Story Archives 2000

by Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

I was a child in the 1960's. Vietnam, the British Invasion, Martin Luther King, the hippies, race riots, Cronkite, Malcolm and the Kennedy's blared through the black and white television set my father purchased for us. My father always told us that violence never solved anything.

On Thursday, August 14, 2003, I along with scores of concerned citizens from all over the bay area and all walks of life took part of the "Heal the Tenderloin March!". A vigil organized by Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Boniface, St. Anthony's Foundation and The Islamic Society of San Francisco.

With the spirited Reverend Cecil Williams leading the way, we took our spots on Ellis Street and proceeded to take over the Tenderloin. "Peace, love and happiness," Classy Martin, 17, a resident of the east bay said to me before the march began.. "We need to stop all the violence while we're still young. Classy works in the Tenderloin and is tired of all the violence happening this summer in the TL.

Louis "Lu-Lu" Williams was a resident of the TL. He lived in the Dalt Hotel. He was murdered there on June 28, 2003. "Lu-Lu" worked in the kitchen at Glide. "Louis Williams can be remembered! He didn't die in vain," reflected Brigardo Groves from Diamond Heights. He thinks this march is an important event in the community. "Homeless people are dying all the time in the street, they're nameless and faceless. A lot of people with disabilities are living in the Tenderloin."

I was proud to see the members of the kitchen staff and the guys who hand out the meal tickets for people waiting to receive something to eat out on the march too. They do a hell of a job. From my window I've seen may fights break out for any reason. They take control of the situation easily. I take my SF Giants beanie off to them!

Singing songs like 'Lay My Burdens Down', 'We Shall Overcome' and one of my favorites, 'Amazing Grace', Robin from "Tranny Talk"(which airs the 1st Sunday of the month at 11.30 a.m. on Cable 29), whose lived in the TL since 1995 exclaims, "(This event) is a healing of the community." As her dark frock ruffled through the San Francisco breeze, we eddied around Ellis to Leavenworth towards our destination, she continued, "This violence doesn't have to happen,"

"Guns are not part of the neighborhood," reveals Calvin Gipson, Director of Human Services at Glide. "This neighborhood is about recovery. We're not going to stand for violence!" Some of the employees of Glide stared to feel insecure about the neighborhood. This march was dedicated to Louis Williams, Paul Howard, Carlin Satterwhite, Joseph Garcia, James "Dirty South" Evans, James Bravard (who was the culprit of the crime) and all who have lost their lives or have been effected by violence.

When we reached the Dalt Hotel on Turk Street, the vibrant Rev. Williams took to the stage and he went off! "My brothers and sisters- we have come here for a purpose." "Amen," I and others yelled. "We want love in the Tenderloin." The crowds excitement grew louder. "We want to get along with everybody." And to the many youth in attendance he rallied, "You've got a voice in the Tenderloin, you've got a prescience in the Tenderloin." Everyone at the march were all shouting out and witnessing now, "Violence shall be overcome! Love is taking over the Tenderloin." His words brought cheers and yells from the people who gathered at the site of the murders.

Now, as I, along with Killa B, Flatfoot and many others who struggle with our recovery, I watch the Northeastern Blackout, the wacky race for Governor, that bullshit of a initiative Prop N being dragged out by the SF Board of Supervisors and the mayors race on my 27" Magnavox that Johnny, my best friend gave to me, I know that love can make a difference. . As one resident in the Tenderloin said to me, "Love is alive in the Tenderloin!" At least it was here tonight - if only for a minute.

by Bruce Allison/PNN

After getting the fifth degree from a security guard who wanted to know
more about me then my own parents, I got approved to go into 1095
market street. A seven story building with only six or seven companies
in it. (also the site of POOR's previous office where we were unceremoniously gentrified out of!

I walked into environmental action non-profit, Green Actions’ headquarters for an interview with POOR Magazine family friend and long-time Bayview activist and power-house Marie Harrison. I sat down
while she had lunch, we had a half hour interview about Lennar, the
nuclear dumpsite, and biohazards all of which are located in Hunter’s
Point. The area where Lennar Corporation are planning to build low income housing
has been capped five times due to toxic and nuclear leakage.

As my interviewee explains “Newsom and his Auntie gave Lennar a 3 million dollar
loan” and magically Newsom’s brother in law got a job in Lennar’s
executive ranks. This area is so toxic that the Navy has lost all
records of how much has been dumped there. It goes back to WW2 when
Fat man and little boy were assembled there, and parts which weren’t
used were dumped into the water. Letterman Hospital in the Presidio
has records of animal parts being dumped there after experiments.
According to my host she mentions that pockets of retardation in the
hunter’s point area has been high for that community. A fire started
at a former hunting lodge that the SFFD was told not to put out, for
unknown reasons. My host also informed me “Us poor people have no
place to live because of Lennar”.

This area historically was a mixed use area through WW2, you had a
Japanese fishing colony and a hunting lodge in Hunter’s Point. During
WW2 a building was there for working people, which is presently the
ghetto, this building was for shipyard workers and their families
originally and was to be torn down at the end of the war. Now it’s the
Evan’s Street/Candlestick projects, this building was only meant to
last until the end of the war.

Also, the politicians that are involved in this fiasco goes as far as
Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi on the Federal
level. On the state level there is a friend of mine called Mark Leno
who I didn’t think would be so mean and Fiona Ma who is not a friend
of any poor person. On the city level those who are responsible are
Willie Brown former mayor and Gavin Newsom. Sophie Maxwell will get touchy if you mention the name
Lennar.

The housing set aside for the people who paid money for it will be 3 ten story towers that will be put in hunter’s point
where presently low income people are living. For the working people fifty percent of the area medium
income is $100,000 for family of three. The majority of these people
have already been moved across the bay to Oakland or other places
outside of San Francisco. This makes San Francisco have the lowest
population of families that live in a major metropolitan area.

From a sixth generation native of this city and an elder, my city has
been robbed and raped by many corporations and agencies, Lennar and the San Francisco redevelopment commission as their partner in
crime. The redevelopment commission is the back door the mayor uses to
do this dirty work without leaving his fingerprints on it.

by Staff Writer

Yeah it's me Anjia the little black girl

that gets judged by my peers

Yeah I was born in the bay

but that doesn't mean dat everyday

I should pay

Being misunderstood just because

they feel that I 'm hood


by: Anjia Glover Age: 17

by Leroy Moore, Darla Lennox, Maria Palacios, Zilwood, Tiny

It’s Kripmas

(My Krip-Hop Kripmas Karol)

It’s that time of season

Where we give for no reason

Liberal hearts are bleeding

It happens once a year

Strangers in shelters

Cooking our last super

Share in the Kripmas Guilt

A toast with eggnog & milk

Make it last cause its cold outside

Where many live throughout the year

Kids can’t hide from Jake Frost

And folks walk by holding their nose

Pretending not see or hear

Santa Claus dress up in a three piece suit

Making deals with the Grinch

Who stole the real spirit of Christmas?

Was it Alan Greenspan?

Kripmas guilt is not enough

For landlord’s hands

It’s Kripmas

Nursing homes, physic wards & prisons

Holiday bonuses to CEOs

States issuing out IOUs

Layoffs at NPICs

My nephews know their ABCs

Spelling out NO JUSTICE

Tears frozen like ice

Have to grow up fast

No talking reindeers

No fat man coming down the chimney

Standing in line for charity

Wearing the mask for media

So thankful this season

It’s Kripmas

Smile for the camera

Now give to the needy

Pulling on the heartstrings

It’s a tactic use by Jerry Lewis

It just went corporate & sang by musicians

Band Aid spreading throughout the world

Singing “Do They Know Its Christmas Time?”

Feed the world…” but only for one day

It’s Kripmas

So share the guilt this season

Like every year at this time

Roll out the red carpet

Pull out the cameras

And fill your heart with pity

It’s Kripmas time

It’s Kripmas time

Thank God its once a year

by Joseph Bolden

Californians are going through rough times while Texans are living easy. But I don't blame Texans; that's not right, fair, or the American way.

Cali's been called the Fruit 'N Nut state since I don't know when. Mr. Dennis Tito is excluded from any criticism, afterall, he knew the risks of space travel, but knew that is could be done. Any Texans goin' to the Moon or Mars? Yes, our Fruit 'N Nut status began way before San Francisco became the state's painted lady. Like gruff multimillionaire doers and dreamers, like Texans, we have our pride. We do things up different; we're not as big a state as you, but we are as unique.

Yes, we fell off our high horse in a canyon where no one hears our calls for help. Think this affects only "those pussyfooted, lily-livered, granola eatin', holly-weird, strangely dressed, crazy idea folk up in Northern California? Think again.

Imagine, if the shoe were on the other foot. Prez Clinton is in Texas for a 20-minute talk about oil and gas with Governor G.W. Bush. Texas is feeling pressured to buy oil at ever-inflated prices from Arab oil cartels and is being gouged with higher electric bills by California's P.U.C. companies who are constantly upping heating oil prices.

Clinton says, "Keep conserving, drill along the pan handle or in the Alamo historical site, because of the rich crude oil deposits found there; transport wild horses and buffalo from their grazing grounds." He doesn't mention renewable, alternative energies. He says, "Conserve and keep paying Cali and Arkansas."

We love whales and dolphins, just as you love horses, buffalo, and the great God's country. We are different people in different situations, but we share the same country. The same situation could happen to you. Just think on it awhile. Wouldn't you feel offended at so little time being spent on problems looming so large in your state? We got twenty minutes for an energy crisis that is slowly spreading across this country.

Texas and the legendary Texans have shown what independence means. You can to do it again by developing alternative renewable energies. You are the Giants of oil, gas, and electricity. You can show our President Bush that it's time to move ahead not drift backwards.

That's enough from a transplanted New Yorker in the Flake State, but please heed my warning—alternative and renewable energy is coming quick. California is hurting now but once we're free of the national grid I don't want to hear that Texas is experiencing rolling brown and blackouts:

THIS IS A CALL TO ALL 50 STATES DEVELOP INDEPENDENT ENERGY PROTOCOLS-NOT GOVERNMENT OR STATE BASED ONES.

I hope I don't sound like a lone radical anus but it might be what we have to do. Tell me if I sound like a complete idiot.

Please send donations to Poor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe
at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Email:askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Alex Cuff/PNN News Brief Editor

For over a year the body of Armando Chapal Ramirez lay forgotten, by hospital staff, and decaying in the morgue at Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne. Armando’s family had certainly not forgotten him. The hospital, "had him there the whole time down there. Meanwhile, we were suffering day and night, waiting for the worst," said Ramirez’s father, Jesus, 45, a stock clerk in Gardena.

After a family barbecue on September 30, 2001, Ramirez who had an addiction and would go on binges for two or three days every month or so, slipped out of the house unnoticed. When he didn’t return, his parents began driving around the neighborhood inquiring with several area hospitals, store owners, friends, and neighbors. Jesus then filed a missing-person report with the police.

Ramirez was brought into the emergency room at Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center on October 1, 2001. He had pneumonia in his right lung and suffered kidney and liver failure. He was reported dead on October 9th and his body moved to the hospital morgue. Standard operating procedure is to call a law enforcement agency and ask them to take a death report which then generates a report to the coroner’s office. This was never done in Ramirez’s case.

Douglas Shaffer, the family’s attorney described the event as "the height of incompetence and neglect." When the family first got the call, they thought Armando had just died. They had been searching desperately for 11 months. "It was a great horror," his mother cried, "I’d never expect that a hospital would just keep a young man all alone like that."

by Joseph Bolden

The Size Matters Stuff

I’m going to nip this crap now. Size matters to women and men yes.

However though most women fantasize,dream of like looking at huge penis’s.

After having a few they begin to see,feel the problems of a too forefilling trusim.

That there is a limit to what a woman can take,it hurts and can rupture in or around their vaginal site.

Some will say the pain is worth the experience.

Like most women say after the experience as with having too large natural or enhanced mammary glands.

Shoulder and extreme upper and lower back pain is the price paid for enormously amply endowed women.

Yes,they are beautiful and look spectacular but carrying around those boulder holders
,getting specially made reinforced bras who's straps
may dig in the shoulders stressing the chest,back,and making standing straight difficult make having massive mammaries a unique challenge to big boned, heavy breasted women.

As for guys with penis envy of other guys with longer,larger,thicker,more massive,veiny,circumcized or uncircumsized equipment.

Their is only one thing we can do about the competition…

Let it go,we are born with what we have.

For women wanting more let them search for it.

If these wymyn are into more than visual thrill then its up to them not you to find their more than average guy.

If she want or needs the impossible from you let her go somewhere else.

Most women are looking for decent,gentle,self confident though no doormat/needy guys.

Though women can reduce naturally over abundant breast tissue or have implants,we men must face facts that
until applied science is able to clone from our cells longer shafts,reconnect nerve endings of cloned penis thereby having
a natural lengthened not merely surgically
fattened penis we’ll have to deal with what we’ve got.

That means besides diet, exercise, regular sex with either sex.

It also means listening carefully to women to
they're needs,wants, fears,ambitions,and dreams what we can provide sometimes aside from money, strength,attentiveness, assertiveness,self confidence.

Women will play the size game as a tease and to a few size will matter but the vast majority just want a guy to be a guy and give her great lovin’ on a regular basis.

If you have a woman, or women (sometimes good to have more than one) because we’re both a fickle sex,women have more than one guy and it does not
mean they think any less of you all it means is other men have qualities you may
have different qualities just as men find in women.
It may not be about cock sized different men.

though if it is well,one woman goes others can take her place.

If she’s with you and talking about your size joking,belittling,suck it up she’s in your bed with you so it cannnot be all the that bad if she's still with you.

Huge Clue Guys [She’s With You Not Anyone Else] which says something about you – like your worth her time.

The needling may be to psychologically keep you guessing plus she may worry that you can be with someone else as be with her but won’t say that to you.

So guys small,large,or mega membered all you can do is improve,vary,sex/ love making styles,read up on Karma Sutra,do yoga,Tai Chi,swim,bike ride,or job (though not 10-20 kilometers daily it’ll cut down on loving and upset your fem or fem friends a bit).

It’s a balance we men sometimes forget to listen, keep learning,and if your not thinking of E.D. or Erectile Dis-function it won’t.

The thought is father/ mother to the deed.

And ladies if you already have a good enough bed mate talk to him when quiet time permits and inform,praise,and make sure he’s not taken for granted and that you aren’t either.

That way those intimate times will build from good to great memories which can be shared at reconnected times.

Even when ex BF’s/GF’s,/BB’s/WW.’s [Same sex couples] meet up it won’t be in past anger but remembered joy.

I know its rare that ex’s remain friends but there are exceptions to every rule.

You prove it by being the exceptions.

Any comments go to

www.poormagazine.org

ask or telljoe@Poormagazine.org or

jsph_bldn@yahoo.com

by RAM/PNN

Theres a garden in the ghetto on the Sunnydale track

Theres a garden in the ghetto that was grown by Matt

To feed his wife and four kids in fact

You couldn't believe unless you seen it yourself in fact

That is revolutionary, living off the grid

He learned from his grandma as an eight year old kid

Peas, beans and a real pumpkin patch

He has the main one in the front and another in the back

Sunflower seeds in San Francisco

About twenty more things I havent put yet on the list though

Cherries, strawberry and watermelon

Potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, carrots all up in the zone

Did it on his own with Sunnydale dirt

Been growing for five years putting in the work

My honor to have met this proud black man

Yes its time for change and yes we can

by Thorton Kimes

Part One

Conspiracy theories and Swine Flu were on our minds at POOR Magazine when the S.F. first popped up on the radar. Still are. The state of hellthcare in Amerikka, folks buying cheaper medicine from Canada (the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex ranting and raving about not being able to afford to do research and development to save us from doom and gloom if that was allowed), and a whole host of other problems that hurt poor people the most—the truth is that Capitalism is the only conspiracy theory you need.

The word “conspiracy” or “conspire” comes from Latin, a phrase meaning “to breathe together”. Whether or not we are on the same page about Swine Flu or anything else, we’re breathing together all the time, like it or not.

Swine Flu and other nasty surprises we’ve had over the past few decades can be explained only a few ways and all of them mean we’re in trouble. Disease is one of Nature’s best population control weapons, the Black Death did a very good job of that in Europe and the Spanish Flu killed millions in North America and lives in the institutional memory and nightmares of the medical world.

The biggest thing that freaks out the medical folks is diseases lurking in rain forests being destroyed to create more farms, diseases hitchhiking on container ships or sent ‘round the world by the underground trade in exotic animals—even stuff long dormant in the snow and ice of the fast-melting poles, stuff we have no natural defenses against or drugs to use to combat them.

Those are reasonable fears. Other people have fears that are either “conspiracy theories” or reality, and there are historical precedents backing them as real. The U.S. government experiment on Black Americans from 1932 to 1972, the Tuskegee Experiment in Macon, GA, involved 400 men infected with syphilis who were never told they had it. Even after Penicillin was invented the researchers wanted to keep studying those men.

Old-school (and supposedly outlawed) chemical warfare agents like Mustard Gas, used in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980’s, killed thousands of fighters and left more crippled for whatever remained of their lives. Agent Orange worked better than the post-9/11 Anthrax attacks, destroying plant life, hurting and killing many Vietnamese and doing the same to many American soldiers on the ground.

Israel used White Phosphorus bombs in the late 2008 invasion of Gaza. White Phosphorus burns flesh, to the bone if you can’t remove it, and it burns under water too—which means you can’t wash it off the usual way. My own mother, normally a skeptical person, freaked out about the Anthrax attacks. Three hundred million people in this country and she feared a bio-weapon that ultimately was more pain in the posterior than true lethal threat.

Native Americans suffered forced sterilizations, and they weren’t the only ones. U.S. soldiers were exposed to radiation from nuclear bomb tests, and “Downwinders”, families living near the desert south-west test facilities have been suffering radiation damage and cancers, including Breast Cancer, ever since. Terry Tempest Williams, a Utah-based Mormon naturalist-writer, wrote REFUGE: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY OF FAMILY AND PLACE after watching some of her beloved local natural terrain (the Great Salt Lake) go through some devastating fluctuations—and losing her mother to Downwinder Breast Cancer.

If you haven’t read her book, please do. Gay America may have very good reason to hate the Mormon Church, but Williams is an amazing writer who brings her Mormon upbringing and family, and the tragedy they suffered from a government conspiracy, into very clear focus.

Part 2

Countries like Egypt destroyed pigs, but Mexico, Swine Flu Ground Zero, fell on its sword and cancelled all public activities in the midst of the Cinco de Mayo celebrations, hurting countless small businesspeople and the folks who worked for them. Poor Mexicans heard the same message all Mexicans got about proper use of water and washing hands—and had little or no access to water but plenty of access to Fear.

China quarantined Mexicans traveling there, which gave Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderone, a great excuse to complain about “discrimination” against Mexicans when he was the Discriminator In Chief. Live by the sword, hey—look both ways before falling on it, someone will be all too willing to “help”.

In Amerikkka we either don’t freak out enough or do it too much. Who benefits from the FEAR propaganda? The PhIC at least. A new way for an old disease to mess with you? New profits to be made from drugs already developed for something else? Yum. Yum!

The truth is that Swine Flu hasn’t yet become the deadly killer we’ve been told it is. Regular flu kills 30,000+ Amerikkkans a year and we don’t freak out about that! We barely even know it, the news media whispered about it a little bit and then shut up about it. I’ve noticed the whispers in this second round of FEARmongering, but the whispered truth just gets lost in the hard sell of we-must-all-be-vaccinated-or-we’re-all-gonna-die stuff going around.

At least one spokesperson I heard during Round One said something about not knowing “everything” about Swine Flu. You get caught with your pants down, fact-finding is job one, but what exactly do we need to know?

The October 23rd, 2009 ABC national news’ medical expert indirectly concluded that Swine Flu may have made Flu season a 24/7 365 days-a-year thing in Amerikkka and possibly elsewhere. Until the behavior of the Medical Industrial Complex, and/or the virus, changes again, we probably must adjust to this new reality.

Acting rationally about it is tough when the Fearmongers are out for blood. Your blood. Your heart and mind. I agree with the coughing/sneezing into an arm instead of cupped hand concept, but now the Etiquette Monger/Fear Monger Complex wants to encourage folks to change fundamentals of behavior like shaking hands!

Shaking hands is a very primal thing, like up-close-and-personal unarmed or close quarters combat with knives and swords; shaking hands is a greeting that proves both hand shakers are unarmed and trustworthy. Wasting a lot of time surfing the net (I’m good at that…) has done a fair amount of damage to face-to-face interpersonal connections people need to forge and reforge often for basic emotional mental health.

The Reagan “Just Say No To Drugs” campgain led some children to turn their parents in to the Police, I wonder what will come of a campaign to kill hand shaking if we truly are entering the era of 24/7 365 days a year Flu, etc.

Part 3

Simon Sez: kids get sick, keep ‘em at home, but keep the schools open. School districts acted and looked like fools during Round One, and high school students in Mill Valley (Marin County), CA, made them look dumberer by publically stating and acting on their intent to hang out together during their unexpected school break. Nothing bad happened.

Schools are being closed again, mostly because 20-25% of students got sick. One student in Northern CA said half her 15-student math class was sick at home. Math has always been my Kryptonite at Algebra and above, but if I had a 1 teacher-to-7-students ratio I’d be dancing the Macarena. If I was a parent I’d be marveling that any school could have a math class with only 15 students in it to start with!

If lack of students equals lack of money from the state or federal government, I’d like to see a special Swine Flu bonus paid to schools that stay open even if many students and some of their teachers are at home. Close the school? Are ya’ll nuts?

Prisons in CA and other places went on lock-down, and still are, the Swine Flu the perfect rationalization for being mean to prisoners. The PIC doesn’t need a new reason for that, AIDS hasn’t locked-down prisons, the PIC doesn’t mind making life and death very frustrating and painful for HIV-positive/AIDS-suffering prisoners. (Poor) Families of prisoners, already burdened by separation and the extreme difficulty of often long distances they must travel for any visits they can manage, are hurt the most.

More isolation. The news media matter-of-factly reports prison overcrowding in CA and the CA governor’s antics over it, and the the Swine Flu decisions, but doesn’t lift a finger to act like that means more than another reason to spread fear or read more words off a teleprompter.

Part 4

There is one valuable thing I’ve learned in the past 20 years: the first 24 hours of a block-buster “breaking news” story is when the confusion and outright lies come fast and thick, hit hard and take hold of our minds like those songs we sometimes can’t get out of our heads for a whole day. Waiting a few days usually leads to greater clarity about what actually happened or is happening.

I’ve mentioned real conspiracies. Many people fear mercury and other additives put into drugs and other necessities of our lives over the past century, substances that the chemical industry, the agricultural industry, and the PhIC suspected or knew could and did contribute to major health problems if they didn’t directly cause them. We need to pay more attention to that, and, supposedly, the government is watching to ensure that the Swine Flu vaccine is safe.

We all know numbers can be made to dance on the head of a pin with the angels. Can we play the music they dance to?

One very interesting thing about recent corporate news media coverage of Swine Flu and the you-may-bave-won-a-flu-shot sweepstakes: one or two skeptical doctors who told their clientele they didn’t need shots got tv face time. Then they vanished. Nothing to see here folks, just go home.

Remember the Peanuts comic strip? Charlie Brown didn’t often get good advice when The Doctor Was In, and he never got to kick the football.

The PhIC has its fingers in many medical pies, including the creation of vaccines for Flu Flu, Swine Flu, et al. The government uses an old, slow method to create vaccine doses, when there is a newer, faster way to do it. The PhIC seems happy to move almost as slowly, allowing the government to promise there will be enough to go around and then –whoops! There isn’t enough. The Fear Mongers strike again.

There is reason for fear. I’m not a parent with a child in the crosshairs. There is reason for pissed-offness too. Who wins when we allow fear to rule us? Haven’t we been through this with 9/11, color coded alerts, fear of a Muslim planet? Red Alert! Red Alert! Klingons!

by Richard G. Hall, Jr./PNN prison Correspondent

Recently I turned on my TV to participate in my favorite show on the boob tube, "Jeopardy." Much to my dismay, it had been postponed due to a charity fundraiser. At least as far as I was concerned, it was well worth it, particularly with the holidays approaching, and old man winter sparing no blows, with countless numbers of homeless men, women, and children at the mercy of the elements, on America's often degrading and dangerous streets.

I noticed a few large barrels in the background, placed there obviously in the hopes of encouraging the American public to "Stand United", as it had been proclaimed they were after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. "Wanted: Donated Food, Toys, Clothing and of course Cash." And, true to American form, there were those who did not hesitate in rushing to the aid of their fellow Americans and children in desperate need.

Suddenly, one of the promoters of the fundraiser announced that one of the main goals of the function was to acquire six hundred turkeys so that the homeless could be provided with a good meal on the day Jesus was supposed to be Born. It was obvious that since they, the homeless, had no place to call home, they had no place to erect Christmas trees. So, Santa Claus was not going to bless them with a visit, let alone gifts.

Once more one of the promoters made an announcement. He said that they had just received a donated turkey, as he proudly held the frozen gobbler up for countless viewers and participants to behold. Taking away nothing from the wonderful Americans who rose to the occasion, and gave from the heart to those down on their luck, I was still hit with an awful moment of clarity!

After the horrific attacks of September 11, almost immediately following the tragic catastrophe, America was pronounced to "Stand United," for once in its long racial and class divided history. Billions of tax-dollars were reallocated in a matter of days, without the usual political tug-o-war, for the alleged purpose of disaster relief, and a proposed long and extended war against "The Global Terrorist Network", except here in America's own backyard, obviously.

As the weeks passed, and pied piped public ultra patriotism responded to the prompted tune of ambiguity, Anthrax suddenly covered the national news, and the public fear spread like the Snow Storm of the Century, from sea to shining sea.

While the American public's paranoia rose sky high, U.S. planes took to the air over Afghanistan—a country of poverty, devastation, and utter destitution, and utter desolation—to drop billions of dollars worth of bombs, and supplies of dollars worth of food and supplies on a poor people America had both vicious contempt and empathy for. It was later discovered that hundreds of New Yorkers dropped false death claims in the mailbox, and several American companies sold fake Anthrax tests.

The over sensationalized plot thickened as "God Bless America" became the national theme song, for a nation that appeared to be plagued with disaster at every turn. This tune was prompted by a cabal of "Seize The Moment" politicians on the nations capital steps. As the choir sung, thousands lay crushed under tons of sky scrappers, hellish heat and smoke. How appropriate to sing such a contrary song at such an instance. American Flag manufacturers didn't waste any time brandishing their "Free Enterprising American Spirit" either, by raising the Stars and Stripes... in price. Some even invented an unheard of "God Bless America Flag," to show their true colors.

Yet, as reflections of the September 11 disaster are rubbed, like salt, on the open wounds of this nation by the print and electronic media, American's are starting to seriously wonder, what really happened, and what is really going on? Just recently New York disaster victims finally received the relief they deserved. Prior to that, they were put on a back burner because they were not "Heroic Public Servants" like New York's firemen and police. You've yet to see anyone
wearing a baseball cap in memory of the everyday citizens who lost their lives in greater numbers. This in itself shows that the "American Spirit" is still selective when empathy is at stake.

Long before September 11, 2001, and the names Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or the Taliban were ever heard of, Americans suffered extremely, from various tragedies, which were, and are to this day, nothing short of terror. Too often these matters which affect, and threaten more Americans than any terrorist from Middle Eastern lands, or anywhere else on earth, are facts of minimal national focus, and back page scoop. These are tragedies that worsen each and everyday, with no massive American resources and public ultra intervention to bring a significant end to them. One of which is Homelessness, which millions of poverty-stricken American's suffer from.

The fundraiser I began speaking of, ended as a smash success, as far as the promoters were concerned. Tons of can goods, clothing, and the 600 frozen gobblers had been acquired and 7,000 dollars in cash donations from millions of better of "United American" who at least showed what they were truly made of. Nevertheless, when you expand this picture, it doesn't look too good. Particularly when you consider that American society just sanctioned spending billions of tax-dollars for the purpose of revenge and mass destruction. How many bombs missed their targets?

How many millions of dollars went down the drain in vain? One thing is for certain, we could have fed all of America's homeless and then some for the price of the bombs that missed their targets. Yet, Americans must beg other Americans in order to acquire basic essentials. While at the same time, billions of dollars are given in aid to other nations, with the same social ills to uplift their people.

Maybe one of these days the TV network moguls will sponsor a "Homeless Month" on America's countless game shows. Then many homeless contestants could instantly win thousands of dollars and other costly prizes in thirty minutes.
Not only would that help many get on their feet, they could spread their wealth with other Homeless Americans, to uplift them as well. Who knows, many of them could even win one of those "Keep America Rolling" cars, with zero down and approved credit to sleep in it with their families.

That would save millions in the tax-dollars spent to lock them up in jail for sleeping on the cold, degrading, and often dangerous streets. There would be extra money to buy all the turkeys and canned goods next holiday season, to feed them, so that neither they nor anyone else will have to beg

You can write to R.G. Hall C-07278

P.O. Box 70S-LB 339

Soledad, Ca 93960-0705