Story Archives 2001

by Takuya Arai/PNN (edited by Dee Gray)

Currently, I share a house with four other students like myself. As well, on most days there are six or seven more people in our house at any given time because we invite our friends over. Mine is a large household. Since PG&E started charging more for their utility services, we have not been using the gas heater, even for cold nights. Our dishwasher has been unused for weeks. Despite our efforts, the energy bill has kept mercilessly increasing. Everytime I open the PG&E bill, I feel like I am receiving a graded exam from my professor.

For low-income people, increased energy costs pose the serious threat of losing access to the basic necessities of life. On March 27, as California residents’ discontent heightened, Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, protested against the approval of the 46 percent rise in electricity prices at the State Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco. Medea Benjamin ran for the U.S. Senate in the last election as a Green Party candidate. Although dealing with the energy crisis was not her agenda, she is now actively involved in it.

The office of Global Exchange is on Mission Street in San Francisco. Unlike the other parts of the city, the Mission District is filled with the liveliness and vitality of the Latino community. I noticed that there were more people on the street than in other parts of the town and there were different generations of people, such as little kids, young couples, people at work carrying stuff, mothers with babies, and elders on the street. Despite its geographical proximity to my house, I felt like I had come to Latin America.

The sophisticated arrangement in the office and the multi-racial working environment of Global Exchange impressed me. The receptionist told me that I could sit on the sofa to wait for Medea Benjamin, who was in a meeting. When she came out ten minutes later, I did not recognize her. She looked a lot smaller than the picture I’d seen of her in the New York Times. We both sat on a big comfortable couch and introduced ourselves . As a matter of fact, this was my first serious interview, and I think I appeared very nervous to her. People were walking by us, but it helped to create friendly atmosphere for me.

First we talked about the role of the PUC, which is responsible for providing California utility customers with safe, reliable utility service at reasonable rates. I read this in the PUC mission statement.

“It seems like what they are doing to us is the total opposite of what they are saying. It even sounds ironic and it is hypocritical. What do you think about this?” I asked as my first question.

“They are violating their own mandate.” Medea Benjamin replied in a soft voice. “If they continue on this path, this won’t even be the end of the rate increases. Companies are responsible for the crisis, whether it is the utility companies or the wholesale energy suppliers. And somehow, between the two types of companies, they’ve got to figure it out and pay for it.” Frankly , I was glad that she answered me with a sincere attitude as I was a little anxious that she might not take me seriously. Firstly, she does not know anything about me and secondly, I am just a reporter who has never done this kind of thing before.

Loretta Lynch, the president of the PUC, said that the light power users would face little rate increase compared to the heavy power users. But these power rate hikes will ultimately hit the residents of California. Those heavy power users, or the commercial power customers, will be forced to pass on their higher electricity costs by increasing the prices of their products or services.

Medea Benjamin agreed on this point. She said, “Businesses are going to pass on [the cost] to the consumers. So, if you buy food, if you ever go to a restaurant, if you go to the laundromat, if you go to Walgreen’s, wherever you go to make purchases, you are going to feel the increase in prices.”

The other thing that she pointed out is what is called the “baseline”. PUC and other utility companies determine who is going to get the rate increase depending on a certain baseline. That baseline is determined by region and by season but they do not set this baseline by how many people are in each house.

“If you are a poor family, living six, seven, or eight people in a household because you cannot live on your own, have extended family of grand parents, kids, you will use more energy. So you will be in a category of the “energy hog”. So, it actually discriminates against larger family or larger households.” Medea said the way that they are deciding who will get the rate hike is unfair and the PUC and other utility companies should change this way of looking at and trying to solve the problem.

There are many large families and large households, particularly in poor communities. Lorena, who works with us at POOR News Network, lives with 14 roommates in a two-bedroom apartment in the Mission District. She shares one bedroom with four other adults. Over the past three months, she saw the apartment’s energy bill increase by more than 60 percent. “My roommates do not have jobs. They are looking for a job. I do not know if we can afford to pay more for electricity.” Lorena said in English, which she does not use very often.

Although the PUC states that anybody who is low income can get subsidies for their energy, the program is very limited and only helps low-income people for three months. With one quarter of children in California living in poverty, it is impossible to cover all of them. In addition, how are they going to subsidize the majority of seniors who live on a fixed income?

“We should also remember the middle-class people.” Medea Benjamin said. “This can be very devastating for them because the middle class has really been hit hard by the cost of living. Many middle-class families are hanging on by a thread as well. They have high debts, high mortgage payments, high expenses related to child bearing, high cost of health care, so this does not just affect the poor. It also affects the middle class.” During the interview, somebody important called her and she had to take the call. She came back in less than one minute, but the telephone was ringing incessantly and I could hear many people in the conference room, where she had been.

In 1996, then-Governor Pete Wilson, a Republican, signed the bill that deregulated and dismantled California's electric utilities in the name of lower consumer power bills. I learned in school that the whole notion of deregulation is to promote free competition, so that companies that have the most efficient operations, and management can offer their services and products at the lowest price, which should be beneficial to the consumers. Advocates of Social Darwinism say that the winners in competition will bring the most benefits to the consumers and hence to the society. However, what is actually happening is the opposite. Those two utility companies have not been able to pay the energy wholesalers who raised energy prices after the deregulation. Those utility companies are now passing on the higher energy costs to the consumers.

“Do you think that the deregulation is the cause of the entire rate hike, or was this just a part of the scheme for them to get more money from the final consumers?” I asked.

“I think both. I think the deregulation has been absolutely disastrous. This was sold to the people of California as a way to reduce rates by at least 20 percent. We were told that the deregulation would lower consumer prices because of increased competition and we see it went from regulated cartel to deregulated or unregulated cartel. I think it is also a part of the scheme that the companies themselves have pressured the politicians to implement the deregulation as a way for them to make very obscene levels of profit.” She answered.

I kept thinking about things that I had learned in school, such as deregulation, lobbying, privatization, competition, etc. I was taught that those things bring prosperity to both business and the consumer. When we had discussions in class, I learned to use business jargon and got used to talking like a senior executive of a company. I remembered what I was studying and thought that my mindset was so one-dimensional.

Because of this rate hike, two utility companies are getting a lot of revenue, but at the same time, the wholesale price increased more than 10 fold last year. Even with increased revenue from higher prices, the two utility companies are unable to pay 13 billion dollars in months of outstanding debt to the wholesaler.

“What do you think is the best solution for all these rate hikes?” I asked, a basic question.

“I think the only solution is public power.” She replied right away. “We put both the generators of electricity and transmission and distribution of electricity in the hands of public entities.” She argued that privately owned utility companies have, “no incentive for conservation.”

Before the crisis, cities like Sacramento and Los Angeles had lower utility rates, better programs for conservation of energy, and better programs for uses of renewable sources of energy. Those cities that have their own public utilities have been sheltered from the crisis to a large extent. She insists that we should have municipal utility districts that are locally controlled and locally managed and they should be coordinated at the statewide level by a public power authority.

“If we have public power locally controlled where the interest is not profit for the shareholders, but the interest is providing precisely what is the mission statement of the public utilities, which is reliable sources of energy at affordable prices. I would add into that, reliable sources of clean energy at affordable prices. Then we can really make tremendous progress in cutting down our use of energy and getting off of our treadmill of using more and more fossil fuels.

She indicated that the company should, “divide themselves into the profit making and the non-profit making parts. There are certain things in modern day society that are too important to be left to the manipulation of the market place, things like water, energy, education and health care. These things need to be in the public sector.”

As we finished the interview, I thanked Medea Benjamin for her time and sincere responses to my questions. My hands were sweating but my tense mind was relieved. I stepped outside the building and thought it would have been great if I smoked a cigarette, but I decided not to because I quit smoking last year. However, and more importantly, I was encouraged to know that there was another person fighting hard for the public’s interest.

by Barbra Huntley-Smith

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your
teeming shores, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to
me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

These are the words engraved upon the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor. These words represent a symbol of welcome and hope for the immigrants who came to America during the years 1800 to 1954. These words have brought every known emotion of joy to all those immigrants who saw that gigantic monument, her torch held high to the heavens. I believe that to those arriving, Lady Liberty represented an endowment of Grace they had never known until the moment their eyes beheld her.

America! A land flowing with milk and honey! A land that held hopes of a new and different life! As history has recorded, these immigrants have been essential in the building of what is now the Superpower of the world, the great United States of America. Though Ellis Island was not without problems, what was accomplished there was a Herculean venture that no country in the world at that time had undertaken to help the assimilation of those entering a new land.

It is now two hundred years later. It was 5:15 A.m. on a blustery, cold Friday morning: January 5, 2001 at the Immigration of Naturalization Service (INS) in downtown Los Angeles. Before my eyes were "huddled masses." I was in a state of step-frozen, jaw-dropping sock as I viewed this sea of blanketed forms, huddled together all along the pavement surrounding the INS building. Regaining my composure, I walked up to one of the blanketed persons and inquired what was happening. "Is this your first time?" she asked. I said yes, and she pointed to the huddled masses and explained that they had physically been there since midnight. I asked what time she had arrived, and she told me 2:00 a.m. She was far from the start of the line.

I asked where I could find the end of the line, and she waved me forward to Aliso Street, then toward Alameda Street. I thanked her, and began to experience the new meaning of "your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

My first impression of this horrible picture, so early in the morning, will be etched in my memory for a long time to come. As I trekked down the sidewalk, negotiating my way through standing huddled masses, minding traffic, I accidentally stepped onto the lawn area and tripped. I discovered that the lawn had been sprinkled earlier, which explained why the masses of people were standing two feet into the street. This was the scene all along Aliso Street and down Alameda Street.

I joined the line three fourths of the way to the corner of Alameda and Temple Streets. By 6:00 a.m., the standing masses were rounding the corner of Temple Street. It was cold, even for a Midwesterner. There in the line I was schooled on the horrors of experience by people I will call the "Regulars." As they spoke, there was an air of fear, contempt, and loathing for "this place." The object of their contempt was "Room 1001." I reminisced about the events that had brought me to this place on this cold morning.

Many unforeseen events had invaded my life the past year, and time away seemed to be the most appropriate action to take in rebuilding my life. Travelling by train from the Midwest, I was treated to the glory and grandeur of this wonderful country. The view form the train at that mile-high elevation was prodigiously breathtaking. No two sceneries were alike. Overlooking one of the many great expanses were snow-capped mountains, and gorges that were awe-inspiring and frightening. Brilliant shades of changing foliage nestled beneath the silver reflection of the glistening snow. It was as though the four seasons had met, and in perfect union displayed their offerings. As I watched with wide-eyed awe the train's slow and deliberate negotiation of this rugged terrain as it descended into the plains, I introspectively declared, "Truly, humanity has had dominion over the earth."

I disembarked in Sacramento with hopes of a new beginning. However, my hopes would soon be dampened as I was informed that my credentials were not sufficient to secure a California Department of Motor vehicles (DMV) Identification, even though I had been verified as a Naturalized Citizen. The Sacramento County officials gave me the information necessary to reapply for a copy of my Naturalization Certificate, and the application was forwarded to the INS. The application was dated April, 2000, and I was informed that it would take from six to eight weeks for a reply. Hopes restored.

After waiting eight months, I came to Los Angeles, hoping for better success in obtaining this document. My experience with the County of Sacramento officials lulled me into believing that things would be manageable in Los Angeles. What I found was a journalistic thesis. After visiting a Traveler's Aid office, I was sent to the County of Los Angeles Aid office for assistance. They in turn sent me to the INS office for verification of citizenship status. It was near closing when I arrived at the office, where access was granted by ringing a bell and state one's purpose. I was admitted and surrendered my application from the County Social Worker and within five minutes I was declared an authenticated citizen. With the INS sealed document in hand, I commented to the officer, "My problems are now over, I can now get my California Identification." She looked at me with a smile that said, "Are you crazy?" and then replied, "No, Miss, you will need to go to Room 1001 for any identification." Her smile became a frightening grimace. It was late, so I decided I would take the challenge another day.

A week later I was at the Post Office and noticed information concerning American passports. I took out my INS authenticated form and asked if this was enough to reapply for my passport. The Postal worker looked at me with regrettable sadness and said, "You will have to go to Room 1001."

I left the Post Office wondering, "What is this place to inspire a kind of frightful, agonizing terror?" I was free for the day, so I headed to the INS building to investigate. I walked up the steps and strolled along the marble terrace. I noted the business hours, saw that there were few people present, and decided to return the next day, Friday, figuring that at the end of the week there would not be many people there. But something very sinister was at work here, unknown to me then. It was Thursday when the office is open only until noon.

My first visit was on Friday, December 1, 2000. I got to the INS building at 7 a.m. There was a line, and it would take two hours to reach the hallowed halls of Room 1001. It was this day I would be given valuable information on the horrors of the system of administration at the INS. People were relating how often they had been coming and had not yet been able to enter the front door. They explained that there are tickets issued for certain categories that are discontinued by 7:30 or 8:00. Therefore, it does not matter how early you get there if for that day the number of tickets determined is depleted.

I would be a witness to their story when at 8:00 a.m. there came a voice over the public address system. "You out there in my line, listen up!" I wondered whose line I was in. Then came a man of immigrant descent, strutting his way toward the entrance. I took notice of his massive deltoids, pecs, and chest, protruding a good six inches in front of him. There was a hush as the Regulars were silenced. Mr. Ax-man, as he is affectionately called, was has been given the dubious honor of reciting the categories that will not be issued a ticket. His list always begins with the Regulars. These are Resident Aliens who may have had their Alien registration card stolen, or need minor adjustments to protect their status. As the Ax-man read his list, just as an extended rubber band is released, so the line congealed. The Regulars stood there, dazed, waiting for some sign to say it was not so. Some defiantly remained in the line, hoping they might be seen, which is never the case. They are always booted out.

My category was viable, therefore I would make my first entry into Room 1001. My inquiry number was #102 for my category. By 11:00 a.m., seated in a large room, I once again witnessed the "tired." Most of the patrons were soundly sleeping. That morning a sleeping patron missed her number flashing on the leader board, which resulted in a most frustrating spectacle.

As I scrutinized this beaten group, my thoughts returned to one of the morning's episodes. While in line, there had been a loud thud, like a falling ton of bricks hitting the concrete. People began running in the direction of the thud. It was a man, very well-built, who had fainted. The security guard radioed for emergency, but nothing else was done. The man just lay there. Five minutes, eight minutes, no Emergency service. It was ten minutes before they arrived. By this time the man was beginning to regain consciousness, and was trying to sit up. The EMS Techs arrived and the most appalling medical emergency service I have ever witnessed was demonstrated. The fallen man was trying to stand, and was pushed forcibly to the gurney by an EMS tech with one hand, the other hand holding him in place. No pulse or blood pressure was taken. The man was strapped down and wheeled out to the ambulance. At that moment I hoped I would never have need of the EMS in Los Angeles County.

My thoughts returned to the present as the leader board announced #102. I was focused and ready to go. My inquiring officer greeted me with,"What do you want?" I explained my circumstances and offered my INS approved status... suddenly I was interrupted. "Where is your receipt? Without a receipt you will not be seen." The receipt she requested was for a fee I could not afford when I applied for the document: $135.00.

I was determined to be seen by someone. I demanded to speak to her supervisor, and with a condescending attitude she turned and walked to the next booth, where her supervisor happened to be listening to our exchange. Our eyes met and she summoned me over.

She asked me a few key questions, tapped on her computer and remarked, "Oh, your file is in Chicago." She said she would request a transfer, explaining it would take three to four weeks and that I should return for the response. Exhaustion had now set in, my mind was becoming jelly, and I could only be glad that I had been given some hope. I did not detect the flagrant psychological maneuver being perpetrated. I requested a letter of sorts that would exclude me from waiting in line again, and the supervisor looked at me and said, "That is the only was to get in here." Can that be the only way? I dare say, "No!" There must be a better way, and it is time that the INS at 300 North Los Angeles Street find it.

Four weeks passed and my second visit to the INS was in progress. I had arrived at 6:30 a.m. to circumvent a long delay, or so I thought at the time. There was still a long line ahead of me, but it seemed manageable. I would stand in line for four hours before I was positioned to enter the horrid halls of Room 1001. The Regulars had been dismissed, giving hope to those left standing that they might be seen. When I got to the triage where the tickets are issued, the officer told me, "There are no more tickets." I argued, "Why wasn't my category omitted from the line, instead of giving the false hope that I would be seen?" She just sat there with a "that's tough" attitude, and shouted, "Next!" Now I had experienced the hell that the Regulars endure every day, and I was fighting mad. I walked away, planning my third and final visit.

So there I stood, my third visit at 5:30 a.m. in my huddled mass, reliving my encounters at the INS. The words "Ventura County" interrupted my thoughts. I had been intending to travel to Orange County, and noticed the bordering county was Ventura, so I began to listen to what was being said. The woman in line ahead of me had traveled this distance to be at the INS office at this hour of the morning. She related how often she is forced to make this trip for a response to a simple question, to which no comprehensible answer could be given over the phone. How utterly disgusting! In an age proliferated by the best means of communication systems the world has ever known!

Six hours later- I was once again at the triage, and being seen by an Asian officer. I explained that I was to return to window #15 to meet with the supervisor, and with a shy smile he made the strangest request of me: "Please describe the supervisor, for there are many supervisors." I started to make a not-so-pleasant remark, but stopped my self. Here was someone who, being an immigrant, knows the pain, and was at least willing to give me a hearing. I decided I should at least try. My description was somewhat accurate because he was able to attach a name to it. He punched a few keys on his computer and said, "Your file is in Missouri." Without a response I took form him a form sending me back to window #15.

I went directly to this window and listed my name, behind four others. It was over two hours before I was called. However, this time my interview went well. I was given an application to complete, and told that within four weeks I would receive and answer by mail. So I waited.

Was my experience at the INS Ellis Island revisited? A resounding No! It was not. Ellis Island at its worst stages had officers who were courteous and respectful and treated the immigrants with dignity. Would an individual who fainted on Ellis Island have suffered the indignity that I observed that day? No! There were, on the island, many agencies equipped to render First Aid, and there was a hospital present. As a matter of record, in 1933 a committee reporting on the conditions of Ellis Island stated the medical care was exemplary. Why then in the new Millennium, when communication and medical technology is at its zenith, must a sick person wait ten minutes for deplorable service?

It is obvious that there are very few cases that are resolved in any given day at the INS. On Ellis Island, records show that daily an estimated five thousand persons were seen and cases resolved. This was an age when only the human capabilities of the officers were at work. Here in the new Millennium, when these officers can tap a computer key and receive information from around the world, they are unable to resolve these cases.

It was three days prior to the estimated time I was given to receive an answer when a letter form the INS arrived. This is the information I was given: "We have searched for records that relate to your request and determined that if such records exist they would be maintained under the jurisdiction of the INS office at the following address in Missouri..." Is that to say that I suddenly do not exist? Are they now telling me that the file the officers had been looking at was a figment of their imaginations? Here I am, a viable, certified citizen with degrees, qualified to work as a Medical Technologist, a counselor and now a fledgling journalist, unable to work because of a technicality. But the wonder is the Department of Justice's willingness to authenticate my receipt of welfare from the Department of Public Aid, and yet will deprive me of the identification necessary to work.

The INS have resorted to defrauding immigrants of the pride of being an American citizen, the pride felt by those immigrants of the twentieth century. In the words of Lee Iacocca, a first-generation American of immigrant parents upon dedicating "The American Immigrant Wall of Honor" on Ellis Island, "It is not just for those who came through Ellis Island; it honors all American immigrants who came to this great melting pot in search of freedom and opportunity." The pride that security officer felt, as he accomplished his job with excellence. The pride Tennessee Williams must have felt when he wrote the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and spoke through the lead Stanley Kowalski, "But what I am is one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it."

The County of Los Angeles and their immigrant descendant lawmakers need to fix the horrendous, deplorable black eye that exists at 300 North Los Angeles Street. The time is now to rekindle the pride and hope that their forefathers held dear. To all immigrants, especially those who have lived the atrocities of Room 1001, the Lady still lifts her lamp beside the golden door. That lamp lights the way to your empowerment through the vote. Contact your Congressperson, let your disgust be heard. Regain the pride of all the immigrants that have preceded you, the pride I felt as I raised my right hand twenty-six years ago and pledged my allegiance to the Flag of the Untied States of America.

by Staff Writer

What if it were possible to truly end war?

How would our world, it's people react to eternal
peace?

My hypothetical, What-If scenario: If time travel became a reality, lost knowledge could be returned our skeptical so called modern world.

Besides observing historical events, people, and temporarily visits or living in those past times one priceless opportunity may arise."THE TOTAL END OF WAR"

Imagine. A joint venture across time! Historical figures dead in their own time or brought through time as special assistants for a global secret project of "OPERATION ZERO WAR".

From ancient civilizations to our time and beyond this ideal and idea fought to be realized.

>p>Many nationalities from scions of wealth and privilege, merchant business people, to poor though brilliant children, adults, and elderly sages.

Although women, minorities, participate where they had no voice many people stuck in their mindset and daily lives must be lifted out and shown the truth they would never see until now.

Complexities abound from different life experiences, expectations, languages, applied sciences, and philosophy’s.

One invention, many mothers, fathers, researchers, lend their time, energy, and spirit to the Global War Memories or G.W.M.

Some of the best minds know they will be soldiers, their son’s, daughter’s unborn, working beside them or as infants and young children whom fate chose to die as citizens in death camps in war’s conflicts; many are told their fates as compensation for working on the project.

Before the very first of many time paradoxes began with names, faces, births of people on the project.

Vacuum sealed time-proof bags are created so anyone working on this immense project vanishing out of exsistance will be honored for their contribution.

Paradoxes continue as whole generations disappear, alternative histories take place, people born of one nationality are now another, all of this is documented too because without proof individuals would not believe such things were possible.

Every part of our human destiny is-was, will be
affected.

Unbroken secrecy, discretion, enemies across oceans, continent, racial, religious lines, time become true brothers and sisters-in-arms.

An though war rages these bonds hold as others take fallen foes-friends places.

The struggle seems pointless but machines of microscopic size recording lives of wounded, dying, dead, and the survivors who can continue stealthily with this ongoing project, their own minds unshielded from refined nano-probes implanted from birth in their heads.

Millions to trillions of nano-sized audio-visual, conscious, unconscious eavesdroppers add human neural nets when war ceases to be.

At the end of this ultra-secret world wide endeavor memorials are set all over the world, in libraries, CD-ROM’s, audio books, and in all schools.

Being a global-time-venture, thought translators instantly made any language living or dead translatable to anyone on or off the earth.

The G.W.M. project succeeded in ending war because of many unknown people showing their varied life ending or life affirming thoughts and feelings during combat. But because most died horribly in many conflicts few human’s want war and sought alternatives to war’s bloody conflicts.

Timer’sTime Travelers visited some changing small bits of time by saving some of the fallen though their memories still show how they originally died.

In time certain periods are closed stopping paradoxes closing the most holy of holy’s in the Global-World Era.

How the ENDWAR saga began. Its only a fable, parable, tall tale, but given how our world works now does anyone really believe time travel will never be possible or war to be outdated made another dust heap as humankind grows up, giving up war.
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by Luz Diamonte

It was a day of Many Tears….. I looked up to see a flying plastic bottle of bleach that was on fire. At first I couldn’t move because I was so afraid. Then I heard the screams of all the people I love……Suddenly the mountain had covered the house I have lived in with my mother, my aunt and my four sisters for the last 15 years.

"Kahit mahirap Ra Hindika namen walang bahay o nagugutom"

( "We may be poor but we’re not homeless or hungry")

Pilipino’s have a saying, "We may be poor but we’re not homeless or hungry"

Our house was made of all things we have found over the years. You see, I work and live at the garbage site in Rizal. Some people in the US must think we are very sad because we live in garbage, but we aren’t.. This was the way we survived. Yes we are very poor. But now we are very poor with no job and no house.

POOR Magazine attempts to cover issues affecting communities of poverty globally as well as locally, rather than the mainstream coverage of this event which was from an "outsider" perspective, i.e., from journalists who reported on the tragic, yet faceless deaths of over 71 very poor people who lived in a garbage dump in Manila. The people died and several more were injured when a Mountain of garbage at the dump site collapsed and caught on fire due to the erosion caused by heavy rains from a typhoon.

POOR attempted to cover this event from the "inside", i.e., one of the survivors, Luz Diamonte’s first-hand account and her very different emphasis on the tragedy.

by Tom Gomez

I read a piece entitled “Come to S.F. for Hot Time Mayor Urges” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Mayor Willie Brown is quoted telling travel executives, gathered at what is described as a “posh Washington D.C. hotel” to feast on Alaskan crab and white wine, that in San Francisco, “You can lie, cheat, and steal…and we don’t ask you about those things. We accept you as you are.” The Mayor then says to the executives, “Those of you who wear white shirts and red ties, blue suits and regular shoes, all those kind of things for the public to see, but there is a different side of you. Well, San Francisco caters to you. We have places for you to go, where you suddenly become anonymous. You don’t have to give your name…where you will have experiences that defy description.” Am I alone in being glad this asshole is in his last term?
While the Mayor prostrated himself before yet another group of wealthy executives, I was sitting for coffee with an old friend who is disabled since a fall shattered her spine. Last year she spent nine days in our county jail for jumping the B.A.R.T. She was homeless and had no money. Apparently not all of us are “accepted as we are.” The Chronicle itself last year published an editorial by Debra Saunders that called the city’s homeless people “bums.” Yet no attempt has been made to characterize the “lying, cheating, and stealing” executives that way!
The Chronicle characterized the Mayor’s remarks referring to “experiences that defy description,” enjoyed in places where no names are required, as being “an uncharacteristically subtle reference to the city’s alternative lifestyles.” Let me be blunt. When a 50 year old insurance executive from Des Moines comes to this city for a 3 day convention and sneaks off to one of these places where no names are required, what is required is money. I know that, you know it, the mayor knows it, the paper knows it, and the audience knows it! So what is this bullshit about our city’s “alternative lifestyles?”
There is nothing new about predominately white, middle-aged executives coming through San Francisco cruising our streets late at night looking to buy sex, drugs or both. Unfortunately for those of us who live here, this city also has no shortage of seriously addicted, economically marginalized men, women and children ready to supply such needs.
It’s good to know Mayor Brown (who gave a similar speech in South America) is aggressively promoting economic opportunity for our poorest citizens around the world. Mayor Brown has been so unwilling to use public money to provide services such as shelter for families or replacement of the 500 SRO rooms destroyed by fire in the last 10 years, that I was beginning to think his administration lacked vision. Think of it that way the next time you see some emaciated and hollow-eyed person turning a trick or selling dope to a tourist in your neighborhood.

by Kaponda

The conductor nosed the two-toned train of metallic coaches beyond the obscure perimeters into the lighted Berth of the terminal. I disembarked at the Berkeley station. Ascending the escalator, I watched as an image of a set of handcuffs loomed large as the words beside it informed the rider that whoever lifts a fist during a verbal dispute with a station agent would go to jai. As I went through the turnstile, I observed that Berkeley Patrol Car No. 596 was posted and prepared to enforce any allegations of assault by a B.AR.T.. agent.

I walked two blocks west on Center Street to the scene of a live assault that was staged at high noon on the front lawn of the Berkeley Municipal Court. A coalition of civil rights organizations had launched a full-scale assault on a California statute.

"Ain't no mistake about it, folks!" stated Lisa Gray-Garcia as she fired the opening salvo of a concerted campaign to repeal California Penal Code 647(j). "Challenging the constitutionality of the lodging law is to attempt to actually change the situation for poor and homeless people across the country. This is precedent setting. If we can make this happen, we are going to help poor folks who are victims of economic and racial cleansing all across this crazy nation....So, that is what we are her to fight," concluded Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine, under a bright, warm sun that lit up the faces of the activists, lawyers, elected officials, scores of homeless men and women, and the Sheriff's deputies with incredulous stares on that 12th day of April.

Cities across America are using lodging laws to declare war on innocent citizens who camp beneath the serenity of twilight. Over 23,000 homeless people were swept into oblivion by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani using its infamous statute.

In California, a law that has been on the books since 1872, California Penal Code 647(j), has been revived to force people out of sight. According to this statute, a person is guilty of disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor under this law, for lodging outside. The California Penal Code 647, section (j), reads as follows:

Who lodges in any building, structure, vehicle, or place,
whether public or private, without the permission of
the owner or person entitled to the possession or the
control of it.

The idea to challenge the old California statute was born out of the frustration of a denizen of the City of Berkeley. Ken Moshesh was given a citation for lodging outside on October 27, 2000. After three months, on January 18, 2001, Moshesh was again aroused from his sleep and arrested for the 10-27-00 citation that had gone to warrant. Ken Moshesh, a former University of California at Berkeley Professor, spoke to the crowd whose fury was expressed by raised fists.

"This is not just another homeless person railroaded through the courts and sent to jail," stated Moshesh, as the gapes of Sheriff's deputies were noticeably conspicuous for the first time. "But this time something different is going to happen. And the different thing will be that instead of [Berkeley police] challenging people outside in their cracks and crannies where they sleep, because there is no place else to sleep, instead of [Berkeley police] challenging them while they attempt to hide and get their 40 winks, we are going to challenge the antiquated 647(j) lodging law that gives law enforcement the authority to follow us around and declare us illegal when, in fact, there administrative personnel have not been able to deal effectively with the problems on homelessness here in Berkeley," concluded Moshesh as he was saluted by a person with a placard with the words "People are Sleeping in Bushes in the Richest Nation in the World"

The task to which Garcia, Moshesh and the coalition of agencies have committed is not only formidable, but, if successful, unprecedented. It entails a challenge to invalidate California Penal Code 647, section (J). The constitutional challenge will be lodged in the Berkeley Municipal Court on Thursday, May 17, 2001. Gregory Syren, the Public Defender who has agreed to represent Ken Moshesh.

Similar challenges to overturn this statute that is used to criminalize homeless people have been lodged in the past but were waylaid, I asked Pat Wall, an attorney with the Homeless Action Center, what the likelihood of a constitutional challenge was at the Municipal Court level?

"....Since the Public Defender has taken the case, it will set a powerful precedent for other homeless people who are cited for 647(j) violations and send a message to both police and the office of the District Attorney that they need to stop charging people with that lodging law....because its unconstitutional....We think the chances of this [overturning the statute] happening are very good," stated Wall.

Osha Neumann, of Community Defense Incorporated, an organization that advocates for civil rights issues of homeless people, explained to be that the war will be waged on two fronts. According to Neumann, who also directs a clinic for homeless street youths through the ecumenical chapter for the homeless,

"This is a two-pronged campaign," stated Neumann, as we walked away from the voices that blared spoken words about the atrocities of homelessness. "We are attempting to repeal California Penal Code 647(j) in Municipal Court and instruct the Berkeley Police Department to set low priorities in its enforcement of lodging laws..."

Just as Neumann had stated, the second campaign -- to instruct the Berkeley Police Department to set low priorities in its enforcement of lodging laws -- was launched on the front lawn adjacent to the Berkeley Municipal Court before the mayor of Berkeley and every member of the Berkeley City Council, on Tuesday, April 17, 2001.

An item was placed on the Berkeley City Council Consent Calendar by Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who, during adolescence, also experienced homelessness. The item, entitled "Compassionate Treatment of Homeless, calls for the City of Berkeley to adopt a resolution supporting compassionate treatment of homeless people in Berkeley (using the dictionary definition of compassion -- not the President's [definition of compassion]).

As I entered into the building for the Tuesday, April 17th, 7:00 PM, hearing on the Compassionate Treatment of Homeless, I was turned back along with scores of other people. When I flashed my press badge, the Sheriff's deputies pointed to the crowd atop the second floor that had been backed up to outside the hearing room. There were other reporters being turned back along with me because of the extremely large crowd that the Compassionate Treatment item on the agenda had attracted.

After a couple of homeless insurgents discovered the news agencies that I represented, they directed me on a course that circumvented the usual path to the Berkeley City Council hearing. As I entered in the session on the second floor, the executive director of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, B.O.S.S., boona cheena, had just begun to testify on behalf of the Compassionate Treatment item.

"We are asking for a resolution which includes homeless families and children and homeless single men in this city as a priority -- that their rights have to be protected," stated an emotional cheena.

If the second phase of the full-scale assault by the coalition of civil rights agencies, the Compassionate Treatment resolution, is successful and the City of Berkeley approves a low priority in enforcement of lodging laws, then the cops of Berkeley will no longer be authorized to issue citations to people who sleep in public. Instead, the Berkeley police will probably have to learn to issue citations to automobiles that exceed the speed limit or citations to people who bully other people. I asked the Berkeley City Attorney, Manuela Albuquerque, about the consequences of a successful Compassionate Treatment resolution?

"We have the power as a city to set law enforcement priorities and to determine that enforcement of lodging laws would be a low priority -- the lowest priority. There are a finite amount of law enforcement resources in the city. The city can determine what is the order of priority to utilize those. The police have discretion. They do not have to enforce every law every time and they exercise that discretion every day. So the city could determine as a matter of policy that certain laws would be very low priority to enforce.

I asked the City Attorney if the City of Berkeley is currently using high priority in enforcement in lodging laws?

"Lodging is not a high-priority item but my understanding from the police is that it is basically done on a complaint-driven basis. When there is some problem that is being caused," stated the City Attorney."

Item number 34, Compassionate Treatment of Homeless, did not get an opportunity for discussion on that evening at the City Council hearing because items like zoning appeal, regulation of street events and block parties, transportation demand management, and solar energy had been given a higher priority.

"It certainly appeared to many people in the audience that some people were trying to filibuster and just talk, talk, talk and not move on to the next items on the agenda....We could have easily finished two more items last night, but they talked so much that it was midnight and people wanted to go home," stated Councilmember Worthington about the disappointment of not having his item heard on that Tuesday afternoon.

I asked Councilmember Worthington who he thought was primarily responsible for the Compassionate Treatment item not being heard at the Berkeley City Council Meeting?

"Certainly, the Mayor has the most influence over controlling the Council meeting and pushing it in the right or wrong direction because she chairs the meeting. Obviously, if it were something that she wanted to get done, she would have pushed it ahead and made sure that it got done," stated Worthington, who has had an emotional connection with people who don't have anywhere to live for most of his life.

I asked Councilmember Worthington how he got involved with the coalition of agencies that have launched this two-pronged assault and, in particular, Ken Moshesh?

"I was visiting a student program called SHARE where they have homeless people come once a week. I heard there about people who said they had been getting arrested for lodging. Listening to that and hearing it from other people, I came to the conclusion that this isn't just happening to one person," stated Worthington.

Will the Compassionate Treatment resolution pass at the next Berkeley City Council meeting or will it be voted down? I went to the Mayor of the City of Berkeley to inquire about the chances of the City of Berkeley scaling back on the vigorous enforcement of homeless people.

The bright smile of the receptionist compensated for the absence of light due to compliance of the Governor’s conservation plan on the top floor of Berkeley City Hall. High above the problems of the common people in a renovated City Hall, I observed the bijou, fashioned from steel in the shape of a harp, mounted on the wall, as I entered into Mayor Shirley Dean’s office.

"I’ve fallen in love with it because its musical," explained Mayor Dean of the clock glossed over with oil and acrylic the small hand of which was on the five and the big hand rested on the three..

I sat in a chair next to the chair in which she sat at the conference table as I noticed the two impressive leather seats between the end table at the northeast corner of her spacious office. The mayor was of sober humor and maintained a strong face as she explained her concerns about the Compassionate Treatment resolution.

"A moratorium means you can't cite an arrest under section 647(j). That is a moratorium on the criminalization of sleep within Berkeley City limits and instructs the Berkeley Police Department not to cite or arrest any homeless individual for sleeping on public property in Berkeley and refers to the City Manager and to the budget process funding for detox, day time respite care, rainy day vouchers, share proposal and storage."

"That is what is before us. Now we have been sent some material from a group called The People's Rights Committee. They have sent us a summary for what is called 'Honoring the Right to Bed and Sleep.' There are also some other materials that are different from the resolution that is before the Council -- although its similar, it is also quite different," continued the mayor.

"So, one of the things that immediately needs to be clarified is, what is before us? They refer to the Resolution from Councilmember Worthington, as well. It is pretty unclear, for example, what are the:
1) Share Proposal -- It is not defined here at all. it just says, 'Share Proposal.' -- that we are supposed to refer this to the City Manager and the budget process;
2) Rainy-day Vouchers -- I assume this is a voucher to stay in a motel or a hotel during the rainy season. We already do that;
3) Day-time Respite Care -- Again, I am not quite sure what they are referring to; and
4) Storage Units -- I believe we already provide this," concluded the mayor of her concerns about the resolution set forth by Councilmember Kriss Worthinton for low priority in enforcement of 647(j).

I asked Mayor Shirley Dean how she had interpreted the proposal by Councilmember Worthington and her thoughts?

"Now if they are talking about increasing these services, then we should know what the proposal is. There is nothing here that talks about what those things mean. So, this is not a very well written 'thing' that we would just pass because there are so many questions about what does it mean. What are we doing if we pass it? So, I am surprised that it got put on the Consent Calendar. the Consent Calendar is supposed to be reserved for items that are 'non controversial,' if you will, and for which there are very few questions. There is likely to be a lot of questions about this simply because there is not enough material here given with the item," concluded a disappointed Mayor Shirley Dean.

I commented that based on her questions about the document drafted by Councilmember Worthington that a lot of information was omitted and that she was not satisfied with the proposal as it was written, but not dissatisfied with sympathizing or supporting a low priority in the enforcement of homeless people in terms of citations?

"I think that it is a sad situation when a person has to sleep outside, and I would like this city to provide sufficient services so that doesn't have to happen....I do not like the idea of a moratorium on 647(j), mainly because it is the State Penal Code and there are times when you don't want a big encampment of people," stated the Mayor about the attitude of her constituents of Berkeley..

Mayor Dean stated that 647(j) was divisive because it prohibits a person from sleeping in both private and public. I asked her about the public aspect of 647(j)?

"Well, again I think that depends on what the circumstances are. If you had an individual who falls asleep on a bench -- daytime or nighttime -- I don't think that that person should be arrested. But if you've got 50 people who are sleeping in the park or in the building that is afire -- we've had that in Berkeley -- then I think, again, the police ought to say 'move on, let's go to a shelter, let us bring you to a shelter, let's provide you with transportation to bring you to a shelter.' We can't have this. It upsets citizens. It makes everybody angry. It makes it very difficult to go to people and say we need your tax money to pay for services to provide to people. They get angry and will say, ‘No.’ I don't think that that is the way you solve this problem," were the language and theory that the mayor had used to impugn the proposed Compassionate Treatment placed on the City Council Consent Calendar.

I asked Mayor Dean how many homeless people are there in the City of Berkeley?

"I have always been told that at any one time there are a thousand people who are homeless in the City of Berkeley. We are not able to provide that number of beds every single night -- that's for sure. But we provide more beds in this community than any other community in Alameda County. I've always supported that, and I think that if we need to increase those services -- let's do it. We need to be humane to people; we need to be compassionate to people, but we shouldn't pass moratoriums on 647(j). I don't think that's the way to go. I think our Police Department -- when they find a problem -- need to be careful and sensitive towards people and offer them an alternative. Say, for example, if a person is sleeping in the park. They should say, ‘Look, we have a bed for you in the shelter or we have vouchers,’ or whatever it is that we have at that time."

I responded to Mayor Dean that the possibility of the police offering a homeless person an alternative does not exist since there are more people than there are beds, according to what I had just heard.

She responded by stating that, "Well, sometimes it is."

Over 100 homeless people and allies flooded Berkeley City Hall on the following Tuesday, April 24th, to express to the entire City Council their grievances over the lack of beds and services and the aggressive enforcement of 647(j) by Berkeley cops. Their signs and chants occupied every molecule of space in the chambers and hallways on that evening. It was a night on which the substratum of the tradition of Berkeley would ring loud. A night on which a victory would resound throughout Berkeley and the state of California. It was night on which the very fabric from which America had been built -- poverty and hope – would buck up and force a vote on the Compassionate Treatment resolution.

After every testimony was registered with the Council and a lenthy debate by councilmembers, the councilmembers provided the people of a gentle nature an oasis of the sort unique only to the City of Bereley.

Just as Lisa Gray-Garcia had stated at the outset two weeks earlier, the first part of the battle had been won. The victory on Tuesday night sets a statewide precedent in the compassionate treatment of homelessness. It requires that police make enforcement of California Penal Code 647(j) a low priority. Furthermore, it provides that people who sleep outside are given two warnings before being arrested for lodging, and that arrests must be initiated by a citizen complaint rather than the volition of a cop. The resolution also calls for a commitment to the human and civil rights of homeless people, and refers multiple programs for study by the city manager, including detoxification facilities, daytime respite care, rainy-day vouchers, increased locker space, and a legal advocacy clinic for homeless pepole – which Mayor Shirley Dean and I discussed during our interview.

Discussions of the resolution ended with a commendation by Councilmember Kriss Worthington of the courage and resourcefulness of the homeless people who organized themselves to support the resolution.

"….It has been many years since Berkeley’s City Council Chambers have been overrun and completely occupied by homeless people standing up for their rights," concluded Councilmember Worthington.

by Joseph Bolden

In the near future people still die as always except our technologies may bring more of us back from the brink of death’s once sure grip.

How humans deals with literal "Lazarus" like returns from the grave by applied science will have unknown impacts through out religious, moral, ethical, worldviews across the world.

This could be that last straw that breaks our collective "Camels Backs" or create a resiliency humanity has never had.

Mortals, we know death is part of life it can happen to anyone, anywhere; but to suddenly have this burden lifted from mankind will come as a shock to many with mindsets fixed on the birth, adolescent, young adult, middle age, young-old senior, elderly and end of life death sequence.

The concept of young-old is a relatively new phenomena, its part of our new mindset.

Regenerative, rejuvenation, youthen-ning processes will become as widespread.

A time is fast approaching when each of us as individuals will
choose the old one-way path to the grave or split into a new Extended youthful humanity.

How we as a global species react to this opportunity as curse or blessing will influence our self directed evolution for centuries if not aeons to come.

Thantatologists, of the future will be as crucial to our well being as psychoanalysis, therapists, psychologist’s, physiol-ogists, and psychiatry was in the early 20th century.

The problem will be in living our extended life spans.How would someone 250 years old though looking and feeling 25 deal with so much loss after choosing their life extension plan and losing family, friends, loved one that chose the old fashioned life spiral to death?

Fathers, Mothers, staying young, vital outliving their children or son’s and daughter’s outliving their siblings? Life, living, death, and return to life – what will be true death?

Will it again be redefined from heart, brain, total cell death, or further from atomic to subatomic molecular strands of life when they shred apart will this finally mean total death?

If these subtle near invisible strands can be reconnected, strengthened,
regenerated, rejuvenated, improved over time, what sort of human does one become when they can no longer remember what mortal death is like?

One thing is clear in fifty years or more humanity will face a fascinating, terrifying, and exhilarating choice in our lives; human’s have never had before.

Will the stories we tell our descendants in centuries to come separate us or bring us together.

Beyond race, religion, nation, country, sexual orientation, all of it is nothing compared to how we as individuals chose how long we live.

Nations on the wrong side of choice will loose populations in immigration to other lands, riots, or simply dropping out of society.

Life, Death, and back to Life. The next two centuries will be…
ABSOLUTELY UNPREDICTABLE!

What Do You Folks Think?
Here I go again.

Please send donations to Poor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
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Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joseph Bolden

A new President’s first 100 days usually called “The Honeymoon Phase" before the difficult work of coordinating between Governors, Mayors, Senators, the Congress, other politicians and, power brokers around the world.

Select President G.W. Bush plain speaking sounds like a friendly, personable and a good person in groups or in one-on-one situation but his policy on energy, semi pathological single minded handling of California’s energy woes.

Ignoring alternative energies like solar, wind, bio-mass, geothermal, hydroelectric power, microwave, electromagnetic, or human power.

Instead, Mr. Bush, the 2nd. using some of his vast power and wealth to seek solutions he going back in time to oil, drilling for more gooey, viscous, dead, and buried prehistoric animals, nuclear power plants and recently billions of tons of coal.

Remember “Coal” folks - how coal miners slowly died from coal dust in their lungs or cave-ins or fires? Oil, Coal, what’s next Wood burning stoves, horse power with real horses? It seems this administration is doing everything in its power to brake California but it’ll back fire because Cali-folk not only dream they also create.

One of the things we might create is a way free ourselves from P.U.C. [Public Utility Commission ] and eventually electric grids all over the country. If some other state or county does it first we will learn and adapt their ways to ours.
This is why I call Mr. G.W. Bush, Mr. Yesterday because he’s using old oil and gas; instead of having America diversify as they may have America could be falling back to the smoke stack era of the 1900’s. Alternative Energy is highly expensive at first but as applied science moves on the less expensive it gets. If this new man-on-horseback won’t start an intensive, pro-active, energy policy pro-gram then we as the public all over the country will have to do it in groups or individually.

The 252-172 vote by a new Congress of a new bill the Unborn Victims of Violence Act passed on April 26, 2001 gives a fetus the same right as a person. Sounds like an end run around 1973 Row vs. Wade Womanize Right To Choose by elevating the legal status of prenatal development under federal law.

Essentially a pregnant woman fetus from clump of dividing cells to viable embryo has equal right of protection (person-hood). We already have laws protecting pregnant woman; this law can turns women into chattel protect the little lady, she’s helpless with child. It’s a mean backdoor law to eventually chip away all women’s right to choose by using their own wombs as weapons against them.

Ladies, young women, and girls of all ages this new federal law is another step backward. Before it gets any worse reclaim your reproductive rights and make it last in perpetuity.
I might be a dumb sticks guy but if you are not free we dumb sticks are next. So Wimmen, stay clear of those control freak men and women No Going Back! No Going Back!

The Other man is Mr. Dennis, Tito with Russian Cosmonaut Musabaev are on their way to the international space station by way of a Soyuz rocket.

Mr. Tito, is a 61-year-old California millionaire paying the Russian Space Agency $20,000,000 million for the privilege.

So he’s rich and don’t know which switch not to touch as for American training he’ll probably be taking pictures, learning how to eat and sleep, but most importantly he will learn and know how to use the ass-vacuum space toilet.

Mr. Tito, a former NASA engineer put his money where his dreams were not for fame, glory, or publicity but for his own personal vision. I ask how many people with the resources, time, stamina, and strength of will would take such a chance?

America made a deal with Russia and its mission is still a go there’s an extra passenger on board is all. What ever happens Mr. Dennis Tito next rockets safely to earth he will have more fame than he ever anticipated. Between reporters, movie moguls, books, appearances, his friends, family you know more people will want to go to experience the starlit-deep black of endless space!

A personal Quest is the name of Mr. Tito’s long dream. He did it at 61 years young not many of us will follow our goals to its conclusion as Mr. Tito has. Good luck, to a Citizen Spacer and tourist; I hope there are more after him.

It is time for humanity to spread from earth to all immensity and I believe it can be done safely, cheaply, and regular. We are an intelligent, creative, and quick-study adaptive species with capabilities hard wired and many more we’re about to scare ourselves with if we move to fast discovering them.

Next time: some ideas on preventing asteroids hitting earth.

Questions? Opinions? You Know The Drill Folks.

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by Tiny

I was living in my car at the time -as I had been on and off for many years. It was almost midnight. I was trying to inconspicuously park in a light industrial zone near 22nd and 3rd Streets… the late hour silence was filled with the cacophony of urban nature, the clicking of small waves hitting the Bay shore danced with the 2-2 rythem of a baritone foghorn… And then suddenly… a canon shaped beam of light tore through the black fabric of night. Three shimmering white vehicles circled first and then stopped. There was a heavy click-click of door handles..followed by the crunch of heels hitting asphalt, the deep wumph of doors slamming, faint police band radio yelps grew louder until a pair of thighs appeared at my window swathed in too-tight khaki polyester. Bits of arrest sounds came through a shoulder radio as the thighs slowly squatted to reveal a white mustachioed face - facial pores glistening in the pale moonlight." Can I see your driver's license and current registration? - and you are going to need to step out of the vehicle..NOW," the officer demanded, his voice had serrated steel edges that sliced through the air

Thirty terrifying minutes later the car which had acted as a "house" for my mother and myself off and on for the last several years was being towed because the registration was not current and we had too many tickets.

The mouth of the tow truck opened wide, consuming its late night snack of our beat up 1986 Ford Fairmont - starting its meal with the hind portion - the tired wheels refusing to spin, even in midair, just sat in place resigned to their seizure, bouncing one last goodbye to me before the car was dragged away to its own form of vehicular hell.

I stood there in the black night, illuminated by one lone street lamp, the distant ships providing accompaniment to my streaming tears. unsure of where to go - unsure of how to put one foot in front of the other, and think up another form of survival in a long list of survival strategies

Poor folks who are evicted from their homes due to gentrification, and/or become homeless because of other circumstances related to poverty are often forced to live in their vehicles, if they are lucky enough to have one. Often people are afraid of shelters and would choose living in their car over unsafe group living situations, such as many of the Bay Area shelters.

Vehicularily housed Bay Area residents are constantly harassed by the police - but in most cases the police harassment stems from continuous "nimbyism" from both businesses and residents, i.e., in neighborhoods - urban and suburban- the cops are swiftly summoned when anyone even appears to be homeless or vehicularily housed. And in most industrial or light industrial zones businesses will constantly call on local officials and cops to ticket, harass and/or change the existing parking laws to make sure that no one is allowed to stay and interfere with their " business"
The reality is that people in this situation are very conscious of their hygiene, their trash and their belongings and never interfere with people or businesses, rather they try to keep to themselves so as not to be noticed

The coalition on homelessness and POOR Magazine are working on this issue with the goal of addressing the unjust laws that criminalize homeless folks, and as well, we are drafting a vehicularily housed bill of rights -which will be presented before the board of supervisors in San Francisco.

We never got our "house" (car) back, even though I attempted to go through the very arbitrary tow "hearing" which people lose most of the time, based on how the man running the "hearing" is feeling that day. That experience led to a chain of events that sunk my mother and I deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty. And it also wasn't the last time that I would be confronted by the police for what I call "driving while Poor" (DWP).

POOR Magazine and The Coalition on Homelessness will be presenting a Vehicularily Housed Bill of Rights at an Art-Action-Rally on Wednesday, May 30 at 12:00 noon at City Hall in San Francisco- To get involved with the Action please call POOR at (415) 863-6306

To report Driving While Black or Brown harassment call
1-877-DWB-STOP toll free 24 hrs

by DEE

Dear W:

Since you have been in office, your administration has done nothing but cause chaos in our country. “Unite the Country,” was that not your slogan? You have done more to divide this country than any other administration I have known. You are attempting to isolate California with your assaults, as if we are not a part of the United States! Subtle messages in the press like “California is taking all your energy!” from Republican administrations in other states further your crusade to alienate California.

What a difference in the United States between now and a few months ago, when Clinton was president. Chaos reigns now. This chaos of rolling blackouts, stock market dips and confusion, disinformation about the economy and jobs. And the worst of it, of course, is in California.

Perhaps California to you is just too powerful a place, filled with terrible people you and your right wingers disdain, like Hollywood whores and pimps, hippies, protesters, queers, potheads, leftist talk show hosts, and last but not least, Democrats. What was it you used to call them, Commie Pinko Queers?

If you’ve read the recent census report, you should know that California is no longer “White.” Latinos are now outnumbering all other ethnic groups in California. You claim to be so caring of Latinos- or are those just Latinos in Texas? Do they have some unique quality that California Latinos do not possess? Perhaps when it comes to the vote?

The energy crisis exploded when you took office. Your idea is to force California to spend all of its money on energy, and force Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to relocate or go out of business. You hope is to weaken California even more than the rest of the country, force us to our knees until we cry “uncle” and beg you to drill for oil in Alaska and along the California coast. You weaken EPA regulations for air pollution but you do nothing to develop and promote alternative and renewable energies. You negotiate with the Arabs to produce less oil so that you can further put the squeeze on this country to destroy wildlife habitats and the natural beauty of these environments. Why should you have interest in wildlife? Your interest is in keeping us dependent on oil. That’s where the money is!

Mr. Cheney and the oil interests have used California as a guinea pig. With such a successful energy crisis, why would they stop now? Think of the profit that may be gained by putting the same pressure on the rest of the country, as Mr. Cheney has predicted! You, Dick, and your oil buddies must be salivating at this prospect. You needn’t be bothered with Arab nations when you exploit this crisis and expand oil drilling here at home. You can raise and lower prices of energy at will in the true spirit of capitalism, justified by Cheney’s staggeringly ridiculous claim that we are not technologically advanced enough to utilize wind and solar energy. Will the whole nation following California into such third-world status?

In fact, I’m beginning to see startling similarities between the Bush Administration and the oppressive Taliban in Afghanistan. After the Taliban destroyed all the statues of Buddha in their country, they said they knew that they had done the right thing because badly needed rains began to fall in Afghanistan. In the end, what will be your justification for the chaos you are creating in California and our nation?

Sincerely, Dee,

An American in California,

still one of the states in this union.

A Californian who will vote for a president

in a state where Latinos outnumber whites

and where citizens also care about

Little League Baseball.