My name is Sharena Diamond Thomas, and I'm informing everybody of what's  going on in my neck of the woods, East Oakland. I'm dealing with a slum lord. 

I've been in this apartment for almost two years with my family. And my landlord has literally drained me, financially, of everything. I've been replacing things that have been taken and lost in here. The landlord has not been repairing stuff, not having professional people come out and do the repairs. This has caused me and my family a great amount of stress and trauma. 

I called PG&E out to my apartment because my heater had a hissing, buzzing sound. My carbon mononixe detectors didn't go off, but it was still concerning me. So the guy came out, he checked my furnace, and he said that it didn't have carbon monoxide poisoning, but it did need to be serviced. He asked me to turn on the heater. When I turned on the heater, a smell came out of the heater that overwhelmed him to the point that he said, this must not have been cleaned in years. He said there was a back up of dust and other unhealthy things, terehat me and my family have been breathing in. Unhealthy fumes, from the furnace not being cleaned properly.

He shut down the furnaces, the one in the hallway and the one in my living room. So, we weren't going to be able to use heat.

He asked me where my hot water heater was, and I pointed him to the closet. The only time I go in there is when I sweep. But the man looked down and showed me a part that had started to melt. He informed me that the gas line, which was hooked up next to the overheated part, was a riskj. If it had gone up anymore, the whole apartment buiding would have blown out.

He disconnected my gas. Then he looked up pointed out a huge hole in the cieling. He said, look, that hole is so big, animals could come in here. He was saying, when you have your heat set on automatic, as they suggest you do, and the heat rises up, but you have a huge hole in the cieling, it will never get to the proper temperature to be safe for us. 

He said, on top of that, water is dripping down. When it rains, water comes in. And if you look at the cieling, the PG&E man said that the cieling shows evidence of past leakages.

Something is wrong with how they're hooking up the hot water heater.

I called my landlord. I sent my landlord a copy of the report from PG&E. It includes a bright pink "Hazard notice."

The landlord basically undermined me. She said she was going to send somebody out here. I told her they needed to be a licensed contractor, like the paperwork says. So, she sent her handyman over. I couldn't allow him to do the work, because he told us verbally that he did not have a licesne to do this.

I was scared. This is gas. Somebody unprofessionaly installed it in the first place. Who would allow that hole to be right there on the cieling, if they were a professional?

At this point, I've spent so much money on PG&E. I told the landlord, my PG&E bill has been so high, and my daughter and I have been struggling to pay these bills. It's on a payment plan, and we're just trying to stay afloat. Now, we see this hole. This is why.

I asked my landlord about my bill. How was she going to rectify that? And shouldn't she be putting me and my family in motel? We couldn't take baths or showers, we didn't have access to warm water, our gas was off. She didn't respond. The only thing she said was that a contractor was supposed to be here to fix it. She didn't say "licensed."

I said, what about the holes, and the hanging wires? There are wires hanging from the ceiling, next to a drip. That drip is a result of water, probably flowing over that way and dripping over the cord.

The next day, Housing came over. The inspector came out and looked at it, and asked me if the hole was noted in the PG&E paperwork. Housing actually passed this inspection with this hole up there. But they asked me if it was in the notes, and I told them that yes, it was in the notes. The notes mention the hole and how unsafe it is for it to be here. And if those wires were live wires, PG&E could not help with that. PG&E can only help with wires outside the unit.

They said that this needed to be installed by a contractor. I'm supposed to abide by that and follow through.

I've been going through a lot since I've been here. We moved in here and as a single parent, I was working, and I was trying to do better for my kids by providing them with brand new furniture. I was working hard like a dog to afford this. 

Then we got infested with bedbugs. This apartment building had been infested for a long time, untreated. So all the brand new furniture that I purchased for my family-- we had it delivered to this apartment. We didn't bring furniture here. I purchased brand new furniture for my kids. Piece by piece, layaway by layaway, to give my kids furniture. And the landlord undermined us. She ignored the fact that we were telling her we were getting bitten, to the point that I had to rush my baby girl to the hospital, because she was having a reaction. That's how we found out what was going on. We had never had that problem before. The landlord ignored it.

The health department came out. He went through everybody's apartment, found some bedbugs, but didn't really notate it. I don't think he took it as seriously as he was supposed to. This gave the landlord the chance to be deceitful to me, and continue to let my family suffer and get bit. 

They never paid for a motel room, which is required by state law, or reimbursed me for the furniture. The only thing they did for me was $20 toward laundry and $50 toward a cover for the beds.

After all this, the trouble with the heater came up again. My heater in the hallway was making some noise. It had a smell that came from it, like a burnt smell. I came to find out that it needed to be serviced and cleaned, that maybe it hasn't been cleaned properly. So, I called PG&E out. 

PG&E came to my house. When they came out, they guy asked me if he could see my hot water heater. I pointed to my closet in the kitchen. He looked down and he said, "oh my god, this is the worst thing I've ever seen."

I said, "what is it?"

He said, "come here," and he immediately cut off my gas.

He said, "look." And what he showed me was that my hot water heater was actually on fire. There were flames coming out of the nozzle. It was less than 10 inches away from the gas line.

We ended up having to evacuate my unit. 

At this point, we had no gas. I called my landlord right away to tell her what was going on. The property manager tells me that she couldn't talk to me, she'll call me back in an hour or so. I called the owner of the building. She told me not to talk to her, that I had to talk to the property manager. I got thrown around that day.

That night, we ended up staying in my house, with no hot water. I've been buying water ever since they turned off my gas to the house. We didn't have heat, gas or hot water. My landlord kept calling for different people to come out to fix it. The paperwork said I was supposed to have a licensed contractor come out to do the job, and my daughter and I kept pushing on her to do that, because with the history of staying here, she has always put a band-aid over sores in this building that are very toxic, that are very harmful to people's health. 

I asked for it to be a licensed contractor. And she didn't do that. She hired somebody to come out that didn't have credentials to do it. I turned them away the first time. The second time they came back, and somebody had a card, saying that they were a licensed contractor to the job. They came in, and they took my hot water heater out. When they took the hot water heater out, I said, if you don't know how to do this, pleaes, please, please don't do it. My kids are in her.

The guy wouldn't talk to me, he just kept on doing the work. Him and his friends, whoever were working with him, while they were hooking it up, but they were taking pictures of the instructions and trying to look up how to hook up the hot water heater. That made me very nervous at that point. I stayed to watch them, and I recorded them. 

After they plugged it up and got ready to walk out, the hot water heater started making a loud kicking sound while it was there. The man kept going and touching it, because the hot water heater was getting warm. 

I called PG&E right away. PG&E told us to get out of the house, to evacuate, and to call 911. 

I had to get my kids out of the house. My neighbors out of the house. I'm a first responder. So I was trying to get everybody out, because I didn't want anybody hurt. I got my kids and got out.

The fire department came, the PG&E people came. They rushed up in my house. My neighbor downstairs needed medical attention, because she's disabled, and getting out of the house was really strenuous for her. My daughter needed medical attention. They go upstairs and see that the guy turned on my gas, with no water in it. So that's a cocktail to blow up. 

During this whole time, when my landlord was communicating with me, she was very rude. I requested that she speak to me in English about the things that have been going on in this apartment, while she's communicating with those workers, and she wouldn't do that. And that really upset me, because those are the same people that messed up hooking up the hot water heater. 

In this process, I did turn in my paperwork to housing, and housing did come out and abate my apartment. Meaning that the housing authority will no longer pay for this apartment, and they won't be paying for it because the landlord has not been able to pass inspections two times, with me having no hot water and, at that point, no gas. The housing authority told me to call the city code compliance, and that's what I did. When I did that, city code compliance came out, and they checked my unit. They discovered that there wasn't a permit for my hot water heater to be installed in the unit. The inspector kept saying, "why is this hot water heater in the kitchen?" 

My landlord is now upset with me because the city came out and inspected this unit, and now all of the band-aids that they put in this apartment have came to be seen. They retaliated against me for that. I can't cook in my kitchen. My water is in white. That means that I don't feel comfortable cooking with this water. I've been buying water.

I've been running back and forth from one motel to the next, trying to take care of my kids. It's just impossible.

If you want to see what's been going on, check my timeline. I'm Sharena Diamond Thomas on facebook.

Hi, I'm Susan, and I'm from Nashville. I've been in housing for almost two years now. I had let some houseless people stay with me, that were living in their car. And it was 100 degrees plus outside. I thought, well, I can let them stay a couple days. In the meantime, over time, their car got towed from the parking lot at the apartments where I live. And then luckily, they had another vehicle. That was on its last tire, so to speak. Anyway, I went to the apartment complex to the office, and the manager said, well, I have some papers for you that's going to be in the mail. And I thought, oh no, I'm fixing to get evicted. Because I let some people stay the night.

She's a sick woman. They're in their 40s, but you can be sick at 10 years old, and still need a place to stay. Just because they're not elderly or my kinfolks-- and even if they were my kinfolks, would they have let them stay then? 

Another friend of mine, he had some medical issues, and he had spent the night. The next day, he said Susan, please call me an ambulance. He said, I've got to go to the hospital. Well, before the ambulance even got there, the apartment manager was down there. And she's like, did he stay with you last night? I said, yes ma'am, he did. You know, I said, he's very sick. He wound up staying at the hospital for nine days. Nine days in the hospital. I'm like- give me a break.

Dear President Donald Trump.

Did you know that you will go down in history as a Mad President?

You are acting like the Roman Caesars Caligula and Nero. The worst Caesars of the Roman Empire. Your Concentration Camp for Children is a violation of the Constitution's Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause. Also, you are preventing the Press from exercising their rights under Freedom of the Press, the First Amendment of the Constitution. By calling them Summer Camps the Director would have to be the Marquis de Sade. Put it all together Mr. President, you are acting like the despot that you are. This means that you have proven to any psychiatrist that you are Bi-polar. This is the first time in history that I am ashamed of being a United States Citizen. If I do not sound patriotic for you, I am quoting from Thoreau, "Patriotism is the first bastion of a coward and the Refuge of a scoundrel." That is what you are Mr. President.

Resign today or earlier and take 1,000 mg of Thorazine. That will get rid of your Godlike delusional tendencies. 

They call it the It City. May have left off two letters in front. But it's Nashville, Tennessee. I'm one of the faces that's houseless, in what society calls homelessness. The system is not a fair system for people in poverty. I call it domestic terrorism. We're all here just for a short time. And I'm housless, what society calls homeless. One day I'll have a mansion, because my savior said I would. I forgive those that know not what they do. My savior was poor and housless also. But he saved the world. So I'm in pretty good company. I speak to teach. But my words are hollow, because they don't listen. But I still know that I'm not alone.

Poetry from the Poverty Skolaz Theatre/Poetry Writing Workshop in Occupied Seminole Territory (St Petersburg, Florida) at the Misio Dei Church with unhoused parishioners of Misio Dei and members of the Refuge Ministry of Tampa Bay.

Incarceration is hard to keep at Bay

by Steve B

On a dreary dismal day, the anger of the moment took me away.

It only took seconds to throw it all away that day.

I still smell the powder & copper, for my life it was the stopper.

Regret I do not have, the rest of my life I have to save.

To live in the street to stay free, unfortunately that’s me.

One must stay awake, there’s too much at stake.

It’s me that I can’t forsake.

Even though no regrets, I don’t want to repeat that day.

Because incarceration is hard to keep at bay.

Now it’s my chance

To keep my freedom, therefore I make my stance.

Any way possible, then homelessness

Shall stay accessible.

Looking Out of Windows that Aren’t There

By Ramires K. Farrakhan 

I like looking out

Of windows

That aren’t there

Basically an operating

System

Intrigues my soul mathematically

Would he know

What wondrous thought in

Ok I do want to be correct

Right

Which he was a small contributor

Or did he worry too far

Like many of us in glancing

Maybe there

If I lay it that freely

Will I be safe when they come

To resurrect myself a meadow

A tree a herd of goat or sheep

Let your body language as well as

Your utterances leave the message

Ancestor

Walking down a sidewalk, quietly reassuring

The faithful

Wherever we’ve come from

This is home.

THIS AGAIN

By Barbra Wright 

This again.

Not just me and my husband, but my children

Adults in poverty

Who can’t make it without community.

Where will they go?

My four happy grandchildren

Stable and protected from the struggle,

Though aware of its reality.

No longer able to house them.

On the precipice of being thrust into the struggle.

Legacy gone

Wiped out in penstrokes

From the Snakes of Amerika.

Debt not even mine

Hopeless, helpless again.

How did this happen? Why did this happen?

A bottle of pills, and I won’t think, care, feel.

The sirens as the police chase me down

And on the way to their forced detention

Reminds me I’m not free and never will be.

Poverty is my reality.

I can’t protect, only community can.

Each according to their ability and needs.

Solutions, not problems.

Unite to fight

Safety in numbers.

I really hate not being computer savvy. Often I feel like I'm left behind. The world is supposed to be at my fingertips. This is my generation, we are the techies of today. Unfortunately I don't have that privilege. Somehow I got left behind.

I remember being introduced 2 the Apple then the Mac. I remember a strange device called a mouse attached to a keyboard a few years later. I remember being confused not understanding the difference between the monitor screen and the Brain which actually was the computer, three different devices all wrapped up into one.

I guess from the beginning I've always been confused. Perhaps this is what created blocks in my brain causing me not to retain updated information in regards to learning about computers and its functionality.

I recall being introduced in elementary to the big block Square family. I remember going into the library and being given short amounts of time to get familiar with these devices.

Dean Cain Junior High. We were supposed to by this time know how to use them or be reintroduced to them and for those students who come from truly poverty-stricken communities this would be the first introduction because some schools didn't have the privilege to pretend practice on computers.

The students that had computers in their homes we're familiar. They normally were privileged and not the same color as me.

High School came. By this time you better had known the difference between the Monitor the keyboard the mouse and the Brain you better know how to turn it on you should know how to use Adobe and Microsoft and that was considered the basics.

Well just as I began to catch on finally took me getting to high school to do. So now no one uses these big black squares everyone is using laptops. Oh boy, more modern technology designed for and by my generation. The techies fast paced generation computer Boomers add the Rhythm everything is Fast Pace gigabytes is what rules the computer world I couldn't catch up.

Before I knew it the laptops continue to advance and the cell phones enter the market overtaking what the computer once did with modern technology and cell phones I failed even more behind in times. Soon talking on the telephone would be a thing of the past, using a computer would be a thing of the past, now we text through a device that used to be called a phone but it's a mini computer handheld form of communication and it serves as a computer as well...oh yeah I said that.

On February 25th, the year 2006, I lost my 16-year-old son due to gunfire. After that it spiraled downhill. I went rom alcohol to perscription drugs. From there, I had an A1 dissection heart surgery. I lost my husband five months ago. Thirty-five years I was with him. His sister sold the house out from underneath me, and I was one the streets. And as of tomorrow, BART is putting us out. So I have no place to go and no money. 

Community Reparations is a concept launched by Lisa tiny Gray-Garcia and is rooted in the notion of Interdependence. It is meant to be a healing medicine of resistance to the lie of independence and the separation nation, which encourages the violent act of looking away from people who are poor or unhoused. Community Reparations instructs us all to resist capitalism’s normalizing of separateness and “success” through land-stealing and wealth-hoarding. Instead, Community Reparations recognizes our shared humanity and instructs those of us who benefit from stolen or hoarded resources to engage in loving, radical redistribution of these resources.

The POOR Magazine Community Reparations model is taught to and shared with other poor and indigenous peoples movements who would like to start their own version of homefulness. Folks with race, class and/or formal education privilege who are interested in redistributing or reparating are invited to attend PeopleSkool’s Decolonization/ DegentriFUKation Seminar, or to redistribute their resources through the Bank of Community Reparations.

Bank of Community Reparations

The Bank of Community Reparations is a national fund of redistributed and stolen wealth that is distributed equally among poor and indigenous people-led land use projects. Resources redistributed to the Bank of Community Reparations may be designated to these specific funds:

Po' Mamaz Reparations Fund

Dedicated to redistributing resources directly to poor, unhoused and formerly unhoused single mamaz (fathers) and children who are unable to afford rent, a drivable vehicle, diapers, food, and other emergency needs related to their survival and thrival.

Tech Reparations Fund

Dedicated to building/preserving the equity of poor and working class communities who have been displaced or are at risk of displacement due to the presence of Tech industries and their employees.

Homefulness Community Reparations Fund

Dedicated to building, launching and growing homefulness comm-UNITIES across Mama Earth. Homefulness is a self-determined landless people’s solution to the housing crisis, and POOR Magazine is currently in the process of constructing a multi-unit housing complex in East Oakland to provide housing for houseless families. POOR Magazine is also preparing to launch Homefulness 2 in Chico/Butte County, the site of recent serious fires.

Radical Redistribution

Dedicated to emergency needs of Po folks- not related to a specific fund but rather the need of traditionally silenced, criminalized communities in struggle.

For more information on Revolutionary Giving to the Bank of Reparations call (510) 435-7500 or email poormag@gmail.com. To register for the next PeopleSkool Seminar in Black August for Folks with Race/Class Privilege email deeandtiny@gmail.com or go on-line to www.racepovertymediajustice.org or www.poormagazine.org

Reparators Tell their Stories of #RadicalRedistribution and Community Reparations 

"Growing up with both material and spiritual poverty, I learned to cling fearfully to what access privilege could get me to replace the lack of community and basic human needs I had been living through. I grew up with quite a few situational disadvantages and have had to work through a lot of fear of the isolation that can come from various marginalizing positions, rural poverty, queer, assigned female at birth within a fanatical religious group...POOR has helped me to loosen the hold that that fear has had and to recognize more fully the embedded belief I've had that I need to bank on the safety and access that my white (and other) privileges grant me to make it in this world. POOR has helped me to realize the places I'm still blinded with fear and that the freedom I want comes from interdependence that surrenders any possessive attachment to individual gain and relies fully on the mutual gain of togetherness, that anything I gain on the back of another will never give me freedom. It has been an incredibly healing and empowering gift." 

Over the past few years I believe I have come 2 grips with a few decisions. By far I am not a willing participant in being the catalyst, but I am realizing that sometimes being the catalyst is exactly what your position is to be. I am floored with the idea that one person could be chosen to be the catalyst of many different situations. Imagine being born only to be put in situations that are uncomfortable and traumatizing in order for mankind to function. Something to think about. It puts me in the mind of sacrifice.

I believe we all have a purpose and a reason for being put down here on Earth some say we are here simply because of one spiritual mistake or mishap one evil entity is the root of us humans suffering but what if the Outlook is different what if one doesn't believe that should be true what if One Believes Only In What they Can See 

Hate with a gun was the primary tactic used when this country was stolen from the Natives of the land and it is clear from the “history” books that this infection has no cure in sight.

With the recent school, synagogue and police shootings comes the terrifying reminder that hate can come in many forms and strikes without notice. Hate with a gun does more harm, destroys the good and displays blatant disrespect to those who pay homage- and to the Almighty altogether rather the place of worship be a baptist church or synagogue.

Suspected shooter 19-year-old John T. Earnest was in court this week and was charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder, among those hurt was rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and an 8-year-old child. 60-year old Lori Kaye, who was known as the “Matriarch” for her contribution into creating the Chabad of Poway synagogue was killed in the tragic shooting. Lori’s daughter Hannah Kaye had spoke of her mother as being “an advocate of peace”

John Earnest was said to have a bulletproof vest, several magazines holding at least 50 rounds of ammunition, a helmet and a riffle in his possession along with premeditated hate in his heart.

Earnest faces the death penalty if convicted and he has pleaded not guilty.

In mid-April, Connecticut police officer Devin Eaton opened fire on a car parked near Yale University, injuring 22-year-old Stephanie Washington in the gun blaze when she was struck in the face but Washington’s boyfriend, Paul Witherspoon was not hurt in the shooting.

The police officers thought the car occupied by Washington and Witherspoon matched the description of a vehicle used in an armed robbery and Eaton had shot at the car when Paul Witherspoon supposedly had exited “abruptly”

Protesters in Connecticut have gathered for peaceful demonstrations all during the week following the incident involving the black, unarmed- profiled couple.

Alleged gunman Trystan Andrew Terrell was charged with 2 counts of murder and 4 counts of attempted murder in the University of North Carolina (Charolotte campus) when he shot at students on the last day of school killing Ellis Parlier, Riley Howell and wounding 4 other students. Howell was praised as being a hero when he fought with Terrell, disarming him and preventing further loss of life.

The disregard for human life may be glorified so many ways in today’s society but there is no logical reason for conscious wickedness. The root reasons of hatred and anger must be addressed and dealt with accordingly because the “violent video game” excuse is long played out and the re-insertion of what is fact/fiction and what is right/wrong must be brought back to the table because it is time for accountability. People also have the right to be able to pray and celebrate their deities safely no matter if it’s in their homes or other places of worship without the fear of death. When was the last time you heard of a rash of violent attacks perpetrated by humble folks against churches that welcomes those of satanic faith? (everyone has rights, right???) One good reason could be that there are people on this earth who are too busy walking in truth, love and in the faith that peace is to come.

People with Race, Class and/or Formal education privileges collaborate with unhoused /indigenous/bordered poor people to launch a "fund" of reparations at 11am

The Bank of Come-Unity Reparations is a poor/indigenous people-informed- truly ComeUNITY held fund of Radically  redistributed Hoarded/Inherited/Occupied/Stolen wealth and resources on this Occupied Land.- ( Read more about the "Bank" here)

"As poverty Skolaz we have been teaching/sharing/loving these young folks with race and class privileges into degentrification and decolonial moves since 2009, this is the time to bring this to the world" said  Aunti Frances Moore, Black Panther, Poverty Skola and co-founder of the Bank of Come-Unity Reparations. 

This fund has already been activating/enacting/implementing the liberation of Blood-Stained Dollars into Love-stained dollars on occupied Turtle Island and beyond since 2009 when the Revolutionary Change Session convened resulting in the formation of the powerFULL Solidarity family of POOR Magazine, .", said Lisa "Tiny" Gray-Garcia, co-founder of Homefulness and the Bank of Come-Unity Reparations 

The Solidarity Family is a small group of revolutionary folks with different forms of race, class and/or formal education privilege that have been radically redistributing enough resources to support literally over 100 poor mamaz, elders and children who are in extreme struggle with poverty, homelessness, eviction, displacement, incarceration, and disability. The fund has also enabled the liberation of Mama Earth by buying and then un-selling the small part of Mama Earth in deep east Huchuin ( Oakland) us landless/homeless people call Homefulness  at 8032 BlackArthur

This powerFULL work might seem like dreams, or ideas or hopes or visions and they are - but they are also real and so far mamaz rents have been paid, PGE have been covered, motels and hospital bills and dental care has been acquired with the liberated funds of the Bank of Community Reparations. 

"We are limited at this moment  only by membership of Radical Redistributors, but know that unlike the US mythologies of wite- terror, scarcity  greed and its Colonial Poverty Project to keep most of us indigenous, Black/Brown and working class peoples landless, poor, incarcerated and /or in struggle- there is in fact enough for all of us. And so we invite you to join with your blood-stained dollars to make the radical support possible for as many peoples as need it in these increasingly terrifying times of scarcity, hate and Mama Earth's destruction, " excerpt of manifesto for change by POOR Magazine.

The Bank of Come-UNITY Reparations should not be confused with African Peoples Reparations and Japanese peoples reparations moves is rooted in interdependence - i am connect to you because you and i are both human and therefore I cannot perpetrate the violent act of Looking away", as co-founder of Homefulness and poverty skola Tiny - Lisa Gray-Garcia says , 

These visions, ideas and actions are informed by Mama Dee, Tiny and fellow Poverty/Indigenous/Disability Skolaz using the wisdom of 527 years of struggle, incarceration, criminalzation and colonization in their own text book- called the Poverty Scholarship Book- 

And so we invite you to witness, join/activate or just be in this poor people-led liberation movement  in all the troubling, CONfusing/Terrifying/degentriFUKINg/Decolonizing/Covert & Overt ways this all even means in the US and all of Occupied Mama Earth.

In addition to an all nations ceremony for the release and transformation of blood-stained dollars into love-stained dollars we will also be sharing the findings of homeless and formerly homeless youth and elders who created the Hoarding Mama Earth report which advocates and proposes to un-sell the thousands of vacant parcels of Mama Earth so that unhoused families can build their own Homefulness projects.

Hundreds of  pro-choice rallies were held across the nation, including on the steps of the supreme court in opposition to politicians who are tightening the vice-grip on the already restricted abortion laws. A little more than 45 years has passed since the landmark ruling in the case of Jane Roe vs. Henry Wade when on January 22, 1973 the supreme court had voted 7-2 making it unconstitutional for a state law to ban abortions (except for in life-threatening circumstances) The decision was also based upon a woman’s right to privacy extending to the fetus she was impregnated with enabling access to a legal and safe abortion if a woman elects to terminate a pregnancy.

20 states are at risk of overturning the Roe vs. Wade decision including Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee just to name a few and with “politricksters” easing in “TRAP” laws (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) that denies women the right to an adequate medical procedure and criminalizes both the patient and the abortion provider. Texas is one state that imposes the “TRAP” laws and in the case of Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, The supreme court had ruled that 2 abortion restrictions in the state of Texas were unconstitutional and would lead to the closure of clinics causing an “undue burden” for Texas women to access safe, legal abortions.

This year different states introduced hundreds of new abortion restrictions with 10 states in favor of the 6-week ban, which prohibits abortions once a heartbeat has been detected but overlooks the fact that at this early stage in pregnancy a woman may not even be aware that she’s pregnant. In the state of Alabama it is a felony to have an abortion altogether while Bret Kavanaugh, an established anti-pro choice supporter under the Trump administration has promised to nominate judges who would “automatically” overturn the Roe vs. Wade ruling.

Regardless of the political outcome, there are still states like New York, Illinois, Rhode Island and New Mexico who have passed a “Reproductive Health Act” bill that is protected under the law as “a legal health procedure” that ensures a woman’s right to abort legally and safely.

The Hyde Amendment, the poor and the people of universal majority (color):

With The Hyde Amendment, a 40 year old ban on federal funding for abortion with the exceptions of rape, incest or life-threatening cases, how can a low-income woman pay out of pocket for a procedure that can run in the thousands without the sacrifice of food and shelter?

Abortion is a medical choice and all the restrictions and bans would put more poor women’s health and lives at risk who would look to illegal and “self-help” abortions as an option.

What do the people say?

Majority of US voters overwhelmingly support the Roe vs. Wade law and would rather it be a personal medical issue than to have political interference from mostly men who controls a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body. In my opinion, it seem as if these lawmakers are playing the “slavemassa” role by creating another form of forced breeding and imposing on a woman’s privacy and with that said, you add the separation of families and what do you have- Another generation of chattel slavery that is profitable under the laws of wite (non) supremacy.

September 11, 2019

Which it stands?

By: KRB4REAL

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for Which It Stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (1892 version)

One day I found myself reciting the Pledge of Allegiance  (only God knows why) and the phrase “Which It Stands” dropped in my spirit and I couldn’t shake the thought. After researching it “Which It Stands”  the “official definition is it represents the flag and stands for the government of the United States, This encouraged me to question who is the Republic? “Republic, means loyalty to the government, which is where the people are sovereign”. Who were the sovereign (supreme) people WHITE FOLKS! Of course.  

Slavery was in affect 273 years prior the writting of Pledege of Allegiance. 127 years ago in August of 1892 the Pledge of Allegiance was written. Definitely, in 1892 black and brown people had no rights and the Republic held no regard for us.The challenges that have affected black and brown communities in 1892 are still very debilitating in the present time this is including those who are incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, unhoused, LGBTQ are not representatives of what it was meant to be of a sovereign government . 

 After several small changes/ alterations  from 1892 to 1954 the Pledge of Allegiance is recited as it is written today “ I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. In 1892 the representation of God was missing. However, in 1954, President Eisenhower, incorporated “under God” into the Pledge. This was to affirm the religious faith in America’s history. 

It seems the God that was represented does not reflect the liberty and justice for all but, when we look at WHO the Pledge of Allegiance was written to lift up we can see then see why God looked unjust too those who lacked power. The good news is God is indivisible; love that can’t be divided or separated.

“Which it stands”, holds a very different meaning for me it has nothing to do with the government. “Which It Stands”   defining ‘Which” is a supportive clause or a clause providing further information. To “Stand” is to be situated or positioned. 

When I look at the combination of the words “Which it Stands”  provides the strength and stability of holding my own stuff, this provides me the capacity to develop me! The allegiances I pledge is to my God and myself and my own governmental agency within.  I place no value in the Pledge of Allegiance because of the falsities that it represents within the governmental authorities. It falls short of the sacrifice that the men and women make when they go to battle for a government that shows them limited to no support upon returning home.

Yet  for “Which it Stands”?

Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday that he is creating a task force to tackle the steady-rising issue of homelessness. After reports of the homeless rate skyrocketing and the failed attempts at “band-aid” solutions, Newsom has proposed for a 1 billion dollar budget to help finance employment and housing assistance programs. Homeless and poverty statistics for California alone was amongst the highest in the nation, with around 130,000 houseless folks and according to the HUD annual homeless assessment report of 2017, there were over 550,000 homeless people in the US in total.

Although lawmakers had allegedly approved a 2 billion dollar bond to create new and affordable housing over two years ago, no money has been spent to house adults, elders, people with disabilities and households with children as of yet- leaving one to believe that poor people and people of color were left for dead with another “pie-crust promise” backed up by “ghost funding”

The constant demand for housing from highly paid non-natives of the communities (gentriFUKation) and the boom for million dollar “luxury” devilopments (development) in the real estate-snake game has been the primary reasons SF is now known as “tent city” plagued with chronic homelessness and with very little support for residents dealing with mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction, life-threatening illnesses and the trauma of being treated less than human.

Gavin Newsom has also named Sacramento Mayor Darryl Steinberg and Los Angeles county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as co-chairs of the task force in collaboration to end the homeless crisis. Someone needs to have the courage to challenge the fact that there is a layer of abuse and a violation of one’s human rights when children, elders and folks with disabilities are forced out into the streets with the extra slap in the face being that it is a crime to sleep in cars, tents or parks when there is nowhere else to go without being dehumanized any further.

What makes sense?

Create affordable housing for low-income, impoverished folks by utilizing empty, abandoned, unused lots and spaces of land that don’t come with multi-million dollar price tags. Instead of spending money on just beds for “clients”, spend money on providing enough space for not only a bed, but a kitchen, bathroom, a bedroom- A WHOLE ROOF! As POOR Magazine does with the HOMEFULNESS project and how many tribes before have done before being poisoned with capitalism and colonization.

Provide adequate resources and treatment to people in need and employ staff or fellow poverty “skolars” who possess helpful, compassionate non-judgemental spirits that don’t take pride in representing the “agents of the state” and meeting “quotas” that contributes to the despair of the people.

Powers that be- stop investing in big money corporations that cruelly displaces lifelong residents by creating “booms” that raises the rent so high that the city caters only to those with higher incomes and privilege thus creating an exodus of evictions and cultural destruction/change. It is known that the Ellis Act and real estate snakeculation (speculation) are in the same bed together and if politricksters focused more energy on putting restrictions on high-powered corporations that evicts children onto the streets instead of restricting a woman’s right to choose then the vote will come in as some sort of progress towards a solution to an inhumane problem.