by Tiny

Eviction Victim

Eviction Resistance

23 times and counting

"cause without equity we all at-risk"

Born from three generations of poor women
and countless generations of

colonized others

Raised children from nothing in a society
littered with jagged edges

Fought and sufferred pilgrim bred white men
in lock step with class and

race privledge

Seized education at all costs

Achieving degrees and promises to life of
supposed ease

Brought down by colonizers

Dressed as landlords and supervisors

Art is her arsenal, dreams, her breath

In a love-hate relationship with hope

A one night stand with Plans

Victim of torture

Flesh of my flesh

Mind of my mind

Conceptualist, Singer, caregiver,

Therapist and O.G. poverty scholar

Hollywood-ghetto-fabulous

Living for the ultimate minute

still to come...

by Joe B.

How was your Memorial Weekend? I visited my mom away from the City enjoying quiet time.

Originally the plan was see my girlfriend in Berkeley Friday, then my mother for the rest of the week end but since that was so well thought out and organized it gets wrecked.

The Commander and Chief, on TV walks through a Cemetary, full of white alabaster cement crosses, we the living remember the fallen of every nation, remember war and civilian dead.

My mother mused “There are lots of ghosts roaming New York wondering among the living floating around because 911 caugt them before they had time to pray.

I have not thought of that but if would make metaphysical sense to if one died in the conflagration of fire, smoke, steel, and glass wreckage.

How many had time to pray and if they didn’t are souls caught in limbo not knowing or knowing but refusing to leave because they have left over business not finished in life?

Spirits crisscrossing the globe visiting relatives, son’s, daughter’s, mother’s, fiancee’s, husband’s wifes’s, and best male and female buds.

Because it was both work and living space how many stay and migrate? What about those dying in mid-air do they rise up or linger between earth and sky?

On September, 11, 2001 so many human’s lives were extinguished instantly that for those who died they may have refused to except it immediately refusing to rest.

I wonder if other past souls were disturbed by the mass influx of confused, disoriented souls?

America as a nation is still reeling from the psychic impace and will for decades to come.

We may go on with our regular lives but we are forever changed.

I hope the souls are able to cope and in time either reside heaven ward or have rebirth-earth returns as a way of cosmic compensation for interrupted lives because this was not the Almighty’s will but meer men that caused the death of many innocents.

The spectral disturbed souls some us see many don’t will linger for reasons unknown to living mortals.

But I believe that so massive and quick taking of life leaves a cosmic consequence other than bombing other human’s into blood muddy puddles of pulverized flesh.

It’s errie thinking about the death so many here and now abroad.

Will I ever feel as free as I once thought I was, probably not but then this country has been overwelmingly blessed and will regain its footing.

It will just have to learn from all the older countries that have suffered the indignity of being invaded, bombed, attacked on its own soil.

America will finally grow up it’s still young but like son’s and daughter’s losing one or both parent’s grows, matures quickly taking care of younger simblings.

Maybe its our turn to watch over younger emerging nations, to help, and not cheat any of their abundant resources. I wonder can we be trusted as a big ‘sis or ‘bro? ...Bye.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works for me.

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

by Staff Writer

Due to Recent Domain Name loss and recapture problems our PNN news site
POOR NEWS NETWORK
was temporarily down.

As of Thursday, May, 30, 2002.

My Ask Joe Column is also down, I cannot place my latest musings [MEN’s LIB? in]

Women’s Liberation conjures up bra’s on fire in trash cans, angry faces rage twisted in economic disadvantage and violence against their minds and bodies.

With self defense martial arts classes either with or without weapons. Independent of males if not the male gaze.

The right to choose abortion is tenuous at best even with the RU-486, birth prevention pill.

More women as hero’s saving themselves and men in TV movies, motion pictures, revisited history.

Sensuous, sexy, savvy, solemn, women male dominated his-ignores herstory or Peoplstry? [if there is such a thing].

No longer under control unless it's for their own purpose.

I think the patriarchal chain was always a strain on men not in power but following societies dictates see's no choice but to obey those dictates.

Women struggling to free themselves may have also helped their fathers, son’s, boyfriends, brother’s, and husbands to loosen if not brake these mental chains.

Its been a long faltering process of half steps, reversals, and fear of change but men do change even though both men and women now suffer a 9/11/’01 Terrorist, Wartime 1940’s to 50’s timewarp of conservatism to be married, having children and placing their personal freedom on hold until America’s War On Terrorism ends.

This is a non solution - most of daughters and sons will not timejump back to so called "good old days" especially the then outnumbered minorities but now more numerous minorities who’s great grandparents, and parents live through the "Good Old Days" don’t wish their children to relive them yet again.


Guys. Its our turn again beside fighting on foreign soil or back on home soil in the uniform of our permanent adapted America home-land. We’ve heard the harsh sounding "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" or "Women hold up half the sky."

Well, who holds the other half? Men do. Though more unknown women have been dishonored, died at the hands and words of men. Men have equalized it fighting in wars and killing each other in the streets we are our own worst enemy.

As men we have shown our value by devaluating others this system must change, some of us have changed. Being strong, silent, ignoring internal pain, holding back tears has cost short lives which women have gotten use to that is after women began caring for themselves we should follow their lead.

American men are or seem bland because they are perceived to have had more an easy than difficult time but the sad secret is we suffer in silence and call it being brave when real courage means expressing pain, getting, help, leaning on that strong woman just enough to begin again.

Men are getting better its just at a slower rate we may not be as quick as woman are because we don’t use both side of our brains like they do. Women cannot wait for men to "get it" so they must move fast as men slowly plug along.

But many males see the future and don’t really care if a women is President or head a Mega conglomerate multi national companies we just want to live longer lives with girlfriends, wives, and be with children, and greatgrand children.

Out future may separate for a time but we will always merge or civilizations slow dies.

Someday science and technology may correct the internal disadvantages of woman and men physically and mentally and we’ll be truly a balanced species but for now this intimate battle-of-sexes has no winners everyone loses.

As one the "frog guys" who has all the parts but always comes up short in women’s eyes because of looks, clothes, lack of money, or not being lead by the second head.

I learned the hard way that being my book reading, quiet, thoughtful yet gregarious self puts some women off because I’m not looking to be all for someone - very few people can or are everything to one person and I have to really do my own will and not be or have some else's will submerged or subjugated to mine.

I’ll probably never be the man most women want but I’ll be the man I want to be with few or no regrets and if it leads to life’s lonely crossroads then so be it.

Life is full of choices and mine is to be free as possible in this over civilized 21st century living.

But I know young girls, women will do as I; Whatever the want or need. ...Bye.



.
HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

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

by Leroy Moore Jr./Po' Poets Project

Here I stand!

but I'm not Paul Robeson

surrounded by Brown Broken Bodies

Brutality & Bullets paints Blue on Brown skin

Bruises oozing

Brothers canít run anymore

Bones snap by the swing of Batons

Four wheels equals wheelchairs

Brown Broken Bodies are one thing

but Brown Broken souls are deadly

No rehabilitation

now he is weak physically and mentally

Manhood has disappeared

Heads hang down low

He is still young

but he feels & looks old

Here I stand!

holding Brown Broken Bodies on my Back

while Broken souls fills up my heart

giving me a heart attack

Wheelchairs, crutches, canes and schizophrenic minds

ex soldiers now are ex residents

living on the outskirts of their communities

Picking up faces from the ground

but for what!

to see more oppression

to hear racist comments

to feel systemic blows

to stare down the burl of a gun held by a black & blue uniform

to beg for spare charge

Mother nature looks better than manís society

Here I stand!

with books entitled

Why We Canít Wait & Here I Stand

but even on MLKís and Malcolm Xís B. day

Brown Bodies are being abused

Going back in time so where is Harriet Tubman

cause weíve dug up Masta and now heís in the White House again

Both George Washington & George Bush are a lot in common

Finishing the King Alfred Plan

James Byrdís Broken Body didnít create domestic war

But Broken Bodies in New York and Washington are being used

to send more bodies into battle

creating more Broken Bodies and minds

Here I stand!

shouting on an isolated island

sending out an S.O.S. to the motherland

Marcus Garvey I want to go home

A disabled world nation

and Iím their spokesman

but the world wonít give a mike

so I write with my brotherís blood

They speak to me when it is quite at night

My book is a flood

of their wants, needs, anger and talents

Brown Broken Bodies might be scattered all over the world

but their thought patterns are unified

for a seamiest to sew together

creating a warm blanket, cradling and nursing newborns

and covering cold Brown Broken Bodies

Leroy F. Moore Jr.

5\02

by Ashley Adams/PNN media intern

I don't remember where I was headed, but I do remember how my heart raced
when the Berkeley police officer began tailing me. I turned off my tape
player and said to myself, Please don't read my tags please! My out of
state tags had been expired for a year. I could not afford to renew them,
nor could I afford to pay a ticket. I put on my right blinker before
turning, which was my attempt to not be noticed. The cop didn't follow me.
I took a breath of relief and turned my music back up while I questioned why I got
away with no problems, again.

**************

The sun had just set when I was driving home to Berkeley from my mom's
house. I passed the El Cerrito shopping center and that's when the cop got
behind me. I wasnít trippin because I knew I was clean. I have a valid
license, current registration, and no outstanding tickets. Red and blue
lights began to flicker and flash. I tried to tame my racing heart because
I knew I did nothing wrong. I pulled over to the right side of the road a
few feet from a stop sign. The officer came up to my window, asking for my
license. He told me that there was a purse snatching at the shopping center
and that I fit the description of the thief, a black female. Knowing that I wasn't the
thief, I went along with Mr. Officer the best I could. I thought to myself,
Someone's purse got snatched, that sucks! While I sat in my car the cop ran my plates and my license number. I have no criminal history. With no reason to ticket me, the cop let me go.

At this time I just wanted to go home. Getting away from the officer as
soon as possible was the only thing on my mind. Upon my departure, I failed
to come to a complete stop at the stop sign a few feet in front of where I
pulled over. As I turned right, the cop followed. He put his lights on and
pulled me over, again! This time he got me. He gave me a ticket priced at
150 dollars for failing to stop at the stop sign. I figured I was in the
wrong, as usual, considering I have been pulled over seven times in one year
for what I though were valid reasons.

The "valid" reason is dark skin, and this story belongs to my friend, Lache Baily, a 21 year old UC Berkeley student. When I heard of her Driving While Black(DWB) experiences, I was stunned. I am a 22 year old white female that has been pulled over less than five times in the duration of six years. I even drove around with expired tags for over a year. I asked Lache if all the cops
she dealt with were white males, I had a feeling that they were. "Yes, I have never dealt with cops of any other ethnicity." Lache's brown eyes and honey-toned face remain bright with a smile as she confronts the subject of systematic racism.

"I feel like I kind of know its hella shady and racist, " Lache continued in a quick tense voice, "at the same time, every time I've been pulled over, it seems valid so I don't feel I'm in a place to argue. But after I talked to you, I'm asking myself how oblivious am I to this shit?" I think to myself as she is speaking, welcome to the unjust world of racial profiling.

I watch frustration flood her face as she continues, "I was like, you guys suck. I don't like cops, but I never really have stressed on it, or thought about it. It's not until I tell my stories to people that it seems weird to me. When I tell my stories it forces me to think about it."

I personally did not realize how bad the DWB phenomonom was until Lache and I swapped stories of police encounters. We are similar in age, we've been driving the same amount of time, and we live on the same street. Yet when it comes to being pulled over and dealing with the police, Lache has dealt with the biased judgment of law enforcement in ways that seem so casual that they can be easily overlooked.

When I reflect on driving with expired tags for a year and having no problems with law enforcement, I question, "Does white skin have anything to do with it?" I wish the answer was no.

******************************

Should "Driving while black" be a crime?

reprinted from thechronicle.demon.co.uk

Scores of Black Britons – including prominent athletes, Home Office officials and government workers, artists, lawyers, and business leaders -- have experienced the humiliation of being stopped on the streets of London and other British cities for no other apparent reason than being Black and driving a car.

This new "crime" mirrors the common complaint, highlighted in testimony to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, that police officers on the streets systematically target innocent young blacks for "stop and frisk" searches.

No social class among blacks is exempt from a "Driving while black" incident. Carl Josephs, a meat factory worker in Birmingham, was stopped 34 times in 2 years - without a specific charge or even a speeding ticket. He says he was singled out because he was black and drove a car.

When Tim McDonald was pulled over, his father, Trinidadian -born Trevor McDonald and Britain's best known news reader, called on police to end their habit of stopping black youths in cars.

Being pulled over for "Driving while Black" is a traumatic event. Few white motorists have the same story to tell. But, almost every Black Briton can tell you that they or someone they know have been stopped by the police without being found guilty of any violation of the law.

Black motorists more likely to be stopped than whites DWB is a heart-stopping common occurrence for Black motorists, and only a minor nuisance to whites. According to a report in The Guardian 13 March. "Last year in the area policed by the Metropolitan Police, the rate for stop-and-searches was 37 per 1,000 among whites, 66 per
1,000 among Asians, and 180 per 1,000 among blacks". In the London area more than 36% of those stopped were from ethnic minorities, who make up about 20% of the population.

Turner art prize winner Chris Ofili's brush with the law is one example of a continuing trend, says The Guardian. Ofili, who drives a lime-green Ford Capri, and has been stopped
many times, says "It's a very common occurrence...They had absolutely no reason to
stop me...I always carry my license with me so they can't issue me with a "producer" (a
summons to report to a police station and produce a driver's license and car documents)."

"Racial profiling" British examples of DWB take on a more invidious character when compared to a common practice on the State highways of America called "racial profiling". This literally means that police officers are always on the lookout for black males driving cars. The ACLU, an American civil liberties group, has won racial profiling cases in Indiana and Maryland with damages.

In California, San Diego Chargers football player Shawn Lee was pulled over, and he and his girlfriend were handcuffed and detained by the police for half an hour on the side of Interstate 15. The officer said that Lee was stopped because he was driving a vehicle that fit the description of one stolen earlier that evening. However, Lee was driving a Jeep Cherokee, a sports utility vehicle, and the reportedly stolen vehicle was a Honda sedan.

The Road to Freedom Illegal stop-and-searches like "Driving while Black" and the use of racial profiling can be stopped, says the ACLU http://www.aclu.org. In America Rep. John Conyers, a black congressman, introduced the "Traffic Stops Statistics Act" to encourage police departments to keep detailed records of traffic stops, including the race and ethnicity of the person stopped. Here in Britain, such a law could be backed up by the Home Office and the national collection of data to determine the full scope of this problem.

Practical actions include a hotline that victims can call to report incidents involving DWB. Another is a handy printed pocket card that details the motorists' rights in race-stop encounters. Complaint forms should be readily provided by the police to drivers who feel offended by DWB or race-based traffic stops.

Ending DWB and racial profiling on the nation's streets, roads and highways should also be addressed through public education, and by leaflets in major languages made available at all local government offices, libraries and public buildings.

Finally, whether you agree or not, we invite you to post your thoughts to:

editor@thechronicle.demon.co.uk

by Barbara Lee

In the last fifty years, we have seen many of society*s barriers come down.
The color line and the glass ceiling haven*t disappeared, but they are
diminished. We have enacted important laws that helped stretch the social
safety net, such as Medicare and Medicaid. The Americans with Disabilities
Act marked a landmark victory in the struggle for access and equal
opportunity.

But there are still too many obstacles blocking full inclusion in American life
for those with developmental disabilities and their families.

Inclusion embraces both independence and integration. The work you all do
to advance inclusion is so important because it is so fundamental: it*s about
making people*s lives better.

It*s about improving schools and opening classrooms. It*s about jobs. It*s
about family support. It*s about the recreation and socialization
opportunities that enrich life. It*s about access to comprehensive healthcare
and the elimination of artificial boundaries that say that illnesses of the mind
are uninsurable.

Life can throw you curves. But everybody has a right to stand at the plate
and take their swings. Everybody deserves to get in the game.

Too many people, though, are still shut out. Access and integration are
justly considered civil rights issues.

Furthermore, access and integration for everyone is in all our interests. We
all benefit when people enter our workforce and join our economy, and we
all lose when they are shut out. Isolation carries heavy economic, social, and
psychological costs.

We can do more at the federal level to help. We should pass Medicaid
reform so that those facing long-term disabilities have a greater element of
choice in their treatment and so they can utilize community resources and
maintain their independence and dignity at home. I am a cosponsor of this
bill, and I believe we need to maximize choice rather than bureaucracy.

We*ve made some progress. Two years ago, Congress passed the
Developmental Disabilities Act to provide grant money to state and
nonprofit community programs.

But Congress hasn*t provided full funding for the Act, and in this year*s
budget, the President didn*t request any money at all for family support
services. I hope this is not an example of compassionate conservatism.

Family support, as all of you are all too aware, is crucial. It needs to be part
of a network of services that promise inclusion rather than isolation.

The federal government should also fulfill its promises to fund special
education, which currently represents a crushing financial burden for many
school districts. We must fully fund I.D.E.A.

Integration and inclusion should be hallmarks of that educational effort. We
cannot let special education remain a bastion of legal segregation.

Healthcare is also a critical component of our federal effort. Healthcare is
not a luxury. It should be a matter of human rights, not corporate profits.

Forty-four million Americans have no health insurance. That*s a national
tragedy. Medicare does not cover prescription drugs; neither do a growing
number of health plans in California and nationwide.

Improving healthcare also demands increasing our investment in research.

We need to understand why autism rates are climbing, for example, and
what we can do about it.

We need to understand the relationship between toxins in our environment
and the impact on our bodies and our brains.

Tackling this problem requires real enforcement of the Clean Air Act and
other federal environmental laws and demands a renewed investment in
scientific research. Children are especially vulnerable, and these problems
cannot wait.

These issues are not negotiable, they are fundamental to our personal and
national well being.

Developmental disabilities have to be part of this agenda, and inclusion must
be our ultimate goal.

These issues represent national challenges, but they are also local realities. It
is at the community level where many of the daily struggles for inclusion will
be won.

Here in the East Bay, we are still wrestling with these questions, but also
making advances.

The Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley will be one such advance as a center
of learning but also a center of economic and social vitality and accessibility.
In Washington, I will continue to work to secure funding for the Center*s
construction because I understand how big a difference it will make in
people*s lives.

It will stand as a fine tribute to a great man who refused to let barriers get in
his way. It wasn*t enough for Ed himself to make it; he then proceeded to
spend much of his life tearing those barriers down so they wouldn*t impede
the progress of others.

And your work at the Councils is in this spirit. Your coordination of
resources among the regional service providers, your advocacy, and your
education efforts are vital to this community.

We have come a long way in our quest for accessibility, independence, and
inclusion, but we still have a ways to go. I have enormous respect for all of
you who are leading this effort.

Let me leave you with the words of Supreme Court Justice William
Brennan, who wrote "that society*s accumulated myths and fears about
disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that
flow from actual impairment."

I would extend his analysis to developmental disabilities as well. With each
and every victory you achieve, with every barrier that you tear down, you
also tear down another myth, another misunderstanding about disabilities.

Thank you for your good work and thank you for inviting me here tonight.

by Carol Harvey

Helped by her friend, Scott Bravmann, Carolin Jack has escaped the fluorescent glare of the Disney Store on Union Square moving three blocks away to a clean, well-lighted room South of Market in downtown San Francisco. 

I visited for a May 7 housewarming.  A lovely afternoon sun beamed onto the soft rug.  A tiny tiger bounced over my feet into the kitchenette crying for food in a nearly human voice.  Then Carolin's "little girl," ran to her place below the sunlit window and sat regarding her, Scott and myself in bemused surveillance.  Carolin said, "She's phasing herself in here very cautiously, not quite sure how she feels about it."

This was the home Carolin hoped, worked, and saved for the last five years.

Carolin sat on her bedroll in the corner, her colorful blankets and comforter neatly folded.  Her sleeping/living room and kitchen, with TV set and chair, are clean and tidy.  A dentist who gave her a raincoat may get her a real bed.

Carolin said she washed with alcohol wipes for a year without the luxury of a bath.   Scott smiled, "She finished a bottle of bubble bath in two days."  Though she was always clean, her skin had kept that  "grimy" look a homeless person can't quite wash off.  "Water felt odd to my skin," she said, looking well-scrubbed and comfortable.

I never saw her without headgear, her tasseled wool hat and earmuffs warding off the wind.  Her face looked thinner, more relaxed, her eyes brighter, her color high.

Out of her wheelchair, Carolin scooted on hands and knees across the rug moaning with osteoarthritis.  This week she fell down a flight of stairs lifting her wheelchair to the elevator, the reasons Scott chose this apartment.  He looked askance describing the realtor's discouraging words, "The front elevator is broken a lot."

Scott talks animatedly of jumping a series of rental agent's barriers which made Carolin's move-in hard.

When I met Scott on Union Square, he played with the cats quietly, boyish and reserved, wary of me.  Today he was animated, outgoing, and informative.  He seemed pleased with this accomplishment.

Looking at Scott's happy face, I flashed to another day in the past at Griffith Park in L.A. I recalled the impassive mug of a large man who grabbed at my bike as I plummeted downhill past his broken VW Bug.  He needed wheels.  I was an object.  His was the face of cruelty: Flat, expressionless, inhuman.

Scott's kind face was warm and communicative, open and trusting.  I told him he was my hero.  He said, "It's what a normal person would do." 

Scott's alarm grew in February during the hard rains. Harassed by police, hauled to Court on Quality of Life crimes for sidewalk sleeping, cats impounded by Animal Care and Control, Carolin was living in a group of five.  Her "protectors" stole $800.00 panhandled dollars she saved for rent.

Scott found three apartments on Craig's list.  This one offered a two weeks' free rent special.  Move-in costs included $725.00 first month's rent and a month's rent deposit plus $225.00.  Animals were allowed.  There was a ground floor elevator.  The tub and protective buzzer system were bonuses.  "Carolin said 'Yes" without hesitation."

In the open rental market, the building had 5 or 6 vacancies.  "The elevator's cramped, and the neighborhood's not the greatest," said Carolin.

Scott presented himself and his credentials, dropping off the application with excellent credit report attached.  He has a PhD and a good job.  ("I only flaunt my PhD when I need to impress somebody.")   They said, "If your friend's homeless, you can co-sign."  His income plus Carolin's $800 a month Social Security was enough.  He never concealed she was homeless, and that her disability mandated an wheelchair accessible elevator. 

They claimed 24 hours to process the application.  The agent didn't call back.  "During the first week they several times changed their story about why I didn't have the apartment."   The agent confessed if it wasn't for Scott, there would be no problem.  They said they couldn't verify Carolin's income. 

Scott was relentless.  He was going to research Disability rights.    Finally, they said, "The problem is we haven't met Carolin."  Scott said, "Why does the big corporate entity have to meet her?  But, okay, we'll play by their rules."

The agent kept him and Carolin waiting an hour in her wheelchair outside the building.  He phoned on his cell complaining Market was full of marchers protesting the anti-Israel West Bank occupation.  He couldn't drive six blocks from 3th to 9th street.  "The underground would have taken 7 minutes," said Scott.  "He could have somersaulted here faster."

On arrival, the agent warned, "You can't have all your friends live here." and, "Will you be storing things?"  Homeless people provide crash pads for their friends and, of course, collect junk. 

He turned to leave.  Scott said, "Aren't you going to let her look at the apartment?" 

When a friend wheeled a shopping cart with Carolin's belongings, the manager, disturbed by the man's appearance, complained the cart was scuffing up his lobby.  Scott said, "I informed him the ceramic floor was harder than rubber wheels and could not be damaged."  The manager also suggested Carolin's friend banged her wheelchair against the narrow passageway wall and knocked plaster loose.

"When I put something on the windowsill, the manager bangs on my door, peeking in to see if there are people in here," said Carolin, "or whether I'm tossing my keys to a friend outside."

The buzzer system only opens one of the two locked front doors, so, if the elevator isn't working, Carolin can't get down to let people in.  She betrays concern that she is not safe from her thieving "friends," comforted that the double buzzer system means, "You can't get into this building easily."

Carolin knows she can't pay rent and live on $800 a month.  An agency provided $600 from emergency funds.  They are applying to other agencies.  Scott has got her food stamps . 

Without an ambulatory "respectable" benefactor fronting the money and running  "interference," a disabled homeless person would not stand a chance of charging the gauntlet to get themselves housed. Carolin has that person in a hero named Scott Bravman. 

by Connie Lu/PNN Media Intern

My ears guide me towards the bass echoing from the
music at the Holistic Health Festival, as I walk up
the street towards Precita Park on a beautiful and
relaxing Saturday afternoon. The park itself is
encompassed by a mosaic of colorful houses that fit
tightly against each other and an elementary school
with an amazing mural filled with life and a sense of
community. As I step onto the field, I see tables
along the edges of the park with vendors, art, crafts,
food, and various community organizations to promote
the importance of having a healthy body. I am sitting
on the grass now and soaking in the rich warmth of the
sun. The wind is blowing its cool breeze in keeping
the perfect temperature and there are children are
running freely with everyone gathered to enjoy a
peaceful, healthy day at the Holistic Health Festival.

The stage is set up at the front of Precita Park for
various musical and poetic performances. I arrive to hear the performances already in progress with JenRo, a 19-year-old songwriter, takes the stage and begins her
song called, "Hold Us Down". She dedicates this song
to the government and the police who are holding the
community down and preventing it from succeeding. Her
voice is strong and powerful, as she clearly
annunciates her rhyme to the rhythm of the break beat.
After her performance, I talked to JenRo briefly. I
asked her when she started to write songs and she
said, "I started writing songs at a young age, but my
first performance was when I was 10-years-old."
Initially, I was uncertain about asking her questions,
but after talking to her I was glad to have met her
because she is very friendly and approachable.

After JenRo's performance, the "Secluded Journalists",
a Hip-Hop crew from Pittsburg and Berkeley, begin
their song called "Faceless". This song is dedicated
to the greed of corporations for money and portrays
the worker as being "faceless" because there is no
recognition given for a job well done. The only thing
that matters to the boss is making money, not the
names of the hard-working employees, who are barely
surviving off each paycheck. The beat of the song is
quick with an underlying melody of a jazzy flute.
Their voices are filled with great strength, as they
roar into the microphones with passion for the words
that flow from their mouths.

The last performance is by "II Sense-Kaotic Souls", an
experimental Hip-Hop crew, whose style is very
different from the "Secluded Journalists" because the
beats that they work with are much slower and more
mellow. The deep, penetrating bass along with the
vast integration of various live instruments emitting
from speakers reflect the creative and talented skills
of the artists that make up this group. One of the
songs they perform is called, "Appreciate", which
relays the message of being thankful because the
number of days in the future are uncertain.

I leave the Health Festival feeling encouraged by the
artists who performed that day. Their desire to
express themselves through spoken words were so strong
and genuine. Each word comes from their hearts that
are deeply rooted in believing what is said through
their poems and songs. I am also reminded of the
essence of health because once my health depletes,
then I am unable to do even the most simple everyday
tasks. My health is the source of my strength.

by Joe. B

Did ‘Bro’, Sis, aunts, uncles, cousins and good friends have fun at “Juneteeth.

”OOPS, didn’t mean to forget single and married mother’s and father’s or same sex mates.

I couldn’t be there because my mom’s birthday way out in a quiet flatland.

Flat, quiet, boring, safe, dull, that’s turning into my kind of kink.

I’m gonna try something a friend had told me to try.

Since my ultimate goal is to sit on my tush, write strange, odd imaginary tales with some facts thrown in just to confuse folks who are reading.

From now on along with my columns which is torture enough for readers as it is - now they’ll pieces of my as yet unpublished works.

The difficult part for me is not knowing if my words are read by publisher(s), editor(s) proofreaders, (of course) Literary Agents, On line publisher(s) or the general readers.

I really hope to get feed back.

A excerpt from “Gifts From Earth.”

Humanity has improved itself over time. With better, improved bodies they still like old fashioned procreation since bodies and brains can exchange cloned ones of various heights, sizes, shapes, nationalities, genetic memories is mandatory.

Immortality is in. Though for some people “Limited Option Life Span are for those individuals seeking “Natural Ends” or death.

That’s it folks, words, a few lines, 1 or 2 paragraphs.

Next time another morsel of “GFE” separate yet in the middle of the column.

It can be somewhat crowded when also placing the House Sit ad also but a guy’s got to make some dead ‘Prez’s somehow... Here’s mine.

Now lets get cracking.

My greatest ambition use to be getting rich showing former highschooler’s circa 1973 what a big wheel I became.

The second thing was rediscovering the fantastic, illusive, and legendary miracle of a natural substance.“The Philosopher’s Stone”

Well I failed at both being bad at math, not knowing enough chemistry, also I never tried to borrow nuclear material to hyper-speed the process of chemical changes if I ever had all the material needed.

You folks know about the stone; after gathering all the materials like triple distilled water, copper.

To literally enable one to be a master of oneself, the cosmos, communicate with other beings on parallel worlds, travel mentally or physically to them.

Maybe see and speak clearly beyond the final curtain of death.

No wonder people, if they discovered it couldn’t stay but had to keep learning with full beam-searchlight illumination upon them.

I missed this century but here’s a new one.

The best I can do now is live, learn, ask questions, take the time if I ever try for that supposedly impossible dream.

I’m a lazy guy but I do see enough ‘tech that might enable many of us to just be more ourselves.

I don’t want much out of life just immortality, space and time travel and illumination all this to for improving myself without killing myself.

At least I don’t have worry about the android/human conflict because we’ll integrate artificial and improved real genes, bio-chip, and nanotechnologies into humanity and we’ll literally marry male and female ‘droids.

So far, aside from this suicidal president, att. General and a few other kooks most of us are sane people trying live through this nuclear madness - and we will.

I hope to be healthy, write my books, invest wisely, maybe rededicate my search for the stone.

But if I succeed how can I help. One way I can see is exploding a silent Knowledge bomb that simultaneously frees minds, repairs bodies and as a reverse disease cure not kill, heal not harm, by touch, breath, sweat, airborne symbiosis, life improving virus would permeate the skin , blood, bone, and brain in a permanent healthy body and mental states.

It seems that is what I would do and in one stroke people would be able to free themselves from their own oppressive governments.

To bad it wasn’t done in the past maybe that’s what I should try something so impossible as that and leave the world until the positive infection as with aids spreads world wide.

Only this and other kinds of radical positives steps can be taken besides dying, killing, being killed...

A call to all the living illuminated, ascended ones.

If you exist and are brothers, sisters, of light this is the time maybe not to reveal yourselves but to free us as many ways as possible...

Now Is The Time To Shine!
If time is given to me the mind/body expansion bomb will be invented, deployed and used to save lives not destroy them... Bye.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

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

by Dee Gray, Ace Tafoya,tiny, Joseph Bolden and Ashley Adams/PNN

It was a day like any other –I curved my body into a half circle and twisted sideways between the wobbly steering wheel and the broken drivers seat. I breathed a short-lived sigh of relief, I was in……The car that is , better known to some as …the hooptie, the clunker… the tank- it didn’t matter what you called it – it was ours, we had wheels and being that some family members are disabled – and we had far distances to travel - cars were a necessity– but back to today – today we needed to travel to Marin County – San Rafael to be exact – to do an outreach workshop with The Canal Community Center –The Canal was peopled with mostly mono-lingual day laborers residing in a minute yet beautiful raza ghetto known as The Canal district of San Rafael – one of the few very low-income communities in the whole County of Marin- we should know we were one of the poor folk who used to reside there-

After a successful day of outreach and training we "slid" back into the car and headed South on 101 towards San Francisco. The Sun, sky and hills collaborated to form the impenetrable beauty of Marin County. The shocking unrealness of the sky and water became even more clear as we started up the incline leaving Marin City, mostly because if you exceed 45 miles an hour our entire car and its contents begin to violently shake ….

And then… we were there – facing the red steel, black and blue asphalt framed by a bright green expanse of bay.. The Golden Gate Bridge – we sailed across feeling light and momentarily happy until we got close to the toll – oh my god, fear set in- We didn’t have enough for the Bridge toll. Dee and I looked nervously at each other – emptying the contents of our backpacks and bags in tandem. "Well, " Dee proclaimed, "tell them that you don’t have the toll – they will probably just issue a ticket like the Bay Bridge does.."

"Excuse me – we don’t have the toll- " I said to the lady in the toll booth, she looked at me and an odd look of confusion and anger filled her face.

"What do you mean you don’t have the toll?"

"Just what I said, I don’t have the toll.."

"Well I am very sorry but that is not acceptable, everyone has to pay or you don’t get across" and then she looked at me like now I would produce the $3.00 I really must have

"So what do you want me to do?"

" I already told you miss- you need to pay the toll"

We continued to go back and forth like this for a few more minutes until Dee lost patience in the idiocy of the interchange. "Look, we said we don’t have the toll, what do we do now?"

"Well I don’t know, I will have to call my supervisor and you will have to drive over there and talk to a police officer"

A police officer??!! – would this whole thing end up being one of our worst ‘Driving While Poor’ nightmares yet. I scanned my mind for warrants and/or unpaid citations. Was our registration current? I just paid for my insurance. I think its ok ….

"you gals will need to wait here for awhile while we sort this out", this time some police or sheriff like character was loudly yelling into the car. We became truly scared and angry . Were we to be arrested for three dollars ? What would we or could we do and how could we prove to this man that what we had done nothing wrong other than be poor and drive over the Golden Gate Bridge?

"What the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation Board are doing is trying to force the poor people and working poor out of Marin County," stated John Ortega, the Acting Director of Canal Human and Economic Development Association.

Last month Dee Gray assigned a team of PNN reporters to cover the proposed toll hike of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as a proposed toll for pedestrians and bicycle riders. The tolls are being rationalized in the mainstream media and by the Bridge board of directors as the way to pay for increased costs of Bridge upkeep and to underwrite public transportation. Due to the fact that we had had first-hand experience with the racist, classist policies of the Golden Gate Bridge we had a feeling the whole story wasn’t being told

We began our media organizing with multiple calls to several agencies that we have worked with in the low-income Canal district and Marin City areas of Marin County to get there feelings on the impact that a bridge toll would have on low-income commuters. The response was clear, in a telephone interview with PNN media intern Ace Tafoya, John Ortega was adamant, "Marin County is one of the most affluent counties in the country. They want to drive out the poor people,". In Marin County, 6.9% of the population are below the poverty level, communities of color make up 16% and persons over 65 years old are 13.5% of the total populace.

Byron Allen, a former resident of Marin City warns, "They (poor people) can’t afford the hike. It’s gonna be an economic impact to them because of their economic disadvantage." Many families of Marin County often share living quarters just to survive month to month. "These people who live in these areas don’t make enough money to handle that increase. This just isn’t right," Bryon Allen says shaking his head in disbelief.

Our next step was to report and "support" at one of the first public information meetings held by The Golden Gate Bridge highway and transportation district which unlike the Bay Bridge and Richmond Bridges is not a public entity supported by sales tax and managed by Caltrans, but rather in the trend of other public spaces and places has become a business with a good ole fashioned profit margin and board of directors.

Armed with a few thought provoking hand-made signs saying things like; Stop Economic Apartheid and Stop making decisions based on rich white folkThe PNN crew of Ace Tafoya, Joseph Bolden, Ashley Adams, Tiny and myself arrived at the San Rafael Community Center on a bright afternoon in June.

The room was large and airy with high redwood beam ceilings and a wall of sliding glass doors. At each corner was an easel with pie charts, graphs and vague statements about "The Cost of Bridge Upkeep" etc. Standing awkwardly in front of each flow chart were a few older men wearing ill-fitting sports jackets.

Dee motioned to start with one of the men in the left-hand corner, " Excuse me, can we ask you a few questions?"

" Sure" he stated pleasantly

" What is your name, what is your position?"

" I am Stanley smith, I am on the Board of Directors for the Bridge"

"So can you just tell us, in the planning of this increase have you thought at all about the impact on poor people?

He smiled again, "We thought of the impact on everyone, Sure of course we have, its how we’re paying to keep the bridge up. We have to keep the bridge there and obviously we haven’t raised any tolls in eleven years, its like when your bread, milk goes up, unfortunately that happens and we just have to raise a toll: because of the security, seismic retrofit, the maintenance of the bridge itself."

"What about the state taking over the bridge; what do you think of that idea?", Dee asked.

Mr. Smith chuckled and shook his head lightly at his own inside joke, "I would recommend anybody who wants the state to take over the bridge - go commute on the Bay Bridge for one week and then come back to Golden Gate Bridge and see if they still want the state to take it over. The Bay Bridge is not a well run bridge. Look every morning on your television the commute is backed up to Portland Oregon maybe. That’s being facetious but ever since we put the Fast Track in we’ve haven’t had a jam-up, look how the Bay Bridge Fast Track went - its just terrible. But we have exceptionally talented people running the bridge so that would be-I say the difference."

"So your saying part of this increase is to cover those exceptional people salaries?"

"Of course part of it is to cover salaries-yes, but the majority of it is gonna go for the maintenance of the bridge"

Mr. Smith went on to relate that he also believed that all those bicycle riders with their $300 hats and $600 bikes could easily afford a toll and that he wishes he could institute a sliding scale toll for poor folks but he wasn’t sure how to do it. We thanked Mr. Smith and moved on to join another very heated conversation.

"All those people, the whole board of directors and no one ever pays to go across the bridge. For the rest of their lives every board director gets a free pass." Dressed in work-pants and loose t-shirt, with the remnants of wood chips still clinging to his boots stood one Bob Dahlgren, public citizen, a new breed of activist which the PNN crew encountered at the Bridge hearings- "contractor as activist" He continued in a clear loud voice, " If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is…"

Dee interjected "Board of directors of what?"

Bob answered, " The Golden Gate Bridge District"

"That’s not true", The man that Bob was directing his comments to was wearing one of those odd polyester/nylon jackets, giving him the slight impression of a ship captain , he forced a stiff smile towards Bob and continued, " board Members have free passes to cross the Golden Gate Bridge while they are members of the board of directors, not for the rest of their life."

Dee looked towards Bob again, "Why do you have a problem with that?"

"I don’t believe there’s a set policy, we’ve asked Jane Tarrentino, The Secretary of the Bridge District for the written policy about when the bridge (vote) passes or revoked, who they were given out to and we got no response. The fact is it took us approximately two months to get a Freedom Of Information Act results, there were over 1500 names listed of people that get to go across the bridge for free for the rest of their life."

While Bob was talking – The red jacketed man, who we later discovered was the Bridge Manager, backed himself out of our half-circle. We went on to ask Bob what he thought the impact of these bridge tolls would be on the low-income residents of Marin County

"That I believe is the biggest problem. The so-called Fast Track,program is the only thing they say is available for low-income commuters but of course you have to have a credit card and $35 dollars in your bank account, and when that drops to $30 dollars you are out of the system, plus Fast Track is a privately run company – and we have been unable to get any information on them- " He shook his head in disbelief, " I find it a shame this whole thing… You know-it’s a beautiful bridge, it has a lot to offer but if Cal Trans can run business and keep things under budget – I don’t understand why the Golden Gate Bridge District can’t"

Dee told Bob how she had asked Mr. Smith about the lower fare idea for low-income folks

Bob replied emphatically "There will never be a lower fare, it would only happen if they were backed up against the wall. This thing ( the Golden Gate Bridge) is a revenue maker and strictly revenue.

After speaking to Bob we were all collectively upset and discouraged. We sought out the Bridge manager, who seemed to be standing as far away from us as he could without actually leaving the room. He did not deny or confirm that there would be any special program put in place for low-income commuters, nor that the buses would be affected, rather he continued to state that, " The Board is always happy to listen to feedback from the community on any problems with the Bridge or the public transportation system, and.." he said this next comment while pointing us all in the direction of one of the feedback tables in the room, " if you have want to express your opinion, I would suggest you fill out a comment form, bureaucracies like us pay a lot of attention to paperwork"

After a few more strange minutes in that room, The PNN crew gathered up our Stop Economic Apartheid signs and sidled out. We drove out of the community center parking lot leaving the purple-brown mountains of San Rafael behind us, heading towards San Francisco and……The Golden Gate Bridge..!

"Hey Joe, Ace, Ashley…..do you have a dollar I can borrow?"

To find out about the upcoming finance committee and or meeting of the board of directors call the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation Board at (415) 455-2000