 100 years later.

Even with the signing of the civil rights bill, racists have just found slick ways around the law, and even the law itself demands such strictness that even the most ignorant can find a way around it.

Segregation in the military wasn't lifted until the Korean War in the 50's.

In spite of our dedication and trust in change we still continue to be treated like second-class citizens.

Having the first “black” President really hasn't changed much for us at all.

The response in Ferguson should be reason enough, but just remember this: the government is the only entity that can change an agreement anytime they want without any penalty.

The GI bill has changed at least 3 times since WWII.

In answering why we should boycott the military, we first need to ask why do we join?

The number one reason is because military recruiters are very slick and good at what they do.

Secondly, what they offer can be very appealing to people who want to further their education but aren't eligible for scholarships or grants, often because they weren't given the proper tools in high school to get the kinds of grades that qualify. Also the prospect of achieving the so called “American Dream” of home ownership or owning a small business someday can be quite appealing to young people who are disenfranchised.

In order to buy that home you have to have the income to justify it and the credit report. In order to get the small business loan you have to have matching funds and credit report.

The vast majority of HUD homes are VA loans that have been foreclosed.

Often people come back from the military traumatized by events like war. For females, rape is often more of a reality than in the civilian world. All that glitters is not gold, especially when offered by the government!
 

1) As we chant to F#@*k the Po'Lice can we also commit to NOT (F)phoning the Po'Lice

2) As we begin "Filming the Po'Lice can we also work on Firing the Po'Lice.

3) As we Fight the Police for their killing of our Black and Brown babies - can we also fight just as hard to stop criminalizing, illegalizing peoples for the sole act of working in amerikkka without the Man's paper

4) As we resist the Po'Lice can we also connect the dots to the kkkourts where peoples are incarcerated for crimes of poverty, racism, homelessness and parenting while poor in amerikkka-

5) As we get ready to march against more state sanctioned Po'Lice Terror in Ferguson and beyond, can we also carry these values to family, home and origin community and stop calling the Po'Lice when you have an "emergency".  If you think this is the only "agency" to call- include in your resistance movements the creation of family councils and elder councils like we have at POOR Magazine and Homefulness. ( A very hard thing to do- No Doubt!- but a necessary one if we want change to happen) When revolutionaries realize you have to walk the talk and enact at home what you fight for in the streets then they will be ready to do the hardest work of all, deal with each other and hold each other accountable for each others actions.

6) Stop equating safety and security with po'lice and gated communities - stop believing the empire's lies about what and who is safe and who and where is secure.

7) And perhaps most importantly, the one "F" that relates to all of the aforementioned "F's"- Stop Funding the Po'Lice - This will only happen if we enact the above list so that cities across amerikkka can no longer justify giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to these occupying colonizer armies to "ensure our safety" They will try anyway, but the argument will get weaker and weaker if we truly decolonize our actions and re-actions.

October 2014

Since September 11, 2001, there have been numerous incidents involving law enforcement severely injuring or killing civilians. The vast majority of these victims have been black, brown or disabled.

The majority of the officers have been white.

Most recently the incident that has made national headlines regarding this sort of incident involved unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

According to eye witnesses Brown had his hands up in an attempt to surrender to police when he was shot to death. Rather than rehashing that story here these are a few simple guidelines that if adhered to could save some lives and some families some heartache.

We all can agree that police have too much power and often literally get away with murder.

That is the first thing to keep in mind.

The first thing you should do when stopped by the police is ask if you are being arrested or detained if the answer is no don't say another word and leave immediately.

Second you should come to terms with the fact that you may go to jail whether or not you broke a law eventually they will have to let you out unless you cant bail out bail is always based on flight risk so if you attempt to run when first encountered that makes you a high flight risk don't do it!

Don't get angry or at least don't show signs of it.

Don't accuse them of being racist or picking on you for any reason there is a good chance that that is true but there is no point in antagonizing somebody who is picking on you and has the ability to beat you, take away your freedom or kill you.
Be as co-operative as possible by giving them your real name and social security. You are not required to tell them anything else and don't. The only other thing you should tell them is “I choose to exercise my right to remain silent at this time.” If you start talking again, even if they offer you something like a chair, or about the ballgame last night, you have to tell them again that you choose to exercise your right to remain silent.

Please keep in mind the moment the police approach you, you are technically under arrest. Anything you do like run, pull away from them, or even argue with them can be considered resisting arrest.

As unfair as it may seem the police can arrest you and hold you up to 72 hours {3days} without filing any charges so don't resist arrest!

If you feel like they do anything inappropriate you can report it later. Check what the rules are where you are at the time, but just try to maintain your cool at all times.

Most importantly don't do anything that would draw their attention to you to begin with if you can help it.

If you do survive Thank God or whoever or whatever you believe in!

If you don't believe in something maybe you should reconsider!

October 2014

Along with many things that are ever-changing in San Francisco is the crackdowns on the sidewalk grannies marketplace.

The sidewalk grannie market is generally elder female Chinese immigrants presumably selling odds and ends that they get for free.

They generally have fewer than 20 items at a time that range in price from 1-3 dollars.

The fact that most of them are elderly and barely speak any English if at all is a tribute to how desperate they are for this added income and a shame on the city that has its first Chinese /Asian American mayor in history, who apparently has no love or respect for the struggle of his forbearers, who made it possible for him to be where he is today.

Where is the humanity, love and compassion that was once the hallmark of San Francisco, a city that could once truly brag about its diversity, inclusion, and care for all of its citizens?

In a city like San Francisco, the mayor's office should be instrumental in forming some sort of entity that will help these elders utilize their life experience or make their language barrier a strength, rather than a liability that criminalizes their survival skills.

We can and should do better for our elders who have born so many burdens for us, yet in their time of need there are those that would send police to ticket or arrest them rather than lend a helping hand or guide them to the goods and services they need to not only survive but thrive as well.

These people could be trained to seek out others who speak their language during emergencies or other disasters.

When will the people who have come to our city, and use their privilege of wealth as if it's a right, and push around the people who made this city the great metropolis it once was, go away and return it to its greatness?

The incidents of these grannies being cited or run off is extremely disheartening, being that rules and laws are being bent for workers in the tech industry, for example sharing Muni bus stops with the Tech shuttle buses.

Hipsters and yuppies spread all over sidewalks while waiting in line to eat in trendy food places or bars without a single word being uttered by the police.

There is no such thing as elders living to an age of no longer being useful.

A purpose should be found for these folks, as elders are jewels of any society for their history experience as well as wisdom that they can pass along.

I asked my wife Kathy Galves, “What happened when King Ambulance took me away?” This is her response:

"When the ambulance attendant asked Bruce what hospital did he want to go to, he said "Saint Francis."

Before they took Bruce away, they asked me, "Were you coming with him?"

I said, "No, but I'll meet you at Saint Francis." As I was getting ready I looked out the window several times. The ambulance was still sitting there. I released my service dog Betty from the bathroom, where I had put her for the attendants’ safety. She is very protective toward her tribe.

I looked out the window again, and they had been sitting there for at least 45 minutes. I was done getting ready, so I was looking to catch a ride to Saint Francis with the ambulance. But then they left.

I called a Green Cab. It arrived in about 10 minutes. We went to Saint Francis. From the time I called the cab to when we arrived at Saint Francis it took about 30 minutes.

I went to Emergency, and they said that they had not been contacted nor had they seen any ambulance from King American Ambulance Company. That's when I got pissed.

"Where the hell did they take my husband?" I thought I was in the middle of a real live Science Fiction Horror movie. Except it wasn't a movie. I went out and found a San Francisco Fire Department Rescue Ambulance that was sitting out front.

"Excuse me, can you help me?" I said.

“King Ambulance?” they said, "Oh no! King Ambulance is a private company and the City has no control over them."

As stated above, King Ambulance had never appeared.

I said, "King Ambulance took my husband away, supposedly to Saint Francis Hospital, but he never arrived. Where would they have taken him when they were directed to take him to Saint Francis Hospital? I was never notified that they were taking him someplace else."

They said, "The only reason he would have been taken someplace else is if the patient was suffering a heart attack in route." They told me to call King Ambulance. I did, and King Ambulance said he was taken to a UC Hospital, and they didn't know which UC Hospital campus.

A good Samaritan recommended I go talk to CVS Pharmacy-- they would be able to direct me to the correct location they took Bruce. I did, and they did. Bruce was taken to UC Parnassus Campus.

When I located Bruce he was laying on a gurney in an inner hallway in the Emergency wing at UC. I arrived at about 5:00 pm.

Jazzie Collins was the First Community Reparation Chairperson and also Co-chairperson of LGBT Elder Taskforce. As an AIDS patient she had to be very careful about her health. One day she was very sick. So she picked up the phone to call an ambulance to go to Kaiser Hospital.

The late Ms. Collins was very proud of her Transgender situation. King Ambulance was very homophobic and Transphobic. When Jazzie asked to be taken to Kaiser Hospital they told her it was psychosomatic.

Jazzie said, "If you don't take me to Kaiser Hospital I will sue you.” She knew they were in violation of a law, which she quoted instinctively from the State Hospital Code.

Bruce's version of what happened that day.

As I was at home, I was in pain and I felt like an alien was going to be born out of my stomach, like the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs. I asked my wife to call Saint Francis immediately. She did, and this is what she told me they said.

We called 911, and that’s when the fun begins. The ambulance asked me what day it was, and I gave them April 28, 1951. This was my birthday. I was off from the real date by 63 years. I told them about my pain. They checked my vitals, and found out that my blood pressure was 180 over 90. My usual blood pressure is 110 over 60. I was in so much pain.

An attendant said I was a wimp and that was why I wanted to go to the hospital. That's when I bit his head off. On the way, they said there was no room at Saint Francis.

They asked, “Do you want me to tell your girlfriend?" She is my African Descendent Wife and I am Caucasian.

Arrived at UCSF Parnassus at 4:00 pm. Placed on a gurney at 4:00 and was placed in a room on a hospital bed. I waited until midnight to be seen by a doctor. Then they took me in my hospital bed down the hallway for a CAT scan. Then the doctor diagnosed Pancreatitis, so they got my bed ready.

In comes this Black woman (about 300 lbs.). She said, "I am looking for this dead man by the name of Bruce Allison.”

I said, "I'm Bruce Allison, and rumors of my death have been widely exaggerated."  The same woman broke up in a laugh. It looked like that laugh was the biggest laugh she had in her entire life. She took me to the 5th floor. I will write more about my experience in other articles.

This is a recommendation to the powers that be: Federal, State or City. An ad hoc committee should be established to investigate ambulances. Not only professionals should be on the committee, but laymen that have used these services, better known as consumers. Licensing requirements should be tightened and given teeth. Fines should be applied so that these companies cannot use barbaric practices for capitalistic gains. I will start with my own Supervisor, Jane Kim, and my own Assemblyman, Tom Ammiano, or his replacement.

This is Bad News Bruce Signing Out.

Do you frequent the farmer's market or shop organic produce thinking you are GMO-free?

You could be dead wrong. GMO's could be lurking where you least expect them!

My personal experience at the farmer's market recently made me suspect just this!

I bought an avocado and a bag of tomatoes thinking I was getting a good deal and fresh produce.

But what can you say about tomatoes that sit in a plastic bag in one spot for a week and show no signs of decay?

How about the fact that there was no juice when it was cut open?

The avocado was even worse!

It was not soft as a ripe avocado should be so I set it in a sunny spot in my window for several days, hoping it would ripen. Instead it got dark on the inside near the peel and was firm and crunchy near the pit.

Food that doesn't decay has very little nutritional value and is suspect of being GMO!

Don't be a victim. Look for labels or packaging that states that there are no GMO's!

Wite Amerikkka conscious or NOT  this is the moment to STOP- start reparations,  stop being quiet, profiting,enabling, stop buying and selling, stop taking part in amerikkka lies of safety and security- stop being a part of amerikkka- stand up for your/our black and brown future, harass your poltrickster until Darren Wilson is CHARGED-

Stop enabling these amerikkkan lies - start calling out the klan roots in our everyDAY lives

Grand JURY WHAT? Did someone Say Grand Dragon of the amerikkk!

STAND WITH FERGUSON:

Phoenix

Like a beautiful star viewed from a distance, obscured by the light years that separate the world from her brilliance and her from their ignorance Beautifully encrypted with a celestial image all eyes at attention yet no one gets it, it's a lonesome existence so she bottles her light inside. White zinfandel bottles that provide a place for her  pain to hide. More than once in a while opening her "wine" eagle spread on any bed she finds rest from the rocky hills she climbs. Climatiz  cries tears from her "I" not mere tears but spirit drops that metamorph into bright embers warm enough to spark life but too hot to sustain the enigma of her aspirations not mere tears but latent promises that evaporated on hotel pillow cases leaving traces of her yearning soul remnants of her internal erosion seeping through as the bottle she hid in bursts open leaving exposed what she fought so hard to keep closed she implodes and from the ashes of implosion she's born brand new. Like A Phoenix.

Impervious

God Blessed this skin of mine it wasn't made for cameos on commercials for oil of olay this skins rough the Bastard child of tempered steel and alligator hide the canvas where suffering chose to sketch its greatest mural its life time achievement colored with blood dabbed from lacerations.

God tests this skin of mine skin blanketed in leopard printed bruises that blossom on my epidermis like violet and blue pansies witnesses to their attempt to hex what God Blessed. So, God touched this skin of mines endowing every cell with strength, beauty, and resilience to endure each strike, every blow and when the darts pierced too deep God healed this skin of mine from black and blue speckled symbols of rejection and hate rolling off the tips of unbridled fire threatening to destroy what God gave. Beautiful, Bronze, Brilliance this skin that God made.

Impervious!

Cause God Loves this skin of mine.

Virtue

If beauty had a first name, it would have to be Nneka for what could be more beautiful than a mother whose love is so supreme it destroys all elements that threaten the growth of her child? If purity had a face, it would be like one of a new born for what could be more pure than new life sent to awaken slumbering dreams and aspirations while endowing us with the audacity to hope in a despondent world? If power had a pair of feet one would certainly be connected to the ankle of the strong-willed sista who juggles two jobs, school, and motherhood, all the while never stopping to complain about having to fill a void that shouldn't be there while the other foot would undoubtedly be caught up in the stride of a determined brother who denying any association with the proverbial "Box" they try to limit him to, cuts through circumstance like the light of a lone star through an impenetrable dark. If patience had limbs they'd be attached to torsos that envelope hearts that reach through hands that heal but will just as soon slap the stupid out of you when need be and if love could be born anywhere at all, the flirtatious grin shared between life - long companions would be its MECCA. Sprouting life nurtured within a pair of new eyes, discovering new hands that grasp not for the wind but for Gods promise open arms that embrace, not hate but the love that molded them and an emboldened tongue that speaks, not to curse, but to impart Gods Blessing.