Story Archives 2002

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN Community Journalist

On October 21, 1992 I was starting the ascent of the hill starting at Leavenworth and Ellis in the Tenderloin of San Francisco. The sun was out and the wind was picking up and whispering the harsh reality of the attitudes and indifference of the hood. I know this corner well from selling drugs and being involved in the " street life" AKA "the life", as a means of survival for longer than I'd like to admit.

As I had maybe proceeded ten-yards up the block towards O'Farrell I was assaulted. This dude... I won't call him a "man" started to harass me, tried to intimidate me out of my dope. I kept trying to side step him, get around him not knowing that a handful of people were now kitty-corner watching, but not getting involved with what was happening. I finally managed to fake a move and proceeded up the hill towards what was then "home". I took one more step and as I was taking it there was a momentary singular sound like a drunk attempting to slice the wind. The next thing I realized was that I had been hit in the head with... something?

As I was hitting the sidewalk, I remember seeing the mural on the side of Martha Jawad's store in a flash as the cast iron gate on the side of the building winked at me. Lights out! My head was split open and when I came back to reality there was blood everywhere, mine. I then saw a young Latino boy, about 16, chase the man up the hill yelling "you leave her alone!" as he hooked a right onto O'Farrell. At least someone did care enough to help although it was not anyone from across the street that I knew.

I staggered to my feet and made my way to our spot/shared studio. I must have looked like I was dying from the awful contorted faces people were making as I entered the building. I woke up (again) after being out for almost an hour. The police and paramedics were there and I was covered in blood. I didn't know where I was, whom the people were who were with me, or even really who I was. All I knew was that I was afraid of going to the hospital, jail or anywhere and would not leave, because I didn't have a clue. I remembered that I had been hit but couldn't focus on anything else. Everything else was a blank. It was one of the most frightening things I've been through. Not the violence... the loss of memory.

The thought of losing my memory or what sanity I have been blessed with has always been scary to me. I've seen too many people lose theirs. My step-father died from Alzheimer's. I've watched friends in advanced stages of AIDS succumb to dementia; to witness this was like watching a beautiful nascent bloom wither in the midst of a storm. It took a while but I came around. Bottom line was that I had been stabbed in the head 2-times and the other side was split open. I couldn't work I couldn't do anything. I had a severe concussion and was having entirely too many seizures.

My wife had to go out and get money to support our habits and take care of us. It tore me up, because I literally couldn't help her or myself. Knowing that I had used prostitution before as a means of making money, I didn't want her to take another step down the ladder to hell. I didn't want her to have knowledge of all the abhorrence that goes with it and how it can affect one.

We went through a multitude of things, trials and tribulations before things got back to a semblance of normalcy if in fact there is such a thing as "normal" for people who live on the fringes of society between the rock and the hard place. It was more than an awful thing to have experienced... but I survived it.

In retrospect, I have somehow, for reasons not yet revealed to me... survived a long and incremental suicide and today I can say that I have made a conscious decision to join the living.

So, in trying to wrap up this very short story from a long life of craziness, let me tell you a few things about what is going on in my life today. With the help others I am in recovery. I am a woman who is finally trying to redefine my life not as a waste or as a person who becomes overwhelmed easily and stuffs her anger, thus turning it against herself. I have re-found the desire to; live again, learn to live life on life's terms and the desire to become a whole person... (That is something I'm not sure that I've ever been). I am a person who has made some rather poor decisions in my life and learned a lot as a result... a wealth of knowledge that I couldn't have received anywhere else other than in " the life".

I want to attain the feeling of being grounded instead of being grounded by an act of violence like another punch-drunk victim on the floor of a concrete arena whose only radiance comes from the shards of glass on the ground reflecting hate and calculated indifference. I am saying that I'd like to be self assured rather than arrogant, afraid, and unsure. I want to learn new things and re-learn some of the things I never truly grasped or held onto for whatever reasons... to find my voice.

by Joe B.

A night or two ago on channel 7 one the authors of The "Left Behind" books about the End Times.

I’ve been avoiding it being a closet cryonics-immoralist person but maybe I should especially since I’m also of the Catholic Faith.

Wasn’t there something in the bible saying to ‘God’s a day is a thousand years?

If its true does that mean he’s been cooling his feet for weeks or months or even a couple of decades?

If true the End Times are simultaneously near and far from our limited human short life span perspectives.

I’m gambling (figure of speech) on a longer time and this is a false alarm to keep us on edge.

Its good to know that if I’m wrong I’ll just be one more frozen dead guy in a cold coffin but if I’m right and wake up to people not floating upwards well I can still prepared for the real deal.

The only warped side effect is waking up with slightly better technologies, getting younger then finding I’m just in time to witness the end times-upward flight and missing it, even if immortality is finally achieved living forever just at the moment of old earth death and new earth reborn will be a transition few immortals will be able to transition into.

Who knows, eternal life may be achieved as the old world is reborn by we who’ve spoiled it.

I just want the choice of a more life and if living through the end times is the price one must pay well… Its no free lunch time.

How would any you readers out their cope with being immortal and knowing you are also living in the end times, Hypothetically speaking?

That’s my pondering on those left behind books which I’ll begin reading as soon as I find them in old book stores.

It seems the longer one lives the more complex life, death and beyond gets.

Folks be aware of your personal Karma Be Very Aware… Bye…

P.S. "News Flash" if you are or were on G.A. and know you work for your money and were but not anymore or never was on drugs or drink (alcohol)

You might be on part of a possible ad campaign refuting Sup.Gavin Newsom's
socalled "Care Not Cash"
Initiative or as say Crap "n' Crud-$12 million money grap of G.A. monies.

Where: 255 9th Street 2nd floor of the historic I.L.W.U. Local 6 in San Francisco.

When: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002. Time 6pm to 8 I hope.

4 to 6 (15 to 30 second spots to tell your side how it really it is so millions of folks can see and hear the truth not the stuff in the newspaper.

There will be food, soft drinks, chips.

And if can spare (potluck) because we are really a Poor organiziation.

More later GTG now.

Joe B.

by Joe B.

How time flies when we’re busy living our lives.

Remember when Big "G" Jr. and ‘Vicy Cheney, Att. Gen. Ashcroft, and T. ‘Ridge were riding high and in charge after 9/11/’01.

They were golden, could do no wrong, but times change.

As investigations in business practices mount.
Terrorism on everyone’s mind our economy is going through a screaming sick sloppy slide and inching slowly upwards.

I don’t know which tribe calls themselves "humans" but the first humans [ Native inhabitants in the pre-named America’s]. with their casino money are causing havoc with their gambling monies buying or helping other tribes buy what is originally their own lands back from the Federal government of America at least that’s what I think what’s happening.

Those other American descendents of Africa and causing endless problems with reparations while Mexican America's too have their own beef with the "Manifest Destiny" of which they’re stories hidden so long are only now coming out.

On the other hand 2004 may rewrite past errors or compound them.

Then the applied science of Plastic TV with new and improved Light Emitting Polymers. (LEP)

All I can figure out from a Headline News report is coupled with 3D imaging and you have an emerging immersion technology that speeds up learning for military or civilians but make gameboys, X-cube, play-stations games so addictive it would rival cocaine addiction.

I’m thinking, 3 dimension versions could possibly seduce the human brain with its vivid colors, shapes, forms, sounds, and realistic worlds.

To those especially with a scientific bent, creative, or couch potato inclined
could very easily be drawn into it as some people have by 2 dimensional games.

If 2 dimensional games got people hooked think how powerful 3 will be?

The closest I can compare this E-Diction [Electronic Addiction] game or other things is the old Perry Rhodan Science Fiction series.

Its where an Advance race: "The Akron’s" become a decadent race only after indulging in their own global multi world avatars playing their endless games for years on end.

Its possible that we’re headed the way of the fictional Arkonian’s.

Of course, the race had explored the cosmos in both military and civilian generational transport ships.

The best, brightest, daring cream of Akron’s peoples though millennia’s are the vigorous past, more vital generations once lost re-awakened are ready to conquer both known and unknown galaxy's not knowing their home world had fallen.

(Read the series though it has a silly premise of earther’s hiding radio signals from hostile alien threats.)

We must be careful and protect our selves from destructive addictions, ideas, if we are to survive for the next centuries to come.

I was also thinking of wrist watch TV’s radio’s, camera’s, locators, and the now ubiquitous calculator.

I might not like or trust technology but must know something of it or I’d be a complete idiot right now I’m just less of one.

What has all this got to do with September 11, 2001?

Well without that tragic incident.

Lots of applied science would take its time; it would be here eventually but now everything especially bio science and communications has jumped a few decades and that’s good if it saves or prevents some folks from dying who would’ve died before.

REMEMBER, THE LONGER ONE LIVES NO LONGER MEANS CLOSER TO DEATH BUT ANOTHER DECADE OR MORE TO LIVE

ISN’T REVERSE ENTROPY TRIPPY?

Yeah, we’re still mortal, still die, but old ‘grim isn’t as swift and most of the carnage is caused by our own hand not reapers scythe.

Reader’s hope you enjoyed the summer soon busses, cars, trains, plains, will be full of our futures you know high school, college, university, grad and under grad youth.

Me, I’m not worried, Like "The WHO" song "The Kid’s Are Alright."

In every generation there are moments at first unclear then comes in focus that show what you, me, all of us must do.

1776, 1812, 1860,1889, 1914,
1929,1941, 1945 1954,
1960, 1968, 1969,

1977, 1984, 1985, 1999
2000–2001 2002.

I know many other years are skipped that are as or more important if readers know of more just email them.

Hope I get them. Take Sept. slow. Bye.

by Liz Rodda/PNN media Intern

Clamped shut in a neck brace and convex back, I watched Grace Wells sit amongst her beloved world. Here a plastic rendition of a carpet curled high at the edges of her favorite room, crushed under scattered plant life. The two windows of vision to the outside world remained shut covered in long white strips of cotton. Despite the deep aroma of aging musk, to this 89-year-old woman these walls are her single source of solace in a rapidly changing world. With no family or close friends to speak of, Grace is absolutely dependant on her home as the only constant sense of security she has. One can only imagine her immediate panic when Grace was recently informed the home she has lived in since 1989 would be reaped from her entirely. After receiving two eviction notices, Grace must now ask herself a terrifying question: how will a low-income disabled senior manage to survive in a chaotic world that owes no one favors?

Under the State Ellis Act, that allows one to terminate responsibility as a landlord, Mr. and Mrs. Croucher are attempting to evict Grace Wells from the lower compartment of their San Francisco apartment complex. Apparently, they desire to turn the three separate units they own into a single-family mansion. They have shirked from numerous laws that prohibit evictions of seniors, disabled, and catastrophically ill persons while also completely ignoring the welfare of their long-term disabled tenant. Grace presently suffers from arthritis, Diabetes, a heart condition, as well as senior status. "They treat me cool," Grace’s lips pressed tightly together, "very cold. They want to make the house into one big building and the lady said she’s going to stay here and build a family. But you need a baby to start a family." As far as Grace Wells was concerned, the Crouchers have never had any real intentions of moving into the house to "start a family", but desire to build a house for economic profit.

Despite her extreme physical discomfort, Grace maintains her name, charming visitors and neighbors with her poise. "I’ve lived in this area for a long time. I came to San Francisco in 1942 and have always lived in this area," Grace reflected. "Now they are expecting me to move and with the cost of rent it will be hard on me, not on them." Grace attempted to shift her aged body, but remained prisoner of a neck brace and trembling hands. "Do you see my hands?" she asked me, "My hands are all crippled. It’s challenging. I’m trying to live nice and comfortable, but I have terrible arthritis and of course I can’t leave here." Grace sighed and looked up to Dean, a neighbor and friend who assisted her in daily complications.

The echoes of a picket march outside her home became more intense as Grace was assisted in peering out her window to wave to her supporters. Shouts rang aloud, "Croucher, Croucher stole my pad, Croucher, Croucher, bad, bad, bad." Hand-made signs floated by her window demanding, "Say no to evictions!" and "This is bull shit!" When asked Grace how she felt about the march against her eviction, she smiled, answering with a laugh, "I appreciate them trying to help me because it is so hard. It is hard tryin to pack when you’re old with arthritis. It will be hard. It sure will be hard." Grace returned to her torn fabric chair to rest her worn body. I thanked Grace for allowing me to speak with her. She responded with a wink, "thank you." I left the apartment in a daze, wondering how a woman of such genuine personal appeal could be so obviously discarded. I had to ask myself, what in the world could Mrs. And Mr. Croucher be thinking in demanding the eviction of Grace Wells?

by Joe B.

The Hip Hop Film Festival this Friday past.

That's Aug. 17, 2002.

There are consecutive days for this event of dance, movies, and discussions about the Hunter’s Point Community’s fight to keep the Bay View
of Hunter's Point alive.

Its San Francisco’s "National Black Newspaper of the year.

I went on August 17, 7pm. and saw the Blow-up of the Hip Hop-Rap nation go global.

In countries like Columbia, Japan, and anywhere young people know what’s happening.

Even in place like Brazil the young ones began their own kinds of Hip Hop.

Its almost as if kids from Harlem, Watts, ‘Chi town mentally hooked up internationally!

I couldn’t stay but between the movies about Mr. Mumia Abu Jumal’s story before and after he was arrested, tried, and convicted for killing a Philadelphia cop.

Mr. Mumia supposedly had a fair trial though there is compelling evidence of a "Get Mumia" set up.

This benefit for the Bay View Newspaper will help it survive but is still up subscribers across the bay an around the world to show big biz that other voices, views that will also be heard too.

Over 400 years of physical, psychological, lawless, institutionalized hell, this is what Reparations for African American’s is all about.

Many other struggling papers and people also struggle to keep us informed of the truth.

These outlets should link up helping each other against the vast media-multi-corp-prison- industrial complex.

What sort of country has a system that makes more prisons than schools?

Mr. Kevin Epps the "Straight Out Of Hunter’s Point is one the featured films and Artists like
T-Kash of The Coup
Askari X, Umoja Jazz Ensemble and others I couldn’t name are also on board.

Me, I’m listening, spreading the word so other folks can get there own belly fire flaring.

Hip Hop during and after the film ‘fest ends will keep rolling, ‘rockin, ‘knockin making its own doors into and against entrenched, reactionary, closed-minded global media.

Remember we are the rainbow masses and we’re getting louder it don’t matter if they say we’re not heard.

You’ve heard of some big strong guy called "The Rock"
Well he say’s "Just Bring it."

That’s what we’ll do against media hype of the corporate 9 multi nationals; they need our cash we don’t have to buy their stuff.
"We’ll Just Bring It" to our own spaces, places, neighborhoods.

Oops, where did that come from?

Like I said I left as the panel were going to question /answer segment but It did make me glad of being a bit older because young folks have a lot of work ahead of 'em.

I’m sure they have the inner fire to shake things up, get things started, and get it done.

Outside its getting a little nippy and as I quickly walk towards Market Street I now know the young folks I’ve left are awake, and are already causing corporate media, government and bad apple cops mega migraine headaches.

All I can say folks is
for years we had to deal with their sick mental states long enough; now lets correct ‘n’ disinfect, cure our present wrong headed stuff and do right for everyone once and for all. Bye.

by By GARRETT THEROLF/reprinted from The LA Times

A mother’s plea for a criminal investigation into the death of her son-whose life ended while he was in the Los Angeles County foster care system-Tuesday elicited a trembling and tearful apology from County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who pledged to demand answers from county officials about what happened.

Hours later, Molina and her colleagues approved a $1-million settlement in the lawsuit brought over the boy’s death.

Molina’s remarks and the board action followed an emotional appeal by the boy’s mother.

Debra Reid, 44, entered the hearing room grim-faced, flanked by eight family members dressed in black. At her side was her son Debvin, who was placed in foster care for 15 months in 1997. His older brother, Jonathan, was taken away at the same time. The children were taken from their mother after social workers concluded that she was unstable and not tending property to their medical needs.

But Jonathan died six weeks after being placed in foster care, where social workers, by the county’s admission, failed to inform medical workers of his severe asthma. Reid has been fighting the county in the courts ever since.

"This is five years in coming." Reid began.

Wracked with sobs, Reid recalled how she begged social workers to treat Jonathan’s asthma. Social workers had dismissed Reid’s account of the severity of the child’s asthma, county officials acknowledged.

"They said my child was healthy," Reid told the board.
"Well, that child now lies in an Inglewood cemetery."

None of the social workers has been disciplined in the case, county officials said. Reid begged supervisors to launch a criminal investigation, alleging that social workers had falsified reports to take the boy from her.

"We have sought true justice and we have not received it until someone sends this case for criminal investigation," Reid said.

"All we have received is a payoff, and we’re not satisfied with a payoff.

"Not one person from the county," Reid said, "has bothered to apologize."

Reid’s appeal to the board is one of many it has heard about the foster- care system.

Virtually every week, a parade of parents come before the supervisors, pleading for help in getting their children out of that system. Most weeks, they leave empty-handed, as supervisors insist that they cannot involve themselves in matters that are before the courts. The pleas often meet with indifference from county officials, who typically talk among themselves as parents address the supervisors. Tuesday was different.

As Reid spoke, the hearing room went silent. Aides and department heads dabbed at tears. In an adjacent chamber where officials nibble on snacks and sip coffee, all movement ceased.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke asked Reid whether she was satisfied with the settlement. After conferring with her attorney, Reid said she was, but reiterated her call for justice.

Then Molina spoke, her voice trembling, her eyes watering.

She recalled how supervisors routinely rebuff requests for help in foster- care cases, and how she had told a congresswoman pleading on Reid’s behalf that she had to trust in the courts.

"I don’t know that my apology to you will help you at all, "Molina said. "I can only say I apologize for not being more attentive."

Reid said Molina’s apology "meant a lot. She was sincere.
That is the first sign of remorse I have seen in the county."

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN Community Journalist

Roughly a year ago, I had camped out on the corner of Mc Allister and Larkin. There were about eight of us in all. I had made a small lean-to, out of sawhorses for a construction site and cardboard, in front of the small gray concrete power plant in the midst of all the government buildings near city hall. The night was discomforting and eerily quiet like a mausoleum awaiting a new tenant. I finally managed to fall asleep briefly and was woken to the sound of a nightstick banging on the pavement next to my head, accompanied by an officer's voice shouting, "get up and show me your identification now." I had no ID; it had been stolen too many times and it seemed futile to obtain another one. As I explained this to the officer, he wrote me a ticket for camping out in public/being homeless. His partner, now busy doing the same to the other tenants of the sidewalk then announced, "get your shit the hell outta here and don't come back!" I then asked if there was anywhere, a person could sleep outside and not get a ticket. I was told to go sleep under the Army St. ramp or go to jail. Needless to say... I did not sleep that night. This was not the first time I had been given a "quality of life" citation.

It is now two a.m. on a typical San Francisco night cold ,damp, and the misty tendrils of fog swirl and dance for me, while I am looking out the window. As I find myself wishing I had on a pair of thermals to fend off the chill I feel a radiant warmth from the smile of Darlene Smith, a 40+ woman of Cherokee and Irish descent, who refused to pay $2,500 for sixteen "quality of life" citations. For those of you who do not know, what a refusal to pay a fine of this amount usually means for a person who can not pay it.... means they wind up doing "County-time". A quality of life citation is a ticket essentially for being homeless/living on the street.

"They treated me like I was a criminal for being homeless", said Darlene. As we sat there I listened to Darlene tell her story. As it unfolded, full of things that many homefull people find hard to believe because they have not experienced lives like ours and therefore treat our stories like a rueful fairytales. She and I sat sharing the small space at the phone-desk, inside the cubicle known as the "phone room" in the residential treatment program where we are both clients. There is a gray fabric partition with a tinted Plexiglas window. This room inside this large building, originally a convent has incredibly high ceilings, old wood dark stained baseboards and doors. The bone colored walls are semi-cluttered with posted notices for how to run the PBX-phone system and transfer call to the proper Staff and proper phone decorum. Two long pine shelves along the far wall have stacks of various logs,forms, and paperwork that are used daily by the facility. Tonight Darlene is the PBX operator.

"When we first arrived in San Francisco in 1985 we were homeless, we lived and camped in Civic Center Park near the AIDS Vigil, there was a tent-city then." Ms. Smith then explained that she and her husband didn't even know that they were eligible for assistance or knew about General Assistance for the first three-to-four months that they were in the city. They had found out about "hot-line" rooms from other homeless folk and while standing in line on Otis St., for a voucher for from hot -line, they had found out about G.A. (The service for hot-line rooms no longer exists today). She had gotten a room through G. A. and was evicted on Christmas Day.

Darlene says, " My rent was due on Christmas morning in 1985. On Christmas Eve my husband went out to get some money and never returned." When he didn't return the Mentone Hotel, put her out Christmas morning in the rain." I didn't know what to do or where I was going to go, I was told some homeless people hung out at the bus terminal." That cold wet Christmas night, alone she had fallen asleep on a bench in the bus terminal only to awaken to the police. They ran her name and said she had a warrant, that she did not have, and took her to jail to ID her. Darlene then said, " The police put a note on my cart that said, "in jail please leave". "They might as well put a sign on it that said FREE- take what you want!" All of her belongings, including what few meager presents she and her husband had to share with each other, all of his possessions and the cart no longer were there. "When I got out and came back to the terminal the next morning everything was gone, everything."

Darlene then told me that the reason the hotel had put her out was because her rent was late; that she had a check coming in on the first and the hotel would not wait, her rent was late because: The hotel had charged her husband $10 nightly to stay there with her, that they had been made to apply separately for G.A., but had to apply for food-stamps as husband and wife. This in itself made it hard for them to rent a room as a family unit therefore; both of their checks went to paying the rent of that room. Hers, in a BI-monthly payment and his a nightly visitor's fee.

" Have you received, how many quality of life citations have you received since being homeless in San Francisco?" I asked. Darlene replied, " Oh God yes, pages and pages listed on the computer, bunches and bunches, probably hundreds. I never went to court on any of them, after so long they usually pull them out of the system. I got a ticket once for Obstruction at the water fountain in United Nations Plaza while sitting on one of the cement blocks of the fountain." She told me that she hadn't understood what she had been obstructing and that all kinds of different people always sit there and how it just did not make sense to her.

" Recently you had some of these tickets, did you go to court and what was the outcome?" I asked. Darlene then told me, that after she had been in program for a few days she had gone to court for $2,500 of citations for being homeless/quality of life tickets. Most of these tickets were for 647(J) PC (unlawful lodging in public) and the rest were 372 PC ( maintain public nuisance). she refused to pay the tickets because she felt that it was outrageous, that she had no way to pay them, was in a treatment program and that most of all homelessness should not be a crime. Says Darlene, " I entered treatment on my own, I hadn't had a job for ten-years, a drug history, and had been homeless for almost as long. I couldn't find work or a place to live. I knew I needed some kind of help to get off the streets and get my life together.."

Ms. Smith refused to pay the fines and she was held in custody until the next morning when she went to court again. She told the court that she was in a program...The prosecutor told the judge that the District Attorney's Office would drop the charges upon completion of a one-year program , although she was only in a six-month program. The judge said that one-year was too much and that after she had completed her treatment-program he would dismiss the charges and that the court was to be given a progress report every two-months until she had completed treatment.

I am a person whom has experienced homelessness and has been ticketed for living on the street. I find this makes no sense and I feel that it is a shame for the court to arrive at this solution. She went into treatment on her own, not because she had committed a crime. What is her crime... poverty? Why weren't the charges dropped right then; I feel as though she should have been commended for making a sound healthy decision for having found the desire and the courage to change her life for the better. Instead she has, in a sense, been given an ultimatum, a mandate for being poor and deciding to better herself.

We then talked about how hard it is for homeless people to make and keep appointments with agencies and people in general such as: Welfare, SSI, the courts, jobs , medical and therapy appointments. Says Darlene, " Yeah, its almost impossible to make or keep appointments. You have to find someone to watch over your stuff, you have to worry more about the cops taking your belongings than the thieves and of course we don't have phones or alarm clocks." Then she related how many people who camp out, sleep during the day because they recycle and that, "Society doesn't want to see poor people out on the street in the daytime."

I asked Ms. Smith if she felt that the public views homeless women in a more derogatory light than homeless men. She looked at me rather strangely, as if to question why would I ask her a question that she knew I knew the answer to. Says Darlene, " Yes, definitely! It is almost like they say... she has a ____, she should be selling it and if you do; then you aren't a person you're a whore. If you don't prostitute you are considered stupid, its double standards across the board. Sometimes I wish I could do that but I can't." Then she added, " The cops write all of us tickets except the young cute girls that they blatantly flirt with."

The building was now quiet and still. No phone calls were coming in, and we continued on our discussion. Darlene talked about how she felt about the shelters here in San Francisco, the lack of beds and the obvious lack of beds for women. As I listened to her tell me about her experience in the shelters; none of them sounded as though they had been positive of helpful, it sounded like being on a Tilt-a-Whirl of despair.

I then asked her, " As a homeless/poor person have you ever experienced what you consider or know to be harassment, unfair or unprofessional treatment by the SFPD?" Ms. Smith answered, " Yes to all of the above." Then I put forth my next question and was not surprised with her answer. I asked, " Have you ever sought help from the SFPD and been ignored?" She became quiet and a bit sullen for a moment while reflecting and then told me, " Yes, myself and three other people tried to flag down two different police cars over by the old library. A homeless man had been stabbed and was laying there dying. The first car slowed to almost a complete stop and then just drove on. Then the second car did the same, they had already been called by 911. They just kept going! It took about thirty-minutes for the man to die. Another time I tried to stop the police when a woman in a wheelchair was being robbed on Market St. Two men were trying to pull her purse out of her hands. I stood in the middle of the street and flagged down a police car. He stopped and said, 'it's not my district and my advice to you is; if its not affecting you... then just walk on by', Obviously it was affecting me, I flagged him down!"

I found myself wondering about the lack of information available to poor people and asked, " Have you ever been given any information about: people, agencies, or groups who could help advocate for you and help you find some kind of housing?" Quick with a response she fired off the answer, " They tell you to go to the shelters, information is not given by the cops but some of the medical vans give information. I found out from a friend that the Coalition on Homelessness would help me with the tickets/citations for being homeless. The Coalition didn't help me. They said that the tickets weren't even misdemeanors and therefore not an infraction, that it must be a misdemeanor."

There has been a lot of negative opinion and stereotyping in the press lately about poor people urinating and defecating in the streets. I asked Darlene, " Did you find it hard to find a place to bathe and are public restrooms hard to find?" She answered, " Yes, that is absolutely true. There is nowhere, the shelters are very limited and there really is no other place to go, even just to the bathroom, no wonder people resort to going outside, its not like they want to... they don't have a choice sometimes."

" How do you feel being homeless had affected your self-esteem, health and well-being?" I inquired. Darlene answered, " I didn't feel any lesser but its just demeaning, you have no privacy, little if any safety, and you have to run and find a bathroom in the morning when you wake up. I guess it does effect your self-esteem and health because everyone tries to make you feel less than human, the cops , the bureaucracy, even the merchants, even if you have money to spend. They won't allow you to be around them, they treat you like lepers, like you have the plague. I'm angry, bitter, resentful and fearful of losing what I have tried so hard to have: food, clothing, sleeping bags, the necessities. It is incredible that Americans can be so ignorant and uncaring about other American citizens....Homeless people don't have shit, except a hard time. a hell-hard time."

I asked Darlene how she felt being in a treatment-program would help her. She looked up at me. Her eyes with glinting sparks that seemed to light a fire of determination and told me that she was learning how to: change her behavior so that she would become a clean, healthy and productive person, find a good job, and find decent housing. She told me that, " These are things I never could have accomplished while being on the street and homeless. Hopefully, I will never have to worry about receiving another "quality of life" citation ever again."

by Connie Lu/PNN Youth in the Media Intern

Gusts of cold wind rush past my face with each car
passing under the overpass, as I prepare to cross the
street where the First Bay Area Hip Hop Film Festival at SomARTS
Cultural Center is being held to raise funds for the
The San Francisco Bay View Newspaper. The festival was organized by filmmaker and writers Kevin Epps (Straight Outta Hunters Point) and JR (The SF Bayview) in collaboration with many other independent media makers. There are
brightly painted murals filled with vibrant colors on
the outside of the building. The stage inside is
draped with heavy black curtains behind the large
screen in the middle. There is a long table to the
left with a royal purple tablecloth, prepared for the
panel discussion. Apart from the dim lighting are
frequent bright flashes of light from the clicking
cameras that are capturing the many events and faces
throughout the Film Festival. I am sitting in the
fourth row of orange chairs near the center aisle, as
the lights darken in commencement of the first film.

The first short film is called, "Estilo Hip Hop,"
directed by Vigilio Brava. It depicts the culture of
Hip Hop and its influence throughout various countries
of South America such as: Brazil, Chile, and
Argentina. Hip Hop provides an outlet of expression
through dance, vocalized lyrics, and the art of
graffiti to the people living in these countries who
are poor, but are driven to "maximize and optimize
every opportunity". Hip Hop is not only an interest
to them, but a is a true passion that strives and
feeds the creation of new elements.

The next film is "Voice of the Voiceless," directed
by Tania Cuevas-Martinez. It is a powerful
documentary film based upon the appeal process for
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Pennsylvania journalist who exposed
police violence against minority communities. The
documentary showed violent footage by using effective
film techniques such as, split screens and overlapping
montages of these minority communities being bombed
and residents being beaten and sprayed with
high-pressure fire hoses in 1978. Mumia was then
wrongfully sentenced for shooting a police officer and
has been on death row since 1982. Various Hip Hop
artists and activists throughout the film express
their support to free Mumia, who believes "Revolution
is my religion".

After the film, there is a panel discussion with
representatives from several media sources. Kiilu
Nyasha of "SF Bay View/Black Panther Press" explains,
"The sponsors of the 'Bay View' are refusing to place
advertisements because of the political content of the
articles, which leads to the 'Bay View' not having
enough money". She goes on to express how "The system
doesn't tolerate 'real' free speech". Willie
Ratcliff, Publisher of the "SF Bay View" continues the
discussion and emphasizes, "The great need for young
people in the media because they are the future".

Despite the fact that each representative on the panel
was from a different media source, including KPFA, POOR Magazine/PNN, The Bay Guardian, and Greenscene, I could sense the
unity in coming together for the common cause of
supporting the "Bay View". I was also reminded of my
own role in the media through the words that I write,
which represent the skills I have gained from POOR
Magazine to help shape the media, instead of the media
showing what it wants to portray.

The last film of the night is "Nobody Know My Name,"
directed by Rachel Raimist, who depicts the influence
of Hip Hop on women as artists who are determined to
overcome the demeaning way of the media portraying
women as sex objects and nothing else. Asia One, a
B-girl in the film explains that she felt intimidated
to be the only woman among several men when she first
started breaking. But now, she takes pride in being a
woman in a field dominated by men and hopes to see
more women becoming involved in Hip Hop.

The female artist I was able to connect with the most
in the film was DJ Symphony because she expresses, "I
used to be really shy, but now I'm more comfortable in
front of a crowd of people". DJ Symphony also likens
the turntable to a musical instrument, which I
reminded me of having to perform at piano recitals and
feeling nervous with each note that sounded from my
shaking hands upon the ivory keys. She explains that
it is hard to get respect from the male DJ's because
there aren't that many girl DJ's. But her goal is to
be respected by the men, instead of others seeing her
as, "She's ok, for a girl".

After I left the Film Festival, I realized the vast
diversity of the people at this event that I had not
initially noticed and felt the willingness of the
community to share in the experience of uniting to
support the powerful the voice of the media through
the "Bay View".

by Carol Harvey

"The baby grunted again, ...`If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,' said  Alice, seriously, `I'll have nothing more to do with you...

`Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cheshire Cat.
 

`I said pig,' replied Alice; `and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly:  you make one quite giddy.'

One day, The Haight-Ashbury Clinic's Dove logo and a link to its site appeared on Care Not Cash.org.   Like the Cheshire cat, at the Clinic's request, the next day it was gone.  

In his promotional Chronicle op ed in the July 16th Chronicle for his Care Not Cash initiative, Newsom wrote: "...I have joined with medical professionals and organizations such as Dr. Pablo Stewart of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic...in support of comprehensive reform of how we provide care to homeless San Franciscans?"
 

In his July 16 Political Notebook, "Winning Care Not Cash," Samsun Wong echoed the statement, "Newsom has constantly emphasized the medical community's support (repeatedly citing)..."Dr. Pablo Stewart of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics."

In his Chronicle article, on July 2, "Homeless measure makes sense/Care Not Cash plan should make ballot," Ken Garcia quoted Dr. Frank Staggers, Jr., medical director of the Free Clinic's substance abuse programs. "We're seeing Third World-type poverty and malnutrition, and anything that gets these people more food I would support."

Garcia incorrectly connected Staggers to proponents of Care Not Cash following this quote: "That will explain why...compassionate people such as Dr. Pablo Stewart of The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic...are solidly behind Newsom's plan."

In an interview, Dr. Staggers denied the association telling me, "I am an apolitical advocate for homeless people without polemic or agenda."

Do such disinformative maneuvers undermine Care Not Cash's credibility? Do Newsom's suddenly vanishing claims of support from the medical community amount to --- in terms of Alice in Wonderland --- a baby, a pig, or a fig (ment) of his political imagination?

Ken Garcia's article suggests that both Dr. Staggers and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic medical staff en bloc, support Newsom's CNC plan.  Yet, on July 17, 2002, Majett Whiteside, administrator at the Free Clinic told me, "CEO, Dr. Darryl Inaba states that we have not accepted or adopted an official policy on the Care Not Cash initiative."

On July 18, 2002, Dr. Inaba, CEO of the Haight Ashbury Clinic, answered my phone query; "Does The Haight Ashbury Clinic or any of its doctors support Care Not Cash?"

"We have written clarifying letters to the editors," he replied.  "To date, none have been published.  This has me concerned about the objectivity of the papers. "My biggest concerns are: "How does he (Newsom) assume that the 2,500 people on GA are all addicts? And where are they are going to go right away?  I don't know
of 2,500 more slots for treatment or beds in the city."

"Has the Clinic ever come out in support of Care Not Cash?" I asked Dr. Inaba.
 

"No," he answered. "We haven't decided whether  we are for or against it.  To be honest, we've never taken any vote.  Several doctors, Dr. Joseph Elson, Medical Clinic Director, and a psychiatrist here, Dr. Adam Nelson, are strongly opposed.

"He (Ken Garcia) is quoting a doctor, and saying it represents the Haight Ashbury Clinic.  The doctor is not authorized to speak on behalf of the Haight-Ashbury Clinic."

"Dr. Stewart supports that initiative," Dr. Inaba continued.  "He has worked here many years as a real advocate for homeless rights and care.  He is frustrated over the lack of resources for (them).  He has probably been misled that this (Care Not Cash) is going to give them more care.  I have heard him tell people in the newspaper that this is his own personal opinion, but Gavin and everybody else keeps quoting him as the Haight Ashbury Clinic. "

To counter this mistaken impression that the Haight Ashbury Clinic is supporting Newsom's proposal, Dr. Inaba sent out a press release on July 18 with the headline: "Haight Ashbury Free Clinics Take No Official Position on Care Not Cash November Ballot Measure."

The statement is worth quoting at some length:  "Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc. (HAFCI) today announced  that it has taken no position on the Care Not Cash November ballot measure that changes the way the City approaches the dispensing of homeless services.  It has come to our attention that several of our employees have taken public stands on this ballot initiative, either pro or con, and we want the public to know that Haight Ashbury Free Clinics as an organization has not taken an official position on the measure," said Darryl Inaba, HAFCI's Cheif Executive Officer.

"While we support an individual's right to speak out on matters of public  policy, any statements attributed to HAFCI employees in regard to the Care Not Cash initiative are their own personal opinions, and not the official policy of our organization," added Dr. Inaba. 

"HAFCI has been providing primary health care to the uninsured and medically underserved for 35 years...at no cost to the Individual," said Inaba,"and we will continue to do so no matter how public policy regarding the homeless is changed in our City."

In an interview, I asked Dr. Staggers, "How do you answer the claim of Newsom's Care Not Cash folks that the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic is solidly behind their new proposal? Ken Garcia has written this article with your quotes suggesting you support Newsom's Care Not Cash initiative."

Dr. Staggers replied, "When he called, I told Ken Garcia, 'It is shameful that I am seeing Third World poverty.'  The true context of my statement was the atrocious state of homeless care I see in San Francisco, not that I am supporting this or that.   People have taken that Third World poverty quote and said, 'He must be behind Gavin Newsom.'  I don't have a position (on Care Not Cash) that I am willing to state publicly.  I have no comment.  My position is as an advocate for the homeless.  They are underserved, and they die quicker."

Garcia's pairing and placement of Dr. Staggers' quote immediately before Dr. Pablo Stewart's, a single Haight Ashbury Clinic M.D. who supports vouchers, was particularly innovative in its attempt to suggest a political position by association.

It shifted the focus toward Care Not Cash and away from Dr. Stagger's life's work in promoting adequate health and social services for homeless people.

Dr. Staggers said, "I'm an addiction, hypertension, and published stress specialist.  I've been in this business since the '80s and with the Clinic since 1990.  Before I came here, I was with clinics in Alameda County, and I direct a Hayward methadone program.  I have designed homeless shelters and programs.  I trained at Highland Hospital in Oakland.  I was surprised because I thought it (allowing himself to be interviewed) was a way to get my feeling out there.  He (Garcia) didn't do it that way.  He said my words exactly.  But, it's just the way they're situated.  I can't speak for Pablo Stewart.

"It (Garcia's quote) makes it look like, 'Dr. Staggers is saying he supports anything, so he must support this,' and I was say, 'No!'  My emphasis has always been making sure the homeless have decent adequate services.  Homeless people don't have enough psychiatric, medical, or social services.  (What services there are) need more funding, just basic things like bathrooms, showers."

In our lengthy interview, Dr. Staggers drew upon his many years' experience working as a medical provider to homeless people.  He emphasized four main points about the illness, suffering and premature deaths caused by homelessness:

1.  "We all know that homelessness wreaks havoc on physical and mental health," Staggers said.  "Homeless people live a shorter amount of time.  One study by Drs. Goldman and Sacks around 1990 first showed that homelessness itself is a risk factor for premature death.  Subsequent studies indicate if you are homeless you have more chance of getting killed, you are at risk for AIDS, or TB, for mental breakdown.  Homeless people die prematurely. I always emphasize it is hard in San Francisco to find services for my homeless patients.  We don't have enough services, and the services we have are at risk of getting budget cuts."

2.  "It depends on the city, but a huge number of homeless people have addiction problems,"Staggers continued."Homelessness and addiction is a significant thing. Statistical studies (reveal that) the number of homeless people who have mental illness, mental illness and alcoholism, and mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction is huge.  The overlap between addiction types and homelessness is also huge."

3.  "Dr. Staggers," I asked, "Newsome and his Care Not Cash camp are tarring the homeless with the addiction brush.  People say that drug addiction leads to homelessness.  People say homelessness creates drug addiction.  What is the truth?"

Dr. Staggers' answered, "The truth is it can go either way.  It's a two-way street.  I can't count the number of folks who had decent jobs, were good all-American citizens, then got on drugs, and now they're homeless.  We see that all the time.

"However, I have also seen the opposite.  For example, most of the women patients I've got are routinely and repeatedly raped within a few days of being homeless because it is very hard to protect yourself.  Many of my women have all these survival skills.  They reverse their sleep patterns because if they stop moving at  night, they'll get raped.  They come in to me and they say, 'Doc.  I can't sleep during the night.  I have to keep moving at night in order to stay alive.'  I support (the general public) being educated on how stressful homelessness is because that is not understood.  You can tell people I have women who are repeatedly raped.  Then they have post traumatic stress disorder.  This can lead to the use of substances in order to anesthetize the stress.  People don't know that.

"A lot of people are one paycheck away from being homeless.  I see patients who are normal folks who become homeless.  They get raped, mugged, beat up.  They totally become stressed out, and then they start taking drugs as the result of the stress of the homelessness.  I see it all the time --- homelessness leads to stress, which leads to drug abuse.  I'm glad you asked that question because it is such an important issue that people don't understand.  If you are going to write about it, I would be very grateful if you could get this information out there.  Homelessness is a major physical and psychiatric stressor which can lead to substance abuse and addiction."

4.  "Some take the position that there are plenty of shelter beds," Staggers concluded.  "You can't just count beds.  You must ask, 'What is the quality and safety of the shelter?'  A lot of homeless tell me, and I have visited those shelters myself and observed, that they are horrible and unsafe, especially for women.  You are actually safer staying ouside then sleeping in shelters."

In the end, Staggers waxed optimistic.  "Most of the feedback I've got is positive.  I have gotten a lot of calls from folks who took my statement in the Chronicle the right way.  They said they were glad to see somebody talking about not enough services for the homeless.   Everybody said that the statement that we have horrible poverty --- it's Third World quality --- they said, 'People need to know that'."

And, in fact, disinformation like Newsom's, picked up and repeated by Garcia and Wong, will only undermine Care Not Cash's credibility. It may be that public refusal of the medical community to support both such disinformative tactics and Care Not Cash will reveal this proposal as nothing more than a fraudulent visit to Wonderland and the birth of a baby, a pig, or a fig(ment) of Newsom's political imagination.

by Andrew DellaRocca/PNN Community Journalist

There isn't much that I really know about LA county. I mean, everybody
knows a little something. Whether you are from South Africa, Bangladesh, or
upstate New York, you've probably seen at least one movie made in Hollywood,
if not a thousand. Folks here in the Bay Area treat LA as a rival. They'll
tell you how tough it is to get around in LA (in contrast to the luxurious
Muni system), they'll tell you about the disgusting necessity of needing a
car to do anything, they'll tell you about the smog that you'll breath,
about the superficial schmoozing you'll see, about the traffic, about the
traffic, about the traffic.

At least that's what they've thus far told me. I don't know if its true.
I've never been to LA.

But, when I heard about the proposed closure of various medical clinics and
hospitals throughout the LA region, and was told to look into it and write a
report on it, I knew that this indeed would be a disadvantage for LA. My
heart, however, did not swell up with pride because I live in San Francisco.
I was not gratified by the fact that we could mock our southern neighbor
for but one more disadvantage. I thought about the folks that would be
affected by these closures, the people who live in LA who have come to rely
on the county health system. How many options were going to be left for
them?

The LA county health system
has found itself in close to a one billion dollar debt, and seeks a federal
bailout similar to the one that saved LA's hospitals in the mid 1990's. In
order to prove to the federal government that they are willing to make
difficult decisions in times of crisis, the county has proposed a series of
cuts, one of which threatens the enormous Harbor-UCLA medical center in
Torrance, which serves the poor and uninsured in most of southern Los
Angeles county.

"We assume that the county will make a decision to show that they mean
business," said Dr. Robert Hockberger, chairman of the emergency medical
department.

Harbor UCLA last year treated about 75,000 patients in its emergency room.
Most of the patients were poor, and without health insurance.

"We provide trauma care for everybody, all medical care for the working
poor. Where will they go if Harbor closes?" Dr. Hockberger asked when I
spoke with him over the telephone. "They can't go to private hospitals, the
private hospitals don't want them."

If the cuts go through, the only public hospitals left in LA county will be
County USC and King Drew in East Los Angeles, as well as a few scattered
clinics throughout the county. Poor folk will be left with few options.

The federal government has invited both the state and county governments to
Washington to discuss a possible bailout. However, the state refuses to sit
down with the county, a condition of the Washington talks, until the county
rolls back the cuts. The county needs to make the cuts to keep Washington
interested, but because of doing so the state has chosen to keep out.

"It's sort of circular, and frustratingly so," said Dr. Hockberger.

I asked the doctor what people could do to help.

"What local people (in LA) could do is to understand that when proposals
come forward to add taxes on property or sales, to not automatically vote
against them. The whole county really has to cooperate, and that includes
me. People could also make phone calls to the county board of supervisors
and the state government, urging them to sit down and talk."

I hung up the telephone slightly more educated about not just the economic,
but the political games that go into determining the welfare of our
population. And although I've never been to LA, I feel for those who are
being subjected to the heavy tide of the market, and to the budget politics
which may determine the extent of their well-being.