Story Archives 2000

by By JENNIFER STEINHAUER (reprinted from the NY Times, courtesy of The Emergency Coalition to Save Public Health)

The city's Health and Hospitals Corporation, strapped for cash and
desperate to find new income, has begun charging a universal fee for
prescription drugs at the pharmacies of all its public hospitals and
community clinics.

Under the new policy, which was quietly introduced last month,
patients are charged a $10 "processing fee" for each prescription
filled, with a cap of $40. There are also some exemptions.

The policy has already come under criticism from health care experts
and doctors, who say the fees will discourage the poor and uninsured -
the most frequent users of the pharmacies - from getting the drugs
they need. The critics say such patients will end up in the hospitals'
already overcrowded emergency rooms as their untreated conditions
become serious.

Previously, the corporation allowed its 11 hospitals and 6 clinics to
decide whether or not to set a fee, and what that amount should be.
Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, for example, charged $10 per
prescription with a cap of $30. At Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment
Center in Lower Manhattan, there were no fees at all.

Dr. Luis R. Marcos, president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation,
said the systemwide fee was just one of many measures being taken to
stave off the $313 million deficit the corporation expects to face
this fiscal year. "The corporation has reached its limit of providing
health services for which no one is willing to pick up the tab," he
said. "I believe it is fair to ask patients who can afford it to pay
for prescriptions."

The new policy does not affect those who obtain medication during
hospital stays or during an emergency room visit. Also exempt are
those in public programs for AIDS or prenatal care, those with
tuberculosis or teenagers who receive oral contraceptives.

Patients with insurance, including Medicaid, are to pay their
prescription program's lowest co-payment, which in many cases may be
lower than the $10 fee. Dr. Marcos said he hoped this would encourage
uninformed or reluctant patients to apply for Medicaid, which has
become the corporation's main source of steady income. Some patients
and advocates for the poor say there have been problems with the new
policy, including a shortage of financial counselors who are supposed
to help patients enroll for Medicaid or negotiate for lower fees.

"We did an observation at seven hospitals and two treatment centers
and observed long lines to see a counselor," said Judy Wessler,
director of the Commission on the Public's Health System, a health
care advocacy organization.

Several patients said they were told that they must pay amounts above
the $40 cap, and were turned away when they said they did not have the
money - even though the policy states that no patient is to leave
empty handed because of inability to pay.

Celeste Almonte, for instance, left Gouverneur a week ago without any
of her medications, including those for diabetes and asthma, because
she said she was told her fee was $50. Ms. Almonte, who is 55 and on
Medicare, has no pharmacy benefit. She has a month of drugs left and
said that she had no idea how she would get her next batch. "What a
pity," Ms. Almonte said. "It is too much money for me."

Confusion over the specifics may spring in part from the way hospitals
are informing patients about the policy. At the clinic at Gouverneur,
a sign in the waiting room explained that a $10 fee would be imposed
and that financial counselors would be available. But it did not
mention the medical conditions and drugs that are exempt from the
policy, or other payment options. Other patients learn of the policy
only at the systems' pharmacy counters.

The corporation said it was working to inform patients better. Each
hospital is now sending out explanatory letters, and is working to
improve waiting-room communication. Dr. Marcos said that he had not
heard about centers overcharging or turning patients away empty
handed. He also said that financial counselors were available during
all hours that clinics were open.

For the past five years, the corporation balanced its budget through
cost cuts and other moves, but has been hammered with an increasing
load of uninsured patients, coupled with reduced payments from
government and private insurance programs. In 2000, 564,476 uninsured
patients came through its health care centers, a 30 percent increase
from 1996. In the same period, Congress reduced Medicare
reimbursements to hospitals, while Medicaid reimbursements to primary
care clinics remained basically unchanged, and drug costs increased 16
percent between 1999 and 2001.

But others argue that the new policy may compromise public health,
citing studies that show that the poor often forgo medications and
health care when costs increase. "Almost all the research that has
been done suggests that the health impact of a drug co-payment policy,
particularly for poor and elderly people, is adverse," said Dr. Jan
Blustein, an associate professor of health policy and management at
New York University. Dr. David Stevens, a doctor at Gouverneur, said
that some patients with chronic illnesses have run out of medicine
since the policy was introduced, and may end up in emergency rooms as
their conditions worsen.

Some health care policy experts suggest that the corporation seek
other options, like drug formularies, which limit doctors to
lower-cost brands. Others believe payments should be made on a sliding
scale, as clinic visit fees are. Dr. Marcos said the corporation was
developing a formulary system, but added that doctors and drug
companies frequently put up considerable obstacles.

by Joe B.

I’m in Sudafed-non-aspirin haze as a gray, light to heavy drizzle began falling.

How would I know in a drug induced haze? I’m just getting over the flu.

I took those medicines at 6am with water while washing down said legally bought drugs.

Its Thursday, March, 7, 2002 my brain has gone blank... Oh yeah, The “2002 San Francisco Homeless Summit will begin at 8:15 a.m. in the Herbst Theater

Veterans Building 401 Van Ness Avenue.

Mrs. A. Fay, Lisa, and I meet up at POOR’s 2nd. Floor.

While waiting falling in and out of sleep the drizzle became louder and the sky from POOR’s squared-off picture window are grayer, darker, nearly night.

Unfortunately We, that is Fay, Junebug, Lisa and I arrived in this pandemonium in the Herbst Theater ruining my I-can-go-home ‘n’ sleep, visit girlfriend in Berkeley-staying undercover all-day because-of-rain daydream; it tingles and stimulates and is the only reason I like heavy rain or thunder showers.

Tiny’s gray car is hard to see in this monochrome gray environment.

At 8:27 I’m ‘thinkin we’re late so “The ‘PO Poets may not have time to do their stuff which means no Joe “Slam Bio” wrong.

Everyone’s slightly late it this important event Supervisor Chris Daly gently rushed us into “The Green Room” [The faded green carpet seems to be why its named though green isn’t the exclusive color] for our on stage presentation.

Leroy Moore, of (DAMO) [Disability Advocates Of Minority Organization].
With A. Fay, myself, Junebug, Poet/Low Income Housing Advocate, Tiny, half of the Co-Editor’s of POOR Magazine, Mari, on Youth Commissioner beginning around 1996 or 7 by Mayor Willie Brown as a way of having young people’s ideas and coordinate problems and solutions that young people face in society today.

I dislike being on stage, in public but once out there you don’t want to let others down and you do your best while being absolutely terrified.

I spotted Mr. James Tracy of “Right To A Roof” Its everyone is confused as their rushed this way or that, but confusion as my normal condition is like a drunk walking straight during an earthquake.

A woman with a stroller and child is having trouble entering the building because of the security guard which is a bad sign for a summit for poor folks and they are supposedly invited.

It might be a minor mishap or an indication that maybe poor folks are not gonna be help and this is another political publicity stunt.

Now safely seated at a POOR table to smooze, inform, and sell our wares we’ve created see George Smith, Amos Brown, Tom Ammiano, and Gavin Newsom some other familiar faces flitted by but their names escape me.

At 10:46 am. The drugs are beginning to ware off as the stuffy, congested throat fogged head and lowered reaction time turns crowds and individuals into movie-like slow mo freeze framed images and my bladder began asking why I drank some tea and water earlier in the morning.

Later Isabel arrived her face clouded and fuzzed at the edges her navel's what I my eyes see telescoped there “An outtie” nice navel I thought absently before looking at her face or may have said it aloud still in a half sleep/awake stupor.

Answering questions, collecting moneys, looking for change, explaining POOR’s mission, nodding off slightly missing time doesn’t feel good plus the one person-table works for short periods but not when.

Lunch is on the second floor in yet another green room. Time expands so does my bladder.

I had to go bad yet stay to watch over money jar and salable items.

Luckily a flu slows everything down, after placing most magazines, handbooks, flyers, and taking money jar with me I go the restroom, empty sun yellow liquid which means I need I’m dehydrated and must drink more water.

I impulsively decide to grab a lunch of my own on the second floor.

Supervisor, Chris Daly is outside and a suited man tells me where the room is.

Inside lots or camera’s, reporters, and people sitting chairs or pews and next to me a table full of white plastic bags.

“Is that a donation for us?” a photographer jokes.
“Just our own”

I say grabbing a white bag, exiting quickly to the elevator.

Walking back to the table slowly until I’m once again sitting still feeling the slow motion effects the flu.

Waiting for my nosebleed to signal an end to my illness.

I continue selling what items I can as the Homeless Summit continues.

While eating lunch I legally re-drugged myself with Sudafed and non aspirin; I’ve forgotten if you take those medications separate or together - thinking “oh-well I take them together as I eat a tuna fish sandwich and wash it down with a strawberry-kiwi soda.

It’s only then I thought “You’re not suppose to mix medcations together oh-well.

I began nodding off, missing gaps in time, going the bathroom, and suddenly talking to Lisa, Mari, Junebug, and Isabell unless the latter is a waking dream.

Time slowed, quickened, there is a heated discussion of John John Whane Bobbit, Lorraina Bobbit, partial castration, and a porn career, also Vagina Monologues, and being hit a lot for saying the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong person.

Soon it was nearly time and I gathered what it needed before leaving the building.

The whole day seemed like a floating gossamer wing with nothing attached.

I hope poor folks, their advocates, reporters and politico’s get the message that improved, better, higher 'tech skills, education, and alternative work situations are possible and feasible.

Low-income housing, is not Affordable Housing and the Minimum Wage should always be continually Cost-Of-Living Adjusted so alternative ways of work is no longer locked into one mindset.

As soon as I get this stuff safely at POOR’s office I’m going home that is if I don’t end up sleeping in Local 6’s Union Hall tonight which is looking better and better to me.

Joseph Bolden/Poor Magazine
Staff Writer

by Staff Writer

Carmi Johnson's second book with POOR Press is written from the point of view of abandoned children addressing their mothers.

INTRODUCTION by Carmi Johnson

You Have To Learn To Follow…Before You Can Lead

Mothers come under the most criticism for abandoning their Children. Others complain that having children does not come with a "Set of Instructions". Fears caused by a parent leaving or abandoning the Child(ren) with one parent, can have a mental or physical effect on a child(ren) advancing in daily life. The primary concern for the Child(ren) are at risk. The importance of having a Mother in their lives is as vital as water is to our bodies. As mothers, we should focus more on preparing our child for College, Graduating from High School, Finance (Saving money in particular), Love, Relationships, and Survival itself. Why some Mothers leave their Child(ren) in Cars, with Strangers, Neighbors, in Malls, Hospitals, on Door Steps, in Dumpsters, in Garbage Bags, under the Direction of Child Protective Services (CPS), Orphanages, or with Relatives is yet to be determined. There is a "Series of Steps" a Mother can achieve in order to have "Custody" of their child(ren) if Drugs are a factor in the Mother’s life. By many accounts, the Child(ren) have been deliberately overlooked. If writing this book is helpful in anyway to a Child(ren) or Young Adult in communicating with their parent, I am grateful. Whatever what we are experiencing in life as adults, nothing prepares us for having children. Hear what is being said.

by Staff Writer

As a result of Peltier's recent parole denial, Ben Carnes, Choctaw Nation, and a Sun Dance Chief, states he will go to Washington, D.C. to stand and fast in front of the White House between September 5th - 12th, in hopes of securing a meeting with President Obama.

Earlier this year, the LP-DOC sent a letter to President Obama to discuss the case of Leonard Peltier, but the reply from the White House declined to invite members of the committee for a meeting.

Leonard Peltier has been an international symbol of American injustice based upon critical questions surrounding his conviction in 1977 in the deaths of two FBI agents. Amnesty International has designated Peltier as a political prisoner and a U.S. prosecutor has admitted in court during an appeal hearing that he did not know who killed the agents and cannot prove who did. A federal judge who heard this statement was unable to afford any relief wrote a letter to Sen. Inouye to ask the president to grant clemency.

Carnes is a recipient of the 1987 Oklahoma Human Rights Award for his stand against forced hair cutting of Native prisoners. He has been asked to speak before congressional committees and has served with numerous human rights, interfaith and Native organizations. He has worked tirelessly on behalf of Peltier for over 28 years, and first became a national spokesperson in 1991. He is also national support group coordinator and advisory board member for the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee.

"The basis of Peltier's denial by the parole commission is one of hypocrisy. It is also beyond belief that the chair of the US Parole Commission, Issac Fullwood, who is lectures on ethics in law enforcement, would turn a blind eye to the FBI's abuse of the investigative process. And Ms. Patricia Cushwa, commission member, and Chair of the Maryland parole commission recently supported a pardon for a man who had been executed, because there were questions about the case." said Carnes. He said that there are questions about Peltier case that remains unanswered, and with this denial, the parole commission have made Peltiers life sentence a sentence of death as he won't be eligible for parole for 15 years when he is 79 years old. Peltier will observe his next birthday on September 12 when he will turn 65. He has already served 33 years in prison.

Supporters are calling for a world wide 24 vigils on September 11th - 12th to begin at 8:45 AM.

by Staff Writer

Racism goes around�

Racism is all around�

then people were really sad and still is really bad.

and because of racism we are struggling, so many issues.

then the government says racism is gone, come to me, tell me, ask me!

FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!
 

by Marlon Crump/PNN

“It (the proposed legislation) will impact a lot of consumers, family members, husbands, wives. They (home health care workers) take care of them, and a lot of those people have felonies. If they won’t be able to provide a service to that consumer, then they could get sick and die," said Caesar La Tour of the United Healthcare Workers (West) in a POOR Magazine/PNN interview at San Francisco City Hall on December 14, 2009 outside the Board of Supervisors Chambers. For six years La Tour worked as a home health care provider, but he’s cared for the seniors and his family since he was six years old.
 

A “Felony Exclusion Resolution” was the item agenda for this public hearing before San Francisco Supervisors Chris Daly, John Avalos, Bevin Duffy, David Campos and Sean Elsbernd, all whom apparently opposed this legislation.

Among the various San Francisco Bay Area community groups attending this public meeting that also opposed this law were Senior Action Network and Planning for Elders.

Bruce Allison, Carina Lomeli,
“Tiny” Lisa Gray-Garcia, and myself, all representing POOR/PNN, attended this hearing for an emergency re-porting and sup-porting intervention against this criminalizing legislation.
 

"At POOR Magazine/PNN we practice ancestor worship and eldership."

~Excerpt from POOR Magazine's mission statement.

As I conducted research on the proposed legislation I was reminded of this statement because our elders are endangered by Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to prevent any In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) worker to care for an elder if they have a felony background or a “serious misdemeanor” offense.
 

“This particular legislation will ruin and take away choices from elders,” Bruce Allison, POOR comrade of mine and Elder Scholar, said to me with concern. “We’ve had enough stuff taken away from the ‘gentleman’ (Schwarzenegger) in Sacramento. This is one of his plans to shove us all in nursing homes and concentration camps.”

The legislation requires fingerprinting for anyone interested in becoming a service provider, even if his or her offenses range back to 35 years and they’ve had no further discord with the law. This policy will violate the right of consumers to choose who they want to care for them.
 

“The consumers are very upset because of this law that Arnold is trying to push upon us,” Mrs. McArthur, senior and IHSS worker, explained during an interview. “It should be their choice of who they want to work for them.” I asked her if there have ever been any troubles committed from home health care service providers towards the consumers.
 

“They are happy with the providers, but not with what the system is doing,” she replied. “Some of them (consumers) have a relationship with their health provider. Trust is the most important thing in this job.” Mrs. McArthur is deeply concerned with what the measures for fingerprinting will entail, and where the funding will come from to support this process?
 
 

In San Francisco, there are 22,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities who rely on service care to avoid institutionalization. Statewide, over 44% of IHSS recipients receive care from a family member.
 

The legislation contradicts current state law, which only excludes IHSS workers that have had convictions of child abuse, elder abuse, and fraudulent activities against government health programs. The legislation is also inconsistent with a federal law that excludes people from being service providers only for job-related offenses, and makes it illegal to use preventions of employment based on a prior conviction. Furthermore, the proposed legislation contradicts the City and County of San Francisco’s Civil Service employment policies, which do not permit a ban on employment based on conviction history. Rather, a case-by-case evaluation is required depending on the nature of the offense, the time elapsed and the job that the applicant performs.
 

Bruce Allison and I sat in on the hearing to witness the testimonies of those that opposed the Schwarzenegger policy and praised the Felony Exclusion Resolution.
 

S.F. Public Defender Jeff Adachi addressed his concerns to the Board of Supervisors about the kind of impact the law will have on people, predominately those of color, and stated statistical numbers in reference to those concerns.
 

“It behooves you, Board of Supervisors, to say NO to this legislation from Schwarzenegger,” I said during my public comment address to the board. I followed up with a slice of sarcasm stating, “Keep in mind, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a senior himself…with or without the massive muscles.” 
 

Recently, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch halted the state with a temporary restraining order by excluding people with felony records from working as caregivers in California's IHSS program. This order forbids the state from enforcing the proposed law’s restrictions until January 29, 2010, when Roesch will hold a hearing about a possible injunction.
 

Governor Schwarzenegger and his administration continue to attack services vital to the poor, the elderly and the disabled. He has no compassion for the lives of people who can no longer care for themselves without assistance from others. A person’s past determines how they care for the vulnerable in the future.
 
 

“My mom (‘Mama’ Dee Gray) became disabled when I was 11-years-old, and it was necessary that I cared for her. I was her sole care giver,” co-founder of POOR “Tiny” Lisa Gray-Garcia said to me during an interview.
 

Tiny stated that she does have a record for “Crimes of Poverty.” Described in more detail throughout her book, Criminal of Poverty, Tiny underwent a life filled with citation issuances every time she and her mom had to park their car just to get a good night’s sleep in.
 

Regardless of Tiny’s heroic ability to care for her mother at a very young age while managing their survival with no financial security, her record is forever stained with “Crimes of Poverty.” What would it have meant for people in poverty who provided for seniors, sick and disabled if this newly proposed law would have arrived in the past?
 

“This legislation would’ve made sure that we had no source of support,” Tiny said. “When we ended up in homelessness and poverty while my son was born, she (‘Mama’ Dee) became ill. The only money that we had was an in-home support services payment. It allowed us to eat.”
 

“The verdict acquits the raven, but condemns the dove.”

~Juvenal, Roman Poet.

by Kaponda

I sit in the nerve center of an underground movement in America that has created more talk than the wireless telephone. I observe the strategically placed compact disc turn and compact disc change, along with other elaborate broadcasting equipment, as gurgling sounds from the aquarium swim past my ears. The voice of the late El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcom X) permeates the airwaves with the legendary “Words from the Front Lines,” as he echoes the difference between the house and field niggers on plantations in the South. I see a man garbed in a brown dashiki come into the room, wearing a warm smile. He is Michael X, the latest person to join the micro radio movement, and the founder of Bayview Hunters Point Radio, 103.3 FM.

Bayview Hunters Point Radio, 103.3 FM, is the wings on which the voice of Michael X soars through the airwaves of his beloved community, urging the masses to escape the slave mentality seared in their psyche. As Michael X prepares to communicate with the only community he has ever known, I ask him what forces in his life brought him to the front lines of community activism and emboldened him to step out of the conventional outreach box into broadcasting without the sanction of the Federal Communication Commission or a license therefrom?

“Basically, I’ve always had the urge to do good in the Bayview Hunters Point community, where I was born and raised. I dabbled in micro radio five years ago with Stephen Dunifer in Berkeley. I had an opportunity to do a radio show. During that show, I thought to myself, ‘Hey! I can do this, too. I need to bring this back to the neighborhood.’ It was not until the death of my 16-year-old son, who was killed in a drug-related incident, that I was inspired to do something, you know, to honor him,” the 50-year-old revolutionary concludes.

Stephen Dunifer, to whom Michael X refers, is one of the first disciples of Mbanna Kantako, the sighted black man whom many people refer to as the father of micropower radio. In 1987, Mbanna Kantako set up a radio station in his home in the projects in Springfield, Illinois. Mbanna Kantako justified his right to set up a micro radio station as his right based on the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights and its guaranteed right for ordinary citizens to communicate with their fellow citizens. Today, 13 years later, Mbanna Kantako still broadcasts in Springfield, Illinois, and he is the benchmark by which over 1000 other members of the micro radio movement across America are measured. Stephen Dunifer later brought the knowledge he acquired from Mbanna Kantako to Berkeley and launched Free Radio Berkeley, the radio show from which Michael X acquired his insight into community radio.

As he burrows his body into the chair he reaches for one of the two microphones to began a passionate petition to the community residents. “You were listening to words from the late El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz...,” states the voice of the spiritual-minded Michael X who now embraces in his hands as if it were one of the many youth of the Bayview district to whom he cries out. He talks about the change that needs to occur in his community, and how its incumbent upon each individual to assume responsibility to effect change. As I sit beside him and listen to his broadcast, I can see how a slight shudder seizes him as he discusses the horrors visited on people in his community by forces within and without, horrors that linger in the mind like the swish of a basketball net from a flawless shot by an opponent that brought the crowd to its feet. His micro radio is a device that he uses to address those horrors. But it is like trying to even the score with a jigsaw.

As he honors his community with a selection from the album of Sly and the Family Stones, I ask him to explain some of the horrors that plague the Bayview Hunters Point district?

“The southeastern section, in particular, and most Black neighborhoods, in general, in San Francisco have long been neglected by City Hall,” begins Michael X as he ponders which of a litany of examples of governmental, environmental, and political abuses to begin. “There have been more than 20 deaths of young people in shoot outs, drive-bys and walkups within the last couple of years. There is a lot of children killing children in the Bayview and many of those deaths remain unsolved. In addition, the jails and prisons have become residents for more and more Black brothers and sisters, clear examples of political neglect,” states Michael X.

While the fact remains that African Americans make up only seven percent of the population of the state of California; in truth, the concerns of Michael X that an astounding 38 percent of the prison population is African American are worth examining. To get this disproportionate number of representation is like trying to draw a thousand aces in a single-deck pinochle game. The cards have to be stacked to defy these laws of probability. Michael X and others will argue that the hand dealt to the Black community in the Bayview district has been stacked. Or, another way to explain the disproportionate number of African Americans in prisons throughout California is that members of the African American race are evil savages, not unlike a Timothy McVeigh, who deserve wholesale incarceration -- or worse. A more logical explanation, of course, of why Blacks are disproportionately incarcerated is that the sentencing laws in California are stacked against African Americans. Rather than apply rigid sentencing laws to people who harm others through gross imprudence, the California legislature has targeted a particular drug and declared war on it.

I was one inmate, for example, out of over 2000 inmates in San Bruno Jail in the year of 1996. A startling 75 percent of the African American population of San Bruno Jail was incarcerated for drug-related offenses -- like possession of rock cocaine, the equivalent of a nuisance crime. Furthermore, these laws are framed to lock African Americans out of sight, forever, by including mandatory sentencing for a third felony, possession of a rock of cocaine, for example.

Conversely, while there are 12 percent of African Americans in America, there are less than three percent of Black owned and operated radio stations. Again, this disproportionate lack of ownership of Black radio stations in America has to be a result of a strategy designed by the Federal Communication Commission and National Association of Broadcasters to lock the voices of people of color out of the airwaves.

So, with the knowledge that there are less than three percent of programming by people of color, I ask Michael X How it feels to be a part of the micro radio movement and why has he taken on this mammoth responsibility?

“I am the Clint Eastwood of the Bayview community. I have ridden into a town of desperadoes. This is a town of outlaws and outcasts. Its a town where the imaginations of its residents are unrestrained It is a town that is besieged by a corrupt government that sells the land of the community to the highest bidder to empty its bowels and devour it with hazardous waste. Like Clint Eastwood rode through town and corrected the corruption, I’m riding through town to clean it up. My goal is to restore peace to the town of Bayview, and I’ll ride into the sunset after my job is completed,” concluded Michael X.

Michael X may successfully curry favor with the residents of the Bayview district, but he may find it very difficult to ingratiate the Federal Communication Commission, who recently shut down three micro radio stations in Berkeley for broadcasting without a license. The FCC has been inconsistent in terms of its eligibility guidelines for obtaining broadcasting licensing for less than 100 watts of power. For example, in January of 2000, it was legal to broadcast with less than 100 watts of power. “Now,” according to Michael X, who broadcast with 40 watts of power, “It is illegal, again,” states Michael X, as he continues. “A person can get a license from the FCC if the radio station broadcasts in rural areas, only. The FCC is not issuing licenses in urban areas because, according to the FCC, ‘there are no available frequencies.’”

I ask Michael X if he thinks the FCC will eventually upset his applecart?

“Yes,” utters the undauntable Michael X, as he prepares to surrender the airwaves to prepare for the next show.

On this Sunday, however, there was no FCC to fear. A special guest, who hosts a radio show on 103.3 FM every Sunday, Marie Harrison, of the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper, enters the room and prepares to take over the airwaves for the “Marie Harrison Show.

Clad in a soft white blouse with denim jacket and pants, Marie assumes control of the airwaves and begins her interplay with the community. Marie wastes no time with her report on the recent discovery of the black beauty sand and environmental issues in Bayview, issues on which she is versed. She continues her diatribe with an appeal to the community members to reach out to young people.

“I think we need to work with a lot of our young folks,” stated Marie. “They’ve got a lot of good ideas. We need to bring them up to par. We need to let them know that we are there for them. When I keel over the day after tomorrow or the day after that, somebody has got to be in my place, and somebody has to be there after that person. It is a never-ending battle for education, knowledge and the sheer will-power to get up and do something worth doing. We need to have me. We need to have you. We need to have your next door neighbor, and the folks across the bay to bring all of their knowledge to help us resolve some of these issues,” Marie continues as I prepare to walk out into the streets of the Bayview Hunters Point district.

by Poverty Scholar/Facilitator; Dee Gray, Teaching Assistant;Alex Cuff

1st ‘reading’ by PSI Poverty Scholar; Jewnbug

1). What was the transubstantive error in the movie?

*

Hedi would have a better life in so called “America.”
*
Hedi takes her Vietnamese family’s behavior about money as rude.

Hedi is conditioned to view things from a (KKK) white racist perspective and very Americanized not embracing the interdependence in her family in Vietnam.

But wasn’t there transubstantive error on the part of the Vietnamese family? What is it? Explain.

*

The Vietnamese family I think interpreted Hedi’s gift giving and her living in ”America” as her being wealthy thus why wouldn’t she help her family out with money and/or because “America” is capitalistic upfrontness about money wouldn’t be taken as rudeness and she wouldn’t be so emotional about it . However Heidi may not be hella wealthy she is still I feel in a financial position she can offer her family the support they are asking. The Mother however did make a comment about how she understood that Hedi has been raised in a different culture(lifestyle) and this talk of support for the family is something she is not being understanding too, but I feel that the Mother is still hurt by her daughter’s response even though she is trying to understand the conditioning that has influenced her daughter’s behavior.
*
The Mother showing Hedi the shrine for her grandma/ancestor/elder expecting her to understand/value/honor death in this same manner.

2). What was needed in this situation to have not made the ending so hopeless?

*

The daughter brings her Mother with her to meet her grandchildren and stays for a while.
*
Heidi goes to Vietnam and brings her husband and two daughters to meet their family.
*
Heidi stays in regular contact with her family and rediscovers and embraces her Vietnamese heritage and educates her children, husband and the family that adopted her. She doesn’t deny her heritage to the adopted family and they are confronted about their racism and classism. She builds a very strong bond with her family in Vietnam. She learns and realizes the lies of the American government and the truth, that her Mother never gave her up. She also is reducated about the war from the Vietnamese perspective and reality.
*
Heidi helps her family in Vietnam every month and understands the upfrontness about money is her family keeping it real. (In my family we discuss money openly and honestly we have to, it’s the way we survive. It really upsets me she isn’t supporting her family who really loves her and shows it and here she is with all this food etc...and she can’t even give anything. I am on welfare and will still try to help my family out.) Furthermore she is grateful for the constant affection from her Mother and family because she didn’t get that kind of affection from her adopted family she adjusts without being turned off by the physical closeness. She leaves the audience with her brainstorming about moving to Vietnam with husband, daughters or stays every summer in Vietnam.

3). What did you most empathize with and why?

*

I cried and cried about (Operation Babylift) children, babies taken away from their family, their Mother. I cried at the end because Hedi don’t even write her family back that’s beeped up. The lies the Mothers were told and this white woman trying to take childern to “America” really angers me.
*
I am happy she was reunited with her Mother but angry, frustrated with her attitude towards her family in Vietnam. I am sad for the Mother her pain her mourning over her daughter.
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I dream and cry to meet my family one day. My family in Hawaii who are in contact through letters, pictures and phone but to touch them is something I hunger for. Many people who aren’t even Hawaiian get to travel, live, go to school in the home of my Ancestors my family. I didn’t even have money to go and over a year ago my grandpa died me and my dad, my brother couldn’t afford to go to the funeral. It hurts. I got two brothers who I haven’t even met who live in another state of colonizing and dream of meeting them. Heidi to me had the opportunity of a life time and she acted like a beep.
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I think she acted like a (beep) and still is because she is not writing back and basically it looks like she has totally written them out of her life. I think that her behavior is a result from the following:

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The adopted family never encouraged her to be proud of being Vietnamese/ mixed.
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Believing that her Mother gave her up and probably being taught that by her adopted family.
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Not being able to really identify with anyone or anything as a person who’s a mix of Asian and European heritage in the environment she is being raised in.
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Not gonna be accepted in this society if she represents her Vietnamese heritage therefore assimilates to be an all “white American”. ( I myself as a mixed woman who’s mix is not your so called average mix and being someone who is non white but could pass if I chose to has dealt with white youth only wanting me to represent white and being attacked as a teenager by a white guy who called me a nigger and told me to leave the Sunset and go to Hunter’s Point . I tried to hang out with white youth at one point in time and felt so out of place I stopped hanging out with them but did make connections with youth who were non white who were hanging out with the same crowd. Here I was taking two buses from my hood to go kick it with white youth with the exception of a few youth who were non white. I felt so uncomfortable a lot times that I stopped. When I look back I feel the reason I did this was because I at 16 for the first time had been exposed to white youth who were well to do on a mass level and I was curios plus the parties the houses the cars the drugs the money appealed to me a mixed lite skinned young lady who’s poor, wished at one point could have their life with the exception of some things.) Heidi having this opportunity to not wish but actually was living the life as a youth in a white community who didn’t go with out food, shelter, clothing and could pass chose to for reasons of protection, acceptance and access.
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Heidi didn’t get physical or verbal affection on a daily basis from her adopted family made her in ways a non touching feeling person. She is encouraged not only through lack of affection but the mannerism of this white community to be separated from family to succeed. When she left home she didn’t go live with anyone else in her adopted family not even the grandma. At the end of the movie you see her talking with her adopted grandma saying she knows her best but yet this family didn’t work together to intervene when the adopted Mother kicked her out of the house nor did anyone in the community. She did stay I believe with friends but it seems no one helped restore the relationship with her adopted Mother. This is another example of separatism which influenced her to not empathize with her family in Vietnam’s need for her intervention and support to help them survive. She was taught she had to survive on her own by this white community’s separatism.
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The school she attended spoke on the war in Vietnam yet did they even discuss Operation Babylift and did they educate her on it with a prejudice towards Vietnam. I think perhaps they did therefore she is being conditioned to blame her Mother for having made the decision to have her adopted in “America” not the facts of who the oppressor is in this situation but she takes it out on her Mother. ( Myself can recall being upset with my Mother and Father of why were poor but as time went on I learned my parents are being oppressed and that they are trying to do what they can so we survive. I at that point in time had been conditioned to take it out on my parents instead of the welfare system, capitalism etc… I everyday must unlearn oppression and it’s conditionings.)
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I think that Heidi is part of a community that is based on lies and teaches lies such as racizm, classizm and that individuation is a good thing. She lives around people who aren’t keeping it real who aren’t teaching the truth. Her family in Vietnam keeps it real in terms of where they are coming from and what they need. I think she ain’t used to such honesty and openness.

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2nd ‘reading’ by Poverty Scholar Valerie Schwartz

1. What was the transubstantive error in the movie?

I believe there were several transubstantive errors in the movie. Beginning with "operation babylift" it was more than evident that the whatever they called themselves, representatives of the American government and adoption agencies. They did not seem to care that they were taking children away from their mothers and brothers, sisters, families and culture. They just knew they were "doing the right thing" without considering the ramifications of their of the program they were implementing and the long range effect it would have on the people involved. They were just doing their job for America is what they probably tell us. Another great American faux pas...

The second transubstantive error is made by Heidi herself, this was as crippling as "operation babylift" itself. She went very impulsively into finding and meeting her mother. I don't believe that she took the time to consider the contrast of culture and life between Viet Nam and the USA . I don't think she put forth much energy thinking about anyone other than herself and perhaps an unrealistic view of how her renuion would go her vision was myopic if not blinded by the thought of how she dreamed it would be.

The third transubstantive error was with her siblings and relatives in their thinking that Heidi would understand the concept of being responsible for her mother, family, and elders. I am sure that they were unaware of how many American treat they parents, siblings, and families in general: they don't understand that Americans have been brought up to believe in individuation and are basically brought up in the school of thought that we have come to know as "me, me, me, mine, mine, mine." I am not suggesting that they
disregard Heidi's behavior but unfortunately it wasn't considered.

2. What was needed in this situation to have not made the ending so hopeless?

I think that Heidi should have taken the time to find out more about her people and culture and especially done a lot of correspondence with her family before going. Americans don't even consider the idea that people in other countries live very differently than we do. Heidi regretfully I think entertained an "orphans dream" meaning that her life was gonna be wrapped up in a wonderful little package once she and her mother reunited that all her life she had wanted a June Clever type mother...ya know the loving TV mom who is always there, knows just what to say, and is very loving and nurturing. Nice thought, but not too real. Not that it couldn't be accomplished with some understanding, love, and work. I believe her mother truly loves her very much and really thought at the time that she did the right thing by giving Heidi up especially with the rumor of the burning of all the Amer-Asian children, but Heidi needs to get real and get off her pity pot. At times I had the definite feeling that her siblings were of little importance to her. I was disgusted by the way she reacted to the thought of helping out financially, she never even seemed to consider how good she has it, that she doesn't struggle from day to day. I guess I feel that Heidi should have put forth a lot more effort and it wouldn't have been so hopeless. She did initiate the reunion therefore I think she should have put more into making it work and tried to be aware of the cultural differences.

3. What did you most empathize with and why?

I can only empathize with Heidi on a small scale. The person or idea that I empathize with is probably with Heidi's mother. She was left with children to care for during a war, her husband gone and she did what she had to do to see that her children/family stayed intact, safe, and alive by being a G.I.'s consort. I know the reality of having to compromise yourself to feed your children. She then thinking she was saving Heidi from death at the hands of Vietnamese soldiers/ new regime, thinking that all the children would be rounded up and killed. What a horrible decision to have to make to make and then wonder for decades if she had done the right thing. I also caught a deep feeling when her family was asking her to help care for her mother and her mother explained to them that Heidi didn't understand, that it was too soon, and they shouldn't make her feel forced. That was truly a mother's compassionate and genuine love even though she was disappointed...she did not give up hope.

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2nd ‘reading’ by Alex Cuff

1. what was the transubstantive error in the movie?

...there were so many. first of all, the vietnam war itself – or most wars, i
think. then, "operation babylift" – assuming that the vietnamese children were
better off with american parents. i feel that both heidi (i can’t remember her real name) and her mother are victims of the transubstantive
errors mentioned above. As far as their own transubstantive errors – yes, they both made the errors. The family asking for money is sort of a cross cultural “error” because americans don’t usually do that but I don’t think it’s a major error as in it didn’t really have much of a negative impact on the receiver of the error, heidi. If anything, getting upset was probably good for her in that it broke the comfort bubble she arrived to vietnam in. Okay so heidi’s transubstantive error was taking something as huge as a reunification with her mother very lightly. She made an error is getting personally insulted by the asking of money instead of learning more about the culture before her arrival. The family laid off when she got upset and didn’t press. They didn’t hold anything against her when she reacted to the request for help.

although i was appalled by heidi’s behavior when she went to visit her family in
vietnam, i can not find a way to blame her except for being super selfish and
badly educated. the latter probably contributing to the prior. i wonder why she
wanted to back to vietnam to meet reunite with her mother. If anything, she wasn’t prepared for what the trip meant.

2. What was needed in situation to have not made the ending so hopeless?

I really don’t know. Maybe more support and education and encouragement from the Filipino woman who escorted heidi to the village and acted for part of the time as translator. Really heidi needed to be different. I don’t want to come down so hard on her and say that she needs to follow through with the entire thing (which is what I feel) but she could have at least continued correspondence with the family, sent pictures of her children, maybe even gone back over with her family or something.

3. Who did you most empathize with and why?

Certainly the mother. Her emotion was so real to me as where heidi seemed cold and disconnected. The mother waited so long to see her daughter – the scene on the beach in the beginning, memories of heidi’s father was probably painful and of course the regret and guilt she probably felt for letting heidi go to the US. I empathize also for the family because they see and live with the mother’s pain and don’t really have a way to console her. The mother is strong through and intelligent, she seems to understand where heidi is coming from SO much more than heidi even tries to see where the mother is coming from. I can empathize with heidi if I try to put myself in her position – her life back home seemed so stale and I feel bad for her cause I feel she’s scared and wants to be comfortable even with the grandmother who doesn’t seem too warm. Heidi doesn’t get the richness she is missing in vietnam.

All in all it’s really a terrible situation. It’s hard to point blame on the victims which I think all of the characters in the movie were. Our invasion of vietnam and the post-transubstantive error of stealing children from their families is the underlying blame.

by Staff Writer

* Illin-N-Chillin Editors note
Last year filmmaker, Anthony Lover, of Liberty Inc. in New York gave the public the first film with two African American actors with developmental disabilities in leading roles, "My Brother". I had a chance to visit his studios in New York and conducted an interview about My Brother with one of the actors who had a small part in the movie and was chosen for Lover's new film "The Promise". Lover was also looking toward the sequel of "My Brother". Last week I received this shocking email.

email from Anthony Lover;
Dear friends and supporters,

Number of reversals has beset me since we last talked to each other, both personally and professionally. Marlene, my wife, had to have major spinal surgery (10 plus hours). She was hung and cut, both through the stomach and the back to accomplish a difficult but seemingly successful operation. It takes up to 9 to 12 months to fully heal to really know.

I went out to purchase food for my wife's dinner and took the opportunity to buy lunch for three of the kids at the studio who had been helping me. Returning after lunch we were on the sidewalk at 26th and Second Avenue when all of a sudden, one of the kids cried out- "Oh, my God!" I turned quickly to see what he was looking at. Everything happened so super-fast while at the same time in ultra slow motion it's hard to describe. I saw this van coming straight towards and I instinctively shoved two of the kids out of the way saving their lives. They were in front of me. I shoved them so hard, one had to be checked out of at Bellevue. A second later I received the full blow of the van's bumper crashing into my legs. I later learned the driver was speeding, struck a cargo van and careened off and was out of control.

The bumper shattered my legs and knee. The blow sent me flying in the air, my head (with my glasses on) crashing into his windshield. Luckily the destroyed lenses didn't go into my eyes. The forward motion of van or his braking then sent me flying backwards through the air onto my back with my head hitting the sidewalk. The driver jumped out of the van abandoning it (Later to find out he had no insurance as well as his complete disappearance to police).

Amazingly I never lost consciousness from being hit. I was very calm. Maybe I was in shock. I don't know, but I seemed to be in total control of my facilities. One of the kids, kneeling over me, kept putting his hand on my heart and saying- "Don't diez'. It was very surreal; I kept thinking why should I die? Why does he think I'm going to die?

An EMS ambulance with techs arrived and immediately cut the clothes off of me. I guess to look at my physical wounds. When they put me on a wooden stretcher board I felt my first shock of pain. They asked me- "From one to ten, how severe is the pain?" I remember telling him I had a high tolerance for pain and saying- "I guess it was a five."

The EMS tech laughed and that seemed strange to me. Over his protest, I pulled my self up onto my elbows and looked down and saw that my legs where busted up and my feet where in the wrong direction. It was clear visual to the seriousness of my plight and I began think what was going to happen to me.

Everything seemed surreal about the event. They took my blood pressure and it wasn't far from being very normal (130 over 80). While they were doing this I was giving instructions to one of the kids to tell my Marlene calmly that I was in an accident and not to panic her; then to get my medical records out of my computer and give it to Bellevue.
The police arrived and asked questions as the EMS techs strapped me in to take me to Bellevue's trauma center.

It was God's will or I was lucky to be alive and taken to Bellevue. It's "the place" to go if you are in a serious or in a life threatening accident. I found out later that it's a standing order for the police, firemen, the President (If he's in New York) or dignitaries that they are to be taken to Bellevue for any serious trauma.

Bellevue didn't operate on my legs for days because my bust up legs produced blood clots and they found one in my lung. The surgeons felt there would be more embolisms and if they went to my brain, it would kill me. They operated and put a net inside to catch other blood clots along with thinning my blood.

They put me on Morphine for the pain. I suffered severe physical side effects from the Morphine drip, being delusional was the least of it.
When I could talk to my surgeons (I had eight of them) I said- "Take me off Morphine, I'd rather deal with the pain then be on it." They did, but the withdrawal with its side effects took five days before it dissipated.

I have been in the hospital and rehab since March 4th having survived death a number of times. Been in my apartment for a little over a week. I just started emotionally being able to e-mail people who probably didn�t know what took place (although a number saw it on the news). I'm still a long way from walking and being normal again, if ever. I move around in a wheelchair with pain. I have been very depressed about my physical condition and the financial circumstances I find myself in now. I most likely am facing the loss of Liberty and being forced to sell the building under duress. My doing that, dashes the dream of making change (over seven years of work) creating Liberty product (like "My Brother") and to be "a place" for young people to be given the opportunity to reach and change perceptions and forge new understandings. I fight the depression with trying to be positive and to look to the future with new eyes.

Leroy, I hope you and your family are well. I look forward to hearing and seeing you again.

Love always
Tony

240 East 27th Street
Apt 4J
New York City, NY 10016
anthonylover@gmail.com
Cell: 1-917-403-1650

P.S.

I finally got past much of my depressed state to work on the rewrite of "The Promise" screenplay (which I think I told you about). I think it's going well (I'm a little past half way now). A few months before the accident I met with a financier/producer person for a company that produces and distributes feature films and TV shows (they have a deal with Time Warner). He really liked the extended treatment (60 pages) and is awaiting the script rewrite for us to have another meeting. Among other elements, I down played much of the Iraq war, focusing on the main characters and the battle as just the catalyst to extracting the promise. It seems to be working well.

by Gloria Esteva--Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia

Scroll down for English

En mi opinión, lo que han hecho no esta bien. Es mas como agarrar un golpiza en la mano, mientras el que te pega se sienta confortablemente te da suficiente lazo para que te cuelgues. Si te portas igual de mal o peor que el opresor, te botan del país. La intervención y la prevención hubieran sido puesto desde el primer lugar, para detener a los ofensores, pero así no fue el caso. Ser un criminal en esta tierra robada es glorificado, y cual caso fue explotado—el de la familia Bolonga. Ese crimen entre los Latinos abrió otro bote de gusanos, y es como Latino Documentado vs. Latino indocumentado, otra maniobra que mantiene la Raza en contra de su propia Raza, como Afro-Americanos vs. Afro-Americanos.

In my opinion, it was a tricknology move. It’s more like getting a slap on the wrist and the one who does the slapping just sits back and gives you enough rope to hang yourself with. If you be “too bad” or act worse than the oppressor himself, you get kicked out of the country. Intervention and prevention should’ve been implemented in the first place, to deter offenders, but that was not the case when being a criminal on this stolen land is glorified, and who/what case was highlighted—the Bolonga case. That Brown on Brown crime opened up another can of worms, so it’s like “Legal Brown” vs. “Illegal Brown”, another move that puts (in part) Raza vs. Raza, just like African vs. African.