Story Archives

by By William T. Hathaway, william.hathaway@ewetel.net

After the savage denouement of Election 2000 we can look back on a campaign that saw Gore sacrifice his principles and Bush sacrifice our democracy, all to the great god Winning. The final debacle agonized but didn't surprise us. With grim inevitability it stripped away the last facade of red, white and blue idealism. Five weeks of political thuggery made it clear that our votes don't count. Bush didn't win this election; he seized power through a legalistic coup d'etat.

We may mourn for Gore, but he wasn't even outraged. A true son of the system, he'd rather sink than rock the boat. Despite some positive qualities, he's not a genuine agent for change. Like Bush, he supports capital punishment, genetic engineering of foods, corporate globalization, and a military build-up. Economically, the two men differ only in the size of their trickle down.

To find the reason for this Tweedledee and Tweedledumb pairing, we just need to look at their mega donors. The soft-money moguls don't want us to have a real choice. Campaign financing shows us that the major parties are just two sides of the same gold coin, two modes of control by the corporate oligarchy.

The economic power base of both parties lies in the business establishment, and they represent two tendencies within it. The Republicans support a fiscal orientation aimed at preserving the value of capital by keeping taxes and inflation low. To them, a moderate increase in the number of poor people provides an anchor on the economy by holding wages and thus inflation down. The Democrats support a mercantile orientation aimed at expanding public buying power. To them, a moderate increase in the number of prosperous people enlarges the customer base. Each party contains more than this, but this is their economic core that keeps their leaders from acting against corporate interests. The alternation of power between them ensures that neither tendency gets carried so far as to destabilize the very profitable enterprise. Given this structure, the changes we need can't come from them.

Through ballot-access laws, matching-fund regulations, and debate policies, the major parties try to shut out other approaches. They're the only game in town, and it's now obviously a shell game with no winners except them.

They and the corporate media have also avoided an open discussion of their economic interests by riveting public attention on the emotional sideshow, the battle of winners and losers. Politics, like the news, has become garish entertainment for an increasingly ignorant populace: we, the people.

Both parties are now calling for restoring harmony, for pulling the country together, for healing the national wounds. But what they really mean is healing the wounds to the establishment.

For the first time since our defeat in Vietnam, a major crack has appeared in our two-party but one-purpose elite. As they try to patch that crack and restore the cosmetics of democracy, we can expect a media campaign to create good feelings about America. Hollywood will get into the act, as it did after the Vietnam war with films such as PRIVATE BENJAMIN, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, and TOP GUN, designed to restore the charisma of the military. The studio execs are probably already conceptualizing a hip, "mock the system at the same time you reinforce it" version of MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. And George W. Bush will now play Mr. Nice Guy, dismantling only gradually and indirectly the few progressive measures that Clinton was willing or able to implement.
But the crack is there and it can be widened; a wedge can be driven into it and it can eventually be split apart, and this monolith of power can fall and something new and more humane can take its place. Otherwise the establishment wouldn't be trying so hard to patch it up and erase the memory.

Forty-five thousand ballots that antiquated voting machines couldn't read, most of them from poor districts, still remain uncounted in Florida. Paid Republican demonstrators interfered with the counting, Florida officials governed by Bush's brother refused to accept revised vote totals, and the Republican-dominated US Supreme Court insisted on enforcing a deadline that the law itself says is flexible. Due to this coup, Bush won Florida by 193 votes and assumed the presidency against the national popular vote.

We must not forget this! But most people already have because it's too painful.

If the Left can reach those who haven't and turn their alienation into radical engagement, we may yet see a ground swell of political activism that will force fundamental changes. Until that happens, we, the people, will continue to be the losers.

by Leroy F. Moore, Jr.

I didn’t know it was OK for a person to endure a physically and emotionally painful episode of harassment due to someone’s fear of one’s name! As a Black disabled man I was afraid when David Duke ran for president but I was forced to see and hear him on T.V., radio and in the newspapers. There are many names that bring uneasy feelings to me i.e. Jerry Fallwell, LAPD, Jesse Helms and the man that stole the White House, Mr. George Bush, Jr. But I am forced to swallow my fear, deal with it and go on. Now in this time of war people can be harassed and certain people’s liberties and civil rights can be stepped on because of fear!

On Friday October 5th, 2001 Black Disabled Yahoo listserve had an email entitled “Disabled Muslim Man Faces Airline’s Harassment at San Francisco International Airport.” This man, named Samir, demanded to know why he was taken off two planes and his wheelchair searched by FBI bomb-searching dogs, causing him to miss his flight and have to wait until the following day to catch a plane home to Portland, Oregon. An Alaska Airlines employer said that “the flight attendant didn’t want him there, on the plane. She was basically afraid of his name.” The Alaska Airline’s customer service department called him to apologize and offered him a free ticket. Samir refused to take it and instead asked for a written apology, payment for phone bills he incurred while staying at a hotel as well as the equivalent of one day’s salary (he missed a day of work because of this conflict).

The airline tried to put the reason for the conflict onto the way his wheelchair was packed, not his name. Samir didn’t accept this reason because it happened twice on two different planes, and to have the FBI and everyone check and repack his wheelchair was unacceptable. And when he got home he confirmed that an Alaska Airline employee told him that his name was the reason he could not travel. This statement erases the airline’s excuse — his wheelchair — that caused him to wait eleven hours, putting him in physical distress, just to have the samething happen on a second plane.

Are we Americans going to continue to react to the incident of September 11th without thinking about how our reactions are affecting people of color, people with disabilities of color and the general public? The tragic events of September 11th caused many deaths and much destruction, and now our reactions to September 11th are causing verbal and physical harassment and abuse to our own brothers and sisters of color in our own country. Where is the healing process??

For more information on this case go to read the article written by Samana Siddiqui at

www.onelist.com/community/Blackdisabled

by Sarah Hotchkiss and Christina Heatherton/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalists

I first tried to get on welfare when I was 18 years old because I was abused. My welfare department sent me to a shelter in a whole new county where I didn’t even have relatives. I was 18 years old, unable to finish high school because I was in a different county, 2 months before I was supposed to graduate. I had job skills, I was trying to get an education, and there was welfare all smug and happy not helping me but expecting me to better myself. I didn’t have a home. I didn’t have a place to start from. I had no clue. How can they honestly expect anyone to get anywhere if they don’t have a place to start from?

The 1996 Welfare Reform Legislation to "end welfare as we know it" has had profound and devastating effects on poor people in this country especially those trying to pursue an education. By instituting a 5 year lifetime limit, and mandating a 35 hour work week, the bill has penalized this pursuit. In February, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new bill that ups the work requirement to 40 hours a week denying most recipients a chance to get an education.
On Thursday, April 24, at the Boalt Hall Law School at UC Berkeley, a coalition of Bay Area organizations hosted the West Coast premiere of "Once upon a time....Welfare made a Difference". The documentary showcased the stories of four women from different social, regional, and ethnic backgrounds who, prior to 1996, were able to use welfare as a lifeline while they gained degrees in higher education. Following the movie was a panel discussion by four bay area welfare recipients on their local struggles to get an education while on welfare.

The event was designed to deconstruct the "mythology" and the misogynistic and racist "demonology" of women on welfare. As Linda Burnham from the Women of Color Resource Center noted in her opening address, there has been a concerted effort to depict women on welfare as "lazy, sexually immature, unwilling or unable to work, poor caretakers of their children, and unwilling or unable to hold a man." In this way, these women have been accused of scamming the system while corporations have been involved in the "plunder and theft" of billions of dollars of in corporate fraud.

The event offered some of these women the chance to tell their own story. As panelist and current Laney College CARE specialist, Mildred Lewis offered, "People don’t know your story. They think they know what a welfare recipient looks like. They don’t know your dreams or that you’ll make a contribution in your life."

Far from the lazy stereotypes they have often been made out to be, the event demonstrated how women on welfare are often the most adept money managers, creatively improvising to stretch meager funds in order to feed, clothes, house, and care for themselves and often their families too. Another panelist, Eric Benson, challenged the stereotype that only women go on welfare, as he discussed his difficulties as a single father also trying to go to school.

"The goal of welfare is case reduction and not reduction of poverty," according to Vivian Hain, panelist and CalWORKS student parent. If the government was interested in getting people out of poverty, they wouldn’t make it so difficult for recipients to go to school. As it stands, Vivian’s forty hour work week often expands to close to fifty once she factors in transportation, getting gas, and food. She must attend a minimum of 12 units of school (about 20 hours with transportation and homework) in order to qualify for financial aid. On top of those 70 hours, Vivian must cook, clean, and care for her family- which is a full time job itself. As she described it, "it seems like they don’t want to see you get ahead." 

I had a hard time relating to this movie even though I have been on welfare too.
I asked myself, what about people who are unable to better themselves, who are stuck in the same rut, unable to get out of it? Most welfare money is given to people who are going to get on track quick. These people have their shit together and are going to be able to pay back the money quicker. In other words, they are people who have a home. If you don’t have a home, if you do not help someone pay for room and board, you only get $28 dollars in Oakland and you still have to work the 40 hours. I applied for welfare here and refused to take it when I found this out. If you get a statement that you have a home and proof from a landlord, then you can get $350 a month in Oakland.

Going to school is just about impossible in this situation, let alone trying to find enough work to fill the 40 hours. People are not going to hire you when you are homeless, especially when you are using a shelter address. That’s the damn truth.

While the film talked about mothers, it didn’t talk about mothers with children on the streets. Do you think they get help quicker? Do you think they get to keep their kids? These women have Child Protective Services (CPS) breathing down their necks 24/7. To save their kids, this usually means that these families have to get away from the area. This also means that they’ll loose all their welfare benefits in the process. And if the mother tries to take her kids to a shelter, she’ll either be turned away or she’ll be putting her kids in a dangerous situation.

The event also spoke exclusively about able-bodied people who are physically able to work. My husband is disabled. How is he supposed to get a job, let alone go to school when he’s not even supposed to be sitting up? He’s supposed to get $28 but he was kicked off. Now he can’t get general assistance until he wins his SSI. He can’t get a halfway decent doctor. He can’t get the medication he needs. He can’t get a scooter. Besides, he’d have nowhere to keep it.

This campaign to defend welfare tries to break down some stereotypes but it also creates new ones. It makes homeless people even more invisible by talking about poverty without talking about homelessness. It speaks only about poor people who have homes, who are able bodied, who are not being persecuted by CPS, and who are in recognized relationships. People in alternative relationships such as gay relationships are subject to a whole set of other difficulties. Part of the new welfare bill devotes an enormous amount of money to marriage promotion. By speaking exclusively about straight couples, the movie and the campaign reinforces the invisibility of gay, transgender, and alternative relationships.

By promoting education as the solution to poverty, the film also comes close to perpetuating the very same stereotype it is supposed to be fighting against. This stereotype is that poor people can lift themselves out of poverty because, it assumes, they are responsible for their own poverty. Linda Burnham explained in her opening, the myth in America is that "everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps." This myth allows the public to discard "a whole layer of society" who can’t pull themselves up.

Linda spoke of the American economy as both an engine of incredible wealth and an engine of poverty. This engine "creates and recreates poverty everyday in the US and all over the world." During the war, discussions of poverty have been swept off the table. It is important to connect the war against the poor to the war abroad. Burnham mentioned that Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, has just been awarded a contract to run the welfare system in Florida. The company, who makes huge profits off of war, will now be making huge profits off of managing Florida’s poor. In order for a country to subjugate and dominate another population, it has to first dominate its population at home. All you have to do is look at the streets of your city to see that this is being done on an everyday basis.

by Staff Writer

While swimming in Hawai’i, Larry Lattimore, Father and Grandfather, had a fatal heart attack. Six months earlier he went there to recharge his batteries and his faith in activism and people after 20 unbroken years of working to change the world for the better.

I met Larry 10 years ago, when he’d already co-founded POWER (People Organizing To Win Employment Rights), the first night of the founding of the Living Wage Coalition. I didn’t speak to him then, he looked cranky; I later found out that was his armor against the world, we became good friends.

Intelligent, to almost genius level, he worked for San Francisco General Hospital as a janitor, picking up hazardous waste without proper safety equipment, like gloves. Larry caught an immune difficiency disease doing Workfare for the General Assistance Welfare program, and got SSI benefits after fighting for them until 2005.

We worked together on the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition in 2000, when he was elected Co-Director. I remember the night we got the Living Wage, sitting in the SEIU union’s local office negotiating with SF Mayor Willie Brown. He was in an air-conditioned hotel in New York, we were on the 14th Floor of Fox Plaza: 20 people in a hot room.

Josie Mooney, Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Local 1021 (it was 790), made an unofficial deal this poverty scholar can’t prove, which excluded CalWorks and GA Workfare workers from the receiving the Minimum Compensation Ordinance benefits, including health benefits which would have gone to anyone working or any company accepting city contracts.

In 2005 Larry and I were on the Committee To Get A Minimum Wage, which fought to raise the San Francisco County minimum wage to $10 per hour, enduring 4-hour meetings once a week to get through one agenda item. Larry was patient, this poverty scholar (to be polite) wasn’t.

After petitioning to get the MW on the local ballot, Larry was the happiest person I saw on Election Night. I never had an easier friend and ally to work with. We went to Sacramento often enough, to lobby and to protests that we knew every tree by name.

The night he got his daughter back in his life, we were hanging out in the Living Wage offices. He had an ear-to-ear grin on his face. They lived in a Winnebago until a better place could be found. Larry gave his daughter a home-school education and did a great job. His activist work and his daughter are his legacy to the world.

by Staff Writer

Pt 2

by Boys and Girls Club of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe

Tiny and Mari from POOR Magazine's Indigenous Peoples Media Project collaborated with Ras K' Dee (Pomo/Afrikan) from SNAG Magazine and Cassandra Yazzie (Dine') from Four Rivers Institute to lead the Native Hip Hop workshop at the Boys and Girls Club of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe located on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. The Workshop included Hip Hop writing, poetry, beat-making, film and consciousness training for young people 6-18. It was a very powerful exchange of intergenerational knowledge, culture, art and indigenous resistance on occupation, land, poverty and de-colonization. Here is some of the written pieces.

Editors Note: Last week Cassandra Yazzie was killed in an automobile crash. All of us are extremely saddened by her loss and are dedicating this issue of POOR Magazine to her beautiful spirit.

November's PNN radio and Bay Native Circle on KPFA are also dedicated to her memory and family. Mari from Indigenous Peoples Media Project has wrote an article in honor of her at http://poormagazine.org/index.cfm?L1=news&category=35&story=2399

by Kaponda

The zephyr bored through the thin layer of protective
shelter and pelted the young lad as his eyes opened to
the dawn of another school day. It carried the noxious
elements of the naval shipyard to woo the uncorrupt
lungs of the middle school senior. Yet, Jimmy has
known for quite awhile that his generation has had to
endure the brunt of unfulfilled commitments by
virtually every institution of America.

The sparse surroundings of Jimmy's bedroom
bounced off his eyes through the mirror, as he
prepared to encounter another struggle at Luther
Burbank Middle School. In an effort not to frustrate
his schoolmaster, Jimmy had begun his journey at the
customary time. Looking at the abutting structures
from the window, Jimmy watched as his house
drowned in the distance, as the bus accelerated past
the density of drab houses. He mused over whether
anyone within that enclave of southern migrants --
from which he, too, is a proud product ñ- has ever
enjoyed anything other than substandard living
conditions since their arrival to the Bayview-Hunters
Point District at the height of World War II.

As he expectorated the noxious residuals from the
wind that had earlier swirled around his residential
community, Jimmy peered at a rodent, which bolted
off into a separate entrance of the Luther Burbank
Middle School. His eyes made a futile search of the
halls for anything that had not been riddled by decay.
The first battle for Jimmy will be to find a seat after
he enters his classroom, as there are not enough to
accommodate each student. There will not be a need
for him to check his coat because it will help insulate
him from the extremely cold classroom due to the
broken heating system. Jimmy has always focused on
completing his studies and passing his advanced
placement examination to continue his education at a
competitive university.

The substandard learning and living conditions to
which Jimmy is exposed may pose a threat to his
plans to further his education. For example, the
curricula offered at schools such as Luther Burbank
do not adequately prepare Jimmy for advanced
placement examinations. In addition, his problems are
compounded by a sense of inferiority, which affects
the motivation of a child to learn. These wretched
conditions were not hatched over night. Rather, they
are the result of years of Federal and State neglect.
Furthermore, these substandard learning conditions --
in which Jimmy must struggle to realize his hopes ñ
violate the laws of California, which require the State
to ensure the delivery of basic educational
opportunities for every child in California and vest the
State with ultimate responsibility for the Stateís public
elementary and secondary school system.

Neglect by the State of California to improve substandard
learning conditions in schools for people of color can be
traced as far back as the early 1950ís, when the majority of
schools for people of color were far inferior to the schools
of their white counterparts. The neglect of the State of
California to provide equal access to public education
regardless of race, color or national origin is rooted in the
May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, unanimous
decision, read by Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme
Court.

In California, schools in economically disadvantaged
communities were underserved so severely that on May
17, 2000, the 46th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of
Education, civil rights groups and attorneys in California,
coordinated by the American Civil Liberties Union, lodged
a historic class-action lawsuit on behalf of students in 18
schools. The lawsuit charges that California has failed to
provide the "bare minimum necessities" required for an
education. According to the Complaint, the state of
California has allegedly "...reneged on its constitutional
guarantee to provide all students with at least the bare
essentials necessary for an education...."

The indictment of gross negligence underscores the reason
that supports the probability that Jimmy will never achieve
an education comparable to that of his white counterpart.
Furthermore, people of color in schools throughout
California have been subjected to the following conditions
as part of their everyday educational experience, according
to the Complaint:

• Lack of Materials and Basic Resources;
• Inadequate Instruction; and
• Massive Overcrowding.

California has recently adopted a system of statewide
educational standards. It entails a criterion that must be
satisfied by each student before being promoted to the next
rung of learning. However, ìofficials of the state of
California charged with carrying out educational
obligations have failed to develop or implement appropriate
procedures to identify and correct the substandard
conditions at the schools attended by Plaintiffs,î according
to the Complaint.

Furthermore, according to the class-action lawsuit lodged
by the ACLU, ìAlthough the State has established
academic standards that students must meet, the State has
failed to meet its responsibility to ensure that schools
provide teachers who are adequately trained to prepare
students to satisfy those standards, has failed to provide
sufficient materials to enable students to have a reasonable
chance to pass tests that measure their performance, and
has failed to provide facilities in which students can safely
learn the materials they need to meet the State-mandated
standards. In other words, the State has established a
system for education but has abdicated its responsibility to
oversee and superintend that system to ensure it functions.

Jimmy was not born during the decision of Brown v.
Board of Education by the Supreme Court. However, the
Board of Education of California continues to preclude him
from any hope of attaining to the same educational level of
equality and justice as his white counterpart. Through
sheer determination, Jimmy may be one of the few among
people of color who succeed in passing the Advanced
Placement examination by rising beyond the seemingly
insurmountable obstacles of inadequate instructions,
massive school overcrowding, too few textbooks, no
access to libraries, as few as 13 percent of teachers with
full teaching credentials, chronically unfilled teacher
vacancies, and substandard living conditions.

by Dee

Walking sticks appear, seemingly from nowhere to dine on tender leaves. The spindly insects resemble trees as they slowly creep up the tail and paws of Hands and Lester.

Hands and Lester look around to find themselves deep in the countryside of North Eastern Oklahoma, It is the year 1839.
Why, lands and Lester wondered, why have we found ourselves in Cherokee country and why did we have to travel the Trail of Tears?
In generations past the Cherokee people come to this area to rebuild their nation after the westward trek from their beloved homelands in the mountainous South - Herded by federal soldiers, the Cherokees took a path in 1838-39 that became known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Why, Hands and Lester wondered? Why have we found ourselves in Cherokee country? Was it to live on the hard scrabble farms dotting the region that many Cherokees continue to live on?

Was it to attend some of the first schools west of the Mississippi for the education of both men and women? Or perhaps it was to work on Oaklahoma first newspaper published in both English and Cherokee.
After all it was only 1839 and again lester and Hands were living another of their nine lives.

That nite Lester had a dream. He dreampt he and and Hands were ill. No amount of Medicine or prayers could heal Lester and Hands in this dream. A native American spiritual leader appeared to lester in Lesters dream.

He told Lester that Native Americans regard their names as essential parts of their personalities. A native persons name is as vital to his or her identity as the eye or teeth.

If prayers and medicine fail to heal a seriously ill person, the spiritual leader tells Lester, then the spiritual leader sometimes realizes that the patients name itself may be diseased. The spiritual leader then goes to the water and with the appropriate ceremony bestows a new name on the sick person.

The healer then begins anew with the patients new name in hope that these measures will bring about restoration and recovery.
Lester anxiously awoke from his dream. He awoke. “Hands, Hands.hands"Lester said, “I’ve found the answer in a dream as to why we have found ourselves in Cherokee County in 1839.” Hands listened excitedly, while quietly purring. Lester continued “We have to find a spiritual leader and most important, ask him to change our names!”
To be Continued.

by Dee Gray, M.S.W., M.F.T

I am the co-editor and co-director of a media organization, I am also a social worker and licensed psychotherapist in the state of California.

As a mental health professional I believe that Gavin Newsom's plan called Care Not Cash (Proposition N) is so very antithetical to help for mental illness, substance abuse, etc.

CARE, the word, implies empathy, help, reaching out. Gavin Newsome's use of the word CARE is cynical, cruel, distinctly the opposite of empathy, help, or reaching out.

To remove money from the San Francisco worker's paycheck (aka;the Cash Assistance Grant given to folks on General Assistance/Welfare who do Workfare) with the idea that mental health services and all needed services will be provided instead is cynical. These services do not exist and would require several years to develop. What really exists for poor people and homeless people is meager at best.

In my opinion instead of decreasing the amount of the paycheck to the (workfare) workers, (workfare, the work that people must perform to receive their monthly cash assistance grant) yes, workers, because that’s what they are – very low-wage workers (similar to indentured servants). Instead of decreasing the paychecks, these workers paycheck should be increased to $3,000 per month, at least.

The primary reason for the pay check increase would be to pay for mental health services which for "talk therapy" and "meds" would cost from $60 per 50 minute session to $300 per 50 minute session. 50 minutes being the usual length of time per session with mental health professionals.

The $150 to $300 per 50 minute rate is the cost that Gavin Newsome can pay for psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic pyschotherapy. This type of therapy usually takes from 2 to 5 days per week. Because there is a significant amount of mental illness and substance abuse in the worker population, that in some cases date back to early child hood experiences as well as abuse by the system that poor people live with every day, daily or almost daily therapy would be the most beneficial.

I personally believe a combination of psychotherapy, advocacy, and self help is the best way of helping folks in the population being discussed. Psychotherapy in the form of long term cognitive or "talk therapy" would be of great benefit in any treatment plan or, as I have stated, long term psychoanalysis. I also would recommend any therapy be based in cultural and ethnic awareness and not be based simply on eurocentric psychology that stresses the individual over the group. Eurocentric psychology - that is, the parallel of the economic system of capitalism –

At Poor we view all labor as work and all those that labor as workers – this includes unrecognized work such as recycling, panhandling, work fare, street cleaning, (etc.)

Workers in any system normally have, or try to have, work that includes health care, vacations, sick leave, etc. Yet in the eyes of San Francisco and under Proposition N (Care Not Cash), these workers performing unrecognized work, not only do not receive benefits but are now being told that they should receive a major cut in pay – thereby making it impossible for them to acquire the expensive psychotherapy that would benefit them immensely. Additionally they are scorned for the very work that they do by those with wealth and privilege (and higher paying jobs) such as Gavin Newsome.

If these scorned workers can’t have access to the type of work benefits that the wealthy folks like Gavin Newsome have access to because they do not receive high enough wages for their work or do not have inherited wealth, then it makes sense for their employer, the city of San Francisco, to provide benefits. One of which would be a really good health care plan that provides top-notch culturally aware mental health services – the expensive kind that Gavin Newsome has access to. I also recommend that each worker have a healthcare card that identifies them as an employee of San Francisco, similar to the cards that Kaiser and UC, etc. give to their clients.

These mental health care benefits combined with advocacy and self help programs already in existence, would be what I as a mental health professional, would recommend that these workers receive. And if the city of San Francisco refuses to provide the benefits for these workers like the rest of the city’s workers receive, than I would recommend a large increase, up to $3,000 per month, in monthly benefits for each worker so that they could buy their own private mental healthcare benefits.

Finally, This Care Not Cash plan put forth by Gavin Newsome, only perpetrates misery and poverty and most important, makes a mockery of the word CARE.

by Sam Drew/ReVieWsForTHeReVoLutioN

As a staff writer at POOR Magazine, I proudly claim the title of poverty scholar since I’ve suffered through low wage and no wage security jobs at some of the most prestigious buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. This life experience informs and infuses my journalism. Not only do I report the news, but I use media to support the community. At POOR Magazine we are not just media voyeurs but media makers.

Sitting in a half empty movie theatre suffering through trailer after trailer of bombastic summer blockbuster films, my senses were suddenly awakened as I saw Don Cheadle on the screen decked out in polyester and plaid with his 1970’s style butterfly collar shirt open to his navel. "Oh, no” I thought to myself, “not another movie about a street smart Black man who says outrageous things and wiggles out of difficult situations by fooling uptight whites and saves the day by spreading peace, love and SOUL to America.”

If you’ve seen one of these movies you've seen them all. Eddie Murphy, Eddie Griffin, Chris Rock, Chris Tucker and the Wayans Brothers excel in this type of standard Hollywood fare. I almost gave up on this movie just by viewing the trailer. But something said give this movie a chance. Don Cheadle’s body of work has been stellar and Director Kasi Lemmons has shown a sensitive and powerful touch in movies like “Eve’s Bayou.” This is one of the few times the small voice in my head was right.

Don Cheadle portrays Ralph “Petey” Green an ex-con who becomes a mainstay on Washington D.C. radio during the turbulent 60’s. His tell it like it is disc jockey style makes him a hero to the average joe in chocolate city. He has no fear calling Motown’s head honcho Berry Gordy a pimp because of his exploitive contracts with young people. He routinely undresses crooked politicians over the radio without fear. It is his relationship with the community that turns him into a folk hero.

A watershed moment in the movie occurs when Petey gets his chance to perform on “The Tonight Show” in New York City. For Petey’s former radio director and now career advisor, The Tonight Show is a slice of assimilated heaven; a crossover dream realized.
Sitting across from Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon as a black man was almost entirely unheard of before than and to many signaled that the entire race had risen.

When Petey is about to perform his comedy routine he is hit with an epiphany. These well heeled white folks have come to laugh at me not with me. As he walks out on the Tonight Show, Petey also walks out on his career as a disc jockey. His personal demons catch up with him and his career comes to a grinding halt. There are ramifications for not falling in line with societies pressure to conform.

But what made Petey a hero to the average person was his willingness to take on power and privilege, yet remain true to his roots. For him to become mainstream would require him to turn his back on what made him popular to begin with.

I can totally identify with Petey’s dilemma. At POOR Magazine what separates us from the mainstream is the fact we embrace our disabilities and poverty and incorporate them in our journalism, poetry and books. To turn your back on this would be like turning your back on what makes you unique. This would be turning your back on your community. The motto at POOR Magazine is that not only do we report the news but we sup-port too. Through his unwillingness to change and conform to society’s wishes, Petey did just the same.