Story Archives 2002

by Mitch Jeserich

Here is a small compilation of information concerning the effects of war on the global disabled population. The information is still incomplete, but I think it is evident that war and violent conflict violate Articles 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, war and violent conflict also create conditions to violate Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons.

The following information is grim, but it is worth noting that Dr. Nawaf Kabbara, from the Arab Organization of Disabled People, said that disabled people galvanized the peace movement in Lebanon's civil war from 1975-90. Furthermore, Lucy Wong-Hernandez, E.D. Disabled People International, said, "We are committed to make sure that children are protected and that children who become disabled from these situations are not left ignored, un-served, and marginalized from society. DPI will be actively present advocating for and raising awareness about war affected children with disabilities and all children during the Children's Summit at the United Nations in New York 2001." I hope as an international policy institute, WID will also take notice of war and disability.

The effects of war on people who previously had a disability:

-"Disabled children have greater difficulty escaping during attacks, especially those with a moving, learning, or visual difficulty. Parents may have to make difficult decisions about who to leave behind when fleeing. In 1993 a Lebanese man admitted that he fled his home taking a cow rather than his disabled daughter, because the cow was of more use." (CBR News)

-"Most conflicts today are civil wars—the victims are civilians rather than soldiers. Targeting civilians means that women and children are increasingly vulnerable, and yet rehabilitation services (for the disabled) often focus on men." (CBR News)

-"Other disabilities in conflict situations are linked to the breakdown in infrastructure and the economy. Disabling diseases such as polio and measles become more common because drugs and vaccines are not available. The nutritional status of children will probably worsen as food supplies decline, leading to an increase in nutritional disabilities. Warfare can be hidden, for example the trade sanctions against Iraq. The lack of food, medical equipment, drugs and fuel leads to more disability." (CBR News)

-"Most medical clinics in East Timor were burned down during the violence after the referendum. Many disabled persons were provided with health care from these clinics." (Disabled People International)

-"In a conflict situation, attitudes towards disabled persons may be worse because poverty is more widespread and disabled people are seen as more of a burden." (CBR News)

-"In refugee settlements, disabled people may not have access to relief services because of difficulties moving around, carrying, and queuing." (CBR News)

"The government pays more attention to the veterans than to the civilian even if the civilian was injured by a military weapon." (Son Song Hak, Cambodia)

The increase of disability during times of war and violent conflict:

-Since the last Intifada began in Palestine this past year, there are 2,500 new disabled persons. (Dr. Nawaf Kabbara, The Arab Organization of Disabled People)

-"Afghanistan has experienced 20 years of war that has left 15 to 20 percent of the population disabled. There are about 10 million land mines laying around the country." (CBR News)

-In the past ten years six million children have been injured in armed conflict and many more have witnessed or taken in part in acts of violence, leading to emotional disturbances." (CBR)

-"Many wars today are low intensity conflicts—they aim to wound and disable people rather than to kill them, for example, land mines. Leaving people disabled puts a greater economic burden on families and nations rather than killing them." (CBR News)

-"There are about 110 million landmines planted in the world. Over one million people have been killed or injured by mines since 1975. About 70 people are injured or killed by land mines daily. Mines are being laid 25 times faster than they are being cleared. In Angola, one person in 470 has had a limb amputated." (Mines Advisory Group)

-Children in many regions all over the world are caught in the cross-fire, and are left parentless, homeless, with serious health problems, disabled and traumatized, permanently by war." (Disabled People International)

-"Many children's bodies have been mutilated and made permanently disabled from the conflict in Sierra Leone." (Disabled People International)

"It is estimated that about 37 percent of people involved in war lose their hearing. It is estimated that 35 percent of land mine survivors in Cambodia are women." (Disabled People International).

-"Disruption of health services increases the prevalence of disabling diseases like polio and can lead to more disabilities resulting from birth difficulties." (CBR News)

-"The 1994 massacre in Rwanda left more than half a million people dead in a space of three months. Of those who survived, many had seen family members murdered and others became disabled du to machete wounds. Emotional trauma were therefore widespread among children. Some were in a state of shock while others lost the power of speech." (CBR News)

by Joe. B.

On a grey, near sunless Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001 a few fledgling reporters from Poor Magazine are invited to observe, participate, and report on a: San Francisco Housing Reality Tour.

First problem - the small mauve or purple-red paper invitation for the march said Civic Center Plaza better known as the United Nations Plaza. All is quiet in the United Nations Plaza.

By 4:45 pm. the crowd of merchants, customers, homeless people, and low income working folk are less as the bright white tents pack up to drive away in trucks, cars, or walk away gaps are left in their wake as bits of vegetable matter, plastic, paperbags, and foods are left on red brick walkways.

The waterfall still flows, grey-white seagulls sit, walk, eating near or flying about looking for food left by transients, homeless people, and tourists strolling the area. Its less crowded because in the daytime a thriving Fresh Food Market.

Though bland, uniformed white tent housed merchants selling all kinds of fruits, vegetables, jars of natural bee honey and other types of food in the plaza square.

At 4:55 pm. I've gone through Civic Center's United Nations Plaza all the way to the end of the Simon Buliva, Man-on-horseback statue whether made from bronze, steel, or an amalgamation of other metals I do not know.

"He killed Native American's" is Mari's angry answer knowing the dead guy's history.

She's one the 18 to 23 year old Youth Commissioner's in City Hall. Its the Mayor's input on youth involvement in government.

Anyway I'm thinking "What happened, where's everybody. There's a police car on the sidewalk going through the plaza, lots of police cars, cops on foot, cycles, station wagon, van, lots of cops are converging I have no idea where - I'm not sure I 'wanna know.

Right-To-A-Roof with Mr. James Tracy is using a mini bullhorn to gather and inspire the crowd for a legal police escorted march through areas affected or being affected by the honorable Mayor W. Brown.

In support of the National Day Of Housing Action. It begins at 5:00 pm.

Is it too late for drugs as an alternative way to deal with real life?

'Yep, too late, have to see this through - its called 'paying your dues so when one gets to their good life [while alive and breathing] no one can say she/he had it cushy all their lives.

Unknown to me and Mari the S.F. Housing Reality Tour's last minute change from U.N. Plaza in Civic Center has moved to the steps outside City Hall.

"Its a last minute change" was James Tracy casual reply.

I'm thinking [this is no way to garner popular support if stability is a stumbling block, at least the organizers should be 'um... organized.]

Many other organizations have joined plus fourteen cities are having similar demonstrations - Don't 'cha love globalizing the masses to participate in a great and noble cause like housing for low income working poor, homeless and people in shelters?

Some of the signs I read were: Housing's a human right, San Francisco needs more housing now! Families need housing not shelter.

There are many sighs in Spanish or Spanglish [Spanish and English combined, Filipino, Chinese, and other languages.

La Raza Community,
Housing Network,
Organized Labor,
Tenderloin Housing Clinic,

Housing America,
Homes Not Jails,
National Coalition On Homelessness,
National Low-Income Housing Coalition Right To A Roof/Coalition On Homelessness Religious Witness With Homeless People,
Street Spirit (Project Of American Friends Service Committee),
Food Not Bombs,
Homeless Prenatal Program,
P.O.W.E.R. [People Organized To Win Employment Rights]
and many others on this roster of people oriented orgs well know and some not.

For those unnamed my apologies there are so many of you and only one of me to write all of you down, 'sheesh.

After more inspired speeches from many organizer's and regular working folk the organized march and protest rally began from the steps of City Hall growing as many struggling, folks joined in our march.

Escorted by police on cycles, walking along side us as a protecting or arresting arm probably a little of both if things turn sour.

We must be really dangerous for all these blues watching over us.

Our first of many stops is at 450 Golden Gate Avenue outside The Philip Burton Federal Building and United States Court House the State building is across the street.

There are two police guards inside, some workers, and regular folks wandering about.

We surge on to the Page Hotel a concerned citizen tells me.

At the Page, as people walk carry in sighs, in their hands, children on shoulders I believe it's Ms. Gretchen another Poor Magazine student/contributor who informs me of other cities doing what we're doing now.

New York, Baltimore, Seattle, and others.

I'd sure like the other 10 cities and more to hook up, maybe we can help each other. All Of Our Cities!, not needing our help could help us so the shit now rolling on us from on high can be backed up and lots of dirt or worse lands on those folks in Washingtoon Deplorable Compost, OOP's I mean Washington DC

Hey, you other cities? Going through similar cow chip housing crisis with possible solutions not looked or listened to because the fire hasn't reached their flushed-with-cash comfy asses yet.

Who knows after 6 or more of most of the citizens in every city, small town, or hamlet protest everyday maybe the powers that be will finally get a clue to why everything is slowly grinding to a halt they still may not care but by The Eternal they'll have to start earning their keep instead of sitting on their rumps like updated high tech robber barons.

Lets light 'em up-laser those tender poop buts until, the trapped methane gas blows heated flame from all their stuffed up holes or is it orifice's. Join up, brain storm, lets stop leaking green blood and heal or housing problems once and for all.

From the Burton Fed Building, The Page, across the street at 146 at Golden Gate is the Hospitality House besides shelter it serves lunches and has instructors in the arts of painting, sculpture, drawing, and pottery all free. Item: Painted American Flag on the window is realistically done I like the stripes.

Then to the former Empress that was vacant for 20 years as its tenants and working folk looked for housing and slept or died in the streets then it reopened as The West Cort, where a finger salute was clearly given by either a manger or owner but he seemed a bit peeved at the crowd milling around the building this night.

Passing the Tenderloin Police Station with its many cars, station wagon, empty.

I don't like that they are empty-it does not make me feel all that good because they're here ready and waiting to be filled and as I said before lots of cops.

On to the Family owned Fang Building where the San Francisco Chronicle now resides sold to the Fang Family by the Hearst Family.

Its nice to know some family traditions still hold true, there are a few traditional family values we must get rid of like the corporate monopolies.

Its 6:30pm, really dark, I'm tired, losing my voice from chanting, my feet are on automatic, but I'm in the march because its a good thing to do, and somewhere down this road generations of young adults, single, married, and working poor with better pay, and children, yet unborn will benefit.

On 7th Street, around the corner, I'm still tired..." Oh-Joe, stop"
Didn't Mari have some 'kinda meeting in chambers at City Hall as a member of the Youth Commission?"

Mari does not understand my reporting style thinking every I say on tape will be reported as dictated. She thinks I'm a rotten reporter.

She's half right I am not a reporter, but I am rotten as a reporter.

Where was I... "I'm tired, the protesters are heading in my direction. I'm going home."

Last stop for me is the Warfield Building owned by the Fang Family at 988 on Market and Taylor Streets.

I go home weary, sleepy meanwhile the protest heads across the street to the building with art hanging off the building but the ploy is waring thin as its a building that can be renovated for low income people, not suddenly turned into another high priced tourist hotel.

Some pasta 'n potatoes, bread and water and my night is over.

by Joe. B.

Yeah, yeah, rotten metaphor but 'ya can't ignore the visuual.

Except for minor logistics, in time and human errors everything went without a hitch, an expensive lesson is learned in that contracts will be signed so that 20% does not suddenly inflate to 30%.

A rainy Saturday night, November, 10, 2001 6pm. to llpm. POOR's first CD (Audio-Compact Disk) Party for the 'PO Poets.

The Lab had their own scultures glossy and bright color arts-on-alunmium canvas show installation Our Long Awaited and for me slighly fearful CD Release Party: that's [Conpact Disk to Off Worlders, Persons in Cryogenic Cold Sleep, Suspended Animation or otherwise frozen in time.]CD's are made, tested, listened to.

Some people didn't make the cut to be on and could be on a next one if possible.

I personally carefully with sterile fingertips placed the silver "grade A" quality circular audio disks in their square covers unwrapped in clear cellophane. They're naked, in their clear plastic covers as the square slick expensive paper that shows in multiple 6 to 14 or more fonts or points for picky typeset readers.

'Po Poets, and many guests are on hand that rainy night to cheer each other on, eat food, drink, and just plain have a good time without all the madness of September 11th.

Sometimes a brake is needed before going on or our human physical, psychological systems will brake down from fatigue and mental stress and I personally know about job burn-out on low wage jobs - higher paid upwardly bound job/career must be way worse because everything is intensified to the 'max.

This night is for sitting back, breathing, no-thinking, and listening to folks celebrate surviving, thriving, on the low rungs of life... those everyday hero and heroine's, single father's, mother's, children, and regular folks waking up and not giving up as the many struggle through constent economic turmoil.

Some of the food arrived late but there was enough brought by in case problems happened across the bay.

I have a hasty made escape plan as soon as I am finished with my own babbling.

Lateefa Simon(not the big boned healthy one with the talk show) she's petite, lythe, wiry sprite MC
(Mistress of Ceremonies) keeping the people energized with her rapid fire - hyper energy presence and words.

Rap Artists from Hip Hop's Prophets of Rage, Renaissance, Munaf, Keith Savage, Tiger, Pecoya, and singer Ananda.

It was an elevating, electrifying night of music, song, poetic verse, jokes and a break for working folks to just sit in their seats and relax not thinking of overdue bills, balloon mortgages, rent, food, or war.

There are serious talk about our changed America to be sure but for a little it is set aside for one night of celebrating a small victory by and for poor folks.

Soon my turn came to mumble words of deathless prose and after the escape.

I speak of escape because being at many a rally/protest with ubiqutous black, brown, green, yellow, or clear plastic bags some hapless few must do clean-up of tables and floors and using said plastic bags there is always a chance of spillage.
Any small to large hole from one object or many causing a puncture that spills, sprays, or gets dumped on the floor creating a mess where moments past it was clean.

Not this time! Oh, no - an escape is planned to the second after my spoken word is over I'd listen one maybe two more people then gracefully say good by so I can visit my family for a few day and be away from The City.

Now to realities, we're selling the CD's for $10 maybe when or if they go into well known big name stores they'll be sold for more is in the air for now but I believe deals have been made to ensure this.

You know below after most of my columns you see the:
Send this or that and Blah, blah, blah.

Well, have something to sell. Anyway maybe like rappers of old who sold their tapes from trunks of cars or on the street when rap was deemed a fad, 'pol's feeling threatened as it grew beyond its confinds of inner city neighborhoods.

I say my words trying to memorized 9 lines of verbage and failing then creatively adding and subtracting until my time off stage has ended.

Dharma spoke in her musical haronic voice and I whisper "Missed some, good cover up."

Then quietly announce to Lisa and Dee that of my rapid departure from the City, head out the glass door, around the corner to my families car fade into the night.

Escape is right, someone will take my place cleaning up tables, floors, chairs, and putting out the garbage but I'm glad it won't be me.

As the car glides across the superstructure of the Golden Gate Bridge a sigh of relief escapes from me, a long comfortable ride with loved ones and zzzzz's begin a siren call and I'm lulled to sleep.

Well stay well folks. I'll be resting up for a while... Bye.

Please donate what can to
Poor Magazine or

C/0 Ask

Joe at 255 9th St.

Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail

mail:PO Box 1230 #645

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CA 94102

Email:askjoe@poormagazine. org.

by Gretchen Hildebran/PoorNewsNetwork

The crowd shouted wildly as it approached the corner
of 6th and Howard in the early evening darkness.
Laughs, songs and cheers washed over the frustrated
honks of the nearby commuters like a fresh and
exuberant wind. As we approached the intersection, a
cluster of waving people appeared in the second story
rooms of the giant empty building on the corner
that used to house hundreds of people and families.
Two Banners unfurled from the windows welcoming us and
echoing our cheers, they read: "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos! and
Everyone has a right to a roof!"

Last Wednesday's march and Housing Reality Tour was
organized by the National Affordable Housing Trust
Fund Campaign, a coalition of local and national housing rights
groups, tenants, poor people, homeless folks and
families. While the US spends approximately one
billion dollars a day to fight a war in Afghanistan,
poor people and activists are organizing this campaign
to make the government put its resources into fighting
poverty at home. The Affordable Housing Trust, which
could be funded for one year by the last week of
government military spending alone, would build 1.5
million affordable homes in the United States over the
next ten years.

The protest began with a group of several hundred people
gathering in the late afternoon shadow of City Hall.
Families, SRO tenants and homeless folks held up
placards reading Housing for All! and Housing for
the Homeless! to passing cars as local gospel group
Bay City Love sang Down By the Riverside. Krea
Gomez of the Homeless Prenatal Program, one of the
campaign organizers, started things up by
reminding the crowd that we all struggle with the need
for affordable housing, and that this everyday reality
cannot be ignored anymore.

James Tracy from Right 2 A Roof explained next that
this day was designated as the National Day of
Housing Action. This protest was a national one,
happening simultaneously in 20 cities across the US,
and advocating to Congress the importance of the bill,
to be voted on early next year. Maria Orsonio and Cindy Weisner
from POWER (People Organized to Win
Employment Rights) added that economic justice must also
be part of any affordable housing program. Living
wage jobs are just as important as affordable
housing, so that people can keep and care for their
homes.

The crowd had swelled to over a hundred as night fell
and I picked up a sign as the march began. ìHousing
is Hope. Hope did pick up momentum, even as we made
our way to various sites in the Tenderloin and South
of Market that represented the greed, ignorance and
misrepresentation that perpetuate the current lack of
housing for so many. With the revving engines of
police motorcycles surrounding us, we walked to the
offices of Housing and Urban Development. There
speakers addressed the government policy which has
pulled back financing of subsidized housing over the
last 20 years. Someone in the crowd yelled, We need
a NEW new deal! and cheering erupted.

At the Page Hotel, our next stop, a SRO resident spoke
in Cantonese about how SROs are often the only
available housing to the most vulnerable people ñ
especially families and recent immigrants. Tenants at
this SRO have organized against the managementís
racist and illegal eviction procedures. Miguel Barrera
of Hogares Sin Barreras then made the point, ìWe all
should be able to demand housing no matter our
culture!

Next was the former Empress Hotel, an SRO that was
shut down by the city for health reasons in 1981. The
owners of the building recently invested millions in
the hotel in order to illegally reopen it as the now
tourist-only West Cork Hotel. Meanwhile these same
landlords have left their other SRO hotels (most
notoriously the Alder Hotel on 6th St.) in disrepair.
An SRO resident spoke about the need of owners and
government to respect peopleís needs and the laws,
reminding them, don't forget about the people who
were here before you.

By the time we made it to the Examiner building to
protest that newspaper's smear campaigns against the
poor and homeless of the city, we were informed that
local housing activists were already occupying a
nearby vacant building and needed our support.
In a phone interview from inside the infamous
"defenestration" building at 6th and Howard, Ted
Gullickson of the San Francisco Tenant's Union
explained why the activists had chosen to occupy this
building. "Notorious landlord, David Patel evicted the
building's tenants about twelve years ago, and now is
asking the city to pay an inflated $2 million to buy
it. While this building's 75 apartments would be an
important first step towards addressing the need for
low-income housing in the city, real estate
speculation and government inaction have left it
vacant"

Alison Lum of Homes Not Jails, also occupying the
building, said that the group planned to not only.
house over a hundred people at this location but to
also employ them in fixing up their future homes.
Local activists are determined to not just campaign
for the government to recognize the housing needs of
our communities, but to also take an immediate stand
against the city's unwillingness to create low-income
housing. As Alison stated, We will not let
people suffer while buildings stand vacant!

The following day after the police forcibly removed the protestors only the voices of resistance remained, whistling through the now-empty building, "Aqui Estamos Y no Nos Vamos, Everyone has a Right to a Roof"

by Phil Goldvarg

The eagle is not down,

he's in a different sky,

wings still moving

against the currents of injustice,

there is no death for this peaceful warrior,

he looks down on us,

his quiet fire eyes say,

tu eres mi otro yo,

you are me,

I am you,

somos juntos

en la tristeza de la noche,

en la felicidad

del dia,

the eagle is not down,

he's in a different sky

y los chuecos,

the greedy growers,

the legislators

who legislatre los farmworkers

and their ninos to death

are shaking in fear,

they know there's going to be

some serious huelgas

in heaven and hell,

sabes que, hermano,

the eagle is not down,

he's in a different sky,

there is no death

for this peaceful warrior.

Para Cesar 4/26/93

C/S

by Lani Kent/PoorNewsNetwork

It was October 5, before the trial, and the large courthouse windows let the morning sun and all its fresh light build yellow bars of dust down the long hallway. The little girl's court-appointed lawyer joked around with the little girl's court-appointed therapist. "I've worked with worse," she said of the little girl's mother, "At least this one didn't take a knife to me or jump me." She laughed in a superior sort of way and looked down at her freshly painted toenails.

Five minutes later, the little girl's mother filled the hall, interrupting the golden bars of sunlight with her powerful stride. Sandra Brown's sudden presence silenced the painted ladies, for it's no fun to get caught being unprofessional.

Sandra Brown's familiarity with this hallway started almost three years ago, right after her daughter was taken from her. Sandra had yet to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and lived in a shelter with her small child. After contracting a contagious disease, and with great love and sorrow, she decided to leave her daughter in a children's shelter for five days. "I put my daughter in this situation because I caught scabies and it was contagious, and I gave her to them so she wouldn't get it."

With no family to turn to, and no home of her own, this decision was the best Sandra could make for her little girl. Within days CPS attained possession of the child, took her out of the shelter, and sentenced her to foster care. To date, she has been detained in four different foster homes. Sandra still does not know why they offered help, only to betray her and claim to know what's best for her own little girl.

"When financial difficulties, physical or mental handicaps, or status in society threaten independence, the Department of Social Services is there to help," reads a banner on the CPS home page. This vague and all-encompassing statement somehow qualifies their actions against Sandra and her daughter back in 1998. She is currently fighting this "helpful" system that imposes its services on people who THEY decide need THEM. Sandra's battle has most recently led her to Room 406 at the Superior Court of California, where I met her and all of her dynamic energy.

We walked into a windowless room where court commissioner Abby Abinanti sat behind an enormous desk and played God to CPS-induced cases. Fancy toenails filtered in with talk and giggles and folders holding recommendations for Sandra's daughter's fate. Sandra sat there as her own lawyer exchanged sarcastic glances with the opposition, breeding more mistrust of the system that is supposed to "help." After kicking out PNN's Courtwatch advocates, who were there to support Sandra, the meeting began. I was allowed to stay as a personal support and friend of Sandra.

"I am firing my lawyer as of today," said Sandra, opening up the meeting with her own words and wishes. "Now, when do I get to see my daughter?" Prior to entering Room 406, Sandra had explained to me the situation with her lawyer. "She is one of them," she said, pointing to her lawyer and to her daughter's therapist; the very ladies who hadn't the courtesy to keep their unprofessional gossip private.

After firing her lawyer, Sandra was asked if she knew how to hire her own lawyer. "They talk to me like I am stupid," she later confided to me. Sandra was also asked to be quiet numerous times, told that her issues would not be addressed until they decided to address them, and slapped with a restraining order.

How anything that happened in that courtroom constitutes "help" for Sandra is beyond me. Sandra is financially strained, she is bipolar, and her independence has been threatened. CPS has not helped like they promised they would. Instead, they have ensured the continued presence of these suffocating issues; they have brightened the spotlight on Sandra Brown's imperfections and decided she cannot raise her own child, despite her love and will, despite her full-time employment and permanent residency, despite the medication she faithfully takes to control her disorder.

The next hearing will be in two weeks.

Sandra's daughter currently resides at The Edgewood Center for Children and Families. This institution opened 150 years ago to house orphans who lost their parents for various reasons, usually death. Its purpose then changed and it was transformed into a residential treatment center for severely emotionally disturbed children. It has been three years and four families, and Crittenden claims that she cannot find a suitable family for Sandra's little girl. Unwilling to deliver the child back to her natural home with her mother, the court has approved to house Sandra's daughter in this large sterile institution.

Edgewood, since then, has hosted several joint therapy sessions for Sandra and her daughter, and issues such as foster care-related sexual and emotional abuse have plagued their meetings. Sandra believes there has been sexual misconduct in one or more of her daughter's foster care situations. Edgewood has not entertained Sandra's accusations, nor do they appear concerned with Sandra's right to address her daughter's needs.

Sandra has taken these concerns to the Attorney General of California in the form of a letter: "DHS staff has subjected my 8-year-old daughter to sexual, mental and physical abuse since she has been in foster care. My daughter has suffered trauma physically and mentally." Sandra is also working with several community organizations to bring awareness to the public concerning CPS's unfair treatment of the poor. She believes her and her daughter's State and Constitutional Rights have been violated on twelve different counts.

Sandra Brown has remained vocal and determined throughout this entire process, her concern stretching to all children ripped out of their mother's arms due to poverty and homelessness. Unafraid of the thick walls surrounding the government institutions she faces, Sandra explains: "I'm gonna tear their kingdom down."

by Joe B.

Did most of you have a safe, gut filling Thanksgiving? As many may know the Indians at Plymouth Rock got a rotten reward for helping the Pilgrims survive that harsh winter way back When.

They [Pilgrims] thought of the Indians as wild, crude, uncivilized, and walking around half bare gave their women an eyeful of another type of male physique.

It didn't matter, most of them if not all would have perished from starvation, few even saw the Indigenous people living in natural grace but only as heathens shut off from divine love of their Lord.

Questions have been bubbling up ever since about historical fact, fiction, and lies through the ages.

Were elderly Women, strikingly beautiful mature woman, young or middle aged in the same , plus having midwife skills other healing skills from herbs, medicinal tincture to heal wounds, brake fever's and restore health must have seemed "Devil's Work" indeed to a Patriarchal controlled society.

What happened when a few over aged [25-40] year old spinsters who don't look their age, a normal or hyperactive sexdrive, and able to lure young or older men to them and even give birth?

The older men and young or middle-age women jealous that and their own men's straying their way was test-to-embarrass and/or kill these odd women who seem to the defy time and nature.

Imagine Lena Horn, and Elizabeth Taylor with their legendary beauty in those times. Both through no fault of their own could be tortured, called witches, and be put to death for the sin of "Being too sensual and alluring, otherworldly, sinful, not simply, mortal beauty. "They made a bargain with Satan." is their rant.

Madonna [1980's Material Girl] had the same problem: the powers that be-first said she'd be a flash in the pan, would not be a success, or her talent and fame wouldn't last.

Obviously Madonna herself and fans believed in her too - so much that the powers that be tried to overide entertainment and marketing forces when the young girl, woman, lady, broke through, and continued to change and evolved into the Megastar she is now.

It shows that one person with a will, intelligence, and talent can always move elasticity no matter what others may think and say.

I'm not even getting into Rap and Hip-Hop which again shows the power of the individual can still sway hearts and minds and change lives.

Back to post Turkey Day. The family had a nice dinner, though eggnog is a nemesis I had some pie Ala mode, and cheese cake.
My mother didn't buy, prepare, or cook a turkey this year and she won't do it ever again. "We don't have to have a turkey." she said Wednesday night - microwaved turkey bits or turkey-pot-pies is fine by her.

Years ago my Mother's boyfriends bought already to eat turkey tails. They are already golden brown, buttery with fat dripping on to the bottom of an aluminum covered blue and white speckled turkey pot. It was the best Thanksgiving ever without the bird.

I do understand nearly destroying a bird myself, but if one starts early like weeks in advance you can order a full turkey dinner with most or all of the trimmings 'n fixings from a supermarket.

Take it from mama "Buy it, get it delivered, and eat." Seems simple to me, it cuts out the worry of cooking.

I wonder it you could order a few bottles of Champagne, eggnog, cakes, pies, along with a New Year's Goose, chicken, or turkey again.

It would eliminate some fatal drunk driving accidents, adultery, and a new marketing scheme-ugh, tool-umm, traditional-yeah that's it a new tradition can begin.

Almost forgot the big cloning news about Massachusetts Scientist creating the world's first cloned human embryo's. I saw and heard this on CNN Headline news when half awake and bleary eyed and on the Bart train reading the San Francisco Chronicle going towards S.F. Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester. [I must write down and remember firms with similar names and endeavors, it might save me or a friends life someday soon.]
So the breakthrough cells are grown only a few hours enough to form microscopic balls containing only four to six cells each.

From single cellular fusion of a skin cell and a human egg a potential embryo-to-humanlike being could form. I say humanlike because this early they are still cells yet to become human though formed an resembling one.

What did Right-To-Life people think? That after September 11th. this research would be stop cold, no way while the war rages in Afghanistan science, research and development goes on.

When soldiers, police, or anyone in other dangerous occupations are wounded severely, maybe a finger, leg, hand, spinalcord severing accident happens this fearful, revolutionary, potential life preserving-saving, cellular technology will seem not so Frankenstine-like.

Banning a technology is as silly and serious as banning The Waltz, Classical Music, Ragtime, Jazz, The Big Bands Bluegrass and Country, Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, Rap/Hip-Hop, or music from foreign lands.

It can be slowed, delayed, but it cannot be stopped. Be it Human Cloning, Tissue regeneration-rejuvenation-age reversal It will happen-will it spread global-yes- is it an evil technology?

Technology by itself is not evil, we humans have to take the fall for the choices we make with them.

You see the same fear of the new and unknown? Remember these are the descendants of Wicken [wise women killers, burners of printing press's, people with new ideas, erodes human rights, and biblically-death-bound-life-fearing dangerous, mind-poisoning Moral Majority/Rigid Religious Right Fundamentalists.

Think of The Honorable, Billy Graham Jr. and what he said about the whole Islamic Religion and then apologized for spewing his poison. But he got his words out didn't he?

Sounds like an X-Files show "Apology As Policy" Both Rev's. P. Robertson and J. Falwell spoke their true belief's then take their words back after the sludge has been jettisoned by radio and televised around the globe now its B. Graham Jr.'s turn and he does the same.

These are the death-prone who've always hated, despised, science unless it benefited them. With Cell Tissue Technologies we all may really have the chance to learn, do, be, and instruct others how to live richer, longer lives.

The Devil is not in technology but in our dual personalities.

A new frontier opens up for all of us and the bleak dead-futured cannot see it which is sad and understandable but when they chose to encase us all in their dim, flickering shadow light...

We cannot because the two other kinds of people are the ones with blinders off that can feel, see, touch the future and the ones on the fence waying which way to go - stay with what's known or jump forward into the unknown. I do not belong to group 1 or 2 stumbling blindly between both is my group-3 and I'm leaning toward cell research even if experts say it premature.

I know, Joe is certfiable. That could be true, but are you going to take chances with the Darkside of The God Squad to safeguard or delay, or keep Cell Tissue Technologies for themselves or destroy it?

Think about it... Which World Do You Want Live in Light or Shadow? Bye.

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by Isabel Estrada/PoorNewsNetwork Youth in the media intern (title by Barbara Jameson)

The evening light dimmed as I waited in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland. I noticed a contrast in the people who passed me. Many caught my attention with the brightness in their eyes and then nodded as their lips curled upward into a
half moon. Sometimes they said "hello" or "how you doing". Then there were
the others. They walked briskly, tight-jawed, chin leading the way. Their
pointed shoes invaded the soft air. One hand clutched at a bunch of papers
while the other swings back and forward with superfluous determination on the
other side. They didn't smile at anyone and as far as I could see, had no
brightness to their eyes.

Those gathered on the steps of Oakland City Hall on Wednesday, November 5th at 5 p.m. were of the former group. We were all there to protest a new proposal
from the Rent Board Task Force that would remove the 3% cap on annual rent
increases which is currently the law, though often evaded, in Oakland.
Instead rents would have to coincide with the Consumer Price Index or CPI.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor
defines its Index as "a measure of the average change over time in the prices
paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services."
As an answer to the question of whether CPI measures each individual's
experience with price change, the Bureau writes: "Not necessarily. It is
important to understand that BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] bases the
market baskets and pricing procedures for the CPI-U and CPI-W on the
experience of the relevant average household, not on any specific family or
individual. It is unlikely that your experience will correspond precisely
with either the national indexes or those for specific cities or regions."
Simply in meeting CPI standards, the annual rent increase in Oakland could
rise to 6.3%. Then, to make matters worse, through Banked Rent Increases,
which allow landlords who have not increased the rent annually for three
years to make up the difference in one year, rents could increase by more
than eighteen per cent from one year to the next.

The proposal was first brought up in a City Council meeting held by Oakland
council member Dick Spees on March 25th 2001. The Task force is made up of
three landlords and Rick Phillips with the Rental Housing Association, three
Realtors, some Oakland City Officials, a lobbyist for the Oakland Realtors
Association (ORA), and James Vann of the Oakland Tenants Union. The proposal
will be discussed in the city council meeting at 7 p.m. on December 11th.
Anyone can speak on the issue but must arrive early and sign up. The actual
vote will take place at the city council meeting on December 18th at 7 p.m.
If approved, the bill will go into effect January 1st of 2002.

Any possible reason why this index should indicate rental prices in Oakland,
California completely eludes me, especially considering the following
limitations that the Bureau itself admits. "The CPI is subject to both
limitations in application and limitations in measurement‚ CPI does not
produce official estimates for the rate of inflation experienced by subgroups
of the population, such as the elderly or the poor".
The CPI cannot be used as a measure of total change in living costs because
changes in these costs are affected by changes (such as social and
environmental changes and changes in income taxes) that are beyond the
definitional scope of the CPI and so are excluded."

The first person to smile at me and ask if I was waiting for the rally was
Ms. Scott, a radiant, formerly homeless woman who became a permanent member
of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) in 1997, working as a
community builder and activist. BOSS was founded over thirty years ago by
boona cheema to facilitate the transition of homeless and formerly homeless
people into permanent housing. Scott tells me that BOSS provides such
services as transitional housing, shelters, resources, referrals as well as
mental health, alcohol and drug outreach. If the three per cent cap on rent
increases were to be removed it would be virtually impossible for BOSS to do
its work. BOSS generally serves people whose annual income is around 15,000
per year - barely enough to cover current Oakland rents and certainly not
enough to cover an eighteen per cent rent increase.

Kendra Wilson, also a member of BOSS knows all about greedy landlords and
corrupt politicians. As she speaks I am caught by her large, expressive
eyes. A native of East Oakland, Kendra has lived there all her 27 years.
She is currently involved in a court case against her former landlord, Jerry
Curtis, the Deputy Attorney General for the state of California. The tenants
in her former apartment building had been complaining to Curtis about
problems with the roof for months before it actually flew off of the building
in October of 2000. It was only after it had blown off completely that
Curtis sent in the roofers to fix the problem. As it was the rainy season,
the tenants' belongings were ruined during the time that they had no roof.
The city of Oakland said that it was dangerous for the tenants to live under
such conditions and so ordered them to move out until the roof was fixed.
All the tenants complied. However once the roof was fixed Curtis changed the
locks, raised the prices and rented out the rooms to new tenants, making all
the legal tenants homeless. This is only one example of the illegal actions
constantly performed by Oakland landlords.

As the rally begins I see a man step into the circle holding a sign that
reads, "The American Dream is not exclusive, everyone deserves housing." One
speaker is mayoral candidate Wilson Riles Jr. He calls the proposals of the
Rent Board Task Force, "socio-economic cleansing." He speaks of how those
who make Oakland unique, the students and low-income folks, are going to be
the ones "pushed out." Rob Rooke, a member of City Council went on to talk
of the hypocrisy of our government. While it doesn't want to provide $18
million for affordable housing, it gladly gives a $572 million dollar bailout
to the gasoline company Chevron. He asks why the government is pouring
billions into bombing Afghanistan, supposedly to "protect freedom" and yet
can't even feed the 1 in 5 children that go hungry in the United States.

Geneve Allison, a doctor at Highland Hospital in Oakland wrote up a petition
in favor of keeping the 3% rent cap that was then signed by 14 other doctors
and health care workers. An excerpt from the petition reads, "As
professional members of the community, we see the effects of high rents upon
an economically vulnerable population of workers, children, elderly, and
disabled people. On a daily basis we witness the crisis in health that
people experience when their housing situation is unstable. Lack of
affordable housing can become an insurmountable barrier to maintaining basic
health, while the stress of a personal housing crisis can greatly exacerbate
chronic medical conditions."

Gerald Burton also spoke, while his son stood quietly next to him. They live
in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Their bed is hard concrete, in the middle of a
cluster of benches. Burton recounted how he was recently hit by an AC
transit bus. Because he is homeless and poor, the lawyer for AC Transit
denied that he even had a case. He used to live in an SRO until he was
kicked out. Now he will be able to get a welfare check for disability, but
even with that he will never even have a chance of acquiring permanent
housing if landlords are going to be allowed to raise their rents eighteen
per cent in one year. The eight pins in Gerald's hip make sleeping on the
concrete on a cold winter night in Oakland practically impossible. But for
someone like Gerald, the impossible is the only choice. Almost every night
Gerald is approached by a police woman who asks him and his son to leave
saying, "The mayor don't like you staying here."

While I wait for the Bart train at Oakland City Center I look up at a
billboard for "Spectacular Waterfront Apartments at Jack London Square." The
apartments are freshly painted, and the ultra-blue water of the community
pool sparkles like squeaky-clean glass. There are even a few scenic palm
trees sprinkled among the buildings. The sun lights up the bright scene.
But these aren't destined to house Gerald, Kendra, Ms. Scott or any other
renter in Oakland who doesn't have $1440 to pay for a one bedroom studio, or
$2495 for a two bedroom. Until the CPI/less shelter formula is overthrown
there will be no peace for Oakland renters. Please come and show your
opposition to the CPI/less shelter proposal at the city council meetings on
the eleventh and eighteenth of December.

by Lani Kent/PoorNewsNetwork

"I'm sick and these old joints have cracked," spoke the 84-year-old Grace Wells as we relaxed into her worn-in sofa, "I can't do no movin' and packin'." Her soft voice and soft skin tensed from behind her neck-brace when asked where she would go if her landlord succeeds in evicting her: "Oh darlin, I don't know...to the park?"

When constant harassment did not intimidate the intrepid Grace, the new property owners at 908 Page St evicted her under the state Ellis Act. Claiming to want to turn the three separate units into a single-family home, they found loopholes around the numerous laws that prohibit evictions of seniors, the disabled, or the catastrophically ill. Grace suffers from arthritis, diabetes and a heart condition.

"86% of evicted people are forced out of the city," said Ted Gullicksen of the SF Tenants Union. A move out of her apartment would not only strip her of the community she knows and loves; she would have to find a new doctor that she trusts, an honest social worker to help her, and good neighbors to look in on her. All rare and hard to come by, that Grace already has at 908 Page St..

As we continued our conversation, and Grace recounted her move from New Orleans to San Francisco back in 1942, Gullicksen led shouting protesters in a picket in front of her house. With the help of Grace's lawyer, Dean Preston, the picket attracted local TV networks and radio stations. "Since owning this building, they have operated it like Grace does not live here," we heard Preston explain to the crowd of reporters outside her front door. "They have threatened to turn her water off, they switched the garbage service around and confused her, and started construction upstairs." This 3-unit building is supposedly being turned into a large mansion-like home. The event was noisy with her personal information and Grace was full of heavy sighs.

"Darlin', what time is it?" she asked with her eyes cast down, watching the dusky shade creep into her living room. Daylight savings had not yet made its way into her spotless sitting room, so all the clocks were an hour off. She hadn't seemed to notice. "Well, I suppose I should take my pills before...." and her voice disappeared into the tumultuous energy rattling through her front windows.

The picket had just hit an all-time "loud" and Grace forgot her pills and instead reached for her walking cane. Picketers chanted "housing for people, not for profit," "stop senior evictions," and "housing is a human right." Grace carried herself to the porch and onto the steps where dusk met her with a small shiver. Reporters met her with big cameras and fancy suits. I followed her into the noise and hoped she would remember her pills after all the lights went away.

"I appreciate this, I think it's nice," Grace said to the camera. She spoke simply and pleasantly, as if appreciating a good home-cooked meal. With elderly elegance, she explained: "Been in this neighborhood a long time and now the new owners have asked me to leave. And I just donít know why."

"How ya doin? Miss Grace?" a neighbor interrupted from across the street. A second neighbor, Diane Mosely, added: "Miss grace is the matriarch on this street." Sadness passed over her eyes and she ran to Graceís side, congratulating her on the successful picket and acknowledging her courage. "This can happen to anyone," said a third worried neighbor, Mary Woods. Watching a sweet 84-year-old disabled woman (possibly) get evicted from her home has sent chills down the spine of this community.

Some might recall a chilling story that occurred last year around this time, when Poor News Network reported and supported the fight to save Lola McKay's home of 40 years. Like Grace, Lola received an Ellis eviction at the age of 84, and with no family to support her struggle, she decided not to fight it. She settled with the landlords and was allowed to live one more year in her home of 40 years. Within months of this lethal settlement she died of "natural cause," despite her pre-Ellis perfect health. Grace Well has no family or children to help her through this ordeal; she is alone and already in poor health.

Grace told her neighbors to give her a call after 7pm, after she rested a bit and was up for more talking. She then sat on her porch, seeing the picket to its conclusion and hoping for the best. The event lost steam as the sky grew darker. Grace grew more tired. I think I even heard non-stop-Gullicksen's voice crack a few times as he concluded: "Eviction by wealthy wealthy wealthy scumlords, don't care who they leave in the wake...put an 84 year old lady out so they can have a mansion." TV Anchors went back to their vans and Grace went back inside her house, locking the door and turning off the lights. She was wiped out by the afternoon and I didn't get a chance to thank her for the company, and the fruit, and all of her wonderful stories.

Just two hours of talking and 84 year old Grace proved too exhausted to lift a bone and wave goodbye. She's right, her old joints have cracked. She can't do "no movin and packin." She just can't.

by Gretchen Hildebran/PoorNewsNetwork

The news these days is pretty bad and some days I can't
make myself pay attention to it at all. Beyond the
tragedy of 9/11 is the daily horror of the war on
terrorism waged by the US government against the
people of Afghanistan as well as any US resident who
opposes their military and economic agenda. The FBI's
unconstitutional detention of over a thousand
"suspected terrorists" based on ethnicity alone hasn't
exactly inspired riots or impeachment hearings. Many
people of color in this country are familiar to this
form of blanket targeting and reprisal by police and
the feds. White activists such as myself are also
discovering their freedom of dissent is no longer
guaranteed. As "nice (middle-class) white people" we
have rarely experienced the targeting and arbitrary
punishment that historically has been reserved for
people of color and the poor in this country. In
times of war, however, even privileged white people
are expected to prove their allegiance or receive the
treatment of a "suspected terrorist."

Nancy Oden, a member of the Green Party USA national
coordinating committee who was detained and denied her
right to travel by National Guardsmen at a Maine
airport. Oden, who is a 60-year old white activist
and organic farmer, was intending to travel to a Green
Party convention from Portland, ME on November 1st.
She was targeted upon check-in, when an American
Airlines employee wrote an "S" on her ticket at the
check-in counter. This employee designated her for
being searched without checking her ID and informed
her, "You were in there (the computer) to be searched
no matter what."

When Oden arrived at the gate, she was pulled aside to
be searched by two National Guardsmen. According to
Oden, "They knew my face, my politics, and I was the
only one whose baggage was searched.î When one of the
Guardsmen grabbed her arm and began yelling his
pro-war views in her face, she responded by
withdrawing her arm and saying "Don't touch me."

Although the search of her baggage and person produced
nothing illegal, when she attempted to board the plane
she was informed that she had not "cooperated" with
the search and would not be allowed to fly.

Evidently her passive protection of her body and
political views provoked a group of six armed National
Guardsmen to detain her. Says Oden, "They were
planning to arrest me, until I pointed out that I had
not done anything." While this logic did keep her
from being arrested, Oden was told she wouldnít be
allowed on any flight out of Portland that day and
that her name had been passed on to all other airlines
at the airport.

"White people don't want to believe that a respectable
white middle class woman who holds dissident political
views would be targeted this way," Oden said in a
phone interview at her Jonesboro, Maine home last
week. "People call me on the phone and ask me, What
were you wearing? What do you look like?" She
believes this treatment was not due to her appearance
but her anti-war political beliefs. Her views against
the war were published the week before a Bangor
newspaper and she has worked in the environmental,
feminist and anti-war movements since the seventies.
The detention has been treated with a virtual news
black-out. National coverage has been minimal,
getting only a mention in the New York Times and other
national papers. No federal agency is willing to take
responsibility for the activist's detention. The FBI
has acknowledged the existence of a list of domestic
"suspects," but they refuse to say who is on the list
or why. Oden has been told that the FBI never heard
of her. She finds this hard to believe given her
history of radical politics and replies, ìWhat are the
going to say? That they are targeting me for my last
two decades of political work?

The FAA also admits that they are using a computer profile to target
people for searches in airports but will not discuss
the criteria of this profile, beyond asserting that it
is not based on gender, race or age. In a Bangor
Daily News article, a FAA spokesperson claimed that
travelers who bought tickets on the same day with cash
were the mostly likely targets of the profile. What
the article neglected to add is that Oden bought her
ticket online with a credit card six weeks earlier.
The article also quoted National Guardsmen claiming
that Oden was detained because she resisted being
searched, a charge that Oden categorically denies.

An outpouring of outrage and disbelief over this
incident has kept the activist on the phone non-stop
for the last two weeks. Many people who share her
political beliefs have never received this kind of
treatment by the government. Meanwhile the Internet
has filled with right-wingnut postings about Odenís
and the Green Partyís ìterrorist affiliations.î But
truly surprising has been the response by certain
members from her own political party.

A press release dated November 4th written by the
Green Party United States stated, Recent press
reports on the incident contained incorrect
information about the affiliation of the Green Party
member, stating that Nancy Oden is a coordinating
committee member of the Green Party of the United
States. Ms. Oden is not a member of the party's
Coordinating Committee (which consists of delegates
from affiliated states), but of a different
organization.

What the press release neglects to further explain
that there are currently two Green Parties in the US
which have very similar names, the Green Party of the
United States of America (GP/USA) and the Green Party
of the United States (GP-US). While Nancy Oden is not
affiliated with the GP-US, she is on the National
Coordinating Committee of the GP/USA.

This disavowal of Oden was followed up by internet
articles by members of the GP-US which leveled
personal attacks on her character, claiming She was
not targeted at the airport because she was a leader
of the G/GPUSA. She was targeted because she was rude
to the security officers,and We risk delegitimizing
ourselves by defending Nancy Oden's hysterical account
of airport security. Another posting by Starlene
Rankin, a GP-US media representative, claimed that
Oden had made a big fuss about it These attacks
also insisted that the GP-US be recognized as ìthe
national Green Party.

What is going on here? The Green Party, which in the
last presidential election provided me with an option
for expressing my dissent, was choosing to smear one
of its own activists rather than denounce the
abrogation of her civil liberties? And what about
these two Green Parties that have virtually the same
name?

According to Oden, the GP-US party is a splinter group
that came into being this summer at the GP/USA
national convention. She explains the rift as
ideological: These people want a seat at the table
of power. Their final goal is electoral participation
and recognition as an electoral body.î The goals of
the GP/USA, on the other hand, is to build a
grassroots movement, with activism coming before
electoral politics. Says Oden of the difference, "If
you want to build a movement, you won't change your
ideology to get elected."

Part of the GP-US agenda is to deny the existence of
the GP/USA, as they expressed in their press release:
The Green Party of the United States is the only
Green political organization organized nationally as a
party, in which at least 31 states are represented
(with other states' memberships pending). Oden
claims that certain members of the GP-US are using
this incident to further discredit her and the
grassroots goals of the GP/USA: This is called
selling out your allies, collaborating with your
enemies.

This strategy has evidently worked for the GP-US, who
on November 8th of this year was officially recognized
by the Federal Elections Committee as the National
Committee of the Green Party, allowing them to accept
up to $20,000 in individual donations. According to
their own press release, this makes them a serious
contender on the political landscape.

Whatever the original schism within the Greens or the
goals of each individual party, it is clear that while
the GP-US has not stood up for the rights of activists
who dissent in wartime. While the GP-US demands that
the US government ìprotect civil liberties and our
constitutional rights of dissent, free assembly,
privacy, due process, and mobility, they are also
actively discrediting an activist who has been
targeted for voicing her dissent.

Despite this treatment, Oden claims she is not
dwelling on the response of the GP-US, but considers
it the actions of a few within a positive
organization. Oden says she is a big admirer of
Medea Benjamin, the San Francisco Green activist whose
party is affiliated with GP-US. Oden explained that,
differences at the party level don't hold true at the
activist level. All Greens who abide by the 10 key
values (founding values of the Green Party) can work
together upon the issues we agree on.

Oden's activist skills have been further inspired by
this incident. She is encouraging people she
communicates with to join a Bill of Rights Defense
Committee, a non-partisan group that will act as a
clearinghouse for incidents of civil liberties
violations, share information about how to resist such
incidents and demand that our politicians "get some
guts and speak up!" To contact this organization go
to: www.billofrightsdefense.net, or send email to:
cleanearth@acadia.net.

When asked why she thought she was nearly arrested at
the airport, Oden said, "That guardsman wanted to get
even with me for resisting him, he was trying to
criminalize me. This is how communities that live in
resistance to the government are treated once they
are arrested for a small incident and in the system
they are forced to live in fear and under the thumb of
the authorities."

The denial of the right to travel experienced by Nancy
Oden is clearly not as catastrophic as the bombed
destruction of Afghanistan or the indefinate illegal
incarceration of "suspects" here in the US. But it is
important to note that the application of the term
"terrorist" now justifies every kind of surveillance
and militarization of our communities. This term will
also be applied to anyone arguing to retain the civil
rights we have learned to take for granted. The state
of the world makes you worry the next time you fly,
but will you worry as well the next time you go to
protest? Talk on the telephone? Publish an article?
(For Nancy Oden's account of the incident, look for it
at www.wartimeliberty.com)