Story Archives 2001

Como Salí Yo....(How I Got Out...)

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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A very low income immigrant family seizes the American dream

by Donna Anderson

My family has known Israel Hernandez, his wife Vitalina and their two daughters Diana and Maria for many years. The first house that Israel refers to below was next door to my grandparents. Israel's life began in a poverty we hardly know in the United States, Third World poverty. With very little education and some dreams that some might call unrealistic, Israel brought his family to the United States to begin a different life.

For his entire career since coming to the United States, Israel has worked in the cotton industry. He has always earned a low wage, taking advantage of the long hours of the harvest to increase his earnings. Israel demonstrates that with speaking very little English, without degrees or even a good wage, one can be successful. His secret? A united family, determination, patience and God as his guide. Israel now has 3 cars, including his favorite project, an old Mercedes, a beautiful home and another home he rents out, all without debt. But I am sure that his inner peace is more valuable than any of his possessions.

Where are you from?

Guapeo, Mexico. In Guapeo, if they killed a chicken, they had a party because they seldom ever killed a chicken. It was a special day.

What were the economic conditions of your childhood like?

They were very sad. We were a family of nine children, with Papa and Mama, we were eleven. Only my father worked and sometimes my older brother. We all could help a little, but never enough. The conditions of my childhood were too sad. We lived in the country. There was a school, but it only went to sixth grade. I was in school. The boys, friends of mine that could, went to study in the nearby town (county seat). They could go there and continue with school.

/ppbWhat did you do after sixth grade?/b/p p/ppI went to work because we needed to live and we had to quit school. /p p /ppbWhat was your work?/b/p p/ppWell, the fields. To be specific, my older sister got married when she was 16 and her husband had a piece of land that he worked and I went with them to work, to help, and it worked out well for me. I remember that we planted and he gave me half of what we harvested. That was a marvelous thing. That was my pay. All that we got from that land was marvelous for me and my family. /p pLiving with my sister and her in-laws.that family had something wonderful among themselves and I liked their way of relating to each other. Later, when I was 16 years old, I received God. I remember a verse that family showed me, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." And that is what I did. I believed with my heart that there was a God and He would help me. /p p /ppbWhat were you dreams during that time?/b/p p/ppLike all youth that want a house, want to have a family and want to do better in everything possible. But it seemed like time passed and things didn't change. /p p /ppbHow much time passed?/b/p p/ppAfter I was 24, I got married. I had a wife and two children and things weren't as bad, but they still were not good. My dreams were still unrealized. But I had confidence in God and had hope that they would come true. Then I got another job with the Federal Electrical Commission, but I didn't earn much. Economically, we were still in difficult times. /p p /ppbHow were you able to improve your economic situation? /b/p p/ppDuring that time, I worked with a church group. We were invited and we went to Reynosa for 3 days. In those 3 days, I had the opportunity to go half way across the bridge between Mexico and the United States. I only could see the United States, but there I dreamed again that some day I might be able to go into the United States and that my life might improve. /p pShortly afterwards, the government in Tamaulitas created a tourist pass to the United States that was available to all who lived in Tamaulitas. Thank God my wife and I got one of the passes and we had permission to come to Corpus Christi, to San Antonio, to wherever we could go. /p pI remember that after a hurricane, they were needing workers to help reconstruct what the hurricane had destroyed. That was my first time to come to the States for work. I worked in Corpus. After that, a man from Corpus always called me during the cotton harvest to come and work and I always did, every year. /p pFinally, there was a problem with the friends I worked with in Mexico. It seemed as though they shut the door on me. I made my decision to come to the United States. I really didn't have any other choice. I remember that day in 1980 that we came to live in Corpus Christi and we began a different life in this country. /p pI remember once that we decided that we wanted to buy our first house. We didn't have any money for a down payment, but we were interested in saving money to buy a house. $20 a week, we put aside. We needed those $20 for other things, for going out and eating, but we decided that we would put it aside because we wanted to buy a house. And we kept on saving $20 a week. When we had the chance to buy a house, our first home, we had $7,000 saved. Really what makes us prosper is when we really want to prosper and we have a vision and, of course, a family to support us. I believe we can go far when we work together. /p p /ppbWas there something special in your life without which you know your life would be different now?/b /p p/ppThat point occurred when my friends closed the doors for me. We believed that the world had caved in on us. Really, without the legal documents to live in the United States, we came anyway. What happened to us, happened for our good. Even though when it happened it was a disaster. It was something that was going to finish us off, kill our spirit, and we didn't want to talk to anyone. There was no way of getting out of it. I always believe, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." That problem that happened to us, instead of being bad, it was what helped us. /p p /ppbWhat advice would you have for someone who wants to better him or herself economically?/b /p p/ppI believe what has helped me in my life has been that as a family, I have always believed that my wife is not my property and I am not her property. My daughters are not my property and I am not theirs, but we are all borrowed. One day we will have to separate, whether it is by death or some other means and we have always tried to live in agreement with each other. What we have been able to do, we have done between the two of us. /p pIf someone has a family and the wife says, "I work but what I earn is mine and what you earn is yours," I think that you won't get very far that way. But if they work together, putting together the little they have, it's better. If three or four can put what they have together toward the same goal, they will prosper. Of course I think that the most important of all is to follow God. And God will take care of you. /p p /ppbWith that kind of security, you don't have to worry, do you?/b /p p/ppThat's right. God will take care of tomorrow. When God sent manna from the heavens to the Israelites in the dessert, He did not give them 2 or 3 day's food. He gave them for one day only. God will take care of tomorrow. /p pTo be successful in life, I have to have faith and love. These go hand in hand. Faith in God, love God and love each other. Live today with those around you as if you were going to die tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its problems, its good and its bad. But today is the day to make decisions. /p p/pp /ppbComo Salí Yo: Gente Ordinaria Saliendo de la Pobreza /bbr / /ppbpor Donna L. Anderson/b/p p/ppMi familia ha conocido a Israel Hernandez, su esposa Vitalina y sus dos hijas Diana y Maria, por muchos años. La primera casa a que se refiere abajo está al lado de la casa de mis abuelos. La vida de Israel empezó en una pobreza de la cual apenas encontramos en los Estados Unidos, la pobreza del Tercer Mundo. Con poca educación y unos sueños, que algunos llamarían "no realisticos", Israel trajo su familia a los Estados Unidos para empezar una vida diferente. /p pPor todo su carrera, Israel ha trabajado en la industria del algodón. Siempre ha ganado un sueldo bajo y se ha aprovechado de las largas horas de la cosecha para augmentar el sueldo. Se demonstra como sin hablar bien el ingles, sin licenciatura o un sueldo grande, se puede tener éxito. ¿Su secreto? Una familia unida, determinación, paciencia y Dios como su guía. Tiene 3 autos, incluyendo su proyecto favorito, un viejo Mercedes, una bonita casa y otra casa de arriendo, sin deuda. Pero estoy segura de que la paz con que vive le vale más que cualquiera de las posesiones. /p p /ppb¿De dónde eres?/b/p p/ppGuapeo, Mexico. En Guapeo si mataron una gallina, hicieron una fiesta porque nunca se matoron una gallina. Era un día muy especial. /p p /ppb¿Como eran las condiciones económicos de tu niñez?/b /p p/ppPues eran muy tristes. Eramos nueve de familia, mas Papá y Mamá eramos once. Solo Papá trabajaba y a veces mi hermano el mayor. Nosotros todos podíamos ayudar un poco, pero no era suficiente. Fue demasiado triste la vida económica de mi niñez. Vivíamos en el campo. Había escuela pero solo hasta sexto grado. Estuve en la escuela. Los muchachos, compañeros míos que podían, iban a estudiar al municipio. Ellos podían ir al municipio y seguir con la escuela. /p p /ppb¿Despues del sexto qué hiciste?/b/p p/ppMe fui a trabajar, porque necesitabamos vivir y tuvimos que dejar la escuela. /p p /ppb¿En qué trabajabas?/b/p p/ppBueno...en el campo. Precisamente, a los 16 años, se casó mi hermana, la mayor, y su esposo tenía un terreno donde él sembraba y me fuí con ellos a trabajar, a ayudarle, y me fue muy bien. Recuerdo que sembramos y él me dió la mitad de la cosecha. Eso fue mi pago. Fue maravilloso para mi y para mi familia a lo que recibimos de pago de esa tierra. /p pViviendo con mi hermana y mi cuñado...la familia de él tenía algo bonito entre ellos y me gustó su confidencia. Luego, a los 16 años mi converti a Dios. Recuerdo de un texto que esa familia me enseñó, "Buscad primeramente el reino de Dios y su justicia y que todo lo demás os serán añadidas." Y esto fue lo que yo hice. Creí con todo mi corazón que había un Dios y que Él me ayudaría. /p p /ppb¿En ese epoca de la adolesencia, tenías sueños?/b /p p/ppComo todos los jóvenes que queiren tener una casa, quieren tener una familia, y quieren mejorar en todo lo más posible. Pero parece que pasó el tiempo y las cosas no cambiaban. /p p /ppb¿Cuanto tiempo pasó?/b/p p/ppDespués de que tenía 24 años, me casé. Tuve una esposa y dos hijas y las cosas no estaban malas, pero no estaban muy bien. Todavía mi sueño estaba por realizarse. Pero yo tenía la confianza en Dios y tenía la esperanza que podría. Después tuve otro trabajo con La Comisión Federal de la Electricidad, pero no se ganaba mucho. Económicamente estabamos todavía en tiempos dificiles. /p p /ppb¿Describe como llegaste cambiar tu situación económica? /b/p p/ppEn ese tiempo yo trabajaba con un grupo de una iglesia, como obrero. Fuimos invitados y venimos a Reynosa por 3 días. En esos tres días tuve la oportunidad de llegar hasta la mitad del puente de los Estados Unidos, entre Reynosa y Hidalgo. Solo podría mirar para los Estados Unidos, pero allí soñé nuevamente que algún día quizás podría pasar a los Estados Unidos y que mi vida posiblemente iba a mejorar. /p pDesde esa fecha, el gobierno en Tamaulitas había facilitado un pasaporte tourista para venir a los Estados Unidos, a todos que vivieron en Tamaulitas. Gracias a Dios que me tocó con mi esposa recibir una de esos pasaportes y con permiso podríamos venir a Corpus Christi, a San Antonio, a cualquier lugar que pudieramos. /p pRecuerdo que en una ocasión, en el tiempo de un huracán, estaban solicitando trabajadores que venieron a ayudar a reconstruir lo que el huracán había [destruido]. Esta fue mi primera vez de venir a los Estados Unidos de trabajo. En Corpus, trabajé. Y desde entonces un señor siempre me llamaba cada temporada del algodón que veniera a ayudar, y siempre lo hacía cada año. /p pY al fin, hubo un problemita con los amigos con quien trabajamos allá en Mexico. Parece que me cerraron la puerta. Hice mi decisión a venirme a los Estados Unidos. Es decir no tenía otra salida. Recuerdo ese día en 1980 en que venimos a Corpus Christi y empezamos una vida diferente en este pais. /p pMe acuerdo de una vez cuando hicimos la decisión de que queríamos comprar la primera casa. No teníamos para dar el engancho, pero teníamos el interés de juntar dinero para comprar una casa. $20 por semana, los apartabamos. Nos hacía falta esos $20 para algo más, para salir y comer, pero decidimos que ibamos a apartarlo porque era para comprar una casa. Y seguimos guardando esos $20 por semana, cuando nos vino la oportunidad de tener una casa, nuestra primera casa, teníamos $7,000. Realmente lo que nos hace prosperar es cuando tenemos ganas de prosperar y una visión y desde luego una familia que nos apolla. Yo creo que se llega lejos cuando estamos de acuerdo. /p p /ppb¿Hay algo especial en tu historia sin lo cual todo hubeira sido diferente en tu vida? /b/p p/ppEse punto se sucedío cuando mis amigos nos cerraron las puertas. Creíamos que el mundo se nos echó encima. Realmente sin tener los papeles legales para vivir en los Estados Unidos, así nos venimos. Lo que nos pasó, creo que nos pasó para bien. Aunque cuando nos pasó fue un disaste. Fue algo que iba a acabar con nosotros, el ánimo y no teníamos ganas de hablar con nadie. No había una manera de escapar. Yo siempre he creido, "Primero el reino de Dios, luego lo demás os serán añadidas." Ese problema que nos pasó, en vez de que haya sido para mal, fue lo que nos ayudó. /p p /ppb¿Qué consejo podrías dar al alguien que quiere mejor su situación económica? /b/p p/ppYo creo que lo que me ha ayudo en mi vida ha sido que como familia yo siempre he creido que mi esposa no es propiedad mia, ni yo soy propiedad de mi esposa, sino que estamos prestados. Que mis hijas no son mi propiedad, ni yo soy propiedad de ellas, sino que estamos prestados. Un día vamos a tener que seperar, sea por muerte o sea por lo que sea, y siempre hemos tratado de vivir como un acuerdo de los dos. Lo que pudieramos hacer entre los dos, hicimos entre los dos. /p pSi alguien tiene una familia y la esposa dice, "Yo trabajo pero lo que yo gano es mío y lo que tú ganas es tuyo," yo pienso que así no vamos a llegar a ninguna parte. Sino que si se juntan entre dos, juntan lo poquito que ganan, es mejor. Si entre tres o cuatro, se juntan con el mismo fin, van a prosperar. Desde luego yo creo que lo primero, lo primero es buscar a Dios. Y Dios se encargará a uno. /p p /ppbY con esa seguridad, uno no tiene que preocuparse, no? /b/p p/ppClaro que Dios se encarga del manana. Cuando Dios manadaba el maná del cielo a los Israelitas en el desierto, no les daba dos o tres días. Se les daba por un día no más. Dios se encargará del manana. /p pYo creo que para tener éxito en la vida, debo tener fé y amor. Estos van de la mano. Fé en Dios, amor por Dios y después por nuestro semejante. Y tenemos que vivir el día de hoy como si fueramos a morir mañana. Porque el mañana traerá sus afanes, sus cosas negativas y positivas. Asi que hoy es el día para hacer decisiones. /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

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the word is our weapon

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrongA book review of a collection of selected writings by Subcomandante Marcos/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/325/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby George Tirado/p pIt all started at midnight January 1, 1994 when a group of masked guerillas came down from the mountains of southeastern Mexico, raised arms against a corrupt Mexican government, and demanded Justice, Liberty, and Democracy. The news broke the next morning and a place called Chiapas would soon become a household word. A pipe-smoking, black ski-masked Zapatista, named Subcomandante Marcos, would become a spokesman for not only an uprising, but of a generation of revolutionaries./p pSome would call Marcos a terrorist, others found a new voice of liberation through his writing. But it is through his many letters that he enlightens the world not only about the problems of classism, but about the poor, and the effects of neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism's international financing strategy is to remove all labor, environmental, and human rights considerations from national laws. They accomplished this through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Marcos explains what happens to Third World indigenous peoples when power-mad countries like the United States and his own country, Mexico, sink their claws into the poor and drain them of everything: land, oil, food, education, leaving them with alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, and disease./p pYou cannot beat what you cannot see; this is the reason why the Zapatistas wear masks and are nameless. "We are the faceless ones," Marcos writes, "Being silent our voices are passing away." To the Zapatista movement this is very important. As Marcos explains, it is time we broke out of the history of pain and humiliation and made our new history, and with this our own pantheon of revolutionary gods like Pancho Villa, Zapata, and El Cheí./p pTheir voices ring out from these letters. Some are funny. Some are so intense they make you cringe when you realize that all they want is what the rest of the world takes advantage of every day, but thinks nothing about. These are the three words that have changed history: Liberty, Justice, and Democracy. With their voices they will scream, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" or, "YO BASTA!"/p pThe Word Is Our Weapon is an amazing collection of letters that not only record a struggle that has been going on for 509 years but lets us into the secret world of the Zapatistas, seeing the struggle through their eyes by their myths and stories. Through the letters we see everyday life, from children fighting over candy to Marcos letting the author of a lost poem know how he missed whispering the poem into the ear of his lady. In the eyes of the world, Marcos is not only a soldier and a leader in the truest sense of the word, but also a poet and a hero. Through this timeless work, we are shown how their struggle is justified./p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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Where have all the benches gone...

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrongChannel Four News “expose” rationalizes the planned removal of all the benches used by poor and homeless folks in United Nations Plaza. /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/326/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Tom Gomez and Lisa Gray-Garcia/p pSunday morning I went out the door of my shelter at 6:30 am. I intended to go to sit on a bench in U.N Plaza and read my Sunday Times while waiting for the Quaker services I regularly attend to begin at 11:00 am. Sitting on those benches and reading my morning paper is a daily ritual for me. If I have an extra dollar I also like to enjoy coffee with my paper. My job (yes, I have a job, and so do most homeless people I know) doesn’t start until 3:00 pm and nothing opens until 9:00 am. I would stay in and sleep late like most of you probably do, but I live in a shelter. So I occupy a bench at my local park, reading my paper and watching the sunrise while sipping my coffee. /p pThe city is offended by that. Channel 4 is outraged by it. On Saturday the City removed the benches. A bench removal that had been planned for several months. Channel 4, I’m told, portrayed the park as an open sewer where homeless people sell and use drugs flagrantly. I don’t have a television. I missed the report. I miss the benches too. /p pDoes the city expect me to believe that with literally thousands of officers they are powerless to prevent a few dozen criminals from selling and using drugs in broad daylight? The crime the city has targeted here has nothing to do with drugs being sold or used. The city wants to purge its downtown of poor people and especially men of color. Throughout the whole weekend after the removal of the benches I observed police stopping black men exclusively, for no apparent reasons, demanding they produce identification and conducting random searches. /p pI am tired of being victimized for no better reason than my inability to pay $2,300.00 a month rent on my income from a $9.00hr catering job! Being a man of color is not a crime, and should not constitute “probable cause” nor invite forced warrant checks and random searches./p p No one supports urban blight. But in this case the city is responsible for failing to enforce existing laws for years, thus creating public outrage, and then mounting an outright attack on the poor in response. If the city is tired of seeing desperately poor people littering the streets of this city, I have a fine suggestion: BUILD AFFORDABLE HOUSING! And instead of punishing all of us, forcing us off public benches and into the streets at dawn, how about the innovative solution of curbing crime by arresting criminals? What a concept. Someone should suggest it to Chief Lau and Mayor Brown. /p pbExposing What?/bbr / br /By Lisa Gray-Garcia/p pThe Camera’ s gaze panned across the landscape at San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza lingering at discarded bottles, crumpled paper bags, empty beer cans...and then....a face... a man...An African-American man....smoking something...a cigarette, perhaps.. we’re not sure..then another African-American man.. then an African-American woman...then an African-American child...then another....then another and..another..and another and...until one would believe that the entire population of homeless folks in UN Plaza was African-American and then a voice, the voice of truth, the voice of.....authority?../p p“At the United Nations Plaza our hidden cameras uncovered the rampant drug use of Homeless People in UN Plaza...” This so-called “undercover” report by KRON-channel 4 (which incidently is owned by the Hearst Corporation) was followed by a shocked” interview with Mayor Brown - who after viewing the tape I just described, commented that he “would have his office look into it and see what could be done”/p pSeveral hours later the Benches at UN Plaza were removed, or rather "seized" by unmarked city vehicles- this act rendered almost every person in UN Plaza at-risk of being cited for loitering as their ability to sit was no longer legally sanctioned by the presence of benches in UN Plaza. /p p The Coalition on Homelessness filed a Freedom of Information Act Request, at which point it was uncovered that the bench removal was planned by the Mayor and City government several months ago, proving that the Mainstream media was used as an integral part of a public relations campaign to rationalize San Francisco's most recent act of racial and economic cleansing. /p p As well, and most disturbing to us at POOR, was the depiction of "so-called" homeless people, none of whom were actually spoken to, consulted or interviewed, about their homelessness or their alleged substance abuse, but as well, the intentional and bUNTRUE/b impression created by the direction of the Channel Four News cameras, that everyone in UN Plaza, was homeless, African-American, and on Drugs. /p pWe at POOR know this is not true because we are the poor folks who used to sit in UN Plaza, we are also the elders, the youth, Native Americans, African-Americans, Asians, Whites, Latinos and so on and so on.. and we have a voice, a voice of authority, an insider voice..and obviously we NEED to Be Heard!! /p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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Flawed Flick Review

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrong p This column is less personalbr / then my second one. Though I ambr / a wee bit ticked off, let me explain./p p/p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Joseph Bolden/p pIts Saturday May, 26 on Monday May, 28 2001 which is Memorial Day a movie will be shown that I planned on Saturday or Sunday. /p pIt’s "PEARL HARBOR" already its called a winner in the mega buck category./p pDisney Studios is sure to get its share and then some for showing it before and on Memorial Day./p pPersonally I’m ready to see it now rather than Monday but being a mandatory thing at Poor Magazine it makes me feel prejudicial against it. /p pI had plans on seeing "Shrek,Spy Kids, and Thebr / Animal. /p pSo I honestly have to disqualify my views on the film because of this and other circumstances when watching it for example:/p p1.Other plans than this movie./p p2. It will be really long (3hrs.), loud, and bright, since I haven’t been to many rock concerts and my ears and work well. /p p3. my weak eyes will be strained to the point of pounding headaches–it won’t be enjoyable. /p pBut a few items will be used to ease those problems.br / I'm gonna try to sleep through the whole thing./p pPearl Harbor is about the Japanese supposedly sneak attack on December 7,1941 that brought America into World War 11./p pBen Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckensale as love interest and Alex Baldwin and Cuba Gooding Jr. (as unknown hero Black oops Negro guy.[hope he doesn’t get killed in the movie.]/p pThis ends part1 on my dubious before after preview of the P.H. flick./p pPart 2 begins and ends on Tuesday May, 29. Memorial Day. /p pI may have to go to this movie epic but I do not have to see all of it./p pI'll look at some before a well deserved nap. /p pSo folks, tell me about the other films I missed that you enjoy. /p pPS This is why I'd be a lousy critic./p p©Joseph Bolden/Staff Writerbr / Poor Magazine/p pPlease send donations to Poor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street, San Francisco, CA.94103 USA/p pFor Joe only my snail mail:br / PO Box 1230 #645 Market St.br / San Francisco, CA 94102br / Email:askjoe@poormagazine.br / org/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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Flawed Flick Review

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrong pbThis column is less personal then my other ones, though I am a wee bit ticked off. Let me explain./b/p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Joseph Bolden/p pIt is Saturday May, 26. On Monday, May 28, 2001, Memorial Day, a movie will be shown that I wanted to see today. The movie is "Pearl Harbor". Personally I’m ready to see it now, not Monday. Already it has been called a winner in the mega buck category. Disney Studios is sure to recoup its money and more for showing it before and on Memorial Day./p pFor a number of reasons I am not really looking forward to seeing this film. I had other plans besides watching this film. I also imagine the film will probably be really loud and bright. Since I haven’t been to many rock concerts and my weak eyes will be strained to the point of pounding headaches–it won’t be enjoyable. /p pBut a few points in its favor are that ease those problems is that the film is about the Japanese supposedly sneak attack on December 7, 1941 that brought America into World War II. In addition, the movie stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckensale as love interest, Alex Baldwin, and Cuba Gooding Jr. as a heroic Black guy—I hope he doesn’t get killed in the movie./p pThis ends part 1 of my dubious before after preview of the Pearl Harbor flick. Part 2 will begin and end on Tuesday, May29, 2001, the day after Memorial Day./p p©Joseph Bolden/Staff Writerbr / Poor Magazine/p pPS I'm a bit peeved and depressed at this mandatory movie outing but I’ll buck upbr / and keep going; it may not be that bad (Who am I kidding?)./p pbPlease send donations to Poor Magazinebr / C/0 Ask Joebr / 255 9th Streetbr / San Francisco, CA 94103br / USA/b/p pFor Joe only my snail mail: PO Box 1230br / 645 Market Streetbr / San Francisco, CA 94102/p pEmail:askjoe@poormagazine.orgb/b/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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Hands' and Lester's Hawaiian Adventure

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrongA Couple of Low-Income Cats Talk Back!/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Dee/p pYes, Hands thought if only he could have said, "You just kinda wasted my precious time," to that relationship he endured many years ago. Yes, Hands was in love, deeply in love a long time ago, in a different country. Unfortunately, this beloved girlfriend broke up with Hands for stupid reasons, Hands and Lester said. /p pYou see, Hands has a habit of crossing his paws when he sleeps and that girlfriend couldn’t stand it. She told Hands to stop but he couldn’t help himself. But when Hands started chewing in such a way so that his whiskers would get stuck in his mouth, the girlfriend really got disgusted and told Hands that was it, she did not want to see him anymore. At least that’s how uHands’ version/u of the story goes./p pAt the time Hands knew this girl he was a travel agent in Hawaii, in another one of his nine lives. This girl’s name was Aulii, which means chief in Hawaiian, and true to her name she did like to lead and was a bit bossy. Also, she was very proud of her Hawaiian heritage. Hands believed he was doing Hawaii a favor by encouraging tourism, believing that tourism promotes Hawaiian culture./p pOf course, because Hands didn’t have a clue about what it meant to be an indigenous person, he requested that Aulii do the hula for him all the time. Now the hula is an ancient form of dance with deep and complex religious meaning and to perform it for tourists, which of course Hands was, was a form of cultural prostitution. Hawaiian women doing the hula are marketed on posters from Paris to Tokyo, promising an unfettered primitive sexuality. Actually, that was the main reason Hands wanted to come to Hawaii. Hands had seen those posters, and in fact to this day still has one on the wall near his cat box./p pHands couldn’t understand why this woman talked the way she did- about Captain Cook and how beautiful the life of the indigenous Hawaiian people had been before the diseases that the explorers had brought to Hawaii, which had decimated her people. All Hands cared about was being on the beach in Waikiki in the moonlight with Aulii, watching the locals like Don Ho and the local dance troupe called the Honolulu Fire Dancers Club dancing with fire./p pAulii did not appreciate something else Hands loved to do, which was to gather his buddies around him at the beach and sing his favorite Hawaiian song to Aulii: /p pIt’s not the island fairbr /br / That is calling to mebr /br / It’s not the balmy airbr /br / Or the tropical seabr /br / It’s just a little brown girlbr /br / In a little grass skirtbr /br / In a little grass shackbr /br / In Hawaii.br //p pOne moonlight Waikiki night, after singing to Aulii, Hands told her they could get married right away if Aulii got a job with the hula dancers on the stage and made a lot of money so that she could support Hands when he gave up his job as a travel agent and opened a mumu store in Waikiki beach. When Aulii heard this she looked angrily at Hands for a full minute, then turned and left the room, never to be seen again./p pHands and Lester still to this day cannot understand why this beautiful brown girl left Hands for good. How could she be so critical of him just because he slept with his paws crossed and got a few crumbs on his whiskers when he ate too fast?/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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$500 Fine

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrongLocal government in Austin, Texas are proposing an ordinance to harass homeless folks./strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/332/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby HoustonChronicle.com, courtesy of Homeless Peoples Network/p p /ppbAUSTIN/b -- Along the street nicknamed "The Drag," across from The University of Texas, the homeless have mingled with students for years.br / br / /ppBut that could change if the Austin City Council approves a measure thatbr / would ban sitting or lying on sidewalks downtown or along the Drag.br / br / /ppCouncil members are considering the proposed ordinance that would make it abr / Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine.br / br / /ppThe proposed ordinance is modeled on a Seattle ordinance upheld inbr / Washington state court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.br / br / /ppSome council members say they support the plan, as long as it is notbr / enforced before the city's temporary men's shelter and permanent women'sbr / shelter open this summer and fall.br / br / /pp"I think if everything is in place, it's appropriate," said Council Memberbr / Beverly Griffith./p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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Decline to State

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/333/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Nancy Muldoon/p pI recently got a parent survey in the mail from the San Francisco Unified School district. My child attends a public school and is currently in the fourth grade./p pMy daughter is biracial. She is Irish-American and African American. The survey in the mail requires me to select one box only under the "ethnicity"br / category./p pThe categories are as follows: African-American, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Latino, Native-American, Other Non-White, Other White, and Decline to State. /p pLet's consider the last two for a moment. /p p"Other White?" What the hell is Other White? Will someone please explain this to me? There is no "Caucasian" or "White" box to check. Just "Other White."/p pI am Irish-American and I don't consider myself as "Other White." But the survey is about my child's ethnicity, not mine. /p pOn principle, I will not choose one box to make some bureaucrat happy.br / I will not check one box to make it easier for the Census Bureau. Why should I?br / In essence my child is being told that she must pledge allegiance to one race or the other. It's the governments "divide and conquer" routine and it's not even clever./p pIf I choose the "Decline to State" box, it makes me seem obstinate and unwillingbr / to play by the rules. When the fact of the matter is I am not declining to state anything. It is the survey that is declining parents the opportunity to choose more than one box. Declining to State also has a 5th Amendment mentality to it. As in: "I decline to state on grounds that whatever I say may incriminate me or my child."/p pWho are these bureaucrats who make up these pointless surveys? And, how much money are they being paid? Inquiring minds like mine really want to know. /p pAt this point I don't even know if I will actually complete the survey and mail it in.br / Maybe I should write a scathing letter to the San Francisco Unified School District asking them what purpose does the survey serve? I also wonder if they will send me a well-worded form letter saying that they "Decline to State."br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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No thanks, Mr. Bush

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pstrong a letter to the editor at PNN/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/334/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Cynthia Cravens /p pDear Poor News Network,/p pI plan to return my check for my tax return to Mr. Bush with a notebr / saying, "No thanks. I don't need this money that badly. You took me forbr / a special interest, but you were wrong. I'm an American citizen and Ibr / will not be bought. This money should have been spent by my governmentbr / to ensure that all Americans have access to medical care; to nourishbr / basic, disinterested research into energy generation; to promote abr / decent standard of living and educational opportunities for America'sbr / poor and middle class; and, most importantly, to provide for publicbr / financing of federal elections so that our institutions of governmentbr / will, once again, be respected."/p pI will send copies of this letter to the New York Times, the Sanbr / Francisco Chronicle, my US Senators and Representatives, and the IRS./p pRegards,/p pCynthia Cravens /p p*****************************************/p pbi Another letter to the Bush Administration/i/b/p pChaos In California- An open Letter to the Bush Administration br / br /From Dee Gray/p pDear W: /p pSince 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. /p pWhat 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./p pPerhaps 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? /p pIf 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?/p pThe 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!/p pMr. 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?/p pIn 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? /p pSincerely, Dee,br / br /An American in California,br / br /still one of the states in this union.br / br /A Californian who will vote for a presidentbr / br /in a state where Latinos outnumber whitesbr / br /and where citizens also care aboutbr / br /Little League Baseball.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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The Other Side of Pearl Harbor

09/24/2021 - 11:34 by Anonymous (not verified)
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pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/338/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Jeff Adachi/p pI, like many Japanese Americans, await the release of the film "pearl Harbor" with some anxiety and trepidation. Although Hollywood has promised a more sensitive treatment of the infamous bombing of Pearl Harbor, the thought of another Japan vs. America movie threatens to re-open old wounds and ignite already existing anti-Japanese and Asian sentiments, particularly in light of the recent poll reporting that anti-Asian prejudice is at an all-time high./p pI first learned of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor in my third grade history class. Afterwards, on the school yard, a boy named George called me a "jap" and started a fight with me because "my parents had bombed Pearl Harbor." That evening, I asked my mother if she had anything to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She explained to me that she was third generation American and had as little to do with Pearl Harbor as George's German-American parents had to do with Hitler's reign of terror./p pWhat I didn't realize at that age is that my parents had paid a terrible price for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Within months of December 1941, my mother, father and their families, along with 110,000 other Japanese Americans, were given 48 hours to vacate their homes, close their businesses and churches, get rid of all their possessions and report to the assembly centers. For several months they lived in horse stalls before being shipped off to spend the next four years in barbed wire internment camps in Rohwer, Arkansas and Hila River, Arizona. Even though neither my mother or father had ever even been to Japan, they suffered the wrath of America's anger at Japan./p pThe internment took a great toll upon Japanese American culture. In camp, my grandparents did not teach my parents the Japanese language, customs or religion in fear that they might be accused of being Japanese nationalists. Even with their American citizenship, they were forced to submit loyalty oaths to prove their allegiance to America. For some, proving their loyalty became and obsession. Despite the cries from their distressed families, many young Japanese American men enlisted in the US army, fighting in segregated units which later became the most decorated units in history./p pAfter release from camps, my parents faced poverty and a country full of hostility and racism. Like most Japanese Americans, my grandparents worked to rebuild their lives, working in menial jobs to support the family. It took them years to reach a point where they could live a relatively normal life. And they never were able to fully recover from the social and economic devastation that they experienced in the camps./p pPearl Harbor was a horrible tragedy for the many hundreds of soldiers and innocent people who were killed and maimed. This new film version will expose a new generation of film viewers to this historical fact. However, I hope that somehow people will remember that there was another side to Pearl Harbor, a side that forever changed the destinies of the Japanese American community. It will forever remain a day of infamy for all Americans- including Japanese Americans.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p
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